Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child.
"Repay repay repay! Repay my ass!"
Watching Bronya's tightly furrowed brows, Nezha jumped up from his meditation cushion in rage. He kicked over the stone table in front of him that was laden with tea snacks and fruit platters. The bright red fruits rolled and bounced across the ground.
"This woman named Topaz is completely taking advantage of people's difficulties! Coming right after Belobog just escaped the Stellaron crisis? Couldn't she wait a few decades? What a jerk!"
Ao Bing gently waved his hand, and a stream of water materialized out of thin air to steadily catch the falling teacups. He raised his eyes to look at the furious Nezha, his voice flowing like clear spring water over pebbles: "Nezha, calm down. Many things are not necessarily as they appear on the surface."
"Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down?!"
Nezha turned and glared at Ao Bing, then huffed and sat back down on the cushion. "You saw that woman named Topaz—she's all smiles hiding a knife! Every word out of her mouth is 'debt' this, 'contract' that. She's exactly like those guys in the Heavenly Court! Belobog just barely caught its breath after that damned eternal freeze, and now she's forcing them to repay money?"
Ao Bing slowly shook his head: "But the Interastral Peace Corporation did provide reconstruction funds. In the spirit of contracts—"
"Bullshit spirit!" Nezha slammed his fist into the stone pillar beside him, spiderweb-like cracks spreading outward. "Belobog finally crawled out from the brink of life and death, and now the Corporation is pushing them right back to the brink. Rather than surrendering without a fight, better to go down together in mutual destruction—"
"Nezha!" Ao Bing's voice suddenly rose, a flash of pain in his eyes.
The stone cave fell silent for a moment, filled only with Nezha's rapid breathing. Outside the cave came the clear cry of a crane, and a ray of sunset light spilled in, stretching their shadows long.
Ao Bing lowered his gaze. After letting out a long sigh, he was the first to break the silence: "I know you're indignant, but you can't turn everything into a fight to the death. This debt concerns every resident of Belobog—it's no small matter. The Interastral Peace Corporation's methods may be tough, but they aren't making baseless demands. From the story Bronya told, this debt was voluntarily signed by the first city builders."
"Voluntarily?" Nezha scoffed. "When a starving person sees a steamed bun, do they still care if it's poisoned? When that contract was signed back then, was there really no trickery involved?"
Ao Bing shook his head: "You can't put it that way. Without those funds, the people of Belobog would have died in that blizzard long ago, and there would be no story today. Besides, Director Topaz also offered other options."
"My master always said 'misfortune is where fortune hides, and fortune is where misfortune lurks.' Why not see if there's a glimmer of opportunity hidden within this great calamity."
——
["Before you two came in, Topaz had already warned me… If the debt drags on too long, the Corporation has given her authority to take 'tough measures.'"]
[Bronya also knew that the Interastral Peace Corporation was a massive organization spanning the galaxy. With the Corporation's scale, suppressing Belobog would probably be as easy as turning over a hand. So she wanted to ask the Express for help, hoping the crew could try to persuade Topaz.]
[The two of them naturally felt it was their duty. After getting Topaz's contact information and learning her itinerary, Stelle quickly went to Belobog's museum to find her.]
[Originally March 7th had planned to come in with a fierce attitude, but the moment she faced Topaz's smile, all the words she had prepared got stuck in her throat. She could only anxiously turn to Stelle beside her for help: "We… ahh, Stelle, help me out! I'm really not good at this…"]
["I think the Corporation's demands are very unreasonable." Stelle didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point.]
["Indeed, I understand. From your perspective, this matter definitely seems unfair, right?" Topaz gave a faint smile. "Different standpoints lead to different angles of view—that's perfectly normal. Debt collection is my job—and I've seen cases far more difficult than Belobog's situation."]
["…Most individuals or organizations that can't repay on time have their own hardships. But if I treat every project as a 'special case'… the entire galactic economic system would probably collapse."]
[She had long grown accustomed to debtors being unable to repay, and for that reason she also provided various solutions.]
[However, because Belobog had already exceeded the repayment period by far too long, milder solutions were no longer applicable. Only more aggressive options remained. As for the specific details of the plan… she kept her lips sealed on that front and kicked the ball back to Bronya.]
[But thinking of Bronya's troubled expression, March 7th still couldn't bear to watch idly and pleaded: "Um, Miss Topaz, what exactly would it take for the Corporation to show some mercy to Belobog?"]
[She didn't want to see the world that Bronya had worked so hard to change be stripped away in the blink of an eye by the Corporation. That would be too cruel.]
[Topaz smiled slightly: "What do you think the Corporation is, March? Don't forget—we are the same as the city builders here. We are all practitioners of Preservation."]
["No matter what, the proposals we put forward will definitely take the well-being of Belobog's people into consideration. If we couldn't even do that much, wouldn't the Strategic Investment Department just become an unreasonable gang like the Legion?"]
——
Bleach.
The night sky over Karakura Town was dotted with stars. Inside the clinic, Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime were watching the sky screen together. Although Topaz's arrival had made the newlywed couple tense at the same time, after hearing that her plan would take Belobog's people's well-being into account, Ichigo's furrowed brows couldn't help but relax a little.
"Topaz didn't explain her aggressive plan in detail, but I guess… it's probably something like debt restructuring."
"Debt restructuring?"
"Yeah, it's reaching a new agreement between Belobog and the Corporation regarding the outstanding debt." Ichigo took a sip of tea and set down the medical journal in his hand. "If Belobog can't repay in money, they could repay with things like labor, land, and so on. Of course… I have no idea what specific plan Miss Topaz actually proposed."
Orihime looked at Ichigo: "But from what I see, Miss Topaz isn't being aggressive at all. She's much better than that… what's-his-name, Skott. Communicating with her should still leave some room for negotiation, right?"
"I'm afraid it might disappoint you. In my view, Stelle and the others have no room at all." Ichigo gave a wry smile. "Often the ones with the least power are the loudest before a fight. They use bluster to overwhelm the other side, trying to avoid trouble with the smallest possible cost."
"But people who truly have the ability to handle trouble usually disdain shouting and yelling—this Miss Topaz is clearly the latter. And her position in the Corporation… I have a feeling it's much higher than Skott's."