Chapter 202 021: Three Ways to Advance

Milky white mask.

The whole body is of the same color, without any other luster, as if it is made of some terrifying white bones.

It is like a slightly enlarged facial bone. Under the empty eye sockets, the protruding teeth outline looks extremely hideous and terrifying.

However, near the temple. At this moment, two horns flying upwards, like a ribbon, can be seen...

Rather than being a deterrent image, it is more like some other type of decoration.

This image made the two onlookers recall the image of Arima Shizuya's clone at the first time - the long beard of the dragon.

That's the feeling.

Perhaps because both parties are originally from the same origin, now that this degree of resemblance has appeared, no one present feels any strangeness.

After all, the focus is still on the present.

Mask.

The three people present are not unfamiliar with this thing at all.

After all, the Hollowization incident was planned by several people, and the fate of Hirako Mako and others was also seen.

For these former captains who "dedicated" themselves to research, not only Tosen Kaname, but even the prison master was impressed by them.

But...

The so-called impression is only part of the "experimental content".

Aizen looked at Arima Shizuya, who had been "completely changed" in front of him with interest, and said as if he was singing softly at this moment.

"The power of the Hollow has a strong coverage."

"At the moment of manifestation, various obvious characteristics will appear on the surface of the human body."

"And this phenomenon includes, but is not limited to partial hollowing of the body, blurred consciousness, and loss of control and other symptoms..."

It is not a one-sided inference or speculation, but a conclusion drawn from a definite experimental basis.

This is indeed the case.

In the Hollowization incident, both the vice-captain and the captain who were affected eventually fell into an uncontrollable chaos.

However, all this is not meaningless.

Because as part of the reference content, the prison master did gain more accurate intelligence information.

"At the same time, through the means of hollowing, the god of death can also obtain more powerful power."

"The spiritual pressure that originally tended to be stable will be greatly increased after hollowing."

"And it is extremely aggressive, and it will also strengthen certain aspects of intuition... thus making some actions that seemed incredible before."

From the outside, it seems that the behavior of two people is completely different.

But in essence, the two sides are exactly the same individuals, and there is no difference in any sense.

After all...

This is the split of the soul.

Arima Shizuka also knows exactly what the other party wants to say.

At this moment, he just replied calmly.

"I understand what you mean, Mr. Aizen, but now... I am very clear-minded."

After so many years of management and research, Aizen has long known everything that happened that day.

The essence of hollowing is to transform the soul of the god of death into a new form of hollow.

It is not enough to just say it. If it is proved by examples, it will obviously be easier to understand.

So at this moment, Aizen Sosuke turned his eyes aside.

He looked at the Yasha clone on the monitoring screen, which was still dormant at this moment.

"Before, I found it difficult to understand the situation of Hirako Mako and others."

"After all, from my point of view, I can't understand what they mean by another self."

"But now... the existence of Shizuya-kun has also made me understand more things."

Aizen Sosuke's expression became very interesting.

"Back then, Hirako Mako and others were not unable to control themselves, but simply... did not choose to accept another self."

Hollows were also souls at the beginning of their birth.

But unlike the part of being a god of death, the so-called hollows themselves are evil souls... So in all aspects, they will behave more evilly and tend to be instinctive.

Let's take a simple example to understand.

When Strawberry saw the Hollow in the consciousness space, his first reaction was 'This guy can't be believed'...

So much so that when he saw Youhabach shouting Zangetsu Zangetsu eagerly, he saw Hollow with disgust on his face.

The reason is that this guy's attitude and image are hard to believe.

After all, who would look exactly like him?

He still talked about mounts and kings that people couldn't understand after he was done, and chopped people with a voice that was full of power...

In comparison, the image of Yhwach a thousand years ago seems more trustworthy.

Uncle Cangsheng is such a thing that can easily deceive people!

It can only be said that image is still a very important part.

Even Kurosaki Ichigo, who is destined to end everything in the three realms, does not have the preconceived concept of being a conventional death god.

He will also suffer in this regard.

In comparison...

"Shizuya-kun has no defects in this regard."

Aizen stared at the monitoring screen beside him, his face full of emotion.

"After all, for Shizuya-kun, the clone placed through Bankai directly replaced the main body... and received a complete hollow transformation."

There will not be two souls in the body.

Naturally, there will be no trouble of fighting for power.

At the same time, because of the special ability of Zanpakutō, even if it has been transformed into a hollow, the clone is still a derivative of Arima Shizuya's consciousness.

Both parties are originally one consciousness and two bodies, so how can there be a conflict?

Even because of the two bodies, Arima Shizuya can also carefully study the differences between each other through "personal" experience.

Thanks to this.

Arima Shizuya also used the research content of Aizen for many years, just like standing on the shoulders of a giant and looking at a more distant scenery.

It symbolizes the complete advancement of hollowization.

It is to master the ability to control oneself at any time, so that it can appear and disappear at any time with one's own willpower.

And at this moment, Arima Shizuya has completely achieved this.

Tōsen, who was watching this, spoke at the right time.

"Does the body feel anything strange?"

"No, I can feel that the degree of control over the body has not changed."

It's even the opposite.

Arima Shizuya also lowered his right hand, repeating the movements of clenching his fist and relaxing at this moment.

"The bonus brought by the hollowing can make me clearly feel that... my strength has increased significantly."

It is not a change in spiritual pressure.

But it is an improvement in strength, speed, and reaction ability.

This is a bit regrettable for Arima Shizuya.

After all, according to the description in the original work, people like Strawberry Brother, who burst into full force after entering the hollowing stage, can completely crush themselves in normal state.

(Of course, that is also because the person himself has not adjusted his mentality)

However, this thought is also fleeting, after all, everyone's hollowing has different characteristics.

