When Higashi Shuuichi opened his eyes again, it was already the following night.
Zaraki Kenpachi and Yachiru Kusajishi had long since left the 4th Division barracks.
Apparently, several 4th Division medics had wanted to summon Soul Reapers from the 9th Division to apprehend them and place them in confinement. In the end, it had taken Unohana Retsu herself to step forward and allow Zaraki and Yachiru to walk away freely.
Yachiru, though, had left behind a little handwritten note:
"Shuu-shuu,
Thanks for giving Kenny such a fun fight! He was really happy and wanted to wait till you woke up for another round.
But I thought, hey! This is Seireitei! You guys aren't supposed to fight like that here! So I dragged Kenny back to Rukongai first.
But don't worry—we'll meet again real soon!
Next time, fight Kenny with all you've got~
—Yachiru Kusajishi"
Shuuichi had no idea how someone like Yachiru—who originated from the depths of Rukongai and was technically part of Zaraki's soul—could be literate, let alone write with such a cute, bubbly style.
But one way or another, the whole thing had ended... peacefully.
Well, more or less.
In truth, that final move he'd made—abandoning his guard and betting it all on a last strike—had been a gamble.
Because if the original canon held true, once Zaraki recognized a foe as worthy, he wouldn't kill them. The more he enjoyed the fight, the more likely he was to hold back just enough to keep it going.
So Shuuichi had gambled everything on gaining that recognition—knowing it might be the safest route.
And besides, Yachiru herself, being a fragment of Zaraki's soul, also wanted him to find a true rival. So even if something had gone wrong, Shuuichi was sure Yachiru would've stepped in to save him.
Plus, by that time, he had already bought himself plenty of time—Unohana should've been close to arriving.
All these factors together had created the perfect opportunity for a gamble.
Still, that near-death battle only further intensified Shuuichi's obsession: he had to break through his spiritual pressure ceiling.
Relying on Aizen to one day hand him hollowfication as a cheat code?
Forget it.
That plan was now in indefinite suspension—ever since Aizen, on a whim, decided to peer into the Soul King's Palace instead.
And judging by how chaotic Seireitei was becoming—how Aizen's ambitions were growing even more monstrous thanks to Shuuichi's interference—it was clear that he couldn't just sit around waiting for that power-up to come.
"If I want power… I'll have to take the seed of it into my own hands."
So what else besides hollowfication could allow a Soul Reaper to shatter their innate spiritual power limits?
Shuuichi thought for a while—then turned toward the 13th Division barracks.
Fullbring. Quincy.
Two nearly forgotten terms surfaced in his mind.
The Fullbringer system and the Quincy system—one existing completely outside the laws of spiritual pressure, and the other breaking them outright.
In the world of Shinigami and Hollows, reiatsu was everything. Strength, speed, defense—it all came down to how much pressure you could exert.
It was a gospel Aizen himself had once preached: Reiatsu trumps all.
But in the face of those two systems?
That gospel was a joke.
The Quincies could be explained away—fine control, higher Reishi density. But the Fullbringers?
They were just cheating—walking power glitches born from pieces of the Soul King's body.
Shuuichi had mocked this as a viewer in his past life. But now?
Now he realized: he didn't need to make a cheat code. This world already came with them preinstalled.
And the Fullbringers especially…
Even if you ignored Ichigo's ridiculous hybrid status, people like Jūshirō Ukitake and Sternritter "C"—Pernida Parnkgjas—were living proof of what fragments of the Soul King's body could do.
Which brought Shuuichi's thoughts to a very particular individual within the Gotei 13.
"Matsumoto Rangiku… the Soul King's fingernail fragment."
As far as he knew, Aizen hadn't taken it yet. The incident where Aizen extracted the fragment from her body hadn't occurred yet.
And honestly, Shuuichi had zero guilt about taking it himself.
Rangiku's spiritual aptitude was... questionable. If anything, the fragment was likely a burden on her. If she needed Gin to protect her as a child, that spoke volumes.
(Just look at Ukitake, whose body was barely hanging on thanks to the Soul King's lung fragment.)
So why let it go to waste?
"If it's going to be used... better it be me than Aizen."
After all, Aizen would just throw it into the Hōgyoku for a snack. And unlike in the original timeline, he already had his half-formed Hōgyoku now.
So maybe that's why Aizen hadn't made a move on Rangiku yet.
Nowadays, he barely cared about extracting Reishi from Rukongai citizens anymore—unless it was Shuuichi or Tōsen trying to curry favor with him.
But that left a very real problem for Shuuichi to solve:
How do you extract the Soul King's fragment from a living body?
How do you implant it into your own?
How do you wield its power?
How do you awaken Fullbring in the first place?
All questions... with no obvious answer.
In this world, there were few who could even begin to understand such a process.
And from Shuuichi's current position, there was only one person he could reach out to.
The mad scientist of Las Noches.
The one wearing the rank of Espada No.0.
Szayelaporro Granz.
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For this week I will do more release depending on the power stones !
100 Power Stones = 1 chapter (in addition to the daily update)
So give stones if you want mooooar !