Spring passed and autumn came; time flew by.
Natsuro and the other two boys remained in the same class, but Rukia had already been placed in another.
It wasn't for any special reason, just that during the class placement exam, Natsuro, Renji, and Kira had all earned excellent scores and were placed in Class A.
Rukia, whose talent was slightly inferior in comparison, was placed in Class B.
Of course, "inferior" is a matter of comparison. In truth, Rukia's talent was still quite impressive.
At this moment, in Class A's training room, he was practicing Kidō. A rather over-the-top incantation came from his mouth:
"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"
Hadō #31 – Shakkahō!
As the chant concluded, a massive crimson fireball shot toward a target.
Boom!
In an instant, the target was completely obliterated. Natsuro found the power to be quite satisfactory.
He then walked over to another intact target and cast Hadō #31 – Shakkahō again.
This time, he skipped the chuunibyou-style chant and cast it directly, and still successfully unleashed Shakkahō.
However, after doing so, he frowned. The target was once again blown to pieces, and the destructive power, under his control, was identical to before.
But the spiritual energy consumption this time was noticeably higher.
Natsuro had previously asked his instructor about this: Why is chanting necessary for Kidō? After all, chanting in battle wastes time and might cause one to miss critical moments, causing more harm than good.
The instructor hadn't given a specific answer, only saying that with strong enough spiritual power, one could skip chanting, but the resulting Kidō would be much weaker.
Natsuro's experiment just confirmed this... To achieve the same power without chanting, significantly more spiritual power is required.
But what he truly wanted to understand was why did chanting increase power in the first place?
This wasn't like hand seals in Naruto, which merely simplified the difficulty of ninjutsu, once you understood the essence of a jutsu, you could release it without seals, with no real difference in power or cost.
Kidō was different. Chanting not only increased the spell's power but also enabled those with insufficient spiritual strength to cast Kidō successfully.
The question was... Why?
He had run countless experiments but still couldn't grasp the core principle.
His perception was already heightened to its limit, yet he couldn't detect anything unusual. It felt like the chant wasn't meant for himself but for the world.
After chanting, the resistance to casting Kidō was reduced.
So was the act of casting Kidō a matter of using one's spiritual power to overcome the resistance of external spiritual forces? And was chanting a way of telling the world, "I'm about to cast Kidō," and in doing so, obtaining permission, thus lowering the resistance?
With that resistance gone, all spiritual power could then go toward enhancing power, which would explain the boost in potency?
Natsuro shook his head. That theory felt a little far-fetched. He still didn't truly understand the underlying mechanism.
He left the training room, he had something else important to do today.
However, just as he stepped out, he was approached by Renji.
"Finally caught you, Natsuro," said Renji with a somewhat "fierce" smile... Not out of malice, just that his face naturally looked fierce.
"Renji, what is it?" Natsuro asked, puzzled.
"A fight, of course!" Renji declared loudly. He had already fought Kira many times and wanted to challenge Natsuro, but every time after class, Natsuro would head straight home.
He had never managed to catch him. So today, knowing Natsuro would be in the training room, he had waited there early.
Kira gave Natsuro a helpless shrug as if to say, "That's just how it is." Rukia, on the other hand, was watching with keen interest.
"A fight? Are you sure?" Natsuro asked, surprised.
"Of course! I've already fought most of our classmates, and won. You're the only one left, Natsuro!"
"Oh." Natsuro nodded. He was interested in combat, but only when it wasn't boring. So he had never felt the need to fight unnecessarily.
But since Renji was so eager to get beaten up, he didn't mind showing off a bit.
The two made their way to another training arena. There weren't many spectators—just Rukia, Kira, and Momo Hinamori.
As a note, Momo got along well with the group, mainly because Kira had a crush on her… even though she herself was unaware. Kira's feelings were quite obvious to Natsuro, Rukia, and Renji.
"Who do you think is stronger, Renji or Natsuro?" Rukia asked curiously. She wasn't that familiar with Class A and had only heard a few things from Renji, who claimed he'd already beaten everyone.
"Probably… Renji," said Momo. "Although Natsuro is mysterious, Renji has already beaten most of the class, he should be stronger."
Kira nodded in agreement. "I think so too. Natsuro doesn't seem very interested in fighting or in his Zanpakutō. During swordsmanship class, he only practices the most basic cuts and then just stands around. But he does seem really into Kidō."
"So he wants to become part of the Kidō Corps?" Rukia was a little surprised, since they didn't hold as much prestige as the Gotei 13.
"Maybe," Kira replied. Natsuro's behavior did seem to suggest that.
The three then turned their attention to the battle.
"Natsuro, your specialty is Kidō, right? Sorry, but I won't give you any time to chant!" Renji said, gripping his asauchi.
"No worries. That's just how real fights are," Natsuro replied calmly.
This was the greatest weakness of chanting, it took time. So even though chanting made Kidō easier to use and more powerful, Natsuro still believed abandoning chants was the mainstream choice in actual battle.
"Are both sides ready?" Kira stepped between them, acting as referee.
Both Renji and Natsuro nodded.
"Begin!" Kira shouted.
And then… he was confused. Knowing Renji's personality, he should've charged the moment the match started, especially since Natsuro was a Kidō specialist.
