"So this is where Bubble fell?"
Billy held a device and scanned the surrounding environment.
Accompanied by Tsunayoshi, Billy had come to the scene of that night's incident. As he scanned the area, he recorded the numbers shown on the device to ensure there would be no lingering effects from the fairy-tale dragon influencing the nearby humans.
"Karakura Town really is a uniquely blessed place. With such a high concentration of magic, even the influence of a fairy-tale dragon has been erased," Billy said with a sigh.
"How does it compare to London?"
"The concentration of magic in London is high enough to cause fog disasters. What do you think?" Billy answered with a question of his own.
No one would willingly say their own homeland was inferior.
Tsunayoshi did not continue dwelling on that subject. Since Billy was Noel's superior, he wanted to understand some more confidential matters.
"I heard from Niihashi-san that your records mention the appearance of fairy-tale dragons. Does that mean Bubble will be reborn even after death?"
It was precisely because Noel had said that WB had once needed an entire team to deal with Bubble that Tsunayoshi was curious.
"Sawada-kun, what do you think fairy-tale dragons are?"
Before Tsunayoshi could answer, Billy continued.
"In my view, all fairy-tale dragons are Dark Dragons. Dark Dragons absorb negative human emotions to grow, and eventually, they destroy the human world."
"Fairy-tale dragons are merely a higher class of Dark Dragon. Fairy tales are passed down by word of mouth, so fairy-tale dragons cannot be destroyed. When enough similar negative emotions accumulate in human society, a fairy-tale dragon will appear again."
"Take Bubble, for example. When people's feelings of loving someone they can never have accumulate to a certain degree, Bubble gains the conditions needed for rebirth."
"The emergence conditions of fairy-tale dragons all exist to make up for the regrets within their fairy tales. Bubble wandered the world seeking true love, just as Cinderella never wants that moonlit night to end…"
"As long as human society continues to function, fairy-tale dragons can never be eliminated completely. Even though we know they will crawl back out again and again, the only thing we can do is send them to Hell again and again."
A bitter smile appeared on Billy's face.
Wasn't the heroic reputation of his father, who was called a hero, built through one battle after another just like that?
If possible, whoever wanted that title of hero could have it…
Hell.
Tsunayoshi's expression became a little strange.
In other worlds, this term was probably part of the world's cycle of reincarnation. But in the world of Shinigami, Hell was an existence independent from the Three Worlds.
The true Three Worlds were the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo, and Soul Society. Soul Society itself was divided by region into the East Branch and West Branch. The Hollows purified by Shinigami and the souls of the dead all cycled through these Three Worlds.
Hell, however, was a region completely independent of that system.
It could be said that the Three Worlds were divided by the Soul King, while Hell had already existed as an independent space since the era of the Soul King.
After thinking briefly, Tsunayoshi decided to probe Billy.
"Mr. Billy, when you say Hell, are you referring to the Hell of Western mythology, or the real Hell?"
Tsunayoshi keenly caught the strange look that flashed through Billy's eyes.
As expected, the son of a hero knew something.
"It seems Sawada-kun isn't merely powerful. That's right. I mean the Hell specifically meant to contain sinners!" Billy extinguished the cigarette in his hand and said seriously.
"Our predecessors once considered a permanent solution as well. That was to send the fairy-tale dragons into Hell and seal them there completely."
"But unexpectedly, after some time passed, the fairy-tale dragons appeared again, and their strength had grown even greater. It was also after that incident that our predecessors learned that the space of the West Branch was unstable. The fairy-tale dragons had exploited that gap to return to Reverse London."
"If only the fairy-tale dragons had returned, that would have been one thing. But they also brought a large group of Kushanāda (Hell's guardians) with them. The gate from Hell to London had already opened. If it could not be sealed, the consequences would have been unimaginable."
"After paying a terrible price, the Horns unanimously decided to seek help from the King of the East. Only after a seal containing the King's power was delivered was that breach closed."
"And because that was not the true power of the King, every hundred years, the Royal Palace sends new King's power to replace it in order to maintain the stability of the West Branch."
Billy's words shocked Tsunayoshi.
He had not expected a casual question to uncover such an enormous secret.
Tsunayoshi was certain that even Yamamoto probably did not know much about this matter. In other words, WB was directly connected to the Royal Palace, and throughout that process, what role had the monk played?
"You're talking about the Ōin?"
"You know about it, Tsunayoshi-kun? I suppose it isn't much of a secret. Since it happens once every hundred years, anyone who pays a little attention would notice," Billy said, lighting another cigarette for himself.
Tsunayoshi was somewhat speechless.
He had not noticed it by paying attention. He had personally experienced an incident where the Ōin was stolen.
The transport of the Ōin was clearly a good opportunity to promote exchange between East and West, yet Yamamoto had gradually shoved it into some forgotten corner.
That could only mean the Royal Palace had concealed something from Yamamoto.
But what was the purpose?
To keep the Seireitei ignorant so it could be controlled more thoroughly?
Or to prevent the East and West Branches from joining hands and helping each other?
Tsunayoshi scratched his head with a headache.
