There was a certain type of pressure that befell the Captains as the burial drew closer. Most of it came from the fact that this was the first funeral ceremony for a Shinigami Captain most of them have attended, or have even heard of, and the last part of it was for the complications that they knew were bound to arise. The last part was Itachi's main worry and it was two-faced.
On one hand, Koga Kuchiki — a problem that needed to be solved. Even if Itachi didn't personally know the late Captains, he still considered them comrades and saw the disturbance of their funeral rites as an insult of the highest order. If Koga Kuchiki really did it then Itachi would consider him as the lowest of scums.
The second, most immediate, concern was about a certain student of his. It wasn't just because Amagai was once a student of his… well that was mostly it. He would carry out his duties and have Amagai face it but he couldn't deny that it would leave a bad taste in his mouth for some time.
None of his thoughts showed on his face when he arrived at the underground holding cell Amagai was held in. Gin leaned against the wall, radiating high boredom which perfectly summed up how the confrontation went, while Soi Fon was in the cell with the bound Amagai whose confiscated Zanpakutō leaned against the wall on her side as she interrogated him.
"I was just getting started." Soi Fon said with a hint of dissatisfaction as she turned to face Itachi as he stepped into the cell. Her dissatisfaction came from the fact that she had yet to start any meaningful interrogation before Itachi showed up.
She usually did her fair share of questioning and torture before approaching Itachi with the processed information but his sudden appearance disrupted that. She was being denied her job and how much she liked it showed on her face.
"He has refused to say a word." In other words she had yet to start the physical interrogation.
Itachi came to a stop in front of Amagai who had his head bowed to the ground with his hair casting shadows over his facial expressions.
"Will you remain silent?" He asked. His decision to come here had been a last minute one, both considering how fast Soi Fon completed her task and wanting to hear what Amagai had to say for himself.
If he continued to remain silent, Itachi was more than willing to let Soi Fon continue her work.
Amagai's face slowly rose, the cell's dim light casting a shade on his bruised face. There was a sharp glint in his eyes, something Itachi had always seen, but never this poisoned.
"I have nothing to tell you." Amagai said. The words weren't cold, angry or barbed. Bare words that were stripped of every adornment and came from the dead drop of his soul.
"Not to me," Itachi towered over him, casting a pressing shadow over the sorry form of his former student, looking down at the eyes that were looking up at him, "but you have something you want to say to someone – A noble, one of the Captains, the Head Captain. Say it to me."
Amagai remained silent as he looked up at Itachi before dropping his head. His entire posture told how closed off he was to everything currently around him.
"Shūsuke Amagai." Itachi called out his name, telling without speaking just how foolish his current actions were. Despite his earlier thoughts when Soi Fon shared her suspicions concerning Amagai, he was overstepping his bounds for the young man tied to a chair just because of their former relationship as teacher and student.
He didn't call out to Amagai as the authority figure of using status, a Captain, but instead as teacher. It was the same tone he used to show his disappointment to his students and the memory of it pricked at Amagai deeply that he looked back up. The flash of indecision in his eyes disappeared immediately when he looked at Itachi.
"You are part of the problem, teacher." He sneered. His words weren't spoken because of some nonexistent confidence. It was the words of a man that had journeyed too far along a single path, too far to turn back, and had slowly accepted whatever he found at his destination.
He looked at Soi Fon who had the embers of a frown lingering on her face, visibly not a fan of whatever was happening right now.
"I will be taking over for a moment."
She sighed knowing that was the end of it and stepped back. After all, their best interrogator was the one who was taking charge.
Amagai raised his head and looked at Itachi, briefly uncertain about what was about to happen but his ignorance was quickly washed away when he saw the two red eyes staring pinned on him.
"You figured it out so fast." Itachi remarked at the dawning understanding on Amagai's face. "I am aware of the rumors concerning my abilities, and despite me wanting to say otherwise, they aren't as far-fetched as you students seem to think."
It was probably the horror that all those times they gossiped about Itachi's abilities and tried to debunk some of the outlandish abilities and outrightly refuting the outrageous ones he was rumored to have – like the fact that he could read someone's mind, or enter someone's mind and control them – only to find himself in a position where those students' gossip was appearing less like gossip and more like a veiled truth.
