Breathing heavily for a long time, Rasatsu finally managed to steady her trembling body. She wiped the bloody foam from her mouth with her sleeve and stood up.
"...Why did you heal me?"
"Healing? Don't make me laugh. I just drained the fluid from your lungs as a stopgap. The pulmonary edema itself is still there; before long, you'll be hacking up blood and making a mess again."
In the first place, if one could learn Ripple breathing just by having their diaphragm poked with a pinky, Kagaya would have been using 'Overdrive' ages ago. What I did was merely vent the air and drain the fluid from her lungs; it wasn't a cure for the edema. As I spoke with a scowl, Myoren—who had been supporting Rasatsu by her side—looked at me.
"...Master."
"What? Are you going to ask if I can actually cure her? Are you people even allowed to say that? You're the ones who crafted the concepts of life and death with your own hands, and now that death is coming for you, you're scared?"
"It is not like that at all...! I simply... I just wanted Rasatsu to suffer even a little bit less..."
"Being worshipped as the Five Great Noble Houses must have given you quite the privilege complex. Did you think that because you have a connection with me, you'd be allowed to die a bit more comfortably?"
If you didn't want to suffer or feel pain, you shouldn't have divided the Three Worlds. You shouldn't have separated life and death. These women enjoyed every privilege that came with being called 'Ancestors' in an environment far superior to anyone else's. They never spared a thought for the children starving to death in the outer districts, nor did they show concern for the commoners dying in agony from disease.
You find it hard to watch her suffer? You wish she'd suffer less?
"You've grown arrogant, Kuchiki Myoren."
"...."
"Sigh. Fine, whatever. From the moment the term 'Five Great Noble Houses' came about, I didn't expect much anyway. Humans are selfish by nature."
Ideal kings like the Soul King are a rare breed. An ideal is only an ideal because it remains out of reach.
"Unless you intend to take responsibility for every soul out in the slums and provide them relief, don't ask me for help. This is the world you chose and the world you created, so why are you asking me? How long am I supposed to wipe your asses? It's not like you've gone senile yet, is it?"
Even if they did go senile, I wouldn't wipe their asses. Why should I? Make your descendants do it, don't ask me.
"Anyway, Rasatsu. I didn't exactly 'fix' you; I just tweaked you because talking was going to be a nuisance otherwise. Now that you know, come over here and sit down quietly. We have a lot to talk about."
I patted the wooden floor. Rasatsu approached with a sour expression and knelt formally. Still hasn't said thank you. What a brat. No matter how much of a rush she's in, she should at least show some gratitude.
Sigh... fine, forget it. What would I even do with her thanks? With that thought, Myoren followed behind and sat beside her.
"The people here should have a general idea of how things are going, so I'll skip the redundant explanation. Shiba Hozuki—you all know him, right?"
"...Yes. He was a child of exceptional ability and talent, yet he was never arrogant. He was polite and kind to his elders."
Unlike some people I could mention. I swallowed the words that almost slipped out and nodded.
"That boy has fallen into Hell."
"...What?"
"...."
Myoren reacted exactly like Shiryu had, while Rasatsu frowned and bit her lip. Shiryu did say she was the one who knew the most. It seems she really does know something.
"As you all know, Hozuki isn't the type to fall into Hell. But he's there right now. Why is that?"
"That, we don't quite..."
"We would like to know as well... What could that young child have possibly done to deserve being sent to Hell?"
Shiryu and Myoren both shook their heads. Among those sitting here, Rasatsu was the only one who remained silent. Whether she was taking time to organize her thoughts because she had a lot to say, or because her conscience was pricked by something... One look at her face gave me the answer.
"It looks like you have something to say but need some time to prepare mentally. In the meantime, I should explain how Hell operates."
"How Hell... operates?"
"Good question, Myoren. It means exactly what it sounds like—I'm going to tell you 'how' Hell works. Don't worry, it's not a long story. As you know, Hell is quite a simple place."
"Master, you are likely the only person who thinks Hell is simple."
"The more complex you make your thinking, the harder it is to find the answer."
I smirked at Shiryu's comment, then walked down toward the garden to pick up one white stone and one black stone. All three of them, Rasatsu included, looked puzzled.
"I'm not entirely sure how your Three Worlds function, but since you people are so obsessed with balance, you must have adopted a system of reincarnation. Right?"
"How did you..."
"I confirmed it as soon as I left Hell."
