This does not suit me, Aigis could not help but think as Onabara corrected her position gripping the bokken.

Zanjutsu class was held in the training hall, and started with Onabara demonstrating his skill using a straw dummy and his own sword, strapped to his obi. With only a quick, light draw of his sword, he cleaved the dummy diagonally in half, without a single straw out of place.

"That is your goal by the time you graduate." Onabara said, sheathing his katana. "Shinigami use specialised swords known as zanpakutou for combat. They are born from a shinigami bonding with an asauchi — a blank sword that you can slowly pour your own soul into, so every zanpakutou is different. It can take many years for a zanpakutou to manifest, so your foundations are especially important when you cannot rely on the special abilities of your zanpakutou!"

Zanjutsu was odd in that the class did not teach any particular style of sword play, instead just drilling the basics of how to hold and swing a sword, and letting the student develop from there. Upon further consideration, hakuda was similar, since Matsumoto basically just let students beat each other up until they knew how to defend themselves.

Aigis was slightly disappointed that she would not get to learn a swordplay style, like kendo, if only because she could get to feel a fraction of how Makoto led his life.

It was…difficult to not think about him, how everything that she did was only possible because of him. He was, bar none, the most influential person in her life, the one who helped her realise her own potential, even after he passed away. Despite her friendly relationship with the Phantom Thieves, enough that she called everyone by their first name, she could not bring herself to do the same to Niijima. In her heart, she knew how unfair that was, because they were completely different people, and their names were not even spelled with the same kanji.

But not now. Not yet.

"Something on your mind, Aigis?" Onabara rumbled.

She blinked. At some point she had apparently stopped swinging her sword, and now her instructor was looking at her with an odd side eye.

"My apologies, sensei." Aigis replied hurriedly, going back into position for her practice. "It's nothing."

Onabara was a strict taskmaster, demanding perfection in form from every student in the training hall. Despite her best efforts, Aigis barely fared better than the average classmate, as she had plenty of experience watching other Persona users using their katanas (it seemed to be a favoured weapon in general), and had the barebones idea on how to effectively swing a sword.

Some seemed to be doing well, only needing minor corrections in form. Others, however, seemed to be using their sword like a club.

They earned a harsh scolding for that.

It did not take much for her to notice that those who did well were also those who were able to sit still seiza style. Most likely nobles then, she decided.

Still, Onabara forced them to swing their bokken until their arms were sore and their brows were dripping with sweat before letting them go.


Afternoon class turned out to be kido again, this time with a focus on bakudo.

"Bakudo is a test of your endurance." Hinamori lectured under the veranda. "Unlike hado which is dependent on your firepower, high level bakudo needs reiatsu channelled into the spell as long as it lasts. It tests your control of your own power. Those who are able to sustainably maintain their reiatsu are those who are able to effectively use bakudo."

"Sensei!" One student raised his hand. If her memory was correct, his name was Fukumatsu. "Does it mean bakudo is less powerful than hado?"

"Good question." Hinamori nodded. "That is not the case. It is a matter of using the right tool at the right time. For example, shooting a fireball at a Hollow can do just as much damage as using a rope to trip the Hollow up and let it smash into an environmental hazard."

From a hidden shed, she brought out a life-sized dummy, except Aigis detected the barest hint of reiatsu from it. Odd.

"This is a specialised gigai, a human body shinigami use for certain missions into the Living World." Hinamori explained, letting it hang from its metal frame so it stood upright. "It will react in the same way as other souls when a spell is cast against it, so this will be your target for today."

She raised one hand, her index finger pointing at the gigai.

"Bakudo number one: Sai!"

The dummy, previously relaxed, suddenly jerked both of its hands behind its back, as if its wrists were tied together. They remained bound until Hinamori snapped her fingers, and the gigai's hands fell back to its sides.

"That is a basic binding spell." She explained. "Your goal for today will be to successfully cast this spell, again, with full incantation."

She brought out six more dummies and placed them in the green as the students tried to memorise the chant. "Split into groups of seven, please!" Hinamori called out.

