so this is pretty much wrapping up the past few chapters and helping to set up the impetus for the next parts of this plot thread. so it's mostly just people talking.
Sui-Feng was unamused.
The Naraki city operation was a total disaster.
Not only did they fail to apprehend Michibane, but due to her advanced warning she was able to completely scour her hideout of critical information.
The only thing they managed to achieve was confirming that she had outside help and that this outside help had a senkaimon with a reishi converter.
Due to this, Sui-Feng was speed walking to the head captain's office to deliver this news.
The first division barracks still held the familiar air of Yammamoto's imposing authority, but instead of the burning wrathful presence of the Gotei's founder, it was the shadowy, almost coy presence of Kyoraku. It didn't sit right with her.
Sui-Feng respected Kyoraku as a senior, and as a peer, but this was Yamamoto's division.
Soon the assassin found herself standing before Okikiba as he managed the paperwork of the division's supplies.
"Captain Feng, we were not expecting you," Sui-Feng glared at the use of her surname, but let it slide for now.
"I wish to speak with the head captain, he should have an opening in his schedule currently," Sui-Feng's voice conveyed her usual intense professionalism, but an observant individual could pick up on her displeasure from the subtle edge in her tone.
"You are correct. Lieutenant Ise had informed me as such earlier today," Okikiba raised his eyebrow at the coincidence, and how the second division captain knew this, but figured that it was above his pay grade. The veteran shinigami knew when to keep his head out of clearly clandestine business.
From there Sui-Feng walked to the head captain's office.
The First was the single hardest-hit division from the war. Yhawach's destruction of the majority of the Great Underground Prison caused foundational damage to the structure that became the First's barracks, and the resulting pillar of reishi vaporized vast portions of the monolith that was built around the penance tower, including the tower itself, the gap in the Seireitei's skyline an open wound left by the war.
Thus Kyoraku's office was not where the previous head captain's office was. Instead, it was an enclosed room with little in the way of a view. So she was expecting the rather plain setting of their meeting.
What surprised her though was the presence of Yoruichi.
"Lady Yoruichi, I was not expecting you to be here," Sui-Feng's face did a rare deviation from her usual stern mask to one of genuine surprise.
"Don't mind me, just here to provide relevant insight," Yoruichi dismissed her student's shock.
"'Don't mind you?' How did you even find out I would be here?" Sui-Feng was incensed at her flippancy with the situation. This represented a major issue with security.
"Kyoraku told me of your little mission after I pressed him about your absence at the celebration yesterday. Don't worry, I observed proper procedure, speaking of which," Yoruichi wordlessly went through the motions as she cast the signature silencing kido used by the Onmituskido.
"I had a solid alibi," Sui-Feng calmed herself.
Yoruichi gave her a look.
"Right up until I become a known attendee. Anyone who takes their time to study you would learn you wouldn't miss your chance to shadow me," Yoruichi knew Sui-Feng had a bad case of hero worship. It was something she tried to wean her off of for a long time specifically for this reason. It made her predictable.
Sui-Feng found herself unable to reply. Hopefully, the suspects wouldn't connect her absence to the mission.
"Let's start the debriefing. Sui-Feng?" Shunsui lightly asserted himself. He had no issues with Yoruichi admonishing her former student, but they had business to attend to.
"The mission was a near-total failure. Our quincy allies were sloppy with the placement of their listening devices and one of them was spotted. Allowing Michibane to escape and for any incriminating evidence to be destroyed or removed," this utter failure was infuriating to Sui-Feng. To not only be the head of the Onmitsukido while such a failure happened under her watch but also to be the one overseeing the mission, was a mark of shame.
Yoruichi raised an eyebrow at 'escape.'
"What was their mode of escape?" Yoruichi knew Sui-Feng held herself to an unreasonably high standard, a holdover of the standards the Feng clan holds all of their own to. The secondary objectives were things that would be nice to have, not critical to obtain.
"From what Ishida and I could deduce one site, a senkaimon equipped with a reishi converter," Sui-Feng relayed the only good news she had about the mission. She had confirmed that she had collaborators in the Seireitei.
"Well," the head captain clapped his hands together as a large grin showed itself on his face, "that's great news. Not many have the means nor the need for such a thing," Kyoraku was pleased.
"How is this great news? We have no documentation, no prisoners, and Michibane is still a threat!" Sui-Feng didn't get how this could be a success. She came back empty-handed, and tracking down Xcution for a second time would be much harder.
"This wasn't about securing documents, prisoners, or assassinating Michibane. This was about forcing her to tip her hand. You achieved your primary objective," Yoruichi observed. This was a probing action. Kyoraku wasn't expecting any of the secondary objectives to be achieved, but he shot for them anyway as getting those things would be a massive boon. She would have to talk to him about how to work with Sui-Feng.
