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kitsmits · 26 days

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Mono no Aware Bonus Scene!

25.5: “Plans and Purple Elephants”

This is a scene I originally wrote to include either in Chapter 25 or 27, but it didn’t really fit tonally in either. However, I still really like the scene and it does establish the start of some important character dynamics, so here it is! Enjoy :)

There was something strange happening.

Earlier that day, Sorano Kaede had arrived at Urahara Shoten bearing something entirely unexpected: food. Hot, homemade food. Ikkaku and Yumichika trailed in after her, arms laden with bowls and plates; they must have been on Kaede-watching duty, something Renji was glad to be exempted from on account of his training with Chad.

“Thought we could all use a pick-me-up for training,” she explained, directing Ikkaku and Yumichika to lay everything out. The smells alone drew Renji closer, despite his wariness of the woman. Everything just smelled…irresistible. There was some sort of shredded meat, still steaming and coated in a spicy sauce; fresh chopped vegetables and herbs; and was that rice yellow?

“Are those….tortillas?”

Renji nearly jumped at the sound of Chad’s voice behind him. Kaede looked up at the tall teen and smiled. “Yes - flour, not corn, I’m afraid. I couldn’t get the masa here.”

Chad’s eyes were wide under his thick bangs. “You made all of this?”

“Well, I couldn’t really sleep last night,” she admitted, tucking her hair behind her ear with a shrug. “And to be honest, I get kind of bored with Japanese cuisine after a week or so. Guess I’m just used to spicier food.”

“I haven’t had fresh tortillas in years,” Chad said, looking at the food like he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “Not since I left Mexico.”

Kaede’s brows shot up. “¿Eres de México?”

Chad blinked in surprise. “Crecí allí. ¿Tú hablas español?”

That was when the weirdness really began. Renji looked on, growing ever more perplexed as the two spoke with mounting enthusiasm. He couldn’t believe his eyes, much less his ears; Chad had said more in the past couple minutes than Renji had heard, well, ever. Not only that…“The hell are they even talking about?”

“Beats me,” Ikkaku said through a mouthful. Clearly, he had no qualms about eating food made by Aizen Sousuke’s freakin’ wife. “Sounds like gibberish.”

“It’s Spanish,” Yumichika said with an exasperated sigh. “And they’re talking about some festival called the ‘Days of the Dead.’ Apparently, it’s coming up in a couple of weeks.”

“They have festivals for the dead? That’s creepy.”

“Says the Shinigami,” Yumichika retorted. “It makes sense, though; death is a universal truth, even for us.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” Renji conceded. Then something hit him. “Wait - how do you understand what they’re saying?”

“Because unlike some,” Yumichika answered, delicately picking at a tortilla, “I actually listen. You’d understand them too if you just opened your ears a bit. Shinigami don’t have language barriers; technically, we aren’t even speaking Japanese right now, it just seems like we are because it’s the predominant language for the Humans around us.”

“Wait, we can do that?” Ikkaku scratched his shaved crown. “I had no idea…”

“More like you just never noticed it before,” Yumichika corrected. “Also, the food is perfectly safe. I watched her make everything. It’s a bit spicy for my taste though, and far from what I’d call ‘aesthetically pleasing.’ The appearance alone puts me off.”

“I think I’ll pass, then,” Renji grumbled even as his stomach did the same. “Not a fan of spicy stuff.”

“More for me,” Ikkaku said, though it was barely intelligible as he shoveled a filled tortilla into his mouth.

As Ikkaku continued to stuff his face and Yumichika continued to sit and watch, Renji decided to pay more attention to the conversation between Chad and their mysterious new ally. At first, their speech continued to sound like fast-paced gibberish, but with a little concentration, Renji started to make out the words between the two of them.

“…have to show you some photos I took the last time I was there,” Kaede was saying. “They came out beautifully, if I do say so myself! I always found it fascinating that the calaveras for el Dia de los Muertos resemble skulls - kind of like Hollow masks, don’t you think?”

”I never considered that,” Chad admitted.

