On the desolate ground, Suì-Fēng sat cross-legged in meditation, carefully adjusting her Reiatsu until it reached its optimal state. Her previous attempt, while a failure, had proven one crucial thing: the original owner of this body had already completed the materialization and subjugation of her Zanpakutō.
"Thank goodness for me," she muttered with a wry smile. It was the best news she'd had in weeks.
Pushing herself to her feet, she drew her Zanpakutō, Suzumebachi. Her aura intensified, the air growing heavy around her as she unleashed her full spiritual pressure. This time, she would succeed. She had to.
"Bankai: Jakuhō Raikōben!"
A brilliant yellow light erupted from her arm, surging with more speed and stability than before. The crackling lightning crawled over her skin, converging into the massive, missile-shaped form of her Bankai. It was complete. A sense of triumph washed over her.
Ding—
A clear, crisp sound chimed in her mind, and she froze. The sound was strangely familiar, like a notification from her old world. For a split second, she half-expected to see a request for payment.
[Congratulations, you have achieved Bankai. Conditions met.] [Task System Unlocked] [You have received a (Newbie) Main Quest: Start as a Captain] [Quest Objective: Become a Captain] [Quest Restriction: You cannot use Bankai until you become a Captain] [Quest Reward: …]
What?
Suì-Fēng frowned, the triumphant feeling instantly replaced by confusion and a growing sense of dread. Things were never this simple. A terrible feeling began to claw its way up from the pit of her stomach. She forced her gaze back to her arm, and her face went pale with shock. The stable, powerful form of her Bankai was beginning to crackle erratically, its energy becoming unstable.
"No... My Bankai is about to explode!"
BOOM—!
…
In a hidden cavern deep within the Seireitei, a figure covered in dust and soot limped toward a steaming hot spring.
"I really shouldn't have celebrated so early," Suì-Fēng grumbled to herself, her body aching with every step. "And I definitely shouldn't have been so confident. But really, a system that gives you a newbie quest shouldn't do it at the most critical moment possible!"
Her Bankai had exploded. Point-blank. She was a mess of burn marks, and her normally neat black hair was charred and matted, smelling faintly of burnt protein. The tattered remains of her Shihakushō revealed angry red and black wounds, many of them still weeping blood.
Reaching the edge of the spring, she tossed her Zanpakutō aside and, without bothering to remove her ruined uniform or sandals, plunged directly into the water.
Splash—!
She surfaced on her back, letting the water support her weight. The tattered black cloth clung to her slender frame, and the sulfurous, hot water stung her countless wounds. She grit her teeth, enduring the pain until, gradually, a soothing warmth began to spread through her limbs. The stinging faded, replaced by the dull itch of healing. Only then did she finally relax, letting out a long, shuddering sigh of relief.
"I owe Yoruichi and Urahara for this place," she thought. "Without it, I'd have no way to explain these injuries back at the barracks."
This cavern and its natural hot spring had been their secret training ground. After discovering it, Yoruichi had used an artifact from her clan to set up a powerful concealing barrier, while Urahara had tinkered with the spring itself, infusing the water with properties that healed injuries and restored Reiatsu. An untraceable training ground with a miraculous healing spring—it was the main reason Suì-Fēng dared to attempt her reckless Bankai training alone.
As the warm water worked its magic, her mind began to drift, hazy with pain and exhaustion. She quickly shook her head, forcing herself to focus.
"I was lucky. My Shunpo is decent enough that I avoided the worst of it. A little slower and I wouldn't have just gotten a few burns." A cold fear washed over her as she replayed the event. The destructive power of Jakuhō Raikōben came from compressing her entire Reiatsu into a single point and then detonating it. It was, in essence, a personal nuclear bomb. She had been far too careless, relying on the spring to patch her up without considering that a direct hit would have simply obliterated her.
"Of course, it wasn't entirely my fault," she reasoned, trying to shift the blame. "If the system hadn't interfered and sealed my Bankai right as it formed, I would have had it under control."
With a sigh, she mentally summoned the system interface again, forcing herself to read the cruel joke it had played on her.
[Quest Objective: Become a Captain] [Quest Restriction: You cannot use Bankai until you become a Captain (Note: Forcibly using Bankai will fail and cause an explosion)] [Quest Rewards: 1. Zanpakutō "Suzumebachi" reforged, abilities adjusted; 2. Mastery of Bankai.]
"Become a Captain? Me?" she thought incredulously. "How am I supposed to become a Captain if I can't even use my Bankai?"
An imaginary scene immediately played out in her head:
"I want to be a Captain!" she would declare to the Captain-Commander.
"You must first master Bankai!" Yamamoto would reply, his voice like gravel.
"But I can only master Bankai after I become a Captain!"
"Then learn Bankai first, then become a Captain!"
She imagined herself flipping a table. "I told you, I won't master it until I'm a Captain!"
Yamamoto would just glare back. "Then go! Learn! The! Bankai!"
Suì-Fēng rubbed her temples. Just thinking about it gave her a headache. The situation was a perfect catch-22.
Still, as frustrating as the quest was, the rewards were undeniably generous. Her own Zanpakutō, Suzumebachi, had the Shikai ability "Nigeki Kessatsu" (Death in Two Steps). It sounded powerful, but its practical application was limited. Simply put, any enemy she could hit twice in the exact same spot was probably an enemy she could defeat without a special instant-kill ability. Its only real use was against massive, slow, or immortal opponents, and even then, its success was dependent on a check of Reiatsu.
She grimaced, recalling how Aizen, in the original story, had effortlessly nullified her ability with his overwhelming spiritual pressure. She had no desire to become a background character for his grandstanding a hundred years from now. This quest offered her a chance to change that, to reforge her Zanpakutō and adjust its abilities. The second reward, instant mastery of her Bankai upon promotion, was just as valuable. It would eliminate the long, dangerous period of training required to control a new Bankai.
Lost in thought, time slipped by. Suì-Fēng finally pushed herself out of the water, her wounds now nothing more than faint pink marks on her fair skin. "Urahara's technical skill is just ridiculous," she mused, marveling at how even the scabbing process had been skipped.
She raised a hand, and a small, incantation-less Kidō flame appeared at her fingertips. She launched it at her discarded uniform. The flame struck the wet clothes and, instead of burning them, was guided by an invisible current of Reiatsu, wrapping around the fabric to evaporate every drop of moisture. It was a small trick she had been developing, a way to practice the fine control needed for Shunko. Her original self had been a master of it, and she intended to be one too.
Dressed in her now-dry uniform, she looked herself over. "Good, the tears are in unimportant places. I won't look too ridiculous walking back."
Then, however, her expression soured as she looked down at her own thin frame. "Being undressed was one thing... but now that I have clothes on, I can still see my ankles when I look straight down. Don't the young Soul Reapers in this era get enough to eat?"
With a silent promise to herself to start eating an extra meal every day, Suì-Fēng decided to end her training. Her figure flickered, activating her Shunpo. She had started using it for all her daily movements, another self-imposed training method to build muscle memory and quickly regain her predecessor's skill.
"To become a Captain," she pondered as she sped through the Seireitei's corridors, "I have to think about this from the perspective of the Second Division's needs."
An idea began to form. "I should pay a visit to the Lieutenant..."