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

Higashino Shuichi's counterattack was incomprehensible and incomprehensible to Urahara Kisuke.

However, when it actually happened, Kisuke Urahara felt an indescribable sense of excitement.

This excitement did not stem from his desire for battle or formidable enemies.

Kisuke Urahara is not Aizen; he doesn't have that kind of twisted sense of humor.

This excitement stemmed from a decision Kisuke Urahara had made earlier.

When Kisuke Urahara first mentioned this decision to Tessai Koshihiko, the former Grand Kido Master of Soul Society, Urahara remembered that the latter had strongly opposed it.

The reason was simple: Tessai Wakashi didn't think that a Quincy king who had been defeated by the Shinigami a thousand years ago was worth the time of Kisuke Urahara, who had already done a good job of studying the power of hell and still had so many first captains' spirit remains that he hadn't fully integrated.

However, Kisuke Urahara resolutely used the key he obtained from the Ishida family to go to the Wandenreich, and thereafter began a series of studies targeting the Quincy.

Kisuke Urahara's intuition told him that there was still much to explore about Yhwach, the former Quincy King.

In retrospect, his intuition was correct.

His decision to study the Quincy was indeed absolutely correct.

Kisuke Urahara is now only regretting that he made this decision too late. If only it had been a few years earlier, or if only he had met the sleeping Quincy, Takuya Kabuto, a few years earlier.

Perhaps his research on Quincy has now reached a whole new level, just like his research on the power of Hell.

Time is still too tight.

Kisuke Urahara never expected that Takuya Kabuto's small act of investigation would provoke such great anger from the Quincy King, leading him to take his anger out on him and launch this massive operation.

But it doesn't matter, he hasn't lost yet. He was just surprised that the Quincy King could still retaliate against him under those circumstances, which resulted in him losing an arm and his Zanpakuto.

But how much better off could the Quincy King, who was now deep in the sea of ​​hell, be than himself?

Kisuke Urahara did not believe that the power of hell would have no effect on the Quincy King as he appeared.

If there were truly no impact whatsoever, the Quincy King should have already emerged from the bottom of that hellish sea.

Does he not want to come out?
Is it comfortable to be baptized by the power of hell in the Sea of ​​Hell?

Kisuke Urahara had experienced that feeling before; it was anything but comfortable. In fact, even just a little bit caused him nearly half a year of pain and suffering.

He believed that the Quincy King was the same.

Kisuke Urahara felt that the Quincy King's endurance and willpower were absolutely unparalleled, having endured for so long.

However, Urahara Kisuke's idea was kept secret from Higashino Shuichi, otherwise Higashino Shuichi would have told Urahara Kisuke himself that he was wrong.

In this world, there is one person who has endured the onslaught of hellish power for far longer than both Higashino Shuichi and Urahara Kisuke combined.

Moreover, that person was only forty-one years old when Higashino Shuichi met her. In the world of death, that age is still considered a child.

For the forty-one years before she met Higashino Shuichi, she knelt alone in that dark little house for thirty-one years.

He was also troubled by that hellish power for thirty-one years.

But this seemingly frail girl, with extraordinary willpower, endured suffering far exceeding that suffered by any Grim Reaper.

She would even, with her frail body, bow slightly to Higashino Shuichi when he returned from that hell, and say with a smile,
"Thanks for your hard work, Shuichi-kun~"

Knowing all this and understanding this past, Higashino Shuichi stood upright in this sea of ​​hell, his body ravaged, yet with an exceptionally strong will.

"No matter what, I can't be worse than that girl, can I?"

Despite enduring immense pressure from all around him at the bottom of this hellish sea, Higashino Shuichi still managed to complete the opening move of his technique.

That last strike was just a sneak attack he seized the opportunity to launch.

This strike is a direct breakthrough!

"Swallow Returns - Eight Thousand Streams!"

This single strike encapsulates all the sword techniques that Higashino Shuichi has learned so far; the greatest truths are the simplest, it is merely the act of drawing the sword.

Above the sea of ​​hell, Kisuke Urahara was still pondering how to deal with Shuichi Higashino, who was "hiding" in the sea of ​​hell.

