The next day, Aigis and Makoto stood watch outside the shack where the bandits were detained.
The villagers were overjoyed at the news that the bandits were captured, though that quickly turned into a mob demanding to bring their own brand of justice on them. Thankfully, Lieutenant Shihouin promptly put a stop to that, but not before a substantial part of the population caught a glimpse of the bandits' faces. Apparently, a few were friends and family to some of the villagers, which would explain why they were never robbed.
That revelation caused those friends and family of the bandits to receive death threats, which the poor lieutenant was trying to stop right now, leaving the students for guard duty.
"I'm worried for the villagers after we leave." Makoto voiced, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her borrowed shihakusho. "Shihouin-san is barely keeping the peace, and I don't know how bad it'll get once we leave."
"I understand their reaction." Aigis sighed, her hands folded in front of her as she leaned against the frame of the shack. "But I also agree that we need to prevent the villagers from mobbing the innocent."
Shihouin revealed privately that he found those related to the bandits had received more food and mundane luxuries than the rest while they were active. The trio had recovered a good chunk of the goods robbed from the villagers, but considering that most of it was candy and water, it was difficult to determine what belonged to who, and they instead just distributed everything as evenly as possible.
Depressingly, it was very little.
Makoto mused over the situation again, though her mind kept going back to what Aigis had said.
The innocent.
The bandits were hardly innocent, but perhaps…
"Can you keep guard?" She asked. "I want to talk to them for a bit."
Aigis blinked, but to her credit, she did not question Makoto's sanity, and simply gave a nod.
The shed smelled of musky sweat and dirt when she opened the door, though the prisoners were silent apart from a few grunts, unspoken complaints about the late afternoon sunlight streaming in and burning on their faces.
She closed the door behind her, restoring the darkness inside. The bandits glared at her, though she simply ignored it, instead opting to sit down on the dusty floor.
Without the adrenaline from last night affecting her judgement, Makoto could now see that the bandits looked rather ill in an entirely different way from the villagers. For the latter, it was clear that the stress of their living situation had worn them down, resulting in rags for clothes, and terrible hygiene (not that she thought it would cause any major issues, other than a wrinkled nose from the sheltered nobles, perhaps). The bandits, who looked relatively, and oddly, cleaner than the villagers, had an unhealthy pallor to their skin, sunken cheeks that were more pronounced in some more than others, and wild eyes that were more reminiscent of a feral animal than a human.
Seireitei was large enough that the effects of sekkiseki did not bother any of the shinigami, who also naturally had robust reiatsu, but within that cramped base, perhaps it was rather unhealthy for regular souls to be exposed to the unusual rock for an extended period of time.
"Sorry, I don't have any food on me." Makoto apologised.
The majority of the bandits did not respond, preferring to ineffectively glare at her, but one spat at her feet. Or tried to – the spittle fell short, absorbed into the bare ground. "Why would we want your sympathy, shinigami?"
His voice was gruff, chapped in a way to suggest that he was rather thirsty. Makoto made a mental note to ask Shihouin for some water later, since she did not carry any on her person.
"I would prefer you not to die before your trial," she replied evenly. "And I don't know if you've looked at yourself in a mirror lately, but staying in that base of yours for so long was not healthy for you."
"What're you talkin' about?" The bandit narrowed his eyes. "It was a hell of a lot better than staying here in this dumpster hole with nothing!"
Privately, she agreed somewhat, but she also did not ignore how long term reiatsu deprivation affected the bandits – they looked much more mentally unstable than the villagers. "You still have friends and family here, don't you?" Makoto countered, trying to not let her emotions show on her face.
Some of the bandits looked away guiltily. Probably not entirely willing bandits, she decided, or just hoping for a better life than one of abject poverty.
