pappabearbooks #161 - Invading the realm of God! Subverting the foundation of the Jingling Court!
#161 - Invading the realm of God! Subverting the foundation of the Jingling Court!
Back then, Rofū not only lacked sufficient spiritual pressure, but he was also known throughout the Soul Society as a 'dead last' in all aspects of swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, Kido, and Shunpo.
His ability to become the sixth seat in the Fourth Division was largely thanks to his Zanpakuto's incredibly potent healing abilities.
Although Urahara Kisuke was once only the head of the Research and Development Department and not a Shinigami specifically responsible for combat, his strength should not be underestimated, as it allowed him to become a Captain, in addition to his talent in technological development.
At the very least, he wasn't someone a half-baked Shinigami like Rofū could handle in his transformed state.
In terms of swordsmanship alone.
After a brief exchange, Urahara Kisuke's Zanpakuto, in a flash of light, completely killed Shinigami Rofū's transformation on the spot.
In the instant the Shinigami transformation disappeared, the Zanpakuto in Rofū's hand suddenly emitted a buzzing sound. Accompanied by the Zanpakuto vibrating on its own, the Shinigami transformation, which had been killed on the spot, miraculously reappeared unharmed.
Ultimately, whether it was the Shinigami transformation, the Ninja transformation, or the Inhuman transformation, they were all merely manifestations of Rofū's Zanpakuto's abilities.
It was just like Hitsugaya Tōshirō summoning an ice dragon with his Zanpakuto's Bankai.
Even if it was destroyed by an enemy, it would at most cost some spiritual power to summon it again. For the Shinigami themselves, it couldn't be considered any real damage.
"Rofū-san, it seems you haven't properly practiced the required courses for Shinigami. Your swordsmanship is still so terrible."
Urahara Kisuke wasn't surprised that Rofū could summon a new transformation again.
He had only destroyed something summoned by the Zanpakuto's ability, not caused any irreparable damage to the Zanpakuto itself.
Such a loss was insignificant to any Shinigami.
However, before Urahara Kisuke could become complacent.
In the sky, the Inhuman Rofū transformation, having finally completed its charge, also revealed its ferocious fangs.
The sound of thunder rumbled, startling countless residents of Karakura Town awake in the night.
A terrifying bolt of lightning, as if piercing through the heavens and earth, struck down towards Urahara Kisuke with incredible speed.
Even with Bankai Benihime overhead.
The moment the lightning struck Bankai Benihime, Benihime's figure began to transform into pure spiritual power in a short period of time.
Of course, the lightning wasn't without loss.
You must know that Bankai Benihime is capable of altering everything. Although Bankai Benihime cannot arbitrarily change pure attacks like lightning in the same way as it treats matter.
However, the Inhuman Rofū transformation's lightning was still able to have half of its power neutralized by Bankai Benihime's ability when it struck.
Urahara Kisuke's face suddenly paled, and he took a deep breath, saying, "What a terrifying ability, Rofū-san. I was right about you. You're already more terrifying than Aizen now."
"Urahara-sensei, your hostility towards Captain Aizen is truly deep. It seems that you always have to compare your enemies to Captain Aizen."
"Isn't that because the pressure Rofū-san is giving me is a little too great? And I also…"
Before he could finish speaking, a spatial vortex suddenly appeared beside Urahara Kisuke, followed by twinkling starlight.
A long sword instantly emerged from the spatial vortex, slashing down towards Urahara Kisuke's neck.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, his sixth sense, which he has honed over time, caused the alarm bells in Urahara Kisuke's heart to ring loudly, and he subconsciously made a sidestep.
It was because of this action that Urahara Kisuke avoided a fatal blow.
Even so, with one slash, Urahara Kisuke's right hand was almost completely severed at the shoulder by the sword that appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by starlight.
Blood spurted out instantly.
Urahara Kisuke almost couldn't maintain Bankai Benihime.
And the nobles occupy the rights of one division in the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.
It can be seen that the power of the nobles in the Seireitei is immense.
As for Urahara Kisuke saying that he fell for Rofū's trick, it was only because the three transformations of Rofū's Bankai were based on himself in the shared space as a template.
