"Mm? Are you... Tsunayoshi?"
Ichigo's puzzled voice sounded beside him. Tsunayoshi raised his head, narrowed his eyes, and asked, "What? You don't even recognize me anymore?"
"No, that's not it. Why are you at school? You actually have time to come to class?"
What surprised Ichigo was not seeing Tsunayoshi, but seeing Tsunayoshi appear at school. Under normal circumstances, Tsunayoshi should have been in Soul Society right now.
Tsunayoshi rubbed his somewhat tired eyes.
"No choice. Mom said she and Dad will be back in the next couple of days. To avoid her asking about my school life, I can only come back early and muddle through for two days."
After Kisuke Urahara returned to Soul Society, he reconnected communications between the two worlds. Nana had even forgotten to calculate the time difference, causing Tsunayoshi to receive the call at night. That was why he had hurried back to the World of the Living.
"Aunt Nana and the others finished their business trip?" The Kurosaki family and the Sawada family were close, so Ichigo knew what Tsunayoshi's parents had gone out to do.
"No. From what Mom said, Dad came back this time to custom-order some Japanese-style components. I guess they'll stay in Karakura Town for a while."
Nana had not explained very clearly over the phone, so Tsunayoshi only knew the general situation.
"Then doesn't that mean you'll have to be a good student for a while?"
Ichigo nudged Tsunayoshi with his elbow. He had long been displeased with how "free" Tsunayoshi was. Unfortunately, Tsunayoshi always managed to scrape by in every exam, so Ichigo had never found a chance to mock him.
"Pretty much. I'll take this chance to catch up on my coursework."
Tsunayoshi yawned and waved his hand to drive Ichigo away.
"Coffee."
With a clunk, a can of coffee was placed in front of Tsunayoshi by Tatsuki.
"Wake yourself up first. Sleep after you get home."
Tsunayoshi made an OK gesture, opened the coffee, and poured it into his mouth.
"No wonder I didn't see you. Tatsuki, you went to buy coffee? Why didn't you bring one for me?" Ichigo teased.
"Did that little brat Nel tear your house apart last night?" Tatsuki knew that Ichigo had brought back an Arrancar and had even seen Nel when Orihime treated her.
"Little brat? Even Orihime couldn't heal her injuries?" Tsunayoshi asked, somewhat confused.
Unless it was an ability on the same level as the Soul King, there should not be any injury Orihime could not heal.
"No..." Ichigo looked conflicted, not knowing how to explain it. "She healed her, but not completely..."
"Nel remembered her past. For the sake of moving around conveniently, she's still maintaining her child form, but she speaks with an adult tone. That's why Ichigo feels the style clashes," Tatsuki summarized.
"Got it. Loli body, mature woman's heart," Tsunayoshi neatly summed it up in six words.
"How did you know she was a mature woman?"
Faced with this question, Tsunayoshi decisively closed his eyes and pretended to nap.
He could not get entangled in this issue...
Japanese high school life was still relatively relaxed, and school was already over by the afternoon.
Ichigo and the others all had club activities to attend, so today's mission of protecting Karakura Town fell to Tsunayoshi, a member of the Going-Home Club.
It could be considered his long-missed return to an old line of work. Fortunately, Tsunayoshi had used gym class as an excuse to go to the infirmary and nap for a while. The drowsiness in his mind had already mostly disappeared.
Walking out of the school gate, Tsunayoshi looked boredly at the main road in front of the entrance.
In Karakura Town, Hollows were not that easy to encounter. Under normal circumstances, patrols were nothing more than aimless wandering.
After quite some time, Tsunayoshi finally thought of a destination for his stroll.
He would first go take a look at the Xcution café.
After getting to know Tsunayoshi, Kūgo Ginjō and the others moved Xcution from Naruki City to Karakura Town. Xcution's base also became a place where Ichigo and the others often gathered.
Originally, Giriko Kutsuzawa had planned to open a bar. But considering that Ichigo's group were all minors, he changed it from a bar into a café. Whether it made money was secondary. The main point was to find something to do.
As for money, that was not an issue Xcution needed to worry about. After coming to Karakura Town, they recruited a blond-haired boy named Yukio. Yukio's ability was related to video games, and with the help of the Xcution members, Yukio successfully founded a company. At present, it was making money hand over fist.
Ding-ling.
"Welcome! Oh, what? It's you?"
Jackie's enthusiastic expression immediately collapsed, and she returned from waitress mode to her lazy at-home state.
The Xcution café was mainly run by Giriko Kutsuzawa and Jackie Tristan, one as the barista and the other as the waitress. Because its location was remote, basically no customers came here. It was an excellent secret base.
"Why is it just the two of you?" Tsunayoshi asked casually as he sat at the counter.
While skillfully brewing coffee, Giriko Kutsuzawa explained, "Yukio and Riruka were called over by Kisuke Urahara for training. Tsukishima went to restock supplies. Ginjō is going crazy inside."
Tsukishima and Ginjō had already returned from Soul Society. After the invasion incident involving Kagerōza Inaba, the Gotei Thirteen took the opportunity to clear out the disobedient nobles in the Seireitei. After that, the Tsunayashiro Clan was already a thing of the past.
Through the restoration of the Visual Department, Kūgo Ginjō's innocence had already been proven. Unfortunately, Ginjō and the others had not truly avenged themselves.
When Ginjō and Ukitake had stormed into the Tsunayashiro Clan estate, what they saw was a floor covered with the corpses of Tsunayashiro Clan members.
