Soul Society, Fifth Division Barracks.
Inside Tamura Yao's bedroom, Ito Makoto was putting on his clothes, feeling refreshed.
Suddenly, a pair of arms, like congealed white jade, embraced Ito Makoto's waist from behind.
"Makoto-kun, don't go!"
Ito Makoto turned his head, looking at Tamura Yao with a serious expression.
"Yao, as the Vice-Captain of the Fourth Division, I bear the lives and deaths of many Squad Members on my shoulders. How can I cast aside my duties as Vice-Captain for a moment of pleasure?!"
Tamura Yao looked at the righteous Ito Makoto, her face instantly filled with shame:
"Makoto-kun, I'm sorry, I was too selfish…"
At this moment, Tamura Yao was filled with remorse. She thought about how Ito Makoto, as the Vice-Captain of the Fourth Division, had very heavy medical duties on weekdays, and still often made time to help her cultivate. If it weren't for Ito Makoto's help, she wouldn't have mastered Shikai so quickly and become the Ninth Seat of the Fifth Division. Yet, she always wanted to monopolize all of Ito Makoto's time.
"Yao, today is your rare day off. You should rest well. I'll be going now!"
Ito Makoto affectionately stroked Tamura Yao's beautiful hair, then skillfully put on his shoes and left the bedroom.
Walking through the Fifth Division barracks, Ito Makoto felt a bit dispirited. Suddenly, as if sensing something, the corners of his mouth curved slightly.
"Have you finally returned?"
Not long after, as Ito Makoto walked to a courtyard corridor, he saw a figure wearing a Captain's haori—it was Aizen, who had returned from Hueco Mundo.
"Oh, isn't that Captain Aizen? Good morning. Your teaching duties at Spiritual Arts Academy finished so quickly!"
Ito Makoto greeted Aizen Sōsuke with a 'warm' expression.
"Vice-Captain Ito, you appeared in our Fifth Division barracks early in the morning, clearly having spent the night in the Fifth Division again. Since you like our Fifth Division so much, why not directly take up a post in our Fifth Division? I think Ninth Seat Tamura would also be very happy!"
Aizen looked at Ito Makoto with a gentle smile, his amiable expression making one feel as if bathed in a spring breeze.
"Oh, spare me. I still prefer saving lives and healing injuries in the Fourth Division; only then can I truly embody my worth! My apologies, Captain Aizen!"
Upon hearing this, Aizen paused, then pushed up his new glasses and slowly spoke:
"That doesn't sound like something you, a former member of the Eleventh Division, would say, Vice-Captain Ito!"
"People's thoughts always change!"
Ito Makoto rubbed his nose, continuing the awkward conversation with Aizen.
The reason he stayed overnight in the Fifth Division, and even actively chatted with Aizen for so long, was to observe, through his main body's perspective, whether Aizen had entered the second stage of Hōgyoku evolution.
What Ito Makoto saw and heard would be transmitted in real-time to Yekawa's mind. Although the Shinigami clone's current strength couldn't discern anything concrete, with the main body's insight, it was naturally easy to distinguish Aizen's current evolutionary stage.
"As expected, he's still at Hōgyoku Stage One!"
After Yekawa's repeated confirmation, although the battle in Hueco Mundo caused Aizen to prematurely begin his evolution path of fusing with the Hōgyoku, it seemed that the lack of Kisuke Urahara's half of the Hōgyoku prevented him from undergoing multiple evolutions in a short period, unlike in the original story.
After confirming Aizen's current state, Yekawa completely relaxed. This meant he had time to develop to his strongest state in Hueco Mundo.
"I still have to be on duty in the Fourth Division, so I'll be leaving first, Captain Aizen…"
Once his objective was achieved, Ito Makoto directly found an excuse to end his conversation with Aizen and left the Fifth Division barracks.
In the Fourth Division's General Relief Station, all the Fourth Division Gotei 13 were bustling with activity.
"Captain, why are there so many injured today? What new accident happened?"