The aggressive man instead started raging harder. "Family? Friends? They're just a bunch of people to use when convenient, and leave behind when they become a burden. You can play that game in the inner districts and in Seireitei where you're all overflowing with luxuries, but not here. Here," he hissed, his voice suddenly dropping several decibels in volume as he shoved his ugly mug as close as he could to Makoto with bound hands and feet, "it's survival of the fittest."
Really, after a lifetime of dealing with criminals who thought they could intimidate her, the thinly-veiled threat barely fazed Makoto. Instead, she focused on observing the other bandits in the corner of her eye. Some of them were fearfully gazing at the exchange, but there was a hint of interest there. Others preferred to avoid eye contact entirely. But nobody else had spoken since the start of the exchange, so she guessed that this man who was almost comically trying to strain his neck towards her was the leader of the bandits.
In other words, to have the most impact on the group overall, she needed to convince the leader. She decided to switch tactics.
"So it seems," Makoto agreed easily. "Though I would say that having a base this difficult to find probably contributed to your strength."
The bandit smiled, sharp with yellowed teeth. "I'll admit, you did a good job finding it. Even I found it only by accident."
"When there was only one switch that was so well hidden no normal person would stumble on it?" Makoto pressed. "You were either extremely lucky, or you had an idea that the base existed in the first place."
He went silent, his face twisted into a snarl that threatened to escape.
"We know there are multiple entrances," she continued after a sigh, "and that we only found one of them. The base is not really all that important to us–"
"Not all that important?" His voice was now pitched into a shriek. "Not all that important? I spent my entire life looking for a way to get out of the hole called poverty, and that was the one thing that let me!"
And everything circled back to that.
Makoto did not begrudge the bandit leader for trying to find a better life – it was simply human instinct to want more than they had, and the conditions here were bad enough that in any normal situation, she would have agreed with the man. Even now, after they seized everything the bandits had, it was a pittance in her eyes. He certainly was no monster bloated on greed like some of the targets she had gone after back when she was a Phantom Thief.
That did not mean she agreed with his methods.
"Sorry, but while I sympathise with your plight, I can't condone your methods. Besides," Makoto narrowed her eyes, "was the base really the only thing that allowed you to become richer? Give yourself some credit."
The unexpected compliment caused the bandit leader to hang his mouth open in surprise.
"The intelligence to fully make use of the base," she counted off her fingers. "The shrewdness to gather information, because you know that you are weaker than shinigami. Actually, that information network is especially impressive, because you need to ensure the reliability of the information you receive, which you probably did either through bribery or intimidation. You have some excellent street smarts. It's a shame you decided to use it on banditry instead of doing something to benefit your community." She stopped, then turned to the man.
"What are you getting at?" The bandit asked warily.
Makoto let a small smile slip through her mask. She imagined what Ren would do in this situation.
"Let's make a deal."
"Are the villagers still unsatisfied?" Aigis studied the lieutenant.
He was dressed back in his non-uniform shihakusho, his face scrunched in displeasure. There was a noticeable heaviness in his footsteps, though Aigis suspected that it had nothing to do with physical exhaustion.
He shook his head. "I calmed them down for the moment, but it's a powder keg waiting to go off." Shihouin huffed. "Where's Niijima?"
Niijima chose that moment to exit the shack, her shihakusho dusted a similar colour to the ground. "Were you looking for me, Lieutenant?"
Shihouin scrutinised Niijima. "What were you doing?" he asked suspiciously.
"Talking with the prisoners," she replied. "Do we have any water? They're pretty thirsty, from what I see."
Shihouin sighed. "None that we could spare for the moment, at the very least." He shrugged, though his eyes looked anything but casual. "There's barely anything here, and what little there is is being split between everyone. Sure those related to the bandits have more, but it's not by much, and I'm not about to force them to share just yet. And souls don't just die from a little dehydration. They'll stay alive till we get them to the dungeons."
"Any leads on the information network the bandits seemed to have?" Aigis asked.
