Crows x Souls

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Itachi and Soi Fon left their barracks as soon as Soi Fon was done with her arrangement for the rest of the squad, neither one being the type to waste time dilly dallying when a mission was up. 

With Soi Fon leading the way with her expert mastery in Shunpo, Itachi silently followed beside her having no problems keeping up with her, much to her consternation. 

Despite all that had happened, Soi Fon never outright said it, but Itachi’s presence rattled her a great deal despite how much she tried to hide it. She herself could not understand why because as a Shinigami, she was used to death and have on more than one occasion, found herself on the harrowing edge of death, so it didn’t make any sense that she was still plagued by those memories. 

“The Hollows. How easy is it for them to get into the Soul Society?” Itachi asked. 

The expression on her face was cold and calm, not letting stray thoughts influence her actions when on a mission. 

“Quite easy, but they don’t do it often.”

“Why?” 

“Because just like how it us suicidal for any random Shinigami to enter Heuco Mundo, so also it is for Hollows here. Granted, we can’t cover all of the Rukongai since we severely lack the numbers, but we are always monitoring the state of the souls in Soul Society to know if something is wrong.”

It was a loose security system which led to the sharp deteriorating state of the Rukongai but there was nothing they could do as the Soul Society was just too big for a few thousand Shinigami to act as security guards. 

“The details of this mission?” Itachi asked. 

Soi Fon eyed him but he didn’t react to it, just keeping his head straight as they traveled. Her job was to supervise him and note any peculiarities he had when it came to deferring to authority, delegated or otherwise. 

“Nothing important.”

“It’s a mission. The details are always important.” Itachi remarked, coming off somewhat strict. As far as they understood, even if Yoruichi didn’t say it out loud, this was Itachi’s mission more than it was Soi Fon’s. She was at the very least his guide, and at most his probation officer. 

Soi Fon was somehow shaken but she refused to let any of it show on her face, not knowing that Itachi could read her quite easily. 

He didn’t care for her apprehension towards him as all he was here to do was learn. Even for him, this was a new route he was taking as there was never a time, since he had learnt how to read, that he was completely clueless of the things happening around them. 

They stopped at the valley of a mountain range, still staring at each other until Soi Fon turned away with an irritated huff. 

“An entire settlement of souls suddenly disappeared and the tracks there showed that there was little to no struggle when it happened. It looked like they suddenly turned to smoke and fizzled away.”

“I see. Then let’s go.” Itachi nodded, already aware of what his role was, at least what Yoruichi was expecting from him. All he needed were the details to know exactly what his mission was. 

He would never have reduced himself to playing ninja for someone if what he wanted wasn’t something he deemed to be of equal importance. It also helped that Yoruichi was honest in her dealings with him which made it easier for him to reduce himself low enough to defer to her authority. 

Soi Fon kept her thoughts to herself as she watched Itachi almost shoulder to shoulder with her as they traveled, solely focused on his mission and nothing more. 

…. 

[West Rukongai, 37th District]

The two of them arrived at the small settlement tucked away to one side of the base of a mountain, carefully noting everything they came across. 

They were not the only ones here, Itachi understood, and before long Soi Fon had brought him man in charge of this specific site. 

“Hey, Soi Fon. Nice to see you out here, and along with him I see.” Kisuke Urahara greeted them as they arrived at the center of the town where a serious looking Kisuke stood while looking around. 

“Captain Urahara, Lady Yoruichi sent us to be of assistance.” Soi Fon said. 

“I’m aware, though she didn’t tell me she was sending him over. But I guess that doesn’t matter.” Kisuke said before beckoning them to follow him. 

“This part of the town is the most populated but there is nothing here to tell us, or even give us an idea of what happened here. They disappeared just like the others.” He said as he brought them to a spot where there were multiple footprints. “Do you notice anything?”

“They were aware of what was happening to them, but weren’t fast enough to avoid it.” Itachi said as he looked at the mismatched set of footprints on the ground. 

“Care to explain?” Kisuke asked. 

“The prints.” Itachi started. “It didn’t start here at the center, this just happened to be where most of the people were when it happened.”

“So they noticed lately and were too slow to react? But that should leave some kind of trace considering the range and time it took effect, no?” Soi Fon asked. 

“Probably. I’m not the expert on souls so there's not much I can say.” Itachi said. 

“Where are you going?” Kisuke inquired as he saw Itachi leaving them there. 

“To case the area.” Itachi said before disappearing, eliciting an interested gaze from Kisuke. 

“Quite a neat movement technique.” He commented. “And with that scowl on your face, I can tell that you’re not exactly thrilled with his presence in the Second.”

“Mmph! He’s self-serving and too conceited. Just because Lady Yoruichi is accommodating towards him to some extent doesn’t mean he should take advantage of her kindness.” She said sullenly and turned to leave. 

“You really have a knack for finding them, Yoruichi.” He chuckled and afterwards his face got serious as he went back to work. This was a pretty serious issue after all. 

…… 

Looking over the small village, Itachi keenly observed every detail he could find and they were actually few and almost useless. 

From what he had learned Soi Fon and Yoruichi during his few weeks in the Seireitei, everything in the Soul Society was made of spirit particles, both living and nonliving. 

Given that these were energy particles, it only made sense that Itachi was able to see them with his Sharingan. He finally figured out why it felt like his visual prowess was on hyper mode anytime he used it and that was because all he was seeing was solidified energy blocks. 

In a rough sense, all the physical things like ground, trees, their bodies, even water, was all made up from the building block energy particle called Reishi. 

And that was what he was focusing on. 

In a way, it made his investigation harder and easier at the same time. Since the souls faded away into Reishi, it made it very hard for him to pick out the difference, like trying to separate water from water. 

Now if he could pinpoint any difference from the normal Reishi-infused atmosphere then it wouldn’t be that much of a problem anymore for him to pick up a trail. 

‘But what happened here? Were they absorbed as energy or was it something that targeted living souls in particular.’ Itachi thought, always reminding himself to keep an open mind when it came to Shinigami and Hollows. ‘Hollows really are dangerous.’

‘This print… this person likely noticed what was happening but before they could continue their leap step, the same thing they saw happened to them.’

It was a long and disproportionate footprint and it wasn’t the only one he had found. He had made notice of these types of prints when he and Soi Fon entered the village, more of them at the center area and few sparse ones in some parts of the city done 

Soi Fon, who was watching Itachi from a distance, curiously made herself unseen, intrigued on what Itachi was going to do.

She saw him close his eyes and when he opened it again, gone were his back eyes and in their place were a pair of red eyes with three dotted patterns on them. 

‘Those eyes again. What are they?’ She thought, taking extra steps to make sure her presence was as thin as possible so he wouldn’t notice. 

With his Sharingan active, Itachi scanned the area again and focused on areas with some degree of energy fluctuation. 

‘That’s weird. The energy particles were broken into smaller blocks. If it’s a Hollow attack then it was one big enough to cover the whole place in split moments. But I can’t tell if it eradicated them in an instant or if it first immobilized them before destroying them.’

‘Something doesn’t feel right.’