“I actually don’t think something like perfection exists. That is I think why we are born able to absorb things… and by comparing ourselves with something else we can finally head in a good direction.” — Itachi Uchiha.
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Itachi felt really uncomfortable when he remembered the conversation he just had and the person he had it with. He had kept his bias to the side when he met them so as not to judge wrongly, but it turned out that he shouldn’t have bothered in the first place.
He disliked Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Greatly so.
The man’s existence seemed to validate every single bias Itachi had against mad scientists.
When he had asked Kyōraku why the psychotic man was allowed to head the 12th Division in its entirety, the response he had received from the Captain in a rare moment of seriousness just set off a couple more warning bells against the individual known as Mayuri in Itachi’s head.
“It’s better this way, even Old man Yama knows that. Better to let him run wild in our benefit than let him rot away in the Maggots Nest, or worse plot against us. Especially now that the Twelfth, one of our vital Divisions, is without a Captain.”
The lesser of two evils. He hated choices like those.
“You’re smart, at least in certain ways. What? You think I’ll be angry that you held me under suspicion? On the contrary, Lieutenant, I’m relieved that I’m not completely surrounded by blighted fools. Only idiots will trust someone that has a lot of motive to backstab them. As for me? We’ll see, won’t we?”
Those were Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s words concerning Itachi’s suspicion of him being the main instigator during the Hollowfication incident.
The man was vain, boisterous, conceited, smart, unscrupulous, cunning, lacking morals, and he had achieved Bankai.
The last bit was something Itachi realized from the man who couldn’t pass up a moment to prove his superiority to everyone. And it wasn’t something recent either, probably more than 50 years ago.
“Mayuri Kurotsuchi—” A stealth Shinigami appeared kneeling in front of Itachi as soon as he started speaking, “— is the next Captain of the 12th Division. Tell those inside to keep an eye on all of his research, regardless of their level of importance.”
“Yes sir.” The Shinigami replied and disappeared to immediately carry out Itachi’s orders.
After gaining partial control of the Division, Soi Fon revealed some of the spies Yoruichi had in the other Divisions, at least those that fell under his jurisdiction to command as she was still in control of some he wasn’t aware of.
Even some of the ones that Soi Fon wasn’t aware of, discreetly made Itachi aware of their presence and station and further directive as he was now the Acting Commander of the 2nd Division. For these spies, Itachi had them resume the directive Yoruichi gave them, and unknown to anyone – not Soi Fon, not the Head Captain, neither the old spies nor the people directly involved – Itachi started inserting new spies into the Divisions one by one, starting first with the ones without Captains.
Actually, only three people apart from Itachi knew about these spies, and while they were all part of the Second and the Onmistukidō, none of them were Seated Officers.
As for what he had secretly discussed with Mayuri, only the Head Captain was aware, a fact that Mayuri wasn’t informed of and Itachi doubted he would have cared either way.
A solo expedition to Hueco Mundo.
Itachi’s reasoning was that too much time has passed from the last accurate piece of information they have of the Hollows home world. With high level Hollows having intelligence no lower than that of Shinigami and humans, Itachi wanted to know how they were organizing themselves after a thousand years.
Was there any power in play? Have they built a social hierarchy? A controlling force maybe?
Yamamoto had instantly and firmly denied the petition the moment Itachi had brought it up, until Itachi started bringing out the data he had put together of Hollow activity for the past few decades, both in the Soul Society and the World of the Living.
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The reason he was confident the Head Captain will give him the greenlight and Mayuri will agree with him was; first, the recent tragedy with the Hollows and the loss of those unfortunate Captains – An attempt at manipulating the Head Captain’s emotions, one the old man was aware of given the glare he gave Itachi midway through his presentation – and secondly, Mayuri was eager to prove his superior intellect and rid himself of the stain and glory of Kisuke Urahara.
Manipulation wasn’t really his forte, Itachi would argue, but he wasn’t that bad at it.
Itachi stopped at an empty corner and brought two of his fingers over his eyes.
“So that’s how he’s going about it; manipulating their emotions and taking on a false sense of atonement. Effective.”
Aizen couldn’t exactly hide the fact that he was aiming for the Captain’s haori, or at least that was what he made it look like.
