Boom!
Silvery-white lightning exploded from Yoruichi's upper back.
It did not simply wrap around her body or cover her skin. It burst out in a fierce, violent surge.
Two pillars of lightning blasted backward like jet engines, leaving long streaks of light in the air. In an instant, the whole cave was flooded with a blinding pale glow.
Inside the lightning, Yoruichi's hair stood on end, and tiny sparks jumped between the tips.
"Hahaha! Do you see this, Mirai?" she laughed loudly. Even under the roar of thunder, her voice was still perfectly clear.
"With the power of Shunko, my speed rises sharply. It also gives me a huge boost in destructive power!"
The wild crash of thunder echoed through the sealed cave, so loud it made a person's ears go numb.
Mirai stood where he was and stared straight ahead without even blinking.
When Yoruichi saw that, she looked even more pleased.
She lifted her chin, puffed out her chest, planted her hands on her hips, and let the lightning rage behind her.
"I really am a genius, hahaha!"
Mirai's eyes widened even more. Thin red lines spread across the corners of his eyes from staring too hard. His nose twitched lightly, almost as if it itched.
His lips moved a little. His throat bobbed as he swallowed, letting out a soft gulp.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Yoruichi tilted her head.
She had never seen Mirai look this serious before.
His eyes were bloodshot, his lips were dry, and his whole body was frozen in place, as if he had just seen something unbelievable.
Is he really that shocked? she wondered.
Then she realized exactly where Mirai was looking.
He was not looking at the lightning on her back. He was not looking at the sparks around her body. He was looking at...
Yoruichi lowered her eyes and looked down at herself.
The cave went silent for three whole seconds.
Then... boom!
Yoruichi vanished from where she stood.
A second later, Mirai felt a huge force slam into his waist. His entire body flew backward. His back crashed hard into the stone wall of the cave, carving out a deep crater in the rock as loose stones rained down.
"Cough... cough, cough..."
He struggled out of the pile of rocks and forced himself to lift his head.
A small foot rushed closer and closer in his vision.
"You still haven't had enough, have you?"
Yoruichi crossed her arms over her chest, stretched her right foot forward, and planted it squarely on Mirai's face, pressing down hard.
This was her first time using full Shunko. She had practiced the theory countless times, and she had even tested parts of it in combat drills.
Who could have guessed that when she finally activated it, the burst of lightning would blow the upper half of her Shihakushō to pieces?
She had let Mirai stare at her for so long for nothing!
"Mmph! Mmph!" Mirai's voice came out muffled under her foot. He raised his hands and tried to gesture.
Yoruichi understood what he meant right away.
You were the one who told me to "look closely"!
"You still want to argue?!"
Furious, she stomped on him two more times. She was usually laid-back, and she often ran around as a naked black cat, but that did not mean she would calmly let someone see her like this!
She pulled her foot back, turned around, grabbed her Captain's Haori from the stone table, threw it over herself, and wrapped it tightly around her body.
"I'm going back to change first!"
The moment she finished speaking, lightning flashed again.
This time, there was no Shunko explosion. It was only a normal Shunpo. Even so, she was so fast that she left nothing behind but an afterimage.
When Mirai opened his eyes again, the space in front of him was empty.
He struggled to stand, holding his lower back as he rubbed it with a pained grimace.
That really hurt.
Luckily, Yoruichi had held back on those last few kicks. Otherwise, she would have broken several of his ribs.
He kept rubbing his waist, but his mind could not stop replaying what he had seen earlier.
The flow of reishi when the lightning burst out, the way Yoruichi's muscles shifted in her Shunko state, and the way she perfectly fused Kidō traits with Hakuda...
Cough. Mirai shook his head hard.
He had to admit, that Shunko was really... no, it was really round.
Wait, no!
It was really powerful.
He stood there quietly and thought for a while.
He was not thinking about the things he should not be thinking about. He was thinking about the Shunko technique itself.
Injecting Kidō directly into the body creates a dense layer of reishi over the skin. It raises speed, strength, and defense at the same time. It also adds the numbing and piercing traits of lightning.
This was not just a simple mix of Kidō and Hakuda. It was a completely new fighting style.
"If..."
Mirai looked down at his hands.
Since he still could not communicate with his Zanpakutō, maybe he could try another path first.
Yoruichi could use lightning. What kind of trait could he use?
"Let's start with the most basic Shakkahō," he muttered.
He raised his right hand, palm up.
"Ye lord..."
Spiritual energy began gathering in his palm. It spun faster and faster as heat built inside it.
"Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!"
A red light gathered in his palm, growing brighter and hotter.
Mirai paused. He was thinking about how to change Shakkahō's traits so he could blend it with hand-to-hand combat.
The full chant for Shakkahō has seven lines. But Mirai already had his own understanding of Kidō. It was just an understanding his teachers had never accepted.
In Mirai's view, the essence of Kidō was tricking the world. The incantations were just prayers used to make that trick work.
If the lie is convincing enough, it does not matter if the chant is short or unusual.
"So..."
He stared at the fireball in his hand. He cut off the rest of the chant, kept pouring spiritual energy into it, and pictured a specific form in his mind.
He was not trying to launch a fireball. He was trying to compress the flames.
The red fire in his palm began to shrink. Its color changed from bright red to orange, then from orange to a glowing white.
The temperature climbed rapidly. The air around his hand began to distort.
Sweat formed on Mirai's forehead.
This was harder than he expected. Controlling Kidō without a full chant was like driving a car without a steering wheel. He had to rely entirely on feel.
The fire kept shrinking until it was only the size of a fist. It had turned a piercing white.
Then... boom!
The ball of fire exploded.
It did not shoot forward. It exploded right in his hand.
The force of the blast sent Mirai flying. He flipped twice in the air and smashed into the stone wall again. Fortunately, he hit the exact same spot as before.
He slid down to the ground and raised his right hand to look at it.
His palm was burned black and smoking. Half of the sleeve of his Shihakushō had been burned away.
A sharp burning pain spread across his skin, but it was not too serious. His spirit body was tough enough that it was only a surface burn.
"Tch."
Mirai shook his hand. The charred skin flaked off, and fresh pink skin showed underneath. As his spiritual power flowed through him, the injury healed quickly.
He stood up and brushed the dust from his clothes.
"I compressed it too much... Next time, I need to control the output better."
The cave fell silent. Only the fresh black scorch mark on the wall and the smell of smoke in the air showed that anything had happened.
Mirai walked over to the stone table, picked up the half-empty bottle of sake Yoruichi had left behind, and took a drink.
The liquid slid down his throat, leaving behind a warm, slightly dizzy feeling.
He set the bottle down, looked at his healing palm, and then looked at the Zanpakutō hanging at his waist.
"If you won't talk to me, then I'll train on my own."
"I had a real education in my old world. Around here, that practically makes me a scholar. There's no way I won't find a path forward."
The brush-shaped Zanpakutō hung quietly at his waist. A faint glow of reishi drifted slowly from its tip.
It was as if it wanted to say something, or as if it did not care at all.
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