But for some patient schemers, ten years might not seem that long.

Now then, how likely did it seem that the Tendo Family had begun a scheme related to the Realm of Cherry Blossoms ten years ago?

It seemed unlikely. It would be almost impossible to predict the general situation ten years down the road. However, it would be more probably that the Tendo Family had left a trap that could be activated later down the road at an appropriate time.

People commonly had misunderstandings about what schemes were. Many would believe that schemes would be well-concealed and intricate from the very start. Or, at least, that the scheme would be relatively well planned, and that it would secretly proceed until it finally succeeded.

This wasn't always the case. In some cases, even the schemer wouldn't know what results their scheme would bring about. The schemer would simply put down a chess piece at an appropriate time at an appropriate place. Then, depending on the situation, the schemer might later activate this chess piece, place another chess piece, or change this chess piece's location. The schemer would then slowly progress until they would personally benefit.

If the Tendo Family really had a scheme, it was likely to be the latter type.

Of course, the Tendo Family might also be completely innocent. The black-clad man was simply saying that the Tendo Family betrayal incident from ten years ago was the most probable time when something went wrong with the Yasakani no Magatama artifact. This was all just hypothetical so far.

But no matter what, Yui and the black-clad man now had a direction to investigate in.

"Call him here," the black-clad man said to Yui.

Yui knew whom the black-clad man was referring to. There was only one person in Soul Society who had the best understanding of the Tendo Family while being relatively trustworthy.

Yui took out her cell phone and called a certain number.

Not long after, that person she'd contacted arrived.

He walked into this room without even knocking. He was wearing a gray combat outfit with an angry minotaur mask on his head. This made him seem rather strange and comical.

If Seiji had been here, he would have recognized this person as the minotaur mask boy who had been together with the national idol Miyuki Sakuraku! Mika had also been with Seiji at that time.

"What do the two of you want to ask me?" the minotaur mask boy asked in a low voice.

"It's about the incident from ten years ago, when a member of the Tendo Family tried to steal the Yasakani no Magatama…" Yui explained.

After she finished explaining, the minotaur mask boy fell silent for a moment.

"Supposedly, the mastermind behind that theft attempt was s.h.i.+nzen Tendo," the minotaur boy remarked. "s.h.i.+nzen Tendo was the younger cousin of Sougo Tendo, the current leader of the Tendo Family. s.h.i.+nzen's power level was average, and he was poor at socializing. He was almost completely unknown. s.h.i.+nzen also fully immersed himself in his hobby of creating spiritual artifacts, but he never managed to create anything useful. In his generation, he was considered lower-middle cla.s.s.

"Back when he allegedly tried to steal the Yasakani no Magatama, his attempt was discovered before he even obtained the jewel artifact. s.h.i.+nzen was executed almost immediately afterwards. As for the outsiders that he supposedly allied with, those people self-destructed when they were hunted down by the Tendo Family's a.s.sa.s.sination squad. No traces were left behind. There's no evidence as to who they could be. That's all I know."

"Do you think that there's anything suspicious about this incident?" Yui asked.

"It was too poorly done," the minotaur mask boy stated directly. "The culprits, no matter if it was s.h.i.+nzen Tendo or those people that self-destructed or whoever else was behind it, they all did everything far too sloppily."

"Or in other words, the Tendo Family did everything unbelievably perfectly," the black-clad man said. "Even though this was clearly a serious betrayal where a member of the family schemed together with outsiders, the Tendo Family suffered zero losses. In the end, it all seemed as if that s.h.i.+nzen Tendo was just a complete idiot who had a foolish scheme."

"That's right. This is the same as what I've heard. s.h.i.+nzen Tendo's scheme was truly foolish," the minotaur mask boy agreed.

"Was he truly such a foolish individual?"

"There's no specific information about him, because he was relatively unknown and didn't really have any friends. There's too little information to go on." The minotaur boy then paused as his tone turned rather grim. "However, an entire village was destroyed three months after that incident."

The black-clad man's expression didn't change. However, Yui furrowed her eyebrows.

