World of the Living, Karakura Town.
A group of high school students, friends of Ichigo Kurosaki, arrived at Urahara's shop. Tatsuki Arisawa, Keigo Asano, and Mizuiro Kojima came together.
"This must be the place. His sisters said he was away at a closed training camp for a soccer tournament, but that must be an excuse," Keigo said.
"Chad, Orihime, and Ishida are all gone too. Are they busy with Soul Society stuff again?" Mizuiro guessed.
"We'll find out if we go in and ask."
Just as Tatsuki was about to knock, the shop door opened by itself.
"Welcome, welcome. You must be here for Mr. Kurosaki. This way, please." Urahara Kisuke, his powers restored, greeted them with an affable smile, wearing his familiar green-and-white striped hat and outfit. He led them into the house and down to the underground training space.
There, they saw Ichigo Kurosaki, shirtless, sitting cross-legged in meditation with a deep, dark jewel embedded in his chest.
Ichigo had followed Urahara's advice and decided to merge with the Hōgyoku. But time was short, and what Urahara had given him was just a prototype, not even a semi-finished product. So, to fill the empty shell of the Hōgyoku prototype, under Urahara's guidance, Ichigo had plugged his "Zanpakutō" into the Hōgyoku and, using it as a medium, poured all of his power—including spiritual pressure, spirit, and the essence of his soul—into it, to synchronize the empty shell with himself as quickly as possible.
That's right, he was treating the Hōgyoku as an "Asauchi," using the same training method a Shinigami uses to turn an Asauchi into their own Zanpakutō. To speed up the process, Urahara even suggested that Ichigo extract the soul from his Substitute Shinigami Badge and all of his own spiritual pressure traces mixed within it to feed the Hōgyoku.
For a Shinigami to achieve Bankai, they must first materialize and subdue their Zanpakutō spirit. The Hōgyoku also had its own consciousness, so Ichigo could use the Zanpakutō training method to communicate with it, making it completely submit to and acknowledge him.
So, Ichigo was currently performing "Zazen" with his sword. After a shallow physical fusion with the Hōgyoku, he was trying to find its consciousness in his inner world, his mental space, to communicate with it.
And in the process, Urahara had used the Hōgyoku and Ichigo's power as an energy source to transform himself from a frail being back into a powerful spiritual body. Although he had lost the power of his Zanpakutō, for the current Urahara who had already surpassed Shinigami and Hollows and completed a transformation on himself, it was not a particularly big problem. Don't forget, he had once been obsessed with researching how to break the boundaries of species, especially "Hollowfication." What Kaname Tōsen could do, he could now also do easily. Moreover, he had modified a Zanpakutō before. Although he had lost his, he had long since backed up a large amount of data. After some time, using various technological devices and his superb skills, it wouldn't be a big problem to recreate the abilities of his former Zanpakutō, Benihime. The Zanpakutō was ultimately just one of Urahara's countless methods and trump cards, not his everything.
"What is that?" Tatsuki Arisawa frowned. She had once been chased by Aizen in Karakura Town, so she had seen the Hōgyoku embedded in his chest. Seeing this familiar scene gave her a bad feeling.
"Yo~ everyone..." Ichigo opened his eyes and stood up to greet them, looking a little guilty when he saw Tatsuki.
"Ichigo, what on earth happened? Is there another problem with that Soul Society? And where's Orihime? Why is she gone too?" Tatsuki asked nervously.
"Inoue... she and Chad were abducted by the enemy," Ichigo hesitated for a moment, but still told the truth.
"What did you say?" Tatsuki's pupils constricted, and she rushed forward to grab Ichigo's shoulders.
"Chad and Inoue were captured, what about Ishida?" Mizuiro asked sharply.
"Ishida? What about him?" Ichigo was surprised.
"You don't know, Ichigo? Ishida is missing too. Wasn't he with you guys?" Mizuiro felt that things were getting complicated.
"Ishida is missing too? No way, could it be that he..." Ichigo remembered that Uryū was also a Quincy, and Quilge's words, and his face suddenly turned ugly.
"Answer me, Ichigo! What happened to Orihime and Chad?" Tatsuki demanded urgently.
"I'm sorry. It was my carelessness that led to Inoue and Chad being taken," Ichigo said, coming back to his senses. Looking at his friend's anxious face, he felt a wave of guilt and promised, "Tatsuki, believe me. I'll rescue them all soon. I won't keep them waiting long!"
"Okay, I believe you, Ichigo. I'm counting on you." Tatsuki saw that Ichigo was also blaming himself and didn't press him further. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. But her heart was still in turmoil. This feeling of being powerless, of being unable to do anything, was too painful.
She was gradually becoming unable to help Ichigo and Orihime. Now, even when Orihime was in trouble, she was the last to know. For Tatsuki, who valued friendship, was strong-willed, and wanted to protect her companions, this was another huge blow. She had experienced similar blows before. Although she had already accepted reality, when it really happened again, she was still very unwilling.
This unwillingness, and her desire to become stronger to protect her companions, was also captured by the Hōgyoku on Ichigo's chest. The Hōgyoku could absorb the "hearts" of those around it, materialize them, and draw out their potential. In other words, the Hōgyoku was like a wishing machine, but the prerequisite for realizing a wish was that the wisher must already have the strength to achieve it, or at least the corresponding potential.
Unfortunately, although Tatsuki had, under the influence of Ichigo's spiritual pressure, gone from being an ordinary person who couldn't see anything to a being with spiritual power who could see souls, she had no Soul King fragment within her, nor did she have the bloodline of a Soul King factor.
Therefore, without that potential, no matter how unwilling Tatsuki was, no matter how strong her wish, she could not awaken her own unique Fullbring like Orihime Inoue and Yasutora Sado.
However, Tatsuki's "heart" was absorbed by the Hōgyoku, which also allowed the hidden consciousness of Bai Yuetong within it to sense it, making Bai Yuetong begin to think about how to use this girl's unwillingness and desire for power.
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