Akame was angry.
But Iori felt completely baffled. As the top authority of the empire, he had always treated people kindly and thoughtfully, so naturally he should care about his subordinates' personal lives, especially a young girl like Akame, who had lost her parents at a young age and had no one to rely on.
With merits to her name, no desire for fame or profit, and all alone in the world, shouldn't someone like Akame receive special treatment?
Was it really wrong to specially bring her into the palace to take care of her?
To show concern for his subjects, arranging for her to stay in the widower king's harem, ah no, in the palace's back garden, wasn't that perfectly normal?
Considering that she only had Kurome left as family, and that her mental state wasn't very stable, bringing her younger sister over to live together wasn't that the natural thing to do?
'No worries, I'll take care of you sisters together, okay?!'
So why was Akame angry? He couldn't understand it at all.
And if she refused, fine, but after Iori felt disappointed and wanted to invite Esdeath instead to stay for a while, to properly reward this great general who had suppressed unrest in all four directions, Akame's reaction became even stronger. Her killing intent was practically overflowing.
To be fair, Iori could have arrested her on the charge of "harboring intent to assassinate the ruler," locked her up in the bedchamber, ah no, the prison, and interrogated her slowly.
Then he could have tied Kurome up too, right in front of Akame… ahem, that would enter the dark route, and that wasn't Iori's style.
You should still be a bit gentler with girls.
Iori had always been a magnanimous person. He generously forgave Akame's rudeness, and even said he would build a palace in the garden and wait for her, she could come live there whenever she wanted.
With things like this, Akame instead became shy and hesitant. She no longer rejected him so decisively, only saying that she wanted to live a quiet life with Kurome for a while, and also calm her mind and think things through carefully regarding her relationship with Iori.
The Holy Emperor of the new empire was extremely generous and agreed to all her requests. Not only did he let Akame freely decide when to come and go, he also specially allocated a sum of money as settling-in expenses for her, and at the same time removed the two sisters' names from the Night Raid list.
From then on, there was no longer a female assassin wielding the demon blade Murasame in this world, there was only Akame, an Imperial Arms user living as an ordinary girl.
———
Being able to steal a moment amid busy government affairs to tease a black-haired, straight-haired beauty let Iori relieve stress and feel refreshed in both body and mind. But as he advanced on the emotional battlefield, he also had to start considering the next difficult problem. A body.
It was the same old issue. As a Shinigami, Iori was a purely spiritual entity. When acting in the material world, he existed in an invisible state and couldn't even communicate normally with people.
Although a spiritual body could still interfere with the physical world, allowing him to move objects like a normal person, and after dressing properly he could also communicate with others using the "masked man" image, theoretically it didn't affect combat or handling affairs.
But there were still many inconveniences. For example, when engaging in deeper interactions with fully bonded characters and trying to unlock new CGs, all sorts of problems would arise.
First of all, that kind of "invisible person" play was extremely immersion-breaking. If you didn't take your clothes off, they'd get in the way. If you did take them off, nothing could be seen. If you half-took them off, you'd see clothes floating in midair and moving on their own… totally immersion-breaking.
Second, although a spiritual body could perform physical interference and let others "feel" his presence, things like touch, temperature, smell, sound, and so on were very different from having an actual body.
The only advantage was that there was no need for contraception… After all, Shinigami could only marry and have children with other Shinigami, and Akame was a living person. Their forms of life were different, so naturally it was impossible to conceive a new individual.
But then again, Iori had never planned on contraception anyway. Letting everything happen naturally was fine, he even felt that deep interaction not aimed at pregnancy was just fooling around.
All in all, he still needed a physical body in order to unlock new bond CGs with Akame or other female friends.
But in either Bleach or Akame ga Kill, there were no methods to directly convert a soul into a body. Using a "gigai" instead gave an uncomfortable feeling… after all, it wasn't his own body. If he really used it, it would be no different from a s*x toy.
