The next day, Kisuke asked the girls except for Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna to explore the town again. But before they left, Kisuke talked to Serafall, "Sera-chan, I'll support whatever you want to do since I trust your discretion."
Serafall grinned at him and replied, "Aren't you asking me to make a mess?"
"Geez, you know what I meant." Kisuke scratched his head with a wry smile but he couldn't blame her and why she said that because there was indeed an advantage for them if she were to make a mess. However, he had an entirely different reason and that's that he wanted the girls to have no reservations as they did on the other side and he wanted to leave that to Serafall's discretion.
"You probably already noticed from your brief exploration and listening to my stories, but this side is a lot more lenient against 'outsiders'. With factions that you can count on one hand, it's a lot easier for another one to rise up without any interference as long as you don't openly antagonize them."
Indeed, Serafall had been wondering why Kisuke, from his stories, a known fugitive was able to keep a relatively peaceful life for a century just because he escaped to the Human World. Her exploration last night was to seek an answer to this question and although she's still figuring things out, Serafall was able to conclude that the people who could apprehend Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Tessai couldn't easily leave their post despite them breaking some pretty serious laws and they were even able to open a shop that caters to their needs.
"True. It'll also be a lot easier for the girls to adapt since they won't have to hide like they did something wrong." Serafall replied. There's a reason why Serafall didn't hide her face when standing in front of the Shinigamis and that's because of her pride. They're prideful beings, especially her and Claire who're Devils. While they don't have anything against how Kisuke does things, they wouldn't want to do the same. At most, they would want to hide a portion of their abilities to save them as their ace.
But since they're in his world, Serafall was thinking if they should adapt to Kisuke's style, at least for the young girls. "But are you sure? They might figure out our association with you."
"I'd only ask that you avoid mentioning me to others. But if anyone finds out, that's also fine since I don't really intend to hide forever. Once I figure out what's going on and prepare enough, I'll move in earnest."
Serafall quietly stared at him for a few seconds before sighing in relief. She already has an idea of what he really wanted to do in this world but it was just a guess and she didn't have to ask him that now. Nevertheless, she was relieved that she didn't have to suppress herself and the young girls, "I see~. Then while we're at it, we'll find a good place to stay."
"Go to the Kitakawase area. It's a wealthy residential area and you should be able to find a suitable place there."
"Noted~ We'll get going then!"
As they left, Tessai approached him from behind, "They're not going to stay here?"
"This place is too small for them and no one would really want to live underground."
But just as Kisuke was about to return inside, his cane began shaking a second later, it released a strong light. The next moment, a very beautiful Japanese woman wearing a simple white V-neck t-shirt and blue tight jeans stood in front of Kisuke and Tessai while demanding with one of her hands on her hip, "I'm also going to find my own place."
Tessai was stunned while Kisuke thought about it for a moment before taking out his tanto blade and giving it to Benihime, "On one condition. You take her with you and become her guide."
The woman was incredibly apprehensive and was about to reject it with all her might. But when a certain aspect of the daily life of her independent action came to her mind, she took the tanto blade, albeit, still a bit hesitant, 'I don't like her... But I hate chores more.'
The woman didn't say another word and left with the blade using Flash Step.
"W-was that Benihime?" asked Tessai after the woman had disappeared, "When did Benihime acquire that kind of ability that's only unique to the Kuchiki Clan's Muramasa?"
"Well, it's something different but I won't be able to explain it properly to you. Just think of her body being made using Magic Particles as opposed to Spiritual Particles."
"Wait. She didn't take a Gigai. How is she going to interact with Humans?"
"No problem on that side either. Magic Power is something that manifests in the physical world once manipulated. Right now, she looks no different from a normal Human... Except for her temper."
Although Tessai doesn't personally know Benihime, he knows how she acts from Kisuke's mentioning of her in the past, "She won't create a big mess, will she?"
"It's fine. She knew the price of her freedom and I think she likes running around too much to do anything drastic."
Kisuke then gave Tessai a device that would allow him to practice sensing Magic Power before leaving with Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna.
After confirming everything he needs, Kisuke opened a Senkaimon within the training grounds. But because they don't have any Hell Butterflies to guide them, they were transported to a dark lifeless corridor with gooey moving walls the moment they stepped into the Senkaimon. They arrived at the Dangai and it was intentional on Kisuke's side.
"This is... The flow of time is incredibly distorted." Flanna commented as she looked around, "...2,000 times?" Flanna turned to Kisuke and asked, "Did you use this as a training ground, boss?"
Kisuke shook his head, "While it's indeed good for learning and mastering something when you're out of time, it's not a place to get stronger. Any wrong move and one will be dragged along the flow of time and be trapped forever. For most people, that would mean being trapped and aging 2,000 times faster."
Kisuke then turned to Ophis and Lilith, "Ophis-chan, Lilith-chan, please make a hole in the wall. I want to get out of this space."
Ophis and Lilith nodded and didn't hesitate to touch the gooey walls. But instead of being dragged and swallowed by it, the gooey wall moved out of its way and revealed a barren and deserted land beyond it.
Kisuke jumped in and was immediately followed by the three girls. After leaving the Dangai, they now arrived at one of many pocket spaces beside it called Valley of Screams, "Let's jump a few more times until we find a suitable place."
Ophis and Lilith nodded. After doing it the first time, they instantly understood the structure of this world's boundaries and were able to go through them like fishes in the water.
Editors:
28th00: The Infinite Lolis are basically the master key to reality when you think about it… Sera is gonna raise hell in her misadventures I bet!
Goyya: ‘Sadly’, there are no lolis here. All of them are in their teenager form. Imagine Rias and Akeno, but a lot more tamed.
