"Just answer me—do I have to pay for any damages?"
Ran Yan completely ignored Shiba Isshin's teasing.
"Well," Isshin replied with a confident smirk, "if you really do break the Kidō target, I'll foot the bill myself."
He was bold, because he was certain—that wasn't going to happen. Not now, anyway.
Maybe if Ran Yan trained for a few more months. But at this moment?
It was impossible.
"Then I'll thank Teacher Isshin for his generosity."
Ran Yan nodded politely. Before Isshin could respond, he raised his right hand and pointed his palm at the Kidō target thirty meters away.
"Hadō No. 73: Sōren Sōkatsui."
As he recited the incantation, the air around him began to shimmer and quake with spiritual tension. When he spoke the final word—"Fall."—his palm ignited with an intense blue radiance.
A roaring blue flame erupted from his hand like a divine spear, blazing across the field, and slammed directly into the Kidō target.
BOOM.
A deafening explosion followed.
The vivid blue fire engulfed the target, crackling with Reiatsu so fierce that it shook the very foundations of the training field. Shocking fissures webbed across the once-indestructible dummy's surface.
"No way!"
"Did he just cast Hadō No. 73?"
"And—he abandoned the chant?!"
Isshin's mouth fell open. He suddenly regretted that bold claim about footing the repair bill.
"Oh my god!"
"What are we seeing?!"
"That was Hadō 73—Sōren Sōkatsui!"
"And he cast it without chanting?!"
"Is... is he the reincarnation of the Soul King or something?!"
The watching students lost it.
Their expressions ranged from awe to existential crisis. The sky may as well have opened up.
"Two days… He's only been studying Kidō for two days!"
"This isn't talent—this is a catastrophe for common sense!"
Shihouin Yoruichi, Urahara Kisuke, Tessai Tsukabishi—everyone looked at Ran Yan like he had grown a second head.
Even Aizen, cool as ever behind his glasses, showed a flicker of astonishment.
"So he's reached this level already?"
Aizen's expression flickered. "I can only cast Hadō No. 58—Tenran—and only with full chant."
The difference between No. 58 and No. 73 wasn't just a numeric gap. It was two major thresholds in Kidō progression.
Every ten numbers in Hadō marked a new wall. Giving up chant at these levels while retaining full power was something only Shinigami captains could do.
Even Aizen himself, at his peak pre-defection, could only retain a third of the spell's power when casting No. 90 Hadō without chanting.
In Gotei 13, only the elite among captains—Unohana Retsu, Shutara Senjumaru, Kyōraku Shunsui, Ukitake Jūshirō, Kuchiki Ginrei—could casually abandon the chant and still produce full-powered high-tier Kidō.
That's what separated the great from the legendary.
"Well... at least it didn't break," Isshin muttered.
The target now looked like cracked porcelain but was somehow still standing.
"If it had cracked apart completely, the repair cost—"
But then Ran Yan frowned.
"Only Hadō 73 and still couldn't break it?"
"My Reiatsu needs to at least double to pierce that thing clean."
"…Maybe I've been slacking on Zanpakutō training lately. I should refocus there."
[Your Kidō is offended. It insists it's been training hard and just completed "Hadō No. 78: Zangerin" with full chant last night. Just hasn't bragged about it. Yet.]
Ran Yan smirked. He felt the familiar surge of growth again.
He had started to notice a trend:
Zanpakutō constantly looked down on Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, and Kidō.
Kidō refused to be overshadowed and wanted equality.
Kendō was like, "My life isn't inferior to anyone else's."
Reiatsu was the silent type. Always working hard in the background.
It was like watching a competitive dorm room full of overachievers.
Want Kidō to improve?Easy. Just casually suggest Zanpakutō is stronger.
And boom.
Just now, he had only said he'd focus more on Zanpakutō training.Suddenly, Kidō jumped out, eager to prove its worth.
How?
By unlocking Hadō No. 78: Zangerin.
Meanwhile, Isshin was still quietly celebrating that the target hadn't collapsed when Ran Yan's voice echoed beside him.
"Hadō No. 78: Zangerin."
Isshin turned, stiffly, in disbelief.
Ran Yan raised his arm and brought his fingers together into a blade shape.
A scything arc of Reiatsu exploded forth like a golden crescent moon, hurtling across the air—and slammed directly into the cracked Kidō target.
CRACK.
The arc sank deep into the middle of the dummy—
—and in the next second, the target split clean in half, collapsed, and shattered into fragments on the ground.
"He abandoned the chant..."
"...and still used Hadō 78 with full power?!"
"Most captains can't even do that!"
Isshin stood stunned. His expression flickered between pain for his wallet... and awe for what he'd just witnessed.
In less than three days.
Three days.
This freshman had achieved a level of Kidō control that put him in the realm of seasoned captains.
At that moment, Isshin realized something profound:
The difference between Shinigami and Shinigami...
...is greater than the difference between a Shinigami and a dog.
And if this is what Ran Yan could do in three days...
...how terrifying would he be in a year?