Author’s Preface
Mountain climbing takes careful preparation and an enormous amount of training.
Underestimating a mountain can be very dangerous.
So it’ll be a while before I get to do any actual mountain climbing—by which I mean fondling boobs.
(Specifically, Chapter 16.)
Right now, I was on my way to that “good place” the restaurant owner had mentioned the other day, with the man himself showing me the way.
We’d left the izakaya once breakfast was over and things had settled down for the morning.
His wife had warned me that I’d be sweating buckets, so I’d changed into some exercise clothes she’d given me.
Apparently, she’d taken something she no longer wore and altered it to fit.
With a few small things packed for the trip, we set off for our destination.
Although, thanks to the difference in our strides, I was actually walking ahead of my guide.
Still, I’d worked out where we were going almost as soon as we set off, so there was no danger of getting lost.
We followed the Rukon District’s main road straight ahead.
In the distance, beyond the familiar streets, I could see a much more developed part of the city.
A vast trench was coming into view, separating the Rukon District from whatever lay on the other side.
At this point, there was hardly any doubt.
We were heading towards the Seireitei—or, more precisely, one of its gates.
“Danzomaru!
Are you there?”
“Hmm?
Oh!
If it isn’t the fellow from the restaurant!”
We’d arrived at an enormous but rather crudely built hut near the boundary.
When the owner called out, a giant of a man, practically a small mountain himself, lumbered into view.
His skin was dark, as though tanned by the sun, and he had a fierce-looking face.
He wore a predominantly black outfit: the shihakushō worn by Soul Reapers.
One look at him, and I understood.
He was one of the gatekeepers of the Seireitei.
Come to think of it, there was a giant gatekeeper like this in the original series, wasn’t there?
What was his name again?
Something…
something-bō?
“Long time no see!”
“What brings you here today?”
“Well, you see, this girl here says she wants to become a Soul Reaper.”
“Hmm?”
At that, the gatekeeper—Danzomaru—turned his eyes on me.
His gaze travelled up and down my body several times, as if sizing me up.
Eventually, he spoke, sounding rather disappointed.
“…This girl?”
“She says she gets hungry, so it seems she has spiritual power.
I’d like to respect her wishes, you see.”
“Um…
do you two know each other?”
I couldn’t help interrupting when I saw how familiarly they were talking.
“Of course.
This is Danzomaru, the guardian of the northern Kokuryō Gate.
He’s skilled, naturally, and he’s also received training as a Soul Reaper.
I thought I might ask him to teach you, Airi-chan, since you want to become one yourself.”
“I-I see…”
Well, when he put it that way, it made perfect sense.
I turned to look at Danzomaru again.
Or rather, I looked up at him.
He really was tall.
No, tall didn’t even begin to cover it.
He was enormous.
Was he about ten metres tall?
Just eyeballing it, he looked roughly twice the height of the giraffes I’d seen at the zoo years ago…
“…Very well.
Whatever her aptitude, if she has spiritual power, there may be some potential there.
If you don’t mind coming when I have time to spare, I’ll train you.”
“Really!?
Thank you so much!”
He didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic, but Danzomaru had agreed.
No—should I start calling him Master now?
I bowed my head and thanked my new master.
Beside me, the restaurant owner let out a relieved breath, looking glad it had all worked out.
After all, I didn’t even know how to use spiritual power yet.
Learning efficiently from someone who actually knew what he was doing was important.
“That’s wonderful.
Well, I’ll leave you to it.
Airi-chan, just make sure you’re back by around evening.
Do your best.”
“Yes.
Thank you for going to so much trouble for me.”
With his part done, the owner waved goodbye and headed back the way we’d come.
He really was a good man.
I kept finding myself in his debt.
Which was why…
I decided to pretend I hadn’t noticed the rather intense looks he’d been giving my backside on the way here.
Don’t worry.
I won’t tell your wife, either.
“Right, then.
I’d like to begin your training straight away, but there’s something we must do first.”
“Something first?”
“I need to see how capable you are.
I can hardly train you if I don’t know what you can do.”
Ah.
Fair enough.
“So, to begin with, come at me.
I’ll judge your ability by how you fight.”
“Um, well…”
R-Right away!?
Wait, no, there was a more immediate problem…!
“What’s wrong?
Don’t tell me you’re worried you’ll hurt me.
Fear not.
I won’t be injured by a mere fledgling.”
“No!
That’s not it!”
I hurriedly corrected his misunderstanding and tried to explain.
“It’s just…
I don’t have a weapon.”
“And?”
“I mean, a sword, or something like that…”
“I see.
Yes, Soul Reapers wield swords known as Zanpakutō.
But that is not all we do.
There is something we call *zan-ken-sō-ki*.
We learn Hakuda too—the art of fighting with our fists.
Having no sword is no excuse!
Enough chatter!
Come at me!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Spurred on by his thunderous voice, I threw myself at my master without another thought.
I made a very, very important discovery.
Apparently, I didn’t possess so much as a shred of that wonderful thing called “exceptional athletic talent”.
“Hah…
hah…
hhh…
hhh…”
I was bent over with my hands on my knees, like someone making themselves into the horse for a game of leapfrog, desperately trying to catch my breath.
Even so, I clung to one last scrap of pride and refused to collapse onto the ground.
I’d tried attacking him barehanded, all right.
The result was exactly what you’d expect.
A complete, humiliating, utterly one-sided defeat.
He was better than me in every possible way to begin with.
Every half-baked attack I tried was brushed aside, dodged, or shut down.
I couldn’t even manage the first hint of a proper offensive move.
