Siwei Yan stepped into the courtyard of the Ninth Division barracks.
Something suddenly blurred before his eyes!
"Little Future!"
At the same instant that the energetic, slightly tearful cry hit his ears, Yan Si felt as though a gigantic Hollow charging at full speed had rammed straight into his stomach.
"Urgh!"
A short, muffled grunt escaped him.
Before he could even see what had happened, his entire body left the ground and went flying backward.
Bang!
His back slammed solidly into the courtyard's hard stone wall, jolting him so badly that his internal organs seemed to shift out of place. Dust showered down.
"I heard a Great Hollow appeared in the Human World this time! I've never even seen one of those! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?! Hurry, let me look!"
Lieutenant Kyunnan Shiro's small face instantly filled his entire field of vision.
He gripped the collar of Yan Si's Shinigami uniform with both hands and shook him hard. The force sent Yan Si's head rocking helplessly back and forth, and stars began dancing before his eyes.
"L-Lieutenant..." Yan Si struggled to squeeze the words out of his constricted throat. "Can't... breathe..."
"Huh?" At those words, tears immediately welled in Kyunnan Shiro's eyes, and he shook Yan Si even harder.
"Little Future, don't die! Say something! Where does it hurt? I'll blow on it for you!"
Yan Si felt like a willow branch caught in a gale, swaying helplessly beneath an overwhelming force he had no hope of resisting.
The pressure on his neck kept increasing. The edges of his vision darkened, and his consciousness slowly drifted away like an ebbing tide...
"You idiot! Are you trying to kill him?!"
An angry roar rang out. A muffled thump followed, accompanied by a pained "Ow!" The immense force gripping Yan Si's neck abruptly vanished.
Captain Kensei Muguruma had rushed over at some point and punched Kyunnan Shiro on the top of his head.
The petite lieutenant immediately let go, clutched his head, and crouched down, his eyes brimming with aggrieved tears.
"Wah... I was just worried about Little Future... Kensei, you're an idiot! A big idiot!" he accused.
"You..." Kensei Muguruma looked at his tearful lieutenant crouching on the ground, his temples throbbing.
He heaved a sigh and hurriedly reached out to support Yan Si as he slid limply down the wall.
"Hey, Yan Si, still alive? You're not dead, are you?" Kensei patted Yan Si's cheeks firmly.
"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..." Yan Si broke into violent coughing, gulping down air as his throat burned.
"C-Captain... if you'd arrived a tenth of a second later, the Ninth Division could've started planning my 'division funeral' and updating the recruitment notice for the vacant Fifth Seat..."
"As long as you're all right." Kensei Muguruma carefully examined Yan Si's complexion. Only after confirming that he had merely suffered a fright and some physical pain, and that his reiatsu remained stable, did he breathe a sigh of relief and give his back a firm pat.
"I've already gotten a preliminary account of the mission in the Human World. I didn't expect you to encounter a Great Hollow. It was certainly dangerous.
You performed well on the battlefield. You cut down the Hollows, promptly supported your exhausted comrades, and made decisive calls. Good work."
Yan Si immediately adopted a composed, slightly weary expression. "I was only doing my duty. You flatter me, Captain."
Kensei Muguruma nodded, an approving smile appearing on his face.
"Mm. Thanks for your hard work. You contributed a lot on this mission, so I'll approve three days of leave. Get some proper rest."
Time off!
Those two words instantly lit up Yan Si's somewhat dull eyes.
He immediately raised a hand to his chest and drew his brows together slightly, arranging his expression into three parts weakness, three parts stoic endurance, and four parts need for care.
"Captain... now that you mention it, I suddenly feel... a dull ache right here.
Maybe the Hollow's reiatsu hit me earlier, or I moved too abruptly during the retreat and sustained some hidden internal injuries...
Do you think you could extend my leave just a little? Say... ten days?
That would let me recover completely, so I won't have any lingering problems that might hold the division back on future missions."
