The Alchemist in Bleach

"Take care." Watching Ichiro's retreating figure, Shiba Kaien sighed deeply. If he were as strong as Ichiro, the Shiba family would probably be in a completely different situation now...

……

"Ichiro."

"Suzuran? Is there something you need?" Ichiro smiled and walked over to Suzuran, who was waving at him from the entrance of the Fourth Division.

"Hmm, you haven't had any experiments lately, have you?"

"Yes, how did you know? I was planning to rest for a couple of days."

"Would you like to come with us to see the lantern festival in Rukongai tonight? I heard it's really popular there now."

"Um... sorry, you guys go ahead, I still need to discuss the team's recent course schedule with the captain."

Linglan pouted and said with some disappointment, "Alright then~ I'll go ask the others."

I'm sorry.

"fine."

Ichiro looked at Suzuran's retreating figure with some confusion. How did she know he hadn't been doing any experiments lately? Satoshi, who was the least discreet, was still in the lab, and the world couldn't possibly tell Suzuran such things—they were too busy protecting her. As for Tsukishiro… well, Ichiro was already happy that she could communicate normally with others; he couldn't expect her to gossip about these things.

Shaking his head, Ichiro, unable to figure it out, could only attribute it to the girls' terrifying intelligence network, and then walked towards the captain's office.

The reason he just rejected Linglan wasn't made up. He really did need to discuss the team members' course arrangements with the captain. Of course, he did have a tiny bit of intention to avoid her, just a tiny bit.

"Tianxin Sanxi, how about we go see the lantern festival tonight?"

As he was walking, a pretty girl with braided pigtails and square glasses suddenly stood in front of Ichiro, looking at him expectantly.

"Lantern Festival? Don't you have classes tonight, Bai Lan?"

"Don't you know, Third Seat of Tenshin? Class has been postponed to tomorrow because Tenth Seat of Mutou, who's in charge of instruction, is going to see the lantern festival with us, hehe~"

Ichiro smiled and shook his head, saying, "You guys are quite cunning, but I don't need to. I have things to do tonight."

"Huh? Didn't you say there were no experiments?" Byakuran blinked, looking at Ichiro with a puzzled expression.

"...How do you know I didn't experiment?"

"Um... well, what are the three seats of Tianxin going to do tonight?"

Ichiro: "..."

What an abrupt transition...

"Go and discuss your study plan for the next period of time with the captain. I heard that you guys have been engaging in unfair competition lately? You even came up with the idea of ​​hiring someone to deliberately create wounds. You guys are really something. Those wounds are more standard than the examples I used in class!"

"Hehe~ So how will the courses be adjusted in the future? Will the workload be reduced? But I think it's okay~"

"......" Luckily... you're the most stubborn one in the whole team!

Ichiro looked at Byakuran speechlessly and said, "Probably, but we still need to discuss the specifics in detail. We'll probably adjust the curriculum so you can use your time more effectively. You guys are being too reckless right now, especially you!"

"...Hehe~"

“…” Ichiro shook his head speechlessly. “Alright, that’s settled then. You guys go ahead, I’ll go to the captain first.”

"Oh, then goodbye, Tianxin Third Seat."

"Okay, goodbye."

.......

"Tianxin Sanxi, are you going to the lantern festival?"

"No, I have other things to do."

"Huh? Weren't there no more experiments?"

How do you know I haven't done any experiments recently?

"...Hehe~"

.......

"Senior Tianxin, are you going to the lantern festival?"

"You all go ahead, I have some things to attend to."

"Huh? Didn't you say there were no experiments?"

"...Who said that?"

"...Well, I have something to do. If you're not going, I'll go and call someone else."

......

As they traveled, conversations like these occurred frequently, leaving Ichiro increasingly puzzled. Could it be that Tomokazu really leaked the information?

With these questions in mind, Ichiro arrived at the captain's office. There, Captain Seinosuke, Vice-Captain, and Kotetsu Isane were already discussing something around a table. Hearing the commotion, the captain, who was sitting in his chair, looked up and asked Ichiro, who walked in with a puzzled expression, "What's wrong?"

"Captain, do you female Grim Reapers have some kind of special intelligence network? I feel like your intelligence capabilities are even better than my Riting Team!"

"You mean the Women's Death Association? No, what's wrong?"

"Then why do I feel like my every move is being monitored? I just told World and the other two at noon that I didn't have any experiments to do these days, and on my way here, a bunch of people invited me to the lantern festival, saying that I didn't have any experiments to do these days..."

"Could it be that the world and the others have told them?" Seinosuke asked curiously, leaning on the table with one hand.

"No, the world wouldn't tell them these things. You all know what kind of personality Yue Ling has, and Zhi is still in the lab."

"You threw Zhi into the lab again?!" The captain's eyebrows furrowed.

"Um... I'll let him study, but that's not the point. The point is, I feel like there's a spy next to me! An invisible spy!"

"Um, maybe you're overthinking it. Actually, Ichiro, your experiment timing is pretty easy to guess."

"How do you explain the dishes I like? When the team was quite busy a while ago, Shijie didn't have time to cook. When they went to the canteen to eat, they got me a few portions, all of which were dishes I like. But I've basically never eaten these dishes outside."

"Um, why are there several portions?" Kiyonosuke asked curiously, remembering that Ichiro shouldn't have a big appetite.

"Because it was brought by several people separately."

Kiyonosuke and Yongine: "..."

For some reason, they felt that the person in front of them was showing off...

"Alright, stop being so suspicious. With your little schemes, who can you possibly hide them from? Hurry up and come over to discuss the course schedule, and then go and release Zhi for me! All you do is order Yue Ling and Zhi around, while you're getting lazier and lazier."

"......" So soon they've already developed a bond with their grandparents...?

