Ichigo leaves and takes up residence in Soul Society!

Soi Fon glanced over instinctively and saw it was the ringed snake braid on her left side.

The cut was clean and neat, clearly indicating that it had been severed by the previous strike.

"How about... you take back your thanks?"

Although her opponent's mental state was unbalanced, which caused her to make a mistake, the more mistakes she made, the more the Four Palaces Lord overestimated her reaction speed and accidentally "failed".

Soi Fon glared at him, annoyed.

"It's just a hair. I was the one who dragged you into the fight, so even if you're seriously injured, there's no reason to blame you."

After saying that, he hesitated for a second, then cut off the other braid of the bell snake with his bare hands.

Now the hairstyle is "balanced".

After cutting off the braid, the slight weight reduction on her head made Soi Fon feel much lighter. She stared at the braid in her hand for a while, then suddenly clenched her fist and burned it to ashes with her Kido spiritual pressure.

"Who are you referring to when you mentioned someone you know in the real world?"

"A girl with orange hair, holding a large knife."

"Really... I didn't pay much attention. My eyes were only on the person I told you about. I didn't even glance at that other jerk... Although I only saw her from afar, she seemed the same as before, without any change."

"Isn't this a good thing? Or do you want to see her reflect on her actions? That's not something you can easily tell from her appearance."

"It has nothing to do with that. It's just that seeing that familiar face reminds me of her from back then, and how I felt at the time. So I just can't calm down. If she had changed a lot, I might not be so angry anymore."

"But by then, you'll be disappointed again, because she won't be the person you know anymore."

The Four Palaces Venerable made a very insightful remark.

"..."

Soi Fon paused for a moment, then gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"You might be right... It seems I might live in her shadow for the rest of my life."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because it was destined from the beginning... Hey, what do you want to do?"

Faced with Soi Fon's embarrassed gaze, Shinomiya-no-Mikoto put the messenger back into his pocket.

“Although I wanted to play you a suitable recording, I feel it’s unnecessary… Look at your reaction, it’s so vivid that you don’t seem to be living in the shadows at all.”

"In fact, when you ask questions, when you're fighting, when you're handling official business... do you really think about the other person? Obviously you can't, you can't even think about the other person all the time... You're taking the phrase 'living in the shadows your whole life' far too lightly, aren't you?"

"..."

Soi Fon opened her mouth slightly, unsure how to refute.

"If you truly consider her a friend, and if she truly considers you a friend... then you should do everything in your power to bring her back."

"Even if it means breaking her legs, we must bring her back."

The Four Palaces Venerable spoke with a powerful and resounding voice.

“…Break her legs? No, well, I think Yoruichi…it’s not necessarily wrong for her to run away.”

"If all else fails, just kill her, cut ties with your past self, and sever the bonds of the past. In my opinion, there are countless ways to get rid of the shadows."

"No... wait... killing someone is definitely not an option, she is... sigh, whatever, it doesn't matter."

Soi Fon suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion.

Compared to Yoruichi, the guy in front of her who keeps creating problems for her isn't much better.

Perhaps... Yoruichi's personality would make things easier for her to handle.

drop by drop...

At this moment, the communication device in the Fourth Palace Lord's pocket beeped, and he took it out and glanced at it.

"The teacher needs to see me... Captain Soi Fon, I'll have to excuse myself."

"Ah? Oh, take care... wait, things haven't been peaceful these past few days, be careful and don't wander around. Although you're very strong, there are some things... that you shouldn't have to face."

Soi Fon realized what was happening and quickly called out to Shinomiya-no-Zun, giving him some instructions.

"Feel sorry."

"...Why are you apologizing all of a sudden?"

I feel a little bad for making you worry about this.

"It's nothing. After all, I owe you a lot of favors... I wanted to pay them back, but I ended up owing more and more. You're such a troublesome guy."

"This is the secret to getting along with people. Don't worry about it. When you're unhappy, just punch me. I won't complain that you're being unreasonable."

"That's what you said."

"I said... goodbye."

The Four Palaces Lord waved his hand without turning his head and vanished from the spot in an instant.

Soi Fon's initial joy at receiving permission to punch someone faded as he left, and she looked up at the setting sun.

Even though I live in the shadows, I can still feel the warmth of the sun.

That doesn't seem quite right...

"You agree, Shinomiya."

Her pretty face, flushed red by the sunset, seemed to be smiling again.

Chapter Fifty-Eight: We are invincible ahead.

Fifth Division, Captain's Office.

"Yo."

As soon as Shinomiya entered, he saw Ichigo sitting on the sofa, greeting him.

"Brother Kurosaki, it's been a month, hasn't it?"

"...at most a week."

Ichigo silently lowered his hand.

