The morning light soaked the horizon of the Seireitei as usual.
"Isane-san, I'll leave you here," Suō Tsukasa said with a smile.
"Alright, Tsukasa. Take care on the road." Kotetsu Isane smiled and nodded gently, her silver-grey short hair catching a hint of softness in the morning light. "If there's anything unusual, come find me at the Fourth Division at any time."
"I will."
Tsukasa and Isane waved goodbye at the fork in the road outside the Fourth Division barracks. Then, in the final moment before their departing figures vanished from sight, everything was recorded in full by a pair of eyes that belonged to no Shinigami.
Tsukasa's footsteps paused almost imperceptibly, his head moving slightly. The morning wind brushed across the eaves, and the distant sounds of squad members within the barracks drifted over; everything was the same as any other day.
But in that very instant, an extremely subtle sense of abnormality skimmed the edge of his perception—more like an invisible strand of hair lightly brushing against the surface of his skin.
Following his intuition, he glanced toward the base of a wall. A small trail of pitch-black ants was marching in an orderly line along the cracks in the stone slabs. From their appearance and spiritual pressure fluctuations, they were indistinguishable from the most ordinary ants in nature; the scene was perfectly normal.
He then glanced at his own shadow cast by the sun, which likewise showed nothing out of the ordinary.
"It shouldn't be an illusion," Tsukasa thought to himself, withdrawing his gaze as if nothing had happened.
This wasn't a case of persecution mania. As far as he knew, there were usually four groups of people monitoring the Seireitei: the Wandenreich, Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Twelfth Division, Sosuke Aizen's trio, and Kenpachi Azashiro from the Muken. Additionally, among the other four Great Noble Houses, there was a faction that enjoyed prying into the privacy of others.
It was difficult to say for certain which group this inexplicable feeling of being watched originated from. His intuition could indeed capture a sliver of abnormality occasionally, but it was hard to feel the exact difference between them. It wasn't that his spiritual sensitivity was lacking, but rather that the surrounding spiritual pressure fluctuations remained entirely normal under his detection.
Two seconds later, Tsukasa turned and left decisively. He silently committed this location to memory, intending to avoid passing through here in the future. He had considered following his intuition to find the source of the prying eyes, but decided it was pointless. There was no way around it; at this stage, he couldn't afford to provoke any of those parties.
Fortunately, the Seireitei was vast. Such monitored locations likely weren't numerous; today was the first time he had encountered such a sensation.
As he walked away from the spot, the feeling of being watched instantly vanished.
A room somewhere within the Ninth Division barracks.
Suō Tsukasa's figure disappeared from the surveillance footage like drifting fluff.
"Intuition, is it?" On the other end of the screen, Kaname Tosen rewound the footage, pausing and slowing it down while frowning.
The frame froze at a specific moment—the exact second Tsukasa turned to look at the corner of the wall. In the image, Tsukasa's eyes seemed to pierce through the screen for a fleeting moment, making eye contact with Tosen standing before the monitor. Then, the person in the footage quickly shifted his gaze to his own feet, giving the impression that the eye contact was merely a natural coincidence. It looked like a common, accidental downward glance after parting with a friend in the morning.
Tosen's brow furrowed slightly. His fingertips brushed the edge of the control console as he adjusted the parameters to zoom in, focusing on the details of Tsukasa's eyes. His spiritual perception spread out through the screen, attempting to extract any emotional fluctuations from that specific moment in the recording.
"But there is nothing." Tosen played the clip one last time, then shook his head imperceptibly.
His fingers slid across the console, saving the segment and labeling it "Surveillance Mode Abnormal Perception Analysis Sample #069." Under that file directory were many thumbnail images of various individuals. Each person had, at some point, unconsciously looked toward the direction of the surveillance feed.
However, compared to the figures in the images wearing white Captain's haori or Vice-Captain armbands, Tsukasa's status as a Third Seat was somewhat negligible.
About ten minutes later, Sosuke Aizen walked in with Gin Ichimaru following half a step behind. Aizen still wore that impeccable, gentle smile as he spoke.
"Kaname, thank you for your hard work. How is the status of the new surveillance network?" It was a warm question, like a casual greeting between friends.
"Lord Aizen, everything is as usual," Kaname Tosen stood up and bowed slightly, replying matter-of-factly. "Except for the Twelfth Division, which is affected by the counter-surveillance measures set by Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the deployment of the updated surveillance network in the other divisions has been very smooth."
"Based on the surveillance records from the past thirty days, there are only 69 instances of suspected detection of abnormalities, and the number of cases where a surveillance organism was actually identified and acted upon is zero."
"This new method of surveillance is nearly perfect. Even if a Shinigami happens to see it with their naked eye, they will only think..."
"...that it is merely an insect. And who would intentionally observe a trivial creature by the roadside or in a corner?" Aizen finished the thought, a sliver of pleasure curling at the corner of his mouth. He stepped slowly to the control console, his gaze sweeping over the data on the screens.
Gin Ichimaru leaned against the side of the door, his eyes squinted as if he were about to fall asleep.
"Even if they see it, after confirming its weak spiritual pressure fluctuations, they will naturally ignore it."
Tosen tapped his fingertips on the console and spoke in a deep voice. The screen began to scroll through a series of footage clips of the individuals in the directory:
The Captain-Commander, during a tea party at the First Division barracks, paused slightly while holding his teacup, his squinted gaze sweeping casually past;
Captain Sui-Feng of the Second Division, while lecturing her subordinate, let a sharp, blade-like gaze scrape past;
Captain Retsu Unohana of the Fourth Division, during a flower arrangement session, let a gaze as gentle as water sweep across;
The images rolled by, the figures of various Division Captains appearing repeatedly, occasionally interspersed with the reactions of Vice-Captains and Seated Officers. The commonality was that everyone's reaction was extremely subtle—some merely blinked an extra time. But they all quickly moved their eyes away.
Finally, the footage stopped on the latest record, and Aizen's eyes flickered slightly. It was a bit unexpected. Suō Tsukasa had once again appeared silently in the directory.
As the footage ended, Tosen reported in detail.
"Those at the Captain level have sharp perceptions and almost all of them notice something; this is because they already stand at the pinnacle of Shinigami power and have an instinctive alertness to any subtle change in the environment."
"Vice-Captains are next, with only a few long-serving veterans included, which is also within reason."
"There are only two cases at the Seated Officer level: Ayasegawa Yumichika of the Eleventh Division and Suō Tsukasa of the Thirteenth Division. It is suspected their intuition is quite sharp, though the possibility of coincidence cannot be ruled out."
"However, regarding the latter, according to surveillance records, he has been interacting frequently and closely with the Fourth and Tenth Divisions recently. Lord Aizen, do we need to adjust our surveillance strategy and place the Thirteenth Division under priority monitoring?"
Their surveillance network had undergone a comprehensive update and iteration; the quantity, coverage, and stealth had all been significantly enhanced, allowing for the collection of more and more precise information. Had it not been for Tsukasa's frequent associations with Captains and Vice-Captains, his status as a Third Seat would have easily been lost in this flood of information.
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