I'm really not the number one slacker in Soul Society.

However, there is one more thing to deal with before that.

Mi Zhen sat down cross-legged, placed Liu Yue on his lap, slowly closed his eyes, and entered the state of sword meditation.

The moment he entered the mental space, he saw an extremely bizarre scene.

Chapter 218: The True Reverse Moon Rain

When he opened his eyes, what he saw... was actually that familiar room, instead of some strange training room or something.

But it wasn't entirely normal—because the one sitting on the bed wasn't Ryugetsu, but rather Nigetsu Shigure with her legs crossed.

"coming?"

She placed her hands, clasped together, on her knees and said softly, "Then get ready, let's begin."

"Well……"

Mi Zhen shrugged, sat down in the computer chair, and said, "So, you agree to do that?"

“Plans never keep up with changes,” Shigure Saigetsu replied. “Besides, even if I disagree, you’ll force me to do it, won’t you?”

Mima chuckled: "There's no need to make it sound so strange; this is for everyone's benefit."

Communication between sensible people can be like this, seemingly involving riddles, but if you break it down, the meaning is actually quite simple.

Mima's purpose in coming here was to persuade Shigure Gyou to let him start Bankai training ahead of schedule, and Shigure Gyou, who had already seen through his thoughts, agreed to the proposal.

I thought it would take a lot of effort to persuade them with reason and emotion... This saves a lot of trouble.

"correct."

Mi Zhen raised an eyebrow and asked, "Where are Liu Yue and Xu Lan? Why aren't they here?"

When faced with this question, Shigure Nizuki paused for a moment, then gave a somewhat strange smile.

"She has always had opinions about my educational approach."

She glanced meaningfully out the window and said, "In that case, let her try out this so-called 'better way'."

"You sent her to train the newbies?" Mima exclaimed in surprise. "Is that alright?"

"I'll cover for you, no matter what happens." Nizuki Shigure's expression returned to calm.

"This is also an opportunity, and I'm very interested to see if she's as powerful as the oath she made."

"...I hope he's alright."

"do not mind."

Nizuki Shigure stood up and walked to the door: "We'll see initial results within a few days, but for now... let's start the project you've always wanted."

"It seems like you've caught her influence a bit..."

Mizhen casually tossed a snack from the table into her mouth, chewed a few times, stood up, clenched her fists a few times, and said decisively, "Never mind, let's begin!"

..........................................

Some time later, in the present world, on a deserted beach.

Mima planted the humanoid object she was carrying on her shoulder into the sand.

Then, after moving his body a few times, he pulled out Liuyue with a clang and immediately stabbed it into the thing in front of him.

This is the Transcendent Body, a wonderful creation initially designed by the Shihouin family and further improved by Kisuke Urahara.

Some people might ask... Where did Mi Zhen conjure up such a high-end item from?

The answer is simple... There was just such a thing sitting there in Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi's secret base.

In addition, there were many mysterious, never-before-seen weapons and equipment, leading Yama to suspect that Yoruichi might have moved most of the Shihouin family's inventory to that place...

Of course, this is just a loan, and it will be put back properly afterwards... Although the situation is urgent, he is not shameless enough to put his own people's things in his pocket without any hindrance just because things are urgent.

Rotting Wood River is still a scarecrow; there's no way to ask him to do it for you.

Moreover, since the Transcendental Body was created by Urahara A-mu, its Bankai training shouldn't be any worse than Muramasa's.

In short... it's time to begin the long-awaited Bankai training!

After Liuyue's blade pierced into the body of the Transcendent God, it immediately burst forth with intense light, and in an instant, it transformed into a slender human figure.

"Hmm... the feeling of actually being in the real world..."

Holding the Flowing Moon (something felt off), Nizuki Shigure looked around the beach and said in a cold tone, "There's nothing special about it."

"..."

Mima stroked his chin, pondered for a few seconds, then suddenly reached out with his other hand and patted her shoulder a few times. He then poked her soft cheek with his index finger before saying thoughtfully, "It's just like the real thing... Shihouin's technique is really amazing."

"...Although I don't have any particular requirements for your behavior, even I would find it a bit offensive to do this."

Nizuki Shigure glanced at Mima, casually brushed his hand away, and then snapped his fingers.

"Never mind all that, let's get started."

A sharp whistling sound rang out, and four nodachi, which had no tsuba but were nearly two meters long, were planted on the beach like fences for a fighting arena, enclosing a square space of about twenty square meters. Then, Mima saw Ryugetsu in Gyougetsu's hand slowly lengthen in a soft white light, and finally become an extremely thin, long, straight, black, pointed "iron plate" without a handle or blade.

A dangerous aura, perceptible only to those with power and time, emanated from the two-meter-long iron plate, making Mi Zhen feel as if she were being pricked by thorns for an instant.

