We're Both Using Kidō, So Why Are You So Flashy? / Do You Even Know How to Fish?

In their eyes, everything they had done had been a joke from start to finish.

The two Menos Grande ignored them entirely, focusing all their attention on the figure below them, whose sword flashed in every direction as he soared through the air and darted across the ground.

If that figure had not kept encouraging them to fight on,

the trainee Soul Reapers would probably have broken down long ago.

One of the trainees shouted in confusion:

"W-why hasn't it looked at us or attacked us, even after we've attacked it so many times?"

Throughout the entire battle, the two Gillians' attention had never wavered. It had been fixed entirely on Kyōsuke Kuchiki.

They roared hoarsely, their bodies radiating greed and hunger, as though the young man before them were something incomparably delicious.

At the sight, the trainee Soul Reapers who had been standing there in a daze suddenly came to their senses.

No wonder the Gillians before them had paid no attention to their attacks and had been bent on advancing.

They wanted to devour a rarer, more powerful Soul Reaper!

But it made sense when they thought about it.

Gillian were the lowest class of Menos Grande.

Their intelligence was little different from that of beasts, driven only by the most primal hunger and greed!

To one of them, the Reiatsu radiated by a Captain-level Soul Reaper was probably the finest delicacy it could only dream of tasting in its entire life!

Put it in human terms: if someone who had eaten cheap fast food all their life suddenly saw a delicacy they would never have another chance to taste, placed right within arm's reach,

they would probably lose their mind and throw themselves at it without a care!

The same was true of the Gillians.

Now, they had completely ignored the Soul Reapers around them.

They lunged heavily at the young man before them!

One Gillian used its enormous body to attack relentlessly, cutting down Kyōsuke Kuchiki's room to dodge;

the other took the opportunity to gather all its power at its mouth.

The Cero appeared again!

Seeing this, Kyōsuke Kuchiki, floating in midair, curled his lip. It was the same move over and over again.

No wonder Gillian were the lowest-ranked Menos Grande. Pathetic!

Chapter 18: We're Both Using Kidō, So Why Are You So Flashy?

At that moment, a stationed Soul Reaper was speeding toward the source of the earthquake.

He arrived just in time to see a Gillian gathering a Cero and aiming it at the Soul Reaper academy students.

Was that a Cero?

It really was a Menos Grande!

Despair washed over the stationed Soul Reaper.

As a stationed Soul Reaper, he knew exactly what a Menos Grande meant.

If an ordinary Soul Reaper squad encountered a Menos Grande without someone of at least high-ranking Seated Officer strength leading it, the entire squad would be wiped out!

He thought of the colleagues who had died gruesome deaths after encountering a Menos Grande.

The stationed Soul Reaper shuddered. His first response was not to go to their aid, but to reach out and cast a defensive Kidō on himself!

Clearly, the Gillian's attack had gone far beyond anything he could imagine.

Even if he did everything in his power to help, he would not be able to save anyone.

That was how terrifying a Menos Grande was.

The only thing he could do now was call for reinforcements and hope the captains could arrive in time.

For some reason, though, there had still been no response from above despite what had happened, and all communications had suddenly been cut off.

Just then, the stationed Soul Reaper's expression froze as he noticed a young man standing in front of a Gillian, apparently fighting it.

He was stunned.

This guy...

Why wasn't there any fluctuation in his Reiatsu?

Whatever had come to mind left him with mixed feelings, and he muttered to himself:

"The fluctuations in his Reiatsu are so faint they can't be detected."

"And he still dares to pick a fight with a Gillian head-on..."

"Your courage is admirable, but it's meaningless. You can't defeat a Menos Grande. There's absolutely no chance."

"That's not true! Young Master Kyōsuke is just playing!" Just then, the stationed Soul Reaper heard a low voice.

The next second, he looked up and saw a squinting, childlike young man emerge from the shadows.

As if he had suddenly sensed something, the young man opened his narrowed eyes slightly, revealing blue-green irises, and turned toward the battlefield.

"Has it started?"

"Is he finally getting serious?"

Hearing him, the stationed Soul Reaper paused, then instinctively looked over as well.

In the sky, the young man looked so tiny compared to the enormous Gillian.

He glanced at the blazing red Cero and swiftly drew the Zanpakuto at his waist.

"I really would like to see what a Cero looks like."

"But unfortunately, the World of the Living and my classmates are right behind me. This really isn't the place."

"So—"

"Let's put an end to today's farce."

