Big Money
Shinryu sat in the empty room, alone by himself. He was drinking a herb tea which was very unusual for a person of his character.
Although he appeared to be by himself, he was not alone in that room. Hiding in the shadows was an unidentifiable figure which he had noticed long ago.
"So how long are you going to hide in there? Don't you feel like talking to me, face to face?"
"Your face makes me puke. If I spoke to you like that, I would pass out from disgust."
Despite her insults, he casually kept sipping on his tea anyway.
"The Tekken event hasn't reached it's climax yet but I believe it will during the very last battle. Once that happens, there is a high chance that all the gotei captains will be held in the coliseum. Its conclusion will be our greatest opening to do that. Inform that man of this."
"Why did I get stuck doing the messaging work~ The hell butterfly which I stole is going to die of overwork."
Although Shinryu couldn't hear them leave, he was aware that he was finally alone in the room.
He took one last sip of his tea before unsheathing his Zanpakuto.
"Very soon, we won't have to keep up this charade. I've been surrounded by nothing but imbeciles this whole time, but that boy alone is the only one remotely worth a damn."
At the same time the captains of the Gotei 13 gathered once again in the main hall of Squad 1's barracks, to discuss something regarding the frequent dangers lurking in the world of the living. Amongst all of them, the only one who didn't turn up was Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi(Rose).
"This is the second time within 2 months which you've gathered us up like this. It's starting to become a problem." , Mayuri complained.
"I have important research which I need to be doing right now. You even tasked me and my squad with the analytics for that big waste of time tournament."
Unfortunately for Shunsui, many other captains agreed. The only one who took his side in this case was Byakuya.
"We've been getting some strange reports in the world of the living about a Fullbringer. Not only that, but Urahara mentioned something about an unidentified Quincy fighting with that same Fullbringer."
The unidentified Quincy news shocked everyone. The only surviving Quincies that should exist were the very few sternritter, Uryū Ishida and his father. Anyone else died in the Great Soul King War.
"Not only that, but they've been fighting against many Soul Reapers which have been stationed in the world of the living, including the substitute Soul Reaper which replaced Kurosaki. If worse occurs then they may have a vendetta against the Soul Society."
Soi-fon asked what they should do moving forward, and so 6 of them were tasked with staying inside the colosseum along with their Lieutenants. Love who had been missing up to this point, turned out to have been assigned as a personal guard to Shingetsu Azaemon. After Sōsuke Aizen wiped out the previous members of Central 46, it had been made a point to never leave them un attended. A captain class Shinigami would be in charge of protecting them no matter where they went. The only exception to this rule would be during the tekken event, as they would sit next to Shunsui.
"Since that's everything out of the way, this meeting is now adjourned."
The next day
The hype within the audience appeared to have died down compared to before. Thanks to that awkward of a match between Ito and Aikao, the expectations for the first years were at an all time low.
Shunsui tried his best to restore that flow with a few jokes, but it was all for naught. With a hint of regret, he quickly passed on the right to speak to Nanao.
Kai said with enthusiasm, "I haven't been called up to the stage yet, so today is surely my day!"
Instead of hearing his name, Nanao instead said,
"We will first start off with Hikone Ubuginu of Class 1-1.."
Kai squealed at hearing that name. At this rate, everyone was going to end up fighting before he did. For this reason, he envied the him greatly. Shido on the other-hand, who was aware of Hikone's mixed background, felt bad for whoever he would go up against.
"And they will be competing against, Kai Kureno of Class 1-1."
Kai wailed in disbelief. Kai wasn't aware of how much stronger Hikone had gotten since then, and thus he was disappointed that he was fighting against him. He had only seen Hikone by the time they were already beaten by hollows, so he assumed they wouldn't be a match for him.
Shido who was aware of what Hikone could do, instead decided to profit off Kai in this situation as a joke.
"Do you want to make a bet Kai? If you beat Hikone, I'll give you
The living expenses at Shino academy were already paid for, however they were given a small amount of pocket money to spend however they liked. This was only
"5,000!? No take backs!"
Expecting an easy payout, Kai agreed to his bet as he joyfully walked to the arena, while Shido continued to keep up his poker face.
Once Kai entered the arena, he expected the crowd to be cheering for him, which did not happen at all. But this didn't matter as he was gleefully expecting that 5,000 Kan pay out after this fight.
"Hey Kurenai? Wake up! It would be bad if you got hurt sleeping on top of my head while I fought. Why don't you go back to my dorm for a bit?"
The drowsy red butterfly, weakly took off from Kai's head without uttering a word.
As he slowly exited the tunnel, Kai could see Hikone gleefully waving at him across the arena. He was currently fighting the urge to not spontaneously hug him.
"Mr. Hisagi said that I shouldn't go all out on you! If I did, the fight would end too fast. That's what he said anyway."
A red vein popped out of his forehead, as he looked at Shūhei who was filming from amongst the crowd.
"Is that so?"
Shūhei could feel his oddly malevolent gaze from where he was, which made him start sweating bullets. Perhaps it was a mistake asking Hikone to hold back, is what he currently thought.
"I came here to win, Hikone."
Kai grabbed his normal sized Zanpakutō by the handle, and slowly unsheathed it with his right hand.
"That means I won't hold back on you. Even if we're friends, I came here to become a Soul Reaper! Surely you came here with the same thought?"
Hikone who admired Kai, responded back with the same energy. He also unsheathed his own Zanpakutō as they took a fighting stance.