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Turn around, close the door!
As Reiatsu surged in his palm, a barrier that blocked detection instantly formed, enveloping the entire Captain's Office.
"Ishikawa, why are you so nervous? Are you afraid I'll eat you?"
The black shadow on the desk joked, raising a cat's paw to lick it, then wiping it on its face.
If he hadn't known this person's true identity so well, Ishikawa might have really thought... the black shadow sprawled on his desk was just a talking black cat.
"No choice, there are too many people monitoring me."
Ishikawa's face almost instinctively broke into a smile: "Since I entered Seireitei through the Kukaku Cannon, you must have heard about my current situation from Kukaku, Lady Yoruichi."
Although he wasn't sure why Yoruichi was here, seeing Yoruichi still made Ishikawa's eyes light up.
If he could gain her favorability and befriend her, his experience points, which were almost completely depleted, could be replenished.
Yoruichi heard this, her vertical pupils staring directly at Ishikawa's expression, and spoke in that calm and powerful male voice: "But Kukaku didn't tell me that you became the Captain of the Ninth Division."
Although Kukaku had said that if he needed help in Seireitei, he could look for Ishikawa, and she trusted Kukaku very much. But for a guy she had only met a few times, and who even Urahara Kisuke thought was very deeply hidden.
She really couldn't trust him just because of a word from Kukaku.
Moreover, Kukaku hadn't told her that Ishikawa had now become the Captain of the Ninth Division. No, it should be that no one in the entire Rukongai knew this.
Did Kukaku deliberately hide it from her, or did Ishikawa hide it from everyone in Rukongai, including Kukaku?
Of course, these were just her objective reasons for not trusting Ishikawa.
The subjective reason was simple and direct...
Like Kukaku, she particularly disliked people who pretended to be good-natured. She couldn't guess what was hidden behind their smiles, or if they would stab her in the back when she trusted them!
"I was also suddenly assigned here after arriving in Seireitei yesterday."
Ishikawa smiled slightly, not getting annoyed by Yoruichi's suspicion, but patiently recounted what had happened since he arrived in Seireitei yesterday.
"So strictly speaking, I am not the Captain of the Ninth Division. It's just that my Everything Store accepted a special commission from the Gotei 13."
Commissioned to be a Captain?
Even though she had considered many possibilities, Ishikawa's words still made Yoruichi's cat face show an extremely human-like confusion.
In the past, there had been cases where a Captain unfortunately died and the Vice-Captain acted as the interim Captain, but this kind of bizarre operation of recruiting an outsider to be a Captain was truly a first for her.
However...
Strictly speaking, this bizarre operation seemed to have been started by Soi Fon.
Originally, she felt that an unstable factor like Ishikawa, if left in Rukongai, might disrupt the stability of Seireitei, so she simply kept him by her side, letting him work for her while also making it easier to monitor him.
And what Captain-Commander Yamamoto was doing now...
It was exactly the same as Soi Fon.
Was this kid really that useful in their eyes?
"By the way, Lady Yoruichi, why did you come here to me?"
Ishikawa chuckled, no longer using honorifics. There was no need for honorifics between friends. Although they weren't friends yet, future friends were still friends!
"I originally planned to go home first, but as soon as I landed, I found someone in Squad Nine had locked onto me, and Kaname Tōsen was already dead, so I came to see who it was." Yoruichi stood up from the desk and stretched lazily: "I didn't expect to see you as soon as I got here."
"I've answered, so can you answer a question for me too?"
"Hmm?"
"Why did you force your way into the Central 46?"
Ishikawa looked at Yoruichi upon hearing this, not responding immediately, but looking directly at Yoruichi, with a faint blue aura appearing around his dark pupils.
Yoruichi frowned at the sight, but before she could act, she heard Ishikawa say:
"Sorry, I need to confirm 'if you are you' before I can give an answer."
Hearing this, Yoruichi seemed to think of something, a strange glint flashing in her eyes. She didn't dodge, but allowed Ishikawa to observe.
However, Ishikawa didn't observe for long. The aura in his eyes receded after his words fell, and he then spoke:
"You should have already heard the reason why I forced my way into the Central 46."
