Rukia worked incredibly hard to regain her Spiritual Power. She was starting to distrust the Kurosaki Family, but after much thought, she realized that without Kurosaki Family help, she would never have been able to discover that Kongbu force.
"Are you thinking about what Mingmo said again?"
"Eh? Sorry~"
The two were facing each other, their power transfer going smoothly, Rukia suddenly lost focus, causing the Linglu transfer to become unstable. It wasn't a major problem and could be resumed, but this time Ichigo interrupted the connection.
"Something's coming. I'll go take care of it. That's all for today."
Hi~, thanks.
Ichigo vanished instantly. Because the transfer of their Spiritual Power required Ichigo to release a large amount of Spiritual Power, it created an attraction for Hollows. Therefore, after a period of time during their transfer, whenever a Hollow was born, it would definitely come looking for them, possibly even from a neighboring city.
Dealing with this Hollow was a piece of cake for Ichigo; his talent is Kongbu. His initial rectangular sword, used for only a few days, has already transformed into the familiar Zangetsu initial form. Rukia tells Ichigo this is Permanent Shikai; in this timeline, Ichigo has replenished a great deal of Spiritual Power, enabling a forced Shikai.
While this ability is rare in Soul Society, it does exist. For example, Zaraki's sword is even Kongbu than Ichigo's. Moreover, it's not just Zaraki; due to the strengthening of the lower and middle levels of Soul Society, many people have been able to maintain their Shikai for extended periods. However, only Sōya Azashiro has achieved Permanent Bankai.
Permanent Shikai and Permanent Bankai are different things because they are fundamentally different. Permanent Shikai occurs because of excessively high innate Spiritual Pool, Reiatsu, and Spiritual Flow, while Permanent Bankai requires the support of a specific release method; otherwise, the consumption of the release method would definitely be unsustainable.
Are all Permanent Shikai exactly the same? The answer is definitely no. The differences between Permanent Shikai lie in the Blade Body itself. For example, the difference between Ichigo's Zangetsu and Zaraki's Nozarashi is enormous.
Ichigo's Reiatsu is currently definitely Zaraki's, and Ichigo doesn't even know the name of his sword, yet he can still Shikai because his attributes are already sufficient to Shikai it.
However, this doesn't apply to Zaraki. Even if Zaraki reaches Captain-level, Nozarashi still cannot be forced to Shikai and can only maintain a partial Shikai. The reason is that the attribute required for Nozarashi's forced Shikai is unimaginably high; there is no attribute higher than Nozarashi's.
In terms of the release method, Tensa Zangetsu's amplification of Ichigo is perfectly fine, but the release of Nozarashi's Awakening Nozarashi Asura King, the amplification is beyond ordinary. Even Zaraki couldn't withstand that level of amplification. Ordinary people should probably just give up.
In a sense, the requirements for Battle-Devouring Asura's Tensa Zangetsu, both in terms of maintenance and initial energy expenditure. In fact, it's arguably one of the highest in the entire Soul Society.
Jun has been offline for quite some time, but she knows everything that has happened in the World of the Living. Ever since Ichigo gained his power, Jun has announced to the World of the Living that the Child of Destiny has begun his adventure and that his grand plan is about to unfold.
Therefore, every few hours, the World of the Living would send a message to Chun's side, such as that they had gone to attack the Void again, or that they had gone there to Soul Burial the Dead Souls, and so on.
Fate is a mysterious thing. Even with so many changes to the world line, in the end, due to all sorts of messy events, Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado, Uryū Ishida, and the Ichigo still ended up together with Ichigo and the others. It's truly an unbreakable bond.
Rukia recovered quickly, after all, the source had been found. In the original work, Rukia's power problem was actually due to Urahara's interference; he wanted to put the Hōgyoku into Rukia's body, which is why he deliberately left Rukia for so long. However, in this timeline, Rukia genuinely had a problem.
However, it wasn't a major problem, so she recovered in less than a month. At this point, Jun ordered the World of the Living to make some moves intentionally to attract Rukia's attention, in order to lure Rukia to stay in the World of the Living and gather intelligence.
This move worked. Rukia ultimately wanted to know more, and on the other hand, the recovery of her strength made Little Rukia feel a bit arrogant, always eager to clash with Jun's side.
However, to be realistic, even excluding Undead, the weakest among the Undead has lived for nine hundred years and possessed their powers for five hundred years. They can all use Dolls, meaning they have the same level of strength as in the original Bount Arc. Given Rukia's current level, she wouldn't fare well anywhere.
Then Chun learned something particularly insane about this group: they had been monitoring Kūgo Ginjō's movements, since Ginjo didn't know anything about Radar.
Then, through a deliberately staged act, they lured Ginjo to Karakura Town to seek opportunities. They revealed that Karakura Town was Spiritually Dense Area suitable for training, so Ginjo decisively went to Karakura Town, and the two were thus lured into an encounter.
Rukia then decided to capture Ginjo, but by this time, Kūgo Ginjō had already mastered Fullbring. It must be said that although this guy was wicked, his intelligence and talent were top-notch. Rukia was thus beaten up by Ginjo, and even with her Rukia Shikai, she was still no match for Ginjo.
Even Ichigo couldn't defeat Kūgo Ginjō. Ginjo had worked tirelessly for years to become stronger, and now he could fight two opponents at once without being at a disadvantage. So Rukia had something to do: capture Kūgo Ginjō.
