An invisible pressure quietly began to permeate the air.
It wasn’t killing intent or a fighting spirit, but rather a composure that belonged to an absolute master of control, as if he were not facing a duel, but an experiment requiring precise execution.
“Heh, that’s the look!”
Renji grinned, his smile wild.
He was all too familiar with it.
Back in the practical combat classes at Shin’ō Academy, whenever Yanagawa entered this state, it meant that those seemingly unremarkable Kido would combine and erupt in the most devious and unexpected ways.
“Don’t let me down, Yanagawa!”
Before the words had even faded, Renji’s figure suddenly vanished from where he stood!
It wasn’t Shunpo, but a rapid dash that pushed his explosive power to the limit, causing a shallow crater to explode outward in the sandy ground beneath his feet.
Almost simultaneously, Zabimaru at his waist was already unsheathed.
It wasn’t a full Shikai, but the blade instantly extended and split, transforming into several jagged segments connected by spirit particle chains.
With a shrill whistle that tore through the air, it struck out toward Yanagawa from several tricky angles like a giant python waiting to devour its prey!
“Snake Fang Strike!”
It was a classic Renji-style opening: swift, direct, and wide-ranging, aiming to suppress the opponent with violent attacks and force them to reveal an opening.
However, facing an attack that would be enough to make an ordinary seated officer scramble, Yanagawa’s figure merely shifted slightly.
It wasn’t a lingering image from Shunpo, but rather something more akin to a precise prediction and extreme utilization of the airflow and Reiatsu fluctuations.
His steps appeared small, but in the nick of time, he dodged the first two arriving blade segments with perfect timing.
At the same time, the five fingers of his raised right hand were already spread open, with spiritual light swirling at his fingertips.
“Hadō #31, Shakkahō.”
Incantation?
No, none!
There wasn’t even a full vocalization of the name, just a few low and rapid syllables uttered.
A scorching, bright crimson fireball instantly condensed in front of his palm.
It was small in size, yet incredibly dense, with its light contained within.
Then, as if thrown precisely by an invisible hand, it struck squarely and without deviation against the side connection point of one of Zabimaru’s middle blade segments!
Boom!
It wasn’t an earth-shattering explosion, but a highly concentrated flame impact and spirit particle disruption.
That blade segment was blasted off course, which in turn affected the momentum of the subsequent segments, causing the originally tight encirclement to instantly show a hint of disorder.
And Yanagawa, using this recoil force and his own exquisite footwork, had already slipped out of Zabimaru’s range like a fish.
“Oh?”
On the sidelines, Third Seat Madarame rubbed his bald head, the playfulness on his face slightly receding.
“Incantation-less Hadō #31?
Controlling the power that accurately?
Only hitting the connection point?”
“Hmph, mere parlor tricks.”
Yumichika crossed his arms, his mouth disdainful, but his eyes had become a bit more serious.
To be able to resolve Renji’s opening onslaught with a low-number Hadō so nonchalantly—this level of Kido control and combat intuition could no longer be underestimated.
Renji didn’t feel discouraged after missing his first strike; instead, he grew even more excited.
“Not bad!
Come again!”
With a flick of his wrist, Zabimaru’s blade traced an eerie arc in the air, turning back like a living creature.
It coiled toward Yanagawa once again, while he himself took a large step forward.
His left hand clenched into a fist, wrapped in formidable Reiatsu, and he launched a straight punch toward Yanagawa’s face, carrying a fierce gale!
Combining his Zanpakutō with Hakuda, there were no bells and whistles—just pure power and speed crushing down!
Yanagawa’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Renji’s power and speed had indeed grown significantly since their time at Shin’ō Academy.
He did not choose to take the hit head-on.
His footwork shifted again, and his figure became like willow catkins in the wind, dodging the heavy fist by a hair’s breadth.
At the same time, his left hand swiped quickly at his side.
With a flash of light, it didn’t attack Renji, but instead appeared right in the path of his pursuit, and a circular protective shield instantly manifested.
Renji’s charge was too fierce, and he was about to collide with it.
He let out a low growl and, without dodging or avoiding it, slammed his Reiatsu-wrapped fist hard against the protective shield!
Bang!
The protective shield shook violently, and cracks began to spread, but it did not shatter immediately, successfully delaying Renji for a split second.
And in that split second, Yanagawa raised his right hand again.
This time, he spread his five fingers, aimed them at Renji, and uttered a faster and more urgent fragment of an incantation.
Spirit particles gathered and compressed frantically in front of his palm, forming a complex and dazzling small multiple-ring structure.
“Hadō #58, Tenran.”
The highly compressed spear of storms shot out.
It didn’t seek maximum area damage, but instead condensed into a sharp, spiraling wind cone.
It was extremely fast, pointing straight at the slight opening Renji had exposed while attacking the Bakudō!
“What?!”
Renji’s pupils constricted.
He hadn’t expected the opponent’s Kido connection to be so fast, and its power to be far greater than the previous Shakkahō.
He hurriedly retracted Zabimaru, the several blade segments quickly returning to defend, weaving into a net of blades in front of him.
Boom!
The spiraling wind cone slammed hard into the net of blades, erupting with intense wind pressure and the sound of cutting, kicking up a sandstorm.
Renji was pushed back several steps by this force.
The net of blades trembled, barely blocking the strike, but his wrist holding the sword felt a wave of numbness.
