Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings don't belong to me
It came without warning. The headmaster's chief aide wasn't a well liked man for many reasons, but when teams of his goons came swarming through the dorms the student shinigami were shocked. No one had ever heard of a dorm search before, and what they were after-
Rooms got turned over, and people were getting angry. Some of the students were the children of nobles, people who'd ask questions about why their children had been put through the indignity of a search.
"Comic books?"
The proctor held up a stack of past issues of 'The Substitute.'
"Are these yours?"
"Uh, yes-"
The proctor looked at the door plate. "Which one are you, Morisato-kun or Sado-kun?"
"Morisato-"
"Come with me."
Morisato was taken over to the administration building, where a line of students huddled in confusion. They went through one by one, into the room at the end of the hall, returned looking either relieved or terrified.
Soon it was Morisato Shibas turn - another proctor pointed at him, announced "you're next."
Shiba went down the hall.
"Enter please." It was a woman's voice, soft, and Morisato found, somehow reassuring. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
Morisato Shiba opened the door.
And stared.
On the mat floor sat a woman, at the very center of the room.
She was dressed as a captain of the Gotei 13.
The thoughts drifted through Shiba's head, like slow moving clouds. A lady captain, a senior captain, by her uniform. There were only three lady captains of the Gotei, and only two were senior, and of them-
This lady had dark hair, her braid wrapped around her fragile throat to fall down the center of her chest.
Captain Unohana. The most senior of the three.
She smiled warmly, consulted the list on the lap desk before her.
"Morisato-san? Please, come in, be seated."
Morisato found himself moving forward. Never in his life had been been so frightened; an actual Captain!
"I am Captain Unohana of the Gotei 13. I have some questions for you about this." The Captain gestured towards a copy of 'The Substitute.'
Morisato was pretty sure he hadn't read that one yet.
What she asked next stunned Morisato.
"Do you know where I can get copies of this?" The Captain smiled.
Morisato didn't understand exactly what what going on, but he was beginning to regain a little control of himself.
"I don't think they're sold in local stores, Captain Unohana. I get my copies through a student in second year."
"This student's name is?"
Morisato gave it.
"Thank you, Morisato-kun. I must ask you not to read 'The Substitute' anymore."
A little emboldened by the captain's gentle manner Morisato asked, "May I ask why, Captain Unohana?"
"You may not, Morisato-kun. You may leave however. Please send in the next student."
"Of course. Thank you, Captain Unohana."
Morisato went back to his room. The searching proctors had moved on, they were probably bothering the third years by now.
The students whose dorm rooms were near his spotted Morisato immediately upon his return. He wasn't the first one back but everyone insisted on hearing his story to compare it to those they'd already heard.
All he could say was a senior captain of the Gotei 13 had commanded him to stop reading 'The Substitute.'
vvv
It was well into the night when Captain Unohana left the academy. She returned to fourth division, asked for a cup of tea while she tabulated the results of her interviews. Eventually Isane came by, dressed for bed.
"Another nightmare Isane-san?"
Isane looked at the floor. "Yes Captain."
"Sit awhile with me."
"Yes Captain."
It was very late when Unohana finished her list, she'd reduced it to three names. One of them, she wasn't sure which, was the supplier for the entire academy. She shooed Isane back to bed and sought out her own rooms.
vvv
Unohana permitted herself to sleep late that morning, dressed, attended to a few small matters and rode Minazuki back to the academy. She had a quiet word with the head master, who arranged for his aide to look up the schedules of three students. Proctors were sent to retrieve those students.
They arrived one by one, were led into the room where Unohana sat, had interviewed the day before. She gestured each to sit in turn.
The head master sent in his granddaughter to serve Unohana tea. The captain didn't offer any to the three young people settled before her.
She calmly sipped her tea in silence.
Let the three of them sweat.
Unohana finished a short item of correspondence on her lapdesk, then another.
She realized the three students had been sitting for over an hour.
They should be suitably worried by now.
Unohana raised the cup to her lips, spoke without raising her eyes.
"You lied to me."
She didn't need to see them to feel all three shaking.
"The three of you lied to a captain of the Gotei 13."
