The Demon King, reborn in Japan as a monk

"I'm pursuing you," Ishihara Akira said, propping himself up and sitting down.

"Is this how you pursue girls?" Inoue Orihime asked in astonishment.

“Yes. That’s what the guy who taught me how to woo girls told me: ‘When you meet a girl you like, don’t hesitate or waver. Immediately go up to her and ask for her contact information. If she refuses, show your masculine charm, hug her, kiss her, and as long as she doesn’t call the police, you have a 50% chance of winning her heart or leaving a deep enough impression on her,’” Ishihara Akira explained.

"Has that guy ever won over a girl using this method?" Inoue Orihime asked curiously.

"I've caught up with more than one, and I mean at the same time!" Ishihara Akira said with feigned seriousness.

"Having multiple relationships at the same time!?" Inoue Orihime exclaimed, feeling as if her worldview had been shattered.

“Yes. I know of at least three.” Ishihara Akira said with a look of admiration.

"No, they are them, and I am me. I won't fall in love with you just because you kissed me and grabbed me..." Inoue Orihime retorted belatedly.

"It doesn't matter, we have plenty of time in the future anyway, one more time won't make a difference," Ishihara Akira laughed.

"You! Hmph." Inoue Orihime was furious. After glaring at him for a while, she snorted coldly and turned to leave the bedroom.

Afterwards, the two quietly washed up and ate breakfast. Inoue Orihime then picked up her schoolbag, left home, and headed towards the Karakura First High School where she studied, leaving Ishihara Akira alone to continue occupying her apartment and enjoying her quiet daily life.

Of course, he didn't stay for too long. Around afternoon, Ishihara Sho tidied himself up and left Inoue Orihime's apartment. He then went to Urahara Kisuke's general store and met Urahara Kisuke himself, as well as Yoruichi, who was moving around in the room in the form of a black cat.

As usual, Tetsuzai served tea and then left the room, leaving the three people inside alone.

"You've arrived just in time. The Transformation Body I promised you was just finished when you arrived," Kisuke Urahara said to Akira Ishihara, who was sitting across from him at the coffee table, leisurely sipping his tea.

"I can only say I was lucky," Ishihara Akira said with a smile.

Kisuke Urahara gave him a deep look without saying a word. After a while, he turned his head and called out, "Tessai, bring me the Transcendental Body from the workshop."

"Ok."

The footsteps faded away, but soon returned to the room. Then the door opened, and Tsukabishi Tessai, like a waiter at a high-end Japanese restaurant, knelt at the doorway and pushed the Tenjin-tai, which looked like an object from the Jomon period, into the room.

“Now, it’s yours.” Kisuke Urahara placed his hand on the Transcendental Body and pushed it next to Akira Ishihara.

"Great!" Ishihara Sho smiled and said, "Then I won't waste any more time. Now I'll tell you what happened after Kuchiki Rukia put on your modified artificial body."

Then, without uttering a single unnecessary word, he recounted to Kisuke Urahara the events of the original story, from Ichigo Kurosaki's awakening to Aizen Sousuke's escape from the siege of the Shinigami captains on Souji Hill with Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen, using the Hollow's anti-membrane to take the Hogyoku to Hueco Mundo without missing a single detail.

"This is all I've seen about the future, about the Hogyoku incident," Ishihara Akira said, picking up his teacup to moisten his throat.

“The transaction is now complete. If Manager Urahara has nothing else to say, I’ll take my things and leave.” Ishihara Sho put down his teacup and grabbed the Tsurugi beside him.

"I hope that when we meet again in the future, we won't be enemies," Kisuke Urahara said to Akira Ishihara with a hint of emotion, without saying much more.

"I can guarantee that," Ishihara Akira said with a smile.

Without lingering, he left Urahara Kisuke's general store with his transformed body and headed towards Karakura General Hospital, where Ishida Ryūgen worked.

……

"What are your plans for the future?" Yoruichi asked, looking at Kisuke Urahara, who was deep in thought.

“Now that we’ve confirmed there’s a 90% chance the information provided by Ishihara Akira is true, let’s just play along and continue burying the Hogyoku on Kuchiki Rukia as he saw it, then watch how things unfold. Of course, watching doesn’t mean we’ll do nothing. It means that while we continue to confirm the accuracy of the information, we’ll secretly contact the Soul Society, and ideally, persuade the Captain-Commander to cooperate in setting a trap there. Then, when Aizen activates his attack, we’ll capture him and imprison him.” Urahara Kisuke said coldly, his expression laced with utter malice.

"I'm afraid the Captain-Commander won't believe what we say," Yoruichi said with a headache, thinking of Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni's stubborn personality.

