Aigis soon realised why the floor of the training hall was bare for today's lesson — because there was no fighting involved.
"Jinzen, in essence, is meditation." Onabara lectured, once the initial shock of Aigis immediately obtaining a zanpakutou wore off and the class settled down. "For shinigami, this is the most common way to commune with your zanpakutou spirit, who resides in your inner world."
"Sensei!" A student's hand shot up. "What is an inner world?"
"The inner world reflects how each shinigami perceives themselves in relation to the world surrounding them." Onabara explained, pacing at the front of the class. "Like how each zanpakutou is unique, each inner world is unique too."
He sat down cross-legged on the ground, his sword laid horizontally over his lap. "Focus on your sword. For today's lesson, your goal is to hear your zanpakutou's voice. Except Aigis," Onabara levelled a look at her, "your goal is to enter your inner world and commune with your spirit."
Aigis nodded. She laid her sword across her lap, then closed her eyes.
She never had the need for meditation before. It was a tool to help one calm down, but she usually slept whenever she needed to regulate her emotions, or when she needed to run checks on her own systems. Managing the collective subconscious could be considered part of her job, considering the work that the Shadow Operatives did, but she never dared to mess with her own subconscious too much, lest she broke a critical part of her system somewhere.
It was a novel experience, actively engaging in her subconscious. Aigis took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.
By instinct, she honed in on the presence that was her Persona — a comforting warmth in her chest, despite Palladion's cold metal exterior. In her mind, the image of Palladion stood out in stark contrast with the dark surroundings, a small but steady light in the void. The Persona flickered, as if tickled, then moved away.
Aigis went after Palladion, until a misstep sent her tumbling into the darkness.
"Still sleeping?"
The voice jolted her out of the fall, and Aigis woke with a start, hurriedly examining her surroundings.
Except this was clearly not the training hall.
Dim green light illuminated her surroundings. The room she found herself in was small, though still somewhat bigger than the dorm room she used at the Academy. Directly in front of her, she spotted a dark door, numerous boxes of ordinance and bullets, a small, ancient refrigerator, and a sink. To her left, she spotted a closet and even more boxes of ordinance, the type that Aigis used over two hundred years ago. A variety of machinery was connected to the pod she was sleeping in, which was where the light came from. It outlined the silhouette of a person, standing by the control panel. A glance down at herself confirmed that she was still in her academy uniform, now seated on the leather seat of the very familiar pod.
Aigis's eyes widened. She had not been there for three hundred years by now, but this was clearly her dorm room in the Iwatodai dorm, back when she attended Gekkoukan High.
"Where—" she began.
"Your inner world." The voice interrupted her smoothly. "Congratulations, you got here in one go." There was no sarcasm in those words, yet there was a lingering sense of pain.
Aigis squinted at the silhouette. It was clearly feminine, with a slim, hourglass build. Her body's dark colouration blended into the darkness, only broken by dim dots of red light glowing around her body, outlining her ears, waist, and face in an incredibly familiar butterfly pattern.
"You're…"
"Long time no see, Sister." The silhouette walked into the light of the pod.
"...Metis?"
With the strict mental requirements for jinzen, and how many students were hot-headed blockheads, Gengoro was not surprised when almost nobody seemed to be truly meditating even after five minutes of silence in the training hall.
Almost, except Aigis, who was now so still she could be a statue. When he tried snapping his fingers in front of her a few minutes after the exercise started, he was surprised to see the young girl fail to react to the sound – a promising sign of a successful dive into the inner world.
She was an enigma. Gengoro of course heard about how she beat up her instructor on the first day of hakuda (no small feat, since Matsumoto was a former lieutenant with serious skill in hand to hand combat) and fight the star student in hakuda to a draw (not that Matsumoto could hide it from him for long) then somehow immediately became fast friends with her, how Aigis had impeccable aim during her first kido class and quickly grasped its fundamentals, how she was one of the first in her class to successfully attempt shunpo, and how she consistently delivered clear and concise reports for her writing homework. Yet her handwriting was a mess, she seemed to be struggling in zanjutsu itself, but was so sure of herself that she managed to immediately turn her asauchi into a zanpakutou regardless.
Not that it hasn't happened before, and each person who managed that feat were geniuses in their own right. He supposed that Aigis now belonged in that category too.
Then there was her performance during the placement exam. Kira had let her go straight to the advanced placement exam, which in hindsight was an excellent decision considering that she already possessed advanced combat skills, along with an aptitude for teaching (nobody else this year figured out the true purpose of the test this year, after all).
None of this would be possible if she did not have an education before. The issue was, who taught her?
