Chapter 14

Being assigned to the same dorm room was the "fate" that had brought them together.

Of course.

A dorm this large was never meant to house just two people. Their original roommates had either been commoners afraid of the Kuchiki Clan's power or lower- and middle-ranking nobles trying to get close to them. In the end, Byakuya had sent them all away on various pretexts.

And although Byakurai was a secret Kidō technique, it was still only a single-digit Hadō, so Byakuya was qualified to teach it himself.

The Kuchiki Clan had indeed studied Byakurai extensively, but there were quite a few other Kidō techniques they had studied even more deeply. That was the so-called foundation of a great noble clan.

Even so, after the Kuchiki Clan learned of it, Haruto was still invited over for a cup of fine tea. They didn't make things difficult for him, though; they merely instructed him not to share the secret technique with anyone else.

"Then what do you want?"

Haruto spread his hands helplessly.

Byakuya himself admitted that, in a fight between opponents of the same level, if he could adapt to Haruto's Kidō fighting style, he probably wouldn't have to worry much about being caught off guard by other opponents' Kidō in the future.

"You can't use Byakurai..."

Byakuya said decisively.

"And no modified versions of Shō, either!"

He immediately added, as if something had just occurred to him.

"Why don't you just tell me not to use Hadō at all?"

If his eyes hadn't been so small, Haruto would definitely have rolled them at him.

"That's not a bad—"

"Ahem!"

Haruto cut Byakuya off with a loud cough:

"Let's get started. Any later and we'll miss lunch."

"You agree to the conditions I just set?"

"What else can I do?"

"All right, then."

Having achieved his goal, Byakuya swiftly brought their argument to an end.

"Clink."

He took a small gold coin from his pocket.

Converted into living expenses, the thin, delicate piece of metal was enough to cover a Shin'ō Academy student's expenses for an entire year—and that was for luxuries, not counting the free meals and accommodation.

"Start when it lands?"

"Sure."

Byakuya lightly flicked the coin in his hand, sending it tumbling through the air, its golden surface gleaming with the light of wealth.

Then—

"Clang!"

"Hadō #31."

"Hadō #31."

Clear, steady chants came from both of them.

Their voices didn't just overlap; Haruto and Byakuya's movements were perfectly synchronized as well. They raised their right arms at the same time, facing each other from a distance, their joined fingers nearly perpendicular to the ground. The Reiatsu pouring from their palms instantly formed fist-sized fireballs.

"Shakkahō!"

"Shakkahō!"

"Whoosh—"

The fireballs grew as they flew through the air. By the time the opposing Shakkahō struck each other, both had swelled to several times the size of a basketball.

Shakkahō, with the incantation omitted.

A mere probing move used as a greeting was already several times more powerful than the standard version their classmates used.

"Boom!"

Flames and a shock wave erupted.

Thinking back to what Haruto had told Mutsuki Shōkaku not long ago... it just went to show that when a man made a promise to a woman, she was lucky if she could believe half of it—

And the reverse was even more true.

"Boom!"

As the fireballs formed by Shakkahō exploded, billowing black smoke spread out, obscuring both sides' vision.

"Smoke?"

Shakkahō didn't normally have that effect, and Haruto had used the standard, unmodified version, so Byakuya could only have modified his Shakkahō.

"Using it to conceal his Shikai, huh—"

Achieving Shikai wasn't as simple as calling out a Zanpakuto's name. The process seemed brief, but it actually required intense concentration...

At least, that was the case when first learning it.

"Dream on!"

As the black smoke rose, Haruto tilted the hand resting on the end of his sword's hilt. His long middle finger quickly slid along the wrapping until it touched the outside of the guard.

He gave it a simple upward flick.

"Clang."

The Asauchi came free of his sash and sprang up in front of him.

His right palm, which had just fired Shakkahō, swept from right to left and struck the bottom of the scabbard hard—

"Smack!"

