I'm No Genius, I Just Work Hard Enough

Silence...

Dōsan didn't know what he meant. He had only ever considered himself lucky, at best.

Even though Rangiku Matsumoto thought highly of him, he had never considered himself a genius.

No, there was no such thing as a genius in this world. He, Dōsan, was merely a genius who had worked hard enough to become lucky!

After a moment of silence, Ganju swallowed again. His smile gradually faded, and he forced himself to look nonchalant. "When you said ten minutes just now, you were joking with me, right?"

Silence...

"Hahaha, hic, just kidding! Looks like your talent is pretty average!"

Ganju turned away and rubbed his face hard with one rough, broad hand. Only now did he realize that this training might not be as simple as he'd imagined.

"What I'm going to teach you next is a secret passed down only within the Shiba Clan, and the most basic of the basics of Spiritual Pressure training. Watch me!"

Dōsan Hanyū looked over and saw Ganju pull a round crystal ball out of his crotch. He held it against his chest and channeled Spiritual Pressure into it with both hands.

The ball began to glow, and a round barrier appeared around Ganju immediately afterward.

Thanks to Rangiku Matsumoto's earlier instruction in the basics of Spiritual Pressure, Dōsan could sense a faint flow of Spiritual Pressure across the barrier.

"This defensive barrier is made of compressed Spiritual Power. It's pretty sturdy, enough to serve as a shell for my Shiba Clan's Fireworks Cannon. Give it a knock, kid."

"What's the Fireworks Cannon?"

"Not important."

Dōsan reached out and gave the barrier a light but forceful knock.

The barrier didn't budge. When he pressed his hand against it, the entire Spiritual Power barrier rippled like water.

Dōsan, who had hardly seen any Kidō, brightened.

"Harder," Ganju said proudly.

Dōsan put more strength into his hand and struck the barrier hard. Ganju's face turned pale, and his eyes bulged. When he spoke, his voice sounded as though it were being squeezed out of his throat.

"Even hard..."

Amazing!

Curious, Dōsan raised and lowered his white eyebrows. This time, he stopped holding back, and Spiritual Pressure began gathering around his hand.

This punch has ten years of...

"All right, I gave you a chance, and you couldn't even make use of it!" Ganju immediately retracted the barrier, then handed the crystal ball to Dōsan with a blank expression.

"This thing is called a Spirit Orb Core. All you have to do is channel Spiritual Power into it with your hands. It's easy. Give it a try."

Easy... my ass.

Ganju turned around, a look of successful mischief on his face, and covered his mouth as he began to laugh.

He couldn't help it. This was what he did best.

Especially since he hadn't yet explained the Shiba Clan's insights, this kid was bound to fail. Then he could give the kid a lesson.

Dōsan Hanyū took the Spirit Orb Core.

The Spirit Orb Core felt like a crystal ball in his hand, smooth and cool. Dōsan could also sense that, even without consciously releasing his Spiritual Pressure, it was gradually being drawn toward the crystal ball.

Ganju made it sound simple.

Following his "instruction," Dōsan continuously released Spiritual Pressure from his palm. From what he'd observed, he also consciously steadied the Spiritual Pressure around his hand.

But only when Dōsan Hanyū tried it himself did he realize how difficult it was.

His Spiritual Pressure passed through his palm and formed a barrier, but unlike Ganju's smooth, round one, a badly distorted barrier enveloped Dōsan Hanyū.

"Why?"

Dōsan's white eyebrows drew together. He frantically recalled the technique Ganju had just demonstrated, unable to make sense of it for the moment.

Little did he know that Ganju, who stood to the side watching with a smile, was also quite shocked.

The leaking Spiritual Pressure was enough to make even Ganju's heart pound.

A Soul Reaper trainee who had practiced for ten minutes?

"Ahem." Ganju coughed twice to calm himself.

He was supposed to be the teacher, after all.

"Adjust your Spiritual Pressure. Don't channel too much in at once. Find that 'doo' feeling." Ganju dropped into a horse stance, demonstrating as though he were squatting on the toilet.

What kind of instruction is that?!

Dōsan Hanyū controlled his Spiritual Power, but the barrier didn't change as he intended. His Spiritual Pressure found an outlet, and the Spiritual Power turned into a distorted "channel" that continued drawing out more of Dōsan Hanyū's Spiritual Power.

Dōsan Hanyū looked at Ganju.

"What? This is the most basic of the basics!" There was a teasing note in Ganju's voice.

Though he was teasing him, Ganju bore him no ill will. Perhaps even he hadn't realized that, as the least talented member of the Shiba Main Family, he found it hard to remain calm in the face of Dōsan's talent.

