No matter how much of an uproar Higashino Shuuichi had stirred up in Soul Society, to Zero Division—whose status stood completely above everything—that was all small potatoes.
As the executors of the Reiō's will, Zero Division's fundamental purpose was to follow that will, maintain the stability of the three realms, and prevent the cycle system of reincarnation—painstakingly separated by the Reiō—from collapsing.
Other than that, no matter what happened in Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, or the World of the Living, Zero Division simply wouldn't get involved.
At most, they might have a tiny bit of personal commentary about certain individuals, but they generally wouldn't let that kind of emotion affect their lives or work.
So Higashino Shuuichi's days in the Reiōkyū (Royal Palace) were, in truth, incredibly carefree.
Aside from Ichibē Hyōsube and Senjumaru Shutara's territories—where he basically never got a friendly face—Higashino Shuuichi got along with the other three members of Zero Division well enough. Maybe not "close friends," but at least there wasn't any real barrier between them.
For example, Ōetsu Nimaiya truly did put his heart into helping Higashino Shuuichi master his Zanpakutō's complete Bankai.
He helped Higashino Shuuichi eliminate the flaw his Bankai used to have—namely, that without fully understanding the opponent's information, its ability couldn't display any combat power at all.
And then there was Hikifune Kirio, the "Kokuō (Grain King)." Higashino Shuuichi let her conduct human experiments on him without reservation, having her help fuse the several completely different powers inside his body into a single, unified whole.
Meanwhile, Kirinji Tenjirō, the "Onsen Oni (Hot Spring Demon)," took a deep "liking" to this new face—dragging Higashino Shuuichi into the baths every few days.
If Higashino Shuuichi didn't know Kirinji Tenjirō truly didn't have that kind of special fetish, he might've started keeping a wide berth.
Time flew by in this relaxed atmosphere.
Higashino Shuuichi had guessed that achieving a fully complete Bankai would take a long time, but he had no real sense of how long.
After all, in the Reiōkyū, time was the cheapest thing in existence.
Every Shinigami here had, in theory, a lifespan as long as heaven and earth.
As long as the three realms created by the Reiō didn't completely collapse—so long as there was still even one person in the world who could call out Ichibē Hyōsube's name—
then every member of Zero Division would exist as an ageless, undying being.
Truthfully, Higashino Shuuichi had also wanted to learn some more formidable Zanjutsu (Sword Arts) here, or even the Ura Kidō (Hidden Kidō) that Ichibē Hyōsube wielded.
But after he went to Ichibē Hyōsube and tried once, he gave up.
Because it simply wasn't something a normal person could learn.
The complexity of Ura Kidō (Hidden Kidō) was already far beyond what Higashino Shuuichi's modern soul could even hear and comprehend.
Back in Soul Society, even learning a simplified, ordinary Kidō (Demon Arts) had taken him an enormous amount of time—and that was only because Aizen Sōsuke patiently broke it down and taught him step-by-step, hand-in-hand, until he could barely manage it.
But this "primordial" version of Ura Kidō (Hidden Kidō) that Ichibē Hyōsube possessed…
Higashino Shuuichi truly had the will, but not the ability.
As for Zanjutsu (Sword Arts), that was even worse.
Higashino Shuuichi even started to suspect whether Ōetsu and the others actually knew Zanjutsu (Sword Arts) at all.
From start to finish, the only Zanjutsu (Sword Art) Ōetsu ever demonstrated to Higashino Shuuichi that looked even remotely impressive was one Higashino Shuuichi already knew—Chōgetsu (Challenging the Moon).
Everything else was far inferior to the Zanjutsu (Sword Arts) Higashino Shuuichi had learned from Unohana Retsu.
And Kirinji Tenjirō and Hikifune Kirio—whose specialties didn't even align with swordsmanship—weren't worth mentioning in that regard at all.
"So Zero Division really does pick people purely based on contributions to Soul Society and creativity, huh?
Hard combat power genuinely isn't even in the evaluation criteria!"
By the end of it, Higashino Shuuichi had made peace with it. Within all of Zero Division, there were probably only two people whose combat ability was truly top-tier: Ichibē Hyōsube and Senjumaru Shutara.
The others were technical specialists—their battle power was essentially propped up by having their entire bodies transformed into Ōken (King's Key).
The irritating part was that Higashino Shuuichi's relationship with those two monsters of combat power… was only so-so.
But even so, Higashino Shuuichi didn't leave without good news.
The good news was this: without relying on Senjumaru Shutara at all, and solely with Hikifune Kirio's help to perfectly fuse all his powers, Higashino Shuuichi still managed to break the shackle bound to his very existence.
