A/N: Thanks for the patience. Life happened (in a good way) and the characters fought my plans for them. (A pitfall of getting to the point where "the characters practically write themselves.")
I'm citing artistic license on Uhrmann/Bartels. As of this posting, there is no official imagery for Uhrmann's Grief Seed, Witch Kiss/labyrinth door, or labyrinth. The translation of the Image Note for Uhrmann/Bartels didn't mention the labyrinth, so I'm making inferences. Also, THANK YOU ANON TRANSLATOR FROM AO3!
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DREIUNDSECHZIG
TIMELINE X + N + 1
Going back to school was strange for Mami. It felt like she had just missed one day even though she knew she had missed three, plus the usual Sunday. Her sense of what day it was had been messed up. It was strange to do her morning routine anywhere but her apartment, strange to have eaten a breakfast cooked by someone else at a table with other people, strange to take the train to school, strange to go to school with someone instead of alone. She wasn't used to meeting up with others outside the school yet, either. The overall effect was dreamlike.
Kisa and Hanako noticed that she entered the classroom beside Hitsugaya and looked positively smug. Mami felt her face warm and averted her eyes. At least they waited until the first break period to pounce on her. She rattled off the excuse about an emergency Mr. Urahara had helped her work out and did her best to argue that she had only made friends with Hitsugaya because of mutual acquaintance with Homura Akemi in the year beneath them, but they looked skeptical and kept glancing his way. For his part, Hitsugaya was sitting at his desk and mostly ignoring the guys trying to draw him into their conversation in favor of doing something on his phone, his face shifting between bored and irritated as he occasionally gave them one- or two-word answers.
They sat on the roof with the underclassmen at lunch again. It was oddly awkward without Homura, even though the absent girl had listened to them more than she spoke the one time they did it before— before the incident. Conversation was light, the most serious topic being one of the underclassmen's classmates who was still in the hospital after a serious accident. Sayaka and Hitomi seemed equally happy about his recent turn for the better.
"I mean, I wish it would heal faster," Sayaka said to Hitomi as she stabbed at her bento, "but he hasn't had another setback since they slowed down on that breakthrough treatment and he's even gotten a bit more feeling back in his fingertips so it's hard to really complain, too."
Mami made a sympathetic sound but kept her mouth shut. The word wish put her off now. It was a good thing the boy had begun to improve on his own; otherwise, that could have been a real wish and—
Nausea made her pause in the middle of the motion of putting food in her mouth. She forced herself to complete the action, but it felt like she was chewing sawdust.
The rest of the day went by in a blur until Mami found herself at what seemed to be the underclassmen's usual sidewalk café. Sayaka mentioned they had started going there because Homura's cat often waited for her to get out of school, so her friends had decided to do their after-school relaxing or homework outside so they could pet her. Hitomi drifted away first, causing Mami to wonder anew whether she would have been as busy with extracurricular activities had her wealthy parents lived. Mami and Hitsugaya walked Madoka and Sayaka home before turning north. When they got off the train and approached the shop, Mami fidgeted uncertainly.
"Ah, Mr. Hitsugaya—"
The boy sighed. "Just Hitsugaya is fine."
"O-okay." Mami picked at the twisted strap of her school bag. "I was wondering... Do you think we could just drop off our things and go on patrol for Witches?"
He turned his head to her with an eyebrow raised and said, "I don't mind, but may I ask why?"
"It's just... I'm... restless, I suppose."
Hitsugaya looked at her thoughtfully for a moment and asked, "Want to keep yourself busy?"
Mami relaxed with relief. "Exactly."
"Sure, then."
They were quiet until they reached the shop. Mr. Tsukabishi told them Mr. Urahara was in one of his labs and to not disturb him unless it was absolutely necessary. Hitsugaya acted like this was a normal thing, so Mami didn't say anything until they dropped their school things in the living area.
Hitsugaya turned to her and tucked his hands in his pockets. "You have a preference for where to go?"
"My usual patrol rounds, I suppose."
The boy nodded once. "Lead on, then."
