Ichigo stood in the shadows of the Division 6 courtyard, glaring at two older shinigami. He didn't remember their names. Now that he was a leader, he was having to get better at remembering names, but he still wasn't good at it.
"You think she's a looker?" said the stupid looking one.
"Maybe, maybe not," said the other stupid looking one. "She must be bold, though."
Ichigo leaked reiatsu, but his idiot subordinates didn't notice it.
"Oh," said the stupid looking one. "You think," he motioned with his hands around his belly.
The other stupid looking one laughed. "She'll need loose clothing to hide the baby-bump, for sure. You know how stuck up the Captain is about his honor. She must've trapped him with that."
Ichigo wasn't leaking reiatsu anymore. He was gushing out the sort of reiatsu, the sort of spiritual pressure, associated with a 3rd or 4th Seat at full tilt, outlining him in blue, and the killing intent was even more noticeable than the power.
The stupid looking ones slowly turned.
"9th Seat Kurokento," said the first.
"Kurokento-sama!" said the second, trembling slightly.
Ichigo didn't slacken his reiatsu. "Are you two on break?"
"Yes," said the stupid looking one.
"Then what the hell are you doing in the zanjutsu training ground?"
The other stupid looking one said, "We're just about to start our training rota."
"Then stop gossiping and start training!" Ichigo roared.
"But Korokento-sa-"
Ichigo raised a bouken, a wooden practice sword. "How about I check on your progress?"
The two shinigami paled.
After thoroughly thrashing the two, Ichigo proceeded to the Division office, resolutely ignoring the buzz of conversation, all the shinigami gathered into gossiping groups. Absolutely no one was actually training.
"Should I beat up everyone?" said Ichigo to himself, scratching his head.
A voice yelled, "Kurokento-san! Kurokento-san."
Ichigo stopped and turned, allowing the man to catch up. "Saito."
"Captain Kuchiki is getting married."
"Yeah," said Ichigo, resuming his course. "Good for him."
"To a commoner! A Konsoed Outer-Rukongai brat!"
Ichigo scowled.
"I'm not saying it a bad thing!" Saito said. "It's just really surprising! I thought you might know about it."
Walking again along the path toward the main office, Ichigo said, "Why would I know about it? He's your third cousin."
"A relation only ever remembered by his social secretary when sending New Years greetings. But everyone knows the Captain likes you. And besides. That friend of yours in 13th. Kotsuki Rukia. Is she-"
"Shut up."
"But-"
"Stop gossiping when you're on the clock, Saito." He knocked on the frame of the painted silk screen that fronted the main office.
"Come in," said Lieutenant Suzuki.
Ichigo slid the screen aside. The room was large, with one desk for Byakuya, another for Lieutenant Suzuki, and a third, pushed into a corner, for the secretary.
Ichigo nodded at Suzuki and the secretary, a cheerful middle-aged female shinigami whose name he never remembered, before saying, "Hey, Captain, congrats on the announcement. What's the date?"
Byakuya looked at him coldly, clearly considering whether to again remonstrate him for his lack of formality. In the end he said only, "A year from now."
The shortest possible official engagement, Ichigo guessed. "Give Hisana my best. Anyway, I'd like another Living World mission."
Behind him, Saito thumped his back, excited by confirmation that Ichigo did know the woman in question.
Lieutenant Suzuki said, "I assume you'd like Japan again?"
Ichigo shrugged. "Not very interesting to go to a place where I don't understand the language. Translation Kido just ain't the same."
Byakuya said, "Your request is noted and will be taken into consideration. However, you have spent a great deal of time in the Human World as it is. You need to get to know Soul Society better."
Ichigo scowled but didn't protest. Later, he'd bring cookies to Lieutenant Suzuki and nice tea to the Secretary. That should do the trick.
He closed the tree, took the few steps out into the courtyard, and realized that most of the Division members currently in Seireitei were in the courtyard. Like vultures gathering around a dying deer, waiting for some hint to sneak out of the main office, perhaps waiting for someone to be stupid enough to go in and ask.
"So?" said 5th Seat Kara, chewing on her braid nervously as she asked.
They thought he was the one stupid enough.