And coincidentally, as the first three people to enter the shared space.
Whether it was the Inhuman Rofū or the Uchiha Rofū, they had all developed their own styles of Star Breathing and Hokuto swordsmanship.
The only one who wasn't good at swordsmanship was Rofū's Shinigami transformation.
This initial reaction of directly facing Rofū's Shinigami transformation and underestimating him was the real reason why Urahara Kisuke said he had fallen for the trick.
"Urahara-sensei, you are a genius. If possible, I really wouldn't want to be your enemy, but… I can only say that you were asking for your own death."
With a determined killing intent flashing in his eyes, Rofū directly began to deliver a fatal blow to the severely injured Urahara Kisuke.
Just as the Inhuman Rofū in the sky was manipulating lightning, the Uchiha Rofū was also beginning to display the terrifying power of the seven forms of Hokuto swordsmanship of Star Breathing, and even the Shinigami transformation rushed up to suppress Urahara Kisuke.
A figure flashed by.
And Urahara Kisuke, along with this fleeting figure, disappeared from the spot.
The lightning in the sky struck the ground, and the Uchiha Rofū transformation's slash, which was wrapped in starlight, also missed.
Rofū stared in the direction of the Urahara Shop and said with conviction, "Shunko, Shihōin Yoruichi."
That's right, although the speed of that figure just now was so fast that Rofū didn't even see it clearly.
But not to mention Karakura Town in the human world, even in the entire Soul Society, there may not be many who possess such speed.
This is pure speed, unlike the Hollow's Sonido, which is a means of spatial transfer.
And in terms of pure speed, the fastest in the Soul Society is undoubtedly Shihōin Yoruichi. Even the Shunko that Shihōin Yoruichi developed many years ago has only just been mastered by Soi Fon, the current Captain of the Second Division.
In addition, Shihōin Yoruichi is on good terms with Urahara Kisuke.
There is no need to think much about who saved Urahara Kisuke. Other than Shihōin Yoruichi, there couldn't be anyone else.
Although he wasn't able to completely kill Urahara Kisuke, leaving Urahara Kisuke alive might not be a bad thing for Rofū.
If there was no Urahara Kisuke, who is capable of competing with Aizen in the field of scientific research, who knows how far Aizen would ultimately go.
In Rofū's opinion, Aizen's failure was 90% due to his own underestimation of the enemy, or rather, his overconfidence.
More seriously, Aizen's failure can be said to be a plot kill.
But even so, it cannot be denied that if Urahara Kisuke did not exist, with the ability of the Seireitei, they might not be a match for Aizen.
Rofū also didn't want to deal with an Aizen without weaknesses alone.
In that case, leaving Urahara Kisuke alive to hold back Aizen while he completely stirred up the waters of the human world, the Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo, would create an environment for him to fish in troubled waters.
Taking a deep look in the direction of the Urahara Shop, Rofū quickly sensed the location of Inoue Hao, whom he had transformed into an Arrancar. After putting away his Bankai, his figure was instantly swallowed by a spatial vortex.
Inside the Urahara Shop.
"Shopkeeper."
Seeing Urahara Kisuke being supported by Shihōin Yoruichi, forced to rely on Shihōin Yoruichi because he had lost an arm, with a pale face and half of his body stained red with blood.
Tsukabishi Tessai immediately felt a tightening in his heart and hurriedly greeted them.
"Shopkeeper, what's going on? Could it be that Aizen is finally going to attack us?"
"It's not Aizen."
Shihōin Yoruichi frowned and shook her head, saying, "It's Rofū."
"Rofū?"
Tsukabishi Tessai helped Shihōin Yoruichi carry Urahara Kisuke into the shop while looking at Shihōin Yoruichi with a puzzled expression.
"That's right."
Shihōin Yoruichi said with a hint of disappointment, "That guy felt that Rofū was a more dangerous existence than Aizen. After realizing that Rofū could turn Hollows into Arrancars, he prepared to solve a problem for the Seireitei in advance before Rofū grew to an unmanageable point, but he didn't expect that he himself would be the one to be solved."
