Seireitei Monogatari

a/n: Another update I have managed despite pushing myself to write lots and lots of words a day. lol. I hope you enjoy it! And thanks to everyone who is very patient with me. Regular updates should return in a few... months maybe? We'll see.

Thanks to all my reviewers as well. Where would I be without you? Probably stopped at about fifteen drabbles, honestly. Thanks very much to Baroqueangel who left me a lengthy review that made my writer's heart skip several, pleased beats. Thanks also to Ranna, Yakumo, Synthetic, Kuromei, Emyrei and uchiha mikomi.

Title: Recipe for a Villain
Characters: Aizen with mentions of the Vizard and the Gotei 13
Rating: T
Warnings: OOC, massive crack
Words: 1,622
Description: He was a Shinigami on the edge, only to be shoved over.
Dedication: To Azar-sama, who first gave me the idea for this.

He hadn't always been the bad guy.

There was a time, many centuries ago, when Aizen Sousuke was a really nice person. Shy and generous, kind and gentle. The very epitome of the mask he had worn when making his plots against Soul Society. That time, however, was long before he entered Gotei 13 and was denied upon multiple occasions his requests. Long before the Academy when he was subjected to the harassments of Kensei and Love. It was long before any of that.

Sousuke had once wanted to be the good guy. And really, his capacity for patience was quite wide. He almost thought it was bottomless. But there was a limit to kindness. Was it his fault that they pushed him past the edge?

He had been a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed youngster who entered the Shinigami Academy with high hopes. He wanted to succeed. He was going to make friends, having been used to being by himself at home. He had been looking forward to the opportunity. He thought everything was going to be great.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

To this day, Sousuke didn't know what set him off as a target. True, children would be children. But why they had been so cruel to him. Why he'd been picked out of all the rest… that was a mystery he’d never solve.

It had started with Shinji, who was his senpai, and happened to be a leader in his own rights of a group of friends. He had an easygoing smile, and people got along well with him. He was a celebrity at the Academy for his skills and friendliness, even if his grades weren't nearly the best.

Sousuke might have admired him just a bit. And when Shinji introduced himself, Sousuke might have thought he was lucky.

Yet, he soon realized just the opposite. Shinji hadn't wanted a friend but a gopher. Someone to play tricks on and laugh at, and yet, Sousuke bore it all because it couldn't get any worse. Even if it did take them months to remember his name. For awhile they were just calling him “Glasses-chan” and leaving it at that.

Shinji liked to steal his uniform when he wasn't looking, sometimes right off the clothesline, and hide it in random places. The trash. The river. Underneath Shinji's bed. Wherever the mood struck him. And then, he'd watch as Sousuke ran around desperately trying to find something to wear before class started and he was berated again.

Love and Kensei thought it was ever so amusing to push him around and take his lunch money. Or the specially prepared bento his mother sent with him on days she remembered that he existed. Not that the others didn't do it also, but those two were the main perpetrators, Kensei giving him that eagle-eyed stare and Love all menacing with his large hair and gaze hidden by his glasses.

Lisa was the worst of them. She was his childhood friend and the one who had introduced Sousuke to the entire group of friends. He should have known from her example, considering how much she had beat on him when they were children. He didn't understand how a girl could be so violent. And she was the one to tell them about Sousuke's toes, a fact he was always uncomfortable discussing. Like it was his fault he had six on each foot. They loved to hold him down, pull off his waraji and tabi and poke at his feet. Especially Lisa.

Hiyori was only fair in that she picked on Shinji as much as she did Sousuke himself. Only she kicked Sousuke in the crotch as opposed to the face blows that Shinji received. And later, after becoming said man's vice-captain, Shinji refused to allow Sousuke to wear protection. Said it would toughen him up, make him a man or something idiotic like that. It brought a whole new meaning to the term “blue balls.”

Which, by the way, kept its original meaning his entire six years at the Academy. He couldn't get a date to save his life. Apparently, nice guys really do finish last. As in dead last. He was the friend. The one the girls came crying to when their bastard boyfriend's were horrible. He was nice and dependable but not dateable.

Rose, philanderer that he was, never lacked for a date. And the one time Sousuke managed to get a girl to agree to go out with him, Rose stole her right from under his nose. He never even had a chance.

