"One day, while I was studying worm magecraft alone, my consciousness suddenly plunged into chaos."
Zouken's voice became erratic. "When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a completely unfamiliar world that seemed deceptively similar yet entirely different."
"My Magic Circuits were still there, but my magecraft no longer worked."
Listening to his detailed account, Asuka slowly loosened his grip on his cuffs.
Zouken straightened his rumpled collar and continued, "What was even more terrifying... was that my memories there became muddled as time passed, to the point where even my own name became a blur..."
"I lingered there on my last breath, thinking I would end my life just like that, until I met that man—Kisuke Urahara."
At the mention of this name, a sharp glint burst from Zouken's eyes.
"That day... I was being hunted by a monster known as a Hollow..."
Time unknown, World of the Living・Fuyuki City.
Zouken Matou's heart pounded like a war drum.
His legs were heavy with age, but the roar of the monster known as a Hollow grew closer behind him, its red eyes flashing with a ravenous, vicious glint beneath its mask.
The Magic Circuits within Zouken's body were like torches in the dark night, continuously emitting abnormal fluctuations of Spiritual Pressure.
Such fluctuating reactions were an irresistible bait for a Hollow.
He desperately tried to use magecraft, attempting to summon even a sliver of protection, but nothing happened.
The power of this world was not under his control; the world's Counter Force acted like invisible shackles, strangling his every attempt at resistance.
Sweat soaked his clothes, and just as that massive maw was about to swallow him whole...
A trace of despair flashed through Zouken's mind. 'Is it going to end just like this? Will everything amount to nothing?'
Slash—!!
A swift flash of a sword struck from the side. The monster let out a heart-wrenching shriek before its body disintegrated into fragments in midair.
"Oh my, oh my, old man, you must have tripped and fallen on your own."
A man wearing a white haori chuckled as he reached out a hand, pulling Zouken up.
But the moment he touched Zouken's palm, the man's expression shifted repeatedly. "Old man, you... are very strange."
This was Kisuke Urahara, back when he had not yet defected from the Soul Society and still served as the President of the Department of Research and Development.
He had originally been in the World of the Living collecting some rare samples, only to be drawn over by this abnormal fluctuation of spiritual power.
"Truly unbelievable... An ordinary human who isn't a Soul Reaper actually possesses such strange Spiritual Pressure..."
Urahara secretly brought Zouken back to the Soul Society, to a place filled with blinking instruments and bizarre tools, resembling a chaotic laboratory.
Driven by curiosity toward the unknown, Urahara obtained his consent and began examining Zouken's body.
After hours of testing, he finally concluded, "...The feeling of these fluctuations, old man, perhaps you are a Fullbringer..."
Zouken pulled himself out of his memories, the corners of his mouth curling upward.
"That man... proved to me... the existence of gods!"
"Gods? Are you talking about Soul Reapers? Those things..."
Asuka was about to continue when Zouken interrupted him. "No... the current me can still understand the difference between them..."
"Young man, you know that I use Fullbring, but do you know the true essence of Fullbring?"
He held up a single finger, looking at Asuka with excitement. "A Fullbringer's power comes from the remains of the Creator God!"
"Urahara is an incredibly brilliant man, but even he can make misjudgments... It is impossible for me to have fragments of a god's remains in my body, yet under his guidance, I still awakened what he called Fullbring."
At this point, he reached out with his withered hands, grasping at the empty air a couple of times as if trying to catch that long-lost power.
"Only now do I understand that it was the world responding to me."
"The Fullbring known as [Colorless] was actually the realm of Magic that I had been pursuing for so long!"
"It is just too much of a pity... Whenever I used that power, my memories of the past would decay along with it... Later on, I completely forgot who I was, truly living my life solely as a Fullbringer..."
"Until your arrival."
Asuka thought about it carefully; when he had met the old man Matou back then, the other party was indeed very different from how he was now.
Although his appearance hadn't changed, the difference in his inner disposition was far too drastic.
The current Zouken Matou was practically a sinister ghost, making anyone who looked at him feel entirely uncomfortable. He was like a completely different person from that somewhat aloof little old man.
"That night, the massive magic circle, the black hole that devoured everything, and that malice capable of tearing through dimensions..."
"I only remember the entire city vanishing in a black light, and my consciousness being crushed by that power... When I woke up again, I found myself still sitting in this gloomy basement, facing my unfinished worm magecraft experiments. It was as if time had never passed..."
At this point, Zouken suddenly became hysterical.
He abruptly stood up from his chair, his hands frantically scratching at the skin on his face.
His fingernails tore through his withered skin, but no blood flowed out; instead, only a few tiny worms crawled in and out in a panic.
"Gone!! It's all gone!!"
"That magical power capable of interfering with cause and effect! That spiritual power brimming within my body! That feeling of being full of vitality!!"
"The moment I returned to this body, it all disappeared!!"
His roars echoed through the hall, terrifying Sumire and Haruri Kamado into hugging each other tightly. Even Kariya covered his ears in pain.
Asuka looked at the crazed old man before him, not feeling a shred of sympathy in his heart.
But he also understood one thing: this old monster was not lying.
That kind of despair and greed over losing power could not be faked.
"I tried countless times! Using magecraft to replicate that power! Using worms to simulate the flow of those Reishi!"
"Failure! Failure! All of them were failures!!"
Zouken slumped back into his chair, panting heavily as if his outburst just now had exhausted all his strength.
He turned his head, looking at Berserker standing in the shadows, the flames of greed reigniting in his eyes.
"How could I ever accept this! I am Makiri Zolgen!"
"Five hundred years of time corroded my soul, making me forget my once great ideals, leaving behind only an ugly obsession with immortality."
"But now! It's different!" Zouken abruptly looked at Asuka, his gaze like he was looking at his only lifeline. "I had Kariya use the Soul Reaper garment I picked up that night as a Sacred Relic, and it actually worked!"
"And the situation is even better than I thought! Not only did it summon a powerful Soul Reaper, but even you, the shop clerk, have appeared in this war!"
"The two worlds are connected... It is a distant shore that can be reached!"
"That world! That world full of magical energy! There exist true, immortal souls there! There exists power that can shatter the boundaries of life and death!"
"That is the path of Magic I have been searching for all along! It is the final destination leading to the Root!"
"Avenger! Whatever your name is!"
Zouken reached out his hand toward Asuka, his withered fingers trembling slightly. "Join forces with me!"
"We don't need to fulfill some vulgar wish! It doesn't matter what happens to this world anymore!"
"Our goals should be aligned! You want to return to that world, and I want to go to that world!"
"As long as we utilize the massive magical energy accumulated in this Holy Grail War, along with you and Berserker acting as living coordinates, we will definitely be able to open that passage again!"
"Not only can it let you return, but it can also allow me to cast off this rotting shell and obtain true rebirth!!"