In the lab, Sora and Sōsuke Aizen were reviewing and taking stock of the gains from the operation.
"Did Tokinada Tsunayashiro really revive in Hell..."
Sora was communicating with Yoruichi Shihōin. However, since Kirio Hikifune's lab could monitor Denreishinki messages, the two did not discuss in depth.
After Yoruichi recounted what she had seen that night, she hung up the Denreishinki.
"Sōsuke, our plan was a success. They already believe Tokinada Tsunayashiro did it."
Sora chuckled. "The escaped servants, the Shinigami who followed 'Tokinada Tsunayashiro' into the estate, and the surrounding residents are all our witnesses."
Many witnesses saw Tokinada Tsunayashiro and the Gates of Hell.
He and Sōsuke Aizen had let many servants go. Besides the fact that those servants were not members of the Tsunayashiro clan, another important reason was for them to act as witnesses who saw "Tokinada Tsunayashiro".
With witnesses from multiple parties, no one would doubt the authenticity of Tokinada Tsunayashiro.
"The Professor's plan was flawless," Sōsuke Aizen nodded and said. "The Tokinada Tsunayashiro the witnesses saw could use the Tsunayashiro family's ancestral Zanpakutō, 'Enrakyōten', so the Thirteen Court Guard Squads won't suspect that this Tokinada is a fake."
"Tonight's gains were not small..."
Sora took out the items he had moved from.
The largest quantity was books.
The Tsunayashiro family's library was also in the pavilion where the Soul King fragments and Enrakyōten were stored.
Sora took all these books as well.
Next were some antiques and Tenzen Heisō.
The antiques were of little use to Sora, but they could be sold for research resources.
However, since the Tsunayashiro family incident had just occurred, these items were not easy to sell for the time being.
Once things cooled down, Yoruichi could help handle them.
Sōsuke Aizen was responsible for organizing the books, while Sora sorted through the Tenzen Heisō.
"First, let's categorize these Tenzen Heisō and pick out the useful ones."
The Tenzen Heisō collected in the treasure pavilion were all collectibles and not necessarily useful.
Tenzen Heisō were items and weapons with special functions.
Just by looking at their appearance, it was difficult to tell their use. Fortunately, the Tenzen Heisō collected in the pavilion had corresponding introductory books.
"All flash and no substance..."
Sora understood why these Tenzen Heisō were kept with the antiques.
Many of them fell into the category of ornamental items.
For example, the never-withering Hollow flower, which was made from a rare plant-type Hollow.
The core of the Hollow flower was a Hollow's mask, and its leaves were also made of bone.
"Soul Chain... can reconnect a soul to a kishi body?" Sora became interested. "Doesn't that mean it can bring the dead back to life?"
Sora found an interesting Tenzen Heisō.
A human's physical body is a body of flesh and blood made of a substance called 'kishi'.
Between the soul and the kishi body, there is a chain called the 'Chain of Fate'.
When a soul leaves the kishi body, it is not equivalent to death.
If the 'Chain of Fate' connecting to the kishi body is not yet broken, it can receive treatment from a Shinigami and be successfully revived upon returning to the body.
But if the 'Chain of Fate' is completely severed, the soul cannot be revived even if it returns to the kishi body.
The 'Soul Chain' Tenzen Heisō that Sora found could be used to repair the 'Chain of Fate', allowing the soul to reconnect with the kishi body.
This meant that as long as the kishi body was not damaged, the 'Soul Chain' could bring a human back from the dead!
"This might be useful..." Sora put away this Tenzen Heisō.
He continued to sort through the other Tenzen Heisō.
"Soul-Shaking Gloves... can forcibly extract a soul from its body..."
"Soul-Protecting Pendant... can protect the wearer's spiritual body... isn't it just a built-in 'Bakudō #39: Enkōsen'? It becomes a collectible just because it's made?"
"Flesh Doll... can give a Shinigami a kishi body?"
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Note: A Quick Clarification on Terms - Gigai vs. Reigai
Hey everyone!
To avoid any potential confusion as the story progresses, I wanted to quickly clarify the difference between two very specific terms from the Bleach universe that will appear in this novel:
Gigai: Think of this as an artificial body or a "vessel." It's a physical shell that a soul, like a Shinigami's, can inhabit to interact with the Human World. Essentially, it's a temporary body.
Reigai; This is NOT a body, but a clone of a soul. It's a near-perfect copy of a Shinigami, complete with its own consciousness and powers. It is not a vessel, but a complete being.
