55 Test of Bathing

The man looked down at Orihime with disdain while chewing on a long toothpick. Before he could berate her anymore, Senjumaru smacks him into the ground. She gives Orihime a loving and apologetic look.

"Don't look down on Orihime. She is our guest and a candidate for the guards. If Tenjiro treats you poorly again feel free to beat him."

Tenjiro wore a waist length white jacket with his whole chest and abdomen exposed. He has a standard black hakama and a large yellow sash. He stood up and gave Orihime a close look. His long pompadour even touching the top of her head although she was a meter away from his face.

"I am Tenjiro Kirinji, First officer of the Zero Division. I heard you fancy yourself a healer. Let me tell you right now, you know nothing about healing. I invented healing arts and am the foremost expert on healing. Follow me."

Orihime was led into a large floating island connected to this layer of the Soul King Palace. The island was built like an old-style bath house. It had one large main building where the open-air baths were and side buildings that had rooms. She didn't understand why he had so much resident space. The smell that wafted over from the bath was a very fragrant floral scent that she couldn't place. The scent was not overpowering which made it very pleasant.

Tenjiro stood next to the large natural spring bath with a turquoise color. He was holding a row paddle over his shoulder and pointed it at the water when she entered. Orihime stared at him and waiting for him to leave, but he just stood there. The two of them were silent for a few moments until Tenjiro couldn't contain himself.

"Get in the water already! Quit wasting my time."

"That's not appropriate!"

"Stupid girl, get in with your clothes. This is your test, not a bath!"

Orihime turned red from frustration and the fumes from the bath. There were many small waterfalls that poured in hot water and it drained from somewhere below keeping the water level even. It was very hot and steamy causing her to feel uncomfortable. She slowly walked into the water and felt her body burn up. This was not the healing water she remembered from the story.

"This is the white bone hell, created by me. It is the most powerful source of healing in all of Soul Society, as well as being a formidable weapon. You will be boiled down to the bone in this water. Your test is to heal yourself simultaneously. If you can withstand for an hour, you pass. Don't worry, even if you are on the verge of death, I can bring you back."

After finishing his explanation, he slapped the paddle down into the water and the heat ramped up to near volcanic levels. This wasn't simply heat, but the water seemed to crawl under her skin and break down the spirit particles composing her soul body. Due to her being a hybrid of human and soul, the process was a lot slower than Tenjiro expected. Seeing this, he ramped up the power causing it to break apart her body so that she would die before the time limit.

Orihime was curious about her tenacity and didn't heal herself with her unique power immediately. She allowed the high-speed regeneration of the hogyoku to kick in. What surprised her was that the repairing speed of the hogyoku almost matched the damage. The difference was made up for by her Quincy blood. She couldn't be regarded as a true Quincy yet since her powers were still borrowed.

However, this process of creation and destruction was causing the blood to cycle through her body several times, permanently fusing with her. Tenjiro noticed that she was still negating the destruction with just her constitution and decided to go all out. He released his shikai, turning the paddle into a long rod with a blade at the end. Then he thrust the blade into the water, causing it to swirl around Orihime.

The speed of destruction increased by five times, but the power of hogyoku seemed to be stimulated by this. Orihime had never really faced such a situation before, so she never expanded some of her auxiliary powers. However, now, the regeneration was reaching incredible levels. Although it was still losing out to the damage, it seemed to be reaching the point of breaking the limit.

The biggest gain from this was that all of the Quincy blood she incorporated into her body was now completely hers. Even if she faced Yhwach face to face, he wouldn't be able to sense her as a Quincy or the power she stole. Tenjiro was upset when he saw this. The only way to make the water stronger was to make it more than ten times stronger, however this would be too dangerous. He could instantly turn her into ash with that level of power.

By his calculation, if she didn't heal herself at all, she would last until the time limit. He refused to allow a kid from Soul Society show him up. He slammed his pole down and three gates opened in the back of the room. White water began pouring out and entering the vortex. Orihime saw this new source mix in and instantly felt the threat of death. Her body began to break down at a rate far exceeding her regeneration.

She held out as long as she could, but the hogyoku's healing seemed to have reached its limit. She could sense her Quincy power begin to writhe and automatically activate blut vene, however she wanted to hide this power. Orihime released her flower petals and they mixed in with the torrent of water. Her body began to repair itself at visible speed. When Tenjiro saw this, he fumed with anger. He was practically immortal and was around the longest amongst the Royal Guards.

"Fault! That is not healing."

Tenjiro appeared in front of Orihime, as the water parted for him. He slapped her in the center of the chest leaving behind a seal. The petals disappeared and she could no longer access her power of rejection. She instantly began to panic. This was unexpected. Tenjiro returned to the side of the pool and wanted to see her next action. Orihime was freaking out and kept trying to break the seal and release her healing.

After her body was almost a third destroyed, she started breathing heavily with wide eyes. Orihime began to pour out all of her Reiatsu while in shock. She learned all of the healing arts knowledge from the Akashic Records, but her mind was a mess. Her control was all over the place and was simply using sheer quantity of Reiatsu to heal herself. Tenjiro saw this and clicked his tongue in disdain.

Based on the quantity of spiritual power and the time she bought herself early on, she would barely make it to the time limit. However, her technique was poor and she had no control. She seemed to rely on her strange power. He saw through the power immediately and realized that it had one major flaw.

Normally, when using healing arts, the recipient would get stronger from having experienced the injuries. However, that power of hers erased the experience along with the injury. Such reliance would stunt anyone she treated. Tenjiro felt pity for the people who received healing from her, since they would have wasted their near-death experience.

Over the next half hour, Orihime managed to stabilize her emotions and fix her poor control. Tenjiro could no longer enhance the strength of his water without instantly killing her, so he could only watch her refine her technique and completely negate the damage. Her technique was very poor, and her only advantage was perfect control and pool of spiritual power. On Orihime's side, she was extremely excited.

Part of the medicinal properties of the water fused into her body as she healed, which then seeped into her personal dimension. This began to create a large pool of water inside, mixing in with her spiritual power. Her strength was increasing considerably and was ecstatic at the result. With only a few minutes remaining, she felt a popping within her soul. Hogyoku had finally broken through the bottleneck of regeneration and evolved her high-speed regeneration into extreme-speed regeneration.

With this, she was able to pull back almost all of her healing and she would outpace the damage. The time limit was up, and the water settled all at once. He stepped out of the room and left her with a few words.

"The water will now restore your Reiatsu and all hidden damage you've received in all of your fights. Once you have finished bathing here, go to the next room and bathe in the Blood Pond Hell. Your clothes will be destroyed, but there will be a set of clothes to change into. The second pond will enhance your blood and replenish your vitality. Once you are finished and dressed, make your way to Kirio's banquet hall on the other side of my bath house."