The Potential to Become a Powerful Soul Reaper

Natsuki slept soundly.

In his dream, he no longer felt cold. A beautiful figure seemed to be keeping him company, and he rested his head on their lap. It was warm and soft, and he felt a little intoxicated by it.

But the lovely dream did not last. Suddenly, a wave of shaking hit, and the whole world shattered in an instant.

Natsuki opened his bleary eyes, and the first thing he saw was a big, round face.

It startled him. He jerked backward, putting some distance between them, then forced his eyes wide open until he could finally make out what was in front of him.

Several figures stood before him. They were all dressed in black, with long swords at their waists.

They looked exactly like the person he had seen earlier, the one who had died at the hands of the monster.

More importantly, he felt that there was something familiar about both their clothes and the monsters he had seen before. They seemed like something he had encountered somewhere, though he couldn't remember where.

That was mainly because, during the final stretch of his life, he had been constantly preoccupied with his illness. He simply hadn't had the energy to seek out entertainment, and as a result, many things had temporarily slipped from his memory.

"&#￥@#@#..."

When he saw Natsuki wake up, the big-faced man who had roused him earlier rattled off a string of words. He was definitely speaking, right? The problem was that Natsuki couldn't understand him. The language sounded just like the words that had come out of the monster's mouth earlier.

Natsuki had no idea what the man was saying.

Hey, you! Speak Chinese!

I don't understand!

So Natsuki stared blankly at the man.

The man kept talking.

Natsuki kept looking at him.

Stare...

When he noticed Natsuki's gaze, the man finally seemed to realize that Natsuki couldn't understand a word he was saying.

This was confirmed when Natsuki opened his mouth and tried asking him something, like, "Could you speak Chinese?"

The man didn't understand him either.

This was awkward.

They couldn't speak each other's language. That was a big problem.

So they had no choice but to give up on talking for the time being.

"Captain, judging by his appearance, he seems to be a Plus who just fell into Hueco Mundo. Before he turns into a Hollow, should we perform a Soul Burial and guide him back to Soul Society?"

A red-haired man came over to the big-faced man and asked.

"It's too late," the big-faced man replied.

"Hm?" The red-haired man frowned slightly and tightened his grip on his sword, preparing to purify Natsuki before he could fully turn into a Hollow.

Noticing what his subordinate intended to do, the big-faced man explained, "Before waking him, I carefully examined the battlefield here. The ordinary Hollow was indeed killed by Jiro, but Jiro wasn't the one who killed the Menos Grande."

"What?!"

The red-haired man was surprised to hear this.

The big-faced man said solemnly, "Jiro must have been killed by the Menos Grande's Cero during their fight. Then the soul in front of us picked up his Zanpakuto. There seems to be some special talent within him. He awakened the Zanpakuto, which had fallen dormant after Jiro died and reverted to an Asauchi. It then unleashed great power and killed the Menos Grande."

"In other words, he's no longer a Plus. He's... a Soul Reaper!"

"Him, a Soul Reaper?" The red-haired man looked at Natsuki in disbelief.

"Can someone who's never been taught at the Shino Academy and doesn't know any Soul Reaper combat techniques really be called a Soul Reaper?"

The big-faced man said to the red-haired man, "You don't have to graduate from the Shino Academy to become a Soul Reaper. In fact, before the Shino Academy was founded, the definition of a Soul Reaper was much broader than it is now."

"Back then, they didn't systematically train souls with the potential to become Soul Reapers and give them that title only after they passed an exam. In the beginning, anyone who could use spiritual energy and wield a Zanpakuto could be called a Soul Reaper."

"The current definition of a Soul Reaper was only established after the Gotei 13 and the Shino Academy were founded."

"Even so, every so often, a soul in Rukongai accidentally finds an Asauchi left behind by a fallen Soul Reaper, awakens its Zanpakuto, defeats the hero guarding the gates of Seireitei, and enters Seireitei to become a Soul Reaper outright."

"Take the many nobles inside Seireitei, for example. They learned various Soul Reaper abilities through private family instruction. They never went to the Shino Academy, yet they're still called Soul Reapers!"

The big-faced man rambled on to his subordinate at length.

He was extremely experienced and well-informed, so he knew many things his subordinates didn't.

His gaze returned to Natsuki. "Though he's never received any systematic instruction, he managed to awaken an Asauchi that had fallen dormant. There's no doubt he has the potential to become a Soul Reaper—no, he has the potential to become a powerful Soul Reaper."

His gaze shifted to the Menos Grande's corpse.

Following his captain's gaze, the red-haired man looked at the Menos Grande's corpse as well, his heart tightening.

"Then, Captain, what should we do with him?" After waiting a moment, the red-haired man asked the big-faced man again.

The big-faced man pondered for a while.

At last, he stepped forward and made a clumsy series of gestures at Natsuki.

They couldn't communicate through words, but surely gestures would work, right?

Natsuki stared blankly at the man's gestures for a moment, then started gesturing back.

After a round of friendly "communication," Natsuki joined the man's squad.

For some time afterward, he stayed by the big-faced man's side and followed him around, learning to speak.

This was the other man's home turf, after all, so Natsuki had no choice but to accommodate him.

At first, Natsuki thought he was in another world. But when the man wrote some characters in the sand, Natsuki stared at them in shock. He didn't recognize some of them, but others looked exactly like Chinese characters.

Combined with the way these people dressed...

How could he not understand now?

This world seemed to have something to do with Japan.

No wonder he hadn't understood what they were saying earlier. They were speaking Japanese. And while talking with them, he heard some classic phrases like "yoshi," "baka," and "yamete," which only confirmed it.

Japanese writing had originated from Chinese and been adapted from it. Some characters had even been copied directly from Chinese, so Natsuki could recognize about half of them.

Knowing half the characters made learning the language much easier.

As time passed, he gradually became able to hold simple conversations with them. He finally figured out what this world was like, and some vague outlines of memories he had nearly forgotten began to return.

This really was the world of the dead.

But it was the world of the dead in an anime.