However, the Kūgo Ginjō of this time is no longer the Kūgo Ginjō of the original work. He is consumed by hatred, resentment, and fear of power—yes, fear, because he finds that the stronger he becomes, the more insurmountable he is compared to the Infinite Endless of the past.
This fear drove him mad. He attacked many of Soul Reaper guardians of death, but instead of killing a single one, he extracted information from the Dead Souls. In this way, he invented a method called Soul-Devouring Technique.
Soul-Devouring Technique, as the name suggests, is a spell that devours souls. The actual effects have already been demonstrated by Bount; the side effects of this technique are severe. After all, Ginjo is not Bount. Ginjo lacks the ability to digest souls; after devouring a soul, his own soul, memories, and personality will all be affected.
But just like in many cultivation novels or other anime, the more insane the situation, the stronger the character becomes. Because Ginjo couldn't obtain any Dead Souls in Karakura Town, he went elsewhere to devour them, even killing people to do so, just like the Bount in the original work.
Knowing Chun's style well, Mingmo specifically sent Tier Harribel to warn Ginjo, which terrified Ginjo even more. Then, a peculiar situation suddenly occurred: Living Human Hollowfication.
This is different from the Quincy's Hollowfication, because the Quincy's soul and body are completely fused, so their final Hollowfication is just a Hollow, a soul. But Kūgo Ginjō, even in a living state, has already begun to develop a Bone Mask, and the whites of his eyes have turned completely black, while his pupils are shifting towards the grayish-white of a Hollow.
The person looked neither human nor ghost. Of course, ordinary people couldn't see this change; they could only see that the person seemed to be in great pain and appeared to be disabled, unable to walk properly.
In this situation, Kūgo Ginjō frantically released Hollow-like Spiritual Power, which unexpectedly attracted a Hollow from Hueco Mundo, causing it to open its Garganta and enter the World of the Living. There, it began a mutual devouring process with Ginjo.
What is that!?
Rukia and Ichigo could naturally see all of this on the Radar, and both of them were terrified by Kūgo Ginjō's condition.
Was that a human?
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like this before."
"Don't worry about words now!" Ichigo, a kind-hearted young man, couldn't bear to see humans treated like this. "I want to save him!"
"Can he really do it? Besides, he's Ginjo," Rukia harbored a preconceived aversion to Kūgo Ginjō, after all, Ginjo had betrayed Soul Society.
"That's a human! Isn't Soul Reaper supposed to protect humans!?"
"Well, bad guys are a different story."
"This," Ichigo firmly disagreed, "Humans have their own rules! If he's a bad person, let him be punished by law in the human world! Instead of letting the Soul Reaper judge him!"
"That's right, that's it!?"
Just then, Ginjo suddenly couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed a passerby who was nearby and bit down. This scene was witnessed by two people. Ichigo instantly arrived and kicked Ginjo away.
The rescued man was completely bewildered because he hadn't seen anything. The patient had suddenly been thrown into the air, and then a feeling of drowsiness washed over him. He rubbed his eyes and scratched his head.
What am I doing here? I have errands to run and I don't have time.
After saying that, he left. Ichigo gave Rukia a thumbs-up. The people around had been dispersed, and under normal circumstances, no one else would come this way, so he could fight with peace of mind.
"Ugh~ Ah~!" Ginjo howled in pain, "Kurosaki ~!"
"Ginjo ~!" Ichigo, charging forward with a slash, only Ichigo find that his sword couldn't penetrate Kūgo Ginjō's defenses.
Ginjo let out another howl, then suddenly looked at Ichigo and shouted, "Kill me!!"
"Are you still conscious?" Ichigo shock, as a Black Spiritual Power sent him flying.
Ichigo!
Rukia shouted and rushed forward to hold off Kūgo Ginjō, but even Ichigo was no match for him, let alone her. Black Spiritual Power continuously emanated from Kūgo Ginjō's body; upon closer inspection, it could be seen that these were actually Dead Souls corrupted by Hollow Spiritual Power.
Ichigo and Rukia also noticed this, and both were shocked. Rukia asked, "Is this the scope of Soul Reaper can handle?"
"What the hell have you done?!" Ichigo exclaimed, but only a low growl answered Ichigo.
Suddenly, a Garganta opened up, and several Hollows fell out. Just as the two Soul Reaper Gods thought these Hollows were Ginjo's helpers, even more Mutated Dead Souls suddenly emerged from Ginjo and began to devour the Hollows. Several Hollows were swallowed up abruptly, and then the Hollowfication Mask on Ginjo's face grew larger.
As the Hollowfication Mask grew larger, Kūgo Ginjō let out another painful howl, then instantly regained consciousness, crying and shouting...
"Kill me!! Kill me!!"
The two were at their wits' end when their savior arrived. The Shopkeeper leisurely walked out and took out the Soul-Extraction Gloves that Rukia at the beginning of the original work.
"Hey~, you two, put on these gloves and give him a good punch in the stomach. That'll pull his soul out, and then you can fight to your heart's content!"
"Is that so! I'll do it!" Rukia said, running over to take the gloves.
However, Ichigo restrained the impulsive Rukia, staring at Urahara with deadpan eyes, "Hey~ Shopkeeper ~, why isn't someone as strong as you doing anything about this?"
"Haha~", the Shopkeeper chuckled mischievously, "Because a benefactor said this is a trial for you two, so get stronger quickly, you two little guys!"