A Rude Awakening

Xuanxin took a deep breath, then shook his head and brought the conversation, which had long since wandered off who knew where, back on track.

"Forget it... I won't hold it against you. Since I've passed the trial, can you tell me the true name of the Zanpakuto in my hands now?"

At that, Musashi tilted her head in confusion, her eyes full of innocent surprise.

"The true name? Didn't you already know it?"

Xuanxin froze. She gave Musashi an incredulous look, then an idea flashed through his mind. He drew the twin blades at his waist and shouted:

"Six Realms and Five Rings: Kurikara!"

Once again, an awkward breeze blew past, stirring a few grains of sand on the ground.

Xuanxin turned his head wordlessly and stared at Musashi, as if accusing her in silence.

Noticing his gaze, Musashi rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Brat! When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Do you think you're still in my domain?!! What about those two words? The essence of it all?!!"

Xuanxin instantly understood. He raised his Zanpakuto once more and poured his Reiatsu into it in a frenzy. A glimmer of dark gold suddenly flashed in his eyes, and he snapped his head up and shouted:

"Ban—kai!!"

"Six Realms and Five Rings: Kurikara!!!"

As Xuanxin's roar died away, a mighty pillar of dark golden light shot into the sky, utterly shredding even the clouds overhead.

Within that dark golden light, the two blades in Xuanxin's hands, one long and one short, changed once more.

When the light faded, the mismatched blades, one long and one short, had miraculously become two identical, slender tachi.

Their long blades were a deep, pure black, with sharp, dark golden edges. Gorgeous golden sword tassels hung gracefully from the ends of their archaic-looking hilts.

Not only that, dark golden Reiatsu gathered frantically behind Xuanxin, once again forming the manifestation of a six-armed Wisdom King.

Xuanxin turned to look, sensing the unfathomable power of the Wisdom King behind him. "This... is my Bankai?" he asked in disbelief.

Musashi, standing nearby, first nodded in satisfaction, but then shook her head.

Watching this display of a split personality, Xuanxin grew thoroughly puzzled once more.

Musashi now drew her twin blades as well. With an even fiercer eruption of Reiatsu, a Wisdom King manifestation rose behind her too.

But Xuanxin soon noticed the difference.

Although the Wisdom King behind Musashi had only four arms, each hand held an exquisite demon-slaying sword. His own Wisdom King had six arms, but only one hand held a weapon that resembled a sword. The rest were empty.

"See that, my little Master?"

Musashi sheathed her blades, and the manifestation vanished with them. Putting aside her playful expression, she spoke to Xuanxin seriously.

"Your Wisdom King has six arms, which also means your path may be richer than mine. But your 'Bankai' is still only a prototype. Only when every hand of the Wisdom King behind you holds a sword will you be qualified to learn that one strike."

"And only by learning that one strike will you have any hope of reaching that place."

As soon as she finished, the seriousness vanished from Musashi's face. In an instant, she went from a stern teacher to a friendly older girl next door. She even winked playfully as she said:

"So keep at it, young man. Work hard and become a legend. All right, I'm going to rest. Don't come looking for me in the Jinzen world unless you need something. I'm very busy. Bye-bye~"

With that, Musashi vanished into thin air.

"..."

Just as Xuanxin was about to take a rest, Musashi's voice rang out once more.

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention it. We made quite a commotion just now. I suggest you move somewhere else right away~"

The moment she finished speaking, Xuanxin sensed several sources of Reiatsu closing in on his position.

Seeing this, Xuanxin shouted once more in the direction Musashi had vanished. "Miyamoto Musashi, you @#￥%!!"

Then Xuanxin had no choice but to race toward the expedition's base.

Fortunately, after traveling day and night, Xuanxin finally returned to the expedition's base bare-chested on the day of the withdrawal.

While he was still some distance from the expedition, Yoruichi sensed that familiar Reiatsu and went to the entrance of the base to wait for him.

The moment Xuanxin stepped into camp, a purple figure rushed at him in a gust of wind.

Yoruichi paid no attention to the teasing looks around them and circled Xuanxin several times. Only after confirming that he really was all right did her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settle.

