Mayuri narrowed his eyes. "I don't know how you found out about it, but that technology has indeed already been approved as a project… though that's all it is for now. We're still a long, long way from any results. Besides, I'm not even the one following that project."
"Then who's in charge?"
"Our vice-captain, Hikifune Kirio… ah, and there's also one annoying guy."
"Is that so? Then forget it. If it doesn't exist, I won't force it." Iori could more or less guess who Mayuri was talking about, Kisuke Urahara, obviously.
A "gigai" is an artificial body that can carry a Shinigami's soul, allowing a Shinigami to act in the living world with a physical form. Humans can see it, touch it, and even talk to it.
Iori had always been very interested in it, but since it hadn't been developed yet, he could only give up on the idea for now.
"You really are a strange one. Plenty of people come to me for private jobs, with all kinds of bizarre requests. I've seen all sorts of dark, shady things. But your commission always gives me this inexplicable feeling."
Mayuri frowned. "You're not even going to the living world. I don't get what you want a gigai for."
"I'm just interested, that's all. Plenty of people buy dolls to take home too, right?" Iori laughed openly.
'As if I'd tell you about the fact that I can transmigrate.'
It was mentioned before that the CGs collected by the illustrated handbook system are divided into four categories, normal, bond, art style, and story. Among them, art-style CGs provide the greatest boost to strength, but when it comes to the lowest drop rate, it has to be story CGs.
After all, in several years, Iori had only ever obtained one…
When Iori officially entered the Shin'o Academy and became a "Shinigami candidate," he obtained a story CG. Its reward was a fixed doorway that led to a certain other world.
Naturally, Iori placed great importance on something so convenient. After all, in his previous life he'd read plenty of novels about cross-world profiteers, and he understood just how lucky it was to control a passage between two worlds.
However, after actually experiencing it, he discovered a number of restrictions. It wasn't as convenient as he'd imagined.
First was the restriction on transmigration itself. Iori could only bring through the door things that his "body was touching and that belonged to him." The standard was based on Iori's subjective understanding, and it had to be his true inner belief. Simply saying "this is mine" out loud didn't count.
Second was the issue of time.
The flow of time in the two worlds was the same, and Iori couldn't be in two places at once. If he stayed in the other world for too long, it would definitely arouse suspicion on the Bleach side.
Forget Aizen, Yuji, even the Shin'o Academy would notice if a student kept disappearing for no reason. Even if he could handle other people, if word somehow reached Head Captain Yamamoto… heh.
If those first two were only minor problems that could be solved by learning from "the most ancient Fat Tiger (King)" and "Master of Time Management, Emiya,"
then the final problem was truly troublesome, Iori was a spirit body.
Everyone in Soul Society could eat, drink, sleep, and even marry and have children as usual, so it was easy to forget, but they truly had no physical bodies!
Before Iori obtained gigai technology, or a power similar to the Third Magic of the Nasuverse (materialization of the soul), he would always be a spirit body rather than a physical one.
Under the Bleach worldview, Shinigami can touch things in the material world, but humans can't hear their voices or see their figures, except for those with extremely high spiritual sensitivity.
'That has its perks too, uh, being an invisible man and all.'
But that's because the theme of Bleach is "souls".
Even the human world has a relatively abundant amount of reishi, while Soul Society is outright composed entirely of reishi.
Most other worlds' rules, however, don't favor "spirit bodies" or "souls" at all.
In fantasy-style or superpower worlds it's manageable. In worlds like Dragon Ball or the Nasuverse, souls can even return to the living world to participate in martial arts tournaments.
But in lower-magic worlds, a spirit body like Iori's would find it quite inconvenient to act,
The main issue is that it's very hard to replenish reishi or similar energy from the environment. Without a physical body, he also couldn't support himself by directly taking in calories.
As a result, every bit of power he used was permanently lost, putting him in the awkward position of constantly running on dwindling reserves.
Iori went to other worlds to travel, to adventure, and to seek power. If he ended up weakening himself instead, that would be completely not worth it~
As for the world linked to the story CG in Iori's possession, although it did have elements like ghosts, their overall influence was small. The natural environment was also extremely lacking in reishi, with only places like battlefields having a bit more. For Iori, acting freely there would be very difficult.
Those were the objective problems.
But as a mentally mature man, Iori naturally wouldn't resign himself to fate. Instead, he actively sought solutions.
Fortunately, Shinigami have very long lifespans, and Iori was a patient person. After repeating who knew how many attempts, he finally solved the last major problem not long ago.
First was the issue of carrying items through worlds. That wasn't a big deal. If he ever got spatial storage items in the future, he could naturally bring more things with him without being limited by the "body contact" condition.
