The Alchemist in Bleach

In theory, mental illusions can also be broken with absolute power.

But the key point is that because of that series of shortcomings, the powerful mental illusion technique must have already overcome it. Absolute strength, how absolute?

Anyway, he doesn't have that kind of strength right now...

So, we need to think of other solutions... Hmm? Why did you stop talking?

Suddenly, Aizen noticed that Ichiro in front of him had started repeating some meaningless words. He frowned, moved his feet slightly, and changed his position. He found that "Ichiro" was still talking to the original position, saying things that were not meaningful. With a thought, a spiritual pressure was emitted from him at a certain frequency.

"Whoo~"

In an instant, a gentle breeze swept by, and everything around him turned into mist and vanished. "Ichiro," who had been talking to him, was nowhere to be seen, though he remained in the same spot.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, and a different wave appeared again. The surrounding scenery once again turned into clouds and dissipated. When the surrounding scenery condensed again, he found that the scenery around him had not changed. He was still in the Seireitei. However, Ichiro appeared again.

"Is this still an illusion?" Aizen looked at Ichiro calmly and said indifferently.

"As expected of the owner of 'Mirror Flower Water Moon,' it seems I couldn't hide it from you after all. That's right, this is still an illusion."

"Crack~"

With that, Ichiro snapped his fingers, and the surrounding scenery instantly changed. The reappearing landscape caused a shift in Aizen's expression. This was... his laboratory in the Arles territory...

"Is this the method you're planning to use against my 'Mirror Flower, Water Moon' technique?"

"Hmm~ more or less. At first, I wanted to directly break your illusion, but unfortunately, I failed."

"So you came up with this idea? Using illusions to counter my illusions?" Aizen looked at the objects around him, a hint of admiration flashing in his eyes. Even though they were enemies, he couldn't help but be amazed by the incredibly high level of detail in the objects. Even he couldn't find any fault with them.

"Bingo~ A highly respected old man once said that magic must be used to fight magic. By the same token, the only way to deal with illusion is through illusion. Unfortunately, even I don't know if this is the effect of your Mirror Flower Water Moon." With that, Ichiro sighed regretfully.

'I see you're regretting that you can't settle things with me here...'

Aizen, on the other hand, stood still and watched Ichiro perform. His Kyoka Suigetsu was a five-sense illusion technique, and the scenes seen by the victims were all woven by him. Therefore, it was impossible for him to create these scenes without knowing that Ichiro possessed this illusion technique.

The situation Ichiro described would only occur during their second meeting, which made Aizen feel fortunate. Thankfully, he remained as cautious as ever; if he had been more reckless and come in his true form today, he might have perished here...

Therefore, Aizen said nothing and just quietly watched Ichiro. Unlike the five senses illusions that are entirely woven by the genjutsu user, a large part of the scene in mental illusions emerges from the subconscious memories of the victim. Therefore, the more one talks in a mental illusion, the deeper one is affected.

This is what he discovered after falling into the illusion again on the tenth day, so the best way to break the deadlock now is to stall!

When the time comes, the illusion will naturally dissipate. After all, Ichiro can't just do nothing. Unlike Aizen, Ichiro isn't just an unknown nobody in the Thirteenth Division.

"How about I count to three and we dispel the illusion at the same time?"

Aizen glanced at Ichiro, then silently closed his eyes. If he continued listening, he might start talking to Ichiro again and fall into the illusion. That's the terrifying thing about mental illusions.

"Tsk~ Boring~" Ichiro slowly opened his eyes in reality. He had failed. He had originally wanted to find out the location of Aizen's main body, but...

More than ten days had passed in the mental space, and nothing had been found. Ichiro stepped forward, grabbed "Aizen" by the neck, severed its connection with the main body, put it into his storage equipment, and then began to walk towards the Second Division.

Another major characteristic of mental illusion is the asymmetry of time. More than ten days may have passed in the mental space, but in reality, only five or six seconds have passed.

Nightmare vs. Mirror Flower Water Moon, First Battle, Victory!

