Jun returned to Soul Society, and he was incredibly bored. Every day he was like a heavy smoker who had been smoking opium for over a decade, his eyes blank and lifeless. He would lie down wherever he could, his mouth slightly open, thankfully without drooling.
Some changes have occurred in the Tenth Division. Remember when Jun first arrived, he sent Little Lion to find that Happy Shop? It was a brothel, after all, the low-class kind.
However, those kinds of places are quite popular with some scumbags. You tell me, in Soul Society, is it difficult for Soul Reaper to find a lover? Not really, but some people just like to play around with women and have no responsibility.
That's not all. Some scumbags even enjoy playing with people's lives, which is really going too far. This kind of thing has never existed in modern times; it was much more ruthless in ancient times.
Tōshirō investigated these things and felt his worldview was somewhat shattered, but he realized the question that had been asked of him: What kind of person is a scumbag? Aren't there any scumbags in the Tenth Division?
However, the investigation revealed that now, every division except the 11th Division has such people. Because Sōya Azashiro of the 11th Division utterly despises people who frequent such places, he kills them all, so that's the case.
As for why Chun knew about these places, it's because he'd been chatting with his old friends and they'd mentioned them. Chun had never been to any of them, but well, it's a bit embarrassing for a man not to know about these places.
So the Tenth Division launched a rectification campaign, but with little effect. Because in Soul Society, this isn't a matter of atmosphere; men are expected to have this, and it's unacceptable to lack it. You, Tōshirō, you little brat, don't understand.
So Tōshirō found Jun, "Captain!!"
"Huh? Oh~ Tōshirō ~", Jun was brought back to his senses by the sudden shout, but he didn't look too pleased and just asked, "What is it?"
What could Tōshirō do? He was stuck with a captain like this. "Captain! I've finished investigating that Happy Shop you asked me to investigate. I've been investigating for over two years, and I found that only the 11th Division Gotei 13 n't go there. I think that's really wrong!"
"Wrong? Uh, what's wrong?"
"Huh?"
The Little Lion was dumbfounded. "You're the one who sent me to investigate, and now I say something's wrong, and you're asking me what's wrong? What do you mean by that?" But since he was his superior, Tōshirō thought for a moment...
"It's just disrespectful, it's disrespectful to women."
"Oh, that's disrespectful. What if those women did it willingly?"
"How... how is this possible?"
Jun smiled noncommittally. "Who knows? Speaking of Tōshirō, you didn't ask any of those women, did you? Heh, you keep saying they don't respect women, but in reality, you don't respect them at all either. You're all the same."
Jun waved his hand, Tōshirō, his face flushed, retreated. The Little Lion was now extremely upset. He suddenly realized that Jun was right; he now looked down on those women, and even during the investigation, he hadn't once asked them what they thought. Wasn't that contempt in itself?
There's physical contempt and mental contempt. So the question is, as the so-called savior, what is Tōshirō supposed to do? How does he save them? Is preventing the Soul Reaper from intervening considered saving them? In essence, Tōshirō is still a particularly rigid Soul Reaper, nothing more.
What Jun is doing now is changing Tōshirō's perception. Whether he can succeed or not is unimportant. Little Lion wasn't originally in Jun's plan, because even if he's a genius, he still won't be good enough because he wasn't given enough time to develop. If he had been born a hundred years earlier, it's hard to say what would have happened.
So Tōshirō went off to investigate again, and this time, Jun called Rangiku back halfway there.
"Rangiku ~, did the survey make you feel uncomfortable?"
Rangiku blushed slightly, "Hehe, a little bit~"
"Did you know that the Soul Reaper also has Happy Shops?"
"Huh?"
"Haha, it seems you don't know," Jun waved his hand, "Then go assist Tōshirō, and think carefully about why those women do those kinds of things, why they're so shameless? Right? Why do people think it's harmless? Ah~ go."
Rangiku received the mission and went back to tell Tōshirō. The Little Lion overheard the most important question at the end, "Why do people think this is harmless? Yes, why is that?"
"Hmm, yeah, why?" Rangiku was also racking her brains, but neither of them found an answer; at least, they couldn't quite understand each other's thoughts.
So they decided to ask someone else.
The next day, Gin Ichimaru suddenly appeared in Jun's office. Gin slammed his hand on Jun's desk and asked fiercely...
"You old scoundrel! What exactly are you making Rangiku do? Why is she asking about those Happy Shop, and even asking what men go there for!? Why do you think going to places like that is harmless?"
"Ah~ Gin~, what brings you here?"
The table was smashed in half. "Don't you dare play dumb with me!"
"Haha~", Jun raised his hand, restoring the table to its original state with his Spiritual Power. "You're asking Rangiku, right? There's really nothing to say about that question, it's just the question itself, is it that difficult?"
"Huh!?" Gin Ichimaru's face twisted in disbelief. "Is this a difficult question!? You're asking a girl something like this! There's something wrong with that in itself!?"
"Hey~ hey~", Jun sneered, "Didn't Rangiku do a great job? What's wrong with that? I understand your desire to protect Rangiku, but isn't it a bit too much?"
"Ha!?"
