Chapter 159

"..."

"I see."

Kirio Hikifune looked as if he had just realized something.

"The Soul King's Hakusui..."

"Did it allow you to break the physical limitations of Soul Reaper and release Reiatsu from any part of your body?"

Although the performance was a bit comical, she immediately saw through the key point.

"Yes."

Haruto nodded in affirmation of Kirio Hikifune's guess.

Aside from the abilities of their Zanpakuto, Soul Reaper (Death Gods) primarily rely on their hands for combat, which explains why Captain-Commander Yamamoto's strength was diminished after losing his arm.

Haruto's "special evolution" has made this limitation disappear, and his fighting style has instantly become more diverse... Take the Shakkahō released from his mouth just now, for example, isn't that just the Fire Release from the movie next door!

"That's pretty impressive."

Kirio Hikifune praised.

According to her understanding, among the many Soul Reaper, the Shihoin Clan is quite special. They can partially alter their physical structure through the "Shunkō" technique, allowing the excess Reiatsu generated during the combination of Hakuda and Kidō to be released from their shoulders.

Haruto is different.

Even his fragile eyes and mouth can be used to unleash Kidō, which is clearly much more powerful than Shunkō; if he were to obtain the Shihoin Clan's Shunkō technique, he probably wouldn't be able to master it after just one look... its strength would likely be even higher than the original.

"While it won't help increase my raw strength, fighting you... makes me an easy target for ambushes, doesn't it?"

"Especially the civil war between the Soul Reapers."

Kirio Hikifune concluded.

For her, the ability of the Soul King Hakusui was merely icing on the cake: she still couldn't defeat opponents she couldn't beat before, and she might gain some advantage in evenly matched encounters.

"That's what I think too."

This is a lie.

Although Kirio Hikifune, Haruto was quite satisfied with this ability.

As I said before:

Haruto can achieve true heroism by killing with his eyes—eliminating opponents without even moving a finger. Could there be anything more sophisticated than that?

"What about the other one?"

After Haruto finished his demonstration, Kirio Hikifune continued to ask questions.

"You must have already guessed about the other ability, Miss Kirio, right?"

Haruto asked with a smile.

"But I haven't seen the actual effect, so I'm still a bit curious... Can you use it and let me experience it?"

"OK."

Haruto searched around and finally picked up the upper half of the candy puppet that hadn't been burned by the Shakkahō.

"Can we still use this?"

"Although I wanted to say that there's actually a spare... never mind, just use this for the demonstration, after all, making a new one would waste another hour or so."

Kirio Hikifune agreed to Haruto's request.

"So--"

Haruto slowly closed his eyes.

No...

His eyes were half-closed, his eyelids closed only to conceal the ring of bluish-green light around his pupils.

"Bang!"

The candy puppet's half-body fell apart in Haruto's hands.

Its body first transformed into countless Reishi, like dandelions, and then in a very short time, they all surged into Haruto's palm.

"Call out!"

Less than ten seconds.

Reishi of half the Fourth-Class Spiritual Pressure level vanished without a trace.

"..."

Even Kirio Hikifune was stunned for a while after witnessing this exaggerated scene firsthand.

"As expected of the Soul King's Hakusui."

"With this absorption rate... as long as you have enough Reishi, you should be able to advance to the Captain-level in less than half an hour, right?"

The well-informed and knowledgeable Kirio Hikifune quickly calmed himself down.

"This is difficult, Miss Kirio."

Haruto shook his head.

"I can indeed manipulate these Reishi, but when it comes to making them my own power, that's a bit more difficult—"

Haruto pointed to the area slightly above his heart.

"After all, my Saketsu is still what Fifth-Class Reii should look like."

The function of the Hakusui is to store and extract Reiatsu. As for converting absorbed Reishi into Reiatsu, that is the work of the Saketsu.

"That's true..."

"What else?"

Kirio Hikifune nodded first, then continued to press for details—while she didn't object to Haruto's piecemeal approach to explaining, it certainly wasn't something that could be easily dismissed.

"..."

"You can't hide anything from Miss Kirio after all."

Haruto sighed.