"Indeed. Now we know she evaded detection because someone within the Visuals Department prevented us from getting that information. We can act on that." and Kyoraku had a very strong idea as to just who that was.
Aura Michibane found herself enjoying the hospitality of the Tsunayashiro estate. She was in a sequestered corner, away from any servants who Tokinada had not personally vetted for loyalty, as well as from the prying eyes of the Onmitsukido.
"Your escape plan was risky," Tokinada spoke plainly. His voice was free from the usual cheerfulness. No, this was too serious a matter for him to let himself find enjoyment from.
"As was delaying the plan," Aura didn't try to explain herself. Tokinada already knew why she made the call. With the limited time they had before the raid hit, she had to cover for Yukio so that the Executive Militia members couldn't shadow them by tracking her reiatsu.
"Yes, it was," Tokinada scowled. This was a direct consequence of his choice to delay the plan. He created an opportunity for Aura to be discovered and she was. It was too soon for everyone to find out.
More importantly, Sui-Feng's absence at the event yesterday was no coincidence. He was certain that she was the one heading the shinigami contingent of the strike.
"Did you directly face them?" it was important that Aura's abilities remained a mystery. If they were found out it would be likely that her vulnerabilities could be sussed out and leave her at a disadvantage. She may have an intellect only matched by Sosuke Aizen, but she did not have the raw power nor the reckless ambition that truly made him a threat. Not that Tokinada hated him, quite the contrary, he respected Aizen. He had the gumption to try to make the world his, to bend it to his will. Even if he was just a low-born shinigami it was rare for someone to see the truth of this world, much less act on it. Tricking Tosen into joining him was just the cherry on top.
"No. I avoided direct confrontation. Uryu is an unknown, and the risk wasn't worth understanding his power," Aura spoke coldly. She was correct. The shrift of the emergent king was unknown, and given what they saw of shrifts in the war, it was too risky to try to unveil that secret.
"Good. I want you to return to your followers and lay low. I will need to navigate things more carefully on this end," Sui-Feng's involvement complicated matters for one reason.
Yoruichi.
Karin found herself training with her father.
Tomorrow they would be going home and she would begin the first of several patrols shadowing a shinigami, but her father wanted to help in his daughter's training. Something he should have done with Ichigo.
Isshin was glad that his son had inherited his mother's kindness, even if it manifested through the typical hot-headed Shiba attitude. Ichigo deserved to know what was going on the moment his mother died. Hell, he and Masaki had spoken about this, nay argued about this on occasion, but only when the kids were asleep, and only after he had set up a silencing kido with what little of his own power he had at the time.
Isshin had relented and agreed to tell him once he was in high school, but when that time came, he got cold feet. By the time he was able to come to his senses and talk Ichigo had left in the night before he could even say anything.
He was going to do it right this time.
Isshin slowly observed Karin as she worked on her kido exercise. Her control was just as raw as Ichigo's, but without his immense reiatsu, she could slowly practice and refine that control safely. He did not envy Rukia's assignment.
"So, that's all there is to this exercise?" Karin sat there, slowly focusing on her breathing as a dense ball of her reiatsu floated in front of her.
"No. This is simply the start. Once you can hold that for a little while longer then we can start on the second part," he wanted to be sure she could maintain the ball for the amount of time she would need to learn how to mold her reiatsu into shape. He could sense it now, her natural element was fire like himself, and so he would start with that once she was ready.
Which wasn't now as the ball of reiatsu fizzled out only after half a minute. The deep sigh from his daughter showed her displeasure at the development.
"Don't worry, it took me a while to get it down myself," he wasn't lying. Kido was the hardest of the combat arts to pick up. Even to the point that not many captains had expertise, let alone mastery of the form.
"Why do I need to learn this?" Karin was beginning to be frustrated by her lack of progress. Wasn't kido part of her family's schtick?
"Several reasons. First, so you have reiatsu control if you ever get as strong as Ichigo or I," Karin winced slightly at that. She had tacitly acknowledged that she could become as monstrously strong as her brother and could face the same dilemma as he did now one day. "And, you did say you wanted to learn kaido right?" Her father's second reason got her back on task. The art was an interesting one. It was why he had found himself actually paying attention to his kaido lectures.
"Alright fine, just let me have a break," Karin took a breath. She wanted to get her mind back on track and away from its current thoughts before returning to the exercise.
"Is there something wrong?" Isshin looked at his daughter with a concerned look. Emotions could interfere with how one can manifest their reiatsu.
"It just doesn't feel right," Karin looked down at the ground as she spoke in a hushed voice.
