Chapter 21: To Whoever Has Money
Three days later, according to the Human World calendar, it was Golden Week.
The Soul Society had no such holiday, but it did welcome a fresh weekend.
Early that morning, Takeru dragged Ichigo and Rindo Yu back to Runlinan.
Without alarming the elders or Shiba Kukaku, he led them straight into the woods outside the village.
This strange behavior left Ichigo especially confused.
"Takeru, what exactly are you up to? Did you leave something important here and now you are dragging us back to find it?"
"You are actually right. We are here to find something, but it is not mine. I do not even know what it looks like."
Standing on a large rock, Takeru surveyed the terrain. He seemed to be confirming their precise location in order to narrow down the search area.
"What is this supposed to be?"
Ichigo looked back at his teammate, hoping for an answer.
Rindo Yu shook his head. Even with his keen sense for other people's emotions, that did not mean he could read their thoughts.
But there was one thing he could say for certain.
Takeru would not do something meaningless.
"After sharing some information with the Captain of the Second Division, I finally put a few things together," Takeru said, answering their confusion and muttering to himself at the same time.
"That short tempered, cold faced woman was so kind as to share information with you? You did not get tricked?"
Still feeling salty about winning a battle only to get arrested by his own side, Ichigo's impression of Soi Fon was particularly bad.
"Why do you think I brought up those supernatural case studies from the Human World?" Takeru asked.
"…What supernatural case studies? Those are just fictional novels. So whether or not she tricked you, you definitely tricked her."
"There is a saying. Art imitates life. People can learn all kinds of new things from books and stories and then, well…"
"And then what?"
Ichigo frowned, curiosity dragged along whether he liked it or not.
"Then, when that person you are talking to is right in front of you, you cannot help wanting to express your thoughts," Takeru said.
"You start comparing things to your own situation and casually give a few vivid examples."
He spread his hands.
"See? The information just comes out on its own."
"…"
Ichigo was stunned.
It took him a while to catch up.
Takeru had done it on purpose.
His goal was to guide Soi Fon into connecting the intel she had collected with the stories he described, pushing her into divergent thinking.
No matter what she associated, she would feel excited, because she saw the dawn of a solution and more possibilities opening up.
And in Soi Fon's mind, all of this would be credited to Takeru. As her opinion of him rose sharply, she would also feel an unconscious urge to show off her own "results."
To keep her authority and dignity as a Captain, she would have to back those "results" with real evidence. She would inevitably expose genuine information.
Which meant there was almost no chance of being fed false intel.
Unless she had been acting from start to finish.
But that short tempered, cold faced woman had no reason to go that far.
"Takeru, you really are too talented to be some folklorist. If you had become a diplomat, real world peace would not be far away," Ichigo grumbled.
"Dealing with people is not as interesting as dealing with supernatural incidents," Takeru replied blandly.
"Alright, back to the main topic. I learned some details from Soi Fon about what the two academy students did before they disappeared. Combined with that Hollow's dying words, I can more or less guess the reason they vanished."
"Dying words? I remember he called out a name or something," Ichigo said, trying to recall.
"Not the one you killed. The one I brought down," Takeru corrected.
"Before he died, he said those two students from the academy came to Rukongai because of something and unfortunately ran into a Hollow. I am certain that thing is somewhere in Runlinan. Now we just need to find it and claim it for ourselves."
"Wait," Ichigo said, puzzled.
"You said 'claim it for ourselves'… will the Second Division be okay with that?"
"I conveniently left that part out," Takeru said.
"…"
Watching his matter of fact expression, Ichigo could only twitch his lips.
Strangely, he was not actually surprised. This was exactly the kind of thing Takeru would do.
However, after hearing that, his bad impression of the Second Division Captain faded a little.
Maybe it was… sympathy.
"Based on the confirmed activity range of the Menos Grande and the disappearance range of the academy students, it should be somewhere around here," Takeru said.
He turned his gaze to Rindo Yu.
