The talk with Aizen's espada was rough, even after Aurora and Rida brought back the senior captains to help. Unohana healed Torin with shocking speed, considering he had gotten beaten senseless by 7 of Aizen's espada. Apparently the other 3 were still guarding Hueco Mundo, which is probably the only reason Torin had survived the initial assault.

The espada claimed Torin abducted Aizen, and as proof the presented a tattered, but official, haori of a squad 3 captain.

"But that's impossible" Torin objected "I've been working with our troops all day for a week now. I can get thousands of testimonies saying where I was at any given moment"

"and we are to trust the word of a shinigami about the innocence of a shinigami" the pale skinned one, known as Ulquiorra, questioned.

Torin frowned, they had a point there. Anything spoken by a shinigami could be on orders from him, since he was a captain, or simply a lie to defend a comrade from a hollow.

"the haori is too large for me" Torin offered "it can't be mine, besides, I'm wearing one now, if I had lost mine it would still be getting remade"

"You could've had one made ahead of time to cover for if you lost this one" The old man, Barragan, argued as he held up the haori in question

Torin fell silent, the evidence against him wasn't conclusive, but he lacked any sort of counter for it.

"Espada-san" Shunsuo said after a moment "may I see that haori?"

Barragan cautiously handed Shunsui the haori. "There is one way we can tell for sure if this haori is Torin's or not" Shunsui said "let's hope it isn't too faded…. There"

Shunsui held up the bottom of the haori, where the traditional haori pattern was placed.

"It's a little known fact, but this pattern is actually changed slightly every few years or so." Shunsui said "back when the Gotei was at war more often, people would impersonate captains and copy our haoris to disguise themselves."

Shunsuo paused to let this sink in, then continued "to counter this, the design on the hemline of our haoris was changed so that we could easily distinguish real from fake." He said "we continued changing the design slightly, so that older haoris that had been captured or lost couldn't be used against us."

The gunslinger man, Starrk, realized what this meant "so if the design on the haori's match, it is his, if not, if belongs to the real culprit."

Shunsui nodded "precisely" he said "Torin-san, your haori?"

Torin handed over his haori and shunsui compared them before the espada and captains. Sure enough, the designs were noticeably different.

"I thought the change was slight?" Torin asked

"it is, but slight changes turn rivers into canyons, given enough time" Shunsui said "this design in particular, is a useful find."

"Why is that?" Starkk inquired.

"Cause this is the design we used 3000 years ago, the same year Crisis invaded us the first time"

Ulquiorra frowned "in that case, the culprit is someone who could've dispatched a captain with ease, and left the haori intact enough to steal, then not used it for 3000 years."

"And we all know, there is only one person capable of that alive today" Shunsui said "someone who would greatly benefit from distracting the remnants of your faction from fighting him to fighting us"

Realization dawned on the espada "we have been deceived" the woman, named Harribel, said

The largest man, Yammy, punched the table, leacing a fist shaped hole in it by accident "that bastard! When I get my hands on him!"

"You'll do what?" Torin asked "This is an arrancar who not only defeated AIZEN, but did so with enough ease to plant false evidence, conceal the real evidence, and leave before you all arrived, he's beyond your fighting capacity, and your army is faring poorly against his."

Torin stood "I hate to say this, but in light of this revelation, its apparent that once he's finished you off, the Gotei is doomed, we might beat him, but not before he razes the seritei to the ground.

The other captains looked down, considering this, none of them protested. Even Yammamoto, who had taken much persuasion to get into the discussions at all without incinerating the espada, did not protest what Torin was about to say.

"If either of us are to survive this was, we must work together" Torin said

This caused an uproar amongst the espada, some acknowledged the statement, but others protested.
"We'll never fight alongside you bastards!" the blue haired man, named Grimmjow, said

"Why not?" Torin said "if it ensures our mutual survival."

"but you're shinigami bastards! You slaughter our kind" Grimmjow spat

Torin slammed his hands down on the table, leaning forward to glare Grimmjow in the eyes, his reiatsu spiked, and the room fell silent

"listen here hollow" Torin growled, putting so much venom into the word hollow it could've melted Grimmjow then and there "of all shinigami, there is nobody who has more of a reason to hate your kind than me"

"You hollows took EVERYTHING from me" Torin continued "and after this war, I'm gonna continue leading shinigami against your kind with great joy. But for now, I am putting aside my animosity towards your race for the sake of both our groups"

"I'm not proposing an alliance, only a truce and an agreement to work together against Crisis and his army" Torin said through gritted teeth "Once they're gone, I'll fight you all myself! Until then though, I'm going to work with you"

Grimmjow stepped back, momentarily cowed by Torin's ferocity, then he turned his head away "fine, have it your way bastard, but when this is all over me and you are going to fight"

Torin grinned sadistically "I look forward to that day" he said with barely restrained malic "just make sure you last that long"

With that, the lower espanda returned to Hueco Mundo, and the higher espada and the senior captains left to work out thie finer details of the truce and discuss strategy. Rida and Aurora left after patching Torin's quarters together.

Torin wnet to sleep after that, he'd had a very long day.