“Those who turn their heads against their comrades are sure to die a terrible death. Be prepared.” — Itachi Uchiha.
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Today was a very dark day for the Soul Society and every Shinigami by association when the wildfire news of what happened to the Captains made its rounds through every quadrant of the Gotei 13.
To say everyone was shocked was an understatement. To say they were scared was grossly undermining it.
The Shinigami, especially the ones that worshiped the Captains strength, were horrified at the realization of what they thought inconceivable.
For the Captains, the dire complexity of the current scenario they were suddenly smacked in the face with reminded them all too well of their mortality, and that was a sentiment they would rather have done without.
Suddenly losing the security and protection of their immense strength, or being reminded in a morbid way that they could lose it just as easily as any other Shinigami, rattled them inwardly.
They were all gathered in the Kidō Corps, all watching with grim looks in their faces as the Kidō Corps along with the Medical Shinigami of the Fourth and the Research Institute of the Twelfth worked in tandem to see if they could find a way to reverse the Hollowfication.
But the Captains knew all too well that such a convenient solution was nigh impossible.
The grim looks on their faces were mostly because of the thought of what they would be forced to do at the end of the day.
Hollows and Shinigami were two sides of the spiritual coin that were never meant to coexist. Right now, these Captains were nothing more than crazed Hollows that would soon go on and devour souls as soon as they woke up.
“Where’s the old man?” Kyōraku asked in a weighty voice.
“Central 46.“ Jūshirō replied curtly.
“We better go over to his yard since he’s probably back. I want to know what we’re doing.” The remaining Captains, which were Yoruichi, Ginrei and Isshin, nodded solemnly and turned to leave.
They arrived at Yamamoto’s office and, like Kyōraku had expected, the old man was sitting on his chair with a very dark cast over his face.
They could feel the rise in temperature and how scorched the air became – and it was not of their senses. Steam was slowly filling up the room.
“What am I hearing?” Yamamoto asked in a very low voice.
The threat that his voice carried frightened them all that none could look at their esteemed Captain Commander in the eyes.
Seeing no one answering, Yamamoto banged his cane on the ground forcefully which caused all the Captains garment to billow freely from the updraft of wind it created.
“I’ll ask again: what is this that I am hearing?” Yamamoto asked again, tentatively.
“Four Captains, a Lieutenant and a 3rd Seat have been turned into Hollows.” Surprisingly it was Jūshirō who spoke up before anyone had the chance to. “And to my knowledge, the young man from the Second, Itachi Uchiha, was the first person to notice this before and swiftly informed Captain Yoruichi who informed us all.”
At the mention of Itachi’s name, the huge doors were opened to let Itachi who had been waiting outside to come in.
“How?”
Itachi who just stepped in wasn’t given the chance to take more than three steps before he was halted by Yamamoto’s question.
He didn’t even need to feel the air of the room to know that while simple in the way it was asked, Yamamoto wanted no simple answer. The old man wouldn’t hesitate to take his limbs or head off if he got the hint that Itachi was being sketchy with his answers.
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Itachi took no other step forward and elaborated on all his actions after his return from the Living World almost a year ago. His limited spy network, his surveillance of target individuals and carefully monitoring their movements – which was why he managed to pick up the familiar combustion of a Shinigami’s Hollowfying Reiatsu.
Under a plethora of surprised looks, even from Yoruichi who had found out that she was an initial target of ‘warranted suspicion’, Itachi brought out a bingo book which he threw at Yamamoto.
“And your reason for doing all this?” Yamamoto asked.
“This is my home now, at least I hope to make it one. Acting as I did was all done after a lengthy period of considering if it was worth it and I decided it was, Head Captain Yamamoto.”
The room fell quiet as everyone knew not to provoke Yamamoto in the slightest in his current mood. Only the continuous sound of flipping pages echoed out softly as Yamamoto slowly perused the book in his hands.
He glanced subtly at Itachi, noting that the young man had made this a physical copy on the likely occasion of something similar to this happening.