------------

Please take one day off.

Sorry, I had something to do today and just finished. I need to take a day off.

------------

Chapter 187 Am I living in a fan fiction novel?

Nightmare, a strategy Ichiro devised after failing to crack the illusion of a mirage.

That is, use illusion to fight illusion!

But it's not that easy.

In the original work, Hirako wanted to use illusions to fight against Kyoka Suigetsu, but the result was predictable: he was completely outmaneuvered by Aizen.

As a five-sense illusion, Reverse Touch is undoubtedly far inferior to Mirror Flower Water Moon. In fact, in the field of five-sense illusion, no ability can compare to Mirror Flower Water Moon. It is undoubtedly the strongest five-sense illusion!

Therefore, the Five Senses Genjutsu is absolutely ineffective against Aizen, because the Five Senses Genjutsu has a fatal flaw!

You must know where the other person is!

Simply creating clones is absolutely not enough!

So here's the question: if you're under the spell of the illusion, how can you be sure that the Aizen you see is the real Aizen?

How can you guarantee that you haven't fallen into a mirage?

In fact, this is the real illusion!

Like Hirako's reverse touch, that ability to invert the senses can only be considered a very strong combat skill. In terms of the terror of illusion, it is far less oppressive than the feeling of a mirage.

You think you've broken the illusion?

Actually, you've fallen for the illusion you used to break the illusion!

Do you think you're still in an illusion?

Actually, I have already canceled the illusion.

Layer upon layer, making it impossible to guard against; you never know whether you are in an illusion or reality.

Therefore, based on the fact that the Five Senses Illusion requires direct contact with the opponent, we can already rule out the Five Senses Illusion. Not to mention, the Five Senses Illusion is Aizen's specialty. No matter how much Ichiro tries to learn it at the last minute, it would be like throwing an egg against a rock when facing Aizen.

Therefore, Ichiro ultimately chose mental illusion, which, although easy to learn but difficult to master, was exceptionally suitable for Ichiro because it could take effect without direct confrontation with the other party. Moreover, the numerous psychological hypnosis techniques that Ichiro had learned could also be put to use.

Then, the complete manifestation of mental illusion—the Nightmare—came into being!

Nightmare, whose name comes from traditional mythology, has the ability to hypnotize its target with Ichiro's psychologically suggestive words, so that the target will fall into a mental world from which it cannot extricate itself without realizing it!

And most importantly, this is similar to the illusion of a mirror image, leaving a mental imprint. The illusion effect is permanent. Ichiro only needs to say one sentence, just like in some anime (you know what I mean), to put the target into a hypnotic illusion!

There's only one way to erase this mental imprint: forget the memory. But if you forget it, you'll fall for it again the next time you meet...

During the activation of the nightmare, Ichiro's every word and action contains psychological suggestion. He doesn't need to know that you are present. As long as you hear his voice or see his actions, you will be affected!

In terms of treachery, it surpasses even the most treacherous illusions!

With this nightmare, at least Aizen Ichiro isn't afraid anymore. If you dare use Kyoka Suigetsu on me, I dare use nightmare. Let's use nested dolls together!

Logically, Ichiro should be happy to have successfully planted the seed of a suggestion in Aizen's heart, but instead, he is filled with worry.

The reason for this lies in what Aizen said earlier—"Perhaps... you can come from the future of the present... do you have some ability to foresee the future?"

Ichiro was naturally not troubled by the "foreseeing the future" that followed. Putting aside the fact that he didn't have the ability to foresee the future before, he only knew the "plot" at most. But now, there was still some plot to be told, and the so-called plot was set hundreds of years in the future, so he naturally wouldn't be bothered by it.

Even with the recent emergence of Tenshingetsu, who can truly foresee the future, Ichiro hasn't paid much attention to her. The reason is simple: the long-term future is useless, and the short-term is difficult to change. Moreover, he currently controls a squad of the Hidden Mobile Force, so any turmoil in Soul Society will basically not escape his "ears".

Unless some incredibly powerful big shot messes things up.