She may be still lacking in a few subjects, but perhaps it was time to consider an alternate curriculum for Aigis…
"That was my name once." Metis said, her robotic body leaning against the control panel of the pod and her red butterfly visor flipped up, revealing her pale face. "But you know what I truly am, right?"
Aigis recalled the events from three hundred years ago, when the Abyss of Time appeared in the dorm. When Metis appeared, how she disappeared, what Aigis's own mental state was like back then.
She had a nagging feeling back then, but she'd pushed it to the back of the mind when the incident was resolved. Now it surged forward again, threatening to overwhelm her senses.
Instead of denying or ignoring them, as she had done so all those years ago, she accepted them.
"You're my Shadow." Aigis stated, finally peeling herself off the pod chair. "You are my feelings, my emotions. You're me. And you are my Persona. You're Palladion."
Metis smiled. Her image flickered, glitching between Palladion and herself, before it settled down again as Metis. "Full marks, Sister," she nodded approvingly. "I'm glad to see you so well."
Aigis scrutinised the room. It was left the way she remembered back when the Dark Hour was still active, with her tools of the trade haphazardly scattered about the boxes of ordinance. Many of them showed significant signs of wear and tear. "I hope my inner world is not just this," she observed. "It feels…a little cramped."
Not that her office in the Shadow Operatives headquarters was much bigger, but she had used that room longer than her dorm room.
Come to think of it, why did her inner world manifest as her dorm room?
"This is where it all started, isn't it?" Metis replied, as if she read Aigis's mind.
She probably did.
"This is where you developed your personality. This is where you developed a true ego."
It was her interactions with SEES that allowed Aigis to develop beyond her rudimentary programming, to the point that she could function perfectly fine even when key components of her robotic body were damaged.
"To answer your previous question," Metis continued, gesturing towards the door, "why don't you go outside and see what your world is like?"
Aigis accepted the invitation.
She had an inkling on what her inner world looked like, but the sight still took her breath away.
A cloudless, moonlit night. The smell of the sea as it was typical of coastal cities. A few lights glowed dimly in the distance. The stillness of a city asleep.
She had opened the door straight to the outside of the dorm, into the city of Iwatodai as it was when she still battled the Dark Hour.
It was quite the trip down memory lane.
"Nostalgic, isn't it?" Metis said, stepping up beside Aigis.
"Yes," Aigis nodded. "It's been a long time since I saw this view."
Iwatodai expanded over the course of her lifetime, becoming more than just the former base of operations for the Kirijo group. Gekkoukan was eventually renamed and moved locations, many of the buildings were demolished and rebuilt, and the roads were changed.
It was not bad, but in some corner of Aigis's repressed feelings, she missed the old Iwatodai. She supposed that the city was an apt way to describe her inner world — she accepted change, but there was always that little bit of herself that wished she could go back to the past, to better cherish what she had.
Perhaps it was a part of her that she would never be able to shake off. Though she supposed that there was no rush either.
Strangely, she found herself reminiscing about her life more after she arrived at Soul Society. When she was alive, there was always something to solve — a new Shadow incident to resolve, a new person to report to, a new person to train. Aigis had hurtled towards her future, never having the time to look back to her past. Only when it was all over, when she had to abruptly let go of her duties, that she finally had time to breathe and reflect.
Even then, she unconsciously kept a tight grasp on what she expected that she should be doing. Training the orphans, helping around the orphanage, culminating in the chain of events that carried her into Seireitei…
When was the last time she stopped and simply…enjoyed life?
"In the course of a life, we gain some, and lose some." Metis reflected, not looking at Aigis, but still clear enough for her to hear. "Our priorities change."
"Not always for the better." Aigis replied dejectedly.
"No." Metis agreed. "But there is no way to take back the past. You know that full well."
"Only a promise and an effort to do better in the future." Aigis continued.
"And that's enough." Metis concluded. "You might take a misstep somewhere along the way, but as long as you don't lose sight of it, that's enough. Come what may, you never lost sight of what you treasured."
Aigis turned around and stared at Metis.
"What, you didn't think I'd be watching over you?" Metis looked rather offended. "I do pay attention, you know."
"No, it's not that." Aigis hurriedly said. "Just…thank you."
"You're quite welcome." Metis replied, her head turned towards the Moonlight Bridge that loomed in the distance. "As nice as this talk was, I think your class is almost over."
"It is?" Aigis looked at her sister in alarm. "But I thought it had only been ten minutes?"
"Time runs differently in different places." Metis replied, turning around and walking back into the dorm, her robotic soles clacking on the pavement. "Especially in a place like your inner world."
"So how do I leave?" Aigis asked after Metis.
