Third Seat soul ability: ["Hard Worker"]
["Hard Worker: After using it, you'll be more driven while working."]
Fourth Seat soul ability: ["Sleep On Command"]
["Sleep On Command: Fall asleep instantly after using it."]
Fifth Seat soul ability: ["Fireball"]
["Fireball: Can create a fireball in the hand."]
Sixth Seat soul ability: ["Special Beam Cannon"]
["Special Beam Cannon: Releases a black destructive beam from a fingertip. The beam ignores defenses and pierces through the opponent's body parts."]
Seventh Seat soul ability: ["Game Master"]
["Game Master: You pick up and master games very quickly."]
Eighth Seat soul ability: ["Looks Upgrade"]
["Looks Upgrade: Improves your appearance."]
Tenth Seat soul ability: ["Painful Yet Joyous"]
["Painful Yet Joyous: You feel pleasure when stimulated by pain."]
These are the abilities of the people in the Fifth Division. You could say many abilities are very useful, while some are basically useless.
Useful ones include [Special Beam Cannon] and [Fireball]; useless ones would be something like [Sleep On Command]…
So it's not that the stronger you are, the stronger your soul ability will be. This thing purely depends on your personal traits and the composite tendencies of your future.
There's something else: after his own strength improved, Yoshio discovered he actually possessed a soul ability too.
His soul ability is ["Safe House."]
["Safe House: Designate a house as your safe house. The safe house is indestructible, immune to any damage, and within it you are immune to all surveillance."]
Damn—so it knew I have no sense of security and gave me a safe house? All right, all right.
Because this is his own soul ability, Yoshio, of course, acquires it permanently.
He plans to set his home as the safe house so he can avoid others' prying eyes.
These past few days had him on edge, mainly because he knows the Seireitei is basically one huge sieve—anyone can pop over and take a look!
Not to mention Aizen Sosuke right by his side.
Quincy hidden in the shadows of the Seireitei can monitor it.
The Monk of the Eyes up in the heavens can monitor it.
The Tsunayashiro, one of the Five Great Noble Clans, can monitor the Seireitei through the Projection Hall.
And that pervert Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Twelfth could well be monitoring the Seireitei too.
It's one giant strainer!
Even if most of these people couldn't care less about him, just knowing you're under surveillance is enough to make you break down, right?
Yoshio doesn't want his every move monitored by others.
This safe house doesn't make him completely unobservable, strictly speaking. Rather, it generates fake footage—others won't think anything's off; they'll just assume he's doing perfectly normal things.
When in reality, he might well be up to something shady.
He's very satisfied with this ability. It doesn't make him invincible overnight, but it's extremely functional and powerful.
At the same time, since he was promoted to Ninth Seat today, Yoshio's work also changed.
Officers have their own offices in the squad, and they can be assigned a house. Not far from the Fifth Division barracks there's even an Officer Street.
Even though Yoshio already owns a house, he was still assigned a nice one.
His pay also went up—from 200,000 a month to 300,000.
He no longer needs to go out on patrol every day—just one routine patrol a week. The rest of the time he'll handle office work.
Of course, officers still lead teams out if there are missions.
…
That evening, Yoshio took squad members to a tavern. About half the officers came; the rest were busy or couldn't make it.
Even Aizen and Ichimaru Gin showed up, which left the squad both flattered and a bit uneasy.
Though Aizen is "amiable," he's still their superior. Drinking with a superior always feels a bit awkward.
Luckily, Aizen left after a short while. Though Gin stayed, everyone relaxed a lot.
Yoshio was drinking with several officers when Rangiku walked in from outside.
Seeing Yoshio, she happily called out,
"Yo, Yoshio!"
Riding the high of the moment, Yoshio jolted when he heard the voice.
"Miss Rangiku?! What are you doing here?!"
"What do you mean what am I doing here?" Rangiku came over and said, "I'm here to drink, of course—and I just happened to run into you."
"Eh? Gin, you're here too?"
She noticed Ichimaru Gin sitting to the side.
Yes, Aizen had left, but Gin hadn't.
Gin looked a bit surprised—he seemed not to have expected Yoshio and Rangiku to know each other.
"You know Lieutenant Ichimaru?"
Yoshio said in "surprise," "You really know a lot of people, huh."
"Of course!" Rangiku laughed. "Is this some kind of event your squad's hosting? So many Fifth Division folks here drinking."
"Yoshio-kun was promoted to Ninth Seat, so he's treating everyone," Ichimaru Gin said with a squinting smile. "Rangiku, want to join?"
"There's such a good thing?!" Rangiku said with delight. "Hey, now that's more like it! Look at our squad—no one's like Yoshio. Maybe I should just transfer to the Fifth!"
"Captain Shiba wouldn't forgive me for that," Yoshio said with a bitter smile.
"Who cares about him." Rangiku pouted, then made herself at home at their table.
With Rangiku joining, their table got even livelier. After all, when a table full of drinking men suddenly gets a woman, the men naturally get excited.
Especially since Rangiku's no shy little girl—she's open and playful, so no one had to tiptoe around her being a woman.
The Fifth Division also has a female officer, but she couldn't come due to a mission.
Not long after Rangiku arrived, Ichimaru Gin left—he's not really one for drinking.
Yoshio noticed that when Gin left, Rangiku didn't say it out loud, but she was disappointed inside.
She must be confused now. They grew up together in the Rukongai, but one day Gin suddenly decided to become a shinigami, and everything changed.
Gin became more and more mysterious, and she increasingly couldn't read what was on his mind.
All Yoshio could do was sigh.
Then he thought of something else.
Could the soul fragments produced by [The Animals] ability repair the damage Rangiku suffered from Aizen taking part of her soul?!