Then there were the time and spirit-body issues… Iori had wracked his brain for quite a while before coming up with a solution through a flash of inspiration.
———
When Iori left Mayuri and returned to the academy, it was already quite late. Since he lived in a single room, he didn't have to worry about disturbing any roommates. He ate something simple, then closed the door and turned off the lights, putting on the appearance of going to rest.
In reality, he fumbled around in the darkness, took out a square box from a hidden compartment in the corner, opened it, and pulled out something that looked like a flashlight.
Iori operated it with practiced ease. He gripped the upper and lower ends with both hands and twisted them in opposite directions. Amid a series of gear-meshing sounds, he silently counted to seventeen, then shifted his hands and continued twisting…
He did this three times in a row, inputting different numbers each time. Finally, the "flashlight" activated. The circular disk at the top began spinning continuously, and a strange power seeped into space itself, actually stirring up visible ripples.
The space in front of Iori seemed to gain substance, like a pitch-black curtain being slowly churned. Streaked patterns formed a spiraling vortex, eventually turning into a hollow as tall as a person.
By the starlight and moonlight filtering in through the window, Iori's sharp vision could see that the hollow was unfathomably deep, with no telling where it led.
The Senkaimon.
This was the gate Shinigami used to travel between Soul Society and the human world. The related technology was already very mature in Soul Society. As a seated officer of the Twelfth Division, Mayuri naturally had access to it, and learning it wasn't difficult for him.
However, there were strict prohibitions against this in the Seireitei. Private ownership was forbidden.
When Shinigami go to the human world on missions, they generally use the large, shared Senkaimon of the Thirteen Divisions.
Aside from that, only a few long-established noble families possess additional Senkaimon.
Someone like Iori, who wanted one exclusively for himself, usable whenever he pleased… well, only Mayuri would dare take that job.
The device he made was characterized by its small scale. It could only allow one person to pass through, but at the same time, its reishi fluctuations were extremely weak, about the same as practicing low-level kido. In a place like the academy, no one would notice it at all.
Of course, Iori wasn't using the Senkaimon to go to the human world to exorcise evil and uphold justice. He had other plans…
He put the device away and tucked it into his clothes. Looking at the Senkaimon that was about to disappear, Iori decisively jumped in.
After a brief bout of dizziness, the surroundings shifted like the turning of the stars. In the blink of an eye, even the faint moonlight was gone. Even with a Shinigami's eyesight, he could only make out the rough outlines of things.
As for the environment here, to put it simply,
There was nothing.
All he could see was a long, narrow, one-way passage, and an unknown sludge-like substance seeping from the walls on all sides.
This wasn't the human world, but the necessary path leading to it, the gap between Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the human world, the Dangai.
The Dangai is the seam between worlds, where multiple layers of space overlap. It's also completely surrounded by the raging torrent of time, forming an extremely unique environment. Anyone traveling between the three realms must pass through here.
Looking at this familiar place, Iori curled his lips slightly. He was going to transmigrate to another world from here.
The reason was simple. The density of time in the Dangai is overwhelmingly higher than outside. Converted into numbers, it's 2000 times.
In other words, when one year passes outside, 2000 years have already passed in the Dangai.
And he had already verified his hypothesis before. If he transmigrated while inside the Dangai, then the days spent in the other world would correspond to time within the Dangai.
If he spent two thousand hours in the other world, then used the Dangai as a transfer point to return to Soul Society, only one hour would have passed there.
Moreover, after returning, Iori only needed to perform one direct transmigration "from Soul Society to the other world," skipping the Dangai step. The time flow between the two worlds would then readjust to a 1,1 ratio.
From this, Iori summarized a rule.
The time flow of the other world always matches, one-to-one, the world he transmigrates from via the story CG.
When Iori goes from the Dangai to the other world, Dangai,Other World = 1:1.
And since the ratio between the Dangai and Soul Society is 2000:1, and Iori enters Soul Society via the Senkaimon without changing that ratio, the result is "one day in Soul Society equals two thousand days in the other world."
When Iori uses the story CG to go directly from Soul Society to the other world, the time flows correspond again, returning to one-to-one.
Simply put, as long as he follows the sequence
"Soul Society—> Dangai—> Other World—> Dangai —> Soul Society," he can successfully speed up time in the other world by two thousand times, two thousand days there equaling one day in Soul Society.
After that, performing one more transmigration of
"Soul Society —> Other World —> Soul Society"
returns the time flow to equal rates, with one day in Soul Society equaling one day in the other world.
So as to avoid human tragedies like everyone he knows in the other world dying of old age after just a few days in Soul Society.
When he first discovered this time equation, Iori was ecstatic. Of course, out of fear of causing paradoxes, he didn't continue with nested, matryoshka-style experiments, lest he drown himself in the river of time.
