A Hollow Crown

- A Plan Done In Improv -

Las Noches...

Aizen was a man of cunning, strategy, and planning. So of course, the first thing that he thought of was a plan for the day. While he often didn't need much of a plan to confront the day in and day out humdrum of running Las Noches, this day had an independent variable that could throw off majority of his constants: Kisuke Urahara. This would require a plan made with effort, not on a whim. And while his larger plans did have a decent amount of effort to them, they were often done in the span of months or even years. This was one he'd have to come up with as he went along, or in laymans terms, improv.

And Aizen hated improv.

Damn Kisuke.

And while Aizen was most certainly irritated at the concept of putting up with Urahara's antics for any length of time, he would not under any circumstances let Urahara know he was able to get under Aizen's skin. He wouldn't let the man have that sort of satisfaction now or ever. But then there was the issue of keeping up that calm facade in the presence of one such as Urahara. Yes, he faked his and 2 other captain's deaths, but he was fooling the Gotei and Central 46 with that. They were liking taking candy from a baby whose mother had long disappeared into a store looking for wine and then throwing the child onto a highway, knowing full and well the mother wouldn't be back anytime soon. However, trying to deceive Urahara was much more difficult, akin to trying to play In the Hall of the Mountain King on your own. Safe to say, it was very difficult.

But Aizen could deal with difficult; he'd dealt with Barragan's lectures and the eldritch horror that was Gin on April Fools' Day. Of course, that was with a bit of bourbon in his tea, but he needed something to relax himself! However, he needed to be completely sober for this one and it shouldn't be that long. Hell, he might be able to excuse himself on the basis of giving Ichigo kido lessons. 

Now Aizen had a plan, but it was best it be executed after tending to his morning routine. Setting a bit of music - Allegro non troppo by Dmitri Shostakovich - he got ready quickly and without much hassle except for the sleeves of his robes. While they did look good, there were times he wished he could cut the sleeves just a little bit so they didn't catch on the doorknobs. But alas, you needed to make a few sacrifices to look good.

Step one of the plan was getting Ichigo to Syazel's lab for a basic physical. Thankfully, finding Ichigo wouldn't be much of an issue as he had been moved to Aizen's palace which was situated with multiple rooms. And given Aizen's ironclad memory, he quickly found Ichigo's room. That and the boy's immense reiatsu. 

"Ichigo, wake up. We need to head to Syazel's today." Aizen called, and Ichigo soon answered, showing up near the door in a flash of Shunpo. Wait, would it be Sonido with Ichigo being an Arrancar? Aizen decided to categorize it as Shunido and focus back to the task at hand: getting Ichigo to an Arrancar's equivalent of a check-up. But it shouldn't be that much of an issue given that Isshin's occupation was that of a doctor.

"Which one's Syazel?" A valid question, as of the Espada Ichigo only knew Kaien and Grimmjow.

"The one with the pink hair." Aizen supplied, and seemingly satisfied with that response, Ichigo headed off besides Aizen to Syazel's palace, and more specifically, to Syazel's lab. Turns out Grimmjow had gone ahead and taught Ichigo Shunido, which made that one less thing for Aizen to worry about. Though now that opened the issue of what could happen now that Ichigo could move about faster; as Gin on April Fool's Day had always proved, shunpo could be as disastrous as any Zanpakuto if used right. But that was a problem for Future Aizen to worry about, so all he needed to worry about was dealing with Urahara and making sure that Ichigo didn't murder anyone when they needed the reishi samples, because if his knowledge was correct then children from the World of the Living had a strong disdain towards needles. If it was Mayuri or Kisuke behind the needle, then Aizen would understand the fear. But if it was some regular doctor then Aizen honestly didn't get the fear. And while Syazel was about as crazy as Mayuri, the key difference was that Aizen had struck the fear of God into Syazel.