Chapter 107: The Blood of the Quincy

Chapter 107: Chapter 107: The Blood of the Quincy The river valley was now covered in Katori Nanatsuki’s shadow-sight. As soon as Kurosaki Tsukiren emerged from the water, she was swiftly discovered by one of them. Nanatsuki had just stabilized Nobutsuna Shigyō’s injuries and needed to bring him to the medical post anyway, so he followed the river valley upstream. He hadn’t come here to save Kurosaki Tsukiren. Setting aside their opposing stances, Kurosaki Tsukiren was already on the brink of death. Without Tenjirō Kirinji’s healing hot springs, even Kaido alone wouldn’t be able to save her. He had come for a different reason. "Miss Kurosaki, there’s no need to panic," Nanatsuki said gently. "You chose not to kill my students back in Karakura Town. Naturally, I won’t harm those two children either. However, I would like to borrow a bit of your blood." Nanatsuki understood clearly—Shinigami had limits. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto currently represented the upper limit of Shinigami power, and Aizen Sōsuke also had the potential to reach that ceiling. If Nanatsuki advanced steadily, he too might reach the limit of a Shinigami’s power. But if he wanted to surpass that limit, he would need a power beyond that of a Shinigami. The power of Hollows, the power of the Quincy, or even the power of the Soul King—any of these might help a Shinigami break through their boundaries and become something greater. Now that he had the rare chance to encounter a pure-blooded Quincy, he didn’t intend to let it pass. Despite the intense fighting in the forested river valley, there actually weren’t many adult pure-blooded Quincy. Most of the Quincy present here were mixed-blood. He had encountered two pure-blood Quincy so far, but Ishida Sōken had already self-destructed, leaving no way to extract his pure Quincy bloodline. Kurosaki Tsukiren had yet to be discovered by other Shinigami, making this the best opportunity to collect her blood. "...Thank you... for sparing the two kids... Take the blood... do as you wish..." Kurosaki Tsukiren said with difficulty. She was already on death’s door. She had neither the strength nor the will to care about what a Shinigami would do with her blood. As long as her younger siblings were safe, she could rest easy. Nanatsuki sighed inwardly. The positions of the Shinigami and the Quincy were fundamentally irreconcilable. The Shinigami’s purge of the Quincy wasn’t just due to accumulated hatred, but because of the fundamental nature of Quincy power. Souls in the World of the Living split—some go to the Soul Society, others become Hollows and remain in the World of the Living or enter Hueco Mundo. When Shinigami use their Zanpakutō to destroy Hollows, they aren’t erasing them completely. They’re purifying the sins the Hollows accumulated in life. After purification, the Hollow returns to a soul state and goes to the Soul Society, its spiritual homeland. Souls that die in the Soul Society eventually reincarnate in the World of the Living. This cycle of souls among the three realms forms a delicate balance. The duty of the Shinigami is to maintain this balance. But the Quincy, when eliminating Hollows, do not send souls to the Soul Society. They destroy them entirely. If this continued, the balance would collapse, and all three realms would face destruction. This is why Shinigami and Quincy were incompatible from the very foundation of their powers. Suddenly, a question popped into Nanatsuki’s mind. That unborn child, Kurosaki Ichigo—his early powers came from old man Zangetsu, which were actually Quincy powers. His true Shinigami powers had been suppressed and hidden inside his body. So, in his early days, when Kurosaki Ichigo eliminated Hollows, did he completely destroy their souls? Or did he, like a Shinigami, send them to the Soul Society? Nanatsuki recalled that Ichigo could perform Soul Burial... That was an ability exclusive to Shinigami. ’Maybe the Quincy power inside him didn’t fully suppress his Shinigami power?’ Nanatsuki thought to himself. He only remembered the general flow of the story. As for these little details, they had grown fuzzy over time. Still, the idea sparked his imagination. The ability to guide souls came from the Zanpakutō, a system created by the Royal Guard’s Ōetsu Nimaiya and Ichibē Hyōsube. Could it be possible, then, for the Quincy to possess something similar to a Zanpakutō—giving them the ability to guide souls? But even the Quincy King couldn’t achieve such a feat. Nanatsuki could only fantasize about it for now. Realizing that Kurosaki Tsukiren had stopped breathing, Nanatsuki pulled out the Bloodline Extractor. He inserted it into her neck, and a blue liquid slowly flowed out. (T/N: I’m assuming it’s blue because it’s Reishi, maybe the Essence of a Quincy’s Soul.) The extraction took several minutes to complete. Nanatsuki glanced at his Status Interface. The label on the extractor had changed: [Bloodline Extractor (Pure-Blood Quincy)] Just then, a gentle breeze blew over the riverbank, and Kurosaki Tsukiren’s body disintegrated into gray ash, drifting away on the wind. Nanatsuki didn’t linger. He hoisted Nobutsuna Shigyō onto his back and left the river valley. With his speed, he soon caught sight of the two young Quincy—but did not show himself. He simply leapt past them, unseen. Back in Karakura Town, Kurosaki Tsukiren had chosen not to kill his students, and Nanatsuki owed her for that. Now, by sparing the two children, he had repaid that debt. With the fall of the elite Quincy, the war was nearing its end. There were no more Quincy elites left in the forested river valley, and the medical teams—now assisted by Shinigami from other divisions—were conducting searches and rescues. Nanatsuki did not re-enter the forest, choosing instead to remain at the medical post and treat the wounded alongside Unohana Retsu. "Katori-kun, I heard you defeated a pure-blood Quincy?" Unohana asked as she continued her treatment, her hands steady and calm even in the face of numerous wounded. "Their Ransōtengai is hard to deal with. If my Kaido wasn’t up to par, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep supporting Captain Shigyō," Nanatsuki replied. If Nanatsuki had been a high-damage, low-defense type, he likely would have died at the hands of Ishida Sōken. Fortunately, his survival abilities were exceptional. Whether it was Kaido Self-Regeneration or his shadow-based techniques, he had plenty of tools to remain undefeated on the battlefield. He had already confirmed it—he had absolute control over the Reishi hidden in his shadows. Even Kurosaki Tsukiren, in her soul-dispersal form, couldn’t absorb the Reishi hidden in his shadows. As long as he remained within the shadows, even a dispersing-form Quincy couldn’t touch him. "That’s more than enough to shut the Central 46 up," Unohana smiled. "Pure-blood Quincy are rare to begin with, and once grown, they all possess Blut Vene. Combined with Ransōtengai, they’re really troublesome to deal with." "Sensei! We’ve got a critical case here!" Shihoin Yoruichi and members of the Onmitsukidō carried in a severely wounded patient. "Coming!" Having gone through a brutal battle, Yoruichi had matured greatly. Her eyes, once bright and clear, now held steadiness and depth. At that moment, Nanatsuki’s Status Interface popped up: [Disciple Shihoin Yoruichi has completed battlefield training. (Completed)]