"Rindo, I will have to rely on your animal friends. I doubt we will find anything through normal searching. Otherwise, the Onmitsukido would not have been busy all night and still failed to locate the bodies."
"You mean the bodies of the two academy students and that thing are together?"
Ichigo instinctively looked around, trying to pick out anything odd in the thick mountain forest.
He saw nothing.
Takeru also saw nothing.
Only Rindo Yu could help.
Rindo did not disappoint him and took on the task without hesitation.
But it would take time.
After all, they did not even know what the thing looked like.
First they needed to find animals that had seen the two missing academy students and then use their memories to locate the last place those students had appeared.
Before they realized it, most of the day had passed.
As the news spread among the animals in the area, more and more clues emerged.
At last, before sunset, a skylark brought good news.
It had seen the two academy students.
And it had personally seen a monster follow them into a cave.
"If we make a lot of money later, I will make sure your bird friend gets the best bird food," Takeru said, his mood lifting.
Ichigo at his side let out a long breath, finally relieved to see results after waiting all day.
"So that was your plan all along," Ichigo said. "That is really not like you."
"What do you mean by that?" Takeru asked.
"It is too normal."
"…Then I will tell you something else that you will find very normal," Takeru said.
Following the skylark toward the scene of the incident, the mood should have been relaxed and light. Instead, a few sentences from Takeru completely ruined Ichigo's peace of mind.
"Right now, we are still living off the Spirit Arts Academy's honor student stipend. We cannot even afford a single set of Human World clothes. Hachihara has treated us to so many free meals already. She is a friend, but are you planning to keep freeloading?"
"A basic Shinigami salary has the purchasing power of about two hundred thousand yen in the Human World. You only start to barely save money once you become a seated officer. A Captain's pay is ten times that of a regular squad member, but that is still far off for us."
"So if we can achieve financial freedom at this stage, or at least secure a side income, we can raise our standard of living before we become Captains."
"I really want to hire a few maids to take care of my daily needs. It would be convenient and free up my time so I can focus on training."
Takeru's words hit home. Ichigo could not refute anything and had to admit that it all made sense.
Soon, the three of them arrived at a dense forest on a cliff at the foot of the mountain.
Takeru immediately sensed something was off.
"No wonder it is so well hidden. There is a barrier," he said.
It was extremely clever, a level of technique that students of the Spirit Arts Academy could not even imagine yet.
The barrier concealed the mouth of a cave.
Even a large scale search party would have difficulty finding it.
Only by physically touching a particular spot on the ground could you sense the presence of the barrier and then discover the cave entrance.
Aside from its concealment, it had no other function.
The three of them passed through almost without resistance.
They descended along stone steps.
Before long, the view opened up before them, as if they had stepped into a hidden world.
"It is huge," Ichigo breathed.
Takeru was also observing.
Somewhere hundreds of meters underground, this place had been hollowed out by some unknown method, forming a massive space no smaller than a modern stadium.
The rock formations were jagged. The interior was as bright as day. White steam rose from all around. The temperature was slightly higher than outside, and the air was a bit humid.
This kind of environment naturally brought Yellowstone National Park and its volcanic features to mind.
A small waterfall roared directly ahead, endless water crashing down into a pool below. The heat and humidity clearly came from there.
Moving cautiously, the three of them guarded against any sudden changes in the unfamiliar environment while searching the area.
They searched and searched, but found nothing.
Eventually, they came to the edge of the pool.
The constant roar of the waterfall filled their ears. Ichigo was about to say something when he saw Takeru silently draw his Zanpakuto, nick his fingertip, and dip it into the water.
"Hey, Takeru, what are you doing?" Ichigo shouted.
Rindo Yu also turned toward him with a puzzled and slightly worried look.
Takeru calmly withdrew his hand and held up his injured finger for them to see.
"The wound is gone," he said.
Ichigo's pupils shrank. He had not seen Takeru use Bakudo at all.
That meant only one thing.
