Mirai's feet had just touched the ground of the Ninth Division barracks courtyard.
Suddenly, his vision blurred!
"Mirai!"
A high-spirited cry, tinged with a hint of a sob, crashed into his ears. At the same time, Mirai felt as if his abdomen had been struck head-on by a giant Hollow charging at full speed.
"Ugh!"
A short, muffled groan escaped him.
He didn't even see exactly what happened before he was lifted off the ground and sent flying backward.
Thud!
His back slammed hard against the solid stone wall of the courtyard. The impact was so jarring it felt like his internal organs had shifted positions. Dust trickled down in thin streams.
"I heard a Gillian-class Menos appeared in the World of the Living! I haven't even seen one of those yet! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?! Let me see!"
Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna's face instantly occupied his entire field of vision.
She gripped the collar of Mirai's Shihakusho with both hands and shook him violently. Her strength was so immense that Mirai's head whipped back and forth involuntarily. Stars began to dance before his eyes.
"Lieu... Lieutenant..." Mirai struggled to force words out of his constricted throat. "Breath... running out..."
"Eh?" Hearing this, tears immediately began to well up in Mashiro's eyes, and the intensity of her shaking increased.
"Don't die, Mirai! Speak to me! Where does it hurt? I'll blow on it for you!"
Mirai felt like a willow branch caught in a gale, swaying helplessly under a force he couldn't possibly resist.
The pressure on his neck grew stronger. The edges of his vision began to fade to black, and his consciousness started to drift like a receding tide...
"Idiot! Do you want to kill him?!"
A roar erupted. There was a dull thwack, followed by a pained "Ouch!" The crushing force on Mirai's neck vanished instantly.
Captain Kensei Muguruma had appeared out of nowhere and slammed a fist onto the top of Mashiro's head.
Mashiro let go immediately. Clutching her head with teary eyes, she squatted down, looking utterly aggrieved.
"Waaah... I was just worried about Mirai... Kensei is a dummy! A big dummy!" she protested.
"You..." Kensei looked at his tearful Lieutenant squatting on the ground, the veins in his temple throbbing.
He let out a heavy sigh and quickly reached out to catch Mirai, who was sliding limply down the wall.
"Hey, Mirai. You still alive? Not dead yet, are you?" Kensei patted Mirai's cheek firmly.
"Cough... cough cough..." Mirai coughed violently, gasping for air. His throat burned.
"Cap... Captain... if you had arrived a tenth of a second later, the Ninth Division could have started planning my funeral rites. You could have updated the recruitment notice for the vacant Fifth Seat while you were at it..."
"It's good that you're fine." Kensei scrutinized Mirai's complexion. Confirming that he had only suffered a bit of a fright and some minor bruising while his Spiritual Pressure remained stable, Kensei let out a sigh of relief and clapped him hard on the back.
"I've already received the preliminary report on the mission. I didn't expect a Gillian-class Menos to show up; things were certainly dangerous.
"You performed well on the battlefield. Slaying the Hollow swarm and providing timely support to your exhausted comrades... you made decisive judgments. Well done."
Mirai's face settled into a steady, slightly weary expression. "It was my duty. You overpraise me, Captain."
Kensei nodded, a smile of approval appearing on his face.
"Mhm. You worked hard. Since you put in quite the effort this mission, I'm granting you three days of leave. Get some proper rest."
Leave!
That word instantly brightened Mirai's dimming eyes.
He immediately raised a hand to cover his chest, his brow furrowing slightly. His face took on a look that was three parts weakness, three parts endurance, and four parts "I need some care."
"Captain... now that you mention it, I suddenly feel... a bit of a dull pain here.
"It might be the impact from the Hollow's Spiritual Pressure earlier, or perhaps I sustained some internal damage while retreating too quickly...
"Don't you think the leave could be extended just a little bit? Say... ten days?
"That way I can recover fully and avoid leaving any lingering issues that might hold the squad back during future missions."
His tone was sincere, his eyes earnest.
The smile on Kensei Muguruma's face vanished at a visible speed. His eyes turned flat as he stared at Mirai in silence.
Mirai's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't let it show. He immediately adjusted his strategy.
"Ah, ten days might be a bit much... how about seven? I promise to rest properly and won't go wandering around outside!" He held up seven fingers.
Kensei's expression began to darken. He silently took half a step back and crossed his arms over his chest.
Mirai gritted his teeth as if making a massive sacrifice. He held up five fingers, his tone resolute.
"Five days! Captain, just five! That's my bottom line! Any less and it really won't be good for my recovery!"
"Stop talking nonsense," Kensei finally spoke. "Three days. And on the morning of the fourth, you're coming out with me."
"Eh? Where to?" Mirai blinked. Since when were there additional assignments?
"The Kuchiki estate," Kensei spat out the three words.
Mirai slowly straightened his posture. The feigned weakness on his face vanished instantly. He asked tentatively, "The Captain also received an invitation from the Kuchikis?"
"So you already knew about it." Kensei glanced at him with a 'just as I thought' expression and sighed helplessly.
"That's good. Then you understand why I'm taking you. You know I've never gotten along with the formal red tape of the 'Nobility.'
"However, this was a personal invitation from Captain Ginrei Kuchiki. As a fellow Captain of the Gotei 13, I can't just ignore it."
He reached out and slapped Mirai's shoulder heavily again, making Mirai wince.
"When the time comes, I'll leave the pleasantries and chit-chat with those noble lords to you.
"This is the perfect time for the 'Noble Son of the Seireitei' to show off his specialty."
"Wait, Captain! No!" Mirai immediately tried to struggle.
"Don't you know what I'm really like? That 'Noble Son' title floating around outside... that's just a persona created to promote my novels and make the books easier to sell! It's acting! It's marketing!"
He spoke faster.
"Noble rules? The biggest noble I've ever met is our Third Seat, Kasaki! And he's just a minor, fringe noble!
"What do I know about noble etiquette? I'll only embarrass the Ninth Division if I go! Captain, please reconsider!"
"A minor noble, huh... My apologies then."
A faint, ghostly voice drifted over from the corner of the corridor.
Third Seat Heizo Kasaki was standing at his own doorway, carrying a stack of documents so high it nearly blocked his vision. His face was livid.
He gave Mirai a cold glare, then slammed his door shut with a loud Bang!, causing dust to shake loose from the frame.
Mirai: "..."
Kensei Muguruma, of course, knew exactly what kind of person Mirai was.
After decades of working together and dozens of painful lessons, he had long ago mastered the cunning hidden beneath that face and Mirai's transcendent slacking skills.
In the past, excuses like "Captain, I stubbed my toe on the cabinet and need bed rest" or "Captain, my Reishi flow feels a bit knotted and needs time to untangle" had been performed much more vividly. He could even produce tears on command back then.
"The matter is settled," Kensei ended the conversation with a tone that brooked no argument.
He understood one profound truth: when facing Mirai, you must never give him the chance to start talking his way out of things.
Once he opened his mouth, he could talk the dead back to life and haggle three days of leave into three months.
Without giving Mirai another second to argue, Kensei turned around. He reached out with a large hand, grabbed Mashiro Kuna—who was still squatting in the corner—by the back of her collar, and marched toward the exit.
"Bye-bye Mirai remember to get some rest~!" Mashiro waved happily to Mirai even as she was being hauled away.
"Captain! Captain, please think about it! Captain!"
Mirai's cries were in vain.
Only Mirai remained in the courtyard, left alone in the wind.
"What a disaster," he let out a long, lingering sigh
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