"Yoruichi-san, although I am very grateful that you intervened in time to save me, you don't have to mock me like that, do you?"
Urahara Kisuke smiled wryly.
"Can your arm be restored?"
Shihōin Yoruichi didn't pay attention to Urahara Kisuke's grievances.
She was now more concerned about Urahara Kisuke's injuries.
“I'm afraid there's some trouble!” Upon hearing Yoruichi Shihouin mention his injuries, Kisuke Urahara's expression turned serious, and he said, “I can feel that Roufu left a strange spiritual particle in my wound, as if... as if it were starlight. This special spiritual particle is very troublesome. Perhaps I need to find a way to create a special arm for myself.”
For other Soul Reapers, losing an arm might be a serious injury, but for Kisuke Urahara, who has Benihime, it's nothing.
In Bankai state, Benihime, who can reconstruct everything, can also restore his injuries, and easily restore his lost eyesight.
But now, Kisuke Urahara feels that his arm may not be able to recover.
The seemingly simple slash from Roufu actually left a special spiritual particle in his wound that Kisuke Urahara didn't understand at all. With this spiritual particle present, he simply couldn't recover from his injury.
Unless he creates a semi-mechanical arm for himself, as for restoring an arm of flesh and blood and in a spiritual body state, he shouldn't even think about it.
It's not that Bankai Benihime can't do it, but there are limitations to the things that are reconstructed, such as stitch-like marks appearing on the reconstructed object.
Unfortunately, without a way to resolve the starlight spiritual power left by Roufu, Kisuke Urahara didn't dare to risk restoring his arm. More importantly, his severed arm wasn't retrieved when it fell.
Moreover, when he was fighting, flames were constantly burning around Kisuke Urahara.
Thankfully, Bankai Benihime blocked the intrusion of the flames, but after Kisuke Urahara escaped the encirclement of the three avatars, his severed arm was inevitably incinerated by the burning flames.
Even if he went back now, he might not be able to retrieve it.
In the short term, Kisuke Urahara couldn't think of a suitable way to restore his arm to its original state.
“It seems that this is the only way now!” Yoruichi Shihouin glared at Kisuke Urahara with disappointment and said solemnly, “Is this Roufu very troublesome?”
“He's more than just troublesome now.” Kisuke Urahara's expression also became serious, and he said, “Although Aizen is hiding very deeply, he is still the captain of the Fifth Division. Unless he wants to abandon this identity, he has to consider his identity no matter what he does, but Roufu…”
“I'm asking about this Roufu's strength.” Yoruichi Shihouin emphasized impatiently.
“Strength?” Kisuke Urahara smiled wryly and said, “Although I was partly careless this time, Roufu's Bankai…”
After a slight pause, Kisuke Urahara solemnly said, “Yoruichi, I can feel that the ability Roufu showed me is only a part of his Bankai. His Bankai release phrase is 'Manifest myriad, Great Luo,' but at that time, he only showed me the ability of three avatars.”
“Manifest myriad, Great Luo?” Yoruichi Shihouin repeated Roufu's Bankai release phrase, and couldn't help but sink into deep thought.
The Zanpakuto's ability is inextricably linked to its release phrase, and even, to some extent, it is a general or direct description of the Zanpakuto's ability.
There is no doubt that Roufu's Zanpakuto ability and his release phrase must be the same.
Thinking of Roufu's 'Manifest myriad' release phrase and the three avatars she saw at the time.
Even Yoruichi Shihouin couldn't help but feel her heart sink to the bottom.
As if afraid that this alone wouldn't be shocking enough for Yoruichi Shihouin, Kisuke Urahara continued, “Roufu has indeed become a madman. He is now like a humanoid Hogyoku. I saw with my own eyes that he used his own Zanpakuto to turn a newly born Hollow into an Arrancar.”
The Arrancar of Hollows is essentially turning Hollows into Soul Reapers.
For Yoruichi Shihouin, who knows a part of the Hogyoku's ability, she naturally knows how terrifying it is. It's no exaggeration to say that this kind of ability is simply subverting the foundation of the Seireitei.
