Bleach cant fear your ow.., p.2
Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World, Vol. 2, page 2
“Wow, I didn’t think you’d actually read that out loud.”
Pressing his folding fan against his lips, Urahara slid away backwards. When Hisagi had finally internalized the contents of the page, he uttered, “But this is just some candy recipe! And it seems ridiculously unhealthy too!”
“Yes, it’s our secret trick. We can’t let it get out of the shop primarily because of those issues with health and flavor!”
“You should have just kept this thing a secret!” Hisagi replied, putting the recipe into his equipment bag nevertheless. “Well, I might be able to use this for news content at some point, so I’ll accept it anyway.”
“Oh, so that’s what you’re going to do? Well, you can have it, but you really shouldn’t try it yourself. Mr. Hirako will complain about it no matter what it tastes like, so that’s what I’d recommend.”
“Please, give me a break. I’m going to be the one Captain Hirako yells at if I do that.” As Hisagi spoke, he remembered that he’d had a similar conversation with Hirako himself right before coming here.
“Well, if you’re headed to Kisuke’s then you’ll also get to see Hiyori. If you do, make sure to tease her for me.”
“Come to think of it, does Miss Sarugaki live around here?”
“You mean Miss Hiyori? I think she’s been working part-time for the neighborhood Odd Jobs Service lately. I’m guessing that if you take a march around town, you’ll spot her Reiraku spirit ribbons.”
“I see. Thank you.”
He had said I see since he had been directed by Hirako to “tease her for me”; however, he didn’t have a particular reason to go and see her.
Well, wait a sec. I might be able to interview her to get a different point of view.
As Hisagi was thinking that over, Urahara once again spoke while opening his folding fan. “But, to be serious, there isn’t anything I can tell you about that war at this point.”
“What are you talking about? Because of the pill you made that covered us in Hollow reishi, they couldn’t steal our Bankai—and we were able to get into the Reiokyu because of you too.”
“Yes, that’s why I have nothing else to talk about beyond those facts. I just happened to use a preventative measure I’d cooked up when the moment presented itself. That’s all. Actually, I’m the one who should be grateful for being put in a situation where I could implement my plan.”
Although Urahara waved his fan as he spoke, Hisagi knew better. The “preventative measure” he happened to have was just one of a thousand—or ten thousand—such plans Urahara had stored up. Or it could have been that he responded to the situation at hand by spontaneously coming up with yet another brilliant tactic.
In order to carry out such a plan, just how much wit and knowledge, not to mention skill and experience, would one need?
There were many people other than Hisagi who wanted to understand the secret essence of Kisuke Urahara, this man of multitudinous mysteries, and what it was about his inner workings that gave him the ability to come up with an infinite number of strategies.
But trying to ask the man himself would likely result in noncommittal answers as he tried to elude the questioner. Moreover, trying to get answers from Yoruichi Shihoin or Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who knew about his past, would present an even more difficult path.
I feel like they’d find a way to dodge any question.
After hearing that Hisagi would be interviewing Kisuke Urahara, Shinji Hirako had said to him, “That guy’s not the type who would ever give a direct answer in an interview,” and Hisagi could practically sense the aura of total evasiveness coming from Urahara’s demeanor. Though one might at first mistake his responses as yielding, one would eventually realize they represented a clear warning for people not to trespass carelessly on his territory. But if Hisagi surrendered now, there wouldn’t have been any point to his getting formal permission and sealing away a part of his power in order to come here to the world of the living.
Hisagi steadied his breath slightly, then said with a serious look in his eyes, “Mr. Urahara… No, former chief of the Department of Research and Development, I came today to expose your past.”
When Urahara heard that, the man narrowed his eyes ever so slightly at Hisagi. However, it wasn’t enough to constitute a change in expression, and after a moment, he grinned and shrugged.
“Please don’t show me your scary side all of a sudden like that, Mr. Hisagi. What’ll you do if Jinta bursts out crying from where he’s watching from behind the sliding door? He might start wetting his bed again.”
In the next moment the sliding door slammed open and a boy with grim eyes who looked to be about middle school age came in, roaring with rage.
“I wouldn’t cry and I haven’t ever wet my bed, ever, you crummy shopkeep! I’ll pummel you!”
Jinta Hanakari, the boy with sharp features and red hair swept to the back of his head, tried to leap right into the room, but a brawny arm seized him around the neck and he ended up writhing in midair, immobilized.
“Ow ow ow. Tessai, you little…!”
“Hmph. You cannot threaten others with violence, Mr. Jinta—especially not in front of a guest.”
Holding up the struggling Jinta with a cool expression on his face was a bespectacled giant sporting a brawny physique. Then a girl who also looked to be middle-school age peeked out from behind the man called Tessai and started to tickle Jinta while he was held captive.
“Ha ha ha ha gaha… U-Ururu, you better not be doing that to my feet again… I’ll kill ya—ha hwah!”
