"Ōmaeda, thanks for your hard work." "Well done, Ōmaeda."
Those words came from Marechiyo Ōmaeda's own imagination. Her actual response was, "Oh, you may go."
Soi Fon's expression was as cold as ever. She had no praise for succeeding at such a minor task, her mind occupied with another important question.
How could she grow stronger?
She had felt that both her Shunpo and her Zanpakuto had reached a bottleneck ever since she became captain, and she had been unable to break through.
Her busy division duties left her little time to think about how to increase her strength.
The fact that Shiraishi had saved her had dealt a severe blow to her sensitive pride, making her willing to set aside her official duties and face the matter of improving her strength.
Her initial idea was to combine Kidō and Hakuda to create a powerful move no one had ever attempted before.
The question was, how could she combine them?
Soi Fon began spending her time in the Second Division's library, poring over old books. She also visited the Shin'ō Library in the First Division, occasionally finding time to check on Shiraishi's movements.
Her subordinates in the Stealth Force had brought her no concrete news, and the Eighth Division, 11th Division, and Twelfth Division had made no progress either. It was as though a living, breathing man had vanished into thin air in Rukongai.
On May 7, the application submitted to the First Division came back. It was no easy matter for a captain to go to the World of the Living.
Fortunately, Ōmaeda had found an excellent reason: Shiraishi was suspected of hiding in the World of the Living, so she needed to go in person.
As dusk approached, Soi Fon slipped out of Seireitei with two Gigai packed in a case. She instructed him, "Ōmaeda, go to the Projection Hall and keep an eye on the Research and Development Institute's people. Don't let them monitor me, understood?"
"Captain Soi Fon, do we really have to do this?"
Marechiyo Ōmaeda asked in confusion, then hastily added, "I'm not questioning your decision. It just doesn't seem quite right."
"I have my reasons," Soi Fon answered with a stern face. She was too embarrassed to admit that an enemy had saved her life and that she owed him for it.
Ōmaeda might have been capable of leaving such a debt unpaid, but she could never bring herself to do that. She had to repay Shiraishi before she could resume trying to arrest him.
"All right." Marechiyo Ōmaeda nodded, preparing to take a case full of good food to the Research and Development Institute so those poor fellows could experience how the rich ate.
Soi Fon slung the case onto her back and left through Hakutōmon with Shunpo. The blurred scenery flowed past beneath her feet as the sun gradually sank below the horizon.
By nightfall, she reached West District Twenty-Six and used Shunpo to arrive halfway up a mountain.
Soft moonlight covered the mountainside. A man lay on a bluestone slab, then sprang to his feet. "You're finally here."
"Mm," Soi Fon replied briefly, setting down the large case on her back. "How long have you been waiting?"
"Since yesterday morning."
Shiraishi patted his golden crossbody bag and said smugly, "Good thing I brought some snacks, or I would've gone hungry."
Soi Fon raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you afraid I wouldn't come?"
"If you were that kind of person, you wouldn't have agreed to a date. You would've agreed to clear me of my crimes instead."
Shiraishi shrugged. He had dared to come and wait because he was one hundred percent certain she would keep their agreement.
"Tch." Soi Fon was somewhat annoyed. Having someone on the opposing side see through her personality was hardly a pleasant feeling.
"Remember, once this date is over, we won't owe each other anything. I'll do everything I can to arrest you."
"It's not as if you've been going easy on me lately."
Shiraishi grumbled. Thanks to Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the price of covering for him had risen from five thousand to a hundred thousand kan-and not a hundred thousand a year, either.
It was a hundred thousand kan every month to pay off the Shinigami of the Twelfth and Eighth Divisions.
Without more money, they could hardly guarantee they wouldn't let something slip.
Shiraishi understood their thinking. It really didn't make sense to take low-risk pay for high-risk work, so he could only agree to pay more.
He borrowed a hundred thousand kan from the Kawakami family, then immersed himself in studying Seireitei's laws. As the saying went, all the most profitable ventures were written in the law.
The question was whether you were bold enough and strong enough.
If he had both, he could find a way to pull something off and make a few tens of millions of kan first.
Going from a hundred thousand to tens of millions brought up the wealth gap in Soul Society. It was a perfect case of the dry dying of drought while the wet drowned.
The nobles routinely did business worth millions or tens of millions, while paying the laborers beneath them who had no Spiritual Power just one to two thousand in wages.
Laborers with Spiritual Power earned about the same, except they enjoyed the generous additional benefit of room and board.
Even with those conditions, the nobles still picked and chose among the workers.
If Shiraishi obeyed the law and worked for a thousand years, he probably wouldn't just fail to pay off his debt-he'd end up owing hundreds of millions more.
If he wanted to make a fortune and pay off his debt, his only option was to take an unorthodox path.
Shiraishi was already a wanted man in Seireitei anyway, so one more highly profitable venture wouldn't make much difference.
"Hmph, that's because I wasn't trying my hardest. Otherwise, if I followed that pack of rats, you-"
Soi Fon suddenly realized she had said too much and stopped. Head down, she began unpacking the case, revealing the two Gigai inside.
Their faces and heights were exactly the same as the two of them.
"I told you this was a date, but your clothes are still so black. They look like an elementary school uniform."
Shiraishi shook his head.
Soi Fon didn't know what an elementary school student was. She said expressionlessly, "You never said what I should wear."
"My oversight," Shiraishi sighed. "How do I get into the Gigai?"
"Just lie down on it." Soi Fon demonstrated first, lying down on the Gigai. Her spirit body merged with it, and the eyelashes of the Gigai lying there fluttered before its eyes slowly opened.
Shiraishi followed her example. It felt as though he had put on a layer of skin. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands. "Amazing. Moving around feels no different from being a normal person."
"If those guys at the Research and Development Institute didn't have some skill, they'd have been fired long ago."
Soi Fon replied casually, taking out a Soul Candy and tossing it to him. "If we run into a Hollow, remember to swallow this to leave your Gigai."
As she spoke, she left her Gigai and drew her Zanpakuto with her right hand, intending to give Shiraishi a scare.
He didn't react at all, just kept watching her with a grin.
"Hmph." That only annoyed her more. She thrust her sword into the air and turned it. A circular Senkaimon appeared, its exterior resembling Japanese sliding doors.
Click. The doors opened, and a pitch-black Hell Butterfly fluttered out.
Soi Fon returned to her Gigai and said, "Stay close. If you get lost in the Dangai passage, don't ever expect to get out."
"Okay."
Shiraishi followed her into the Senkaimon. Inside was a spacious but terrifying tunnel. The ground resembled flesh, and on both sides were currents of air congealed like white frost. The whole thing looked like someone's stomach.
They hadn't run far before a light appeared ahead in the passage.
The Hell Butterfly flew into the light, and the two of them passed through after it.
Brilliant sunlight shone on tall buildings that were both familiar and strange.
He had arrived in the World of the Living.