"Hey, Duan Mu, off to work again?"
"My little girl was just asking when you'd be back."
"Granny brewed some liquor and is planning to sell it to the taverns in West District 1. I left some by your shop door, in the basket on the left. Remember to bring it in."
"..."
Duan Mu answered each greeting from the people along the street with a smile.
This seemed pretty nice, too.
To be honest...
The people on this street were actually quite decent. Even the bad ones weren't truly evil, and the especially vile sorts generally couldn't make it here.
Because this was Soul Society!
The destination of souls after people died in the Human World.
Soul Society was divided into Rukongai and Seireitei. Seireitei lay at the center of Rukongai and was where the Soul Reapers lived, while ordinary souls lived in Rukongai.
Rukongai was divided into eighty districts in each of the east, west, south, and north. District 1 had the best public order, while District 80 was the worst of the worst. In places with terrible public order, murders, arson, and other crimes happened frequently.
Whenever new souls arrived in their respective districts, the people responsible for managing Rukongai assigned them to new families, having them gather and live together with others.
Because so many people died at the same time, even souls who died in the same place and at the same time had only a tiny chance of being assigned to the same district. In Rukongai, souls without Spiritual Power didn't go hungry. As long as they had water, they could live normally.
Thus, souls without Spiritual Power would never experience changes in height or weight for the rest of their lives.
If they wanted to leave Rukongai and live in the wealthy Seireitei, there was only one legal way: possess spiritual pressure, enter the Soul Reaper Academy, graduate, and become a Soul Reaper.
Of course, that didn't mean souls without spiritual pressure had no ambitions and simply idled away their days. Though there certainly were some like that.
Most people still wanted to buy attractive clothes. Even when they weren't hungry, they still had appetites, as well as hobbies such as drinking liquor and tea.
Therefore, most people in Rukongai did whatever work they could, whether growing grain, weaving cloth, cultivating tea, or anything else... Then they sold their goods in the districts with lower numbers, or directly to the Soul Reapers of Seireitei.
The districts with lower numbers even had many restaurants and taverns that served the Soul Reapers of Seireitei who needed to eat. As a result, Soul Reapers could often be found in those districts, and some Soul Reapers born in Rukongai even returned to live there during their holidays.
Some of this information had been told to Duan Mu by people during casual conversations, while some of it had already been known to him.
Duan Mu wasn't unfamiliar with this world.
Soul Reapers!
When he had first arrived in this world, Duan Mu had agonized over it for a while before choosing to settle in an empty house assigned to him in District 38.
The administrator originally responsible for assignments had planned to have Duan Mu form a new family with other people, but Duan Mu refused. Since there happened to be an empty house available, they simply assigned it to him instead.
However, the administrator had also said that if new people arrived, Duan Mu might be assigned new family members.
Duan Mu was quite satisfied with District 38 of West Rukongai. It was a fair distance from Seireitei, the center of every disturbance, so even if something happened there in the future, it wouldn't affect him.
Moreover, District 38, "Rongyao," lay in the center of western Rukongai and was considered a region with good public order. He wouldn't have to deal with troubles such as murder or arson.
Actually, there was another reason...
Duan Mu felt that the number "38" suited his system rather well.
As for joining the Soul Reaper Academy and becoming a Soul Reaper, Duan Mu had considered it. In the end, however, he abandoned the idea. No matter how good Seireitei had seemed in his memories, it couldn't erase its fundamentally "extremely unequal" feudal nature, where those in high positions could casually decide whether others lived or died.
At first, Duan Mu's plan had been to avoid entering Seireitei until he understood the inexplicable system in his mind.
But after three years, he had instead grown fond of life in Rukongai.
So Duan Mu simply stopped paying attention to information about Soul Reapers. Without any specific points of reference, he didn't even know exactly what year it was now, though he didn't care.
After exchanging greetings for a while, Duan Mu arrived in front of a building.
The building occupied little space. It was a two-story house, with the second floor built by Duan Mu himself. The small courtyard behind it, enclosed by a two-meter-high wall, had also been built by him. Hanging above the front of the building was a sign bearing three large characters: "Yorozuya"!
Although...
Whenever Duan Mu looked at those three characters now, he always felt that he must have been drunk out of his mind back then, with his chuunibyou switch activated, to come up with such a shop name.
A price list hung on the front door, listing mostly minor tasks.
The final line, however, read: "For commissions not listed above, inquire in person. The shopkeeper will decide the price. (The shop reserves the right of final interpretation.)"
Beside the price list was a brand-new discount chart that read: "Women receive 10% off; female Soul Reapers receive 20% off; female seated officers receive 30% off; female Lieutenant Captains receive 40% off; female captains... half price, no exceptions!!"
