Outwork You All in Secret!

As Gaoyu pressed his hand to his face, he felt a certain power welling up deep within his soul.

That power began to damage his soul, causing another power of an entirely opposite nature to emerge.

A patch of white gradually appeared on his face. It spread rapidly, soon forming a mask.

In an instant, an extremely evil, black-and-red Spiritual Pressure erupted from Gaoyu!

Boom!

Gaoyu felt his Spiritual Power swell several times over, but the surge didn't make him lose his reason. He felt no different from before.

When other people Hollowfied, they truly risked their lives as they fought against the power of Hollows to avoid losing themselves. But Gaoyu was different. He was using a Soul Ability, and unless its description mentioned some kind of side effect, it wouldn't harm him.

How long he could maintain his Hollowfication depended on the strength of his soul. The stronger his soul, the longer he could maintain it.

With the strength of his soul as it was now, he could probably keep it up for five or six minutes. That wasn't as long as the best of the Visored Legion, but it was far longer than Ichigo Kurosaki could manage.

Once the Hollowfication ended, the mask on Gaoyu's face disappeared.

But the boundary between the souls of Shinigami and Hollows had been permanently broken by him.

From then on, as time passed, Gaoyu would eventually be able to Hollowfy at will.

However, this kind of Hollowfication wouldn't be the same Soul Ability. It would be more like the Visored Legion's, with the risk of losing control whenever he Hollowfied.

Unless he could raise White's favorability to eighty. Then he'd be able to Hollowfy without any risk.

"Not bad."

Gaoyu smiled. He'd been in this world for only a year, and he'd already gained the ability to protect himself.

Even if the Quincy invaded one day, he was confident he wouldn't be cannon fodder.

Come on, if I can't beat the Sternritter, surely I can beat some ordinary Quincy soldiers, right?

Do I really have to fight the Sternritter as a Vice-Captain?

Or the Royal Guard?

Or...

Seriously?

I'm supposed to fight Yhwach?

At the thought, Gaoyu smiled again, then fell asleep.

The next day, on his way to his division, Gaoyu spotted someone he knew and greeted her.

"Good morning, Miss Nanao. You're at the Fifth Division so early. Is something the matter?"

Gaoyu raised his hand in greeting.

That was right—he'd seen Nanao Ise, Vice-Captain of the Eighth Division.

Nanao seemed a little surprised too. "Vice-Captain Gaoyu, you should check the time. It's already past the time you're supposed to report. You're late."

"Huh?" Gaoyu scratched his head sheepishly. "Captain Aizen won't mind something this trivial anyway."

"Did you come here for something?"

"I have some information to give Captain Aizen. I'm also planning to stop by the Fifth Division Library to borrow a few books."

"You're going to the Fifth Division Library?" Gaoyu rubbed his chin, sounding impressed. "As expected of Vice-Captain Ise. You can actually get through all those obscure academic books there."

Each division of the Gotei 13 had a medium-sized library in its district.

The libraries were run by their respective divisions, so they generally stocked books that interested the members of that division.

The Fourth Division, for example, had plenty of medical books, while the Sixth Division had books on noble etiquette and clan rituals. Most of the books in the Fifth Division Library had been put there by Aizen.

Somehow, Aizen had gotten his hands on a pile of serious academic books. As a result, hardly anyone in the Fifth Division ever went to read them. Not that they could understand them anyway.

"I'm an honorary member of the Shino Academy Library. Don't underestimate me."

To earn membership at the Shino Academy Library, a Shinigami had to borrow more than a thousand books in a single year. Nanao Ise really did love reading.

Since Gaoyu occasionally went drinking with Shunsui Kyoraku, he was fairly familiar with Nanao Ise, though she didn't think much of him.

Nanao Ise hated Shunsui Kyoraku's drinking, and Gaoyu just had to take him along whenever he went. He'd hit a nerve.

Gaoyu understood that, but he had no choice. He had to raise Shunsui Kyoraku's favorability.

Still, he wanted to raise Nanao Ise's favorability too. He'd coveted her Soul Ability, Mirror Reflection, for a long time.

After a brief moment of thought, he asked, "What kind of books are you looking for, Vice-Captain Ise?"

"Hm?" Nanao froze, apparently not expecting Gaoyu to ask. Still, she answered, "I want to find some books on Kidō techniques. The Eighth Division Library doesn't have any, so I thought the erudite Captain Aizen might have some here."

"I see. In that case, I recommend The Blank Soul, The Birth of Kidō, and On Abandoning Incantations. They're all in Section B on the second floor of the Fifth Division Library. You should have no trouble finding them, Vice-Captain Ise." Gaoyu smiled faintly.

"!"

Nanao Ise was stunned. She seemed not to have expected Gaoyu to say something like that.

In her eyes, Gaoyu was just a lucky man who'd killed a strange Menos and become a Vice-Captain.

And that lucky man went drinking with Captain Kyoraku. She'd heard he was good for nothing in his division and never took his work seriously.

As someone who took her duties seriously, she didn't have a good impression of Gaoyu.

But now, Gaoyu had shown her a side of himself completely at odds with the rumors.

"Th-thank you."

After a moment, Nanao Ise hurriedly thanked Gaoyu. "I'll go take a look."

"I'm glad I could help, Vice-Captain Ise. All right, I should get to my division too. If I'm any later, Captain Aizen might have something to say."

Gaoyu smiled and waved goodbye, then hurried toward his division.

He was a top student, after all!

Just because I've crossed into another world doesn't mean I can stop studying. How could I not study? Doesn't everyone know that science and technology are the primary productive forces?

And doesn't everyone know that scientists get special treatment in this world?

Just look at Kisuke Urahara and Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Since they're scientists, every time they fight, they pull out one incredible trump card after another.

Gaoyu was terribly envious.

Reading could change your fate!

The books Aizen had brought into the Fifth Division Library were beyond everyone else, Gaoyu included, at first.

But that didn't matter. If he couldn't understand them, he just had to read more!

The more he read, the more he'd understand!

Did you really think he was slacking off in the division every day?

Wrong!

I'm going to outwork you all in secret!

I'm a workaholic, after all!