Ichigo bared his teeth. "Kido training ground two, now." Well away from the main office.
The crowd shifted, looking at each other.
"Now!" shouted Ichigo, again pumping out reiatsu.
Even the Seats higher than him didn't protest. Ichigo was good at hiding his strength, but not good at hiding the fact that he was hiding his strength, and sometimes he lost his temper.
Besides. He might know something.
Ichigo walked at the back, keeping the ones who thought that this, with no competition, was the perfect time to spy on the main office, in front of him.
Like herding goddamn cats.
The shinigami piled into the Kido training area and Ichigo hopped on the center target. He waited for the murmuring to quiet before he started.
Ichigo projected, not quite shouting. "I am fucking disappointed. I know shinigami aren't gathered for their empathy or moral acumen, but I didn't realize we were worse gossips than a bunch of old men at a tea shop. Our Captain is the head of one of the Four Really Rich Families and he's marrying for love. That's special. All you assholes need to support him. Generally by not spreading a bunch of malicious gossip. But maybe there are a couple other things we ought to do." He cast a questioning glance at Saito. "A card? Group wedding gifts?"
Saito nodded eagerly.
"19th Seat Saito will help arrange it. He's a noble, so he knows all about that shit, right?"
"Right," said Saito.
"But the main thing is to cast threatening looks at anyone accusing the Captain of being foolish or Hisana being, you know." A gold digger. "I happen to know Kotsuki Hisana-san. She's a friend's older sister. She's really nice. Educated. Sophisticated. Got a high class disposition. I'd bet she was some sort of noble back in the human world. She started in Inuzuri and ended up a successful artist in District 4. So you can be sure she's tough as nails. But you wouldn't guess it. It's like she's above it all. I know a couple people like that. I don't get it." He shrugged. "I'm not sure she and the Captain have so much as held hands. They're pure like that. So if I catch any of you talking shit about her, I will beat your ass. And that goes for you too, Kara."
5th Seat Kara winced. 9th Seat or no, she had no doubt that Kurokento could paste her.
Ichigo shrugged. This wasn't quite the legalistic egalitarianism that he'd praised the 6th for, but he was still young and new. He couldn't be expected to have imbibed the Division's culture completely, now could he?
"Here's what I'll say. They really love each other. Both of them. It's sweet and romantic an' all. You should be proud of having such a sincere and earnest Captain. And if anyone doubts that, I'll be happy to talk to you about it personally on the Zanjutsu training grounds."
He raised his bouken and everyone nodded.
"Right," said Ichigo. "That all I have to say. So how 'bout you assholes all go and do what you're supposed to be doing!"
The crowd began to disperse and Ichigo hopped down from the target.
"Well?" said Ichigo.
Saito said, "Your personal style is as refreshing as ever. But I think it worked."
"Really?"
Saito said, "I'm feeling ashamed, a little."
"Good. What are you supposed to be doing right now?"
"Ah. Kido Training Rota, actually."
Ichigo said, "Then do it. I've got paperwork." And he shunpoed ahead of the crowd, eager to get to his cramped office without taking any questions.
Coming around the second bend, he nearly ran into a blank-faced figure in a white haori.
"Captain," said Ichigo, suppressing a gulp. Had Byakuya overheard that? He had no idea how he'd react if so. Young and happy or not, Byakuya was still prickly and prideful.
Byakuya said, "Your request for Living World duty, Japan, has been approved." And he walked away.
#
#
Urahara's shop wasn't in Karakura Town. Finding it had taken months of arranging as many missions to Japan as possible and shunpoing around at high speed, senses peeled for the reiatsu of Urahara, Tessai, or Yoruichi.
He'd fought Hollows and Konsoed pluses along the way. He'd spent a day in Hiroshima, Konsoing plus after plus after plus, many with their chains growing short, and he hadn't been the only shinigami there doing it either. He'd felt like an assembly line worker, and he hadn't stopped until he was shaking with exhaustion and furry little creatures crawled at the edge of his vision.
He lay on a slab of concrete, and when he'd recovered a little, rather than returning to Konsoing the pluses as he felt obligated to, he'd resumed his search.
