"Asauchi?" Ren frowned, then continued, "Soken Ishida told me about them. The nobility controls the better Asauchi..."
Before he could finish, Mayuri Kurotsuchi shook his head. "They aren't merely better. They're worlds apart! Soken Ishida is a Quincy, after all. He doesn't know much about Death Gods or their tools!
"The truth is, an Asauchi is vital to a Death God. Its quality shapes a Death God's future! The standard Asauchi used at the True Spirit Academy are forged from ordinary soul material. They don't conduct spirit particles well or hold spiritual pressure particularly well, either. That's why so many common-born Death Gods show great talent, yet awaken Zanpakuto with poor abilities that aren't very powerful!
"The main reason is that their Asauchi can't hold spiritual pressure properly! When these common-born Death Gods merge their souls and spiritual pressure into an Asauchi to form a Zanpakuto, the process is constrained. Their abilities suffer as a result, and some Zanpakuto reveal only a fraction of their true power!
"Take Toshiro, the genius who appeared in Seireitei. His Zanpakuto, Hyorinmaru, is the strongest ice-type, the counterpart to the Captain-Commander's strongest fire-type! Yet Hyorinmaru has never displayed the might of the strongest ice-type. Even its chill is only somewhat stronger than that of an ordinary ice-type Zanpakuto!
"That's because the Asauchi hindered the fusion with his soul, leaving Hyorinmaru flawed! It also restricts the flow of spiritual pressure, weakening the cold. Toshiro's strongest ice-type fails to live up to its name entirely because his Asauchi was too weak!
"Compared to the Captain-Commander's strongest fire-type, Toshiro's strongest ice-type is pitifully weak! The difference is enormous! Of course, there's also a gap between Toshiro and the Captain-Commander themselves. But even if they stood on equal footing, a huge gap would remain—and that comes down to