Soul Reapers and Hollows are irreconcilable, but the Hogyoku can break the boundary between the two.
Turning Hollows into Arrancars and Soul Reapers into Hollows, although at first glance it seems to give both sides further possibilities.
But in fact, the feud between Hollows and Soul Reapers, which spans thousands of years, is not so easy to resolve.
This approach is essentially a huge challenge to the current Seireitei system.
Whether it is Roufu or Aizen, the Seireitei will not allow them to live.
Kisuke Urahara chose to defect from the Seireitei without hesitation after creating the Hogyoku precisely because he was aware of this.
In essence, Kisuke Urahara's defection was more for survival. He does have loyalty to the Seireitei, but he doesn't want to die for creating the Hogyoku and bearing the blame.
This is also why, in the future, when Aizen defects, the Seireitei clearly accepts Hirako Shinji and these Hollowfied Soul Reapers, but cannot accept Kisuke Urahara; however, they also don't continue to target Kisuke Urahara, but simply turn a blind eye to him.
They know of his existence, but they don't target him. As long as Kisuke Urahara doesn't blatantly show his presence, then the Seireitei won't easily attack Kisuke Urahara.
Kisuke Urahara's reason for targeting Roufu is actually more of a relationship of interdependence.
Who made Roufu himself a humanoid Hogyoku?
If Roufu really uses his own ability to create too many Hollowfied Soul Reapers and Arrancar Hollows, then the Seireitei will not be able to pretend to be deaf and dumb. Whether it is Aizen, Kisuke Urahara, or Roufu, they will inevitably be attacked by the Seireitei.
In the Urahara Shop, Kisuke Urahara made up his mind to solve this big trouble of Roufu.
On the other side, Roufu, who had just cut off Kisuke Urahara's arm, appeared in Orihime Inoue's residence in a very short time.
Not long ago, when he gave Tatsuki Arisawa the power of a Soul Reaper, Roufu already knew Orihime Inoue's address.
But now, he came together with Sora Inoue.
For Hollows, Arrancarization is a fundamental change. Although the emptiness in their hearts still cannot be filled, they will not act recklessly because of the eagerness to fill the emptiness in their hearts.
Arrancar Hollows are more like having a kind of ability to restrain their own instincts by relying on their own willpower, returning from a purely desire-driven creature to a state of having a certain rationality.
If there was no Arrancarization, even if he had the greatest attachment and affection for Orihime Inoue when he was alive, Sora Inoue would not hesitate to attack Orihime Inoue in order to fill the emptiness in his heart.
But now, after arriving at Orihime Inoue's residence.
Looking at his sleeping sister, Sora Inoue gently stretched out his hand and stroked Orihime Inoue's cheek. However, when he touched the hairpin placed on the side of the pillow, a sad look appeared on Sora Inoue's face.
“Orihime…”
Sora Inoue spoke softly, but his voice was obviously not enough to wake the sleeping Orihime Inoue.
“It seems you care about your sister very much.”
A sudden voice immediately startled Sora Inoue.
In an instant, realizing that the owner of this voice was none other than the one who had recently freed himself from that crazy emptiness and regained his rationality, Sora Inoue seemed involuntarily to stand in front of Orihime Inoue, opening his arms to protect his sleeping sister behind him.
“Who exactly are you? What do you want to do?”
“I gave you your power. Is that how you talk to your master?” Roufu raised an eyebrow, looking at Sora Inoue with interest.
The reason why he used this attitude to face Sora Inoue was because Roufu discovered something that interested him in Sora Inoue.
Tatsuki Arisawa is one thing, after all, the ability this girl got came from the rookie office worker from Marvel, the insurance salesman himself. Even Roufu, who shared space with her and had no secrets from each other, didn't know what kind of ability the Marvel self had.
But Roufu is very clear about the methods of the Oni!
Before, Roufu had also given abilities to those consumables, but those consumables were like this: although they possessed spiritual power that exceeded ordinary people, the abilities they obtained were only strengthened parts of the Bankai Zanpakuto avatar.
Only Sora Inoue in front of him almost completely obtained the ability of the Oni Roufu.