His tone was earnest, his gaze sincere.
The smile vanished from Kensei Muguruma's face at a visible pace. His eyes grew impassive as he silently watched him.
Yan Si's heart lurched, but he kept it off his face and immediately changed tactics.
"Ah, ten days is a bit much... then how about seven? I promise I'll rest properly and won't go wandering around!" He held up seven fingers.
Kensei's expression began turning grim, and he silently took half a step back, folding his arms across his chest.
Yan Si gritted his teeth as though making a tremendous sacrifice and held up five fingers, his tone resolute.
"Five days! Captain, just five days! That's my bottom line! Any less really would hinder my recovery!"
"Cut the nonsense," Kensei Muguruma finally said. "Three days, and on the morning of the fourth day, you're coming out with me."
"Huh? Where?" Yan Si froze. Why was there an extra assignment attached?
"The Kuchiki family," Kensei said.
Yan Si slowly straightened up. The feigned weakness on his face vanished instantly as he asked cautiously:
"You received an invitation from the Kuchiki family too, Captain?"
"So you already know about it." Kensei Muguruma gave him a look that said, "Just as I thought," then sighed helplessly.
"Good. Then you understand why I'm bringing you along. You know I've never gotten along with all that noble pomp and ceremony.
But Captain Ginrei Kuchiki sent the invitation personally. As a fellow captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, I can't refuse him that courtesy."
He reached out and slapped Yan Si heavily on the shoulder, making him grimace again.
"When the time comes, I'll leave the pleasantries and small talk with those noble gentlemen to you.
The 'noble young gentleman of the Soul Society'—this is exactly the time to put your talents to use."
"No, Captain! Wait!" Yan Si immediately tried to resist.
"Don't you know what I'm really like? All that talk about me being a 'noble young gentleman' is just a persona we cooked up to promote the novels and sell books! It's acting! It's marketing!"
He began speaking faster.
"Noble customs? The most important noble I've ever met is our division's Third Seat, good old Yamagane Tetsu! And he's only a minor noble on the fringes!
What do I know about noble etiquette? I'll only embarrass the Ninth Division if I go! Please reconsider, Captain!"
"Well, I'm terribly sorry... for being a minor noble."
A faint, ominous voice drifted from the corner of the nearby corridor.
Third Seat Yamagane Tetsu stood outside his own room, his face livid, holding a stack of documents so high that it nearly blocked his view.
He shot Yan Si an icy glare, then slammed his door shut with a bang, shaking a little dust loose from the frame.
Yan Si: "..."
Of course, Kensei Muguruma knew exactly what sort of person Yan Si was.
After decades together and dozens of bitter lessons, he had long since become intimately familiar with the cunning hidden beneath that face and his extraordinary talent for slacking off.
His old excuses, such as "Captain, I stubbed my toe on the corner of a cabinet and need bed rest," or "Captain, I feel like my reishi circulation has gotten a little tangled and need time to straighten it out," had come with performances far more vivid and convincing than this one. He could summon tears on demand.
"It's settled." Kensei Muguruma ended the conversation in a tone that brooked no argument.
He understood one truth all too well: when dealing with Siwei Yan, he absolutely could not give him a chance to start spinning his tales.
Once he got talking, he could talk the dead back to life and turn three days of leave into three months.
With that, he gave Yan Si no further opportunity to argue. He turned, reached out with one large hand, grabbed Kyunnan Shiro by the back of his collar where he was still crouching in the corner, and strode out of the barracks.
"Bye-bye, Little Future! Remember to get plenty of rest!" Even while being carried, Kyunnan Shiro still turned his head and waved cheerfully at Yan Si.
"Captain! Captain, please reconsider! Captain!"
Siwei Yan's cries were futile.
Only Yan Si remained in the courtyard, standing disheveled in the wind.
"What did I do to deserve this?" He let out a long sigh.
Before you continue