Kuchiki Manor.
Rukia looked at the pile of blind boxes and figurines of other people before her, pressed her hands together, squeezed her eyes shut, and muttered, "It has to be Big Brother! It has to be Big Brother! Gods, bless me!"
She took a deep breath, carefully tore open the packaging of who knew which blind box this was, ripped open the tamper-proof sealed bag, and poured its contents into her palm.
A chibi Byakuya Kuchiki wearing a Kenseikan and a Captain's Haori fell out.
"It's Big Brother! It's Big Brother!" Rukia was so excited that tears nearly fell from her eyes. She carefully cradled the chibi Byakuya in her hands, looking him over from every angle and unable to put him down.
She was so moved! It had finally come out!
Outside the room, apparently having heard the strange commotion inside, Byakuya knocked on the door. "Rukia, what are you doing?"
"Ah, n-no, it's nothing."
In a panic, Rukia hurriedly cleared away the messy figurines and boxes on the table.
On the other side, at the sales stand in the plaza.
In less than an hour, two thousand blind boxes had been snapped up by the frenzied Squad Members. Those who failed to get one left with their shoulders slumped in dejection.
12th Division, Research and Development Bureau.
Yuko looked at the completely sold-out blind boxes, grinning from ear to ear.
"Two thousand boxes, two thousand rings each—total revenue, four million rings!" Yuko rapidly did the math in her head. "Subtract the material costs, then the 12th Division's manufacturing fee, the Female Shinigami Association's cut, and the image-rights dividends for the other captains..."
Logically, the captains' dividends should have been allocated based on how many figurines bearing their likenesses had sold out. But since these were blind