As it turned out, giving up some of their resources had benefits after all.
The residents' opinions on Aigis and Niijima changed overnight, from the skittish hostility exhibited on the previous day to a warm welcome the next. They mobbed the students, though Yushiro could see that they were, in part, trying to mooch off more resources.
Well, just this time, he'd overlook it.
Slightly away from the crowd that had formed around Aigis and Niijima, he had switched out his shihakusho for rags that would not look out of place amongst the residents of the village, carrying a small packet of candy to look like he had just received them. The good thing about being a stealth expert was that his face was not known outside of Seireitei, and it allowed him to move freely in the settlement.
The plan to flush out the bandits today was not much different compared to yesterday, with Aigis and Niijima continuing to hold the attention of the residents and any spies, while Yushiro spread the word about free food, all the while wheedling as much information as he could from the residents on a one to one basis. His goal today was simple: find that shadow he saw yesterday. As for whether they were a danger or not, he would judge later.
His mind wandered to the conversation they had last night. Yushiro had known that Niijima was a by-the-book honour student, but nothing in her file stated that she also, somehow, had a problem with authority. It was so unexpected that he had almost lashed out, if it was not for Aigis de-escalating the situation before it boiled over.
Really not a good representation of his usual laidback attitude.
Though the information about Akechi was interesting. Yushiro remembered that mission that Akechi came back from quite distinctly — while Akechi himself seemed to be in good health, if slightly shaken and irritable, the two people he went on the mission with made a point to avoid him whenever possible afterwards. It was obvious that something happened during the mission for them to act like that, though there was nothing suspicious in Akechi's report to suggest this, so Yushiro decided to ignore it.
Also, it was the first time Akechi ever recommended anyone to Shin'ou Academy. Yushiro would never admit it out loud, but he did want to see why Akechi recommended the girl to the school. At the very least, her excellent grades backed up Akechi's claims.
Speaking of Aigis, her file stated that she was one to avoid conflict if possible, or rather, she has a tendency to stop them before they became conflicts. He witnessed that first hand yesterday, and he had to give props to her skill — she simply used logic in such a way that it was difficult to refute her, all the while without belittling either side. That took skill, though it also made Yushiro wonder where in the world she learned that. The academy did not teach emotional management as a skill, so the only possible place would be the orphanage that Aigis came from, which, considering what little he knew of orphans in general, was entirely possible.
Well, after what happened last night, he did not want to push his luck. Plus, for those from Rukongai, becoming a shinigami is like starting over — their past didn't matter anymore.
He casually charmed a lady with his youthful looks a few houses away from the crowd, telling her about the generous shinigami who were giving away some of their resources. She hung onto every word, before he segued into asking about her living situation.
"My older brother has been out a lot lately," she said, a palm on her cheek. "But he brings back candy every now and then, so we're blessed in that sense. He says that he got them from trading some scrap metal he found around the village. He's been running himself ragged though, so I wish he'd stop and recover. There's no point when I can't share it with him, after all."
That rang odd to Yushiro, but he filed the information away for the time being. After a few more pleasantries, he urged the lady to get her share from the students, then went on his way.
There were less people the further away he went, so it seemed that Aigis and Niijima successfully held the attention of the entire village. Yushiro knocked on the doors of a few more houses, repeating his pitch about free resources. He managed to take a peek in a couple houses, which were barely furnished with anything — at best, wooden scraps and branches bound together to form some basic furniture.
Knowing that he was at the end of what he could glean from the residents, the noble extended his senses out, feeling the thin reiatsu in the air and noting his surroundings. When he was satisfied that nobody was watching him, he disappeared into the treetops.
Two hours of searching later, Yushiro finally caught a glimpse of someone who was very much out of place in the woods — a thin man that vaguely matched the dark shadow he spotted yesterday, running away from the direction of the crowd that still surrounded the students. The man stumbled through the undergrowth, careful not to leave tracks behind. Yushiro suppressed his reiatsu and followed along, hopping from branch to branch. The mystery man had hardly any reiatsu, and if the lieutenant was not directly looking at the man, it was easy to assume that there was nobody around.
In fact, that reiatsu level was too low to sustain a soul. Yet the man showed no signs of dying, at least not outwardly. Even the villagers had a little more reiatsu, enough to register as a soul on his radar. This man registered more as part of the environment.
Was this how the bandits evaded detection for so long? How did they even achieve this? It was surely not a natural development of the soul.