In her mental map, Mami knew she usually passed a couple city blocks away from the shop when she was halfway through rounds that had her apartment as a start point, so she adjusted the pattern for having the shop as a start point. The two took to the rooftops, Hitsugaya seeming to easily recognize the search pattern she used. Mami wondered if Homura used a similar pattern.
"Out of curiosity, why don't you go farther east?" Hitsugaya asked her as they turned south at the Kazamino city limits.
"That's another girl's territory," Mami said bitterly, thinking of her former apprentice.
"Ah. And farther north?"
"That's Pleiades Saints' territory," Mami answered more easily.
"Pleiades Saints?"
"A team of seven magical girls," Mami explained. "Well, six now. I saw in the news that Michiru died a few months ago. I think she was attacked in her home by either a Witch or a rival." She had a sudden idea. "I wonder if Sōju got her?"
"What makes you think that?" Hitsugaya asked.
"The news showed that her house was damaged as though from an explosion, but there was no burn damage. It looked like what I've seen caused by magic before."
After a minute of thought, Hitsugaya said, "Well, ambushing someone in their home does sound like something Sōju would do."
Mami scowled. She was generally diplomatic with other magical girls, but she would gladly fight and kill that monster. It was a disconcerting feeling she hadn't thought herself capable of. She was glad she could only really remember white and purple frills and brown hair— it was hard to obsess over the girl when she couldn't put a face to the name.
"Anyway," Hitsugaya called out, "so you not going farther north has nothing to do with the barrier over Asunaro?"
Mami stopped on the roof of an apartment building and waited for him to stop near her. "What barrier?"
Hitsugaya frowned and looked north. "It's so subtle you can't really find it unless you're looking for it," he explained. "We discovered it by accident when Akemi crossed into it and it made her forget the Incubator while she was inside."
"That's... disturbing," Mami said slowly.
"That's why my uncle chose to have his shop so far north when we moved here. He's studying that barrier."
"Oh." Mami crossed her arms and frowned in thought. "Speaking of the shop, how does that... deep part work?"
"You mean how is it bigger on the inside than would seem possible from the outside?"
"Yes."
Hitsugaya rocked his head back and forth in a gesture of uncertainty. "I'm not exactly an expert in that area, but it's a kind of... combining magic and physics to make a pocket dimension that my uncle can control. It's an extremely complicated thing. But as eccentric and obnoxious as he can be, the man is an innovative genius."
"I see."
They continued their patrol, zigzagging down the city limits until they reached the edge of Shinchi. Mami was about to lead them west when her Soul Gem glowed faintly. Both stopped on a rooftop and were quiet as Mami swayed her hand around like a compass needle. When they had a direction to go, they did so until the Soul Gem's yellow glow was brighter; when the glow stayed constant across a few blocks, Mami pointed down to the street: time to be more meticulous. Hitsugaya nodded and descended into an alley beside her.
It took another twenty minutes of dowsing to find the labyrinth by a pet shop's rickety gutter downspout. Mami and Hitsugaya stared at the sigil and tried to figure out what it was so they could have at least some clue what they might find inside.
Hitsugaya tilted his head and squinted. "I think I see an umbrella with a little bow on top and a split handle, but I have no idea what everything else is."
"I see the umbrella, too," Mami murmured. "Maybe the rest is... pink clouds with pink rain bending up to rain under the umbrella?"
The boy straightened and frowned. "I guess that wouldn't be the weirdest thing a Witch would have."
Mami laughed as she triggered her transformation. She conjured a rifle and smiled at him. "Shall we?"
Hitsugaya held his right hand out to his side. The flicker of pale blue light Mami had seen him use at the shop appeared. He wrapped his hand around it, then an ice flower blossomed at one end and a beam of magic shot out and turned into a sword made of ice. While he was making a few warm-up swings, ice arced around his neck like loose armor. He met her eyes and seriously said. "Ready when you are."
Mami led him into the labyrinth with a sharp nod. They immediately stood back to back and took in their surroundings. The first thing they noticed was that it was pouring rain.
"Well, I guess you were right," Hitsugaya muttered.