“Makes me wonder if at some point, people were more aware of Hollows’ existence around them, you know?” She smiled. “Or they’re just another classic ‘memento mori,’ and I’m thinking too much about it!”

”I haven’t seen a Dia de los Muertos celebration in years,” Chad reflected.

“Do you miss it? Mexico?”

“Sometimes. Mexico is a beautiful country, and it's where I made all of the memories I have of my Abuelo. But if I hadn't come back to Japan, I would never have met Ichigo, Inoue, and Ishida, and I probably would have never gained the powers that allow me to fight alongside them. I wouldn't trade that for anything.”

Kaede’s smile turned wistful, even sad. “I can get that.”

“What’s going on here?”

Renji, Ikkaku, and Yumichika spun around to attention at the sound of Hitsugaya’s disapproving voice.

“S’e bwa foo,” Ikkaku tried to explain with his cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk’s.

“Ooo, what kind of food is that?” Matsumoto asked at the same time, darting around her captain with an excited smile.

A vein visibly throbbed in Hitsugaya’s forehead. “How many times do I have to say it? This is a meeting to discuss Aizen Sousuke, not a dinner party!”

“Pretty sure you only said that once,” Renji pointed out. “Just now.”

“Well, I think all meetings would be better with a meal,” Matsumoto declared, already armed with a full tortilla. She took a bite and moaned, her eyes rolling up into her head. “It’s so good!”

“I hope I haven’t offended you, captain,” Kaede herself said, turning from her conversation with Chad. “I just wanted to do something nice for everyone, since our first meeting was…what it was.”

“An’ you can’t train on an empty stomach,” Ikkaku added while reaching for another tortilla. Yumichika slapped his hand away. “Ow! What’s that for?!”

“Save some for others,” Yumichika admonished.

“Why? You aren’t eating any of it!”

“Are Inoue-san and Kuchiki-san joining us?” Kaede asked, ignoring the Shinigami squabbling over her food.

Renji almost answered, but caught himself. He didn’t care if this woman brought a whole tray of taiyaki to win them over; he wasn’t about to divulge Rukia’s whereabouts to Aizen Sousuke’s wife.

Someone else did that for him.

“Oh, Inoue-san and Kuchiki-san went to Soul Society last night,” Urahara announced, sauntering over with his fan in one hand and cane in the other. “I believe they plan to train together at the 13th Division’s grounds.”

Renji wanted to strangle the man. That was privileged information, and he was just declaring it willy-nilly in front of an associate of their enemy?! Sure, Urahara claimed she was a former associate, but when it came to Aizen, Renji had learned not to trust anything on the surface. He remembered that day on Sokyoku Hill all too well, still saw Aizen’s hand puncturing Rukia’s chest in his nightmares.

He was about to give the hat-wearing man a piece of his mind when he spied the look on Hitsugaya-taicho’s face. The diminutive captain was positively glaring at Sorano Kaede - well, Renji was pretty sure that was a glare; he wasn’t overly familiar with the range of Hitsugaya’s expressions. The captain squared his shoulders and walked over to the woman with such deliberation that everyone around them had stopped speaking. Sorano Kaede watched him with a look of resignation, like she was expecting whatever dressing-down he was surely about to give her.

He stopped a few feet away from her - and bowed.

“Sorano Kaede,” Hitsugaya began in a formal tone, “please allow me to apologize for my behavior the last time we met. There was no reason for me to attack you out of malice.”

Renji’s eyes went wide as saucers. This was turning out to be a weird day. He wasn’t the only one surprised; Yumichika’s tailored brows had risen, and even Ikkaku had paused mid-bite. Only Matsumoto didn’t seem overly shocked by the scene, a small, affectionate smile on her face as she watched her captain’s actions.

Kaede’s face was difficult to read at first. She seemed surprised as well, but there was something deeper to it, something Renji couldn’t quite place but that resonated with him nonetheless. Then her eyes softened, and she lowered her own head.

“You have every reason not to trust me,” she said. “There’s nothing to apologize for. I do appreciate you doing so, and the humility and self-awareness it takes. Your division is lucky to have you as their captain. I’ll do my best to be the asset I promised to be.”

