...

In light of the recent circumstances, the head commander had elected to have the two idiots navigate someplace out of sight and eyes, so that idiot number one, the incomprehensible fool controlling his body explained to idiot number two, the foolish noble, exactly why he believed the secret he held onto would cause a rebellion all on its own.

At which point Byakuya would decide whether idiot number one had been correct in his assessment.

Which was why they were currently in the deepest outskirts of the Rukongai, with not a soul, literally, in sight.

Of course, given the gravity of the situation, and though it beguiled him to admit that idiot number one was correct, he'd chosen to give him a... Rather good location to go to.

Without of course explaining why, barring the mention that it held the oldest symbol, one created by a denizen of the Rukongai at that long long ago, in the realm.

He'd long since learned that allowing nature to take its course regarding the idiot, was the absolute best path for him to take.

He watched, idly as the two reached their destination, Kuchiki Byakuya lagging a few flash steps behind, and given the exertion on the man's face, a decent bit of reiatsu as well.

"I do believe, we've gone far enough," Said noble remarked, barely able to keep his voice steady as his body started recuperating.

"Hm?" The idiot remarked, pointedly looking around. "What makes you say that?"

Byakuya, letting out a sigh in the process, merely indicated the burial site of a long-since-dead soul. "The grave, for one thing, no soul dares come here for fear of curses and ghosts." The noble scoffed.

"I knew that." The idiot immediately remarked, before a small smile swept onto his, and by extension Aizen's, own face. "Open it."

He and Byakuya alike, both blinked in confusion at that. Byakuya, because he was actually confused. And himself because he couldn't help but wonder where nature was going to take this empty path to.

He doubted there was an improvement at the end of it.

"...It's a historical site," Byakuya remarked warily. "Even if none care for its worth."

"Uh-huh." A beat passed. "Open it."

Byakuya's brows furrowed at that, the man owlishly blinking a few times as he stared at the idiot wearing his face.

"Does this have anything to do with why you've brought me here?"

Yo, Aizen, does it? The idiot questioned him through their link.

No. He answered curtly.

"Sure it does." A beat passed again. "Open it."

He felt the need to facepalm quickly rise and wither away.

Byakuya blinked once this time, before letting out a sigh.

"It's empty. Captain Sosuke."

"Well, then no one will complain." Another beat passed. "Open it."

Instead of reacting with exasperation at the idiot's need to play this little game, Aizen felt himself stiffen as the strange wave of reiatsu that he'd come to expect whenever something... Grand was about to happen filter through him. His mind ran as fast as it can as he wondered how and what exactly he could've possibly missed- It unnerved him that he never got the answer right, even if he always agreed with the result.

"...You will not budge on this will you?"

"Are you scared of ghosts Byakuya-kun?"

Within a split second, he watched as irritation marred itself through the noble's face, before the man let out a scoff and promptly raised his hand-

"Ah, ah!"

The wave from before returned, with greater force, as he watched the idiot raise his hand up before the man.

"Do it manually please, not with reiatsu."

Peeking into the shallowest part of the idiot's thought process- He couldn't go further even if he wished to- He held in the urge to let out a sigh of utter irritation as he found the reasoning for why the boy was so insistent on it.

He wanted to see Byakuya effectively grave rob. That was it. Just the idea of the noble breaking a human crime seemed to amuse him!

After another sigh, the man begrudgingly walked up to the grave spot and started digging, the idiotic boy chuckling inside his own head at the sight.

Yo Aizen, you watching this?

Unfortunately.

Was all he said on the matter as he watched Byakuya, after a few attempts at manually removing the stones and dirt off what had once been a burial site, calmly show off the fact the grave had been as empty as he'd been promised.

The idiot in response simply nodded along as he took a few steps closer and took in the empty site before, to Aizen's own bemusement, tilted their head at it.

"Odd that, don't you think?" The boy questioned easily.

Byakuya in return frowned, his own gaze falling into the empty spot.

"I am not sure what you refer to, Captain Sosuke."

"It's empty."

Even he himself suddenly fell at a loss as to what the hell the boy was trying to say.

"As I stated, yes." Byakuya remarked, irritated.

The boy turned their head to face Byakuya directly. "You don't see it then?"

"See what?" Byakuya questioned, rather defensively.

It beguiled him to admit that he was just as confused.

The boy put a frown up on their face as he pointed a finger toward their eyes. "Focus your reiatsu here, and try-"

"I did." Scoffed the noble.

"Well try harder then." The boy crossed their arms, pointedly looking at the man.

Aizen utterly ignored the frown on his own face as he tried and failed to see what was so important the boy had utterly forgotten the reason they'd come here in the first place.

Byakuya in response, for a moment, narrowed his eyes at them, before thinking better of whatever had crossed his mind as he did as he was told.

A moment passed, and the man kept staring.

As he himself kept staring.

That moment turned into a minute. Byakuya was now circling the grave, a tad hint more irritation showing through him.

That minute turned into two, and Aizen finally noticed, his eyes widening the slightest bit at what should've been absolutely obvious and yet seemed to hide it self so well.

At what such a thing meant. What it stood for-

When that second minute turned to three, he watched as an on the brink of giving up noble, widened his own eyes as well.

