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Chapter 365: Chapter 331

Just as the thought passed, I felt the Reiatsu of one near the edge of town disappear.

Seems the kid is getting better.

Kind of eerie how instinctual this all came to him. He was just a normal high school kid, admittedly one that could see ghosts and had a ridiculous amount of Reiatsu for a living person, but a high school kid all the same.

Now, he was running off in the middle of the night to kill soul eating monsters without a second thought.

I guess it made sense considering who his dad is.

Well, it wasn\'t any of my business to worry about that. Kid can make his own decisions and if his old man wants to step in, he isn\'t oblivious to his son running off. Not my job to step in and try to parent him.

Don\'t wanna deal with any of that complicated stuff anyways. It\'s so much more peaceful being a cat. I can laze around and no one bothers me except the occasional scratches. If I meow at strangers, they usually give me free food. And I can sleep wherever and go wherever I want.

I don\'t know why I played around as the Captain of the second division and the Onmitsukidō for so long. Not to mention all that crap I had to put up with due to my clan. So much work and what did it amount to?

Banished without a second thought. I guess that\'s partially my fault, when Kisuke and Tessai got framed, I did abandon my positions and escape with them.

Speaking of.

I rolled over, looking up at the big giant himself. "How was it?"

"It was interesting." Tessai replied.

"That\'s it?" I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Tessai, give me something more than that."

"Hmm." He hummed non committedly.

"You too?" I groaned. "Alright, what do you want?" First that kid blackmails me and now Tessai, have I lost my touch. "I saw you eyeing that vacuum in that magazine you were reading.."

"The Dyson XL200, complete with high-performance swivel dust suction and attachable hydrosteam accessory and cordless charging station!?" He pushed up his glasses, eyes glowing before coughing awkwardly. "Yes, I may have been looking at it."

".....I\'ll convince Kisuke to shell out the money."

"Hmm."

"Come one, Tessai, stop playing around."

He smiled lightly and relented. "Very well. However, I did promise Wilhelm-dono that I would not be speaking of his private matters."

"Boo, you\'re not fun."

"I will give him the professional courtesy he deserves, Yoruichi." He said a little sternly.

"You like him that much?"

"I consider him a peer even if his knowledge is foreign to me."

"Really? You think that highly of him? He must have left a good impression on you then." I rolled onto my feet, pushing up off the ground as I walked at his side.

"His age betrays his knowledge and expertise. If he were to become a Shinigami, I am confident he could have taken over my Division from me after some time."

Damn, that\'s really high praise. Even Kisuke would admit inferiority if he compared his talent in Kidō with Tessai.

"And that crap about him being a Wizard? I thought that was just a fairy tale."

"I can validate his assertion." Tessai said rather cryptically.

"That\'s it? Come on, Tessai, give me more details."

"You are free to ask him yourself."

"If I see him so soon, I\'m going to beat him up in anger. How dare he blackmail me!?"

"Hehe, it\'s rare to see someone get the better of you."

"Fuck, he\'s lucky that Kisuke asked me to get the orange idiot\'s sword back." I grumbled. "Otherwise I\'d let him run around and try to punch Hollows to death."

"There was a valid reason to retrieve it regardless." Tessai replied with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah. But we\'re only buying time. Soul Society is going to be on her case sooner or later, you know how they are. They won\'t care if she\'s a Kuchiki, they\'re going to nail her harder than they did us to make an example since she was adopted into the family."

Old foggy\'s never liked \'commoners\' moving up Noble ranks. They always found reasons to make it more difficult on them.

"It is unfortunate, but Kisuke knows this as well."

"Who knows what he\'s thinking." I grumbled again. "As smart as he is, he\'s a real dumbass too."

".....I do not disagree."

Of course you don\'t, you grew up with us and saw the idiot stumble his way into being a Captain with my recommendation.

The smartest idiot I know.

"So, he\'s a wizard. Did he do any cool magic tricks?"

"He showed me a few things that broaden my horizons. I admit to being interested and may conduct my own research."

Huh, it\'s been awhile since Tessai went into his study mode. He rarely does any Kidō work these days, it\'s good that he has a little fire in him, he\'s been kind of stagnant ever since getting banished.

