Bleach: Getting Stronger Starting from Teaching at the Spiritual Arts Academy

...

Two days later, in the outer city of Mingmu.

In July, Kisuke Urahara and Mayuri Kurotsuchi strolled around the city.

They've been exploring Naruki Town for two days now.

The other Grim Reapers who weren't wearing the Grim Reaper suits didn't follow, because they wanted to use the Grim Reaper suits as bait to lure out the Soul Hunters.

Even the Grim Reaper's patrol schedule has been modified.

The time that July and the others spent in the city was different from the time when the Grim Reapers patrolled.

"Sir, the mung bean cakes from this shop are the best!"

The little shrine maiden Yakumo stared intently at the pastries on display on the shelf, her eyes fixed on the display.

Yakumo has the potential to become a spirit child. Now that there are no death gods patrolling the city during the day, she is easily targeted by soul hunters when she acts alone.

Therefore, in July, they asked her to be their guide and lead them around the city.

"Little Bayun's got a sweet tooth again!" A young woman was minding the shop. She took out a small box of pastries from the cabinet. "These mung bean cakes don't look very good and won't sell. You can have them; they were all made today and are very fresh!"

"Thank you, Ms. Ueno!" Yakumo took the box, her eyes shining.

Yakumo opened the box, which contained several pieces of poor-quality mung bean cakes.

These pastries, even if they don't look good, don't taste or feel much different, but if they don't look nice, they can't be sold.

Yakumo and the new shop assistant hit it off immediately; although they had only known each other for a short time, they had already developed a very good relationship.

She would often leave some of the less appealing pastries for Yakumo.

"Try it! This place's mung bean cake is super delicious!" Yakumo skewered a piece of mung bean cake with a bamboo stick and handed it to Shikatoshi Nanatsuki.

"Thank you... The texture is quite nice." July gave a positive review.

In reality, his spirit body had not yet acquired the ability to taste, so he couldn't taste the mung bean cake at all.

"Please try some, gentlemen!" Yakumo handed two pieces of mung bean cake to Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Kisuke Urahara.

"Oh ho ho... I have one too?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi was somewhat surprised.

Because of her appearance, the little shrine maiden was somewhat afraid of Mayuri Kurotsuchi when she first met him.

"Hmm..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi chuckled strangely after tasting the mung bean cake. "Not bad, not bad..."

"Are these three gentlemen from out of town?" The shop assistant smiled gently. "They look quite unfamiliar to me!"

“That’s right, we are businessmen, here in Naruki to check out the products that sell well here.” Urahara Kisuke held a fan that he had somehow gotten his hands on, covering half of his face. “Thanks to Ms. Yakumo’s enthusiasm, she showed us around the place.”

"If this is your first time in Naruki, you should definitely explore the area. Naruki has many beautiful scenic spots!" The shop assistant enthusiastically promoted the shop's products. "Our rice cakes and dorayaki also sell very well. Would you like to buy some?"

"Let's come again next time, we need to go have lunch now."

Kisuke Urahara gave up.

After Yakumo finished eating the mung bean cake, the group left the confectionery shop.

"Miss Yakumo, do you often eat pastries here?"

After leaving the confectionery shop, Kisuke Urahara suddenly spoke up and asked a question.

"Ah... I don't have much money, how can I eat such expensive pastries often!" Yakumo shook his head. "It's only recently that Ueno-san has been very kind, saving up the defective products that she couldn't sell for me so I can have a taste."

"Heh~ Interesting..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi chuckled strangely, "It seems someone has been eyeing Miss Yakumo for a while now!"

"What does this mean?" Yakumo asked, puzzled.

"The pastry that the shop assistant gave you had some special spiritual particles attached to it."

July answered Yakumo's question, "This is definitely not normal. She must have some ulterior motive towards you."

"I never expected that Ms. Ueno would have such ulterior motives..." Yakumo said dejectedly. "She was so good to me."