If he did not have his own suspicion of Aizen or he did not trust Yoruichi’s words as he did, he wouldn’t never have believed that Aizen was the man he now knew him for.
Even using his Sharingan revealed nothing except what should be normal for the persona he was wearing, but that was a flaw in and of itself.
Soi Fon and Yoruichi knew about the abilities of his eyes and since Aizen could get Soi Fon under his control, and maybe even Yoruichi too, he definitely had sufficient information of Itachi’s abilities that doing something like this, appearing normal, was no different than admitting it to Itachi. And doing otherwise will be him saying that he knows Itachi knows the truth.
“With how callous and manipulative he is, I’m glad I didn’t blindly try to oust him.” Itachi said to himself as he removed his hands from his eyes.
Had he done that and Aizen flipped it somehow, he wouldn’t have been able to escape the angry Captains and would have been promptly executed, leaving the Soul Society clueless to Aizen’s actions.
“He can fake his Reiatsu and even show a false Shikai, but he can never fake a Bankai under my eyes.” He was that confident.
With his upcoming trip to Hueco Mundo, whenever Mayuri succeeds in building the machine needed, he had to take care of a few things for when he would be absent and also keep watch of Aizen’s actions during his absence.
“Unfortunately, these aren’t exactly summons otherwise the Reverse Summoning Justu would have been the perfect ability to perfect this puzzle.” He mused to himself.
As for the race for the Captain seat, his only competition would be Soi Fon who was confident that she would soon achieve the famed release. Like him, she had a very high mastery of Hadō and Bakudō – the gulf of the #90s – along with being a master in Hoho, Hakuda and Zanjutsu. She didn’t exactly know Kaidō, unlike him, but it wasn’t exactly a necessary requirement, more like a bonus one.
As for his Bankai, well time would tell honestly. He knew he'd achieve it, but he didn’t know if he'd achieve his before Soi Fon. His body and soul was already strong and capable enough to contain his Bankai, but his mastery of Truth-seeker wasn’t where he needed it to be.
It didn’t matter that much to him even if Soi Fon achieved Bankai before him as he’ll just challenge her for the seat when he gets his.
“Oh right, a Lieutenants meeting. I guess I’ll check on Junpei later.” He took two steps before disappearing silently. This would be a good chance to gauge the difference between all the current Lieutenants.
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In a moderately furnished room, the current Lieutenants of the Gotei 13 were gathered for a meeting, more aptly were waiting for the remaining Lieutenants to arrive for the meeting to begin.
It wasn’t exactly a strict gathering as the main reason behind these meetings, other than any important news that were to be shared, was to foster familiarity between the Lieutenants as they would be working together in the future, most times more than they do with Shinigami of their own Divisions.
“So who are we still waiting for?” Izuru Kira, a blonde haired man, Lieutenant of the 3rd Division asked.
“I think Yachiru, Rangiku and Itachi.” Isane counted her fingers while excluding the Divisions that still didn’t have any Lieutenants – the 6th and 8th Division.
The others murmured but otherwise made no serious complaints and chatted between themselves as they waited for their remaining members.
A few minutes later, the door swung open as Itachi stepped in along with Yachiru who was excitedly hanging off his shoulders.
“Ah everyone is already here. I told you we’ll be late, Tachi-tachi.” She said.
“I doubt we’d have been if you didn’t stop every so often to buy something.” Itachi replied calmly, easily matching Yachiru’s pace in his own way.
They greeted the others present as Yachiru dragged Itachi to two empty seats that were between Isane and Aizen.
“Isane, Aizen.” Itachi nodded in greeting to them as he sat close to Aizen while Yachiru immediately latched on to Isane and chatted animatedly with the tallest Lieutenant in the room.
“Good to see you, Itachi. I was half the mind you wouldn’t attend. You don’t strike me as someone who responds to social calls.” Aizen stated.
“It depends on the importance behind it. A social gathering of the Lieutenants is important, especially at times like these.”
The other Lieutenants nodded in agreement with Itachi’s words. Aizen wanted to continue the conversation but the doors were kicked open with Rangiku hopping in with a huge grin on her face.
“I’m the last one?” Her grin grew larger at the unanimous nod she got and she reached into sleeves and pulled out two bottles. “Well, what are we still waiting for? Let’s get the party started.”
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A/N: Probably my last chapter for this week
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