Secret base, far below Sōkyoku Hill.
Boom!
A visible storm of reishi exploded in the center of the cave. It swept up the fine sand and dust from the ground, spinning and whistling wildly.
The storm lasted for about seven or eight minutes before it slowly calmed down and vanished.
Standing in the center of the storm, Mirai slowly opened his eyes.
He looked down at his hands with some surprise. He could still feel a slight tingling in his palms from the high-speed flow of reishi.
He did not expect the spiritual power seeds from Kuchiki Kōga's story to be so high in quality. They were much better than he expected, and they pushed him to complete his breakthrough.
This training session made two things clear to him.
The spiritual particles he got back from The Loneliness and Arrogance of a Genius Youth and The Killer of Meteor City were different. The seeds provided by Aizen and Unohana, who were the inspirations for those books, were clearly lower in quality than Kuchiki Kōga's.
Of course, it was not because those two were weaker than Kuchiki Kōga.
Quite the opposite. Their strength was like a bottomless pit. The problem likely came from the "resonance strength."
Even if Aizen and Unohana read works based on them, the emotional waves in their hearts were probably very small and tightly controlled.
Or rather, their strong wills and personalities kept those emotions at a very low level.
But Kuchiki Kōga was different.
He had extremely high expectations for his life story being written and shared. He was more emotionally invested. His desire to be recognized and to have his story told was much stronger.
This might mean that the "cracks" in his personality were larger. That made the resonance stronger and more direct, which resulted in higher-quality spiritual power seeds.
"Fourth-Class Spiritual Pressure."
Mirai quietly spoke his current level.
This level was now on the same tier as Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna.
Reaching Fourth-Class Spiritual Pressure meant his total reiatsu had risen to a new level.
At the same time, this was a key threshold. In theory, he could now start working on the final stage of a Zanpakutō: Bankai.
However...
Mirai looked down at the Zanpakutō at his waist.
Lately, besides absorbing spiritual power to increase his total amount, he had also been trying "sword meditation." This meant trying to communicate with his Zanpakutō in his mind. It was the foundation for learning Bankai.
Entering his own inner world was not hard.
Every time he closed his eyes and focused, his consciousness could easily sink into that mental realm that belonged only to him.
The hard part came after that.
No matter how much he called out, the spirit of his Zanpakutō, Raijin Seisho, never showed up. It never gave him any response.
That inner world was so quiet that only his own voice echoed through it.
What gave him an even bigger headache was that, even now, he still did not fully understand what was going on with his "inner world."
"No, I have to try again."
Mirai sat down cross-legged again. He placed his Zanpakutō flat on his lap, adjusted his breathing, and slowly closed his eyes.
His consciousness sank down. He knew the way well.
When he opened his eyes again, he was already inside his inner world.
The sight in front of him still made him feel a little dizzy and helpless.
This was a space that could not be explained by normal logic.
All kinds of different, and even conflicting, landscapes, elements, and concepts were patched together in a random and messy way. It looked like a strange dream painting.
Right in front of him, a piece of land showed three states at the same time: smooth ice, hot lava, and flowing sand dunes. They were eating into each other while still existing together, and the borders were blurry.
Nearby, giant trees hundreds of meters tall were lush and green. But under the trees, there was a large patch of dead grass and piles of random rocks.
He looked up at the sky, and the sight was even more ridiculous.
A silver moon, a burning sun, and a bright river of stars all hung in the sky at once. They each gave off light without affecting each other, but it made no sense at all.
The entire inner world was mostly chaos and disorder. It looked like fragments of countless different worlds and rules that had been roughly stitched together.
Mirai took a slow breath. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted loudly:
"Raijin Seisho! Come out and chat! Let's talk about something!"
His voice traveled through the messy landscape and quickly vanished. There was no answer.
"Stop hiding! I know you're here! Showing your face will not cost you any reishi!"
"Look, my spiritual pressure is already at Fourth-Class. Shouldn't we talk about the Bankai thing? Just give me a hint!"
"Raijin Seisho! Answer me if you hear me! Answer me!"
He shouted a few more times, but the only thing that answered him was silence.
Mirai changed his strategy:
"Aizen is going to make a move on me soon. That guy's Zanpakutō is really creepy. Without your help, I might get caught in his trap!"
Although he was using his writing deadlines to delay seeing Aizen's Shikai, he would have to face it sooner or later.
He had some theoretical guesses on how to deal with the "Complete Hypnosis" of Kyōka Suigetsu. However, he needed the cooperation of Raijin Seisho's power to test whether they would work.
