It was a phenomenon that completely defied magical theory.
It was like an explosive evolution born from life adapting to an extreme environment, or as if the laws of the world had opened a small window for her, allowing this transformation to occur.
New circuits spawned alongside her nerve plexuses and spread through the gaps in her bones.
They greedily devoured the Reiryoku Asuka poured into her, rapidly expanding, linking, and forming a brand-new, far more complex circulatory network.
"...Did it work?"
Even a layman like Asuka could sense that something was off.
If the previous Sumire Kamado was just a child holding a leaking cup, then now, the cup in her hands was turning into a bucket at a visible rate.
Her total capacity still couldn't compare to orthodox magi, but this was the result of just a single night!
Moreover, this growth showed no signs of stopping. Instead, as Sumire's breathing rhythm stabilized, it became faster and smoother.
"Haa..."
Sumire Kamado's breathing changed.
It was no longer her previous rapid panting; it became long and deep.
Every breath was accompanied by a faint tremor in the surrounding air, as if a young, ferocious beast was awakening within her chest.
"Alright, stop."
Asuka abruptly withdrew his hand.
Losing her support, Sumire immediately collapsed to the floor, gasping heavily for fresh air.
Although she was dead tired, her eyes were brighter than ever before.
She raised her hand, staring at her palm in disbelief.
There, a faint yet clearly visible halo of pale blue magical energy was swirling.
"I... I can do it too..." Sumire's voice trembled slightly.
'Three Magic Circuits! Am I a magus now?'
Asuka wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead and muttered inwardly, 'I originally just wanted to improve the quality of her single circuit... but the results are quite unexpected.'
There were no dormant Magic Circuits in her body; these two were entirely new existences that had multiplied right under Asuka's nose.
'Truly... unbelievable.'
Before Asuka could recover from Sumire's anomaly, a crisp shattering sound echoed from the other side of the living room.
"Crack!"
Asuka and Sumire turned their heads simultaneously.
They saw Haruri Kamado sitting on the sofa, drenched in sweat. Her right eye, which possessed a Mystic Eye, was currently radiating a brilliant silver glow.
On the coffee table in front of her, the heavy glass ashtray originally used to practice telekinesis hadn't just been moved—
...it had been crushed.
It was as if an invisible, giant hand had forcefully pressed it into the solid wood surface of the coffee table, causing deep cracks to form in the surrounding wood.
"Ah! My coffee table! I bought that on an installment plan!"
Haruri cried out in distress, but then she froze, staring at her hands in disbelief. "Wait... I clearly just wanted to pick it up..."
Asuka walked over and reached his hand out over the pile of shattered glass.
His fingertips brushed against a hard, invisible barrier.
It felt like a solidification and rejection of space itself.
"A bounded field?" Asuka raised an eyebrow.
The feeble power that could initially only barely bend a spoon had evolved overnight into a powerful skill capable of creating a materialized defensive bounded field?
"Just what is going on... with you two?"
Special training was supposed to yield results, but he had never seen effects this immediate.
"Hehe, it's probably because our family inherited a gene that refuses to admit defeat, right?"
Although Haruri was heartbroken over the coffee table, seeing that she had mastered such an incredible superpower instantly made her smug again. She covered her right eye and struck what she thought was a cool pose.
Asuka didn't speak.
He sat back down cross-legged. He appeared to be resting with his eyes closed, but in reality, his consciousness had sunk into his inner world.
'This is too abnormal.'
'A growth rate that defies common sense like this absolutely cannot be explained by talent alone.'
'There must be some deeper underlying reason behind this.'
His consciousness descended, passing through the darkness.
When Asuka opened his eyes again, he had returned to the familiar Rukongai.
But it wasn't entirely familiar... The ancient tree from before was gone, replaced by a chaotic void.
In front of him, the black-haired young man was floating in midair, playing with an orb of light that emitted a soft white glow.
"...Yo, you're here."
The black-haired young man had his eyes closed again this time, a faint, enigmatic smile hanging on his lips.
His complexion looked much worse than before, his face bearing a bloodless pallor.
"You're awake?" Asuka looked at him, an inexplicable emotion welling up in his heart.
Although this guy was always acting mysterious, in Asuka's heart, he was like another version of himself—his most trustworthy partner.
Previously, after being swallowed by the spacetime rift, an unknown number of chaotic days and nights had passed. If not for him, Asuka feared he would have lost consciousness long ago.
"Thanks to you, I managed to get a full night's sleep."
The young man waved his hand casually, and the orb of light in his grasp transformed into a white Reishi butterfly, fluttering gracefully through the void.
"But thanks to this world, I'm recovering faster than expected."
"This world?" Asuka sharply caught the keyword.
"That's right."
The young man drifted down and stood in front of Asuka. He extended a slender finger and gently tapped Asuka's chest over his heart.
"Are you wondering why that mother and daughter are progressing so rapidly? Why that little girl could defy common sense and grow Magic Circuits that don't belong to her?"
"You know the reason?"
"Of course. This is your and my [Wish]."
The young man withdrew his hand, his tone becoming somewhat distant, as if recounting an ancient tale.
"Do you remember the world of demons? Why was Nugata released by you? Why were we able to break the boundaries of the world? Why were your companions able to survive across spacetime?"
"It's all because you desired such an outcome, and so it was realized."
Asuka froze for a moment. He had heard the young man mention this before, but this time he was clearly delving deeper. "Are you talking about the Hogyoku?"
He had already recalled the term he once heard in that laboratory.
It was the experimental result Aizen wanted to obtain, and one of the reasons he had been tortured over and over again.
According to that man, this thing could break limits, which sounded very much like the power the young man was describing.
"Yes, and no."
A hint of mockery flashed through the young man's eyes.
"The so-called Hogyoku that Aizen spoke of is a semi-finished product created by fusing a massive amount of souls, born to break the boundary between Hollows and Soul Reapers."
"If his progress went smoothly, the completed Hogyoku would be able to guide a person's inner desires, allowing things to develop according to what they envision in their hearts. However, the condition is that the person must possess the potential to realize that wish."
He pointed at Asuka. "In other words, if it were the Hogyoku, you would first need the potential to break this world in order to shatter its limits."
"That is not something we could achieve—"
"To have our every wish come true."