"Half-right. It's not pink," Mami said with a smile.
They were standing in the middle of a cobblestone street with picturesque old European storefronts and cafés lining the sidewalks. At the far end of the street to Mami's left, the distant Eiffel Tower was just visible through the mist; to Mami's right, the street led to... another Eiffel Tower. Okay. Both had giant multicolored bows tied to their pinnacles, the loose ends of the ribbons waving like flags. The streets were lined with narrow swirls of brass with gaps in their centers. Before they could really consider whether or not that was something to worry about, the ground and buildings began to make a series of mechanical clunking sounds. Doors popped open down the entire length of the street like the old automaton clocks Mami had seen in antique shops. Every door spewed automatons at even intervals, each mechanically raising and opening an umbrella as they exited. Each doll looked like it had been artlessly sculpted from clay and painted with eye-searingly clashing bright colors. They were faceless and their sculpted and painted "clothes" were skin-tight for the masculine figures and futuristic space girl hoop skirt dresses for the feminine figures; all had some kind of boots. All carried umbrellas— cute translucent ones Mami saw offered at convenience stores for cheap on rainy days for the feminine figures and impractically tiny fashion accessories for the masculine figures. While none of them had the support poles that usually moved such automatons, they all glided along the brass tracks on the street. They flowed into an intricate but repetitive pattern around Mami and Hitsugaya, revolving in place as they moved along. They didn't move otherwise and did not attack.
"I don't sense a Witch," Mami announced.
"Just Familiars, huh? What a pain."
Mami's lips twitched upward as she took aim with her rifle. "Let's see what happens." She shot one of the automatons. The others moved through it as it fell apart and its clay melted in the rain. No reaction. "Huh. This should be simple."
"You never know," Hitsugaya said quietly. "Let's stay where we are. Watch each other's backs and let them come to us on the tracks."
"Sounds like a plan."
The duo methodically attacked the clay figures as they approached in an assembly line to their destruction. It was like a shooting gallery for Mami— she repeatedly conjured a row of guns spaced just so and waited for the next batch of Familiars to line up with them before shooting. Hitsugaya slashed through half a dozen at a time, his sword easily cleaving through clay like a scythe reaping grain. It took probably thirty minutes to whittle the Familiars down while holding their ground, but the time was worth the reduced risk. Eventually, there were only a handful left at the far ends of the street. Hitsugaya murmured to Mami and she carefully sniped the remaining Familiars from afar while the boy guarded her back. Soon, the labyrinth wobbled and faded from existence, leaving them by the pet shop's downspout once more.
Mami released her transformation and watched Hitsugaya drop his sword, which evaporated before it hit the ground. His neck guard dissolved as he scrutinized the downspout and stepped up to it. Lightly running his fingers down it then looking up toward the roof, he frowned and said, "They really do seem to always haunt places relevant to their... themes."
Oh. Rain gutter. Rainy labyrinth. "Ah, yes. Sometimes the tie can seem... abstract. But it's often the case."
Hitsugaya hummed in thought and stepped back. "Do you want to complete the patrol or go straight back to the shop?"
Mami bit her lip. "Let's finish the patrol. I-if that's all right with you. If a Familiar is running around, there may be a Witch nearby. I don't want anyone to get attacked."
The boy nodded and said, "Where next?"
They completed Mami's usual circuit without further incident just in time for a late dinner at the shop. Or maybe Mr. Tsukabishi had specifically timed it for their return. Despite everything that had fallen apart around her lately, it was one of the most relaxed patrols she had been on since the days when Kyōko had been her cheerful apprentice.
I'm not alone anymore, she thought as Mr. Tsukabishi dragged a tired Mr. Urahara to the table and the four of them had a wonderfully mundane dinner.
§ x § x §
Late that night, Kisuke sought Hitsugaya, told him to leave the gigai and follow him, shoved a couple suitcases at the disgruntled captain, and slung a big pack of supplies on his own back. They left Tessai to mind the shop while Tomoe slept and set out for Soul Society.
