Join my Patreon to read advanced chapters.
Five new chapters uploaded on PATREON.
Currently at Chapter 146 on Patreon. Read at one go.
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The next one chapter on webnovel will be uploaded in the next 2 days.
The next five chapters will be uploaded on Patreon in the next 2 days. (Chapter 146-151)
patreon.com/FrancisMW
The expired medicine that Urahara Kisuke had tried to pawn off on Kanbaru?
He ended up swallowing it himself.
"Tessai... please... let me go... I really can't anymore..."
"I think the store manager still has some fight left in him," Tessai Tsukabishi replied, utterly serene, holding yet another steaming bowl of dark purple sludge. "Please don't waste it."
Outside the bathroom door, Urahara Kisuke clutched the wall, hunched over with trembling knees and a ghost-pale face.
The expired meds had hit him like a Menos Grande's cero. He'd already sprinted to the toilet a dozen times. His stomach was staging a mutiny.
If this continued, he'd die on the toilet like a tragic noble.
"Tessai... you're my subordinate, right?"
He looked up with pleading eyes.
But Tessai, looming with that gentle smile of doom, extended the bowl again like a loving executioner.
"Of course I'm your employee, Store Manager," Tessai replied warmly. "Now drink."
"That's easy for you to say!" Kisuke's eyes twitched. He straightened a little and tapped his bamboo cane on the ground for authority. "As store manager, I order you not to brew me any more expired potions!"
"But Store Manager," Tessai said, adjusting his glasses ominously, "you're the one who said we shouldn't waste materials. I'm simply obeying your rules."
"Mr. Store Manager... are you trying to go back on your own policies?"
Urahara choked. He had no comeback.
The sheer righteousness... it was overwhelming.
"…Very well," Kisuke said after a long silence, eyes narrowing.
He reached into his sleeve.
And pulled out a black notebook.
Tessai's eyes narrowed. "...You trying to scare me with a grudge ledger? I, Tessai Tsukabishi, fear no ink!"
"You'll drink this medicine today, whether you want to or not!"
"Entry: On XX/XX, Tessai Tsukabishi once again conspired against me and attempted to poison me."
"Three months' salary deducted due to malicious intent."
"Entry: On XX/XX, he 'accidentally' broke a plate — clear assassination attempt."
"This year's bonus revoked."
Tessai: "…"
Kanbaru: "…"
Yoruichi: "…"
Good god. He has a literal petty notebook just for revenge?
Clatter.
The bowl slipped from Tessai's trembling hands, dark potion splashing across the floor. He bowed instantly at a 90-degree angle, cold sweat pouring from his brow.
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me this time, Store Manager."
Kanbaru: "…"
Yoruichi: "…"
Wait, wait — didn't he just say he wasn't the type to be scared by a notebook?!
Why fold like wet paper!
---
"…Yoruichi-san," Urahara asked casually, once the danger had passed, "any chance you could poke around and pull some intel from Soul Society?"
He was trying to look composed, but his backside still twitched from the medicinal trauma.
Yoruichi, curled lazily on Kanbaru's shoulder, shook her head.
"Not easy," she said. "Ichimaru Gin, Tousen Kaname — neither of them are the type to drop clues. Aizen keeps a tight leash on them."
Urahara nodded, eyes gleaming faintly. "So it's possible, just difficult…"
He wasn't asking for much — just something subtle. Yoruichi, once commander of the Onmitsukidō and head of the First Division's Secret Corps, still had dormant connections.
But even with her shadow network, provoking Aizen's awareness was a risk.
Urahara's grin returned. "Still… that's not a no."
---
Evening.
Kanbaru returned home.
The door swung open — and Nilu was waiting.
She gently took his coat, swapped his clothes for indoor wear, then snuggled into his side and looked up with a soft smile.
Because Kanbaru had specifically asked her to stay home today, she obediently did.
"Welcome home! I missed you."
She nuzzled closer, softly inhaling his scent like it grounded her.
Kanbaru smiled back. "Sorry for the wait."
"You don't have to say sorry," Nilu whispered sweetly. "Whatever Kanbaru decides is fine by me."
She tilted her head, eyes shaped like crescent moons.
This gentle moment of domestic bliss…
"Where's Masaki?" Kanbaru asked, stepping into the living room.
"Oh, right here."
Kurosaki Masaki was lying across the couch in a messy sprawl, pajama shorts exposing a generous stretch of leg.
Kanbaru blinked. "Looks like I need to take you shopping for new clothes."
Masaki's eyes narrowed. She sat up quickly, flustered. "Why do you know so much about my body?!"
Kanbaru blinked again. "Isn't it natural to know that kind of thing?"
Masaki: "???"
NATURAL?!
She huffed. "Tch… feels like they've grown again. I feel heavy. And sluggish."
She mumbled it — half-complaining, half-embarrassed — while casually grabbing at her own chest.
And then, like lightning…
A certain blonde lieutenant's image flashed in her mind.
"Oh, right. That Matsumoto Rangiku's pretty, huh? And you've got Nilu glued to your side at home…"
She shot him a sideways glance. "You sure like clinging to girls younger than you. Is it because the ones at home don't satisfy you?"
Eh?
Oops.
Did she just say that out loud?
Masaki's face turned red instantly.
Kanbaru raised an eyebrow. "At home?"
He stared at her, warning in his tone. "Are you… jealous?"
"I-I'm not!"
Masaki turned away quickly, voice shrill. Her fingers twisted together nervously. Her heart raced.
"You are."
Kanbaru leaned in closer, suspicious gaze intensifying.
"Ehhh, I really didn't mean it that way!"
Face flushed, Masaki dropped to her knees beside him and quickly changed the subject. "I have a question — do Shinigami never age or die?"
She'd asked Rangiku before, but had been cut off by a Hollow attack.
Kanbaru thought for a moment, then answered simply.
"They can definitely die," he said. "Shinigami are spiritual lifeforms born from human souls, forged when high-density Reiryoku condenses into a stable structure."
"They breathe, they bleed, they eat."
"So yes — they can die. And while they don't really age like humans, they do grow."
"The speed varies. Some change fast. Others take centuries just to hit puberty."
As he spoke, he couldn't help smiling.
He thought of:
Hitsugaya Tōshirō — a 100-year-old child stuck at 1.5 meters.
Kuchiki Rukia — 1.4 meters of elegance and perpetual flatness.
Sui-Feng — Yoruichi's tiny fan club president, stuck at hobbit height forever.
Time would eventually help them grow… maybe.
"But yeah," Kanbaru continued, "Shinigami live absurdly long lives. If their Reiryoku stays stable, time stops mattering."
"But severe injuries or spiritual depletion? That can kill even the strongest."
Even among the Royal Guard — the Division Zero elites who'd lived since Soul Society's founding — only a handful reached that level of endurance.
For most Shinigami, long life wasn't guaranteed.
Even someone like Captain Yamamoto, who survived more than a thousand years, was a rare exception.
Decades of fighting Hollows took a toll. Most Shinigami either died in battle or wasted away from damaged Reiryoku.
"So… they stay young forever?" Masaki asked slowly.
Then her gaze turned sharp.
Yep. Rangiku really was a formidable rival.
Join my Patreon to read advanced chapters.
Five new chapters uploaded on PATREON.
Currently at Chapter 146 on Patreon. Read at one go.
patreon.com/FrancisMW
The next one chapter on webnovel will be uploaded in the next 2 days.
The next five chapters will be uploaded on Patreon in the next 2 days. (Chapter 146-151)
patreon.com/FrancisMW