As Haruki pced his hand on his face, he felt a surge of power emerging from the depths of his soul.

  That power was breaking down his soul, causing a force of airely different nature to rise within him.

  A white hue began to spread across his face, quickly f into a mask.

  In an instant, a dark red spiritual pressure, brimming with malevolence, erupted from Haruki's body!

  Boom!

  Haruki felt his spiritual power multiply several times over, but this surge didn't overwhelm his senses. He felt no different from before.

  For others, Hollowfication was a life-ah struggle against the Hollow's power to maintain their sense of self. But Haruki was different. He was using a soul ability. Uhe ability's descriptioioned side effects, it wouldn't harm him.

  The duration of Hollowfication depended orength of his soul. The stronger his soul, the longer he could maintain it.

  With his current soul strength, he could sustain it for about five to six minutes. While this paled in parison to the top members of the Visored, it was still far better than Ichigo Kurosaki's initial attempts.

  Once Hollowfication ehe mask on Haruki's face disappeared.

  However, the boundary between his Shinigami and Hollow souls had been permaly broken.

  Over time, Haruki would eventually be able to Hollowfy at will.

  But this kind of Hollowfication wouldn't be the same as the soul ability he currently possessed. It would be more like the Visored's version, with the risk of losing trol.

  Unless he could raise White's favorability to 80, in which case he could use risk-free Hollowfication.

  "Not bad," Haruki smiled to himself.

  It had only been a year since he transmigrated into this world, and he already had the means to protect himself.

  Even if the Quinvasion happened, he was fident he wouldn't just be on fodder.

  e on, if he couldn't take oernritter, could he at least hahe Quincy foot soldiers?

  Was he, a vice-captain, supposed to fight the Sternritter?

  Or maybe the Schutzstaffel?

  Wait, no...

  Was he seriously thinking about fighting Yhwach?

  Haruki chuckled at the thought and then fell asleep.

  The day, on his way to the division, Haruki ran into a familiar fad greeted them.

  "Good m, Ms. Nanao. You're here at the 5th Division so early. Is there something going on?"

  Haruki raised his hand iing.

  That's right, he had spotted Nanao Ise, the vice-captain of the 8th Division.

  Nanao seemed a bit surprised. "Vice-Captain Haruki, have you checked the time? You're te for duty."

  "Eh?" Haruki scratched his head sheepishly. "Well, Captain Aize really care about these small things."

  "So, you're here for something, right?"

  "I have some information to deliver to Captain Aizen, and I also o borrow some books from the 5th Division's library."

  "The 5th Division's library, huh?" Haruki rubbed his , impressed. "As expected of Vice-Captain Ise. You actually read those dense, academic books in there."

  Each division iei 13 had a medium-sized library in its district.

  These libraries were managed directly by the divisions, so they usually tained books that aligned with the division's is.

  For example, the 4th Division's library had many medical books, while the 6th Division's library had books on iquette and rituals. As for the 5th Division's library, most of the books were collected by Aizen.

  Aizen had somehow acquired a bunch of serious academic books, making the 5th Division's library a pce few visited. After all, who could uand that stuff?

  "I'm an honorary member of the Shin'ō Library. Don't uimate me."

  The title of Shin'ō Library member was awarded to Shinigami who borrowed over a thousand books in a year. So, Nanao Ise was indeed a bookworm.

  Since Haruki occasionally drank with Kyōraku Shunsui, he was somewhat familiar with Nanao, though she didn't have the best impression of him.

  Nanao disliked Kyōraku's drinking habits, and Haruki, who often apanied him, had iently stepped on a ndmine.

  Haruki uood this, but he had no choice. He o boost Kyōraku's favorability.

  However, he also wao raise Nanao's favorability. Her soul ability, "Mirror Refle," was something he had been eyeing for a long time.

  After a moment of thought, he asked, "What kind of books are you looking for, Vice-Captain Ise?"

  "Huh?" Nanao was taken abaot expeg Haruki to ask such a question. But she replied, "I'm looking for books on Kidō teiques. The 8th Division's library doesn't have what I need, so I thought Captain Aizen, being so knowledgeable, might have something here."

  "I see. In that case, I reend The Bnk Soul, The Birth of Kidō, and On Intationless Casting. They're all iion B on the sed floor of the 5th Division's library. You should be able to find them easily," Haruki said with a calm smile.

  "!"

  Nanao was stunned. She hadn't expected Haruki to say something like that.

  In her mind, Haruki was just a lucky guy who had killed a strange Menos and bee a vice-captain.

  Moreover, this lucky guy often drank with Captain Kyōraku and was rumored to be zy and irresponsible in his duties.

  As someone who took her work seriously, Nanao didn't have a favorable impression of him.

  But now, Haruki had shown her a side of himself that pletely tradicted the rumors.

  "Th... thank you."

  After a moment of silenanao quickly expressed her gratitude. "I'll take a look at those books."

  "I'm gd I could help, Vice-Captain Ise. Well, I should head to the division now. If I'm any ter, Captain Aizen might have something to say."

  Haruki waved with a smile and hurried off to the division.

  He student, after all!

  Did they think just because he had transmigrated, he could stop studying? No way! Didn't they know that sd teology were the primary productive forces?

  Didn't they know that stists had privileges in this world?

  Just look at Kisuke Urahara and Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Because they were stists, they always had ericks up their sleeves during fights.

  Haruki was envious.

  Studying could ge one's destiny!

  The books Aizen had collected ih Division's library were inprehensible to most, including Haruki at first.

  But that didn't matter. If you didn't uand, you just kept reading!

  The more you read, the more you'd uand!

  Did they really think he was sg off all day in the division?

  Wrong!

  I'm secretly outw all of you!

  I'm the king of grinding!