Before long, the man scurried into a nondescript bush, where the reiatsu signal completely cut off. Yushiro blinked as he briefly tried to pick up the whiff of reiatsu again, but it was simply…gone.
That would explain why previous groups of shinigami had trouble capturing the bandits, if it was almost impossible to track them down through reiatsu.
Well, the bush was as good a place as any to check out later. He dearly wanted to explore it right now, but he would rather wait for backup just in case anything goes catastrophically wrong.
And the kids should get some experience in. Despite everything, Yushiro took his mentoring duties seriously.
"Some of the households mentioned that the bandits seemed to only target specific households." Aigis said over their dinner, seated around the usual lantern in the supply shed. "Certain households haven't been targeted at all, but there's no pattern as to which households are robbed or not. And most of the banditry happens during the day, when the able-bodied are out scavenging."
Shihouin made a non-committal sound, musing the information over his meal. Niijima ate her food in silence.
"Okay, let's go explore one of their bases tonight." Shihouin announced.
That caught their attention.
"You found it?!" Niijima exclaimed.
He raised his hands and leaned away. "Possibly one of the entrances, at least. Tailed a guy to get there."
"Is it a trap?" Aigis narrowed her eyes.
"Maybe." Shihouin seemed wholly unconcerned. "Which is why I'd like some backup. I can handle a lot of things by myself, especially without idiots holding me back, but you guys aren't idiots, and I always appreciate people who can watch my back in case something unexpected happens."
That seemed quite reasonable given the circumstances.
"Is there anything we need to prepare for?" Niijima asked.
"Get some shut eye." Shihouin instructed. "Make sure you're well rested and alert. Mute your reiatsu as much as possible — we don't want to raise any alarms. We'll go at midnight."
His tone was authoritative, a stark contrast to his usual laid back persona. Aigis realised that this was probably the first time she saw him be fully serious, or be in "work mode" as some may say. It was more in line with what she expected out of a senior officer of the Gotei.
They nodded their understanding, mentally preparing themselves for a long night.
Shihouin woke them up five minutes before midnight, their surroundings so dark it was difficult to make out his figure. Niijima woke up with a start, a little too high strung, though Aigis awakened more sedately. It barely took them a moment to spring into action as they left most of their gear behind, opting to aim for speed.
The lieutenant led them some ways outside of the village, a treetop path that seemed to wind through myriad plants too similar for Aigis to track. He kept up a brisk, but far less strenuous pace than when they first travelled to the village, presumably so that they would not collapse on arrival. It still did not stop Aigis from almost crashing into Shihouin when he suddenly stopped on an especially thick branch, only being saved when Niijima helped stabilise Aigis from behind.
"We're here," he whispered, a hand pointing to a nondescript bush. "The entrance is right there."
"A bush?" Niijima asked lowly.
"There's something hidden there, at least." Shihouin replied. "Keep your reiatsu down, and we'll head in."
They hopped down from the tree, their sandalled feet landing lightly on the undergrowth. He picked around the bush, poking and prodding various areas, while Aigis and Niijima kept watch, until a quiet "aha" drew their attention.
"Found the switch." Shihouin said, his hand buried somewhere deep inside the bush. "Man, how'd they get that kind of ingenuity here?"
His arm moved, and a quiet rustle was the only indicator that something had moved. A dark hole appeared in front of them, with its depths dimly lit by…something.
"I'll go first." Shihouin instructed, one foot already inside the hole. "Follow only in my footsteps, and be alert for anything."
Aigis and Niijima nodded, then followed him in.
The hole turned out to be a dirt tunnel, lit at uneven distances with wooden torches. It seemed like the quintessential medieval tunnel, which was an oddity considering Soul Society's general aesthetic. They crept along the damp path, stopping every now and then to wait for Shihouin to finish analysing their path ahead. After twenty minutes, he held out a hand, stopping them in their tracks. He wordlessly raised a finger to his lips, then muttered a spell which Aigis only realised was Kyokko after he finished his cast. The message was clear: stay quiet, and stay hidden.
In front of them was a circular hole, with a crude stone block blocking their way. Some voices could be heard beyond, but they were too indistinct to make out specific words. Shihouin crept forward, pressing his ear on the board. The voices faded away after a few minutes, and he removed himself from the block.
"We're clear," he announced in a low voice. "The voices we heard were probably the bandits themselves. Your presence in the village has made them more wary, but thankfully they think there's only two shinigami here, not three."
Aigis and Niijima nodded their understanding, an internal sigh of relief released that their plan had worked so far.
