Bleach: Teaching Makes Me Stronger-Chapter 174: Urahara Kisuke’s Shock

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: Urahara Kisuke’s Shock
(T/N:
Second Chapter for today!
)
Urahara was filled with questions.
He dug through his memory but couldn’t recall anything about
Katori Nanatsuki
getting married.
Yet here he was... bringing a baby to visit.
"This child... don’t tell me—" Urahara gave Nanatsuki a look like he was some kind of degenerate. "—you knocked someone up out of wedlock?"
"It’s not mine!" Nanatsuki rolled his eyes and quickly stopped Urahara’s wild imagination.
Urahara’s curiosity was piqued. He leaned in to get a better look at
Sarugaki Hiyori
.
"There’s something odd about her..." he muttered. "She doesn’t look like a normally developed baby."
"She was born two to three months early. A preemie," Nanatsuki explained. "If not for the weak
Reiatsu
keeping her alive, she’d have died at birth."
"I see... well, this could be trouble. I’m guessing you’re here to ask the Captain for help?" Urahara pulled out a
Hell Butterfly Transmission Device
and tapped it.
"Hey, Captain? Are you in the barracks?"
A voice crackled from the device—it was
Hikifune Kirio
:
"Is that you, Kisuke? I’m here. What’s up?"
"Nanatsuki-kun showed up. Brought a newborn. She’s got serious health issues. We’re in the main squad hall."
"What?! Nanatsuki-kun brought a baby?! I’ll be right there!"
She ended the call in a hurry.
A moment later,
Hikifune Kirio
burst into the public hall.
"This yours?" She glanced at the frail little Hiyori and raised an eyebrow. "This is a preemie, isn’t she? You were way too careless!"
"It’s not mine... I found her by the roadside, actually..." Nanatsuki hurriedly explained
Hiyori’s
background.
"She was born prematurely and her condition’s fragile. That’s why I hoped you could help nurture her back to health."
Hikifune took Hiyori from the maid’s arms, her eyes filled with pity.
"Poor thing... lost her mother so early."
"Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her."
She turned to the maid.
"You’ll stay here in
Squad 12
to help care for the baby."
"Kisuke, sort out her accommodations. Find her a private room in the squad barracks."
"I need to get started right away. Her condition is critical."
Hikifune then took Hiyori straight to the lab.
Urahara pulled out the transmission device again and contacted the squad’s logistics officer to arrange housing for the maid.
For now, the maid would share Hiyori’s room. The infant had no ability to care for herself and required round-the-clock supervision.
Shortly after, a Shinigami came to escort the maid to her new quarters.
"You’ve got it good, Nanatsuki-kun," Urahara sighed dramatically. "Going off on a carefree ’training journey’ while I’m drowning in work over here..."
Nanatsuki had already mentioned he was accompanying
Captain-Commander Yamamoto
on a training expedition, which made Urahara even more jealous.
"So, what’s been keeping you so busy?" Nanatsuki asked. "Things seem peaceful in the Soul Society lately."
"Peace in the
Soul Society
only exists because folks like me work ourselves to the bone behind the scenes," Urahara muttered, rolling his eyes.
"You remember when those
Reishi Shells
infiltrated our lab?"
"Of course," Nanatsuki nodded. "Even a Captain went missing during that incident."
"Well, ever since then, I developed a device that can detect
Reishi Shells
."
Urahara’s expression darkened.
"And recently, we’ve discovered signs of new
Shell activity
. I’ve been swamped trying to investigate."
"Someone’s manufacturing new Shells?" Nanatsuki frowned.
Last time, they hadn’t caught the mastermind—just purged the imposters hiding in the squads.
"Exactly. But this time, the shells aren’t imitating Shinigami... they’re mimicking
Rukongai
civilians."
"That’s... strange. What would be the point?" Nanatsuki tapped his chin, thinking hard.
"If they were making Shinigami shells, it’d make sense—they’d want to infiltrate the
Gotei 13
. But replicating Rukongai residents... what’s the endgame?"
"There must be a purpose behind it," Urahara muttered. "But now our lab’s staff are being run ragged. I’ve been combing through
Rukongai’s soul registration data
nonstop."
He slumped in his chair, exhausted.
"Can’t these schemers spare a thought for us overworked researchers?"
"Didn’t you build a device to detect Shells based on
Reiatsu differences
? Can’t we just do a mass sweep?" Nanatsuki asked.
"I wish," Urahara groaned, shaking his head. "Shells are hard to detect. Their Reiatsu is nearly identical to the original."
"Even if I had one standing right in front of me, the instrument couldn’t detect it."
"The detector only works if we already have a sample of the
original person’s Reishi
. Only by comparing those specific markers can we confirm a Shell."
"But that means... we’d have to scan every single soul in
Rukongai
and compare their Reishi against stored data. That’s completely impossible."
"There are just too many of them."
Urahara scratched his head so hard his hair turned into a mess, clearly overwhelmed.
"Your scanner needs an upgrade," Nanatsuki said calmly.
"My brain is already fried from all the Rukongai data," Urahara replied, spreading his hands in despair. "I’m running on fumes here."
"Give me a set of instruments. Maybe I can tweak them a bit," Nanatsuki suggested.
He didn’t have much free time himself, but he still had
Aizen Sōsuke
in his lab. He planned to hand the task off to Aizen and see if he could improve the design.
"Sure, why not..." Urahara agreed. He already knew about Nanatsuki’s
Pill
invention and his spiritual anatomy knowledge, so he wasn’t surprised.
He retrieved a
Reishi detection kit
and a stack of design documents.
"This is my blueprint—has all the core logic."
"See this tube? It’s for collecting
Reishi
. Once gathered, it compares the sample to the database. We’ve got Shinigami data logged, but not much for civilians..."
He picked up a tube and prepared to demonstrate.
Holding it over Nanatsuki’s head, he spun the tube a few times to gather the stray
Reiatsu particles
.
"This method’s slow. It relies on passive Reishi dispersal. But if you use this to
inject directly
, it’s much faster."
He then took the
needle-tipped tube
and jabbed it into Nanatsuki’s finger.
The instrument immediately captured his
Reishi
.
"Next, we compare the sample with the stored profiles..."
Urahara brought up the interface—and froze.
"...A match? Over
90% similarity
with existing data?!"
He swallowed hard.
"Seems like your scanner works fine," Nanatsuki said, glancing at the screen with a faint smile.
Urahara’s eyes widened. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.