She bowed back to Hitsugaya, and when she straightened back up again, she smiled. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, would you care for a tortilla? There's plenty of food left to go around."

"No, thank you," Hitsugaya replied stiffly, although Renji thought he could detect a bit of reluctance in the child-sized Captain's tone. "I'd prefer we all begin talking strategy as soon as possible. We're on a deadline."

"That is true." Kaede began resealing the containers. "The food will still be here when we finish."

"Ugh, but I'm still hungry!" Ikkaku complained loudly; even so, he shoved the last of his second tortilla into his mouth and stood up.

“As we are all aware,” Hitsugaya began once they'd all gathered in Urahara's small back room, “we only have an estimated three months before the Hogyoku awakens fully and Aizen comes to destroy this town. Considering the vastness of his reiatsu alone outclasses nearly every Shinigami in Soul Society, it is essential that we spend what little time we have honing our individual skills to as high a level as possible and preparing strategies that will give us the best odds of defeating him. To that end,” Hitsugaya's eyes slid to Sorano Kaede's, who sat directly across from him, “we require all the information you have on his abilities, especially in regards to his Shikai, Kyoka Suigetsu.”

Kaede met Hitsugaya's gaze evenly. “What do you know about it so far?”

”That he can create illusions that trick all five senses,” the young captain answered, “and that you only need to see it once to be affected.”

”That’s…well, it’s partially correct,” she conceded with a small frown. “But it’s not that he creates illusions; it’s called kanzen saimin, perfect hypnosis, because it relies on the power of suggestion.”

Ikkaku scratched his head, his brows forming a deep crease in his forehead. “So…like…does he make you see things, or does he…what the hell does he actually do, then?”

She sighed. “Purple elephants.”

“….eh?”

“What are you thinking of right now?”

Ikkaku blinked. “Well…purple elephants, I guess…”

“Are there any in this room?”

“No!”

“But could there be?”

“I mean - no! They wouldn’t even fit!”

“But now you’re imagining that there are purple elephants in this room.”

“Of course I am! You keep talking about it!”

“That’s the power of suggestion,” she said. “If I were using Kyoka Suigetsu right now, you’d actually see purple elephants in the room, exactly as you’re seeing them in your mind now. And it wouldn’t just be sight: You’d smell them, hear them, you’d even be able to touch them. Every sense you have would tell you that there are purple elephants in this room right now, no matter how illogical that idea is. That is what Kyoka Suigetsu does: it tricks your senses. But in order for it to do that, you have to have the idea in your mind in the first place.”

“Okay,” Ikkaku shrugged. “So…I just don’t think about purple elephants.”

Kaede shrugged. “Okay. Then don’t think about a shirtless Yamamoto, either.”

“Wha - ugh!” Ikkaku doubled over, clutching his bald head as though in pain. “Why the hell would you - I can’t stop thinking about that now! Agh, I need to bleach my brain!”

Hitsugaya grimaced, unable to stop his own mind from conjuring an image of the head captain without a shirt. “Okay. We get it.”

“You sure? ‘Cause I hear that Unohana-“

“Yes! We get it!” Hitsugaya crossed his arms. “So how do we counter it?”

“You don’t,” Kaede answered bluntly. “Or rather, you can’t. You’ve all been exposed to it at one point or another, right? You’ve all seen his Shikai release?”

“I haven’t.”

Renji started a bit at the sound of Chad’s voice again. For such a large, imposing figure, the teen was way too easy to overlook. Then he blinked, realizing what Chad had just said. “That’s right - you never saw him release his Shikai, and neither did Ichigo or Orihime! So we just have to make sure none of you see it!”

“And what do you expect that to do?” Kaede countered. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you think Kyoka Suigetsu is the only thing to worry about, you’re sorely mistaken.”

Renji’s brow twitched with annoyance. “Then why don’t you tell us something useful for a change, instead o’ just telling us how wrong we are about everything?”