"The..." The man's eyes swept towards them, alarmed. "The reiatsu here is-" The man froze, his eyes darting around them, before landing back on the stone. Bemusement and wariness filled him at the very thought of what he could see.

The reiatsu amount, surrounding that particular grave was higher than usual- Which on its own, even with how long ago the burial was, wasn't entirely a surprise.

It was the reason they hadn't been able to notice it that was the problem.

The reiatsu level had molded so very far below the burial site, and stretched out all around them, creating a practical pyramid of lowering reiatsu as it drove down further and further into the ground and filled it's surroundings- The highest point, been the grave site itself.

It was...

It had... somehow grown over time and...

Aizen felt his hands minutely shudder.

It was all around them.

It wasn't just the top of the hierarchy that...

It wasn't just the soul king...

From the lowest of souls to the highest of kings-

It was everywhere.

This was the balance... The mockery- The betrayal!

He felt back, and remembered what he'd once come across long ago. That feeling. That... The motivating moment that felt eternal-

That simple emotion he felt as he'd once stared at the truth hiding in plain sight.

Pure. Utter. Anger.

"Tell me Byakuya," The boy continued on, non-challant. "Do you know what an Asauchi is?"

The noble in question was still staring at the ground beneath, a mild hint of discomfort on his face, before he registered the words and turned back towards Aizen.

"The foundation of a Zanpakuto." The man remarked warily. "Any acadamy student can tell you that."

"Right. Do you know what it's made of though?"

"Reiatsu," Byakuya answered a little too fast. His wariness rose as the moment passed.

"Whose?" Byakuya didn't answer that question, his mind instinctively looking back toward the ground-

"No, no." The boy remarked easily. "That's for Soul Society." A beat passed, one that Byakuya chose not to fill with another answer, his eyes refusing to believe what he was about to hear. What he was contemplating.

"You never wondered why the acadamy has so many students?" Despite the surety of his voice, Aizen could tell, from the boy's own thoughts that he had absolutely no idea where he was even going with this- Practically winging as he was!

And yet... Yet... Once again...

"And yet, the number of shinigami..." The boy snorted. "Really doesn't match up does it?" Their body leaned in. "Captains are sent to hell when they die, for good reason... But what about those poor little souls who find themselves not cut out for the Gotei... Who find themselves sent on suicide missions as their tests... Where nobles seemed to... Well, pardon the accusation, but have a free pass throughout it."

The boy snorted.

"It's not like they can send them back to the Rukongai, unsupervised, now can they?"

Byakuya shook his head the slightest bit.

The boy started chuckling, his amusement at the thought of it clear to see.

"You know it's kinda funny when you think about it- You can dig past so many secrets, so many illusions... Breaking the wall bit by bit, find out about a sin here, a sin there- Cut through all the bullocks until you reach the original one-" Byakuya's eyes widened before him. "And yet when you come to the absolute truth of it all, you still find yourself surprised by it!"

"Aizen-"

The man's formality disappeared as he took a step back.

"Because the truth is- The only truth there is, Byakuya-kun, is that if a realm is willing to throw so many lies, so many illusions, bury so many things to prevent you from finding out the real truth-" The boy chuckled again.

"They wouldn't hide that truth anywhere, to begin with!"

The boy let out a sigh. "But eh, who am I trying to lecture?" He snorted. "You're one of them."

At that, whatever had been holding Byakuya back from responding seemed to snap as the man turned visibly insulted.

"You go too far, Captain Sosuke." The man ground out. "Whatever may have happened in the past, is in the past for a rea-"

"Hm?" They blinked at the man, Aizen out of a lack of control. His own mind was begrudgingly respectful towards the fool, for once.

Not many people get to that conclusion of their own free will, let alone so easily.

Quite frankly, it was the ease of it that irritated him.

Even if it was a simple matter of awareness. Of being able to see past all the lies before you, no one should have his potential at it.

But for it to be a human of all things-

"Say, do you think it's your blood that makes you a noble?" Byakuya's tirade and affront seemed to fade the slightest bit, hints of bemusement and wariness taking over. "'Cos it really isn't-" The boy snorted. "You think you're the first Kuchiki to find their origin story detestable? Hardly." The boy scoffed.

"If blood made you a noble, then your family would've died out long ago out of shame."

The boy shook their head, as a startling and almost deadly realization filtered through himself as well.

The meanings behind it.

The shocking and deadly truth it held.

Soul Society's twisted history had warped further than ever before him.

It wasn't the blood.

It wasn't the blood!

"Do you want to know why your spirit abandoned you?" The boy questioned. "Muramasa after all, as you said, only picked up the pieces."

Byakuya took a step back.

The boy took one forward for them, one finger raised before him.

"It's not because you're a bad warrior. It's not because you're bad at spells." The boy wagged his finger. "No, it's 'cos for the first time in your life, your denial finally lifted!" The boy chuckled. "And given your spirit is a mirror of yourself... It found out the same thing you did and chose to... Do something about it."

"Aizen..." Byakuya's voice... His plea. Fell on deaf ears.

"Because, you, Byakuya, are a hypocrite." The boy clapped his hands together. "But don't worry, it's not your fault!" He grinned. "It's just your nature!"

"Because Byakuya-kun, it's not the blood that makes a noble. It's the Name."

And with that, Byakuya's gaze fell on the burial site beneath him, a torn expression on his face.

...

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