Three minutes later, seven students had in order: managed to set the dummy on fire, bind the wrong target, make the dummy's wrist explode, failed to do anything, twist the leg of the dummy into a pretzel, bind the correct target only for the spell to fail immediately after, and have the spell explode in her face (she was thankfully unharmed).

A round of chuckles later, Hinamori snapped her fingers and fixed the gigai. "This is why it's not wise to practice on living targets." Hinamori explained, as the second group of students stepped forward. "You do not want to push as much reiryoku as you can into the spell — you're more likely to cause it to explode in some form. Slowly release a steady stream of power, then channel it into the spell."

The second group fared marginally better, after listening to the explanation. There were a few successful binds for a few seconds before they all invariably failed in some form or another, but the students were starting to understand.

Aigis's first attempt resulted in the dummy's hands exploding.

Hitomi's explanation for channelling reiatsu was not suitable for spells that needed too little reiryoku.

Instead, she took inspiration from her set of Persona buff spells. It felt more like a gentle push of energy out of her body, instead of the explosive force of her spells.

This time, the spell worked. Aigis held it in place for a few seconds, then released her control. The spell came undone with a cracking sound, and the wrists flopped.

"Well done, Aigis-san." Hinamori clapped. "Your release still needs work, as you don't want to break your target's wrist if possible, but that was fine spellcasting."

Aigis breathed out a sigh. "Thank you, Hinamori-sensei." She bowed politely.

Strangely, bakudo was easier for her compared to hado. Maybe it was her natural affinity for support spells, but they took less effort for her to learn, where in contrast hado took numerous attempts for her to successfully cast one.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind. For now, her focus should be on the lesson.


"There seem to be more people interested in us today." Aigis commented to Niijima, slurping up her ramen.

There would be a group of students staring at them every meal, though she supposed that for them, it would be strange to see two students in different years being such close friends. It was just that there were more than usual today, as their table was given a wide berth, yet the tables surrounding the invisible line were fully occupied with people trying to discreetly eavesdrop on them.

"I beat my entire class at hakuda today." Niijima sighed, adding more toppings to her chazuke.

Aigis tilted her head.

"At the same time." Niijima clarified.

"Oh."

"Rangiku-sensei asked for it," Niijima grumbled, "said it was a 'good demonstration' for how fighting multiple opponents would look like."

"So they're all your classmates?" Aigis asked.

"More like they're all from my year."

Aigis took a bite of her egg, then scowled when she realised it was hard boiled for some reason. "Does Matsumoto-sensei keep pushing demonstrations to students?"

"Just sometimes." Niijima replied, which did not reassure Aigis. "Anyway, here's hoping we have access to the information we want at the library."

"It should not be an issue." Aigis confirmed. "Not allowing students to view a general history of where they live seems a little ridiculous to me."

"Seireitei thrives on bureaucracy." Niijima countered. "There are a lot of books restricted there."

"That is true for every government, Niijima-san."

They both looked at their bowls of food in disappointment, a fleeting moment of solidarity over the unnecessary amount of paperwork they had to go through in their lives.


They found out that there was practically only one book they were allowed to borrow to view the history of Soul Society.

The library, as expected of a building that existed for over two thousand years, was massive. Dim lights cast a soft orange glow throughout the interior, and the floor to ceiling shelves were crammed with various bound books, Edo style. Aigis spotted a few colourful hardcovers, mostly foreign language books, and some that seemed to be more modern in construction (there were paperback books scattered throughout). The books were largely handwritten, so she guessed that printing technology was probably not used widely in Seireitei.

Niijima and Aigis settled at a table in a quiet corner of the library, away from prying eyes. The tome they borrowed was heavy and dusty, its pages yellowed with age. Niijima gingerly flipped open the first page, which listed an index of years, sorted by the century.

At least it was listed in the Gregorian calendar format.

With some trepidation in her movements, Niijima flipped through the book.

They largely listed events that happened after Seireitei was formed, with only vague timelines for incidents that happened in Soul Society before that. It recorded the dates of the founding of the Gotei, the Academy, and when each new captain succeeded its predecessor.

"There's time periods where there was no captain in certain divisions." Niijima noted.

