Shinro Bansho gazed at Makoto's refined and gentle demeanor behind his glasses, but his eyes betrayed a mischievous glint. He couldn't help but ask,
"Hey, hey, hey, pervert Master, you're not thinking of something indecent again, are you?"
"Who said that? Clearly, I'm the very model of an upstanding and pure-hearted doctor!"
Makoto retorted with an annoyed tone, reaffirming his stance. Then, as if struck by an intriguing thought, he asked,
"Shinro Bansho, do you think that after I replicate other Zanpakutō, a corresponding spirit might also manifest here?"
!!!
Shinro Bansho's eyes widened in shock, staring at Makoto as if he were caught red-handed in an illicit act. Suddenly, with a burst of indignation, Shinro Bansho launched himself at Makoto's chest.
"How dare you, pervert Master! Am I no longer enough for you? You're even fantasizing about other Zanpakutō spirits?!"
Boom!!!
Before Makoto could react, he was sent flying like a cannonball, carving a trench hundreds of meters long into the grassland.
At the end of the trench, Makoto lay sprawled out, his chest practically obliterated. All that remained was a resilient backbone tenuously connecting his upper body to the lower half.
However, in the very next moment, with a single thought, Makoto directed the surrounding green grass to decompose into reishi, which began rapidly converging toward him. The reishi restored his ravaged chest at a speed even surpassing the "High-Speed Regeneration" of a Hollow.
Reishi manipulation…
While Makoto's control over external reishi might not be limitless, repairing his own spiritual body was a simple matter. This allowed him, in the state of releasing Shinro Bansho, to heal injuries as long as his consciousness remained intact.
"Pervert~"
Hovering over Makoto's newly reconstructed chest, Shinro Bansho stomped in frustration with its delicate, pale feet, its face fuming up with annoyance.
"You truly are a despicable, shameless, lecherous master! To think that you'd come up with such filthy ideas right after hearing my true voice!"
Utterly bewildered, Makoto asked in confusion, "What? What filthy ideas?"
"Obviously… it's obviously…"
Shinro Bansho flailed its hands in an exaggerated gesture, its face turning red as it stammered incoherently, unable to complete a single coherent sentence.
Slowly, realization dawned on Makoto, and he couldn't help but let a sly smile creep across his face.
"So, Shinro Bansho, you do understand, don't you~?"
"Absolutely not! I am a pure and innocent Zanpakutō spirit!!!"
Meeting Makoto's knowing look, Shinro Bansho completely lost it. Its small, delicate fists began raining down on Makoto, unleashing an explosion of terrifying impacts.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
The grassland shattered as if an earth dragon was rolling beneath it...
Each punch sent shockwaves that expanded the crater, ten meters, twenty meters, a hundred meters…
Makoto… was once again reduced to a pitiful Master that Shinro Bansho knew all too well.
When Makoto finally pieced himself back together, his expression twitching slightly, he surveyed the surroundings, which now resembled the aftermath of a battle between monsters.
The deep pit he had dug up—he decided… it was best not to provoke Shinro Bansho, whose mood seemed to be overheating with anger at the moment.
Clearly, he hadn't even thought in that direction just now, but unexpectedly, Shinro Bansho had been quicker than him to grasp the implications.
All he could say was… as expected of his Zanpakuto. Come to think of it, wasn't this actually a rather delightful development?
Katen Kyokotsu, Sode no Shirayuki, Hyourinmaru, Suzumebachi… cough, maybe let's skip Suzumebachi. Her physical manifestation was, at best, just slightly larger than Shinro Bansho.
Outwardly, Makoto lightly cleared his throat, adjusted the glasses that marked him as the epitome of scholarly image, and said seriously:
"Shinro Bansho, now that I've heard your true voice, can you finally tell me how to begin a real Bankai training?"
"Hmph!"
Shinro Bansho crossed her arms and turned her head slightly to the side, deliberately ignoring Makoto before speaking:
"It's simple, really. As always, all you have to do is overwhelm me with sheer strength, and naturally, you'll succeed."
Hearing this, Makoto maintained his serious demeanor and began to coax:
"Is that so? What a pity. At this rate, it might take ages before I can achieve Bankai. I had really hoped to see your true form after Bankai. Surely, that must be your genuine self, right?"
A flicker of hesitation flashed across Shinro Bansho's face, almost instinctively betraying her interest. After a moment of contemplation, she said:
"Anyway, I absolutely won't tell you how to subdue me—unless you achieve the Perfect Spirit Body!"
The next moment, Makoto's vision abruptly went dark, and he was automatically ejected from the spiritual realm of his Zanpakuto.
"Seriously? How did an honest, upright, and kind-hearted person like me end up with such a stubbornly tsundere Zanpakuto?" he thought wryly.
Perfect Spirit Body?
After unlocking Shinro Bansho's true power, Makoto had come to understand the concept.
In a sense, the spirit body itself possessed inherent limits—an upper bound on spiritual energy accumulation, spiritual pressure intensity, physical strength, and so on.
This explained why Aizen Sosuke had mentioned, in the original storyline, that the Shinigami inherently faced insurmountable limits.
Even the "strongest Shinigami," Captain-Commander Yamamoto, had not been able to surpass these limits after over a millennium. Instead, his spirit body had visibly aged and deteriorated.
Limits. These were the so-called limits of the spirit body, and the limits of the Shinigami!
What Shinro Bansho referred to as the Perfect Spirit Body was the process of reshaping and evolving one's spirit body at the most fundamental level using the ability of Reishi Manipulation.
The density of the Reishi, its structure, its mass...
In essence, this was the true application of Shinro Bansho's Shikai ability, *Reishi Manipulation. While its external Reishi manipulation was slightly less effective, its true strength lay in enabling complete transformation of the user's spirit body.
But...
Makoto slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that came into view was the white tent-like surroundings, followed by the warm and elegant face of Unohana.
As Makoto awakened, a rare glimmer of delight flashed in Unohana's otherwise serene gaze.
Then, Makoto slowly raised the index finger he had used not long ago to block that Adjuchas' tail.
Two years...
After painstakingly accumulating spiritual energy for nearly two years using the Seed of the Forest, he had finally managed to complete the Perfect Spirit Body transformation of just one finger.
How much more massive spiritual pressure would be required to complete the transformation of his entire body?
A Thousand Years???
'...'
Cultivation!
He had to cultivate and prioritize this immediately!
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