That Girl Was Standing Too Close

The moment Bai Zhu finished speaking, the Zanpakuto in his hand dipped downward.

The instant its tip touched the bus step, the entire blade vanished into thin air.

The woman in white's pupils suddenly contracted.

She seemed never to have seen anything like that.

The three Black Crystal Needle Tubes hovering beside the pregnant woman's neck paused, then immediately turned toward Bai Zhu.

But that instant was enough.

Bai Zhu used Shunpo and shot out along the bus door. He moved so fast that even the pregnant woman inside failed to see him clearly. She only saw a blur before the woman in white blocking the door was grabbed around the waist by Bai Zhu and slammed out of the bus.

"Holy shit!"

Milluki's voice cracked straight through the earpiece.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

Bai Zhu locked both arms tightly around the woman in white's waist and took two quick steps, forcibly dragging her away from the bus entrance.

"Saving people!"

"You call that saving people? That's sexual harassment!"

"What do you know? This is a tactical tackle!"

The woman in white finally reacted.

Her face was very close.

There was nothing wrong with her features. Aside from skin so pale it did not look human, there were flecks of snow clinging to her eyelashes. In another setting, Bai Zhu would have praised the character design.

But right now, his scalp tingled.

Because she was not breathing.

From this close, her chest barely rose or fell.

Bai Zhu's arms were wrapped around her, and even the sensation felt wrong.

She was too cold.

Like he was holding a block of ice.

The woman in white lowered her head and looked at Bai Zhu's hands.

For the first time, an emotion appeared on her face.

It was not panic or anger.

It was more like... confusion.

"Let go."

Bai Zhu did not stop moving. Holding her, he rolled toward the outer side of the convoy and grinned.

"Miss, you told me to put down my sword earlier, and I did."

"Now you're telling me to let go of you. Aren't you asking a little too much?"

The next second, seven Black Crystal Needle Tubes turned around at once.

Their tips curved around from behind her back and stabbed straight at Bai Zhu's head, shoulder blades, and spine.

Bai Zhu let go and threw himself backward, sliding away with his back against the snow.

The needle tubes grazed his clothes and struck down.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several craters erupted across the snow.

Bai Zhu rolled to his feet and casually dusted off his hands.

Then he looked down at his palm.

"Tch."

Milluki roared, "What the hell are you tch-ing for?!"

Bai Zhu was completely serious.

"I'm still not satisfied."

"Are you sick?!"

"Don't misunderstand. I mean tactically."

"Say one more word, and I'll blow up your earpiece right now."

Bai Zhu stopped joking around.

When he had grabbed her just now, he had already slipped the final two Exploding Beetles into the folds of her ritual garment behind her waist.

His movements had been fast.

So fast that even he was a little impressed with himself.

Of course, whether they would actually explode was another matter entirely.

The woman in white stood in the snow and lowered her gaze toward her waist.

She seemed to have sensed something.

Bai Zhu's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly backed away.

"Fatty, give me permission."

Milluki understood immediately.

"You put the Beetles on her?"

"Yeah."

"Are you insane? She's too close to the pregnant women's bus!"

"That's why I dragged her out."

"It's still not far enough!"

The woman in white raised a hand, her fingertips reaching behind her waist.

Bai Zhu instantly panicked.

"Then is it far enough now?"

"Twenty-seven meters."

"What's the safe distance?"

"Depends on your luck."

"My luck is pretty handsome."

"Get lost!"

Bai Zhu did not trigger the detonation.

Because the woman in white had stopped moving.

Two Black-Shelled Beetles crawled out from the folds of her ritual garment and dropped into the snow.

A red light flashed twice across one Beetle's abdomen.

Then it went still.

Bai Zhu fell silent.

Milluki also fell silent.

The other one beat its wings and flew up, circling the woman in white once before landing beside her bare feet.

It did not move either.

Bai Zhu covered his forehead.

"Milluki."

"Yeah."

"What's going on?"

Milluki gritted his teeth.

"...I don't know. It seems like my other bugs. They stop working when they get close to her."

The woman in white raised her foot and crushed one Beetle.

Crack.

Its black shell split apart, revealing a complex metal structure inside.

It did not explode.

She stepped toward the second one.