Ichiro thought to himself, somewhat speechless, but he didn't have the courage to say it out loud. He could only silently move to the table under the teasing gazes of Seinosuke and Isane, looking at the papers laid out on it.

This group, excluding the seated officer, roughly divides all the team members into groups according to their learning progress in the Path of Return, allowing for a relatively intuitive view of the current approximate strength of the entire Fourth Division in the Path of Return.

Looking at the proportions above, Ichiro fell into deep thought. Adjusting the curriculum was no small matter, as it involved many aspects. In fact, the current curriculum had been revised and refined over hundreds of years, and its progress planning was originally very comprehensive.

Unfortunately, that was for the original chanting method. After Ichiro created the new chanting method, this plan became less practical.

For example, the formal learning of the Returning Path was originally after joining the team. At the Shinigami Academy, you only learned a very basic Returning Path technique: converting spiritual energy into life force. However, even such a basic technique can stump many people.

Therefore, it was previously impossible to directly recruit members who could return to the Dao. Students who could return to the Dao were extremely rare, which is why the captain valued Ichiro so much back then.

In an environment where it is rare to even know how to return to the Dao, how could she not be delighted to suddenly find a promising talent who is proficient in returning to the Dao?

This was before Ichiro's Chanting Return Path was developed; things began to change after the Chanting Return Path appeared...

As mentioned before, the essence of chanting the Way of Return is to systematically summarize and organize all existing Ways of Return, making the study of the Way of Return more systematic and standardized.

The most direct impact of this is that the True Central Spiritual Arts Academy has an additional course—Chanting the Return!

For this, Ichiro was scolded by those students quite a bit, and just like a certain actor, the people who scolded him came in waves. Before entering the school, there were as many souls who admired him as there were people who scolded him after entering the school.

After all, the incantation for returning to the source is the longest among the three types of ghost realms...

Of course, putting aside the students who were crying and wailing, at least the average level of the sect has improved this time, which is why the Captain-Commander set up medical teams in each division.

Previously, Shinigami could only recruit those who could return to the Path of Death from the Fourth Division, and they couldn't recruit too many, otherwise the Fourth Division's medical capabilities would be affected. Now it's different. Because the difficulty of learning the Path of Death has decreased, more and more Shinigami know a thing or two about it. This creates the conditions for opening such an organization. As for their strength, that's up to each division to decide.

This was the first impact of the popularization of chanting and returning techniques. The second impact was on the Fourth Division. In the early years, it was not obvious, but as chanting and returning techniques were fully implemented in the Shinigami Academy, the level of chanting and returning techniques among the new members each year improved significantly. The original curriculum plan gradually got out of control. In addition, the learning path of the chanting and returning techniques system made the effect of repeated practice significantly enhanced, and naturally, it started to get popular.

Of course, the competition among Shinigami in this area is quite fierce. In this kind of competition, everything you learn is your own. Even if you lose, you only lose to your colleagues in the Fourth Division. Compared to Shinigami in other divisions, your path is still very competitive.

So this can also be considered a beneficial involution, because in the end, you'll find that your strength has increased, and in the Soul Society, there is nothing more important than this.

but!

Everything in excess is as bad as deficiency!

Excessive involution can lead to a lack of creativity, because their practice of chanting the return path relies on mechanical repetition, which over time will severely impair their mental agility. That's why Ichiro and the others gathered here to make changes.

But it's not that easy...

"No, adjusting the curriculum won't change this situation. The essence of chanting the return path is to simplify the learning process. Its biggest feature or advantage is that the first sixty return paths can be deepened through repeated mechanical practice, so no matter how the curriculum is adjusted, it will be useless."

"So it really won't work?" The captain stroked his chin and nodded. "Then let's stick to the previous plan and proceed with the procedures?"

"It might not work." Yongyin, standing to the side, spread out the documents in her hand, saying as she read, "According to the investigation, the team's... uh, internal competition, right?"

"Ah."

"Involution is the spontaneous, frantic learning among team members in order to compete with each other. The main reason for this phenomenon is the leadership system. As long as there are ranks and upward mobility mechanisms, involution will always exist. We cannot and should not change the leadership system, otherwise the team will lose its vitality."

Upon hearing this, the three nodded and then turned their gaze to Yongyin.

"..." Being stared at by three big shots at the same time, Yongyin paused for a moment, adjusted her breathing, and continued, "So what we need to adjust is not the curriculum and system, but the learning method!"

"How so?" Ichiro asked Isane curiously.

"For example, what they're doing now is communicating with people from other squads to tamper with their wounds during the seat competition or regular practice, making them look the way they want to use as learning material. In response to this, we can provide them with material. They like to roll up their wounds, so we'll let them roll up their wounds under our watchful eyes, in our own way. Um, I don't know if I've explained it clearly?"

"It's alright, I understand. It's about providing them with learning methods and a learning environment to prevent them from learning in the wrong way. It's a good idea."

"Yes." Yongyin breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the captain's praise.

Ichiro, standing to the side, cast a surprised glance at him. "You actually used 132 words to express something that should have been 34 words. Wouldn't you be cursed to death by readers if you wrote it like that?"

"Ichiro, Seinosuke, what do you think of this method?"

"That sounds good, but we don't have that many people."

"Don't worry about the number of people." Ichiro said calmly in response to Kiyosuke's question, "Just leave it to Satoshi. It's just a matter of opening a few more threads. It's just that Satoshi's response is not strong."

"You're making Tomo do it again!" The captain glared at Ichiro and continued, "It's not a matter of whether Tomo is good at the Reidou system or not, he doesn't even know how to use it, does he?"

"Yes, Zhiyou has spiritual pressure, but he usually doesn't use it. And the efficiency of converting the spiritual pressure of a mechanical body into life force is very low, so his response is not strong."