His situation is somewhat different from that of Higashino Shuichi. Higashino Shuichi's current behavior of completely immersing himself in a sea of ​​hell is an absolute taboo for Urahara Kisuke.

He was certain that even if he managed to get in halfway, let alone completely, he would have to consider that halfway foot as a thing of the past.

Then he saw it.
No, he didn't see anything!

When Higashino Shuichi swung his sword in that hellish sea, the world around Urahara Kisuke fell silent.

The Sea of ​​Hell is gone, and the Shadow World is gone too.

All I could see was gray, all I could hear were mournful cries, all I felt was exhaustion, and all I felt was deathly stillness.

Everything that Kisuke Urahara had was taken away from him at this moment; he couldn't even feel anything.

He became an outsider in this world.

When he regained control of his consciousness, he found that his body had become fragmented. The power of hell clung to the countless fragments of his body in the air, trying to secretly suck out his soul, put them back together, and take them back to hell.

However, these hellish powers only scratched the surface of their ideas.

Their behavior was restricted.

In the Sea of ​​Hell, Higashino Shuichi knelt on one knee, relying on his Zanpakuto, Gauraku Reirou, for support to avoid collapsing.

"He is dead, and you, the newborn, your power is terrifying to me. Even in hell, I have never seen anyone who can do what you have done."

"To say something you might like to hear, in all my years in Hell, of all the Grim Reapers, Hollows, and humans I've encountered, including myself, none have been able to wield the power of Hell to such an extent as the two of you today!"

Kenpachi Kuruyashiki witnessed the entire process through the eyes of Shuichi Higashino.

If he weren't currently in hell and already dead, he would be eager to crawl out and fight the victor, Higashino Shuichi, again.

Even though he felt he was probably no match for the current Higashino Shuichi, being defeated by a strong opponent was part of the fun in life!
"No, Lord Kuruyashiki, he's not dead yet!"

Higashino took a deep breath and looked up at the sky above the sea of ​​hell.

He desperately wished that his strike, imbued with all his skill, could have killed Urahara Kisuke. Unfortunately, he had to acknowledge the power of his own eyes and intuition.

He could see the scattered but orderly remains of Kisuke Urahara's body above the Sea of ​​Hell.

He could sense that outside the Sea of ​​Hell, countless forces were converging towards it.

If it wasn't Higashino Shuichi's own action, then there's only one possibility: it was Urahara Kisuke who did it.

"His body is already in this state, how could he not die?"

"Kenpachi Kuruyashiki" said in Higashino Shuichi's mind in shock.

Such a thing is unheard of, even in the long career of Kenpachi Kuruyashiki.

Even when Higashino Shuichi possessed the fragments of the Soul King's fingernail and had the power of infinite regeneration, he could not survive with his body shattered like this and every part of it enveloped in hellish power.

But Kisuke Urahara did it.

Technology changes lives. This saying is very fitting for Aizen. Higashino Shuichi never expected that Urahara Kisuke would be the same.

"It is sanctification"

Temporarily exhausted, Higashino Shuichi could only watch helplessly as Urahara Kisuke's body rapidly reconstructed above the Sea of ​​Hell.

"Sainthood?"

Having never experienced a normal battle, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki did not yet understand the meaning behind the words "sacred parting".

But it's enough for Shuichi Higashino to know it himself.

From any perspective, Kisuke Urahara's process of dismembering and reabsorbing the spirits of the first captains who were still fighting in the Shadow World outside is like a superb imitation of Yhwach's holiness.

If this weren't a life-or-death battle, Higashino Shuichi might even have sarcastically remarked to Urahara Kisuke, "I admire you."
"You're just showing off your skills!"

With the body of a mortal, he sought the power of a god—this is what Kisuke Urahara has accomplished, and this is what he has achieved so far.

If Aizen paved the way for his own physical ascension, then Kisuke Urahara chose "mechanical" ascension.

He was showing everyone through his actions that as long as you can do something to the extreme, the power of the gods is nothing more than a power you can steal.

"Heh heh heh heh, you fooled me, Kisuke Urahara!"