"You could have told me you arranged a meeting," Hitsugaya snapped at him in the Precipice World.
"Not with Miss Tomoe constantly in earshot," Kisuke answered distractedly, mentally going over plans for probably the hundred-and-sixty-third time.
Hitsugaya grumbled but didn't argue further.
The captains and lieutenants of the Thirteen Divisions were already assembled in the First Division meeting hall when they arrived. They were also displeased by the late hour. Hitsugaya rid himself of his suitcases as though they were hot coals and hurried to his spot. Kisuke took a deep breath, pondered the threads the room gave him to work with and the thread he had brought with him, and set his loom.
His warp was the collected shinigami; his weft was a briefing about the base magical girl situation barring all mention of anything having to do with time manipulation or knowledge of the future, but with heavy stress on the disturbing similarities observed between the Incubator's methods and Aizen's early experiments in which he preyed upon souls in the Rukon to combine into an imperfect Hōgyoku. He lay each thread out carefully, his words designed to cause specific reactions in those present— piquing interest in some, boring others, and sowing empathy or moral outrage among those who could be affected by such emotions. The only thing that didn't go quite as expected was the boredom he desired of Kenpachi Zaraki not being shared by his tiny lieutenant, who had a notoriously short attention span for anything not involving observing violence, making mischief, or eating sugar. Then again, she was a powerful young girl and he was talking about other powerful young girls being preyed upon. Sympathy?
Yachiru had climbed from her usual perch peeking over Zaraki's shoulder while clinging to his back to a fully visible crouch on his shoulder, leaning into his head and digging her fingers into his scalp while watching Kisuke with an uncertain scowl that reminded him of a territorial cat.
"Hey, Kissy-kissy," she called out when he paused.
Kisuke looked directly at the apparent six-year-old. Her dark pink eyes looked redder than he remembered. "Yes, Lieutenant Kusajishi?"
"Do Incatbunnies bleed?"
"Yes," Kisuke answered slowly. "Yoruichi says it tastes somewhere between rabbit and cat, with a tingle."
The little girl licked her lips and yanked on her captain's shaggy hair. "Kenny! Let's kill 'em!"
The big man barely reacted to his hair nearly being torn out by the roots. "Tch. Boring small fry. Even the Witch things sound boring if little living girls can take 'em."
Yachiru's cheeks puffed out as she pouted. "But Kenny, it tricks 'em into fighting!"
"So? You fight fine."
The pink-haired girl gave a quiet screech and clawed his head. "But little living girls aren't like me! Their feelings are squishy and killing makes 'em sad! They need to grow up more before they like killing things! The Incatbunnies don't let 'em grow up to kill better! No fair!" When Zaraki just rolled his eyes and looked away, she hauled off and punched his cheekbone with one little fist. The man's neck audibly popped as his head whipped sideways.
Everyone stared. What the everloving several levels of hell.
"But Kenny! If the Incatbunnies eat up all the best fighter girls before they grow up and come here, we can't recruit 'em for Eleventh! We don't have enough girls!"
Zaraki actually looked mildly interested. "...True."
Kisuke's mind broke. "Wait. Say that again."
The pink terror blinked innocently at him, mollified now that her captain was under her sway. "We can't recruit 'em for Eleventh?"
"The other part."
"The Incatbunnies eat up all the best fighter girls before they grow up and come here and we don't have enough girls?"
Kisuke kept staring at her as his mind rebooted.
From the mouths of babes, Benihime drawled in his head, sounding like she was shaking her own.
Some of the others present looked like they were putting pieces together. Kisuke turned to the contingent from Eighth Division and slowly asked, "Captain Kyōraku, Eighth still handles the registers for Shin'ō Academy and the Thirteen Divisions, right?"
"Yes," Kyōraku replied lowly. "From the entire nine hundred and seventy-two years we've bothered keeping such records." He dipped his head and peered up from under the brim of his wide straw hat with sharp eyes. "I'm guessing my division is going to be figuring out how many female recruits we've been getting over the years."
