Sasuke watched him calmly, waiting for him to continue.
Kisuke Urahara’s face once again wore his signature smile: “May I examine your body?”
He added, “Don’t worry, I just want to investigate the state of your Soul, to see if the power that allows you to Transmigration through worlds has left any traces.”
“You may.”
Sasuke did not hesitate in the face of this request.
Given the strength of the man before him, if he truly wished to harm him, he would not need to ask for consent.
If he wanted to, he could find countless ways to make him undergo the examination.
Rather than waste energy, it was better to cooperate obediently and see what he could discover.
“Oh my, what a straightforward child.”
Kisuke Urahara smiled even more broadly.
From his wide sleeve, he took out an instrument that looked like a monocle and placed it over his right eye.
“Then, please bear with it for a moment, it might feel a little, hmm, strange.”
Before he finished speaking, Kisuke Urahara’s fingers had already swiftly touched Sasuke’s forehead, chest, and abdomen.
Sasuke could feel a gentle spiritual power probing his body.
He closed his eyes, allowing the spiritual power to circulate within him.
The entire process lasted about five minutes.
When Kisuke Urahara withdrew his fingers, the smile had completely vanished from his face, and his brows were tightly furrowed, as if he had seen something incomprehensible.
“What’s the situation?” Sasuke opened his eyes and asked directly.
Kisuke Urahara was silent for a moment.
He removed the instrument and gently tapped his palm with a fan, seemingly organizing his thoughts.
After a long pause, he slowly began to speak, his tone complex: “Your situation seems to be far more complicated than I imagined.”
He looked up at Sasuke, a hint of inquiry in his eyes: “There are several very strange powers within your Soul.”
Kisuke Urahara paused, as if considering how to explain.
“One of these powers, you should be very familiar with.
It is filled with resentment and hatred.
Its essence is extremely similar to a ‘Hollow’, and one could even say it is the nascent form of a Hollow forcibly inserted into your Soul.”
“This might be the voice in your mind that has been constantly urging you to unleash hatred.”
Upon hearing this, Sasuke’s pupils imperceptibly constricted, but his face did not show much surprise.
He had long had a premonition of an abnormality within his body.
“What about the other one?” he pressed.
“The other one…”
Kisuke Urahara’s expression grew even stranger.
“The other power is completely different.
It’s not chaotic like a ‘Hollow’; it seems like an innate power you were born with, but it’s not entirely consistent with your Soul.”
He concluded: “Perhaps these powers are the root cause of your Transmigration, or perhaps both are unrelated.
I cannot determine that yet.”
Kisuke Urahara spread his hands, showing a helpless expression, “Based on this examination alone, the information I can get is too little.
How about this, Sasuke-kun, I suggest you stay here with me for now.”
“On one hand, I can continue to observe your situation and look for a stable method of Transmigration.
On the other hand…”
He changed his tone, reverting to his cunning merchant persona, “I am very interested in that peculiar power from that other world.”
“In exchange, I can provide you with food, lodging, and some necessary guidance.
What do you say?”
Sasuke watched him in silence.
Currently, with no way to return, staying with Kisuke Urahara was indeed a good option.
Perhaps he could even receive guidance from the former Twelfth Division Captain.
“…Alright.” He finally nodded.
“Then it’s settled!”
Kisuke Urahara clapped his hands cheerfully, “Tessai!
Prepare a guest room for our new guest!”
Sasuke stood up, said nothing more, and followed Tsukabishi Tessai, who had arrived at the sound, towards the back of the shop.
Watching Sasuke’s retreating figure, the smile on Kisuke Urahara’s face slowly faded.
“Whoosh—”
A black figure silently leaped from a hidden compartment in the ceiling, landing on the tatami.
It was a black cat.
“He left?” The black cat spoke in human words.
“Yes,” Kisuke Urahara replied, his expression still solemn.
“So what’s going on?” The black cat jumped onto his shoulder and asked, “What exactly is inside that child?”
Kisuke Urahara sighed and briefly summarized his recent findings.
After listening, a hint of surprise flashed in the black cat’s golden cat eyes: “A power of resentment and hatred?
Is it a Hollow?
Like Kurosaki ichigo, with Hollow factors in his Soul?”
“No, it’s different.”
Kisuke Urahara shook his head, refuting her guess.
“The Hollow power within Kurosaki ichigo has been a part of his Soul from the very beginning.
Although dangerous, it is essentially ‘of the same origin’.”
He paused, seemingly searching for an accurate adjective.
Kisuke Urahara paused, his tone becoming even more somber: “But Uchiha Sasuke’s situation is completely different.”
“His power feels more like something Acquired, or rather, passively generated.”
“Isn’t that a Shinigami’s Hollowfication?” the black cat retorted.
“No, completely different.”
Kisuke Urahara’s denial this time was very decisive, his eyes serious.
“For Hirako and the others, Hollowfication is a Fusion that occurs when the Soul boundary is broken and the spiritual body is eroded by the Hollow virus, in order to survive.
It’s a process where an external force is forcibly injected.”
The black cat’s golden cat eyes narrowed: “You mean, Sasuke wasn’t eroded by an external force?”
“At least from my recent investigation, he wasn’t.”
Kisuke Urahara said slowly, “His Soul is very clean, with no traces of external contamination.
That Hollow power feels more like it grew out of some emotion deep within his Soul.”
“Grew out of it himself?”
The black cat’s tone was full of disbelief, “Are you kidding, Kisuke?
If a Shinigami could so easily give birth to a Hollow, the Soul Society would have become Hueco Mundo long ago.”
“I also thought it was impossible at first.”
Kisuke Urahara scratched his head in annoyance, “But don’t forget, he’s been to another world.
Perhaps the seed of the Hollow was planted then.”
The black cat’s voice also deepened: “This is much more troublesome than Hirako and their Hollowfication, because its root is the child himself.”
“Exactly.”
Kisuke Urahara closed his fan with a soft click, “Like Hirako, as long as you can suppress the Hollow’s power at the beginning, it’s ultimately an external thing.”
“But what’s inside Sasuke is different.”
He looked at the black cat and said, “It and Sasuke’s ‘hatred’ are almost the same thing.
How do you kill your own shadow?”
“To solve this problem would be to erase his hatred, but for that child, hatred seems to be the entire meaning of his existence.”
…..