Urahara and Yoruichi's injuries were serious, but only compared with those of ordinary medical personnel. For Ichiro, a medical expert, if they weren't on the brink of death, how serious could they be?
Of course, that was just him bragging. In reality, Ichiro's skills weren't that polished yet. He healed Urahara and Yoruichi quickly, but then slumped to the ground, too exhausted to even treat his own remaining injuries.
Ichiro had been seriously hurt in this fight. Urahara and Yoruichi had only suffered superficial wounds. They looked pretty alarming, but with Ichiro's level of Kaido, they were nothing much.
His own injuries were another matter. Large areas of muscle had torn, and large areas of bone had been crushed. Even with Body Transmutation, it was no picnic. His Alchemy wasn't precise enough for that kind of work yet. For now, he could only manage rough treatment, followed by painstaking adjustments later.
That wasn't difficult for Ichiro, just troublesome and time-consuming. He'd often done this kind of thing in his previous life, and those cases had been far worse.
Back then, Ichiro had also had to deal with the excess iron in his body, removing it and replacing the missing flesh. Every treatment had been like going through Hell.
Spirit Iron in this life was far more convenient. Reishi Iron Transformation didn't interfere with bodily functions, and converting the material was much easier. He no longer had to cut away flesh and scrape bone as before. More importantly, it could be improved over time. The Spirit Iron he had now wasn't the best possible quality; he could keep refining it.
Or he could combine it with Kido. For example, he could use the method for forging a Mimicry Zanpakuto to enhance Reishi Iron Transformation, giving it even greater power.
But for now, these were just Ichiro's theories. It would be a long time before he could make them a reality.
As the three sat on the ground, chatting in fits and starts, Ichiro suddenly froze. He hissed in pain as he got to his feet. The captain was here.
The captain jumped down from Minazuki and frowned at the blood covering the ground. Then she looked at Ichiro. "You've got some nerve, picking a fight with someone at vice-captain level."
Ichiro gave a wry smile and spread his hands. "Captain, you have to believe me. He came after us. We didn't provoke him."
"Hmph. Either way, you shouldn't have waited so long to run." The captain frowned again. On closer inspection, she saw that Ichiro was badly injured, so she waved her hand.
Minazuki gave a soft cry and flew toward Ichiro.
Ichiro's expression changed at once. He crossed his arms in front of himself and cried out in alarm, "Captain! I can treat myself! Save your Reiryoku for everyone else! Don't waste it on me!"
As he spoke, he frantically backed away under Urahara and the others' curious gazes. But Minazuki didn't care how Ichiro felt. The captain hadn't called it back, so it kept flying toward him.
The captain wore a faint smile. "It's fine. I have to report in afterward, and I don't have time to go to Squad 4 just yet. I might as well heal you and send you there to help. At your level, you can handle enough patients to take my place."
"No!!"
"Glup!"
As Ichiro watched in horror, Minazuki swallowed him whole. Its belly churned again and again, while Ichiro's desperate, mortified cries kept coming from inside...
"Ptooey!"
After a heart-wrenching scream, Minazuki spat Ichiro out, his entire body coated in some unknown fluid, then floated lazily back behind the captain.
Ichiro lay on the ground, twitching like he'd been completely broken.
Still, there was no denying that, disgusting as Minazuki was, its healing ability was second to none. It was a Zanpakuto famed for completely healing anyone who hadn't yet stopped breathing, and it lived up to the reputation. If Ichiro had treated his injuries himself, it would have taken him at least half a year to repair them bit by bit. He could have sped things up considerably by focusing solely on his injuries, but even then it would have taken a month.
Now, he was completely healed in less than a minute. Of course, the treatment method made a difference.
Ichiro was used to working with precision, a habit he'd picked up from Alchemy. The advantage was that it used little Reiryoku. With his current, average Seated Officer-level spiritual pressure, he could already treat most injuries. The drawbacks were that it required great skill, and took time and energy.
The captain specialized in overwhelming problems with sheer force. She used her vast Reiryoku to heal people directly. It was fast, but costly—simple and brutal, much like the hot springs of the Hot Spring Demon, Kirinji Tenjiro. The difference was that she relied on her Zanpakuto.
That was why the captain could heal in a few moves what would take Ichiro a long time to fix. It was a gap in raw power. If Ichiro had that much spiritual pressure, he could do something similar, though it would still use a lot. After all, he and the captains came from the same lineage.
"If you're healed, get up already. Stop dawdling. There are still plenty of injured people waiting at Squad 4. Hurry up and come help me."
"...Got it..." Ichiro rose with a vacant stare. A flash of electricity passed over him, and the unknown slime vanished. He staggered toward the captain.
The captain smiled and shook her head at the sight of him. Then she turned to Urahara, Yoruichi, and the young lady of the Kuchiki Clan. "The academy isn't very safe right now. You should come with me, too. Stay at Squad 4 for now, then head home once things have settled down. I'll handle things with the heads of the Kuchiki and Shihoin Clans."
The four bowed at once. "Yes, Captain Unohana."
They headed toward Minazuki. But as they passed Ichiro, they all instinctively edged away from him. The unknown fluid was gone, but... well, you know.
That tiny gesture dealt Ichiro a huge blow. He could almost hear his heart cracking. His mouth twitched, and each step forward felt even heavier.
Before long, Minazuki was carrying them through the air toward Squad 4's barracks. On the way, Ichiro pushed up his glasses and used psychological suggestion to shove what had just happened into the deepest recesses of his memory, locking it away behind several layers!
Psychological suggestion was another technique Ichiro had been good at in his previous life. Absolute Reason wasn't easy to master, though. He had focused on self-suggestion and didn't know much about other forms.
His three most commonly used self-suggestion techniques were Focus, which put his body into a heightened state of activity and let him draw out the greatest possible strength; it also worked well for training. Concentration, which brought his mind into sharp focus and enhanced his ability to calculate, mainly supported his Magic Bullet technique.
The last was Deep Thought, which let him dig "forgotten" memories out of the depths of his mind. It was a watered-down version of photographic memory.
Thank you, I Want to Get Lucky and Radish Reveals, for the New Year's votes!
Thanks to Monokuma Hei for the tip!
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