Even so, it unquestionably solved his biggest problem. How to go on long adventures in another world without arousing anyone's suspicion.
At the same time, a slightly tragic thought surfaced in his mind.
If he'd had a cheat like this in his previous life, wouldn't homework and papers have been nothing to worry about?
'Top students? I'd have crushed them all!'
"Hah…"
After adjusting his mindset, Iori closed his eyes and slowly extended his right hand. With a slight stir of thought, a hazy, radiant multicolored light appeared at his fingertips, like an invisible gemstone, and gently enveloped his entire body.
[Attention, time is about to accelerate!]
———
Warm sunlight poured into the forest. Lush green leaves rustled in the wind, and the occasional birdsong sounded ethereal and beautiful.
Suddenly, specks of light appeared beneath the shade of the trees, rapidly expanding into a blurry humanoid figure emitting a faint glow. Then the light receded, revealing the handsome form of a young boy.
With no one around, there were naturally no gasps of surprise. Even if this had happened in a bustling city, most people would have only felt something flicker at the corner of their eye, unable to see what truly occurred.
Because this youth was Aizen Iori, who had transmigrated from Bleach. As a spirit body, he existed beyond the perception of ordinary people.
Crack~
His foot stepped on a dry branch, producing a faint snapping sound. Along with the solid sensation of touching the ground, it reminded Iori that he had once again returned to this familiar world.
He looked around, then slowly nodded.
The location hadn't changed. It was the same place he'd left.
"The air is as fresh as ever… and barren, too." Iori took a deep breath and couldn't help but sigh.
Using "barren" to describe air might seem odd, but what Iori meant was the density of reishi in the atmosphere.
Of course, this worldview might not have that term, but whether it's called mana, essence, soul power, or spirits, it's all the same idea.
Compared to Soul Society, where all matter is composed of reishi, this place was practically a desert of reishi. Free-floating reishi in the air was extremely scarce. Iori was like someone from the plains suddenly moving to the Himalayas, every breath made him keenly aware of that "thinness."
Here, Iori couldn't even achieve "balance of income and expenditure." Every moment, he was consuming his own stored spiritual pressure.
Though the loss was slight, it added up over time and couldn't be ignored. Even standing idle was like this. If he started fighting, it would be even worse, only a bit better than an Ultraman with just three minutes on the clock.
And activating the story CG to transmigrate took about ten seconds, during which it couldn't be interrupted.
That meant that while he could usually return to Soul Society to recover his spiritual pressure, it wasn't easy to disengage during combat. Once his spiritual pressure was exhausted…
Fortunately, compared to the "time flow" issue, this problem was much easier to solve. It didn't require a natural wonder like the Dangai. Human ingenuity alone was enough.
The killing-intent stone amulet he obtained from Mayuri didn't just conceal his presence.
Killing-intent stone can break down weak fluctuations of spiritual power, but it doesn't erase them at the root. It simply disperses them into free-floating reishi.
Iori's request to Mayuri was to reference the Seireitei's protective barriers. When the full set of amulets is worn in a specific order and arrangement, they form a shield around the body that blocks reishi fluctuations, binding the naturally leaking reishi around Iori when he's idle and greatly reducing the rate of spiritual pressure consumption.
In this way, Iori's standby time could be multiplied.
The downside was that this shield also affected kido release, so it had to be removed during combat.
Furthermore, although the reishi concentration in this world was very low, there were still occasional objects that had gathered a relatively large amount of reishi. Using such items in battle could significantly reduce spiritual pressure consumption.
As long as he collected enough reishi-infused objects and kept himself in good condition at all times, even encountering a troublesome enemy wouldn't be a problem.
After all, shunpo is a god-tier escape skill in most worldviews.
"Is it this way?"
After identifying the direction, Iori moved to the eastern side of the shade. After searching carefully for a while, he brushed aside a layer of fallen leaves.
Gathering spiritual pressure in his hands like shovels, he dug into the shallow soil. Before long, he pulled out an iron box about two chi long and one chi wide.
He had entered and exited this world several times. Altogether, he'd spent about half a year here. Due to environmental constraints, he couldn't train in swordsmanship, hakuda, shunpo, or kido, but while exploring, he'd gathered quite a few external items.
However, as "material" objects, these things couldn't be directly taken to Soul Society, a place that only allows the existence of reishi. Otherwise, they would dissolve like falling into strong acid.
In the original work, even Kurosaki Ichigo and the others had to convert their physical bodies into spirit bodies before sneaking into Soul Society.
So he set up several supply points in this world. The items in this box were just ordinary things that made activities more convenient, so he casually buried it in the soil.
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