West District 5, the beginning of spring.
There was no sign of sunlight in the sky, which remained overcast.
Shiraishi leaped down from a branch and walked a few steps to the cliff's edge atop the mountain, looking out over the village below.
Houses stretched on and on, built without any planning whatsoever, thrown together however the villagers pleased. They descended in layers like a complex, terraced labyrinth.
The sight put him in a great mood.
The more complicated the streets, the more fun it was to E through them.
"Steel Tempest." Shiraishi called out the name of the move with an utterly chuuni flourish and leaped from the cliff, wind howling past his ears.
He turned into a gust of wind and drifted down.
Unlike Steel Tempest in the game, which required minions to E through, the real Steel Tempest let him E as long as there was wind.
The distance depended on his spiritual pressure.
For instance, when he had fled earlier, he had E'd thirty kilometers in one go, consuming a fair amount of spiritual pressure.
Since the skill's cooldown was much shorter than Steel Tempest's-only 0.3 seconds at level three-it wasn't impossible to keep E'ing as long as he got the distance right.
Shiraishi quickly landed on the street. Before the passersby could get a clear look at him, he E'd again, literally weaving through the crowd.
No one noticed him.
Their spiritual senses weren't as sharp as Soi Fon's. At most, they felt a breeze brush their cheeks.
After E'ing to the center of the village, Shiraishi turned in front of a house with three blue stones stacked by its entrance, jumped through an open window on the side, and closed it behind him.
Inside was a small room with simple furnishings. He walked to the door and knocked lightly, then found a bench and sat down, pouring himself a cup of tea.
Soon, the door was pushed open, and a square-faced man in brown robes with a long beard entered. Looking somewhat wary, he said, "Who are you?"
"My name is Shiraishi. Adachi from West District Three told me to find a house in Ban Village in West District 5 with three blue stones stacked by the entrance. The person living here can help me escape the Stealth Force's pursuit."
As Shiraishi spoke, he unzipped his leather jacket and took a stone pendant from the golden crossbody bag underneath. "He gave me this as a token."
The man's expression relaxed, and he chuckled. "So you're a fellow traveler. What did you do in West District Three?"
Shiraishi put the token away and said casually, "Nothing much. I just didn't like the look of the Stealth Force's Fifth Seat, so I killed him with one slash."
"Fifth Seat?" The man's voice rose, and his expression was somewhat incredulous.
In their line of work, they paid particular attention to the Stealth Force, especially its Seated Officers.
Even if they had never seen them, they had to know their names.
Hasegawa Taizo, the Stealth Force's Fifth Seat, was brutal, had a fondness for married women, could use Shikai, and had survived assassination attempts by nine different organizations.
He had killed his attackers eight times and fled once. He had also spent some time in District 80 of West Rukongai, and could be called a prominent figure.
And the silver-haired man before him had actually managed to kill Hasegawa Taizo?!
If he could join the Jingi Group, he would definitely be another formidable fighter.
"Let me make this clear first: I don't mind making friends, but joining an anti-Shinigami organization is out of the question."
Seeing the eager look on the man's face, Shiraishi hurriedly stated his position.
The excitement faded from the man's face, and he said with some reluctance, "Are you willing to spend your whole life hiding from place to place?"
"I'm a man like the wind. I just like wandering around like this."
Shiraishi casually made up an excuse. He would rather work alone than take along a bunch of pig teammates to drag him down.
Each of these anti-Shinigami organizations had louder slogans and grander names than the last, but when it came to actually governing, they weren't necessarily any better than the Central 46 Chambers.
When they did rise up, they were wiped out quickly, too.
Either the Stealth Force wiped them out, the Eighth Division dealt with them, or the 11th Division took them down.
They could be said to rise up one day and be buried that same day.
Shiraishi had never heard of an organization surviving until the next day. A rare few were finished while they were still in the planning stage.
"Ah, if you have no intention of joining, then according to the rules, pay a hiding fee to buy your safety."
Seeing how firm he was, the man didn't try to persuade him further. Inwardly, he looked down on him a little: he had immense power, yet no ambition.
Back when Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto founded the Seireitei, gathered the Rukongai nobles scattered across the east, south, west, and north, and established the Shinigami system to serve as the world's mediator, what had he relied on?
Wasn't it power?
As long as one had power, one was qualified to take part in the power struggle in Soul Society and claim a share of Rukongai's enormous spoils.
"How much?" Shiraishi noticed the man's contempt but didn't take it to heart, asking directly about the hiding fee.
Although Adachi had already told him the exact price, it varied from person to person, with no official authority setting the rate.
After all, if the Stealth Force discovered someone hiding a criminal, that person would be considered an accomplice. Even if they weren't killed, they would spend hundreds of years in Shin'ō Underground Great: The Jail.
As long as the other party wasn't too greedy, Shiraishi wouldn't haggle over a slight difference in price.
The man explained, "There are several prices, depending on which option you choose. The most expensive is one hundred thousand kan.
"We'll get you safely to outer Rukongai, somewhere around the seventieth or eightieth district. It's far from the Shinigami's sphere of influence."
"No, I want to stay somewhere closer."
Shiraishi shook his head. The higher a Rukongai district's number, the worse its living conditions and public order.
He could grit his teeth and endure those conditions alone, but Reishi was scarce in the outer districts, and there were barely any Hollows.
That was something he couldn't tolerate.
If he wanted to raise Steel Tempest, Wind Wall, Steel Tempest, and Last Breath to their maximum levels, he first had to raise his hero level.
And to raise his hero level, he needed to kill jungle monsters for experience.
From four years of experimenting, he had found that killing animals like chickens, ducks, and dogs gave far less experience than killing Hollows.
Now that his hero level had reached nine, the experience those chickens, ducks, and dogs could give him was especially negligible.
Killing Hollows had become his only way to level up.
He couldn't go somewhere without Hollows.
"I have an option that's very close by, right in West District 4: the Shiba Clan, one of the Five Great Noble Clans."
The man paused, then said, "Kūkaku Shiba is a true noble. She doesn't look down on people like us, and she hates the Shinigami too. She's loyal and righteous. The crime you committed should be enough to get her to help you."
"Oh, Kūkaku Shiba. I've heard people talk about her before. She's broad-minded and bold, and I've always wanted to meet her in person. I'll take that option."
Having decided where to go, Shiraishi asked, "How much?"
The man held up one hand. "Five thousand kan. I'll buy you a map."
"No problem." Shiraishi agreed without hesitation, taking five one-thousand-kan notes from his crossbody bag and handing them over.
The man accepted them, walked to the bed, and took a map from a hidden compartment beneath the pillow. "Head east out of the village and follow the map. You'll find Kūkaku Shiba's house. Don't mention my name.
"Even if you do, it won't help. It'll only make her angry. Just tell her how you rid the people of a menace."
"Don't worry, I understand." Shiraishi took the map, zipped up his leather jacket, and disappeared from the room with an E.