I spent my time lounging around, resting my rear on the scorching stone floor before rolling over to soak the heat into my back…
While idly rolling about, I watched Ise as she purified the Miasma of Hell.
At first, when she said 'purification,' I expected some grand ritual often seen in subculture media, but to my surprise, it was nothing of the sort.
She was just waving around a purification rod—a gohei—with white paper strips attached to it. From the perspective of someone who knew nothing, it looked like she was just tidying up with a duster.
Can that toxic Hell Miasma really be purified by something like that? If you asked me, well…
It actually worked quite well. You could see the purification happening with the naked eye.
"Ah, again… just how much miasma has accumulated here…?"
As she moved around waving the rod, the white paper on the gohei would stain into a deep purple, almost black color.
Seeing it so clearly, I had no choice but to believe it.
Whenever that happened, I would open a Hell Gate, and Ise would shake the gohei over it, flicking the collected miasma back inside Hell.
We repeated this over and over. Until the miasma in this entire area completely vanished.
So far, it looked like there were no issues, but in reality, there was one major problem.
"Haah… haah…"
It was Ise's stamina.
Even if it was smaller than Hell, a mountain is still a mountain, and this place was quite vast.
To walk every single step meticulously while constantly swinging a gohei—that's no ordinary labor.
For a scribe who usually spent her days in an office chair except for the commute, this was undoubtedly exhausting physical toil.
"If it's too hard, should I take over for a bit?"
"…I appreciate the thought, but… … using the gohei must be done precisely according to the laws. It would be… much faster… for me to do it myself… than to try and teach you…"
"Sorry. I‘ll stop talking."
She was huffing and puffing as if she were about to pass out just from trying to speak while purifying.
Feeling guilty for bothering her, I decided to just shut my mouth.
When someone is concentrating, you should stay quiet. Exactly.
I was lying on the warm stone thinking that, when suddenly…
"What's with this sudden vibration…?"
The stone began to rattle like a chair with a broken leg. Just as I started to move my body away, sensing it was no longer comfortable to lie there—
A boulder shot up into the sky with immense force. And since I was standing right in front of that stone, naturally…
"Abuebh!?"
I took a boulder launched by the explosion straight to the jaw.
My body wasn't so weak that I‘d die from something like this, but since it was a surprise attack to the chin, I ended up biting my tongue hard.
In that moment, I gained a new realization. F*ck.
The realization that my greatest enemy is, in fact, myself.
I trudged out from the spot, soaked head-to-toe by a downpour of scalding hot water.
"Uuuugh… Motherf*cker… I thought my tongue was gonna fall off…"
"Are… Are you alright?"
"I'm not alright. I bit my tongue and all I taste is blood."
After spitting out the blood pooled in my mouth a few times, my tongue fully healed. I rolled my tongue around to confirm it was back to normal and let out a deep sigh.
"Why did this suddenly blow up?"
Was it supposed to just erupt like that…? They don't teach you stuff like this in Earth Science.
As I stared at the erupting water… the hot spring water… with a disgruntled look, Ise groaned slightly before speaking up.
"It is only a guess… but I suspect the spiritual power of the land, which was suppressed by the Hell Miasma, has burst forth…"
"And that creates a hot spring?"
"This is the best explanation I can offer… my apologies."
I caught Ise's shoulders as she bowed her head and shook mine.
"I'm not interrogating you, so don't apologize. I was just mumbling out of curiosity."
"Ah, yes."
I nodded and stepped back, rubbing my chin as I watched the endlessly surging hot spring water.
First off, it was hot. I didn't mind this temperature, but looking at Ise's grimace, it was clearly a level of heat that a normal person couldn't withstand.
"Before we continue the purification, we'll have to do something about this spring first."
"Yes. The heat is one thing, but… "
Ise, who had been frowning at the spring, suddenly covered her mouth with her sleeve and let out a dry cough.
After coughing a few times and clearing her throat, she spoke through her hand.
"Whew… the sulfur makes it difficult even to breathe. Unless we manage this, we won't be able to proceed with the work."
I wondered why the smell was so familiar—it was sulfur.
It felt like finding a local specialty of Hell right here in the Soul Society.
"So the problem now is what to do with this hot spring water…"
I said that, but I had already made up my mind.
I grinned at the surging spring and nodded to myself.
As I showed that I had decided on a course of action through my movements, Ise looked toward me.
"I need you to purify the area from here toward the village first. I‘ll take care of this thing."
"Yes, I understand."
I watched Ise immediately head off to work before turning around.
It was time for me to make use of this hot spring water.
