Raising the Level of Kidō Throughout Soul Society

The mission to capture Hollows continued for nearly half a year. More than 150 were delivered to the Twelfth Division before it finally announced that it had enough. Since the deliveries had averaged nearly one a day, a joke spread through the Gotei 13 that the Twelfth Division ate one Hollow with its rice every day.

Jun had no idea whether Hollow tasted good with rice. What he did know was that, over those six months, he had gained a female fan. Nearly half a year was enough time for Jun to do plenty of things, such as writing a Soul Society version of Investiture of the Gods.

All the material for this Soul Society version of Investiture of the Gods came from Hadō and Bakudō incantations. Those incantations actually contained a great deal of information.

Take the incantation for Shakkahō: "O Ruler! Mask of flesh and blood, all things, flutter of wings, that which bears the name of man! Scorching heat and strife, surge across the sea to the south, and march onward!"

This described a battle in which the great god known as the Ruler appeared in his true form. The territory of humans and gods lay to the north, and they had already suffered defeat after defeat. At that moment, the Ruler descended in his true form and used Shakkahō to turn the battle around, pushing the flames of war and the fighting back to the southern shore of the sea as the human army advanced.

The middle passage described how the Ruler taught Kidō to humanity: people donned masks made of flesh and blood, offered all things—in fact, anything at all—as sacrifices, and chanted about and worshipped the sight of the Ruler taking wing. Thus, Kidō came to bear the name of humanity, and humans could use it.

The following Yellow Fire Flash and Sōkatsui described two battles during the counteroffensive immediately afterward, in which the Ruler killed two of the Demons' vanguard commanders.

There was also Thunder Roar Cannon: "Bones of beasts scattered like stars, spires, red crystals, wheels of steel. Move, and become wind; stop, and become the void. The sound of spears striking one another fills the empty city!"

This one had to be read together with several other Hadō and Bakudō. Overall, it described how the Favored Child of Heaven, the Glorifier, the Nurturer, and the Venerable joined forces to kill the Evil Beast.

That kill was not to be underestimated. In the Soul Society version of Investiture of the Gods that Jun had written, one thing it had in common with Investiture of the Gods was that hardly anyone on either side died, since it was a war between immortals. But the Evil Beast was the only one truly killed, which was why four great gods had joined forces to besiege him.

Still, it was a novel, something Jun had made for his own amusement, and certainly not something he could teach in class. None of it was supported by historical evidence; it all came from Jun's imagination. People could enjoy it and have a laugh—that was all it was, a diversion.

What turned Asai Shinten completely into Jun's fangirl was something else that followed immediately afterward, something Jun had named the Incantation Chant Harmony Score.

The novel was meant to make the complicated incantations easier to remember, but it did little to help with actually casting Kidō. The Chant Harmony Score was different.

Jun had combined his special ability to sense nodes with his experience helping Isuzu train. He found the corresponding Spiritual Power circulation nodes for certain rhymes in a series of incantations and used them to create the score.

With this score, chanting Kidō was like a modern poetry recital. Modern poetry recitals had musical accompaniment. Why? In the best recitals, the rhymes worked in harmony with the music, producing a wonderful effect. The combination of the beauty of poetry and the beauty of music was one of the highest pleasures of vocal art.

Of course, one couldn't add background music to a Kidō incantation, but this highly rhythmic method of chanting did give guidance to many people who had been at a loss. The pairing of rhymes and nodes alone could cut the difficulty of Kidō training by at least half.

This had been Jun's own exclusive skill, yet he had now shared it. More astonishingly, he had shared everything up to Hadō 83 and Bakudō 89, the highest levels he had mastered himself, without holding anything back.

Asai Shinten, who had grown up in Soul Society's current environment, was utterly baffled by his actions. "Why? Why do all this?"

"Because I'm bored."

"Bored?"

"Yeah. One day I'll grow to be incredibly, incredibly strong. What am I supposed to do then?" Jun said, putting on an enormous show. "Should I join the First Division and live in seclusion? Or be exceptionally chosen for that mysterious Zero Division? But what use are either of those futures to me?"

"If I join the First Division or the Zero Division, will anything fundamentally change for me? No! I like discovering new things, and Kidō suits my interests perfectly. But sooner or later I'll finish learning all ninety-nine spells. What then? Do the First Division and Zero Division have other Kidō?"

"Uh..." Asai-nee was quite disheartened. "If you like Kidō so much, why not join the Kidō Corps?"

"The Kidō Corps doesn't have Zanpakuto. Once I'm done studying Kidō, I'll study my Zanpakuto. What I'm afraid of is that once I achieve Bankai, I'll never have anything to do again."

Jun's reasoning was so powerful that his lieutenant had no answer. No matter how reluctant Asai-nee was to admit it, she had to acknowledge that, with Jun's talent, Bankai was only a matter of time.

"Then what does that have to do with what you're doing?"

"Of course it has something to do with it! I need strong people! More strong people!" Jun stood and pointed at the sky, striking an incredibly chūnibyō pose. "People who are too weak are like us right now. All they can see of the sky is this little patch hemmed in by the bamboo grove. But as long as you're strong enough, you can escape those confines and see a wider sky. I want more people to see how vast the heavens are! Even if only one percent of them grasp something interesting, that would still be an interesting development."