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The function of the Flesh Doll was similar to a Gigai, but Gigai had not been invented in this era.
The Flesh Doll was a white doll with no facial features or any characteristics on its body.
Sora decided to test the effect of the Flesh Doll.
The Flesh Doll was in an inactive state and could only be used in the World of the Living, not in the Soul Society.
A while later, Sora took the Flesh Doll to the World of the Living.
He entered the Flesh Doll's body, and it soon began to transform.
The surface of the Flesh Doll's body was writhing, somewhat like a melting clay doll.
In a short while, the Flesh Doll had transformed into the appearance of Katori Sora.
"It even replicated the clothes the spiritual body was wearing..."
Sora realized this Flesh Doll was not simple.
It transformed according to the state of the spiritual body, even simulating the hairstyle and clothes.
Sora made a cut on his hand, revealing a white substance inside.
"There's still a difference from a real body... it's inferior to a Gigai in this regard."
The 'Gigai' developed by Shinigami in the future would be indistinguishable from a human body of flesh and blood.
Isshin Shiba was even able to marry a human and have children through a 'Gigai' made by Kisuke Urahara.
The Flesh Doll was not such a high-fidelity imitation.
Its essence did not change. When cut, it was not flesh and blood, only an external change.
"The advantage of the Flesh Doll is that anyone can use it, whereas a Gigai needs to be custom-made."
Sora put away the Flesh Doll. Before Gigai were developed, the Flesh Doll was a useful item.
Sora returned to the lab and continued to take stock of other items.
He soon saw something interesting.
"Sōsuke, this item is a great match for your 'water-type Zanpakutō'!"
Sora threw a string of prayer beads over.
Sōsuke Aizen caught the prayer beads and noticed traces of Kidō formulas within them.
"It has Kidō formulas for creating and controlling water," Sora said.
This ability was quite useless for Sora, but it was somewhat useful for Sōsuke Aizen, who wanted to disguise his Zanpakutō as a water-type. He could better imitate the abilities of a water-type Zanpakutō.
"Creating and controlling water... It's indeed very useful for me."
Sōsuke Aizen thanked him and put on the bracelet.
He tested its effect. The power was roughly equivalent to a Kidō in the 30-40 range.
And it could unleash a power comparable to a fully incanted Kidō without chanting.
Sōsuke Aizen was very satisfied with the effect of the bracelet. With it, it would be even more convenient to imitate the abilities of a water-type Zanpakutō.
"Hollow poison..."
Sora found something he was quite familiar with.
He found a jar of Hollow poison. Looking at the label, it was a bottle of poison from a 'Vasto Lorde' class Hollow.
Hollows that release toxins were relatively rare, and this was poison from a 'Vasto Lorde' class Hollow, making it a valuable item.
"It really was for the best to get rid of the Tsunayashiro family early..."
Even with Sora's current strength, he couldn't suppress the poison of a Vasto Lorde for too long.
If the Tsunayashiro family head, with the strength of a lieutenant, had taken 'Enrakyōten' and used this poison to ambush him, it might have caused him considerable trouble.
But the Tsunayashiro clan no longer had that chance.
Until his death, the Tsunayashiro head never imagined that someone could use Tokinada Tsunayashiro's identity to snatch away 'Enrakyōten'.
The remaining collectibles were ornamental, so Sora put them aside.
Next, Sora looked at the biggest gain of this trip—
several Soul King fragments in various jars and containers.
Sora carefully observed these fragments and found that they should all have been cut from the same leg.
And the corresponding part should be the lower leg.
The knee bone along with the skin was relatively complete, the calf muscle was a whole piece, and the shin bone was cut into many pieces.
Each piece of leg bone was about one centimeter long.
Sora opened the lid and took out the fragments inside.
At that moment, a strange movement occurred in his shadow.
Several black tentacles emerged from the shadow and wrapped around the shadow of the bone.
After a few breaths, the anomaly in the shadow disappeared without a trace, as if the black tentacles that had just appeared were an illusion.
Sora glanced at Sōsuke Aizen, who was arranging books at the bookshelf. He was still organizing books and hadn't noticed the change in the shadow.
The Soul King bone fragment in his hand still had a shadow, but something within that shadow had been absorbed by him, turning it into an ordinary shadow cast by a light source.
The Soul King's shadow also contained a mysterious power. What Sora had absorbed was precisely a part of the 'Soul King's Shadow'.
The bone fragment didn't contain much of the mysterious shadow. Sora continued to take out the other bone fragments, absorbing all of the 'Soul King's Shadow' from them.