"Y\'know, usually your humble attitude and politeness are nice and all, but right now, it\'s really annoying." Ugh, he\'s always been like this. "What about the most important thing?"

"You asked me to verify that he is not involved with Aizen, yes?" Tessai paused his steps, pushing up his glasses again. "I do not believe he is any acquaintance with Aizen. His reactions and the conversations we had point to him being ignorant towards our society."

"...it could be a trick."

"Do you think so?"

"Nah, but.....guess I\'m just seeing ghosts where there are none." Heh, ghosts. Cause I\'m a Shinigami. "So, how\'d he do with Kidō, what\'s the verdict?"

"There was....substantial progress made, considering the variables. However, he was not able to perform the most basic of Kidō as we had anticipated. For how long that lasts....I cannot say. He seems to be intelligent and resourceful. I find myself curious and will check in again soon."

"Hmm, that\'s something I can use to lord over him then." Blackmail me, huh? I\'m going to just play around with Kidō right in front of you, let\'s see how you like that.

"You seem to have taken a liking to him quickly."

"Eh, he\'s fun and kind of a mystery. Kisuke\'s usually the one who finds all the good stuff, this time I get to keep him to myself." I grinned. "Speaking of, did you sense all the weird stuff happening with him too?"

"Weird?" Tessai raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, don\'t act like you didn\'t notice. I\'m talkin about his Reiatsu fluctuations, and the different sensations he gives off."

"...I admit I mistook him for a Hollow at one point. It was only after inspecting him for a moment that I realized it was different than a Hollow\'s Reiatsu. But the feeling clearly vanished without any noticeable side effects."

"Any chance he\'s like our masked friends?"

"No, as I said, it was my initial thought, but it appeared to be something else after having had a moment to collect my thoughts." He shook his head.

"His Reiatsu has been going up too. Every time I visited him, it was stronger and bigger. I mentioned to ya that he was messing with a Hollow, right? You don\'t think.....?"

"That he was....absorbing the Hollow\'s Reiatsu?" Tessai looked at me. "You know as well as I do what side effects that would cause. Such a thing would not be missed by either of us."

"Yeah, I know I\'m grasping at straws, just...he\'s so weird! I can\'t place his Reiatsu at all and it\'s driving me crazy. Then I saw what he was doing \'casting spells\' or whatever, did you feel that too? That aint normal the way the Reishi in the air was acting."

"He explained the process to me in vague detail. I may have an idea of what is occurring but I would need to conduct my own tests. I can say that Humans have developed far more than we had thought if what he said was accurate." Tessei said in a humble tone.

"I hate that you\'re being so vague on purpose." I grumbled again. "Did it feel like he was holding himself in with you too? Like how one of us suppresses our Reiatsu, but almost like he was holding his breath and it was obvious."

"I believe I know what you\'re talking about." He nodded but didn\'t answer in detail. "Have you informed Kisuke about what you know?"

"Yeah, right." I scoffed. "You know how he is, he can\'t let a mystery be. If I told him everything, he\'d poke at the kid until either he got what he wanted, pissed the kid off, or the kid split town. Nah, this is mine, I\'m not letting him have it. You agreed you\'d keep the details to yourself." I looked up at him again. "Right now, all he knows is that the kid is a little odd, so he\'s been focusing on carrot head right now."

"How is that different from what you\'re doing?" Tessai questioned.

"Well, I don\'t\' wanna dissect him for one. I like him, he didn\'t take my crap and easily gave as well as he took it. I\'m curious, yeah, but I\'m not gonna strap him to a table and cut him open. And I aint just going to keep proding him until I piss him off like Kisuke probably would."

Shit, Kisuke has a habit of focusing too much on getting answers to questions he has that he forgets common sense. The whole damn mess with that stupid marble of his is one example out of many.

"I do not believe he poses a threat. The timing is coincidental in my opinion, however unfortunate. We know that Aizen is making moves, and I do agree that Kisuke will not be polite if he believes that Wilhelm-dono may be related to Aizen."

"So you\'ll keep it to yourself?"

"Yes." Tessai nodded. "Kisuke already is preoccupied with other matters, I do not believe it necessary to burden him with something else." He said cryptically.

