Bleach: No cheat codes, he joined Aizen's side.

Chapter 123, Section 121. You made a profit, yes, but I made a fortune! (6k)

Inside the deep underground laboratory, the light flickered.

"It still failed."

This was Mayuri Kurotsuchi's first attempt to create an artificial Shinigami, and the hasty experiment naturally resulted in failure.

"You want to fuse the artificial body and the artificial soul together to create a true Grim Reaper?"

Higashino Shuichi's voice came from behind.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi turned around to look at the man, facing him calmly, "Did you see through me?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi wanted to face death in this way, but he found that Hideaki Higashino didn't seem to be in a hurry to take his life at all.

"We've been too hasty."

Higashino Shuichi bypassed Mayuri Kurotsuchi and went straight to the experimental table where the experiment had just failed, picking up the failed prosthetic body.

"It's just because my experiment was rushed this time. If I had more time..."

Seeing that Higashino Shuichi was commenting on him in an area where he was clearly more proficient, Mayuri Kurotsuchi retorted.

"Do you think I'm talking about your experiment, Ne?"

Seeing that Mayuri Kurotsuchi had been unknowingly stirred up by him, Shuichi Higashino knew that Mayuri had fallen into his trap.

Compared to Kisuke Urahara's impenetrable, all-around, three-dimensional defense, Mayuri Kurotsuchi is still somewhat lacking.

"Is not it?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi had completely forgotten the purpose of Higashino Shuichi's trip; all she wanted to know was why Higashino Shuichi had said those things about her.

"In the end, 'righteous souls' and 'righteous bodies' are just things we create ourselves. You're jumping straight to combining these man-made products to create real life. That's taking a huge step. I bet the difficulty involved is immense."

Higashino Shuichi held the failed artificial body between himself and Mayuri Kurotsuchi, intensifying the impact of his words.

"Are there any other, more moderate options available?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi understood part of what Shuichi Higashino meant, but what better way was there than to directly fuse the prosthetic soul and the prosthetic body?

“You know, Nie, I don’t understand scientific research, but when I was in the present world, I learned two words from researchers in the present world: technological accumulation.”

"Technological accumulation?"

Seeing that Mayuri Kurotsuchi was now thinking at his own pace, Shuichi Higashino smiled, which meant that the purpose of his trip was probably no longer in doubt.

"Yes, the reason you find it so difficult right now is not because you've chosen the wrong direction, but because you lack most of the technology needed to achieve this process."

To use a somewhat inappropriate analogy, you are like a baby who hasn't even learned how to crawl yet, but all you can think about is how to run.

You may ultimately succeed, but the process will undoubtedly be arduous and fraught with countless uncertainties!

“A baby who hasn’t learned to crawl?” Mayuri Kurotsuchi pondered her own experience.

Indeed, the initial reason he came up with the idea of ​​creating humans was simply that he wanted to create a new technology that Soul Society had never had before. He wanted to prove that he was absolutely no worse than anyone else, especially Urahara Kisuke, who had previously been superior to him in every way.

So it's fair to say that he was completely clueless about how to create a real Grim Reaper.

"A vivid metaphor."

Mayuri Kurotsuchi didn't hold back her praise, while simultaneously asking Shuichi Higashino, "Since you put it that way, it seems you have some ideas?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi wasn't completely devoid of emotional intelligence. With Higashino Shuichi having revealed his true intentions to this extent, he should know that the reason Higashino Shuichi hadn't made a move against him yet was probably because of this purpose.

"Do you know about those humans in the present world who call themselves Fullbringers?"

Seeing that Mayuri Kurotsuchi had guessed his thoughts but still didn't react in any other way, instead calmly asking him a question, the weight in Higashino Shuichi's heart was lifted.

"Fullbringer? I've heard of that recently." Mayuri Kurotsuchi heard the new term, recalled it for a moment, and nodded.

"Have you heard about this recently?"

This time, it was Higashino Shuichi who was surprised. He had originally wanted to explain to Mayuri Kurotsuchi that the existence of Fullbringers must be very unfamiliar to the Shinigami in Soul Society who rarely go out into the human world.

In fact, even among the 13th Division of Shinigami, who are specifically responsible for monitoring activities in the real world, very few people know about Fullbringers.

But Mayuri Kurotsuchi had heard about it, and not just recently, but recently, which is quite intriguing.

“Those armored warriors you encountered on the third underground level were brought back by a human who claimed to be a Fullbringer, whom I personally went to the mortal world to find.”

After saying that, Mayuri Kurotsuchi seemed to have guessed something and added,
"Yes, based on the orders of the Tsunayo family."

"So the spirit body technology was also taken from you by the Tsunayo family?"