One bone fragment was small, but all of them together made up a leg bone over ten centimeters long.
After absorbing this part of the 'Soul King's Shadow', his control over shadows improved some more.
The most direct manifestation was that his Bankai ability had become a little stronger.
He could previously summon two shadows with fifty percent of his main body's strength.
After Sora absorbed these 'Soul King's Shadows', the strength of the shadows he summoned increased to sixty percent of his main body!
"That's a significant improvement..."
Sora thought to himself.
Two shadows with sixty percent of his main body's strength would be a great help in battle.
His shadows could not be injured.
If an enemy wanted to destroy his shadows, they could only use a pure Reiatsu blast to do so.
But the loss of the shadows was just a loss of Reiatsu for him; being destroyed would not harm his main body.
"There are still two large pieces left to absorb!"
Sora looked at the two largest Soul King fragments, the knee and the calf muscle.
As he took the knee and calf muscle out of the jar, another strange movement occurred in his shadow.
Several black tentacles emerged from the shadow and wrapped around the shadows of the knee and calf muscle.
Sora suddenly felt an unprecedented mental sense of fullness.
This sense of fullness did not come from his stomach, but from the depths of his spiritual body.
His shadow ability had received a huge boost.
Sora put the Soul King fragments back into the jar and went to the training room next to the lab.
"Bankai, Shosō Kaijin."
Sora quickly completed his Bankai. The shadow space did not expand but remained hidden in his shadow.
Then, his shadow began to grow and split rapidly.
From a distance, it looked like a black crack gushing oil had appeared on the ground.
Soon, three black figures grew out of the shadow on the ground.
Three identical shadows stood before Sora.
He could now split off three shadows with sixty percent of his main body's strength!
"And that's not all..."
With a thought from Sora, the outlines of the three shadows changed rapidly.
The figures of the shadows were changing quickly, and soon they became three shadows with different forms.
When the transformation was over, three shadows with female outlines stood before Sora.
They were the shadows of Batsu'unsai Katori, Kana Azashiro, and Yoruichi Shihōin.
"Once a shadow is summoned, it can be summoned again in the future! This way, I can use three different abilities at the same time... If I count my own ability, that's four!"
The corners of Sora's mouth turned up slightly, his joy palpable.
His shadow ability had received a huge improvement!
His Bankai could already use others' abilities by summoning their shadows.
The replicated power was about ten to sixty percent of the original, depending on the subject being replicated.
This time, the gains were substantial.
Before this, he could only summon one such shadow at a time.
Now he could summon three such shadows.
This meant he could use multiple Zanpakutō abilities at the same time!
A qualitative change in strength!
Sora returned to the lab. Sōsuke Aizen was still organizing the bookshelf.
"Sōsuke, let me help."
Sora smiled.
"Professor, I found some Kidō."
Sōsuke Aizen noticed the Professor was in a very good mood, but with such a large haul this time, being in a good mood was normal.
"Oh? Did you find anything interesting?"
Sora was not surprised that there were Kidō among these books.
He had taken the entire library of the Tsunayashiro family. With the heritage of the Tsunayashiro, they should have collected most of the sequenced Kidō.
"There are quite a few high-level Kidō, even 'Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi'. Besides those, there are also some Kidō not recorded in the sequence."
Sōsuke Aizen handed him a scroll.
"This is the Kidō to control 'The Cleaner' and the 'Kōryū'... Back then, Tokinada Tsunayashiro and the others planned to use this Kidō to attack Kakyō and Kana, right!"
Sora took the scroll and flipped through it.
The Tsunayashiro family had collected many Kidō. All the low-sequence and mid-sequence Kidō were collected.
There were also quite a few high-sequence Kidō.
"Senjū Kōten Taihō... a Hadō more powerful than Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō."
"Gaki Rekkō... Kongōbaku... Hyōga Seiran..."
"There are indeed many high-level Kidō. The collection here is not much worse than the Kidō Corps'!"
Sōsuke Aizen nodded: "And there are also many notes on Kidō. With these notes, learning is twice as effective."
The heritage of the Tsunayashiro family was rich, having accumulated the experience of many ancestors.
With this accumulation, they should have been able to nurture many outstanding descendants.
However, the recent generations of the Tsunayashiro family did not value these things much.
This family had decayed.
When Sora and Sōsuke Aizen broke into the Tsunayashiro estate, including the family head, there were only three people who had reached the lieutenant level of strength.
After 'Enrakyōten' was taken from them, they were powerless to resist against Sora and Sōsuke Aizen.
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