Jūshirō Ukitake is standing on the roof of a long house on the top of a black tile hill.
The wind blows from the direction of the city, mixed with the pungent smell of firewood smoke, the salty aroma of soy sauce, and the smell of hay left by the horses walking on the stone road. This is World of the Living air, turbid, dense, and Reishi as thin as a bowl of sake mixed with too much water.
Suzuko squatted beside him, holding his chin in his hands, his bright eyes reflecting the intersecting streets in the distance.
"Wow... is this World of the Living?"
Viewed from this height, the entire city looks like a scroll drawn with ink. Low machiyas line up row upon row, and wooden signboards sway slightly in the wind, with the words "oil", "rice" and "eight hundred houses" written on them. Waiting for words. Traffickers and footmen in coarse cloth yukata carry burdens through the narrow alleys. Occasionally, one or two samurai with double swords at their waists and proud expressions walking by the handles of their swords, causing passers-by to look sideways and avoid them.
Ukitake glanced at her, her white hair gently blowing in the wind, and her delicate face looked plain. "It's not much different from the Rukongai neighborhood, except that the Reishi is a lot less dense, and it's a little heavy to breathe."
Suzuko turned to look at him, his cheeks were slightly bulging, and his face was full of helplessness saying "Can't you cooperate with me?": "Jushiro, you are such a boring guy, this is World of the Living! The World of the Living written in the book, shouldn't it be more lively?"
She stood up, patted the non-existent dust on her butt, and shook her body in a novel way. "World of the Living people really can't see us at all, right?"
"People without spiritual power cannot see the soul." Ukitake turned his head and looked down at a salesman who was walking out of an alley. The salesman carried a wooden pole and passed directly through the corner of Suzuko's translucent spirit body without any notice.
"The people who can see us are either special beings born with high spiritual power, or..."
Ukitake's voice lowered, with a hint of Soul Reaper's unique compassion. "It's the person whose end is approaching and whose soul has begun to leave the body."
Suzuko nodded in understanding, his eyes falling again on those humans whose clothes were old, but obviously more energetic than Rukongai wandering souls.
"By the way, Lieutenant said where did we stay while World of the Living was stationed?"
Ukitake took out the yellowed leather document given by Lieutenant from his arms, and looked at it in the direction of the sun to identify it. "Senior made a mark on it, saying it was on the edge of Kagamino City, a shrine built on the mountain called 'Hachiman Shrine'. It seems to have been abandoned for some years."
"The shrine..."
Suzuko's eyes lit up, and the corner of his mouth raised a nice curve. "It sounds very exciting! Will there be World of the Living legendary monsters in it? Or a patron saint or something?"
Ukitake smiled helplessly.
In the past few years of Shin'ō, he had already figured out Suzuko's temper. The "excitement" in her mouth was usually just a romantic fantasy about unknown things. At this time, the best way was to remain silent and wait for her to discover the truth on her own when she got there.
The two of them walked up a long ramp paved with irregular bluestone slabs.
This area has been separated from the hustle and bustle of the city. On both sides of the mountain road stand thick fir trees and ancient pines. The green tree crowns are intertwined overhead, filtering the October autumn sun into mottled golden spots.
Suzuko seemed to be in great interest. She jumped up and stepped on those light spots, one step at a time. The customized blue-green Asauchi at her waist swayed, and the two plush balls hanging on the handguard bounced and made a slight friction sound.
At the end of the mountain road, there is a crooked wooden Torii.
Most of the original vermilion paint peeled off under the erosion of wind and rain, revealing the gray-white wooden texture with deep and shallow cracks underneath. The two thick pillars tilted slightly inward, like two old doormen who had stood in the wind and rain for a hundred years. Although they were tired, they still stubbornly guarded the barrier.
Suzuko stood under Torii, holding a pergola with his hands and looking inside. His originally straight shoulders suddenly collapsed.
"Ah... it's just a small old shrine."
There was not much disappointment in her tone, but rather a sense of relief that "it's true."
The shrine does not occupy a large area. The main hall is a typical single-story wooden building from the shogunate era. The black-gray tiles are covered with thick moss, and the wooden walls show an ancient jet black color due to constant moisture.
There is a side room with a corridor on the right side of the main hall, which is a place for the guardians of the society or worshipers from afar to stay.
In the center of the courtyard stands a huge ginkgo tree.
World of the Living in October, the coolness of late autumn has penetrated the mountain forest. The leaves of the ancient tree have not yet completely turned yellow, but the edges have been inlaid with a brilliant golden edge. The breeze blows, rustling, and a few fallen leaves like broken gold swirl and fall on the bluestone ground, reflecting the warm light.
"Lieutenant wrote in the document that most of the seniors who came to World of the Living to garrison in the past meditated directly in the main hall or under the eaves."
Ukitake walked to the corridor and reached out to touch the rotten wooden pillars. "It is quiet here. It can protect you from wind and rain without causing unnecessary embarrassment by disturbing the daily lives of ordinary people."
Suzuko stood under the tree and watched several black crows tilting their heads and looking at them on the ridge of the main hall, making a hoarse cry.
"Then... shall we sleep here tonight?" She turned around and asked.
"Hmm"
Ukitake nodded. "Seniors all came here this way."
Just when Ukitake was about to take off Asauchi from his waist and sit down cross-legged in the corridor, a very slight sound of wood scraping suddenly came from behind the closed lattice window in the main hall.
"Squeak--"
A wooden window covered with white sandpaper was pushed open a crack from the inside.
Suzuko and Ukitake froze at the same time.
In the thin World of the Living Reishi, a clear figure poked out from the shadow of the window.
That was a young woman.
She looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old, and her long black hair was not pulled into a complicated bun like ordinary Machiya girls. Instead, she simply tied a red ribbon behind her head and spread it over her shoulders like a waterfall.
She was wearing a slightly loose miko uniform - a white top, paired with a bright red scarlet hakama, the cuffs were tied neatly, and she was holding a bamboo broom for sweeping fallen leaves.
The air seemed to freeze at this moment, and there was only the rustling of falling ginkgo leaves and the crows of crows on the roof.
The woman's eyes were large, bright and clear, and there was no fear or panic that ordinary humans would have when seeing aliens. She just tilted her head slightly, her eyes turned around on Ukitake's conspicuous white hair and the plush ball on Suzuko's waist, and finally landed on Zanpakutō on their waist.
She pursed her lips slightly and broke the silence with a crisp voice that was a little doubtful but very sure:
"Mr. Ghost?"