Bai Zhu quickly raised a hand.

"Wait! That one might make a sound!"

Before he finished speaking, the woman in white's foot had already come down.

Crack.

The second one shattered as well.

It still did not explode.

A faint sharp inhale came through the earpiece.

Bai Zhu laughed in frustration.

"Twelve bugs, three explosions, and the final two were complete duds."

"That's mathematically normal."

"I don't want to hear math right now. I want to hear you apologize."

"Live through this first!"

The moment the Beetles were crushed, the Black Crystal Needle Tubes moved, all of them aiming at Bai Zhu.

The woman in white stepped forward.

The seven needle tubes circled around her once, then suddenly accelerated.

Bai Zhu pushed off the ground, shifting sideways.

The first needle tube grazed his left shoulder and embedded itself in a wooden stake behind him.

The surface of the stake rapidly turned gray. Its moisture and vitality were drained away, and within seconds, it cracked into fragments.

Bai Zhu took one look, and every hair on his back stood up.

"Are those needles poisonous?"

Milluki immediately switched views.

"The material struck by them loses activity. It looks like they drain life energy."

"Speak human."

"If one hits you, you might turn into a dried corpse."

"Thanks. That was suddenly very vivid."

The second needle tube curled around from the side.

It changed direction twice in midair, bypassed Bai Zhu's raised arm, and shot straight for his ribs.

Bai Zhu drew the Zanpakuto from his system inventory with a backhanded motion.

Clang!

The blade smashed into the needle tube.

The needle tube was violently knocked away and slammed into a distant snowbank.

Bai Zhu's wrist went numb, but he did not retreat.

He suddenly caught sight of the needle tubes' trajectories behind the woman in white, and an absurd thought popped into his head.

These things...

The more he looked at them, the more they resembled Irelia.

As he dodged the third needle, he blurted out—

"That girl is standing too close."

Milluki froze for a moment.

"What did you say?"

Bai Zhu twisted aside from the needle tip and raised his blade to deflect the fourth one.

"Nothing. Just an old meme."

"You still have the mood to crack jokes when your life's on the line?"

"Do you understand adult emotional regulation?"

"I think you're about to lose your mind!"

Bai Zhu was not as relaxed as he appeared.

The woman in white was not chasing him very quickly, but those seven needle tubes were unbearably troublesome.

They never touched the ground.

When they missed, they turned back around.

When they were knocked away, they flew back by themselves.

Bai Zhu could dodge with his enhanced agility and block with his sword, but he could not keep dragging this out.

He had not recovered much mana, and although his body had grown stronger, the enemy seemed to have auto-lock enabled.

Even worse, she did not need to worry about the pregnant women's bus.

As long as she kept Bai Zhu occupied here, the North Warehouse attendants could continue transferring people.

Bai Zhu glanced toward the bus from the corner of his eye.

Number Nineteen was clutching a medical kit and tossing several syringes into the aisle.

The other pregnant women were tied up and too afraid to move. Tears kept streaming down some of their faces, yet they bit down hard on their cloth gags without making a sound.

Bai Zhu's teeth clenched.

"Number Nineteen!"

The woman in the bus abruptly looked up.

"Don't touch the black injections! Untie the others first! Hurry!"

Number Nineteen nodded and began cutting through the restraints with medical scissors.

The awakened gray-robed attendants outside the bus finally reacted. Two of them charged toward it.

Bai Zhu was about to move in to stop them when a syringe blocked his path.

He could only raise his blade and chop down hard.

Clang!

The syringe was knocked aside, but another stabbed straight at the bend of his knee from behind.

Bai Zhu activated Shunpo, his body flashing briefly as he landed beside the front of the bus.

The moment he landed, the snow at his feet split apart, and a slender Black Crystal spike emerged from underground.

"Fuck, she can block the roads too?"

Milluki spoke rapidly.

"Not her. The Black Crystal lines beneath North Warehouse have been activated! The gray-robed attendants are taking over the ground formation!"

"Why didn't you say so sooner?!"

"I only just saw it!"

Illumi's voice came through the channel.

"She isn't in the archives."

Bai Zhu kicked over an approaching attendant, then smashed the back of his blade into another's shoulder.