Higashino Shuichi pressed for an answer.

"So you also encountered those armored warriors in the real world?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi couldn't help but think of the man named Kisuke Urahara again. It was probably only him who could discover the fragmented remnants of the Spirit Remains technology from the remains of those armored samurai.

"Was that technology something the Tsunayo family asked you to research?" Higashino nodded.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi shook her head. "I was just following orders and transferring some of the files that contained information about the Reanimation Technique. By the way, you should know the person who received those files."

"I know him?" Higashino Shuichi frowned.

Although he knew many Shinigami in Soul Society, the number of Shinigami capable of taking over the Reibo technology and further developing it could be counted on one hand.

There are only five people: Kisuke Urahara, Sosuke Aizen, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Osh Yushima, and Seinosuke Yamada, who has not yet shown his talent.

The first four can be eliminated directly, so the remaining one can't be Yamada Seinosuke, right?

Higashino Shuichi felt it was somewhat outrageous.

Although it's true that Yamada Seinosuke works for the Tsunayoshiro family in the future storyline, at that time, the Tsunayoshiro family only has one member left, Tsunayoshiro Tokina.

Therefore, he was essentially working for Tsunayoshi on behalf of Tokinada.

Before that, at this point in time, could anyone really realize that Seinosuke Yamada had talent in scientific research in addition to medicine?

Just as Higashino Shuichi was adhering to the principle that after eliminating all impossible answers, the last one, no matter how outrageous, can only be the truth, and was preparing to believe that Yamada Seinosuke had already stepped onto the stage under his influence, Kurotsuchi Mayuri uttered a name that Higashino Shuichi had never expected, yet seemed to make perfect sense.

"Garp Holmes, captain of the West Zone Development Team in Soul Society. If I remember correctly, your file records that you fought him in the human world, lost, and were almost killed by him."

The space stone you gave me to study before seems to have been something you acquired during that encounter.

"Sherlock Holmes?"

Dead memories begin to attack Higashino Shuichi.

This name, which he had almost forgotten, could be said to be the direct cause of his current situation.

It was because of that unexpected encounter that he suffered a crushing defeat despite his infinite regeneration ability and nearly died at the hands of his opponent. This led Higashino to make up his mind to risk contact with hell ahead of schedule, which resulted in a series of unforeseen events.

However, if it is that person, combined with the information that Mayuri Kurotsuchi inadvertently revealed earlier, a clear network gradually formed in Shuichi Higashino's mind.

The West Side Bureau, the Fullbringer, the Tsuna Yayo family, and Aizen's previous speculations.

It was the Kasumi family's affair that presented a new picture to the other nobles, especially the remaining powerful figures among the five great noble families.

The scroll depicts the idea that these high-ranking nobles should have their own private army.

Instead of the current situation where they are subservient to Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, merely in charge of a squad, and even subject to Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni's orders in small-scale skirmishes.

Clearly, the Tsunayo family wanted to emulate the Kasumioji family by secretly building an armed force that would only obey the nobility.

The Kasumi clan has already demonstrated the difficulty of carrying out this task within Soul Society; it's extremely challenging.

Therefore, the Tsunayo family chose the real world, and those Fullbringers, for this reason, did not hesitate to leak the forbidden technology that had been sealed to the West Bureau and reached a cooperation with the West Bureau.

The clearer this line of thought becomes, the more a problem troubles Higashino Shuichi.

As one of the five great noble families, the Tsunayo family could not possibly be unaware of the weaknesses of Fullbringers.

One is that, as a human, a Fullbringer has absolutely no advantage in age compared to a Shinigami;

The second is that Fullbringers, because they have fragments of the Soul King's body within them, are naturally unable to accept the guidance of the Shinigami's Soul Burial. Therefore, after dying in the human world, their souls can only cross the barrier between the Soul Society and the human world on their own. It is extremely rare for someone to successfully reach the Soul Society.

(This is a secondary interpretation. In the original work, the ascension of Fullbringers like Tsukishima from the Four Noble Clans arc to Soul Society almost overturned some of the previous settings regarding Fullbringers. If this restriction were not added, then Soul Society should be full of Fullbringers.)
Given these two inherent limitations, why would the Tsunayo family still want to train a Fullbringer army in the real world?

Of course, it's also possible that Higashino Shuichi is overthinking things, and perhaps the Tsuna Yayo family has simply reached some other cooperation agreement with the Nishizawa Bureau.

"Getting back to the point, what does a Fullbringer have to do with my desire to create a Grim Reaper?"

