“That was incredible, Sado. If you opened a place with cooking like that, it would be a massive hit.”
Ichigo said it slumped in his chair, too full to move.
The food really had been that good.
Hands down the best he had ever eaten in his life, no exceptions.
“He’s right. With skills like that, a restaurant would be a goldmine.”
Isshin nodded along enthusiastically.
He thought it was a fine idea.
Though compared to opening a restaurant, given what the young man could do, going professional as an athlete would be an excellent choice too.
Isshin had not noticed anything unusual about him, mainly because his own strength had not recovered.
And even if it had, he would not have been able to read Lucas’s true state.
His Reishi Manipulation had already reached the Intermediate level, after all.
Little did any of them know that Lucas’s goal was to surpass everything.
To reach the peak of this world, and perhaps to step past the limits of this world entirely.
“Sado-nii, could you teach me some cooking?”
Sitting nearby, Yuzu had given no thought at all to what he might do with his future.
She simply admired him enormously right now, and she genuinely wanted to learn some of his technique so that her own cooking would improve.
“No problem. If you ever have questions, come find me.”
Lucas agreed immediately.
He was already close with Karin and Yuzu, and he treated the two girls like his own little sisters.
“Really? Thank you, Sado-nii!”
Yuzu beamed.
After the meal, Karin, Tatsuki and Ichigo cleared the table and went to wash up.
None of them had helped cook, so cleanup was theirs.
Isshin, naturally, went back down to the clinic.
He was the one earning the money that kept the household running.
After chatting a while longer, Lucas and Tatsuki left, and the Kurosaki house settled back into its usual rhythm.
Once Tatsuki had gone home, Lucas went back to training.
At the training ground, Uryū looked a little puzzled.
The man used to run physical conditioning every single day.
Watching him exercise while hauling a boulder bigger than a person had been enough to make Uryū shudder.
But for the past few days his method had changed.
It was no longer pure physical work.
Now he was drilling some kind of martial technique.
Uryū did not know much about that side of things.
He was a long-range fighter and had no interest in close-quarters combat.
Which was also why he had paid no attention to the tournament, and had no idea his friend had just won a national championship in fighting.
“Once my conditioning improved, I needed to learn how to control that power precisely. Not being able to bring out my real strength in a fight wouldn’t be a good thing.”
Lucas did not hide it, speaking while continuously adjusting his movements.
“That’s fair. Your physique is terrifying, and you fight up close most of the time, so you do need to train it properly.”
Uryū nodded, said nothing further, and went back to his own work.
Three days later, Lucas looked at the new line on his attribute panel and smiled.
〔Name: Chad〕
〔Spiritual Pressure: Lieutenant (21%)〕
〔Abilities: Brazo Derecha de Gigante (Intermediate 37%), Brazo Izquierda del Diablo (Unawakened 49%), Reishi Manipulation (Intermediate 15%), Body Manipulation (Elementary 1%)〕
A new ability had appeared.
Body Manipulation.
The progress sat at only Elementary 1%, but the fact that it showed up on the panel at all meant it had passed beyond the range of ordinary humans and genuinely entered the extraordinary.
Lucas could feel the benefit of it immediately.
Before this, as his strength kept skyrocketing, controlling it had not been an easy task at all.
He had to be careful with every single thing he did, every day, afraid that he might accidentally stomp a hole in the floor at home, or crush something without meaning to.
That was no longer a problem.
With Body Manipulation, even as his conditioning kept improving, he could grasp the exact state of his body instantly.
The moment this ability was born, it meant that however strong his power grew, he could control it the instant it arrived.
As for what it might evolve into later, he was not sure.
But perhaps by then he would be able to casually put out attacks beyond the limits of his own strength.
With Body Manipulation established, his focus would go back to physical conditioning.
The new ability he could simply leave to grow on its own.
It was not that he did not want to push it, but pushing it had become difficult.
He had developed the skill in the first place by combining and refining the martial techniques of dozens of dojos.
Now that it had passed beyond the ordinary human range, continuing the same approach would still improve it, but the amount of raw material it demanded was enormous.
It would be time-consuming and laborious, and the progress would not come quickly.
Better to leave it alone for now.
It rose on its own every day regardless.
Even if he did nothing at all, it would reach the Intermediate level in a little over three months.
His plan was to see whether he could learn Hakuda after he had gone to the Soul Society and come back.
As the Shinigami close-combat art, Hakuda would improve his Body Manipulation enormously.
The best way in was Shihōin Yoruichi.
But he could hardly walk up and find her right now, so he would have to wait.
According to the original plot, she would come to him.
Uryū had no idea about any of these changes.
All he saw was the man returning to that absurd physical training of his.
Over the days that followed, Lucas kept training, and kept using the Hollow bait to draw Hollows in and push the awakening of his Brazo Izquierda del Diablo along.
His activities naturally made life difficult for the Shinigami stationed in the human world.
As Shinigami, they could not ignore Hollows appearing, and they were also receiving reports from the Twelfth Division.
Lucas found the whole thing a bit helpless.
Whenever he used the bait, if he was lucky, he got most of the effect he wanted out of it.
If he was unlucky, a Shinigami turned up not long after he had started.
And since he had no desire to deal with the Shinigami yet, he had no choice but to clear out.