Another week passed.
The days blurred together — sword drills, hoho training, silent patrols around the academy's border fields. Routine was good. It kept attention low.
But routine never meant stagnation.
I trained every night — in shadows, between trees, beneath the courtyard lanterns when the patrols were lightest. I tested the reach of my perception, the strain of my physical limits, and the responsiveness of Kage.
And then tonight, it happened.
[System Notification]
Stat Threshold Achieved: Strength A-, Perception A+
Condition Met: Proficient Zanjutsu + Bonded Shikai
Shikai Ability Unlocked: (Kage Kudaki) — Shadow Shatter
I froze mid-swing.
For a second, I didn't move.
I just stared at the notification, pulse steady, breathing even. The blade in my hand felt… lighter. But not weaker.
Almost like it wasn't metal anymore.
I turned toward the line of trees beyond the training field.
"...Let's see it."
---
I raised my zanpakutō and whispered the name.
"Kage Kudaki."
The blade dissolved.
No — it didn't vanish. It shattered into black tendrils that stretched toward the ground… and then disappeared into the shadows like smoke being sucked into cracks.
Nothing left in my hand. Just the hilt. No weight. No steel.
But I could feel it.
Still there. Still mine.
Waiting.
---
I focused on a tree twenty meters away.
A sliver of moonlight cast a thin line of shadow at its base.
I thought it.
The blade responded.
Flash—
The hilt jerked in my hand as the shadow reappeared — not next to me, but in front of the tree, emerging silently from the shadowed ground.
I didn't swing. I didn't throw.
The blade had traveled through the shadows themselves — instantaneous, like a whisper moving across the void.
Exactly like—
"Kamishini no Yari," I muttered under my breath. Gin's technique.
His zanpakutō could compress and extend at hypersonic speeds, turning into dust and reforming mid-strike. Mine didn't work through compression.
Mine traveled through darkness.
Any shadow. Any size. Any distance.
So long as I could see the path — or sense it — the blade would pass through.
---
The drawback was obvious.
Just like with the first Shikai ability, I couldn't fight during the transition. The blade had to reform to strike.
But the difference?
Now I didn't have to move.
The shadow moved for me.
From behind. From the side. From the sky. Any angle where shadow touched ground… I could reach.
And with my perception stats?
I could read movements before they even shifted.
That was the kind of edge no first year — no upperclassman, maybe not some Seated Officers or even lieutenants — would ever expect.
---
I called the blade back.
It reformed with a soft shhhhk beside my arm, slipping out of a lamplight shadow like silk from water.
I tightened my grip.
Silent. Swift. Precise.
This was no brute-force Shikai.
This was assassination-level precision.
If Kage's first ability, Yami no Shihai ("Stealth in Darkness"), let me move unseen…
Then Kage Kudaki — "Shadow Shatter" — let me strike unseen.
---
For a second, I wondered if Aizen felt the disturbance.
If his spiritual senses were sharp enough to notice the flicker of abnormal movement beneath the Academy.
Or if Yoruichi would return.
But no knock came.
No surge of pressure.
Just quiet wind.
And shadows.
I smiled slightly.
Perfect.