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The Shikai Weapon Project was the Mimicry Zanpakuto Project.
As mentioned earlier, a Zanpakuto's Shikai had two steps: first, releasing its spiritual pressure; second, elevating the Zanpakuto's own abilities.
Ichiro had already achieved Shikai, so he had a good grasp of the spiritual pressure release. He only needed to spend some time refining it before he could release spiritual pressure without relying on his Zanpakuto.
What he was going to work on now was imitating the other element of Shikai: the evolution of a weapon's abilities.
Zanpakuto were divided into several major categories: Kidō-type, healing, illusion, rule-based, and enhancement. The Kidō-type and healing categories could be combined, leaving four categories in total.
That was how the Soul Society classified them. But in Ichiro's understanding, they all belonged to a single category: Kidō-type!
No matter what kind of Zanpakuto it was, it should achieve its various miraculous effects through different Kidō formulas. So if his Kidō skills were good enough, even the most mysterious rule-based Zanpakuto might be within his ability to forge!
Unfortunately, with his current skills, he could only forge weapons outside the rule-based category, and their effects were all rather weak.
Take illusion-type Zanpakuto, for instance. A simple one could refract light and shadow, which was fairly easy to construct. But the strongest illusion-type Zanpakuto he knew of, Kyoka Suigetsu, had absolute control over the five senses. There was no way he could imitate that!
Strictly speaking, that already fell under the rule-based category. What the hell was it doing classified as illusion-type?!
Fortunately, Ichiro wasn't overly ambitious. For now, he only needed to forge a Kidō-type Zanpakuto. It didn't need to be very powerful; he just needed a test subject to verify his theory.
This experiment was still quite important to his current research.
At this stage, Ichiro seemed to be researching all sorts of things: Kaido, Alchemy, Kidō techniques, Mimicry Shikai, Mimicry Zanpakuto, spirit medicine development, and a whole jumble of other things. It looked complicated, but in truth, there were only two main threads.
One was organizing and optimizing the Alchemy of his past and present lives under the umbrella of Reishi Alchemy. The other was researching and developing Kidō techniques and Kaido incantations, with Kidō knowledge at its core.
Those were the two true main threads. Everything else was merely a by-product of them. The upcoming Mimicry Zanpakuto experiment, for example, would verify Ichiro's theories on Kidō and Kaido incantations. Once those theories were proven, progress would accelerate greatly, whether in developing more advanced Kidō techniques or formally writing Kaido incantations.
So Ichiro had to finish this experiment before the Zanpakuto World turned against him!
That's right, he had to finish it before the Zanpakuto World turned against him!
Previously, one major obstacle to this plan had been his own Zanpakuto. To complete the experiment, he first had to analyze his Zanpakuto more thoroughly. He had always worried that doing so would anger the Zanpakuto World. After all, Ichiro didn't consider Zanpakuto tools. They were living people—close, trusted friends.
That was why Ichiro had been cautious with many of his previous Zanpakuto experiments. But for some reason, after he fell unconscious and entered the Mental World again, the Zanpakuto World had become surprisingly accommodating.
Not only had it agreed to many of his experiments involving Zanpakuto, it had even revealed a great deal of data about them. Ichiro had no doubt that as soon as his spiritual pressure reached the required level, he would be able to achieve Bankai!
To a large extent, those revelations were why he had spent three days in the Mental World.
Ichiro had taken a rough look at the data and found that it seemed to point toward wind-type Kidō. That reminded him of the lieutenant-level nobody he had fought earlier, whose Zanpakuto had also been wind-type.
Ichiro had formed a few guesses. If he wielded a Shikai Zanpakuto and fought a Soul Reaper who possessed a rule-based Zanpakuto, would the world give him data on rule-based Zanpakuto?
It wasn't impossible!
Unfortunately, he was a little late. There wasn't much time left now.
His thoughts swirling, Ichiro let out a soft sigh and hurried toward the underground base Urahara and the others had built. Along the way, it was clear that people were much more relaxed. Apparently, after three days, even the last of the unrest had been quelled.
Good things kept coming one after another. A faint smile appeared on Ichiro's lips as he quickly reached the underground cavern.
After entering, Ichiro glanced around. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he headed for his laboratory. Urahara and Yoruichi probably had other things to take care of and weren't at the underground base, so he didn't need to go say hello or anything. He went straight to the testing area.
When he arrived, Ichiro skillfully raised a Kido barrier. Then he moved aside a massive boulder, revealing the partially drawn Transmutation Circle beneath it.
Ichiro studied the Transmutation Circle for a moment, then began making changes and additions to refine it. Fortunately, he had already worked out most of the data in the Mental World. He only needed to make practical adjustments to a few spots here.
Soon, after a dozen or so minutes, a complete and intricate Transmutation Circle appeared on the ground.
"Yoshi! It's done!" Ichiro wiped the sweat from his brow, ignoring the white smudges on his face as he quickly pulled an Asauchi from the clutter behind him and set it in the center of the Transmutation Circle.
In truth, an Asauchi wasn't necessary. Was the Reishi Alchemy he had painstakingly researched really so inconvenient?
The entire process only needed Reishi. But Ichiro had to account for two things: mass production later on, and the possibility of Alchemy disappearing!
He could manipulate Reishi directly, but others couldn't. He couldn't forge every Mimicry Zanpakuto himself in the future; he didn't have that much time.
The other thing was that if he completed the entire process using Reishi Alchemy, what would happen if he lost Alchemy later? Wouldn't he be right back where he started?
For those two reasons, all of Ichiro's inventions could still be made without Alchemy, though the process would be more complicated.
So for this step, Ichiro chose to use an Asauchi. That would also cut down on the number of transmutation steps and improve the odds of success!
After placing the Asauchi in the center of the Transmutation Circle, Ichiro took a deep breath, put his hands on the ground, closed his eyes, and focused on activating Alchemy!
As Ichiro poured his concentration into it, the Transmutation Circle began to glow with a faint white light.
Reishi structure analysis · complete! Reishi structure addition · complete! Kidō formula construction · complete! Kidō formula infilling
Ichiro furrowed his brows as a bead of cold sweat slowly slid down. He had run into trouble, but fortunately, it was within his expectations.
Kidō formula modification · complete! Kidō formula infilling Kidō formula modification · complete! Kidō
After repeating the process dozens of times, on the eighty-third attempt—
Kidō formula infilling · complete! Kidō formula encapsulation · complete! Kidō incantation analysis · complete!
Once the hardest part, filling in the Kidō formula, was complete, everything that followed was a piece of cake. Progress surged forward!
At last—
Mimicry Zanpakuto construction complete!
The white light faded, and a brand-new Zanpakuto lay quietly in the center of the Transmutation Circle. It looked exactly the same as before the transmutation, but sensing the completely different power within, Ichiro knew his experiment had succeeded!
He was just one step away from his goal!
"Hahahahahaha!"
Ichiro's laughter echoed through the vast underground space. He laughed as he collapsed onto the ground, tears of excitement welling in his eyes. After all these years of effort, he had finally drawn close to his goal.
As Ichiro fell, a breeze stirred, flipping open his personal notebook and revealing a few notes written inside.
Zanpakuto Anthropomorphic Transformation
Human Transmutation
Fullbring Cultivation
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