At this point, Higashino Shuuichi could only say—it wasn't for nothing that he'd exhausted every effort to move himself closer and closer toward becoming a near-perfect jinchūriki (human pillar) for the Reiō.
Sure enough, only by approaching the Reiō's form could one obtain a pass that allowed them to move unimpeded in this world.
Now, Higashino Shuuichi could no longer sense where the boundary of his strength even lay.
But that was only based on Higashino Shuuichi's own perception.
If the Hōgyoku granted a Shinigami a limited evolution based on that Shinigami's own potential—
then what Higashino Shuuichi had obtained now was a limited evolution based on the Reiō's potential itself.
With no black-tech augmentations—rebuilding himself purely with the materials and principles that already existed in this world—Higashino Shuuichi's upper limit was now the Reiō.
Because all his power, in theory, still originated from the Reiō.
He couldn't use everything the Reiō had "bestowed" to surpass the Reiō.
So Higashino Shuuichi suspected this was the reason the Reiō, even knowing he was a disruptive element completely outside the original plan, still chose to let him run wild.
As long as Higashino Shuuichi used the Reiō's power—so long as he continued evolving toward the Reiō's form—then he would never be able to transcend the Reiō and become an existence beyond the Reiō's control.
In the end, this world would still return to the Reiō's grasp.
To describe it with an example from Higashino Shuuichi's laboratory in his previous life: Higashino Shuuichi was a non-systematic disturbance inside an entire system.
His existence might have been an accident, but as long as the system's structure was complete and strong enough, that non-systematic disturbance could be eliminated during the system's operation—through various means—
and the system would ultimately output the predetermined result.
The Hōgyoku, however, theoretically could allow a Shinigami to obtain an upper limit that surpassed the Reiō.
The prerequisite was that its owner possessed potential that surpassed the Reiō.
Higashino Shuuichi understood very clearly: the potential of this body of his absolutely could not surpass the Reiō.
Therefore, the Hōgyoku's boost for him now was limited.
Rather than trying to steal the Hōgyoku from Aizen by any means necessary, it would be better to fulfill Aizen.
When the time came—if Aizen truly surpassed the Reiō—would he have the ability to take Higashino Shuuichi along with him, and escape the Reiō's control as well?
Higashino Shuuichi looked forward to that possibility.
But you couldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Beyond that, Higashino Shuuichi still had to find another path for himself.
He turned his gaze toward Hell.
That was a place even the Reiō at the height of his power couldn't touch—a place whose existence could even forcibly interfere with the three-realm system the Reiō had created.
"With my current self… I should at least be able to protect myself in Hell, right?"
After fully mastering his Bankai and obtaining the key to the final road, Higashino Shuuichi finally had the courage to face Hell alone—instead of begging for aid that might never come.
In theory, Higashino Shuuichi's next destination should have been Hell.
But when he prepared to leave the Reiōkyū and went to find Hikifune Kirio—asking her about what had happened in Soul Society during his time here—
Higashino Shuuichi changed his mind.
After Higashino Shuuichi left, Shiba Kaien, the vice-captain of the Thirteenth Division, still ended up being toyed with and killed by Aizen. That genuinely surprised Higashino Shuuichi.
Because the Tsunayashiro clan had already been wiped out by Higashino Shuuichi's hands, and Soul Society was now down to the Four Great Noble Houses—one of which was the hands-off Kabuma clan—so Aizen had no reason to target the Shiba clan anymore.
And yet, Shiba Isshin, the captain of the Tenth Division, still got tricked by Aizen into the World of the Living, where he encountered Kurosaki Ichigo's mother, Kurosaki Masaki.
At that point, Higashino Shuuichi roughly understood Aizen's purpose in killing Shiba Kaien.
Because if Shiba Kaien had still been in the Thirteenth Division, Shiba Isshin would never have taken such a reckless risk.
With a vice-captain from the main family specifically responsible for World of the Living affairs, Shiba Isshin could have consulted Shiba Kaien and acted together.
This was… truly Shiba Kaien's senseless misfortune.
However, what surprised Higashino Shuuichi even more in this matter was that Kurosaki Masaki didn't develop feelings for Shiba Isshin at all—completely unlike what Aizen had intended.
Yes, Aizen still staged an ambush where Kurosaki Masaki was attacked by Arrancar, but…
How do you put it?
Higashino Shuuichi covered his face, feeling a little embarrassed.
Who could've imagined that the Kurosaki couple his Quincy clone had met back then… were Kurosaki Masaki's grandfather and grandmother?!
At the time, to repay their kindness in raising him, Higashino Shuuichi had secretly taught that couple a few high-level techniques he'd "borrowed" from the future Yhwach.
Those two didn't have the talent to learn such advanced methods—
but Kurosaki Masaki did.