Yakumo knew that Shichigatsu and the others were gods, so naturally he wouldn't disbelieve their words.

“These spiritual particles… aren’t harmful to the body. They’re probably used to track her.” Mayuri Kurotsuchi reached into her mouth, took out a whole piece of mung bean cake, and handed it to Yakumo. “The spiritual particles on it aren’t poisonous. If you haven’t had enough…”

"No need! No need!!!"

Yakumo looked surprised and shook his head repeatedly.

"Little Bayun is still young, so don't scare her."

July felt somewhat helpless about Mayuri Kurotsuchi's perverse sense of humor.

"Captain, we need to keep an eye on the shop assistant's movements. She might be involved in the Soul Hunting. Miss Yakumo has Spiritual Ability, making her one of the best targets for the Soul Hunters," Urahara Kisuke said.

Their purpose in loitering here is to act as bait, luring soul hunters to hunt them down.

Now that we have a clue about the Soul Hunter, we certainly can't let it slip by.

“Let’s keep an eye on her for now.” July nodded.

In fact, before acting as bait, July had already set up shadow vantage points in various parts of the city, just waiting for Soul Hunter to reveal his true colors.

...

After the little shrine maiden Yakumo and Nanatsu left the confectionery shop, the shop assistants did not show any unusual behavior and continued to look after the shop as usual.

At lunchtime, the shop assistant left the pastry shop alone.

After she returned home, she went to the yard.

The courtyard wasn't large, but it did have a well.

Well water was the main source of water for the city's residents. Families with poor economic conditions would share a well, while shop assistants, whose families were better off, would have a well to themselves.

She took out a package wrapped in oil paper from her waist bag, and when she opened it, she found some white powder inside.

The shop assistant went to the well and poured the white powder into it.

These white powders emit a faint blue light when they come into contact with water, and extend downwards along the water source.

A moment later, ripples appeared on the surface of the well water.

"grown ups!"

The shop assistant said respectfully.

A woman dressed in a kimono appeared beside her.

"My lord, I saw the priestess Yakumo today. She was accompanied by several merchants from out of town."

The shop assistant lowered his head and said.

"A merchant?" The woman in the kimono frowned. "Why is a merchant with a shrine maiden?"

"Perhaps Yakumo was more enthusiastic and showed them around the Naruki area..." the shop assistant guessed.

"No matter who those people are, it's good that they've come out." The woman in the kimono smiled slightly. "These two days should be the time when the Shinigami stationed in the human world change shifts. The Shinigami only patrol at night."

When that little witch was out and about, there were often Grim Reapers patrolling the city, making it inconvenient to make a move.

Now that Death's patrol schedule has changed, it's the perfect time to strike.

"I put the elixir you gave me into the pastries, and Yakumo ate them all!"

The shop assistant continued.

“Very good...that little shrine maiden is still in the city…” The woman in the kimono sensed the unique spiritual pressure fluctuations emanating from the elixir. These fluctuations were extremely weak, and even the Shinigami could easily overlook them.

The woman in the kimono waved her hand towards the well, and the water in the well quickly condensed into a water puppet.

"Go tell Kariya that his target has appeared."

After the woman in the kimono finished speaking, the water puppet was thrown into the well and disappeared.

"You did a great job, and I will reward you."

The woman in the kimono smiled gently and pressed her finger against the shop assistant's forehead.

The woman in the kimono recruited some human subordinates to act as her spies, and then used her water-controlling abilities to hide in the underground river.

The underground rivers in the Naruki area are interconnected and linked to the wells on the surface. If human informants want to pass information to her, they can contact her through the wells.

The shop assistant felt a chill on his forehead, and his skin quickly became dry and shriveled.

"My lord! I have been utterly loyal to you! Why...?"

The shop assistant stared in horror at her hands, which were rapidly losing moisture, unable to understand why the woman in the kimono wanted to kill her.