“Then let’s contact the captains who are willing to believe us first, and let them verify some of what we know. That way, even if they have some doubts at first, they will completely believe us as more and more evidence comes out. Then we can get them to persuade the Captain-Commander together. Even if the Captain-Commander is stubborn, he can’t really gamble with the lives of the members of the Central 46.” Kisuke Urahara chuckled.

"Should we involve Shinji and the others in this matter?" Yoruichi asked again.

Shinji, also known as Hirako Shinji, was the captain of the 5th Division before Aizen, and is now a member of the Arrancar army. He is also a partner of Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi, and of course, the reason why they escaped Soul Society!

As victims of Aizen's experiments, they wouldn't miss the chance to beat him up.

“We can notify them, but we need to keep them hidden until the Soul Society can't do anything about it. Otherwise, they might end up becoming the Captain-Commander's excuse to cause trouble for us instead of becoming our assistants, which would be bad,” Kisuke Urahara said after thinking for a moment.

“Alright, I’ll go and inform them later.” Yoruichi said.

Chapter 191 Blade Spirit

"Yo, Ryuken, we meet again." In the director's office of Karakura General Hospital, Ryuken Ishida, who was sitting in his office chair with Ishihara Shocho holding the Transcendent Body at his waist, greeted him warmly.

He looked as if he had run into an acquaintance.

"What are you doing here?" Ishida Ryūgen, who had suffered a great loss at the hands of Ishihara Sho, asked with a gloomy face.

"Can I borrow your spiritual space for a bit? Don't worry, I won't cause any damage, and I'll return it to you when I'm done," Ishihara Akira said.

"What do you want to do?" Ryugen Ishida was not surprised that Sho Ishihara knew about the existence of the Spirit Space.

After all, the other party had taken the entire Quincy legacy from his mind before, so it's not surprising that they would also steal some of his memories along the way.

Even Ryūgen Ishida suspected that if Sho Ishihara hadn't been too lazy to do it himself, he would have been able to create a spirit space on his own.

They just didn't do it.

“Cultivation,” Ishihara Akira replied.

Ishida Ryugen stared intently at Ishihara Sho for a while, then glanced at the Transcendent Body he had brought, and stood up, saying, "Come with me."

The two then left the dean's office one after the other, entered the hospital's elevator, and went straight down...

A vast, empty space, resembling a cold storage room and about the size of a large sports stadium, came into view of Ishihara Yuki.

The space was surrounded by cubes made of some unknown material, possibly spiritual particles, stacked on top of each other to form steps and pyramids, becoming the only decorations in this space.

“We’ve arrived. From now on, this place is yours to use.” Ryūgen Ishida said to Sho Ishihara, who was standing in the elevator.

"Thank you very much then," Ishihara Sho said with a smile. Without being polite, he carried the Transcendent Body out of the elevator and stepped into the Spirit Space, seemingly completely unaware that Ishida Ryugen might cause trouble. This left Ishida Ryugen, who was watching from behind, speechless, unsure whether to call him carefree or overconfident.

So he didn't bother to say anything more to Ishihara Sho. After entering the spirit space, he decisively pressed the button to close the elevator door and took control of the elevator back to the hospital.

Upon hearing the elevator doors close, Ishihara Akira turned around and saw that the doors had already closed. Without saying anything more, he used a flying kick to reach the center of the spirit space and placed the Transformation Body, which was tucked between his waist and the ground.

"Whether or not I can awaken my Bankai depends on this moment." Ishihara Akira said, looking at the Tōjin-like figure in front of him, which was about the same size as a human.

Then, with a thought, he materialized his Zanpakuto. He grabbed the scabbard with his left hand and the hilt with his right, and in an instant, he drew the blade, which looked no different from an ordinary Japanese sword. He took another deep breath and then thrust the Zanpakuto fiercely at the Tenshin in front of him.

"boom!"

The Zanpakuto pierced deeply into the body of the Transcendentalist, and fine cracks spread outward from the point where the Zanpakuto had pierced the body.

However, it only covered a small area of ​​less than three to five centimeters before stopping.

Ishihara Sho ignored all of this and took two steps back, waiting for the transformation of his divine body to take effect.

This didn't take long. About three breaths later, accompanied by a clearly perceptible flow of spiritual particles, the previously still body suddenly emitted a dazzling light. The light then exploded, forming a thick pillar that struck the ceiling of the spiritual particle space. However, it didn't last long either. About five seconds later, it exploded again, turning into countless points of light that flickered and disappeared into the air.

Then, a tall woman, estimated to be about 1.73 or 1.74 meters tall, wearing a belly dancer costume full of Arabic characteristics, but with caramel-colored black hair like that of a high-caste Indian, replaced the transformed body and appeared in the spiritual space.