Surely if he could see this, there was no way the Captains wouldn’t.
“You mentioned that if all the Captains were to release their Shikai then you would be able to know if someone here is masquerading as an illusionist, is that correct?”
Itachi nodded.
“Alright then.” With movement that Itachi’s eyes failed to catch, Yamamoto stood directly in front of Itachi and stared dryly at the youth. “Then carry on.. I will personally observe you.”
Under Yamamoto’s words, even if they didn’t want to, all the Captains present - except for Yoruichi, Kenpachi and Unohana – along with Itachi, simultaneously released their Shikai under Itachi’s gaze, who was also under Yamamoto’s acute observation.
The flush of Reiatsu in such a tight space pushed against the walls and windows but was restrained by the Captains before it could cause any damage.
“So?”
Itachi closed his eyes and sighed. “It’s none of them.”
Yamamoto said nothing, only looking at Itachi for a moment longer before walking back to his chair.
“Come in.”
The doors once again opened and three clad men walked in. From their garb, everyone noted that they were from the Onmistukidō stealth forces.
One of them bowed and stepped forward to present a scroll to Yamamoto under the curious gaze of the Captains.
They left immediately after presenting the scroll to Yamamoto.
“When the news reached me, I headed to Central 46 and told them to access all our databases to check for any information in their that hasn’t been authorized by me and fewer by specific people. I did this to see if anyone was using our facilities to store forbidden data… and this,” He raised the scroll for all of them to see. “This is the result of that. One that saddens me greatly.”
Everyone waited curiously for Yamamoto to read out what was in the scroll but all he did was call out a name, and then followed with a question.
“Kisuke Urahara. What exactly does your research about ‘Transcending the Shinigami Natural Limits’ entail?”
Heads whipped immediately to Kisuke who looked stunned and shocked, which was more than a telling expression in this situation.
“Granted, you tried to delete everything from the database a decade ago and was almost successful in erasing it fully from every database in the Seireitei, at least 90% of it.”
Yamamoto’s gaze carried a certain weight to it that almost cowed everyone to submission.
Under the Captains pinning stares, Kisuke shifted uncomfortably where he stood, especially after catching Yoruichi’s aghast eyes.
“Just like it says, I was looking for a way to increase the potential ceiling of Shinigami who have reached their limits and can’t progress further.”
“And one of the ways to do that was by combining a Shinigami and a Hollow since they are basically souls at their roots.” Yamamoto completed. Kisuke let out a despondent chuckle with drooped shoulders and gave a nod of affirmation to Yamamoto.
“The Hollow experiments, though this report doesn’t contain any information on the topic, was however mentioned here. Are these your doing, Kisuke Urahara?”
Kisuke sighed deeply. “My research never delved into the experiments because I never conducted it.”
“Kisuke!”
“Captain Shihōin, stay your tongue! Or else you agree to being in mind with him.” Yamamoto glared at Yoruichi, immediately stopping her outburst.
“Kisuke Urahara, you have until sunrise tomorrow to surrender the names of your accomplices before you and the Hollowfied Captains are executed at the Sōkyoku.”
Itachi was just as dumbfounded as the rest of the Captains with the revelations that just came out of nowhere.
Kisuke’s sword was taken from him and high-end Bakudō spells that weren’t part of the standard 90 spells were used to shackle his Reiatsu and restrain any exert movement from him before he was taken away by two of the Captains.
However, despite how everything came to a surprising climax, Itachi still felt that something was off.
This was just too convenient, especially when Kisuke didn’t really deny or affirm to the allegations. Not that he thought Kisuke was innocent, but instead it felt like Kisuke was taking the fall for someone else.
‘Where’s the illusion user? Is he really going to give up his accomplices?’ Itachi thought. He looked at Yoruichi whose eyes had turned to a hateful cold spite that stared at Kisuke as he was escorted out to his holding cell.
It felt too premeditated to Itachi. It felt like the obvious conclusion that was theorized at the beginning of a hard investigative case. When did complex investigations ever have simple conclusions?
‘She knows something.’
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