Chapter 26

"Clink."

Haruto pressed his palm hard against the hilt, and the Reiatsu pouring into his Zanpakuto made it emit a somewhat sharp scraping sound.

Even the air trembled faintly.

Soon, as the Reiatsu infused into the Zanpakuto continued to seep out along its edge, the entire blade inside the sheath was dyed a pale gold.

If the sheath had not contained it, it might have lit up the entire space around him.

Fortunately.

The strange phenomenon lasted only seven seconds, and the room soon returned to normal.

As for those seven seconds...

That was precisely how long Zanka no Tachi's incantation took.

Although this Kidō, numbered as high as seventy-eight, could only be flung half a meter by Haruto, leading him to judge it lacking in practical combat value, it could still work wonders in certain relatively confined spaces, such as a pleasure-quarter shop.

However, holding a fully formed Kidō spell without releasing it placed extremely high demands on both one's understanding of Kidō and one's physical condition.

Even though Haruto's physical condition had improved greatly over time after he took the Heavenly Bedding Pill, doing this still put a strain on his body.

Moreover, Reiatsu would continuously dissipate while he maintained the Kidō. At Haruto's current level, Zanka no Tachi would be left with only fifty percent of its power after one minute, decline to twenty percent after three, and disappear entirely after five.

Even so.

That was still more reliable than the one-twentieth power it would have after Eishōhaki: Zanka no Tachi at twenty percent power was stronger than Raikōhō cast with Eishōhaki.

At the same time.

To keep Zanka no Tachi ready to fire, Haruto not only had to concentrate intensely to prevent the Kidō from exploding in his face, but also could not use any other Hadō before releasing it.

If the other party really does mean trouble...

Haruto gripped his sword in one hand and opened the room's sliding door with the other.

I'll try to finish the conversation within a minute. Even if I can't cut them down, I'll give it one shot and then report it to the Gotei 13!

Whether they were a rogue Shinigami or an exiled noble, their identity was something they could not reveal openly. Compared with a Shinigami candidate of impeccable background like Haruto, it could not be clearer which side the Gotei 13 would favor.

Of course.

Considering the other party's influence in the pleasure quarter, Haruto certainly could not seek help from the local Shinigami. Although it was in the exact opposite direction from Haruto's original destination, if it really came to that... as long as he could reach Rukongai's first twenty districts, he could easily obtain official help from the Gotei 13.

Although Haruto had taken great care to make all sorts of preparations, this trip was not an impulsive decision.

After all...

Even if he had not noticed the signs immediately, he had indeed seen through that illusion just now.

A difference of one Reii class was not an insurmountable gap.

He went up the stairs beside the room.

No one stopped him on the way to the fifth and top floor. Presumably, they had been told in advance.

The higher the stairs went, the steeper they became.

Strangely, as Haruto climbed, he did not hear a single suggestive sound. It was not that the rooms on the third floor and above were better soundproofed; the reason lay with the curtains hanging where the stairs opened onto the corridors:

Soundproofing Kidō had been applied to them.

"For a pleasure-quarter establishment, that's quite an investment."

Completely enclosed soundproofing Kidō was common, but getting the same soundproofing effect from an object that let air through, such as a curtain, required a great deal of extra thought in the Kidō placed upon it.

Haruto did not let these things distract him any further.

There was only so long he could maintain Zanka no Tachi. Since he had decided to accept the invitation, it was naturally best to reach his destination as quickly as possible.

He took the steps two at a time.

Leaving the last, nearly vertical section of stairs behind, Haruto arrived at the fifth-floor door after half a minute.

"..."

After a brief pause.

Haruto took his hand off his Zanpakuto, gripped the barely visible indentations with both hands, and pulled the enormous four-panel paper doors before him forcefully to either side.

"Rattle—"

"Thud."

He used just the right amount of force, and the door panels bumped lightly against their frames.

The first thing that met his eyes was an enormous round screen that just reached the ceiling. Its grid of straight horizontal and vertical lines was painted with countless lifelike... butterflies that seemed to be caught in a spider's web, struggling to break free.

Directly in front of the screen.

Fine black hair spilled in disarray over her shoulders and chest, a few strands even curling onto the floor.

Propping her cheek up with one hand, the red-eyed woman wore a smile that was two parts disdain, three parts boredom, and five parts amusement as she slowly exhaled a long stream of smoke. Between the index and middle fingers of her overly slender right hand was an engraved brass pipe half as long as her body.

And matching this image almost perfectly was the woman's distinctly unconventional outfit:

The front of her loose kimono hung entirely open, revealing a cropped Western-style woman's garment resembling a bra that left the upper halves of her breasts completely exposed.

Her excessively slender waist was clearly the work of a corset, though that part was completely concealed by the kimono's netsuke.

There was something even more outrageous:

Her tall figure was evident even as she sat on the floor. With her right leg raised and her foot pointed, her bent knee formed an angle of less than ten degrees. Together with the already short hem of her kimono, it seemed that a slightly larger movement would expose everything hidden in the shadows.

Not only that.

