She expected a strong reaction from Akechi after she asked that question, but Aigis was still mildly surprised by the forceful pull from him after she voiced her suggestion. He grabbed her by her kimono collar, yanking himself close to her face. Mercifully, he did not put any pressure on her injured leg.
"How," he hissed, low and rough, "did you know about that?"
Aigis levelled a steady gaze at his wild glare, his reddish-brown eyes shrunken into pinpricks and almost glowing in the shadow of the overhead sun. "I worked with the Phantom Thieves before." Her tone slipped back into the monotone she often used during missions, meant to keep her team emotionally stable. "Of course, that happened after you died."
"And how did you get your Persona?!" Akechi's voice was louder now, but still soft enough that nobody else in the vicinity could overhear. "Don't hide the fact that you have one, otherwise you couldn't have casted your enhancement spells."
Aigis's eyebrows momentarily knitted in confusion, because she did not remember casting any sort of spell, apart from willing her reiatsu to follow general commands such as moving to specific parts of her body to protect or enhance its power or…
Oh.
She understood now.
"I do have a Persona," she stated. "I haven't been able to summon it since I arrived though."
It would have made defeating Namba and his cultists far simpler, especially if she could've accessed her Wild Card powers.
"As for when I received one," Aigis continued, unfazed by the hostility emanating from Akechi, "I was born with it."
She almost blurted out 1999, but then thought better and went for a technical truth instead.
"Born with one?" Akechi asked, still scowling fiercely. "I thought that's impossible."
"Not quite." she replied. She shifted around Akechi to take a look at her surroundings. "I think you should concentrate on the Hollows for now?"
He pursed his lips, but loosened his hold on her kimono and turned around.
The Hollows had closed in on their position while they were distracted. All eight Hollows had surrounded the rooftop they landed on, prowling around like predators. On other rooftops around them, she spotted the other shinigami catching their breath.
"Aaargh!" Akechi growled, running a hand through his dishevelled hair. "Fine, I'll do it. But don't blame me if you get caught in the middle!"
He held out his sword in front of him, tip pointing down.
Aigis felt the pressure around her rise, as Akechi's reiatsu became visible, a swirl of indigo and black.
"Tear, Loki!"
The ray sword morphed, its blade turning from a yellow-tinged lightsaber to a serrated, blood red edge. With a savage war cry, he leapt into the midst of the monsters surrounding them, a blur of black and red amongst the ashen and white. He zipped through the small mob, nicking each monster with a small cut that festered with the same indigo and black reiatsu covering Akechi.
He landed on the ground, his sandals digging grooves into the dirt path. The Hollows's gaze followed him as they turned their focus to Akechi.
He twirled his sword with a flourish, the blade glowing brightly even in the afternoon sun. The Hollows jerked to a stop, then one by one, started roaring at each other, setting their sights on their own instead of the shinigami and cultists. They tore into each other, easily biting and punching through the hardened carapace that the shinigami could not pierce earlier.
With how close they were, Aigis decided to slip off the rooftop. She was not sure if her injured leg was broken, but it certainly felt numb and ached with every movement. Slowly, she shifted her weight around to the edge of the thatch, then slid off, landing on her good leg. The jolt through her body still hurt her leg despite her best efforts, and she bit back a wince.
One glance informed her that the cultists were still a safe distance away from the Hollows, shielded by both ninja shinigami (Mutsu had apparently woken up at some point when she was not paying attention) with a variety of colourful spells. Akechi was panting heavily, still rooted in the same spot and using his sword as a crutch.
Aigis hobbled her way to him, using the walls of the surrounding houses as support. The Hollows paid her no mind. By the time she reached his position, half of the Hollows were dead, and the other half were heavily damaged, with missing pieces of carapace and bloody tears in their limbs.
"Are you quite alright, Akechi-san?" she asked.
"No thanks to you." His voice was rough. "Loki takes out a lot in me when I need to get so many of them berserk."
Her eyes fell. "My apologies." she replied, head lowered.
Akechi sighed, a heavy sound that permeated its surroundings despite the noisy cannibalism of the Hollows nearby. He waved her off. "For what it's worth, this was really the only way to kill all of them, and if it was up to me, I would've delayed it a lot longer, and possibly caused more property destruction and unnecessary lives lost," he grunted. "You just gave me a kick to do it earlier."
There were only two Hollows left. "Get ready," he growled. "Once it's down to the last one, we're gonna have a fight."