Great!

More for me then, I\'ll go bug him later.

Maybe give him some \'pointers\' on Kidō, heh.

[***]

Wilhelm POV

I was in a great mood!

I got down about half the Kidō I had been left with. Some of them were a little tricky and it was going to take a little bit of effort to master them, but I was making exception progress.

But I was feeling a little antsy and I didn\'t just want to coop myself up for a few days.

While I was on a roll, I wanted to continue and maybe get some more good luck.

So, I decided to act on an idea I had the other day.

Yoruichi told me about Soul Society, but I was a little curious about it and the information I had was miniscule.

"Hey Ddraig." I said softly, as there was no one around.

[What?]

"So...I have a question and I want your opinion. Theoretically speaking, would it be bad If I decided to take a look at this Soul Society?"

[You\'re asking me, a Dragon, for.....moral guidance?]

"....when you put it like that...."

[What\'s your plan?]

"I just wanna take a peek, maybe look around a little bit after figuring out where it actually is. You know, metaphysically speaking."

[Hmm, that might not be a bad idea. See if you can easily get one of those swords or whatever, if not, seeing the sights isn\'t a horrible idea. As long as you don\'t just jump in without looking, I don\'t really see a problem with it.]

Yeah....don\'t wanna jump head first without getting my bearings...again. I\'ll scope out the situation first before making any moves.

[How do you plan on getting there?]

"While you were sleeping, I saw something a little interesting." I whistled, walking down the road.

The sun hadn\'t been in the sky for long, but there weren\'t many people around. A residential neighborhood with nothing particular standing out, that was unless you had the capacity to see ghosts.

Hiding behind a light post, there was just a small little girl.

Younger than Kunou, which did make my heart ache. Probably no older than seven if I had to guess.

And at her feet was a little memorial.

Though, the oddest thing about her was the little chain connected to her chest.

Was this the Soul Chain that Yoruichi mentioned a few times? A difference here than back home. Not that Ghosts were something common back home, but they certainly didn\'t have that.

She didn\'t even look startled as I approached. How long had she been standing here, watching the world pass her by, unable to interact with anyone?

"Hello." I said softly.

Her eyes immediately dilated. "Y-you can see me?"

"I can." I smiled gently.

"....no one else can see me." She whispered.

"Not many people are capable of seeing Ghosts."

"Ghosts?"

"You realized it by now, right?"

".....mom sometimes comes over here and starts crying. She can\'t see or hear me." The little girl looked down.

"I\'m sorry." I walked up and gave her what was probably the only hug she had since she had died.

I felt her head nuzzle into my chest, tears falling down her face. I didn\'t interrupt her, I let her spill out all those emotions. I don\'t know how long I stayed like this, but being a father of a little girl, I couldn\'t find the strength to stop her.

At the very least, I would let her have a moment of respite.

It was only when the tears stopped falling and little sniffles were heard that I knew she was done.

"Feeling a little better?" I gentle rubbed her back.

"Un." She nodded.

"Good, you\'re a strong girl." I gave her a little reassurance. "How about Introductions? My name\'s Wilhelm, what\'s yours?"

"That\'s a strange name."

I let out a chuckle, she probably hasn\'t been exposed to western names much at her age. "That\'s because I\'m only half Japanese, I live in the west. What about you?"

"My name is Mitsuko."

"What a lovely name." I cooed, giving her another pat on the head. "Why don\'t you tell me why you decided to stay put here instead of moving on?"

"....I\'m scared." She whispered.

Ah, I can\'t fault her there.

"It is a little scary, but staying here isn\'t right. There\'s a better place waiting for you."

She hesitated. "M-mom said that bad people get sent to a bad place."

"Oh? Maybe they do, but why do you think that would affect you?"

"Mom told me not to play in the street. I didn\'t see....I\'m bad." She wouldn\'t look me in the eyes.

"You poor thing." I gave her another much needed hug.

However, looking down, I did notice that the memorial did contain what looked like Shinto prayers, which did give me an idea.

"Did your mom say that the bad place was called \'Yomi\'?"

"...yes" She whispered again, a little fearful.

