Chapter 19: The Impending Arrival of the Protagonist Team
Inside the First Division’s garrison, in Su Xiao’s laboratory.
Su Xiao sat across from Sosuke Aizen, with a low wooden table between them. The food on the table was not lavish, accompanied by a pot of light sake.
The two were engaged in casual conversation. Su Xiao appeared somewhat languid, so Aizen did most of the talking while he listened—or rather, Aizen was consulting him on alchemy-related knowledge. This way, drinking together seemed perfectly natural.
They were not alone in the room. A young girl stood nearby, Aizen’s vice-captain, Momo Hinamori.
Hinamori watched them with a smile. She hadn’t seen Aizen drink with anyone in a long time, and she understood one thing clearly: building a good relationship with a special researcher like Su Xiao was undoubtedly beneficial. At the very least, the Fifth Division would no longer worry about spiritual medicine supplies, significantly reducing casualty rates among its members.
Thinking this, Hinamori’s smile grew sweeter. Yet she had no idea that the two men sitting here would become the greatest threats to the entire Soul Society, individuals every captain would soon seek to kill.
“Captain Aizen, though it may be rude to say this, you should give up on alchemy. Your talents don’t seem to allow you to venture into this field.”
Su Xiao set down his cup. This light sake wasn’t very good, and what troubled him more was that neither Genryusai Yamamoto nor Retsu Unohana had arrived yet.
Hearing Su Xiao’s words, Aizen showed no reaction, but Hinamori pouted.
“Mr. Bai Ye, that’s too rude! Captain Aizen is…”
Before Hinamori could finish, Aizen waved his hand with a smile.
“I indeed lack talent in this area. It’s getting late. The Soul Society is not at peace lately, and as captain of the Fifth Division, I cannot be away from my garrison for too long.”
Aizen stood up, accidentally brushing against the wine cup on the table.
Soon, Aizen and Hinamori left. As she departed, Hinamori waved goodbye to Su Xiao with a smile.
“A naive rabbit, unfortunately bewitched by a wolf.”
Su Xiao picked up the wine cup and placed it over the spilled wine stain. He sensed faint spiritual pressure within the liquid, forming a twisted string of characters—Soul Society’s script.
‘Nine o’clock tonight, Inner Court.’
Aizen had left this message, signaling that his long-prepared plan was about to unfold, and he intended to secretly meet Su Xiao tonight.
The Inner Court was located within the Fifth Division’s garrison, which was Aizen’s territory.
Realizing this, Su Xiao narrowed his eyes. He felt that Aizen’s betrayal of the Seireitei was imminent. According to intelligence from Bubu Wang, the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki, was about to enter the Soul Society.
Once the protagonist team arrived, the events in the Soul Society would fully unfold. That would be the best time to reap benefits. Su Xiao had maintained his disguise for so long precisely to operate more conveniently during this period.
However, Su Xiao still needed to accomplish one thing quickly: gain reputation with the Seireitei. He didn’t need to exchange for a Zanpakuto from the faction shop, but he absolutely had to obtain the [Spiritual Remains]—an item that could summon a captain-level Shinigami.
Having a captain-level Shinigami ally would give Su Xiao greater leverage, whether in the upcoming operations or within Aizen’s faction.
The Shinigami summoned by [Spiritual Remains] was, in principle, a summon that required no summoning slot and consumed no resources. This item was extremely powerful, but it was not perfect. Its limitation to the Bleach world meant its value in the Reincarnation Paradise wouldn’t be absurdly high.
To gain Seireitei reputation, Su Xiao currently had three options. First, he could take on tasks from the captains, but as a researcher, doing so would seem out of place.
Second, he could achieve great feats within the Seireitei, such as exposing Aizen, Gin Ichimaru, or Sōsuke Aizen as traitors. This method would yield a lot of reputation but carried extreme risk.
However, Su Xiao was now allied with Aizen, Gin Ichimaru, and Kaname Tōsen. Setting aside the individual goals of Gin and Tōsen, reporting them to the Seireitei would be little different from turning himself in.
Third, he could produce spiritual medicine. But the “production capacity” of spiritual medicine was limited. If he supplied too much, the Thirteen Court Guard Squads would notice its limits.
Moreover, producing spiritual medicine consumed a large amount of mana. In a dangerous world like Bleach, having mana below half was very risky.
After weighing his options, Su Xiao suddenly thought of a good method. It would allow him to gain Seireitei reputation without consuming too much mana. Not only that, but his status within the Seireitei would skyrocket in the near future.
“Nanque.”
As soon as Su Xiao called out, the door slid open, and the cute girl Nanque poked her head in.
“Lord Bai Ye, what are your orders?”
Nanque was holding her hands behind her back, clutching a delicate bracelet—a gift from Hinamori before she left.
Once overlooked and underappreciated, Nanque now received gifts from the vice-captain of the Fifth Division. This enveloped her in happiness, a feeling of vanity satisfied beyond words.
Moreover, Nanque had realized that being Su Xiao’s subordinate was a sweet deal.
“Go find Captain Retsu Unohana of the Fourth Division. Tell her to come see me.”
“Uh… this…”
Nanque was momentarily speechless. ‘Tell the captain of the Fourth Division to come see me’—she understood the words, but it left her even more confused. It seemed Su Xiao’s authority wasn’t that great, to the point where a captain needed to come to him.
“Lord, this seems inappropriate. The Fourth Division’s garrison isn’t far. Perhaps we could…”
“Just go. Do it quickly.”
Su Xiao glanced at Nanque. Though he still appeared casual, Nanque dared not speak further.
“U-understood.”
Only after walking a great distance did Nanque snap out of it. In that instant, she had felt a deep, instinctive fear—or rather, a sense of dread.
Less than half an hour later, Nanque led Retsu Unohana into Su Xiao’s laboratory.
“I heard you wanted to see me?”
Unohana smiled at Su Xiao, her expression making Nanque instinctively shiver.
“That’s right.”
Su Xiao set down the half-finished alchemical bomb in his hand. This thing was extremely unstable and needed to be handled with care.
Unohana stepped into the room. With a bang, the wooden sliding door closed tightly, nearly hitting Nanque in the face.
“I’ve recently developed a very promising semi-finished potion—or rather, it can’t really be called a potion.”
Su Xiao picked up a test tube beside him and poured out a small, candy-sized spiritual particle ball with a purity of 50.
The moment Unohana saw this spiritual particle ball, she felt an urge to swallow it.
“I call it ‘Coagulated Bio-Spiritual Capsule.’ Of course, you can just call it a spiritual particle ball. As for usage, it’s simple—just swallow it directly.”
Su Xiao tossed the spiritual particle ball to Unohana. She caught it, resisting the impulse to swallow it, and examined it.
A Shinigami’s body is fundamentally composed of spiritual particles. For this reason, high-purity bio-form spiritual particles were extremely tempting to any Shinigami.
“Swallowing this will slowly increase your spiritual pressure. Completely harmless. The increase is gradual, but steady progress is the safest way.”
What Su Xiao presented this time was something no Shinigami could refuse.