"Heh~ Didn't you want power?" the woman in the kimono explained gently. "Don't worry~ all it takes is a moment of pain... and you'll become a part of me."

The shop assistant's young, elastic skin quickly lost moisture, and soon became like withered tree bark.

When Kariya emerged from the well, he saw the shop assistant lying motionless on the ground.

“Quan Ya, it’s not easy to train a qualified servant.”

Kariya frowned.

"She's been in contact with that witch and has seen us. She might be found by the Grim Reapers."

The woman in the kimono shook her head. That shrine maiden was Kariya's hunting target. Now that Kariya was going to take action against her, they couldn't keep the informant responsible for keeping an eye on her.

The woman in the kimono raised her hand, pointed into the corpse, and a fresh soul was extracted.

Unlike the dried-up corpse, the shop assistant's spirit still had fresh, tender skin.

"My lord, spare me!" The shop assistant was terrified. When she noticed the corpse on the ground, she froze, "I'm...dead?"

"Why! Why did you kill me?!" The shop assistant's soul became ferocious, and the hole in his chest rapidly widened.

"The weak shouldn't make such a fuss." The woman in the kimono inhaled sharply, swallowing the shop assistant's soul. "I can't let you become weak!"

Although Hollows are spirits with spiritual pressure, Soul Hunters believe that Hollows cannot absorb too many impurities, as absorbing them would cause them to suffer from "indigestion."

Chapter 314 Kariya God

"What are you doing?"

Kisuke Urahara saw Mayuri Kurotsuchi take out a spray bottle and spray an unknown liquid around him.

"We searched for two days before finding this clue. We need to make some preparations so they don't get away."

Once the liquid in the Nekomari spray bottle is sprayed out, it dissolves into the air.

"For tracking...?" Kisuke Urahara stared at the air for a moment. "They're really well-prepared!"

"We've found the location of the Soul Hunters," July suddenly said. "They were hiding underground! No wonder we couldn't find them!"

After leaving the pastry shop in July, she kept an eye on the clerk's movements using her shadow.

He used his shadow vision to see the shop assistant summon Soul Hunter at home.

These Soul Hunters hide in a network of underground rivers, and it wouldn't be easy to find their hiding place unless the shopkeeper had a way to contact them.

"As expected of the captain, those Soul Hunters couldn't escape his grasp at all!" Kisuke Urahara covered the lower half of his face with his fan and laughed. "Looks like we need to take the initiative. We'll save the preparations for the third seat for the next operation."

"Ha, no one will think you're mute if you just keep quiet!"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi sneered and put the watering can back into the spirit pocket in his sleeve.

When July arrived at the shopkeeper's house with Kisuke Urahara and Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the Soul Hunter in the yard had already extracted the shopkeeper's soul.

The shop assistant was an obedient servant, but she had been in contact with the witch, and now that they were going to harm her, the Grim Reapers might find them by following the slightest clues.

"Ordinary souls are so bland." After swallowing the shop assistant's soul in one gulp, the woman in the kimono licked her lips with a hint of lingering satisfaction. "Kariyakami, I somewhat regret giving you that shrine maiden. Souls with spiritual potential... are truly a delicacy!"

If she weren't weaker than Kariya, she wouldn't have been so kind as to help Kariya hunt down souls with spiritual potential.

"Your spiritual pressure hasn't reached its bottleneck yet, and your absorption of ordinary souls has also increased significantly." Kariya Kami said calmly, arms crossed. "Don't be impatient. Once you reach your bottleneck, I will assist you in hunting souls with spiritual particle potential, and even... in the future, we can hunt Shinigami!"

The spiritual pressure of the Grim Reaper's spirit is incomparable to that of these human souls. For soul hunters, the Grim Reaper's spirit is the best tonic!

"Oh ho ho ho—"

The strange laughter coming from the courtyard wall startled both Kariya and Izumi.

"Who?!"

The two looked up and saw three more humans on the courtyard wall.