Demon Scythe was a long-haired man dressed in beige cloth, with dark circles under his eyes and a conspicuous scar on his neck. He was only a little shorter than Liandao.
"A Soul Reaper? No, I just wanted someone to practice my swordsmanship on. There aren't any experts left where I live, so I came looking around the neighboring areas and found you..."
Rei pointed his Zanpakuto at Demon Scythe, looking so arrogant, as though they were lucky, that Demon Scythe felt irritated for no apparent reason.
Demon Scythe remembered the noble Soul Reaper who had once slashed him across the neck. His attitude had been just the same.
"You just wanted to kill us? In that case, there's nothing more to say. Boys... tear him apart together!"
Demon Scythe roared in a low, furious voice. Several of his subordinates drew all manner of weapons and charged Rei, ready to fight to the death.
Zhuye and the other two tried to help again, but Rei waved them back once more. He wanted to fight alone...
Clang, clang! Bang!
"Ahhh!"
"Lord Demon Scythe, save—"
The residents outside the compound craned their necks, hoping to watch the commotion, but they couldn't see anything. They could only hear the constant clash of weapons, muffled grunts and screams from the courtyard. Then someone was sent flying out and fell to his death in the street.
The residents all recognized him as one of Demon Scythe's subordinates, who had bullied them plenty. Seeing him dead, many of them secretly rejoiced...
Only two people remained in the courtyard. Rei and Demon Scythe stood facing each other. Rei now had wounds on his left arm and back, inflicted by Demon Scythe's subordinates.
Demon Scythe sneered. "You killed so many people and only suffered those few injuries? What a terrifying opponent!"
Rei's face showed disgust. "You used your subordinates' lives to wear me down? You're disgusting."
"I've supported them for so long. What's wrong with them repaying me? You're the one who slaughtered them for no reason. How cruel." Demon Scythe thought nothing of it and mocked Rei instead.
"Yes, yes, I'm the one in the wrong. But I've always been a kindhearted person, so let me send you to join them! Then they can repay you even better!!!"
Realizing he'd gotten into a war of words, Rei's face darkened and he charged Demon Scythe with his blade. Once he was close, he slashed straight down. Demon Scythe blocked with his huge scythe, then found an opening and kicked Rei flying.
The immense force sent Rei crashing through a large section of the wall and onto the street outside.
Demon Scythe pursued him with his giant scythe. Rei got to his feet and concentrated his Reiatsu on his Zanpakuto. With a single strike, he nearly knocked the incoming scythe flying.
"Haha!"
Rei seized the chance to thrust his Zanpakuto forward, a ferocious grin spreading across his face. Demon Scythe leaped back, but blood was already pouring from his chest. If he hadn't dodged quickly, the blade might have pierced his heart.
Clang, clang, clang!
Rei pressed his attack. Even with Demon Scythe defending with all his strength, every one of Rei's blows still felt overwhelmingly heavy to him. Whenever the Reiatsu coating the Zanpakuto so much as grazed him, another bloody cut appeared on his body!
His long weapon was being overwhelmed by a short one, leaving Demon Scythe miserable. When he saw blood flowing from Rei's wounds, he grew even more afraid.
Damn it! This guy's ignoring his wounds and using his Reiatsu to attack. Does he have a death wish?
Demon Scythe was only frightening himself. The more he thought about it, the more alarmed he became. Fighting like this, he might die before he could finish off his opponent.
"Trash, it's over!!"
With a roar, Rei concentrated even more Reiatsu into his Zanpakuto and charged Demon Scythe with all his strength.
Terrified, Demon Scythe raised his scythe horizontally with both hands to block. Rei's Zanpakuto came down mercilessly, but this time there was no clash of metal. His scythe was cleaved in two...
Rei sat on a low stool, looking with a somewhat complicated expression at Demon Scythe, who lay in a pool of blood. Demon Scythe had died unwilling to accept it.
Zhuye took the brothers inside to search for food and useful belongings, medicine, and the like. They came out excited.
"Lord Nangong, what's wrong?"
Zhuye noticed that Rei, despite his complete victory, didn't seem very happy, and grew a little worried.
Rei glanced at the women hiding in the house and peeking out, then said to Zhuye and the others with regret, "This guy was actually pretty capable. Too bad he spent years enjoying himself and forgot the laws of this world. He couldn't bring out the skills he used to have, even at the end. He was probably unwilling to accept it!"
In these remote regions of Soul Society, those who had awakened their Reiryoku not only had to compete with others like themselves, but also had to survive the jaws of Hollows.
Hollows specifically preyed on people with Reiryoku, and many who had awakened it and could have become Soul Reapers were eaten.
"Tell me, why didn't he become a Soul Reaper when he had that kind of ability?" Rei casually asked Zhuye.
Zhuye thought for a moment, then said gravely, "He might have had the potential to become a Soul Reaper, but being one isn't so easy. He would have been subject to more restrictions. He probably wasn't willing to give up the feeling of doing whatever he pleased!"
Rei understood a little. No wonder many people who clearly had the qualifications to become Soul Reapers were unwilling to do so. They didn't want to protect this stodgy, boring world.