He grunted disdainfully. "He threatened a couple people – mostly those who lived by themselves. Said he wouldn't rob them if they gave information on the movement of their neighbours, or any shinigami that came over. Pretty smart, all things considered. It's a small network, and they left messages at certain depots that were pretty out of the way from where the villagers typically went."
"Is that so?"
Aigis tensed up. There was a dangerous edge to Niijima's words.
"Is there something you'd like to say about this, Niijima?" It seems that he had noticed it too.
"What if there is a way to keep the villagers satisfied in their demand for revenge, and also lighten the burden on Seireitei?" Niijima asked.
Shihouin blinked.
She took it as permission to continue. "No matter how I think about it, there's simply not much point for the bandits to be locked up in Seireitei. There's no way to guarantee they wouldn't do it again, and we might have an even bigger headache down the line."
"It is the only way we can deal with them at the moment though," he pointed out. "Not like we can trust them around the villagers, and shinigami are usually not stationed outside of Seireitei, only in the Living World on rotations."
Niijima nodded. "I thought so. So, how about we put the bandits to work?"
Silence followed.
"How's that going to work?" Shihouin blurted. Aigis nodded alongside the lieutenant. She did see merit in Niijima's idea, but the logistics of it made her hesitate.
"We can have a rotation of shinigami stationed here," Niijima laid out her plan. "And help the villagers develop a local industry. The bandits can help with grunt work – I think they're healthy enough for that, and they can be paid with water and candy, depending on their quality of work. If we decide the bandits are not likely to turn to banditry again, we can stop the rotation and let the village develop on its own."
"I'm surprised you think we can even trust them in the first place, Niijima." Shihouin said. "Who's to say that they won't turn on us the moment we stop the rotation of shinigami to watch over them?"
"You're right," she acknowledged. "It's a gamble."
"Then why–"
"The main underlying issue is why they turned to banditry in the first place." Niijima interrupted the shinigami before he could continue. "Poverty and lack of options drive people to desperate measures, Lieutenant. This plan would help the village uplift itself into self-sustainability, and there would be no need for bandits to exist. Plus, they had an established, robust information network. We can use this village as a base to keep Seireitei updated on the state of the outer districts."
Out of everything that Niijima had said, the last sentence was what finally caught Shihouin's attention. His eyes narrowed in a way that Aigis recognised as intense concentration, different from the glares he had given to Niijima or the bandits before. "An information network for the outer districts…" he muttered.
Well, Aigis supposed that it made sense, as part of the division that was responsible for espionage. Information was a valuable commodity, especially for areas where it was scarce in the first place.
"If the bandits stay here, the villagers will at least have a justified direction for their anger." Niijima continued. "I'm not saying to let the villagers wail on the bandits, but at least it should help keep innocents out of the fire. And we can have the shinigami keeping the peace, which will help the bandits to warm up to us."
Shihouin ran a hand through his messy hair as he considered Niijima's arguments, making increasingly frustrated noises. "Argh…fine! You made your point," he sighed. "I think I can manage something, but it's gonna take a while before I can get all the resources needed. For now, I'll have a couple Second Division shinigami come over to relieve us."
There was an audible sigh of relief from Niijima as she finally relaxed, and Aigis felt herself loosening her stance too. Apparently, she had unconsciously shifted into her battle stance at some point.
"Thank you, Lieutenant Shihouin." Niijima bowed politely.
"Don't thank me yet." Shihouin grunted. "If this fails at any point down the line, I'm blaming you. Sorry, but with a plan like this, I'm covering my own ass first."
"That's reasonable." Niijima replied. "I'll just make sure I solve any issues before it becomes a bigger problem."
"So you're volunteering to oversee everything?" There was a coy grin on his face. "Rather ambitious, aren't you?"
"No, I just think I should take responsibility for being the one to persuade you in the first place," she replied calmly. "That being said, I am rather uninformed about Soul Society's laws and Seireitei's processes, so I hope you can advise me on those matters."