"Compile data on male and female academy recruits overall and also specifically the number of those from the Rukon and those born in Seireitei. Twelfth can crunch the numbers. If there's a downward trend in proportion of female recruits from the Rukon with no corresponding drop in those born in Seireitei..." An entire new angle of inquiry spread before Kisuke. On top of the other hundred balls he was juggling.
Kisuke suddenly, intensely sympathized with Homura Akemi.
Captain Unohana inclined her chin in a thoughtful gesture and coolly observed, "I have long thought there should be more female shinigami than we have. And the disparity has become gradually more noticeable over time." That was significant coming from a woman who had been one of the founding members of the Thirteen Divisions.
Shinji raised his eyebrows and said, "You think this critter's been poachin' our talent before it can get to us?" His eyes darted from face to face. "If it is, ain't that sabotaging us?"
"Intentionally or unintentionally? Or as an added bonus to whatever its goals are?" Hitsugaya wondered suspiciously.
Kisuke met the Captain-Commander's calculating eyes and deeply wished to jump to the classified meeting that would happen after the current meeting.
"Kisuke Urahara," Yamamoto rumbled, "please continue. Display your artifacts and explain your suggested course of action."
So Kisuke picked up one of the suitcases, opened it, and turned it around to show everyone the contents. Ten Soul Gems rested in foam padding, gold and jewels sparkling in the low light. "Each of these is the condensed soul of a spiritually aware girl. Hitsugaya and Akemi confiscated forty-three from the magical girl serial killer. I have brought twenty of them for Captain Kurotsuchi to study." He set the open case on the small table that had been provided to him and removed a Soul Gem that looked like a shimmering emerald, then chose callously provocative words. "Please pass her around to examine her." Then he deliberately stepped to his right and gave the Soul Gem to Captain Ukitake first so it would have to be passed to everyone else in the parallel lines of officers before it reached Kurotsuchi— both to frustrate his former subordinate and because he knew the man probably wouldn't relinquish the Soul Gem once he had it in his hands.
Kisuke rattled off his observations of Soul Gem mechanics while watching the officers' faces as the Soul Gem made the rounds. Ukitake was predictably appalled and looked at the egg with pity. Rukia Kuchiki took it gingerly and held it toward Eleventh. Zaraki didn't care enough to take it, but Yachiru did. The little girl scowled at it for a moment before quickly shoving it toward Kensei, then scrubbing her hands on Zaraki's haori as though she had touched something distasteful. Kensei glanced at it with a grim face and passed it to Mashiro, who held it by top and bottom between thumb and forefinger, lifted it up to the light, and sadly said, "she's so pretty," before carefully handing it to her co-lieutenant Hisagi. The young man glanced at it with a deeply disturbed expression then passed it to Komamura, who took it in one large paw and looked at it carefully. The big dog-man's face was unreadable but his ears turned flat against his head before he passed it to Iba, who frowned and passed it to Shinji. The de facto leader of the Visored also held it up to the light and turned it this way and that with a grim face. "Poor kid," he muttered as he passed it to Hinamori. The brunette looked like she might cry angry tears as she ran a thumb over the circular medallion near its base. She passed it to Rose, who looked at it with cold detachment before passing it to Kira. The young man looked nervous about touching it and immediately passed it to Sasakibe, who inspected it closely with an inscrutable face and walked it over to Yamamoto. The old man cradled it in his palm and stared hard at it before returning it to Sasakibe with a scowl. His lieutenant walked it over to the second line of officers. Soi Fon turned it to assess every angle with a hard face and carelessly shoved it at Omaeda, who looked bored and passed it to Unohana. Her heavy-lidded gaze as she examined it was ominous.
Unohana looked up and met Kisuke's eyes. "This child's reiatsu is quite distinctive. Budding plants and spring-like rejuvenation. A healer?"
"I have no way of knowing right now, but I thought as much," Kisuke answered.
The healer nodded once and politely passed it to Isane Kotetsu. The tall silver-hired woman looked like she might cry as she passed it to Byakuya Kuchiki. His face was aloof as always as he inspected it and passed it to Renji Abarai. The redhead looked outraged and his hand shook. He looked up at Kisuke and gruffly asked, "That thing did this to Ichigo's sisters' souls?"
