Breaking Shikai with a Self-Created Kidō

"What?!"

Sarugaki Hiyori instantly bristled, her face flushing red with fury.

Without a second thought, she drew the Zanpakutō at her waist with a sharp swish, its gleaming tip aimed directly at Siwei Yan.

Kyōraku Shunsui, Hirako Shinji, and Hikifune Kirio, the three captains standing nearby, exchanged knowing looks. Smiling as though they were enjoying a show, they collectively stepped back several paces, leaving ample room for the two in the center without the slightest intention of stopping them.

Yan Si's face darkened, and his icy voice rang clearly in everyone's ears:

"First, a Zanpakutō is a Shinigami's most important companion—the blade used to kill enemies."

His voice grew even colder.

"It is also the shield that protects one's comrades. Drawing your blade against a fellow Shinigami is an exceedingly foolish and irrational act."

"It means you have treated those you ought to protect as enemies."

"I'm not an official Shinigami yet!" Sarugaki Hiyori snapped furiously, gripping her sword.

Yan Si's gaze remained as still as an ancient well.

"Then from the moment you decided to draw your blade, you had better be prepared... to be cut down by the other person."

As soon as he finished speaking, he slowly raised a hand and extended his right index finger, pointing it at Sarugaki Hiyori's forehead from afar.

The gesture was contemptuous to the extreme.

"T-That's way too arrogant!"

"He's only the Fifth Seat..."

"Hiyori, teach him a lesson!"

A wave of indignant whispers immediately rose from the graduates.

Sarugaki Hiyori bared her teeth in fury, revealing two sharp little fangs as she roared:

"Of course I know that! You bald bastard!"

"B-Bald... bastard?" Siwei Yan's expression went blank for an instant.

The entire area fell into eerie silence.

"Pfft... Pwahahaha..." Kyōraku Shunsui was the first to lose it. Clutching his stomach, he burst out laughing. "Yan, Yan, my brother... you actually got called bald... Hahaha!"

"Hahahaha! Well said! This guy really is a pretentious bald bastard!" Hirako Shinji slapped his thigh, laughing without the slightest concern for his image.

After all, Siwei Yan was renowned throughout the Thirteen Court Guard Squads for his looks and bearing.

With his handsome face, black hair casually tied into a short ponytail behind his head, his distinctive languid air, and the occasional melancholy in his eyes, he possessed the ethereal elegance of a refined Young Master.

Quite a few female Shinigami had blushed when they saw him, or secretly offered him handkerchiefs.

But being pointed at and called a "bald bastard" by a girl in public? That was truly unprecedented!

A vein visibly bulged on Yan Si's forehead. Still, he took a deep breath and forcibly maintained his cold demeanor.

"Since you understand the principle yet still chose to draw your blade, prepare to bear the corresponding consequences."

"Hmph! You sure love to ramble! If you want to fight, then fight!"

Sarugaki Hiyori gripped her Zanpakutō with both hands and held its tip level, staring fixedly at that damned finger while letting out constant threatening growls.

With my first strike, I'll cut off that annoying finger of yours!

"Make a move?" Yan Si sounded as though he had heard a joke, his tone as mild as if he were discussing the weather. "This finger is more than enough to deal with you."

"You!" Sarugaki Hiyori felt her blood rush straight to her head. Unable to restrain herself any longer, she raised her Zanpakutō overhead with both hands and brought it viciously down at that finger with all her strength. "Die!!!"

Yan Si merely shifted slightly to one side. Her blade swept past him on a gust of wind, not even touching the corner of his clothes.

"Not bad. After drawing your sword, you knew to use your full strength." Yan Si's voice continued to sound by her ear like a ghost.

"But... though you say you understand, you don't actually understand at all."

"When facing an enemy, you must possess the resolve to kill."

"Do you think battle is child's play? Or a practical combat class at the academy?"

"Shut up! Baldy! Baldy! Baldy!" Sarugaki Hiyori's ears buzzed as her rage completely drowned out her reason.

She wildly swung her Zanpakutō, slashing sideways, chopping downward, thrusting straight ahead... Her attacks came like a raging storm.

Yet Yan Si's figure drifted like willow fluff, his body moving with the slashes as he effortlessly evaded them with the smallest motions.

What drove Hiyori even crazier was that his damned finger remained steadily pointed at her forehead from beginning to end, like an everlasting taunt.

"S-So strong..."

"She can't touch him at all..."

"Is that the strength of a Seat Officer?"

The graduates watched with their mouths agape, their earlier indignation gradually replaced by shock.

They had thought Hiyori was already strong, but before a true Seat Officer, she was actually this helpless.

Yadomaru Lisa adjusted her glasses, her eyes behind the lenses equally full of astonishment.

As Hiyori's friend, she knew Hiyori's swordsmanship and Reiatsu better than anyone. Hiyori had absolutely reached the standard of a Seat Officer.

Yet now, Hiyori could not even touch the edge of her opponent's clothes?

So Seat Officers are all this powerful? My previous thoughts seem to have been far too arrogant...

