What is a Zanpakuto?

What is the origin of their existence?

This was a question Gojo always asked himself and naturally found out the answer once he learned about Division 0.

 

Zanpakuto, or rather, Asaushi were weapons with infinite potential that needed a part of the soul of their wielder in order to continually evolve.

That wasn't all. By absorbing a shard of the wielder soul, the Zanpakuto will give birth to a new entity capable of thinking by itself and with its own feeling.

From the moment both the Shinigami and the Zapankuto’s spirit acknowledged each other, they would give birth to a new power known as Shikai. 

Then when the Shinigami showed his dominance by beating the spirit, they would reach Bankai.

But what then after that?

The Shiba clan were crazy enough to think outside the box and go back to the origin. By fusing oneself with the spirit of the Zanpakuto, it was possible to reach an unimaginable level of power.

But it had problems. Fusing with the Zanpakuto meant essentially killing them. 

Furthermore even after killing them, the power obtained would only be temporary and the one who did this would not only lose his zanpakuto but even all his power.

In fact, there were high chances for this to end in death since the user would lose so much of his spiritual power he would barely be able to function.

Because of this huge drawback, the Shiba family gave up on developing that technique and put it on the shelves.

But Gojo had different ideas about this.

What he had to do was to find a way to induce a partial and temporary fusion of the between Shinigami and Zanpakuto.

The principle of the initial technique was to consider the two as one and make them go back to the origin. But Gojo thought this was stupid.

The moment a Spirit was born. It stopped simply being the alter ego of the Shinigami. They were their own person. Fusion would only results in the death of one or the two but…there was something that could be possible — Resonance.

“<<Soul Resonance>>.”

“Resonance?”

“Hum… If I had to explain this in mundane words, then you can compare it to the usage of an electric guitar and an AMP, while the sound (Reiatsu) that comes from an electric guitar (Shinigami) by itself is rather faint, it gains a lot of power when connected to the AMP (Zanpakuto). 

My goal is to make the stats where a shinigami enters the mental space of a Zanpakuto constant. Which would bring an increase in the power the two can bring while fighting. A positive loop of energy. The result would be of course inferior to a complete fusion but this would be the next step.”

Gojo had to admit that he had a hard time really explaining his thoughts since they weren’t straight themselves.

In the end, scratched his head helplessly, 

“Honestly, this will be really hard to implement. This isn’t just about knowing the name or subduing the Zanpakuto. The very first step is a deep trust in each other to a blind degree. For most Shinigami, it’s impossible because, for them, Zanpakuto are just weapons to be used.”

“Pfft~! Hahaha~!”

Gojo looked bewildered at Unohana as she suddenly began to laugh crazily, 

“What’s so funny?”

“No~pfft~! It’s just…When I think about how you had such a hard time to even awaken your Shikai. I literally had to kill you a hundred times before you got it.”

“*Ahem* *Cough* *Cough* Let’s forget those times.”

Gojo could not show his usual shameless face in this case. This was indeed a dark stain in his history.  

Back then he was simply obsessed with recuperating Limitless and severely underestimated how powerful a Zanpakuto could make him.

More than that, he had ignored someone who would become–and was currently, very important to him.

[Hmph! Flattery will not get you anywhere.]

{Hahaha.}

Gojo simply laughed it off. He knew that no excuse could change what already happened. All he could do was to show his trust in her and make her understand that he would never put her aside and make amends for his past mistake.

“Well, even if we deal with the relationship, there are still too many obscure points. While it works in theory, I have no doubt that it will be different in the field.”

Unohana wiped a tear that had formed because of her laughter and nodded.

“There’s no problem. I will work on increasing my synchronization with Minazuki until then.”

Smiling, she stood up and left the room. Unohana wasn’t one for chit chat and she had other things to do.

“Speaking of Zanpakuto, why don’t you use yours?”

Gojo turned towards the lazy black cat and asked.

“Well, just because I am stronger without it?”

Yoruichi shrugged, which felt a little weird since she was in her cat form, and continued, “Not all Zanpakuto’s power are ideal for their wielder. It’s like how Soi Fon’s Bankai, while extremely powerful, is, in fact, useless in the hand of Soi Fon since it completely breaks her fighting skill.”

Some shinigami created their fighting skills around that of their Zanpakuto. Some Shinigami were lucky enough to have the power of their Zanpakuto match their styles and finally, some simply decided to keep to themselves and give up on the power of their Zanpakuto.

“The same happened with Little Byakuya. I was his teacher so I know. His Zanpakuto and the way I taught him are completely different. Senbonzakura itself is extremely fast and has a wide attack range. 

But to use it effectively, the user must become rather static. It is a shame since he had such a Talent in Shunpo. Though I perfectly understand his choice. That sword is honestly insane.”

Gojo nodded and didn’t comment further. In his case, he was lucky that Kogo’s power had such a good compatibility with Limitless. So he had nothing to add. 

“By the way, Nemu, what about Soi Fon?”

“She is still in London. She was hired by the Western Branch to help them deal with a problem. Oh? I hope the pay is handsome.”

Gojo wasn’t worried about Soi Fon. Not only was the girl an ex-captain, it seemed that coming on earth and exploring the world really did her good. 

She became somewhat stronger and had a less uptight attitude about everything. Furthermore, even if everything else failed, Gojo had also put many failsafe on her body to protect her if she was really in danger of death.

Still, “Sometimes I feel there isn’t enough of me.”

Dealing with London, Karakura town, Hueco Mundo, Aizen still at large and some sealed king seemingly coming from the dead. All of this was such a pain and Gojo wished he could simply go sleep for a few decades and wake up to not have to deal with the hassle.

However he couldn’t. Not when he had more than half of the Gotei 13’s power around him. He wasn’t a hero nor a savior, but he couldn’t ignore the responsibility that fell on him because of his actions.

‘Man, I miss the days when I was just a healer in the 4th division.’

Heal people about to die, get frisky with some cute nurses, fight to the death against Unohana or go tease Nanao. 

This was the life he wanted.

‘I would have never thought that I would long for such boring days.’

Time was really something magical. 

[Do you regret your actions?]

{Me? Regret? Hahaha, please. I do miss those days but the current ones are even better you know? I am my own boss. I am rich, I am handsome, I am powerful and I am surrounded by beautiful and competent women I care for and who care for me. I am living the dream!}

Gojo laughed out loud like a crazy man but neither Nemu nor Yoruichi were surprised. While they had never discussed with her, they did know about Kogo and knew Gojo liked speaking with her inwardly.

“Well, let’s hope nothing else adds itself to our plate.”

Gojo spoke and was about to stand up and leave when he suddenly saw a Hell Butterfly enter the room before landing on Nemu's hand.

Looking at Nemu’s impassive expression, Gojo couldn’t help but hope that it was nothing important.

Sadly, once the butterfly flew away, Gojo could only facepalm at the news he received.

“The Substitute Shinigami, Kugo Ginjo, betrayed the Soul Society after killing twenty Shinigami. He is officially wanted but his whereabouts are currently unknown. Though, he is suspected of advancing toward Karakura Town. 

As of now, Captain Jushiro Ukitake was temporarily stripped of his Title and put under house arrest. Meanwhile, Captain Tokinada Tsunayashiro was sent down to chase the wanted individual. Message over.”