South Rukongai, District 78・Inuzuri.
Over a hundred years had passed since he was captured by Aizen and traveled between the two worlds.
For the short-lived humans of the World of the Living, a century was enough time to accomplish many things and turn their lives upside down.
But the air here remained as nauseating as ever, completely unchanged, as if forgotten by time itself.
Seeing a figure in a black Shihakusho slowly approaching, all the wandering souls, regardless of what they were doing before, hurriedly hid to the side, secretly observing this esteemed lord.
"It's a Soul Reaper... So majestic..."
"If only I had strong Reiryoku, I could become a Soul Reaper and take care of Mom..."
"Keep dreaming. Not everyone is as amazing as Big Bro Renji."
Asuka ignored the gazes hidden in the shadows.
He hadn't come here to inspect the living conditions of the commoners or to discover some hidden genius.
He came to the Inuzuri District primarily for two things.
First, a dream that had troubled him for a long time.
Ever since he first released his Zanpakuto and slowly began awakening his Reiryoku, bizarre and fragmented visions frequently appeared in his mind.
At first, those fragments were incredibly blurry, like looking at the moon's reflection in the water.
But as his strength continued to grow, his other strange dreams ceased, leaving only this particular one to become increasingly clear.
A woman with disheveled long hair and an obscured face was holding him tightly while he was still in his swaddling clothes.
Then, a pair of pale, icy hands reached out from the shadows, ruthlessly trying to snatch him from the woman's embrace.
The woman fled, escaping to the Inuzuri District, where she entrusted the infant to the wandering souls there.
Whenever the dream reached this point, it would abruptly end, accompanied by the heart-wrenching cries of a baby.
Only then did he realize that this wasn't a dream, but a memory.
Asuka didn't know who that woman was, who the person trying to take him away was, or why he had been abandoned in the Inuzuri District...
But now, he could clearly feel the emotions from that moment.
The woman's tears had fallen onto him, carving a deep bond.
He wanted to know who she was.
He wanted to know his past, to know exactly where this body and this soul came from.
Therefore, Asuka returned to the place where he had first opened his eyes.
He tried to search these familiar streets and alleys for faces from the past who might know the truth, attempting to gather any clues about his origins.
Unfortunately.
Asuka walked along the winding dirt roads from his memory for a long time, pushing open one dilapidated wooden door after another, only to be met with waves of powerlessness and frustration.
In a place like the Rukongai, especially a lawless zone like District 78, death and disappearance were all too common.
There used to be a few slightly older wandering souls here who might have seen what he looked like as a child.
But now, those familiar faces had long since completely dissipated, turning into insignificant Reishi dust upon this land.
Moreover, in a place like this, it was difficult to tell who the long-term residents were just by looking at them.
For example, he had stopped a hunchbacked old man covered in age spots who looked like he had lived for a long time, wanting to ask about a baby named Asuka or a mysterious woman from a century ago.
But the old man, sensing the murderous aura radiating from Asuka, was so terrified that he wet his pants on the spot.
He only knew to kneel on the ground and kowtow frantically, repeating the same sentence over and over:
"Spare my life, Lord Soul Reaper! I'm just a new soul who arrived here less than ten years ago! I really don't know anything about things from a century ago!"
Asuka awkwardly let go, allowing the old man to scramble away in a panic.
The people here... some died violently at a young age, while others passed away from illness in their twilight years. It was truly hard to judge.
Standing in the cold wind, he looked at the numb and unfamiliar faces around him, his brows furrowing deeply.
Time was a weapon sharper than any Zanpakuto.
It ruthlessly erased all traces, burying his past beneath this mud.
However, Asuka did not give up just like that.
Even though the wandering souls at the bottom rung were replaced crop after crop.
He knew that in this lawless land where the strong preyed on the weak, there was a small handful of people who had always been around.
Like leeches attached to a human body, they relied on exploiting and extorting the weak to eke out an existence here for an incredibly long time.
That person must still be alive.
A greasy, vicious face covered in rolls of fat surfaced in Asuka's mind.
It was the local kingpin of the Inuzuri District, a gang boss.
"Genzo..."
That was the second thing Asuka came here to do.
He turned around, relying on the route etched deep into his soul.
He headed straight for the deepest part of the North Street in the Inuzuri District.
A moment later, he arrived at his destination.
It was a massive compound built from iron frames, wooden planks, and stones, draped with barbed fishing nets and pitchforks scavenged from who knows where.
Although it looked laughably crude in the eyes of a Soul Reaper, in the dark underbelly of the Inuzuri District, it was a rather sturdy fortress.
At the entrance of the compound, four bare-chested thugs holding machetes and spiked wooden clubs were rolling dice out of sheer boredom.
The moment they heard the steady footsteps and looked up to see Asuka.
The expressions of the four men froze instantly, as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
"L-Lord Soul Reaper?!"
One of the thugs was so frightened that the dice in his hand dropped straight to the ground. His legs gave out, and he fell to his knees with a thud.
There were generally a few reasons why a Soul Reaper would appear in the outer edges of the Rukongai.
They were either looking for souls with Reiryoku potential or executing a combat mission to slay Hollows.
There was also another possibility: they were here to wipe out troublemakers who refused to obey and disrupted public order.
And the Soul Reaper before them, walking straight in their direction, was definitely not here for recruitment...
"Urgh—!"
Before he could speak again, an overbearing Spiritual Pressure erupted from Asuka.
The four thugs instantly felt as if a massive mountain was pressing down on their backs, making even breathing feel like swallowing razor blades.
They collapsed into the mud, foaming at the mouth, unable to cry out a single word of mercy.
Asuka didn't even spare them a glance. He raised his foot and kicked the heavy wooden door, shattering it to pieces!
Boom!!
Wood splinters flew everywhere, and the massive crash instantly alarmed everyone inside the compound.
Right in the center of the courtyard sat a wide couch draped in an unknown animal skin.
A man as fat as a mountain of meat, his face covered in rolls of fat, was gnawing on a greasy roasted animal leg with one hand while groping a shivering, raggedly dressed woman with the other.
He was Genzo.
Although over a century had made his appearance even older and uglier, that aura of greed and cruelty remained completely unchanged.
In this hopeless land, he had forcefully sustained himself by feeding on the flesh and blood of his own kind, fattening himself up into this nauseating state.
"Who goes there?! How dare you trespass on my turf—"
Genzo looked up in a furious rage, viciously hurling the bone in his hand toward the gate.
But when he got a clear look at the cold young man standing in the doorway wearing a Shihakusho, the anger on his face froze.
"...Gulp..."
Genzo violently shoved the woman beside him away. His obese body rolled off the couch with an unbelievable agility. He scrambled and crawled until he was prostrating before Asuka, his old face instantly plastered with a fawning and terrified smile.
"L-Lord! To what do I owe the honor of a Soul Reaper gracing me with your presence?"
Genzo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his heart pounding wildly.
Having mingled in the Rukongai for over a century, he knew full well the terror of the Gotei 13. His fat brain spun rapidly, trying to figure out what he could have possibly done to anger the Seireitei.
"My lord, I've always kept to myself! And... and haven't I already paid this month's tribute in full to the lords of the patrol squad through the contact in District 70...?"
"Is the amount not enough? Just say the word, my lord, and I'll gather more immediately!"
Hearing these words, Asuka's eyes grew even colder.
Sure enough, this rotten Soul Society...
Whether in the lofty Seireitei or the mud-like Rukongai, it was filled with these nauseating transactions and compromises everywhere.
The Soul Reapers, who were supposed to maintain balance and protect wandering souls.
Had instead become the protective umbrella for these gangs.