Personally, I thought we’d seen more than enough to reach a verdict.
My master disagreed.
He wouldn’t let me stop halfway through, and kept telling me to try again.
And the result?
He made me keep going until my body reached its absolute limit.
My arms and legs were shaking.
My throat was bone-dry.
Sweat had soaked every inch of me, and the wet clothes clinging to my skin felt horrible.
The exhaustion just kept coming, wave after wave, until I didn’t want to move so much as a finger.
And there was one other thing I’d discovered I absolutely needed.
“…Next time, I’m definitely bringing a sarashi to bind these things down…”
Exercising with boobs this big was impossible when I wasn’t even wearing a bra.
How on earth did Rangiku and Harribel fight with chests like theirs, dressed in those ridiculously unstable outfits…?
They’d spill right out!
They absolutely would!
What would spill out, you ask?
Their boobs, obviously!
Every time I moved too violently, mine swung all over the place.
My balance went straight out the window!
Seriously, what the hell!?
How do the women in fighting games move like that, with bodies like those, wearing outfits like those!?
“Hmm…
I’d prepared myself for something fairly bad, but this is dreadful…”
I’d have to start from scratch, learning how to shift my centre of gravity and move this body properly.
I’d just made that private resolution when I heard my master’s disappointed voice.
“I…
guess…
it…
is…?”
“Enough.
Keep resting for now.”
I’d lifted my head and tried to answer through my raw, burning throat, but he cut me off.
Well, if he insisted, I wasn’t about to argue.
I took my time resting and getting my breathing back under control.
“Oh, right…
Master, may I ask you something?”
Once my heartbeat had settled and my throat felt a little less dry, I remembered something I’d been meaning to ask.
“Master?”
“Ah, well, I’m going to be your pupil, so I thought calling you Danzomaru might be a little…
Was that wrong?”
“No, I don’t mind.
What did you wish to ask?”
“I was wondering if you could tell me the names of the current Soul Reaper captains…
the captains of the Gotei 13.”
What I really wanted to know was what point in history I’d landed in.
I’d tried asking some of the customers at the restaurant, but all I’d got were answers like “I was born in the Ken’ei era,” “Kenji,” or “Ōhō”.
I hadn’t the faintest idea what years those were on the Gregorian calendar.
Then I’d thought of the captains.
If I recognised any of their names, I should be able to work backwards and make a rough guess at the date.
“Hmm.
I can’t say I remember every detail, but…”
Despite that little disclaimer, my master went on to tell me the names of all thirteen captains, along with the duties of their respective divisions.
Of all the names he mentioned, I recognised exactly two.
The captain of the First Division and Captain-Commander, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.
And the captain of the Fourth Division, Retsu Unohana.
I’d heard the others too, of course, but not one of their names rang a bell.
Which meant…
Was this much further in the past than the period I knew?
To put it in meta terms, was I living long before the original story even began?
Then again, maybe that was actually lucky.
Given my current situation, there was no such thing as too much time to train.
“But why do you want to know that?”
“Well…
I thought that if I happened to meet one of them somewhere, making a connection might help me become a Soul Reaper.”
“Hmm.
I can see why you’d think that.
But becoming a Soul Reaper isn’t so easy that knowing the right people will get you in!
Now then, haven’t you rested long enough?
On your feet.
We’re continuing.
First, you need to learn how to use that body of yours.”
I gave him the excuse I’d prepared in advance.
He seemed to accept it, smiling just a little before we resumed training.
Next came the training he’d mentioned: learning how to use my body.
In other words, training to move like a normal person.
Until I could do that, I couldn’t even begin proper training.
We worked on things like core strength and basic muscle exercises, drilling movements into my body until they started to stick.
And just when I thought the physical training was over, it was time to train my spiritual power.
First, he taught me about the Hakusui and the Saketsu.
Oh, right.
Those were things, weren’t they?
I had a vague feeling I’d heard of them before.
The Hakusui was the source of spiritual power in the body.
The Saketsu was the part that amplified it—a booster, basically.
That was how he explained it, anyway.
Both were vital points.
If those points were damaged, apparently you wouldn’t be able to use spiritual power at all.
And, according to him, you could train spiritual power much the same way you built up physical stamina.
Using it drew more of it out, which in turn increased the amount of power you had inside you.
So I had to gather my strength like this, and then—nnnnngh…!
Ughhh…
I-I’m gonna die!
I can’t do any more!
The spiritual power I managed to produce was far weaker than I’d expected, and yet my head was spinning.
Before I knew it, my master was looking at me as though I were some poor, pitiful child.
I-I’m still growing!
My spiritual pressure is going to get bigger, you’ll see!!
“Th-thank you…
for today…”
“Hmm.
As I said earlier, I have my own duties.
I can spare the time to train you perhaps twice a month.
If that suits you, come again.”
“Yes…
I’ll be in your care next time too…”
By the time the day’s training finally ended, the sun was beginning to set.
There were only about two hours left before the restaurant got busy for the evening.
With my head and body both completely worn out from unfamiliar exercise and trying to control unfamiliar spiritual power, I left the northern gate behind.
Author’s Note
● Danzomaru
Guardian of the northern Kokuryō Gate.
(In the original series, Jidanbō, whom Ichigo fought, guards the western Hakutō Gate.)
He’s a canon character, but apart from his appearance, there’s no characterisation to go on—not even a line of dialogue.
So his personality here is entirely my invention.
Also, it’s unknown whether the gatekeepers actually receive Soul Reaper training.
(For this story, I’m going with the idea that they receive at least the basics.)
It’s also unknown when Danzomaru first became a gatekeeper.