Chapter 2: Wicked Inside
Kisuke looked up as Sosuke emerged from the lab's dressing area, wearing a simple white yukata, and he nodded towards an examination table, next to which a side table full of medical implements waited.
"I'll be there in a minute," the shopkeeper said, looking back at his computer monitor and pressing an array of buttons, "Just have to finish setting up a program. Also have to make sure the recording gear is working. If I actually manage to do this. I'll want to look back on it fondly."
"I see," Sosuke said, lying down on the examination table and waiting quietly as the shopkeeper completed his preparations.
Kisuke stepped across the room and looked down at the brown-eyed man.
"Last chance to change your mind," he warned Aizen.
"It is not a taxing decision," Sosuke answered, "Proceed."
Kisuke nodded.
"I'm going to need you naked for a little while, but the lab door is locked. We won't have any interruptions."
"You make it sound as though we will be up to more than science, Mr. Urahara."
"You can call me Kisuke."
"Very well, Kisuke."
"And sorry, science is all we have time for. But maybe after the monster from down under gets sent packing…"
"Are you teasing me?" Aizen asked curiously, "You enjoy playing verbal games. I find that interesting as well, although there weren't many in the low Rukongai who could understand them, let alone play any with me."
"Are you saying they should have dumbed you down to fit in?" Kisuke asked.
"I am only saying that there wasn't much to stimulate the mind in that place. So, I focused my intelligence on strategies for remaining alive and not being viciously brutalized by the humanoid monsters of the region." Aizen mused.
"Well, the good news is that I will probably be bending your mind and mine to get your powers kickstarted again."
"What makes you think I would be able to offer you ideas?" Aizen asked, frowning, "I don't even know what method you used when you were devising the devilish method that left me like this in the first place."
"Then, maybe you should pay close attention to my current research, if you don't want to be put back in that state again."
"Maybe I should," Aizen agreed, watching closely as Kisuke leaned over him and opened his yukata, baring his thin and scarred, but muscular frame.
"You've lost some weight," the shopkeeper commented, "but you look like you've kept in pretty good shape, considering where you were."
"Protecting your life in the low Rukongai will stimulate one to do that," Aizen said dryly.
"Right," Kisuke agreed, his hand holding a small scanner just over Aizen's naked form, and his grey eyes studying the results on an overhead monitor.
"May I ask you something?" Aizen inquired.
"Mmhmm," Kisuke mumbled absently.
Aizen's fingertips reached up to touch a huge scar with jagged edges in the middle of his otherwise undamaged chest.
"What did this to me?"
Kisuke's hand paused for a moment as he considered the question.
"How about, your own recklessness?" he offered, keeping his eyes carefully fixed on the monitor.
"I was wondering if it was from when my mind and powers were destroyed," Aizen posited.
"Nope," Kisuke said, carefully avoiding the other man's eyes, "Why don't we just leave it at, It was the one time you ever did anything for humanity and not just for you."
"I will take your careful phrasing as a sign that this is not something you will just tell me."
"That's right."
"Very well," Aizen sighed, "That is disappointing, but I suppose there will be an opportunity to address the question later."
"I wouldn't bet on it," Kisuke said off-handedly, "Let's focus on the task at hand. First, I'm going to map your spirit centers and measure the strength of your spirit core. I'm not getting fresh, here, I have to touch you with bare hands to sense them while you're this weak."…
"I would apologize for the inconvenience, but it was your method that was used to make me so weak."
"It's nothing I can't work around," Kisuke said, bending closer.
Aizen's dark eyes blinked slowly as the other man's warm, attractive scent drifted across his senses.
"Your heart's kinda racing," Kisuke noted, glancing at him.
"I feel somewhat lightheaded."
Aizen paused and met his eyes warily.
"It is probably that I haven't eaten. I was barely consuming enough. It always seemed odd to me that even though I had no powers, I needed to eat, like the ones with shinigami powers."
"That's because even though your powers were destroyed, your spirit centers continued to channel reiatsu. You just couldn't use it. It kept you alive, helped you struggle along, but it required energy, so you felt hunger. But you don't need to worry about that anymore. As soon as we're done here, you can bathe and Tessai will make sure we're all properly fed. I would've done that first, but there's some real urgency about getting you powered up right away. Every minute could count."
