Chapter 4 The Soul Elevator

Yamada’s eyes widened looking at Isane in disbelief –– It doesn’t seem like she’s joking… B-but that’s impossible! Didn’t she say that 100 is enough to get him into the Shinigami Academy?!

“I-Isane-San quit joking…”

The moment Yamada started talking, the Scouter on Isane’s ear exploded and burst into flames.

Isane was stunned to the point that she didn’t even react to the explosion of the Scouter, but Jan, who was still on the floor unable to move, exclaimed, “Isane-San!”

“Oh! I understand now! The Scouter is broken! That’s the only explanation!” Yamada said with a wry smile.

“Hey, stop talking about that and help Isane-San, she’s hurt!” Jan turned to Yamada and yelled at him.

“Y-Yes!” Yamada finally came back to his senses and rushed to Isane.

“I-I’m fine, no need for that,” Isane said.

“Are you sure?” Jan asked.

“Yes,” Isane sighed and then smiled at him, ”You don’t need to worry about me. I’m stronger than I look. Something like this can’t hurt a Shinigami, let alone the 13th Division’s 3rd Seat!”

There was a hint of pride in her tone, but that went away as she turned to Jan, “It’s like Yamada-San said, the Scouter must be broken, which means that we will just need to follow the original procedures. I’m sorry about that Jan-San.” She was clearly still a bit lost and confused by what had just happened.

“It’s okay, I think I can handle it, I feel better now,” Jan said.

“Well, that’s great! Then follow me Jan-San, we’re heading to the Soul Elevator!” Yamada said cheerily.

Yamada regained his composure after hearing Isane’s words–– Yes! That Scouter was just broken; that’s why it’s not yet the standard way to gauge spiritual power! It’s just one of Captain Urahara’s unfinished products.

With everything cleared out, Yamada stepped forward, and Jan stood up and followed.

However, Isane fell behind pondering, “This shouldn’t be right. Captain Urahara tested this Scouter several times before handing it to me. He said that it should precisely read anyone’s spiritual power, unless…”

Yamada walked forward carefree, but Jan noticed how Isane was still frozen in place, so he stopped and said, “Isane-San, are you coming? You’re not going to leave me with this guy, are you? I mean look at him! You can’t trust someone who walks like that; could you?!” Jan said and pointed at Yamada in front.

“Hey!!” Yamada yelled.

Isane came back to her senses, and couldn’t help but giggle, “You really can’t!”

“Isane-San! Even you?!” Yamada felt like crying.

……

Soon, the three came to a brighter hall, with an elevator at the end of it.

“I’m surprised to see an elevator here. But I’m also happy that we don’t need to walk anymore.” Jan said, holding his stomach.

Growl!

Isane giggled, “Well, this is the final stage! This elevator will precisely calculate your spiritual power. By using it as fuel, it will go up and stop at the right office where you will be registered.”

“Then I can finally eat?” By now, all that Jan could think of is food; he was too hungry to even think straight.

Isane smiled, “Yes, your first meal here in Soul Society will be my treat, Jan-San.” Isane’s cheeks reddened, then she continued, “I-Is there something in particular that you’d like to eat?”

“I like Ramen.”

“I hope you choke on that,” Yamada mumbled, and angrily pushed the button on the side of the elevator.

“What was that?” Jan turned quickly to look at him.

“Shut up and step into the elevator.” Yamada was feeling irritated.

“Hey, that’s hurtful! I thought we were friends!” Jan sighed and followed Yamada.

“l ha… I’ve been working with Isane-San for months, and she never treated me to anything. And here you are fresh from death…”

“Oh! You like her~” Jan said playfully and gently elbowed him.

“Shuush! She might hear you!” Yamada was startled and looked at Isane behind.

Isane giggled and followed.

“Don’t worry. I will invite you to come with us later.”

“You’re really going to do that?”

“Of course!”

“You’re really a nice guy! I’m sorry I doubted you, Jan-San!” Yamada’s eyes began to well up.

“Shuush! She might hear you.” Jan was startled and looked at Isane, then continued, “All you need to do is…” Jan got closer to Yamada’s ear and whispered, and every now then, the latter would naively exclaim, “Oh! Oh!”

“Yamada-San!” Isane yelled angrily.

“Y-Yes.”