He hated this kind of scheming the most.
If only that shady merchant Urahara were here.
At the Urahara Shop, Kisuke Urahara, who was setting up a Reishi conversion device, suddenly sneezed.
The next day, Tsunayoshi brought four people to the Urahara Shop.
Aside from the three-person Western Branch magic team, the last person was Nel, who had regained her adult form.
After the group action that night, Shunsui, as a new-generation leader of the Seireitei, had visited the Kurosaki residence. Unsurprisingly, he had encountered Nel in her child form.
From Nel, Shunsui learned that she had many new ideas regarding her discoveries in Hueco Mundo. She also hated evil intensely and had made it her goal to lead Hueco Mundo down a new path.
At that time, Shunsui had developed a new idea.
He did not want to limit the institution known as the Judgement Bureau to Soul Society alone. Restrictions on users of supernatural power should be expanded to cover the Three Worlds.
And so, Shunsui invited Nel to join the Judgement Bureau. Nel accepted readily. Since there was a place where she could test her ideas, why would she refuse?
However, Nel did not immediately follow Shunsui back to Soul Society.
She spent several days packing every book she thought might be useful. This was also the reason she had returned to her adult form. A huge bundle was strapped to her back, and it was filled entirely with books.
Besides Nel, Shunsui had actually invited Ginjō and Tsukishima as well.
From a certain perspective, those two had also suffered persecution at the hands of the powerful. They had also established Xcution in the World of the Living, so management of the World of the Living could have been entrusted to them.
However, because of the Yūko-chan incident, Ginjō had suffered severe emotional damage. On top of that, the legend of his romance with a dragon had already begun spreading through the Seireitei. No matter what Shunsui said, Ginjō was not going to Soul Society anytime soon.
As for Tsukishima, there was even less to say.
He listened to Ginjō in everything. If Ginjō was not going, then he would not go to Soul Society either.
Therefore, Tsunayoshi's companions this time consisted only of the wizards and Nel.
"Amazing. A dragon in human form. This is my first time seeing one."
Looking at Nel, who had already blended in with Ninny and Noel, Billy spoke in surprise.
"Not even in legends?" Tsunayoshi asked.
After the fairy-tale dragon incident, Tsunayoshi had become rather curious about the various legends passed down in Reverse London. Modern people being able to rely on legends to defeat powerful fairy-tale dragons was something that rarely happened in the Seireitei.
In the Seireitei, there were only two sources that could truly be called legendary: Yamamoto and the Great Archive Corridor.
The former believed he was overwhelmingly powerful and could crush everything, so naturally he would not pass down vague rumors that might or might not be true.
The latter had been controlled by the former great nobles and was not something ordinary people could access at all.
"According to legend, if a dragon devours a wizard, it can obtain the wizard's power and a new form. But no one has ever succeeded," Billy said with a shrug, not taking it seriously.
Tsunayoshi, however, took those words to heart.
If dragons and Hollows were treated as equivalents, then a dragon devouring a wizard would be equal to a Hollow undergoing Shinigami-like transformation, wouldn't it?
Nel's current form had only fully become human-like after Aizen interfered.
As they spoke, the Senkaimon and Reishi conversion device finished activating.
Kisuke Urahara walked out with a beaming smile.
"All right, friends. Your trip to the Seireitei may now begin."
Seeing Billy staring intently at him, Urahara asked curiously, "Is there something strange on my face?"
"No. I'm just wondering whether all technical personnel have that kind of expression. The captain of our Development Team, who is always impossible to find, has the same look," Billy said, finding it somewhat amusing.
"What kind of expression? Shady merchant?"
"Exactly! That crafty look."
Billy gave him a thumbs-up, not caring in the slightest that he was joking around on someone else's turf.
Seeing Urahara's face twitch slightly, Billy took a coin from his pocket and flicked it toward him.
Urahara caught the coin. On it was a shield emblem symbolizing WB.
"Consider this my apology. From earlier, I noticed that this gate of yours and our coins work in similar ways. They're both keys leading to the reverse world," Billy said, pointing at the Reishi converter.
Urahara understood immediately.
This coin was similarly a device capable of converting a human body into a spiritual body.
The three wizards present were all humans. Since Reverse London was also within Soul Society, in order to travel to Reverse London, their bodies would naturally have to be converted into spiritual bodies first.
The technology in this coin was more advanced and complete than the device Urahara currently had. It had all been condensed into a single coin. This would be quite useful for Urahara's improvements to the gate.
"Then I'll gladly accept it. Thank you."
Urahara was becoming increasingly interested in the West Branch.
It was not that his technology was necessarily inferior to the West Branch's. Rather, the two sides focused on entirely different things.
The technology of the West Branch served humans. Therefore, their tools for traveling between Front London and Reverse London were naturally more advanced than Urahara's in that respect.
Urahara himself was a spiritual body, so he could enter Soul Society directly without any conversion at all. In that specific field, he had indeed fallen behind.
But when he thought of the still-undiscovered Wandenreich, Urahara could not help feeling a little discouraged.
He would have to resolve the problem completely before he had a chance to travel west for sightseeing.
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