Shady Charade [closed]

[illusionsofgodhood]

Who: Sousuke Aizen (illusionsofgodhood) and Misha Hunt (interspace)
What: The cat is let out of the bag.
When: Sunday, July 7th
Where: One of the public training areas

There hasn't been much for Aizen to do while he's been healing, so he's been thinking over things that have occurred since his arrival. One thing out of a few sticks out and he's thought it time to finally get to that bottom of things now that he's healed up enough to get out of bed without too much pain.

First things first, Aizen heads down to one of the public training areas with Keramon staying close to his side in case of randomly getting attacked on the street or an equally ridiculous thought the digimon might have about his partner's safety. Once arriving, he sends Misha a private text to meet him there.

Once that's done, he decides to pass the time by warming up with the bokken Keramon bought him for his birthday, slowly settling back into the familiar maneuvers he had been using for most of his afterlife. It was still slow due to his broken arms and the other injuries he sustained, but it would be enough for now. Besides, he wasn't really here to train.

Comments

[interspace]

Misha wasn't stupid. That request sent alarm bells ringing through her head with little to calm them. Aizen randomly calling her out (to somewhere public, granted) had to mean something. There just wasn't much she could figure it would be aside from her usual flights of paranoia. Of course, that meant she wasn't going to go alone: Thelma was with her and seemed fairly calm. Was she acting like that to try and calm Misha down, too? Hard to say. Misha still didn't really know her partner all that well, though she did trust her in a fight and could speak with her easily enough. All of that was barely scratching the surface, and Misha sometimes had thoughts to whether it would ever be any deeper than that.

Regardless, when Misha and Thelma arrived, it was by air. (Ever since Thelma had digivolved, it was Misha's most preferred method of travel, especially for distances that were more than the usual jaunt down the street. She had missed it, and still did... It wasn't the same as flying under her own power.) She slid off Thelma's outstretched wing, ignoring the glow behind her as Thelma returned to her smaller, easier to maintain form.

"You rang?" she asked, noting Aizen's disposition as best she could. Seeing that sword, that particular sheath, at the shinigami's hip gave her a moment of mental blankout. No way. What was this all about?

[illusionsofgodhood]

"Indeed I did," he answered calmly when she spoke, appearing calm and not stopping his practice at her arrival. Aizen did take his eyes off his sword to look over at Misha and study her carefully. The message was seemingly random timing, but with the recent attacks and where they were, it could easily be taken as him reaching out to train her. And while he did eventually want to do that, now was definitely not the time.

He stopped his movements and both he and his sword are still for a moment before he turned the blade down, holding it out in a very familiar position. Looking over at Misha, he studies her as he said only one word. "Shatter."

[interspace]

There was nothing she could do to help it. Instinct won out over reason, and Misha turned her head away as the invocation was said. There was a snowball's chance in hell that she would keep watching the man when it was entirely possible he was about to unleash godly illusion powers on her, the very same powers that were dependent upon her directly viewing the activation. The fact that her own powers, nor anyone else's, had yet to return didn't factor into the immediate reaction. Aizen had a blade looking far too similar to his zanpakuto for her to simply watch as he purportedly unleashed his shikai.

After the deed was done, the logic of it all came crashing down on her. Her heart hammered in her chest. A lump clawed its way up into her throat. She stood there, continuing to avert her gaze by staring off into the nearby clearing, and said nothing. At least now she could add another thing to her list of incredibly dumb life choices thus far: fall for Aizen Sousuke's incredibly simple trick.

Thelma behind her looked concerned, but had no real idea of what had just happened. All she could do was take a step closer and quietly ask, "Misha?"

[illusionsofgodhood]

It's a long moment before Aizen responds, but during that silence, his expression changes from calm to a hint of smug satisfaction on his mostly expressionless face. Sheathing his bokken, he took a few steps towards her to see how she would react.

"For future reference, I cannot activate my shikai with a wooden sword, but I must applaud you for being very quick to keep yourself from seeing it. Most think to close their eyes instead of looking away," Aizen said in that same calm voice, like he hadn't just found out somebody was in on his secret.

Keramon, who had been watching everything quietly, made his way over to Aizen and pulled himself up to perch on his shoulder. "Oh that was really clever, Lord Aizen! You tricked her good. But isn't it bad that somebody knows about you?"

"Possibly, Kagami, but that all depends on what she's going to do with that information," he replied as he looked straight at her. "Right now, it's not certain it would be bad for us."

[interspace]

To her credit, Misha didn't move. Well... she moved, but only turning halfway to face Aizen and Thelma who had made a quicker approach once Aizen had started walking. She placed a hand on Thelma's cap and took a deep breath before facing the shinigami. "Yeah, good show," she agreed. Kagami, huh? Interesting name for a creature like Keramon, but now was really not the time to linger on the semantics.

Her mind ticked forward. Now that the shock was wearing off, Misha had to assess all of her options. It looked like Aizen was at least interested enough in this curiosity to not do anything drastic right out. That was great, but how much of her own reasoning did that earn him in return? She obviously couldn't tell him everything — especially couldn't tell anyone now that he was here in the city. While Aizen was powerless now, the idea of accidentally telling him something that could give him the leg up on anyone in the area was distressing. On the other hand, Misha had no reason to out him when he just as interested in keeping the status quo as she was; from what she could tell, he was biding his time and was far too smart to make any move without knowing he had an upper hand. Keeping his benign status also meant essentially acting the good guy, a net gain for the rest of the Chosen community, and there was no reason not to use that.

"I don't do the lackey thing," Misha asserted, "but, as you've probably figured out, I'm not interested in spoiling your identity, either. You're just as mortal as the rest of us right now." You're not that kind of threat.

Thelma obviously couldn't take it anymore. She tilted her head back to stare up at her partner. "What was he pretending to do, Misha?"

With a grimace, Misha answered, "Put us under a spell."