"But you look like you've changed more in a month."

Shinomiya sat down on the sofa opposite him, picked up the kettle on the table and poured himself a glass of water.

"Thanks to your advice, I got along quite well with my other self and finished the game in just one day... I never knew Uncle Zangetsu could make that kind of expression."

Ichigo couldn't help but grimace as he spoke.

"But it got really bad later on. They were trained so hard their bones felt like they were going to break."

"There's nothing we can do about it..."

The Four Palaces Lord picked up his water glass and took a sip.

"Bankai is so exaggerated in its physical transformation that it often takes more than ten years to be used in battle. You should thank your Zanpakuto for being able to catch up with others' efforts of more than ten years in just a few days."

"Same here. You've also mastered Bankai, and lately you've been going to the Second Division to find that cold-faced woman as your sparring partner."

"No, I have never used my Bankai on anyone."

"what?"

Ichigo was stunned for a moment.

"Then what are you going to do in the Second Division?"

"I'm honing my hand-to-hand combat and instant step techniques to improve the quality of my skills... There's no other way. I recently mastered a new move, but it requires a high level of physical ability and luck. It's not something I can just use casually in battle. So I'm wondering if there's any way to increase the trigger probability so I can use it whenever I want."

"Black Flash".

The amplification of the destructive power of this move is terrifying.

Therefore, it is like a flash of genius, a physical phenomenon that occurs accidentally in a particle collision experiment.

The chance of triggering this is extremely low.

Strictly speaking, even with intentional attempts, success is not guaranteed even once out of ten thousand tries.

Luck plays a big role.

If the destructive power is indeed amplified to an extremely considerable level, the burden on the soul itself will be unimaginably heavy.

Shinomiya-sama is currently using the "physical growth potential +1000%" buff to enhance his physical abilities and increase his upper limit of endurance. On the other hand, he tries to eliminate the element of luck as much as possible and uses it freely in battle based on his own will.

After verifying it repeatedly in private.

The former progressed smoothly, while the latter... as long as you have the "feel" for it, you can greatly increase the chance of triggering it.

Improving the "feel" boils down to two points.

It's either an instinct gradually awakened in battle, relying on instinct and intuition to seize that opportunity that seems like a divine intervention.

Either improve your basic proficiency in slashing, punching, and ghost walking techniques, especially in white-handed fighting and ghost-path techniques.

If one can reach a state of profound and wondrous mastery, one can naturally hear thunder in silence, just like a grandmaster, and turn the rotten into the miraculous.

Fortunately, the two methods are compatible.

This gave Shinomiya-sama some confidence in putting "Black Flash" into actual combat.

Everything proceeded as expected, slowly but effectively.

This is infinitely better than simply relying on luck at the beginning.

also……

"If necessary, there are ways to cheat..."

The Four Palaces Venerable thought to himself.

He likes to keep something in reserve in everything he does.

After the "Seven Flashes" comes the "Only Flash," after the "Only Flash" comes the Initial Release, and after the Initial Release comes the Second Initial Release.

Once these things become known, new backup plans will be needed.

He wasn't as greedy and prone to internal strife as Kisuke Urahara.

Fighting opportunities are fleeting and ever-changing.

As long as there is one trick.

As long as I can kill the enemy, that's enough.

Similarly, the "Black Flash" move seems to have extremely demanding usage conditions.

In truth, the Four Palace Masters are not entirely without special methods for actual combat.

For example... relying on the Bankai I just learned.

But special cases are special cases.

Without addressing the aforementioned drawbacks, it will ultimately be a case of drinking poison to quench thirst, and will not benefit one's own growth.

"A new technique...it's not going to be another over-the-top move like 'Only Flash,' is it?"

To be honest, Ichigo still doesn't understand how the other guy mastered those strange yet powerful techniques.

If we were to talk about derivative techniques like double chanting or additional chanting, that would be one thing, but whether it's "Seven Flashes," "Only Flash," or even "Transparent Dragon Scales," they can all be considered unique skills with extremely distinctive styles.

Now, his best friend, who has also mastered Bankai and is clearly stronger, claims to have mastered a new technique.

It certainly can't be something simple.

It is probably a stronger move than "Seven Flashes" or even "Only Flash".

Ichigo had this vague premonition.

So even if the Fourth Palace Master waved his hand and said, "It's just a simple application of the Kido spiritual pressure," he still didn't believe a single punctuation mark.

But the words came back again.

"You've put all your energy into this, but what about Bankai? Don't you need to familiarize yourself with it?"

"Oh, you don't need to practice that."

"..."

In Ichigo's view, Shinomiya's attitude was as if he were saying, "Do we really need to train for something as simple as eating and drinking?"