" Ōmaeda, thank you for your hard work." "Well done, Ōmaeda."
The above words are from Marechiyo Ōmaeda's imagination; her true attitude was, "Oh, you can go now."
Soi Fon's expression remained indifferent as always. He offered no praise for succeeding in such a trivial matter, and was preoccupied with another important issue.
How can I become stronger?
Shunpo Zanpakuto —ever since she became captain, she has felt that she has hit a bottleneck and cannot break through it.
Due to the busy team duties, I don't have much time to think about how to enhance my strength.
The fact that she was saved by Shiraishi severely hurt her sensitive pride, making her willing to give up her official duties and begin to seriously consider improving her strength.
The initial idea was to combine Kidō and Hakuda to create a powerful technique that no one had ever tried before.
The question is, how do we integrate them?
Soi Fon began spending time in the Second Division's library, browsing through ancient books, and also checking out the Shin'ō Library where the First Division was located, occasionally taking the time to keep an eye on Shiraishi's movements.
No concrete news came from the Stealth Force. The Eighth Division, the 11th Division, and the Twelfth Division made no progress either, as if a living person had vanished into Rukongai.
May 7th arrived, and the application submitted to the First Division was approved. It wasn't easy for the captain to come to the World of the Living.
Fortunately, Ōmaeda found a very good reason: she suspected that Shiraishi was hiding in the World of the Living, so she had to take action herself.
As dusk approached, Soi Fon secretly slipped out of Seireitei, packed the two artificial Gigai into a box, and instructed, " Ōmaeda, go to the Projection Hall and keep an eye on the people from the Research and Development Institute. Don't let them spy on me, understand?"
" Captain Soi Fon, do we really have to do this?"
Marechiyo Ōmaeda asked with a puzzled look, then quickly added, "It's not that I disagree with your decision, it's just that doing it this way doesn't seem quite right."
"I have my reasons," Soi Fon replied with a straight face. She was too embarrassed to mention that she had been saved by the enemy and owed them a debt of gratitude.
She's Ōmaeda capable of not repaying kindness; she absolutely can't get over that mental hurdle. She has to repay the debt of gratitude before she can continue arresting Shiraishi.
"Alright." Marechiyo Ōmaeda nodded, preparing to bring a box of delicious food to the Research and Development Institute so that those poor folks could experience the food of the rich.
Soi Fon the box on his back, Shunpo to leave through the Hakutōmon, and the blurry scenery flowed past his feet as the sun gradually sank into the earth.
As night fell, she rushed to the West District Twenty-Six and reached the mountainside in an Shunpo.
Soft moonlight bathed the mountainside. A person lay on a green stone on the mountain, then sprang to their feet with a somersault, saying, "You've finally arrived."
"Hmm." Soi Fon replied simply, putting down the large box on his back. "How long have you been waiting?"
"From yesterday morning until now."
Shiraishi patted his gold crossbody bag, a smug look on his face, and said, "Thanks to me for preparing some snacks, I didn't go hungry."
Soi Fon raised an eyebrow and said, "Aren't you afraid I won't come?"
"If you were that kind of person, you wouldn't have agreed to go on a date; you would have agreed to pardon my crimes instead."
Shiraishi shrugged. He dared to come and wait because he was 100% certain that the other party would keep their promise.
"Tch." Soi Fon was a little annoyed. It was really not a pleasant feeling to have his personality seen through by someone from an opposing side.
"Remember, once this date is over, we'll be even, and I'll do everything in my power to arrest you."
"You haven't exactly shown me any mercy lately."
Shiraishi complained that, thanks to Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the concealment fee had increased from five thousand to one hundred thousand rings, which is still one hundred thousand a year.
Instead, they pay 100,000 rings every month to bribe the Shinigami of the Twelfth Division and Eighth Division.
If you don't pay extra, they might accidentally let something slip.
Shiraishi understood their thinking; it was indeed unreasonable to take low-risk money for high-risk work, so he could only agree to increase the amount.
He borrowed 100,000 rings from the Kawakami Clan and then devoted himself to studying the laws of Seireitei. As the saying goes, the most profitable deals are all written in the law.
It all depends on whether you're bold enough and capable enough.
If we have both, then we can try to pull off a big heist, starting with tens of millions of rings.
The jump from tens of thousands to tens of millions inevitably brings up the wealth gap in Soul Society, perfectly illustrating the saying "the rich die of thirst while the poor die of floods."
The nobles' businesses often involve millions or even tens of millions of dollars, yet they only pay their laborers, who have no Spiritual Power, a salary of one to two thousand dollars.
The wages for workers with Spiritual Power are about the same, but they receive more generous benefits including room and board.
Even with these conditions, the nobles still had to be picky about the laborers.
If Shiraishi had followed the law and worked for a thousand years, he would probably owe hundreds of millions more than he could have paid off his debts.
If you want to get rich to pay off your debts, you have no choice but to take an unconventional approach.
Since Shiraishi is already a wanted criminal in Seireitei, it wouldn't hurt to pull off another lucrative deal.
"Hmph, that's because I didn't use my full strength. Otherwise, if I had followed that swarm of rats, you..."
Soi Fon suddenly realized he had said too much, so he stopped talking and began to open the box, revealing two artificial Gigai inside.
Their appearance and height are exactly the same as the two people.
"I told you it was a date, but you're dressed so darkly, you look like you're in a primary school uniform."
Shiraishi shook his head.
Soi Fon, not understanding what a primary school student was, said expressionlessly, "You didn't say what clothes I wanted to wear."
Shiraishi sighed, "It was my oversight. How should we proceed with the Gigai '?"
"Just lie down." Soi Fon took the lead in demonstrating, lying on the Gigai, his spirit merging with it. The Gigai, which had been lying down, fluttered its Matsuge and slowly opened its eyes.
Shiraishi followed suit, as if he had put on a layer of skin. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands again, "Wow, that's amazing! When you move around, it's no different from a normal person."
"Those guys at the Research and Development Institute would have been fired long ago if they weren't capable."
Soi Fon casually replied, taking out Soul Candy and tossing it over, "If you encounter a Hollow, remember to swallow this to detach from your Gigai."
As she spoke, she detached herself from the Gigai, drew her Zanpakuto with her right hand, and tried to scare Shiraishi.
He didn't react at all, still watching with a grin.
"Hmph." This made her even more annoyed. She thrust her knife into the air, twisted it, and a circular Senkaimon appeared, resembling a Japanese sliding door.
Click, the door opened, and pitch-black Hell Butterfly fluttered out.
Soi Fon returned to Gigai and said, "Stay close to me. If you get lost in the passage to the Dangai, you'll never get out."
"Good."
Shiraishi followed her and ran into the Senkaimon. Inside was a spacious yet terrifying tunnel. The ground resembled flesh and blood, and the sides were filled with condensed air currents like white frost. The overall impression was that of someone's stomach.
After running forward for a short while, a bright light appeared in front of the passage.
The Hell Butterfly flew into the light, and the two of them followed it through.
The bright sunshine shone on the familiar yet unfamiliar high-rise buildings.
He arrived in the World of the Living.