Shihouin sighed again, clearly not expecting everything that just happened in the last ten minutes. "I'm not the best person to ask for this kind of stuff because I don't have it all memorised. You'll have to ask someone else. That being said, I'll look after this place till you graduate. After that, it's up to you."
Niijima nodded. "I understand. I'll ask the teachers at school then."
"Oh yeah, here." Shihouin casually tossed a bottle to her, who fumbled to catch the unexpected item. He sauntered off before either student could stop him.
"What's inside?" Aigis squinted at the bottle as Niijima opened it and sniffed, before her expression turned into mild shock.
"It's…water," she stammered. She gave an amused smile. "He could've been a bit more honest, but I appreciate it. Watch the entrance for me, will you?"
"Of course." Aigis smiled back.
The two shinigami who came with the transport jail wagon were less than pleased when they found out that they had made a wasted trip, as the bandits were going to be kept confined to the village rather than taken to Seireitei.
"What did you say to the bandits to convince them at least not to wreak havoc after we left?" Aigis asked Makoto on their way back to the Academy, walking behind and out of earshot of the other shinigami, who were currently being graced with a playful account of the mission courtesy of Lieutenant Shihouin.
Before Makoto could start explaining, Aigis clarified herself. "I believed you could do it. I just thought it would take longer."
Makoto supposed that she could understand the hesitation, though in her opinion, Aigis could probably also do it, given enough preparation.
"Because I've seen similar things back when I was alive." Makoto replied after a pregnant pause, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ears. "Not when I was a Thief, but when I was a police commissioner. Desperation drives people to do extreme things, but one of the most effective methods to stop them is to remind them that there are still wonderful things in the world. Sometimes it's the simple joys. Sometimes it's a bit more complicated than that. The most important thing, I guess, was to treat them as a human being. Not an irredeemable evil. I had to look past the label that society gave them and find out who they really are."
"A label..." Aigis mused thoughtfully, a strange light in her eyes. "I suppose that makes sense. Though I did meet many people who actively did not want to do better."
There was no way for Makoto to know the sheer number of people Aigis met and outlived in her life.
"You might have the unique distinction of seeing the most of the best and the worst humanity had to offer." Makoto pointed out.
Aigis turned towards her, surprise written on her face.
"On one hand, you have individuals like Shido, or just the general negativity of humanity made manifest, like Yaldabaoth." Makoto continued. "But then you also have the Wild Cards, who are some of the most tenacious and determined people I've ever met."
When her eyes turned downcast, Makoto added, "That includes you, Aigis-san."
Somehow, she looked even more surprised than before, her eyes wide and the sapphire blue of her iris catching the sun.
"Leading the Shadow Operatives for almost three hundred years…must be rough. I wouldn't blame anyone if they cracked at any point, but you didn't." Makoto gazed up at the clear sky, reminiscing about the little scenes during her time there.
When the Persona users gathered for Mitsuru's birthday, Morgana accidentally got sushi all over his fur.
When a routine mission had gone awry, and Yu had to call in every favour he could get to rescue Ryuji and Yosuke, who had gone ahead to scout first.
When Teddie decided to visit the Operatives' headquarters and then had to be escorted out in short order to stop him from perving on every lady there.
But along with the good was so much bad. Being a Persona user meant being exposed to the worst of humanity, but the fact that Aigis was still here and still willing to see the best in humanity, even after three hundred years, was testament to her determination.
"You're still here, and still helping people." Makoto concluded. "If that doesn't embody the spirit of a Wild Card, I don't know what does."
Meanwhile, Aigis's expression froze on her face as she slowly digested Makoto's words, her face slowly morphing as her lips quirked into a small, genuine smile.
"Thank you, Makoto-san."
"You're very welcome, Aigis-san."
Makoto savoured the moment, their footsteps soft and light on the dirt road.
"So, how was the mission?"
Yushiro knew he'd sent a Hell butterfly to Soifon with a short report, and his complete report was currently sitting in front of her on her desk. But he also knew that his captain was not asking about the mission itself.