His eldest brother, Kaien Shiba, had once said, "There is no reason to trample on a man's dignity."

Teasing was in his nature, but for a young man who had only just encountered Spiritual Pressure, there was no harm in Dōsan figuring things out for himself.

Dōsan Hanyū gritted his teeth and chose not to speak.

He knew nothing about Soul Reapers, but he knew that Rangiku Matsumoto and Isshin Shiba viewed him differently because of his meager talent and his willingness to endure hardship and work hard.

There was no love without a reason.

He had to prove his worth to earn others' attention and help.

Rather than ask for help, Dōsan Hanyū thought back on what Ganju had just shown him and gradually felt out his own Spiritual Pressure. Instead of trying to "correct" it through sheer thought, he let his will follow its flow, like flowing water.

The key was to release and draw back Spiritual Power freely, or perhaps to balance it.

As Dōsan Hanyū thought this, he became one with his Spiritual Pressure, entering a state of selflessness.

What neither of them noticed was a layer of gray mist gradually spreading out from Dōsan Hanyū, beyond either of their senses.

Around Dōsan, amid the black mist, the distorted barrier gradually became smooth and rounded, eventually forming a sphere.

Perhaps because he was channeling more Spiritual Pressure into it, Dōsan Hanyū's spiritual barrier was pale green, and its defensive power was far greater than Ganju's.

The amount Dōsan Hanyū was channeling into his spiritual barrier was five times Ganju's!

Ganju was so shocked that his nose started running.

How did he do that?

It wasn't over. Dōsan Hanyū's barrier continued to expand without stopping, threatening to fill the entire training ground.

"Idiot, pull it..." Ganju was alarmed. He thought Dōsan Hanyū had gotten distracted and lost control of the barrier.

Before Ganju could finish, the barrier instantly grew larger at Dōsan Hanyū's command, then smaller, then larger again. He could expand and contract it at will.

Finally, it became a spiritual barrier about the same size as Ganju's earlier one. But Ganju knew the amounts of Spiritual Pressure flowing through the two were simply incomparable.

And that control—how had he managed that?

Damn it.

Sure enough, these geniuses are all too damn annoying!

But I, the great Ganju, won't give up so easily!

"Ha, hahaha, nice work, kid! You've got thirty percent of the great Ganju's flair back in the day, hahaha." Ganju's smile was stiff.

"Thank you, Mr. Ganju. This skill is very simple. Sure enough, even someone like me with just a little talent can learn it."

Pfft.

Ganju spat blood.

Dōsan Hanyū's words just now had sounded more like polite modesty. He was caught up in a problem, or rather, a conjecture he had just come up with. Instead of dismissing the Spiritual Power barrier, Dōsan held the Spirit Orb Core, frowned, and continued sensing the changes in his Spiritual Pressure.

When he felt the time was right, Dōsan threw the Spirit Orb Core away.

The Spirit Orb Core flew from Dōsan's hand and hit the mat with a dull thud.

Ganju stared, then grew extremely nervous. "Baka, Dōsan, what are you... Nani?"

The sight before him was beyond Ganju's expectations. No, more than that, it was beyond his comprehension.

Dōsan Hanyū stood upright inside the Spiritual Power barrier with his palms pressed together. The spiritual barrier remained perfectly intact, rather than exploding as Ganju had expected.

Ganju's nose was running. This was simply defying his imagination.

Dōsan, meanwhile, was still thinking, feeling out his flash of inspiration.

If I could maintain this barrier, with this kind of defense, that Hollow from yesterday wouldn't have been able to break through it.

Then what if I released a little more Spiritual Pressure?

However little Dōsan Hanyū knew, he could tell that this might be a powerful defensive skill.

So this is what Mr. Ganju wanted to teach me.

Dōsan Hanyū pressed his palms together, found the feeling from before, and controlled the balance between input and output.

Unfortunately.

Dōsan Hanyū couldn't maintain it for long. The spiritual barrier shattered after losing its source of energy.

The experiment had failed.

Dōsan knitted his white eyebrows, pondering the key to the problem, but the inspiration he needed remained just out of reach.

It wasn't something he could solve on his own in a short time.

Feeling he had demonstrated enough value, Dōsan Hanyū decided to hand the stage back to Ganju.

Dōsan understood the principles of getting along with others and gave Ganju plenty of room to show what he could do.

"Mr. Ganju, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm having a hard time maintaining the spiritual barrier without the Spirit Orb Core's help. Could you teach me the trick?"

I'm no genius. I'm just humble and hardworking enough.

Ganju Shiba: "Heh, hehe..."