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"Hadō #90: Black Coffin."

A massive black cube rose from the ground, slowly swallowing Lu Mingfei.

"I've transcended the boundary between Hollows and Shinigami. A fully chanted Black Coffin released by me can create a torrent of gravity that twists space and time. I'm sure you can't even begin to understand it, Lu Mingfei!"

Aizen sneered, his expression twisted with madness.

"You're too arrogant, Aizen."

A cold voice emerged from within the sealed Black Coffin.

The next moment, the Black Coffin shattered. Lu Mingfei lowered his left hand and stepped out.

Flash Step!

Without a sound, Lu Mingfei appeared in front of Aizen, who was in his Hogyoku form.

"How can this be?"

Aizen's dark purple eyes, transformed through evolution, contracted sharply. His body instinctively flashed backward.

A purple light flared, and he appeared an unknown distance away from Lu Mingfei.

"Have you finally realized how far apart we are?" Lu Mingfei took a step forward. "Then let me ask you this: why are you putting distance between us?"

"Lu Mingfei, does injuring me make you that happy? Don't get carried away!"

When he realized he'd instinctively felt afraid, Aizen's playful attitude toward crushing an ant finally turned to something closer to fury.

In his anger, Aizen's body suddenly went rigid. Then his face began to crack apart.

A fissure appeared across his forehead, and his face turned black. His former face split down the middle, spreading to either side of the black one. Three holes appeared in his upper body. Each of his original six enormous butterfly wings grew a "skull" along its spine, and Aizen's Spiritual Pressure swelled terrifyingly.

"It's all over." Feeling his new form take shape, Aizen looked down at him. "Lu Mingfei, I admit I underestimated you. Now I'll kill you with this perfect form."

"You say it's all over? Forget it, Aizen.

"Now you're nothing but a puppet driven by power. In that case, let me show you. This is the final Zanshin."

As he spoke, black Spiritual Pressure enveloped Lu Mingfei like a tangible substance. His Spiritual Power surged across his body, turning into black mist that scattered in every direction.

"The final Zanshin means I become the blade itself. Once I use it, I'll lose all my Shinigami Power."

Lu Mingfei held out his right hand, and a Zanpakuto made of black Reishi appeared.

He swung it down. A black slash cleaved through the air, splitting heaven and earth apart.

"I can't feel his Spiritual Pressure again. Has Lu Mingfei evolved to a dimension higher than mine?" Aizen wondered blankly.

After delivering that slash, Lu Mingfei's Shinigami Power rapidly faded, and his consciousness began to blur.

"Lu Mingfei?" A voice gradually reached his ears.

"Lu Mingfei? Lu Mingfei! Stop daydreaming. The teacher's glaring at you." His male deskmate gently nudged him.

A piece of chalk flew toward him. Lu Mingfei reflexively reached out and caught it.

The teacher glared angrily at the daydreaming Lu Mingfei.

"We're going over something important, something that'll definitely be on the exam. If you do that again, you're standing up! Don't bring down the whole class!"

The class burst into laughter.

The teacher turned back and continued the lesson.

Lu Mingfei came to his senses and realized he was sitting at his desk. For a moment, he couldn't make sense of what was going on. Reality felt strangely fractured.

Hadn't he just been fighting Aizen? Why had he suddenly returned to the classroom?

He looked around. These were all classmates from before he'd crossed over.

"What's today's date?" Lu Mingfei asked his deskmate in a daze.

His deskmate looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Have you been daydreaming so much you've lost it? It's Thursday, December fourth."

Lu Mingfei fell into thought. He couldn't tell reality from fantasy anymore. Had he crossed back again? But why had only an instant passed in the real world?

Had his experiences in that other world been fake? No, that couldn't be right. They'd felt so real.

He'd always been a boy with a vivid imagination.

He'd once imagined a helicopter might descend from the sky to pick him up, or that a group of black-suited men in sunglasses might stride into the auditorium with the coolness of CIA agents in a movie.

They'd dress Lu Mingfei in a black military uniform and a long coat, then escort him out of the auditorium beneath the gazes of his classmates. Everyone at school would stop and stare blankly at his retreating figure.

He'd never expected that such a fantastical thing would actually happen.

He'd been sitting in class, and in a daze, he'd crossed over to the Soul Society. Things had been tough at first, because they spoke Japanese there!

And all he knew in Japanese were "yoshi, yoshi" and "bakayarou," the sorts of words that often came up in anti-Japanese war dramas. It was easy to imagine how miserable he'd been at first in the Soul Society.

He couldn't understand what people said, and he could barely speak. He'd wandered Rukongai like that for a long time.

Then Sister Hana had found him. She thought he had talent and took him to the Shino Academy.

The Shino Academy was a school in the Soul Society that trained Shinigami. Its program lasted six years, and its main courses were the four arts: swordsmanship, Hakuda, Flash Step, and Kidō.

"Zan" meant swordsmanship, "Ken" meant Hakuda, "Sō" meant Flash Step, and "Ki" meant Kidō.

It was at the Shino Academy that Lu Mingfei discovered how frighteningly gifted he was. His Spiritual Pressure grew at an extraordinary rate, and he was absurdly good at the four arts.

He was especially talented at Kidō. His teachers said that among all the academy's past prodigies, Lu Mingfei's talent for Kidō was one of the very best.

In only a year, Lu Mingfei graduated from the Shino Academy and became a Shinigami.

Five years after that, he learned Bankai. Then, when Aizen and Ichimaru Gin betrayed the Soul Society, he was appointed Third Division Captain in its hour of need.

As he recalled the past, all of it faded away with his return.

"Phew..."

Lu Mingfei let out a long breath.

Come to think of it, this was probably for the best. He'd made many friends over there, but that world hadn't truly been his. He'd always felt a faint sense of distance from it.

Besides, he'd defeated Aizen in the end and crushed his ambitions. It was only a shame he hadn't gotten to say a proper goodbye to his friends.

He put those thoughts aside. After everything strange that had happened, Lu Mingfei quickly steadied himself.

"Ring, ring..."

The school bell rang. Lu Mingfei packed his things and got ready to go home.

"Lu Mingfei, the Literature Club has an event this weekend. Could you help me put together the list?" a gentle voice asked beside him.

Lu Mingfei turned around. It was Chen Wenwen.

She stood beside him in a white cotton dress. Her hair was soft and straight, with a shell-shaped barrette clipped into it. The glow of the setting sun fell across her face, making her look especially radiant.

Lu Mingfei froze for a moment, then remembered. She was the class beauty—and the girl he'd once had a crush on.

He could still faintly remember an afternoon when only he and Chen Wenwen had been in the classroom. He'd been wiping the blackboard.

Wearing a white cotton dress, Chen Wenwen had sat on the teacher's desk, softly humming a tune. Then she'd turned and asked Lu Mingfei if he wanted to join the Literature Club. And that was how he'd fallen for her.

But now, seeing Chen Wenwen stirred none of the feelings he'd had before. Maybe it was because no one else had ever paid much attention to him, and Chen Wenwen had occasionally shown him a little. That was probably how he'd mistaken it for love.

He'd lived in another world for ten years. As he'd grown up, he'd stopped being alone. The insecure boy had become a thing of the past.

After a brief moment of reflection, Lu Mingfei waved at Chen Wenwen and smiled. "Long time no see. But I've got something to do today, so it's a bit inconvenient. Ask someone else to put the list together for you. I'm off!"

With that, Lu Mingfei walked out of the classroom.

Chen Wenwen stared after him, puzzled by his "long time no see." She also felt that something about Lu Mingfei seemed a little different today.