Kisuke Urahara was utterly dumbfounded.
In his daily life, he always worked diligently, adhering to the life principle of keeping a low profile while slacking off.
In these chaotic times, the more conspicuous one was, the more likely they'd become a target.
Unless the turbulent era ended, he had resolved to keep lying low indefinitely.
Who could have imagined that this peaceful existence would suddenly be shattered by some inexplicable guy!
On the verge of tears, he couldn't help but look at Satoru.
Seeing Kisuke's gaze, Satoru smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
As a man with high emotional intelligence, he knew full well that to make someone like you, you had to help them shine.
Why do the chubby sidekicks in novels always live such happy lives?
The reason was simple—they let the protagonist steal the spotlight!
While he might not be as capable as those novel sidekicks, when it came to yielding the spotlight, he had full confidence.
Sure enough, wasn't Kisuke now looking at him with a profoundly grateful expression?
Satoru couldn't help but admire his own wisdom.
Upon hearing Satoru's words, the members of Squad 2 turned their gazes toward Kisuke Urahara.
If Satoru hadn't pointed it out, they wouldn't have noticed.
But now that they thought about it, Kisuke always slacked off during training, yet somehow managed to scrape by during evaluations.
Wasn't this exactly the behavior of a hidden expert?!
Many of the squad members' eyes lit up, and they began challenging Kisuke—some with words, others with fists and kicks.
As the group descended into chaos, Satoru nodded in satisfaction.
This time, Kisuke Urahara's reputation should spread throughout Squad 2.
After years of toiling in obscurity, finally getting a promotion, a raise, and the chance to fulfill his ambitions—Kisuke would surely be grateful to him.
This act of benevolence had a distinctly scheming, villainous boss-like flavor to it.
The fake boss: Sōsuke Aizen.
The true boss: Satoru!
Imagining Aizen kneeling before him, presenting the "Greatest Villain of the Series" award, Satoru couldn't help but smirk triumphantly.
Seeing that Kisuke's situation wouldn't be resolved anytime soon, Satoru decided to leave first.
Before going, he exchanged a quick greeting with Soi Fon, promising to check her progress the next time he visited Squad 2.
Hearing this, Soi Fon's face brightened, and she nodded happily.
Though they had only known each other for half a day, her favorability toward Satoru had already skyrocketed to second only to Yoruichi's.
Compared to Yoruichi, it was already at least one percent of her regard.
Quite impressive!
...
...
After leaving Squad 2, Satoru returned to the Shin'ō Academy.
Bypassing the new campus, he headed straight to his Mickey Mouse Magic... ahem, private training ground.
Before entering the dojo, he formed a series of hand seals, activating a barrier woven from bending light.
With this barrier in place, no one could spy on what was happening inside from afar.
If someone tried to tear through the light and breach the barrier, he would know immediately.
Admiring his handiwork, Satoru nodded in satisfaction.
Truly made in Aizen—with skills like this, he could probably land a position in the Kidō Corps.
Once the barrier was set, Satoru stepped inside and retrieved a small vial of red liquid.
This was material refined by Kirio Hikifune for creating artificial souls.
Satoru guessed that this red liquid was likely the precursor to the Mod-Soul pills.
Following Kirio's instructions, he uncorked the vial and poured out the liquid.
Guided by his spiritual pressure, the red fluid swirled and condensed midair, forming a smooth, spherical mass.
With a serious expression, Satoru placed both hands over it.
Next, he needed to fuse this substance with his own spiritual pressure, creating a soul that closely resembled his own.
Whether this could fool Aizen depended entirely on the quality of the soul.
Barring any mishaps, the process would be quite lengthy.
Fortunately, soul crafting could be paused and resumed.
If he didn't finish today, he could continue tomorrow.
As long as he didn't make any mistakes or ruin the materials, he could take his time until he mastered the process.
Under normal circumstances, Satoru would have dragged out the timeline as much as possible to ensure perfection.
But now, with time short and the stakes high, he had to work as quickly as he could.
Satoru took a deep breath.
He hoped he wouldn't fail too many times—otherwise, even Kirio Hikifune's famously good temper might snap, and she'd come after him with a blade.
After mentally preparing himself, he forcefully channeled his spiritual pressure into the red sphere.
The first step was to fuse his spiritual pressure with the red liquid as thoroughly as possible.
This process would likely take dozens of hours.
By temporarily suspending his sword meditation practice, he could free up about seven hours each day.
In roughly ten days, he could...
...Huh?
While making these calculations, Satoru suddenly froze.
He sensed an oddly familiar feeling from the red sphere—like it had become an extension of his own body.
Startled, he immediately focused his senses to investigate.
Soon, Satoru understood what was happening.
After his spiritual pressure fused with some of the artificial soul materials inside the sphere, those already fused portions began responding to his commands effortlessly.
But according to Kirio Hikifune's explanation, the materials shouldn't respond at all until his spiritual pressure had fully merged with all components!
Even after complete fusion to create his personal artificial soul, mastering its operation should require extensive practice.
Why could he already freely control it after only partial fusion?
After a few seconds of confusion, he continued injecting spiritual pressure to fuse more artificial soul materials.
Soon, these newly fused materials also obeyed his commands.
Despite the artificial soul being incomplete, he could already extract portions of soul from the red sphere.
Moreover, these extracted soul fragments followed his orders absolutely—responding with flexibility rivaling his own fingers at just a thought...
Satoru felt profoundly conflicted.
Though he often boasted that Aizen was a fake genius while he was the real deal, he knew his actual limitations.
Compared to a monster like Aizen, he was just an exceptionally capable ordinary person.
Yet now, his artificial soul's rapid progress defied explanation.
Suddenly, Satoru remembered something.
When learning the Cat Transformation technique earlier, his unprecedented progress had nearly moved Yoruichi to envious tears.
Both processes shared a key similarity—they involved restructuring the spiritual particles constituting his being.
An artificial soul fused with his spiritual pressure was essentially an extension of himself.
Perhaps beyond his "Binding System," he possessed a second transmigrator's advantage!
Excitement bubbled within Satoru.
If he could master more abilities in related fields, might he soon forge an unconventional path to formidable power?
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