"You bastard, so you do know how to come back!" With that, Yoruichi punched Xuanxin.

Before Xuanxin could speak, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi walked over as well. Sensing that Xuanxin's depleted Reiatsu was nevertheless more refined than before, he smiled.

"Good lad, you've made a breakthrough. Excellent, excellent! You really are a genius."

Xuanxin nodded, then bowed to Kuruyashiki. Kuruyashiki did not move aside. After Xuanxin straightened up, he patted him on the shoulder and prepared to leave to direct the withdrawal.

Once Kuruyashiki had left, Xuanxin noticed that the people around him seemed to be staring at him strangely. A few female Soul Reapers were even blushing.

Being surrounded and watched like an animal made even Xuanxin, after all the training Musashi had put him through, feel a little uncomfortable.

He looked at the crowd and said awkwardly, "Um... does anyone have any spare clothes?"

Everyone was taken aback.

Indeed, no one had ever heard of a Soul Reaper bringing extra clothes when going out. Besides, if a shihakusho was damaged, couldn't it simply be repaired with spiritual power?

Just then, Yoruichi, who had been staring at Xuanxin, brightened and said:

"Xuanxin! Xuanxin! I brought a spare set of women's clothes in my bag. Why don't you make do with those for now..." She gave him a hopeful look as she finished.

Xuanxin shook his head repeatedly, like a rattle drum. Wear women's clothes? How could he ever get by in the Gotei 13 after that?

With that thought, Xuanxin decisively turned and headed for an empty tent. A moment later, a snow-white cat emerged gracefully from it.

The white cat walked up to Yoruichi and spoke in a human voice. "I'll pass on the women's clothes. I'd rather go back like this."

With that, the white cat leaped lightly onto Yoruichi's shoulder, landing securely. He then curled up lazily and settled in comfortably as a snow-white "cat-fur scarf."

Yoruichi froze for a moment, then burst out laughing. She reached out and smoothed the white cat's silky fur.

"All right, since you want to be my scarf so badly, I suppose I'll just have to accept."

And so, amid the crowd's laughter and the relaxed atmosphere, the expedition squad that had completed its extermination mission finally set out on the journey back to Soul Society.

Chapter 36: A Rude Awakening

After a tedious forced march through the Dangai, everyone finally returned to Soul Society.

Xuanxin remained curled up lazily around Yoruichi's neck, dutifully serving as a cat-fur scarf.

Along the way, Yoruichi stroked the white cat's silky fur now and then, and Xuanxin occasionally flicked his tail in response.

There was no welcoming party waiting beyond the Senkaimon. Just as the squad members were preparing to go their separate ways and Xuanxin and Yoruichi were about to leave, Kuruyashiki spoke.

"All right, everyone, we've only just gotten home today, so we'll hold the celebration at that tavern in the Eighth Division in a few days. Everyone has to come!"

"Yeah—!!" After hearing their response, Kuruyashiki made a point of glancing in Xuanxin's direction.

"Meow~" Xuanxin replied with a meow to show his agreement, then continued hanging around Yoruichi's neck as they returned to the Shihoin Clan.

After receiving Xuanxin's answer, Kuruyashiki headed toward the First Division. After all, an invitation was still waiting for his response there.

After saying goodbye to the members of the 11th Division, Yoruichi took Xuanxin back to the Shihoin residence.

Yoruichi had wanted to hear Xuanxin tell her what had happened to him over the past few days, but the cat-fur scarf around her neck was already purring.

After several consecutive days of intense fighting alone in Hueco Mundo, Xuanxin finally had a rare chance to relax, and he fell fast asleep.

Looking at Xuanxin sleeping so defenselessly, Yoruichi could not help but smile gently.

She slowed her movements, carefully lifted the "white cat" from her neck, and gently placed him on the tatami, afraid of disturbing his pleasant dreams.

But in his sleep, Xuanxin saw a very different scene.

In his dream, he saw fragments of the life of a woman called Miyamoto Musashi, from the first day she picked up a sword to the moment she unleashed that world-shaking strike.