“Can we start already?!”

“Oh, yes, yes!” Yamada fixed his posture and stood straight then said, “Jan-San, it’s very simple. Just like Isane said earlier, this elevator will read your spiritual power, and then based on how strong you are, it will move up until it stops at the right floor where will you be registered.”

“Understood. So what should I do now? Power Up?!”

Isane giggled, “Don’t be silly, you just need to put your hand here.” She said, and then gently stepped aside gesturing to a hand scanner.

Jan looked at the scanner, and couldn’t help but feel a bit discouraged, so he looked at Yamada who nodded at him, “step forward Jan-San, you can do it!”

“Did you guys do this too when you first came here?”

“Of course!” Yamada said.

Jan looked at Isane, and she got a bit embarrassed, “My experience was a bit different than everyone else. My spiritual power reading made a bit of a fuss in Soul Society because… I reached a really high floor.”

“Wow! What floor did the elevator stop at?” Jan asked.

“I-It was the 69th… that’s pretty high since there are only 100 floors.”

“That’s amazing! And you Yamada?”

“The ni…” Yamada’s voice faded away quickly

“What?”

“I said the 19th, okay?! But that’s alright because I’m way stronger now!”

Isane giggled, and Yamada looked at her then sadly sighed, “Okay, Jan-San, stand straight right here, and then put your hand on the scanner.”

Jan nodded and weakly walked forward, and when he finally reached the scanner, he stood straight and put his hand on it.

At that moment, Yamada finally noticed something and said, “Hey, Jan-San, what is that sword doing on your waist?”

“You mean this?” Jan pointed at it, “It was on my waist from the very beginning!”

Peep

Isane also couldn’t help but look at the sword, which made her miss the number of the target floor as it was displayed on the screen above the elevator’s door, by the time she looked up the elevator had already started moving up, “Oh! It’s moving!”

It started off slow, but it quickly reached the 20th floor, which made for quite the hit to Yamada’s morale.

But even after, with each passing floor, the elevator kept getting faster. Isane couldn’t help but exclaim, “Jan-San, this is amazing!”

Even Yamada could no longer hide how impressed he was, “Jan-San! You’re not going to forget about me when you become a Captain, right?”

Jan couldn’t help but feel a bit strange. This place had never been mentioned in the anime, so he really didn’t know what was going on. According to Isane, the elevator should slow down when they’re about to reach the floor allocated for him. Right now, they were at the 58th floor, but the elevator was only getting faster!

Isane and Yamada also noticed that, and they started to freak out.

At that moment, Yamada couldn’t help but ask, “Isane-San, what floor did you say you’ve reached?”

“T-The 69th…” She said then looked at the top of the door; and the number was 70!

77… 88… 99…

They were only getting faster!

………….

On the 100th floor, inside of a vast room, Retsu Unohana was sitting on a cozy chair in front of her desk, working on a few papers, with a cup of tea on her side.

Suddenly, the teacup started to shake, which caught her attention. She stared at it for a while, and when she finally looked at the elevator at the end of the room, she couldn’t help but stand up straight.

The numbers above the elevator door were getting into the 90s, and they showed no signs of slowing down!

Unohana hurriedly walked out of her desk and stood in front of the elevator with widened eyes.

…..

By now, even Jan was freaking out.

“Hey, something must be wrong, right?” Yamada asked.

“Yea… The number is stuck at 100…” Jan said weakly.

“But I don’t feel like… we’re stopping?!” Isane said as she looked at Jan with her eyes wide open.

Suddenly, lights inside of the elevator went red, and the sound of an alarm went off simultaneously as the whole elevator started shaking violently, which fortunately made everyone lose their foothold and fall to the ground. The elevator’s speed increased to the point that everyone inside was pressed to the floor.

Yamada couldn’t help but yell out loud, “JAN SAN! YOU CRAZY BASTAAAAAAAARD!”

……

Outside of the Soul Building, on the roof of a building inside of Soul Society, a tall, light-skinned guy, wearing a pink, floral kimono and a Sugegasa straw hat covering his face suddenly moved his hand lazily, fixed his hat, and looked up to see what appeared to be a box being launched out of the Soul Building and into the sky.

“Oy, oy, oy!” Said the 8th division captain, Shunsui Kyōraku.