In the World of the Living, on the surface of the lake in front of the house Natsuro had purchased...
At this moment, he stood with his eyes closed upon the water, holding Meikyō Shisui in one hand, the tip of its blade level with the surface.
He was still inside the gigai Kisuke Urahara had provided, so standing atop the lake was entirely a matter of reiatsu control.
Reiatsu, however, was not the same as chakra, it could easily allow a soul entirely composed of spiritual energy to achieve this.
For example, a Shinigami could freely stand in midair, even a relatively weak one, but allowing a living human with a physical body to stand atop water was far more difficult.
Natsuro could do it only thanks to his overwhelming spiritual pressure.
At first, when he stood upon the water, the lake churned violently under the pressure of his reiatsu, never calming for an instant.
Now, the lake was perfectly still, save for the occasional leaf touching down to make a tiny ripple.
Even when he walked across the water, there was no splash at all.
He opened his eyes, raising his hand, and the Meikyō Shisui in his grip suddenly dropped straight into the lake.
The sky seemed to begin a light rain, droplets striking the lake in ring after ring of ripples.
Then Natsuro began walking toward the shore, yet each step he took left behind a lingering footprint on the surface, the water flowing around it as if unwilling to disturb it.
When he finally stepped onto the bank, the entire lake suddenly erupted in a violent explosion, sending columns of water into the air to form a drifting mist.
Within that mist, a faint rainbow arced, while in the distance the sun still blazed.
Above, a sword spun rapidly through the air before shooting toward him, landing gently in his hand. He sheathed it at his waist once more.
Natsuro sighed. He had been in the Human World for many years now.
His reiatsu was still compressing, though it had yet to reach its limit, the rate of compression was slowing more and more.
Compressed spiritual power was also harder to control, so he had gradually developed this method to help refine his control, it worked fairly well.
Not only did it improve his reiatsu control, but it also helped him use the Heart of Meikyō Shisui without relying on the blade's Shikai release.
Now, he could indeed wield the Heart without activating Shikai, a decent improvement in itself.
However, he had once again hit a complete wall. Even with his reiatsu compressed this far, there was still no sign of breaking through to the next level.
In every other area: swordsmanship, Kidō, and shunpo... He had also reached their extremes.
For Kidō, he had gone to Grand Kidō Chief Tessai Tsukabishi. Tessai's mastery of Kidō was exceptional, and his understanding far beyond the norm.
Though Tessai had no intention of actively helping him, his level was such that he didn't need guidance, simply watching was enough, and with the Heart of Meikyō Shisui, he could grasp all he needed.
By now, he was certain, no matter what Kidō anyone cast at him, his Bankai could cut it apart. No exceptions.
Once he understood every Kidō, no spell could bind or harm him again.
For shunpo, he learned from that cat, Yoruichi Shihōin, the Flash Goddess herself, whose mastery of the technique was unmatched in history.
Even now, Natsuro hadn't surpassed her, rather, they each had their strengths. Yoruichi's shunpo excelled in agility and finesse, while his favored explosive instantaneous speed.
It fit his sword style perfectly.
Yoruichi had even shown him Shunkō, a technique fusing Kidō with hakuda.
Natsuro found it interesting, but quickly realized he had already mastered something similar, except he fused Kidō with swordsmanship instead of hand-to-hand.
His Fourth Form: Futen (Burning Heaven) was proof of that.
Still, Shunkō gave him inspiration, there was no need to focus only on high-level Hadō like #96 Ittō Kasō or #99 Goryūtenmetsu.
Even low-level Hadō could be integrated into his forms. In fact, why not all of them?
It would be harder, yes, but difficulty was irrelevant if it meant he could grow stronger.
And not just Hadō, Bakudō could also be integrated into his sword forms.
The work was immense. Even after years, he was still in the process of merging them, and full integration would take more time yet.
Once it was done, he believed he could challenge Head Captain Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni.
In truth, he was already tempted, there were simply too few who could be his opponent with his reiatsu compressed this far.
Perhaps Zaraki Kenpachi could… but unfortunately, his self-imposed seal was still intact, and lacking Bankai was his greatest weakness.
Still, Zaraki was improving in swordsmanship.
After being so decisively defeated, he had finally begun training in kenjutsu, abandoning reliance on brute strength and beast-like instinct alone.
Following Natsuro's advice, he had also taken a gigai to limit his power.
But, since Zaraki couldn't fully control his reiatsu, he kept breaking gigai after gigai, the Shinigami who made them were ready to file a police report.
So now he was training both swordsmanship and reiatsu control, at the very least to stop turning gigai into disposable goods.
By now, Zaraki had likely returned to the Soul Society, his patrol term had long ended.
As for Kisuke Urahara…
Natsuro could only sigh. He had wanted to spar with him, but Kisuke was absolutely immovable.
No matter how he tried, Kisuke refused. By his own words, he wasn't that strong in pure combat:
In hakuda and shunpo, he couldn't match Yoruichi.
In swordsmanship, he couldn't come close to Natsuro, he'd surrender instantly.
In Kidō, he was no match for Tessai.
So, Kisuke argued, there was no point in fighting him at all.
Natsuro could only accept it, Kisuke clearly didn't want to fight, and they weren't enemies, so there was no need to force the issue.