The Asauchi began spinning like a windmill.

"Hadō #58."

A Hadō numbered close to sixty, and the pinnacle of intermediate Hadō at that. Haruto wasn't very familiar with Hadō of this level, and there was no way he could draw out much power from it without the incantation.

But Haruto wasn't counting on it to deal damage anyway. It was simply because... this was the lowest-numbered Hadō he could use to blow wind.

"Tenran!"

He lightly tapped the spinning Asauchi with the back of his hand.

"Whoosh!"

A colorless, invisible gale blew fiercely straight ahead, quickly sweeping away the thick smoke raised by Shakkahō.

Directly in front of Haruto, Byakuya had indeed already raised the Zanpakuto in his hand, but Haruto certainly wasn't going to let Byakuya achieve his goal so easily—

"Bakudō #9."

"Thud."

The moment he caught sight of Byakuya, Haruto immediately dropped to one knee. His left hand, which had just flicked the Asauchi upward, formed a sword gesture and jabbed forcefully at the ground beneath him!

"Hōrin!"

Two yellow cords spread rapidly across the ground toward Byakuya.

There was no doubt.

Before Byakuya could successfully release his Zanpakuto, this Bakudō would stop him. A single-digit Bakudō wasn't very powerful, but even if it could only bind him for a second or two, that would be enough time for Haruto to complete the incantation for a higher-numbered Bakudō.

So Byakuya had no choice but to dodge.

As his opponent leaped sideways to evade it, Haruto's right hand, which had been facing away from the Asauchi, firmly caught the spinning scabbard.

His grip landed just beneath the guard—

"Shing!"

His thumb naturally pushed the guard upward, and as the metallic sound of the blade leaving its sheath rang out, a new incantation began:

"Hadō #32."

The half-palm's width of blade exposed from the scabbard quickly lit up with a pale golden glow, and a flat flame shot toward Byakuya's chest like an arrow.

"Ōkasen!"

Volume one: 009, Scatter, shards of glass!

Byakuya was quite athletic.

To avoid the Hōrin released along the ground just now, he had leaped at least two or three meters high. It wasn't that Byakuya had foolishly insisted on jumping into the air to dodge, but that Haruto's Kidō techniques were even more unpredictable than he had imagined.

Besides, Hōrin was only a single-digit Bakudō. For all he knew, Haruto had modified it so much that even its inventor wouldn't recognize it, so naturally, he had to get as far away as possible in case those two cords turned and wrapped around him.

Byakuya was quite right.

But Haruto had been counting on that very caution.

Although the Ōkasen fired from the blade was only a few fingers wide, its power was not so easy to withstand:

Byakuya had no choice but to interrupt his Shikai.

"Clang!"

He hastily raised the pink-and-purple scabbard across his chest to meet the speeding Ōkasen.

"Bang!"

The Zanpakuto itself was quite sturdy.

The full force of Ōkasen was dissipated as it sent Byakuya flying backward through the air.

"Hadō #—"

"Stop!!"

Haruto was only halfway through his next incantation when Byakuya's hoarse shout for a pause cut him off.

"Tap."

Once Byakuya had landed—

"You surrender?"

Haruto pressed the short length of exposed blade back into its sheath.

"Of course not!"

"It's just..."

Byakuya's gaze wandered a little:

"I think we need to change the rules of the match first."

"This match is mainly so I can get used to fighting with Shikai, but you won't even give me time to release it... isn't that a bit much?"

"Real combat."

Haruto gave Byakuya a calm, two-word reply.

"Of course I know it's real combat, but we Soul Reapers don't operate alone. Surely, with so many squadmates, someone could create an opportunity for a comrade to use Shikai?"

"...It's rare to see you think so quickly."

Haruto slowly straightened up and relaxed his fighting stance for the moment:

"Go on, then. How do you want to change the rules?"

"You can't stop me from releasing my Zanpakuto."

Byakuya quickly took the opening.