BLEACH: UNOHANA RETSU IS MY WIFE

Half a month passed quietly…

During this time, aside from gaining experience and occasionally teasing Unohana, Araki stumbled upon something interesting.

His earlier main quest—

[Main Quest: Join the 13 Court Guard Squads in the Soul Society.]

—had finally been marked as completed.

Upon receiving the reward, a new item appeared in his system: something called a Second-Class Experience Package.

Curious, Araki mentally tapped on the item in his interface, prompting a system message to pop up:

[Second-Class Experience Package: Grants 1 billion experience points. Can be used directly to level up or as material to synthesize a First-Class Experience Package.]

[First-Class Experience Package: Grants 10 billion experience points. Can be synthesized using ten Second-Class Experience Packages.]

"…Seriously?"

Araki's eye twitched slightly after reading the system's explanation.

Come to think of it, advancing from Third-Class Spiritual Power to Second-Class required exactly 1 billion experience points. Similarly, progressing to First-Class took 10 billion…

So that's where the names come from?!

At the same time, Araki couldn't help but sigh emotionally. Compared to the grind of daily tasks, earning a full billion experience points like this felt almost effortless.

Only he knew how long it had taken to scrape together enough points to level up to Second-Class Spiritual Power before!

Shaking his head, Araki refocused on his next goal.

He recalled the fine print on the previous quest:

[Note: The value of the main quest reward depends on the host's rank within the 13 Court Guard Squads.]

Since Araki had been rewarded with a Second-Class Package for his current role as a Captain, he began to speculate:

"If I somehow replaced old man Yamamoto and became the Captain-Commander… Would I be directly rewarded with a First-Class Package? Could I then instantly reach First-Class Spiritual Power?"

The thought was tempting… but Araki quickly shook it off.

Replacing Captain-Commander Yamamoto? That was wishful thinking. If he really had that kind of ambition, he might as well go cool off somewhere—he wasn't delusional enough to think Yamamoto couldn't lift a sword just because Araki had gotten stronger.

"…Yeah, not happening."

With a small sigh, Araki pulled up his character template.

Steps

Shunpo (Flash Step): LV1 (+)

Kidō

Hadō: LV1 (+)

Bakudō: LV1 (+)

Kaidō: LV1 (+)

Araki skimmed past the earlier stats and focused on Shunpo and Kidō. They were both still at Level 1—untouched since the beginning.

In fact, among all of Araki's attributes, only Shunpo and Kidō remained at LV1. Most of his other combat stats—aside from Reiatsu, which used terms like "Third-Class" or "Second-Class"—had already reached LV10.

It wasn't that Araki hadn't trained Shunpo or Kidō; it was just that Shunpo couldn't compare to the spatial manipulation of the Ope Ope no Mi (Operation Room), and when it came to Kidō… he simply had no talent.

High spiritual pressure didn't necessarily translate to Kidō aptitude. Even Kenpachi Zaraki and Kurosaki Ichigo—powerhouses with monstrous Reiatsu—had almost zero affinity for Kidō.

When your Reiatsu is overwhelming, you can just overpower opponents with raw force. No Kidō necessary.

And in Araki's system, everything except Reiatsu followed a simple level-based structure. The higher the LV, the better the skill. LV1 basically meant he had only "learned" it—it wasn't even at beginner level.

It was like Araki had just understood multiplication, but hadn't memorized the multiplication table yet.

Still, even with such crude Shunpo skills, Araki could brute-force it thanks to his massive spiritual pressure and physical strength. His raw speed outmatched most enemies with better Shunpo technique but lower spiritual power.

This was the miracle of "big stats make up for low skill." His Shunpo was all power, no finesse—like throwing bricks until one flew.

Of course, if he faced an opponent with equal or higher stats, then the lack of technique would become a problem.

With that in mind, Araki checked his experience value…

After 15 days of system tasks, he had accumulated 46,890 experience points.

His daily training missions still gave him a steady 2,000 points, and his new routine task was simply signing in at the squad dormitory every day.

