Chapter 019: Dual Chant
Kishinoshin knew better than most how wide the gaps between individual Shinigami could run.
The difference between strong and weak could stretch to something like an elephant against an ant -- a comparison that a certain smooth-talker had been known to reach for -- and at that scale, controlling your output carefully enough not to accidentally destroy the ant took genuine technical precision all by itself.
Which meant that for the truly powerful, skipping the incantation entirely and going straight to the release was itself a mark of that power. Something belonging to the top tier.
Captain-level, at minimum.
So what exactly was he looking at right now? And who was this student?
Kishinoshin stared at the figure across the rubble field, and then Yoruichi's voice reached him from beside his shoulder, dry and faintly amused.
"You see it now, don't you, Kishinoshin. That's the interesting one I mentioned. Someone like that -- you can't tell me that's not worth watching."
She hadn't said it outright.
But as a hint, it was plenty.
"I'll go look into his background."
"Good. Make it quick."
Kishinoshin gave a small nod and stepped back. His form blurred once, and he was gone without a sound.
Yoruichi stayed where she was, eyes on the distant figure, something sharp and assessing moving through them.
This one had been a genuine surprise.
She'd come out here on a whim, mostly. Something to do. A passing decision.
But even so, she'd managed to find something she hadn't expected.
So then -- how far did it go?
Even if he ultimately couldn't handle it, that wasn't a failure in any meaningful sense. This was a threat that could give seated officers serious trouble.
But that wasn't the question she was actually asking herself.
She wanted to know how far this one would push.
Meanwhile, across the field --
The two chantless Kido strikes had bought exactly what Matsushita Yusuke needed. Both Hollows had lost momentum, and the rest of the students had filled the gap.
"Bakudo #1: Sai!"
"Bakudo #4: Hainawa!"
"Hado #2!"
The outputs were coming in continuously. None of it matched Matsushita Yusuke's speed or efficiency. But the volume made up for it -- a sustained, overlapping barrage that kept both Hollows off-balance and bleeding time.
Within that barrage, the binding techniques were doing the real work.
The logic was simple. Both were Kido, but Bakudo demanded finer control of reishi output and rewarded that precision with a different kind of result. The cost of entry was lower, and when used well, Bakudo did exactly what the situation needed: it bought time.
Time was what Matsushita Yusuke needed.
Because he was the one attacking.
Some of the students had started watching him, waiting to see what came next.
What they saw was a very serious expression. Not nervous -- something more focused than that.
He was attempting something that had obvious risks attached to it.
Deep breath. Reishi drawn inward, then directed.
His Kido stat of 19 was the foundation under everything he was about to do. It sat well above anyone else at his year level, built up through every class and every session with Aizen Sosuke, through the accumulated weight of quests that had pushed his understanding of Kido somewhere unusual.
Far enough that he was grazing the territory of seated officers, possibly beyond.
He pressed his palms together.
When his hands opened, his reishi came with them, pulled outward and channeled up through his arms until it gathered in both palms and began to take shape.
Binding alone wouldn't finish this. Not at their current level. Chasing a high-tier Bakudo for damage output was backwards thinking.
It had to be Hado. One clean, decisive strike.
The choice came without hesitation.
"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, all creation--"
The opening of the incantation landed, and something visible happened to the air around him. His reishi came alive -- a deep blue current rising from his body, coiling around his arms, moving toward his hands with increasing focus.
Several of the older students recognized the opening lines.
That was --
Hado #33: Sokatsui.
Where had a student learned this?
Hado worked on a straightforward principle: higher number, higher difficulty. Students worked within the first ten. Knowing the twenties at all put someone in a small minority.
Hado #33 was not a student-tier technique by any reasonable standard.
Who was this person?
The incantation moved into its second section before anyone found an answer.
"--flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws--"
The light shifted.
What had been deep blue was bleeding toward something darker, the color deepening through the progression of the chant as the reishi locked into the Hado's particular form. Taking shape. Nearly there.
The words cut.
CRACK.
Both Hollows broke free simultaneously. Every binding that had been holding them gave way at once.
They were bleeding -- white skin marked with lines of vivid red from the accumulated Kido hits, clearly registering damage the way any spirit body would. But wounded and finished were completely different thresholds, and what it took to actually stop something like this was nowhere near what had landed so far.
"They're coming through!"
Panicked shouting from multiple directions. And underneath it, one voice that was still clear.
"Hold the line! Buy Matsushita time -- don't let the chant break, it's almost done!"
Use people as a wall.
Twenty meters, roughly. If the Hollows reached the forward students before the chant resolved, how many of them didn't walk away from that?
Up on the rooftop, Yoruichi's brow pulled slightly together.
Things had shifted. Another few seconds of watching and something was going to go wrong in a way she'd have to fix.
-- Alright. That's probably enough. He's already shown something real.
She was just about to move.
And then every person in the field heard it -- the incantation changed.
"Self-destruct, black dog of Rondanini--"
That was not Sokatsui's incantation.
What was he doing?
Only Yoruichi Shihoin's eyes lit up, and she said it under her breath before she could stop herself.
"A dual chant--?!"
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