A/N: This chapter is NOT beta'd. Expect writing errors (and I would love people to kindly point them out so I can improve!)
Two months later, Aigis was holding daily education and training sessions every morning before breakfast, so much so that Unagiya rearranged their whole schedule to accommodate the lessons that all the children were eager to attend (and Aigis had found out that Unagiya was aware of her training sessions since the first morning, which embarrassed her because that had been the clumsiest training she had ever done for herself).
"Most of them died when they were toddlers, and there's practically no concept of school here." Unagiya had said, when Aigis asked about their levels of education, too unsure of the children's reactions if she had asked them. "So I'm glad you're teaching them, because I'm no teacher myself, and I beat up everyone when I get frustrated."
Unagiya's beatdowns were explosive, a complete contrast to Mitsuru's ice-cold "executions", but no less terrifying. She still could feel the phantom pain of the poor group of men who had dared to pour sake – and a really low-quality one at that – in front of their house one early morning, waking up the whole household with their drunken shouts and slurs.
Unagiya had screamed at the men, then when they had the audacity to try and hit on her, she snapped.
Two minutes later, all of the men were moaning in pain, while Unagiya patted down her kimono nonchalantly, showing no sign that she had just singlehandedly beat four grown men with just her fists. Aigis was too kindhearted to add on to their pain.
She suspected that the only reason nobody had accused Unagiya for abuse was because her genuine love for children was equally apparent – most of her rage was directed elsewhere.
And because the Shinigami apparently did not police things like abuse. Or police the districts much at all.
When Aigis inquired about the lack of Shinigami in the area, Unagiya said that they only came if a distress signal for a Hollow was sent, and even then, they did not always come on time. Apparently, there had been townspeople eaten by Hollows in the past, and the thought made Aigis grimace.
Morioka came by every week to drop off wood. Unagiya had attempted to kick him in the stomach multiple times, but Aigis blocked almost every one of them. The one that she did not block was because one of the children – a literal eight-year-old boy named Yuuta – tried to block Unagiya's flying kick with the same movements that Aigis had used during their first meeting. She shoved him aside at the last second (there was no way a child would be able to handle the power in Unagiya's legs), and instead got kicked in the stomach herself.
Unagiya thoroughly apologized for that, let her off work for the next few days, then stopped attempting flying kicks to Morioka.
Aigis felt a certain bond with the man who rescued her, and was unwilling to let him go with any kind of injuries, whether being late was his fault or not.
In fact, the constant interaction was somewhat suffocating.
She did like the children – the way they curiously asked her questions, treated her like an invincible big sister despite her repeated insistence that she was not because she did die. Their energy was infectious, and Aigis found herself enjoying the new life here, simply teaching, coaching, and making some sort of a living for those that she cared about. But they were also overwhelming, dictating almost all the spare time and energy that she had, not giving her any room to think about the new life that was suddenly shoved onto her. Even though she was getting used to it, a part of her was still very confused. Was she Aigis, the Anti-Shadow weapon, or Aigis, the simple farmgirl for the next hundred years or so?
When Unagiya allowed Aigis to take a break one night after dinner, Aigis took the chance to flee the house for some private time. There was a spot that she liked in the village – an outcrop of rocks that was accessible by a tiny dirt path some ways out in their field. Without light pollution, it was the perfect place to watch the stars.
It reminded her of the Sea of Souls, where Makoto is still guarding the Seal.
She idly recorded the different constellations in her mind, while reflecting on the past two months. There was no sense of purpose – all she had to do was survive, and it was getting easier by the day as she got used to the jobs that she was tasked with. Back when she was alive, Aigis was so busy with work that she often collapsed in her own office from mental exhaustion, but being the leader of the Shadow Operatives was fulfilling – rescuing people, fighting off supernatural threats that all could potentially end the world. Here in Soul Society, without any regular threat (Hollows did not count because of how rare they appeared), it felt empty, as though she was just going through the motions of living, despite her teaching and coaching the kids.
Still, that emptiness was welcoming, in a strange way. Aigis never quite experienced peace in her life, but here, she could relax, not constantly making decisions that may affect the fate of the whole world.
Even at this age, she was still rediscovering herself.
Aigis thought back to Igor – his last tarot card reading for her. Since arriving in Soul Society, Aigis did not have anymore dreams about the Velvet Room, but Igor's words to her are still fresh in her mind.
He said that her past would be important, and that her bonds is enough to overcome her upcoming trials, but so far she had not seen a single hint about that "trial" he had mentioned. Usually, they came quickly.
