The Marvelous Shop

"Stop fooling around, Masa. Tsuna, right? Can you point out the location of the Still Silver?" Ryuuken asked.

Tsuna rubbed his already flushed face and shot a glare at the smug Masa before saying, "Easy."

D. Spada's Magic Mirror turned toward Hae lying on the bed, and she instantly became ethereal. Before Ryuuken appeared the complete human meridian system of her body, and within those meridians, three points of light—this was the Still Silver Tsuna had mentioned.

This was what Tsuna had seen through the Magic Mirror. Now, using the mirror's inherent power, Tsuna cast an illusion on Hae, recreating what he had witnessed earlier for Ryuuken to see.

Seeing the Still Silver's condition with his own eyes, Ryuuken's expression turned grave. Those pieces of Still Silver were flowing too quickly; there was no way to remove them at fixed points. A dynamic surgery was necessary.

"A Long, how is it? Do you have a handle on it?" Masa didn't joke around when it came to serious matters.

Ryuuken reached out to touch the location of the Still Silver, but his hand passed through empty air, as if grasping at nothingness.

Ryuuken turned his head to look at Tsuna, who scratched his nose awkwardly. "Uh, strictly speaking, what you're seeing right now is my illusion. You can't touch Aunt Hae."

"So that means surgery is impossible in this state. Can you simulate a reference point nearby with your illusion?" As long as there was a reference, Ryuuken was confident he could complete the surgery while watching the dynamic image of the Still Silver.

"Uh, no. My illusion can only succeed if it targets a single subject."

Tsuna was helpless too. The Magic Mirror's main strength lay in perception; illusion was just an additional ability that could only transform one target.

"What about using me as the target? I can lie down next to her. You cast the illusion on me, and let A Long perform the surgery on Hae." Masa pointed at herself and asked.

Tsuna looked her up and down. "It's possible, but the difference in body shape will cause some deviation. Is that acceptable?"

"No way. This Still Silver is too small. I'm the only one confident enough to extract it. There's no second person in Karakura Town who can pull off this surgery! There absolutely cannot be any deviation!" Ryuuken pushed up his glasses with great confidence.

"Unless you can find someone with a body shape and height identical to both aunts..."

Just as Tsuna and Ryuuken were racking their brains, Masa had a flash of inspiration. "I can actually get a body with the exact same shape and height."

Masa grinned. "A Long, don't forget where my husband comes from. A body that perfectly matches a soul—that can replicate an identical body, can't it?"

Ryuuken remembered then. Kurosaki Isshin's true form as a Shinigami was just a soul. To live normally in the World of the Living, he had to wear a body called a Gigai, and a Gigai could indeed look exactly like its user.

"Release the illusion, Tsuna." Ryuuken wasn't as flippant as Masa; the strength Tsuna had already shown was enough to earn his respect.

Ryuuken leaned down to Hae on the bed and said, "You heard that, didn't you? Are you willing to trust me?"

Hae smiled faintly. "You know I do. I always have."

While Ryuuken and Hae were flirting, Masa pulled Tsuna aside and grinned. "Little Tsuna, you don't mind spending the night at Auntie's house, do you?"

Tsuna understood Masa's intent. She was using this as an excuse to cover for him with Sawada Nana. Luckily, Tsuna often stayed over at the Kurosaki Residence, so the excuse wasn't too much of a stretch.

After Tsuna nodded his agreement, Masa eagerly called Sawada Nana. Her reason was that Tsuna and Ichigo had played until they were exhausted and fallen asleep, and since the rain was heavy now, it was better to let Tsuna stay the night and so on.

"Done!" Masa flashed a victory sign at Tsuna, then said to the prepared Ryuuken, "A Long, let's head out now. Straight to the shopkeeper's place. I'll call Isshin and have him meet us there."

"Alright, let's move!" As he spoke, Ryuuken took out a bundle, strapped Hae onto his back, pushed open his own window, and was about to leap out.

"Aren't we taking the car?" Tsuna couldn't help asking. There were two patients here; were they really going out in the rain like this?

"The rain is too heavy to see clearly, and it's too slow. You flew all the way here too, didn't you?" Ryuuken said with a hint of confusion. He manipulated Reishi, forming a thin film above himself and Hae's heads, keeping all the raindrops from touching them.

Tsuna had nothing to say, but Masa poked his cheek and said, "Look at A Long. Little Tsuna, can you bear to let Auntie Masa get soaked in the rain?"

Faced with someone older than him acting silly, Tsuna really had no solution. The Magic Mirror was enveloped in green light, transformed, and draped over the two of them.

"Primo's Cloak."

"Nice stuff, Little Tsuna. You should have brought this out earlier. You made Auntie get rained on for a while." Masa said, lying on Tsuna's back. A raincoat couldn't fully block the rain after all.

Tsuna silently apologized. He never imagined that the Sky that possessed super-strong defensive ability, dyed everything, devoured everything, and embraced everything—Primo's Cloak—would be used by him for the first time to block the rain.

"I'll call Isshin..."

At the Kurosaki Residence, upon learning that Masa was in danger, Isshin grabbed his car keys without a second thought and rushed out. Just as he reached the door, he suddenly turned back, grabbed a large bag from the room, and then left...

