Move."
"Move!"
"Why won't you move?!"
Byakuya Kuchiki roared within his heart, frantic and furious.
But no matter how desperately he commanded, his limbs refused to obey.
His spiritual body, crushed under Akira's Reiatsu, was like a broken marionette—paralyzed and humiliated.
His pride as the heir of the Kuchiki Clan made it unbearable. He stood there, frozen, helpless—stripped of all nobility.
Akira didn't even rise to his feet.
Still seated under the tree, he calmly extended a single finger toward the air.
"Hadō #4: Byakurai."
As the final syllable fell, a crack of thunder echoed through the courtyard, reverberating like the roar of a thousand beasts.
The moment seemed to pause.
Then—
A piercing white-blue bolt of lightning erupted from Akira's fingertip, speeding straight toward Byakuya with precise lethality.
"Damn it…"
"I'm the successor of the Kuchiki family, one of the Four Great Noble Houses…"
"Am I really going to fall to a Hadō #4?"
Byakuya's pupils contracted sharply. His entire being recoiled from the thought—shame, rage, disbelief.
But his crushed spiritual body couldn't even flinch.
He couldn't bear it.
A defeat under Reiatsu suppression.
Byakurai—a spell taught to all first-year students—used against him like an execution.
Bang.
Akira calmly withdrew his finger, expression indifferent, no longer even looking at Byakuya.
To him, opponents unworthy of being acknowledged were unworthy of being seen.
Byakuya had never been an equal—never even a challenge.
[Your Kidō praised you for your magnificent display of dominance. It was so pleased, it went back to training and achieved Dual Abandonment Chant: it can now cast two Hadōs simultaneously without incantations—or two Bakudō.]
[Your Reiatsu, flattered by your theatrics, also got fired up. Out of joy, it had a spontaneous breakthrough. It now matches the strength level of Hachigen Ushōda at his peak.]
Akira raised a brow in amusement.
His own Reiatsu and Kidō were too ambitious.
Always training behind the scenes.
Always leveling up in excitement whenever he "pretended."
Even if he wanted to keep a low profile, these lunatics wouldn't let him.
Every time he stepped into the spotlight, they dragged him further into infamy.
Thud.
A heavy impact interrupted his thoughts.
All heads turned as Byakuya Kuchiki collapsed to his knees.
Pale and drenched in sweat, his hands dug helplessly into the dirt, fingers grasping clumps of soil.
The oppressive Reiatsu that had crushed him was gone now—receded like the tide. But its impact lingered in his bones.
He turned, trembling, to the scorch mark left behind—a deep furrow gouged into the earth by Akira's Byakurai.
It started at his feet and stretched over a hundred meters, crackling arcs of lightning still dancing through the ruined ground.
It was Hadō #4—yet it dwarfed his earlier Hadō #33: Sōkatsui in force and form.
The difference was terrifying.
"Talent?"
Byakuya clenched his fists tighter, digging into the dirt. He couldn't find words to answer himself.
That word—once his identity—now sounded hollow.
For the first time, the mighty Kuchiki name had been rendered meaningless.
Akira didn't care for nobility. He didn't even see Byakuya as worthy of rivalry.
The thought festered in his heart, a seed of doubt that, once planted, could never be uprooted.
"Was that really just Hadō #4, Byakurai?"
Tessai Tsukabishi muttered, breaking the stunned silence.
As former Kidō Chief, Tessai had cast countless Hadō in his life. He could fire #90: Kurohitsugi without incantation.
Yet even he couldn't replicate the sheer force and control Akira had just demonstrated with something so low-ranked.
"Even if one skips the chant, there's always a drop in power."
"But his Hadō lost nothing. No—he's amplified it."
"The destructive radius, the lightning compression… That wasn't just superior Reiatsu—his control borders on genius."
"That Byakurai…"
Jūshirō Ukitake narrowed his eyes, awe flickering in his calm expression.
A veteran Captain-Class Shinigami, he understood better than most—this wasn't a normal student.
"Its range… its penetration… it's not beneath a captain's. In fact—"
"—it surpasses the spells of several captains with lower Reiatsu."
