Chapter 856: Chapter 857: Soul Society
Of course, Van Helsing could never awaken a Zanpakutō. Even if he could, it would probably be an X-gene... which was equally impossible.
As a strange sensation flooded his body, it took Ethan some time to regain his senses. By the time he did, he had already arrived in a new world.
Before the transmission, he had caught glimpses of this world’s ’images,’ so he immediately recognized where he was.
The Soul Society.
He could even determine his precise location—District 80, the outermost edge of Rukongai.
The most stable and prosperous area of the Soul Society was naturally the Seireitei. Outside the Seireitei was Rukongai, divided into eighty districts in each of the four directions: southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest.
In this world, the souls of the deceased are sent to Rukongai. With over three hundred districts in total, even if people who knew each other died at the same time, they wouldn’t necessarily be sent to the same district.
The farther from the center, the more chaotic the district. District 80, being the outermost, was the most disorderly and had the worst living conditions.
Because of this, although Ethan could move, he didn’t wander around right away. Instead, he remained huddled in a corner of the street, observing his surroundings and trying to quickly ’familiarize himself with this new body.’
Calling it a ’body’ might not be quite right. He was now entirely composed of energy, just like the ’dead’ people around him, who were made of Reishi. After all, his physical body had been torn to pieces by Countess Selene, and his sealed power hadn’t been released to form a new divine body. Only a small amount of that power had fused with his soul, forming a spiritual entity.
"So I haven’t directly recovered my power..."
That was certainly bad news, but still an improvement over his previous state, where his power was completely sealed. He could feel that his current state was like a partially broken seal. As long as he found the right path, he could steadily grow stronger.
In any case, since he was here, he might as well go with the flow.
"I wonder what point in time I’ve arrived at."
The main plot of Bleach doesn’t span many years. Ichigo Kurosaki hadn’t even graduated from high school by the time the story ended.
However, if one were to trace the backstory, the timeline could stretch over thousands of years.
Even setting aside the lore and background, the detailed plot events could be traced back over a hundred years before the story began.
Based on Ethan’s past experiences, he usually arrived in a world right when the main plot began.
But this time was different. He wasn’t the one in control. Who knew what point in time he had been dropped into?
Thinking it through, given his current condition, showing up at the start of the plot would actually be the worst possible scenario.
He was just an ordinary ’person’ right now. Even with his inherent advantages, it would take time to convert them into real strength.
In this state, he was neither suitable for nor capable of getting involved in the story—though, to be fair, he didn’t have to. If the test was simply about regaining his power, then the plot had nothing to do with him.
Considering that the entire Soul Society becomes a battlefield during the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, without enough strength, he wouldn’t even be able to protect himself.
Therefore, the best scenario would be for him to arrive long before the main plot began. That way, he could spend centuries in seclusion. Even if he didn’t recover his original power, a thousand years of training in this world’s power system would be enough for him to gain self-protection.
"Let’s look around first."
His current goal was to get out of this place. Whether for training or just living, the outermost district of Rukongai was not ideal. In the Soul Society, where survival only required drinking water, water was actually scarce even in District 80, which spoke volumes about how harsh the environment was.
Under such conditions, Ethan, who never liked to make life hard for himself, had no interest in settling here. In just half a day of walking, he had already beaten up four guys who tried to mess with him and robbed them, gaining some basic funds for survival.
Soon, he was glad he had encountered those thugs. Otherwise, he might’ve been in trouble—because he realized he would get hungry.
According to this world’s rules, possessing high spiritual pressure meant he couldn’t sustain himself merely by ’breathing’ and drinking water. He needed food.
Ethan didn’t plan to settle down and couldn’t take a fixed job to earn money. Fortunately, the thugs had shown him a simple solution—specifically targeting those kinds of people.
Since Ethan never stayed in one place for long, and those kinds of people rarely left their turf, he could beat down plenty of them along the way without fear of retaliation.
In fact, he almost wished they would come back for revenge. That would just mean another payday. At that point, maybe he could afford some new clothes?