"Yes."
Renji clenched his jaw and visibly bit back words. He jerkily passed it to Kyōraku, who took it reverently and examined it with a melancholy expression. Nanao Ise took it from him and only touched it with the tips of her fingers, lips pursed as she memorized it and passed it to Hitsugaya, who had already seen it and immediately passed it to Matsumoto. The normally cheerful woman looked heartbroken and protective. She hesitantly held it out to Kurotsuchi, who snatched it from her fingers without bothering to hide his impatience.
"Twenty, you said?" he asked in a clipped tone.
"Yes," Kisuke replied.
The other scientist began muttering to himself.
"I also brought two Grief Seeds and an unknown object that appears to be an imitation or derivative of a Grief Seed." Kisuke closed the current suitcase and picked up a smaller one. He opened it and removed said objects, then gave them to Ukitake to start the process over again. Yachiru eyed them suspiciously and refused to touch them. Zaraki didn't care, so Mashiro darted around him to take the items from Rukia.
No sooner had Mashiro taken them than she hissed, threw the objects at the floor, and jumped back.
"The hell was that for?!" Renji shouted. "Those are kids' souls!"
"Not the squiggly one!" the usually-bubbly woman said with disgust. "It feels like— like— that night."
The Visored in the room tensed. Kensei cautiously approached the squiggly pseudo Grief Seed, squatted near it, and held a hand out. He stopped a centimeter away from it, lips curling into a sneer. "She's right." Looking up at his colleagues, he growled, "This damn thing feels like whatever the hell Aizen infected us with. Not the same, but similar enough that it's unmistakable."
Kisuke looked at him with narrowed eyes. "We never did figure out precisely what he used to initiate the transformation," he mused. "And it did have an effect similar to Hollowfication on the Miki girl..."
"Now you tell us," Shinji droned. "Thanks for the warning, Kisuke."
"My apologies," Kisuke said with a bow of his head. "While I did not witness the effects on the living girl myself, Captain Hitsugaya did."
Everyone turned to Hitsugaya, who was frowning severely while looking toward the silver spindles. "I didn't see the actual transformation— just its end result. I'm not sure if it transformed her physical body or encased it or what."
"Labyrinths do tend to distort reality," Kisuke interrupted as thoughts occurred to him. "Miss Miki mentioned that the Familiars stretched her like taffy, which should be physically impossible. I wonder if the doors to labyrinths are some kind of reishi henkan-ki...? But... stranger." Yet another point of investigation.
"What was this transformation?" Unohana asked.
Hitsugaya shifted uncomfortably. "It was... like a Witch, but not nearly as strong." He looked at Kisuke, who interpreted it as not wanting to reveal Akemi's observation of it having been visually halfway to Miki's actual Witch form. That was for the private briefing later that would include the time travel. "But also... it felt like the energy that an earthbound soul generates when its chain is consumed and it turns Hollow. Not the same, but—" he glanced at Kensei and echoed his words— "similar enough that it was unmistakable."
"What did it look like?" asked Hinamori.
"Like... a mermaid. About the same size as Miki, except for the extended tail. Blue scales, webbed fingers with claws, gills on her ribs, tattered pink and blue ribbons for hair and... kind of like a cape and skirt, I guess, with a metallic knight's helm over the top half of her face like... a... Hollow... mask," he finished slowly with another look at Kisuke.
Kisuke always had mixed feelings about brainstorm sessions that bore fruit. So interesting, but so much more to look into.
Kensei carefully picked up the Grief Seed and its warped twin by the little silver ornaments on their crowns, holding them away from his body like they might explode. Once he had passed them to Komamura, he looked at Kisuke murderously. "This fucker's Hollowfying little girls?"
"Apparently," Kisuke answered mildly. Exactly the reaction he wanted from the Visored in Seireitei. "My working model is that becoming a Witch is a form of Hollowfication."
The items reached Rose, who stared at them coldly. "Have you told the other Visored in Karakura?"