Unless he referred to living in Soul Society, but that seemed unlikely. Or perhaps joining the Shinigami would give her more resources to work with, as Unagiya had mentioned once ("They act like snobs because they became powerful and wealthy enough to own good stuff."), but there were a few factors that prevented it – mainly because the central governing body of the Shinigami sounded uncomfortably like the politicians that she had to deal with after the Shadow Operatives officially merged with the government. Politics was not Aigis's strong suit, and she was not going to do something that she disliked in the afterlife.
A crunch of shifting gravel startled Aigis, but it turned out to be Unagiya, walking along the same gravel path Aigis was walking on before. Unagiya raised a hand in a friendly wave, then sat down beside Aigis. The forest green kimono Unagiya was wearing made her almost invisible in the night, and Aigis wished that she at least retained some of her robotic functions, such as night vision. She stared a little, then recovered.
"What are the children doing?" Aigis asked.
Unagiya waved a hand dismissively. "I put them to bed. Don't worry, the town's pretty safe. Nothing's gonna happen to them."
Aigis gave a relieved nod, then went back to stargazing.
"I didn't know you liked watching the stars." Unagiya said.
"I didn't know before either." Aigis replied. The intense light pollution of the cities that she was used to meant that she hardly saw stars in her free time, and whenever she ended up somewhere outside the city, it was for work, so there was no time to appreciate them.
"Was the house too much for you?" Unagiya then asked. "The kids love climbing all over you, even though you look like you really want to get away from them."
"…Was it really that obvious?" Aigis asked back, ducking her head a little.
Unagiya gave a chuckle at her reaction. "Your face never really shows anything, but it's pretty obvious from your body language. You tend to lean away from them."
Aigis's face heated up from how easily she was figured out.
"It's fine if you feel that way though." Unagiya patted Aigis's back. "The kids don't really have a sense of personal space, but to them, you're family."
"Did the children remember their own families before they died?" Aigis asked.
Unagiya gave a thoughtful hum, before replying. "None of them really do – they were either too young, or have damaged memories."
"Damaged memories?"
"Some souls come here with a large chunk of their memories missing. I don't really know why, but they adapt."
"How do you deal with…" Aigis waved her hand towards the house, "all this? The children and the farmwork?"
Unagiya's endurance was amazing, showering each child with the same amount of affection and care that Aigis was struggling to keep up with, showing a gentle side that was never shown to adults.
"I had a son when I was alive, y'know." Unagiya smiled at a ghost memory. "And lots of teenagers to take care of when they worked with me."
"Teenagers?"
"Part-timers. I ran an odd-jobs shop."
Aigis's eyes widened slightly. Odd-jobs shops were pretty much extinct when she died. The last time she had seen one was around two hundred years ago. It meant that Unagiya was at least that old, or probably even older.
Unagiya noticed it. "What? Surprised?" she asked with something that looked like a Cheshire cat grin, one that promised pain if Aigis answered it wrongly.
She ignored it.
"I did not know you were that old." Aigis said.
A fist moved towards her eye at lightning speeds, but she instinctively leaned backwards, letting the fist shoot harmlessly past her nose with millimeters to spare. One hand moved back to brace herself, while the other swung outwards in a chopping motion, stopping just before it reached Unagiya's neck. They held their position.
"Did you just call me old?" Unagiya bared her teeth.
"Perhaps not in looks," Aigis replied with the same neutral expression that was usually plastered on her face, "but definitely in mind." She hoped the slight twitching in the corner of her mouth did not give it away.
Unagiya slumped, sighing in defeat.
"You're pretty brutal, you know that?" she said, returning her fist to where it was before at her side.
"So I've been told." Aigis replied, also moving back to her original seated position.
"So how about you?" Unagiya asked, shifting back to their original topic. "Did you have any memories of your family?"
Aigis was very reluctant on revealing any information about her past, but she figured that Unagiya earned it.
"…I have a sister," she began slowly, going over her memories, "And a very close group of friends that I consider as family, though they passed away long before I did."
Unagiya's face softened into a smile.
"So your sister is still alive?" she asked.
Was she? Aigis had no way of being sure, but her instincts told her that Labrys was probably still alive.
"I think so." She finally said.
She really hoped so too.
When Unagiya failed to reply, Aigis turned to look at her face. Unagiya was still gazing at the stars, but her eyes were far away, reminiscing about something in the past.