As a result of his girlfriend-less existence, everyone thought he was gay or at least really repressed. Honestly, the rumors that produced lingered long after he had left the Academy. To this day, he still didn't know who started the one about he and Urahara Kisuke, but Evil Overlord Aizen Sousuke vowed that when he did find out, they would experience his full wrath. He'd been saving it for some time.

He supposed the Academy might have been more tolerable if it weren't for his uncle. Kyouraku Shunsui occasionally stopped by for a visit. And sometimes, he even taught a few classes out of the kindness of his heart. Of course, he never ever let Sousuke forget the fact that he'd once changed little Sou-kun's diapers, and he'd spend hours regaling the students with tales of Sousuke's youth. That sort of embarrassment wasn't easily lived down.

When he finally graduated from the Academy, a couple of years behind the youngest of his tormentors, he thought it was going to be over. That now he could finally shine and make his place in the Gotei13. He was determined to rise in the ranks, to show off the results of his efforts.

And well, the plot might have started just a bit then. The others – Shinji and gang – were only worse once he was more accessible to their clutches.

Originally, it might have just been revenge. Only revenge and nothing more. Against his tormentors and those that had made his school years a living hell. He had planned to settle things down after forcing them to flee Soul Society, the entire group now exiled. He hadn’t really wanted to hurt anyone else.

Little did he know, it was nearly impossible to get promoted without having someone on the inside. Try as he might, he couldn't convince Ukitake-taichou to make him a vice-captain. He had all the qualifications. He was the most skilled in the division. He couldn't make the other man notice, however, no matter how hard he tried.

When he finally achieved bankai, Sousuke applied for a captain's position. He originally wanted the seventh, but he was denied. He tried for the third. Then the twelfth. And even the sixth. But no one would take his application seriously. The Kidoh Corps wouldn't take him either. They sent his application back six times.

It was only the timely appearance of his uncle, spouting off more stories of his childhood, that finally granted Sousuke position in the fifth. His former captain's spot, the one place Sousuke did not want to accept. Yet, it was either that or none at all.

He grudgingly took his place and started to rebuild his existence. Thoughts of rebellion were pushed aside. He needed his vengeance.

And then, the final straw, Hinamori Momo was assigned as his vice-captain. He thought she would be fine. Cheerful and kind, she only ever praised him. She was a hard worker, and her eyes shone with adoration for him. Truly, no one could ever ask for a better vice-captain. He thought things were finally turning around for him. Life could go on.

Until his inbox started getting flooded with love letters and he constantly felt eyes in the back of his head. She gushed about him to her friends, talking about things that never happened, and everywhere Sousuke looked, she was there, like a puppy wagging her tail.

He exited the bath, and she was holding a towel for him, smiling all innocently but with definite perversions dancing in her head. She made him a healthy bento every day without fail. And if he didn't eat it, she cried. Huge crocodile tears that made him look like a terrible person to everyone else. For a while, they thought that he was the one taking advantage of her. He was reprimanded by Yamamoto-soutaichou. Twice. Only sweet Gin-chan – who was equally ostracized – believed him when he claimed that she was actually the stalker. They thought he was seeking attention since all of his friends had been so cruelly exiled.

Pfft. If only.

When Yamamoto denied his request for a new vice-captain, well, that was the last that Sousuke could take. He bit back his retort with a gentle smile, thanked the captain-commander for his time, and headed back to his quarters.

Not a violent man, Sousuke didn't once consider breaking something. And drinking himself into oblivion had no appeal. He simply headed for his closet, and the small box concealed on the top shelf. He pulled it out, leafed through the many papers, and smiled to himself. All of his plans were here, in detail, step-by-step. Everything he had thought to do but put aside because his revenge was complete.

It wasn't his fault. He had been a nice guy. He just wanted to save people and be successful and have a pretty, non-stalker girlfriend who would eventually become his wife. Was it his fault that they had driven him to the edge? And then promptly pushed him right over it?

Sousuke never wanted to be the villain.

But in all honesty, he was starting to enjoy it just a bit.

****

a/n: Heh, this was funnier in retrospect. Ah, well. There's a bit of continuity-with-canon issues in here, too, but oh well. I had fun writing it.

Plenty more where this came from, though I don't really know when I'll update again. Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for your patience as my attentions are diverted somewhere else temporarily.