She stopped halfway up the stairs, her head cocked back like someone asked her a painfully oblivious question. "This is your world, Sister." Metis slowly answered, as if trying to explain a concept to a toddler. "You decide what you want to do."
As if on cue, the edges of Aigis's vision fizzled out, and static crept over her eyes.
"Aigis."
Her eyes flew open and she immediately took a deep breath, akin to finally inhaling oxygen after an extended dive. Onabara towered over her, his face creased in a frown.
"Is something the matter, Onabara-sensei?" Aigis asked.
"It is almost the end of class," he stated, nodding towards the rest of the class who were collecting their belongings, mostly their asauchi. "Did you commune with your spirit?"
"Yes, sensei," she replied, without giving more details.
There was an almost imperceptible smile on his face. "Good. Keep up your efforts."
"Yes, sensei."
Aigis tried to move from her seated position, but almost fell when her legs failed to hold her weight. It was then she realised she could barely feel her legs.
She forced herself to calm down, recognising the signs of a cramp from sitting in the same position for too long. It took a few minutes, but she massaged her legs back into feeling, and was finally able to leave the classroom.
Come dinner time, Aigis found herself the centre of attention of a large cohort of first year students, a startling parallel to what Makoto had experienced the previous week.
She said a silent prayer for Aigis to survive through this.
"What did you do?" Makoto asked between bites of hamburger steak.
"Awakened to a zanpakutou." Aigis replied matter of factly, stabbing her fork into her bowl of salad. One of her hands unconsciously moved to her sword, now looped behind her back at her waist. Makoto's gaze followed the hand.
"I see," she smiled. "Congratulations, by the way."
"Thank you." Aigis replied. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"How long did it take for you to awaken your zanpakutou?" Aigis clarified.
Makoto recalled her first year at Shin'ou. It was a year with an unusually small number of students, so rumours travelled fast. The classes were easy enough, but dealing with her fellow classmates had been a headache and a half.
Thankfully, nothing was as bad as her time in Shujin.
"I awakened to mine the day I got my asauchi." Makoto replied. "I had to commune with her first."
Johanna was not happy about her power being repressed for over a century.
Aigis's fork stopped. "You had to commune first?" she asked. "My asauchi changed the moment I touched it."
"Huh?" Makoto's chopsticks stopped too. "That quickly?"
She took a quick glance around the cafeteria. The large crowd of students around their table studiously looked at their half eaten plates, desperately looking like they were not eavesdropping.
Makoto internally sighed at the amateurish attempt.
"Let's take this conversation somewhere else," she suggested, taking her tray of food along with her.
Aigis blinked, then nodded and took her bowl of salad along.
The pair walked out of the cafeteria at a brisk pace, though Makoto surreptitiously extended her senses. Thankfully, their crowd of onlookers were too intimidated to follow.
Well, they were both in leadership positions when they were alive, after all. Perhaps the confidence gained from holding their own against misogynist superiors carried over, even if Makoto was now back in the body of her teenage self.
They had a strange friendship back when they were alive. Aigis was someone Makoto frequently saw due to the nature of their jobs, someone who she greatly respected, even more so after she took over Mitsuru's position of director of the Shadow Operatives. There was always a hint of that respectfulness through their interactions, which, in hindsight, may have explained why Aigis still felt just a little too distant, even after decades of friendship.
The former director was not one to share her feelings easily. She had a hard mask worn whenever she interacted with her fellow Operatives, and though her interactions were always warm and full of humanity, she never shared her inner thoughts that Makoto could barely see, hidden beneath layers of politeness, platitudes, and exhaustion.
Under the light, slightly aloof exterior that Aigis projected, Makoto noticed the stress of leadership that weighed her friend down, of someone who still had trouble understanding the meaning of 'relaxation'.
Not that Makoto herself was any better. In life, she was almost as bad as her sister when it came to being a workaholic.
She brought Aigis to a secluded spot next to the academy garden, a small corner beneath the dormitory that was shaded by budding trees and a veranda, but with a wide enough angle that it was easy to spot anyone who came in their direction.
Aigis looked around approvingly. "This is a nice spot," she said, sitting down to enjoy her dinner.
"I come here when I want some peace and quiet," Makoto explained as she set her tray down. "The cafeteria gets loud at times."
They ate their meals in silence, enjoying each other's company.
"So," Makoto broke the silence when she finished her rice, "I'm guessing your zanpakutou is Palladion?"
Aigis nodded. "I guess yours is Johanna?"
Makoto nodded back. "It makes sense. Zanpakutou are supposed to represent yourself, and we've had our Personae to represent our other half all this time."
