Erich leaned back away from the table and sipped at his tea as Tsukabishi cleared the table and Fox rummaged through a cabinet looking for… something or other. The man hadn’t said and Erich hadn’t felt like asking.

(Not when he was still reeling from… from not hurting.)

(He’d… he’d never thought it was fixable, so he’d never mentioned it to anyone…)

(But this…)

Erich breathed a quiet sigh and ruffled his wings, trying to drag his mind back to the present; he couldn’t afford to dwell on something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things, not with everything else that needed to be dealt with. They had to hunt down and find proof of Aizen’s crimes, crimes that no one else seemed to know of or suspect, and then do… something.

He couldn’t officially condone killing the man, but he doubted there would be any charges brought against any of them if Aizen did die.

(Not if Fox was right.)

(Not if all the things he believed Aizen had done proved to be true.)

(But in order to do anything, they first needed proof.)

“Ahah!” Fox exclaimed as he pulled a slightly squashed roll of paper from the cabinet and returned to the table, settling into seiza opposite Erich as he unrolled his find across the table and pinned the corners in place, revealing a map of the city. “Here we are!”

Erich set his teacup aside and examined the map, taking in the various marks and notes scattered across its surface; he couldn’t read most of it, unfortunately, but the method of marking the map up was similar enough to standard military practice that he could easily guess at the meanings.

“So here’s what we’ve managed to figure out about Aizen’s habits so far,” Fox said as he leaned in and started gesturing at marks. “This is officially where he stays—” Fox tapped on the officer quarters set aside for the Akitsugo contingent— “but Yoruichi thinks he has another home off the books, over here somewhere.”

“She thinks,” Erich repeated with a frown, ears flattening and tail twitching at the wording; Shihoin had been renowned for her skills, for her to only /suspect/ something…

Fox hesitated a moment, then grimaced and straightened up, pale eyes meeting Erich’s firmly as he said, “Aizen has an unregistered power that enables him to twist the perception of anyone he has already caught with it, no matter whether he’s present or not. Think is about as good as we can get with him.”

(Truth)

Erich sighed and tapped a talon against the table, using the rhythmic clicks to focus through the flurry of thoughts that Fox’s words had prompted; an unregistered power was exactly what Fairy had suspected, but she’d only had her feelings to work off of. The power to twist perception was not a good sign, though, especially combined with the suspicion of illegal experimentation. “Do we have proof of that?” he asked, even if he suspected the hope was in vain.

“No.” Fox gave Erich a faint, pained smile, his ears drooping and tails curling about his legs. “Only our suspicions, unfortunately.”

“Wonderful,” Erich murmured, staring down at the probably inaccurate map in disgust; they’d have to start working from Fox’s suspicions because they didn’t have any other leads, but… this was going to be more of a pain than he originally suspected. “And you think he, what… decided to get me out of the picture because it’s known I can see through your illusions?”

Fox’s lips pinched as he stared at Erich, before he finally said, “I suppose that’s as good a guess as any.”

Erich narrowed his eyes at the man and forced his wings to remain still instead of mantling like his instincts insisted; that was as good as an acknowledgment that Fox suspected Erich’s own unregistered power, and thought that Aizen knew of it as well, which meant that the information had probably begun to spread further.

(Well, he’d always known that it would happen eventually.)

(No one could keep a power secret forever, especially if they were using it as much as he used his.)

(Not that he could turn his truth-sensing off, even in his human form.)

“So I’ve been meaning to ask about that!” Fox said with enough fake cheer that Erich couldn’t resist scowling at him. “Ahaha… I mean… how do you see through my illusions, exactly?”

Erich debated how to answer that, before shrugging and saying, “The colors are all wrong.”

Fox blinked, ears swiveling and head cocking to the side. “The colors are… wrong?”

“Yes.” Erich smirked and reached up, tapping near the corner of one eye. “The colors are wrong.” It always astonished him how many people read ‘enhanced eyesight’ and just assumed that all he’d gained was the extreme distance vision and nothing else; truthfully the array of colors he could see as Griffin was astonishing and left him feeling color-blind when he had to pass as human. “You make me see things like a human does. It’s pretty obvious.”