As he said that, one Hollow smashed the other's head into the ground, cracking a deep hole in the dirt. The Hollow in the ground dissolved into dust in the other's hand, and the remaining one roared into the sky. Then it looked around, and spotted the cultists and shinigami, who looked worn out from sustaining the shields.
"Listen," Akechi pulled Aigis close. "You might not be able to summon your Persona here, but it's all visualisation. Know what you need to cast, go through the motions, and if you have enough reiatsu left, you can use it."
She stared.
"What?" he scowled. "I had three hundred years to figure this out. You're the only one here with any shred of reiatsu left to deal with it right now. Yes, it's going to be stronger than it was before, but it's also easy to bait now. I know you have a broken leg, but one good hit will take it down. Can you do it?"
She ran her mental calculations out of habit.
One enraged, three story tall Hollow capable of killing her in one blow. More than a dozen restrained, injured or exhausted people who needed protection. One civilian with a heavily injured leg, but with a little energy to spare. Multiple potholes in the ground from the Hollows killing each other moments ago. Abandoned buildings, now half reduced to rubble, were strewn around the area.
Aigis closed her eyes.
A plan formed in her mind, with the required steps.
Estimate: 58.2% chance of success.
Estimate is within acceptable range.
"Can you manage one more spell?" she asked Akechi in a low voice. "Just to hold the Hollow still."
He was still trying to catch his breath, but gave a shaky nod.
Aigis nodded back. "Please wait for my signal," she said.
She moved slowly to the side of a mostly intact building, keeping her weight off her injured leg as much as she could. Aigis stopped at a suitable spot, with her back to the dark shadows and within view of Akechi. She picked up a piece of rubble, slightly bigger than the average brick, and threw it at the Hollow currently bearing down on the shinigami. It bounced off harmlessly against its back, but the rubble served its purpose to attract the Hollow's attention.
Raising her own reiatsu so that she could keep its focus on her, Aigis concentrated the flow of her power into her arm.
Visualise.
She did not have the energy for incredibly strong attacks like God's Hand, so she hoped that her weaker spells would be strong enough for the task.
She saw the visage of her Persona, with Palladion's head raised high. Her initial Persona was highly mechanical, lacking movable limbs, but she raised her right arm all the same, fist clenched.
The Hollow barreled towards Aigis at speeds faster than she expected, yet she stood her ground, her uninjured leg tense with anticipation. At the last second, she jumped, sailing over the fist that threatened to pound her into paste. She was not able to leap as high as she wanted due to putting all her strength in one leg, but it was enough. Too fast to stop itself, the Hollow stumbled into one of the many potholes in the ground that she hid with the shadows and her own body. Predictably, it lost its footing.
She twisted in the air, so she was at the perfect angle to strike from behind, where the carapace had fallen off in large chunks from the earlier altercation. "Akechi-san!" she yelled.
He had his left hand held out in front of him, palm facing the Hollow.
"Bakudo number nine: Geki!"
A red glow outlined the Hollow, freezing it in place.
Perfect for her next attack.
Time slowed down.
Visualise.
Aigis concentrated her reiatsu into her hand, imagining it as the spearhead of her Persona. She cocked it back.
Visualise.
Her reiatsu glowed white. She let herself fall, aiming her hand straight at the exposed head.
Summoning.
"Kill Rush!"
Three hits all hit their bullseye. A bright flash, even brighter than the afternoon sun, blinded all in range. Aigis landed in a graceless tumble on the dirt, owing to her injured leg. She grit through the stinging pain and turned around to look at the aftermath.
In addition to the hole in its chest, the Hollow now sported a new one through its face. The three strikes had punched through the carapace to the other side, which was much more than what she had expected out of the attack. The Hollow moaned one last time, despite its mouth now missing, and dissolved into black dust.
Aigis allowed herself to collapse.
She heard heavy footsteps somewhere to her right, but there was no hostility. A shadow fell over her, covering the glare of the sun.
"Good job, Aigis-san." Akechi's face appeared over her. "Need a hand?"
Perhaps recovering while lying face up in the dirt is not a good method. "Thank you," she said, taking the offered hand. He was deceptively strong, more than his lithe frame and shaky breaths suggested, and his gloved hand gripped hers firmly as he pulled her up to a sitting position.
