Target: Soul Society

"I'm almost tempted to make your place my headquarters. You have no idea how cramped my place is. I have to be careful every day so I don't accidentally tear it down."

When Shinji Hirako arrived at the underground training ground, he immediately started grumbling. He seemed quite envious of Kisuke Urahara's place.

He kept yammering away at Urahara like a chatterbox.

At the same time, he noticed Isshin Kurosaki nearby and sensed that Isshin's Shinigami powers were beginning to return.

"Your Shinigami powers are coming back. That doesn't sound like good news."

Shinji pushed back his hair and let out a weary sigh.

They hadn't had much to do with each other before, but since they'd fallen into the Abyss, they'd been in much closer contact.

He already knew all about Isshin's situation.

"Yeah, it really isn't good news..."

Isshin sighed, then looked at Shinji with an odd expression.

"Do you want to spar with Mr. Jack?"

"Yeah. I want to see what an outsider can do. From the look of you guys, he must be pretty strong. But I got some information from the people I captured, and it's been on my mind. I want to confirm it."

Shinji looked at Tao Yu's spiritual body, which had no trace of spiritual pressure, and spoke with less of his usual playfulness.

"You should know that it's not just outsiders. Even among us Shinigami, the gap between some of us can be bigger than the gap between a person and a dog."

Isshin sounded thoroughly exasperated.

"Ha! I agree. Sometimes it really is like that."

Shinji's eyes grew distant, as if he'd remembered something.

Captain Commander Yamamoto and the brilliant lieutenant who'd framed him had both left a lasting impression on him.

Then he glanced back at the Zanpakuto in