Aizen nodded briefly.
"I am not terribly uncomfortable. Or, I should say that my situation is no less bearable than it has been for as long as I can remember. I suppose my level of discomfort would be greater if I had something to compare my current state to."
"That makes sense," Kisuke said, consulting the monitor and rapidly making several entries on the keypad.
He turned back to Aizen, holding a different scanner in his hand.
"I'll just hold this up to an eye to take a retinal scan and I'll need tissue and reiatsu samples," he explained, "I have your military records, so I can see exactly where we need to work to restore things."
"Will I be allowed to see those records?" Aizen asked.
Kisuke nodded, earning a sly smile from the man he was examining.
"Sure."
Meaning that Kisuke has ensured that they contain nothing that he doesn't want me to know. But there must be a way to access more.
"Are there records of any family or friends who might be able to assist us?" Aizen inquired.
"We-e-ell, you didn't have any family…at least, none that Central 46 knew about. And most of the people you were friends with are dead. You had a tendency to kill them, once they had served their purposes."
"I see."
Kisuke paused and looked down into his eyes for a moment.
"I suppose you could say that I am one of the few friends you didn't kill after using them. But it wasn't because you didn't try."
"It's because you outsmarted me."
Kisuke smiled charismatically.
"As much as I'd like to take all of the credit, I wouldn't have stood a chance of beating you, if your ego was more normally sized."
"Ah…"
"You got cocky. You got sloppy. I didn't miss the opportunity to use that."
"It's odd," Aizen mused, "You sound a bit disappointed about that. It almost sounds as though you enjoyed engaging me."
Kisuke shrugged.
"I'm a science freak. I like anything that makes me think harder."
Aizen's brown eyes observed him quietly as he turned back to the monitor.
"So, you say that before I betrayed everyone, we were friends?"
"Yeah," Kisuke affirmed, "Of course, you were in disguise, so you may or may not have really enjoyed our interactions."
"I was in disguise?"
"Uh-huh," Kisuke answered, turning his attention to a small laptop and making several entries, "Your power involved affecting the senses so that your victims sensed what you wanted them to. We all looked at you and saw a gentle man with glasses, who was as intrigued by science as I am. You and I worked together on a few projects. Then, I think you realized that I was getting suspicious and you made sure we didn't cross paths so much while you were playing out your diabolical plans."
"I sensed you were a threat," Aizen concluded, "But if you were getting suspicious, surely I could have killed you and made it look like an accident."
"Yeah," Kisuke agreed, glancing at him and tilting his head slightly, "You probably could have. I was actually curious later about why you didn't. It would've made sense."
Aizen smiled.
"I must have liked you."
"Naw, you liked that I'm a brilliant scientist and I could think of useful things you could use. So, instead of killing me, you framed me and had me thrown out of Soul Society…banished here to Karakura Town."
Aizen frowned.
"But surely, Central 46 would have let you return upon learning that I was the true offender."
"Well, it took a little more than that, but eventually, I was fully reinstated and given a secret ranking so that I would assist them when needed. I chose to stay here so that I'd be…what's the polite way of saying this? A little less under their thumb?"
"Hmm."
"Turns out, I like working without them looking over my shoulder all of the time."
Kisuke went silent for several minutes, looking over all of the information he had gathered before nodding in approval and turning his attention back to the man on the examination table.
"I've got what I need," he said, his voice betraying an edge of weariness, "You can cover up and we can go and shower now."
Aizen sat up and tied his yukata back in place, then he slid down off of the examination table and followed Kisuke out of the room. To his surprise, the shopkeeper led him, not towards the guest room he had been given, but to the end of the hallway, where a long ladder led down into the huge underground chamber they had arrived in on their trip out of the Rukongai. He remained silent as they descended into the room and Kisuke led him past the training area, to a large, oasis-like garden that had, at its center, a vast bathing pool with several tall waterfall showers and a number of soaking areas.
