Mayuri's tone carried a hint of scrutiny. "Is the 11th Division now in the habit of collecting researchers? I hope he's not just some mediocre writer of reports."
Kisuke scratched his head, hanging his usual lazy smile on his face. "Ahaha, Chief Mayuri flatters me. I'm just an ordinary division member with a bit of interest in weird and wonderful things. I look forward to your guidance in the future."
Mayuri snorted, his attention quickly returning to his own bottleneck. As if to prove something, he began to expound on his problem in even greater detail, interspersing it with a large amount of professional jargon and self-coined terminology, his speech rapid-fire like popping beans.
Aizen listened intently, occasionally pondering the key points.
Kisuke, however, merely glanced casually at the charts and flickering instrument screens. He even secretly yawned while Mayuri's back was turned.
Just as Mayuri was explaining how the 'triple helix nesting' structure of the seventh-stage Reishi Backflow was exquisite yet led to internal pressure imbalance, Kisuke interjected as if making casual conversation:
"Oh? Using a triple helix to lock down Reiatsu? The idea is very rigorous. But, you just said the essence of the [Superhuman Drug] is 'sensory overload' causing a dislocation of the sense of time. The focus should be on allowing the 'illusory Reiatsu' to smoothly discharge, rather than locking it in more securely, right?"
"Chief Mayuri, have you tried changing the innermost helix into a one-way valve? As for materials, I happened to discover that grinding a Hollow's hard skin into powder seems to have a good adsorbing and slow-release effect on this type of unstable, spiritually-attributed Reiatsu."
As his words fell, the research lab fell silent for a moment.
Mayuri seemed to hit a pause button, freezing in place. Even the data pad he was waving stopped mid-air.
He didn't immediately refute, didn't fly into a rage. Instead, like a computer processing information, he was silent for a full three seconds.
Then, he slapped the data pad onto the table, pounced on the main control terminal, his fingers becoming a blur on the keyboard, and a rapid series of muttered self-talk erupted from his mouth:
"Triple helix... locking down... redundant Reiatsu... internal pressure... Hollow shell... adsorption slow-release... one-way pressure relief valve... Yes! Yes! It's not insufficient reinforcement, it's poor discharge! The 'time illusion Reiatsu' generated by sensory expansion needs a special channel! I was actually blinded by the aesthetic of my own design structure!"
On the screen, the complex model rapidly adjusted with his inputs. A red error warning mark flickered a few times before turning green, indicating a pass.
Theoretical verification passed instantly.
The excitement from the sudden clarity lasted only a very short time.
Mayuri spun around abruptly, his voice carrying obvious anger and embarrassment. "Hmph, you were just lucky, a blind chicken finding a worm, and happened to guess the right direction! I... I had already considered the application of Hollow materials, it was just lower in priority! My triple helix structure itself is perfect. It was those inferior test subjects dragging down the data!"
Facing this intense reaction, Kisuke just smiled helplessly. "Yes, yes, Chief Mayuri is right. I just had a flash of insight, a wild guess. You are the true genius, with a solid foundation and exquisite designs. I'm far inferior."
The more he acted in this non-confrontational manner, the more Mayuri felt like he was punching air, with nowhere for that stifled frustration to vent.
He then began to seize on some very detailed technical parameters, trying to prove how superior his original plan was in 'theoretical purity' and 'future scalability', and how Kisuke's suggestion was merely a 'pragmatic compromise' and a 'destruction of structural elegance'.
Aizen observed quietly from the side, incorporating this interesting intra-division rivalry into his analysis.
Setsuna had long anticipated this scene. Bringing Kisuke here was precisely intended to stimulate Mayuri, allowing the two to spark more ideas through competition and cooperation.
Ignoring the academic dispute over there, he walked straight to the other side of the research lab.
There, Tosen was sitting quietly on a chair embedded with precise Reiatsu stabilization runes. Although his complexion was still pale, his breathing was steady.
His sightless eyes 'looked' into the void, as if capturing ripples imperceptible to ordinary people.
"Tosen, how do you feel?" Setsuna asked.
Tosen 'looked' at Setsuna, a complex expression appearing on his face - a mix of awe, understanding, and deep admiration.
"Captain Chiaki, that experience is beyond words," He said slowly, his voice carrying an ethereal resonance. "As you said, I do seem to have touched the boundary of the [Sixth Sense]. The world is no longer just a mosaic of sounds, smells, and Reiatsu. It's a panoramic insight beyond the senses. Although it was only a moment, blurry and indistinct, it was real and undeniable."
He paused, the admiration in his tone deepening. "And this came from only that [Superhuman Drug] diluted ten thousand times. According to Chief Mayuri, you use the full-strength version, and even say its potency is insufficient."
"I truly cannot imagine what kind of vast and boundless flood of perception that must be. In the diluted version, I was almost swallowed by the torrent of information and the dislocated sense of time, nearly losing my way back. Captain, your soul and will leave me with nothing but awe."
Setsuna laughed. "Haha, even you, an honest man, are starting to learn flattery."
Tosen shook his head slightly. "My admiration is truly from the heart."
Setsuna talked with Tosen for a while longer, and finally, the dispute between Kisuke and Mayuri yielded results.
After a series of operations, Mayuri produced the finished drug.
"Captain, this is the advanced version of the [Superhuman Drug], capable of achieving the effect of a thousand years per second," Mayuri introduced confidently.
The liquid inside the test tube flowed with a tranquil silver radiance, as if encapsulating a miniature galaxy.
Setsuna took the drug, his expression quite serious.
The thousand-years-per-second Superhuman Drug, even for him, was somewhat beyond his limits. But at the same time, it was a rare attempt.
His 'Ultra Instinct' was mainly achieved through a clever approach using the Seventh Sense and Cosmos. Drinking this advanced Superhuman Drug might allow him to truly enter that realm.
Setsuna took a deep breath and drank the silver liquid in one gulp.
Instantly, with Setsuna as the center, the texture of space underwent a bizarre change.
In his perception, all surrounding sounds were dragged into long, distorted, nearly stagnant notes.
At the same time, his own thinking speed, neural reactions, and sensory reception capacity were frantically elevated to a terrifying level, millions of times over.
The dancing paths of dust particles were vividly clear. An endless stream of information surged and exploded within his consciousness like the dawn of the universe!
Even Setsuna frowned slightly at this moment.
The muscles on his body surface began to exhibit high-frequency micro-tremors… the instinctive struggle of his physical form to frantically adapt to the abnormal flow of time.
"Indeed, combat is necessary to adapt better. Let's go, we're going to find Zaraki," Setsuna said, his vocal frequency sounding quite strange to the ears of the others.