Kisuke Urahara was full of questions. He searched his mind but could find no memory of Katori Sora ever getting married.
Yet now, Sora had shown up with a child.
"Could this child be... born out of wedlock?" Urahara looked at Sora as if he were scum.
"It's not like that. This isn't my child," Sora rolled his eyes, quickly stopping Urahara's wild imagination.
Urahara's interest was piqued, and he leaned in to look at Hiyori.
"There's something not right with this child..." He quickly discovered the problem. "She doesn't look like a normally developed baby."
"She's a premature baby, two or three months early at that. If not for the spiritual pressure in her body keeping her alive, she would have been long gone," Sora explained.
"This is troublesome... I see. So you came to the captain for help?" Urahara took out a Denreishinki from his sleeve and pressed a button. "Hello? Is the captain in the barracks?"
Kirio Hikifune's voice soon came through. "Is that you, Kisuke? I'm here. What do you need?"
Urahara spoke into the device, "Lord Katori is here with a child... there's something wrong with the newborn's body. We need you to come take a look. We're in the public hall of the barracks."
"What? Lord Katori is there with a child... I'm on my way!"
After saying this, Kirio immediately hung up.
A little while later, she arrived at the hall.
"Is this your child?" Kirio saw the frail Hiyori, and her eyebrows shot up. "She's premature, isn't she? You've been too careless!"
"She's not mine... I rescued this child on the road..." Sora quickly explained Hiyori's origins.
"Hiyori's constitution is weak, her body too frail. That's why I was hoping you could help nurse her back to health, Miss Kirio."
Kirio took Hiyori from the handmaiden's arms, her eyes filled with pity. "What a poor child, to have lost her mother so early."
"Don't worry, I will take good care of her."
Kirio turned to the handmaiden and said, "You will stay here in the 12th Division and help look after the child."
"Kisuke, make the arrangements. Tidy up a room in the barracks for her."
"I need to quickly prepare some nutritional supplements for this child. Her condition is very poor; we can't delay."
Kirio took Hiyori and headed for the laboratory.
Urahara took out his Denreishinki again and discussed the handmaiden's accommodation with the Shinigami in charge of barracks affairs.
The room for the handmaiden would also be Hiyori's room. Hiyori couldn't care for herself yet and needed someone to watch over her 24 hours a day.
A moment later, a Shinigami came and led the handmaiden away.
"You have it so good, Lord Katori... to have time for a 'study tour.' Unlike me, I'm busy as hell," Urahara lamented.
When explaining Hiyori's story just now, Sora had also mentioned that he was 'studying abroad' with the Head-Captain, which made Urahara very envious.
"What have you been busy with... the Soul Society has been very peaceful lately," Sora asked curiously.
"The peace of the Soul Society is the fruit of the labor of diligent Shinigami like us!" Urahara rolled his eyes.
"Do you remember the matter of the Reigai invading our lab?" Urahara said in a low voice.
"Of course I remember. Captain Takezuna was also ambushed and went missing..." Sora nodded.
"After that incident, I developed an instrument that can distinguish Reigai," Urahara's face fell. "Recently, we've discovered traces of Reigai activity again, and it's been keeping me incredibly busy."
"Someone has started making Reigai again?" Sora frowned.
The mastermind behind the last incident was never found; they had only managed to root out the Reigai that had infiltrated the ranks.
"Yes, and the situation is very different this time. The Reigai we've found are all residents of the Rukongai..." Urahara nodded and said with a troubled expression, "I really can't figure out their motive for doing this."
"If they were making Shinigami Reigai, I could understand. They would want to secretly control the Seireitei. But what's the use of making Reigai of Rukongai residents?" Sora stroked his chin, falling into deep thought.
"They must have a purpose. But this is going to work us researchers to death. I've been spending all my time collecting data from souls in the Rukongai!" Urahara complained, slumping in his seat. "Honestly, can't these conspirators have some consideration for us researchers!"
"Didn't you develop an instrument that can distinguish the spiritual pressure of a Reigai? Can't you conduct a large-scale screening?" Sora asked.
"I wish!" Urahara shook his head. "Reigai are not that easy to distinguish. The difference in spiritual pressure between them and the original is minuscule."
"In fact, even if a Reigai were right in front of me and I used my instrument to check, I wouldn't be able to identify it."
"My detection instrument needs to collect reishi from the original body and compare the similarities and subtle differences to distinguish the Reigai."
"But that makes the workload massive! It's equivalent to me having to screen every single soul in the Rukongai to root out all the Reigai!"
"It's simply impossible. There are too many souls in the Rukongai!"
Urahara scratched his head, messing up his hair. He looked extremely frustrated.
"Your detection instrument needs an upgrade," Sora said.
"My brain is already filled with Rukongai soul data. I have no inspiration," Urahara said, throwing up his hands, looking exhausted.
"Give me a set of the instruments. I might be able to improve it," Sora suggested.
Although Sora didn't have much time now either, he had Aizen in his lab. He thought of giving this research topic to him to try.
"Alright..." Urahara knew about the 'Nōreitan' and that Sora also had some research knowledge of spiritual bodies, so he did not refuse.
He went and fetched a set of reishi detection instruments and a document.
"This is my design draft. The whole design concept is in here."
"Here—this part collects the reishi. After collecting it, it checks against the existing data. We basically have data for all the Shinigami, but not for the souls of the Rukongai..."
Urahara took out a tube, preparing to demonstrate how to use it for Sora.
He circled the tube over Sora's head a few times, collecting the reishi that was naturally dissipating from his body.
"Collecting it this way is a bit slow, as you have to wait for the reishi to dissipate on its own. But if you insert this into the spiritual body, it's much faster," Urahara said, using the needle on the tube to prick Sora's finger.
The instrument quickly collected Sora's reishi.
"Next is to check the data..." Urahara called up the data in the instrument to perform a check.
The next moment, he froze on the spot.
"...Found data with over 90% reishi similarity???" Urahara swallowed hard.
"It seems this instrument is quite accurate..." Sora said, looking at the name displayed on the screen with a faint smile.
Urahara's eyes widened, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
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