That's when Kira noticed Rukia and Hinamori staring wide-eyed. He followed their gaze toward the battlefield....
The Natsuro standing in his original spot shattered into glowing fragments, it had just been a decoy made of spiritual energy.
Then, where was the real Natsuro…?
Kira stiffly turned around, he was already behind Renji.
"Bakudō #1 – Sai."
Natsuro's voice echoed in their ears.
Suddenly, Renji's arms and legs were bound as if tied by invisible cords, he fell face-first to the ground.
"That was… Shunpo?" Kira muttered. The timing and proficiency, how was that possible?
"It's over," Natsuro said as everyone gaped in stunned silence.
Kira snapped back to his senses and looked at Renji, still struggling on the ground, unable to break free from the lowest-level binding spell.
Just as Kira was about to declare the winner....
"It's not over yet! I can still fight!" Renji shouted, refusing to accept it. He hadn't even seen Natsuro appear behind him, let alone cast the binding spell.
And now he was already immobilized.
It was hard to accept.
"It's already over," Natsuro said calmly. "In a real fight, you wouldn't have had time to say another word. You're only alive because this was just a spar between classmates."
Renji was speechless, because what he said was true. He had already been bound by the Bakudō for so long that Natsuro could have easily ended his life with just a swing of his asauchi.
At this moment, seeing that Renji had stopped resisting, Kira finally breathed a sigh of relief and announced the result of the spar.
Only then did Natsuro release the binding spell.
"Natsuro is so strong!" Momo exclaimed in admiration.
Rukia also nodded. She didn't believe Renji had lied about defeating most of Class A, so this could only mean… Natsuro was truly powerful.
"Man, I didn't expect you to be this strong," said Renji, not discouraged in the least.
"Mhm," Natsuro nodded.
"You could at least be modest about it…" Renji felt like his blood pressure was spiking.
"Why should I be modest? I am strong, that's just a fact," Natsuro replied casually.
"Alright, but why is your Bakudō so much stronger? I can usually break out of other people's with no problem," Renji asked.
"Because their spiritual pressure doesn't match mine," Natsuro replied. "The power of any Kidō depends on the user's spiritual pressure. If your spiritual pressure is high enough, even a Bakudō #1 can be stronger than someone else's Hadō #31."
Renji nodded in realization.
"Besides, I'm pretty sure the instructors mentioned this before. Did you just not pay attention?" Natsuro looked at Renji.
Renji scratched his head and gave an awkward laugh.
Natsuro didn't press the issue further, he understood that Renji didn't have much talent for Kidō anyway.
"Hmph, I had a feeling someone got cocky after getting into Class A," Rukia teased Renji playfully.
"Nonsense! I am strong… I just didn't expect him to be this strong," Renji said, casting a glance at Natsuro. That Shunpo and Bakudō combo had left him completely at a loss.
"No kidding. I didn't know Kidō could be that powerful either…" Kira said in awe, and Momo nodded in agreement beside him.
"It's not that Kidō is strong, it's that Natsuro is strong," Rukia said flatly. Everyone here had used Bakudō #1 – Sai before, but no one had ever achieved such a powerful binding effect.
"So if you're that strong, Natsuro, why don't you ever spar with classmates?" Renji asked curiously.
"Because I'm not interested in boring fights. Renji, if you ever make a real breakthrough and feel ready again, you can come challenge me," Natsuro said.
Renji nodded. He just liked fighting, not getting humiliated, and he didn't really have anything to learn from Natsuro , since he specialized in Kidō, and he himself had no talent for it.
Even though he had gained new respect for Kidō today, no talent was still no talent…
"Well then, I've got something to do. I'll be heading off now," Natsuro said.
"Alright. Sorry to bother you this time. I'll definitely train hard, so be ready for my next challenge," Renji said.
"Sure. Just don't make it as boring as this time," Natsuro replied with a smile.
"Ugh…" Renji couldn't argue. When he thought about how this battle had gone, his face turned red from embarrassment. It had ended with just a single Shunpo and a Bakudō.
Even Renji had to admit, it had been a dull fight. No wonder Natsuro wasn't interested in sparring with classmates. His level was simply too high, he couldn't even see the point in low-level battles.
Natsuro then exchanged a few words with the others and left, while the rest could only watch him go with astonishment.
What they didn't know was that Natsuro's spiritual pressure wasn't even close to its peak.
He had already stopped absorbing more spirit energy, not because he couldn't, but because if he did, he wouldn't be able to maintain proper control.
If that happened, his spiritual pressure would leak out involuntarily, something he wanted to avoid.
So now, any increase in his spiritual pressure came from improving his control, and he only absorbed what he could manage precisely.
But even at this level, he felt like his spiritual power was practically bug-tier.
At least among the instructors at Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy, he hadn't seen anyone with higher spiritual pressure than his.
Unfortunately, he had never met a lieutenant or captain-class soul reaper, so he couldn't truly compare his level.
Still, within the academy, his spiritual pressure was more than enough.
Once back in his dorm, Natsuro shut the door tightly.
He was about to do something very important...
Unleash his Shikai.
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Currently on Chapter 467 - Hueco Mundo's New Order