"You remind me of someone I knew back when I was alive." She finally said. "He had a sister as well – two of them actually, they were twins – and he doted on them even more than their own dad did. He also had a group of friends so close to him, you would be forgiven if you thought they were family."
It did indeed sound like the Shadow Operatives.
"How was he himself like?" Aigis found herself asking, curious to know about the man that seemed so similar to her – and to many of the Wild Cards she met over the years too.
Unagiya's face soured immediately.
"The worst worker I've ever seen!" she ranted, "Sloppy, cancels on a moment's notice, and even tried to run away from me a few times! You're an angel compared to him!" She continued her rant, peppered with the occasional expletive that Aigis was sure Unagiya would never say in front of the children.
Aigis cracked a grin at the description. Definitely not like any Shadow Operative member. Anyone who attempted that got Mitsuru's full wrath, Bufudyne and all.
"But he also seemed like he was under a lot of pressure for a while. He came to me for advice a few times, even though I think it should be his father doing it, and he acts like a punk, but is a good boy deep down." Unagiya calmed down and continued, looking much more thoughtful, "He mellowed out over the years, you know. Last I remember of him, he was doing fine as a doctor."
"What happened?" Aigis asked. The story sounded incomplete.
"Oh, I died." Unagiya said lightly. "Lost track of him."
That explained the abrupt ending.
Aigis finally had the chance of asking something that she caught earlier. "Did he work with you before?"
"He was a part-timer at my shop."
That statement was surprisingly common amongst Wild Card users. Almost every single Wild Card she met had worked part-time before. The range of jobs they took on was staggeringly wide, but they all did mundane work, mostly to help their team afford the weapons and armor they used to fight Shadows. The exceptions all had very good reasons for not working, herself included.
"Would you want to meet him here then, in Soul Society?" she asked.
That seemed to give Unagiya pause, as she mulled over the question, her face contorting into a surprising variety of knotted eyebrows, flared nostrils, and twitching lips. She finally settled on a frown.
"I wouldn't," she replied, looking thoughtfully at the stars, "but I would wish him well. He was like an annoying, but endearing little brother to me."
Whoever this mystery person was, he would have been a great Wild Card, Aigis decided.
A chilly gust of wind blew across the cliff they were sitting on, alerting them to the late night. Aigis involuntarily shivered a little in her thin striped kimono, hugging herself tighter in an attempt to retain her body heat.
She never had that problem while she was a robot, though she recalled a few times when her joints froze from lack of cold resistance. It happened in Antarctica, and she ended up having to replace some parts to continue her mission.
"Guess it's late, huh?" Unagiya said cheerily, stretching out her legs that had been folded beneath her before standing up and offering a helping hand to Aigis. "Let's go back and sleep. Long day tomorrow."
Even though every day was the same, in Aigis's opinion.
Still, she accepted the outstretched hand, and wrapped her kimono closer to her, trudging down the gravel path.
"Mine's bigger!"
"No, mine's bigger!"
"Liar!"
"You're the one who's blind!"
"What's going on here?" Aigis asked, drawn out by the arguing noises of the two children out of the front door. She was sleepier than usual after the talk with Unagiya last night, and she rubbed her eyes before squinting against the morning sunshine streaming into the house. Both of them turned to look at her the same time.
Hiroki was a wiry little boy who appeared to be around ten, but was actually twenty. He had shaggy brown hair that almost covered his eyes, but was loud and fierce, being one of the kids that Unagiya had the most trouble controlling. His rival Ryou was around the same age, but he looked completely different, with his spiky, dirty blond hair that glinted in the morning sunshine. When Aigis looked closer, she saw each of them holding what appeared to be a floating, glowing blue ball, but the angle of the sunlight was making it difficult to make out exactly what it was.
"Aigis-neesan!" they both cried out at the same time, "Mine's bigger, isn't it?"
Even their tones were the same. Aigis squinted at the balls, trying to make out what it was.
"Um, before I start comparing," she began, holding her hands up to stop the boys from cornering her against the house walls, "what is that in your hands?"
Hiroki answered first before Ryou could open his mouth. "It's our reiryoku!"
"Your reiryoku?" Aigis's eyes widened. She did remember multiple people commenting on her power, and Unagiya mentioning that everyone living in the house has some power, but she never knew that it could be manifested. "You can actually make it appear?"
"Ikumi-san taught us how to!" Ryou piped up, effectively cutting Hiroki off from talking. He shoved the hand with the glowing ball of energy right in Aigis's face, causing her to lean back. "See? Mine's bigger, right?"
