Over two hundred, almost three hundred years have passed, Soul Society has changed a lot. Many old friends have become truly old friends. Jun just returned from Nana's grave.
All three of the girls from that dorm have left. Of the four roommates from the most unique cohort of girls in Dorm 4, only Junichi remains. It's quite sad to think about.
Not only Nana, but Jun's other mentor Tachikawa Zan, also passed away more than a hundred years ago. As mentioned before, he wasn't particularly talented in Spiritual Power cultivation, and he eventually died.
Asai Shinten also died, but unlike the previous two, she committed suicide. Jun bears some responsibility for this young lady's death, but it was only a mistake.
After observing and studying for so long, I have roughly the Visionary the cause of Soul Reaper, or rather, the death of the soul.
Let's understand something. Suppose a Soul Reaper releases a large amount of Spiritual Power for battle, essentially depleting their Spiritual Power. Then, after resting for a while, their Spiritual Power is fully replenished. The question is, where does this replenished Spiritual Power come from?
This replenishing Spiritual Power comes from the unknown, or rather, from the void. It doesn't absorb surrounding Spiritual Power to replenish itself; otherwise, wouldn't the entire Seireitei be drained dry every time the captains finished fighting? Right?
So what is cultivation? It's actually expanding one's own Spiritual Pool and increasing the amount of Spiritual Power that can be restored. We call this amount "Soul Return."
This Soul Return is the soul's ability to sustain life. Similar to the daily increase of the Spiritual Pool, the Soul Return shrinks daily. If you cultivate, it will increase, but one day it will reach its limit.
Once the limit is reached, the Soul Return will begin to decrease daily, eventually becoming negative. In other words, the loss of the soul is constantly increasing, and cultivating the Soul Return attribute can prolong this loss period.
Having understood this, when the loss of a soul exceeds its Soul Return, that soul will no longer be able to replenish its Spiritual Power when it uses Spiritual Power again. This marks the beginning of that soul's final days.
If the Spiritual Pool is very high, these final years will last a long time; if it's an ordinary soul that hasn't cultivated, it will dissipate quickly.
Nana and Tachikawa Zan both died this way. Jun had developed Spiritual Power storage device, but that only prolongs a Soul Reaper's life for a limited time. It's like a ventilator in a modern hospital emergency room; if someone is about to die, the ventilator can provide life-sustaining oxygen, and the heart can circulate, but it can't truly save a life.
So he researched something else entirely: whether it was possible to improve a person's Soul Return ability. If the souls in Soul Society are souls, then what about Hollows? Aren't Hollows also souls? Then why do Hollows, Adjuchas, Vasto Lorde, Arrancars live so much longer than the Soul Reaper in Soul Society?
So, with the Zennosuke Kuruyashiki, Jun finally figured out a method. Actually, it wasn't really a method; it was simply that achieving Hollowfication would increase Soul Return, but how to further increase Soul Return was unknown.
However, with such a stable way to increase Soul Return, pure research focused on how to help people stably achieve Hollowfication. For example, in the original work, Aizen used the Hōgyoku to create a large number of Hollowfied Shinigami.
Actually, this is similar to the original work where it was done by Zennosuke Kuruyashiki and Ashido Kanō; both were self-destructive and extremely dangerous. That's why in the original work, only a few captains and Vice-Captains survived.
In the Pure Worldline, the number of beings increased significantly due to the increase in average strength, but there was still no difference; only the strong could survive.
So what research did Jun conduct? Jun forged a Zanpakuto called State of Mind. The effect Jun endowed with State of Mind was that it didn't require any compatibility; it could perfectly adapt to all souls, whether human or Hollow.
The power of the State of Mind Blade lies in helping its temporary master maintain a stable mind and soul to combat Heart Demons. The blade itself also possesses the ability to limit the intensity of Heart Demons, thus aiding anyone in achieving Hollowfication.
This knife also has a sister version, which is currently in Aijima's possession. Every day after completing her research, Aijima uses the sister knife to fight her Heart Demons. Anyway, she's in a good State of Mind and not in a hurry. If she can finish it, she will; if she can't, then so be it—everyone dies eventually, right?
The State of Mind is currently inside Byakuya's lover, Hisana, placed there by Aozumi. A Spiritual Power storage device and an item to conceal these fluctuations were also implanted there, so Hisana currently appears to be in a state of suspended animation.
In reality, he had been sustaining his life using Spiritual Power storage device while undergoing trials of Heart Demons. Moreover, Aozumi had Hisana helped Byakuya develop Reishi Sense and Reishi Quality without Byakuya's knowledge; however, Hisana himself didn't know what kind of ability this was, as it had all been sealed away.
Therefore, Byakuya ultimately failed when he tried to help Hisana achieve Reishi Sense and Reishi Quality. He didn't know that his lover had already accomplished this. Jun's current Kidō abilities are far beyond Byakuya's, especially since this Byakuya had long since betrayed his family and had even less exposure to Kidō than in the original story.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's so late, but I'll take good care of your child," Chun made her promise in front of Nana's tombstone.
