Awkward

The Yorozuya's main hall.

Sitting in the not-so-spacious main hall, Kotetsu Isane fidgeted restlessly, embarrassment written all over her face.

The gentle gaze of the man across from her made her feel especially ashamed. After all, she had not come here to exchange pointers, but with a bellyful of resentment.

It all began with the morning's Lieutenant Captain gathering. The gathering was supposedly held mainly to celebrate her becoming a Lieutenant Captain, but at the gathering, Lieutenant Captain Omaeda, the organizer, told her something.

An officer of the Fourth Division had been studying Kido from someone in Rukongai these past few days.

An officer of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads studying Kido from "someone in Rukongai"?

No matter how one heard it, the statement sounded like something out of a dream. In their eyes, if someone needed guidance, they could simply consult an officer or Lieutenant Captain from their division. There was no need to run to Rukongai and seek instruction from an ordinary person.

After all, once members graduated from the Soul Reaper Academy, their training was handled by the Lieutenant Captain.

Of course, "ordinary person" was not what Omaeda had said. That was merely what everyone had imagined on their own.

Omaeda had not gone into detail. On one hand, many of the Punishment Force's activities could not be disclosed. On the other, he had organized the gathering simply to bring the Lieutenant Captains together for some relaxation. He had only mentioned the matter because of the Captain's instructions.

To return to the point, an officer of a division had not sought guidance from the Lieutenant Captain, but had instead gone to an ordinary person in Rukongai. In everyone's eyes, there were only two possibilities: either the other party truly had some ability, or they believed the Lieutenant Captain was incompetent and were expressing it in this roundabout way...

Kotetsu Isane had only taken office a few days ago. Although the other Lieutenant Captains had not said anything outright during the gathering, they could not help forming certain opinions.

What was more, there was one particularly important detail...

The officer who had gone to Rukongai to study from an ordinary person happened to be the younger brother of the former Lieutenant Captain. Taken together, the other party's actions looked, no matter how one viewed them, like a deliberate way of expressing dissatisfaction with the new Lieutenant Captain.

Kotetsu Isane had always been timid and introverted. These past few days, she had constantly wondered whether she was qualified to serve as a Lieutenant Captain. In her eyes, she had not become one because of her own ability. The previous Lieutenant Captain had been transferred, and with no suitable candidate available, she had merely been lucky enough to take the position.

She could understand her elder brother being transferred and the other party feeling dissatisfied with her.

But understanding was one thing...

She still felt deeply wronged. If he had a grievance, he could have said so directly. Why resort to this method? And why let Lieutenant Captain Omaeda bring it up at the gathering? Even though no one had said anything, the celebration had still become unbearably awkward.

So, the moment the gathering ended, she immediately followed the address Omaeda had given her and came here.

She had originally planned to talk things over with Hanatarou face-to-face, then teach that fraud Duan Mu a lesson. Instead, she had been denied entry the moment she arrived. After pulling the bell and knocking on the door for ages without receiving a response, she had simply opened the door and walked in.

After entering the shop, she saw no one. Instead, she saw a blackboard filled with information about changes in Spiritual Power during Kido.

Once she started looking, she became completely absorbed.

The knowledge on the blackboard was not complicated, and she had grasped most of it. However, many of the nodes in the changes of Spiritual Power differed slightly from what she knew. After working through the reasoning, she discovered that using Kido according to the changes described on the blackboard produced even better results than the method she knew.

Many of the explanations were also brilliant enough to make one applaud.

This made Isane forget why she had come. She became immersed in the knowledge covering the blackboard until Duan Mu and Hanatarou arrived, reminding her of her purpose.

Awkward~~

Isane was so embarrassed that she wanted nothing more than to claw out the entire layout of Seireitei with her toes.

She had thought the other party was a fraud and had stormed over to teach him a lesson. Instead, she had been captivated by what he taught, barged into someone else's home without permission, and secretly read the unique insights they had painstakingly written down.

A dignified Lieutenant Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads had come here to steal knowledge.

I want to die~!!

Duan Mu looked at the flushed, flustered Kotetsu Isane. Even his gentle smile had become somewhat stiff.

Are everyone in the Fourth Division like this, from top to bottom?

Duan Mu glanced at Hanatarou, who was sitting restlessly beside him with his head lowered, and felt speechless.

Konai was like this. Hanatarou was like this. Now even a dignified Lieutenant Captain was this introverted. So, had all the socially anxious people joined the Fourth Division?

How am I supposed to cope with this as someone who's only half socially anxious?

Although Duan Mu had spent all these years trying to change and had been making an effort to communicate with people proactively, his formerly taciturn—or, more precisely, indifferent to everything—personality had changed considerably.

Still, compared to using words to please others, he preferred communicating as little as possible, working diligently with his head down, and satisfying customers through serious effort.

What should I say?

She was a highly important Lieutenant Captain, and a woman at that. He had come with the intention of befriending her no matter what, but that very thought seemed to be triggering a relapse of his social anxiety. He had no idea what to say.

One person wore a gentle expression, while the other two avoided each other's eyes...

In the not-so-large living room, the three sat in a triangular formation, creating an eerie silence.

"Would you like some tea?"

Duan Mu broke the silence first, but he regretted it the moment the words left his mouth. The Yorozuya had no tea at all. There were two bottles of liquor hidden in the bedroom, which was completely isolated behind them.

"No... I'm not thirsty... Thank you." Isane raised her head and replied, but after meeting Duan Mu's eyes for an instant, she quickly lowered it again. She looked just like a thief caught stealing by the homeowner.

"Oh, is that so!"

Duan Mu's eyes twitched. He repeatedly signaled to Hanatarou beside him, hoping the man could ease the awkward atmosphere. Instead, Hanatarou sat there restlessly, just like a child caught doing something wrong by an adult.

After realizing that neither of them could be relied upon, Duan Mu gritted his teeth and threw caution to the wind.

Even if he had to cling to a powerful person's leg and be dragged along today, he had to find a way to keep Kotetsu Isane here. This was his first contact with the leadership of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. As long as he became friends with her, he could develop more female customers... and perhaps even use Isane to meet the superior of the two people present.

"May I ask if you have some kind of commission for the Yorozuya, Miss Isane?"

Before Isane could answer, Duan Mu hurriedly added, "Our shop handles all kinds of jobs, from housework to finding people—we're experts at everything! Whether it's one job or ten thousand, as long as you have the money, I'm willing to do it! We also offer generous discounts to women, and Lieutenant Captains receive an incredible forty percent off at our shop!!!"

"Huh?"

Kotetsu Isane was clearly a little bewildered by Duan Mu's string of advertising slogans.

"Our shop also offers various paid consultation services. Whether it's swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, Kido, movement techniques, or healing Kido, we can discuss and verify everything without reservation, allowing both sides to grow together!"