That idiot was still getting beaten up.
Urahara Shop.
"Yaaawn..."
With a contented groan, Brother Biao stretched lazily. But then his hands suddenly froze.
An unfamiliar ceiling, an unfamiliar bed... Ah, no, it was a tatami mat.
"You're awake?"
A cautious voice came from beside him. Wu Biao turned his head and saw a little girl with twin ponytails kneeling nearby. He immediately understood. "Oh, it's you. How'd I end up here?"
"You were badly injured earlier, so the shopkeeper brought you back to treat you!"
Wu Biao looked at the bandages wrapped around him and nodded. He tried moving his body, and found that his injuries had almost completely healed. "Wow, your shopkeeper's pretty good at medicine!"
As he spoke, Brother Biao climbed off the tatami. "Where'd that white-and-green-hat guy go?" He stood up on his own, and a series of sharp pangs immediately shot through his stomach.
"Forget it. Got anything to eat? I'm starving to death!"
Xiaoyu's expression changed. She quietly edged backward, staring at Wu Biao in terror.
This big brother was starving to death?
Wouldn't that mean...
Remembering what Wu Biao had said last time, Xiaoyu suddenly felt an urge to bolt out the door. Tears began welling in her eyes.
"Jeez, I just mean I'm hungry. Why are you crying? You're acting like I'm going to eat you..."
That only made things worse. The moment he finished speaking, Xiaoyu let out a shriek and turned to run outside.
"That girl's got something wrong with her head!" Brother Biao scratched his head. But as soon as the door opened, the delicious aroma of food interrupted his thoughts.
He sniffed the air, then crawled out of the room on all fours, following the smell.
Brother Biao was so hungry he'd forgotten how to walk. He charged straight into the room filled with the smell of food, leaving the person and cat inside staring in shock. Wu Biao paid them no mind.
"Food! It's food!!!"
With a roar like a wild beast, Brother Biao lunged at the table of food. He picked up the rice pot and shoveled its contents into his mouth, gulping it down like water.
"..." Urahara Kisuke slapped a hand to his forehead. He'd actually forgotten that he'd brought this guy back for treatment yesterday. If he'd known he'd wake up so soon, he would've had Isshin come pick him up. This guy ate like he hadn't had a meal in lifetimes. His little general store couldn't afford to feed him!
The cat beside him wore an expression of almost humanlike shock, staring blankly at Wu Biao as he came charging in and wolfed down the food with inhuman table manners. After a long moment, the cat finally spoke.
"Um... this... creature is that Wu Biao you mentioned earlier?"
Wu Biao's eating habits had apparently gotten him kicked out of the human race altogether. The cat spoke in an unusually deep male voice that sounded quite imposing.
Urahara Kisuke nodded with a wry smile. "Yeah. He's the unusual human I told you about, Yoruichi."
"Damn, this world really is freaking strange. Even a black cat can talk!" Wu Biao paused mid-bite and stared curiously at Yoruichi. Then he shook his head. "Whatever. This world's got monsters called Hollows, too. A talking cat isn't that surprising!"
As soon as he finished, Brother Biao lowered his head and resumed his eating campaign.
That was a pretty calm reaction... and his reasoning was surprisingly convincing.
Yoruichi couldn't help sweating a little. Her bright yellow eyes studied Wu Biao with curiosity. Urahara Kisuke had told her about the earlier battle: he'd defeated a Gillian, a Menos Grande, with nothing but an ordinary human body.
Even she had found that hard to believe. The kid in front of her didn't show even a trace of spiritual pressure. He looked just like an ordinary human, so it was hard to imagine that he'd defeated a Gillian.
Yoruichi thought it over for a long while without coming up with an answer. As head of the Shihoin Clan, one of the Four Great Noble Clans of Seireitei, she'd read countless books and knew a great deal about the few unusual groups of humans.
But this kid definitely didn't belong to any of them. That only made Yoruichi more curious. She looked at Wu Biao and asked, "Kid, what exactly are you?"