Asai Shinten was sitting on the ground writing something at the time. Jun suddenly lowered his head, and their eyes met. "Take you, for example. Sitting on the ground, you'll never see the sky I see."

"But once you stand up..." Jun pulled her to her feet and flew into the air. "And then fly, our world changes. Nothing can stand in my way, or yours."

What Jun said was rather poetic, but he felt Asai-nee understood, because that was how his fangirl was born. Jun even wondered if she had read too much into it. But it didn't matter; this was good.

Thus, half a year after he proposed the idea, Jun's little remedial class finally started. At the same time, Jun shared his Chant Harmony Score within the division and gave the novel to Isshin.

In the large courtyard of the Shiba Branch Family, old Ichigen was passing along the corridor when he saw Isshin Shiba reading a book.

"Isshin, you've been working hard these past few days."

"Huh? Dad~" Isshin Shiba scratched his head awkwardly, keeping his thumb between the pages so he wouldn't lose his place when he resumed reading. "Haha~ I found a good book."

"A good book? Where did it come from? It doesn't look like one from the Library."

"Uh..."

"Let me see it."

Isshin Shiba reluctantly handed the book to his father. Only when old Ichigen took it did he realize it was a handwritten copy, and the handwriting looked very familiar. He frowned after reading the beginning.

"This is Asai's handwriting. Did that kid Shimizu write this book?"

"Yes." There was no point in Isshin denying it. "He put it together along with that Chant Harmony Score. Jun thought this was a little too outlandish and wanted you to look at it. I thought it was pretty good, so I was going to give it to you in a few days."

Old Ichigen continued reading, and Isshin had no choice but to wait beside him. After reading about a chapter, the old man tossed the book back to Isshin. "It's fine to read for fun, but don't pass it around. Just keep it in our Library. When you go back, tell that kid Jun not to look into Soul Society's past. It's for his own good."

"Understood." Isshin's expression changed. "Um, Dad~"

"You too. Stop prying into those things. You'll be told when the time comes. Some secrets can't be known to a second person."

"Oh."

The novel's disappearance was within Jun's expectations. Soul Society kept an extremely tight lid on its past. It seemed that long ago, there really had been many things that couldn't bear the light of day. As for what they were, the Five Great Clans probably still had some closely guarded secrets, while everyone else could likely forget about learning them.

But Jun had no time to concern himself with those matters. The publication of the Chant Harmony Score brought him tremendous rewards. Within days, it caused paper prices in Soul Society to soar. Everyone in the Gotei 13, including the Kidō Corps, had a copy.

However, it was a chant harmony score, and written words couldn't truly convey the length of the syllables. In practice, it still required instruction. As a result, people visited Jun in an endless stream, finally forcing him to flee.

But people came looking for him at his own division barracks, his younger sister's barracks, and even the homes of the Ise Clan, Kyōraku Clan, and Shiba Clan, yet none of them found him.

At that moment, Jun was at Aizen's house.

Aizen tossed a copy of the Chant Harmony Score in front of Jun, looking thoroughly disheartened. "What were you thinking? You actually dared to release this? You made my old man insist that I copy one out."

Jun snorted. "Isn't that because you've hidden yourself too well?"

"Cut the crap. What were you thinking?"

"What do you mean, what was I thinking?"

"How could you dare release this? This is your unique ability! And it's different from mine."

Jun leisurely drank his sake. "Yes. Precisely because it's different from yours, mine is useful to more people, so I shared it."

Aizen helplessly slapped his forehead. "Ah~~ Are we really talking about the same thing?"

"Of course we are. Speaking of which~ since you asked me that, let me ask you: why shouldn't I share it?"

"Obviously..." Aizen looked awkward. "Obviously, it's so you can be stronger than everyone else."

"See? Even you hesitated when you said that." Jun refilled Aizen's cup. "Right? You're conflicted, aren't you? What the hell does how strong I am have to do with anyone else? Just because I shared this, will those people become stronger than me? No! I'm still strong! They're still weak. They've just gone from extremely weak to fairly weak, that's all."

"Uh..." Aizen realized he really had no rebuttal. "Then you did it to serve all of Soul Society?"

"More or less." Jun shrugged. "And to build up my reputation while I'm at it."

"Oh~~? Have you already started making your changes?" Aizen suddenly leaned closer, as if afraid the walls had ears. "What are you planning to do?"

"This is one part of my plan: raising Soul Society's overall strength in Kidō. After all..." Jun looked at the sword by the door. "I haven't studied that thing much yet."

"And then? If you study Zanpakuto, will you share what you learn too?"

"Of course."

"What for?"

"To lower the Expedition's death rate."

Aizen suddenly froze. "You..."

"It's not just because of what you told me back then. There's also what happened to my parents, right?"

Aizen sighed softly and clinked his cup against Jun's. "Thank you."

"Mm~"

"When you need insights on Zanpakuto, I have a few too."

"Sure. When the time comes, I'll give you credit as a co-author."

"Hahaha, forget it. I don't want to be in the spotlight."

"Hehe."

They had a very enjoyable drinking session. However, after spending so much time with Aizen, Jun realized something.

The Aizen of the present was definitely not the Aizen of the future. So Jun was truly curious: why exactly would Aizen become like that later on? Was it his father's death? Or some other reason?

He was conflicted. Was the present Aizen better, or the future one?

Emmmm, thinking about it doesn't seem to do much good. I'll just take it one step at a time.