One of them tried to speak "C-Cap-"
"Be silent." Unohana put down her tea cup. "You have exactly one chance. I know one of you brings these-" Unohana touched a copy of 'The Substitute' "into the academy. I realize you may have been frightened yesterday. There was no need to be frightened yesterday. Today, however, there is need. Which of you brings these into this Academy, and where do they come from?"
The three of them were blubbering and pointing fingers at each other. Unohana had to admit she felt a little guilty.
No, she wouldn't feel guilty. If they couldn't speak the truth they couldn't become Shinigami, that had to be learned quickly or there was no point in furthering their education.
She singled out one of them. "It's you, isn't it? Tell me everything right now, or I assure you I will lose my temper." Retsu smiled warmly at the boy, loosed a little of her spirit pressure.
vvv
Unohana stepped out of the room, left the three blubbering students behind. She took a moment to speak to the headmaster, who bowed courteously. He had a gleam in his eye that suggested three young people would learn not to lie to officers of the Seireitei.
Unohana walked from the campus towards the Rukong districts.
Really, all it had required was a disciplined approach. Anyone could have found the supplier.
She shouldn't let her mind wander. District 75 South was an unseemly neighborhood, but not one she'd fear to walk in. Very few were foolish and desperate enough to attack shinigami, let alone captains of the Gotei. Those few who would however were far more likely to bother her then say, Captain Zaraki.
Unohana found the little restaurant the boy had spoken of, slipped inside.
Silence met her, the patrons of the little restaurant sat very still as she stood in the doorway.
Unohana offered a charming smile, mentioned a name and asked where the holder of said name might be found. Directions were instantly provided in the hope she would go away.
Another step completed. It was a lovely afternoon.
She found the man just before the sun set. As with the students, he hadn't be aware he'd done something that would outrage the Seireitei. Unohana suggested he avoid that particular activity in the future. Really, all the man was guilty of was picking up 'The Substitute' from an abandoned house and selling the bundled copies to the boy at the academy. He wasn't a bad man, simply an odd-jobber who needed the income. She told him unfortunately that this line of business might soon close, assured him he wouldn't be punished and suggested that particular house would probably be watched going forward. It might be in his best interest to stay away from it.
No one had ever asked him to pay for the books. The point was propaganda, not profit, and there was no way to track the manga back to the Seireitei from what she knew.
Retsu smiled. Propaganda. Unless she'd overlooked something the only possible source was somewhere inside Seireitei's walls.
Unohana summoned Minazuki and flew home in the sunset light. She had tea, thought a great deal about the previous two days. Her logical next step would be to try locating the printing operation, maybe by seeing who amongst the soul reapers ordered large quantities of paper and ink.
She couldn't think of any direct trail though, narrowing the list of suspects would be nearly impossible.
Unohana finished her tea, took a document from her lapdesk and added a few finishing touches. The Captain rose and went in search of Isane.
"Isane-san?"
Isane looked up from her desk, put her pen aside.
"Yes Captain?"
"I'm afraid I'm closer to catching us then I'd like to be. I've already tracked us as far as our drop point."
Isane looked worried. "There's no way to trace The Substitute back to us, is there?"
"Not that I can think of," replied Captain Unohana, "Yama-san will want me to keep trying though. I suspect I'll be seeing how much paper each division uses next. Can you think of any way I can tie that back to us?"
"No Captain. I've hidden the trail carefully and the divisions don't track paper use, you'd have to track individual deliveries to each division for at least a year and get the other captains to track every scrap used. Even then I don't think we print enough copies to stand out."
Unohana Retsu smiled at her lieutenant. "Excellent Isane-san. Oh, I finished the storyline for this month's issue, but we may have to delay releasing it." Unohana thought for a moment. "Normally I'd suggest we stop for awhile, at least until we come up with another way to distribute. I-"
Momentarily distracted, Retsu picked up the drawing Isane-chan had been working on.
"Oh I do like the way you've drawn Captain Zaraki."
Isane looked down and blushed.
Captain Unohana Restu looked over Isane's drawings and smiled. "I think we'll have to risk it Isane-san. In fact I think we should print additional copies this month. The investigation at the academy will have a great many more students interested in 'The Substitute' for awhile."
The Captain smiled. She'd conduct a very thorough investigation of course, but somehow the wily criminals would always stay just a few steps ahead. Poor Yama-san. He wouldn't like that at all.