It was certain that the Visoreds would tell Kisuke Urahara about him.
And Natsuro himself wasn't sure what to make of Kisuke. Strictly speaking, he hadn't hidden anything from him.
So Kisuke must have already guessed what Natsuro would be thinking after seeing the Visoreds' Hollowfication.
Yet Kisuke had still pushed the Visoreds into his path…
"Kisuke Urahara… what an unpredictable man." Natsuro sighed, then walked toward Kisuke's shop.
"Welcome!"
As soon as he slid open the shop door, Kisuke's voice rang out.
"Cut the welcomes. The Visoreds have already been here, haven't they?" Natsuro asked helplessly, watching the eccentric man in front of him.
"Of course," Kisuke said, dropping his cheerful smile.
"So, can I ask what you were trying to accomplish by making them meet me?" Natsuro sat down on the tatami opposite him and asked bluntly.
"Hmm…" Kisuke's expression turned serious. Instead of answering, he asked, "Natsuro, you've felt it too, haven't you? The limit."
Natsuro fell silent. Indeed, even though he had been constantly compressing his reiatsu, he was almost at his limit now. Any further improvement was extremely difficult.
"Actually, it's not just you. Aizen and I have both sensed this limit as well. You could even call it the limit of the Shinigami," Kisuke said solemnly.
"So to break that limit, it's Hollowfication of a Shinigami? Or perhaps Shinigamification of a Hollow?" Natsuro frowned slightly.
"From our current research, only by breaking the boundary between Shinigami and Hollow can we possibly transcend the restriction and gain greater power," Kisuke answered.
Natsuro said nothing. The relationship between Hollows and Shinigami was too complex, both were born from human souls, just from two different directions.
Combining them might indeed make one stronger. Natsuro was inclined to believe Kisuke, having seen the Visoreds himself.
"So what does that have to do with you making me meet the Visoreds?" he asked.
Kisuke was silent for a while, gazing at Natsuro from beneath the shadow of his hat.
He had always known Natsuro was strong. But judging from the Visoreds' account, he had underestimated him.
Natsuro's strength seemed boundless.
Kisuke even suspected that he hadn't fought the Visoreds at full strength.
And he was right. That "Fifth Form" Natsuro used hadn't been his limit. It was just raw, overwhelming power, displaying his immense reiatsu in its purest form.
"Because we can't be sure of your stance. One day, your strength will hit its limit. When that happens, if Aizen offers you a way to grow stronger… what choice would you make?" Kisuke asked, watching him carefully.
He both admired and feared people like Natsuro, those with such a pure desire for power.
The persistence was admirable. But the possibility of them going to any lengths for strength… was frightening.
Thankfully, Natsuro was not like Aizen.
"So, if you were certain that I'd choose to side with Aizen for the sake of power, what would you do?" Natsuro asked curiously.
Kisuke smiled. "But you aren't that kind of person… are you?"
Natsuro gave him a look but said nothing.
"…You're really something," Kisuke sighed, exasperated at being stared down.
"To be honest, if you were that kind of man, I would've still done the same," he admitted. "At least that way, I'd be certain of an enemy I'd have to face in the future."
Natsuro stayed silent. He could tell Kisuke was still holding back, notably, he hadn't mentioned the Hōgyoku at all.
Two half-finished Hōgyoku, though created differently, their abilities should be similar.
So wasn't it possible that, if he had been the type to side with Aizen for strength, Kisuke would have been willing to give him what he wanted first?
Not to make him an ally, perhaps, but at least to keep him from becoming Aizen's.
Natsuro chuckled softly. He didn't particularly care. He wasn't all that interested in Kisuke's Hōgyoku anyway.
After all, he remembered how Aizen had gone to such lengths to steal Kisuke's. That meant Kisuke's version, being a half-finished product, must have serious flaws. Otherwise Aizen would have already used it on himself.
So even if Kisuke offered it to him, he wouldn't use it.
Kisuke lapsed into silence too, knowing his reasoning hadn't been very solid. Fortunately, Natsuro didn't seem inclined to press him further.
"You know, trying to test people like this really makes you unpleasant," Natsuro said, giving him a sidelong glance.
"Sorry," Kisuke admitted. But given the situation, he couldn't just do nothing.
"Then where's your sincerity in apologizing?" Natsuro asked, flashing him an odd smile.
Kisuke froze. A bad feeling rose in his chest. Normally, he could refuse such things casually. But right now, he didn't feel like he could.
"At least let me see your bankai. If it really isn't a combat type, I'll let it go," Natsuro said offhandedly.
At last, Kisuke sighed, stood up, and walked toward the basement.
He hadn't answered aloud, but his actions were enough. Natsuro followed. He had always been curious about Kisuke's true strength.
In truth, Kisuke hadn't wanted to reveal his bankai. But fighting Natsuro carried too much risk, he might be forced to use it anyway.
And from what he knew of Natsuro, if he couldn't force out his bankai, Natsuro would never stop pressing.
If he refused to use it, he might even die.
Better to show Natsuro his bankai on his own terms than to be cornered into doing it.
Certainly better than revealing the Hōgyoku now.
Before long, Kisuke led Natsuro into a space much like the Visoreds' underground hideout.
Not only Natsuro, but Tessai Tsukabishi and Yoruichi Shihōin had followed too.