She watched Aigis run a finger along the white hilt of her sword. "I'm a Wild Card though, I have many Personae representing myself."
"But Palladion was your initial Persona, correct?" Makoto countered. "I think she represents your core."
"Yes." Aigis gave a small smile. "I think so."
"Have you tried releasing your zanpakutou yet?" Makoto asked curiously, internally noting how oddly short Aigis's sword was.
Aigis blinked in response, momentarily lost for words, as if the thought had not even occurred to her. "No, I just thought it would be somewhat similar to what I used back when I was alive, and I did not have the chance to do so during class today."
"Why don't you do it now?" Makoto encouraged. "Nobody's around, and it's always good to know what your zanpakutou's abilities are."
Aigis hesitated, but quickly gathered herself. She set her bowl to the side, then stood up and pulled out her sword in an odd reverse grip.
She took a breath.
The chilly breeze responded, gently ruffling the leaves of the shrubs nearby.
A moment of anticipation.
"Shoot, Palladion."
White reiatsu snaked through the blade, covering Aigis's sword and her forearm. When the light died down, it had turned into a dull steel gauntlet that covered her forearm and fingers, with joints that allowed for flexible movement. At the tip of each finger, a ring of steel protected the nails, shaped much like the barrels of the gun fingers that Aigis had in life.
"Oh," she marvelled at her shikai. "This is…nostalgic."
"It looks like a slimmer version of your robot gauntlet." Makoto observed. This one almost adhered entirely to Aigis' skin, the joints silent as she experimented with moving her fingers and wrist. "It really suits you."
A small smile blossomed on Aigis' face. "I wonder if it can turn into anything else?" she wondered aloud. "Maybe a cannon or something."
"Like your old attachments?" Makoto asked.
Aigis nodded. "But this is still versatile," she continued, turning her shikai around and observing all the little details. "My hand is protected for hakuda, I don't have to carry anything, and I have a ranged option. That's all I need."
Incredibly practical, just like its owner.
With an unspoken command, the gauntlet reverted back to a wakizashi. Aigis sheathed it carefully back into her scabbard. Then she turned around, cocking her head at Makoto's waist. "Where is your zanpakutou?" she asked.
"I usually don't carry mine if I don't need to." Makoto replied, suddenly self conscious of her absent katana. "Do you want to see my shikai?"
Aigis gave a single nod, almost shy, but full of curiosity.
"Wait here, my room is above us." Makoto said.
That was another reason why she liked this spot. If she wanted to, she could escape into her room at any time.
She used a burst of shunpo to boost herself to her room's window a few stories above, which she usually kept unlocked for situations like this. There was not much point in stealing between fellow students, and it was difficult for outsiders to enter the academy, so she never worried about any of her personal belongings going missing, not that she had much to begin with.
Her room was a shoebox, with just enough space for a futon, desk, and chest for personal belongings. It was cramped and had poor ventilation, but, well, Makoto could deal with it for four years, because at the end of the day, it was not too different from university dormitories.
Sword in hand, she climbed out to the ledge of her window and jumped down, landing lightly in front of Aigis. Makoto's zanpakutou was a standard length katana, with a white sheath, deep blue hilt, and a round, hollow guard that had spokes radiating out from the blade. She unsheathed her sword, her left hand still holding the scabbard.
"Flare out, Johanna!"
Both the katana and scabbard glowed neon blue and melted into light. When it faded, she was holding two familiar silver tekko, its spikes glinting dangerously under the soft amber light.
"I remember you used these as a Phantom Thief." Aigis recalled, her neck craned around the shikai but her hands held behind her back.
Makoto nodded. "Couldn't use them as a police officer though," she lamented. "Too dangerous as a weapon."
Not that she wanted to kill anyone, and even her firearm was only loaded with non-lethal rubber bullets. Then she had to give up her weapons entirely when she became police commissioner, so the only time she got to use them was when she went on Operatives business. As much as it was for official work, she rather enjoyed the exercise that fighting Shadows gave her, though it was largely for destressing.
Perhaps a little of Haru rubbed off on her through their friendship.
She sighed and turned her tekko back into a single sword. "I think we should return our plates," she gestured to the empty trays and bowls. "It's bad manners to leave them out here."
"Yes, you're right." Aigis agreed.
A month after the new school year started, Onabara held a staff meeting for Shin'ou.
"Well, what are they gonna talk about? The students?" Rangiku complained in the staff room, lounging on the sole sofa. "It's not like I have to attend, right Izuru?"
"You know we have to report on the progress of the students we are teaching, Rangiku-san." Izuru pleaded, trying to grab the sake bottle out of her hand. She simply waved it erratically.