After analyzing his current situation, Iori thought it over again and again, and it seemed that the only place to look for a solution was the Type-Moon world.
In Type-Moon, the conversion, separation, and fusion of "spirit" and "flesh" were very common operations. Not just in the Age of Gods, even in modern times, many magecraft systems capable of doing this had been passed down.
Of course, the most perfect among them was "materialization of the soul," also known as the 'Third Magic: Heaven's Feel'.
This was probably the most frequently appearing "Magic" in Type-Moon. Although the complete version had never been shown, various simplified and incomplete versions were very common.
For example, Heroic Spirits (Servants) summoned in the Holy Grail War had bodies (spirit origins) made entirely of pure magical energy, yet they could still materialize and possess the properties of flesh.
Or rather, they were even better than ordinary flesh. They only needed magical energy to exist, didn't need food to survive, didn't age, get sick, or die, and aside from the "spirit core," they had no biological weak points at all.
They even retained s*xual desire and appetite.
A Servant's "spirit origin" was an example of soul materialization, though it wasn't the complete Third Magic, just a basic application.
The complete Third Magic could, on the basis of soul materialization, elevate the soul itself into an eternal, indestructible state. At that point, the physical body could be discarded, as well as magic circuits, and magical energy could be extracted directly from the soul.
Because the soul would be indestructible, it was essentially a perpetual motion machine, possessing "near-infinite magical energy".
Heroic Spirits, Phantasmal Species, True Ancestors… there were many examples of "soul materialization" in the Type-Moon worldview.
There was even a "Servant Universe" in an FGO event storyline, where all humans had undergone soul materialization, elevating their lifeforms into Servants… with absurdly exaggerated combat power.
Logically speaking, the difficulty of obtaining it wasn't that high, especially for someone like Iori, who was familiar with the plot.
After all, the Greater Grail was sitting openly in Fuyuki. As long as you could win the Holy Grail War, whether it was "incarnating a Heroic Spirit" or "materializing the soul," both were very simple matters.
What's more, if you had the spirit of exploration, you could even study the Greater Grail itself in depth. By restoring the Winter Saint's magic circuits, you could learn the complete Third Magic: Heaven's Feel.
If you mastered the Third Magic, it wouldn't just apply to yourself, you could even elevate other people's souls.
In the original work, the Einzbern family's long-cherished wish was to realize the Third Magic in order to save all of humanity.
This ideal wasn't unrealistic, because if the Third Magic could truly be used without limit… it really wouldn't be much different from being a savior.
This also held special meaning for Iori, after learning the Third Magic, he would be able to bring people from other worlds like Esdeath and Akame into Soul Society in spiritual form.
At that point, he could fulfill his promise to Esdeath, and also assemble his own core team… After all, others had the Espada, the Sternritter, and the Gotei Thirteen. He couldn't possibly keep working solo, could he?
With no subordinates and doing everything himself, that would be way too low-class.
Before, Iori's strength had been insufficient, and he had also run into a special worldline like "Dark Reincarnation Version FGO," so he hadn't set his sights on Type-Moon yet.
But now he had cleared Akame ga Kill, his art-style value was steadily rising, and his strength could be said to be very close to captain level.
If he relied on the special abilities of his Zanpakuto, maybe he could even take down certain captains, like a certain someone whose name contained a number and whose voice actor was the same as Goetia~
In Type-Moon, he didn't dare say much else, but an average-scale Holy Grail War was definitely worth trying. Sure, he couldn't beat some of the truly overpowered cheaters, but a Holy Grail War wasn't something you automatically won just by having bigger fists.
And if things really went south, Iori could always withdraw midway anyway. There was no way they could chase him into Soul Society…
Even in combat, as long as Iori talked trash with the opponent for a few seconds, stalling for ten-odd seconds would be enough to open the gate of traversal.
That was no challenge at all, after all, this was Type-Moon, where almost everyone was a chatterbox and a riddler…
After thinking it over repeatedly, unless he ran into an extremely dangerous sudden incident, Iori should still be able to retreat safely.