"They're talented," he replied, his posture stiff as he stood at attention. "Even more professional than some of the shinigami we have in our division."
Soifon narrowed her eyes.
"But at least one of them is too soft for the Second," he finished.
She leaned forward, her interest piqued. "'Too soft'?"
"That Niijima girl has a bleeding heart." Yushiro clarified. "She isn't averse to violence, but she's prone to disobeying orders if she disagrees with them."
Soifon leaned back in her chair and nodded. "That's a shame, but you're right," she agreed. "We can't have liabilities on missions. What about the other girl?"
"I think she can do the work," he said, his hand on his chin as he thought back to his interactions with the blonde. "But something tells me she would prefer to be in another division."
"Hmm." Soifon's gaze lowered to the report. "I'll send her an invitation regardless when she graduates. Get it drafted, Yushiro."
"Yes, Captain."
Once she arrived back at the Academy, Makoto took a short nap before immediately looking for Onabara.
"It's rather unusual for you to look for me, Niijima," he rumbled. They were in his office, away from prying ears. "Did something happen during the trip?"
They were both sitting seiza style on the ground, with him at his usual place behind the low desk.
"Nothing much of note." Makoto replied. "Though I do have a request."
"Well then, speak."
"Is there any way for me to learn about the laws of Soul Society?"
Onabara raised one eyebrow. "Well, I believe you can check out the books about the basic–"
"Sorry, but I've already read them," she interrupted. "I was hoping to learn about the details of laws and lawmaking in Soul Society, along with related topics such as how the noble families function in it. I know that I can't borrow them from the library yet at my rank, but I need the information urgently, so I am hoping that some exceptions can be made."
His other eyebrow joined the first one. "Are you sure nothing happened during the trip?"
Makoto pulled a strand of hair behind her ear as she shifted her feet. She hoped Onabara would not notice. "I may have…convinced Lieutenant Shihouin to put a few bandits to work instead of sending them to jail?"
There was a moment of silence as she let her instructor digest her words.
"Lieutenant Shihouin…as in, the lieutenant of the Second division?"
"Yes sir."
There was another moment of silence.
"...I'm going to need a complete report on what exactly happened, Niijima."
"In other words," Onabara concluded, "you convinced one of the most powerful men in Soul Society to take a massive risk on his honour as a noble and as a shinigami to help some backwater criminals?"
He looked like he couldn't decide if he wanted to applaud at the audacity of it all, or collapse from it. It stung when he referred to the bandits as "backwater criminals", but Makoto tried to keep her annoyance off her face. From his reaction, she could tell that this was going to be another test of her oral skills.
The first rule of negotiation was to stay calm.
"Yes sir." Makoto stated.
"And you decided that you'd stake your career, maybe even your life, on this gamble?" Onabara asked.
"I pride myself on taking responsibility for my actions, sir," she nodded.
Onabara finally let out a long, heavy sigh as he facepalmed. "I thought you were smarter than this."
In hindsight, there were so many things that could, or can, go wrong with her harebrained idea, but she was once the strategist of the Phantom Thieves. Her plans could be reckless, but there was always a way to success.
"I simply think Seireitei could do better." Makoto pointed out. "And this arrangement benefits Seireitei too, not just the bandits."
The second rule of negotiation was to be honest. The third was to be aware that negotiation was not a win or lose scenario.
"And so you want to learn about the laws of Soul Society in case you run into any issues?" Onabara frowned.
"I would prefer to keep everything running legally," she said. "But I'd also like to be ready to act in case the law changes. For that, I would like to understand a detailed history of lawmaking in Soul Society as well."
"You're asking for a lot, Niijima." Onabara's frown deepened. "Laws are there for a reason – to make sure nobody abuses anything beyond their ability to handle."
"I am aware, Onabara-sensei."
