Making a Move!?

"Mask of the flesh and blood of the ruler, all things take flight on beating wings, crown the thing with the name of humanity, scorching heat and strife, turn back across the sea and surge southward, take a step forward—Way of Destruction No. 31: Shakkaho!" (Chanted in one second)

Boom!

If they had only been surprised by the unusual incantation before, now the captain and Kirinji were truly stunned!

They stared, dumbfounded, at the crater—about the same size as one produced by a full incantation. What had just happened???

Ichiro's incantation had been so fast that even though they'd been given a warning, they still hadn't had time to react.

"Ichiro... what was that?" The captain paused, then asked gravely.

"High-Speed Incantation. It's a Kido technique I developed while researching Kido incantations. It compresses the time needed to recite an incantation without affecting its power or cost, making it more practical in combat. The standard is to recite the entire incantation within one second. You have to actually recite it; merely reading it doesn't work.

"After all, a Kido incantation is essentially a miniature ritual offered to the world. So even High-Speed Incantation can't get around that. You can change the speed, but not the intonation."

"..." Kirinji fell silent. He had only one word for it.

A monster!

Had they never thought of it?

No!

Ichiro wasn't the first to come up with the idea. They'd thought of this approach long ago, but they couldn't do it...

They'd had to settle for developing Incantation Abandonment instead...

Since time immemorial, Ichiro was the only one who'd managed it. Even more astonishingly, he seemed intent on making the technique widely available...

Invention was difficult, but so was popularizing an invention. Only a monster could manage both...

Kirinji sighed. "Just this one technique, if it were spread widely, would earn you a place in the Soul King Palace once you grew stronger!"

"Cough, cough!"

Kirinji glanced at the captain, who had coughed softly, and smiled. "Don't worry, Retsu. I'm not trying to steal him from you. I'm only saying the kid has potential. He's still far too weak."

The captain's eyes shifted slightly as she smiled. "Even if he gets strong enough, I still won't let you have him. Ichiro is the future of Squad 4."

The future? Has she still not given up on that idea, Retsu? A faint shadow crossed Kirinji's eyes, but he immediately turned to Ichiro as if nothing had happened.

Ichiro pretended not to hear the two big shots vying over him. He didn't take Kirinji's words to heart. Though Kirinji and the captain were friends, he didn't trust Kirinji. What if Kirinji was jealous of his peerless good looks and was praising him just to set him up for a fall?

Praising someone to death was the easiest way to destroy a genius, so Ichiro absolutely wouldn't fall for it!

"So you plan to analyze all the existing incantations for Kaido, then reorganize and match them anew? That sounds like a lot of trouble."

"Yes, Lord Kirinji. It's a lot of trouble, but as I said, it won't be wasted effort. Even if we ultimately fail to complete the Kaido incantations, we can still take Kido a big step forward. Take my High-Speed Incantation, for example. Right now, it only works with a handful of Kido. Once the technique is fully developed and works with every Kido, Kido may surpass Zanpakuto and become the foremost of the four arts: Zanpakuto, Hakuda, Shunpo, and Kido!"

Kirinji nodded, eyes narrowed. That was certainly true. The reason Kido seemed so impractical in high-level battles was that its incantations took too long. Incantation Abandonment lacked power, while increasing its power came at too great a cost, making it impractical.

But if they could use High-Speed Incantation, they could fire off fifty or sixty spells in a minute with one-second incantations. Even if high-level spells were costly, with Kirinji's spiritual pressure, he could easily fire off more than a dozen fully chanted No. 99 Hado in a minute!

This technique would greatly increase Kido's practical value in combat. It wasn't perfected yet, but the day would come when it was.

"Good. Then it's settled. Starting now, come by every weekend afternoon. I'll teach you for half a day and pass on everything I know about Kaido. How much you learn will depend on your ability." Kirinji Tenjiro spoke with an air of pride, oblivious to the captain's strange expression beside him.

Back when she'd first decided to give Ichiro extra lessons, she'd set up one class a week, leaving the week between lessons for him to think things over. She'd planned to teach him advanced concepts and temper his arrogance, giving him a few years to settle down.

And then... one semester later, Ichiro had drained her dry... leaving her with only the practical experience she'd gained over several hundred years...

Tenjiro was so much like she'd been.

But she had no intention of warning Tenjiro. She was more than happy for Ichiro to learn as much as he could. Seeing that Tenjiro was getting interested, the captain smiled and left the training ground.

Secrets weren't meant to be shared with outsiders. Tenjiro didn't mind, but she still thought it best to give them some privacy.

Before long, another semester had passed. Same place, same people, but in very different states...

Ichiro and the captain were still smiling just as they had when they'd arrived before,

while Kirinji Tenjiro had turned completely gray and ashen...

Ichiro had learned everything there was to teach... What remained were his personal secrets, which he obviously couldn't teach Ichiro. So all he had left to offer was what he'd gained through experience, just like the captain...

He, the mighty Hot Spring Demon, had actually been drained of all his knowledge by a second-year student—no, a third-year student now!

It was the greatest shame of his life!

"Sigh... That's the end of our lessons. I don't have anything left to teach you. From here on, you'll have to rely on yourself. Remember, your Kaido theory is second only to mine and Retsu's, but it's only theory. You still need to polish the finer details of the techniques. And then there's this." As he spoke, Kirinji Tenjiro pulled a book from who knew where and handed it to Ichiro.

"This contains the incantations I've analyzed over this period. There aren't many... I'd planned to teach you for four years and then surprise you with it... but I've only managed to finish this much. You'll have to handle the rest yourself. Keep at it."

"Are you going back, Teacher Kirinji?"

"Yes. We have plenty of things to take care of, too. If Retsu hadn't insisted, I wouldn't have come out here. But it looks like the trip was worth it after all." Color returned to Kirinji Tenjiro's face. Ichiro had given him quite a few shocks, but all in all, he was pleased.

"It's all thanks to your teaching!" Ichiro bowed sincerely. He'd learned a great deal from Kirinji Tenjiro—not just about Kaido, but also many things that would help him on the path ahead.

But Kirinji Tenjiro didn't react to Ichiro's bow. His entire bearing suddenly changed, and a vast, unfathomable spiritual pressure surged out, bearing down on Ichiro!

"Tenshin Ichiro, what do you want to achieve in the future?"

Interlude

"Lord Ichiro, can you still not hear my name?"

"Why? Why can't my name reach you?"

"Why? Lord Ichiro's voice is growing fainter and fainter... Why..."

"Lord Ichiro, my name is the world, heav..."

"Lord Ichiro, I'll always wait for you, wait for you to call my... name..."