How to describe it... He only felt that this thing, which he didn't know could be called a weapon, existed only in the "present" on a visual level. If he were to analyze it intuitively, he would feel that Shigure's hand was empty, and what she was holding was some kind of fleeting illusion that did not actually exist.

Do you find it contradictory?

Nizuki Shigure gently patted Mima's shoulder with the "sword" in her hand: "Can't you see what I'm holding?"

"..."

Mima frowned.

—Even before that "sword" first touched his shoulder, he already felt the touch, and it was definitely not fake.

—But the second time he was touched, he didn’t feel the touch until half a second after the sword left his shoulder.

"It...shouldn't exist 'now'."

Mi Zhen offered his own guess: "No, to be precise, it jumps randomly on the timeline all the time. It could be the past or the future, which is why it has such a strange property."

"The correct answer."

Nizuki Shigure nodded, then gently stroked the sword and whispered:

“This is my complete form—what you used before was just a half-baked Bankai, a ‘partial release’.”

"I see……"

Mima nodded, then asked, puzzled, "In the images I saw not long ago, my future self was still in Shikai form when using Bankai... Why is that?"

“I don’t know.” Shigure Uesugi shook his head. “It’s possible that he did some special treatment to his Zanpakuto, or it could be the so-called ‘man and sword as one,’ but in any case, with only that little bit of information, even I wouldn’t be able to tell what he did at a glance.”

“Alright.” Mima shrugged. “Let’s leave that question for now and start training.”

After saying that, he added, "I'm quite curious... what methods will you use to help me quickly master Bankai?"

“You know that time power that cannot be fully controlled will only hurt yourself,” Nizuki Shigure replied. “My original plan was to use this kind of ‘minor injury’ to let you accumulate experience, just like training muscles. Muscle fibers that are torn and regenerated will have a higher strength than before the training.”

Mima hissed, "You mean you'll get used to it as it hurts?"

"You can say that."

"..."

“Okay…you’re the professional, you’re right.” He rubbed his temples. “So what’s the solution now?”

"It's very simple."

Nizuki Shigure bit her lip lightly, a hint of unease creeping into her voice: "But I must make it clear beforehand that while the crash course is fast, it is also extremely risky. While it may not lead to death, it could cause you irreversible, severe damage that exceeds the time limit for deletion and repair."

"There's always a risk of getting your account banned if you use cheats."

Mizhen spread her hands and said, "Come on, I'm ready."

"Then... don't resist."

Shigure closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then gently touched Mima's chest.

A strange sense of confusion spread from her palms.

It started out very mild, but it developed very rapidly. After Shigure Nizuki took a few steps back, Mima felt as if her brain had been thrown into a washing machine and spun on the highest setting for a long time. The concepts of east, west, south, north, up, down, left, and right were all blurred. Everything she saw looked like a shooting star with a long tail. Even standing still became very difficult.

"Stand still and don't move."

Slowly, Shigure raised her sword:

"I will let you experience a feeling that is different from the linear view of time. Only in this way can you understand the principle behind my ability in the shortest amount of time."

Because of the intense ringing in her ears, Mima didn't hear much of what Shigure was saying.

They only performed the fragmented instruction to "stand still".

The next instant, the slender black sword pierced straight into Mi Zhen's chest.

"!"

Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and even spiritual senses beyond the five senses all felt the intense shock of a supernova explosion with the piercing action!

"The Transcendental Body is indeed a great invention, but its greatness lies not in its ability to make Zanpakuto appear in a physical form, but in its ability to allow Zanpakuto to use some of the powers of the mental world in the real world, such as conjuring objects out of thin air, using abilities without consuming the user's spiritual pressure, and so on. For example, although I can do the same thing in the mental world, it is still a Shikai based on 'imagination,' and many of its rules are not perfect..."

Chapter 219: The Shadow Beyond Time

After piercing Mi Zhen's body, the black sword blade transformed into a liquid-like fluid, expanding and contracting before flowing entirely into the wound.

The next instant, Mi Zhen fell backward.

Nizuki Shigure stopped talking to herself, reached out to support him, then sighed wearily, knelt down on the ground, let Mima rest her head on her lap, and said softly, "Please be sure to... come back safely."

..........................................

As people often describe it, time is like a river, flowing from high to low, with countless tributaries. But in any case, most living beings can only feel the "now" moment. The past is just a phantom to be remembered, and the future is an unclear fog.

Ultimately, time is merely a virtual unit used to measure changes in matter, not something that can be embodied. If we were to describe it accurately, "change" would be a more fitting word.

—For things that are so abstract and grand that they are difficult to understand, people use the tools of imagination to reduce their size, so that their biologically limited vision can see a certain aspect of them.

Just like Mima at this moment.