Her black hair was styled in an ancient woman's bun, and she wore a gold bracelet on her wrist, the same bracelet worn by Zixia Fairy. Her bare feet were directly on the ground. Although she didn't move, the moment she opened her eyes, Ishihara Akira felt a restlessness within him. The so-called three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, the seven emotions and six desires, and the seven deadly sins all seemed to surge out of his heart as if they were real, assaulting his reason and driving him to attack the woman who had appeared...

In every sense of the word.

Ishihara Akira understood that this was a temptation from the devil, so he took another deep breath and used the power of the same heavenly demon to devour all the negative emotions on his body, making himself empty.

Until you can truly look the other person in the eye.

"Although you did nothing right, Tenma, you are quite skilled at applying Tenma's basic abilities," the woman transformed from Ishihara Sho's Zanpakuto spirit commented with a mocking smile as she looked at the now calm Ishihara Sho.

"What should I call you now? Moro, or Mara?" Ishihara Sho asked in return.

“Any of them is fine. After all, whether it’s Moro, Mara, or Satan, they are all me.” The woman smiled smugly.

"You are Satan too?" Ishihara Sho asked, frowning.

"That's right. After all, in terms of time, Buddhism was born around the 6th century BC, and it only evolved into the earliest form of Buddhism around the 5th century BC. During this period, Shakyamuni's disciples also traveled around, entering the Middle East and Jerusalem regions as you know them, and spreading Buddhist scriptures there... Then, about four hundred years later, around the 1st century AD, the earliest form of Catholicism was created. In 1 AD, with the division of the Roman Empire and political changes, it became the Catholicism we know today. Seven hundred years later, the indigenous religions of the Middle East were born... As a demon of Buddhism that predates Catholicism by more than five hundred years, it would be very easy for me to incarnate as Satan, the demon in Catholicism, right?" Mara said in a matter-of-fact tone.

That's true. After all, no one can be sure whether any of the people who founded Catholicism were influenced by Buddhist ideas.

"Now you understand, the Mara you fear, and Satan, are actually me."

"Why me?" Ishihara Akira asked, frowning.

"Does the Heavenly Demon need a reason to do what he wants, or to entertain himself?" Mara asked rhetorically.

"So you extracted my soul, influenced it, and then threw it into this world, making me act out your so-called life drama like a clown for your amusement?" Ishihara Akira said angrily.

“Yes, that’s right,” Mara said with a smile.

"Besides, didn't you have a lot of fun? So many women, and all those things you couldn't enjoy or experience in your original world. Don't tell me you never enjoyed it. You know, I'm a projection of your mind, only with a part of Mara in it." Mara said with a half-smile.

Ishihara Sho remained silent, because Bo Xun was right; he was genuinely enjoying himself...

Chapter 192 Test

“I admit, I really enjoyed it, but that doesn’t mean I can accept everything you’ve arranged. As for now, we…” But before he could finish, Ishihara Akira suddenly realized that there wasn’t a single sword around him and Bo Xun!

This is completely different from the situation when Ichigo Kurosaki conquered Zangetsu in the original work.

"I'm puzzled. Why are there no weapons around?" Bo Xun smiled, seemingly understanding the reason for Ishihara Sho's confusion.

"You know?" Ishihara Akira asked, frowning.

"The reason is simple: we are demons, and demons fight only in the spiritual world. They seek to destroy the will and mind of their target, then devour their soul and everything else, rather than engaging in physical combat. So if you want to subdue me, you must defeat me on a spiritual level to pass the test, and only then will I reveal the secret of the Bankai of the Zanpakuto to you," Mara said calmly with a smile.

"A battle of wits..." Ishihara Akira's heart sank.

Don't be fooled by the fact that he seemed to have driven Mara away during the battle in the void. That was just his own perception. Judging from the recent series of changes, Mara may not have actually failed. He simply withdrew to put Mara at ease, so that Mara could better accept everything and create a more interesting drama.

Otherwise, where did all these hidden dangers in him come from?

Therefore, he really didn't have much confidence in engaging in a mental battle with the sword spirit in front of him, who had inherited part of Bo Xun's backup plan and could be considered a true demon.

Even with the limitations of the Transcendent Body, I shouldn't be in any danger to my life.

But now that he's already called out, he can't just do nothing and stay here with Mara for three days to wait out the time, can he?

Even if he were willing, Mara would have to be willing to cooperate as well.

So after thinking it over, Ishihara Akira gritted his teeth and decided to give it another shot!

"it is good."

“Perfect timing! I’ll take this opportunity to teach you what a Heavenly Demon is, and how a Heavenly Demon fights its target,” Mara laughed.

Then, without her making any move, Ishihara Akira's vision suddenly changed, and she returned from the spiritual space beneath Karakura General Hospital to the rented room she had in Japan before her reincarnation.