"Let's open the door and see what we find." Shihouin continued. "Get ready just in case it turns into a fight."
They shifted into a battle stance as he pushed the stone block away. It fell forwards, threatening to alert any bandits still in the vicinity, though Shihouin managed to shunpo forwards and prop up the rock right before it thudded on the ground, the only indication of its weight being a surprised grunt from the lieutenant. It turned out to be a much thicker slab of stone than anyone expected, a blockage that was five centimetres thick. No wonder the voices on the other side were muffled.
They found themselves in a large, empty chamber, with the walls covered in drab grey stone, its gaps filled in with smaller, white stones. A multitude of shelves lined the walls, many of them stocked with hemp sacks, while another shelf displayed a haphazardly arranged array of farming tools, modified to kill, or maim at the very least. The floor was covered in the same drab grey stone as the walls, their arrival kicking up a gentle cloud of fine dust. Whoever the bandits were, they certainly were not keen on cleaning. Thankfully, the room was otherwise empty. At the far end of the room, two more wooden boards blocked different exits, each much thinner than the stone slab.
"I think we found their storeroom, Lieutenant." Niijima whispered.
"Yes," he agreed. He sidled over to one of the sacks and opened it up. "Looks like candy in here. And that sack has dried snacks in it. Odd stuff to keep."
Aigis could understand the logic behind candy — it was a rare commodity in Rukongai considering the majority of the population had no need for food, enough that it was sometimes used as currency. But dried snacks as well? Those were not nearly as popular, so only those who had substantial amounts of reiatsu were likely to eat them as a source of energy.
Niijima observed the pile of makeshift weapons left in the open. "Should we destroy these?" she asked. "So the bandits can't hurt anyone."
"Good idea," Shihouin agreed, "but not yet. I want to check the other two doors."
"It is a rather elaborate base for bandits." Aigis commented. "I did not think they would be underground, much less with multiple rooms."
She had expected an inconspicuous hut or something similar as a base, a repurposed building that blends in well with the background, which would also explain why the average shinigami were not able to find them. Instead, this base seemed to be too good for bandits that supposedly moved from place to place.
A thought struck her.
"Lieutenant Shihouin, you said that the bandits appeared at multiple places during different times, correct?" Aigis asked.
He nodded his affirmation, then realisation dawned on his face and he slowly turned to the tunnels. "Those?"
"It is possible," she replied. "If the tunnels are long enough, it can theoretically connect this base to multiple areas that are otherwise too far apart. Judging from the length of the tunnel we came from, and how far away the entrance was from the village, I believe the central area of this base might be in the middle of the forest."
"That is unusually elaborate for ordinary bandits." Niijima objected. "At the very least, it's possible that they might have repurposed this place, but they definitely didn't build it."
"There's been no records of any sort of base here, but it's possible that someone had built this in secret." Shihouin mused. "Once we're done here, I'll go check the records at Seireitei."
"Who would even do that?" Niijima asked. "For a base of this size, you would need a sizable workforce, plus some understanding of reishi manipulation, with how muted this entire place feels."
Shihouin frowned, and to Aigis, it did not look like his usual frown of annoyance. Rather, it was one of deep-seated hatred, as if he wanted to kill an imaginary person who slighted his entire family.
"I have an idea of who built this," he pitched his voice low, laced with danger and pent up anger. "But I'll need confirmation. For now, let's focus on the task at hand."
They nodded in response. "Should we go in and capture the bandits now?" Niijima asked.
Unexpectedly, Shihouin hesitated.
"Is something wrong?" Aigis scrutinised the chamber, already wary.
"Not…exactly," he muttered. "Just…something feels wrong here. Keep your wits with you."
They gave a grim nod. Shihouin pondered in front of the two doorways for a moment, then picked the left door. "I think I sense some people down there. If we can trap them here, all the better."
The underground base turned out to be less a base and more of a maze, or overly-complicated bunker. Caverns were connected to each other with an elaborate set of paths, twisting through the soil. If it was not for Aigis's uncanny sense of direction, Makoto was quite sure they would have been horribly lost.
They found a lone bandit soon enough, or at least a man who matched the description of one of the bandits described by other shinigami, who attempted to alert the entire base, so Makoto had silenced him with a single punch to the stomach, with Shihouin tying him up using kido for good measure. An hour later, they failed to find another bandit.
Maybe she shouldn't have knocked the man out.