"I'm not a thing!" Wu Biao mumbled around a mouthful of food. But as soon as he said it, he realized something was off and swallowed. "You black-furred beast, are you looking for a beating? You're the one who's not a thing! Your whole family's not a thing!"
Yoruichi was taken aback. A moment later, her cat face turned cold. The Shihoin family's dignity was not to be underestimated. Brother Biao had just insulted the entire Shihoin Clan.
"Easy, easy. There's something wrong with this kid's head!" Urahara hurriedly pointed to his own head. Otherwise, the two of them might start fighting right here!
Yoruichi snorted and couldn't be bothered to take a kid's words seriously.
"You're the one with something wrong with your head!" Brother Biao protested, glaring with his round tiger eyes. "Green Hat, you looking for a beating? I'm telling you, your Brother Biao's brain is on the level of Sherlock Holmes, the great detective. I'm a genius!"
Green Hat?
A vein popped on Urahara Kisuke's forehead. This guy really did deserve a beating...
And forget about who Sherlock Holmes was—how could he call himself smart with a head like that? Couldn't he have at least a little shame?
"Hmm... Xiaoyu, Jinta, buy one cup of instant noodles each tonight. Dinner's canceled!" Urahara Kisuke was no fool. He'd spotted Brother Biao's weakness with just one sentence.
Then he added, "Oh, and don't buy a portion for Wu Biao."
Brother Biao stared at Urahara Kisuke for a long while. The fierce look on his face slowly faded until he looked utterly pitiful. "Sorry, I was wrong!"
Yoruichi twitched a whisker. "Hey, did you really have to give in that fast? You're willing to throw away your dignity for food?"
"Idiot, how are those even comparable? Can dignity fill your stomach? Food's obviously more important!" Brother Biao shot Yoruichi a contemptuous, mocking glance, as if to say, There's an idiot here. She's not even as smart as me!
That look made Yoruichi feel as if her balls had been crushed—if she'd had any, that is. Being called an idiot would normally only make her angry.
But being called an idiot by an idiot who didn't know he was one made her want to lose her mind. And the most humiliating part was... she actually thought the idiot had a point.
There was no denying it: Brother Biao's natural talent for getting under people's skin was nearly maxed out!
At the very least, Yoruichi wanted to pounce on him and claw his face to ribbons. In fact, she already had—but Urahara Kisuke had pulled her back.
It wasn't that he wanted to help Brother Biao. In her cat form, Yoruichi might not even be able to beat the idiot in front of her...
Brother Biao had no idea that the two idiots before him had called him an idiot countless times in their minds. If he'd known, he probably would've gone berserk and beaten the human and the cat into idiots.
After eating, Brother Biao went out and bought a pack of cigarettes, then brazenly returned to the Urahara Shop. After all, his boss had just called and given him a few days off to recover there before going back.
Meanwhile, Urahara Kisuke was still arguing with Kurosaki Isshin over the phone, cursing him out. Feeding this glutton for one meal had cost almost as much as feeding Isshin's entire family for a week. Even if he couldn't get the medical bills reimbursed, he should at least get some money for food.
Otherwise, his little general store really couldn't take the hit...
As dusk approached, a simple sliding door slowly appeared in midair somewhere on the outskirts of the Human World. When it opened, two men appeared out of nowhere.
Both men wore Shihakusho!
One had red markings on his eyebrows. He carried a sword over his right shoulder, his resolute face full of arrogance.
The other man was exceptionally handsome, with long hair, pale purple eyes, and a cold expression. A Kenseikan adorned his head. Though it wasn't cherry blossom season, countless cherry blossoms still swirled around him.
The moment the two appeared, Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi frowned in the Urahara Shop.
Wu Biao, who had been napping on the tatami, suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze was full of wariness. A terrifying aura blocked his senses, preventing him from detecting where the two men were.
But his instincts kept sending him the same message.
Danger...
Extremely dangerous!!!--
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