However, speaking of which, Nana's son is surprisingly an acquaintance to Jun. After Nana married, she took her husband's surname, Ichinose, and her son is named Ichinose Maki. He's the traitor from the Bount Arc in the original work, and now he's in the Sixth Division. The reason he got into the Sixth Division is because Jun helped the Ichinose family obtain a lower-ranking noble status.
So there's no need to worry about him betraying you. Besides, the reason he was dissatisfied with Kenpachi in the original work was because he stood up for Kijōiwa Kenpachi.
Pfft, it's not his fault. The Bount Arc came out too early in the original work. Maybe Kubo hadn't yet filled in the background of Kijōiwa Kenpachi at that time, which is why this kind of blunder occurred.
Regardless, even if Ichinose Maki in this timeline is a World of the Living, he definitely wouldn't be able to create the same kind of spectacle in the original work. Even if he finds the Undead, he certainly wouldn't pull off the kind of foolish actions seen in the original.
Jun arrived at the Sixth Division and went straight to Sōjun's office without even saying hello. "Yo~ Busy, huh?"
"Chun~ I'm sorry you had to see that funny the other day."
"Ha~ Every family has its own problems, you've had it tough too."
"That's very well said, as expected of you," Sōjun said. She was very familiar with Chun and prepared a cup of tea for her. In fact, over the years, Aozumi had quietly changed many things in the Kuchiki Clan, Aozumi was why she increasingly believed in Chun's theories. She herself was putting them into practice. "Speaking of which, what do you think of Byakuya?"
"Yes, he's a very good kid. He's responsible and ambitious, but his experience is still a bit limited."
"Hmph~"
"Don't be angry. Why make such a big deal out of a woman's problem?"
"This is the bottom line for nobles!"
"Haha," Jun laughed out loud, "I'm not trying to be mean, but does nobility really matter anymore? The World of the Living has entered a new era. Nobility has been overthrown, and capitalism has become the new ruling class. If the Soul Society didn't lack that kind of environment, do you think nobles would have had a good ending?"
Sōjun's expression changed, "This..."
"Actually Soul Society has changed a lot now. Remember Renji Abarai? Although I'm not in Soul Society, I've heard about him. That kid wasn't a nobleman, but he insisted on joining the Sixth Division, saying he'd make a name for himself through strength. Haha, even though you rejected him, nobody said anything to him."
"This"
"Times have changed, bro~"
"Tsk, sigh," Sōjun sighed helplessly, "I just can't get over this."
"Go see Byakuya sometime. I think you should see Byakuya now. He's a real man, a true man! A man who stands tall and upright!"
"Alright, I'll go check it out another day. So, what brought you here today?"
"Take the two little ones from your team out for a walk."
Who is it?
"Ichinose Maki and Tachikawa Shiu"
"Are those two tutoring their old friend's child?"
"Hmm, let's take care of them. The Soul Society hasn't been peaceful these past few years. The best way to protect the children is to let them develop their own strength. Sigh~ Sometimes I wonder, what are we all busy with every day? Why can't the Soul Society ever be at peace?"
Sōjun remained silent for a long time after hearing this, and finally shook her head helplessly, "I don't know~ I really don't know! What have we been doing all these years?"
Cang Chun certainly couldn't be sent out to look for them. What did it mean for a captain to go looking for a nobody? Sōjun sent someone to deliver a message, and soon the two little ones arrived. The girl was a virgin who had just graduated from the academy.
"Hello, Captain!"
"The person is here, you can take them away."
"Are you the Uncle Shimizu that my mom was talking about?"
My dad also said you're really amazing!
Jun looked at the two children. Ichinose Makoto had a resemblance to Nana in his features, and Tachikawa Shiu's face was exactly like her father's. It was really interesting how children existed, how they inherited things.
"Yeah, if your parents have told you about me, then I guess I'm pretty amazing," Jun said, patting the two kids' heads. Ichinose Maki found this annoying; he was much older than Tachikawa Shiu, an adult, but Jun had forgotten that.
"Sorry, sorry, you're a big kid now, haha. I heard you've even Shikai?"
"Hi!" Ichinose Maki was very proud of this, after all, there weren't many people his age who could achieve Shikai. "Shine, Rainbow Mist!"
Rainbow Mist is a sword encased in rainbow colors. Ichinose Maki's Spiritual Power itself is rainbow-colored, which is truly fascinating. The little girl, Tachikawa Shiu, is particularly captivated by this beauty.
Wow! What a beautiful knife!
"Mmm~ It's so beautiful~"
"Hey-hey"
"But it's no use," Jun's words surprised Ichinose Makoto. At that moment, Jun beckoned to the two of them, "Come on, for the next month or two, I will be your master. Try to defeat me. Every time you fail, I will tell you where you went wrong. Let's begin."