Chapter 148: Detachment
Kira accepted the journal with both hands, face showing gratitude.
"Thank you, Third Seat Suoh! I'll read it carefully!"
"No need for thanks. Do your best."
Suoh nodded with a smile, patting his shoulder.
"Yes. You carry on!"
Kira clutched the journal, stepping aside respectfully.
At the corridor's end, Suoh's steps remained steady as he departed directly.
Kira held that journal, watching his retreating back.
He stood outside the door for a moment, eyes kindling with determined spirit.
Their exchange proved quite brief.
Not that Suoh lacked humanity. They simply weren't familiar.
Moreover, he had his own plans. Wouldn't change his purpose due to a chance encounter with canon character Kira Izuru.
He had his own path and clear plans.
Passing through Fourth Division corridors, Suoh didn't pull Isane along as companion like usual. Instead chose to go alone.
After that night's tea gathering beneath courtyard moonlight, certain invisible things in his heart had quietly broken.
His steps composed, he raised his hand, knuckles steadily knocking on the captain's office door.
"Captain."
"Come in."
From inside came Unohana's ever-gentle voice.
The paper door gently pushed open then closed.
At the desk, Unohana had already changed to her usual attire. Gaze settling on Suoh, speaking gently.
"Tsukasa, you've arrived."
"Thank you for instructing the newcomers. Among this Special Emergency Team batch, any worth noting?"
Suoh stood naturally at the position opposite her, objectively evaluating.
"There is one called Kira Izuru. Quite talented, kidou foundation also quite solid."
"Kira Izuru..."
Unohana nodded slightly, noting this name, gaze smiling, nodding satisfactorily.
"Earning such evaluation from you, he must indeed be good."
"Fourth Division's duties are weighty. We need your help discovering and guiding such fresh blood."
Her tone shifted slightly, gaze smiling as it fell on Suoh, meaning something.
"Just as back then, when Isane brought you to me for treatment, I saw special possibilities in you."
"Now it seems, my eyes didn't deceive me."
These words carried a bit of reminiscence, plus an elder's gratification and recognition toward a junior's growth.
Suoh frankly accepted this affirmation, smiling.
"The captain taught well, also gave me much trust and opportunity."
"Enough, don't just say these things. Pour yourself tea, read a book while waiting."
"Later, after I finish handling work, I'll instruct you on acupuncture method cultivation."
Unohana smiled and gently shook her head, tone intimate.
"Yes."
Suoh readily complied, walking to the tea table's side, pouring himself a cup.
He held the teacup, taking a book from a nearby shelf, quietly sitting, opening pages.
A tacit understanding and tranquility requiring no words slowly flowed in the room's slight sounds.
Fourth Division, quiet room.
Night, lone man and woman sharing a room.
Such word combinations inevitably invited romantic imagination.
At the room's center, Suoh sat cross-legged on a plain cushion, upper body bare, back straight, breathing steady.
Lamplight fell on his clearly defined back muscles, coating them with a layer of soft warm light.
Unohana beside him slightly lowered her eyes, standing behind him.
Left hand resting on his shoulder, right fingertips flowing with a condensed spiritual needle finer than hair.
Not directly touching Suoh's skin, but hovering about an inch below his neck's center.
The room held not a thread of suggestive ambiguous atmosphere. Only solemn, focused instruction.
Suoh's bare upper body—only to ensure most accurate perception of guidance.
Unohana's tone steady as she explained.
"First I'll seal the touch sensory node. Touch is the body's most direct boundary with reality. Starting from it proves easiest."
"Close your eyes, relax. Concentrate spiritual awareness where my needle tip points."
"Carefully feel how my spiritual pressure enters the meridian pathways. Remember the position and sensation."
Suoh followed instructions, wholeheartedly sensing her fingertip spiritual pressure's guidance.
"Pay careful attention."
As words fell, the needle tip silently entered.
Immediately following, a strange sense of loss instantly spread across Suoh's body.
The temperature and pressure originally transmitted from his left shoulder where Unohana's palm touched—suddenly disappeared without trace.
"This is meridian interference."
Unohana's voice remained steady.
"Your hand hasn't lost mobility. Only the tactile signals your brain receives have been sealed."
"Now, try moving."
Suoh opened his eyes, moving his left hand. Motion as usual.
Movement flowed normally as usual. Yet between visual confirmation's commands and limb execution's results seemed to exist a layer of transparent glass.
He saw fingers moving, yet couldn't feel fingertips touching reality, couldn't feel air brushing across his hand's back.
Between self-awareness and bodily feedback appeared a clear severance.
This proved an extremely strange, even faintly disturbing experience.
"Your spiritual pressure control ability fully qualifies. Don't be nervous. Try it."
Unohana slowly extracted the spiritual needle.
In moments, that sense of loss receded like tide.
Normal tactile sensation instantly returned. The feeling transmitted from his shoulder, because of brief loss, seemed especially clear.
Wanting to condense a spiritual particle needle—difficulty not high.
Truly difficult was grasping the hairsbreadth measure of sealing the five senses.
Shinigami vital points were Chain Binding and Soul Sleep—didn't mean other key acupoints wouldn't cause disability.
Condensing the spiritual needle at fingertip, Suoh skillfully pierced the previous position.
Using spiritual awareness and imagination to sketch out a dam, blocking sensory information transmission.
Heart holding no particular anxiety.
Each new ability's learning always brimmed with fresh sensation.
After piercing, Suoh again lost tactile sense.
Still the same feeling.
This time, he proactively cast himself into touch's void.
"Very good."
Unohana watched his every move, speaking approvingly.
For this result, she showed no surprise.
Ability and conditions meeting standards, plus knowledge and courage—learning wasn't difficult.
The following training.
Unohana successively instructed Suoh in identifying taste, smell, and hearing-related key nodes, having him try self-needle interference one by one.
Each time, requiring maintaining interference for ten-some breaths after completion, then releasing.
"That's enough for today. After returning, no private practice allowed."
Unohana timely called stop to instruction, speaking seriously.
"Excessively frequent sensory sealing instead easily damages sensory keenness."
"The acupuncture path cannot be rushed. Emphasis on measure."
"What I taught you today is only basics. To conduct actual combat under this technique's sealing, you still have a long road ahead."
"Yes, Captain."
Suoh dressed, nodding.
Leaving the quiet room, night deeper.
Suoh instinctively flexed his fingers. Walking, shihakusho fabric rubbing against skin—that tactile sensation at this moment seemed especially delicate and vivid.
And when he passed a corner, that familiar feeling of being swept by minute observation passed over again.
This time, Suoh's footsteps showed not the slightest pause. Even his gaze didn't shift a fraction.
After just experiencing sensory deprivation training, he held a peculiar sense of detachment toward this surface-level observation.
His figure steadily passed through the corridor ahead.
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