Aigis nodded. So it seemed that a captain was not strictly needed for a division. Many of them served for multiple centuries before they were replaced, though the reason was never given.

It was largely unremarkable, apart from one note from over a millennium ago about a war with the Quincies.

"Any idea what they are?" Aigis asked.

"They teach about them briefly in class." Niijima replied. "Quincies were apparently regular humans who developed their own method to kill Hollows, but they came into conflict with Soul Society because their method destroys the soul, instead of cleansing it like shinigami. They primarily used a bow and arrows made out of their reiatsu."

Aigis frowned minutely. "'Were'?"

"They're extinct…supposedly." Niijima pushed her hair behind her ears.

Aigis's frown deepened.

"There was another war with them about three hundred years ago." Niijima said when she saw Aigis's skeptical expression. "I think Seireitei lost track of the surviving Quincies since the Gotei killed their leader."

"I can't tell if that is irresponsible, or merciful." Aigis shook her head. "Let's continue."

The next few centuries were peppered with seemingly minor fights with Hollows, more changes in captaincy, until about four hundred years ago when multiple captains went missing at the same time.

Niijima shrugged, when Aigis asked.

The rest of the entries for that century went by unremarkably, until they realised that the next century had the longest chapter dedicated to it.

"What happened?" Aigis mumbled, almost to herself.

"Lots of things." Niijima replied, her voice almost a grumble. "It's the hardest part of the exam every time, just because of the sheer number of incidents that happened then."

Aigis stared at Niijima.

She pointed at an entry, early into the century. "A shinigami gave her powers to a human." Niijima said in a tone that sounded remarkably like Onabara's lectures. "That was in itself taboo at the time, but then the human broke into Seireitei to rescue her when she was arrested."

"That almost sounds like suicide." Aigis commented.

"The thing is, he succeeded." Niijima continued. "It just so happened that it was all part of a plan made by three shinigami captains, who turned traitor to the Gotei and sided with Hollows."

"Wait." Aigis stopped Niijima before she went further. "You said shinigami giving their powers to a human was taboo?"

She looked away sheepishly. "I got curious about the laws of Soul Society, so I looked them up." She moved another stray strand of hair behind her ears. "There are still a lot of restrictions on who you can give your power to, and for how long, but it is no longer outright taboo."

She flipped to the next page. "Anyway, it was called the Winter War. The Gotei eventually killed the traitorous captains and many of the highly ranked Hollows, half a year later."

The page was filled with short notes on actions taken during the war, culminating in one sentence: Kurosaki Ichigo defeats Aizen Sosuke.

There was a two year gap during which nothing of note happened other than changes in captaincy, though Aigis noted to herself that the three vacancies from the war were all filled then. Curiously enough, all were filled by captains who were among those that had disappeared a century prior. Then another large chunk of text greeted her eyes.

"This was the second Quincy War." Niijima said. "Pretty much all the captains now are veterans of that war."

Like the Winter War, it was filled with a copious amount of notes, with the last note being that they managed to kill the leader of the Quincies and protect the Soul King.

"There's a king in Soul Society?" Aigis questioned.

"He's more of a figurehead." Niijima replied, still scanning past the pages. "Most people will go through their whole lives without seeing him once, and the majority of the governing is done through the Gotei and the Central 46."

"I saw that term show up earlier too, in the Winter War section." Aigis commented. "Are they the central government of Soul Society?"

Niijima nodded, flipping the page past the Quincy War section. "They're comprised of nobles from Seireitei, and decide on the policies of Soul Society and the shinigami. They also create the laws."

Her description did not sit right with Aigis. How would nobles, who largely lived in comfort, know about the plight of those in the outer districts?

The next few decades were peaceful, until a short note about twelve years after the Quincy War stated a "cleansing" of Hell was carried out.

"What was that about?" Aigis was starting to feel bad for Niijima for asking so many questions, but she seemed just as mystified.

"No idea," she said, her eyebrows knitted. "It wasn't taught in class, at the very least. But Hell is where those who committed grave sins in life go, instead of Soul Society."

The next few decades went by unremarkably, only listing captaincy changes and status of noble houses.

