The Alchemist in Bleach

"Lord Ichiro, the world has returned."

"Yes, welcome back."

"Little Knife! You scared me to death!"

As soon as Ichiro finished greeting Sekai, Yachiru on his shoulder rushed over and buried her little head in Sekai's chest, crying with snot and tears streaming down her face.

"It's alright, I'm sorry for making you worry," Sekai said softly, patting Yachiru's back gently.

Perhaps due to the attraction between like-minded people, the two, who both originated from Zanpakuto, actually have a very good relationship in private. Of course, Ichiro has always believed that this is also related to the fact that the world often gives Yachi Ryukin Heitao.

That's how he built a good relationship with Yachiru!

Seeing the two embracing, Ichiro smiled, turned to Kenpachi beside him, and finally had a chance to strike up a conversation.

"Thanks, I'll cover for them."

"Tch~ I was just waiting for a fight to break out, but who knew it wouldn't happen and Yachiru was going to wait here again. So I'll just wait. I don't have the habit of interfering in other people's battles."

Doesn't it hurt to say that?

That's true. You usually don't interfere in other people's battles, but you'll join in and take on two opponents at once...

Shaking his head, Ichiro smiled and turned back to look at Gin, whose face still wore a sly smile, and asked, "How are you? How do you feel?"

"Very strong! Whether it's spiritual pressure, combat techniques, or combat experience, I'm far inferior!"

"Take your time, don't be discouraged. You're already doing great. The hardest thing in the world is admitting you're weak. Once you realize that, sooner or later you'll reach the top of the world!"

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Chapter 266 A Doctor's Scheme!

In the midst of busyness, time always flies by. Soon, two days had passed since Urahara and his group broke into the prison. These two days had almost driven him crazy with work!

The Fourth Division fared relatively well; there weren't many injuries in this turmoil, and most of them only suffered minor abrasions, which ordinary members could handle.

The truly busy ones are the Covert Task Force and the Technology Development Bureau...

Needless to say, the covert task force was in complete disarray; the commander-in-chief had absconded with her jailers, leaving no handover work whatsoever.

After initial discussions, it was decided that Yoruichi's younger brother, Shihouin Yushiro, would take over as head of the Shihouin family, while Soi Fon would temporarily assume the roles of Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukido and Commander of the Criminal Investigation Corps, as Yushiro's current strength was not sufficient to command respect.

Once he has grown up, Soi Fon will hand over this position to Yushiro.

This shows the Shihouin family's trust in the Hachi family, since the Hidden Aggression Agency and Xingjun are definitely military organizations, and they are assassination forces specifically targeting the Grim Reapers.

This may be one of the reasons why the Bee family has been loyal to Shihouin for generations.

However, what really troubled Ichiro and the others was not the issue of a leader. The leader of the Secret Service was out of the question; it was impossible to give the position to an outsider like Ichiro. Shihouin Seigan could not return to the front lines; he was already quite old. Yushiro was neither old nor strong enough. Therefore, only Soi Fon could take over, and she was also suitable. Her Fullbring technique, which allows her to control half of everything, was a perfect match for her Zanpakuto, Suzumebachi!

Its combat strength is more than enough, and it's not much worse in other areas.

Therefore, what really troubled Ichiro and his group this time was the worm's nest!

The Worm's Nest is a place where serious criminals from Soul Society are imprisoned. It is a very important place, so important that the Secret Service has set up a special squad to protect it.

Now that the warden of the Worm Nest has run away with the Commander-in-Chief, this is a big problem.

Because the Worm's Nest does not allow the wearing of any weapons, the requirements for the person in charge to fight with bare hands are extremely high. In this day and age, the difficulty of fighting a Shinigami with a Zanpakuto bare hands has skyrocketed!

Therefore, after Urahara left, finding another one would be extremely difficult.

Of course, the requirements are not usually that high. As long as you can subdue the prisoners in the worm nest with your bare hands, it will be fine. They are suppressed by the barrier, so it is not difficult to win. Although there are not many of these, you can at least find several. Choose a trustworthy one to guard them. It is not difficult.

But that was before...

What happened on the night Urahara and his gang escaped from prison?

Three super captain-level guys teamed up to break into prison!

What a load of rubbish!

No one knows if they still have the nerve to launch a second prison break, but Ichiro and his group tacitly agree to it and will use it as a basis to select suitable candidates.

However, the result was predictable...

Even including the members of the Second Division, they could only find Ichiro...

There's nothing we can do, our opponents are just too strong!

But we can't just not look for them this way, otherwise they'll really lose face if they actually come looking for them.

Ichiro was strong enough, but he had too many identities and was not suitable to be a jailer. Even if he agreed, the captain would not agree. In the end, they discussed for two days but could not reach a conclusion. It was really hard to find a person like him.

Ultimately, they could only choose one based on the previous standards, and then Ichiro would personally set up a space teleportation array authorized by the Central 46 Chambers to improve the support speed. At least until Yushiro grew up, this was the only way.

But what's been bothering Ichiro the most these past two days isn't actually the Onmitsukido (Secret Mobile Unit), because he's just a squad leader. The Onmitsukido has five squad leaders in total, but since the leader of the Xing Army and the Commander-in-Chief are the same person (not counting them), that means there are three at his level. And according to rank, after Urahara Yoruichi's defection, his ranking not only didn't rise, but actually dropped one place, making him last...

So this kind of thing should be a headache for Soi Fon and the others.

What really gave Ichiro a headache...

It's the Technology Development Bureau!