Kyōraku Shunsui glanced at the tightly pressed lips of the future lieutenant beside him and lowered his voice.

"Lisa-chan, don't take it too hard. You're already outstanding. While you truly don't yet possess lieutenant-level strength, serving as the Fifth Seat would be more than enough. The same goes for Hiyori."

Lisa looked up at him in confusion.

Kyōraku smiled as he explained, "It's only because Yan Si himself... possesses lieutenant-level strength, that's all. And among lieutenants, his overall strength is considered quite formidable. Watching his battle more closely will benefit you."

Hearing that, Lisa turned her gaze back to the field, her eyes becoming even more focused.

Hirako Shinji snorted inwardly.

Does that brat Yan Si really only have lieutenant-level strength?

His gaze drifted toward the brown-haired young man standing outside the field with a perpetual smile—Aizen Sōsuke.

That man gave him an extraordinarily dangerous feeling, one unlike anything he had ever felt even when facing a Great Hollow.

And Yan Si, while he did not feel dangerous, still...

How could someone who was so close to a dangerous man like Aizen possibly be simple?

What a pity. It seemed Hiyori would not be able to force out his true strength.

Unable to land a blow after attacking for so long, Sarugaki Hiyori's movements became increasingly impatient, and her breathing began to falter.

Yan Si keenly caught that detail, his words stabbing out coldly.

"What's wrong? Tired already? With only this much skill, you have no right to swagger around in the Thirteen Court Guard Squads."

"I said shut up, Baldy!"

Hiyori roared, gripping the hilt of her Zanpakutō tightly with both hands as a violent surge of Reiatsu suddenly erupted from her petite body!

Her powerful Reiatsu transformed into a whirlwind that tore through the training ground, making many graduates' robes flap loudly in the wind.

"T-That Reiatsu!?"

"Hiyori is using Shikai?!"

"She's one of only three students in our class who learned Shikai!"

Cries of alarm rose one after another.

Sarugaki Hiyori lowered her waist slightly before explosively pushing off with both legs. Her small figure leaped into the air in an instant, the Reiatsu around her climbing to its peak!

The form of the Zanpakutō in her hand changed as well, becoming a great blade like the fangs of a wild beast, brimming with savage power.

"Sever him—Kubikiri Orochi!"

Her Shikai was complete!

Sarugaki Hiyori's Reiatsu instantly surged severalfold. Carrying the force of a mountain cleaver, she slashed fiercely down at Yan Si from the air!

Facing that terrifying attack, Yan Si's expression did not change in the slightest.

Her Reiatsu rose by roughly seven times after Shikai... As expected of someone with outstanding potential.

Ordinarily, a Shinigami would be doing well if Shikai increased their power by three to five times.

But... at this level, it is still far from enough.

His lips parted slightly, and a clear chant spread distinctly through the violent Reiatsu.

"At winter's end, cold plum blossoms stand proud upon their branches."

Azure Reishi began rapidly gathering at the tip of the index finger that had remained pointed at Hiyori's forehead.

The air around them abruptly turned cold, as if winter had descended. Faint plum blossom phantoms formed from ice crystals even condensed in the air.

"Thunder pierces the sky, a thousand birds fall upon the branches!"

The icy Reishi was instantly replaced by dazzling golden lightning!

From the centers of those icy plum blossoms burst blinding golden bolts, as though countless birds of lightning had suddenly alighted upon the branches!

Yadomaru Lisa's body suddenly tensed at the edge of the field, her taut little face turning to shock.

"T-That's a Kidō chant?! I've never seen this Kidō in any textbook!"

Kyōraku Shunsui pressed down on his conical hat and said softly, "We never learned it either, Lisa-chan."

"Hmph. That brat loves showing off with this kind of 'self-created' stuff." Hirako Shinji curled his lip in displeasure, though a trace of gravity flashed deep in his eyes.

In the field, Siwei Yan completed his final chant.

"Bloom—"

All the plum blossom phantoms wrapped in golden lightning rapidly contracted, gathering at his fingertip and compressing into a single point of ultimate brilliance.

"Hadō: Plum Thunder Flash!"

"Whoosh—!"

A slender yet incomparably condensed bolt of golden lightning shot from his fingertip!

The lightning gracefully unfurled through the air, instantly transforming into a massive, resplendent plum blossom formed entirely from violent lightning!

Carrying an aura of destruction and a strange, haunting beauty, that "lightning plum blossom" struck Sarugaki Hiyori from behind and yet arrived first.

"Boom—!!"

The lightning exploded, golden electric serpents darting in every direction. Accompanied by a brief cry of alarm, Sarugaki Hiyori's petite body was blasted from the air and slammed heavily into the training ground. The Kubikiri Orochi in her hand reverted to its Asauchi form.

She struggled twice, but ultimately could not rise immediately.

The training ground was silent as death.

Every graduate stared dumbfoundedly at the center of the field.

Yan Si still held out one finger, his robes fluttering as his expression remained calm.