Destruction Timeline, Kosui Park, third time.

Seiji tried once again to talk to Destruction Voidfire. Unfortunately, Seiji was unable to learn anything else. In the end, the only knowledge he gained was the sentence “The Yasakani no Magatama is fake.”

To interpret this sentence in the most basic and literal meaning, it seemed that Voidfire must have discovered that the Yasakani no Magatama was fake when he tried to steal it.

This fake artifact, was it a fake that Soul Society intentionally prepared in order to confuse their enemies, or… was there really something wrong with the Yasakani no Magatama itself?

If it was the latter, Seiji felt like he could understand how the destructive ending for the city’s residents came about.

The more he thought about it, the more Seiji felt like this was the case.

Logically speaking, Voidfire’s attack on Soul Society must have failed in the end if he got nothing but a fake Yasakani no Magatama. This meant that Soul Society had succeeded in their defense. Yet, despite Soul Society’s successful defense, that destructive ending had still come about. Something was obviously wrong… Either there was a problem with the artifact that Soul Society was using to seal the Realm of Cherry Blossoms, or another person must have intentionally created the Destruction Timeline. Those seemed like the most likely scenarios.

If that was really the case, this meant that the true mastermind who caused the Destruction Timeline must have actually been within Soul Society!

Of course, there was also the possibility that Voidfire was just shifting the blame elsewhere. However, was he really the one who’d personally started such a tremendous tragedy on purpose? Was Soul Society not at fault in any way?

Seiji highly doubted this. In his opinion, the very fact that Soul Society had created a cruel plan to sacrifice three thousand ordinary civilians was already a mistake.

Soul Society had a problem.

The Yasakani no Magatama had a problem.

If this powerful mythic artifact had a problem, this meant that the seven major Yin Yang Master families… there was a problem with the seven major families who possessed the three major artifacts of Sakura Island!

Of course, it probably wasn’t all of the families. It was more likely that the problem was with a few families, or even just one family.

As Seiji thought this, he also recalled what yet another high-ranking member of the Messengers, Kanzaki, had told him…

“That’s because the Haruta Family, as well as the other major families in Sakura Island’s spiritual society, never treat the sins they commit as sins at all. Nor do they care one bit about how many people suffer because of their actions.”

Seiji also thought back to Akatsuki Mitarai. Akatsuki hadn’t even been from one of the seven major families. Yet, Akatsuki had done so many cruel things for so long without being punished. Wouldn’t that mean the members of the seven major families would be even more unrestrained in their behavior, with no fear of any consequences?

Seiji had seen the memories of the dead back when he’d been reviving the dead from the Bloodwine Ritual tournament. He definitely recalled seeing some evil deeds amongst the memories, although he only had hazy impressions of those left. Back then, he had tried his best to avoid reviving those who had committed too many evil deeds.

Some spiritual ability users were so evil that they were no different from demons.

Whoops, he was getting sidetracked.

Seiji told himself to focus.

Right now, all he knew was that the Yasakani no Magatama might be fake. He knew he shouldn’t jump to hasty conclusions. However, Seiji truly felt that Soul Society, or rather the seven major families, had the greater possibility of something shady going on behind the scenes. And, it was precisely because of some secret scheme involving the powerful artifact that directly caused the Destruction Timeline, or at least it would be heavily related.

“So is this all just another version of what happened at the Bloodwine Ritual tournament…?” Seiji muttered to himself. “It’s human nature to repeat the mistakes of the past… But I truly don’t feel like this cliché phrase is funny at all.”

Seiji then did his best to suppress his negative emotions in order to calm down and think about what to do next.

He then came to a decision. Seiji instantly loaded back to the New Timeline and made a phone call.

“Yui Nee-san, I have something important to tell you face to face…”

“Where did you obtain this information from?”

Yui had a sharp glint in her eyes after she finished listening to Seiji.

“Please don’t mind where I got the information from. Just trust me.” Seiji faced her directly with a resolute expression. “It’s highly likely that there’s a problem with the Yasakani no Magatama. Sacrificing three thousand ordinary people to fix the Realm of Cherry Blossoms’ location is only the overt plan. There’s an important scheme hidden within that will benefit one, or several, of the seven major Yin Yang Master families!”