"What doesn't?" Isshin knelt down next to his daughter, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Keeping this all from Yuzu. She deserves to know," Karin had found herself asking that question throughout her time in Soul Society. Everything she learned, and the fact that it was just a fraction of what there was to this place, all put into perspective the enormity of the secret she was asked to keep.
"Maybe she does, but how would you feel if you knew there was a world like this that you couldn't see, with monsters like hollows, that your very existence attracted them to you, and there was nothing you could do to stop them from coming?" Her father's answer shocked her. But it also made so much sense. Karin would throw herself into a self-sacrificial isolation. She would avoid friends and family in the hope that they wouldn't be harmed when she was inevitably attacked. Ichigo's stories about how Orihime was attacked, her memories of Chad awakening his fullbring, and her memories of grand fisher all drove that point home.
Sometimes, ignorance was bliss.
Kukaku found herself entertaining an unexpected guest today. One Byakuya Kuchiki.
"You know, after the amount you drank I thought you'd be out for a couple more days," Kukaku took a drag from her pipe. The far more casual environment of the Shiba manor clashing with her guest's high-end kimono.
"We both know that the best remedy for a hangover is water," Byakuya didn't say what type of water, nor how it was administered. He knew she was well aware of the typical saline shots the medical staff available to each division had on hand.
"I take it you got a pick-me-up from a nurse?" Kukaku grinned at how that could be taken wrong, but anyone who was an active shinigami would know what she meant. "Never thought you'd need that."
Byakuya glared at the older woman.
"You know why I'm here," Byakuya didn't want to be here any longer than he had to. The noise of the manor was already beginning to pick up to the levels he remembered.
"You want to send out feelers for a potential marriage between your sister and my nephew," Kukaku gathered that they were going to have this talk eventually. Especially after he spoke with Tatsuki.
"Yes," Bakuya knew how the Shiba's did things, especially in regards to marriages, and how they differed from the other clans.
"You know we won't be the ones to decide that right? Also, we don't know if he's even going to stay" Kukaku took another puff from her pipe. The smoke dissipated as it rose through the air.
"I am aware of the Shiba traditions, and I know you are aware that I would never force my sister to marry someone she did not trust with her life," He would never risk Rukia coming to a similar fate as Kakyo. The very thought almost caused him to shiver. "As for Ichigo, I feel he may decide to stay."
Kukaku was surprised at Byakuya's observation, but it made sense. Ichigo may have issues with not knowing everyone or everything he needs to know, but he was settling in rapidly. He had even begun helping with the ongoing renovations to the manor.
"Good, just making sure we're clear on that," Kukaku looked over at her fellow clan head. "However, I will make back channel preparations."
Byakuya raised an eyebrow at that. The quizzical expression did not go unnoticed as Kukaku took another drag from her pipe.
"It just means I'll make sure Ichigo's schedule is… more open than usual," Kukaku's mischievous grin was something that made Byakuya almost regret bringing this up.
Rukia had invited Orihime over to talk. She and the rest of Ichigo's friends were leaving tomorrow and she wanted to have this conversation sooner rather than later.
"Orihime, thanks for coming over," Rukia was sat down in front of a low table with a tea set in front of her. As this was a private conversation the servants had been dismissed and Rukia was minding the tea herself.
"You said you wanted to talk about yesterday?" Orihime was still reeling from the revelation yesterday, but the shock had subsided, only the dull pain of her unrequited feelings was left.
"I know how you feel," Rukia's response caught the taller woman's attention. "I once loved someone who was like Ichigo in many ways, from his reckless selflessness to his casual demeanor-"
"Only to find he loved someone else," Orihime spoke softly as she finished Rukia's story.
"I had found he was married already, and to someone who had become a role model to me. Someone who I could never bring myself to hate," Rukia recounted Myako. She didn't want to linger, not on these memories, especially due to the painful conclusion they led to, but Orihime needed to know that she understood her pain.
"That man was Kaien Shiba, my predecessor as lieutenant to the thirteenth, and my mentor," that name caught Orihime's attention. Kukaku's older brother, Ichigo's uncle.
"I see…" Orihime stared off into a corner as Rukia poured her some tea. The silence fell over the room being free from tension but still had a tinge of sorrow.
Orihime considered her friend's words. The comparisons were eerie. It was clear that her relationship with Rukia echoed that of her relationship with Myako.
"I felt envy, then I got angry at myself for feeling that envy," Rukia took a sip of her tea. "I don't know how to navigate those emotions, and I can't tell you how, but I know how it feels."
"Thank you," Orihime had begun to think poorly of herself for feeling jealous, for envying the attention Ichigo gave Rukia, but to hear that she had been in the same place? It was as though a weight was lifted. These feelings were as normal as they could be in this unenviable situation. That made her feel so much better about herself.
Alright, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have anything to say, please leave it in the comments. the dopamine hit is much appreciated.