The Road Ahead

Three days later, Ichiro returned to the Soul Society, his face brimming with excitement, alongside his downcast classmates.

Unfortunately, although they eventually broke free of their mistaken line of thinking, they had taken too long. In the end, the Konso had to be performed by members of the Thirteenth Division.

The method was actually quite simple: use a Kido spell with a slight enchanting effect to communicate with the boy, then persuade him to let go of his obsession instead of granting his wish. Most Konso were performed this way. Only in a few cases, like that of the little girl, did they help fulfill the spirit's wish.

So their first attempt at Konso had been a failure. The members of the Thirteenth Division and their teacher didn't seem particularly disappointed, though. They hadn't expected much from the start. Konso wasn't something you could accomplish just by being strong enough. Well, it was the humane thing to do.

Compared to them, Ichiro had made a huge haul this time. Not only had he gathered material data from the World of the Living, he had also brought back the two guns he'd transmuted, converted into Reishi. This was extremely important to his research.

The principle of Alchemy was understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Those two Reishi guns were therefore equivalent to a bridge—a bridge connecting the Gun Alchemy of his previous life with the Reishi Alchemy of this one.

This would greatly accelerate his Reishi Alchemy research. To Ichiro, no breakthrough mattered more than a breakthrough in Reishi Alchemy, because it was his core ability.

Improving his Reishi Alchemy would speed up the growth of his spiritual pressure and improve his ability to learn Kido. And once he reached a sufficiently advanced level, in this world where everything was made of Reishi, Reishi Alchemy might let him make the phrase "immune to all techniques" a reality!

Back in the Soul Society, the teacher counted everyone, announced when their next class would be, and dismissed them. Ichiro turned down every invitation and headed straight for the dormitory.

He needed to record the data in his mind as soon as possible. His memory had improved dramatically since he became a Soul Reaper, but it still wasn't perfect. As the saying went, the worst pen was better than the best memory. Taking notes was a basic requirement for any alchemist.

At the same time, he needed to try recreating the two Reishi guns in the Soul Society and rethink the path he would take from here on.

That night, after organizing the data, Ichiro wrote "Reishi Alchemy" on a sheet of paper. Beneath it, he wrote "Body Transmutation—spiritual pressure—weapons." After a moment's thought, he added "Human Transmutation" at the end, then crossed it out. It was too soon.

Body Transmutation and Human Transmutation were different. Body Transmutation involved transmuting only the physical body and was generally used for healing and strengthening. It was an ordinary field of study. Human Transmutation, on the other hand, was an absolute taboo!

Human Transmutation usually meant resurrecting the dead or creating human beings—powers that trespassed on the authority of God!

Ichiro knew a little about Human Transmutation. He at least knew the most basic Human Transmutation array. He had just never used it, and didn't dare to.

But this life was different. If his hypothesis was correct, then Human Transmutation would no longer be a dream for him!

But not now. It was too early for Ichiro to dabble in Human Transmutation, so after thinking for a moment, he crossed it out.

Next, Ichiro drew a circle beneath "spiritual pressure," to indicate that it was an ongoing area of research, though not a top priority.

Spiritual pressure, in this case, meant the Spirit Food that directly increased it. There was no other way to figure this out except to test things one by one. It was bound to be a long process, and Ichiro didn't even know whether he'd find anything more effective. So it could only be a routine research project.

Then he drew a triangle beneath "Body Transmutation," marking it as a priority. Body Transmutation was connected to improving his Hakuda, so it was important too. He had found a suitable method for this and would be able to get started in a few days.

Then there were weapons. Ichiro circled the word again and again. This was the most important project. The guns themselves weren't particularly powerful in the Soul Society, but they represented some of the technical achievements of the Alchemy he'd learned in his previous life. Studying them thoroughly after converting them into Reishi would greatly improve his Reishi Alchemy.

After thinking for a while, he finished writing down the current priorities for Reishi Alchemy. Beside it, he added two more items: Zanpakuto and Kido.

Beneath Zanpakuto, he added Shikai, then beneath that, Zanjutsu—Sword Meditation. After hesitating, he added Alchemy after Sword Meditation.

Zanjutsu really should have been listed alongside Zanpakuto, but Ichiro simply had no talent for it, so he'd put it under Shikai as a way to gain insight into Shikai. But after thinking about it, he crossed it out. He knew exactly how little talent he had for swordsmanship. What insight could he possibly gain?

He left only Sword Meditation and Alchemy. Sword Meditation was a required daily practice, so that went without saying. But Alchemy...

He thought it had a lot of potential. If he could understand Zanpakuto from the perspective of its underlying principles, he might even be able to achieve Shikai and Bankai without relying on a Zanpakuto—in other words, abandon the Zanpakuto's abilities and simply raise his spiritual pressure.

This direction had plenty of promise, because you never knew what your Zanpakuto's Shikai would turn out to be. Just look at the bald guy from Squad 11 in the original story.

The Asauchi was a sword, the Shikai was a spear, and the Bankai was even stranger: three enormous swords. What a pain. It was all one weapon, yet you had to learn three different fighting styles.

So this might be more practical for some Zanpakuto. Of course, if he could, Ichiro still hoped his own Zanpakuto's abilities would be as powerful as possible.

Beneath Kido, Ichiro hesitated, then wrote: "Learn Kido—Develop Kido—Develop Kido techniques." After a moment's thought, he chose the last option, keeping "Develop Kido techniques" and crossing out "Develop Kido."

There wasn't much to say about learning Kido. He had only learned up to number thirty. The important things were developing Kido and developing Kido techniques. Ichiro didn't think there was much use in developing new Kido, at least not for now. The existing Kido were already quite comprehensive, covering healing, support, and offense. The Bakudo spells for support and Hado spells for offense each went up to number ninety-nine, giving them an impressive range and upper limit.

Unless something unusual came up, there was no need to develop new Kido from scratch. Kido techniques, on the other hand, were worth researching.

Kido was powerful, but its incantations made it far too impractical in actual combat. Even Incantation Abandonment hadn't changed that. So Ichiro thought he should focus his Kido talent on this, not on developing new Kido.

After finishing, Ichiro thought it over once more. Once he was sure these were his current goals, he broke the sheet down into Reishi and destroyed it. The process had already helped him clarify his thoughts. Keeping the paper would do nothing but risk leaking information.