"There's nothing to report for me~" Rangiku continued, dragging out her words. "None of my students are good or anything."
"All because you let your star students skip class." Izuru's voice almost took on a scolding tone. "How many times have Niijima and Aigis attended your class this year?"
The alcohol in her system was starting to take effect. "Hmm…can't remember, don't care."
"Rangiku-san!"
"Yeah yeah, I got it~" She finally heaved herself off her comfortable lounge, still a little woozy from the alcohol. "I'll go to the meeting~"
She ignored the string of protests that trailed behind her, walking at a lazy pace to the meeting room.
"Oh, are we the last ones?" Rangiku asked when she opened the door and found all the other teachers present.
"Just you." Onabara grumbled. "We had to send Kira to get you."
"Aw." Rangiku pouted, but obediently shuffled to her position at the table next to Hinamori.
Onabara cleared his throat, which caught everyone's attention. "Teachers, please report on any outstanding cases from your students."
The staff meeting went by normally, though Rangiku tuned it out one minute in. It was only when her name was called multiple times that she realised that she had to report something.
"Makoto-chan is still too strong for her cohort and doesn't quite know how to hold back." Rangiku said blithely as she picked dirt out of her manicured nails. "And Aigis-chan is better as a teacher, really. She definitely knows how to adapt to each person's fighting style, so her class is actually doing better overall compared to everyone else."
A hushed silence fell over the meeting as the teachers tried to process the comment.
"Her, a teacher?" Onabara questioned.
"Not like I can make a tailor-made program for every single student," Rangiku waved her hand dismissively. "But since she's only helping to tutor her own class, she can."
"Aigis seems to have a good grasp of the fundamentals of kido too." Hinamori spoke up. "She has a large reserve of reiatsu so she has some trouble trying to control it, but she has been making steady progress."
"She seems eager to learn hohou." Izuru continued. "She is already naturally fast, so her skill in that regard is above average in her class. Though…sometimes I think she mistakenly activates another skill similar to shunpo."
Onabara considered all the comments with a thoughtful hum. "So the only areas she has trouble in are my classes."
"Compatibility, maybe?" Hinamori suggested. "I don't think it's a problem, since she doesn't need to be proficient in all forms of combat to graduate. Her skill in hakuda alone is enough for her to graduate when the time comes."
"At the very least, I don't think it's for a lack of trying." Onabara concluded. "Is everyone in favour of allowing her to graduate early?"
About time, Rangiku thought. Nobody argued.
Onabara straightened his notes on the table with a loud thud. "Alright. Staff, you are dismissed."
Aigis realised with a start that it was her first time being called to Onabara's office. It was after classes were finished for the day, so she passed a message to Niijima that she would be late, and hurried to his office.
It was decorated simply, apart from the ceiling height shelves crammed full of scrolls, books, and loose paper. A low table was placed in the middle of the room, along with a cushion, which Onabara was sitting on.
"Is there something you wanted to discuss with me?" Aigis asked.
"It regards your studies." Onabara replied. "Let me be straight – you have been an excellent student so far, so we have decided to allow you to graduate early."
Aigis blinked. This was not what she had expected. Though to be frank, the thought of staying at the academy for six years might have been a bit too much for Aigis to handle.
"May I ask when?" she inquired.
"Two years."
She almost stumbled.
"Of course, we will modify your curriculum to support it, and we as teachers will do everything we can to make sure you finish it." Onabara continued, uncaring of her surprise. "However, as part of that, I'd like you to tutor a failing student from your cohort."
Out of everything Onabara had just revealed, this was the part that Aigis found easiest to accept. She had mentored plenty of Persona users before, after all.
"Yes, sensei," she bowed lightly. "Who is the student that I will be tutoring?"
For a moment, Aigis thought that his eyes widened a fraction, but it was quickly wiped off his face. Instead of answering her, Onabara simply turned to the office door. "Come in."
She followed her teacher's gaze.
The man at the doorway scowled at her, distrust evident in his eyes. The strange thing was, Aigis recognised the man.
"Ebina-san?"
A/N: I caught a cold D: Currently suffering through it alone, hoping that it will go away soon. Thankfully it's not COVID.
This chapter took a bit more work, but it's the later chapters that are definitely fighting me, so updates may be a bit slower. I already had a very solid image of what Aigis's inner world would look like when I first worked on the concept for this story, but her actual zanpakutou was harder to finalise. Still, I'm pretty happy with it.
Anyway, leave a comment if you want, I read all of them even if I don't reply, and sometimes if the headcanons are good enough they might get incorporated into the story :3