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| Kurosaki
Ichigo being the reincarnation of Shiba Kaien is all well and good, but the key
question remains. Yes, he was a Shinigami and his soul remains
one and retains some instinctive knowledge of Shinigami ways, yet
even Kaien did not have Ichigo's endless reserves of sheer monstrous
power. Where does it come from? As Captain Aizen Sousuke here
conveniently explains, every Shinigami has a genkai
(maximum potential) that they can not by default surpass, and the only
way to exceed this genkai is to become a Shinigami-Hollow
hybrid. Does this imply that, unlike Shinigami, Hollows have some
kind of unlimited potential? Do they get it from tapping into the energy
of Hueco Mundo (the Hollows' world)? Who knows.
Aizen specialized in research of turning Hollows into
Shinigami.
Indeed, the Hollow that Kaien fought was one of his creations - it
could destroy a zanpaku-tou and fuse with any Shinigami.
But none of Aizen's creations were advanced enough to be called a
"new being." Only Urahara Kisuke succeeded in creating the
mechanism to instantly transform a Hollow into a Shinigami and
vice-versa, and it was called hou gyoku. He deemed it
"dangerous" (hmm... why?) and, failing to destroy it, hid it
instead.
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Chapter 175 |
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| Let us
return to that confrontation once again. Here we have the Hollow-Kaien
explaining that this was not like a spirit possessing a physical body, this
was the fusion of two spiritual beings into one and they could never be
separated again. This meant that when Kaien died, his soul was merged
with a Hollow. One could argue that a zanpakuto-to is designed to
purify a Hollow, so Rukia would have killed it when she stabbed Kaien.
However, the nature of their unorthodox union implied that Kaien was no
longer purely Shinigami and the Hollow was no longer strictly a
Hollow at the time of death. This allows for the strong possibility that
the zanpaku-to would not affect it the way it would a standard
Hollow. |
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Chapter 136 |
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| Much
later, after Ukitake recognized Ichigo as greatly resembling
Kaien, he gave him a creepy-looking amulet as a parting gift. |
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Chapter 181 |
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| He
said it was a "Seal of Approval" traditionally given
to humans who are acting as Shinigami if they are
recognized as beneficial to Soul Society.
Tradition,
huh? I wonder if it's also traditional to give these things out
covertly, at the last minute, out of a crumpled bag.
Ishida
finds it quite suspicious. After all, humans aren't supposed to
have Shinigami powers, and the apparent punishment for a Shinigami
transferring such powers to a human is death! |
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Chapter 182 |
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| Other
Shinigami don't seem to recognize it. |
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Chapter 184 |
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| Ukitake
also mentions that it is a "very powerful tool" and
"very risky for non-Shinigami to use," even
though all it appears to do is detect Hollows. So what is the
true significance of this amulet? And why did Ukitake choose to
give it to Ichigo? |
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Chapter 183 |
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