"You, you!" Vohtz panted heavily, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to tear Kōe apart. "How could you!"
Kōe acted as if he had just heard a hilarious joke, laughing so hard he could barely stand straight. Pointing at himself, he chuckled, "Why couldn't we? You just said we're marching step by step toward our own destruction, so aren't we allowed to go a little crazy?"
"You wouldn't. I don't believe you want to see the throne completely empty!"
"Whether you believe it or not is your freedom, but whether we do it or not is up to us!" Kōe squatted down, his eyes behind the sunglasses brimming with mockery as he stared at Vohtz's indignant face. "Make a choice quickly, Vohtz. You can die a grand, earth-shattering death, just like God! It's just that no one will ever know about it. But surely, noble Quincies wouldn't care about such trivial things, right? Your people would sing your praises if they knew!"
Vohtz stopped cursing. With his mouth agape, he violently lunged forward. At this moment, he truly despised the young man in front of him.
But Kōe was no useless fool. He smoothly leaned back, narrowly dodging Vohtz's tackle, and immediately followed up with a backflip. Landing a few steps away, he looked at Vohtz, who was now wriggling and struggling on the ground like a caterpillar, with a face full of amusement.
"It seems there really is no God in this world, and you guys aren't much different from us. In fact, you might be even more shameless." As Kōe spoke, he leisurely strolled over to Vohtz, using the tip of his foot to flip the prone man back over. "Spouting absolute righteousness, yet entrusting your life to the mercy of the very shameless beings you just condemned. Tell me, who is more shameless, Vohtz?"
"And all that talk about regretting not killing me? Give me a break!" Kōe pressed his foot down harder, his emotions surging as he shouted angrily, "At the Plains of Slaughter, those arrows were actually aimed at me, weren't they? And in the Tomie District, those assassins knew my movements perfectly! That was your doing too, wasn't it? Vohtz!!"
"So get this straight, the only reason you're still alive is because I'm honoring our past friendship! If anyone's talking about a lifelong disgrace, it's me! You? You don't deserve to!"
Vohtz's face instantly turned ugly. The other party was entirely correct. Attacking the Gillian together at the Plains of Slaughter was actually a test. If Kōe had been injured then, their next move would have been to wipe out all the Shinigami present.
The assassination in the Tomie District was even more direct, although he had indeed been soft-hearted that time and hadn't directly participated. But looking at it now, Kōe had seen through all of it. Even if he had intervened, the result would have been the same.
And as for entrusting his hope to the enemy's mercy, or rather, the enemy's rationality... he really had no right to criticize Kōe. *Just when did I become like this?* Vohtz wondered. *Maybe it was after coming to Soul Society, or more likely, I was inherently a cold-hearted person to begin with. Otherwise, I wouldn't have chosen to enter Soul Society so early.*
But regardless, he had become this kind of person—someone no different from the Shinigami he despised! *No, there is a difference. We still have dreams, an ideal, perfect kingdom! This is completely different from the Shinigami who are satisfied with the status quo. To break through the mud, one must be prepared to get covered in filth. Didn't I already have this resolve the moment I stepped into Soul Society?*
"You're right, we are indeed doing dirty deeds." Vohtz exhaled heavily and raised his head again. At this moment, he felt an unprecedented sense of relief. "Friends and allegiances... our choices are the same, aren't they, Kōe?"
Kōe clicked his tongue, looking entirely unwilling to admit it. Seeing this, Vohtz asked playfully, "What are you going to do now? Bribes are useless, and fake threats are equally useless. Of course, even if they were real, they'd still be useless. Just like you said, the reason I don't commit suicide is because I know I simply can't die. But what about you? Don't you know that trying to make me sell out my kin is a futile effort?"
"Of course I know!"
His superficial purpose for coming today was, naturally, to persuade Vohtz to sell out the Quincies in the World of the Living. Yamamoto and the others said he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, so they sent him here to give it a try.
But tricks had to be tailored to the situation. They had been interrogating him for so long; if there were any spineless cowards or dim-witted fools among them, they probably would have succeeded by now, right? Unless he, Shihouin Kōe, was a hypnotist who could make the guy across from him believe he was a Shinigami spy! But was he a hypnotist? No! Soul Society didn't even have a hypnotist profession!
If Old Man Yama were here right now, he'd probably give Kōe a harsh beating! *Weren't you the one who kept begging to visit the prison?* Yamamoto just felt that his disciple was oversimplifying things, so he let him come here to suffer a bit of a setback.
Yes, coming to see Vohtz was actually Kōe's own request. Of course, his true intention wasn't to execute Yamamoto's ridiculously absurd persuasion mission. He had other motives—his own little schemes.
"I understand that as long as we still harbor the intent to completely exterminate you Quincies, no matter what reward is offered, you—or rather, all of you—will never waver."
"You catch on fast, hehehe!" Vohtz chuckled and teased.
"Why don't you hear me out first?" Kōe didn't mind Vohtz's teasing. He smiled and continued, "We can actually conduct a transaction on a much more equal footing."
Seeing that Vohtz was about to speak again, Kōe raised a hand to interrupt him. "I know, the previous interrogations were technically a form of transaction too, except you didn't hold anything worth us paying a price for. Or perhaps, in your eyes, we didn't have anything that could satisfy you. Of course, none of that matters."
"Still not giving up?" Vohtz leaned back, a drawn-out voice drifting from deep in his throat. "Let it go, Kōe... listening to jokes for too long gets tiresome, so just spare me..."
"I gave up a long time ago, but you need to pay attention to what I'm saying." Kōe walked behind Vohtz, looking down at his slightly upturned eyes, and smiled. "Didn't I tell you we'd use a more equal standing? Different standing means a different transaction! So, please be considerate of me too. Telling too many jokes is actually quite tiresome as well."
"What do you mean?!"
The familiar smiling face above him suddenly vanished. Vohtz yelled, twisting his body left and right as he tried to locate Kōe again.
Kōe didn't make him search for long. Soon, Vohtz saw him with his hands behind his back, walking backward step by step from the left side until he returned to his field of vision, bringing his feet together and stopping right in front of him.
"Are you a bit more interested now?"
"Spit it out! What exactly do you mean!" Vohtz roared. He had guessed a possibility from Kōe's words and had had enough of Kōe's damn suspense.
"Calm down, Vohtz!" Kōe pressed his right hand down in a placating gesture. But this was clearly useless; Vohtz grew even more agitated, veins bulging on his neck, looking utterly crazed. "Cut the damn crap!"
"Alright, alright! Fine!!" Kōe picked his ear, responding unhurriedly. "A new transaction. My bargaining chip is the lives of the Quincies. Not just you all, but those in the World of the Living, and all the Quincies who might be born in the future!"
"And you! You just need to tell me where Yhwach is!"
"How about it?" Kōe looked at Vohtz, whose eyes were wide open as he panted heavily in place, and asked seriously, "This is a transaction we can both accept, right?"
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