This was Ikkotsu.
This was Double Bone...
As the massive fist was about to punch straight through him, Arima Shizuya couldn't help but cry out.
"Ah!!!"
The cry left his lips, and Arima Shizuya abruptly "woke up."
He jerked upright from the floor, sitting up in one swift motion. Arima Shizuya blankly rubbed his forehead, his expression one of considerable surprise.
He was still in the dojo, with a thin blanket draped over him.
But Yamamoto was nowhere to be seen.
"Awake?"
The voice came from behind him, low and unfamiliar... Turning around, he saw a stern-faced man sitting not far away.
Their eyes met.
He was an elderly squad member with slicked-back hair and a beard, his entire head gray except for the right side, which remained black.
Arima Shizuya watched the man's lips move for a moment before he finally offered a rather gentle smile.
"My name is Okiya Genjirō. I serve as the Third Seat of the First Division. It is a pleasure to meet you."
What an abrupt introduction.
Still, that style of speaking first without asking for his background did carry something of an old-fashioned Japanese air.
Okiya Genjirō... Right, he remembered now.
The man was also an old seated officer who had followed behind Head Captain Yamamoto for years, with seniority second only to Sasakibe.
In the original story, after the Thousand-Year Blood War, he had even become the First Division Vice-Captain.
Arima Shizuya hurriedly rose and returned the greeting.
"No... likewise. I am Arima Shizuya, a second-year student at the True Spiritual Arts Academy."
"I see. You certainly live up to your reputation."
"...?"
Seeing Arima Shizuya's baffled expression, Okiya Genjirō's lips curled slightly upward.
"A student who can take Head Captain Yamamoto's Ikkotsu head-on is an achievement unprecedented and unlikely to ever