She ran a quick check over herself. Her leg was still somewhat swollen, still coloured a patchwork of greens, purples and reds. However, she could move it with great effort. She had a series of minor scrapes on her exposed skin, which just aggravated the stinging pain from her still recovering wounds from Namba. The hand she used to kill the last Hollow looked red, but there was merely a dull, throbbing ache, which was not particularly painful. Probably not an issue.
Unagiya was not going to be happy.
"Let me take a look at that leg." Akechi commanded, and Aigis found herself obediently stretching her injured leg out for inspection. He looked over the bruises, then the various cuts around her body.
"Your leg is…probably not broken," he decided, raising both hands over the injured leg. "But I think it's going to break if you put any more stress on it, so let me do some first aid."
His hands glowed green, with the light washing over her injuries. It stung like antiseptic applied directly on her wounds, but relieving all the same.
"Is this a type of shinigami magic?" Aigis asked curiously.
"Kido." Akechi corrected her. "It is, but anyone with enough reiatsu can learn it. Healing variants are called kaido."
As she watched, the swelling reduced and the bruises faded halfway through, so it only looked like an odd patchwork of red and purple, instead of the ballooned leg from before. The pain did not completely subside, but her leg did not feel like it was about to burst anymore.
Aigis was not sure if limbs could burst from pressure just like that, and she did not want to find out.
Akechi moved on to her other scrapes, closing the wounds partway. Then he produced a roll of bandages from his sleeve. "Hold still," he instructed. He wrapped her wounds tightly with practiced hands, then moved on to her leg.
It was somewhat embarrassing to be wrapped like a mummy.
Once he was finished with the leg, Akechi looked around. Rubble was strewn around the area, so he dug around until he came back with two pieces of wood board, the right size for a makeshift splint. "Just in case," he said, as he tied them tightly around her leg. He went straight to the cultists after he was done without a word.
Aigis watched him go to the other shinigami, where they had a hushed, but hurried conversation. She only caught snippets of it, mostly about asking the Gotei for backup, their dwindling resources, Akechi's abilities (which the other shinigami did not know about apparently), and more transport logistics. A few minutes later, he approached her again.
"Seems like we'll be staying in town for a few days while we wait for backup," he relayed. He did not show any sign of tiredness he had displayed earlier, though she was not sure if he had already recovered, or was just adept at hiding it.
She had a sneaking suspicion that it was the latter.
"Care to recommend an inn?" Akechi asked.
"The only one is near the town square." Aigis replied automatically. "What about Namba-san and the others?"
"Akai and Mutsu can take turns watching over them for now." Akechi waved a gloved hand in their general direction. "It's only a few days, so this will be easy for them. I don't expect another Hollow attack soon, and even the one we just had was unusual enough." His left hand went up to his chin, while his right rested on his hip. "Speaking of unusual, maybe I should report this to my captain…"
He went silent.
"Why is it unusual?" Aigis asked, which startled Akechi out of his musings.
"Most Hollows don't hunt in packs, especially a pack that big," he half explained, half mumbled to himself, still in the same pose. "By nature, they're selfish, solitary creatures. There is also a wide variety of Hollows and abilities, so having multiple Hollows with almost identical traits and abilities at the same place seems to be too much of a coincidence."
Aigis could only nod along.
Akechi finally looked her in the eye. "Have there been any Hollow sightings lately?" he asked, his gaze suddenly intensifying.
"No," she replied. "None within the town or the surrounding area."
Morioka would be the first to know if there was a Hollow around, since he was the one who lived outside the town limits, but he never mentioned anything in his years of supplying wood for the Unagiya household.
Akechi's scowl deepened. "With how much reiatsu there is around here, there should be at least more sightings, maybe a few Hollow attacks here and there," he snapped, almost to himself. "Hollows consume souls for reiatsu, and this entire town would look like a very tasty snack for them. So why…?"
Aigis recognised the expression on his face well enough. Naoto often had the same one on her face whenever she was trying to puzzle out a particularly suspicious piece of evidence in a case. Just as Aigis was about to say something, he shook himself out of his thoughts.
"Sorry, this isn't the place for this." Akechi almost sounded genuinely apologetic, if it was not for the hint of distraction she heard in his voice. He extended a hand out to her. "Here. Let me help you get back to the orphanage."
She accepted the hand. "Thank you," she said.
"It's the least I can do." Akechi replied. "You did contribute to the fight, and for that, you deserve my thanks."
He slung Aigis's arm over his shoulder. "Can you walk?" he asked. She gave a small nod. The pain had dulled to an awkward ache, where she was not sure if it was more painful or just annoying. She decided on the latter.
