It was common knowledge that, from the World of the Living to Soul Society, aside from using a Senkaimon (World-Piercing Gate), there was another route—a region known as the Dangai (Precipice World).
The Konsō (Soul Burial) ceremony that Shinigami performed for those who died in the World of the Living was, in essence, a process of guiding those souls through the Dangai and into Soul Society.
And the reason it was called the "Dangai" was precisely because everything within it was severed from the other realms.
This "severed" didn't just refer to space.
It applied to time as well.
Yes—within the Dangai, the flow of time was entirely different from Soul Society and the World of the Living.
Scientifically speaking, because multiple layers of isolated space overlapped in that sealed region, the torrent of time within was compressed, causing the "density" of time there to possess an overwhelming intensity compared to the outside.
Put in simple terms: two thousand days in the Dangai were equivalent to only a single day outside.
And because of this time-overlap effect, ordinary Shinigami simply could not survive in the Dangai. Any being with reiatsu (spiritual pressure) would, within the Dangai, be twisted by the spiral of time itself.
To put it in plain language: a normal Shinigami going into the Dangai—stay just a little too long, and the odds were overwhelmingly high that they would suffer permanent, irreversible damage to either body or soul upon returning.
Higashino Shuuichi had entered once. He'd stayed for less than half an hour before coming out. Translating that to the outside world's scale of time, not even a single second had passed.
Because the higher your reiatsu, the more violently the torrent of time in the Dangai would scour you.
So his idea of doing what a certain future walking cheat did—using the Dangai as a personal training chamber—had died before it even started.
Reality had proven once again that you couldn't lump all people together. Some were born able to trample rules, while most could only patch and stitch within the rules all their lives.
Still, that experience made Higashino Shuuichi realize something important: this should be the core reason why the souls of humans who died in the World of the Living, after passing through the Dangai, became reishi (spirit particle) bodies.
In his view, that was the key factor that would allow him, with a Shinigami's body and a Shinigami's soul, to master Furuburingu (Fullbring).
The modified soul technology was nothing more than a technical indicator derived from developing Furuburingu (Fullbring).
Therefore, as long as this process could be fully reverse-engineered, Higashino Shuuichi wouldn't find it strange at all if, in the future, his soul could freely shift between Shinigami and human forms.
However, to actually realize that process, they'd need a Shinigami who could enter the Dangai and remain unaffected by it.
As far as Higashino Shuuichi knew, there were only three such Shinigami.
The first was Aizen Sōsuke—but not the current Aizen. It would be the future Aizen, after fusing with the Hōgyoku (Collapse Orb).
The second was the future child of destiny, Soul King candidate, Japanese high schooler, ultimate mixed-blood mutt… Ichigo Kurosaki.
Obviously, those two freaks were not people Higashino Shuuichi could control at this stage.
Fortunately, he had a third backup option: Yushima Ōko.
As a villain in the original storyline whose fame had never been all that great, Yushima Ōko had one very particular advantage: his zanpakutō's shikai (initial release) allowed him to manipulate space to a certain degree.
By relying on that shikai ability, Yushima Ōko could carve out a space of his own within the Dangai, thereby achieving the perfect perk of enjoying the time bonus without paying the cost.
There was only one drawback: Shinigami lifespan.
Yes, lifespan.
Higashino Shuuichi never thought there would come a day when he'd worry about how long a Shinigami could live.
In this world, where Shinigami typically had lifespans of hundreds or even thousands of years, the vast majority never lived to die of old age. Ninety-nine point nine percent of them met their end in battle.
Even the sentences given by Central 46 for many criminals started at a hundred years, with five hundred or a thousand being commonplace.
But with Yushima Ōko having the Dangai's "bug" as a buff, this was the first time Higashino Shuuichi started to fret about such a thing.
After all, Shinigami might live very long, but one look at Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni told you that time still left its mark on them.
The last thing he wanted was for Yushima Ōko to train and train in the Dangai and end up overshooting his own prime.
So Higashino Shuuichi had always maintained a cautious stance toward Yushima Ōko's training and research inside the Dangai.
He did his best never to let Yushima Ōko stay too long on any given visit.
And this time was no different.