They dismissed their cloaking kido somewhere along the way, because with how empty the entire base was, it felt more prudent to save their reishi reserves, and instead Makoto volunteered to act as a scout, moving ahead of the group to look for pathways around the maze. Her experience as a Phantom Thief really came in handy here – soon enough, she was moving around the place fluidly, peeking around corners, observing the surroundings like she was back in her heyday as Queen.
"It is possible that they are on the move." Aigis commented as they took a breather at a crossroad. "And we may simply have bad luck in running into them. But I feel that we have explored most of the base here already, and I fail to see a possible area they might be in."
"What makes you so sure?" Shihouin asked.
"The layout," she replied. "As far as I can guess, it is built like a spiral that gradually curves downwards." She crouched down and used a finger to trace a spiral in the dirt. "My estimate is that we are at one of the lowest points in the base, and all of these paths will lead back to one of the tunnels we have explored earlier. So the question becomes: did we miss a pathway somewhere?"
Shihouin muttered a swear under his breath. "I don't fancy retracing our steps," he grumbled.
Makoto was inclined to agree. "It is difficult to tell with the interference," she mused, "but I'm reasonably sure that we didn't miss anything. If anything, if there was a secret room of sorts, we would have sensed it by now, correct? Especially if it's protected by a mechanism of some sorts."
"Yes." Aigis agreed. "With how thin the reiatsu here is, anything protected by kido or kido-based technology would be akin to a beacon. Yet all I sensed was a gradual lowering of reiatsu levels."
Makoto blinked.
She looked between the doodle of the spiral in the dirt, Aigis, and her surroundings. She noted the slightly deeper groove in the spiral that was closer to the middle of the room.
It was slight, but there was a gentle slope in the room towards the middle, covered by a thin layer of dirt.
She walked towards the middle of the room, and right in the centre, the flow of reiatsu completely cut off.
Her surprised yelp probably alerted the entire base, to Makoto's embarrassment. She leapt back before the absence of reiatsu disoriented her further.
"What's wrong?" Shihouin asked, his tone unusually concerned.
"Lieutenant, can you confirm something for me?" Makoto asked. "If I'm not wrong…somehow there is no reiatsu in the middle of the room."
"Hmm…" The lieutenant took cautious steps towards the middle of the room, then stopped and scrutinised his feet. "You're right."
He dug through the layer of fine dirt, until his nails scraped stone. "Aha," he grinned, though his brows were knitted. "Sekkiseki. Now I know why the white rock in the walls was bothering me." At the confused look from the duo, he cleared his throat. "It's a rare rock in Soul Society. Its effects include emitting reishi fields that are incredibly tough and mess with reiatsu sensing, and absorption of reiatsu over long periods of time. The walls that surround Seireitei are actually made of this stuff, as well as parts of Senzaikyu."
The stone that Shihouin unearthed was about the size of a manhole, a white rock that reminded Makoto of chalk, except it seemed much more durable than that.
"That would explain why nobody could find this base." Aigis agreed. "Though you said that this is a rare rock?"
"Majority of it should be monopolised by Seireitei." Shihouin answered. "This is definitely more than any person should have, especially so far away." He tapped his feet around the rock. "This is probably an entrance. It's hollow beneath us."
"Allow me." Aigis raised her arm, intent on punching a hole through the rock. Before she could do that though, Shihouin extended an arm.
"Brute strength won't break this, even if it's not infused with any reiatsu," he chided. "Instead, let me handle this. Stand back, girls."
They obediently retreated to the edge of the room, though Makoto couldn't help but wonder why he looked like he was attempting the exact same thing that Aigis was trying to do earlier.
Then the reiatsu surrounding him exploded.
Quite literally too, as he enveloped himself in a dense layer of fiery reiatsu, so intense that it seemed almost solid over his skin. With a war cry, he struck the ground surrounding the stone multiple times, never touching it directly, but loosening it all the same. With a final shout, he blasted the ground again with a fiery ball of pure reiatsu that forced Aigis and Makoto to avert their eyes.
By the time she blinked the spots out of her eyes, the centre of the floor was gone.
"Really, using a single piece of sekkiseki stone to block your entrance isn't the smartest move if the area surrounding it isn't all that protected, isn't it?" Shihouin puffed out his chest. He bent over the hole to admire his handiwork. "Oh hey, the rest of the bandits are here too!"
