"Guh—"
Naraku briefly wondered if he was actually fighting Shutara Senjumaru the bad woman… or Yamamoto Genryūsai wearing her skin.
A crushing, sky-collapsing Reiatsu flooded the entire lab.
The gap between them was so massive he gave up resisting almost instantly. With a sigh, he collapsed into the chair she'd clearly prepared in advance and let her do whatever she wanted.
In truth, this wasn't the first or second time this had happened.
Almost every time he trained, Shutara would drop by at some point to collect data—height, weight, Reiatsu fluctuations, spiritual changes.
Sometimes she'd even take a bit of blood and drop it into some strange reagent for testing.
With Naraku's near-zero scientific literacy, he had no idea what she was actually doing every day.
When he lay down and surrendered so straightforwardly, Shutara blinked, then a faint hint of regret flickered in her eyes.
It didn't take long for every scrap of clothing to be stripped from him, revealing a physique with smooth, powerful lines, muscles thick and well-defined.
Her slender, pale fingers pressed lightly against his skin as if checking the state of his spirit body.
Her gaze cut like a scalpel, as if it could see past his skin into muscle, bone structure, even the distribution of Reiatsu itself.
The atmosphere might've seemed suggestive, but Shutara's expression was completely serious.
"If a Shinigami's soul is a kind of hollow lattice," she explained calmly, "then a Hollow is another hollow structure that mirrors it."
"The interesting thing is that in some places, those two structures can mesh together perfectly, forming a more complete whole."
"But the problem is, if that docking process goes even slightly wrong, the soul collapses entirely."
"You, however, are different. I can't fully parse the structure of your soul, but from what I've seen, you're already very close to that 'perfect' configuration."
"Based on my observations of spiritual composition, I've made a new improvement to the shihakushō."
As she spoke, a black cloth dropped from the ceiling and hovered before her. Several golden skeletal arms extended from it.
"My Zanpakutō is named Shigarami, and its Shikai takes the form of sewing needles. I can sew garments with special functions—or use them directly in combat."
Normally, no Shinigami would explain their Zanpakutō's ability to others, unless they trusted them completely.
Or they were just insane.
Shutara clearly meant what she said about Naraku. She hadn't bothered to hide her abilities at all.
"It's thanks to Shigarami that I was able to create the shihakushō—this conceptual garment that affects every Shinigami."
Before long, a brand-new shihakushō appeared in front of Naraku.
It was still mostly black, but golden patterns now wrapped around the sleeves, subtly elevating its overall look.
Plenty of Shinigami customized their uniforms. This level of alteration wouldn't raise eyebrows.
"Try it."
Shutara lifted the garment, a proud smile on her face.
Naraku slipped into it quickly and felt something was off the moment it settled on his shoulders.
"Heh. You noticed?"
Shutara arched a brow, her tone unusually serious.
"Just like I said about Shinigami souls—this new shihakushō is built on the original design but adds a layer based on Hollow structure."
"As a result, everything's boosted. It can form a defense similar to Hierro, scaling with your Reiatsu."
"The self-repair function now mimics a Menos' high-speed regeneration. It's fully bound to your Reiatsu; as long as you have enough energy, the shihakushō will automatically restore itself when damaged."
"The only flaw is that I can't fold this model back into the general shihakushō concept."
She sighed lightly.
"In other words, this shihakushō is unique to you. Unless someone else can control Hollow power as perfectly as you can, they'll never draw out its full potential."
Naraku tested it a few times. Just as she'd claimed, he could raise its defense by adjusting his Reiatsu output.
It wasn't as tough as his own skin yet—but as a passive boost, it was a huge leap.
If this could be standardized, Shinigami combat power across the board would jump.
Shutara took the opportunity to ask for another tube of blood, with the excuse of further improving the shihakushō and refining her hollowfication data.
Naraku agreed willingly.
The bad woman might mess with him constantly, but when it mattered she was extremely useful—not only shortening his Shikai training, but now giving him a custom shihakushō.
Most of the gains from her research had ended up on him anyway.
For Shutara, it was as much about satisfying her scientific curiosity as it was about output.
Maybe all scientists were like this.
Wearing his new shihakushō, Naraku headed back to the dōjō for further testing and to pick up his training where he'd left off.
Maybe it was about time he tried the Black Rope Hell crowd.
...
...
Silence hung over the office.
Yoruichi stared intently at the document spread out on her desk. The words "Maggot's Nest" and "Riot" stood out in particular.
"Sui-Feng, how many times is this now, this month?"
The girl beside her hesitated, then answered quietly, "Yoruichi-sama… this is the seventh time."
Ever since Kureji and the others had fallen, the Shihōin clan had inevitably slipped into chaos.
Those elders had not only meddled with clan management, they'd also planted spies in Second Division and the Onmitsukidō.
Even though those rabble-rousing elders had all gone to "meet their ancestors," the damage they'd caused was significant.
Blind loyalty wasn't just for show.
As an independent oversight body outside the Gotei 13, the Onmitsukidō had its share of expendable zealots. When news of the elders' deaths hit, many of them had rebelled on the spot.
Manpower, already tight, was now stretched to breaking.
Yoruichi rubbed at her brow, tired.
"I need to request transfers from other divisions—Shinigami strong enough to suppress the Maggot's Nest. Baseline requirement: must be able to beat those lunatics barehanded."
At that, the girl beside her started mentally combing through potential candidates.
There were Shinigami in the Gotei 13 who met that standard, but they all held critical positions with zero spare time for riot duty.
"Well, no need to overthink it," Yoruichi said at last, clapping her on the shoulder with a crooked grin.
"I've already thought of someone. It'll just cost me a little something."
"What kind of cost?"
"Oh, you know. Something like… offering myself in marriage."
"…?"
Sui-Feng's cute face froze in shock.
~~~
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