[Spiritual Realm]
The Soul Dimension looked… better.
That was the first thing Blake noticed as he emerged above it—not brighter, not grander. Just steadier. Like a place that had finally stopped holding its breath.
North Rukongai stretched beneath him in clean, coherent blocks. Streets held their lines. Buildings no longer leaned like tired men. Reishi circulated evenly instead of leaking through cracks in reality like steam from a broken pipe.
Blake hovered there, hands in his pockets, letting the sight settle.
"…Nice," he said.
Below, the Gotei 13 headquarters stood partially restored. Not pristine—scaffolding clung stubbornly to several structures, and parts of the Shinigami Academy were still cordoned off—but it was functional. Officers moved with purpose instead of panic or restless urgency. Cadets trained again, voices and movement breathing life back into buildings that had looked abandoned the last time he saw them.
[Someone had done their job.]
Blake tilted his head, eyes unfocused for a moment, quietly taking it in.
Then he exhaled and turned upward.
[Soul King Palace]
The palace interior remained unchanged—vast, clean, and unnervingly calm. Sound traveled far here, then politely vanished. The architecture felt less built and more decided upon.
Blake walked to the center of the chamber and stopped.
The system prompt hovered at the edge of his awareness.
"…Alright," he murmured. "Let's roll."
The summoning interface activated.
A circular roulette of light formed before him, symbols rotating with patient inevitability.
Blake watched it spin, arms relaxed at his sides.
The rotation slowed.
Stopped.
The air shifted.
The first presence landed like gravity asserting itself indoors.
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto appeared standing, staff grounded, posture immovable. His spiritual pressure did not flare. It didn't need to. It existed—ancient, disciplined, absolute.
Beside him stood Chōjirō Tadaoki Sasakibe, already inclined forward, eyes sharp, presence perfectly aligned to his captain's.
Then the others.
Division 1 materialized in staggered flashes. Veterans. Officers. Shinigami whose instincts had been honed by centuries of command and survival.
The moment their senses fully caught up—
They knelt.
Stone met knee in unison.
Not from fear.From recognition.
Blake's eyes widened just a fraction.
[WAIT—]
He bit down hard on the grin before it could show.
[No way. No way. Yamamoto.The OG one.One of the strongest aids I could possibly get right now. Let's GOOOO—]
He cleared his throat.
"…You don't have to do that."
No one moved.
Yamamoto lifted his gaze first, eyes steady, ancient, and fully aware of what stood before him. Not reverent. Not defiant.
Correct.
Sasakibe followed immediately.
Blake scratched lightly at his cheek. "Right. Habit."
He gestured. "Up. Please."
They rose at once.
The chamber felt denser with them standing.
Blake looked at Yamamoto a second longer than necessary—his polished bald head catching the light almost comically—and for half a heartbeat, he nearly laughed.
Then his eyes dropped to the staff in Yamamoto's grip.
Ryūjin Jakka.
The legendary zanpakutō, sealed and quiet, yet unmistakable.
Blake's gaze passed over the assembled Division 1—nearly two thousand presences, disciplined, lethal, ready.
He nodded.
"Honestly? This helps a lot."
Division 1 stiffened—not at the words themselves, but at how casually they were delivered.
Yamamoto inclined his head, slow and deliberate, as if weighing something unsaid.
Blake noticed. "What's on your mind? Speak it."
Yamamoto placed a fist to his chest.
"Before deployments," he said, voice steady, "the infrastructure must be fully restored. Barracks. Defensive stations. Supply lines. The damage is extensive. I will see it completed as swiftly as possible."
Blake blinked.
He paused.[As if thinking "what did I forget"]
"…Oh. Right."
[Ah. I still have the Big Development Coupon.]
He snapped his fingers once.
The palace did not shake.
There was no shockwave. No tremor.
Outside, however, reality moved.
The South and East Rukongai responded immediately.
Reishi surged—not violently, but eagerly—pouring into empty spiritual grids like water into a basin. Roads extended themselves. Entire districts unfolded in accelerated succession. Buildings grew upward from nothing, walls knitting together mid-air, foundations locking into place as if snapping into a configuration they had always been meant to hold.
Homes. Market streets. Defensive boundaries.
All of it solidified within seconds.
From above, it looked less like creation and more like correction—reality bending, realizing it had forgotten something, and quietly fixing the mistake.
Blake watched, a grin tugging briefly at the corner of his mouth.
[Yes. That's… it..... Its really satisfying seeing building rising up from nowhere] thought blake smirkingly
As the process finished.
The realm settled. Quiet
Blake nodded once. "Okay. That's most of it."
He didn't linger. Satisfaction faded quickly, replaced by the familiar pressure of what came next.
Personnel.
Division 1 felt it instantly.
Several officers sucked in sharp breaths.
Sasakibe's grip tightened—not in fear, but reflex.
Yamamoto's eyes narrowed slightly, taking in the scale of what had just been completed.
Blake glanced back at them. "That should cover facilities."
Silence.
Then Yamamoto inclined his head forward—deeper this time. Respect. Recognition.
"…Understood."
Blake smiled, small and genuine.
[This is huge. This is so huge.Now system, just get me one more development coupon. Only West Rukongai is left.]
He turned away, already shifting focus.
"Get settled. Assignments will come after I finish reviewing reports."
He paused at the threshold, glancing back once at Yamamoto.
"Oh—and if something's a problem…"
A shrug.
"…tell me."
And then he was gone.
Behind him, Division 1 remained still.
Yamamoto exhaled slowly.
The pressure of the Soul King lingered—faint now, barely leaking—but even that trace felt like having the weight of a world overhead.
This was not a ruler who commanded.
This was a presence the world quietly reorganized itself around.
And it had just started moving again.
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