Yes—unconsciously, Araki had become an exemplary company man.

Logging in, logging out, never late and never early—always perfectly on time!

As long as he was consistently late and left early every day, people naturally assumed that was just his normal schedule.

"System, give me some points!"

Without another word, Araki poured all his experience points into Shunpo.

As 11,110 experience points vanished, his Shunpo level instantly rose to LV5!

Yes—aside from the two core attributes, Reiryoku and Spirit Body, which had much higher experience requirements—technical abilities such as Shunpo, Hakuda, Zanjutsu, and Kido all started with a cost of just 1 XP per level, and they maxed out at LV10.

In fact, Araki had already maxed out both Zanjutsu and Hakuda within his "Zan-Ken-Sou-Ki" training.

His status panel now looked very unbalanced, so Araki slightly adjusted the display for a more reasonable layout.

Though he technically had over 1.1 billion XP on hand—enough to max out all his skills—Araki knew it wasn't necessary. For now, Shunpo and Kido—especially for substitution, diversion, and utility—didn't need to hit max level. LV4 or LV5 was more than sufficient.

He glanced at the 35,000 XP still remaining and frowned slightly. His OCD couldn't let it sit like that—so he leveled up Hadō, Bakudō, and Kaidō to LV5 as well.

Even though LV5 Kido didn't significantly boost his capabilities—considering his spirit particle manipulation was already maxed at LV10—there was still a small improvement in casting precision.

"It's not much... but still, an improvement," Araki murmured to himself.

From now on, he'd use the daily experience points from routine training quests to gradually improve his remaining weaker skills. Upgrading his Reiatsu through dailies was no longer realistic—it would take 10,000 years to collect the 10 billion XP needed at 3,000 XP per day.

And by then, any opportunity would have long since passed.

In Araki's eyes, real growth would have to come from completing major missions—and earning experience packages as rewards.

"...Sigh."

Araki exhaled deeply and stepped out of the squad leader's quarters.

As he passed by the 11th Division's sword dojo, he caught sight of Unohana Yachiryu—now going by Unohana Retsu—leading the training. She was swinging a wooden sword with graceful precision, instructing her subordinates during the daily drills.

"Retsu, leave the training for now. Come with me," Araki called out.

"If we don't get moving, Old Man Yama will start nagging again…"

Seeing her drenched in sweat, Araki unsheathed his Zanpakutō. A soft green glow enveloped her body, and the sweat disappeared instantly, replaced by a faint herbal scent.

"Alright..." Unohana Retsu returned her blade to her waist and walked toward him.

"Araki, you seem... worried. Is it because of the Captain-Commander summoning us?"

"If so, I don't think it's anything to stress over," she continued gently. "It's probably just a formal inauguration—introducing you as a new captain to the rest of the Gotei 13."

She had spent half a month at Araki's side and had come to know him quite well. Seeing the tension in his brows, Unohana tried to reassure him, drawing from her experience as the long-time captain of the 11th Division.

"No, it's not the meeting that worries me..." Araki replied.

"Retsu, don't you think the Soul Society's been... too peaceful lately? So peaceful it feels wrong. That's what's giving me this strong sense of crisis."

As the two walked together from the 11th Division's barracks to the 1st Division's headquarters, Araki's thoughts grew heavier.

Yes—months had passed since Araki took over the 11th Division, and now, at last, Captain-Commander Yamamoto had summoned all captains to attend a meeting—mandatory, no excuses allowed.

This rigidity struck Araki as strange.

He couldn't shake the feeling... like a storm was on the horizon.

That was exactly why he'd leveled up even the abilities he once ignored, like Shunpo and Kido, to LV5.

If his instincts were right, a thousand-year-old enemy—one who had once battled the Shinigami themselves—was about to invade Soul Society.

"Sigh... The Soul Society really is entering turbulent times," Araki muttered as they stepped into the 1st Division barracks.

Unohana said nothing in return. She simply held her Zanpakutō tightly and followed silently behind Araki.

Whatever happens in the Soul Society—she would stand by his side, no matter what.