The girl he had called Ururu was dexterously tickling Jinta’s feet with her own hair as the boy suffered all manners of agony. The girl continued to tickle Jinta as she turned to face Hisagi, dipped down into a bow, and said, “I’m sorry. Jinta’s body went through a growth spurt, but the same can’t be said for his brain…”
“Oh…uh, I don’t mind.”
After bowing her head one more time, Ururu next turned to face Urahara. “Mr. Kisuke, I’m going to get the bulk purchases done.”
“Yes, thank you. We’ve got to stock up on five hundred kilograms of bouncy balls, so please take Jinta with you to carry the goods.”
When Urahara said that with a bright face, Jinta attempted to shout in protest, “Grr…what the heck is with that?! Five hundred kilograms is just comical, no matte—hya ha ha ha ha!”
But with Tessai locking him at the neck and Ururu tickling his feet, Jinta was carried away before he could get his mouth to form a decent reply and was dragged out of the shop.
“Yes, if it’s comical, then please laugh your heart out as you do your work. Give it your all!”
As he watched Urahara see off the boisterous group, Hisagi released a large sigh.
“I’m not sure how to put this, but they seem like they’ve simultaneously changed and stayed just the same… Though when I first saw them, it seemed like that Jinta kid was the one teasing the girl.”
“Well, this is when they’re going through growth spurts, and Ururu is actually three years older. He used to make fun of her for having ‘hair like a cockroach,’ so do you think tickling him with her hair is revenge for that?”
“I’m not sure there’s any point in asking me that.” Though Urahara was clearly attempting to redirect the conversation, Hisagi decided to go along with the shopkeep. “Soul Reaper or human, I just don’t get the way kids think.”
Then, nonchalantly, he attempted to extract a bit more from Urahara. “The way their Reiraku feel… They both seem to have unique ones.”
“That was a bit obvious for a leading question. Since we've been used to Mr. Tosen’s interview style, don’t you think that’s a crude way to try to get at people’s weak spots?”
This counterattack struck a painful spot for Hisagi. It was true that the former editor-in-chief Tosen would have either asked about it straightforwardly, without dancing around the point, or he wouldn’t have touched on the matter at all.
Although Hisagi personally was curious, he didn’t actually want to know what the true nature of the boy and girl was, and he had sensed Urahara’s unwillingness to talk about it.
However, Hisagi could be calculating in his own way. His strategy was to touch upon something that was difficult to talk about in the beginning, then, as though in exchange for retreating from that line of questioning, he would jump right into a topic that was just a slight degree less sensitive. It was a risky strategy that could result in the interviewee indignantly cutting off the interview at the beginning. However, after the last few minutes of their conversation, Hisagi had realized he wouldn’t be able to draw out information from Urahara using conventional methods. Although it wasn’t his true nature, he hardened his heart and devoted himself to being a reporter.
As though he had seen right through the young man’s stern resolve, Urahara said, “So? What do you think those two are?”
So that’s how he wants to do this.
Hisagi was bewildered when Urahara said that, as though the shopkeep were testing him instead of the other way around, but he offered the first reply he could think of. “Gikongan… I guess they wouldn’t be, though.”
“Well, the temporary souls in Gikongan generally don’t grow. Though they will ‘learn’ to a certain extent from the user’s position and commands, there are limits as far as that’s concerned.”
“You said they’re generally like that, so that means there are exceptions.”
At that moment, Hisagi recalled the stuffed lion toy that made frequent appearances in the Soul Society and looked serious as he said, “For example, a mod soul.”
“Oh my, you’re sharper than you seem, Mr. Hisagi. But that doesn’t mean you’re right.”
“Well, other than that…the only thing I can think of is that they’re something like Miss Nemu from Captain Kurotsuchi’s…”
Urahara opened his folding fan in front of Hisagi’s mouth to stop him from continuing.
“Whoa there. If you say something like that, Mr. Kurotsuchi will use them for his experiments. Their insides are quite different from Nemu’s. I’m sure that Mr. Kurotsuchi already knows that and is imagining my bitter expression as he dances for joy about Nemu’s growth, thinking, ‘I’ve surpassed Urahara.’” At that moment, Urahara snapped his folding fan shut and shook his head.
“Well, I guess he wouldn’t actually be able to imagine that.”
“Why is that?”
Urahara grinned like a mischievous kid at Hisagi’s question and replied with what could be taken either as the truth or a joke.
“That’s because I’ve never genuinely been bitter in front of Mr. Kurotsuchi. ♪”
≡
The Soul Society,
Department of Research and Development
“What’s wrong, Captain?” Assistant Captain Akon asked quizzically when Twelfth Company Captain and head of the Department of Research and Development abruptly paused at his work.
“I suppose you could say something foreboding is bugging me.” Looking unamused, Mayuri resumed his work. “The quantum spirit bugs I inserted in my cerebellum are throbbing. I’m sure it’s just the jealous ramblings of some banal scientist, going on illogically.”
