The Future

The transmutation was a success. Ichiro wore a pleased smile as he picked up the object, turning it over in his hands to inspect it.

"What is that?" Urahara asked from the side, his curiosity piqued.

"A gun. A weapon from the future, and the one I was most proficient with before I died." As he spoke, Ichiro deftly spun the weapon in a flourish before aiming it at a protruding piece of wood.

"A gun? Is this also a gun? How do you use it?"

"Like this..."

"Bang!"

Watching the hole appear in the wooden block not far away, the pupils of both Urahara and Yoruichi constricted. It was too fast!

The speed of the bullet was impossible to track with the naked eye!

"This is... a weapon from the future? Such a swift attack!"

"Hmm..." Yoruichi nodded, then folded her arms across her chest and stroked her chin. "But it's easy to dodge. As long as your reaction speed is faster than the user's, it's quite easy to evade using Shunpo."

"True, the advantage isn't overwhelming, but I'll take it slow; it can still be improved." Ichiro smiled, holstered the revolver, and laid out his materials once more.

Since he had gone through the trouble of coming to the World of the Living, he certainly wouldn't be satisfied with just one revolver. Besides, the revolver was merely the firearm he was most familiar with, not necessarily the most powerful.

After reincarnating into the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, Ichiro had constantly pondered his future path. That world was not safe, and while alchemy was somewhat sci-fi, it was essentially a form of scientific technology.

Ichiro lacked the confidence to push his alchemy to an incredibly profound level, so he needed something that didn't demand extreme alchemical mastery but still provided formidable combat power.

Naturally, coming from a modern society, guns were the first things to enter his mind. Firearms were relatively common in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, yet many alchemists chose not to use them. He didn't know why, but for Ichiro, they were the perfect fit.

Because he couldn't guarantee that his talent would allow him to reach the pinnacle of alchemy, he chose a relatively conservative path.

As it turned out, having lived a second life, he was much stronger than in his previous one. His alchemical attainments, while perhaps not world-class, were sufficient to pass the exam for State Alchemist. In terms of combat, his proficiency with various firearms and complementary martial arts allowed the weapon class to once again enter the sights of other alchemists!

The revolver was the first firearm Ichiro successfully transmuted. In his first life, he had been an ordinary person, not even a firearm enthusiast; he couldn't even recognize all the models, let alone their internal structures.

The revolver was the firearm he understood best. After mastering alchemy, he had successfully tinkered it into existence through extensive experimentation. He had been optimizing it ever since, and it remained one of his most proficient handguns.

What he intended to transmute next was a world-renowned pistol—the Desert Eagle!

While this gun wasn't particularly practical, its immense power and striking aesthetics made it famous. As a Gun Alchemist, he certainly wouldn't pass it up.

Although the gun had many inconveniences, combining it with alchemy allowed him to ignore many of them. For instance, weight: he only needed to carry the core components and perform a temporary transmutation on the spot, rather than carrying the whole thing.

Recoil: Body Transmutation could enhance his endurance and recovery. Unless the recoil was strong enough to instantly blow off half his body, it could basically be ignored.

High precision and difficult maintenance: instant transmutation solved that problem perfectly!

And, it was undeniably cool!

The only drawback now was that he couldn't manufacture the bullets; the improvised gunpowder lacked the power to meet the standards of Desert Eagle ammunition.

Even so, Ichiro happily tucked the two guns away. This harvest had far exceeded his expectations. Now, he only needed to persuade his teacher to help him "Reishi-fy" these two guns so he could bring them back to the Soul Society. If he could do that, this Konso lesson would be perfect!

Compared to Ichiro's smooth progress, the Konso on the other side was not going well. With the help of Ichiro's Kido, they had successfully gained the little boy's trust, but they were stuck on the issue of fulfilling his final wish.

The boy couldn't let go of a wooden sculpture he had broken; he wanted to fix it. It was his only obsession, yet the sculpture was just something he had picked up by the roadside with no special meaning. He simply wanted to repair it.

This was why Ichiro hated bratty kids; you could never understand why they fixated on such things.

This left the others in a bind. Not to mention the other students, even among the first thirty Kido spells Ichiro had learned, there wasn't a single one for repairs. Perhaps higher-level Kido existed, but Ichiro didn't think they were meant for such trivial tasks.

While not absolute, for most Kido, the higher the number, the exponentially greater the difficulty and power!

Powerful Bakudo also possessed immense lethality!

For example, the famous forbidden technique of stopping time was a Bakudo, but if one could perform precise operations—like stopping time for a specific organ—the effect would be devastating!

Furthermore, level ninety-nine Kido possessed direct offensive capabilities. Of course, powerful effects were inevitably accompanied by extremely high training difficulty. The vast majority of Soul Reapers in the Soul Society only used Kido between level thirty and forty; anything higher was usually a skill mastered by seated officers.

Therefore, the idea of repairing the statue for the boy could be basically ruled out. Although Ichiro's alchemy could easily accomplish this, doing so would greatly diminish the purpose of this Konso lesson. Thus, after the three of them returned, they simply stood to the side and watched.

A Soul Reaper's job is to send the deceased to the afterlife, not to grant wishes; the distinction in priorities was quite important.

Whether they could figure this out on their own remained to be seen...

Ichiro estimated that it would be difficult for them to jump out of their current mindset. After all, those involved are often blinded by the situation, and it wasn't easy to break free. Even if they did, they had to handle it in a relatively humane way; they couldn't just use illusions to deceive the Plus like they had with the little girl before.

The two situations were different. Every time they used illusions to deceive a Plus, they planted a hidden disaster in the Soul Society that might erupt at any moment.

Seeing them discuss for a long time while still stuck in the loop of how to repair the statue, Ichiro sighed. He walked to the side, pulled out his Desert Eagle, disassembled it piece by piece, quickly reassembled it, then disassembled it again and reassembled it once more.

This simple training strengthened his transmutation speed for firearms. Moreover, now that he had learned Kido, every time he disassembled the weapon, he gained new ideas for improving it.

Ichiro didn't believe that firearms had no future in the world of Soul Reapers. Perhaps traditional firearms wouldn't even be able to break the skin of high-level targets later on, but what if they were combined with Kido?

For example, the Primera Espada's Resurreccion involved two guns: one that could rapidly fire Cero with weaker power, and one that could fire powerful Cero at a slower speed.

That was one direction. There was another, such as Soi Fon's Bankai—simply increasing the dosage and firepower was also a path.

Beyond that, there were many, many paths to take. Ichiro had no intention of giving up; after all, this was something he had spent decades researching.