His current body was new, and the clothes had been ’assigned’ upon arrival—plain, coarse robes. He had been saving all his money for food, assuming that as he got closer to the Seireitei, the lower-numbered districts would be safer and his income would dry up.
Turns out he was wrong. Even in the lower-numbered districts, he could still find annoying scum.
And as the living conditions and economy improved, those people were carrying more valuables.
His income didn’t drop. It rose.
At that point, he stopped being frugal and bought himself a more comfortable set of clothes, continuing to move closer to the Seireitei.
Ordinary Rukongai citizens aren’t allowed to enter the Seireitei freely, but there is one exception: recruitment for the Shin’ō Academy.
To enter the Seireitei legally, becoming a student at the Shin’ō Academy was the simplest method.
Even more important to Ethan was that the academy provided food, housing, and guaranteed job placement. After graduation, he could remain in the Seireitei, which was extremely appealing to someone who didn’t want to live a life of poverty and hardship.
Moreover, entering the Shin’ō Academy could also help him determine the current timeline.
So far, he knew only that the Gotei 13 had already been established. After all, the academy had already been built and had likely existed for some time.
Other than that, he had no way of getting more information. Rukongai and Seireitei were like two different worlds. Without access to the latter, he couldn’t learn anything about the upper echelon.
Even just determining the timeline required getting into the Shin’ō Academy.
Unfortunately, Ethan’s timing wasn’t great. The latest round of academy admissions had just ended. If he wanted in, he’d have to wait another year.
As for showing off his talents, making a stir, attracting the attention of Captain-Commander Yamamoto, or even having the old man personally invite him as a disciple—Ethan didn’t even consider such things.
He knew he had potential, but no one else had the ability to see that. At best, they’d think he was just a new recruit with some promise.
In the Soul Society, needing to eat to survive was considered a sign of potential.
In other words, on the surface, Ethan was no different from a normal new student entering the Shin’ō Academy.
"If I have to wait a year, then so be it."
He could use this time to further adapt to his new life. Ethan settled in District 1, Junrinin, just outside the Seireitei.
Thanks to his ’efforts’ during this period, he had saved up enough money to cover a year of food and necessities, even if he did nothing from now on.
Still, doing nothing for a whole year would get boring. So he occasionally took on some odd jobs to pass the time.
Besides going out for air, Ethan spent most of his time trying to ’recover’ his strength.
He found that it was difficult to regain his power through his old methods. However, by aligning himself with this world’s rules and training accordingly, his strength increased rapidly.
Before the next Shin’ō Academy recruitment even began, he had already condensed a Zanpakutō that was truly his own.
...
In this world, all the prototype Zanpakutō, the Asauchi, are forged by Ōetsu Nimaiya. Whether someone could obtain their own Zanpakutō through personal ability alone wasn’t clearly explained in the canon.
However, Ethan always felt that Ōetsu simply lowered the threshold for Shinigami to obtain Zanpakutō, providing a blank vessel to make awakening easier.
Otherwise, Ichigo used Bankai without ever receiving an Asauchi, and none of the Shinigami, not even Captain-Commander Yamamoto, questioned it. When Kisuke trained him, he didn’t hand him an Asauchi either, but had him directly communicate with his Zanpakutō’s true form.
All of this suggested that it’s entirely possible for a Shinigami to awaken their Zanpakutō without an Asauchi.
Ethan’s case, however, was a bit different. As for the weapon in his hand... whether it even counted as a Zanpakutō was unclear. The biggest difference was that he was certain this sword had no spirit. It was merely a materialization of a portion of his original power, compressed to the extreme.
"By normal standards, a new student arriving with a Zanpakutō should draw some attention, right?"
As it turned out, Ethan had once again overthought things. When he registered with a sword at his waist, the examiners simply assumed he had picked up a random Asauchi and didn’t even consider the possibility that he had forged his own Zanpakutō.
Since Shinigami frequently die in battle, and their swords are often scavenged, Ethan didn’t raise any suspicions.
He quietly became a new student at the Shin’ō Academy and began his academy life once again.
(To be continued.)
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