Seeing that Shuichi Higashino was deep in thought, Mayuri Kurotsuchi spoke up. Clearly, he didn't want to expand on the topic. What the Tsunayashiro family wanted to do was none of his business. The reason he had requested some armored samurai was simply because Mayuri Kurotsuchi was curious and wanted to study this new technology.

As a result, he did indeed come up with a remote control technology.

Upon hearing Mayuri Kurotsuchi's question, Shuichi Higashino immediately snapped out of his thoughts.

However, if the Tsunayo family truly intends to train Fullbringers as an armed force, this would be highly detrimental to Higashino Shuichi's original goal of collecting Fullbringers, learning Fullbring, and accumulating Soul King body fragments.

However, from another perspective, this also saved him the time of searching for a Fullbringer.

After all, poaching someone's partner with a specific goal in mind is much faster than finding them on your own.

"If I'm not mistaken, the birth of a Fullbringer requires three conditions to be met. First, the mother must have an unactivated fragment of a Spirit King's body inside her."

Secondly, his mother was attacked by a Hollow before giving birth to him, and the Hollow's power remained in his mother's body;

Third, and most importantly, when he was conceived in his mother's womb, the power of the Hollow and the fragments of the Soul King's body fused together with the birth of his human soul.

Only when all three conditions are met can a Fullbringer be finally born.

"So, this still has nothing to do with me creating the Grim Reaper, does it?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi could understand what Shuichi Higashino meant, but she still didn't understand what necessary connection existed between the Fullbringer and the Shinigami she created.

Upon hearing this, Higashino Shuichi chuckled softly, "Looking at it this way, there is indeed little connection between the two. But, Nie, have you forgotten something? Why was I forced to flee to the real world with Urahara Kisuke?"

Higashino Shuichi released his spiritual pressure once again, but this time it was murky, dark, and filled with mania.

"Void!"

A gray skull mask appeared on Higashino Shuichi's face, but his clothes turned pure white.

"You've mastered the power of the void?!"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi suddenly realized why he had always felt something was off—it was because Shuichi Higashino was too normal!

"No, Nirvana, others might say that, but you should be more concerned with why I can become Hollowfied!"

Sensing the overwhelming spiritual pressure emanating from Higashino Shuichi, so different from before, and combined with Higashino Shuichi's reminder, Mayuri Kurotsuchi instantly understood.

"Because a true Shinigami not only possesses the power and soul of a Shinigami, but also the power of a Hollow, right?"

"That's right, so you understand now, right? Nirvana, you can first use the remains of the Shinigami, combined with the human soul and the power of the Hollow, and refer to the birth of the Fullbringer, to use these three elements to conduct research on modifying the soul!"

"Then, once this technology matures, I will simply need to replace the human souls within with prosthetic souls to complete my vision of creating the Grim Reaper in the fastest possible way."

Now, without Higashino Shuichi needing to say anything more, Mayuri Kurotsuchi figured out all the key points on his own.

Indeed, if we proceed step by step according to the plan proposed by Shuichi Higashino, it will definitely be much faster than him working in isolation like this.

After all, a Perfect Manipulator is an excellent consumable for experimental observation.

After a brief moment of internal reflection, Mayuri Kurotsuchi looked at Shuichi Higashino, who had already deactivated his Hollowfication state, his eyes filled with anticipation for the future.

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

There's no such thing as a free lunch, and Mayuri Kurotsuchi knew that very well.

Higashino Hideo traveled a thousand miles from the real world, taking such great risks, to come here; it's absolutely impossible that he came simply to help him solve his problems.

It's strange, really. Even though Higashino Shuichi almost completely destroyed Mayuri Kurotsuchi's laboratory and didn't provide any substantial help, only offering some ideas, Mayuri Kurotsuchi still felt that he owed Higashino Shuichi a huge favor.

"Wait a moment~"

Higashino Shuichi gestured to Mayuri Kurotsuchi not to rush, as he wanted to test his theory first.

"Tracing the origins of military strategy, Bankai! Resurrection through possession!"

A terrifying spiritual pressure rose, and then Higashino Shuichi's Zanpakuto quickly poured into the failed artificial body in front of him.

Until Higashino Shuichi's spiritual energy dropped to half of its original level.

A new "corpse" has just been created.

"I knew it."

Looking at the half of Higashino Shuichi's spiritual energy now contained within him, but the peak spiritual pressure release had not increased much, only reaching about the level of a tenth-car captain, Higashino Shuichi suddenly understood.

When Higashino Shuichi used the method of resurrection to create corpses in the past, he discovered this problem: the "corpses" he randomly found in Soul Society could only be infused with a limited amount of spiritual energy, and the peak spiritual pressure they could release seemed to have a threshold.