"No. Not in detail. I'm not sure how Hiyori will handle it. I heard she nearly came to blows with Karin Kurosaki and Homura Akemi upon meeting."
"Hiyori started it, didn't she?" Shinji asked morbidly.
"Yes. Lisa said the tongue-lashing Ichigo gave her afterward was glorious."
"Ah, ta be a fly on that wall," Shinji sighed wistfully.
Rose's eyes slid to look at Kisuke. "Telling her may get Hiyori to be more cooperative."
"Or get her to fly off the handle, dependin' on her mood," Shinji drawled. "We all kinda have a thing about assholes Hollowfying other people's souls, but Hiyori also has shit impulse control."
Rose hummed in unhappy acknowledgment and passed the items on.
Yamamoto cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Now, Kisuke Urahara. Your advice for our response, if you would."
Kisuke was vaguely amused that Yamamoto always avoided addressing him with any kind of title. "I would recommend each division look into its logs of shinigami that went missing in the World of the Living for unsolved cases where no Hollow was discovered on follow-up, for starters."
"Our divisions should all have the basis for such reports from our investigations to retrospectively try to figure out which disappearances had been Aizen's doing, like Captain Shiba," Hitsugaya said. "As I recall, most were inconclusive. Perhaps doubly so, now. But we can assign officers to dig farther back."
Yamamoto nodded. "You all have these reports to start from?"
Everyone murmured or nodded agreement except Zaraki.
"Captain Zaraki?" Yamamoto said sternly.
"We got it!" Yachiru chirped. "Pinball-head did it!"
Kisuke didn't know why Zaraki didn't just drag Third Seat Ikkaku Madarame with him to meetings. He handled much of the nuts and bolts of running Eleventh and would probably actually give a damn about at least some of the things discussed. Maybe.
"Yes. Well." Kisuke cleared his throat. "If any of your divisions kept records of subordinates who returned and reported something that sounded like extreme hallucinations that may actually have been labyrinths, that would also be good to know."
"Fourth would have those records collected in one place," Unohana said. "No need for the others to look."
Kisuke nodded sharply. "Captain Ukitake, I would appreciate it if your division could compile everything you have on the greater Mitakihara area. Patrol history, incident reports, everything. Even if it looks innocent or unremarkable. As far back as you have it." Captain Ukitake gave him a businesslike nod. Kisuke turned to the contingent from Sixth Division. "Captain Kuchiki, I would very much appreciate if you could request that the Kuchiki archivists research certain historical topics. I can give you a list, if you should accept." Byakuya inclined his chin in assent. Kisuke let an obnoxious grin overtake his features and turned to Twelfth. "Then, Ma-yu-riiiiin~"
"Don't tell me what to do, you buffoon," Kurotsuchi sneered as he shoved the Soul Gem at his lieutenant in favor of looking at the Grief Seed and its imitation.
"Why, I would never even think of it," Kisuke cooed from behind the fan he brought out with sleight of hand. "I just wanted to give you several dossiers of information for your little darlings to play with." He mourned that he couldn't bring himself to include data acquired from Twelfth's databases and disclosures in the last timeline to rile the man up by giving the impression he'd been hacked unnoticed. Kurotsuchi would throw himself into overhauling the security measures on his systems before studying the Soul Gems. It would be fun if they weren't so pressed for time.
Next time around, perhaps, Benihime muttered sulkily. She loved to see Mayuri squirm but practicality came first. Save it for if you ever need to distract him from investigating Akemi. Especially since you will be acquiring even more disparate information this time. You can falsify an extensive system breach and make him too apoplectic to care about anything else. She disdainfully sneered, Selfish boor.
Good idea, Kisuke thought to her.
The meeting soon wrapped up, everyone dispersing quickly as they headed to their beds— or labs, in Kurotsuchi's case. Kisuke was satisfied with his cloth for the moment. He and Hitsugaya adjourned to Yamamoto's office with Ukitake to have a private briefing involving everything that had been glossed over to conceal the time travel, then returned to the shop. Hitsugaya went to bed, but Kisuke retreated to his own labs. He had work to do on the Asunaro surveillance drones.