Aigis took both of their wrists with a firm but gentle hold, then lowered their hands away from her face before she got blinded by the light. She crouched down to the same level as their eyesight, before scrutinizing the glowing balls of energy that they each held. "Well, let's see…"
Apart from becoming human after arriving at Soul Society, Aigis had not felt that this world was any different from the living world. However, with the two balls of energy so close to her, Aigis felt something within her for the first time since her arrival – something that felt vaguely like the power emitted by a Persona. It was just a faint buzz beneath her skin, a slight discomfort from their direction, but she finally started to understand what the residents here referred to as power. However, the power felt incomplete, as if someone had summoned a Persona, but kept it from materializing. The energy was weak, but it had the potential to become anything.
As the seconds ticked by, the boys started to fidget, their expectant eyes boring into Aigis. She caught a glance, then quickly went back to assessing the size of their energy. Both of them were about the same size as a ping pong ball, and the wispy edges make it difficult to tell which one was actually bigger.
"Does a bigger glowing ball mean that you have more reiryoku?" Aigis asked, just for confirmation.
"That's what Ikumi-san told me!" Ryou said proudly as Aigis stared at his ball of energy, though at the same time she noticed that her hands were starting to feel wet, despite the somewhat chilly atmosphere. Did the reiryoku ball emit heat?
One look into the boys' faces informed Aigis of the actual situation. Both of them still kept their fierce grins as they tried to one-up each other, but the grin was a touch too tight at the edges, the temperature of their body was steadily rising, and sweat was starting to form at their hairlines, though it was less obvious with Hiroki since his hair covered up most of it. Despite their body temperatures rising, they were shivering and starting to breathe in small gasps, even though they both were trying to maintain a normal breathing pattern.
Did they expend too much energy trying to maintain the reiryoku ball?
"Okay boys, stop." Aigis commanded, letting go of their wrists. Both dismissed their balls of reiryoku and dropped their arms to their sides, taking deep breaths of air as if they just narrowly escaped drowning in water.
"To answer your question," she began, "your reiryoku balls are pretty much the same size."
The boys started groaning loudly, but Aigis carried on regardless of their protests. "However, what makes someone strong does not come from their raw power. It depends on what they can do with the power that they have."
It was universally agreed on that the Wild Cards were the strongest combatants when it came to exterminating Shadows, but if they were restricted to just one Persona, they were about as strong as any of their teammates. Even robots like her, with her overwhelming firepower and Persona abilities, were just about equal in combat to any other experienced Persona user, aside from being a little tougher than usual, not that Shadows usually cared. Fuuka was considered one of the most resilient Persona users when she was alive despite the fact that her Persona was not even combat related, because she owned one of the few Personas with strong navigating abilities. Without people like her around, Aigis may have died a long time ago.
The best Persona users were not those who had the most raw power, but those who used their power to the fullest.
Both boys watched Aigis with wide, wondrous eyes, trying to process what she had said. Their mouths were slightly open, and she felt a tinge of regret for suddenly springing something heavy on them, before their morning classes had even started.
Before their childhood was even over.
Well, they had plenty of time to figure it out.
"You do not have to worry about it right now." Aigis smiled reassuringly, ruffling their hair with both of her hands affectionately. "It's something that even adults like me forget about. So just think it over, and let me know whenever you understand, alright?"
Hiroki and Ryou nodded, relaxing their faces into a grin.
Hopefully that sentence would stay in their hearts for a long time to come.
"Now go and eat breakfast." Aigis herded them into the house. "We can't have lessons on an empty stomach."
Aigis took the chance to ask Unagiya about reiryoku when they were washing the dishes after breakfast. "How do you materialize reiryoku?" she asked, passing a freshly-scrubbed bowl to Unagiya.
Unagiya raised an eyebrow at the sudden question, but accepted the bowl without missing a beat. "Where did you hear about that?" she asked.
"Hiroki-kun and Ryou-kun told me that you taught them how to." Aigis replied.
"Ah yeah," Unagiya mumbled thoughtfully as she put the bowl away, "I learnt it from a Shinigami who was visiting the town once. He was here for a minor Hollow extermination after it ate one of the townsfolk."
Aigis grimaced. Monsters eating humans alive was still an uncomfortable topic for her, mainly because even the worst Shadows did not eat humans alive and leave a mess afterwards. The graphic image was something that she preferred not to store in her memory.
"Do the other children know how to do it?" she asked.
"Most of them do. Some can do it better than others though."
