Crossover Anime: Starting with Bankai from Demon Slayer

Chapter 408 Tokihime's Secret

"Good evening, Lord of Squad Zero."

Asuka tried to wave to Ichibei in a friendly manner, after all, she needed his help today.

"Haha, no need to be so polite. How have you been lately?"

Ichibei's illusory form, with his hands in his sleeves, looked at Asuka with a curious and enthusiastic air, like a friendly old neighbor: "As the Soul King's substitute Shinigami, are you adapting well to this job?"

"...It's alright, thank you for your concern."

"Don't be so formal." Ichibei's tone remained relaxed and cheerful, his voice carrying a childlike warmth: "You've been running around a lot lately, you're quite busy."

"Trouble in the present world again, trouble in the Seireitei. Are you feeling alright?"

"Is there anything I can help you with? If it's something that requires the help of the Thirteenth Team, I can certainly put in a word with Heifune."

After hearing a few polite words from the other party, Feibiao didn't really think that the big monk in front of her was so easy to talk to.

Urahara had told him many times that the people in Squad Zero were all deep-seated and not as simple as they appeared on the surface.

He composed himself and looked at Ichibei's illusory image: "It's not necessary for now. Thank you for your concern, sir."

Ichibei seemed to notice the change in Asuka's mood and stopped joking.

While idly drawing circles in the air with his enormous calligraphy brush, he asked directly, "Since it's not a request for help, why did you deliberately input so much spiritual power into your agent's certificate and cross the boundary to call upon me?"

"I don't think you just want to chat with this old man or test your new communication privileges."

Feiniao didn't beat around the bush and directly asked the question that had been nagging at him and was almost driving him crazy.

"Lord Ichibei...do you know who Tokihime is?"

The name was revealed.

Ichibei's illusory image froze.

I don't know if he was disconnected or if Ichibei was just standing there in a daze, but he didn't move at all.

On the other end of the agency certificate, high in the sky, on the main path of the Spirit King Palace.

The spirit particles that were swaying in the breeze seemed to stop moving at this moment.

Time passed second by second, and this silence was amplified infinitely in the quiet night, making even the birds' heartbeats quicken involuntarily.

"...Little Flying Bird".

After a long silence, Ichibei's voice rang out again.

This time, the cheerfulness and ease in his voice were gone.

"Where did you hear that name from?"

Asuka didn't hide anything and told the truth: "It was at the Kasumioji house that a man named Hojo told me..."

He gritted his teeth and uttered the word with difficulty: "He said...that's my mother."

"your mother?"

Upon hearing this answer, Ichibei on the other end of the proxy certificate fell into a long silence once again.

His usually squinting eyes were now wide open, and his dark pupils seemed to be churning with countless drops of ink.

Ichibei sat cross-legged on the ground, frantically rummaging through his memory bank, which had been stored up for countless years, searching for a connection between that long-forgotten name and the boy before him.

"...I do know who this person is."

He finally let out a long sigh, his voice seemingly piercing through a thousand years: "But, Asuka... I'm not sure if the Tokihime I know is the answer you're looking for."

"More importantly..." Ichibei began, puzzled, "In my memory, in the records of Soul Society..."

"Tokihime has no children."

"What?"

Asuka looked at Ichibei, puzzled.

"I don't know where that man named Hojo got his information from, or what his purpose was."

"But Princess Toki really has no offspring left in this world... I shouldn't be mistaken about that."

"I don't understand." Asuka's breathing became rapid.

How could this be? If Tokihime didn't have a child, then Hojo was lying? But he was already a dying man, what was he after?

Or is there a secret hidden here that even the Zero Division doesn't know?

"As the rulers of Soul Society, is there any secret that the high and mighty Zero Division doesn't know? Aren't you supposed to be monitoring everything in the Three Realms?"

Ichibei was not angry when he heard Asuka's emotional question.

He gently shook his head, stroking his thick beard with his broad palm.

"Little Bird, there are two misconceptions in what you said," he corrected. "First, the Zero Division is not under anyone's command."

"We merely represent the will of the Spirit King, and our sole purpose in existing here is to safeguard the balance and cycle of the Three Realms."

"We do not interfere in the internal affairs of the Gotei 13, nor do we rule over the people of Rukongai. If it weren't for the Soul King's will, we wouldn't have interfered with the reconstruction of Seireitei this time."

"We are only accountable to the Spirit King."

"Secondly..." Ichibei said solemnly, "The Zero Division, in the end, is just a more powerful Shinigami."

"This world is too big, and there are many things we don't know."

"Those truths that are deliberately buried, secrets that are distorted by time... the answers to many things often need to be found by ourselves."

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured over a bird's head, extinguishing its restlessness.

He remained silent, waiting quietly for what would follow.

"And about Tokihime."

Ichibei stroked his chin: "She's not an ordinary woman."

"If you really want to know about her past, I hope you're mentally prepared."

Asuka bowed almost without hesitation to Ichibei's phantom image, her attitude sincere.

"Please tell me, sir."

Finally, someone has been able to clear up some of the fog. How much worse can it get?

"Before we talk about Tokihime, I have to ask you a question."

"Little bird, do you know what the West Coast Bureau is?"

Xishao Bureau, that's the term again.

The bird shook his head; he truly knew nothing.

Ichibei smiled and said, "It's understandable that you don't know; the Spirit Arts Academy no longer teaches this kind of course..."

"Aside from myself and those few old fogies, you could probably count the number of people who know about that place on one hand."

"That was a world that was deliberately stripped away."

Ichibei began to recount his story, his voice seemingly pulling Asuka back to the ancient era when the cycle of the three realms had just been established.

A thousand years ago, during the cycle of the Three Realms, the structure of the world was far more fragile than it is now.

In the far west, a spatial distortion that shook the three realms occurred.

That distortion tore apart the originally stable spatial dimensions.

This created a vast alternate dimension, independent of the Soul Society and the human world.

"You can think of it as a place similar to a valley, but it's different from those chaotic and disordered places," Ichibei added.

"After the initial turmoil, that space miraculously stabilized."

"After thousands of years of evolution, a Three Realms system of its own has actually emerged there."

"My own Three Realms?" Asuka's eyes widened.

"That's right." Ichibei's tone was filled with curiosity and apprehension about that world: "Although it is also a world of spirit particles and artifacts, its composition is completely different from that of the Shinigami, Hollows, and humans we are familiar with."

"In that world, Hollows are alien creatures known as 'Dragons'."

"They are also aggregates of souls, but their form and power are completely different from the Void."

Some dragons are ferocious and bloodthirsty, and are called "black dragons," while others are gentle and controllable, and are tamed and utilized by the local people, and are called "white dragons."

"And in order to manage these dragons and maintain the balance of that small Three Realms, an organization similar to our Seireitei was also born there."

"They call themselves a natural dragon management organization."

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