Kawakami Saburō lived at the foot of Ox Horn Mountain in the center of the Beginning of Spring District. It was not a post designated by the Seireitei, but a property the Kawakami family owned in Rukongai.
The building was a vast, single-story mansion in the standard style of Seireitei nobility, roofed with golden tiles and containing perhaps dozens of rooms.
An earthen wall surrounded the property.
A spacious courtyard lay between the wall and the mansion.
Shiraishi had gotten a clear view of the layout from far away. Rather than barge in unannounced, he chose to visit through the front gate. His feet had barely touched the ground.
The two guards at the gate quickly went from relaxed to grim. They gripped the sword hilts at their waists with their right hands and assumed guarded stances.
The one on the left asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm a guest sent by Boss Yagyū."
"Boss Yagyū... Oh, so you're Lord Shiraishi. Please come in."
The guard got a good look at his silver hair and unusual clothes, and his taut nerves relaxed. He reached out and pushed open the heavy, bright yellow wooden gate.
It creaked open, revealing a bluestone-paved avenue that led straight to the mansion.
Bright yellow wooden fences two meters high stood on either side of the avenue. Through the gaps, he could glimpse dogs of all sizes lying down and resting.
Shiraishi crossed the threshold and stepped onto the path.
Several fierce-looking large dogs began barking.
"Shut up." He liked dogs, but hated the kind that barked at him. He glared at them and released his Reiatsu.
"Awoo~" The big dogs let out submissive cries, tucked their tails between their legs, and scurried away.
Shiraishi walked to the mansion's door and pulled it open. Inside was an entryway paved with bluestone and smooth-textured tatami mats.
A woman in a black-and-white maid uniform knelt on the tatami. She bowed and said, "Welcome to the Kawakami residence, Lord Shiraishi."
"Beautiful lady, at this very moment, your angelic smile has pierced my heart."
Shiraishi pressed one hand to his chest and closed the door with the other.
The maid smiled. "Sir, you're exaggerating."
"Don't be so formal. Just call me Shiraishi, or goshujin-sama. I've always wanted to hear a beauty like you say, 'Welcome home, goshujin-sama!'"
"Welcome home, goshujin-sama!"
"That's it! Blushing cheeks and a sweet, delicate voice-wonderful!"
Shiraishi grinned from ear to ear. Whenever he used to watch anime, he had always envied those protagonists who got to hear a beautiful maid say those words in a sweet voice.
Sure enough, maids were always a plus!
The maid was not as excited as he was. Mindful of her duties, she waited for him to take off his shoes, then rose and said, "Goshujin-sama, please follow me."
"Okay~" Shiraishi replied, his heart aflutter. Along the way, he began asking the maid her name, her hobbies, what she liked to eat, where she had been born, and whether she had any siblings.
The maid answered the personal questions with a smile, thinking, This guy is so fucking long-winded!
His questions finally stopped when they reached the hall where Kawakami Saburō was. The maid breathed a sigh of relief. She could finally say goodbye to this annoying man. She opened the sliding door and said respectfully, "Lord Kawakami, your guest has arrived."
The hall was spacious. There were no singing or dancing performances, and no one was inside.
The large sliding doors to the east stood open. Two Shinigami in shihakushō sat on the veranda outside the hall, drinking and admiring the flowers.
Kawakami Saburō looked back, a little tipsy, and raised his cup in a toast from afar. "I heard about what you did from Boss Yagyū. You actually managed to kill Hasegawa Taizo, that fiend. Well done!"
Among the Gotei 13, the Stealth Force was second only to the Twelfth Division in how much it was disliked.
Their job was to monitor the Shinigami for any violations of the law.
Hasegawa Taizo treated the residents of Rukongai like playthings rather than people, but he was very diligent at his job.
But the more diligent he was at that kind of work, the more resentment he drew from Shinigami in the other divisions, especially those like Kawakami Saburō, who cut corners and shirked their duties.
He wished every last bastard in the Stealth Force would drop dead.
"It's not that big a deal." Shiraishi was a little surprised. Based on Ichirō Yagyū's description, he had thought the man would be timid and fearful.
Now it seemed he was the sort to shrink back in battle but hit hard in other matters.
"Let me introduce you. This is Akimoto Osamu, the Shinigami from the Eighth Division in charge of monitoring the movements of Rukongai residents in West District Ten."
"Pleased to meet you." Akimoto Osamu's attitude was neither warm nor cold.
"Likewise." Shiraishi did not act overly enthusiastic either. His enthusiasm was for beautiful women, not some random male passerby.
"Sit down and have a drink. I've already sent someone to fetch Kenji and the others. We'll all be operating in West District Ten from now on, so it can't hurt to get to know one another."
As Kawakami Saburō spoke, he picked up the sake flask and filled the empty cup on his left.
Shiraishi shrugged. "Sorry, I killed them."
Clatter. The flask fell onto the table, and the sake inside spilled out, ran across the tabletop, and dripped onto the tatami.
Kawakami Saburō stared at him in disbelief. "Y-you did what?"
"I took a dislike to them on my way here and killed them. If that upsets you, I'm truly sorry."
That was what Shiraishi said, but there was not a trace of apology on his face. He did not think he had done anything wrong.
People who toyed with and bullied others as they pleased deserved to die.
"No, no, how could I be upset? I'm overjoyed! Those bastards were strong, all right, but the way they acted was truly unbearable."
Kawakami Saburō jumped to his feet, not caring in the least that he was wet. His face was full of excitement as he said, "You're incredible!"
Kawakami Saburō had never seen how strong Hasegawa Taizo was. A Fifth Seat was not like a captain or lieutenant, whose strength people would be sure of at the mere mention of the rank.
When he heard that Shiraishi had killed Hasegawa Taizo, he knew Shiraishi was strong, but had no clear sense of just how strong.
Only after Shiraishi killed Kenji's group did he understand how powerful the man was.
After all, Kenji and the others were strong. In their many battles against Hollows, they had never been injured.
Yet the man before him had managed to kill Kenji and the others with ease.
"I'll be counting on you to handle the Hollows in West District Ten from now on. As for the price, how about five hundred kan per Hollow?"
"Sure." Hearing that there was money in it, Shiraishi did not turn him down and agreed at once.
Kawakami Saburō smiled, then realized something and said with a troubled look, "Damn, Kenji still has the Denreishinki. If I don't get it back, I won't be able to send you the Research and Development Institute's intelligence on Hollows as soon as it arrives."
"No problem. I'll go get it back. It's not far from here," Shiraishi said.
"Then sorry for the trouble."
Kawakami Saburō did not stand on ceremony. Denreishinki were controlled items in the Seireitei and could not be obtained simply by applying.
He had two Denreishinki, and even those had taken considerable effort to obtain through connections and back channels.
"Contact me if there's any news." Shiraishi had no intention of returning here and vanished from the hall.