~ I have added this Fanfic to my Patreon. If you'd like to read advanced chapters, feel free to check it out!
~ I'm planning to increase the number of advanced chapters to +50 this weekend!
~ I've edited some of the previous chapters to remove anything you might consider "cringe" or "unnecessary." I'll continue reviewing them from time to time!
~ Very soon, we'll return to releasing two chapters daily, including bonus privileges for Power Stone contributions!
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"It's been a month since you've called!" He could practically hear the angry pout in her tone. "You don't call, you don't text and you haven't responded to anything we've sent you! Where have you been!?"
"Ah, I've been-" Ichigo cut himself off as he yawned. He was still somewhat tired from the previous night and his excursions in the Underworld earlier this morning.
"Sorry, I've been preoccupied with stuff."
"Stuff? What stuff?" The suspicion was less dripping and more outright pouring. "You're not fooling around with some girl are you?"
That broke him out of his stupor. "What? Where did you get that kind of crazy idea? I'm simply busy with my new job."
There was a small silence on the other end of the line that made him check to phone see if it was still connected. "Oi, Yuzu?"
"Huh? So it was a job?" He heard her mutter from the other side. "What kind of job?"
The mistrust back in full force.
"Yuzu," Annoyance barely keeping out of his voice. "Don't make me come over there and spank you."
"Meanie, Onii-chan," He heard her blow a raspberry and he fought to not roll his eyes in face of her childishness. "Where are you, anyways?"
"Huh? I'm in Kyoto with a friend."
"What!" She shrieked. "Why are you all the way over there!?"
Apparently, his conversation with Yuzu was quite audible to those around him because Souji was sniggering into his hand. "One of my professors is out in a conference so class was cancelled for today. So we thought to ourselves, why not? Let's go on a trip. And here we are."
"That sounds awfully convenient," She mused, much to Ichigo's exasperation. He then noticed Souji motion to him that they had arrived.
"Yuzu?"
"Yes?"
"I'm hanging up now."
"Wai-click"
He shook his head in a silent sigh as he deposited his phone into the confines of his jeans. He knew that she'd give him hell the next time they ended up speaking but, he reasoned that if he sent her a few photos of the area she'd calm down.
Gesturing to the wall at the end of an alley filled with trashcans, Souji said, "And here we are."
The stone wall faded away to reveal a completely different world. Creatures of all shapes and sizes drifted to and fro along the newly revealed alley. They clambered over each other in some instances and some were even traversing the walls of the various buildings.
As Ichigo took a closer look, he noticed that it appeared that he and Souji had travelled back in time. Judging by the wistful expression on his companion's face, this was very similar to how he grew up. Well, similar if you subtracted the dancing kappa, the Oni attempting to sell taiyaki* and Kuchisake-onna gesturing towards them rather suggestively.
Ichigo turned his attention from the illicit Yōkai to Souji when he felt the man's power fluctuate slightly. "Everything alright?" he asked with an upturned brow.
"Perfectly fine," Souji inclined his head. "Simply my inner Nue acting up in the presence of his kin."
"Inner Nue?" Ichigo asked, bemused. "I bet there's a story behind that."
Souji smiled mysteriously. "Perhaps another time."
The two Devils walked down the alley infested with various other supernatural entities, though they were given a wide berth. Despite them reigning in their monstrous presence, the Yōkai could still sense the dense demonic power that lay within the pair.
As Ichigo inhaled, he could taste the power that within the very air. Kyoto's underground was very different from the Underworld. He had asked a few questions of Grayfia before departing and she had informed him that Kyoto lay on an unusually potent leyline. An intersection between mystical energies from within the planet itself.
Due to the Underworld being an extension of Hell, it possessed no such phenomena. However, that isn't to say that the Underworld did not have its fair share of anonymities and ghastly secrets.
Grayfia had also informed him how Yasaka, the Kyūbi and ruler of Japan's Yōkai, was the one who regulated the leyline. That without her, it would run rampart and cause various singularities, which would, in all likelihood, expose the supernatural world to the unsuspecting mortal realm. As such, her existence was paramount to the preservation of stability in the world.
The Silver Queen had, for this reason, expressly told Ichigo (read: threatened) to be as courteous as possible with her and be on his best behavior. The Devils had a, somewhat, tentative agreement with the Yōkai of Japan. So long as the Devils would not blatantly abuse the Japanese population and interfere with their system, the Yōkai would allow them to run minute operations and allow them to set up small-scale territories.
Therefore, Ichigo's meeting with Yasaka could potentially be a breakthrough in the rather isolationist government of Japan's supernatural realm on behalf of the Underworld. Which, of course, begged the question; why, in the name of all that was unholy, was he the one dealing with this? Shouldn't someone of more seniority and experience handle something as this massively consequential?
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