"Going to Seireitei might let them reach greater heights, but they'd also have to accept restrictions. If they don't go... can they only be dragged down by all kinds of desires? What a strange law..."
Rei murmured to himself. He had more thoughts he didn't voice: this law might also have been designed by those at the very top of Seireitei, leaving those who wanted to grow stronger or sought fame and profit no choice but to join them.
"Let's go, next stop!"
"Huh? Now? Your wounds..."
"These little scratches will be fine once they're bandaged. My body's still warmed up!"
"Yes, I'll lead the way right now!"
Unable to make much sense of it, Rei stopped thinking about it and ordered Zhuye to lead the way. The next stop was weaker, so he didn't care.
Half a month flew by. Rei visited every village and town within a fifty-kilometer radius of West Fallen Silver Town, killing or crushing more than a dozen factions, large and small.
Thanks to Rei's attacks, the Fallen Silver Group's rule was more secure than ever. Quite a few people who surrendered chose to join, bringing the group's membership to a hundred.
To feed so many people, they naturally controlled more than just that settlement of over ten thousand. The Fallen Silver Group also controlled all the surrounding towns and large villages.
Rei also gained the nickname "Red Blade Berserker." The Reiryoku users who had survived his visits by sheer luck spread the nickname throughout West Fallen Silver District.
The group's expansion kept Genji scrambling. He had to manage relations on all sides and deal with all sorts of connections. Things weren't peaceful within the group every day, either; conflicts sometimes arose over one thing or another.
Leaving trivial matters aside, which Genji could usually handle, he was helpless when it came to problems that could only be settled by a duel. He could only let them settle things with their fists.
Another seven days passed, and the new members gradually stopped obeying Genji, believing he was too soft on certain matters. More than twenty of them voiced their discontent.
This infuriated Genji, but he forcibly suppressed the infighting and made a shocking decision. After much thought, he handed the position of boss over to Rei.
In Genji's words, Rei was stronger, younger, and more talented. Genji had witnessed Rei's growth throughout this period, so no one else could take the position of boss...
In just about two months, Rei took up the banner of the Fallen Silver Group from Genji. But a new boss taking office was always accompanied by bloodshed.
Rei summoned the twenty-odd men who had wanted Genji to step down to a valley and slaughtered every last one of them. When Genji saw Rei return covered in blood, he was deeply moved.
Besides, in Rei's eyes, twenty-odd lackeys couldn't compare in importance to Genji, who had taught him to form his Zanpakuto and practice Zan Zen. They could even be considered master and disciple already; neither of them had simply said it aloud...
"Big Brother Genji, it's the fifth day. Hasn't Zhuye come back yet?" Rei, who was cracking sunflower seeds, shouted impatiently toward the dojo behind him.
He was the boss now, but Genji still handled the trivial matters, because Rei couldn't be bothered with his subordinates' jealous squabbles.
Rei was impatient because he could now use Zan Zen to enter the dream world he had visited when he first formed his Zanpakuto.
Genji had confirmed that it was the Zanpakuto World, but Rei still couldn't hear the name it was trying to tell him clearly.
Genji could also enter his Zanpakuto World, but once inside, all he could see was the mouth of his Zanpakuto's humanoid form moving. He couldn't hear a word it said.
That was the difference between Rei and Genji. Rei's Reiatsu was stronger than Genji's, so naturally he heard and saw more.
Zhuye had been sent to look for opponents in the surrounding area. Rei believed he could grow stronger through nonstop fighting, and that if he kept at it, he might learn his Zanpakuto's name.
"Rei, be a little more patient. They went nearly a hundred kilometers away. Leaving the distance aside, they might also have run into enemies or Hollows..."
Inside the dojo, Genji was sparring with wooden swords against seven people who had newly awakened their Reiryoku. The seven were rookies who had just joined the Fallen Silver Group, recruited by Genji.
"Wait, did you just say... ran into Hollows?"
Rei threw aside his sunflower seeds and jumped to his feet. He had a bold idea: why didn't he go cut down Hollows?
Perhaps because he'd been chased by a Hollow before, Rei had selectively forgotten that Hollows existed.
In fact, however, Hollows had been there all along. The two Soul Reapers who used to come to their small town frequently to eat, drink, and visit brothels without paying had seldom come lately. Whenever they did show up, they only grabbed some food in a hurry and left.
Whenever they went to Yamabi for food, they exchanged greetings with him. Yamabi had also learned from asking that they had been working lately, as quite a few Hollows had appeared around Fallen Silver.
"What? Don't tell me you're thinking of..." Genji stopped sparring with the newcomers and turned to speak seriously to Rei. "I'd advise you to give up that idea."
"Large numbers of Soul Reapers graduate from the Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy every year, and large numbers of Soul Reapers die in the Gotei 13 every year. Monsters like that aren't so easy to kill..."
Genji's words startled Rei, but he immediately burst out laughing. "Hahaha, isn't that perfect? Monsters that can even kill Soul Reapers might be better for training my strength than those pieces of trash..."
Genji was speechless. He felt he was completely wasting his breath, but Rei's arrogance also made him narrow his eyes. He recalled the monstrous awakened individuals he had encountered during his decades of wandering...