She sighed. “It’s not just a matter of closing your eyes when you hear him say ‘Shatter.’ He can release Shikai without the incantation, so you’d have to close your eyes every time he draws his sword. Not exactly practical in an active fight. And if you think that you’d have the upper hand by simply avoiding the hypnosis, you’re again mistaken. Remember that every Shinigami fighting at your side is already under its thrall - and he doesn’t have to reactivate Shikai in order to use it on them.”

A chill hit Renji like a sudden cold front as her words sank in. “Wait…you’re saying that he can use that power without releasing his Zanpakuto? Just because we’ve already seen it?”

”That’s exactly what I’m saying,” she replied.

He wasn’t the only one shaken by this; even Hitsugaya had gone a little pale, though he tried to keep his stoic facade. “Even so…battles are decided by reiatsu. The full force of the Gotei, even just the captains and lieutenants…we’d dwarf him. He can’t control all of us at once, no one has that kind of reiatsu volume or control.”

“First of all,” Kaede said, holding up a finger, “he can, and he does. Back when we were…together, he was able to trick the senses of captains and lieutenant-class Shinigami from a wide distance. Once the suggestion’s been planted, it’s just a matter of spending a little more reiatsu to keep it active, and he’s got more than enough to spare. Second, Kyoka Suigetsu isn’t the most dangerous thing you’ll face from him.”

”You mean the Arrancar?” Hitsugaya asked. “They’re strong, but if we fight without limiters-“

”I don’t mean the Arrancar,” she said with a shake of her head. “And I don’t mean his own battle skills, either. It’s the mind games.”

A shadow came over her eyes as she spoke. “He will get inside your head - in fact, he already has, in one way or another. If you have any sort of grudge against him, he will use it to misdirect your gaze. If you have any fears about facing him, he will use them to psyche you out. He will rile you up to make you reckless, and in the next breath, he will make you feel overconfident or hopeful. He will use your own comrades against you, and even if you realize what’s happening in real time, there will be nothing you can do about it. You can’t warn them, or vice versa, because he’ll make it so you can’t hear each other’s words or see each other’s signals. You can’t even be certain of who you’re really fighting; all it takes is a bit of misdirection to alter your perspective.”

Cold dread sank low in Renji’s stomach. He hadn’t considered the full breadth of Aizen’s abilities; even having felt the man’s monstrous reiatsu, he couldn’t imagine the scale of power Kaede was describing.

But it seemed she wasn’t finished. “It’s not just that he can manipulate your senses; he can, and will, manipulate your mind and your feelings, and that, he can do without a Zanpakuto. For him, it isn’t enough to simply defeat an enemy physically; he wants to break you down psychologically first, shattering your sense of self, security, and sanity before he ever strikes your body.”

Something about the way she spoke chilled Renji to the bone, and not just because of the scenarios it put in his mind. It was something deeper, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

Matsumoto spoke up then, her voice almost uncharacteristically quiet and reflective. “Is that what he did to you?”

That. That was what Renji couldn’t put his finger on. The way Kaede spoke of Aizen wasn’t just as someone experienced in working with him; from the sound of it, she’d been on the receiving end, too.

“I thought you said you weren’t deceived by him,” he pointed out, trying to wrap his mind around these new, conflicting bits of information.

It was Urahara who responded, speaking so low and with such ice that, for a moment, Renji didn’t recognize the shopkeeper. “Deception isn’t the only way to manipulate someone.”

“The point is,” Kaede plowed forward, “it’s not something you can just train for. There are a few people among the Gotei who might be able to counter his reiatsu, but he will have planned for that. He always has a plan.”

“Which is why keeping Kaede secret is so important,” Urahara interjected. “You all focus on preparing for the battle you can fight: the Arrancar. We will deal with Aizen Sousuke.”

#mono no aware #bleach fanfiction #aizen x oc #bleach #toshiro hitsugaya #kisuke urahara #chad yasutora #renji abarai #ikkaku madarame #yumichika ayasegawa #aizen sousuke #bleach oc #rangiku matsumoto #bonus scene

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