The Tsunayashiro Clan had been wiped out.
The ones who did it were not the Gotei Thirteen.
After a simple investigation, Ukitake figured out who had done it.
Tokinada Tsunayashiro.
Only Tokinada's corpse had not appeared in the Tsunayashiro Clan estate. In other words, Tokinada was still alive.
After searching all over the Seireitei and Rukongai without finding any trace of Tokinada Tsunayashiro, Ukitake and Ginjō had no choice but to temporarily give up. Ukitake continued handling the aftermath of the nobles, while Ginjō and Tsukishima chose to return to Xcution.
The two of them had only come back recently. That was why the café's restocking work had been assigned to Tsukishima, allowing him to familiarize himself with the supply route.
"What is Ginjō going crazy about?" Tsunayoshi asked curiously.
After experiencing the death of his friends, slander, hiding in secret, and all kinds of major life events, Ginjō should have possessed a rather strong heart.
"According to him, he's fallen for a girl," Jackie said as she reclined half-lying on the sofa with her legs crossed.
"What's the situation?"
Gossip was human nature. Tsunayoshi casually accepted the coffee that was darker than traditional medicine and sat down beside the sofa.
"We're not too sure either. Ginjō only met her after coming back. The other party seems to really like music. In order to have a common topic with her, he wears wireless earphones every day and wails like a ghost in the inner room."
Jackie spread her hands, somewhat helplessly. But she did not blame Ginjō for the noise he created. The fact that he only howled a couple of lines and did not turn on speakers to tear the place apart already proved he cared enough about them.
"That really is something. But at Ginjō's stage, it's understandable."
Tsunayoshi frowned as he took a sip of bitterness, then nodded with great understanding.
In the past, Ginjō had always been focused on revenge and had no mental space for romance. Now that matters concerning the Fullbringers had temporarily come to an end, it was a good thing for Ginjō to have a new life.
"Why don't you dig up some more information?" Jackie looked extremely interested and began encouraging Tsunayoshi to uncover gossip about Ginjō and the girl he liked.
"Forget it. I don't want to be tortured by his death-song."
Tsunayoshi swallowed the entire cup of coffee in one gulp, then stuck out his tongue in disgust at Giriko Kutsuzawa.
"I'm leaving. We'll talk next time."
"Next time, maybe you'll be coming to drink at Ginjō's wedding banquet," Jackie joked.
She knew Tsunayoshi was busy. Who knew when the next time he came to Xcution would be?
"Then you'd better urge him to make faster progress."
Without turning back, Tsunayoshi left and continued wandering through Karakura Town's streets.
As evening approached, today was once again a day filled with peace.
After circling back from the streets near the Xcution café, Tsunayoshi prepared to go home.
Smacking his lips, Tsunayoshi felt that the bitter taste still lingered in his mouth. It was all because of Giriko Kutsuzawa's cup of black coffee. He truly had some difficulty drinking this kind of thing without sugar or milk.
This could be considered one of Giriko Kutsuzawa's little malicious pleasures. Every time Tsunayoshi went to the Xcution café, the only thing he was given was black coffee.
In terms of strength, Giriko Kutsuzawa could not beat Tsunayoshi. This counted as his small act of revenge. Tsunayoshi did not care too much about it. He merely needed to find another drink every time he left the café to suppress the taste in his mouth.
Fortunately, Japan did not lack places that sold drinks.
Whether in parks or on street corners, one could always see randomly spawning vending machines.
It was just that this vending machine did not seem to be free.
A petite girl wearing a black doll-like jacket, a hood over her head, a short purple skirt, and a purple crystal lollipop in her mouth was poking the vending machine again and again with her finger. Faint golden hair could be seen at her neck.
Tsunayoshi found it somewhat strange.
The world really was so large that one could encounter anything. Today, he had actually come across someone taking out their anger on a vending machine. If it had not been a little rude, he really would have wanted to take a picture and use it as a casual topic with Tatsuki later.
Noticing the shadow appearing by her feet, the girl who had been venting her anger on the vending machine stiffly withdrew her arm. Under the hood, her face had already flushed crimson.
Embarrassing.
This was too embarrassing.
Someone had actually seen her childish actions. The other party would not think she did not know how to use a vending machine, would he?
The girl tugged at her hood, lowered her head, and hurriedly walked past Tsunayoshi.
As long as he did not recognize her, it did not count as losing face!
Ninny Spangcole felt that today had been terribly unlucky.
She had clearly sensed the aura of a dragon nearby, but after searching for an entire day, she had not found a single useful clue.
It would have been one thing if she had simply failed to find anything, but she had also made herself thirsty from searching. Just as she pressed the vending machine button and prepared to buy a bottle of water, she realized she had not brought a single yen.
She did have one coin, but in Japan, it was completely unusable.
This string of misfortunes gave Ninny a small temper. That was why she poked the vending machine's button again and again. That alone would have been fine, but then someone had seen her doing it.
How humiliating!
Ninny could only hope this witness was not some reporter and did not recognize her. Otherwise, it would cause yet another unnecessary public-opinion crisis.
How unlucky.
With that thought, Ninny had only one idea: leave quickly, find a deserted place, and think of another plan.
Just as she took two steps, she heard a clunk from behind her. For some reason, Ninny breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed he really was just a customer buying something. He probably would not pester her like those flies, right?
Things, however, often did not develop entirely according to one's wishes.
Immediately afterward, Ninny heard the person behind her call out loudly.
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