Of course, I couldn't dig out a hot spring with my bare hands, so I needed to grab some equipment first. And while I was at it, I might as well pick up some helping hands.
I smiled as I recalled Yahagi with his pickaxe and Tenjiro with his shovel.
"Hm? Tenjiro… Ah, Tenjiro."
The guy with the weird hair who would eventually enter Squad 0 by creating Kaido.
His hairstyle was so different that I didn't recognize him at first.
Am I getting dementia?
…Not a chance.
I chuckled at the idle thought and tracked the spiritual power of the men I saw earlier. Soul Society might be vast, but it was narrower than Hell, so I quickly arrived at the relatively large hut I was looking for.
Normally, I would have kicked the door open with a loud greeting, but I felt spiritual pressures inside that seemed like they could vanish at any moment, so I refrained.
"Pardon the intrusion."
I knocked lightly and entered. As expected, the interior of the hut was being used as a sickward.
Groaning people, the bitter smell of medicine, and Tenjiro moving around to nurse the sick.
This confirmed it. This Tenjiro was indeed the Tenjiro I knew.
Though honestly, I really couldn't get used to that long, straight hair.
"…Who the hell are you? What did you come here for?"
"You haven't fixed that attitude even after getting chewed out by that old priest?"
"Aang? I don't care who you are. In here, there's only the healed or the sick. If you don't like my attitude, why don't we have a chat with our fists? That'll show us who's right."
Tenjiro strode toward me, using his body to shield the patients from view as he shoved his face right in front of mine.
It was a classic standoff, but for someone like me who has seen everything there is to see in Hell, it was just comical.
"I'm not going to touch the patients, so don't worry and step outside. I need a bit of your help."
"…Yahagi! Keep a sharp eye on them. I‘ll be back in a second."
"No, I mean step aside. I'm not telling you to go out of the hut."
"Say that sooner, brat! You're making me misunderstand!"
Haha, this kid. I go easy on him and he keeps getting cocky.
Chuckling, I smacked the back of Tenjiro's head, just as the old man had done earlier.
"Dammit, that hurts!!"
Tenjiro collapsed with a shout, and I walked past his sprawled form to inspect the patients' conditions.
I‘ve never studied medicine, but I‘m confident I know anatomy better than anyone.
And why wouldn't I? I‘ve spent thousands, tens of thousands of years in Hell, tearing sinners limb from limb.
From the top of the head to the tips of the toes—bones, muscles, organs, nerves, blood vessels—I can read them at a glance.
Of course, every body is structured differently, so I can't apply a single average, but a quick look is all it takes to see the truth.
"If it hurts, say so."
"Urgh…! It hurts…!"
The man right in front of me had a femoral neck fracture. He‘d also developed bedsores from lying down for too long.
Specifically, pneumonia was the biggest risk, yet the patient in the very next bed had a severe case of the flu.
Because he‘d shoved all these different patients together without any separation, if left like this, every single one of them would die from secondary complications.
"I‘ll have to pay a visit to Nimaiya if I want to fix this properly."
"Didn't you say you wouldn't touch the patients!?"
"I wouldn't have touched them if you were doing a proper job, you brat. Do you think just slathering herbs on everything is enough? Every patient has different needs. You've got patients who can be together and patients who should never be near each other, yet you've crammed them all into one corner for 'treatment'? Don't make me laugh."
Just having a good heart doesn't fix everything, you idiot.
Tenjiro ground his teeth, seemingly having no retort, and hung his head low.
"Stand up, kid. I originally came to dig out a hot spring, but I can't just ignore this mess. I'll teach you the basics of medicine, so just follow me quietly."
"Medicine…?"
"It's the next step beyond just feeding people boiled herbs and smearing paste on them."
When I said that, a faint glimmer of hope appeared on Tenjiro's face.
I could tell how much he had been suffering in his heart as he watched his patients die.
"You want to save the people here, right? I can tell by the way you're agonizing over trying to keep these dying bastards alive."
"…I just don't want to see them dying right in front of me."
He just used 'Ore' (I) instead of 'Ore-sama' (This Great Me).
He must be so flustered he forgot his arrogant self-designation.
"I'll help you save them."
"Are you serious!! You can really save these guys!?"
Despite his appearance, he really was soft-hearted.
I chuckled at him rejoicing like a child and nodded.
"Yeah. I'll help you, so follow me. In exchange, I have a condition."
"What is it? What's the condition?"
"I‘m going to build a hot spring later. You're going to help me with that."
"Oh. I'll do that as much as you want!"
Tenjiro nodded with a dead serious expression.
Watching him, I laughed softly. I threw a quick glance at the man staring intently at me from the deepest part of the hut before leading Tenjiro outside.