The Seven Emotions and Seven Sins, the Hokuto Sword Form of Star Breathing, including the image, Sora Inoue was strongly influenced by the Oni Roufu avatar.
Originally, after becoming a Hollow, Sora Inoue was a monster with a bone mask on his cheek and a human body with a snake tail.
But now, although his snake tail was still there, only a small section of the mask remained, like a headband, on his forehead. Moreover, at the center of his brow, this headband-like bone mask had a hollow space, through which one could see a closed eye inside.
Besides this, Inoue Hao now had a pair of jet-black wings on his back, resembling Ulquiorra.
The resemblance was striking, clearly a combination of the original Inoue Hao and the demon Luo Fu.
He had almost perfectly inherited all the abilities of the demon Luo Fu's incarnation, and even his appearance was starting to transform in the direction of the demon Luo Fu.
Of course, Luo Fu would be very interested in such a test subject.
After all, by transferring Shinigami abilities to others, he was essentially allowing them to help him share the acquired abilities, shortening the indigenization process.
Undoubtedly, the more comprehensive the abilities inherited by the test subject through this method of transferring Shinigami abilities to others, the greater and faster the progress of indigenization for Luo Fu.
In Luo Fu's view, the impact of one Inoue Hao on indigenization far exceeded the results of more than three digits' worth of consumables.
Such an excellent test subject was something that even Luo Fu was reluctant to kill easily.
The moment Luo Fu finished speaking, Inoue Hao felt, in the depths of his being, that every spiritual particle that constituted his current complete life form seemed to be conveying to him the impulse to submit to Luo Fu.
The intensity of this impulse even reached, or even surpassed, the Hollow's original desire to fill the emptiness in their hearts.
It was fortunate that Inoue Hao was now in a human-snake form, otherwise he might have directly knelt before Luo Fu.
Even so, after a period of futile resistance, Inoue Hao trembled and slumped to the ground.
No matter how much his heart resisted, how could Inoue Hao withstand the impulse from the depths of his heart to submit to Luo Fu?
Thump!
A muffled sound echoed, and the ground seemed to vibrate.
Inoue Hao prostrated on the ground in a 'dogeza' posture, showing utmost respect to Luo Fu.
Perhaps the vibration of the ground awakened the sleeping Inoue Orihime.
After opening her eyes in a daze, Inoue Orihime rubbed her eyes, and then her eyes widened instantly.
Her gaze was filled with horror as she looked in Luo Fu's direction.
Inoue Hao was now in a Hollow form, and unless someone had extremely special spiritual perception, it would be impossible to detect his existence.
Although Inoue Orihime felt as if there was something in front of her, the presence of Luo Fu in front of her was even more terrifying than this almost subconscious feeling.
After all, as a high school girl living alone,
Being awakened at night by a sudden muffled sound, only to find a strange man standing in front of her the moment she opened her eyes,
It was only because Inoue Orihime was thick-skinned; otherwise, any ordinary girl would have screamed in fright.
Even without speaking, Inoue Orihime instantly shrank into a corner, curling up into a ball.
"Who... who exactly are you?" Inoue Orihime said in a trembling voice, "What you're doing is wrong..."
Although her heart was filled with fear of Luo Fu, Inoue Orihime still wanted to persuade Luo Fu not to hurt her.
But the moment she opened her mouth, Luo Fu had already taken action directly.
It wasn't that Luo Fu wanted to kill Inoue Orihime.
Rather, Luo Fu was also very curious about Inoue Orihime's abilities, after all, it was an ability that even Aizen was amazed by.
Aizen even believed that it was the rejection of all phenomena, not the restoration of time or the recovery of space, but a truly complete invasion of God's domain.
Theoretically, the current Inoue Orihime was only one step away from awakening her abilities.
Inoue Orihime's abilities were materialized by the Hōgyoku after being cursed by herself.
Yes.
Inoue Orihime's abilities came directly from the Hōgyoku, but it was not the complete Hōgyoku, but the semi-finished Hōgyoku hidden inside Rukia Kuchiki.