"He's hiding his true level."
As the smoke cleared and the courtyard quieted, one thing became clear to everyone present:
Akira wasn't just a genius.
He was an anomaly.
A force that didn't fit into the Spiritual Arts Academy's system.
Something greater than any noble name…
And perhaps—greater than the Gotei 13 itself.
Properly captain-level.
Even among the Gotei 13, few would dare to casually exchange blows with someone like him.
"His Reiatsu is even more refined than yesterday."
"He's combined that with Shikai-level control, and complete mastery over all Hadō and Bakudō up to #60 from the Kidō Encyclopedia."
"Brother… your pace is accelerating too fast."
Aizen stood silently, glasses glinting under the light as he watched Akira.
Deep within his calm gaze, a sharp brilliance flashed.
The overwhelming pressure from that single battle didn't dishearten him—it motivated him.
He was someone who constantly recalibrated, using pressure as fuel to evolve.
Akira's performance didn't just shock—
—it restructured Aizen's entire timeline.
"Just by unleashing Reiatsu, he immobilized little Byakuya completely."
"And that Byakurai… it struck like a Hadō in the 80s."
"This monster… does his talent even have a ceiling?"
Yoruichi Shihouin furrowed her brows, arms crossed as she leaned against the edge of the rooftop.
Beating a young Byakuya wasn't impressive to her—
With her Shunpo, she could've ended the fight in seconds.
But what stunned her was Akira's pure technique and spiritual suppression.
It wasn't speed. It wasn't surprise.
It was domination through pure Kidō theory and execution.
There was no comparison.
"Akira," Jūshirō Ukitake suddenly spoke up, his usually gentle tone edged with curiosity.
"Have you already mastered and abandoned the chant for every Hadō and Bakudō up to #60 in the Kidō Encyclopedia?"
His words cut through the murmuring crowd, striking directly at what everyone had been thinking—Aizen included.
"Yes."
Akira nodded without hesitation, his voice calm and unflinching under the eyes of dozens of shocked upperclassmen and instructors.
He had no reason to conceal it.
Why hold back when his strength evolved every minute?
Every second that passed, he stepped into new territory.
Every moment, his baseline changed.
That meant hiding his current level was meaningless—by the time anyone used that intel, it'd already be obsolete.
"If someone plotted against me using old data, they'd already lost before their plan began."
"What?"
"Wait, how long has it even been?"
"It hasn't even been half an hour since class started…"
The courtyard went silent again as realization sank in.
No one questioned his words—
—because the Byakurai that had just devastated Byakuya was undeniable proof.
"I thought so," Ukitake exhaled, a bitter smile on his lips.
"So that's why you didn't practice Kidō earlier with the others… you already knew them all."
He had guessed it, but confirmation still left him stunned.
To fully memorize and abandon-chant every Kidō up to #60, and execute them at such high potency…
Such students were unheard of, even across Soul Society's long history.
"With your qualifications, you're not just fit to be a future captain…"
"You could be a candidate for the Royal Guard—Zero Division—someday."
"That's more or less correct."
Akira leaned back against the tree casually, expression neutral but relaxed.
Though Ukitake's observation wasn't perfectly accurate, it wasn't far off either.
He hadn't expected Byakuya to be so volatile—
The boy couldn't take even the implication of being looked down on.
Hot-tempered, proud, and still immature.
"My mistake. I underestimated how fast you could learn," Ukitake said with a chuckle.
"But it's still class, and even if you've finished the first volume…"
"…you shouldn't just sit there all day, right?"
He paused a moment in thought, then gestured to a seated aide.
"Bring him the second part of the Kidō Encyclopedia."
That volume contained Hadō and Bakudō #61–99.
These were high-level spells, some of which even veteran captains hesitated to use due to the spiritual burden.
Originally, Ukitake had expected it would take even Akira until the second semester to begin learning them.
And yet—
Here he was, on day one, about to begin what even most instructors hadn't fully mastered.
The first Kidō class… and the curriculum was already being rewritten.