As soon as Yoruichi left, the purple-skinned doorman approached the receptionist. But before he could say anything, Gwenn snapped at him, "Don't give me so much work!"
"Young miss..." The man stopped speaking when Gwenn's glare became worse, "Ehem... Miss Gwenn, I thought you'd be interested in her."
"So you noticed something?"
The man shook his head, "No... But I almost instinctively pulled my weapon out when she approached."
"That much?" Gwenn was surprised that the guard she brought with her, because he had a different way to see through things, said something like that due to an unknown person, 'His beast-like senses could see through some things that I couldn't... Was it because of that blank that I saw?'
"What else?"
"Even though she's a Pamatypian who's living a nomadic lifestyle these days, she's strangely curious about her surroundings. It might be her first time coming to an advanced world like this."
"And how is that strange?"
"She came from Narthal before coming here."
"Narthal?... Wait, do you mean the City of Pleasure?"
"Precisely." The man nodded, "Everything in here shouldn't be a strange sight compared to what that planet has to offer, both in a good and a bad way."
"...What are you suggesting?"
"Nothing. I just want you to have a reasonable amount of suspicion if you were to interact with her from this point on because even if we started investigating now, I doubt we'd find anything substantial if she came from a place where you could easily get another identity as long as you have enough money and your original background is obscure enough."
Hearing that, Gwenn just shrugged her shoulders, "That in itself is interesting enough. I hate work, but I don't mind entertainment like this." She knew that there was a possibility that Yoru was sent to specifically interact or deal with her. However, that possibility is very minuscule, 'Who would send someone like her where she would obviously be useful for something else?'
And if Yoru was indeed here for her, it won't be long before Gwenn figures out what she wants.
'Since she has the potential to use Spiritual Power, are they aiming for the position of a successor?'
.
.
.
While a third of the whole planet is just one big city, the rest is an untamed wilderness where various beasts roam the land and sea. While they are very dangerous and could even pose a threat to the city itself, they were a good source of materials, riches and the main source of requests for Mercenaries.
Yoruichi had to use multiple Teleportation Pods to reach her destination due to security reasons and the different jurisdictions of each sector.
"Sector 6's Great Forest... Material can come later. I'll have to finish the request first." Yoruichi muttered to herself while thinking about how she should release the spider and when 'I also need to figure out that receptionist. If I can get her to my side, it'd be a lot easier to gain an understanding of the current political landscape.'
All of a sudden, a giant colorful snake suddenly appeared out of nowhere beside Yoruichi, baring its fangs. Sadly for it, Yoruichi had already noticed its approach from a hundred meters away, and in one swift arm movement, Yoruichi beheaded the slithering beast, ending its life in an instant.
'Hmmm? The rest started retreating? They're smart. And here I thought I could just stand still until everything was over.'
With that, Yoruichi started her journey which would eventually lead her to becoming a major player within the Etoulde's dark side.
.
.
.
A month went by without anything big happening. But during that same month, Kisuke finally finished their new hideout and the young girls immediately went ballistic within it because using the training ground under the Urahara Shop was somehow suffocating for them since they also had to share it from time to time.
On the side, Kisuke and Serafall are watching these girls trying to destroy each other. While Kisuke was just watching with interest, the corner of Serafall's mouth was twitching, "This is ridiculous."
"What is?"
"...Everything. I know you already showed me how they fought you off, but I just attributed that to their precise planning and preparation against you that they were able to perform that well... But they have a lot more hidden within their sleeves."
In Serafall's opinion, it would be enough for them to fight against God-level opponents though it'd be hard for them to actually win.
"By the way, is there no further contact from any side?"
"Nope. It's radio silent. However, I think they were able to successfully detect Magic Power and all of its variations. I saw a few Shinigamis carrying some sort of device earlier and they are very effective at locking down these doors today with not a single Beast of Hell escaping their sights."
"So Mayuri did it? Nice. I'm sure the Zero Division will also come down to take a look at it since it's a discovery of the history." While saying that, Kisuke suddenly recalled something, "...Wait... It should be able to detect Magic Power, even traces of it, right?"
"If it's designed to react to all Magic Power, it should."
Kisuke then turned to Serafall, "Sera-tan, a favor. Go to Kurosaki-san's place right now. If they are interrogating the kid, tell them that the strange uncle sent you."
"Oh right... The kid. I'm going then. He looks like a good kid so I don't want him to distrust his parents this early in his childhood."
Serafall left the room to make her way over. Since there were many security measures in place within this whole facility that Kisuke built, they couldn't just leave with their own abilities unless it was an emergency and they had to take down the barriers temporarily.
.
.
.
At the same time, Ichigo, Inoue, Chad, Uryu, and Renji all gathered around the young boy, Kazui, and the stuffed toy beside him, Kon.
"Kon... Tell us what's going on." Ichigo urged.
Kazui was staying uncharacteristically quiet so they could only ask someone who was always beside him.
Kon scratched his head in frustration and thought of his answer. He had to be careful if he didn't want to accidentally mention Kisuke's name since he's also someone related to this, "...Can't you give us time? Kazui has his promises and I respect that."
"But-"
"I know. It's important and it's for his safety, but allow us to gather our thoughts, will ya? If we speak poorly and you misunderstand something, you might go attack his friends. We don't know what you know so we also don't know how you guys will react. However, I can assure you that we haven't encountered anything dangerous until now and Kazui's connection to Hell is... It goes further back than those Beasts of Hell's appearance."