Ishikawa paused: "At that time, Amakado Nayura, who is now my adopted sister, came to me and said she suspected that Central 46 had undergone some change. Then I took her to Central 46, and was ultimately severely wounded by Captain Kaname Tōsen."
"This is the widely circulated version."
"But in reality..."
"Before Nayura came to me, I had already vaguely sensed that something was amiss with Central 46, and the cause was Kuchiki Rukia, who had gone to the Human World."
"When she went missing in the Human World, both the Supervisory Team and the Shinigami Research and Development Institute submitted reports, but the response from the Central 46 was unusually out of character. They merely ordered the Supervisory Team to constantly monitor the Human World, instead of, as usual, directly dispatching the Onmitsukidō to investigate."
"If it were just that, it could be explained by Central 46 being constrained by the Four Great Noble Clans and not wanting to deal with Kuchiki Rukia's major disciplinary violation. But later, they refused the Thirteenth Division's application to send someone to replace her, citing 'her whereabouts are unknown.' At that time, I vaguely felt that Central 46 was acting strangely, and I had a suspected target."
"I wonder if Urahara Kisuke has told you that when I first arrived in Rukongai and my strength was still weak, many people secretly observed me, and even manipulated things behind the scenes, causing me to fall into some dangerous situations."
"However, when my strength grew, these secret observations disappeared."
Ishikawa's words contained both truth and falsehood. Ishikawa had never stopped investigating those who had secretly observed him.
But as he said, when his strength grew, those observations vanished without a trace, making it impossible for Ishikawa to continue tracing them.
However, he didn't care too much.
The fact that someone could only secretly observe him when his strength was weak already indicated that their strength was not as formidable as Aizen's, or that they didn't want to be traced by him at that moment.
"So after entering Seireitei, I never stopped investigating. I even learned from the Onmitsukidō... about the betrayal of Miss Yoruichi and Urahara Kisuke, and from the old squad members who experienced that incident, I learned about Urahara Kisuke's defense at the time."
"Finally, I used this to pinpoint a target, and then actively began close contact with him."
"The more I interacted with him, the more I could feel how dangerous he was."
"But I was never able to be sure until the incident of forcing my way into Central 46 occurred."
"The person who severely wounded me outside Central 46 at that time was not Kaname Tōsen."
"It was..."
"Captain of the Fifth Division, Aizen Sōsuke!"
Yoruichi looked deeply at Ishikawa upon hearing this, her heart filled with surprise. She truly hadn't expected that someone in Seireitei would notice Aizen's abnormality.
And he had investigated to this extent just by using these fragmented pieces of information.
What she didn't know was...
Ishikawa was completely working backward from the known result, making his knowledge of the outcome seem reasonable.
And the reason he did this...
The purpose was extremely pure!
It was to gain Yoruichi's trust and thus obtain an opportunity to befriend her.
Of course, it was only an opportunity.
If he wanted to further gain her friendship, such small tricks would be completely useless and could easily backfire.
It was far better to genuinely approach and interact with her.
"And Central 46 is not as widely rumored, with a few judges and council members remaining. Instead, it has been completely wiped out." Ishikawa sighed slightly after speaking: "It's just that no one would believe this, even if I said it, so I can only pretend not to know anything."
"Not saying it is correct."
Yoruichi nodded: "Kisuke also spoke about Aizen in the Central 46 back then, but neither Central 46 nor Captain-Commander Yamamoto believed his account; that old man, Captain-Commander, although he has great foresight, perhaps because his strength is too great, he is often careless with details."
"Before truly grasping Aizen's weakness, rashly speaking about Aizen might lead to the same fate as me and Kisuke."
[Yoruichi Favorability +1, gained 600 experience points. Current Favorability: 1]
600 points!?
Ishikawa's eyes lit up. This was almost double Captain Soi Fon's points at the same favorability level.
As expected of the former head of the Shihōin Family!
The system prompt in his mind made Ishikawa's serious and solemn expression almost unable to hold, nearly revealing his joy.
Ishikawa looked at Yoruichi, who was lost in thought, and couldn't help but mutter to himself.
Thinking carefully...
He really didn't seem to know Yoruichi's preferences very well.
