Bleach: I Love Making Friends

Star: After use, you become more noticeable and leave a deeper impression on others.

"!"

Haruki and Rukia passed each other by. On the surface, Haruki continued walking forward without a change in expression, but inwardly, his heart was in turmoil.

Damn it!

I must get this ability!

At first glance, this ability might not seem particularly useful, but there's no ability more suited to Haruki than this!

Leaving a deeper impression on others means it's easier to raise their favorability, right?

For someone who gains abilities by raising others' favorability, is there anything more powerful than an ability that makes it easier to do so?

Absolutely not!

Rukia actually has such an ability...

Its name being Star makes sense to Haruki. After all, Renji's soul ability is Chasing Stars, and Rukia is the star Renji is chasing.

But the ability of Star still shocked Haruki. However, upon further reflection, Rukia does possess such a trait.

Still, while he wanted to raise Rukia's favorability to obtain her ability, now wasn't the time.

Once Rukia joins the Gotei 13, he'll have plenty of opportunities to raise her favorability.

Haruki continued walking toward the Tsunayashiro residence. When he reached the gate, a servant was waiting for him.

Without saying much, Haruki handed over the information he had gathered to the servant.

The servant took the documents and said softly, "Vice-Captain Haruki, this is your reward for the mission."

Haruki raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected to receive a reward for this mission?

Nice, very nice.

Haruki couldn't help but smile as he took a bag of soul coins from the servant.

"Please convey my gratitude to the main family. If there are similar tasks in the future, feel free to call on me again."

Haruki was in a good mood. Not only had he spent over a month in the human world, but he had also obtained a soul ability from Sōken Ishida. Now, upon returning, he even received a handsome reward.

People always say the Tsunayashiro family is terrible, but they seem quite reasonable to me.

Although he had worked for them without even meeting a member of the main family, which felt a bit disrespectful, Haruki wasn't the type to care about such things.

Especially since the Tsunayashiro family's servants were very polite. Well, the Tsunayashiro family members might be arrogant and abnormal, but their servants were humble. After all, in the Tsunayashiro family, servants had to be well-mannered.

Not having to interact with the main family members actually made Haruki quite happy.

He left with the money, and after walking about a hundred meters, he counted it. The reward was a whopping three million soul coins!

Holy crap, three million!

As expected of the foremost of the five great noble families—they're incredibly generous.

For context, a captain's monthly salary when they first take office is only two million.

Of course, captains' salaries increase with seniority. Someone like Unohana, who has been a captain for a thousand years, probably earns an astronomical amount!

No wonder Kyōraku wanted Unohana to retire when he became Captain-Commander. The Soul Society's finances were probably struggling to pay the salaries, so they had to let the old-timers go.

Haha...

Joking inwardly, Haruki happily returned home.

He didn't go back to the Fifth Division immediately, planning to wait another three days.

He'd pretend he was still in the human world and take a few more days off in the Soul Society before returning to work.

During these three days, he planned to focus on Quincy training.

For the next three days, he didn't leave his house.

After activating Inheritor of the Quincy and Child of the Kirin, he spent three days successfully cultivating "Quincy power."

The biggest difference between Quincy and Shinigami is that Shinigami absorb spiritual particles into their souls, strengthening their spiritual power and enhancing their combat abilities.

Even Zanpakutō are powered by the spiritual energy within the soul.

Quincy, on the other hand, while they also possess spiritual energy, primarily manipulate external spiritual particles to form spiritual weapons for combat.

Now, thanks to his abilities, Haruki had gained Quincy powers. Although he had only trained for three days, he had achieved basic control over external spiritual particles.

He could now manifest basic spiritual weapons. If he went out and claimed to be a Quincy, no one would doubt him.

It wasn't until the Inheritor of the Quincy ability went on cooldown that Haruki finally left his house.

He had permanently obtained the Child of the Kirin ability and could use it again after a day, but Inheritor of the Quincy wasn't ready yet.

After leaving his house, Haruki returned to the Fifth Division.

"Captain Aizen, I'm back."

In the Fifth Division's office, Haruki greeted Aizen with a smile.

Aizen, who was handling paperwork, didn't even look up. He simply pushed a stack of documents to the side.

Haruki was confused. Aizen then said, "These are the documents you haven't handled over the past month. Go take care of them."

"Come on, Captain Aizen," Haruki's face fell. He said with a pitiful expression, "I was out on a mission. Shouldn't the division's affairs during that time be someone else's responsibility?"

"You were on a mission? Who can prove that?"

"With all due respect, we can't just deny it like this," Haruki insisted.

"There's no record in the division," Aizen finally looked up, a faint smile on his face.

"..." Haruki fell silent.

"Fine. The higher-ups always win," Haruki sighed.

He picked up the documents and headed to his office.

At that moment, Aizen added, "Did you meet Urahara Kisuke?"

Haruki stopped and said somewhat irritably, "You already know, so why ask?"

"Some things need to be said by you personally."

"Yeah, I met him," Haruki said. "But I didn't tell him anything. I just asked him for a Gigai to make my movements easier. Ah, I forgot to bring a Gigai when I left. My mistake."

"I see. Next time you go to the human world, I'll prepare a Gigai for you," Aizen adjusted his glasses.

That's it?

Seeing that Aizen didn't seem to have anything else to say, Haruki quickly left with the documents.

Interacting with Aizen was still quite stressful.

After placing the documents in his office, Haruki wasn't in a hurry to handle them. Instead, he first greeted his fellow division members.

After raising their favorability a bit, he sat in his office, sweating as he looked at the intimidating stack of documents.

Heaven help him. He had only been an ordinary squad member before, and at most, he had briefly served as the ninth seat. How could he handle the administrative duties of an entire division and its jurisdiction?

There was so much here that he didn't understand!

Oh well, he'd take it slow.

With a heart full of despair, Haruki stared at the words on the documents, then bolted out of the Fifth Division as soon as it was time to clock out.