Not only is the length of time different, but the bonus in terms of ability also has a more obvious gap.

Now I just don't act so exaggerated, so it is more or less acceptable.

"I see, the growth in strength also varies from person to person."

Aizen added another stroke to his notes, and now he added with a deep thought.

"Will the ability growth brought about by adjusting according to the degree of hollowing also change accordingly?"

——This theory is somewhat similar to the content in the original work.

With the help of the Masked Corps, Ichigo Kurosaki took the initiative to enter the hollowing battle for the first time. During the period before he was about to lose consciousness... his body also showed signs of high hollowing.

"Unfortunately, this method cannot bring more strength growth."

"It can even be said that the situation is completely the opposite... the deepening of hollowing will increase the violent emotions in the heart, leading to misjudgment in all aspects."

"In my opinion, finding a perfect proportion and maintaining it in a state of not too much or too little is the most suitable approach."

Therefore.

Just covering a layer of mask is the most perfect state.

So the Masked Corps in the original work is not just for showing off, but only using masks to cover, which is essentially a kind of power deployment.

"..."

Aizen Sosuke was silent for a moment without comment. He picked up the pen in his hand and hovered it in his palm for a long time.

The words that were whispered out, at this moment, sounded more like a soliloquy.

"If that's the case... Hollowing should not be the so-called end."

Arima Shizuka did not make any answer.

But after hearing this sentence, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

There is no need to praise the talent of the prison master, it is the highest level - this trait is reflected in all aspects, and the current comprehension ability is also the same.

Even if there is no one else to prompt, just through the current content, he can grasp the more essential things.

As the prison master said.

Hollowing is indeed not the so-called end.

After all, this behavior is just to borrow back part of the power that belongs to oneself through the way of "identification".

It sounds a bit awkward, but the fact is that no matter it is the masked army or Kurosaki Ichigo.

In the process of using the power of the mask, they have a basic color of disgust for the other "self" in their hearts.

The sense of rejection brought by distrust, but forced to pursue power.

In the end, they could only develop this "awkward" method.

And the so-called orthodoxy now seems to have only two ways to go.

First, like Master Roku, fuse the Hougyoku, forcibly merge the power of the Hollow and the God of Death into one, thus skipping the process of splitting.

Through this method, you can directly enter a higher level, the class called "Transcendence".

The second is to follow the example of Ichigo Kurosaki, and after going through many kinds of suffering and torture, find the truth that truly belongs to you.

Accept the arrogant, proud, and complacent self who doesn't like to speak the truth.

Acknowledge your own heart and overcome your own shortcomings.

Achieve true perfection and merge the two into one.

Of course, there are also some special cases among them - that is Tosen Kaname in the original line.

Different from a group of people who use part of the power of the Hollow and use masks to appear.

Tosen Kaname should be a special individual who has completely accepted his other self and achieved the transformation between the Shinigami and the Hollow.

After all, this guy is the only Shinigami who can use the Return to the Blade.

Although the subsequent performance is not satisfactory, there is no way... his upper limit is like this, and he is stuck here.

However, the characteristics shown in it are also worthy of attention.

—— After the Return to the Blade, the vision can be restored, and it seems that the Hollow will bring about the reshaping of the body.

—— At the same time, on the basis of the Return to the Blade, the ability of the Zanpakuto will not be covered. As long as it is used skillfully, it is completely possible to achieve the degree of taking both into account.

This approach seems quite clever to Arima Shizuya now, but there are too few examples, and the content that can be used as a reference is really limited.

Considering safety and other issues, this approach can only be temporarily shelved.

Therefore... from the perspective of procedures, the second approach must be more orthodox.

But in fact, in order to achieve this level, the opportunity and demand required are quite scarce.

‘After all, Ichigo Kurosaki himself doesn’t have the three views of being a god of death, and after the truth is revealed, the status of the White Hollow is at the same level as Yhwach…’

You are all my wings!

In comparison.

Let these members of the Masked Corps, who have received the orthodox education system of the god of death and have been nurtured into spirits with a strong sense of good and evil, accept the evil and imperfect self.

This just sounds a bit difficult…

Although Arima Shizuka has no problem in this regard, he now has to face a more confusing difficulty.

That is, he does not have a ‘person to accept’.

There is no split soul, after all, it is only his own clone that has changed.

Now even if Arima Shizuka wants to go further, he still can’t find the right reason.

So…

‘Does this mean that if you want to make progress, you have to find a way yourself? ’

It seems a bit helpless, but this is also the reality that must be faced at the moment.

Arima Shizuka also quickly accepted the current situation.

‘This is a rare opportunity. Now that we have gained something, let’s not be picky…’

After comforting herself in her heart, Arima Shizuka also adjusted her mentality.

Adjust her expression.

Arima Shizuka raised her right hand again and wiped it lightly on her face.

The dark lightning twisted and appeared in the air, flashing a cold breath that was enough to make people palpitate for a moment.

Then, it turned into light gray smoke with the disappeared mask and drifted away.

Arima Shizuka, who returned to normal, also pondered for a moment, and then turned to Tosen Kaname on the side and spoke.

“My ability to become a virtual can last for about ten minutes, and then it will gradually lose control.”

“My consciousness will tend to be blurred, and my body will also be a little out of control…”

“If it continues to be maintained, my combat effectiveness will fluctuate, or even decline.”

At the same time

"If you continue to move and attack during this state, and increase the output of spiritual pressure... this process will be further shortened."

It is a literal 'explosive state'.

That's all.

This is Arima Shizuya's complete understanding of the mask.

Tousen wants to record all of it and bind it into a book.

So far...the events related to the Hollowization seem to have come to an end for the time being.