"Hmm, this should get Soul Reapers to come knocking, right?"
Duan Mu looked at the discount chart he had put up before leaving that morning and nodded in satisfaction.
"Daydreaming. There's no way a Soul Reaper will come ask you to do anything."
A clear voice came from behind Duan Mu. He turned around and saw a pretty girl who looked around seventeen or eighteen, her eyes filled with disdain as she looked at him.
"At least the odds are higher than yours of developing a second time." Duan Mu looked over the girl's utterly unremarkable chest and nodded. Then he emphasized, "Much higher."
The girl's face flushed in an instant—not from embarrassment, but from anger. She threw a punch at him. "How did I ever end up knowing a shameless pervert like you?"
Duan Mu didn't dodge. His physique wasn't particularly strong, but this little fist didn't actually hurt when it hit him.
The girl was named Uzuki. She had once shown the slightest hint of "coveting Duan Mu's body," earning a Love Value of 61, but Duan Mu had since erased that hint.
Now that she knew Duan Mu's true nature, her affection had remained at a friendship max of 60, without the slightest romantic interest.
It was worth mentioning that...
When Duan Mu had inexplicably fallen from the sky, he had landed directly in her home. It had caused a huge commotion, and rumors had even spread for a time that a strange invader had broken in, attracting Soul Reapers to investigate.
After investigating for a while and confirming that Duan Mu was just an ordinary person, they released him. The empty house he had been assigned back then had also been partly intended as compensation.
Duan Mu took out his key and was about to open the door when he seemed to remember something. He tossed the key to Uzuki. "Open the door for me." Then he turned and rummaged through a bamboo basket in the corner in front of the house. Finally, he took out several large liquor bottles, and a smile immediately spread across his face.
"Brewing Granny, I love you more and more!"
"You alcoholic."
Uzuki opened the door with the key and rolled her eyes at Duan Mu. "If Brewing Granny's husband heard that, he'd beat you senseless. There's already a rumor going around the street that the Yorozuya owner likes seducing old ladies."
"Jealousy. That's all it is—jealousy."
Duan Mu didn't care. He picked up several bottles of liquor and carried them into his little home.
The room wasn't large. A bar and several chairs stood beneath the stairs, while a somewhat battered sofa occupied the center. Other than those, the only furniture was the liquor cabinet behind the bar. The second floor was where Duan Mu rested.
"Want a drink?"
"What do you think?"
"Then do you want some milk?"
"...Yeah."
"Hahaha, as expected, you're a..."
Seeing Uzuki pick up a liquor bottle, Duan Mu hurriedly swallowed the words "little brat." Instead, he took a carton of strawberry milk from beneath the liquor cabinet and handed it to Uzuki.
After naming the shop this way, it somehow felt incomplete not to keep some strawberry milk inside.
Although after Uzuki found out about it, every carton of strawberry milk Duan Mu bought from West District 1 ended up in her stomach.
Actually, he had bought it for Uzuki to drink anyway. After all, he didn't have a refrigerator here, because there wasn't even electricity in Rukongai. Seireitei seemed to have electricity. When he had gone to District 1 to buy food, he had once glimpsed Seireitei from afar and noticed a building resembling a power station.
But Duan Mu had no idea whether it generated electricity using methods from the Human World or with spirit particles.
"If you like strawberry milk so much, why don't you go to the Soul Reaper Academy? Their cafeteria gives out all kinds of desserts for free. I heard some of the strawberry milk I buy was brought back by students on vacation."
Uzuki gulped down the milk, let out a satisfied belch, and only then said disdainfully, "I don't want to become a Soul Reaper."
"Heh."
Duan Mu didn't ask further and instead placed the few bottles of liquor on the cabinet.
"Come to think of it, I always see you buying liquor from the tavern, but I've never seen you drink it. I've never seen you drink at the tavern, either."
"Brat, ever heard the saying, 'I advise you not to meddle in other people's business'?"
Uzuki rolled her eyes. Her expression was filled with utter disdain. "Going by age, I could be your mother."
"..." Duan Mu.
He couldn't argue, because according to what Duan Mu knew, this girl had already lived in District 38 for nearly thirty years.
"I'm leaving." Uzuki waved and walked away, utterly carefree.
Duan Mu shook the empty milk carton, wondering whether he should buy more strawberry milk to keep in the shop for atmosphere. That girl didn't provide him with any experience points anyway.
After grumbling inwardly, Duan Mu got up, closed the shop door, and carried a bottle of liquor upstairs.
Before you continue