Isn't It More Shameless to Count on Your Enemy to Be Noble?

"You, you!" Fuzi gasped for breath, wishing he could tear Hongjiang apart. "How could you?!"

Hongjiang looked as if he'd just heard a joke. He laughed so hard he could barely keep his balance, pointing at himself as he trembled. "Why couldn't we? You said we're slowly marching toward extinction. Are we not allowed to go crazy for once?"

"You wouldn't. I don't believe you'd want to see no one left beneath the throne!"

"Believe it or not, that's up to you. What we do is up to us!" Hongjiang crouched down, amusement gleaming behind his sunglasses as he looked at Fuzi's furious face. "Hurry up and choose, Fuzi. You can go out in a blaze of glory, like God! No one will know, of course, but I'm sure the noble Quincies won't mind such a little detail. Your people will praise you when they find out!"

Fuzi stopped cursing. Mouth open, he suddenly threw his whole body forward, driven by all his strength. At that moment, he hated the young man in front of him more than anything.

But Hongjiang wasn't some useless wastrel. He fell back with the motion, barely dodging Fuzi's lunge, then flipped through the air and landed a few steps away. He watched Fuzi writhe and squirm on the ground like a caterpillar, a smile on his face.

"Looks like there really is no God in this world, and you're not much different from us. In fact, you're even more shameless." Hongjiang strolled over to Fuzi, then used his toe to flip him over and press him down, returning him to his original position. "You preach righteousness, yet entrust your life to the mercy of the very shameless people you just denounced. Tell me, who's more shameless, Fuzi?"

"And don't give me that crap about regretting not killing me!" Hongjiang pressed down harder with his foot, his emotions surging as he shouted, "At the Plain of Slaughter, those arrows were actually aimed at me, weren't they? And in Fujiang District, the assassins knew my every move! You were behind that too, weren't you, Fuzi?!"

"So get this straight: you're still alive because I'm honoring our friendship! If anyone gets to call this the shame of a lifetime, it's me! You? You don't deserve to!"

Fuzi's face fell. Hongjiang was completely right. The attack on the Gillian at the Plain of Slaughter had actually been a test. If Hongjiang had been injured then, their next move would have been to eliminate every Soul Reaper present.

The assassination in Fujiang District had been even more straightforward. He had indeed softened and held back from taking part directly that time. But now it seemed Hongjiang had seen through everything. Even if he'd acted, the outcome would have been the same.

And as for entrusting his hopes to his enemy's mercy—or, rather, his enemy's reason—Fuzi had no right to criticize Hongjiang. He wondered when he'd become this kind of person. Maybe it was after he came to the Soul Society. More likely, he'd always been cold-hearted deep down. Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to come to the Soul Society so early.

But whatever the reason, he had become the kind of person he despised: little different from the Soul Reapers. No, there was still a difference. They had dreams, an ideal of a perfect country! That set them apart from Soul Reapers content with the status quo. If they wanted to claw their way out of the mire, they had to be ready to get filthy. Hadn't they known that from the moment they set foot in the Soul Society?

"You're right. We've been doing dirty things too." Fuzi let out a heavy breath and raised his head again. He felt lighter than he ever had before. "Friendship and allegiance. We made the same choice, didn't we, Hongjiang?"

Hongjiang pursed his lips and clicked his tongue, looking like he didn't want to admit it. Seeing this, Fuzi asked with a playful smile, "So, what will you do now? Bribes won't work, and neither will your empty threats. Of course, even real threats wouldn't work. Like you said, I won't kill myself because I know I can't die. What about you? Don't you know it's pointless to make me betray my own people?"

"Of course I know!"

On the surface, the purpose of today's visit was to persuade Fuzi to betray the Quincies in the World of the Living. Yamamoto and the others had said Hongjiang was full of ideas, so they'd sent him to give it a try.

But there were limits to those ideas, weren't there? You'd been interrogating him for this long. If he were a coward or an idiot, you would've succeeded by now, wouldn't you? Unless Diezuka Hiroe were a hypnotist who could make the man opposite him believe he was a Soul Reaper spy! But was he a hypnotist? No! The Soul Society didn't even have such a profession!

If Old Man Yama were here right now, he'd probably give Hongjiang a good smack! Weren't you the one who kept insisting on visiting the prisoner? He just thought his student was being too naïve about it, so he'd sent him here to take a hit.

Yes, Hongjiang had been the one to ask to see Fuzi. Of course, he hadn't come to carry out Yamamoto's absurdly far-fetched persuasion mission. He had something else in mind—his own little plan.

"I understand. As long as we still intend to wipe out every last Quincy, no matter what we offer, you—or your people—won't waver."

"You catch on fast, haha!" Fuzi teased with a quiet laugh.

"Why not hear me out first?" Hongjiang didn't mind the teasing. He smiled and continued, "We could make a deal on more equal terms."

When Fuzi looked about to speak again, Hongjiang raised a hand to stop him and continued, "I understand. The interrogations we've put you through were a kind of deal too, but you had nothing worth paying a price for. Or maybe, from your point of view, we had nothing that could give you what you wanted. Of course, none of that matters."

"You still haven't given up?" Fuzi leaned back, drawing out his words as they drifted from deep in his throat. "Give me a break, Hongjiang~ Listening to the same joke for too long gets tiresome. So please, let me off the hook~"

"I gave up a long time ago, but you still need to pay attention to what I'm saying." Hongjiang walked behind Fuzi and looked down at his upturned eyes. "Didn't I tell you we'd make a deal on more equal terms? Different terms mean a different deal! So please, spare a thought for me too. Telling too many jokes gets tiresome."

"What do you mean?!"

The familiar smiling face above him suddenly disappeared. Fuzi shouted and twisted left and right, trying to find Hongjiang again.

Hongjiang didn't leave him searching for long. Soon, Fuzi saw him walking backward with his hands behind his back, returning to view from the left. He stopped right in front of him, feet together.

"Getting interested yet?"

"Just tell me! What does it mean?" Fuzi shouted. He'd guessed at one possibility from Hongjiang's words, and he'd had enough of Hongjiang's damn game of keeping him in suspense.

"Calm down, Fuzi!" Hongjiang pressed his right hand downward. It clearly didn't help. Fuzi grew even more agitated, the veins bulging in his neck as he looked utterly unhinged. "Cut the damn crap!"

"Fine, fine! Fine!" Hongjiang lazily answered, picking at his ear. "A new deal. My bargaining chip is the lives of the Quincies—not just you, but every Quincy in the World of the Living, and every one who might be born in the future!"

"And you! All you have to do is tell me where Yhwach is!"

"Well?" Hongjiang looked at Fuzi, who was staring wide-eyed and gasping for breath. He asked in a serious tone, "Can both sides accept this deal?"