In the end, he hadn't found them directly. But he had found exiles, and humans with odd powers, and citizens of Soul Society who did business with the Real World. And from them, he gathered that if he wanted a specialty item, he should head to a certain record shop.
He would like to think that it resembled Urahara's candy shop, but it didn't. It was glass fronted and relatively modern, and there were people inside. He wouldn't have thought there'd be a lot of demand for records in post-war Japan. The poverty was palpable. But there they were.
Though on closer inspection, many more were listening than buying.
He phased through glass windows in shinigami form.
Urahara was there, just as he remembered, with the same hat and cane. He glanced at Ichigo and continued helping a customer.
Ichigo waited. The kid looked like he could use a little joy in his life.
When the kid was sent off with the record at what seemed like a ridiculously low price, though perhaps that was just due to decades of inflation, Urahara turned and yelled into the back. "Tessai, take the front."
With a jerk of his head, he indicated for Ichigo to follow him into the back.
Ichigo ghosted over the counter and after him, noticing from how Urahara held the cane that he was ready to use it at an instants' notice, so he gave the former Captain a little space.
The back was full of boxes, crates and fliers. Urahara flopped down on a crate, but Ichigo preferred to stand.
"I'm Kurokento Ichigo, 9th Seat of Division 6."
"My, my, my," Urahara said, "What an honor. I'm unaccustomed to receiving visits from Seated Officers of the Gotei 13."
"Don't see why. There's no warrant out for you." He'd checked.
Urahara said, "And I'd rather no one reconsidered that. But, so long as you're here, what can I help you with? My inventory isn't as full as I'd like, but I do have a few items that might be of interest to a young man like yourself. Gigai? Specialty sheath? Armor? The cloth folds of a shihakusho are effective, but there's nothing like a partial breastplate and a helmet that looks like a hat to make you feel safer."
Ichigo said, "I have a commission for you."
"Oh?"
"We might discuss it in privacy."
"We are in private."
"Greater privacy," Ichigo said. "Perhaps a large basement."
Urahara's look was long and careful. "Very well." He tapped the wall his cane, and a hidden door opened. Fancier than what Ichigo recalled him having before.
But it led to a familiar ladder with a familiar desert landscape below. Not bothering with the ladder, Ichigo dropped down 70 feet to the ground.
Urahara landed lightly after him, and though nothing in his dress had changed, Ichigo realized that Hat'n'Clogs had left his gigai up above.
Ichigo cast a privacy Kido.
Urahara raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that there are no listeners here."
"Can't be too careful," Ichigo.
"Yes, you can," said Urahara. "But what was it you wanted to ask me about?"
Ichigo said, "There's a particular zanpakutou that creating a problem for me. An illusion type. Witnessing the release of the shikai allows the wielder to beguile you with perfect illusions, virtually indistinguishable from reality. 'Absolute hypnosis,' he calls it. Ideally, I would cause the hypnotizer to believe I'd seen the release of the shikai. But to carry that on convincingly, I would need some way of being aware of what the illusions were."
Urahara smiled, casually resting one hand on the haft of his cane, ready to draw his zanpakutou in an instant. Urahara said, "That would be quite the shikai. Any idea of its limitations?"
"According to the wielder, there are none, but he's a liar."
"And an associate of liars."
He hadn't imagined Urahara being suspicious of him. He'd imagined that Hat'n'Clogs would figure out he was a time traveler before 10 minutes were out, and deduce his life story in the next 15. But that wasn't reality.
Ichigo said, "I'm good friends with Kotsuki Rukia. I think you met her once before."
"Yes," said Urahara. "You've been friends since your days together in Outer-Rukongai. I do keep an eye on the going ons in Seireitei."
"She's a special woman."
Urahara's gaze was unreadable.
Ichigo decided to ditch the subtlety. He didn't like it anyway. "You don't trust me. Fine. But if you wanna beat Aizen, you need to trust someone at least a little."
Urahara said, "The most likely explanation for you knowing what you know is that you're Aizen's creature."
"Does it explain everything?" His intimation that he knew the Hougyoku was in Rukia.
"I don't know," said Urahara, eyes still shuttered. "Why do you think that witnessing his shikai's release is the ritual to begin ensorcellment?"