If, at this point, Higashino Shuichi still can't figure out the whole story, then all his centuries of experience have been wasted.

Previously, Shuichi Higashino had slashed Kisuke Urahara's shoulder blade with a single blow.

That slash made Higashino Shuichi realize that Urahara Kisuke might be wearing a layer of spirit remains on his body. It was Urahara Kisuke who mixed together the spirit remains of several first captains that he had obtained from Kurotsuchi Mayuri to create a brand new "armor" exclusively for him, Urahara Kisuke.

The subsequent battles confirmed Higashino Shuichi's prediction.

Therefore, Higashino Shuichi once firmly believed this.

Only now does Higashino Shuichi realize that he was wrong, that he had been deceived.

That wasn't Kisuke Urahara's "armor" at all; it was Kisuke Urahara's current "body"!
He achieved a perfect fusion of his physical body and his spirit.

Even Higashino Shuichi could figure out what Urahara Kisuke's purpose was in doing this.

It was for the sake of the spiritual energy contained in the remains of those first captains, which was added by the previous generation's "Jinchūriki," Masato Miyazaki, who was attached to the left leg of the Soul King at some unknown cost, and thus became a perpetual and inexhaustible source of spiritual energy.

This is an irresistible temptation even for a combat-oriented Grim Reaper like Shuichi Higashino, let alone a research-oriented Grim Reaper like Kisuke Urahara.

With an inexhaustible supply of spiritual energy, Kisuke Urahara could conduct all sorts of research without restraint.

This is precisely the fundamental reason why Kisuke Urahara's research progress is advancing at such an incredible speed!

With flesh and blood suffering and machines ascending to immortality, Shuichi Higashino even had reason to suspect that Kisuke Urahara was also a time traveler.

It is precisely because Kisuke Urahara abandoned his own physical body that he did not have to endure the same physical torment as Shuichi Higashino when he borrowed the power of hell.

All the consequences were borne by the spirit remains. However, the spirit remains were not objects to be accepted by Hell. Therefore, the hellish power, in its mechanical working mode, experienced a logic bug in its operation on Kisuke Urahara's body.

This led to the final result, which is now like Kisuke Urahara getting the power of hell for free.

After figuring everything out, even as an enemy, Higashino Shuichi had to admire Urahara Kisuke's genius.

Without any reminders from others, without the firsthand account of someone like Shuichi Higashino, and without the support of a family like the Kabuto family, he single-handedly figured out the unorthodox solution to the power of hell.

That's truly terrifying.

As expected, he is the only person in the original work whom Aizen Sousuke calls worthy of being his opponent.

He truly deserves to be regarded as a member of Yhwach's Special Forces in the original work.

Above the Sea of ​​Hell, Kisuke Urahara's body was restored, and even the Zanpakuto that had fallen into the Sea of ​​Hell miraculously reappeared in his hand.

The hellish power attached to the surface of his body was not an obstacle for Kisuke Urahara at all.

Kisuke Urahara himself was well aware of this.

Having been "resurrected," he also saw Higashino Shuichi in the Sea of ​​Hell, who now appeared to be exhausted and powerless to fight back.

But now the question is, how should he deal with Higashino Shuichi from the depths of the Hell Sea?
Others may not know, but Kisuke Urahara himself is very clear about his current situation.

Without a physical body, only the soul still belongs to oneself.

This state endowed him with the formidable characteristic of being unafraid of the power of hell, but it also brought him another unsolvable problem.

That was his soul, and he couldn't touch those gray-white skeletal arms from hell that were demanding his soul.

Without the constraints of a physical body, his soul was like a duckweed without water; with a gentle beckoning of the skeletal arm, his soul would follow it.

And in the Sea of ​​Hell, there were only those gray-white skeletal arms.
It's funny, since his true form is the Grim Reaper, and the Grim Reaper should be a concept of pure soul.

However, due to the existence of Hell, a special entity that specifically collects souls, the spiritual body that constitutes the outward manifestation of their death god characteristics has also become what humans in the present world commonly refer to as the "physical body."

Thus, this battle, which should have reached its climax at this point, has unexpectedly reached a stalemate in a very strange way. (End of Chapter)