Kuchiki Sojun suddenly realized that he had been silent more times today than he had in the past year—or perhaps even longer.
He'd thought the other man was thoughtless, but his perspective on things was far more far-reaching than Sojun's.
Though he lived in Rukongai, he was surprisingly familiar with the Nobles' dirty dealings.
But just as Sojun thought Kisaragi Akira was seriously discussing things with him, the mention of the Shihoin Clan's offer completely broke him.
Raise the bid?!
How?
The Shihoin Clan had already offered up their next clan head—and thrown in a buy-one-get-one-free deal!
Kuchiki Sojun looked down at his own build, then glanced over at Kisaragi Akira, who had started training even harder. He promptly abandoned the utterly unrealistic idea.
Even if he were willing, Kisaragi Akira definitely wouldn't agree.
Forget it. He'd let things take their course.
Now that he had a powerful backer, those people should hold back a little...
Having temporarily put Kuchiki Sojun's dangerous idea out of mind, Kisaragi Akira immersed himself in his own training.
After his battle with the Hekisa Menos Grande, he realized that his strength still had some serious weaknesses.
He had trump cards for facing powerful enemies, but he needed time to prepare them.
Praying to a deity wasn't something he could just do by saying a few words.
Without a medium through which to communicate, given how little faith he had in the One-Eyed Great Deity, he probably wouldn't even get a whiff of a response.
And Aizen wouldn't always be there to help restrain an enemy and draw its attention whenever danger arose.
At the moment, there weren't many ways for him to grow stronger.
But the ones available were effective.
He could inscribe the Kido pattern for Shakkaho, or train to increase his Reiatsu.