After around a hundred jumps that took a few hours, Kisuke finally found a satisfactory space that's virtually untouched by anyone for the last one thousand years. It's at least 10 times as wide as Karakura Town so it was also the perfect size for them in case there's a need to move it around.
Like the other pockets of spaces around the Dangai where Souls could accidentally get lost, it's a barren rocky land with a sun-like source of light in the middle of it. Since everything in this space was stagnant, there was only day here. It was unknown how each Valley of Screams got its current terrain and light but it was theorized that the first Souls that got lost here are the ones who shaped them.
Everything inside this space is made out of Reishi(Spiritual Particles) and even if Claire, Tanis, and Kunou could survive in this kind of space, it wouldn't be very comfortable since it'd be just like the barren land of Mars for them who don't know how to feed on Reishi.
Kisuke didn't delay his work any further and took out 5 40-meter tall and 2-meter wide gray pillars that were inscribed with thousands of Magic Circles melded together creating a very complex flow of energy. But before he set them down, Kisuke first turned to Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna, "Ehem, the reason why I want to bring you here is for you to combine your abilities to create a protective layer over this domain to block off most of the unauthorized entrances and flow of information. Will that be alright?"
Ophis, Lilith, and Flanna looked at each other before the last one turned to Kisuke and asked, "Just to make it clear, you want us to further separate this space from the rest?"
Kisuke nodded at her and said, "That's one way of putting it."
"Hmmm..." Flanna closed his eyes in deep thought before asking again, "Is there anything specific you want us to do?"
Kisuke shook his head, "Nothing. I don't know how you will do it so I'll be leaving it to you three."
Flanna suddenly clapped her hand before wrapping her arms around Ophis and Lilith, "Yosh! Blacky, Little Blacky, let's make a cozy place!"
And despite not talking about anything specific, Ophis and Lilith understood what she wanted to happen and nodded.
"Boss, we'll start immediately so make sure some bananas and cookies are prepared when we're done~!"
The three of them didn't wait for Kisuke to say anything else and slipped into the space, disappearing as if they were never there, to begin with. Even then, Kisuke didn't stop himself and said, "I'll look forward to your work~! And don't worry about the snacks. I stocked up before we left."
The next moment, an incredible amount of Draconic Aura unique to the three of them exploded as if it signaled the end of the world. It was so incredibly dense that even Kisuke, who was used to their aura, jumped on his feet and adrenaline rushed to his head as an automatic defense mechanism. It was only a second later that his mind finally processed that there was no danger and it was just the three of them doing their work.
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Kisuke nervously thought, '...Even those who are inept would be able to sense that. I hope nothing too drastic happens... Not gonna lie, though. I want to see what sort of response that would elicit.'
As much as he wanted to see the world right now, he had work to do and that was much more important, 'I'll ask them to do it again sometime later.'
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When the girls left, they didn't really have any destination in mind so they just walked in a random direction and asked people that they came across about good places to sightsee.
They were seen as a bit of a strange group touring a town without any specialties but because they were a group of beautiful ladies, no one thought of them badly and gladly pointed them to the places they thought were good.
Naturally, it can't be avoided for them to be picked up by random guys but they were easily resolved by silently emitting Demonic Power toward them. They didn't know what's happening but they were instantly compelled to avoid them.
"Kisuke-niichan made it sound like a very dangerous town, but there are hardly any threats." Claire commented when the group found benches in a community park, "And even if something appears, it's easily taken care of by some people."
"Claire, please don't use your own standards to judge the safety of this place." Kunou immediately called out her comment, "It's supposed to be a town where normal people without any power live. Invisible monsters that could hurt them shouldn't exist in the first place."
Claire realized her mistake and hurriedly apologized, "Ah, I'm sorry. I forgot."
"As long as you understand," Kunou accepted her apology before reminding everyone, "Although there isn't much during day time, it's a different landscape when the sun sets."
Tanis tilted her head at her and asked, "How?"
"I'm not sure if yesterday was special, but the amount of Hollows moving around last night was almost ten times as many as today."
Surprised, Serafall asked, "Oh? Your Ki scan worked that far?"
"I also didn't expect it to work that well," answered Kunou, "It must be because no one else is manipulating the natural flow of Ki that my scan went on unimpeded."
Serafall then stood up and said, "It's about lunch time so let's go get a meal. After that, we'll go to the Kitakawase area. Anything you want?"
Tanis hurriedly raised her hand and said, "I'm craving ramen!"
"Ramen, it is! Let's go to the shopping district. We should be able to find a good shop."
"I prefer somewhere not crowded." Claire requested.
They came across multiple shops but all of them were almost full because it was already lunchtime. It took a while, but they found a good shop before they could enter, Serafall and Kunou suddenly stopped walking.
"Find something else?" asked Tanis, turning to the direction they are looking at.
"Yup~. Let's take a look at that place first before we have lunch. They might leave." Serafall led the group and took a few turns until they reached a street that has low pedestrian volume. And at the corner of that street was, amazingly, a ramen shop that seemed to be new called 'Spirit Ramen', "What a coincidence~ Let's have our lunch there!"
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Inside the ramen shop that'd only opened a few days ago, Ichigo, Inoue, Uryu, and Chad gathered because of what happened last night, "Still no news from Soul Society?" Uryu asked Ichigo as the last one among them to arrive.
Ichigo shook his head while checking his smartphone.
Editors:
28th00: I read the chapter less than an hour ago, so I knew Ramen searching would lead to Keigo’s Ramen shop. CHAOS ENSUES! Possibly bullying. Also, the Draconic Aura Nuke had to be felt by any senkaimon’s open or anyone in the dangai like the literal apocalypse. Fun times. Stealth Nukes.