"I modeled this after Captain Kuchiki's. Not that you remember, but he's the leader of the Kuchiki clan. His home has the most beautiful gardens in the three worlds, and he has a bathing room like this…well, his is a little better, but who's counting, right?"
"This is lovely," Aizen said, staring at the area intently.
"Are you okay?" Kisuke asked, frowning, "You look a little…"
"I can't remember having a hot bath…ever," Aizen said, keeping his eyes on the bathing pool.
"Well then, let me remind you," Kisuke said, beginning to remove his clothing.
"Ah, you were speaking literally when you said that we were going to bathe."
Kisuke gave him a tired grin.
"Hey, I saw you naked. I guess it's only fair if you see me that way…unless it makes you uncomfortable."
Aizen let out a soft, amused breath.
"I don't think discomfort will be possible here," he replied, slipping out of his yukata and stepping into the hot water.
He waded out slowly, sucking in a shocked breath at how the coldness that had always been around him suddenly melted away, and he was warmed to the core. A sigh of contentment escaped him. He headed out to one of the waterfalls and took up a position beneath it, letting the water rain down onto his slim form. He breathed in deeply, closing his eyes, but feeling that Kisuke was watching him closely.
"Am I that interesting to watch?" he asked the shopkeeper, without opening his eyes.
"I was just curious," Kisuke confessed as he moved to claim the waterfall beside the one Aizen occupied, "I used to wonder…if you took away the evil plans, the insane powers and all of that, would Sousuke Aizen be human like the rest of us, or would he still be a murderous beast?"
"I don't really feel like killing anyone at the moment," Aizen said, smiling crookedly, "You are being a marvelous host…and you said that the people who ordered the destruction of my mind and powers are all dead anyway."
"There's also the fact that you know I'm stronger than you right now," Kisuke surmised, "You'll probably feel more like killing me once you remember whatever it is that made you such a deadly bastard before. I…always kinda wondered what did that to you."
"I wonder also," Aizen mused as his hands lathered soap all over his filthy skin and slowly washed the layers of filth away. He washed and rinsed his hair several times, then scrubbed himself from head to toe once more, before leaving the waterfall and following Kisuke back across the bathing pool to the edge, where the two dressed in fresh yukatas, before returning to the ladder.
"Let me save us some time," Kisuke said, wrapping his arm around Aizen and lifting the two of them into the air in a long flash step that ended with them standing at the top of the ladder and looking down.
As Kisuke released him, he was sure he spotted a little flush on the shopkeeper's face.
Oh, lovely adversary. That was a little reckless, wasn't it?
"Come on," Kisuke said, heading into the hallway, "I think I'm as hungry as you must be."
He led the former captain to the kitchen, where the two sat down to a huge meal.
Strange.
I don't know what it is to have a full stomach.
He ate what he was sure was a shocking amount of the savory food that Tessai had prepared, feeling Kisuke's eyes stealing glances at him and sensing a touch of discomfort in the shopkeeper.
Sympathy for a man you have called a beast, a bastard and a monster? You are a complicated person, Kisuke Urahara. Intriguing…
"You can have as much as you want," Kisuke assured him, "Your body has been on starvation mode while you were in the Rukongai. It will take a lot of buckets to fill the void. Don't be embarrassed, just dig right in."
He wasn't sure how long it took, but he was sure that it had been well over an hour before he was properly sated and sat back from the table, touching a napkin to his lips and sighing contentedly.
Kisuke nodded in approval.
"Go and get some sleep now," he advised Aizen, "I'm sure that you weren't able to sleep deeply where you were. Don't worry, no one here wants you dead. We need you alive, for the moment."
"That's very reassuring," Aizen said dryly.
He watched as Kisuke turned back towards the laboratory, then he entered the guest room he had been given and laid down on the sinfully soft bed. He was asleep in minutes and he slept more deeply than he remembered ever sleeping.
Until the moment he sensed deadly golden eyes observing him and felt the sudden, icy feel of impending death. He sat up, sucking in a sharp breath and staring into the darkness.
Was I only dreaming?
What I felt was something horribly powerful. I don't see anything. I don't sense anything now.
It was a long time before he could convince himself to sleep.
And as he slept, the wicked eyes continued to watch him.