Aigis nodded at that. Her lesson plans are going to change today.
When the children filed out of the house for their morning lessons, instead of being greeted by the sight of Aigis doing her daily warm-ups, they saw her seated on the ground, watching them expectantly. She patted the ground around her, inviting them to sit down, and they did, jostling around each other until they were seated in a rough circle. They were confused – Aigis was someone who stuck to a routine, so to break that was unusual for her. The children stared at her with their eyebrows raised, though Hiroki and Ryou seemed to be more interested in staring daggers at each other rather. Kuro was fidgeting in his crossed-leg position, his fingers fiddling with the dust on the ground absentmindedly.
Aigis pondered on how to start. It had been a long time since she learned something new – there was always something to discover during the first hundred and fifty years or so of her life, but after that she began to form algorithms on human development, and with almost nobody treating her like a human anymore, all new information was directly downloaded into her.
She did not consider that as "learning", despite what the researchers said. She considered it as "upgrading".
Humans did not do anything perfectly on the first try. They needed to experience it repeatedly, constantly refining their methods until they found out what worked best for them. That was what Aigis considered as "learning".
Her body was almost humming with energy, at the excitement of finally learning something new after so long, though Aigis did not show it. She pondered a little more on how to breach the topic, while Megumi's lips trembled a little and her hands clenched a little tighter on her kimono, before forcibly loosening it. Yuuta's foot was twitching underneath his cross-legged position.
Well, subtlety was never Aigis's strength anyway. Might as well go straight to the main topic.
"Can you all teach me how to manifest reiatsu?"
The children all blinked at the same time, to Aigis's amusement, before their faces seemed to illuminate the shadows of the house covering them, as their eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Yay! We get to be teachers!" Megumi squealed as she relaxed her hold on her kimono, all traces of nervousness gone.
The children began talking over one another, excitedly going through the steps to manifest reiatsu in a jumbled mess, though Aigis did not catch any information whatsoever through the din. She held her hands out to stop them before they got into a shouting match.
"Alright, stop, stop!" she yelled over the children as loudly as she could. The voices died out in an instant, and Aigis could hear the songbirds in the early morning town again. "Back up. Who's the best at reiatsu manifestation?"
The children looked amongst themselves uncomfortably, though Megumi was the first to act. She quietly pointed at the girl behind her, hidden away in the shadows and her black hair. One by one, the other children slowly pointed to her, some with disgruntled faces indicating that they were clearly unhappy with their choice.
Hitomi was quiet, unassuming. She was perhaps the shyest person Aigis had ever met, clinging onto Unagiya's kimono for her dear life and hiding behind her larger figure the first time Aigis met Hitomi. She was the only one to not join in every lesson that Aigis taught, and Hitomi only joined in after Aigis noticed her intense interest in her diagrams after lessons. One day, Aigis caught Hitomi drawing an impressive sketch of the field with only a tree branch and the dusty ground behind their home, finally allowing Aigis to coax her into coming for lessons, for her own education.
She turned out to be an attentive listener even when she was doodling on the ground, answering questions with a tiny, meek whisper. Aigis made sure to praise Hitomi whenever she answered a question currently, and gently correct her when she was wrong, to try and break her out of her shell. It's been working…somewhat, because now she was answering questions louder, but still tended to cower behind the other children.
Aigis quirked an eyebrow at Hitomi, but soon pushed that eyebrow down. "Hitomi," she smiled, careful to not get too close lest she decided to run away, "can you teach me?"
Hitomi looked absolutely terrified, her black eyes widening, letting out a high-pitched squeak before shuffling even closer to Megumi's back.
Perhaps asking her to suddenly teach was a little too much? Aigis tried to keep the disappointed and slightly guilty frown off her face, keeping it at the neutral slight smile that she had before.
Megumi was gently patting Hitomi on her back, trying to coax her out. "Come on," she murmured, "it's going to be alright. Nobody is going to make fun of you, and it's fine if you make a mistake."
Hitomi only buried herself further in Megumi's kimono, her hands clenched so firmly onto the light yellow fabric that it threatened to tear. Megumi looked a little concerned for her clothes, but she kept consoling the younger girl.
"It's alright, Megumi-chan," Aigis said when it became clear that Hitomi was not moving from her position, "I do not think that she is quite ready yet." Megumi kept patting Hitomi's back, but her focus was on Aigis as she haltingly started her explanation.