"Are you really going to just watch that guy with glasses play tricks on me?
Think about it. If I really fall for Kyōka Suigetsu, the spiritual sake I drink in the future might turn into plain water! What kind of life would that be?"
He got more and more into it, and his expressions became very lively:
"What if one day a female squad member or a noble lady comes to see me, and I cannot even tell what she really looks like?
Maybe she looks stunning, but in reality, it is just Captain Kensei wearing a wig!"
"Even worse, maybe I think I am in the squad barracks bathroom, but I am actually squatting at the main gate of the Seireitei! How could I show my face again? How could I live like that?!"
To force his Zanpakutō to show up, Mirai shouted every embarrassing possibility he could think of.
He knew himself well. A Zanpakutō is a reflection of the soul, so their thoughts should share at least a few things, right?
Fearing embarrassment, liking comfort, wanting to save effort... should those great qualities not be worth some resonance?
Unfortunately, no matter how much he threatened or bribed it, the inner world remained steady as a rock. Raijin Seisho made no movement.
"...Fine. You win."
After a while, Mirai helplessly left his inner world, and his consciousness returned to his body.
He stood up, reached out, and grabbed the hilt of the Zanpakutō at his waist. He whispered:
"Raijin Seisho."
The sword transformed into a warm, smooth brush and fell into his palm.
He held the brush firmly and used spiritual pressure as ink. He wrote two words in the air:
"Ice and Snow."
The scene he imagined instantly became real. A small blizzard appeared out of nowhere. It whistled and spun in the center of the cave, sweeping up ice crystals and cold air.
Immediately after, Mirai moved his brush again and wrote another word:
"Freeze."
As if time had stopped, the raging blizzard suddenly froze in mid-air.
Every snowflake and every gust of cold wind stayed in the exact same position as the moment before. They did not move at all, like a 3D painting made of ice and snow.
After finishing this experiment, Mirai took out a piece of paper he carried with him. He quickly wrote a line:
"Mirai Enji will eat in one minute."
The moment he finished writing, he clearly felt the spiritual power in his body drain away. A huge chunk, probably more than forty percent, was gone.
Compared to the last time he tried writing the "Future Poem" for Kuchiki Kōga, the cost was still high, but it seemed slightly better.
Maybe it was because the subject was himself, so the connection was stronger. Or maybe the "karma" of eating was much lighter than the turning point in the fate of a noble genius.
Right now, he was in a secret base. There was no food here at all.
What he wanted to test was the logic and limits of Raijin Seisho's writing-based ability.
How would it make this written future come true?
The seconds ticked by.
There were only ten seconds left before the one-minute mark.
Suddenly, Mirai felt the flow of his spiritual power waver slightly. The movement of his reiatsu became uneven for a moment.
This was likely a small reaction from his body not being fully recovered after the huge drain from writing the future.
At that exact moment, the blizzard that he had frozen in mid-air with the word "Freeze" suddenly came back to life without warning.
The ice crystals and cold wind were no longer still. Instead, they suddenly changed direction and rushed toward an ordinary-looking rock wall near the back of the cave entrance.
Bang! Crash!
The blizzard slammed hard into the rock wall. It did not cause any damage, but it hit an invisible barrier and suddenly scattered.
At the same time, a flash of spiritual light appeared on that rock wall. The disguise vanished, revealing a metal door that looked like a storage cabinet.
The force of the impact knocked the door open. Inside, it was actually packed with all kinds of packaged food, fresh water, and even a few bottles of alcohol.
Mirai watched this scene in shock.
While he was distracted by this accidental discovery of a hidden food stash, a small piece of orange hard candy was swept up by the wind from the blizzard. It flew in an arc and landed perfectly in his slightly open mouth.
A clear sweet taste spread across his tongue.
Mirai reflexively closed his mouth and moved the candy around with his tongue.
Mhm... orange flavor. A bit sweet.
He stood there, blinking, looking at the open food locker nearby, and then thinking about the candy in his mouth.
So... this was "eating within one minute"?
He walked over to the food locker and saw that the variety of supplies was quite good. He reached in and grabbed a bag of what looked like dried meat.
"That guy Urahara... he really knows how to enjoy himself."
He tore open the package and took a bite of the dried meat. As he chewed slowly, his gaze fell back onto the brush in his hand.
"Raijin Seisho... are you just too lazy to talk to me, or are you answering me in your own way?"
In the cave, there was only the faint sound of him chewing and the steady light overhead.
The brush lay quietly in his palm. The glow of the spiritual particles at the tip seemed to flicker slightly more than before.
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