"The Quincy progenitor… Auswählen… So that means the war from a thousand years ago could happen all over again?"
At once, Urahara felt the pressure on his shoulders multiply.
As someone who knew part of the truth surrounding the Soul King, Urahara also knew something about that war in Soul Society a thousand years ago. In that battle against the Quincy, Soul Society had only managed a hard-won victory after paying the price of eleven Captains.
Thinking of how Soul Society already had Aizen, who was coveting the Hōgyoku, as an internal threat—and now also had the revived Quincy progenitor as an external threat—just imagining it gave him a headache.
He clearly wasn't the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, yet he was worrying like one.
For a moment, Urahara's hands actually itched. He really wanted to pet a cat to relieve some of this stress.
Where had Yoruichi run off to?
"After nine years, he regains his power. After nine days, he regains the world. We have less than nine years left."
"We?" Urahara cast Tsuna an intrigued glance. "Mr. Tsunayoshi, you're from the World of the Living. Soul Society's ancient grudge doesn't really have anything to do with you, does it? And you're not a Quincy, so you don't need to worry about Auswählen."
Tsuna replied with perfect calm.
"That man's goal is to return the Three Realms to chaos. If someone pulls out the wedge holding up the corner of the table and flips the whole thing over, who can say it has nothing to do with them?"
Tsuna used words only Urahara would fully understand to explain Yhwach's goal.
To the side, Isshin and Ryūken were left baffled.
But Urahara, who knew the secrets surrounding the Soul King, absolutely understood.
Sure enough, Urahara narrowed his eyes and lowered the brim of his hat to hide the gravity in his gaze.
The moment Tsuna said "wedge," Urahara knew Tsuna understood, just as he did, the underlying structure of the current world.
The World of the Living, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo were stabilized by the Soul King as the wedge holding them apart.
If that wedge was removed, the Three Realms would collapse.
Urahara turned to Tsuna with complete seriousness.
"Mr. Tsunayoshi… what is it that I can do for you?"
"Let's save them first," Tsuna said. "Please make artificial bodies based on Aunt Masaki and Aunt Kanae's current physical states, then have Uncle Ryūken perform surgery to remove the Still Silver."
"Artificial bodies? Easy enough."
Urahara immediately brought Tessai Tsukabishi with him into the storage room, and together they carried out two large cardboard boxes.
Inside were two pitch-black human-shaped dolls.
After Masaki and Kanae were moved into a temporary operating room, Urahara worked his devices on them. The artificial bodies copied their physical data exactly, taking on their identical appearances, though they lay beside them with lifeless eyes.
Urahara's part of the job was done.
"Ryūken, let's start with me," Masaki said on her own initiative. "My body's in better condition."
Both Ryūken and Isshin immediately understood what she meant.
Masaki wanted herself to be Ryūken's test subject first. If anything went wrong during surgery, her somewhat stronger condition would leave more room to recover.
Isshin did not object in the slightest.
Instead, he simply slapped Ryūken on the shoulder and, before leaving, said in a solemn voice:
"I'm counting on you."
Ryūken's expression did not change at all.
Whether Isshin said it or not, one of the women in that room was his childhood companion, and the other was his wife.
He was going to save them with everything he had.
Ryūken took out his surgical instruments and stood before Masaki.
To Tsuna at the side, he said only:
"Begin."
Inside the room, aside from the two patients, only Ryūken, Tsuna, and Urahara remained.
Urahara was there in case of emergency. With his endless supply of strange gadgets, no one knew when one of them might suddenly prove useful.
As he watched Masaki's artificial body turn transparent under the illusion cast by Demon Spade's Magic Mirror, revealing only her internal pathways and the silver points on them, Urahara's assessment of Tsuna rose yet another level.
Illusions.
He wondered whether Tsuna's illusion abilities could compare to that person's.
Ryūken efficiently anesthetized Masaki and rendered her unconscious in one fluid sequence. Then his eyes locked onto the silver points moving across the illusion beside her. Only after he had fully grasped their speed and rhythm did he take out a slender instrument a bit longer than the length of a palm.
The instant Tsuna saw it, he nearly let out a cry of shock.
He only barely managed to hold it in.
He recognized what Ryūken had in his hand.
It was the Seele Schneider—
the only close-range weapon the Quincy used.
What Ryūken held was merely its hilt. By controlling Reishi, he could form it into a blade of spiritual particles. The Reishi along that blade's surface vibrated back and forth at three million times per second, like a spiritual chainsaw, granting it terrifying cutting power.
The reason Tsuna was so startled was because of exactly how sharp the Seele Schneider was.
Ryūken could probably take off Masaki's arm with almost no effort if he wanted to.
And now he was using that thing for surgery?
Wasn't he worried he might accidentally slice off all four of her limbs?
Of course, Ryūken was nowhere near as reckless as Tsuna imagined.
Under his precise control, what extended from the Seele Schneider was not a full blade, but a thin, needle-like spiritual edge.
This was the strength of a pure-blood Quincy blessed with top-tier talent.
To him, Reishi was no more than a toy to be manipulated at will.
This—
was the ultimate form of the Seele Schneider under Ryūken Ishida's control.
Ryūken never once looked directly at Masaki.
Instead, he focused entirely on the movement of the Still Silver, while a thin layer of Reishi spread over Masaki's body under his command.
Holding the Seele Schneider in reverse above her, Ryūken moved with the speed of lightning.
With a flick of his wrist almost too fast to follow, the needle-like edge pierced into Masaki's body.
A silver glint too faint for the naked eye to catch was lifted out by the Seele Schneider.
Into a vial. Bandage. Seal.
In an instant, Ryūken completed the extraction of the first piece of Still Silver.