§ x § x §
One of the Incubator's Asunaro terminals perched on a streetlight and observed the Pleiades Saints fighting a pseudo-Witch while contemplating the overarching situation. It was tempted to suspect these girls of collusion with Homura Akemi— especially Umika Misaki— but that seemed extremely unlikely. The Pleiades Saints were uncommonly inventive with their magic, yes, but the barrier they had cast over their city would make it nearly impossible for them to be meaningfully involved with anyone in Mitakihara.
The Incubator did wonder what Misaki and Kanna could accomplish if they allied with the residents of the magic shop, but that was unlikely to happen. The situation in Asunaro was devolving rapidly; the Pleiades Saints might soon cease to exist. Six were starting to split into factions regarding the pet project that replaced their seventh; two had decided to prioritize the current iteration of their project even if it meant their original goal would be sacrificed, one was desperate for the original to be recreated, one resented that obsession, one was sliding into insanity unnoticed, and one was actually a disguised infiltrator who brought to mind the human expression "wolf in sheep's clothing." The project herself was a wildcard. The Pleiades Saints were a self-contained rolling disaster the Incubator could only watch because the magical girls had also targeted themselves in the erasure of the Incubator from the memories and perception of all within the barrier's borders.
It was a regrettable situation. The Incubator could only accomplish anything in Asunaro if the barrier was broken. Its terminals had studied it for months and found it so sturdily woven from the five girls' magic supporting Misaki's base spell that they postulated it could withstand losing more than half the anchors as long as Misaki was alive. It could possibly stand if Misaki was eliminated but all five of the other girls remained alive and stable; fortunately, that was no longer possible. The Incubator did not bother trying to dismantle the barrier because it would be a pointless expenditure of energy. It would collapse whenever Misaki finally succumbed to despair. Even though the Incubator could not form new contracts within it, the barrier worked to their advantage by limiting the Pleiades Saints' Soul Gem collecting.
Incubator terminals could wander freely through most of Asunaro, but the one place they most wanted access to had been warded against them before the magical girls had cast the larger barrier. The Incubator knew the Pleiades Saints kept their collection of dormant magical girls underneath Mirai Wakaba's museum, but it could not access the hidden chamber. They deeply wanted to free those magical girls from the suspended animation the Pleiades Saints had put them into to prevent them from turning into Witches while the team looked for a nonexistent cure. The Incubator's investment of energy lay inert instead of accumulating profit, which was bothersome. The only way it could get in was if Misaki or two other Pleiades Saints died or turned...
...Or if the barriers were subverted in some other way. Perhaps by the infiltrator, though her obsessions made her unreliable. Perhaps by the residents of the nearby magic shop who had so much expertise in warding and seemed to be allied with Homura Akemi in human moral outrage. Those humans could enter Asunaro and interact with everyone within, while the Incubator could not. They would not be able to see the Incubator terminals following them. They might be sanctimonious enough to track down the Freezer and release the magical girls within— those wards would not specifically target the humans as they did the Incubator's terminals. Even though that raised the possibility of recruiting an entire force of magical girls to their cause, the sheer demand for Grief Seeds would eventually be their downfall as it had been for every group, team, guild, and alliance of magical girls throughout history.
Whichever pillar crumbled first, all the Incubator needed was patience. And patience was practically its lifeblood. If it was very lucky, all its problems would solve each other without its interference.
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A/N: *sound of roller coaster cars cranking uphill*
Sayaka's Magia Record transformation finally came out. I need a joke comic of Homura hurling Sayaka at Kyōko by the cape like in the clip, but with Sayaka visible and making funny faces instead of wrapped up in the cape and Kyōko making a shocked face in the background.
...Kinda like the time Ichigo hurled Rukia at Renji by the obi, now that I think about it.
Oh my God
Ichigo and Homura ARE siblings
This chapter was replaced with an edited version on November 1, 2019. Reviews with timestamps before that date refer to a slightly different version of the chapter.