They limped their way back to the orphanage, taking the main roads instead of the back alleys.
"What happened to the Phantom Thieves after I died?" Akechi asked suddenly. "I…did not leave them on the best of terms."
Aigis turned to look at him. "You still saved them." she said firmly. "I can only give you a second hand account, but they were quite regretful they were not able to save your life."
"Why would they bother to save a murderer?" His head was lowered, focused on the unsteady steps and the gravel of the path. His long bangs hung in messy chunks, covering most of his eyes from her view. "I killed the parents of two of the members. I know they hate me, deep down."
"Yes, I'm sure that is the case." Aigis agreed. She kept her eye on the road, making sure that they were going in the right direction. "But in the end, you were a victim of a cruel society too, and they recognise that."
Akechi grunted.
"Shido went to jail for his crimes," she continued when he did not elaborate on his response. "And the Phantom Thieves shot the god responsible for the entire situation in the face on Christmas Eve."
That caught his attention. "A god…orchestrated everything?" he asked incredulously.
"For most Shadow incidents, there is a god behind it." Aigis explained. "They are formed from the collective unconscious, and emerge when the masses unconsciously call out for them. It may be for salvation, or maybe destruction, but the gods largely have a limited view on humanity. Whenever they try to grant the wishes of the masses, it inevitably twists into a perversion of what we truly need."
She debated on whether or not to talk about the entire situation with Maruki.
"It's not just gods though, humans make the same mistakes," she continued. "Shortly after you died, there was…someone who tried to bring salvation to the people in Tokyo by removing their pain. To help Ren-san, he…brought you back to life as a cognition."
"What?"
The guttural growl of shock made Aigis jump a little, agitating her injured leg. She suppressed a wince. "Whoever that man is, he's dead the moment I see him!" Akechi gritted out.
She suppressed the desire to remind him that they were already dead, and instead focused on putting as little pressure as she could on her injured leg.
He took a shaky breath. "Apologies, not the place for this." Akechi said as he went back to looking at the road ahead. "We're almost there, aren't we?"
"Yes." Aigis confirmed, her eyes set on the familiar dirt path.
As they walked closer, they started hearing the loud din of the cottage, of children playing around happily. As if she knew, Unagiya walked out of the doorway right as Aigis and Akechi reached the perimeter. Unagiya saw them from afar, then froze.
"Um." Aigis wondered what was the best way to explain her injuries without blaming Akechi.
She did not get a chance.
"What did you do to my daughter?!"
It took an hour to calm down Unagiya, during which Akechi spent much of the time bowing in apology for dragging Aigis into the mess, though he also kept praising her combat prowess throughout as well, which unfortunately only served to make things worse.
After he left, Unagiya fussed over Aigis, checking over her old and new wounds, telling her that she was absolutely forbidden from doing any kind of work for the next week, then prepared a meal for her.
The children, on the other hand, viewed her hurts as trophies, proof that their "big sister" is as strong as a hundred Hollows, which was just as awkward as Unagiya fussing over Aigis, not to mention the scolding they received for not taking the very real risk of death seriously.
It reminded her fondly of days past, when the people at Iwatodai dorm lived together trying to end the Dark Hour. A family not of blood, but of bonds. The dynamics were different, but the feelings were still similar.
"Daughter?" Aigis asked Unagiya, after the children went to bed. They were seated at their usual positions around the table, each nursing a cup of tea.
"Do you have any issues about that?" The words that came out of Unagiya's mouth were harsh, but the tone was soft and comforting.
"No." Aigis replied. "Just…a little surprised."
Unagiya laid a warm, calloused hand on Aigis's. "You don't have to consider me as your mother," she said softly. "But know that I consider you my daughter, and worry for you. No matter what, you will always be welcome here." She gave a reassuring smile.
A jumble of feelings knotted in Aigis's stomach. Warmth, uncertainty, hesitation conflated together into feelings that she was unsure how to describe with, a confusing series of thoughts flashing through her mind.
She never really knew a mother's love, but maybe it was something like this. Tough, but warm. Harsh, but soft. Someone wanting the best for whom they cared for, but also resisting the urge to hold their hand and guide them, lest they fall into worse pits when they inevitably have to let go.
Aigis met Unagiya's eyes.
"Thank you for caring for me."
Akechi visited the house a few days later. This time Unagiya did not raise a fuss.