The "corpses" created using ordinary dead objects can only release peak spiritual pressure at the level of an ordinary captain (Rokusha), and this pressure will rapidly decrease with battle and the release of Kido.

Even though the new "corpse" that Higashino Shuichi created using the artificial body has greatly improved in terms of spiritual particle storage, thus significantly increasing the "corpse's" endurance, its spiritual pressure release has not improved much.

Higashino Shuichi estimated that as his spiritual pressure continued to increase in the future, the spiritual pressure increase of the corpses he could create through possession would only become slower and slower. The only thing he could improve was the endurance of these corpses.

Even so, combined with his other Bankai ability, the combat power he can unleash is still considerable.

When he first mastered the Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons), Higashino Shuichi was already aware of the drawbacks of his ability.

In order to guide those wandering demons in hell to possess you, you need to have a physical body for them to devour.

The spirit beings created by Higashino Shuichi are pure spirit particles, not physical entities in the usual sense. Therefore, Higashino Shuichi can only use his other Bankai ability to resurrect his spirit beings by giving them an extra shell so that he can fully use the ability of Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons).

However, the "corpses" made from ordinary dead things could not withstand being devoured by those evil spirits of hell in just a few bites.

And as long as there's nothing to eat, these demons from hell are like a laid-back laborer who just runs back to hell and stops working.

The standard is to pay a certain amount of wages and do a certain amount of work.

But artificial bodies are different; they're just like the bodies of Shinigami—they're durable and resilient.

"Perhaps the future will truly be a night parade of a hundred demons."

Higashino Shuichi envisioned the future, standing alone above all the heavens, commanding his own ghosts to flood the world—the thought alone was incredibly cool.

The only downside is that these ghosts are most likely just small fry.

The scene fades, and after completing the experiment, Shuichi Higashino raises three fingers to Mayuri Asakura.

Three conditions:
First, we will definitely communicate frequently in the future. You don't need to look for Fullbringers; I will capture them for you. Therefore, I need you to provide me with sufficient convenience for my actions in Soul Society.

Second, I need you to provide me with as many artificial bodies as possible, as well as the fragments of the Soul King inside the bodies of those Fullbringers after you've experimented with them;
Third, I have a disciple in Soul Society named Yujima Osh, who is currently a member of your 12th Division. He has exceptional research talent, and I hope you can involve him in the upcoming research projects.”

"Gone?"

After hearing this, Mayuri Kurotsuchi showed no emotional fluctuation; in fact, she even felt that she had gotten a great deal.

Because none of these three points are a big problem for him.

The first point is to provide convenience. As long as Higashino Shuichi doesn't really cause a major incident in Soul Society, given Soul Society's current cold treatment of these defecting Shinigami, it's nothing.

The second point goes without saying. The technical difficulty of artificial remains is much lower than that of spiritual remains. In addition, Higashino Shuichi did not put forward any quality requirements. As long as there are enough materials, Mayuri Kurotsuchi can make as many as he wants.

As for the fragments of the Soul King's body, Mayuri Kurotsuchi was somewhat interested, but it was enough to keep a few for future research. Giving the rest to Shuichi Higashino was not a problem at all. In any case, he probably wouldn't have time to carry out such a large project as researching the fragments of the Soul King's body before completing his plan to create a Shinigami.

Even if, hypothetically, he does need a large number of Soul King body fragments for research in the future, it's simple: he can just notify the Soul Society and have all the captains unite to attack Higashino Shuichi.

Therefore, this second requirement is essentially non-existent.

The only point that Mayuri Kurotsuchi was not entirely satisfied with was the third one. He disliked having his research interfered with, especially since he remembered that Yujima Osh had once assisted Kisuke Urahara in his research on spirit remains.

I dislike the people Kisuke Urahara has worked with.

"But let me make this clear first: if Yujima Oshi doesn't satisfy me, I won't let him stay, even if it's just for your sake."

"No problem at all."

"I can say that confidently," said Shuichi Higashino.

Shuichi Higashino was confident in Oshima's research abilities, after all, this guy could handle soul modification on his own with just one split personality, and could even completely master the Severing Boundary.

Shuichi Higashino refused to believe that, with his and Mayuri Kurotsuchi's guidance, his original self could be worse than the unsupervised split personality.

Next, Shuichi Higashino and Mayuri Kurotsuchi continued to discuss their future collaboration.

Such as how to bring in a Fullbringer, and how the two will meet in the future.

Finally, Higashino Shuichi had Mayuri Kurotsuchi rebuild him with a prosthetic body exactly like the one before, and after taking some of Mayuri's high-tech products, he swaggered out of Mayuri's almost completely destroyed laboratory.

(End of this chapter)