"Reikyoku is the amount of spiritual energy in one, while reiatsu is the energy that is being used." Megumi began. "To form a ball of reiatsu, you just have to force it out from within." She held out her hand, where a pinprick ball of light began forming above her palms, illuminating her face in a pale blue light.
Aigis frowned a little at the vague instructions. Did every child here learn how to do that with these directions? She had to hand it to them if they did, because it did not give her a place to start.
Still, it was worth a try. She held out her palm face up and closed her eyes, imagining energy flowing from her core – a rather robotic one that looked suspiciously like her Papillon Heart, she noted with some amusement – to her palm. It felt rather different from a Persona summoning, because there was no sense of urgency, no sense of 'fight or flight' that accompanied every time she summoned Pallas Athena. This was just an exercise.
Aigis snapped her eyes open when someone – it turned out to be Kuro – shrieked and scrambled away from their makeshift circle as fast as his legs would allow. The others were also edging away slowly from her, and one look told her why.
The reiatsu formed, all right, but it was formless and spreading out quickly. Her first instinct was to exert control over it, but that just caused the reiatsu to go wild, shooting out in all directions. Her breaths became short and chopped as she hurriedly imagined shutting her valves, and the blobs of reiatsu exploded in a shower of blue sparks.
Disaster averted, Aigis forced her breathing to slow down to normal, as the children recovered from their shock and slowly crawled back to their makeshift circle. She offered a sheepish smile in apology. "I guess I need to work on this." She said, taking a deep breath and preparing to try again.
"Wrong image." A whisper interrupted Aigis's attempt as she looked around to spot who had said that. Megumi's kimono ruffled as Hitomi timidly crawled out from behind.
"Wrong image?" Aigis questioned, watching Hitomi with a small measure of amazement, even though she was still clinging onto Megumi's sleeve. Hitomi shifted to sit seiza style, stretching out her free palm.
"There's a trick to it." She mumbled, her voice barely above a whisper so Aigis had to strain to hear what she was saying. "You imagine a space, then a circle within that space, filled with the darkest colour you can think of." Pressure started to slowly build up around her, though it was weak enough that it did not crush anyone. "Then imagine throwing yourself in."
Her palm lit up in a brilliant blue as a football-sized sphere of reiatsu formed, held steady by her will.
The circle was silent. A few seconds later, Hitomi was cowering behind Megumi again after she realized that everyone was staring at her, dismissing her reiatsu with a whimper.
"Amazing…" Yuuta breathed, still mesmerized. Aigis privately agreed.
"Thank you, Hitomi-chan." Aigis smiled warmly. "That was a great explanation." She closed her eyes and lifted her palm again for another attempt.
An empty space. She imagined a blank wall, painted pure white.
A circle. She imagined a circle that would comfortably fit her body, coloured in the deep black of the Shadows that she had fought.
One deep breath.
She threw herself in.
Light through her eyelids and soft gasps prompted Aigis to open her eyes again, before immediately squinting from the brightness.
The reiatsu ball she had formed was almost twice the size of her head, glowing with a gentle pulse that followed her heartbeat. In their little corner, it was even brighter than the sun.
"Ooh!" Aigis turned around to see Unagiya's grinning face sticking out of a window, observing their class. She struck a thumbs-up. "That's the biggest one I've ever seen!"
"I knew it," Kuro pumped his fist up into the air, "Aigis-neesan is the strongest!"
That elicited a laugh from the other children, while they enthusiastically agreed with the statement. Aigis wanted to correct them, say that she definitely was not the strongest, but held her tongue. The children were way too cute as they laughed and joked around, each holding out their own little spheres of reiatsu and playing around with them.
Hitomi was still holding onto Megumi's kimono, but hesitantly looked up as Aigis approached her. She crouched down and gently put a hand on Hitomi's head.
"Thank you for teaching me, Hitomi-chan." Aigis said, smiling as she ruffled Hitomi's soft hair.
The hesitant, but radiant smile that she got in return was Aigis's best reward.
A/N: Before I start, well uh...
Sorry?
I had a really bad case of writer's block (this chapter was fighting me 75% of the way), then school happened. I'm halfway through the semester now, and the workload is also getting worse, but hey, at least I'm enjoying my classes!
In other news, I'm looking for a new beta. I need someone who can spot my writing mistakes and have a good grasp of the personalities of characters from both the Persona series and Bleach. Most importantly, I need someone whom I can bounce off plot ideas with, because that's my biggest obstacle right now.
The next chapter will be the last slice-of-life chapter before the first "arc" kicks off! The plot is still a little iffy at the moment, but I'm working on the details.