Spreading one's sensory range to identify where someone is is more difficult than it sounds. Simply spreading Spirit Pressure to find a location is no different from a bat's echolocation. With that alone, you can't precisely tell 'who' is 'where'. If you ask a person with total color blindness to distinguish between two frogs that are identical in every way except color, can they do it? No, they can't. Spreading one's senses is similar.
That's why I focused on perceiving the Spiritual Power of others to make it easier to distinguish them. After doing that for a thousand years, I naturally began to feel the flow of Reishi as well. And the first thing I felt upon arriving in the Three Worlds was...
"I felt the Spirit Particles moving in one massive current. I felt two paths: a direct flow from the Soul Society to the World of the Living, and one that flows from the World of the Living through Hueco Mundo and back into the Soul Society."
Ultimately, I realized they formed a single 'Great Circle' across the Three Worlds.
"In that case, it's usually reincarnation."
Spirit Particles gather to become Spirit. This is then divided into the soul and the spirit, which combine to form the Soul-Spirit. When this obtains a body, it finally becomes 'Life'. That is what we call reincarnation.
"But a problem arises here. Specifically, the 'Karma' engraved upon the Soul-Spirit. Now, let's say these two stones are Soul-Spirits, and this garden is the Three Worlds. The white one is an ordinary soul that hasn't committed any sins. The black one is a bastard who's sinned enough to fall to Hell."
Can these two actually mix together?
"What do you think?"
"It would be impossible. Much like oil and water cannot mix."
"So the method you chose was to drop this black stone into Hell. Correct?"
"...Yes."
"I'm not bringing this up to scold you, so don't look so gloomy. It's not cute at all coming from an old woman."
As I waved my hand with a look of disgust, the two women—except Shiryu—cleared their throats and averted their eyes.
"Even so... we forced such a burden upon our Master..."
I scowled at Myoren's words. Look at her running her mouth.
"Listen here, you inconsiderate punks. If you actually cared, you should have come to visit me a long time ago. Anyone can talk a big game."
"We are truly sorry..."
"Sigh. Fine, whatever. I crawled into Hell of my own volition to deal with your mess, and I never intended to hold you responsible for it anyway."
"Then why did you say those things...?"
"It just pissed me off seeing you pretend to care when you hadn't even sent a 'how are you' or a single greeting in all this time, okay?"
Ugh, I got a bit sidetracked.
"Anyway. Let's set aside the white one. What happens to this black one that falls to Hell?"
I lightly tightened my right hand, which held the black stone, and crushed it. The black stone broke into two pieces.
"First, you kill it."
Broken, broken, and broken again. Crunch, crackle... crumble... As I continued to crush the stone in my hand, it eventually turned into a handful of sand.
"You kill it until not even a shred of the soul remains—until the 'Self' is lost and the 'Karma' itself becomes as if it never existed, reduced to mere powder. And then..."
I scattered the sand across the garden. The black stone spread over the garden was now impossible to find.
"You return it to the Three Worlds to be circulated once again."
For the record, Kagaya is a bit different since he achieved enlightenment on his own and entered Nirvana before fading into nothingness. He was a case where he broke out of the frame and escaped the logic of the Great Circle entirely.
"This is how sinners are handled in Hell."
This is why sinners eventually become dust. Once the soul and the spirit have completely vanished, how could the physical form maintain its existence? If the pillars are gone, how can the house stand? It collapses entirely.
"I thought that was the end of it too. But the real problem starts from here."
If that really were the end, then why on earth did Shiba Hozuki fall to Hell? He's not a sinner with evil karma attached to his soul. If there's any singular anomaly, it's just that his Spiritual Power is overwhelmingly higher than others'. So why?
"Why do you think that is? Huh? Shihoin Rasatsu."
As I crossed my arms and looked at Rasatsu, she clenched her fists and trembled, hanging her head low. Seeing her reaction, Myoren and Shiryu also fixed their gazes on Rasatsu, their expressions hardening. After a long silence, Rasatsu began to speak with a voice thick with suppressed emotion.
"A thousand years since the creation of the Great Cycle... up until then, we thought there were no issues."
"There weren't really many issues, actually."
"But... as time passed, we realized the flow was becoming distorted and beginning to creak. For 108 years, 7 months, and 15 days since then... I have devoted myself to research to identify the problem. And I realized it."
The structural flaw... of the Three Worlds.