According to Higashino Shuuichi's plans, Yushima Ōko was methodically advancing through his training schedule inside the Dangai.
By Shuuichi's design, Yushima's shikai ability was already more than enough to help him accomplish the vast majority of strategic objectives, so there was no rush to master Bankai (final release). Instead, Yushima was to use his time in the Dangai to continually temper his reiatsu, all while repeatedly practicing the high-level Kidō (demon arts) Shuuichi had taught him, striving to reach a point where he could cast them with almost no power loss via chantless casting.
And he had to admit: the conditions inside the Dangai were something only those who'd stayed there understood—simply amazing.
The feeling of having hundreds of extra years more than everyone else was so addictive that Yushima Ōko often felt like he was the protagonist of some indulgent power fantasy.
In less than seven years of outside time, he had, with the extra centuries the Dangai had given him, surpassed his Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri in terms of raw reiatsu.
The next goal Higashino Shuuichi had set for him was to reach the level of Eighth Division Captain Kyoraku Shunsui—but the goal Yushima set for himself was… Higashino Shuuichi.
He knew that after Shuuichi-sama devoured Baraggan's Hollow core back then, his current reiatsu had already surpassed Captain Kyoraku's by a bit—but not by much.
So Yushima planned to give Shuuichi-sama a surprise. Just imagining Shuuichi's stunned expression when he unleashed his reiatsu was enough to make him giddy.
Even though the flow of time inside the Dangai was vastly different from outside, after so many years of research, Yushima Ōko and Kurotsuchi Mayuri had jointly developed a portable timekeeping device that could track Soul Society's time at all hours.
So when he checked the time and saw that the hour of Shuuichi-sama's scheduled exam was drawing near, Yushima Ōko prepared to leave the Dangai.
But just then, in that endless, lightless void, his gaze fell upon a lone figure.
Under normal circumstances, seeing a figure in the Dangai wasn't unusual. As mentioned earlier, the souls of those who died in the World of the Living could only reach Soul Society by passing through here under a Shinigami's guidance.
But the figure Yushima saw now was different.
Because in his spiritual perception, this figure unmistakably possessed reiatsu—and not a weak amount, either. Its intensity was dozens of times that of an ordinary Captain's, almost on par with Captain Kyoraku's.
"A Captain came into the Dangai?"
That was Yushima Ōko's first thought.
But he quickly realized that wasn't the case, because in the current Soul Society, every being with reiatsu on that level was known to him.
Backed by the connections and special status of both Kurotsuchi Mayuri and Higashino Shuuichi, Yushima Ōko had a crystal-clear picture of all the top-tier Shinigami currently active in Soul Society.
And this figure belonged to none of them.
Which made things… interesting.
Before him, there were two choices.
One: leave immediately according to the original plan, and go take part in Higashino Shuuichi's exam. Whoever that figure was had nothing to do, in essence, with the Twelfth Division's Vice-Captain of the Gotei 13.
Two: go over and take a look. Everyone had curiosity, after all. He could just look, not fight.
Predictably, Yushima Ōko chose the second option.
To him, who had been in the Dangai for what looked like a few short years from the outside but was, in fact, several centuries, the place was no longer just a training field. It was practically his own backyard, if not his actual home. And now some uninvited stranger had suddenly shown up here; there was no way he wasn't going to find out what was going on.
And the closer he got, the more puzzled he became.
Because once he saw the man's face clearly, Yushima realized he had absolutely no idea who this old man was.
The figure was a frail, ancient man, the picture of age and decay, so thin that every rib showed beneath the skin. From within his isolated pocket space, Yushima Ōko poked his head out and called:
"Hey, you. What's your name? And what are you doing here in the Dangai?"
He felt his tone was already quite polite, but the old man's attitude was… hard to describe politely.
"Tsk, tsk. I thought I'd be able to slip quietly into Soul Society, but it looks like Soul Society's developed to this point now? You people even have Shinigami stationed inside the Dangai?"
The old man clicked his tongue in mock regret—but the motion of his hand was aimed straight at Yushima Ōko's life.
He drew a zanpakutō that looked for all the world like a worn, cheap wooden blade. The crushing reiatsu on that blade tore apart Yushima's spatial shell before he could even react.
