The lights in the Maggot's Nest laboratory were brighter than usual.
When Yan Si pushed the door open and entered, Kurotsuchi Mayuri did not retreat into his cell as usual.
He stood beside the workbench in his modified prison uniform, arms folded, staring at the object in the center of the table.
Urahara Kisuke stood opposite him, bent over close to it, his face beneath the brim of his hat half-lit and half-shadowed.
Neither of them spoke. The silence was somewhat unusual.
Yan Si walked over, his footsteps making faint sounds against the floor.
The sound was especially clear in the empty laboratory, yet neither Urahara nor Kurotsuchi Mayuri looked up.
A bead sat in the center of the workbench.
It was pale blue, the size of a thumb, with a smooth surface. A glow of Reishi slowly circulated within it.
The glow was like living water, rotating, spreading, and contracting according to a certain pattern, over and over again.
Yan Si stopped beside the table and spread out his senses.
The spiritual power emitted by the bead was pure—a standard Shinigami power, dense and stable.
Other than that, there was no other aura. It was simply Shinigami power.
"Urahara," Yan Si said, his voice echoing through the quiet laboratory.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?"
Urahara straightened and turned to Yan Si, an embarrassed smile appearing on his face.
He was already the Third Seat of the Second Division, ranked higher than Yan Si, yet when facing Yan Si, that sheepish, head-scratching grin had not changed at all.
"Brother Yan Si, this really is the best 'Soul Jade' we've made at this stage."
He reached out and carefully picked up the bead, holding it in his palm.
The light passed through the pale blue bead, casting a