Night fell quietly over the hospital owned by Ishida Ryūken. Deep beneath its sterile corridors, in the reinforced training basement cloaked from outside reishi detection, an important conversation was taking place.
"I see…" Ryūken-san's cool voice echoed slightly against the walls as he pushed up his glasses. He listened to Amamiya Miyako's explanation with a sharp gaze, quietly gauging just how much more pressure he could apply in their training.
Zanpakutō… His eyes drifted toward the newly forged twin blades resting at Miyako's waist. Their spiritual resonance was unlike anything Ryūken had expected.
"Time is short," Ryūken-san finally spoke, the edge in his voice unmistakable. "Those childish warmups from before end now. From here on, I'll be using the full extent of Quincy techniques. I won't be holding back. How much you gain is entirely up to you."
"Couldn't ask for more," Miyako replied with a grin. He knew well—his days left in the Human World were numbered. He needed to absorb everything Ryūken could offer… and fast. Not to mention, this was the perfect chance to test the Shikai of his own Zanpakutō.
"Ishida-san, before we start… just to be sure," Miyako drew his twin blades, their steel gleaming with spiritual energy. "How well can this space conceal a reishi spike?"
"A foolish question," Ryūken-san scoffed, crossing his arms. "This basement was built for more than just training. It blocks Shinigami detection and keeps out unwelcome guests. Whatever you're planning to unleash won't break through."
"Sou ka… That's a relief," Miyako muttered. With that, he brought the twin blades together, and a pulse of power surged outward like a sudden gust of wind.
Zuun… A deep spiritual pressure rippled through the chamber. Ryūken's hair ruffled slightly, but his expression remained unfazed. He'd stood in the presence of Captains. This level was nothing.
Miyako exhaled and whispered under his breath.
"…"
A brilliant light overtook the twin blades as they fused, shifting form into something entirely new—a black-and-white longbow of elegant design.
For the first time, Ryūken's eyes narrowed with real interest. "A bow… Your Shikai is a reiryoku bow?" he murmured.
"Hah… surprising, isn't it?" Miyako chuckled. "I promised not to rely on Shinigami techniques during our sessions… but I figure this still counts as archery, right?"
"Tch. Less talk, more action," Ryūken said coolly as he raised his right hand. A thin Quincy cross appeared over his glove, materializing a reishi bow in a flash of silver-blue.
Miyako didn't hesitate. Drawing from the ambient reishi, he formed an arrow with speed and precision far beyond his previous capabilities. Yare yare… This Shikai really was something else.
Fwip— The arrow launched.
Ryūken's own arrow followed half a second later. The two projectiles collided mid-air—
BOOM!
They burst apart in a balanced explosion of light and reishi. Equal force. Miyako's eyes widened, realizing he'd just met Ryūken's initial attack head-on.
...
At first, Amamiya Miyako felt pleased with himself—his Shikai had allowed for finer reishi manipulation than ever before. He could sense every spiritual particle around him with heightened precision. But in the very next moment, the technique fired by Ishida Ryūken—Heilig Pfeil: Vernichtung—shattered his pride in an instant.
The second arrow came silently, almost lazily, yet it pierced cleanly through the reishi arrow Miyako had formed. His eyes widened.
"Tch… too fast!" Miyako dodged in a flash, stepping back while trying to rapidly gather more reishi.
"Silberner Peitsche, zerschlage das steinerne Bett mit fünf Fingern—Gōkyō Fessel."
"Whip of silver, strike the five-fingered stone bed… Gojū no Fuda — Five-Pillar Bind."
( fan-made high-level Quincy technique —a Reishi-based binding spell that immobilizes a target using five spiritually-anchored "pillars"
)
Ryūken's incantation was calm and precise.
In the blink of an eye, five silver-white reishi pillars erupted from beneath Miyako's feet. He barely had time to react before the structures bound him in place, locking his limbs and preventing even the smallest movements.
"Wha—?! When did he…?" Miyako stared at the glowing bindings beneath him, stunned.
"You're probably wondering when I set that trap," Ryūken said flatly, raising his reishi bow once more. "Don't misunderstand. I don't need to set traps beforehand to deal with you. My arrows are more than enough."
Miyako's eyes darted to the floor—right where Ryūken's previous arrow had landed.
"Don't tell me… that arrow wasn't just a projectile…" he muttered under his breath.
Indeed, Ryūken hadn't simply fired an arrow—he had embedded a delayed technique into the reishi stream of the shot, triggering the Gōkyō Fessel directly from that impact point.
"Reishi compression, redirection, delayed activation…? Yare yare, this is on a whole other level…"
Ryūken's expression remained emotionless behind his glasses. "As long as your reishi control is strong enough, you aren't bound to singular techniques. That's the difference between a practitioner… and a master. And this is only the beginning. Watch carefully."
Miyako managed to break free from the bindings with sheer force and reishi detonation—but now, he didn't dare underestimate even the smallest move from Ryūken.
What followed was a storm.
Ryūken unleashed technique after technique, each one more unorthodox than the last. Miyako recognized many from the anime—reishi blade constructs, Heizen, Wolke, and even variants of Licht Regen—but Ryūken's executions were superior in both form and function. Every arrow carried with it a hidden intention. Every blast altered the battlefield.
More than once, Miyako barely dodged in time. If he hadn't awakened his Shikai, he would have been overwhelmed ten times over.
'So this is what pure-blooded Quincy education looks like… it's insane,' Miyako thought, panting as he deflected another arrow that split into smaller projectiles mid-flight.
Around them, the subterranean architecture had been reshaped entirely. Whole walls had disappeared—vaporized or compacted—and pillars reformed into sigil-bearing structures that acted as amplifiers or traps. Miyako realized they weren't just fighting in a training space… they were inside Ryūken's fortress.
"I can't even manipulate the structures around me… all I can do is draw reishi from the air," Miyako murmured, frustrated.
But Ryūken?
He didn't just manipulate reishi. He commanded it.
He could deconstruct the walls, floors, and ambient structures—using them not just for raw power, but as mediums for techniques, turning the entire space into a battlefield designed solely for Quincy combat.
'This isn't reishi control… it's more like reishi obedience,' Miyako thought grimly.
He suddenly recalled Mayuri Kurotsuchi's analysis of Ishida Uryū's Ransōtengai and Letzt Stil—how pure-blood Quincies accessed levels of reishi manipulation that bordered on the instinctual. Ryūken wasn't even absorbing the reishi like Uryū did with Letzt Stil—he simply made the environment yield to him.
'This space… it belongs to him. It's his domain. Fighting him here is practically suicide…'
When Ryūken finally paused, Miyako collapsed to one knee, drenched in sweat but still conscious. He looked up—Ryūken hadn't even broken a sweat. His reishi bow was still glowing faintly in his hand.
Miyako gritted his teeth.
"Damn… you're ridiculous, Ishida-san…"
But inwardly, he marveled at the man's precision and calm mastery. Ishida Ryūken was not just a doctor. He was a Quincy born and bred, raised in the strict doctrines of the old bloodline. Compared to him, the techniques Uryū had inherited from Sōken felt incomplete—diluted by pacifist ideals.
'So this is the inheritance of the Echt Quincy… terrifying. Maybe even… some fragments of Yhwach's legacy are still carried by these people.'
Ryūken turned without a word, walking toward a set of doors at the far end of the training hall.
"Come," he said simply, glancing over his shoulder. "There's something I want you to see."
Still catching his breath, Miyako stood up and followed without hesitation.
"…Hai, Ishida-san."