Although he had met Yoruichi once at Urahara Shop, there was almost no conversation then, and the second time he went... Yoruichi had already left to travel, so naturally, there was no chance to befriend her.
So Ishikawa's understanding of Yoruichi was entirely based on the information in his memory.
Plus, she had left Soul Society a hundred years ago, so even in Seireitei, there was no detailed information about her preferences.
The only thing Ishikawa knew was...
She ate a lot.
Just as Ishikawa was wondering whether to have the cafeteria prepare a lavish lunch to entertain Yoruichi, Yoruichi suddenly said: "Regarding the matter of Central 46, I will go home first, and then I will go to investigate."
"And during this time..."
Yoruichi looked up at Ishikawa: "Try to pay more attention to those few kids who came with me."
"I'm not very good at tracking Bakudo, but you should be, right?"
Yoruichi remembered clearly...
When Ishikawa, whose strength was still very weak, first went to the Human World, he used his improved Bakudo to pinpoint Urahara Kisuke.
From this alone, it was clear his mastery of Bakudo.
No~
Strictly speaking...
Yoruichi's gaze towards Ishikawa became a little strange. Although this kid hadn't been in Soul Society for long, his mastery of the Shinigami's 'Zankensoki' four techniques was so strong that it was hard for her to believe.
Because this wasn't something that could be achieved by simply having strong Reiatsu. For example, Ichigo...
After awakening, even with his Reiatsu strength infinitely close to Captain-level, he couldn't even use the most basic spiritual power to release Kido. It took him a day and a night to barely master the use of a spiritual core.
It could be said that...
He had virtually no talent in Kido; teaching him Kido would be a complete waste of time.
However, in contrast, he had extremely strong talent in Zanjutsu. In these ten days, Ichigo's Zanjutsu skills, during his continuous battles with Urahara Kisuke, could only be described as 'rapid progress'.
And in Seireitei, there were quite a few people who were similarly specialized.
On the contrary, people like Ishikawa, who were so well-rounded and had extremely high mastery in every aspect, were extremely rare in Soul Society.
People like him were basically those old Captains who had lived for a long time.
Even those who became Captains in the last hundred years mostly only had some mastery in one or two areas.
Among these Captains, the person most similar to Ichigo was, without a doubt...
It was Zaraki, the current Captain of the Eleventh Division!
The reason this situation occurred was entirely because techniques like Zankensoki required long years of learning and accumulation to achieve a certain level of mastery.
Of course...
The main reason was also that in the Shinigami system, the strength of Reiatsu was fundamental, and combat techniques could only gain a huge advantage when Reiatsu was similar.
Therefore, apart from those old Captains who had developed their Reiatsu and Zanpakuto to the extreme, others, compared to Zankensoki, placed more emphasis on strengthening Reiatsu and developing Zanpakuto abilities.
Because of this, the abilities Ishikawa displayed made her feel incredibly unbelievable.
If the Captain most similar to Ichigo in Soul Society was Zaraki, then in Yoruichi's perception, the Captain most similar to Ishikawa... was Aizen Sōsuke.
Whether in terms of personality or mastery of combat techniques.
And...
That change in his eyes just now. When Yoruichi was looked at by him, she had a strange feeling of being locked on in that instant.
Rather than being locked on, it was more like her own presence was infinitely magnified the moment she was observed.
Even though she was being watched by Ishikawa, she felt as if his attention wasn't on her.
Self-created Bakudo?
"If it's just tracking, I can still do it."
Ishikawa pondered: "But if they encounter any danger, I can't leave here to help them."
"My current situation, to put it nicely, is that I'm an acting Captain, but in reality, it's no different from being under house arrest. I can't leave Squad Nine's area without permission."
"I can't put myself in danger for some strangers just because of a word from Lady Yoruichi. So unless Ganju is in danger, I will absolutely not leave the Ninth Division's jurisdiction."
"Of course, if they come to Squad Nine, that's another matter."
"Mm."
Yoruichi nodded: "That's fine!"
If Ishikawa had readily agreed, she would have been suspicious.
After all, Ishikawa didn't know Ichigo and the others, nor did he know their purpose for coming to Soul Society, so how could he risk being punished by Captain-Commander Yamamoto to help them?
Unless he had ulterior motives!
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