Therefore, considering all factors, Ichiro doesn't seem to value the ability to foresee the future much. So, obviously, the only thing that could make Ichiro change his expression is Aizen's statement, "You come from the future of the present world..."

This made him think of the person Tian Xinyue had met in the future...

According to Yue Ling, in this world, the past and present are unique, while the future may be countless, but it is like a rootless duckweed, unable to interfere with the past and present.

So here's the question: what's the deal with spirits from the future and spirits from the present traveling to the future? Although he didn't know if the original owner of this body came from the future, he had seen several spirits from the future.

Moreover, Ichiro has now remembered that in the original work, Ichigo and the others were attacked by a raider and then traveled back to a few days earlier. So, how do you explain this?

With these questions in mind, Ichiro rushed to the Second Division while focusing his mind on the Soul King's hand, awakening the Moon Spirit who was engrossed in doing practice problems, and then asked the questions that were on his mind.

With a hint of resentment, Yue Ling put down the question book in her hand and began to use her spiritual senses to find answers for Ichiro as much as possible. After a while, she opened her pair of topaz eyes and began to answer Ichiro's questions one by one.

"Father, the previous conclusion remains unchanged: the past cannot be altered, and the future is ever-changing. Regarding your two points, firstly, the souls from the future—when they arrived from the future, their state had already changed, and they now exist entirely in the present."

'What do you mean?' Ichiro frowned. He really didn't know much about the mysterious power of time.

In other words, when they exist in the future, they are ethereal and could disappear at any moment, but when they are reincarnated into the Soul Society, they lose their ethereal state.

What about their present-day selves?

'My current physical condition remains unchanged.'

'Huh? You mean if the future changes the present body, it will also disappear? What about the soul?'

'The spirit will have no effect whatsoever; it will leave no trace in the present world! In fact, in the history of Soul Society, there have been spirits from the future who became Shinigami and successfully lived into their own time, but due to changes in the future, they were unable to find their present-day incarnations!'

'What's this...? Where did they come from?'

"They come from the future. When they appear in Soul Society, their existence is already fixed. Father, you need to be careful. When a normal soul enters Soul Society, it's ascension or Buddhahood. Regardless of the terminology, its essence is reincarnation—living in a different world, in a different body. They have already begun a new life, and everything in this world has nothing to do with them anymore."

"...Ichiro paused for a moment, then continued, "What about the souls that travel from now to the future?"

'Their situation is rather unique. At the moment they are reincarnated into the future, the reincarnation isn't actually complete. At this point, they remain trapped in a rift in time, in a state of stagnation. When time in the present reaches that point, they will appear in Soul Society.'

A crack in time? Can it be found?

'I don't know, I can't do that right now. My intuition only tells me that such a thing exists.'

'Is that so? Then, what happened in the original story when Ichigo and the others went back in time?'

'Father, do you still believe this is a world within a story? If so, are you also a character in fan fiction?'

'...' Ichiro fell silent. His first thought was definitely yes, but after thinking about it carefully, what kind of stupid author would write a story about a second time travel? And they don't even give the protagonist any decent cheat abilities. Would anyone actually read this?

Secondly, too many details in life show that this is a real world.

'It seems Father already has the answer in his heart. So, if it's a real world, then how can there be a plot?'

So, that situation won't happen, right?

'No, the phenomenon of time travel like that experienced by Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends is possible.'

'...' What did you mean by saying all that before?

"I'm just explaining this to you, Father." Yue Ling added, seemingly knowing what Ichiro was thinking.

Was it his imagination? He felt that Yue Ling had just smiled?

'Then why is that?'

'Because rather than going back to the past, they were perfecting it.'

'Improve the past?'

'Yes, the past cannot be changed. Assuming this situation truly occurs in the future, then it's important to understand that before they began their time travel, they were already in Soul Society from the future. When they began their journey, this event had already become the past. Therefore, at that point, they would inevitably return to the past!'

'What if I, in the future, have already arrived, and I try to stop them in the present?'