After Seiji got off Yui's car and returned home, he immediately called New Voidfire and explained that the Yasakani no Magatama was fake.
"You're not willing to join forces with me?"
Voidfire didn't immediately react to the news that the mythic artifact was fake. Instead, this was his first question.
"That's right."
"No matter what?"
Seiji fell silent for a moment as he mulled things over.
"I must admit, it's incredibly tempting to work together with you, Voidfire-san." Seiji sighed. "However, in the end we're not of the same type. Such an unreliable cooperation might end up seriously hurting both you and me. That's why let's simply leave things at that. I'm grateful for your intentions, but sorry."
Voidfire also fell silent for a moment.
"How regrettable… But there should still be opportunities for us in the future," he stated raspily. "You're even willing to use a thing like Kamitani. You'll definitely have a time when you need to make use of me. I'll be waiting for you."
Voidfire then hung up the call.
Seiji was quite moved with how sincere Voidfire seemed to be in wanting to team up with him. However, Seiji already knew after talking to Destruction Voidfire that teaming up would definitely be a bad idea.
Voidfire was incredibly strong. Although Seiji had only seen a minor portion of Voidfire's abilities back at Kosui Park rather than their full extent, the very fact that he was the leader of the attack against Soul Society, and that he was able to successfully retreat from Soul Society unharmed afterward, meant that Voidfire was definitely one of the strongest individuals on Sakura Island!
Without regards to anything else, just Voidfire's power level would be capable of changing so many things in the world.
If Seiji used his ability of saving and loading and teamed up with Voidfire, it was certain that they could accomplish many things together… Yet, just as Seiji stated, he felt that they weren't the same type in the end.
If Seiji absolutely had to reveal his power, he would prefer to tell it to Yui… But he was also quite doubtful of telling her, because it was evident that Yui was also hiding many deep secrets. He had no idea what might happen if he told her what his power really was.
Maybe he could try telling her and then load afterwards?
No, there were some things that he felt he shouldn't even try.
As long as he tried, as long as it happened, as long as he knew, even if he could load afterwards, it would be impossible for him to act the same anymore as some things would never be the same again.
Seiji then called Kamitani.
"Hey, my bro Haruta, did you have fun on your date with him?"
"It was quite fun. As your payment, I'll give you some information."
Seiji told Kamitani that the Yasakani no Magatama was fake. Kamitani remained silent for a moment before chuckling.
"This is truly incredible information. I'd really like to ask how you know about this, but I doubt you'd tell me."
"That's right. I only told you this information as payment for you helping to set up the meeting with Voidfire. I don't care whether you believe me or not."
"You're so cold, my bro Haruta. You should at least tell me a little more~" Kamitani pretended to act spoiled.
Seiji instantly decided to hang up the phone call.
Originally, Seiji had wanted to try and obtain more information from Kamitani about what he was scheming. However, Seiji really didn't want to talk with such a bastard anymore, not to mention that it would be almost impossible to find out any more about the Messengers' attack plan.
He had already told Kamitani and Voidfire that the Yaskani no Magatama was fake. That was all he could do.
…Was that really all he could do?
Seiji thought about what else he could do. For instance, could he try having Voidfire and Yui cooperate? Could he warn Voidfire to be on guard against Kamitani?
But no matter how much he thought about it, he felt that these would all be unnecessary.
Although Seiji was still anxious about the possible Destruction Timeline happening again, this seemed like all he could do for the time being.
In a certain room at one of Soul Society's bases.
A man who had a thin face and a dark look in his eyes, wearing black clothing, was sitting in front of a table and slowly folding origami.
His back was perfectly straight and his hands were slightly raised. Everything about him seemed almost perfectly symmetrical. His only movements were his slender fingers slowly folding the origami. He was expressionless. It seemed as if he was performing some sort of ritual as he gave off a dark and authoritative aura.
There was a knock on the door to his room.
"Come in," he stated lightly.
A girl who wore a normal jacket entered the room. She was Yui.
After she entered the room, Yui closed the door and activated a spell that would prevent any sound from leaking the room.
"What is it?" The black-clad man didn't look at Yui. He simply continued folding origami while speaking in a light tone.
