Inside the 4th Division training grounds.
Unohana Retsu looked at Higashino Shuuichi sprawled on the ground, seemingly stripped of all fighting strength by her Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō. She didn't rush to "finish him off." Instead, she calmly cast Hadō no 54, Haien (Abolishing Flames), shattering the chains still binding her legs.
Then, with Hadō no 58, Tenran (Orchid Sky), she conjured whirling gusts that swept away the mist left by his Raikōhō.
That simple act revealed them—nearly ten reishi constructs lurking across the arena.
Two of them were even fused together, their twin mouths chanting the incantation for Hadō no 90, Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin).
"I knew it."
She wasn't surprised.
His performance had been too weak. By her estimation, even before reaching captain-class reiatsu, his shunpō alone should have let him dodge her Raihō, weakened as it was by Sōkatsui and Enkōsen.
And ever since he had begun invoking kidō, she could feel it: her movements, her reishi circulation, both slowing.
He had time. He had chosen not to act.
"He's baiting me closer."
She flash-stepped instantly, appearing before the two chanting constructs. A single cross-cut reduced them to white light, fading away.
"Heh."
The moment his reishi-born puppets vanished, Shuuichi, still flat on his back, smiled slyly.
A spark bloomed at her chest.
Lightning arced across her body, flooding her with paralysis.
Byakurai (White Lightning).
Of course she knew it. A low-level Hadō, taught to every academy novice. Dismissed as weak, beneath consideration. Even at point blank, it couldn't pierce her defenses—only numb her.
But that wasn't the problem.
Where had it come from?
And more were coming.
Her vision filled with light. Countless bolts of Byakurai struck her. Each one harmless, but together—they bound her in paralysis.
Her mind screamed orders to her limbs. Her body refused to answer.
"The art of war—guile. Hadō no 4, Kaze·Byakurai (Wind·White Lightning)."
Shuuichi's gaze lifted to the sky as he recited silently.
His Shikai, Kimō (Stratagem), could add an attribute to any attack—fire for destruction, ice for slowing, lightning for speed, wind for concealment.
His reishi puppets inherited this power, though limited to kidō under 30.
The earlier Kuyō Shibari had also been enhanced—but he hadn't spoken its full name aloud.
He had drawn her focus with the chanting puppets, knowing she'd kill them instantly. In that moment of false relief, their fading reishi masked the release of his true plan: a barrage of Wind·Byakurai, hidden until it was too late.
Everything followed his design.
The greatest risk was what she would do after he fell. In truth, he hadn't faked his collapse—he really couldn't avoid her Raihō, drained as he was by sustaining so many constructs.
But he gambled. He knew he couldn't win outright, and that she wouldn't kill him. That gave him freedom to gamble everything.
She, on the other hand, still thought he was fighting desperately, unaware of the gap between them. That difference in knowledge tipped the scales in his favor—at least for a moment.
Leaving only four constructs to keep her locked in a storm of Byakurai, he recalled the others, snuffing them out and reclaiming their reishi.
His body ached, his stamina bled dry, but he still had enough left for one final strike.
"The crest of turbidity seethes, insolent talent bursts forth; surge, denial, paralysis, instant, obstruct slumber. Crawling princess of iron, clay doll of self-harm, unite, rebound, extend to the ground—know your own powerlessness."
He finished the incantation, raised his left hand, finger pointed.
"Hadō no 90, Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin)!"
A massive coffin rose, swallowing the still-paralyzed Unohana whole.
As the darkness closed around her, he glimpsed it—an excited smile on her face.
And he too thrilled with anticipation. Unlike the Black Coffin he'd once cast on Yoruichi, this time he had held nothing back.
Though he knew the gulf between them, though she had yet to release her reiatsu, some part of him wondered—
What if…
Perhaps Unohana Retsu might remember his name after today.
But just as the coffin sealed, a voice shattered the air.
"Higashino Shuuichi!!!"
The shout boomed through the training ground.
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