Back in the dormitory, Ichiro threw himself onto his bed and stared quietly at the ceiling. After a long while, he raised his Zanpakuto and gazed at it.
His eyes lingered on the Reishi Transmutation Circle hidden in his sleeve. He sighed. "Are Zanpakuto really all this exclusive...?"
After decades of work, Reishi Alchemy had finally taken shape. It could now be used in battle, at least to some extent. But this wasn't exactly good news...
As Reishi Alchemy took shape, the Zanpakuto's voice had grown faint and indistinct. He couldn't even make out its name anymore...
In other words, he now faced a choice: the Zanpakuto or Alchemy...
Without a doubt, Ichiro chose the latter...
He knew very well what had gotten him this far. Without the Spirit Food he'd made through Alchemy, he couldn't have enrolled so quickly, and his Reiryoku wouldn't have grown so fast.
Even his freakish talent for Kido was thanks to Alchemy. Reishi Alchemy had greatly improved his control over Reiryoku, while Alchemy itself had brought about a mysterious change in his soul, making him more sensitive to Kido.
And Reishi Alchemy had a much brighter future ahead of it. As for the Zanpakuto, so what if its ability was absurdly powerful?
A Soul Reaper's battles were battles of Reiryoku!
Soi Fon's Two-Step Kill was powerful, right?
But with enough Reiryoku, you could erase the mark from the first strike!
Kira's ability to double the weight of anything was powerful, right?
But did he have enough Reiryoku to keep doubling it forever?
Aizen's Kyoka Suigetsu was powerful, right?
But didn't he still go to great lengths to weaken and avoid the Head Captain?
So, a Zanpakuto was an important part of a Soul Reaper's strength, but it wasn't everything. Reiryoku was what mattered!
That was why Ichiro was more interested in how Shikai and Bankai increased Reiryoku than in the abilities of a Zanpakuto.
"Whoosh~"
"Hm? You're back early today. Are your lessons over?"
"Yeah, there's nothing left to learn. All I can do now is make gradual progress... Ugh, it's frustrating..."
"..." Urahara fell silent for a moment before managing to squeeze out, "You're a freak!"
Ichiro ignored the comment and looked at the Zanpakuto in Urahara's hand, breaking into a smile.
"Finally found one. Even with your noble family's connections, it was this hard to find one? That's strange."
"People just don't need them. Everyone wants an Asauchi, and there are hardly any Zanpakuto that have already taken shape." Urahara shrugged helplessly.
Only people from Rukongai would be interested in this kind of Zanpakuto. Everyone else used brand-new Asauchi. Ichiro already had one of those, though. Now he needed a fully formed Zanpakuto to compare data against.
Of course, he could use his own, but what if the experiment failed?
To be safe, he'd asked Urahara and the others to help him find one.
"You still haven't given up on your research? I still think Sword Meditation is more reliable."
"It doesn't hurt to have more than one approach. You have to believe in science!"
Urahara's mouth twitched. "Science... Last time I was in Rukongai, I met a Plus from the future. According to him, the very existence of the Soul Society is unscientific..."
"How many times have I told you? Science is a way of thinking, not some specific phenomenon." As he spoke, Ichiro jumped off the bed and began carving a Transmutation Circle into the floor. "Take my research into Kido, for example. I break down all the incantations one by one, sort them into categories, study them, and then summarize their similarities and differences. That's the simplest form of scientific thinking.
"Science isn't about rejecting things. It's about questioning them and then seeking proof. And proving something once doesn't mean you can disprove it forever. There are relative truths and absolute truths in the world.
"Relative truths are only true within a certain range. Beyond that range, they're no longer true. Absolute truth has no range. It's the sum of countless relative truths. Absolute..."
"Wait! Stop talking!" Ichiro had barely started when Urahara shouted.
It wasn't that he wasn't interested. This was knowledge from the future, after all; there was no way he wouldn't be. But! But!
The problem was that Ichiro had to explain it clearly!
Ichiro only half understood the subject himself. He knew what to do, but couldn't put it into words, so his explanations became needlessly convoluted and sounded like tongue twisters. After listening a few times, Urahara had started to dread it...
Rather than listen to Ichiro explain, it was better to watch what he did and copy him. That would be more efficient, too.
Ichiro shrugged and continued fiddling with the Transmutation Circle on the floor. He knew his own limits.
A little while later, Urahara placed the Zanpakuto on the Transmutation Circle, then stepped aside to watch Ichiro work.
Ichiro pressed both hands against the Transmutation Circle, closed his eyes, and activated it. As the circle lit up, streams of information surfaced in his mind.
Put simply, Alchemy involved three steps: understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction. First, understand the structure, then deconstruct it, and finally reassemble it into a different structure.
As long as the exchange was equivalent and within the alchemist's abilities, anything could be transmuted!
That was Alchemy!
An unscientific ability that followed scientific laws!
Of course, Ichiro was only working on the first step: understanding.
He needed to gather all the data on the Zanpakuto, then analyze and compare it to discover the principles behind Shikai. With that, he could develop his own Shikai, and even...
A Mimicry Shikai independent of a Zanpakuto!
That was Ichiro's current research goal. He'd already made most of the progress; all that remained were the last few key pieces of the puzzle!
Only one semester had passed, but Ichiro had made tremendous progress, especially after Reishi Alchemy had begun to take shape!
The initial success of Reishi Alchemy meant that Ichiro had converted roughly half of the research from his previous life!
Gun transmutation: every kind of small firearm completed!
He'd even adjusted them by combining them with Kido, giving them more firepower than the heavy weapons of his previous life!
Body Transmutation: he'd fully absorbed the knowledge from his previous life! After combining it with the knowledge of the Soul Society, he'd even taken it a step further!
Gunpowder transmutation: eighty percent recreated!
The one area where he'd made the least progress was the various Transmutation Circles he'd learned in his previous world. He'd only completed about ten percent of the reconstruction work.
In truth, though, this was the essence of what Ichiro had learned in his previous life!
The things he'd completed so far were just the core of his combat system—the parts that improved his fighting ability the most. This part, however, was the core of his Alchemy. That was why it alone made up nearly half of the whole!
This part might look like a jumble, but that was exactly what made it important. The world wasn't made of a single substance; it was made up of all kinds of substances (Fullmetal Alchemist).
Alchemists like Ichiro usually specialized in one particular substance to maximize their combat strength, but when conducting research, they used all kinds of Transmutation Circles.
It was like trying to complete every calculation using only one of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. It was important, but not powerful.
That was why Ichiro was still at school. He hadn't yet reached the end of his rapid growth...
Interlude
"Why... Why... Lord Ichiro... Why did you abandon me... Ichiro... Tenshin Ichiro! I hate you!"
"Don't... leave me, Lord Ichiro..."
Before you continue