Some familiar sounds drifted on the wind.
The flames flickered.
Kūkaku Shiba looked up and saw a person emerge from the dark forest and step into the firelight. The person's face became clearer, and the long silver hair seemed to have mercury flowing on its surface.
"Yo." Shiraishi raised his hand in greeting.
" Hadō #4, Byakurai."
Blue and white lightning flashed at his fingertips, transforming into a wave of electricity that shot out.
Shiraishi turned his head to avoid the attack, a few strands of hair falling from his temples. His face full of astonishment, he said, "Hey, it's me, Shiraishi! It's been a few days, don't you even recognize me?"
"I'm going to hit Shiraishi!"
With a roar, Kūkaku Shiba leaped from the stone pillar, closing in with a heavy Reiatsu, and unleashed a fierce left straight punch, showing no mercy.
Shiraishi skillfully dodged the attack without retaliating, his mind filled with doubt: why would anyone want to fight?
Was Aizen behind this?
Before he could figure it out, Kūkaku Shiba threw another right hook, then pulled in his stomach and delivered a powerful right kick to his chest.
Shiraishi dodged the Riot Games, but couldn't avoid the kick, so he put his hands in front of his chest to block it.
Thump! His bare feet, covered in dust, left a small footprint on the palm of his left hand.
The person was like a cannonball, flying backwards for hundreds of meters with both feet off the ground, crashing into and breaking countless towering trees along the way.
He pried at the air with both hands, creating two distinct white streams of Reishi, before finally stopping himself.
The broken tree branch has not yet fallen to the ground.
Kūkaku Shiba Shunpo to rush in front of him, performing a 365-degree Thomas spin in mid-air. His cloak and beige dress fluttered, and his white right leg merged into the bright moonlight, transforming into a guillotine that slammed down fiercely.
Unable to bear it any longer, Shiraishi grabbed her ankle with his right hand, and a heavy Reiatsu entered his palm, causing her to fall uncontrollably.
The remaining tree stumps were crushed into dust. The heavy thud of footsteps echoed through the mountains at night, accompanied by a gale-force wind that rivaled a category 9 typhoon, whipping up years of accumulated fallen leaves.
Broken trees crashed into other trees, their lush green leaves swept away by the gale, mingling with numerous withered yellow leaves, which fluttered up in the forest and then fell like a torrential downpour.
The moonlight was still and silent.
Shiraishi slowly stood up, gripping her ankle tightly, and lifted her right leg over his shoulder, making her look like she was practicing a standing split. "Now you should tell me why you fought with me, right?"
"It's all because you're too arrogant! You investigated on your own without my knowledge. There's a limit to how much you can underestimate me!"
Kūkaku Shiba was so angry that two bowling balls seemed about to jump out of her short top, her eyes blazing with fury. She wasn't the kind of delicate girl who needed protection.
Shiraishi was bewildered. "What am I investigating behind your back?"
"You dare say you didn't come here to investigate Takehiko Tsunayashiro?"
Who is that guy?
Shiraishi practically had a question mark written all over his face. From what Tsunayashiro Tokinada, he knew that Tsunayoshi was a scumbag and a pervert.
Takehiko is beyond the scope of comprehension.
Kūkaku Shiba noticed that his expression seemed genuine and asked suspiciously, "Then how did you end up here?"
"I came here with two friends to see Dragon Lantern Fungus, but we ran into you. I was hoping to say hello and get a free dinner, but you, Hakuda Kidō, got away with it all."
Shiraishi recounted his experience with a frustrated expression.
Kūkaku Shiba was stunned for a moment, his anger vanished, and he realized he had misunderstood him. He couldn't help but laugh, "Haha, sorry, sorry, I misunderstood. Oh, how embarrassing. I thought you were trying to infiltrate the Tsunayashiro family's territory, which is why you came here to look for Dragon Lantern Fungus."
Shiraishi said irritably, "Explain yourself clearly, what exactly happened?"
Kūkaku Shiba spread her hands and said, "You're such a pervert, actually wanting me to talk to you in this position for so long."
"Oh, I forgot." Shiraishi reluctantly let go of her hand, allowing her feet to touch the ground again. "Now you can tell me why."
"You're hungry too, let's eat and chat."
Kūkaku Shiba was eyeing the grilled meat over there, and if the conversation caused it to burn, it would be a huge loss.
She Shunpo returned to the campfire, the meat sizzling as it roasted. She reached out and picked up a skewer, handing it to Shiraishi across from her. "Alright, stop making that face. I already said it was my fault. You're a magnanimous person, so don't be so petty."
Shiraishi took the skewer of meat, took a bite, and said, "Let me hear your explanation first."
"I want to find the Dragon Lantern Fungus and infiltrate the Tsunayashiro family's headquarters under the guise of offering medicine to investigate Takehiko Tsunayashiro."
Kūkaku Shiba spoke, his expression turned serious. "I suspect that bastard deliberately killed my older brother and stole his body to conduct Hollowfication Experiment."
Upon hearing this, Shiraishi put aside his resentment and asked, "Wasn't your older brother killed by Hollow?"
"That Hollow was most likely modified by Takehiko Tsunayashiro, which is why it possesses two special abilities."
Kūkaku Shiba doesn't understand Hollows very well; she focuses on fireworks and rarely gets involved in the Shinigami's purification of Hollows.
But she has an uncle who knows all this, Captain Isshin Shiba of the Tenth Division.
The man was shocked to learn that his proud nephew had died at the hands of a thief. When he heard someone sneaking up to the funeral, he sensed that something was amiss.
"My uncle thought that guy wasn't after you, but after my brother's body, and the later investigation proved him right."
At this point in the conversation, Kūkaku Shiba bowed to him and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have suspected you of hiding something."
But you clearly know nothing, so don't pretend you have a story to tell, causing me to misunderstand once, twice."
The two misunderstandings refer to the first misunderstanding that Shiraishi knew the undercover agent.
The second time was when he thought Shiraishi was hiding the news of his older brother's death and wanted to protect her, so he investigated on his own.
This kind of behavior is something she absolutely cannot tolerate.
Shiraishi finally realized that the butterfly effect he had created had led Isshin and Kūkaku to suspect that their older brother had not been killed by a Hollow, but rather that someone had secretly harmed him.
When the two were investigating, Aizen noticed something was wrong and devised a plan to shift the blame onto Takehiko Tsunayashiro, even dragging him, the source of the problem, into the investigation.
Having figured all this out, Shiraishi couldn't leave it unresolved, so he said, "You help me find the Dragon Lantern Fungus here, and I'll help you investigate the Tsunayashiro family's headquarters. What do you think?"
Kūkaku Shiba frowned and said, " Takehiko Tsunayashiro is a graduate of the fourth class of the Shin'ō Academy and served as the Third Seat of the Fifth Division. He is quite strong."
"Don't worry, no one knows how to conceal Reiatsu better than me."
She shook her head again, saying, "There are some Reishi traps set up at the branch's base. You're not familiar with the terrain, so you could easily fall into one and alert the enemy, which would be bad."
"It's alright, you just need to help me find Dragon Lantern Fungus, and I promise I'll take care of everything else."
It's clearly more fun to investigate the Tsunayashiro family's headquarters than to search for Dragon Lantern Fungus.
When Shiraishi played Assassin's Creed before, he really wanted to experience what it was like to be an assassin.
Seeing his resolute attitude, Kūkaku Shiba said helplessly, "Alright, be careful."