With how everything had gone, the mission itself ended wildly outside of her expectations, but Aigis felt a certain sense of dissatisfaction at its conclusion. After all the work she and Niijima put in to act as bait for Shihouin, the bandits were laughably easy to capture once they were in the shinigami's sight, as they were woefully unprepared for a sudden assault on their base.
She was usually not one to complain about excessive preparatory work, but her effort in the last two days felt superfluous, compared to what Shihouin had achieved.
"What will happen to them now?" Aigis asked, patting her hands off the dust that had accumulated on her palms. They had scrounged some rope from the warehouse, opting to use those to tie the bandits together rather than use kido, which functioned erratically within the presence of sekkiseki.
The bandits matched the rough description that the villagers had given earlier in the day, with the correct numbers as well. They looked uniformly gaunt, with sunken eyes and cheeks, along with clothes that looked to be of higher quality than what the villagers wore, yet they hung loosely on the bony bodies. Most of them looked downcast, barely struggling against their bonds, though a few glared at her with hateful eyes.
Aigis chose to ignore those for the moment.
"We will probably transport them to Seireitei's dungeons." Shihouin said absentmindedly. "They did commit a pretty serious crime, but they won't be locked up forever – probably a few decades at best. It will take about two days for the transport wagon to come, so for the time being, we'll stay at the village for a bit."
They ended up locking the bandits at an abandoned shack near the outskirts of the village, while Niijima went back to the safe house for extra food and the rest stayed with the prisoners. They kept guard outside the only doorway, out of earshot of the bandits.
"Lieutenant, what was that technique you used earlier?" Aigis asked. "It doesn't look like anything that I know."
Shihouin scratched his chin. "Well…it's a bit of a Second division specialty," he explained. "It's called Shunko – a technique for compressing your reiatsu to enable incredibly fast attacks. Really handy for those who specialise in hakuda, but difficult to activate. Its power can rival that of a released bankai in the right situations."
"I thought bankai was the pinnacle of power for a shinigami," she said.
"Eh, power comes in many forms." Shihouin shrugged. "Bankai is indeed the pinnacle of power for the average shinigami, but many people also have other skills that are comparable in strength. My sister was so skilled at hohou and Shunko she rarely used her zanpakutou. My captain actively loathes her bankai. The technique isn't the important part – it's how you use it."
Aigis laced her hands together as she leaned against the frame of the shack. He had a point – she was so caught up with the idea of achieving bankai that she had not thought about how she would use that power, or if she even really needed it. "The technique isn't the important part, huh…" she muttered to herself.
"Are you looking for power, Aigis?" Shihouin asked.
"I…"
Why did she want to achieve bankai? Why was she not satisfied with the refined strength that she had right now? Why did Metis ask her to find herself again?
"…don't know," she admitted.
"Well, you won't need bankai then, correct?" Shihouin reasoned. "You need a solid goal beyond just achieving bankai. Maybe think about what you want to achieve during your time in Seireitei. Personally, I think you're getting ahead of yourself – just go with the flow. Your pace is your own, and there is no need to adhere to some sort of strict timeline in terms of power. Hell, I think you and Niijima are already way ahead of the curve, so relax. You're doing just fine."
Aigis looked up at the faint dawn breaking over the forest. Despite his reassurances, she did not feel…"fine", as he put it. Rather, his words only served to stir up more questions within herself, mixed into a jumbled mess that she could not even begin to vocalise.
She felt a hard smack into her skull – enough to hurt, but not enough to bruise.
"What was that for?" Aigis rubbed the side of her head and looked at the instigator, who seemed unrepentant.
"Like I said, you're thinking too hard." Shihouin emphasised, withdrawing his fist from her. "You need to stop worrying. Or find someone to talk to. Niijima has a good head on her shoulders, or if you want someone more neutral, you can talk to me – I won't judge. The worst a shinigami can do to themselves is to do everything alone. Sooner or later, you'll get overwhelmed."
And suddenly, Aigis's mind cleared.
She may have been alone, with her own unspeakable secrets, but despite everything, she was never lonely.
Her bonds kept her going all this time.
A/N: This chapter was rough to write - the plot didn't want to go anywhere. But it's out now, and I can put this behind for the time being.
I picked up Persona 5 Strikers last month, and man was it FUN! I didn't think I'd have so much fun with my first shot at musou games, and the fact that the story was extremely solid was just a plus. I finished my first run after over 70 hours, and now I'm considering if I should go for Merciless too...
Anyway, review! Let me know what you think will happen in the next couple chapters! This arc is FINALLY almost at its end, so we will see a lot more Bleach characters in the near future!