Kisuke Urahara was utterly dumbfounded.
He had always lived by the principle of staying low-key, diligently adopting a lifestyle of quiet obscurity.
In chaotic times like these, the more one stood out, the more likely they were to be targeted.
Unless the chaos settled, he had resolved to keep his head down for eternity if need be.
But who would've thought that this peaceful life would be abruptly disrupted by a completely inexplicable person?
Feeling utterly helpless, he glanced at Kaelith Yurei.
Seeing Kisuke look at him, Kaelith smiled brightly and gave him a thumbs-up.
As a man with high emotional intelligence, Kaelith understood well that if you wanted someone to like you, you had to find ways to make them shine.
Why do the chubby side characters in novels always live such happy lives alongside the protagonist?
The answer is simple—they let the protagonist hog all the glory!
While Kaelith didn't claim to be as capable as those supporting characters, he was confident in his ability to share the spotlight.
Sure enough, Kisuke's expression shifted to one of gratitude and relief.
Kaelith couldn't help but admire his own wisdom.
Hearing Kaelith's comments, the members of the Second Division turned their attention to Kisuke.
If Kaelith hadn't mentioned it, they wouldn't have noticed.
But now, recalling Kisuke's lazy attitude during training and his knack for barely passing assessments, they realized… wasn't this the classic sign of a hidden master?!
Their eyes lit up as they began flocking toward Kisuke, either to ask for advice or to challenge him with sparring.
As the scene descended into a chaotic brawl, Kaelith nodded in satisfaction.
Now, Kisuke's name would surely spread across the entire Second Division.
After years of toil, Kisuke was finally on track for promotions and raises, fulfilling his ambitions—all thanks to Kaelith.
This benevolence had a distinctly cunning flavor, akin to that of a scheming villainous boss.
The false boss: Aizen Sōsuke.
The real boss: Kaelith Yurei!
Imagining Aizen kneeling before him, presenting a "Greatest Villain Boss" medal, Kaelith couldn't help but grin smugly.
Seeing that Kisuke and the Second Division were now fully preoccupied, Kaelith decided to slip away.
Before leaving, he informed Shaolin Fēng that he would check her progress the next time he visited the Second Division.
Hearing this, Shaolin Fēng beamed with happiness and nodded enthusiastically.
Even though they'd only known each other for half a day, her impression of Kaelith had already climbed to a level second only to Yoruichi.
While it was still only one percent of her admiration for Yoruichi, it was... remarkably high!
After bidding farewell to the Second Division, Kaelith returned to Shin'ō Academy.
Avoiding the newly built campus, he headed straight to his private training ground.
Before entering, he formed several hand seals, activating a refractive light barrier.
With this barrier in place, no one could spy on the events inside the dojo from a distance.
If someone breached the barrier, Kaelith would know immediately.
Admiring his handiwork, Kaelith nodded in satisfaction.
As expected of something made by Aizen—just mastering this alone could earn him a position within the Kidō Corps.
After setting up the barrier, Kaelith entered the dojo and took out a small vial of red liquid.
Inside was a refined material for creating artificial souls, provided by Hikifune Kirio.
Kaelith estimated that this red liquid was likely the precursor to the Soul Candy.
Following Kirio's instructions, he opened the vial and poured out the liquid.
Under the guidance of his Spirit Pressure, the liquid swirled and coalesced midair, forming a smooth orb of liquid. Kaelith placed his hands on it, his expression turning serious.
His next task was to fuse the material with his Spirit Pressure to create a soul that closely mimicked his own.
Whether he could deceive Aizen would depend on the quality of this soul.
The process was expected to be lengthy.
Fortunately, soul creation was a process that could be paused and resumed.
Even if he didn't finish today, he could continue tomorrow, as long as he didn't make any mistakes or waste the materials.
Typically, Kaelith would stretch the timeline as much as possible to ensure perfection.
But now, time was tight, and the task was urgent—he had to move quickly.
Taking a deep breath, Kaelith hoped he wouldn't fail too many times. If he did, no matter how patient Kirio was, she might lose her temper and start swinging her weapon.
With that mental preparation, he channeled his Spirit Pressure into the red orb.
The first step was to fuse his Spirit Pressure with the red liquid as thoroughly as possible.
This phase would typically take dozens of hours.
By pausing his daily meditation, he could free up about seven hours each day.
In about ten days, he'd be able to—
Kaelith suddenly froze mid-thought.
He felt a strange sensation of familiarity coming from the orb, as if it were an extension of himself.
Puzzled, he quickly examined it further.
It didn't take long for Kaelith to figure out what was happening.
The portion of the material that had fused with his Spirit Pressure was already responding to his commands, allowing him to manipulate it freely.
Yet, according to Kirio, the material shouldn't respond until the fusion was complete.
Even after creating a functional artificial soul, mastering control would take significant time.
So why was he already able to control the partially fused material?
After a brief moment of doubt, Kaelith continued injecting more Spirit Pressure, fusing additional portions of the material.
To his amazement, these newly fused portions also responded immediately to his commands.
Though the artificial soul wasn't complete, he could already extract fragments of the soul from the orb—and these fragments obeyed his every command.
A single thought could make them perform any task with the same precision and flexibility as his own fingers.
Kaelith felt a complex mix of emotions.
While he often joked that Aizen was the "fake genius" and he was the "real genius," he had always known the truth.
Compared to a monster like Aizen, he was just a somewhat talented ordinary person.
But now, his rapid progress in creating artificial souls seemed to defy that assessment.
Suddenly, Kaelith recalled something.
When he had learned the Cat Form technique, his progress had been similarly swift, almost to the point of making Yoruichi jealous.
Both artificial soul creation and the Cat Form technique involved reshaping the spiritual particles that made up his own being.
The artificial soul fused with his Spirit Pressure could be considered an extension of himself.
With this realization, Kaelith couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
If he could master more abilities in this domain, wouldn't he soon forge a completely unique path to unparalleled power?