Ichigo and Rindo Yu both turned to stare at the steaming pool that looked so much like a hot spring.
"I think I know what this place is," Takeru said as he stood, his tone low.
"A hot spring created by Tenjiro Kirinji, a healing facility that combines the highest level of Bakudo techniques."
"Never heard that name," Ichigo and Rindo Yu said together, utterly blank.
Of course they had not.
Even many Shinigami did not know that the hot spring Urahara Kisuke built beneath Sōkyoku Hill was based on this very prototype.
Takeru himself had only known that Urahara's original model was hidden somewhere in Rukongai. He had never known the exact location.
He had not expected to stumble onto it like this.
Suddenly, Takeru's eyes sharpened.
Ichigo and Rindo Yu noticed it as well.
Two tattered Spirit Arts Academy uniforms floated in the pool.
There had been no warning, but the sight was not surprising.
"Hey, Takeru…" Ichigo said, staring at the uniforms.
"Yeah?"
"They probably did not come here for no reason, right?"
"Of course not," Takeru replied.
His expression did not change, and his tone was as calm as if he were speaking of strangers, even though it clearly involved them.
"Although this is only a guess," he said, "students from the Second Division class are all nobles, and the First Division students are from Rukongai. They do not know each other and have no ties."
"However, because of us, this year's First Division has drawn unusually high attention."
"You have seen how nobles treat people from Rukongai."
"The two missing academy students had similar entrance rankings. You could say that, if their results were reversed, the First Division candidates would have swapped places."
"Because of that, the missing student from the Second Division did not just disapprove. He probably held a deep grudge."
"So he fixed his eyes on the other missing student, looking for a chance to force him out of the Spirit Arts Academy and take the vacant slot for himself."
"But while keeping watch on him, he noticed the other boy acting suspiciously, followed him, and discovered this place."
"As for how the missing student from our class knew about this place in the first place, it was either luck or something he heard from someone else."
"After discovering how miraculous this place was, they both wanted to claim it. Neither of them expected an Adjuchas class Hollow to be trailing behind. In the end, neither of them gained anything good out of it."
"No, that is not entirely accurate," Takeru added, narrowing his eyes as another thought struck him.
"That Menos Grande's ability to avoid Seireitei's notice and hide in Runlinan might be related to devouring a Zanpakuto and soaking in this hot spring."
"You really made me not want to go in there anymore," Ichigo grimaced.
"What are you afraid of? It is running water."
"It is still disgusting. Anyway, Takeru, on the way here you said you wanted to use this opportunity to make money. Looks like that plan is going to fall apart."
"What are you talking about?" Takeru asked, looking at Ichigo, who was clearly enjoying himself.
"Who said we cannot make money from this?"
"Huh? No way, you are not thinking of opening a public bath, are you?" Ichigo blurted out.
"That would be too much trouble," Takeru said. "It is much better to bottle the hot spring water and take it back to use as medicine. You saw how shocking its healing effect is."
Takeru's eyes gleamed with calculation.
"Will anyone actually buy it? This is way too strange," Ichigo protested.
"Why would they not?" Takeru asked.
"Imagine someone is hurt because they protected you. They collapse on the ground, unable to move. You can defeat the enemy, but you cannot save that person. At that moment, forget hot spring water, they would try something even stranger and of unknown origin without hesitation. Am I wrong?"
"…"
Ichigo's breathing hitched.
He seemed to feel something resonate deep inside.
"No. You are not wrong," he admitted quietly.
"So, transport duty is yours. I will handle the buyers," Takeru said, patting his shoulder with satisfaction.
"What?"
"If you object, I can do it myself. Just do not come asking me for money later," Takeru added.
"…I never said I would not do it. I am asking who you plan to sell it to. Do not get us reported."
"Sell it to whoever has money."
Takeru answered Ichigo's grumbling with his usual matter of fact tone.
"Getting reported is impossible," he added calmly.
"Because the person in question is the one who handles the reports."
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