If you want to pursue power, how could you avoid taking risks at all on this long road to becoming strong?
'Alright, prepare the Type-Moon instance. Decision happily made!'
Of course, before that, he had to adjust himself to peak condition.
Train his spiritual pressure to the current cap, master the last few Shunpo techniques, become fully proficient in the use of Thunder Emperor's Summoning, have a serious match with Saito to experience what it felt like to fight a true powerhouse…
"Looks like I'm going to get busy~"
———
Clang!
Scorching iron sparks bloomed beneath the deep, dark night sky.
Hueco Mundo had no cycle of day and night. At all times, only a waning moon hung high in the sky. Darkness and desolation were its eternal themes, and there wasn't a trace of warmth in the icy desert.
Yet today, two flickering figures shattered the silence. Each time they crossed paths, crisp collision sounds echoed across the wilderness, and dazzling sparks flared brilliantly.
The members of the expeditionary force had no missions today. Most of them had gathered in this open area, holding their breath, hearts racing, eyes wide as they stared intently at the true sword duel taking place a hundred meters away.
'Fast! Too fast!'
Everyone present was a battle-hardened Shinigami, survivors of countless brutal fights, there wasn't a single rookie among them. But even in their eyes, the speed of the two combatants was shockingly excessive.
Shunpo.
One of the fundamental skills of a proper Shinigami. You had to master Shunpo to graduate from the Shin'o Academy, and only by using it proficiently could a Shinigami maneuver freely in dangerous battles.
However, most Shinigami only applied Shunpo for "assault" or "retreat", single uses, making continuous activation difficult.
Because although Shunpo looked like "teleportation," it wasn't a spatial ability at all. It concentrated reishi beneath the feet and detonated it in an instant, granting speed beyond what the naked eye could track.
Yes, at its core, it was still "high-speed movement," not "teleportation".
Since it was high-speed movement, it naturally placed a burden on the body. Moreover, most Shinigami's neural reflexes couldn't keep up with Shunpo. They couldn't grasp the situation and launch an attack in the blink of an eye after Shunpo ended.
Some couldn't even precisely control their landing point, a deviation of one or two meters was completely normal. As a result, ordinary rank-and-file Shinigami could only use it to evade danger.
Only seat-level elites could skillfully combine Shunpo with Hakuda and swordsmanship to form perfect surprise attacks.
Because the expeditionary force had long fought in Hueco Mundo, under constant life-and-death pressure, their Shunpo techniques were stronger than the average of the Gotei Thirteen.
Even ordinary soldiers could accurately judge landing points or chain Shunpo activations to coordinate feints, assaults, and other tactical maneuvers.
But even so, they could only express admiration for the battle before them.
Aizen Iori and Saito Fushi-Fuji, one of the Four Heavenly Kings and the expeditionary force captain. A battle between two people whose strength and status didn't seem to match, yet instead of being one-sided as expected, it went back and forth, giving off an almost evenly matched impression.
Even though this "evenly matched" situation came with many restrictions, neither had released their Zanpakuto, neither used Kido, and they were simply competing in swordsmanship and Shunpo, even then, it was already astonishing enough.
Worth noting was that the two seemed to be following some kind of "game rules." Throughout the entire fight, there was very little normal running or jumping. Almost all tactical movement was accomplished through Shunpo.
Long-distance charges, close-range thrusts, continuous short-range repositioning, feints, staggered retreats… only slashes and Shunpo, no other means. Relying solely on these two, they put on an incomparably brilliant dance of blades.
At the most intense moments, it even looked to the crowd as if more than ten people were clashing in different locations at once…
Many soldiers who were quite confident in their own skills tried to imagine themselves as one side of the fight, only to despairingly realize they had no chance at all, they would be killed instantly. The gap was obvious and unquestionable.