Damn it! That bastard Urahara ran off with the entire budget for the next three years of the Technology Development Bureau! All of it!!!

This is absolutely outrageous! When Ichiro learned of this news, he was completely devastated. That was three years' worth of funding from the Technology Development Bureau!

That's enough for Ichiro to create two more Burst God Machines!

Oh right, and the Explosive Machine!

When they left, they also took with them the two super machines that Ichiro had painstakingly saved up from the budget over the years to build, namely No. 1 and No. 2. In other words, they embezzled six years' worth of funding from the Technology Development Bureau!

That's six years!

Ah Wei has only been around for five years!

This doesn't even include other handover matters. This alone has kept Ichiro and the others extremely busy. They have to sort through the massive data from the Technology Development Bureau to find out the details of the expenditures and to distinguish the orders that each squad organization funded for them.

Unfortunately, only a few ministers have the right to view a lot of the data, since much of it involves the secrets of various squads and nobles. For example, a certain family patriarch asked them to research aphrodisiacs, or a certain family asked them to crack some secret techniques of rival families, and so on.

Therefore, the ministers had to screen the funds one by one and then submit the results to the Central 46th Bureau to prove that the funds were indeed embezzled by that bastard Urahara, and not that they secretly withheld them.

Of course, Ichiro originally planned to hold back a bit, but Urahara didn't give him that chance to make a mistake... He's a true brother!

During this process of sorting out, a small incident occurred. Nie Jianli suggested that they take this opportunity to cut some funds, since no one ever thinks they have too much funding.

Unfortunately, this was unanimously rejected by everyone!

The logic is simple: although the people in the Central 46th Bureau are often called idiots and often do stupid things, when it comes to interests, those old men are more shrewd than anyone else!

So it would take a lot of effort to fool them. Right now, it's already difficult enough to just fill the loopholes from the past three years. How could they possibly cause any new trouble?

And as Ichiro and his group had predicted, when it came to funding, that group proved to be incredibly cunning. No matter what they said or how much evidence they submitted, they ultimately only managed to secure funding for one year...

What upset them most was that not all of this year's funding would be used for the next three years...

Urahara Maki's money—he took all the funds with him, everything!

Including ongoing projects!

In other words, they have to allocate half of this money to cover the funding for important projects, then find some less important projects to temporarily suspend, or continue to communicate and deceive those noble hyenas to see if they can get some more money to fill the gaps.

The remaining six months' worth of funding will be their funding for the next three years...

That really means we'll have to tighten our belts...

Fortunately, to Ichiro's delight, since he was already the director of the Kido Research Bureau, he could no longer concurrently serve as the director of the Technology Development Bureau. Therefore, this mess was directly handed over to Hikifune Kiryu!

Of the remaining people, she was the most suitable.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Senjumaru are both from her 12th Division and are her subordinates. Yamada Taro of the Kido Club defected with Urahara, and the Kido Club is currently discussing a new head. The Medical Club's research area is too narrow, making them unsuitable for the position. (In the original story, the Great Kido Master, Tessai Katsuhishi, rebelled with Urahara because he activated a forbidden space-time technique, violating the Seireitei's rules. He and Hachigen Ushōda do not appear in this story.)

Therefore, although she was very unwilling, it could only be her.

"Ugh, I'm so tired!"

"Pfft~"

In the Fourth Division's barracks, Ichiro, returning from the Technology Development Bureau, let out a wail and threw himself hard onto the bed.

Two short days were more tiring than when he was in seclusion doing research!

"Is Ichiro-senpai there?"

Just as Ichiro was about to drift off to sleep, Kotetsu Isane's voice woke him. Opening his eyes, Ichiro sighed, reluctantly got out of bed, and said in a drawn-out voice, "Coming~~"

"Whoosh~"

"Is there something you need from me?"

Yuuto stared blankly at Ichiro's disheveled clothes, her gaze secretly drifting into the room. Could it be that Ichiro-senpai was having an encounter with the world...? But it's daytime!

Ichiro stared speechlessly at Isane, whose face had suddenly turned red. Was it really necessary? It wasn't like she'd never dissected a male body before...

"I don't know what you've misunderstood, but it's not what you think. Also, stop looking around, I'm the only one in the house!"

"Ahem~ I wasn't thinking about anything!" Yongyin straightened up instantly, looked away, clenched her fist loosely, and coughed lightly.

'Then why are you panicking?'

Ichiro shook his head, too lazy to ask that, and said, "Speak, what do you want? Who did those idiots in the Eleventh Division cripple this time?"

"Uh...it has nothing to do with them. The captain asked me to come and call you to the First Division's captain's meeting room."

"Captain's meeting room? Is there anything else about me? Has it been discovered that I was embezzling team funds?"

"..." Hearing Ichiro's mutterings, Isane's lips twitched. "I think it shouldn't be this one. This one won't reach the First Division, and besides, Ichiro-senpai..."

"Ok?"

"The captain already knew about your withholding of funds..."

"...Why didn't the captain say anything to me?"

“The captain said this is normal…” As she spoke, Yuu-on lowered her eyes and secretly glanced at Ichiro, “And every time you run out of funds, you end up with some useful inventions for the team to use, so…”

"..." Ichiro's lips twitched. Although Isane didn't say what she meant next, he could roughly guess. It was just that she deliberately used this loophole to make sure the funding was actually used...

Indeed, no one knows a student better than their teacher...

"Okay, I got it, I'll go right now."

"Okay, then I'll head down first, Ichiro-senpai."