Ichigo was surprised. Urahara knew less than he'd thought. "You don't think so?"
"I didn't say what I think. I asked why you think what you think."
"I won't tell you why I think what I think. Just what I think. And how sure I am."
Urahara nodded for him to go on.
Ichigo said, "Aizen is sociopathic. He's also gifted, and he wants to become God with a capital G. Tousen and Ichimaru are both his creatures, but I think Ichimaru might want to kill him. I'm not sure. I just get that feeling. Aizen has been doing lots of Hollowification experiments. Hollow to shinigami, and shinigami to Hollow. He sends his most interesting experiments out to kill talented shinigami, but he keeps his most powerful Arrancars safely in Hueco Mundo. He's waiting to reveal them until he gets the Hougyoku and makes war on Soul Society.
"His Kido, his shunpo, all his skills are excellent. He hides his reiryoku. People think he's a strong Captain, but he's stronger than they realize. Probably only the Captain-Commander has higher reiryoku, and maybe not even him. He can use his shikai to create an obscuring, shining, bewildering mist-like illusion. He claims that's his shikai. It's impressive enough. But he can do other things. He can create a dead body of himself that's indistinguishable from a real one. He can make himself appear to be elsewhere than he is. I don't know what else."
Urahara said, "He can make someone else look like him, while he himself is miles and miles away. However, it seems that in order to do so, he has to leave his zanpakutou with that person. He shows his shikai freely, but not to everyone. He could demonstrate it before the Academy every couple years, but he doesn't. That suggests that, if witnessing his shikai is indeed the ensorcellment ritual, there's some limit to the number of people he can ensorcel. It may be as few as a half-dozen," Urahara said.
"A half-dozen?" said Ichigo. That couldn't be, based on what he knew. But he probably knew more than Urahara.
"He could well be mixing Kido illusions, gigai and even physical disguises with the use of his shikai. The lower ranked could be fooled by the Kido, with the use of the shikai reserved for those who would see through the other deceptions."
Ichigo blinked. He hadn't thought of that. He should've. "That's a good thought. You got any other ideas?"
Urahara said, "I think it's likely that you've been sent here by Aizen to find out how much I know in preparation for moving his plans to the next stage."
Ichigo slapped his forehead. It made sense. It really did. "Anything I can do to convince you otherwise?"
Urahara said, "I suppose you could arrange Tousen's death." But he didn't sound very serious as he said it.
Ichigo said, "No. Double no. I'm not risking my shot to take Aizen down in order to deal with his less threatening subordinate. And I'm betting Aizen thinks three is just the right number for a conspiracy. I already know Tousen is his. I don't wanna be guessing about who he replaced him with."
Urahara nodded.
"At least make me some sort of device to let me and Rukia evade his shikai without him noticing. If I'm his minion, you lose a little. If I'm not, you gain a lot."
"Show me your shikai," said Urahara Kisuke.
Slowly, Ichigo drew his zanpakutou. "Protect, Zangetsu."
His reiatsu rose, and his massively oversized kyber knife came into being, white ribbon wrapping up his arm.
Urahara said, "Wake up, Benihime."
They came together in a clash of blades, Urahara strong and fast. Ichigo tried shunpoing behind him, but Kisuke was faster. "Nake, Benihime," Urahara said, and a beam of red energy left a line of red blood on Ichigo's arm. It could've been deeper if Urahara had liked.
"My my," the shop keeper said. "How disappointing."
"Fine," said Ichigo. "I'll show you what I can really do." He'd improved in the months since becoming an official shinigami. There couldn't be many Lieutenants who could handle him. He stopped hiding his strength and raised his reiatsu to his fullest, glowing blue with it. "Dodge it, Kisuke. Getsuga Tenshou!"
Urahara dodged even as he raised his blood-mist shield, partially deflecting the blast. It left a deep rent in the ground, but Urahara was unscathed and on him in an instant, fighting him more seriously than he ever had before. Ichigo wasn't some wet-behind-the-ears rookie who he'd watched grow up from a distance.
Ichigo returned the favor, working in every bit of skill he'd acquired. He could manage at least a few Kido without incantation.