Fox’s mouth opened slightly, as if he was about to say something, then he sighed and tipped his head back to stare up at the ceiling. “Of course you do,” he muttered after a moment, reaching up to rub at the back of his head. “I never considered… how in the /world/ would I…? Hmm…”

Erich laughed, the tension draining from him at Fox’s obvious exasperation. “There’s a reason most people leave illusions aside when dealing with avian forms like myself, unless they’re also avian. We’re the most likely to have altered color vision, unlike you terrestrial sorts.” He really didn’t know why it was a thing — there were more theories and suppositions than he truly cared to bother with — but it was a noticeable trend: avian-based forms often came with the associated level of color-vision of their animal, while terrestrial forms only rarely did.

Even without his truth-sensing, illusions were a breeze to see through since so many people forgot about that. And even if they remembered, being able to craft an illusion that he would fall for without knowing how he saw the world was… difficult. Fairy was about the only person he’d ever come across who could successfully trap him, but she also saw the world like he did, and had power to burn in order to overwhelm his truth-sensing ability and make everything read as ‘false’.

Fox made an exasperated noise, his tails thumping against the tatami mat, and then gave himself a shake and focused on Erich once more. “Well, I suppose that would be reason enough for Aizen to suspect you,” he said with a lopsided smile. “And reason enough to have you check our suspicions. Hell, maybe he hasn’t even caught you in his power yet.”

“And how does he do that?” Erich asked as he thought back to his few rare interactions with Aizen; his own duties kept him moving between the various zones of conflict when he wasn’t busy keeping Fox in line, which left little time for socializing with people outside his immediate sphere.

“Have you ever seen his ‘mirror mist’ magic?” Fox asked.

“No. There was a demonstration once that I was going to see, but—” Erich froze as realization hit, ears folding back and wings shivering as he murmured, “but you diverted me. Fairy sent an illusion-double in my place.”

“Fairy’s seen his skill?” Fox stiffened. “We can’t—”

“Fairy is immune to mental manipulation, which includes illusions, charm spells, and anything that alters perception,” Erich snapped before Fox could decide to refuse the assist that Erich knew they were going to need. “It’s part of why she’s called Fairy.” The rest of it being her stature and appearance, of course; she’d never had a choice in her hero name, as much as he knew it bothered her, but it was an apt name.

Fox grimaced. “Well… if you’re certain.”

“I am.” Erich hesitated a moment, debating the wisdom of revealing Degurechaff’s opinion about Aizen, then shrugged and decided that it wouldn’t hurt anything. “She called him ‘slime’ when I spoke with her about all of this, and was rather pleased with the offer to help remove him. He’s apparently had the misfortune of getting on her bad side.”

“Well that’s not a position I envy,” Fox huffed as his body relaxed and he ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve crossed her exactly once and I have no desire to ever do so again.”

Erich smirked at the reminder of the time Degurechaff had gotten annoyed by Fox’s presence and had struck before Erich could get there; that battle had been over almost immediately, and Fox had barely escaped by the skin of his teeth. From then on, Fox had never made trouble whenever Fairy was known to be in Central.

It was just too bad they couldn’t afford to keep Degurechaff in Central for very long, especially these days.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Fox grumbled, though his gaze was oddly soft as he watched Erich. “I learned my lesson, and so did everyone else.”

“And the city got a new park,” Erich added dryly, remembering the absolutely mess Degurechaff had made of the area; her skills were not exactly conducive to urban warfare, even if she’d gotten better at collateral damage over the past year or two. “It was quite educational for many people, including many of her superiors.”

Not that they’d ever taken his warnings to heart even after the event. They’d just doubled down on how young she was and that control would come with age, instead of seeing her for the antihero — the barely leashed threat — that she was.

(Part of him was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, was still waiting for her to turn on them all, but…)

(At least so far she had shown no signs of doing so.)

Erich sighed and gave himself a shake — now was not the time to stress over Degurechaff in either of her forms — and leaned over the map. “So, I suspect you’re going to want me to visit each of these places you’ve marked, just to see what I can find?”

“Not alone!” Fox quickly countered. “I don’t want any of us alone while hunting him down.”

Erich shot the man a thoughtful look, then shrugged and refocused on the map. “Fine, I can work with that. Now explain to me what all these spots are so we can make a plan.”

“R-right…” Fox swallowed, clearly taken aback by Erich’s quick agreement, then gathered himself and tapped a finger against a mark near the edge of the city. “So, starting from here…”