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Seireitei, Outer Commercial Street.
This is the Commercial Street that serves regular members, also known as the Commoner's Commercial Street. Compared to the shops in the Nobility Street in the center of Seireitei, this Commercial Street sells low-priced items. Many Shinigami and their families buy daily necessities here.
However, the originally bustling street was now a bit quiet. Both customers and shopkeepers looked at a figure on the street with respect.
It was a gentle and peaceful woman whose black hair was braided and draped forward. She was wearing a shinigami uniform. If that were all, it wouldn't have caused such a big reaction from the people present. The reason they were so quiet was because...
Outside of that shinigami uniform, she was also wearing a pure white haori, and on the back of the haori was a large character 'Four'.
That was the Captain's haori.
And this figure, who looked incredibly gentle and had an approachable smile on her face, was none other than the Captain of the Fourth Division—Retsu Unohana!
Normally, Captains and Vice-Captains rarely appeared on this street, because even with a Vice-Captain's salary, they could easily afford to shop in Nobility Street without feeling burdened, so they naturally wouldn't need to come here to buy some inferior products.
Of course...
It wasn't that no Vice-Captains came here. A few extravagant Vice-Captains often appeared here.
Retsu Unohana didn't feel displeased by the surrounding gazes. She merely showed a gentle smile, then turned her head to look at the figure standing still behind her and asked, "Is something wrong, Isane?"
"Ah? Ah~"
The figure standing still was Kotetsu Isane. At this moment, she was looking at a distant alley with a somewhat dazed expression. Only when her Captain's call came did she regain her senses, and she said with some hesitation, "I... I think I saw someone familiar."
As soon as she finished speaking, she shook her head: "It must be my mistake. That gentleman couldn't possibly appear here."
That's right, it must have been a mistake.
Ishikawa Katori is not a Shinigami at all, so how could he appear in Seireitei?
Kotetsu Isane had once mentioned to Ishikawa Katori that she hoped he could join the Fourth Division. After all, with Mr. Ishikawa Katori's proficiency in Kaido, even if his Reiatsu was astonishingly weak, he would still be fully qualified to become a member of the Gotei 13.
However, Mr. Ishikawa Katori refused.
In the past six months, she had not stopped communicating with Ishikawa Katori about Kaido, because every time she used her vacation time to communicate with Ishikawa Katori about Kaido, she would gain new knowledge from Ishikawa Katori, as if Ishikawa Katori's Kaido was constantly improving.
This made Isane even more determined to use her Vice-Captain's authority to bypass the Reiatsu assessment and recruit Ishikawa Katori into the Fourth Division.
She even kept it a secret from her Captain and secretly introduced Mr. Ishikawa Katori's Everything Store to some new and old members who eagerly hoped to further improve their Kaido, hoping to cultivate Ishikawa Katori's goodwill towards the Fourth Division and then gradually bring him into the Fourth Division.
The development of the plan could be said to be extremely smooth. Those members all got along very well with Mr. Ishikawa Katori.
Even if they didn't go for tutoring, they would visit Mr. Ishikawa Katori during their holidays like visiting a friend, engaging in conversations and, at Isane's subtle prompting, implicitly expressing the benefits of joining the Fourth Division.
Because of this, there are so many Everything Store customers in the Fourth Division now.
Roughly estimated...
From the Vice-Captain down to the newly joined members of the entire Fourth Division, nearly one hundred and fifty people have 'exchanged' Kaido with Ishikawa Katori at the Everything Store.
As long as it continues, one day, Mr. Ishikawa Katori will agree to join the Fourth Division. With his talent in Kaido, he absolutely cannot be left to be buried in Rukongai.
Thoughts raced through Isane's mind, but she showed no outward sign, lest her Captain notice anything amiss.
She wasn't intentionally hiding it from Captain Unohana, but rather didn't know how to explain... the matter of her introducing a shop in Rukongai to the members as a Vice-Captain. Her original plan was to explain after Ishikawa Katori was recruited into the Fourth Division...
