"And who exactly will you 'eliminate'? Are you saying you will eliminate Komamura and the others? Or that you will eliminate all of us? Depending upon your response, I may eliminate you right now. Although, even if you do not respond, I will still eliminate you." — Soi Fon.
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The good thing and bad thing about being drunk as a buoyant soul was in how the senses got affected. Someone like Itachi, with his saturation of Reiryoku, should be able to force out the effects of inebriation, which he could but not to the extent where it negated its effects.
He had no one to blame but himself for willingly suppressing his natural resistances when he forced himself to get drunk, which only made it harder to force them out of his systems after.
He easily maintained his posture and went about his daily life but every now and then he would slow down and… reminisce about the feeling of being drunk. It was not something he would ever commit himself to but he could admit that being drunk was a special feeling of letting go.
Or maybe that was the inebriation still talking. At this point he couldn't tell.
Onto more important topics, Soi Fon's read-out on Amagai was a good basis for suspicion, given the nature and scope of their work, and while he wasn't weak to the point of allowing familiar ties to cloud his judgment, it would not be a good feeling if a student of his, a good one for that matter, to be one mired in something as murky as treason. Fortunately, luxuries were not things he afforded himself.
One way or another, Soi Fon would be roping Gin into her investigation as she was wont to do, but until she gave him something he still had things to do.
"What are you doing?" The edge of Tsukuyomi's voice filtered its way through the muck to the forefront of his mind.
"I'm detaching myself from it." Itachi said out loud.
"You are, aren't you?" Once again Tsukuyomi's questioning-mirror way made itself known. "There is no reason to do this, is there? You are not as weak-minded to let a possible eventuality affect your actions, are you not?"
"Your words ring true," Itachi made two hand signs, an action that was wholly unnecessary but something that he simply did out of simplicity, not practicality, "but it was not for that reason only. I simply plan to teach them."
"Who?"
Itachi took off his hat, having never taken it off even after entering his office and finding safety in its dim shade, and placed it over a sanguine cat figurine, courtesy of Yoruichi, and threw his Captain's coat over his seat as he sat down.
"To whoever needs the lesson." The words echoed from the Teacher to the Mirror and they both accepted it. Mistakes are made. Lessons are learnt. The Six Paths of Reincarnation continues spinning.
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[POV: With Soi Fon]
Soi Fon – as a person, friend, confidante, leader and Shinigami – remained a perpetually displeased person, except for rare scant moments with a bare handful – a few fingers short – of people. She was such a closed off person that the last time anyone from her clan saw her lose her composure or emotions was upward of a century and half ago.
The fact that she had no direct family members that was still alive, effectively making her the last member of the Main Fon family line, might have contributed to how her mental consciousness formed.
If there was one thing she knew intimately, then it was her duties and obligations. In more ways than one, the individual known as Soi Fon was tangent to the duties she fulfilled.
In other, much simpler, words; she was a tough nut to crack.
…. Except it seemed like someone forgot to give Gin the debriefing on 'Subject: SOI FON' when he was inducted.
He bounced into and through emotional walls and personal spaces with absolutely no regards, all with a slimy smile on his face.
It was also highly ironic that, for some obscure reason, despite the fact that Soi Fon initially loathed Gin's entire being due to his status as a traitor and was of the opinion to permanently rid the Soul Society of such a person, and while it took a moderate amount of time, he was the ROOT member she was informally closest to after Junpei. She reluctantly calls him a friend and comrade in her head, safe away from his wide open ears.
His strength, his insight, his experience, his intelligence – she had seen a lot of geniuses in her short life and without a doubt Gin could stand shoulder to shoulder with them. It was… humbling.
"Aiya, ease on the glare, will'ya." The man in question glided up to her, his wisdom paying its dues as he knew better than to initiate any physical interaction with her. "What's buzzin'?"
A normal person as tired of Gin as she was would have let out a sigh or let their weariness show on their face, but not her. She fixed him a stare and held it until he gave her a wobbly two finger salute.
The perpetual smile on his face dimmed a little, never truly gone. "Wouldn't calling Tengu be better for this?"
She shook her head. "If my suspicions are right, as damned as such a notion is, then Tengu and I have been flagged."
"They would not have been able to run circles around the both of you if that wasn't the case." She nodded along to his supplement despite the thought itself stinging at her pride.
"But that's not the only thing, is it?" His closed eyes did the thing where they squinted tightly and made it look like his eyes were staring at you. He never lost that reviling air of danger, one that reminded Soi Fon of a coiled snake, she idly noted.
"No."
The stare vanished like a stray thought and he was all smiles again. This smile didn't have teeth or fangs; those were for posturing. This smile hid a dangerous Zanpakutō in its sleeves.
"And if I get found out? Take a second out of your insufficient timespan and think about poor little me for a change. You'll be putting me out of work if that happens."
"Will you get found out?" Soi Fon responded with a cold rhetoric. There were many things about Gin that used to infuriate her deeply back then – sometimes they still do – and the chief of it all was how skilled he was.
While Itachi never used Gin as a comparison when evaluating her skills, which usually puts her above everybody else and below just Itachi and Yoruichi, Soi Fon always knew in the gap of her mind that the gap that existed between her and those two was Gin. Gin, in totality, was the difference between her and Itachi.
She has always known this but it was cemented a long time ago by an inviolable fact, namely how easily and quickly he picked up Itachi's hand signs application and personally integrated them into his Kidō casting, substituting words for gestures.
"So what is it, and who?" Gin asked, completely ignoring the rhetorical question as if she never asked it.
"We still don't understand how they were able to make their attack escape Itachi's perception until the last second, but one thing we can agree on is that it wasn't a simple attack. Something took place in that instant, or in the seconds leading to it, but we still don't know what it is." She hadn't yet mentioned this particular line of thinking to Itachi but she didn't need to, knowing fully well that he and the others were suspecting the same thing. Gin not reacting to the information or asking a follow-up question was proof.
"Who?" Gin simply asked.
"Amagai Shūsuke." She replied.
"The student." He fell silent a moment after. It didn't surprise Soi Fon all that much that he knew the young man in question as he likely knew the names and faces of Itachi's students, at least the exceptional ones. As for why he cataloged the talented students, she had no idea. She doubted Itachi did either.
Still, his reaction to the name confirmed what she already knew of the man's strength. Unfortunately for everyone currently involved, Amagai's strength held little to no importance as what they were interested in were his connections to the Kasumioji. 'Suspected' connections if Soi Fon was being technical and sarcastic.
The silence stretched and it left Soi Fon faintly curious about what was going on in Gin's head, before swiftly deciding against its worth.
"Fine then." He said easily but there was a string of tension in his frame that he hid well but not well enough for her to miss it.
"He's your agent, if I remember correctly." Gin said as he began stretching and popping a few lazy joints. "I'll start with his class and work it from there up."
He made a two finger one hand sign and a puff of smoke formed his shadow clone who looked nothing like him. "Fox and I will take point." He added just before he disappeared.
Soi Fon nodded to herself even after he was gone. The Clans and the Shinigami were foolish enough to think that the Onmitsukidō had fully withdrawn after the last escalation because of the lessened activity and Itachi returning to teaching.
For their sakes, Soi Fon hoped that nothing turned up out of this, even though she was certain that something will.
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