Seeing that one point of light had vanished from the illusion beside her, Ryūken couldn't help but let out a breath of relief.
It worked.
That meant Tsuna had been right.
As long as all the Still Silver was removed, Masaki and Kanae would not die from silver blood clots.
Drawing in another steadying breath, Ryūken moved again, quickly extracting the remaining Still Silver from Masaki's body…
...
When the operating room door finally opened, Isshin immediately rushed forward.
Before he could ask, Ryūken said on his own:
"The operation was successful. Their physical conditions are stable. They're recovering."
After Ryūken had removed all the Still Silver, Urahara helped perform another round of examinations on both women. Their bodily functions were gradually stabilizing, and even some color had returned to their faces.
Only then did Ryūken dare say that.
At those words, the burden hanging over Isshin's heart finally lifted.
He looked gratefully at Tsuna behind Ryūken.
Tsuna had saved Masaki twice now.
To the Kurosaki family, he was a savior of the highest order.
Isshin immediately took over Tessai's role, bustling about pouring tea and bringing water for Tsuna, treating him with exceptional enthusiasm.
"Mr. Ryūken," Urahara said, "could I have some of that Still Silver?"
Since the Quincy threat existed, anything extracted from a Quincy's body was worth studying.
"Uncle, you can give the shopkeeper two pieces at most," Tsuna cut in before Ryūken could answer. "This stuff is extremely important. Go dig through your old man's records. A weapon forged from Still Silver can affect the Quincy progenitor."
A cold glint flashed beneath Ryūken's glasses.
Even though Kanae had been saved, he felt no goodwill whatsoever toward the Quincy king.
After all, his mother had died in this very Auswählen.
"Mr. Tsunayoshi," Urahara said, bending down to speak near Tsuna's ear, "that little amount of material isn't nearly enough to make a weapon."
"Didn't I already say this was an Auswählen aimed at mixed-blood Quincy?" Tsuna replied calmly after taking a sip of hot tea. "The mixed-blood Quincy who died also have Still Silver in their bodies. And its location is easy to find—right in the heart."
"My, my…" Urahara said in a peculiar tone. "Mr. Tsunayoshi, are you suggesting dissecting the bodies of all mixed-blood Quincy?"
"That's right," Tsuna said. "Perhaps this is the mixed-blood Quincy's revenge upon the Quincy king. The price of Auswählen."
He looked toward Ryūken.
"As for whether to do it or not… that depends on you, Uncle. The only pure-blood Quincy left in the World of the Living."
"I'll handle it," Ryūken said coldly.
Without a word of complaint, he accepted that responsibility onto his own shoulders—the hatred of all those mixed-blood Quincy.
"Now," Ryūken said, "tell me about the thing Masaki agreed to on your behalf."
"Oh."
Tsuna immediately grabbed an empty cup, poured hot tea into it, and respectfully offered it to Ryūken.
"Please take me as your student, Uncle Ryūken, and teach me Quincy abilities."
That once again drew a sideways glance from Urahara.
After witnessing what Auswählen did to mixed-blood Quincy, Tsuna still wanted to become a Quincy?
"Leaving aside whether you even have the capability to become one," Ryūken said, "with the strength you have now, you're already more than capable of protecting Karakura Town. Isn't that enough? Why do you want to grow stronger?"
"Not nearly enough," Tsuna said. "Not if my enemy is the Quincy king."
"As for why I want more strength… if I can maintain world peace and still have energy left over, then it would be nice to casually solve the world's hidden dangers too. After all, I'm just an ordinary person who likes living an ordinary life."
Once again, Tsuna's words tugged sharply at Urahara's nerves.
The hidden dangers of this world…
Could it be that, like him, Tsuna wanted to solve the problem of the Soul King as well?
The Soul King, as the wedge stabilizing the world, was not truly a perfect or permanent solution. Once someone set their sights on that wedge, the world could fall into imbalance at any time.
That was why Urahara had always devoted himself to researching a replacement plan for the Soul King—
he wanted to create a world that no longer needed a wedge at all to remain stable.
After hearing Tsuna's reason, Ryūken was already prepared to agree.
Truthfully, even if Tsuna had given an answer Ryūken disliked, he would still have taught him.
That was the debt he owed for saving Kanae.
The only question would have been whether he taught him seriously.
Ryūken took the teacup and set it aside.
"You can keep calling me 'uncle.' There's no need for formal apprenticeship. I'll teach you properly—"
Smack.
A folding fan suddenly came down between Tsuna and Ryūken.
"My, hold on just a moment there, Mr. Tsunayoshi," Urahara said.
Seeing Tsuna about to become Ryūken's student, Kisuke Urahara had decided to poach him.
"Since you're planning to learn Quincy powers, I wonder—have you ever heard of the powers of a Soul Reaper?"
Urahara smiled behind the fan.
"Quincy powers require the talent to control Reishi before you can even begin learning them. But the powers of a Soul Reaper aren't nearly so demanding. Everyone has a soul, and your spiritual pressure isn't weak at all. You fully meet the prerequisites for becoming a Soul Reaper. Would you care to consider it?"
Ryūken didn't get angry at Urahara trying to steal his prospective student.
He himself had never particularly liked being a Quincy in the first place. Otherwise, he wouldn't have become a doctor.
And yet, even with that half-hearted attitude, his overwhelming talent had still made him the strongest Quincy in the World of the Living.
If Tsuna chose to become a Soul Reaper instead, Ryūken would simply repay the favor another way—perhaps by arranging for Tsuna's entire family to receive lifetime free medical care at his hospital.
That would still satisfy Tsuna's needs just fine.
======================
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