"Pain must be the ultimate lesson, and it teaches one to understand what pain in life actually is." — Itachi Uchiha.
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Itachi had his hand over his eyes as he fell on his back with conflicted feelings. He could feel the two distinct Reiatsu around him sparking off against each other as if conversing to each other before one of them faded away.
"If I didn't know any better I would say that you are the one who spoils me the most." Itachi groaned.
Amaterasu scoffed as she sat on the floor near his head. "As if. But since he's being petty, someone has to do it."
She looked at Itachi and if Itachi had been looking at her at this moment, he surely would have noticed two bright twinkles in where her eyes would have been.
"What is the problem, Itachi?" She asked. "Whatever it is he showed you, is it really that hard for you to understand?"
"And if you think I won't understand then try again. I am the flames of your passion, remember?"
"… It's not that." A faint whisper came from Itachi. "It's not as simple as that."
Amaterasu paused and looked at Itachi for a moment before nodding in understanding. "It's not that it's that hard. You are reluctant at accepting whatever it might mean for you. Either as a definition of your past or a verdict of who you are at present."
She no longer said anything after that and slowly faded away into Itachi's blade, leaving him to deal with his conflicted feelings alone.
Dealing with Tsukuyomi was way harder than he thought it'd be. Then again, it shouldn't have been that surprising given who he was and the similarities between them.
He sat upright, looked at Tsukuyomi's sword still stuck into the ground and sighed. Now it wasn't just a battle with his Zanpakutō spirits but one with himself.
At this point, he dared to say he was just tired of everything. The Soul Society, Yoruichi and her merry band, his goal for the Captain candidacy, Aizen – he was tired of them all. All they did was make everything complicated. Even the tiniest issues had the possibility of snowballing into a cascade of problems.
At the end of his contemplations he took his blade and silently left.
...
[POV: With Ichimaru Gin]
Gin's eyes idly flickered from one equipment to the other as his mind drowned in extreme boredom after seeing the same scene over and over again for however long he's been here.
'Who knew I would have lost?'
It didn't come to his mind, and even when he was confronted with it, he never for once believed that he couldn't defeat Itachi Uchiha
It wasn't because of pride or any form of a superiority complex – he has neither of them – but the amount of hard work he had put in as a Shinigami made him doubt that any of the Lieutenants, except Aizen of course, could defeat him.
… Only to be proven wrong in the most humiliating way possible.
Itachi Uchiha had not only matched him with relative ease but also stayed his hand a few times when he could have killed him.
And to further humiliate himself, he had hurt both himself and his Zanpakutō when he forced Shinsō's Bankai when neither of them were ready.
"I see you're up quite early."
His musings were interrupted by the presence of Captain Unohana, who Itachi – that devil – had pawned him off to so he could be healed.
"Well, there's nothing much I can do than just laze around. How about letting me out for a while, hmm? I can even help ya out with anything you need. Eh, Captain Unohana? I just want to stretch me legs." He implored the kindhearted genial Captain who was his personal healer, just like he had done every single day since the day he could talk.
"And my answer to you, Ichimaru Gin, like always will still be no." She covered her mouth with the sleeve of her dress as she chuckled.
"Ouch. Quite coldhearted of you, dear Captain." Gin mourned while Unohana chuckled in amusement.
"Don't worry, very soon you won't have to battle against your boredom." Unohana's remark made Gin's ears perk up in what he hoped was an important piece of information.
"Hmm? How so?" He asked.
She came beside him and started healing him just like she'd done numerous times behind. "Well, our mutual benefactor said he'll be wrapping everything up soon."
"…" That made Gin feel conflicted and cheated because of the possibility that he wouldn't be there to see Aizen trample upon the Shinigami's pride. "I see."
"Do you really want it that way? I can convince Itachi and between me and him standing in defense for you, your sentence will infinitely be lighter."
It was something she proposed a few days back after coming to her own thoughts about Gin, his thought processes and the motivations for his actions, but the man himself seemed nonchalant about it. Not even caring if he was given the death sentence.
Gin was about to give his usual refusal when he saw Unohana turn to look at the entrance where Itachi stood.
Seeing him walking towards them with slow and silent steps, Gin immediately fell silent as memories he was putting his whole into forgetting started flowing back. Each and every single one of them because of this man standing a few feet from him.
Subconsciously, he folded into his sheets to hide as much as he could from Itachi's gaze. Those illusions truly traumatized him.
'Does he not know how powerful those things really are?' His heart palpitated at the thought. 'What a damned freak.'
"Lieutenant, what brings you here today? Good news on progress I hope." She asked and turned to him.
Itachi however remained silent and turned to stare pointedly at Gin.
"Need I remind you that he's still my patient, Lieutenant Itachi. Anything you want to do to him will have to wait until he's fully healed or handed over to the Head Captain." Unohana stated and went back to her routine of healing Gin. "Now I believed I asked you a question, did I not?"
Gin released a subtle breath when Itachi looked away from him and stared back at Unohana who casually ignored him.
"The next Captain selection. It'll be the both of us." He replied.
Unohana hummed and remained silent for a few seconds before speaking. "So you plan to expose his Bankai with yours. It's a good plan, but what if he pulls his strings before then? How do you plan to respond?"
"By relaying the information to people I know I trust and that they can react in an instant. I doubt he can weave his way through multiple Captains."
"There… that's it for today." She patted Gin's hand, arranged his sheets, before turning to face Itachi. "Not playing to the advantage you have over your enemy is the same as letting him play his over yours."
She briefly glanced at Gin and sighed. "I know your position doesn't allow you to act without proper evidence, that along with the few contingencies Ichimaru Gin said he had created for you, I can see the reason for your reluctance. Despite how unsightly it is."
Itachi scoffed as they both left Gin's prison/healing room. "Do you have any idea how that fact annoys me?"
"Oh believe me, I do." Unohana replied. "How about joining me for tea before you go on about your duties?"
...
[POV: With Aizen]
Aizen's face nested a small smirk that resembled a kindhearted smile if one didn't look hard enough.
"Lord Aizen, now that Gin's situation is obscure, what do we do?" Tōsen asked softly as he served Aizen tea.
Aizen looked at Tōsen and his smirk widened a bit. "We will do what we always do. We move forward."
"Yes sir." Tōsen bowed in complete respect and stood beside Aizen with his ears open for anything Aizen had to say.
Aizen, while he appreciated Tōsen's reverential respect, appreciated Gin's 'quirkiness' more.
There were very few things in existence that could make a man like him genuinely happy and his trip to Hueco Mundo did just that.
Talking with that ruler of Hollows really excited him, not because the other party was a good conversation partner, but because of the details of the conversation they had.
'You are quite the tenacious one, Captain Itachi. I would have wanted our game to go on for another century but you went ahead and became too predictable. The game ends here, I'm afraid. Let's pick this up whenever we meet again in the future.'
"Tōsen, get ready. Our time among the Shinigami regrettably has come to an end."
"I have always been ready, Lord Aizen."
Aizen chuckled at that. 'Of course you have.'
While everything could proceed without a hatch, there was one thing that Aizen couldn't place as a definite variable and would have to plan around and that was Kisuke Urahara's Hōgyoku.
"What a pity." The game was up but it hasn't ended. They were just moving to another board.
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