Ichiro vs. Urahara!

Beyond the improvement in his strength, two other things happened this semester.

First, Sugou was expelled by the school for harassing a female teacher. According to Ichiro's grapevine, he had already died a miserable death in Rukongai. Because the whole affair was a bit suspicious, people gradually stopped mentioning it.

The second was that, just as Ichiro had said, Suzuran Yue skipped a grade shortly after joining their class. She was already a fourth-year student this year, and at this rate, she should be graduating before long.

However, that had nothing to do with Ichiro!

"Clang!"

"Way of Destruction No. 31: Shakkaho!"

"Sing, Benihime!"

"Shield of Crimson Haze!"

"Boom!"

In the massive underground space, Ichiro and Urahara stood facing each other with their blades drawn, while Yoruichi watched from the sidelines with interest, tossing snacks into her mouth from time to time.

"Hey, hey, isn't using Shikai a bit of a bully move?"

"Clang~" Urahara tapped the stone beside him and said with a devil-may-care attitude, "If you're not convinced, you can use Shikai too. If you're not going to, then I'm coming for you!"

"Burst, Benihime!"

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Suddenly, a massive amount of shockwaves flew out from the blood-red light shield in front of Urahara, raining down upon Ichiro like a downpour.

At this critical juncture, Ichiro quickly sheathed his blade and held his left hand out horizontally.

"...Way of Binding No. 39: Enkosen!"

As Ichiro's lips moved, a pale blue shield appeared before him, blocking all the incoming attacks!

Immediately after!

"...Way of Binding No. 21: Sekienton!"

"...Way of Binding No. 26: Kyokko!"

With three consecutive Kido cast via High-Speed Incantation, Ichiro's figure completely vanished from the battlefield, while the thick smoke generated by Sekienton obscured Urahara's vision, creating a dual interference!

Urahara, peering around the field, wore an exceptionally grave expression. He remained on high alert, completely devoid of his earlier relaxed demeanor.

He had only heard Ichiro describe High-Speed Incantation before and had never seen it in practice. While he had felt it sounded impressive, he lacked a real sense of it; now that he had seen it with his own eyes, he realized he had still vastly underestimated this Kido technique!

In just over three seconds, he had fully chanted three consecutive Kido. If his Reishi were any stronger, he could achieve total suppression through sheer firepower!

Fortunately, Ichiro's Reishi was not very strong, and the preceding battle had already consumed a portion of it. In other words, he could only choose to...

Ichiro moved incessantly through the smoke screen using Shunpo. The Reishi Alchemy on his sleeves glowed faintly, assisting him in leaving behind Kido formations while simultaneously concentrating and converting the Reishi in the air to restore his Reishi to the maximum extent possible!

That guy Urahara must think my Reishi is insufficient and will switch to close-quarters combat next, so he should be switching his blade to... therefore...

"...Way of Destruction No. 31: Shakkaho!"

"Wake, Benihime!"

"What!?"

Urahara watched in surprise as the fireballs flew toward him, his pupils constricting. He didn't quite understand how Ichiro had recovered his Reishi, but the situation was set, and he had to find a way out.

Urahara had conducted deep research into Zanpakuto, and inspired by Ichiro, he had basically developed the several Shikai forms seen in the original work.

"Sing, Benihime" excelled at manipulating the red Reishi extending from the blade, offering high functionality.

"Wake, Benihime" excelled at close-quarters combat like slashing and piercing, possessing high short-range lethality.

"Boom!"

However, while it had offensive power, it lacked defense. Thus, after parrying one Shakkaho, Urahara scrambled away in a sorry state, dodging the subsequent fireballs Ichiro fired.

"Sing, Benihime!"

Of course, Urahara hadn't been idle while scrambling; he took the opportunity to switch his Zanpakuto's form. After tossing several pills into his mouth, he turned and charged straight at the remaining fireballs!

"Bang!!!"

To Ichiro's astonishment, Urahara thrust his blade several times in an instant at the incoming Shakkaho, and every fireball he struck dissipated into Reishi!

Tsubaki Benihime used techniques with the same Reishi structural properties to negate the enemy's attacks. It was similar to the "Anti-Kido" technique in Kido, but far faster thanks to the Zanpakuto.

Of course, no matter how fast one was, it shouldn't be to this degree; even the Urahara from the later stages of the original work couldn't achieve this.

This had to do with the pills he had just swallowed. That item was a super-diluted version of the Superhuman Drug from Kurotsuchi Mayuri in the original work. The effect of the Superhuman Drug was to infinitely enhance one's neural reaction speed, making one like a superman—extremely powerful!

However!

This thing didn't strengthen the physical body!

Therefore, those who took the Superhuman Drug would have their brains process all kinds of information incessantly, leading to a loss of bodily control.

Ichiro and his group, however, did the opposite, controlling the effect within a safe threshold that the body could react to, maximizing its utility. What had just seemed like only a few seconds had actually felt like a full minute to Urahara, who had taken the Kyoshin Pill. That amount of time was enough for him to analyze the Reishi structure of the Shakkaho.

Following this, after Ichiro's several consecutive Red Fire Cannons were neutralized by Urahara using the same method, he realized that Urahara had taken some sort of drug. Consequently, Kido had become ineffective; not only the numbered Kido, but even the Kido incantations he had laid on the ground were discovered and dismantled by Urahara as he maneuvered.

However, Ichiro still had no intention of engaging in close-quarters combat. Since the effects of the Bakudo Red Smoke Escape and Curved Light had not yet faded, he planned to continue circling to recover some of his spiritual pressure.

Yet, Urahara had no intention of giving Ichiro time to recover. He plunged Benihime into the ground and whispered, "Bind, Benihime!"

In an instant, ribbons condensed from black and red spirit particles wove into a net, wrapping around the entire battlefield with Urahara at its center!

Facing such a massive area-of-effect attack, Ichiro naturally could not escape. Like a spider sensing its prey caught in a web, Urahara curled his lips into a smile, lightly twisted his blade, and chanted, "Play with Fire, Benihime: Bead String!"

Clack-clack-clack-clack~

Instantly, beads with blood-black surfaces and burning flames within surged toward Ichiro, appearing one after another in a straight line!

Crap!

Watching the beads grow brighter and more dazzling, Ichiro's pupils constricted. The transmutation circle in his sleeve lit up, and in this split second, a bolt of white electricity surged through his body!

"BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!"

A continuous series of explosions echoed through the empty space, and clouds of dust filled the air, replacing the dissipated smoke screen.

Peering through the dust, Urahara smiled as he pulled Benihime from the ground and chuckled, "After fighting so many times, I've finally forced this move out of you..."

As the dust settled, Ichiro, his upper body bare, tapped his pitch-black skin and smiled at Urahara without saying a word.

The battle had only just begun!