"The destruction of that village is considered to be absolute top secret in the Tendo Family. I did my very best to investigate it, but all I found out in the end was that it was somehow connected to the Tendo Family's Dragon Vein," the minotaur mask boy stated lightly. However, deeper emotions seemed to run underneath his light tone.

The Dragon Vein.

That was the name that the Tendo Family gave to the Spirit Vein they pa.s.sed down through the generations. A so-called Spirit Vein was believed to be an important factor for a family to keep producing spiritual ability users. Some Spirit Veins were physical, some were intangible, and some were a mix of both.

Simply speaking, the Tendo Family Dragon Vein was one of the major foundational reasons why the Tendo Family was able to become one of the seven major families.

The major families were all capable of doing anything at all for the sake of preserving their foundational strength! All three people present in this room understood this facet of spiritual society quite well.

The minotaur mask boy's information about this Tendo Family secret was quite important, but the most important thing right now was still the Yasakani no Magatama jewel artifact.

"Do you believe that the village's destruction was related to the attempt at stealing the artifact?" the black-clad man inquired.

"I believe that they're connected, but I can't find any concrete evidence," the minotaur mask boy answered.

"If they really are connected, then the Yasakani no Magatama attempted theft incident was in no way as simple as it appeared on the surface. In that case… the destruction of that village might reenact itself in a similar fas.h.i.+on in the current day, and cause the situation to go out of control," the black-clad man extrapolated.

Yui recalled what Seiji told her and felt a chill down her spine. An unimaginable destruction—was this what he had foreseen?

"These are nothing but inferences," the minotaur mask boy commented.

"However, they're highly likely to be correct because we're now certain that there's a problem with the Yasakani no Magatama," said the black-clad man as a dark look appeared in his eyes. "We can't find anything wrong with the artifact itself, but there's something else we can investigate—the Tendo Family's Dragon Vein!"

"…What do you intend to do?" the minotaur mask boy looked at him.

"I should be the one asking you what you can do, Raizen Tendo." The black-clad man looked at the minotaur boy and called him by his real name.

Raizen Tendo was the name of s.h.i.+gure Tendo's older brother—the genius of the Tendo Family who should have been dead already! Not only that, Yui was the one who "killed" him during a duel!

"Don't call me by that name," the minotaur mask boy, or Raizen Tendo, spoke in a heavy tone.

"No matter how much you resist it, your true name is still your true name," the black-clad man stated lightly. "It represents your background and personal history. It's your foundation for everything that you are. However, your true name can't determine what type of person you are, what you can do, or what you want to do.

"I don't care what att.i.tude you have towards the Tendo Family. Right now, I need you, and Soul Society needs you. You're needed to investigate the problem with the Tendo Family's Dragon Vein in order to prevent a likely catastrophe from happening!"

"What if I refuse?" Raizen took a rebellious tone against the black-clad man's authoritative att.i.tude.

"You can't refuse," the black-clad man spoke coldly as his aura grew even more powerful, to the point where it was almost physical.

White lights began to appear around him, appearing ethereal yet also containing great danger.

*Clap!*

Yui forcefully clapped her hands.

The white lights suddenly disappeared. The energy level in the room lowered.

Raizen and the black-clad man both turned to face her instead of facing off against each other.

"Don't be like this, Sorin-san." She calmly tried to defuse the situation. "You, me, and Tendo-kun… we're all companions with the same cause."

"Hmph…" Raizen Tendo harrumphed slightly, but stopped giving off such a defiant att.i.tude.

The black-clad man also stopped giving off such an authoritative aura.

After a period of silence, Raizen looked back at the black-clad man.

"I can try my best to investigate the Dragon Vein. However, I need a.s.sistance, and you owe me for this, Meisei Sorin."

"Alright. But, you need to hurry." The black-clad man, whose name was Meisei Sorin, agreed. "We don't have much time left."

"What do you intend to do?" Yui asked Raizen.

"The easiest way to investigate the Dragon Vein is to investigate a member or disciple of the Tendo Family who recently had tremendous changes to their spiritual abilities," Raizen explained. "There's an extremely appropriate candidate that I'm highly familiar with."

"Who?" Yui could faintly guess already.

"s.h.i.+gure Tendo," Raizen stated lightly. "My younger brother who was originally of 'low intelligence.'"