Everything played out in Xuanxin's dream like a film on a projector. And the woman's journey seemed not to have ended, but continued to stretch onward.

After Musashi's life, he also dreamed of the short life of a boy called Shin.

Yet what concerned him most were fragments of another, more ordinary boy's memories.

He had seen that boy before. In that final moment of his Shikai, it was that black-haired boy he had seen.

Xuanxin had thought he would see an ordinary but warm life, the life of an ordinary boy. But among the fragments of the boy's memories, he saw other things that concerned him.

In the boy's broken memories, he saw many, many familiar and unfamiliar words.

"Heroic Spirit," "Grand," "Soul King," "Sōya Azashiro," "Soul Society"... and other familiar terms. Yet among those words,

several names were repeatedly emphasized: "Ichigo Kurosaki," "Sōsuke Aizen," and "Yhwach."

But when Xuanxin tried to probe deeper, all he saw were fragments of memory that could be called an even more elliptical version of the Spring and Autumn Annals.

"Kenpachi Azashiro," "Ryoka invasion," "Aizen's defection," "Thousand-Year Blood War"—events whose titles alone sounded momentous were described in the memories in just a few brief strokes before moving on.

Why is it like this? Why did that Aizen defect? And what faction was the Thousand-Year Blood War fought against? Besides, shouldn't Kuruyashiki be Kenpachi? Who on earth is this Sōya Azashiro?

Just as Xuanxin was preparing to look deeper and piece together the causes and consequences of these events, an inexplicable force kicked him out of the dream.

When Xuanxin opened his eyes, he once again saw the familiar ceiling of the Shihoin Clan residence.

Cold sweat had completely soaked the bedding around Xuanxin. He could not put what he had seen in the dream out of his mind, but no matter how hard he tried, he could only piece together a few scattered details.

He could not confirm whether the information he had obtained in the dream was true or false. If it was true, it meant that all of Soul Society, and even the entire world, would face a catastrophe he could not begin to imagine;

but if it was false, why did that fear from the depths of his soul feel so real and unforgettable?

While Xuanxin was still puzzling over it, Yoruichi suddenly pushed the door open, and her ever-energetic voice rang out.

"Yo~ Our sleeping beauty is awake! Do you know how long you've been asleep?"

Before Xuanxin could fully recover from the lingering effects of the dream, Yoruichi had already rushed to his bedside like a whirlwind.

Without another word, she grabbed Xuanxin's arm and forcibly pulled him up from the tatami.

Xuanxin rubbed his slightly throbbing temples and looked helplessly at the excessively energetic girl before him.

"Do you know you slept for five whole days straight?"

Yoruichi glared at Xuanxin in exasperation, then leaned close and spoke dramatically.

"Get up and get ready! Don't you know? While you were sleeping away these past few days, something big enough to shake all of Soul Society happened in Seireitei!"

Hearing Yoruichi describe it so dramatically, Xuanxin pricked up his ears in curiosity. "Oh? What happened? Tell me."

Seeing Xuanxin play along, Yoruichi gave him an approving look. Then she tossed him the clothes in her hands and said:

"Kuruyashiki Kenpachi actually turned down an invitation to the Zero Division, and his reason was that looking down on Soul Society from the heavens every day would be too boring."

Xuanxin drew a sharp breath. Since the birth of Soul Society, only three people in total had been able to ascend to the Zero Division, and Kuruyashiki Kenpachi was the only person ever to have turned it down.

"All right, all right, stop spacing out!"

"Now that you're awake, hurry up and let's go! Today's the celebration feast Kuruyashiki promised! If we're late and Kenpachi gets you drunk again, I'm not dragging you home."

Then, urged on by Yoruichi, Xuanxin made himself presentable and went with her to the tavern in the Eighth Division.

When Xuanxin and Yoruichi pushed open the doors to the tavern's private room, it was already filled with a roar of voices and a powerful smell of alcohol.

Just as Xuanxin had expected, how could a drinking party near the Eighth Division be without his senior, Shunsui Kyōraku?