"Brother, keep it short. I'm about to get turned into a human skewer over here."

Illumi remained unaffected.

"I've reviewed most of the paper files below elder-level clearance. There are two possibilities."

"First, her clearance is high enough that she isn't entered into the standard records."

"Second, she appeared recently and hadn't had time to register."

Milluki immediately added,

"The second possibility is very low. The Church would never lack files on someone at her level."

Bai Zhu ducked under a syringe. Its tip swept over his head and plunged directly into the arm of the attendant he had just kicked down.

The attendant had not even finished screaming before his entire arm rapidly withered.

A chill ran down Bai Zhu's back.

He kicked the attendant farther away and, in the same motion, kicked his medical case beneath the bus.

"You two got any way to deal with her? If this lady takes one more step forward, I'm becoming a snowfield specimen."

The woman in white raised her right hand.

Seven syringes spread out at once.

Their trajectories were even denser this time, sealing every route above, below, left, and right.

Bai Zhu's pupils contracted.

He couldn't dodge.

He could only block them head-on.

His Zanpakuto swept across, knocking away two.

He shifted with Shunpo, evading one.

He forcibly bent backward, letting the fourth graze past his chest.

But the fifth came drilling up from below, straight for his abdomen.

Bai Zhu gritted his teeth and thrust out his left hand, Reiatsu covering his palm as he smacked the syringe's side.

Bang!

The syringe shifted half an inch and pierced the bus door beside him.

The door rapidly turned white, cracks spreading across the metal surface.

Bai Zhu's left fingertips went numb, and a small portion of his Reiatsu was drained away.

His expression changed instantly.

"It absorbs energy even through contact?"

Milluki's voice became shrill with panic.

"Don't touch it! That thing might react to life energy, Nen, and your Reiatsu!"

"You said that too late. I've already paid its tuition fee!"

The sixth syringe fell from overhead.

Bai Zhu could only retreat.

But the Black Crystal lines beneath his feet lit up, and thin spikes instantly wrapped around the soles of his shoes.

The seventh syringe stopped before his brow.

Less than a fist's distance away.

Bai Zhu froze.

The woman in white stood five meters away, not a trace of blood staining the hem of her white ceremonial robes.

She watched Bai Zhu.

Bai Zhu slowly suppressed his breathing.

The system panel hovered at the edge of his vision.

[Random Bankai Trial Ticket]

His fingers twitched.

He couldn't delay any longer.

Either he gambled on Bankai.

Or he let Illumi cause trouble underground and lure this woman away.

But if Illumi moved, Ella's side might be exposed.

Bai Zhu hated questions like this most.

Especially when every answer came with the words, "possible sudden death."

"Fatty."

"I'm here."

"If I shout something that sounds really cringe in a moment, don't laugh."

Milluki fell silent at once.

"What are you going to do?"

"Open a blind box."

"Don't mess around!"

"Then give me a plan."

Milluki did not answer immediately.

The syringe tip pressed close enough to make Bai Zhu's brow ache.

Inside the bus, Number Nineteen had just cut through the restraints on the second person. She looked up at the scene, and the scissors nearly fell from her hand.

Bai Zhu squeezed out two words at her.

"Keep going."

Number Nineteen clenched the strip of cloth between her teeth and continued cutting.

The woman in white tilted her head slightly.

A syringe withdrew from before Bai Zhu's brow and turned toward Number Nineteen inside the bus.

Bai Zhu's face darkened immediately.

"Hey."

The syringe did not stop.

Bai Zhu's finger had already moved toward the panel.

Just then, a muffled boom suddenly came from the entrance to the old mine tunnel behind North Warehouse.

Boom!

The commotion was not especially dramatic.

But the ground trembled, and the frozen earth and wooden beams above the mine entrance collapsed together.

Then came a second sound.

Boom!

The entrance was completely blocked.

Rubble and lumber piled together. The rear half of the black truck was smashed crooked, and the driver crawled out of the cab.

All the gray-robed attendants outside North Warehouse descended into chaos.

"The mine tunnel collapsed!"

"The transport route is cut off!"

Bai Zhu froze for a moment.

"Fatty?"

Milluki snorted through the earpiece.

"I didn't blow out the truck tires."

"I can see that."