Even the Four Heavenly Kings, once they immersed themselves, couldn't help breaking into cold sweat. After watching for a while, they felt utterly drained… only Tenbei Shūsuke managed somewhat better, but his face was unusually pale.
Probably because he was stronger, he could see more and deeper, and thus recognized the gap even more clearly.
The Four Heavenly Kings were certain that even if they released their Zanpakuto, they still wouldn't be a match for these two, even if those two only used asauchi.
"Hmph!"
Saito deliberately suppressed her spiritual pressure from the very beginning, striving to keep it at roughly the same level as Iori's.
She wanted to avoid a situation of bullying the weak. If she was going to win, she wanted to win cleanly and convincingly, so that Iori would accept it wholeheartedly.
Her plan was perfect. She believed that even with so many restrictions, reduced to a pure high-speed blade duel, Iori still wouldn't be her opponent, and the victor would be decided quickly.
But contrary to her expectations, even though she had already overestimated Iori's rate of growth, she still miscalculated…
This wasn't because her judgment was flawed, but because Iori was simply too special.
Because of his Zanpakuto, even without releasing its true name, Iori could enter a "void" state when holding his blade, casting aside most emotional interference and focusing his mind to enhance perception, which was extremely advantageous in blade combat.
If he used Shikai, the effect could be further enhanced, even approaching a "future prediction" effect when combined with a domain.
Purely in terms of swordsmanship, Saito was superior to Iori. But in neural reaction speed and pre-reading ability, Iori had the advantage. As a result, although he couldn't defeat Saito, he remained as resilient as green bamboo bending in a raging storm.
Whoosh!
The two crossed paths once more. Unlike before, Saito didn't vanish immediately. After stepping in place, she split into five or six afterimages and slashed her Zanpakuto at Iori from different directions.
Iori was slightly startled, but in such an intense battle, his mind was highly focused. His body reacted instinctively.
In the blink of an eye, he sharply found a gap between the positions of the phantoms, and just before being surrounded, he escaped Saito's encirclement with a long-distance displacement. Only after that did a trace of lingering fear flash through him.
"You're still far too early!"
But escaping the encirclement wasn't the end. Almost the instant Iori reappeared, a strange shout came from above. A cold gleam reached his eyes as he looked up. Saito held her blade in reverse, its tip pointing downward, stabbing toward Iori like a razor.
Clack!
The blade swept past, his clothes fluttering. Saito didn't feel the sensation of cutting into a body. What she cut was only a light, empty set of Shihakusho.
"Hm?!" A flash of surprise crossed Saito's single eye, then quickly turned into relief.
High-level Shunpo techniques were rare, but that wasn't what pleased her. What truly moved her was that even in such a tense, sudden situation, Iori could still calmly choose the correct response.
Learning advanced techniques only meant you were a genius, but understanding how to fight was what allowed you to grow into a true powerhouse.
Clang!
A sharp slash came from behind. Saito didn't have time to turn...
Clack!
The uniquely shaped, ancient longsword likewise failed to strike a solid body. What was torn apart was the white captain's haori that had been maintaining a human shape out of thin air.
Seeing this, Iori, sword in hand, let his gaze sink, "Hah!"
Turn, lower the stance, redirect the blade...
Szz!
The sharp jade-green blade stopped, pointing emptily at the opponent's throat, while a chill brushed past Iori as the slender katana also stopped before him.
"…Utsusemi. Good!"
Saito took a deep breath and sheathed her katana. Iori likewise lowered the Sword of Ame-no-Murakumo with a sense of relief.
"I didn't expect you to use it so well. Even in the Gotei Thirteen, your Shunpo technique would rank in the top ten."
"Thank you for your guidance, Captain!" This time, Iori's gratitude came straight from the heart.
The 'Perfect Shinigami' talent let him learn anything quickly, but without Saito's instruction, it would have been impossible to leap to this level so suddenly.
Originally, among the four basic skills, Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hoho, and Kido, he was fairly balanced, with only Kido standing out due to 'Chantless Destruction'.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.