Editors:
28th00: The girls have completely normal and safe training. They don’t even decapitate each other!
Goyya: Yes! They only go for each other’s limbs that won’t cause instant death!
"Ichigo... I think we should listen to Kon-chan." Inoue was the first one to cave in to Kon's pleas.
Ichigo sighed, having the same thoughts, however, "But it's too dangerous. We don't know what might happen the longer we're in the dark. Kazui, I know that your promises are important, but you're important to us too. Right now, you're involved in something very dangerous and we won't know how to protect you if we don't know anything."
But even after Ichigo's words, Kazui remained silent. As he is just a very young and innocent boy, he really couldn't understand his parents' words, especially since he doesn't see the danger they were talking about. In fact, he was in a very friendly relationship with 'Hell' so he couldn't acknowledge their words even at face value.
Everyone didn't realize it, but from Kazui's point of view, they are just badmouthing his very good friends. Even then, he refused to speak as he also didn't know how he'll keep his promises if he was to tell them anything, bringing him a dilemma that his young mind shouldn't be thinking about in the first place.
Seeing the complicated expression he's making, Chad also chimed in, "Ichigo, let's not force him. For now, let's be grateful that we found out about this, and would allow us to prepare for what might happen."
"I also trust Kon's judgment." Uryu added, "While he likes to play around, he knows what's dangerous or not."
Renji, who just intended to bring Ichigo's group the detector that came from the Research Institute, scratched his head, "You guys are too lenient... Oh well, I could understand where you're coming from. So what should we do now?"
Inoue wanted to bring Kazui back to his room to comfort and bring him to sleep since it was already quite late when the radio-like device on the table that was the source of this gathering suddenly started alarming with blaring sounds.
"What is it now?" Ichigo immediately asked and took out his Substitute Shinigami Badge in case they had to fight.
Renji immediately took hold of the device while saying, "It's the alarm that goes off whenever there's a very large door and probably an Arrancar that's about to come out."
At the same time, the doorbell of the Kurosaki household rang.
"..." All became quiet as they wondered who was ringing the door at this hour, "I'll take it." Ichigo stood up.
Ichigo stood up and Renji tried turning off the alarm while the rest prepared to fight in case Soul Society didn't send anybody in time to intercept the 'door'.
But when Ichigo opened the door and peered outside, he saw a very unexpected guest.
"Hi~ Good evening. I'm sorry for suddenly showing up at this hour but I had to before you misunderstand something about your child."
"...You're Sitri Serafall...san." Ichigo loudly muttered after seeing the twin-tailed beauty.
Those who were inside the house immediately reacted when they heard Ichigo speak and stood up to approach him.
"You're Kurosaki Ichigo-chan~ I heard about you from Claire-chan. Oh, and by the way, I might have set off your new toy but I can assure you that there are no doors manifesting right now. I'm much more sensitive than that thing."
Ichigo turned around and looked at Renji. Before coming to the Human world, he received a note from Mayuri himself that it might react to Serafall's group so he nodded to Ichigo.
Ichigo turned back to Serafall and asked, "You know Kazui?"
"Not personally, but I'm the one who told the strange uncle that he might be connected to Hell."
"Strange uncle?" Ichigo repeated while trying to understand what she just said, but before he or the others could think who possibly this 'strange uncle' is, Kon shouted from inside the house, "Strange uncle!?" Kon ran out and came face to face with Serafall, "Were you sent by him!?"
Serafall crouched down and patted the stuffed toy, "He did. He got worried that you guys might misunderstand the nature of his relationship with Hell and scold him too much without the kid understanding what he did wrong. That's bad for a kid's developing head, you know?"
"Kon, who is this strange uncle."
Kon turned to him with a resolute expression, "I'm sorry Ichigo but I can't tell you right now, but I can assure you that we can trust him."
Ichigo and Kon stared at each other for a few moments until the former let out a heavy sigh, "Haahhh... We can talk about this later." He then turned his attention back to their guest, "Sitri-san, is it? Please come inside."
"Excuse my intrusion~!"
.
.
.
After entering the house, Serafall didn't immediately greet everyone and instead stared at Kazui and began walking in circles around him. Ichigo and Inoue didn't mind this but this has been going on for at least three minutes so the latter voiced out her concern while serving her a cup of tea, "I-Is there something wrong?"
Serafall was immediately pulled out of her contemplation and reassured them, "Ah, there's nothing. The strange uncle already told me about the situation he's in and I trust his words. However, if I can see it with my own eyes, I would rather do the checks again."
She then sat down and accepted her drinks, "Thank you. And regarding your kid, please be reassured, as far as I could see, there's nothing dangerous attached to him."
But even if she said that, there's no way for them to trust her and Serafall also knew that so she first started explaining to them what she knows about Hell.
"First of all, the inhabitants of Hell are divided between the [Chained] and [Unchained]..."
Serafall explained to them the difference between the [Chained] and [Unchained] which Soul Society wasn't even aware of.
As she went through her explanation and Renji dutifully recorded everything, Serafall dropped them the bomb, "Everyone who enters Hell becomes [Chained] as punishment, however, there's an exception to this. Kazui, I don't really know how to properly describe it aside from saying that he became Hell's 'Envoy' by allowing him to send souls down there without any 'punishment', giving them a new lease on life."
Editors:
28th00: Interrogating a child never really works out well.