In addition to the Hōgyoku and Inoue Orihime's curse of her own powerlessness, there was also a crucial factor: Inoue Orihime had experienced her soul leaving her body and returning again.
This experience, to a certain extent, allowed Inoue Orihime's spiritual power to break through a critical value, ultimately obtaining the Shun Shun Rikka that even Aizen was amazed by.
Now, Luo Fu was going to help Inoue Orihime so that she could obtain her abilities in advance.
With intangible spiritual power, almost violently colliding with Inoue Orihime's body.
Her physical body and spiritual body split instantly, and Inoue Orihime's spiritual body, with a chain of causality tied to her chest, was suddenly knocked out of her body.
It was precisely at the moment when her soul left her body that Inoue Orihime clearly heard her brother's voice in her ear.
"Please don't, Master, Master, please spare Orihime, please forgive Orihime!…"
Following the sound, the confused Inoue Orihime was surprised to discover that this guy, whose voice was exactly the same as her brother's, was actually a strange life form.
It had no legs, but it had a snake tail that looked very uncomfortable, and it also had a pair of huge black wings on its back.
But apart from these strange changes, this figure was actually Inoue Hao, Orihime Inoue's brother in her memory.
"Am I... am I dreaming right now?"
Inoue Orihime looked at her body blankly, and even tugged at the chain of causality that connected her spiritual body and physical body.
"How strange, why would I have this kind of dream? Not only did I dream that my brother turned into a monster, but I also dreamed of a strange guy."
Perhaps it was because everything she saw in her spiritual body state was too shocking, Inoue Orihime's brain couldn't process it anymore. So, she simply gave up thinking and only focused on what she cared about.
Luo Fu had no intention of explaining to Inoue Orihime.
After completing the process of separating Inoue Orihime's spirit and body, he quickly took action again to allow Inoue Orihime's soul to return to her body.
But during this process, Luo Fu thoughtfully used his own abilities to gather some spiritual particles to strengthen Inoue Orihime's spiritual essence.
Sure enough, after her spiritual body returned to her physical body,
Inoue Orihime was surprised to find that her brother's figure and that strange guy had really appeared in front of her.
However, when she saw that her brother had been begging this strange guy for mercy all along,
For some reason, Inoue Orihime seemed to feel something, and she said, as if inspired, "Santen Kesshun, I reject."
The hairpins placed next to her pillow suddenly shone with the light of spiritual power.
Immediately afterward, six strange things that looked like little fairies suddenly flew out of the hairpins.
Three of them, in particular, formed a formation in the shape of an inverted triangle between Luo Fu and the Inoue Hao siblings.
Golden spiritual power formed a triangular shield, firmly separating Luo Fu from the Inoue Orihime siblings.
Seeing the Santen Kesshun in front of him that isolated himself from Inoue Hao and Inoue Orihime.
Luo Fu tentatively drew out his Zanpakuto and slashed at the Santen Kesshun in front of him.
Although it was only a test, Luo Fu did not use his true power.
But when the Zanpakuto struck the Santen Kesshun, a powerful force of rebound still made Luo Fu's eyes light up.
As expected of an ability that even Aizen was amazed by.
This special ability, which indirectly came from the Hōgyoku and her own curse, although somewhat similar in form to Fullbring, was completely different from Fullbring. The ability displayed was close to that of the Visored, but even Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Research and Development Department had never seen Inoue Orihime's strange ability.
Santen Kesshun was indeed an anomaly.
At least, with Luo Fu's current abilities, he couldn't understand the essence of this ability.
But as far as Luo Fu was concerned, as long as he kept Inoue Orihime by his side, then her ability, which was different from Shinigami, Fullbring, and even more different from the Visored; and had no relationship with Hollows or Quincies, was like a deer appearing in a flock of sheep.
Perhaps it was because Luo Fu's slash didn't destroy the Santen Kesshun that she had unleashed with inspiration.
This made Inoue Orihime suddenly feel an unprecedented sense of confidence.
She couldn't wait to say to her brother, Inoue Hao, "You... are you my brother?"
While admitting his identity, Inoue Hao hurriedly said to Inoue Orihime, "Orihime, you must not be disrespectful to Master."