In an instant, the pressure of the Dangai surged in like a breaking wave.
"First-generation Gotei 13, Thirteenth Division Captain—Sakahone Saizō, makes his entrance!"
The old man looked at Yushima Ōko, who was now gasping for breath under the sudden pressure, with a mocking glint in his eyes.
"First-generation… Captain?"
Yushima stared at him, eyes wide in disbelief.
How was that possible?
The teaching materials were clear: most of the original Captains had died in the war against the Quincy King.
How could this decrepit old man be a first-generation Captain?
And yet—
And yet, deep down, Yushima found himself half-believing it.
Because if he was a member of the first generation of Captains, this level of reiatsu would make sense.
"Kid, your reiatsu's pretty high—way above your average Captain. So why aren't you wearing a haori?
Don't tell me the Gotei 13 these days doesn't even give someone at your level a Captain's seat?"
Sakahone Saizō looked Yushima Ōko over and spoke.
"A Captain? Who cares about that? I'm going to inherit Shuuichi-sama's position in the future and become the man who bears the title of Grand Blade-Hunting Chief!
The real question is you, old man. Even if you are a first-generation Captain, sneaking into the Dangai like this to slip into Soul Society from here—just what do you think you're doing?"
Driving his zanpakutō's power, Yushima Ōko used his reiatsu to carve out a fresh pocket of space around himself, finally easing the pressure somewhat.
Sakahone Saizō, on the other hand, seemed totally unaffected by the Dangai.
That alone was already beyond Yushima's understanding.
"Shuuichi-sama? Grand Blade-Hunting Chief? What's that supposed to be?
Kid, I couldn't care less about your little ambitions. But since we've met, I'm going to ask you one question—and you're going to answer honestly.
Tell me: is the Head-Captain of the Gotei 13 still that bastard Yamamoto Shigekuni?"
Sakahone Saizō snorted, voice dripping with disdain.
Yamamoto Shigekuni?
For a moment, the name didn't click. Yushima Ōko blinked, stunned, then realized who he meant.
"What do you want with the Head-Captain?"
Yushima asked.
Not that he expected an answer. Sakahone Saizō's attitude already made his intentions clear.
He was not here in peace.
So the moment the question left his lips, Yushima Ōko launched an all-out attack on Sakahone Saizō—yeah, right.
As a model student who had studied under Higashino Shuuichi for who-knew-how-many years, Yushima Ōko had faithfully inherited Shuuichi's fine tradition of "better them than me."
In both mindset and outlook, he had long set off down the path of Soul Society's future rebel—no turning back.
Facing someone who was clearly here to cause trouble for the Gotei 13, Yushima had zero intention of taking that hit on Soul Society's behalf.
So what he actually did was try to slip away while Sakahone Saizō was distracted.
Sakahone Saizō, however, had other ideas.
"Trying to run back and warn those people in Soul Society?
Don't bother dreaming."
He had decided all on his own that Yushima Ōko was one of Soul Society's loyal dogs—and he wanted to give Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni a surprise. That meant… Yushima Ōko could not be allowed to live.
"Tremble in terror… Gokumei!"
With that release phrase, the zanpakutō that had looked like a wooden practice sword turned, in an instant, into grim white bone, wreathed in a suffocating aura of death. The hands gripping it also became bare, bony claws.
Gokumei: Hikotsu (Prison Howl: Sorrowful Bones).
Sakahone Saizō thrust the blade into the void before him, and then, all around Yushima Ōko, reishi poured down like a waterfall—like the tears of colossi—crashing from every direction. Within that sealed space, they penned Yushima into a tiny cage.
Feeling the deathly chill emanating from them, Yushima knew that if he blindly touched those cascading reishi flows, he would suffer a fatal blow.
In other words, there was almost no escaping this fight.
"I wasn't planning on fighting you… but if you're going to be this enthusiastic about it, I guess I don't have much of a choice."
Once he understood that, Yushima Ōko let out a bitter laugh, then fixed his gaze on Sakahone Saizō in the distance and firmed his stance.
You could lose the fight, but you couldn't lose the attitude. He was putting Shuuichi-sama's teachings into practice perfectly.
Besides, it wasn't like losing was a foregone conclusion… right?
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