Ah, Shinto worshippers. Not exactly rare in Japan.

And she\'s probably taking what her mom said completely out of context, just as children her age do.

"I\'ll tell you a little secret. I\'ve been to Yomi." I gently pulled away, giving her a little boop on the nose.

"You\'ve been there!?"

"I have, and I even know the person who lives there. You\'ve heard of the Goddess Izanami-no-Mikoto, right?"

"Y-yes." She nodded.

"I\'ll tell you another secret." I leaned in for added effect. "She\'s a very nice woman and I\'m friends with her. Would you like to meet her?"

"...really?" She whispered right back.

"Really really." I smiled, taking out my phone. "Give me a moment, I\'ll give her a call." The girl for the first time had a little bit of excitement on her face. Perhaps it was mixed with trepidation, but it was better than a moment ago.

"Wilhelm?" Izzy\'s face appeared on her Kaleidophone.

"Izzy."

"Are you okay? I heard what happened."

"I\'m fine, I\'ll give you a better explanation when I get back. However, can I ask you for a quick favor?"

"A favor?" She tilt her head. "What do you need?"

I knelt down next to the sweet little girl. "Well, little Mitsuko here doesn\'t want to move on because she\'s a little scared. You see, she thinks she\'s going to go to Yomi because she\'s been a bad girl." I held up the phone so they both could see each other.

"Hello, little one." Izzy easily adopted a more motherly tone. "Why do you think you would come here to Yomi?"

"M-my mom said bad people go to Yomi. And I was bad."

"Oh, sweet child. Why do you think you\'re a bad girl?"

"I-I was playing in the street and didn\'t see the car coming. Now momma cries every day and it\'s my fault." Tears swelled up in her eyes.

"You poor thing. You\'re not a bad girl. A bad girl wouldn\'t be hurt that their mom is crying. No, you\'re going to a special place where all the good people go, I can guarantee it."

"Really?" she sniffled.

"I promise you. And a Goddess always keeps her promise."

How easily a young girl like her believes our words. Not that we\'re lying, but someone older would be much more skeptical.

"It\'s not a scary place?"

"It\'s a bright and warm place." Izzy quickly denied. "Look up at the sky, do you see the sun?"

The little girl tilt her head up. "Uh huh."

"That\'s my daughter\'s sun. And that bright and warm light will never leave you." Izzy soothed her. "But you will need to willingly move on, sweetheart. You can\'t stay there forever. If you stay, then bad things can happen."

I didn\'t reprimand Izzy nor say anything to the contrary. Even back in our own world, souls had to move on and it did cause problems if they lingered.

A child needed to be guided with a firm hand, if gentle when needed in a situation like this.

"Will the monsters get me?" She sounded a little worried.

Izzy looked at me and I took over. "It\'s possible." I didn\'t deny it.

She was talking about Hollows. I\'m sure she could hear their roars nearly every night.

"....okay."

"Good, you\'re a brave girl. You aren\'t leaving your mom forever, you\'ll see her again." Izzy reassured her.

I mouthed Izzy a silent thank you with a promise of an explanation before hanging up.

"Will it hurt?" She looked at me.

"I promise, it won\'t hurt." I reassured her again.

I mentally reached into my ring and poke the True Longinus.

It reacted, as if it was watching intently.

Give me a wisp of your divine power.

I ushered the presence contained within.

I could feel it seep out of my ring and gather into my hand.

The least I could do was give this girl a good send off without any concerns if she was going to be helping me along the way.

I put my hand atop her head, letting the wisp of his Divine power seep into her. It pulsed, and her figure started to glow brightly. The Holy Power was enough to \'cleanse\' her, to send her soul off to where it was supposed to go.

"Thank you, mister." She smiled at me one last time, her spirit taking on a life of its own as it condensed and disappeared.

I felt good for doing a good deed, but there was a secondary objective in doing so.

"Can you track your wisp of divine power?" I muttered, staring at my ring.

The Spear sent me a vague sensation that I took for a \'yes\'.

"Wonderful." I nodded.

Now I just need to track it and I will have the coordinates to Soul Society. Then, I can just take a peek and see what the big deal is.

[***]

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