Yui fell silent.

At this critical junction, she originally didn’t want to take the time to meet with Seiji again. However, Seiji had been incredibly insistent on meeting her, so she unwillingly came to see him again. She had never expected to hear such a piece of information from him.

Just what exactly had her foolish younger brother done after their last conversation?

“If you won’t tell me the source of your information, I won’t be able to judge the truthfulness of your information,” Yui stated coldly. “Schemes are everywhere, being produced every second. The type of scheme you told me about is the simplest and most laughable type of them all.”

“So what? Simple and laughable? That doesn’t mean that it’s not a real scheme. Sometimes, the most simple and practical schemes are far more dangerous than the most intricate schemes.” Seiji continued being adamant.

“That’s why I want you to tell me the source of your information!”

‘I want to believe you, but I can’t believe you so easily.’

Yui’s expression was saying this.

Seiji could only mentally sigh as he saw quite clearly what his older sister was thinking.

He knew that it was asking a lot for her to simply believe him. However, he felt that things might get even worse in the future if he told her about his time traveling ability.

Now that he had loosened his own restrictions on himself, Seiji understood even better just how overly powerful time travel could be after seeing Voidfire’s reaction. His time travel ability was far too convenient and it had zero drawbacks. This was almost no different from a curse. Just knowing about it would cause others to be affected.

To think of things pessimistically, Seiji didn’t want to expose his time travel ability. On the positive side, he also didn’t want others to carry this heavy burden together with him.

Maybe he was being arrogant, selfish, or prideful. But, that was just how he really felt.

“The information came from the ability that I Awakened… that’s all I can say,” Seiji spoke in a serious tone.

Something flashed in Yui’s eyes.

She seemed to understand, then she seemed to think of even more as her expression became rather complex.

“Is this ability powerful?”

Seiji felt a subtle sensation from her tone.

“Yes, it’s very powerful,” he answered.

“Then be careful to control your power properly. Don’t be allured and devoured by it,” Yui spoke while looking directly into his eyes.

Seiji felt that there was something more contained within her words.

“Sister Yui, do you know what my ability is?” He couldn’t help but ask.

Yui fell silent for a moment as she retracted her gaze.

“No matter what it is, the more powerful the ability, the more easily a person will become addicted to it.” She spoke in a soft voice. “You have to control it properly… Seiji, protect yourself and maintain your current sense of self.”

“…Just what do you know?” As Seiji looked at her, he felt like he was currently very close to some deep secret.

“That’s all I can say.” Yui didn’t look at him, and responded with the same phrase that he’d just used.

A period of mutual silence followed after that.

“I believe your information now,” Yui finally spoke up. “I’ll begin an investigation… Is there anything else that you want to tell me?”

“Yes.” Seiji kept looking directly at her. “The Messengers are planning an attack on Soul Society in order to steal the Yasakani no Magatama. The person leading this attack has the code name Voidfire.”

Yui’s gaze sharpened upon hearing this.

“Is this also information that you obtained through that ability of yours?”

“Yes, and I also confirmed it through Itsuki Kamitani.” Seiji paused for a moment. “In exchange for his information, I want to tell him the information that the Yasakani no Magatama might be fake. Is that alright?”

“…Do as you like.” Yui had no objections.

Actually, Seiji intended to first tell New Voidfire before telling Kamitani.

It would obviously still be impossible to convince the Messengers to call off their attack. However, this would probably bother them to some extent, or maybe even convince New Voidfire to somewhat change his actions.

At any rate, Seiji would do everything he could in order to avoid the events of the Destruction Timeline reoccurring in the New Timeline.

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes, please be absolutely careful when investigating this scheme, Nee-san.”

It would doubtlessly be highly dangerous to investigate a scheme that came from one or several of the seven major families. Even if Yui was the genius of the Haruta Family, that still wouldn’t lower the risk. It might actually make things even more dangerous for her.

And what if the Haruta Family was also involved in this scheme…?

Seiji was quite worried.

“Call me if you need me for anything,” he told her. “Although I might not be able to help, I’ll surely be able to do something about it.”

His words were obviously contradicting each other.

Yet, Yui seemed to understand what he meant as something flashed in her eyes.

“I will… Seiji.”