Yui walked over and spoke directly, "There's a problem with the Yasakani no Magatama."
The man's fingers slowed slightly in folding origami.
"Where did you obtain this information?"
"I can't tell you."
"How reliable is it?"
"Extremely reliable."
The man remained silent as he continued folding origami. Finally, he finished folding a beautiful paper crane. He then placed the paper crane in his hands as he uttered an incantation.
He then opened his hands to reveal countless white lights as an ethereal crane flew up to the ceiling of the room before vanishing.
"What do you want to do?" Only now did he turn to look at Yui.
"Reinspect the Yasakani no Magatama."
"You know that this will be highly difficult," the black-clad man said. "Besides, will you really be able to identify if there's a problem with it?"
Yui remained silent.
The Yasakani no Magatama was incredibly important. Whether there was a problem with it would be of the utmost importance. Not only had several top-level spiritual ability users inspected it many times, the Yasakani no Magatama was also under constant tight surveillance. It was almost unimaginable that someone would be able to tamper with it.
"If there's no identifiable problem with it, even if there is a problem with it, that's the same as it having no problem," the black-clad man continued speaking.
"You don't believe me?"
"I would have made you leave already if I didn't believe you."
"…Thank you."
"No need. I believe you because I'm actually suspicious myself."
"Suspicious of what?" Yui looked directly at him.
"Everything." The black-clad man slowly stood up.
He wasn't very tall. Yet, when he stood up, it seemed as if a giant had stood up with how powerful his aura was. There was also something dark and shadowy about him.
"Ever since the Realm of Cherry Blossoms appeared, everything has been incredibly successful, to the point where I feel it's quite unnatural." He clasped his hands behind his back and started walking until he arrived at the window.
"This should actually be a vicious storm, yet everything so far has been nothing but complete calm," he stated while looking outside the window. "Nothing unexpected has happened whatsoever. In my opinion, that's what's most unexpected of all. Perhaps something unexpected that's incredibly dangerous is waiting for us. It's possible that we missed something, but we haven't noticed even up until now…"
The man clutched his hands tightly, revealing his inner turmoil.
Both people in the room remained silent for a while.
"You're absolutely certain that your information source is extremely reliable?" the man asked.
"I'm certain," Yui replied instantly with zero hesitation.
The black-clad man nodded, and then closed his eyes. He opened them again approximately six to seven seconds later.
"If there really is a problem with the Yasakani no Magatama as you say, then the most likely time that the problem appeared would be ten years ago."
Ten years ago? Yui furrowed her eyebrows.
"For the past ten years, we've had complete knowledge of the Yasakani no Magatama's whereabouts. I believe that the security around it is sufficient, so nobody could have possibly tampered with it. But if we look at the records of the seven major families who take turns having possession of the Yasakani no Magatama, the most recent suspicious incident surrounding it happened ten years ago…"
The man began telling a story. "A certain member of the Tendo Family schemed together with outsiders in an attempt to steal the Yasakani no Magatama while the Tendo Family was in charge of protecting the artifact. This outrageous betrayal failed in the end, and that member of the Tendo Family was executed by his family. The outsiders that he allied with were all killed off by the Tendo Family. Nothing happened to the Yasakani no Magatama. It was perfectly fine, just as we can currently see.
"Yet, everything about it was too unnatural. The Tendo Family reacted far too quickly. The other six families had just been informed, and didn't even have the time to react by the time that the Tendo Family finished dealing with the entire betrayal incident by themselves.
"Not only that, the Tendo Family used the excuse of the Yasakani no Magatama being unharmed and that they resolved the incident so quickly to ask for understanding from the other six families. The Tendo Family asked everyone not to investigate the identity of the perpetrators and details of the incident.
"All of this sounds reasonable since the Yasakani no Magatama underwent strict inspections to determine that there really was no problem with it. The Tendo Family also secretly gave out some bribes, which was why the other six families' members in charge of the Yasakani no Magatama all agreed with the Tendo Family's request.
"But now, if there really is a problem with the Yasakani no Magatama as you say, then the most likely time that it was tampered with would be this Tendo Family betrayal incident from ten years ago!"
Comments