Itachi wasn't oblivious to the chitchat, especially in his own Division and among the Academy students, about his abilities and whether or not it was simply just illusions and black flames. He still remembered when Junpei asked him where his crows came from and if they were part of his eyes or his Zanpakutō or just another jutsu application. He wondered if Junpei ever arrived at the answer.
"Whether you close your eyes or not matters little." He spoke upon seeing Amagai squeezing his eyes shut. It was a common misconception shared by a lot of Shinigami and even Captains when it came to his illusions. They thought logically that since the changes started from his eyes, supported by their general knowledge of illusions, the activation condition was eye contact and given how easy it is to make eye contact with someone, especially in the midst of battle. They reasoned it was the reason why his illusions were formidable.
It was why any Shinigami who comes across him in a fight tries protecting their eyes with layers of Reiatsu. Logically they were all correct but what made them wrong for one was the simple fact that they did not understand how his abilities work.
The second was because he was Itachi Uchiha.
Amagai's futile attempt at closing his eyes and protecting it with a layer of his sealed Reiatsu drew only an unhelpful comment from Itachi. He had been in an illusion from the moment he called his name.
He could feel the cold determination that Amagai had wrapped himself shatter now that he was in head. Panic came next but barely had the time to settle before a miasma of unadulterated rage and resentment choked up Amagai's mind.
He ignored it as it changed nothing and dived down into the shaken memories and immediately found what he was looking for. Amagai was neither a Captain nor did he have any modicum of training for protecting his mind against intrusion, other than brute-forcing whatever instinctive reaction his mind supplied him, and thus he could do nothing but hatefully seethe as Itachi sieved through his memories with impunity.
The core memory was that of a deceased man, Shin'etsu Kisaragi, his father, and the speculations Amagai had formed around the circumstances of his death.
Itachi knew the name as it was among the list of names and reports of undercover agents the Head Captain had given him a long time ago when he took up the position of the 2nd Division's Captain. Kisaragi was tasked with investigating the Kasumioji but he died in the field of duty in obscure circumstances that were redacted by the Head Captain, if Itachi remembered correctly.
A picture was forming in Itachi's head, one that implied Yamamoto's actions, Kisaragi's death and a Kasumioji deterrence.
Bakkoto.
As the conspiracy in Amagai's memories started unfolding, Itachi quickly became convinced that Kisaragi's actions were covert under Yamamoto's orders, with Central 46 remaining ignorant of the investigation into the Principal Clan.
He scoured Amagai's memories deeper but had to stop himself when he felt the seals on Amagai's body being forcibly broken from inside out as another power took hold of the young man.
He already had what he needed, including names and a few faces of those involved. It seemed that Tsunayashiro Akifusa wasn't just directing them to the Kasumioji simply for a smoke screen.
Itachi's face was in a faint frown as he took his eyes off Amagai upon leaving his mind and turned to Soi Fon and Gin who was standing beside her, both focused on the sudden changes their prisoner was exhibiting.
"What happened?" He asked.
Gin shrugged. "Dunno. He suddenly started twitching. I thought you'd turned his brain off."
"Something went through a forced activation inside his body." As Soi Fon said that, a blast of energy was released as Amagai screamed and his Zanpakutō that was leaning against the wall flew into his hands.
The fact that none of them had sensed it meant that whatever it was had been stored deep into his soul. Such a thing was nigh impossible and would most likely result in soul injury, cracks and leaks in their central soul, and ultimately death.
A Bakkoto.
They all watched as the artifact merged with Amagai and swallowed up a quarter of his torso.
A Bakkoto.
Looking at the weapon's emergence and the texture of Reiatsu it emitted, Itachi came to a long-standing conclusion: The ambush. The one none of them had sensed until it exploded right in their faces and would have been grossly worse if not for his Susano'o.
The transformation and the berserk energy settled down, and this time when Itachi looked at Amagai, he could see how deeply parasitic the Bakkoto was. It was eroding Amagai, gnawing at everything connected to him – his Reiatsu, Reiryoku, Zanpakutō and even his mind – at an alarming rate.
"Go to Yoruichi. Tell her to rout the Kasumioji." He said to Soi Fon and then to Gin, "Go to Byakuya and Ginrei and get them to the Kasumioji Compound."
The both disappeared without a word as they wasted no second in carrying out their orders, ultimately leaving Itachi to deal with his unruly student.