The woman's age was impossible to tell—her overly mature expression stood in stark contrast to her overly youthful appearance, especially after Haruto noticed that her hair was also tied in a small bun at the back of her head, which explained why her black hair appeared uneven in length—and she wore a pair of fishnet stockings over her straight, slender legs, something that absolutely should not have appeared in Soul Society... or at least in Rukongai.

"Yo!"

The haze from the pipe gradually faded, and a strong smell of alcohol quickly replaced the shocking visual impression the woman had made.

Beside her, all kinds of liquor bottles lay piled together in a disorderly heap. Besides the usual sake, there were even quite a few beer and whiskey bottles. Some of these products, clearly from the World of the Living, were empty, while others had not even been opened.

"Little brother from the Shinigami Academy."

The woman lightly tapped one end of her pipe against a porcelain dish on the tatami, scattering dark ash like snowflakes.

With that simple movement, her loose clothing swayed along her curves.

"I'm the owner of Yoshiwara, Naa Ichihara. People on the street usually call me the 'Great Magistrate.'"

The amusement at the corners of the woman's mouth increased from five parts to seven.

"If you don't mind..."

"Would you give me your name?"

Volume one: 017, Great (social explosion) Magistrate

"Magistrate?"

In ancient times, this title was roughly equivalent to that of a ministerial- or provincial-level official.

The fact that the woman before him, Naa Ichihara, could bear a title like "Great Magistrate" made her standing among Rukongai's gangs easy to imagine.

And Haruto had not missed what she meant:

She had just called herself the owner of Yoshiwara—

All of Rukongai was under Seireitei's jurisdiction, and none of its districts had an administrator like a "district chief" serving as a local authority.

In other words.

The big sister in charge of all the gangs and the pleasure quarter in the Yoshiwara District?

My luck really isn't bad...

Haruto had not expected such a major figure to be hidden inside a shop he had been casually pulled into.

Then again, if she really was at the Sixth-Class Spiritual Pressure level, she was indeed qualified to rule a district's underworld.

After all.

An ordinary Shinigami at squad-member level was qualified to throw their weight around in Rukongai beyond the fortieth district. A lower-ranked Seated Officer could barely be considered someone who could lord it over others around the twentieth district. As for higher-ranked Seated Officers, their word carried weight even in Rukongai's first few districts outside Seireitei.

But in any case.

Since the other party had not made the first move...

"Haruto."

Although Haruto's palm remained against the hilt of his Zanpakuto, he still answered Naa Ichihara's question quite formally.

Whether as opponents or friends, people in Soul Society did indeed have a habit of exchanging names. Following manga convention, those too arrogant to give their names all seemed to die miserably, except for Byakuya.

"Haruto..."

Naa Ichihara carefully savored the name.

"A student at Shin'ō Academy, and you don't even have a surname?"

"I'm from Rukongai's East 66th District."

Haruto added.

"Oh? That really is quite far away."

The districts of Rukongai varied in size. The most remote, from the seventieth district onward, were often more than ten times the size of the districts in the first half of Rukongai.

At the same time.

Because they were so desolate and barren, Rukongai's districts from the seventieth onward had less than a tenth of the population of those districts. Although they were still nominally called Rukongai, the "wandering soul streets," finding a settlement of souls in those places was no easy task.

As District 66 was just a little way from District 70, in this poor place, not only were there plenty of people without surnames, there were plenty without names at all...

The name Haruto actually sounded rather casually chosen.

"Little brother."

Naa Ichihara lightly ran her left hand along the edge of the low chair she leaned against. Blue sparks flew, and a slowly burning flame quickly appeared at the tip of her rounded fingernail.

"Puff."

Her nearly extinguished pipe was relit.

"With your talent, haven't you received an invitation from a noble?"

Many geniuses from Rukongai had already attracted the attention of nobles of various ranks inside and outside Seireitei while studying at Shin'ō Academy.

The nobles of Soul Society were powerful precisely because quite a few Shinigami among the Gotei 13's most solid and dependable middle ranks had received their favors.

They were adopted or married into a family as commoners.

It might not sound very nice, but it was indeed an arrangement sought by both nobles and many students. Those who received no attention naturally developed hostility toward the nobles and the "chosen ones."

The treatment Haruto received stemmed from the reasons above.

Moreover, he had no surname, so if he accepted a noble's overtures, he would naturally be granted one.

"I'm not interested in minor nobles."

Haruto's smiling answer contained two parts disdain.

A student with the talent to reach Seventh-Class Reii before graduation was enough to draw offers from mid-ranking nobles.

Since Haruto regarded these mainstays of the Noble Assembly as "minor nobles," he naturally had bigger ambitions.

"Then that means..."

The amusement on Naa Ichihara's face increased to seven parts:

"You want to join the Four Great Noble Clans?"

Rather than answer Naa Ichihara's question, Haruto asked one of his own with "complete sincerity":

"Manager Ichihara, every other word out of your mouth is about nobles... which of the Four Great Noble Clans drove your family out of Seireitei?"

"..."

Naa Ichihara's silence confirmed to Haruto that his guess had been right.