"An invasion of Hollows into the Living World?" Niijima questioned, pointing to an entry listed some hundred years after.

"I remember that year." Aigis recalled. "That was the first time I saw shinigami in the real world, and we didn't know who or what they were. There was a Shadow incident that year too."

"You think the incidents might be linked?"

Aigis shrugged. "Not sure. The Operatives observed the shinigami for a while, or at least we tried to, decided that they were not a threat and not here to meddle in our affairs, so we left them alone."

"Probably a good thing." Niijima replied, as she flipped to the next page. "I can't imagine what kind of chaos has to arise in the Living World to prompt the shinigami to intervene. Their general solution to those kinds of issues is to kill the offender with extreme prejudice."

"Something obviously world-ending would probably warrant it?"

"That's almost every Shadow incident, Aigis-san."

They looked through the next few entries in silence. The latest entry was dated a few years before Aigis died, another update for a noble house.

"It's really true." Niijima leaned back in her seat. "I'm either bad at keeping track of time, or there's a period of a hundred years where I don't know what in the world was happening to my soul."

Aigis patted Niijima's shoulder. "Whatever happened, you're here, and whole," she said gently, but still firmly. "We can take our time to look for the reason why you lost a hundred years. Maybe we can even enlist people to help, once we join a division in the Gotei."

Niijima nodded. "Thanks, Aigis-san."

"No need for thanks." Aigis smiled back. "I'm happy to help."

They sat in companionable silence, the flickering light casting mesmerising shadows over their faces.

A sigh escaped Niijima's lips. "I guess we should return this book," she said finally.

"For what it was worth, it was quite informative." Aigis commented. "Even if it seemed like it was missing a large amount of information."

"It only listed what Seireitei considered to be major events after all." Niijima agreed, carefully closing the book. "There can be any number of important events that were omitted."

The rest of the walk back to the dorms was filled with idle speculation on the events that could have happened, with no serious thought behind them. For some reason, Aigis considered it strangely relaxing.


Onabara frowned at the sheet of calligraphy that Aigis handed up. Rows of blotchy hiragana, surprisingly written with the same baseline and with even spacing, but the characters themselves were so saturated with ink it was difficult to make out which character was written.

"Another page for the next lesson." Onabara ordered.

"Yes sir." Aigis nodded.

The writing lesson today started with an exercise on filling in reports, then turned into a history lesson on the Quincies. As Niijima said the day before, they were regular humans who developed their own method to exterminate Hollows, since their elevated reiatsu attracted the monstrosities. However, their method completely destroyed the soul, instead of cleansing them and sending them to Soul Society, like what the shinigami could do with their zanpakutou.

"They did not stop in their methods, even after repeated warnings." Onabara lectured at the front of the class. "Thus, the shinigami at the time had no choice but to exterminate them to preserve the balance of souls."

"Onabara-sensei." Aigis raised her hand.

"Speak."

"Why is it so important to preserve the balance of souls?" she asked. "What happens when the balance tips?"

"Balancing the souls is the only method that can keep the three realms apart." Onabara explained. "If one realm has too many souls, it risks the realms breaking apart and merging together into the primordial whirlpool it was at the beginning of time. As the number of Quincies grew, they were actively decreasing the number of souls through their methods. Thus, there was no choice but for the shinigami to intervene, before the realms break apart."

It sounded logical. It even seemed that the shinigami were gracious enough to give warnings to the Quincies. Yet Aigis could not help but think there were better ways to handle the situation.

Or maybe the shinigami wanted to rid themselves of their perceived competition and came up with a plausible reason to exterminate them. History is written by the winners, as they say.

Onabara continued his lecture, going through their basic weapons and methods, but Aigis's brain was abuzz with what he had said earlier.

How did it reflect on the Gotei if this was their reaction to others who could kill Hollows?


The rest of the week passed by uneventfully. Aigis was allowed to skip the next hakuda lesson (Matsumoto had dismissed her with a cheerful wave, saying something along the lines of telling Aigis to preserve her looks), so she spent the time flipping through the books available in the library. The majority of them were on combat and kido, and she briefly perused the combat books, which were largely about the correct method to hold a sword, much like what her zanjutsu classes taught.

