Nanatsuki's current state was a peculiar one.
His shadow and Reishi body had fully merged, becoming one.
The shadow was him, and the Reishi body was also him.
"I crossed over into the Soul King's shadow, so that part of me was split off...?" Nanatsuki pondered inwardly.
He wasn't the complete shadow of the Soul King—rather, the Soul King had only cut off a fragment: him.
Therefore, the Soul King who reigned above Datenshin, as well as the fragments scattered across the Three Realms, still possessed shadows.
"Maybe I need to collect the other shadows too..." Nanatsuki speculated.
Once the shadow fused with a Shinigami's Reishi Shell, its power materialized in the form of a Zanpakutō.
If he could gather more fragments of the Soul King's shadow, his strength might grow significantly.
Nanatsuki glanced at the ever-pulsing black thread cluster floating in the air—the blue liquid once inside had vanished completely.
The thread cluster had returned to pure black.
Moments later, the threads slowly unraveled and transformed back into a shadow.
Nanatsuki sensed a profound shift occurring within his Inner World. With a mere thought, the scenery around him twisted, blurred, and stretched like melting wax.
Then, it felt like he plummeted into an endless abyss—nothing but boundless darkness surrounded him.
A few breaths passed, and light returned—emanating from a luminous full moon suspended high above.
Nanatsuki stood in a black desert. The white tower in the distance remained unchanged, still piercing the sky.
But on the far end of the black desert, a faint blue glow was being emitted.
His body melted into a shadow and surged toward the glowing area at high speed.
The sand in this region was no longer pure—blue threads were embedded throughout, like glowing vines rooted in the ground.
The farther he advanced, the denser the threads became.
All the glowing threads pointed in one direction—toward a massive cocoon woven from blue filaments.
The cocoon stood about twice the height of a person, giving off an eerie blue radiance.
Nanatsuki approached and found that the cocoon was actually semi-transparent and unsealed. Through the threads, he could faintly see the interior.
Within, a young girl lay encased.
He stepped closer to inspect. Inside the cocoon, the girl had long, wavy orange hair.
When he finally got a clear look at her face, Nanatsuki froze for a moment. It was the spitting image of the unforgettable Quincy—Kurosaki Tsukiren.
The girl inside the cocoon looked exactly like Kurosaki Tsukiren.
But Nanatsuki quickly understood.
This filament cocoon was incubating his Quincy power.
The orange-haired girl was the personification of that Quincy power.
"A bit like Zangetsu and Yhwach's relationship...?" Nanatsuki recalled Kurosaki Ichigo's Inner World.
"So, my Quincy power, after being processed by the 'Bloodline Extractor,' isn't much connected to Yhwach anymore?" he speculated.
Ichigo had inherited his Quincy power from his mother, but its origin was still the Quincy King, Yhwach. Hence, it manifested as Yhwach in his Inner World.
Nanatsuki's Quincy power, however, had taken the form of Kurosaki Tsukiren—a completely different case.
And that was exactly what Nanatsuki preferred.
Yhwach had the ability to reclaim Quincy powers.
If the system had truly severed that connection, then he no longer had to worry about that risk.
"It'll probably need time to finish incubating." After inspecting the cocoon, Nanatsuki came to a conclusion.
That Quincy bloodline served as a key to obtain Quincy power—it didn't grant him the ability instantly. The power needed time to grow.
"Kagehime." Nanatsuki called out.
"Here." Kagehime popped her head halfway out of his shadow.
"With all these new things appearing in the Inner World, did they affect you?" he asked.
He wanted to know if Quincy power had any influence on his Shinigami powers.
"Of course! It's so cramped in here now!" Kagehime grumbled.
"This desert's huge though, no?" Nanatsuki scratched his cheek. "That's not what I meant..."
"Then no," Kagehime replied flatly.
Nanatsuki nodded. It seemed the Quincy power hadn't interfered with the Shinigami power yet. They were still operating separately.
With a thought, his consciousness returned to the real world.
Now that he had recalled those buried memories, his connection to the Inner World had grown even deeper.
He could even enter it without Zanpakutō Meditation Training.
Nanatsuki glanced at the Status Interface, where a new entry had appeared:
[Quincy Power (Incubating)]
He then looked at the intact floor beneath him. Fortunately, the Inner World's transformation hadn't caused any major disturbance in reality.
"I need to test whether other fragments of the Soul King's shadow have an effect on me... But for that, I'll need to gather more fragments," he thought.
The Soul King's body, once reigning above Datenshin, had been split into countless pieces.
The portion left in the Soul King Palace now acted as the stabilizing wedge for the Three Realms.
But collecting Soul King fragments wouldn't be easy. Most were no longer unclaimed—they had already fused into souls and been reincarnated.
Those who carried such fragments—be they living beings or spirits—had immense potential.
This task would likely have to wait until Nanatsuki reached Captain-level strength.
Recklessly collecting them now could easily attract attention.
It was already deep into the night—just an hour or two before dawn. Nanatsuki had initially planned to rest, but the commotion in the courtyard changed his mind.
He stepped outside, and a silhouette in the courtyard instantly froze.
But from Nanatsuki's perspective, the yard appeared completely empty.
Without reacting, he slowly walked toward the kitchen.
Aizen Sōsuke relaxed when he saw his teacher enter the kitchen.
He had been worried that his late-night outing had been discovered.
Aizen quickly slipped away from the courtyard and returned to his room.
Moments later, Nanatsuki walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of noodles and sat under the eaves to eat.
He hadn't seen Aizen in the courtyard—but his shadow had.
Back during the battle against the Kasumioji exiles in the mountains, he'd been keeping an eye on Azashiro Kana, Hirako Shinji, and others—and had also witnessed Aizen releasing his Zanpakutō.
He had already fallen under Kyōka Suigetsu's influence.
Once you've seen its release, the complete hypnosis takes effect permanently.
But a shadow's vision lies beyond the five senses—it was unaffected by hypnosis.
For the sake of safety at the dojo, Nanatsuki had placed shadow surveillance points in the wall's shaded corners.
It was through one of those shadow monitors that he saw Aizen leave for quite a while.
Aizen had even used Kyōka Suigetsu, which piqued Nanatsuki's curiosity.
"Where would he go at this hour?" Nanatsuki muttered, looking toward the direction Aizen had returned from—the direction of Seireitei.