Chapter 771: A hero's payment is the wonderful concept of peace!

Shingo was unable to win his argument with Chiaki.

He wanted to take his daughter's place, but was completely unable to change her mind.

Since Chiaki wouldn't agree, Seiji naturally didn't go against her wishes.

In the end, the famous artist was half convinced and half chased off by Chiaki as he left.

Before Shingo left, he took a deep look at Seiji. Seiji did his best to smile politely with an expression of "I'll definitely take good care of your daughter" as he sent off his future father-in-law.

Seiji then had a stern expression as he immediately turned around and frowned at Chiaki.

Chiaki instantly understood his thoughts when she saw his expression, which made her retract her neck slightly.

"Do you know what you did wrong?"

"I know..."

"That's good, then."

Chiaki had said foolish things that brought her father over to scold and hit her. She deserved what she got.

Shingo had scolded her already, and it seemed that Chiaki knew what she'd done wrong. Seiji didn't intend to say anything else. He simply wanted to show his attitude.

At any rate, at least the result seemed to be good. The icy relationship between father and daughter was beginning to thaw, and would probably start improving gradually in the future.

Of course, the prerequisite was that this incident was taken care of successfully.

"Hey, my bro Haruta."

"Hello, Kamitani-kun."

Seiji wasn't surprised at all when he received a phone call from Itsuki Kamitani as he was preparing to go to sleep.

This was because the next day was Soul Society's third planned battle in the Realm of Cherry Blossoms.

"Come be a hero again, my bro Haruta! Just like last time!"

"What's my payment?"

"Obviously, a hero's payment is the wonderful concept of peace!"

"...You mean there's no payment?"

"I told you, the payment is peace. Peace, yo~ Precious, wonderful, priceless peace..." Kamitani sounded almost like he was rapping.

"If you could truly guarantee eternal peace, I wouldn't mind working for you as a janitor for the rest of my life. However, you evidently have no such ability," Seiji stated coldly. "That's because you're someone who's not peaceful at all to begin with."

Kamitani paused on the other end of the phone for a moment before chuckling.

"Heh heh, nicely said. I like it. That's how you should talk," Kamitani chuckled again. "Let us talk about the topic of 'peace' today. My bro Haruta, what do you think the concept of 'peace' is?"

"I don't want to talk about this topic with you."

"Why not? It's so rare that we talk to each other. It's boring to only talk about serious business. We're friends, you know~"

"I don't recall becoming friends with you."

"It doesn't matter even if you have a poor memory. I'll repeat it as many times as necessary for your sake."

"I don't have any memory problems. You're the one with memory problems!"

"We can talk about the topic of memory or whatever next time. This time's topic is 'peace.' Let's not get off topic."

"Do you think that we're in a classroom right now!?" Seiji retorted.

"No, this is simply a conversation between friends," Kamitani spoke in a joyous tone. "Let's just talk about it for fun. My bro Haruta, I really do want to know what you think about the idea of 'peace.' You probably also want to know what I think about 'peace,' don't you?"

Seiji: "..."

If he had to be honest, he was indeed somewhat curious about what Kamitani, a high-ranked member of the Messengers, was thinking.

Seiji did not in any way consider Kamitani a friend, nor did he want to understand Kamitani. Seiji was simply curious.

"Peace means that there is no violence. The state of having no violence equals peace," Seiji decided to go with this explanation.

"Such a neutral way of thinking."

"I apologize, I am indeed such a neutral type of person."

"No need to feel inferior. Being neutral is fine. It's just a little boring."

"That's right, I'm a really boring person. So you can stop wasting your time with me, and just get to the matter at hand!"

"You're an interesting existence. It doesn't matter even if some little parts of you are boring." Kamitani chuckled. "According to your explanation of what 'peace' is, do you think that constant 'peace' is a good thing?"

Seiji fell silent for a moment.

"No." After a long silence, Seiji answered with a denial.

"...Why's that?" Kamitani sounded evidently surprised.

"If peace could be maintained naturally forever, of course that would be a good thing," Seiji told him calmly. "Yet, humans have desires. Humans want better things for themselves. Humans are complex creatures that are difficult to satisfy. Humans will constantly fight each other.

"Many such things will slowly accumulate and finally end with explosive change. Forcefully suppressing this change and maintaining an unchanging peace is bad... because that might result in something even worse."

Peace was good, and war was bad. Most people would likely say that this was common sense.

Yet, wars were still quite common in the world.

Some people said that true peace had never even existed at all.

Some people said that war had never changed.

If one seriously thought about this topic, it was quite profound and heavy... Seiji had once pondered upon this topic as well.

In the end, it was an issue of recognition or denial.

Seiji chose recognition.

Seiji recognized humanity's past, humanity's innate nature, himself, and everything around him.

"You really are such an interesting person," Kamitani said happily.

"Whatever you say... It's your turn, Kamitani-kun. What do you think of 'peace?'" Seiji asked.

"I think that 'peace' is something really boring. And, humanity always seeks out the interesting, which is why it's impossible for peace to constantly exist," Kamitani stated in a casual tone.

"What exactly do you mean by your so-called 'interesting?'"

"'Interesting' obviously means interesting."

"What type of interesting?"

"The interesting type of interesting."

"I don't get what you mean... You're basically going around in circles," Seiji stated coldly. "I'm not interested in word games, Kamitani-kun."

"Don't be like that. Why don't I tell you an interesting story?" Kamitani cleared his throat. "Once upon a time, there was a cute girl.

"She lived her life peacefully and gradually grew up to be an adult.

"One day, she got together with a man and had his child.

"Some time later, the man disappeared, vanishing as suddenly as he arrived.

"The woman didn't mind and raised the child by herself, continuing to live her life peacefully.

"After their son grew up a little, he disappeared.

"Although the woman minded, she searched for her child and couldn't find him. Then, she stopped minding his disappearance.

"After this, a new man arrived in her life, and she had his child. Afterwards, the man and child disappeared again.

"The exact same cycle kept happening many times over, until she could no longer give birth. She was then taken to an unfamiliar location...

"At this place, she finally found out what happened to all those men and all her children.

"In the end, she died.

"She experienced total peace during her entire life, and learned the truth of life right before her death. Congratulations to her~"

Seiji was rendered speechless.

"How was it? Wasn't that an interesting story?" Kamitani asked.

"This 'woman' you were talking about is actually a farm animal, isn't she." Seiji hazarded a guess.

"Not at all." Kamitani had a playful yet also deep tone. "She actually represents humanity. Humanity, who was once truly alive in the past. She had a peaceful life and death. She was blissful while alive. Yet, others felt that she had an incredibly pitiful life. That's why this is an interesting story.

"From start to finish, this story was filled with boring 'peace.' Yet, it's an interesting story. I think that's what makes it so interesting. Now then, do you understand what I mean by 'interesting,' my bro Haruta?"