Instead of answering the woman's question, Kisuke looked around to make sense of his surroundings, 'I didn't think I could enter this place, this easily. That means that this place's security has already been compromised long ago.'
The woman didn't ask a second question and just glared and watched Kisuke's action carefully. No matter what he does, she actually can't do anything as she's already suppressing something and that thing would use any chance it could get just to get away from her.
If that were to happen, then Ais and those around her would be in extreme danger. She could only hope that this intruder wouldn't do anything to endanger her daughter.
After a few more minutes of looking around, Kisuke then focused on the decayed spot and the woman in the middle of it, 'This spot doesn't seem to be caused by that woman.'
Kisuke then flashed a smile and introduced himself, "Good day, miss. I'm Kisuke Urahara. A girl named Ais Wallenstein, who's the owner of this place, asked me to do some check-up for her."
The woman's eyes widened in shock when Kisuke suddenly introduced himself and asked, "Are you aware where we are right now?"
Kisuke nodded and answered while also asking, "My patient's inner world. So I wonder, in a place where there should be no one and be a fairly secured place, why does this spot exist? And why is someone else in here?"
The woman sighed and told him the truth, "Well, even if you wanted to destroy this place, I can't do anything about it. It's my family's bad luck that we encountered something like this after a thousand years."
"Family, is it? I see... Since you're a High Spirit, and you have Wallenstein-san's splitting image, is it safe to assume that you're her mother?"
The woman smiled and introduced herself, "Hi~. Nice to meet you. I'm Ais's mother, Aria. Thank you for taking care of my daughter~."
Kisuke could only smile wryly in response, "Hey, how could you be certain that I won't do anything bad in here?"
Aria, while still smiling happily, "I may look young, but I'm at least 1,500 years old now. So it's easy for me to see through some things, especially in this space where every expression is amplified."
"Still, you're too trusting. I could have a way to block these amplifications and you don't know about it." Kisuke shook his head.
"Either way, I can only put my trust in you." With a solemn smile, Aria answered.
'I guess she can't really do anything, huh.' Kisuke thought and said, "Mind telling me your story?"
"Will you help?" She suddenly asked.
"No." And Kisuke instantly answered.
"No matter what?"
"..." Kisuke became slightly conflicted because he has a feeling that even if he declines now, he would still get involved in the future. And even if it's not him, his girls would, 'I guess it would be better to gather some information now and do some countermeasures instead of getting caught off guard in the future.'
With that in mind, Kisuke sighed, "Let me hear about it first."
Despite the gloomy and decaying aura around her, Aria smiled happily, "I would only ask you to take care of my daughter."
Aria then started her story. Around a thousand years ago, when Gods have just started descending and monsters still ran rampant on the surface of the earth, the Zeus Familia was thriving and vanquishing monsters previously known as undefeatable left and right.
"I'm a member of that Familia and its Vice-Captain. Along with the Captain, which was my husband, Albert Waldstein, we were the only Level 9s of that time while our other party members were all Level 8s."
"We defeated so many monsters that we were able to retake some land for the people and managed to push them to several remaining places. The most notable of the monsters we defeated were the Behemoth and the Leviathan that required all of us to join forces just to defeat them."
Aria then put on a smug face and bragged, "Everyone was questioning why we were so strong, but it was actually a very simple thing and we were always saying the same thing. 'We don't take skills for granted.' My husband and I didn't even receive skills from the Falna and just created our own Art. While I had it easier due to my nature as a Spirit, Albert had to work very hard to polish his swordsmanship that was said to be capable of cutting everything~!"
"However, only a few people believed us and it became an issue that time that almost everyone was accusing us as liars because they couldn't emulate what we have been doing."
Thinking that Aria just gave Kisuke a clue on how to get stronger, she changed the topic, "But enough of that" Aria's smile then became gentle, "It was just after we defeated the Leviathan that a miracle happened. It was probably due to the blessing of multiple Goddesses of Marriage and Birth, especially Hera-sama that this miracle occurred, a child was born between a Human and a Spirit. Ais came into our lives."
"We continued our lives of being Adventurers while also taking care of our little darling. Everyone from the Zeus Familia also considered her as their daughter and Zeus stood as her grandfather and would happily play with her every day."
"But everything changed when that monster appeared. Similar to the Behemoth and Leviathan that led an army of monsters that almost decimated everyone, but also different from every one of them, and also the most intelligent among them, the Black Dragon."
"Instead of just having a single very strong ability, it has two. First is its destructive power, the power of Decay in the form of black wind and the second one is the more dangerous one of the two, Control."
"Control?" Kisuke asked while furrowing his brows. He can understand decay and he can guess where this spot came from now, but control? To what extent and how strong?
"Yes. And it's the reason why we weren't able to defeat it." Aria sighed, "The Gods described it as something forbidden that shouldn't exist as it controls the soul itself."
"Soul..." Kisuke frowned. He doesn't like where this story is going.
"Yes. It's hard for it to control stronger individuals, but those weaker, Level 4 and below are just additional army for it. We could have defeated it with the force we had back then, but it managed to figure out and get mine and my husband's greatest weakness."
"...And that is Ais." Kisuke guessed.
"Yes," Aria answered solemnly.
Editors and Author's Corner:
Goyya: Is it fine to reveal such an important plot point this early? Either way, I gotta speed things up. Kisuke's preparation is nearly done.
Alexander: That depends on what you make out of it. But, this can become an important part of Kisuke's preparation for the grand final. So, I am fine with it.
28th00: I think it's fine since it makes the earlier soul magic debacle with Loki seem a lot more comprehensible now. It also explains why the development of anything soul related outside the Falna is literally not touched upon.