After all, even they hadn't seen Kisuke's bankai in a very long time. Once they heard he was going to reveal it, they immediately joined them.
"You really can't resist a spectacle, can you?" Kisuke chuckled bitterly, pressing down the brim of his hat to hide his face.
"Hmph. You're always so secretive. Even living together, I can't be sure how strong you really are," Yoruichi said.
The towering Tessai nodded gravely in agreement.
"Well, fine. Showing one or three makes no difference…" Kisuke muttered, still holding his cane.
"Awaken: Benihime!"
With his quiet call, the cane transformed into a rather ordinary zanpakutō. Nothing outwardly special.
"This is my shikai," Kisuke said, though he offered no explanation of its ability. Just by looking, it was nearly impossible to tell.
Then his eyes sharpened. Taking a deep breath, he gripped the hilt tightly, and his reiatsu burst forth in an instant.
Natsuro felt it and was impressed. Not as much as his own, but stronger than most captains.
As expected of the man who created the Hōgyoku.
With this level of reiatsu and control, even if his bankai wasn't combat-oriented, his fighting strength was still formidable.
Bankai, in Natsuro's eyes, was just the icing on the cake. What truly decided a battle was the wielder.
"Bankai!
Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame!"
As Kisuke's voice fell, his reiatsu surged outward.
Behind him appeared a giant figure of a woman, long hair in a traditional coiffure, dressed in a sleeveless kimono, her body segmented with puppet-like joints.
Yoruichi and Tessai both stared in awe. Even they had rarely witnessed Kisuke's bankai.
"Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame, it reconstructs and alters anything touched by its blade," Kisuke explained outright, actually revealing its ability.
"So that's it… as expected of a former 12th Division captain." Natsuro was a little surprised at the bankai before him.
How to put it? It was extremely useful for research, but in combat, perhaps less so.
Though, according to Kisuke, even an enemy struck by the blade could be reconstructed, in other words, killed through alteration.
But the problem was, that "contact" condition. Even the dumbest enemy wouldn't just stand there and let someone's bankai blade touch their body, right?
For example, if Kisuke really fought Natsuro, Natsuro wouldn't even need to know what his bankai's ability was. He simply would never allow Kisuke the chance to touch him with it.
And if he did manage to land a hit, well… a regular slash from a zanpakutō would probably be just as lethal.
The real question was whether Kisuke's bankai could reconstruct another bankai's zanpakutō. If it could, then during a weapon clash, he might disable the opponent's sword entirely, which would be quite a formidable ability.
But Natsuro doubted it. In the end, it would probably just devolve into reiatsu clashing against reiatsu.
"So, as I've said before, my ability isn't suited for direct combat." Kisuke gave a wry smile and released his bankai.
At his words, Natsuro's expression was noncommittal. But Yoruichi and Tessai clearly thought differently.
For Natsuro, Kisuke's display of power hadn't been all that impressive. But to Yoruichi and Tessai, it was plenty, stronger than they'd realized.
They hadn't expected the Kisuke they lived alongside every day to already be this powerful.
It seemed that even while exiled in the human world, unable to freely return to Soul Society, he hadn't neglected his training.
"Are you satisfied now?" Kisuke asked, looking at Natsuro.
"Naturally." Natsuro nodded. Since Kisuke's ability really wasn't geared for direct combat, and he didn't seem to have any particularly overwhelming techniques, the idea of fighting him could be set aside for now.
"But since I'm already here…" Natsuro's gaze suddenly shifted to Yoruichi and Tessai.
"Yare yare. If it's them, then as long as they agree, you're free to use this place however you like," Kisuke said, instantly slipping back into his usual unserious tone.
Yoruichi and Tessai both broke into cold sweats, staring at Natsuro and silently grumbling.
You come here almost every two or three days, how is that 'since I'm already here'?!
Just then, Yoruichi's catlike ears twitched. She immediately blurted, "The phone upstairs is ringing, I'll get it!"
And in the blink of an eye, her figure vanished.
Natsuro watched her go, quietly impressed once again. No matter how many times he saw it, Yoruichi's flash step was always so nimble and graceful, as though the technique had been created for her alone.
Even though his reiatsu was higher than hers, and his straight-line shunpo speed surpassed hers, when it came to agility, he still wasn't her equal.
Just as his gaze returned to Tessai, Yoruichi's voice rang out again.
"Kisuke! Shiba... no, Kurosaki Isshin's child has just been born!"
At once, not only Kisuke's eyes lit up — but Natsuro's as well.
He had long wanted to see what kind of monstrous constitution the Shinigami protagonist would be born with, and how exactly the Shinigami and Hollow powers inside him could achieve perfect fusion.
And Kisuke, though the one who had orchestrated it all, was just as curious about the result. After all, this was the first, and likely only, time in his life he'd see such a thing.
Because Isshin and Masaki's circumstances had been far too coincidental.
So coincidental that even Kisuke thought it must have been fate, though perhaps nudged along by Aizen as well…
Human, Hollow, Shinigami, and Quincy... all gathered in one being.
And even the union of Isshin and Masaki had, at the time, been the only possible choice.
"Are you two still going to spar?" Kisuke looked at Natsuro and Tessai.
"No rush for that. Let's go see the child first," Natsuro replied.
In that instant, all of them reached an unspoken agreement, and together they set out toward the hospital.
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Currently on Chapter 487 - The Night Ulquiorra Spread His Wings