"Then why do you sound like you're ready to break every single one of them to get your way?" His voice lowered to a threatening growl, an unspoken warning to watch what she was about to say.
"Because I would rather do that and accept my punishment than to see, and do nothing about the injustices of this world." Makoto held her ground. "Being in a position of power is a privilege, sir, not a right. Those in the outer districts did not know how to live, only how to survive. Their methods to survive were causing so much trouble that Seireitei needed to be involved. If our mission as shinigami is to protect Soul Society, shouldn't we help those in need as well? If the laws are preventing us from doing that, then shouldn't the laws be changed?"
"And go against those who created Soul Society in the first place?"
"The one thing that lets evil win is when good people do nothing." Makoto pressed. "I am not aiming for drastic change because I know that will cause more harm than good. But it has to start somewhere, and I am asking to start it here and now."
She bowed, her head and hands on the ground. "Please, Onabara-sensei. I need the knowledge."
A second of silence stretched to a minute, then another.
Finally, Onabara sighed.
"I am in the mood to read some treatises on law," he said absentmindedly, almost to himself. "Perhaps if a student gets curious, I can lend it out for a short period of time, and the librarians will be none the wiser."
Makoto raised her head hopefully. His eyes were still grumpy, but there was a glint of grudging respect.
"Thank you very much, sensei," she bowed again, low to the ground.
"Now go," Onabara waved his hand towards the doorway in a shoo-ing motion. "I have work to do."
She took the hint and excused herself.
A week after they returned, Aigis and Makoto each received a letter from Shihouin.
"What did yours say?" Makoto asked curiously, their dinner momentarily forgotten on the veranda overlooking the secluded garden that they now claimed as their own.
Her own letter had been politely worded, letting her know that while Shihouin was impressed with her performance, he unfortunately could not extend an invitation to the Second, but did attach a short list of nobles of varying importance, ostensibly for "extracurricular learning".
Feel free to reach out to them anytime through your teachers, it said. They have been informed that there is a student interested in their line of work, and will be happy to share any knowledge they deem appropriate.
She could almost imagine the wink in that sentence as she read it.
"An invitation to join the Second, apparently." Aigis replied, holding her letter up to the evening glow of the sky. "He told me to carefully consider it."
"Are you considering it?" Makoto asked.
Aigis shook her head. "I don't think it would be my first choice," she said, her attention still focused on the letter. "Though I am not against it."
Makoto released a silent sigh of relief that she didn't know she was holding.
"And," the blonde continued, "he said he found out who built the base."
Makoto raised an eyebrow.
"I remember that name from our history lessons." Aigis frowned. "Aizen Sosuke, the most notorious traitor of Soul Society. He built it as a laboratory of sorts four hundred years ago, but that was all Lieutenant Shihouin could find out."
"That makes sense, I suppose." Makoto conceded. "Especially if it was off the record, as he implied."
They finished the rest of their meal in silence.
"Makoto-san."
It was spoken softly, hesitantly, almost as if Aigis was afraid of the consequences of speaking her thoughts out loud. But at the same time, there was an undercurrent of steel, a resolute will to see it through.
"Yes, Aigis-san?"
"I think…I want to attempt bankai again."
Makoto smiled.
"Me too."
A/N: While I was writing this chapter, I kept the quote "To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom - it is indolence" in my mind. If you're wondering, this quote comes from FFXIV, and is repeated by various characters throughout the story. I suppose it influenced this chapter to some extent.
Also, Makoto hijacked the story again. I tried to wrestle the main viewpoint back to Aigis but she kept an iron grip on it, whoops. And we hit 100k words! When I first started writing this story, I didn't think this would go on for so long, and I'm barely a quarter of my way through the entire plot. Thank you all for your support, I couldn't have done this without you.
Anyway. Still looking for a job and pulling myself in all directions at once, so my writing speed has considerably slowed. Here's hoping I get some good news by the time I publish the next chapter. In the meantime, please review and give me serotonin!