Ito Makoto looked at the fully occupied beds in the relief station. He noticed that the injured Squad Members were all from the Thirteenth Division, responsible for fieldwork.
"The Human World is causing trouble again!"
Seeing this, Ito Makoto quickly found an unoccupied bed and began treating the injured. During the treatment, Ito Makoto discovered that the Shinigami Squad Member in front of him had a penetrating wound that went straight through his chest, and an unusual spiritual pressure permeated the wound.
"This is…?"
Just as Ito Makoto looked puzzled, Retsu Unohana, who had finished treating an injured person nearby, wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to Ito Makoto with a gentle smile:
"Makoto, I'm so sorry to pull you in for overtime today, even though it's your day off…"
Ito Makoto merely smiled and nodded slightly at Retsu Unohana.
"Captain, these injured people are…?"
Retsu Unohana sighed deeply, then slowly began to speak:
"Quincy…"
"As expected!"
Although Yekawa had already guessed it was the work of a Quincy the moment he saw the wound, he still had to feign surprise.
"Weren't the Quincy eradicated after being subjugated by Soul Society over a hundred years ago?"
Retsu Unohana shook her head, then slowly spoke:
"That's true, but there are still some who slipped through the net and are hiding in the Human World. However, to my knowledge, the Quincy surviving in the Human World should be from the faction that opposed the war back then. I don't know why they would suddenly attack the Garrison Shinigami…"
Upon hearing Retsu Unohana's words, Ito Makoto's lips curled slightly, and his heart was suddenly overjoyed. He hadn't expected the Quincy, whom he had fruitlessly searched for over the past decade, to suddenly reveal themselves.
After all, Yekawa had already gathered the power of Shinigami and Hollow. To achieve transcendence in the Shinigami world, the power of the Quincy was an indispensable component.
At this moment, the Wandenreich was still hidden in the shadows of Seireitei, and Ito Makoto simply couldn't get in. Therefore, the small portion of Quincy hidden in the Human World became his only way to obtain Quincy power.
"I searched high and low for it, only to find it effortlessly!"
...
Great Hollow Home, Underworld Main Hall.
Yekawa slowly awoke from his slumber. Ever since he obtained the status of Child of Hueco Mundo, his spiritual pressure had been increasing daily.
To better digest this spiritual pressure, his body often fell into slumber.
Yekawa stretched, regaining a bit of energy.
He took out a sub-hogyoku and held it in his palm.
"Hōgyoku, let me see your marvels!"
Then, dark golden spiritual pressure surged around Yekawa, and a phantom figure emerged from within Yekawa's body.
The figure's facial features were indistinct, just a blurry human shape, covered by a faint, milky-white glow of spirit particles. The concentration of spirit particles on this figure wasn't strong, but it reached the level of Nine-Level Spiritual Power.
Moreover, the spiritual particle aura emanating from this figure was extremely pure.
It didn't belong to a Shinigami, nor to a Hollow. This pure soul power was like that of an ordinary human born with powerful spiritual energy.
"It actually succeeded!"
Yekawa looked at the blurry and ethereal figure before him, his eyes revealing excitement.
This figure was Yekawa's new clone. According to common sense, Yekawa was an Arrancar at this moment, so his clone should also be an Arrancar. But Yekawa clearly remembered Aizen once saying in the original story that the essence of the Hōgyoku was to fulfill desires and wishes.
Therefore, Yekawa tried it casually, using the power of the sub-hogyoku to reshape this clone, and unexpectedly, it actually transformed directly into a human soul clone.
However, the soul origin power carried by this clone was very limited, even less than the origin consumed when the Shinigami clone was split. It was less than one ten-thousandth of the main body's total spiritual pressure.
But this was unavoidable, because the sub-hogyoku's ability was limited, and Yekawa's own spiritual pressure was too powerful.
Once Yekawa invested too much soul power into this new clone, the clone's spiritual pressure would lean towards that of an Arrancar, losing that trace of purity as a human soul.
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