[March 7th: Wow! 5,000 points! I spent 1,000 points to upgrade my ice ability to level two, and wow! I feel super refreshed! Sadly, the points I got were few, so I decided to save the rest to try the lottery next time.]
[Hancock: March 7th, what's the difference between level one and level two of your ability?]
[March 7th: The difference? Hmm, maybe it feels like I trained diligently for a whole year? Now I feel like I can freeze a lot of Voidrangers at once!]
[Tetsuya: Yes, the improvement is amazing. But the cost is also huge. Level two requires 1,000 points, level three needs 10,000 points, and level four requires 50,000 points. Also, some weaker or less useful abilities have a low maximum level cap.]
[Hancock: I see.]
[Shinobu: What about the others? @Tsunade, @Erza.]
[Tsunade: 40,000 points! Finally, time to pull the lottery!]
[March 7th: Ooh! Let's see what Tsunade-nee gets!]
Tetsuya was also looking forward to what Tsunade would get from the lottery. Maybe she would get nothing? Or trash? After all, she was notoriously bad at gambling.
However, after several minutes, Tsunade still hadn't sent any messages.
[Shinobu: Tsunade-san…?]
[March 7th: Tsunade-nee, what happened? Weren't you pulling the lottery? What did you get?]
[Hancock: @Tsunade. Just say what you got.]
[Tetsuya: What's wrong, Tsunade? Did you not get anything?]
[Tsunade: Be quiet! I'm concentrating here! Damn it! I spent 9,000 points and got nothing?! Is this lottery broken?!]
[March 7th: Eh? Can it be broken?]
[Tetsuya: Impossible. She's just unlucky as usual.]
At that very moment.
[Tsunade: Finally! I got something on the 10th pull!]
[March 7th: What is it?! Tell us!]
[Tsunade: The Byakugan Eyes!]
[March 7th: Byakugan? What's that? And did Tsunade-nee get an actual eye from the lottery…?]
[Shinobu: You can get something like that from the lottery…?]
[Hancock: That should be an ability.]
[Tsunade: Yeah, it's not an actual eye that just appears. Byakugan is a special eye from the Hyuga clan. It's special because it can see through the human body to observe the flow of chakra inside, see from extremely long distances, and has nearly 360-degree vision, except for one blind spot at the back of the neck.]
[March 7th: Wow! That's cool!]
[Tetsuya: That's good for your medical techniques. But when you activate it, will your eyes change? If so, wouldn't that arouse suspicion if others notice?]
[Tsunade: You're right, so I won't use it casually. And if it reaches a high enough level, maybe my eyes won't change when I activate it?]
[Tetsuya: We'll see.]
After that, Tetsuya closed the chat group. Don't forget, he was still sitting in his car, parked in some random park, and it was already night. He wanted to check the new thing he had obtained from the lottery, Zanpakutō, but it would be better to do that at home.
Looking out through the car window, Tetsuya saw something he had never seen before.
It looked like a mass of dark black smoke gathering into a terrifying entity, with two frighteningly glowing eyes and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth.
"An evil spirit? Oh, is this because my Sixth Sense reached its maximum level?" Tetsuya muttered. "Evil spirits really do look terrifying. No wonder an ordinary girl like Miko would be scared if she saw them every day."
As if it sensed his gaze, the evil spirit turned toward Tetsuya. Its red eyes shone brightly, but before it could approach, it vanished from his sight.
Not because he could no longer see it, rather, it seemed he could choose whether to activate the 'feature' that allowed him to see evil spirits at will. This way, he didn't have to look at terrifying spirits every day, unlike Yotsuya Miko.
"All right, let's go home."
…
At home, the first thing Tetsuya did was summon his Zanpakutō.
Immediately, a plain katana appeared in his hand. This should be called an Asauchi, since its true name had not yet been revealed. Right now, Tetsuya needed to give his Zanpakutō a name.
"A name, huh…"
Tetsuya closed his eyes, his breathing slowly becoming steady. It felt as though he was sinking into his own soul, trying to sense the "spirit" of his Zanpakutō. When he opened his eyes, dark crimson light flowed out, and within a rift of endless void, he saw a figure, floating majestically amid chaotic space, time, and dimensions.
At that moment, the corners of Tetsuya's mouth lifted. He understood. He understood what his Zanpakutō was, and what name it should bear.
"Saika. Mugen Saika."
Shikai!
The sword in his hand transformed into dark crimson particles and merged into his eyes. When he opened them, an abstract red pattern appeared in his pupils. Instantly, he understood the ability of this Zanpakutō: destruction.
Tetsuya raised his palm. There was no vibration, yet the glass on the table shattered instantly, turning into countless grains of dust. At level three, Tetsuya felt this still wasn't enough to reach Bankai, but the power was already sufficient to destroy the structure of objects and even small-to-medium living beings, reducing them to dust.
If it reached Bankai, its power would increase even further. At higher levels, it could destroy things down to the subatomic or fundamental level, affecting all physical objects and beings, as well as non-physical entities like evil spirits and magical attacks.
After being named, its appearance changed from a plain black katana. It became a slender, slightly curved blade with a pale gray-silver edge. The blade line appeared broken, as if disappearing in places, and faint yet deep black cracks ran along its surface.
Of course, even though its ability was extremely powerful, it was not invincible. Its only weakness was that it could not destroy things that were overwhelmingly strong, overly abstract, or beings far more powerful than Tetsuya himself, that was obvious.
However, if he wanted to destroy something like the Antimatter Legion he had fought on Herta Space Station, Tetsuya could reduce it to scrap metal with ease.
Naturally, all of this depended on the strength of his ability and his own power. After roughly understanding it, the pattern in his eyes faded. The Zanpakutō returned to his hand, then disappeared.