As a result, six months passed, but Ishikawa Katori still hadn't agreed. However, as he interacted with more Fourth Division members, he occasionally showed signs of interest.
Although she vaguely felt that something wasn't quite right, Isane firmly believed that as long as she persevered, she would definitely succeed!
"Hmm?"
Returning to her Captain's side, Isane was slightly startled: "Captain, what are you looking at?"
Captain Unohana, at some point, had a small card in her hand, and a half-smile on her face.
"Nothing, just a very interesting card that suddenly flew over from the sky."
A very interesting card?
Kotetsu Isane walked forward with some confusion, using her nearly 1.9-meter height advantage to secretly peek at the card in Retsu Unohana's hand. When she saw the content on the card, Kotetsu Isane was struck by lightning and stood frozen in place.
"This is..."
"It seems that the young Mr. Ishikawa Katori, with whom you have been communicating, has already started advertising in Seireitei," Retsu Unohana said to Isane with a half-smile, and her words caused Isane's expression to change involuntarily, and she instinctively wanted to explain.
"I..."
"Don't worry, I don't blame you. It's a good thing for members to grow, no matter where they learn," Retsu Unohana said with a smile, shaking her head.
Regarding the existence of the Everything Store, Soi Fon had already personally explained the situation to her six months ago when she discovered that even the Vice-Captain was going to the Everything Store to study. Soi Fon's intention was to ask Retsu Unohana to prevent members of the Fourth Division from going to Ishikawa Katori to exchange Kaido.
Initially, Retsu Unohana did have the idea of stopping them, but when she assessed the members who had gone to the Everything Store for tutoring, she abandoned the idea of stopping them.
Because all members who had studied at the Everything Store had made great progress in Kaido.
The Fourth Division is different from other Squads; their duty is to treat illnesses and save lives.
The more proficient the members are in Kaido, the more likely they are to pull patients back from the brink of death. Therefore, she had always adopted a tacit attitude towards this matter. If Isane really recruited him into the Fourth Division, it would also be a good thing.
However...
"It seems you don't know this young gentleman very well."
"Ah?"
"Nothing, let's go back."
Retsu Unohana shook her head and did not elaborate, but instead turned and walked away.
Although Soi Fon had told her about the existence of the Everything Store, she had not told her about Ishikawa Katori's strength. Retsu Unohana had only heard from the members that the young shopkeeper's Reiatsu was extremely weak, probably only equivalent to that of a Shin'ō Academy student.
But when she intercepted the card just now, the Reiatsu it carried was not something a student could possess.
... ...
At the same time, in a secluded alley.
A very tall man was carrying a little girl on his back, dashing through the alley.
"That's right, this way, Ken-chan, let's go this way. Crossing this street will definitely lead us to our Squad barracks," the little girl excitedly shouted.
However, the man's face showed no joy upon hearing her words.
Because...
He had heard the same thing at least ten times already.
"Eh?"
Just then, the little girl on the man's back suddenly let out a surprised sound and jumped down from his back.
"What's wrong, Yachiru?"
The man turned his head to look at the little girl he called Yachiru, and found that the little girl was squatting on the ground with her hands on her knees, craning her neck to look at the ground.
Upon hearing the man's words, Yachiru picked up the square little card from the ground, waved it in front of the man, and said, "Ken-chan, what does the Everything Store do?"
"Everything Store?"
Zaraki Kenpachi glanced at it, then shook his head: "I don't know, never heard of it."
"It looks very interesting, let's go check it out too," Yachiru said, her eyes sparkling.
However, the man refused without hesitation: "Not interested."
Yachiru didn't get discouraged. Instead, she tilted her head and thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up: "He claims he can take on any job if he has money. Such a person must be very strong."
"Hmm?"
As soon as she said this, the man who had turned to leave suddenly stopped in his tracks. After pondering for a moment, he nodded.
"That makes sense!!"
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