"Thanks for your help with the Hollows again," he said. "Here, some gifts for you and your family." He bashfully held out a neatly wrapped package. Aigis opened it carefully, which turned out to be a delicately packed box of dango. She gave a small smile.
"Thank you for the gift, Akechi-san." She bowed respectfully. "Would you like to stay for some tea?"
Akechi shook his head. "No, I need to leave for Seireitei soon," he explained. "The backup we requested arrived, so I thought I'd visit you one last time before I leave."
He seemed to have more energy than the last time she saw him. The majority of his scrapes faded into slightly discoloured patches, and he had his pleasant smile plastered on his face again.
"And," he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small envelope, "this is your recommendation letter."
Aigis did not know whether to stare at the letter in his hands or at Akechi's face. His pleasant smile faded a little.
"I was serious when I said that you'll fit in the Gotei." Akechi said, his tone turning heavy. "You have the right skills, and more importantly, you have the right mentality for the job. Please think about it."
"…I'll consider it." Aigis replied stiffly. "Thank you for the letter."
He let out a hint of a genuine smile through his polite expression. "Well, I should get going. Stay safe, Aigis-san."
"You too, Akechi-san."
"That shinigami gave you a recommendation letter?!" Unagiya exclaimed in a voice reminiscent of a screech.
"Please don't wake up the children." Aigis replied, her own voice low.
They were outside the house, with the orphans asleep inside. Aigis secretly was glad she made the decision to have this conversation outside, because that screech would have definitely woken up the children. The night was warmer than usual, which made standing in the open more comfortable than expected.
With everything that happened over the past month, Aigis and Unagiya were having a lot more conversations like this, outside of the earshot of innocent children. There was a part of them that wanted to protect the orphans from the harsh realities of life in Soul Society, because they were not ready for that yet, no matter what Aigis taught them.
"I'm…considering it." Aigis admitted.
Unagiya pursed her lips. For a long time, neither of them said anything, until she broke the silence with a sigh.
"I don't have the right to stop you, Aigis." Unagiya said. "You're free to go if you want to."
The truth was, the invitation was tempting. It was a chance to have Aigis's questions about the afterlife answered, help the people, and possibly reunite with the Persona users she knew in life.
It was everything she wanted to do.
Yet she also knew about how Unagiya never seemed to trust the shinigami all that much, where she was more likely to deck a shinigami than listen to them.
"Why…" Aigis tried to condense the multitude of questions in her mind into one. "Why do you dislike the shinigami?"
Unagiya leaned back on the walls of their home, her arms crossed. "You weren't brought here by a shinigami, so you wouldn't know," she began, "but when they send you here, they'd always say that Soul Society is a place of rest, a land of happiness where you would never go hungry or get sick. And then I arrived here, and realised that it's a load of bullshit. They're liars, Aigis — a systemic group of liars."
Aigis patiently waited.
"But I know they're essential for this world too." Unagiya continued. "We'd all be Hollow food if it wasn't for them. So I can't bring myself to completely hate them. I just wish their system was better."
A cool breeze ruffled their hair. Unagiya's observations were valid, Aigis noted to herself. Most of it was made from a desire to protect the children at the orphanage, but to Aigis, there were definitely more facets to the area known as Seireitei.
"I want to find out more about them." Aigis said. "And if I can, I'd like to improve the system too."
Unagiya smiled, and reached out with one hand to ruffle Aigis's hair. "Knock 'em dead, Aigis."
She returned the smile.
"Aigis-neechan is leaving?"
As expected, the children kicked up a fuss when she broke the news the next morning. Unagiya had questioned if it was too early — the next entrance period for Shin'ou Academy was in half a year after all, but Aigis said it was better for them to be mentally prepared, rather than be surprised when she left.
So she spent the rest of her time at the orphanage teaching the children everything she knew, from numbers to writing to science, answering every question they had. They, in turn, stuck to Aigis like glue, refusing to leave her side even when Unagiya scolded them for doing so.
Thus, on a chilly spring morning, Aigis left her home of nine years to join the Gotei.
A/N: And that's a wrap for the first arc! Next chapter will begin a new arc, along with many more familiar characters appearing soon!
On another note, I have a beta now (thank you GarbageboyStinkman for volunteering)! I spent much of my time while writing this chapter figuring out the character list, positions, and future arc story points, so about 50% of the story is planned out (but not written). It means I am...probably less likely to go on break because I wrote myself into a corner.
Anyway, enjoy, review, and let me know if there are any mistakes so I can fix them ASAP!