"What?!"

  Sōken Ishida excimed in shock. "The Quincy's Final Form?!"

  "You don't know about it? It's a power that, once used, causes you to lose all your spiritual energy. It's the Quincy's st and strorump card."

  Haruki smiled bitterly. "In short, it's an incredibly powerful ability, but after using it, you lose your Quincy powers."

  "How could I not know about that?" Sōken quickly replied. "I'm just surprised that someoually used it."

  The Quincy's Final Form was actually a closely guarded secret among the Quincy, something not known to ordinary Quincy.

  But Sōken couldn't possibly not know, because he had been exiled from the Wandenreich precisely for insisting on the Quincy's Final Form as the true power!

  The Wandenreich...

  Located within the shadows of the Seireitei, it was a fa formed by the Quincy who survived the war a thousand years ago.

  Over the course of a millennium, the Quincy had been ed by thoughts of revenge.

  When a nation is filled with the desire for reveheir methods of warfare expand dramatically.

  The Quincy of the Wandenreich had refihe Quincy's Final Form into the "Quincy Vollst?ndig."

  One of the reasons Sōken had been exiled from the Wandenreich was his refusal to accept Vollst?ndig as the new form of power.

  So, how could he not know about the Quincy's Final Form?

  It was just that someone suddenly appearing before him and talking about this left him somewhat stunned.

  As for Haruki's words...

  Well, they were about 60% believable.

  Because Haruki had immediately brought up three retively secret aspects of the Quincy.

  One was the surname "Kurosaki," which was associated with the Quincy. Another was the Quincy's Final Form. And the third...

  He knew about the Wandenreid that Sōken had been exiled.

  This was enough to prove that Haruki was also a Quincy, because at this point in time, only Quinew about the existence of the Wandenreich.

  The Shinigami only khat the Quincy hadn't been pletely wiped out, but they didn't know about the empire or Sōken's exile.

  Taking all this into at, Sōken was retively vinced of Haruki's identity as a Quincy.

  He carefully checked Haruki's spiritual pressure and found that Haruki was oing a faint trace of spiritual energy.

  There was no helping it—the Gigai produced by Urahara Kisuke was of such high quality that once worn, it made the wearer practically indistinguishable from a living human.

  Moreover, Haruki khat the Ishida family was of pure Quincy blood...

  Sōken couldn't help but ask curiously, "What happeo you... that you had to use the Quincy's Final Form?"

  "..." Haruki remained silent.

  Sōken quickly added, "If you don't want to talk about it, I won't press you. I'm just curious why you showed up at my home."

  "It's nothing, just a bet with someone."

  Haruki smiled self-depregly. "Those guys, didn't they develop Vollst?ndig?"

  "They think it's a power that surpasses the Final Form. I disagreed, so I challenged one of them to a match."

  Sōken's eyes widened!

  In that moment, he felt a sense of kinship with Haruki!

  He, too, believed that Vollst?ndig shouldn't be used!

  But he was still shocked. "Just because of that, you were willing to lose your powers?"

  Vollst?ndig was an improved version of the Final Form, with the biggest advantage being that it didn't cause the user to lose their powers after use.

  So even if Haruki had woch, as long as the oppo was still alive, they would still be sidered the victor.

  "Actually... it's no big deal," Haruki smiled. "Even if I still had my powers, I'd just end up as on fodder in a few decades. To be ho... I'm not ied in that kind of grand revenge ideology."

  "..."

  At this point, Sōken was almost certain that Haruki was indeed a Quinot just a Quincy, but a kindred spirit.

  Because the things Haruki was talking about were only known to Quincy.

  And even among the Quincy, only those of siderable status would know such things.

  "As for why I'm here, to be ho, I'm irely sure either."

  "After leaving the empire, I've just been wandering around the human world. I was sleeping in a tree earlier and only realized this was your home after I fell down."

  Haruki added, "Is this what they call fate? Heh..."

  "Fate is indeed mysterious," Sōken nodded in agreement.

  "But I'm curious, Kurosaki... why did you reject Vollst?ndig?"

  Haruki answered without hesitation. "I don't want others to trol my life ah."

  "Although Vollst?ndig is an improved version of the Final Form, I 't shake the feeling that once you use it, even your soul no longer belongs to you."

  At this point, Haruki became serious.

  "You should knht? The Quincy King, who lies in slumber, took nine hundred years to restore his heartbeat, y years tain sciousness, and nine years to recover his power..."

  "...The Quincy legend of the 'Holy Hymn,'" Sōken said solemnly.

  "Right. Our leader... possesses the power of 'Ausw?hlen.' Yet, we purebloods are exempt from having our powers recimed by Ausw?hlen."

  Haruki also spoke with gravity. "However, I 't help but feel that once we use Vollst?ndig, we'll lose this 'special' status. The more we indulge in Yhwach's power, the harder it bees to escape his trol."

  "..." Sōken didn't respond immediately but instead looked at Haruki ily. After a while, he nodded in agreement.

  "Actually, I've had simir thoughts, which is why I firmly oppose using Vollst?ndig." At this point, Sōken smiled bitterly. "But our way of thinking is destio be rejected by others."

  "Take it easy. Everyone has their own path," Haruki shook his head. "That's why I think my current situation is fine. Living a few decades in the human world, then dying of old age—isn't that a good way to end a life?"

  "Haha, you make a good point."

  At this moment, Haruki noticed that Sōken's favorability toward him had reached 65.

  Great. It seemed his approach had been the right one.

  The persona he had crafted for "Kurosaki Kōun" recisely the kind that Sōken Ishida would find most retable.

  Sōken was someone who had been exiled from the Wandenreich, someone who harbored no deep hatred for the Shinigami, and someone who rejected Vollst?ndig.

  Haruki, too, was someone who had left the Wandenreich, someone who held n opinions about the Shinigami, and someone who rejected Vollst?ndig.

  For Sōken, who had never entered a like-minded panion before, it was only natural that he would quickly accept Haruki as a fellow Quincy.