As the tip of Zangetsu passed narrowly over Urahara's head, Urahara said, "You're going after my hat."
"I'm gonna kill your hat."
"You think you can?"
Blades locked, Ichigo said, "Getsuga Tenshou."
As Urahara's eyes widened at the realization that Ichigo didn't need any wind up at all, a single spear of blue energy shot out of Zangetsu and knocked Urahara's hat clean off.
Urahara and Ichigo watched it glide slowly to the ground, a single hole running straight through it, burn marks around the edges.
Urahara said, "That wasn't bad at all. You're stronger than I thought, Kurokento Ichigo. You could easily be a Lieutenant with those skills. You should even be able to force a few of the weaker Captains to bankai."
"Thanks," said Ichigo, returning Zangetsu to its sealed form. He met Urahara's gaze and sheathed his weapon.
Urahara smiled and put away his own. "Tell me, do you feel you can understand your opponent's intentions through the exchange of blows?"
It was a strangely familiar question, though he'd heard it from Gin before. Ichigo said, "The exchange of blows teaches me whether they're serious about slicing me open or not. But that's it. Never really felt like it let me see into someone's soul."
Urahara said, "So you think it's mostly nonsense too, Kurokento-kun. But not completely. Fighting you, I feel that you're strong. And I feel that you're not the sort to be anyone's dog. I'll extend you a little trust, Kurokento Ichigo. I'll make you that device. Now let's talk about cost."
#
#
Ichigo's eyebrow piercing caused a stir when he first showed up with it. Suzuki gave him a talk about proper appearance, and Byakuya gave him a disapproving look.
He'd kept on wearing it anyway, explaining that it was practical. It cut out light beyond a certain value. Wearing it, he could stare at the sun. He could see some bright, fiery attack without being dazzled by it or losing his night vision. Yet at the same time, it did a good job of indicating the relative brightness of things without making some objects too dim to see, such that he hardly noticed it most of the time. In fact, his night vision was better with it. And Hollow reiatsu and the reality break of a garganta both showed up slightly better when he was wearing it.
The benefits weren't huge, but Ichigo couldn't think of any real negatives. It was just a good device.
When asked where he'd got it, Ichigo said he'd gotten it from Urahara Kisuke.
It was suggested to him that he should never buy from Urahara again. He asked why it was such a big deal to buy from someone exiled for creating an untraceable gigai. It wasn't like the guy was a murderer.
Lieutenant Suzuki gently suggested that back then there had been strong rumors that the official reason for Urahara's exile wasn't the real reason, but Ichigo was too young, dumb and unsubtle to pick up on Suzuki's meaning.
Other shinigami started showing up with the eyebrow piercing. In very short order, Division 12 acquired one and reverse engineered it, making their own versions available. They did just what Ichigo said and no more.
Only Ichigo's and Rukia's were different. They had two added functions. First, they could, with a thought, cut off their vision entirely without in any way appearing to do so. Second, they contained something like a highly undeveloped artificial soul. It could be hypnotized. On being so, it would overlay whatever illusions it saw onto their vision as see-through ghosts.
Ichigo wished he'd had one the first time around, but the more surprising thing was that it actually looked cool. He wondered if someone other than Urahara had been in on the design, or if Urahara had just known it should look cool. Ichigo's was a black steel ring with a purplish-blue stone, and Rukia's was a white steel ring with brownish-orange stone for her. Complementary colors and all that. When Rukia had explained that, Ichigo hadn't devoted any brain space at all to the thought that he and Rukia were complementary to each other. Nope. Definitely not.
:::
I planned on this chapter being longer, but it felt weird to have a bit of Urahara/conspiracy in the middle of 'wedding wedding wedding.'
Layers of fabric make a surprisingly good defense against hacking, slashing and stabbing. So it's reasonable to suppose that the shihakusho provides more protection than it appears to. But the helmet thing… well, it's fiction convention to ignore the fact that helmets are the single most important bit of protective gear.
My understanding of Aizen's claims in regards to his shikai is that he can show people any illusion he likes. But in practice, his illusions seem largely restricted to ones involving his own form.