"Rukia, did you hear? Did you hear!"
"What have you heard this time, Renji?"
The young girl helplessly put down the water bag in her hand and turned to look at her good partner, who, just like her, struggled to survive in the slums.
"It's that thing! That faction called the Yellow Turban Army—they are currently continuing their march toward the inner ring! I heard that in District 77, many places have already raised that General of Heaven Banner. Recently, a lot of people from District 76 have run over to our side, and they don't even plan to stay; they want to keep fleeing to the districts further ahead!"
"Really?!"
The girl's lethargy was swept away in an instant. She jumped up immediately, grabbing the boy, desperate to hear more news.
"Of course it's true. I heard it from the mouths of those patrol guys—you've noticed it recently too, right? The number of outsiders has suddenly increased. And it's said that the leader on our side wants to run away just like them; he's currently having people pack up his own treasures!"
"That's great! If the Yellow Turbans can come here, then we can also live days where we get to eat our fill every day!"
Rukia cheered happily.
Renji was also very happy. After all, if one could live like a human being, who would be willing to live like a stray dog, stealing petty scraps and begging for food everywhere?
However, amidst his excitement, he recalled the matter the two of them had discussed earlier.
"Rukia, if the Yellow Turban Army really comes, are we still going to take the exam for the Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy?"
"Are you crazy? Putting aside the good life here to go be a dog for the nobles? Have you not had enough of this kind of life, Renji?"
"Who wants to be a dog! I just heard that the treatment for Shinigami in the Gotei 13 is very good, that's all."
The boy argued, his face flushing red.
"So what if it's good? Don't you still have to listen to the nobles? Besides, how good can it be? Do they eat with jade chopsticks and drink water from tiger-skin bags? Being able to eat and drink enough is sufficient. If you want to fight, you can join the militia. If you're lucky, maybe you could even join Lord Suzuki's personal retinue."
"How is that possible for me? Lord Suzuki's personal retinue requires the strongest warriors who have come down from the battlefield. I've only ever fought those ordinary patrol squads."
The girl laughed and patted her companion on the shoulder.
"Exactly. You know you can't even become one of Lord Suzuki's retainers, yet you're thinking about entering the Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy to become a Shinigami? We can indeed eat, and we have spiritual power, but we are just people from District 75. How could those Shinigami possibly want us?"
"Didn't I hear that a guy from the Zaraki District became a Captain of the Shinigami before?"
"You said yourself it was just a rumor. If people from the Zaraki District could become Shinigami Captains, then wouldn't Lord Suzuki be able to become the Soul King?"
The two of them bickered noisily until a louder commotion drifted over from the street.
They simultaneously shut their mouths in tacit understanding, their figures nimbly crouching into the shadows as they began to spy on the movement in the street.
Carriage after carriage, fully loaded, was heading toward the inner ring. Many people were following along, dragging their families and carrying their mouths. The banners on the carriages proved that these people were either possessors of immense wealth or local tyrants who had committed every evil imaginable.
Since even these people had started transferring their assets, didn't that mean...
Rukia and Renji quickly brought this news back to the slums. The faces of the ordinary residents revealed a measure of relief, while those big shots who truly had status and face here had all become tense. The number of guards around those mansions was thirty percent higher than usual, which clearly corroborated the news from the side: the Yellow Turban Army was truly coming soon.
This news was, of course, true.
After confirming that Black Jeanne could barely handle the work of a deputy with the knowledge she had now mastered, Suzuki Makoto quickly threw himself into the enterprise of attacking the inner districts. The urgency caused by the scarcity of resources in the Zaraki District kept him constantly on edge, like a thorn in his back.
Thus, what the leaders in the Zaraki District had faced previously, it was now the turn of the leaders in the Kusajishi District to face.
As District 79, which was only slightly better than District 80, the rulers here were naturally cut from the same cloth. The Kusajishi District was not much better than the Zaraki District, so Suzuki Makoto showed just as little mercy when killing them.
In fact, the conquest process of the Kusajishi District was basically identical to that of the Zaraki District. Even knowing that Suzuki Makoto had occupied the entire district after crushing a coalition army, they still chose the same course of action, pinning their hopes on having more troops and stronger combat power, thinking this would be enough to deal with Suzuki Makoto.
But this time, their fate was a bit more tragic. Because Suzuki Makoto didn't want to leave too many survivors this time, he called Black Jeanne over as well.
Compared to a clean and efficient beheading, that black flame which could not be extinguished once it tainted you was obviously far more painful.
After two consecutive battles involving the slaughter of ten thousand, Suzuki Makoto's name had finally reached a level where people turned pale at the mere mention of it. Likewise, no one entertained the thought of using superior numbers to crush the Yellow Turbans anymore.
Consequently, by the time they reached District 78, the local tyrants there had already begun to abandon the idea of resistance, obediently packing up their valuables to flee. The vast majority of the camps surrendered at the mere sight of the Yellow Turban Army's banner, and many camps had even prepared General of Heaven Banners in advance.
Thus, Suzuki Makoto smashed through like splitting bamboo, killing his way into District 77, and then District 76.
And now, District 75, which was about to face the Yellow Turbans and Suzuki Makoto immediately, was already rife with rumors.
Compared to the outermost five districts, District 75 actually possessed a proper structure. Those masters with family legacies were accustomed to communicating using politics and money, rather than conversing with swords and armies.
Those who had fled all the way here sent various news flying across the sky. This made those who had developed into regional powers by relying on large water sources begin to take Suzuki Makoto and the Yellow Turban Army seriously. However, in the beginning, they did not consider uniting. After all, in their eyes, weren't the places outside of District 75 just barbaric wastelands?
What was there to show off about winning against a rabble from such places? They claimed to be an army of ten thousand, but perhaps there were actually only eight hundred or a thousand men.
So, at first, they wanted to use the narrative that "The Yellow Turban Army leaves not even a blade of grass alive" to scare the common people into rising up against the Yellow Turbans en masse. However, this move was clearly made a little too late. Suzuki Makoto had long since begun trading with merchants from other districts in the official name of the Yellow Turbans, purchasing various supplies and commissioning them to deliver goods to the various camps, allowing them to witness the current development of those places with their own eyes.
And these merchants were, without a doubt, the best intelligence peddlers. People like Renji and Rukia, who looked upon the Yellow Turbans with immense longing, had already spread throughout the entirety of District 75.
_____
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