Chapter 23 – Shinigami

Now that he knew what the devil fruit was, Alexander had to switch to the main course.

Devil Fruit (?)

Consumables

Special

Special requirements needed for new items to appear.

Shinigami awakening

500G

Gold: 521

Most of his remaining gold will be spent once he makes this purchase, but it was necessary.

While tapping his finger on the corner of his desk, Alexander was deep in thought, he wanted to make sure he didn’t forget anything before making this purchase.

Even after thinking for a while, he didn’t find anything he could have overlooked.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

With those words he selected the item, when he was asked for confirmation, he didn’t lose time and confirmed.

The world faded to darkness.

When Alexander woke up, he found himself in a world made of snow, there was a dense fog all around, hindering his vision further than a few meters.

Even when he looked all around, nothing was seen, only endless snow.

“What are you looking for?”

Alexander jumped at the unknown cold voice behind him.

Facing that side, he meets face to face with a woman, she had short white hair and her skin was deathly pale, her empty eyes were fixed on him.

He could feel a deep connection with this woman, the feeling came from deep inside himself.

“You are my Zanpakuto?”, Asked Alexander.

“Not yet, you have to find me first.”

She replied, Alexander remembered that Ichigo too, had to find his Zanpakuto to awaken his Shinigami powers.

Alexander wanted to ask more but she disappeared without trace, there was only fog and snow around him, it was impossible to find his Zanpakuto like this. Alexander recalled what Ichigo did in the anime, he had to use his soul to feel the presence of his Zanpakuto, but he didn’t know how to do that.

Having no other choice, he sat on the snowy ground, closed his eyes and tried to sense his surroundings, despite the snow he didn’t feel cold at all.

Time passed and he didn’t have any luck, he didn’t know what to look for, the snow covered his body and despite not feeling the cold he started to crave warmth, it was then that he felt something, it was warmth, there was something that radiated warmth somewhere in the distance.

Opening his eyes, he sat up and began walking in that direction, he walked and walked for a long time, but his steps were steady, his focus was all on that warmth.

He didn’t know for how long he walked, but after a long time, he found the source of the warmth, it was right beneath him, under the snow. Without losing any time, Alexander started to dig with his bare hands.

To his surprise, he didn’t have to dig deep, just after he removed a thin layer of snow, he touched something, after he removed more snow he found the handle of a sword, it was the handle of a two handed weapon, long enough to be held with two hands easily.

Alexander held the handle with both his hands and tried to take it out of the snow, he put too much force, expecting it to be hard to take out, but it wasn’t hard at all, the sword didn’t have any weight in his hands.

The sword came out instantly and he found himself holding a Greatsword, its design was simple, the same as you would expect to of a beginner weapon in a starting village, only it’s edge looked really sharp.

“Ready your weapon.”

Alexander was scared out of his pants, he turned to the voice behind him and saw that woman, his Zanpakuto, there.

Before he could say anything, he sensed danger and he barely blocked the slash from the white woman, he didn’t know when but she new held the same weapon as him.

There was no time to ask any question as he could just barely react in time to defend from her barrage.

Despite his high stats he couldn’t overwhelm her in any way, what was even more worrying was that his Hyper Focus ability didn’t activate.

He struggled to barely defend himself and had no opportunity to attack, he also couldn’t use his devil fruit.

That was because he was now in the world within himself, this was the same as when Ichigo awakened his shinigami powers and his real power didn’t matter here, only willpower and comprehension mattered.

The battle lasted for a long time, Alexander improved faster than he expected, his Zanpakuto attacked all his weak points helping him improve in the right areas.

The Greatsword may be a slow weapon, but its might was overwhelming, he could switch between offense and defense very easily, the huge body of the Greatsword was the best shield.

Time passed and one day he finally managed to launch a counterattack, it took her by surprise, but she still deflected it.

“That’s all for now, you did a good job but next time it won’t be so easy.”

She said those words while looking in his eyes, the trace of a smile could be seen on her lips.

“What is your name?”

Alexander hoped to learn her name to advance to the first release, Shikai.

“You know my name, it is ********.”

He wasn’t able to hear it; it seems that he had ways to go before reaching that stage.

Before he could ask anything else, he found himself back at his desk.