While ignoring the “bugging” that was no metaphor, Mayuri turned his eyes to the image receiver in front of him. What was displayed there appeared to be the Rukongai as seen from high above. If a person from the living world were to see it, they would have likely concluded it was a shot of a desolate village taken from a satellite or airplane. However, the Soul Society naturally had no satellites in the air.
When Akon saw the image, which was leagues more sophisticated than the best satellite surveillance images from the living world, he was half impressed and half dubious, remarking, “That’s pretty precise, though I should expect that from you. But why’d you go to all that trouble to devote yourself to building a surveillance system from scratch? It would’ve been a heck of a lot easier to just build it on top of the Visual Department’s system… Actually, wouldn’t that have been more efficient?”
The Visual Department—that was the general umbrella organization that managed the visual surveillance system that spread like a net primarily over various places in the Soul Society and the living world and, in recent years, even a section of Hueco Mundo. Its ties ran deep with the Department of Research and Develoment, and by joining forces, they could access all types of intelligence from various sources and use that as a basis for analyzing the current state of affairs.
For starters, Hiyosu from the Department of Research and Development, who had been analyzing the information coming in through the Visual Department, was able to find Rukia Kuchiki operating in the living world using a gigai. Thus this collaboration was recognized as being extraordinarily important, continuously recording the turning points in the Soul Society’s history.
Because of that, no one outside the Visual Department or Department of Research and Development other than a select group could access the information. Since the Department of Research and Development so frequently used this data, and because of the crucial nature of the research, it was even jokingly remarked that the Visual Department was already a part of the Department of Research and Development.
So why was Mayuri creating an entirely separate surveillance system from the Visual Department at this time? He had certainly improved the resolution of the visuals and performance of the other sensors substantially, but wouldn’t it have been easier to just update the versions they already had?
That question floated in Akon’s mind as Mayuri gloomily replied, “We’re going to cut the Visual Department out of the Department of Research and Development’s work.”
“Huh?”
“Though we’ll continue to pretend we’re using it like we have been all along. The data coming from them is less reliable than a drunkard’s gibberish.”
Though Mayuri had spoken abruptly, Akon didn’t seem all that surprised. As though he recognized that this was business as usual, he spoke in an indifferent tone. “Ahh…well, if it’s about reliability, I don’t even have to think twice to know that the system you created is better. Did something happen?”
“Blind faith is a poison that weakens performance. Please just say ‘Though we put together our flawed minds and inspected it, the mechanism that Mayuri Kurotsuchi created was undoubtedly better in every way.’”
He felt that even if he were to say that, the captain would respond that the time he spent deliberating over something so obvious was a waste. And then Akon realized that even thinking about it now was a waste of time, so he simply nodded obediently and asked again, “Is it because of that whole incident with the aristocracy interfering with the surveillance system?”
Just the other day, the Soul Society’s surveillance system had picked up an odd spiritual pressure, but one of the Four Great Noble Clans had directly notified them that the individual responsible was not to be interfered with. Akon and the others could hardly believe that the captain would simply comply.
When he reflected on it, he realized that the captain would most certainly create his own surveillance system in response to something like that. In fact, he had once inserted bugs and germs into relevant Soul Reapers and people in the living world for surveillance purposes, so in a sense you could say the Department of Research and Development already had their very own private intelligence system set up.
“They so blithely attempt to joke about it. Really, now. They must be idiots if they think that just because they’re backed by one million years of history they can manipulate those who are far more resourceful on a whim.”
“I’m sure the Visual Department is having a heck of a time being on the receiving end of that.” Akon shrugged, at which point Mayuri turned his eyes to the scientist and said, “What are you saying? There are no whims here—they’re in on it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ah, I see. You never had any interest in the constitutional government. You should dedicate this to mind regardless—in order to continue with your research undisturbed, you need the skills to lead the incompetent around by the nose. Really, now. Though it’s required for the sake of a functioning society, it is an obstacle to freely implementing my ideas, and that just shows that the laws are still far from maturity.” Mayuri’s complaint displayed extreme insolence toward all of the Soul Society. He went on indifferently in response to Akon’s questioning, “Right now, decorative aristocrats are taking turns operating the Visual Department, but it was established and is managed behind the scenes by the Four Great Noble Clans.”
“That’s…the first I’ve heard about that.”
“If I were to be even more precise, there is one family in particular among the four that is involved.”
Mayuri adjusted the coordinates depicted on a screen and continued both tediously and politely, “If we call the Shihoin family the Tenshi Heisoban because they are the heavenly defenders of the realm, and they have the role of managing the arms that the Soul King supposedly bestowed on them, then the Tsunayashiro are the ones managing the past itself. Before the establishment of the Dai Reisho Kairo Underground Assembly Hall’s Great Archive for gathering and accumulating information, the Tsunayashiro family were the sentries recording all history.”
“They’re the sentries of history?”
“If you’re researching a specific bit of history, you’re required to get their permission to research the historic remnants, and passages for publication are heavily censored. I have also heard that the historian’s whereabouts became unknown in a considerable number of cases.”
