“Still keeping an eye on me, I see,” Erich murmured as he caught sight of a pure black tail vanishing beneath the train seat he was approaching. “You’re taking this a bit more seriously than I expected.”

He dropped his bag onto the seat and sat down next to it, pulling out the sheaf of papers Rudersdorf had handed him on the way out. The top sheet looked benign enough — declaring that it was a condensed report of the northern situation — but he had a feeling it was more than that.

The train pulled away from the station and Erich watched the platform vanish behind him. He should read the paper Rudersdorf handed him and then take a nap — he doubted he was going to get any sleep tonight — but… he didn’t want to. Not yet.

(Not when this was his last chance to breathe before the chaos descended full force.)

(He was… not looking forward to this.)

“From where I’m standing, you’re the one not taking this seriously enough,” came an unfamiliar voice from the seat across from him.

“You know precious little about me,” Erich said, frowning at the cat and straightening in his seat. The fact that the feline spoke with a masculine-sounding voice made him question his assumption that it was Shihoin; perhaps he’d been wrong and this was one of Aizen’s lackeys, or perhaps it was just another effect of the transformation process. “Please refrain from making assumptions without all the information.”

The cat blinked great golden eyes at him and lifted a paw to give it a lick. “You really believe that running to the north will solve any of your problems? Going to just trust that people in Central will suddenly see the light of your innocence?”

Erich suppressed the smile that wanted to grow at the evidence that his little shadow hadn’t managed to get close enough to overhear their discussion. “And yet you believe I’ll tell an unknown about my plans?”

“What if I’m not an unknown?” the cat asked, followed by an abrupt gust of displaced air as the cat changed and a human body settled in its place.

He fixed his eyes on Yoruichi Shihoin’s face and refused to acknowledge her nakedness. Normal shifts carried clothing with them, but he’d never seen a shift so thorough or so drastic before; most secondary forms were like his, human but for extra limbs or greater senses, instead of being entirely different species altogether.

(Still… he got the impression she wanted a reaction.)

(He refused to give her one.)

“You’re certainly no fun.” Shihoin sighed and rearranged her legs, resting an elbow on her knee and lounging forward with her chin on her fist. Her long black hair cascaded over her bare shoulders, highlighting her dark skin and toned limbs.

“And you’re more of a menace than I expected.” Erich arched an eyebrow at her and didn’t let his gaze drift far from her face. Why people seemed to think that nudity would distract or sway him he’d never understand.

(It never had before, and the sight of a stranger’s body in front of him wasn’t going to change that.)

She arched an eyebrow right back at him and smirked. “And yet you know exactly who I am and who my friends are.”

Erich considered that for a moment, comparing Shihoin’s shameless display in front of him with some of the things Crimson Fox had done in an attempt to distract him. “He never took his clothes off.”

Shihoin laughed. “Should he have? Maybe he’d have won you over sooner!”

“He hasn’t ‘won me over’,” Erich corrected her, keeping his voice even and calm. There was no one else in the car with them, but there was no sense in tempting fate with emotion-laden words that could potentially carry. “At my superior’s urging, I am going to temporarily assist you in order to uncover and take our mutual enemy down, nothing more.”

“Oh are you now.” She hummed and gave him a once over, her golden eyes sharp with consideration. “What proof do we have that you won’t simply turn on us as soon as it’s convenient?”

“What proof do I have that you won’t turn on me as soon as my use is over?”

Shihoin blinked lazily, smile growing as she straightened up and tossed her hair back over her shoulder. “You’re going to break his heart with suspicion like that.”

“Considering that he is the direct cause of my current status, I’m not quite sure I care,” Erich informed her coolly, narrowing his eyes at her continued attempts to get him to react. “The current plan has the highest chance for success in clearing all of our names. Whether or not you desire to return to your previous positions, surely you wish to see our mutual enemy defeated.”

“And that’s enough for you?” Shihoin asked with a tilt of her head. “One day of being labeled a villain and you’re ready to make the headline true? My, my… maybe we should have angled to kidnap you sooner, if that’s the case.”

Erich suppressed a grimace at the suggestion, hands tightening around the papers in his lap. He would have preferred literally anything else but… it was too late now. “If any of you had spoken, I would have listened,” he said, tipping his chin up slightly and giving Shihoin a challenging look. He suspected that Crimson Fox already knew his off-the-books power, so obliquely revealing it to Shihoin wasn’t terrible.

(The fact that he’d survived a decade in the army with only suspicion aimed at his powerset was miracle enough.)

(If he had to reveal himself as a truth-finder he would.)

“And gotten yourself killed,” Yoruichi countered, then sighed and looked away from him. Her body faded away and air rushed back in to fill the space where her human form had been. “Truce?” she asked with a tilt of her head and a flick of her tail.

“Until it’s all over,” Erich agreed with a nod. “We can reassess afterward, but until then… truce.”

“Alright. Willing to let me know what the plan is?”

Erich leaned back in his seat and glanced out at the landscape going past, fingers toying with the papers in his lap. He’d planned on sleeping on the current bare-bones plan in an attempt to flesh it out but…

Shihoin had once been a well respected member of Intelligence. Maybe she had some insight that he was missing.

(Besides, two heads usually were better than one when it came to planning.)

Mind made up, he took a steadying breath, looked back at Shihoin, and began to talk.