"Show some respect for Rangiku. Sometimes, you can have a good talk with her. For example, you might talk about how you're currently submitting to Aizen for her sake, and how you might later betray Soul Society for her sake."
What nonsense are you talking about!?
"Nonsense? No way~, isn't this what you're doing right now?" Jun looked at Gin Ichimaru coldly. Gin Ichimaru felt a pressure. Jun sneered, "I understand why you didn't tell Rangiku. You look down on her. You fundamentally look down on women, that's why you're like this. You also can't understand the meaning of that question, and you even come to me to ask. Heh, what do you have to ask?"
"I may not look busy, but I'm always busy. I'm calculating and speculating about the future! Every word I say, every question I ask, has its reasons! Gin Ichimaru, I'm very disappointed in you. You think you're so smart, huh? Get out!"
Gin Ichimaru glanced at Jun, who had slumped back into her chair, his expression shifting rapidly, his eyes darting around. He was deep in thought, pondering Jun's words, before slowly retreating and leaving the Tenth Division.
This event directly led to the establishment of the Women's Soul Reaper Association, the first modern association in Soul Society. Furthermore, the Women's Soul Reaper Association was no longer just a group of women casually gathering for tea; it transformed into an association dedicated to advocating for women's rights.
The first step is to eliminate everything in Soul Society related to prostitution, regardless of whether it's initiated by the man or the woman, based on the situation in the World of the Living.
The Soul Society actually looks down on the World of the Living to some extent, since Soul Reaper live long lives, right? In reality, since the World of the Living developed into modern society, the Soul Society has faced many more problems. The associations in the original work were the result of gradual compromise; everyone is adapting.
They're just speeding things up. You'll have to adapt, whether you like it or not. When it comes to this and the issue of respect between men and women, we need to emulate the World of the Living. Otherwise, it's Soul Society being backward, which is too shameful!
The Soul Society's response to this situation was quite interesting. Many male Soul Reaper were unwilling, and this was true for each division, some of whom held high positions. Even Shunsui Kyōraku was opposed, and Kyōraku's Vice-Captain Ise Jun, was the president of the Women's Association. The captain and Vice-Captain of the Eighth Division were seen arguing amongst themselves.
This situation can't be changed anytime soon; it can drag on for a long time. Let Soul Society deal with it internally and ignore other things. This is just a small, purely objective matter.
On the other hand, these fundamental reflections are useful for human rights, women's rights, equality, and a range of other issues. It's like respect: if you think it's useless, that there's no respect in the world, you can do whatever you want; but if you believe it exists, then act on it, show respect in your interactions with others, and it will exist.
The Soul Society lacks this kind of thing. The difference in power naturally creates a hierarchy of contempt, a natural class system. This is perfectly acceptable, but class doesn't mean you can treat lower-level beings like ants. As fellow human beings, you should at least have basic respect. You don't need to consider this kind of thing when it comes to scum.
As mentioned before, Soul Society is incredibly idle, and so are the Soul Reaper), so the Women's Association basically has activities every day—it's all about protests. Fortunately, they're relatively rational; they went to Rukongai and demolished all those Happy Shops, but they didn't kill anyone, thus placing themselves on the current moral high ground in Soul Society.
Well, to put it simply, the Soul Reapers aren't actually that concerned about the interests of the Dead Souls. That's why this issue hasn't escalated to a higher level or caused a major conflict.
Because from the moment Soul Reaper becomes Soul Reaper, it feels like they're no longer the same species as Dead Souls. This feeling, compared to the feeling of Arrancar looking into Hollows, is more like an unspoken rule. But unspoken rules often have more consequences, because they're unspoken; no matter how outrageous the situation, as long as it's not exposed, it goes unpunished.
The current unspoken rule is that Soul Reaper is above Dead Souls; Soul Reaper is a god, able to arbitrarily decide the life, death, and everything else of Dead Souls, including their human rights. Under these circumstances, the Women's Soul Reaper Association opposes the male Dead Souls for the rights of female Soul Reaper. However, the point of contention between them is not the interests of Dead Souls; the real issue is that they have no point of contention at all.
There is no antagonism between female and Soul Reaper! Their communication is more like a...
The stray cat on your property mates with the stray cat on mine. I think that's wrong, and you should control the stray cats on your property.
Then the reply came back, "That's a stray cat, are you crazy?"
"You're just going to ignore those stray cats? Aren't they on your property?"
"That's on my property, it's not my pet, it's a stray cat, you understand?"
"I know, the one on the bed in my house isn't my pet either, it's a stray cat. We're talking about stray cats, there's nothing wrong with that."
Therefore, this point of contention is harmless to both sides and will ultimately lead nowhere. However, neither side notices this blatant situation, and no one exposes it. Although some people sense something is wrong, they can't see it. This has always been the way things are in Soul Society; their values stop there and they won't delve any deeper.
Chun had to admit he was quite disappointed; they were all the same kind of people. Chun couldn't bring himself to break the ice right now. Because if he did, he would be exposing the most disgusting thing about Soul Society —he would be going against everything in Soul Society. It wasn't the right time yet. Just wait and see; sooner or later, he would shatter all these people's values.