The ability he just demonstrated, except for the inability to directly utilize Reishi, is virtually indistinguishable from the Quincy's "Sklaverei".

Even with various limitations, including distance, how exaggerated would a normalized, side-effect-free Sklaverei be?

--If even this didn't satisfy Kirio Hikifune, it means she really knows a lot about the Soul King's organs, and this kind of cooking (experiment) is definitely not the first time.

"Besides absorbing Reishi, Hakusui can also compress the Reiatsu concentration within my body."

Haruto explained it simply.

"What's the highest level?"

Kirio Hikifune once again pinpointed the key point.

"Currently, it seems the upper limit is level three... or rather, the lower limit for the Soul King Hakusui is level three."

Haruto told the truth as before.

"Your original Reiatsu level was already high enough to reach the threshold of Third-Class Reii, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

Haruto nodded with an embarrassed smile, his expression betraying his cleverness being exposed.

"The concentration of Third-Class Reii, the magnitude of Third-Class Reii."

"Haruto..."

Kirio Hikifune's smile held a hint of ambiguity:

"Besides not knowing Bankai, what's the difference between you and Captain-level?"

Volume 1: Chapter 97, Who Isn't a Little Soul King?

"Stop!"

Before Haruto could explain, Kirio Hikifune spoke first.

"I know what you're trying to say is that because the Reiatsu isn't naturally generated, the compression process takes time, and it can't be replenished on the fly during battle."

Haruto's true Rei'i Grade is undeniable.

After the Reishi are converted into Reiatsu and absorbed into the Hakusui, it will definitely require additional time and effort to further increase the concentration from Fifth Class to level three.

"But!"

"Kirio Hikifune changed the subject."

"The Soul King Hakusui thing..."

"I don't know its Reiatsu capacity limit—you probably can't even sense the boundary yourself—but since it's part of the body of Soul King, it must have more First-Class Reii, right?"

In other words.

"Given enough time to prepare, a full reserve of Reiatsu can be considered virtually inexhaustible," Kirio Hikifune analyzed earnestly. "Even Captain-level capable of Bankai, if they can't defeat you with a short-term power boost from Bankai, will almost certainly lose if the battle becomes a stalemate."

Am I understanding this correctly?

"..."

"Since Miss Kirio has said so, there would be no point in me hiding my abilities any longer."

"That's right."

Haruto stopped trying to dodge the question.

"Following the speed we just tested, expand the compressed, high-concentration Reiatsu reserve to the level of Reiatsu I absorbed Hakusui."

"It should only take about seven days."

Only seven days.

Give Haruto a week, and he'll still be Captain-level fighter who can't Bankai.

Extend this timeframe to a month... He can wear down any captain who can't kill Haruto after using Bankai by using attrition tactics.

This is the change that the Soul King Hakusui brought to Haruto.

"And this isn't even the limit."

Kirio Hikifune added another sentence to Haruto's aid.

"Yes... this is just the basics."

Even without considering normal training, Haruto could potentially become stronger in a short period of time.

Kirio Hikifune meatball dish only allowed the Hakusui to achieve the lowest level of fusion and activation. If more souls could be collected as fuel to replenish it... as mentioned earlier, Third-Class Reii is only the lower limit of the Hakusui.

Or.

Haruto can try to find the Soul King's Saketsu.

With this complementing the Hakusui... even with only the Saketsu Aura Michibane could grow his Fullbring to the strength of First-Class Reii in a dozen years; Haruto, who possesses both, is even confident that he can overthrow Soul Society before Aizen.

The problem is...

Haruto wasn't sure if the timeline of the Fullbring arc would match up, so he needed to check the Thirteenth Division's records to see if Ginjo had become a substitute Soul Reaper and if the Tsunayashiro Clan had started causing trouble.

What if the Tsunayashiro Clan has already made their move...?

"Miss Kirio."

Did you use any encryption methods in our conversations here?

There were only Haruto Kirio Hikifune in the lab, and if they needed to hide that...? Kirio Hikifune the answer, asked:

"What do you mean?"

"Great Spiritual Arts Corridor"

Haruto gave an affirmative answer.