And so the result was: every Arrancar Aizen sent to ambush Kurosaki Masaki got casually dealt with by Kurosaki Masaki herself.
Shiba Isshin never even got the chance to play the "hero saves the beauty" card!
Higashino Shuuichi felt awkward. He swore he hadn't meant to ruin this romance!
Thankfully, he didn't need Kurosaki Ichigo's birth quite as desperately as before—otherwise he would've felt guilty for a good long while.
And besides that unexpected accident, there was another plot development that the Reiō didn't "force-correct" during the time Higashino Shuuichi was gone.
Kensei Muguruma and Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi—two Shinigami who had once been "abandoned" by Urahara Kisuke—were actually reaccepted by Soul Society while Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni was still in power!
Higashino Shuuichi strongly suspected this was Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni expressing guilt toward him in this way.
Or perhaps, more bluntly, Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni feared that between Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi and Kensei Muguruma, another "Higashino Shuuichi" might be born.
If it was the latter, then Higashino Shuuichi could only say Yamamoto was overthinking it. Putting Rōjūrō aside for the moment, as for Kensei…
A mere unit of measurement. Threatening a normal captain was hard enough—expecting him to do something like destroying one of the Five Great Noble Houses, like Higashino Shuuichi did…
Higashino Shuuichi could only say: you're thinking too much.
After Soul Society reaccepted Kensei and Rōjūrō, the entire Gotei 13 began a full-scale manhunt for Urahara Kisuke.
Yes—an open, literal, official full-scale manhunt.
The reason was that Urahara Kisuke, leading the remaining Visored, had joined forces with those Reigai (spiritual clones) that Higashino Shuuichi hadn't managed to seize—Reigai that carried the power and souls of the original captains—and launched a guerrilla war against Soul Society.
Across decades of confrontation, Urahara's side suffered practically no losses.
But Soul Society had already lost an enormous number of Shinigami—and even sacrificed several vice-captains.
It was absurd, unbelievable, and utterly baffling!
Why had Urahara Kisuke become the villain in plain sight?
Was this world really still being guided by the Reiō's will?
The reason Higashino Shuuichi decided not to go to Hell yet was precisely because this development had gone far beyond his expectations.
Judging from Aizen's actions and the current reality that Shiba Isshin couldn't return to Soul Society…
the Reiō should still be interfering in Soul Society's progression.
Otherwise, Aizen would have had no need to do any of this.
But as for Urahara Kisuke's side, Higashino Shuuichi couldn't understand it at all anymore.
Could it be that Higashino Shuuichi's interference made Urahara pick up the wrong script—and end up holding the same script as Aizen?
He couldn't figure it out. He truly couldn't!
At times like this, Higashino Shuuichi only believed in the words of that great figure from his previous life:
Practice yields true knowledge.
If he couldn't reason it out, then he would go see it with his own eyes.
He would personally witness what Urahara Kisuke—and the Reiō's will—had done to Soul Society.
"It's time for me to leave, Kirio-san~"
After hearing Hikifune Kirio's summary of what had happened in Soul Society over these years, Higashino Shuuichi bowed respectfully to the plump Hikifune Kirio.
Toward her, Higashino Shuuichi maintained absolute respect.
Without her, he wouldn't have reached this near-perfect state.
"Are you sure you don't want to join our Zero Division?
If you join Zero Division, you won't have to worry about your future anymore~" Hikifune Kirio urged, worry in her voice.
After living together for so long, Zero Division more or less understood what condition Higashino Shuuichi was in.
If nothing changed, his future was to be personally turned into a living sacrifice by Zero Division—reduced to a human "pillar" to replace the weakening Reiō.
But if Higashino Shuuichi was willing to join Zero Division, that outcome could be avoided.
It was obvious: Hikifune Kirio was truly thinking for Higashino Shuuichi's sake.
She was a kind Shinigami.
"No, Kirio-san~" Higashino Shuuichi replied gently. "Everyone has their own road to walk. I've already chosen mine.
No matter what happens in the future, I won't regret it~"
Even so, he had to refuse her goodwill.
After that, Hikifune Kirio didn't try to persuade him further.
Because they weren't children. Saying it once was enough.
"Then… did you say goodbye to Ōetsu and the others?" she asked.
"Not yet, Kirio-san. I'll have to trouble you to tell them for me~" Higashino Shuuichi said with a smile. "Especially Tenjirō-nii-san. If I go say goodbye to him myself, he'll definitely drag me into one last 'farewell bath.' No need~"
With that, Higashino Shuuichi walked straight to the edge of the shrine.
Coming to the Reiōkyū was a pain.
But leaving was simple.
All he had to do was jump.
And so he did~
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