Kyōsuke Kuchiki's voice drifted on the wind as his snow-white blade glimmered with a cold light.

"Bombard and resound, Dijiang!"

Looking into the Gillian's utterly hollow, emotionless eyes, he chanted softly.

Activate passive, tenfold amplification!

In an instant, a current of heat poured from the hilt and swept through his body like a surging tide!

His already powerful Reiatsu soared wildly in an instant. The aura spilling out alone churned up the surrounding air, leaving visible trails!

"...What's going on?"

"What level of Reiatsu is this?"

"Why am I afraid?"

Kyōsuke Kuchiki's sudden burst of Reiatsu made the air and earth tremble.

Everyone suddenly felt as if they could barely breathe. The Menos Grande's Reiatsu, which had been weighing on them all just moments ago, vanished without a trace.

The stationed Soul Reaper knew that this illusion could occur only when one side's Reiatsu far surpassed the other's.

But could this young man's Reiatsu overwhelm a Menos Grande's?

Was there some mistake?

The sudden change left the full-fledged Soul Reaper, who had just been questioning how weak Kyōsuke was, looking doubtful and alarmed.

He had heard that two remarkable geniuses had emerged among this year's graduates.

Could this be one of them?

But no matter how gifted he was, he should not have been able to completely overpower a Menos Grande's Reiatsu, should he?

What happened next, however, proved that Kyōsuke Kuchiki was even more gifted than that!

The second after releasing his Shikai, Kyōsuke Kuchiki thrust out his hand without hesitation.

Fivefold amplification!

"Bakudō #61, Six Rods Prison of Light!"

It was one of the most ordinary Kidō, a binding spell commonly used by Soul Reapers.

But under the effect of the fivefold amplification, enormous pillars of light suddenly flared into existence, like columns holding up the sky.

Each pillar was almost as tall as the Gillian!

There were six of them in all!

The terrifying aura they radiated was less like a Kidō and more like a captain's Bankai!

Whoosh!

The next second, the six pillars of light swept across the sky and plunged deep into the Gillian's body!

The Gillian, which had looked like a demon king descending upon the world as it prepared to fire its Cero, was forcibly pinned in place, unable to move another step.

It struggled incessantly, letting out one beastlike howl after another. The Reiatsu around its body was in complete disorder; clearly, it was using every last ounce of strength it had.

But no matter how it struggled, the six pillars of light seemed to have grown there in the first place. At most, they trembled a little, offering the faintest response to its efforts.

Even in the Kidō Corps, it would take at least several Soul Reapers of ordinary Seated Officer rank casting Bakudō together to hold a Gillian firmly in place.

The sight left everyone somewhat stunned.

"...What did he use?"

"K-Kidō, right?"

"Then... what Kidō was that?"

"Didn't he say... Six Rods Prison of Light?"

"Six Rods Prison of Light... looks like that?"

"..."

Everyone fell silent again.

How was that a mid-level Kidō numbered sixty-one? People would believe it was a super-level Kidō numbered ninety-nine.

When it came to Kidō, nobody did it like Kyōsuke Kuchiki!

They were both using Kidō, so why was his so flashy?

There was no comparison, no comparison!

Chapter 19: Do You Even Know How to Fish?

Kyōsuke Kuchiki had used only a single move.

The Gillian preparing to fire a Cero had been completely sealed, unable to advance another step. The Cero it had been building in its mouth had also dissipated.

A Soul Reaper's Bakudō bound the soul directly.

Once bound, a target could not exert its full strength, as was happening now, and forcibly breaking free could even damage the very origin of its soul.

Seeing this, Kyōsuke Kuchiki nodded in satisfaction.

The Eight Extraordinary Skills were the Eight Extraordinary Skills, after all.

At the greater mastery stage, every point gained in proficiency greatly increased the power of an Eight Extraordinary Skill, while also making proficiency harder to accumulate.

The Heaven Communicating Talisman Art at 91% proficiency had turned the sixty-first Bakudō from a bird gun into a cannon. Even a captain would shed tears of envy at the result.

From here on, as long as the Six Rods Prison of Light did not dissipate, he had already perfectly protected Karakura Town and his classmates. He did not even need to attack again.

If he wanted, he could leave it there for the others to use as a practice Hollow without any problems.

But there were two Gillians.

"Shoot to kill, Shinsō!"

The next second, without Kyōsuke Kuchiki having to give an order, Gin Ichimaru, who had arrived on the scene, had already engaged the other Gillian.

Kyōsuke Kuchiki nodded inwardly at this.