Above Karakura Town, two groups of figures moved swiftly through the rain curtain. The group in the back had green light flashing at their feet, each step slightly sluggish—that was the moment of propulsion from Fullbring Light. The group in the front had blue light at their feet that never stopped, their trajectory a completely straight line, moving at extreme speed. The gap between them gradually widened.

"So that's the Quincy's Hirenkyaku? Truly extraordinary." Tsuna sighed as he traveled, already going all out but still unable to catch up to Ishida Ryuuken ahead.

Part of it was due to Ryuuken's superior strength, but the advantage of Hirenkyaku had to be acknowledged.

Hirenkyaku was an advanced movement technique used by Quincies. It concentrated Reishi at the feet, controlling the Reishi to carry the user in high-speed movement, like wearing a pair of fast-moving shoes.

Simply put, Hirenkyaku was like ice skating, while Fullbring Light was like bouncing. Under equal strength conditions, Hirenkyaku was indeed a bit faster than Fullbring Light.

"What? Little Tsuna envious?" Masa, who didn't have to exert herself, was still in the mood to tease him. "If you want to learn, have A Long teach you sometime."

"A Quincy's signature ability—of course I want to learn it." Tsuna said matter-of-factly.

"You... aren't you afraid of The Auswählen?" Masa's tone suddenly dropped. The emptiness of losing power wasn't something you could just let go of.

"The Auswählen isn't omnipotent. Look at Uncle's son—he's also a mixed blood, and he's perfectly fine, isn't he?" Tsuna said.

"Uryū? Has he already started training in Quincy powers?" Masa asked in surprise.

"Uncle didn't teach him, but that doesn't mean no one else did." Tsuna said. "Speaking of which, Aunt Masa, do you plan to make Ichigo a Quincy?"

Masa pouted and voiced her thoughts. "No way. What's the point of fighting and killing? Let Ichigo live an ordinary life. Becoming a Quincy means having to fear The Auswählen and all that."

Masa was genuinely bothered by The Auswählen. In her view, as long as Ichigo never had power, he wouldn't be targeted by it. But she didn't know that Ichigo, who had been targeted by Aizen, could never be just an ordinary person in this life. She also didn't know that Ichigo was among those who weren't afraid of The Auswählen either.

Tsuna didn't say much more. He respected the choices of others' parents. He had made up his mind: unless Ichigo actively sought power from him, he wouldn't guide Ichigo to learn and master the abilities within his body ahead of time.

After all, in the original timeline, Ichigo could learn his power and then cut down Yhwach in three years. A little time difference didn't matter.

Soon Tsunayoshi saw their destination: in the middle of a small clearing sat an unassuming general store. This was the place Masa had directed them to—the Urahara Shop.

This was the refuge Kisuke Urahara, former captain of the Gotei 13's Squad 12, had opened in the World of the Living after being forced to leave the Soul Society. He was one of the core producers of black-tech in the Bleach world; you could say that Kisuke Urahara could pull out all kinds of unknown gadgets.

Just as Tsunayoshi landed from the sky, a small truck pulled up beside them. A man in a floral shirt stepped out—Kurosaki Isshin. The Kurosaki Residence was closer, so he'd managed to rendezvous with Tsunayoshi and the others just in time.

Before Isshin could check on Masa's condition, the door of that shabby secondhand shop swung open. A man stood in the doorway, holding a folding fan, wearing a green-and-white fishing cap, a dark green haori, and long pants. He half-covered his mouth with the fan and spoke in an exaggerated, sleazy tone.

"Oh ho ho, I thought the sky had cleared up a bit—so it's because we have honored guests."

This was Kisuke Urahara. The pouring rain proved he was talking nonsense, purely making glib remarks.

"Kisuke, save the chatter. We need your help." Isshin cradled Masa in a princess carry and charged straight into the Urahara Shop.

Isshin's reckless behavior startled Kisuke into jumping aside. But when he saw Ryūken carrying the pale-faced Hae on his back, Kisuke realized things were serious.

In the Urahara Shop's reception room, a middle-aged man with a small ponytail and muscular build was serving hot tea to Tsunayoshi and the others. Standing beside Tsunayoshi were a boy and a girl about his age.

The ponytailed middle-aged man was Kukaku Shiba, the former head of the Kido Corps in the Soul Society, his Kido abilities mysterious and unfathomable. The girl was Yame, with two pigtails, quiet and gentle in appearance. The other boy was different—red-haired and more outgoing, named Hanakari Jinta. The moment they met, he gave Tsunayoshi the nickname "Pompadour."

Urahara, Isshin, and Ryūken returned from the adjoining room. Masa and Hae had been settled in there. Originally, Masa had strongly objected to being treated like a patient, but after Isshin saw that her energetic state was just a front, he sternly ordered her to lie down.

"Yo, so this is the young man who's been so active this past year?" Urahara said in an exaggerated tone as soon as he entered, a shrewd glint flickering in his eyes.

Having spent years stationed in Karakura Town, Kisuke Urahara had clearly long noticed Sawada Tsunayoshi's Reiatsu. Like Isshin and the others, since Tsunayoshi hadn't done anything dangerous—on the contrary, he'd been eliminating Hollows—Urahara hadn't taken any action against him.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi," Tsunayoshi introduced himself.

"Then, Tsunayoshi-san, could you explain the situation and your needs in detail?" Kisuke Urahara said. What Ryūken and Isshin had told him about the Auswählen was only fragmentary; the best course was to get the full story from Tsunayoshi, who was in the know.