As the dust settled slightly, Yanagawa was still standing in the same spot, his breath steady, as if that swift and sharp two-hit Kido combo had been nothing more than a casual gesture.
He hadn’t even drawn the Zanpakutō at his waist.
“Hey, hey, you’ve got to be kidding, right?”
An Eleventh Division member widened his eyes.
“He forced 8th Seat Renji back using only Kido?”
“Is that really #58 Tenran?
How come the speed and penetrating power feel a bit off…”
another seated officer who had some understanding of Kido muttered.
Renji shook his wrist, the fighting spirit in his eyes burning even more intensely, but it was also tinged with a bit more gravity.
He admitted that he had underestimated his old classmate.
The ten years spent in the Kido Corps had not only failed to dull his edge.
Instead, it had made his Kido technique pure and his control reach a terrifying level.
And…
the power of that Kido seemed to be slightly stronger than the standard version?
“You really are something, Yanagawa!”
Renji laughed loudly, his Reiatsu surging again.
Zabimaru hummed, and the spiritual light on each blade segment became even more dazzling.
“However, the warm-up should be over!
Let me see if you can take this—Roar, Zabimaru!”
Finally, Shikai!
The massive snake-shaped bone blade manifested with monstrous ferocity.
Renji’s entire aura surged again, as if he had merged with his Zanpakutō, transforming into a true vicious python.
Facing the fully Shikai-released Renji, Yanagawa’s expression still didn’t change much.
He just took a light breath, and the flow of spirit particles around him seemed to undergo an extremely subtle change.
Boundless spirit particles gathered frantically, forming a violently rotating spirit particle vortex in front of him, emitting a heart-palpitating energy fluctuation.
“This method of spirit particle gathering and the fluctuation…”
On the sidelines, even Third Seat Madarame put away his nonchalance, his expression becoming serious.
Renji felt the dangerous aura emanating from that spirit particle vortex and dared not be careless.
He let out a roar, pushing his Reiatsu to the limit, and the massive Zabimaru came crashing down toward Yanagawa with the force to split mountains and shatter rocks!
“—Hadō #63, Raikōhō!”
It wasn’t the huge beam of light of a normal Raikōhō; what erupted from that spirit particle vortex was a more condensed torrent of thunder, intertwined with scorching white lightning and deep purple arcs.
Its core temperature and destructive power seemed to be compressed to the limit, and it shot out in a strange, spiraling manner, meeting the descending giant snake-shaped bone blade head-on!
A deafening roar resounded throughout the entire training ground.
The blinding lightning and the wild blade aura collided and tore at each other frantically, kicking up a violent shockwave.
It swept up all the sand and stones from the ground, blowing them so hard that the surrounding Eleventh Division members watching the battle had to channel their Reiatsu to resist, their expressions changing one after another.
The light and smoke slowly dissipated.
In the center of the field, Renji knelt on one knee, using Zabimaru to support his body, breathing heavily.
The cuffs of his Shihakushō were charred black, and the web of his hand holding the sword was split, seeping blood.
His face was filled with shock and disbelief.
And not far in front of him, Yanagawa stood quietly.
Apart from a little dust on the hem of his clothes, the air in front of him still had faint, crackling electric spirit particles lingering.
The training ground was dead silent.
All the Eleventh Division members, including Madarame and Yumichika, looked at the figure in the field as if looking at a monster.
Using only Kido…
he had confronted the fully Shikai-released 8th Seat Renji head-on and even gained the upper hand?!
One had to know that although Abarai Renji was currently only an 8th Seat, that was only because he had joined the Eleventh Division for a short time.
Everyone present did not think they could steadily defeat him.
Wouldn’t Yanagawa, who could easily defeat Renji, already have at least the strength of a lieutenant or higher?
“Is…
is that really #63 Raikōhō?”
A member swallowed dryly.
“Modified?
He rewrote the Hadō?!”
another member cried out.
Yanagawa calmed his breathing and looked at Renji, who was struggling to stand up, his gaze calm.
“Do you want to continue, Renji?”
Renji stared fixedly at Yanagawa, then looked at his own charred cuffs and split hand.
After a long while, he suddenly let out a somewhat hoarse but incredibly hearty laugh:
“Hahahaha!
Good!
You really are something, Yanagawa!
I didn’t expect you to have such a trick up your sleeve!
A modified Hadō…
to think the power could be increased to this extent!
I lose!”
He admitted defeat cleanly and decisively.
The Eleventh Division respected the strong; a win was a win, and a loss was a loss.
It was just that the curiosity and inquiry in his eyes were almost overflowing.
“What exactly have you been researching in the Kido Corps all these years?
What was up with that move just now?”
Yanagawa did not answer directly.
He simply dissipated the last bit of spirit particle glimmer at his fingertips, walked over to Renji, and handed him a small roll of bandages that emitted a cool spiritual aura (standard equipment for the Kido Corps, used to treat spiritual power burns).
“Just a minor personal modification.
I optimized the spirit particle gathering structure and the energy output mode.”
His tone was nonchalant, as if the strike that was enough to change everyone’s perception of Kido was truly just an insignificant “minor modification.”
But at this moment, no one dared to look at this Shinigami from the Kido Corps as a “civil servant” or a “weakling” anymore.
The Eleventh Division’s training ground fell into a strange silence mixed with shock and curiosity for the first time because of someone who was not a member of their division, yet had displayed overwhelming strength using only Kido.
This sparring match with his friend felt more like a small test, and the result seemed quite good.