Shunsui reluctantly picked up the bottle he'd finally managed to get. He hesitated a moment, then decided to head back to the Eighth Division first.
After all, this was a rare vintage. It deserved to be enjoyed somewhere peaceful and comfortable.
"What, you're not staying to drink with us?"
Seeing Shunsui about to leave with the bottle, Kazuma offered a thoroughly insincere invitation.
He knew perfectly well that with Shunsui's love of alcohol, there was no chance the man would stay and share.
"Why would I stay here? You can sit around chatting with these little brats. I don't know any of them."
Shunsui answered without even looking back.
His feet carried him off so fast that he vanished in the blink of an eye, apparently terrified Kazuma might change his mind and take the bottle back.
"Kazuma-sensei, do captains usually talk to each other like that?"
Once Shunsui was gone, Orihime could no longer hold back her curiosity.
She blinked her wide eyes at Kazuma, completely puzzled.
The captains of Soul Society were supposed to be lofty, dignified figures, yet the casual, unreliable way they dealt with each other was hard for her to understand.
"Of course not. That bastard Shunsui and I have known each other a long time, so we don't bother being formal. I'd never act like that around the other captains."
Kazuma shook his head and smiled as he explained.
The dignity of the captains still needed protecting, after all.
"Sensei, you're secretly bad-mouthing Captain Kyōraku again. I heard every word of it!"
Tetsuzaemon had finally returned with Rukia.
Unfortunately, the first thing out of the little girl's mouth was already trouble.
"Well, look who finally woke up. I honestly thought you'd be asleep a good while longer."
Kazuma was completely unfazed by the accusation and mocked her right back.
When it came to sharp tongues, Kazuma was a master. Compared to him, Rukia still had a great deal to learn!
"That bastard Shunsui stole one of the finest bottles in my collection right before you got here! Instead of feeling sorry for your poor teacher, you're taking an outsider's side!"
The more Kazuma spoke, the more wronged he sounded, as if he'd suffered some enormous injustice.
Rukia's face turned red with anger, and her cheeks puffed up like a balloon.
She glared furiously at him but couldn't find a word to say back.
"Hmph! Sensei isn't a good person anyway."
Rukia turned away and greeted Orihime and the others.
"Orihime, Ishida, Chad, long time no see. No one bullied you in Soul Society, did they? If anyone did, just tell me. I'll have my sensei cut them down!"
"Pfft!"
Kazuma sprayed wine halfway across the room.
What did she think he was, some hired thug who solved every problem by cutting people?
Where had she learned to talk like this?
"Sensei, aren't you always saying that people should be won over with virtue?" Rukia asked innocently. "Your sword is your virtue, isn't it?"
With one astonishing sentence, she dumped the entire blame onto Kazuma!
"Huh…?"
Orihime and the others stared at him in shock.
So this was where Rukia had learned to behave like this.
"Rebellion! This is open rebellion!"
Kazuma's face darkened, veins throbbing across his forehead as he fought the urge to flip the table.
"Please calm down. It's not that serious."
Realizing she'd gone too far, Rukia hurriedly poured him a cup of wine and thoughtfully began patting his back with her tiny fists.
Kazuma's face stayed dark as a storm cloud.
One of these days, this ungrateful student was going to be the death of him.
'The world is such a beautiful place, and here I am this irritable. That's no good. That's really no good.'
Kazuma could feel his blood pressure climbing and desperately tried to calm himself.
"Where did Ichigo run off to? Shouldn't he be with all of you?"
Sensing danger, Rukia hurriedly changed the subject.
If they kept on the last topic, she had a feeling Kazuma might actually hit her.
"Huh? Kurosaki-kun isn't with you?"
Orihime was just as surprised.
She'd assumed both Ichigo and Rukia would be staying with the Sixth Division, yet Ichigo was nowhere to be seen.
That's strange. Had he wandered off somewhere alone?
"That really is odd."
Rukia frowned and turned to Kazuma without thinking.
She vaguely remembered that before she got drunk, Kurosaki Ichigo had been lying unconscious not far from her.
What happened after that was completely missing from her memory.
"Why are you staring at me with those huge eyes? How would I know where that brat went? I was busy fighting Aizen at the time. I didn't pay him any attention. Yoruichi probably carried him off."
Kazuma looked innocent.
He found it frustrating too.
At the time he'd been entirely occupied with Aizen. How could he have spared any attention for whoever hauled Ichigo off the battlefield?
Thinking it over, Yoruichi was probably the only person capable of carrying someone away unnoticed under those circumstances.
"Stop worrying. He'll be fine. That brat is absurdly hard to kill! Even if the world ended, I'd probably die before anything happened to him."
Kazuma waved a hand dismissively, completely confident in Ichigo's survival.
His outrageous statement left Orihime and the others staring at him, unsure how they were supposed to respond.
"Want some wine?"
Kazuma held the remaining bottle in front of Rukia and gave it a tempting shake.
The bottle Shunsui had failed to steal had been saved specifically for her.
"Yes! Of course I do! It smells amazing. This must be one of Sensei's special bottles, right?"
Wonderful.
Kazuma had successfully raised another alcoholic!
Who was it who'd been shamelessly insisting earlier that he needed to correct Rukia's terrible habits?
And now, in the blink of an eye, he was encouraging them again.
"Wait, Sensei. You clearly told us minors aren't allowed to drink. Why is Rukia allowed to?" Orihime asked in confusion, her wide eyes shifting between Kazuma and Rukia.
They were all classmates, so by normal standards, Rukia should be underage too.
"Hmph! I'm completely different from all of you. I'm nearly a hundred years old! If we judged things by age, every one of you should be calling me Grandma!"
Rukia answered before Kazuma could, then proudly winked at the others.
Kazuma was speechless.
He hurriedly shot her a look, warning her to stop talking nonsense.
She'd apparently gotten quick-witted at exactly the wrong moment — everything coming out of her mouth was still outrageous.
"Who introduces their age like that?!"
Unable to take it anymore, Kazuma reached out and flicked her hard on the forehead.