"Sure," Shinobu Kocho said, taking Rurichiyo's small hand. "Little sister Rurichiyo, the cotton candy in the World of the Living is incredibly sweet and soft, just like clouds."
"You will definitely love it. How about I take you to buy some?"
"Cotton candy? Yay! I've been wanting to try it for so long!" Rurichiyo was just a child, after all. The moment she heard about food, she tossed all her worries out the window.
She turned her head and arrogantly ordered Kenryu and Enryu, "You two idiots stay here and chat with Uncle Asuka. Don't wander off! I'll come back for you after I've eaten my fill!"
"Y-Yes! Lady Rurichiyo, please be careful!" Kenryu and Enryu agreed repeatedly.
Watching Shinobu lead the skipping Rurichiyo away until they disappeared around the corner of the street, the gentle expression on Asuka's face vanished without a trace.
"Alright, the little girl is gone now."
Asuka turned around, crossed his arms, and stared coldly at the two men in front of him. "Drop the terrible acting."
"What exactly happened to the Kasumioji Family?"
Thud!
As soon as Asuka finished speaking, the two men didn't hesitate. They dropped heavily to their knees in front of him, assuming a perfect groveling posture once again.
"You two... can you stop doing this at the drop of a hat..."
However, the two didn't seem to care how lowly they appeared. They simply bowed their heads deeply and pleaded in trembling voices, "Lord Asuka is truly perceptive... We... we did indeed hide the truth."
Kenryu pressed his forehead against the cold asphalt. "We aren't accompanying Lady Rurichiyo on a sightseeing trip... We are on the run."
"On the run?" Asuka furrowed his brows. "According to Shinobu, the Kasumioji Family is a high-ranking noble house second only to the Five Great Noble Families... Who would dare hunt down your family's young lady?"
"It is our own people from the Kasumioji Family."
Enryu, who had been silent until now, spoke up in his high-pitched voice, "Lord Asuka, the Kasumioji Family... has been usurped."
Under the gradually darkening sky, the two loyal guards choked back sobs as they revealed to Asuka the heinous bloodshed and darkness hidden behind the noble lineage of the Soul Society.
For generations, the Kasumioji Family forged special weaponry for the Seireitei and the Five Great Noble Families, accumulating immense wealth and power in the process.
However, Lady Rurichiyo's parents, the former heads of the family, both passed away prematurely a few years ago due to a bizarre accident...
Without a head, the Kasumioji Family nominally belonged to Rurichiyo, but she was not the one actually in power.
"Gyokaku Kumoi..." Kenryu gritted his teeth as he spat out the name. "Lady Rurichiyo is too young to control such a massive family."
"This gave that ambitious bastard... the Kasumioji Family's chief retainer, Gyokaku Kumoi, an opportunity to strike."
"On the surface, that old fox claimed to be assisting the head of the family, but in secret, he frantically eliminated those who disagreed with him and planted his own cronies."
"Although Lady Rurichiyo is the nominal head, she has long been under house arrest deep within the estate, reduced to a puppet under his control."
"The retainers who were truly loyal to the previous head were either assassinated under various trumped-up charges or banished to the lowest levels of the Rukongai."
Enryu added, "And recently... controlling the family's finances wasn't enough for him. He even secretly allied with other nobles, plotting who knows what..."
"To become an existence equal to those nobles, that old thief Gyokaku Kumoi... couldn't hold back any longer!"
"He wants to completely erase Lady Rurichiyo's existence and rightfully usurp the position as the head of the Kasumioji Family!"
Kenryu's voice trembled even more violently, carrying a hint of terror. "Our spies within the family risked their lives to send word that Kumoi has already issued a secret order to assassinate her!"
"To protect her, we had no choice but to carve a bloody path out under the cover of night. We took her, completely oblivious to everything, and fled to the World of the Living..."
After hearing their story, Asuka's eyes grew even colder.
Power struggles, assassination plots, usurping the fruits of others' labor...
These vulgar and bloody dramas seemed to play out endlessly, no matter the world.
"So that silly girl still thinks this is just an exciting game of running away from home?" Asuka glanced in the direction Shinobu and Rurichiyo had left, a sense of sorrow welling up in his heart.
"Yes..." Kenryu closed his eyes in pain. "Lady Rurichiyo lost both her parents in quick succession. She is too pitiful..."
"We couldn't bear to tell her the truth. We couldn't bear to let her know that the man she once called Grandpa Kumoi is actually the enemy who murdered her parents and is now coming to kill her."
"That's not a solution, though."
Asuka clearly disagreed with this self-deceiving method of protection. "You can hide for a day or two, but can you hide for a lifetime?"
"We had no other choice, Lord Asuka!"
Enryu slammed his head against the ground. "Our strength is too meager. We simply cannot fight against Kumoi's subordinates..."
At this point, Kenryu and Enryu suddenly straightened up in unison, looking at Asuka with fervent eyes burning with hope.
"Lord Asuka!" Kenryu pleaded loudly. "Please, no matter what, show mercy and take Lady Rurichiyo in during this time! Protect her safety!"
"As long as you are willing to shelter her until we can contact the loyalists still in hiding and expose Kumoi's conspiracy! We, the retainers of the Kasumioji Family, are willing to serve you like beasts of burden and pledge our eternal loyalty to repay your great kindness!"
The two slammed their heads heavily against the ground once more, looking as though they wouldn't get up unless Asuka agreed.
Faced with this kind of guilt-tripping plea, Asuka did not agree.
"I don't understand."
"If what you're saying is true, such a severe rebellion has occurred within the Kasumioji Family, even involving the felony of assassinating a noble head."
"Why didn't you seek help from the Gotei 13?"
Asuka frowned, scrutinizing the two. "Doesn't the Seireitei have the Sixth Division specifically responsible for maintaining noble order? Isn't that Byakuya Kuchiki the biggest stickler for the rules?"
"At the very least, you should have gone to the newly appointed Captain-Commander, Shunsui Kyoraku, and exposed Kumoi's crimes to him. As long as the Gotei 13 intervenes, what does the rebellion of a mere chief retainer amount to?"
"You ignore the Gotei 13, who hold heavy military power and legitimate authority... yet you run to the World of the Living to beg me, a Substitute who has no ties to you and isn't even considered a real Soul Reaper?"
Asuka chuckled. "Do you think I look gullible, or do you think my strength is already great enough to ignore the rules of the entire Seireitei?"
Hearing Asuka's interrogation, Kenryu and Enryu's fervent expressions froze.
The two exchanged a glance, and ultimately, it was Kenryu who spoke bitterly, voicing the deepest fear in their hearts that they couldn't share with outsiders.
"Lord Asuka, there is something you don't know... It's not that we don't want to go to the Gotei 13, but rather... we don't dare."
Kenryu's voice was so low it almost blended into the pervasive night. "The situation in the Soul Society is far more complicated than you can imagine."