Shiraishi used Steel Tempest to hurry back to Soi Fon's position halfway up the mountain.
After reaching level four, Steel Tempest not only had a shorter cooldown but was also faster, while consuming less Reiatsu.
He landed halfway up the mountain.
Under the shade of the trees, besides the petite Soi Fon, there was another figure with waist-length hair, seen from behind.
"Unohana," he called out, unsurprised by her arrival. Even Kūkaku Shiba had sensed Nnoitra's Reiatsu, so there was no reason she would have overlooked it.
He was just puzzled that Isane Kotetsu was nowhere to be seen. "Didn't Kotetsu come?"
"I sent her to the barracks to see if anyone else was hurt."
Retsu Unohana gave a brief reply and pulled down Soi Fon's Shihakushō, exposing her bloodstained chest.
The torn flesh and glimpses of stark white bone were enough to put most men off.
It was only most because men as a species had remarkably wide-ranging interests. Lizards, cats, and pigs could all become objects of a passing fancy.
There were surely men who were interested in women whose flesh had been mangled.
Shiraishi had no such peculiar tastes. He didn't go over for a closer look, instead asking from a distance, "She'll be all right, won't she?"
"I came out on vacation, so I didn't bring any herbs for stopping bleeding or treating injuries."
Retsu Unohana sounded a little troubled. Who could have imagined running into this kind of trouble while enjoying a vacation?
Shiraishi panicked. "Then what do we do?"
Retsu Unohana sighed. "I'll just have to use Kaidō to heal her completely."
"..."
Shiraishi was speechless.
Good grief. She didn't have any medicine, so she'd just heal the patient outright. Probably only the woman before him could make a humblebrag like that.
"Without knowing the pain of battle, people come to enjoy seeking it out and taking it lightly. That's very dangerous."
Retsu Unohana had her reasons. In the past, she had never used herbs for treatment, always healing patients as quickly as possible.
Then the number of patients kept growing.
The squad members held the dangerous belief that as long as Captain Unohana was there, they would survive as long as they weren't dead. They ignored the risks of battle, and not only were they easily injured, but their death rate also remained high.
To put a stop to that, Retsu Unohana had begun using herbs to heal patients slowly, letting them experience the pain of battle so they wouldn't get injured so easily.
This time, there was no alternative.
Soi Fon was too badly hurt. If she wasn't treated immediately, she really would die.
Retsu Unohana placed a hand on the split-open "bun," and the emerald-green light of Kaidō shone.
The horrifying wound began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, no slower than a Hollow's High-Speed Regeneration.
In the blink of an eye, the wound had healed.
She helped pull the Shihakushō back up and closed the collar to keep Soi Fon's chest from being exposed. "Shiraishi, when she wakes up, if she asks whether you treated her, please say you did. Whatever you do, don't mention my name. I don't want to get involved with Shinigami."
Retsu Unohana was very considerate. Worried that Soi Fon would be embarrassed and ashamed, she chose not to meet her.
After all, losing face in front of an acquaintance and losing face in front of a stranger were two entirely different things.
The former made you want to crawl into a hole and bury yourself alive; with the latter, you just had to bear it for a while, and it would pass.
"No problem." Shiraishi nodded in agreement.
Retsu Unohana left with Shunpo, heading to the barracks to help Isane Kotetsu.
"Ugh..."
A faint moan came with a breath of hot air.
Soi Fon's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her groggy head gradually cleared. Her spiritual senses couldn't detect that Hollow's violent Reiatsu.
That guy actually won?
She was full of surprise.
That Hollow had a strong sense for combat and was outrageously powerful. To break through its hard shell, she would probably have needed to use Bankai.
Soi Fon believed she had some understanding of Shiraishi's strength. He couldn't possibly have beaten it.
"Are you awake yet?"
That irritating voice came from beside her ear. Soi Fon slowly opened her eyes and weakly raised her head. "Where's that Hollow?"
Shiraishi folded his arms. "I took him out. Haha, aren't I strong?"
"Nonsense."
Soi Fon stubbornly refused to admit it. Rather than acknowledge his strength, she preferred to believe the Hollow had left Soul Society of its own accord.
That way, she wouldn't be weaker than Shiraishi.
Her goal was to surpass every previous captain of the Second Division. How could she lose to a man who wasn't even a Shinigami?
Damn it. I have to get stronger.
No matter how stubbornly she denied it, she couldn't deceive herself.
"All right, I won't argue with you about that. I want you to call off your pursuit of me in return for saving your life."
Shiraishi stated his demand. Half the reason he had saved Soi Fon was her looks; the other half was that he wanted to use the debt she owed him to end the Stealth Force's pursuit.
As the saying went, things were easier when you had someone on the inside.
Soi Fon didn't even consider it, rejecting him outright. "I can't."
Shiraishi stressed, "I saved your life!"
"One thing has nothing to do with the other. At worst, after I catch you, I'll draw my sword and kill myself to pay you back for this life. Or you can change your mind now and kill me outright."
Soi Fon closed her eyes and stretched out her neck, presenting it for execution. Her Reiatsu had yet to recover, and she was weak, so resisting would do no good at all.
She might as well give up and let him do whatever he wanted.
In any case, she would never agree to abandon the pursuit of Shiraishi and violate the Stealth Force's principles.
Seeing her like this, Shiraishi understood that his hopes of getting her to abandon the pursuit were dashed. He wasn't angry, and gently urged her, "Soi Fon, you don't want to die like this, do you?"
"What are you trying to do?"
His unusually gentle tone made Soi Fon open her eyes and instinctively scoot back, pulling the collar of her Shihakushō tight. "You can have my life, but I absolutely won't give you anything else."
Shiraishi rolled his eyes and said irritably, "What are you thinking? I'm not that kind of person. I just want you to go on a date with me in the World of the Living for a whole day. You provide the Gigai."
Soi Fon asked in confusion, "A date in the World of the Living?"
"Right. A date means you spend the whole day having fun with me. Holding hands and kissing are musts on a date, but there's no need to take our clothes off and sleep together."
After stating his demands, Shiraishi added, "That way, it'll count as you paying me back for saving your life."
Soi Fon fell silent. If she didn't lose her virginity, holding hands and kissing would be contact through a Gigai, so they didn't really count as...
"No, kissing is out. If it's a kiss on the cheek, I can agree to that."
She couldn't convince herself to agree to a kiss, not even through a Gigai.
"...All right, let's say we're a couple on our first date."
Shiraishi was a little disappointed, but he didn't press her. He just wanted to try a date and see what it felt like.
He had never tried it before.
Going with a girlfriend to amusement parks, parks, skating rinks, and all kinds of scenic spots.
At the thought, Shiraishi suddenly grew excited. "When are we going?"
"The Research and Development Institute has to provide the Gigai, and I also need to apply to the Captain-Commander for permission to go to the World of the Living."
Soi Fon murmured to herself and calculated the time. "Half a month at the earliest."
"Half a month?!"
Shiraishi wanted to complain about the shitty work efficiency, but on second thought, wasn't that standard procedure? "All right, I'll wait for you here in half a month."
"Mm." Soi Fon answered. Her Reiatsu had recovered somewhat, and she stood up. "I'm going back first."
"Goodbye." Shiraishi waved, looking forward to the date in half a month. After thinking about it for a long while, his thoughts jumped back to Aizen. He didn't know whether Aizen had his eye on him, but he hoped he did.
In that case, there should be more Espada delivered to his doorstep, right?