Chapter 187: Chapter 187: Saitō Furaofushi’s Secret
(T/N: Sixth and final Chapter of today! Hope you guys enjoyed the read! and Thanks for the support!!
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"I’ve heard rumors of this so-called ’Soul Funeral Rite’ as well," Nanatsuki nodded slightly. "I even personally witnessed Captain Nobutsuna Shigyō return from Hell."
"Nobutsuna Shigyō went to Hell too?" Saitō Furaofushi raised her brows slightly at the familiar name.
"A few years ago, Captain Shigyō was ambushed and drugged by a Reishi Shell..." Nanatsuki explained the situation that had unfolded in the Soul Society to Saitō Furaofushi.
"Reishi Shell...?" Saitō Furaofushi murmured thoughtfully. "A product of the so-called ’Captain Completion Plan’?
That didn’t exist when I was imprisoned."
"But none of that matters to me anymore." Saitō Furaofushi curled her lip. "As long as the Tsunayashiro Clan stands, there’s no way I’ll ever leave here alive."
Long-term use of Reiatsu-suppressing restraints causes immense damage to the soul. If her spiritual body weren’t so strong, she would’ve been long gone by now.
That said, Saitō Furaofushi still had roughly seven hundred years left on her sentence. Even for her, surviving another seven centuries here was a stretch.
"Miss Saitō, your bluntness is admirable," Nanatsuki praised sincerely.
Over the past few days, during his errands to buy things for her, Nanatsuki had learned from Batsu’unsai about the grudge between Saitō Furaofushi and the Tsunayashiro Clan.
The story wasn’t overly complicated. Back then, the head of the Tsunayashiro Clan wanted to marry into the Saitō family. He had his eye on Saitō Furaofushi, who was the first-ever Captain of Squad Six, and thus sent his son to pursue her.
Saitō Furaofushi rejected the young Tsunayashiro’s advances, so the father and son tried to drug her.
They didn’t get the chance. Before the drug even kicked in, Saitō Furaofushi had already cut them into pieces on the spot.
"Sounds like Batsu’unsai told you about me," Saitō Furaofushi grabbed the sake jar beside her and took a deep swig. "Weaklings who can’t even beat me dare to chase me? And then drug me after failing? Serves them right for dying!"
"That definitely deserved a kill," Nanatsuki agreed without hesitation.
"Are all Tsunayashiro this depraved...?" Nanatsuki couldn’t help but recall Tsunayashiro Tokinada, the current clan head’s cousin.
The father and son that Saitō Furaofushi had killed? They were Tokinada’s grandfather and father.
"That family’s obsessed with inbreeding," Saitō Furaofushi said with visible disgust. "Only the children born from main-family wives can inherit the clan head position. It’s messed them all up in the head! You know someone from that clan too?"
"I once competed against Tsunayashiro Tokinada for the position of Swordsmanship Department Head at the Spiritual Arts Academy..."
Nanatsuki recounted how he had competed with Tokinada for that role.
Saitō Furaofushi lit up upon hearing it and patted Nanatsuki’s shoulder with the tip of her toe. "Good thing you got rid of him! Letting a Tsunayashiro teach kids at the Academy? Might as well ruin their lives early."
"I like your style," she said bluntly. "So let me tell you something you’ll probably be very interested in."
She set down her sake jar and reached up to touch the cord at the back of her head, then removed the eyepatch covering her left eye.
As soon as the eyepatch came off, Nanatsuki’s eyes locked onto her blood-red pupil.
"Miss Saitō... don’t tell me that eye does some kind of weird eye magic..." Nanatsuki muttered. The crimson iris gave him the distinct feeling that it might start weeping black flames at any moment—or summon an armored giant.
"Eye magic? Tch." Saitō Furaofushi scoffed, hands on hips. "This left eye of mine came from Hell itself!"
"This Reiatsu... it’s alive?" Nanatsuki focused his spiritual senses on the eye. It had Reiatsu.
Saitō Furaofushi’s own Reiatsu was sealed by her restraints, making her normally undetectable.
Yet now, he could clearly feel spiritual pressure radiating from her left eye.
Which meant—this eye was an independent being.
Nanatsuki’s gaze drifted to the eyepatch in her hand. It likely had Reiatsu-blocking properties, which was why he hadn’t sensed anything until she removed it.
Saitō Furaofushi explained, "Yes. This eye is a creature of Hell. Just like the ’Sound of Hell,’ it’s something my grandmother gave me."
"The ’Sound of Hell’ looks like a giant conch shell. I use it to communicate with my grandmother in Hell."
"But it also picks up other signals from within Hell. Grandma said some of them have the power to corrupt the mind."
"This eye helps protect me from that kind of influence."
"Does it have a will of its own?" Nanatsuki asked, frowning. Anything from Hell that possessed independent thought was unlikely to be safe.
"Not anymore. But I can use it to enter my Inner World and commune with my Zanpakutō.
If not for this eye, I probably wouldn’t have lasted this long in here," she added.
The eye offered protection against mental interference and also allowed Saitō Furaofushi to access her Inner World by channeling its Reiatsu.
"Then... Miss Saitō, do you know anything about the ’Will of Hell’? When Captain Nobutsuna Shigyō returned from Hell, he was under its control," Nanatsuki asked.
"You’re asking the right person," Saitō Furaofushi said proudly. "There aren’t many in Soul Society who know this stuff."
"Once, Hell had a ruler. But after being defeated by the Soul King, he vanished without a trace."
"The former Hell Lord might be dead, but according to rumors from within Hell,
one day, he will return."
"This ’Will of Hell’ that controlled Nobutsuna Shigyō was likely the remnant of that Lord’s will—because he, too, had the power to sway hearts and minds."
"That will has been influencing the souls trapped in Hell ever since."
"Hell has always carried that corruptive influence. Even after the Hell Lord vanished, it never went away.
When I use the ’Sound of Hell’, I’m exposed to it too," she said, touching her left eye again. "That’s why Grandma gave me this eye—to resist its power."
"The Hell Lord..." Nanatsuki frowned. "If the ’Will of Hell’ truly is his, then whoever holds the ’Sound of Hell’ may already be under his control."
A being strong enough to make the Soul King act...
That was not someone Nanatsuki could possibly oppose right now.
Still, it didn’t seem like the Hell Lord had returned—
which meant Nanatsuki had time to grow.