"Umbreon," Natsuro called.
"Gula?" Umbreon appeared on his shoulder, blinking at him.
"Go to Urahara's shop," Natsuro said. Ever since arriving in the Human World, Umbreon had been able to move about freely.
Even if Kisuke and the others saw it, it didn't matter, they simply assumed it was the manifested form of Natsuro's Zanpakutō.
After all, none of them had ever seen a creature like it, but a manifested Zanpakutō could take any form.
In fact, its uniqueness only reinforced the idea.
Since Natsuro had never shown his true Bankai before them, they assumed his Zanpakutō was a rare space-type blade…
Natsuro was happy to let them believe that, no need to explain Umbreon's origins.
"Gula~" Umbreon chirped, then teleported him to the familiar spot.
If Natsuro were still in soul form, he could do this without Umbreon, but with the gigai, many things were more restricted.
Arriving at Urahara's shop, Natsuro paused in surprise, he hadn't expected to see a familiar face.
"Captain of the 10th Division, Isshin Shiba?" Natsuro asked curiously.
"Hm? You're 4th Division Vice-Captain Natsuro Shindōkawa?" Isshin looked equally surprised. This man was a well-known figure...
Years ago, he had defeated 11th Division Captain Zaraki Kenpachi, then been sentenced to patrol the Human World. It seemed this was his assigned city.
In truth, his patrol term had ended long ago, but he clearly had no desire to return to the Soul Society, and no one could forcibly drag him back…
So, if he wanted to stay in the Human World and caused no trouble, they could only let him be.
Fortunately, there had been no reports of Natsuro stirring up any incidents.
"You're…" Natsuro narrowed his eyes as he saw the man carrying an unconscious young girl on his back. His gaze swept over Isshin with suspicion, he remembered that Isshin wasn't that kind of person.
"It's not what it looks like, she saved me earlier, but in doing so, she was contaminated by a Hollow's power and has already started to undergo Hollowfication…" Isshin said urgently, eager to explain. After all, he couldn't allow the Kurosaki family's name to be tarnished.
"Well, it's getting late, you'd better take her quickly," Kisuke interrupted, glancing at the time. "I'll explain things to Natsuro."
"…Alright." Seeing the pain on the girl's face, Isshin couldn't waste any more time. He headed straight into a room Kisuke had prepared for him.
Natsuro cast a glance at the girl in Isshin's arms. Isshin wasn't lying, she indeed carried a Hollow's presence within her, and the beginnings of a Hollow mask were already forming on her face.
Aside from that… there seemed to be another kind of aura.
"…A Quincy?" Natsuro looked over at Kisuke and asked.
"Oh my, I didn't expect you to know about the Quincy," Kisuke replied with a smile.
"I've been in the Human World for quite a while, I've naturally investigated the different powers here. Unfortunately, although I've found traces of them, I've never met a pure-blood Quincy," Natsuro said with a yawn.
In truth, he was rather interested in them. The way they used spiritual energy was unlike that of Shinigami or Hollows, they didn't absorb reiryoku into their bodies in the same way.
Instead, they used a unique ability to draw in and control reishi from the air to fight.
This was actually a method Natsuro had once tried to develop himself, but he had failed. He could absorb ambient spiritual energy and even influence it slightly with Kidō, but directly utilizing the reishi in the air as the Quincy did was beyond him.
At first, he assumed the Quincy were simply a hidden human force dedicated to fighting Hollows… until he discovered that the reality was quite different. The Quincy were rare, and not only rare but extremely bloodline-conscious, only those born with Quincy lineage could become one.
Bloodline was the necessary condition, not talent.
This only confirmed his view that in this world, living humans had almost no way to grow stronger while alive. After death, if they had the talent, they might become a Shinigami; without it… becoming a Hollow might actually count as "getting stronger."
In that sense, this world was even harsher than the shinobi world.
He even suspected that Quincy… might not truly be human at all. Their bloodline was anything but ordinary.
"Still, I don't know much about them, they're just too rare," Natsuro said, glancing at Kisuke. "If possible, could you tell me about them? I'm quite interested."
"I suppose there's no harm," Kisuke said after a moment's thought. After all, this information existed in the Soul Society's records, if Natsuro returned there, he could find it easily.
As he had guessed, the Quincy fought by gathering reishi from their surroundings.
What he hadn't expected was the reason they were so scarce, because they had been hunted down by the Shinigami.
The cause lay in the Quincy's approach to Hollows: they destroyed them completely, rather than purifying them like the Shinigami did.
But due to the rules of this world, the balance between the Human World, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo relied on a near-constant equilibrium of souls. If this balance was broken, the world would collapse.
The Quincy's complete eradication of Hollows severely disrupted that balance. After negotiations failed, the Shinigami had no choice but to carry out a mass extermination of the Quincy, leaving only a handful alive, under strict surveillance.
"So, that girl is a member of one of the remaining pure-blood Quincy families?" Natsuro asked curiously.
"That's right," Kisuke replied. "Isshin had been chasing a powerful Hollow into the Human World. Due to some mishap, he was overpowered. This girl saved him, but in the process, the Hollow's power took root inside her. What Isshin is doing now… is trying to save her life."
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Currently on Chapter 482 - The Soul Society's Movements