The kido books, on the other hand, were more interesting. In particular, she marvelled at the wide application of kido, from pure offense to binds, seals, communication tools and more.

Aigis made it a personal goal to master kido by the time she graduated.


The next zanjutsu class was held at the start of the new week, occupying half of the training hall. Unlike the previous classes held at the venue, there was nothing covering the bare floorboards of the hall this time, revealing the pale wooden grain of the floor. Onabara brought out a box of plain katanas, one for each student.

"These are asauchi," he lectured, "empty swords devoid of a soul. From now on, you will each carry the sword with you as much as you can, slowly pouring part of your soul into the sword."

He brought out his own zanpakutou, its hilt coloured a dark blue in contrast to the plain black that the asauchi have. There were more differences — his sword was slightly longer than the asauchi, probably to match his height, and the guard on his zanpakutou was shaped like a rounded square with intricate carvings, instead of the undecorated oval metal piece that the asauchi had.

"Each zanpakutou has two releases – shikai, your 'initial release', and bankai, your 'final release'," he rumbled on. "For most shinigami, shikai is all you will ever achieve, a surface description of the true power of your sword. However, those who are truly exceptional can reach bankai, where they are able to unlock the full potential of their zanpakutou. It is also the core requirement for becoming a captain in the Gotei.

"You will spend this time to commune with your asauchi." Onabara continued, allowing the students to observe his sword. "Think of it as your other half — your subconscious. If you manage to unlock your sword's name, it becomes a zanpakutou. It embodies what you value the most, manifested in the form of a power suited to you.

"You may not like your zanpakutou, but remember that it is still a part of you, a part you may not be aware of." Onabara's eyes sharpened. "Being able to self reflect is the best ability to quickly unlock your zanpakutou."

She already had an inkling when she saw Akechi in action, but Aigis was fairly sure of what her own sword — her zanpakutou would turn into.

"Line up single file!" Onabara bellowed to the class. "You will receive your asauchi one by one. Once you receive it, find a comfortable position to sit down."

Aigis chose to go to the end of the line, receiving her asauchi last while the rest of the class shuffled into position and Onabara started handing out the swords. Some received it with an unusual amount of reverence, cupping it with both hands, holding it as if it would shatter if they loosened their grip. Others treated the asauchi as if it was just another disposable sword, carelessly holding it with one hand.

It was interesting. She wondered what their actions spoke of about their eventual relationship with their sword.

A few minutes later, it was Aigis's turn.

"Here," Onabara held out the last asauchi in the box, "the last one for you. Treasure it well."

"I will, sensei." Aigis promised, reaching out to hold the sword by its scabbard. She pushed down her trepidation and hint of excitement of what would happen.

The moment her hand touched the katana, a bright glow radiated out, blinding the entire room. Aigis raised her free hand to shield her eyes, but a voice rang out in her head.

I am thou, thou art I.

The voice sounded achingly familiar, a melancholic, nostalgic tone that she was sure she had heard somewhere before. Moments later, her Persona's presence surged to the forefront of her mind.

When the glow died down, the katana had changed shape. What was a plain sword had changed into something between a wakizashi and a tanto — a short sword with a hexagonal steel guard, white hilt, and a steel grey scabbard.

"Well now." Onabara marvelled, his hand still on the sword. "You're quite self-assured, aren't you?"

"I've known myself for a long time." Aigis smiled.

Onabara removed his hand from the sword. "From now on, this zanpakutou is yours," he said. "Treasure it well."

Aigis bowed. "I will."

She ignored the mixture of adoring and jealous gazes from her classmates, settling herself in a corner of the room. It was only now, when she felt truly whole did she realise how badly she missed the calming presence of her Persona. She cradled her sword.

"Welcome home, Palladion."


A/N: Not much to say, other than the fact that I really should not be up right now and I should be sleeping because I am about to table at a convention for the first time in my life. Wish me luck :D

Also, to the guest review: The Thieves are not the only Persona users around, remember :3

As usual, this was beta'd, but let me know if there are any errors/issues! Or just leave a review in general, I like reading all of them (even the deranged ones).