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Ishikawa Katori woke up in a daze from a nightmare. He had forgotten the content of the dream, but he felt an inexplicable irritation in his heart.
His opened dark eyes were lifeless, like those of a dead person. After a while, his scattered gaze gradually focused, gaining spirit and a touch of vitality.
It had been a long time since he had a nightmare.
He lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.
After a long while…
Ishikawa Katori let out a long breath, and the negative emotions accumulated from the dream dissipated into the air with that breath.
"Is this the Swirling Pattern of Falling Heavens?"
Ishikawa Katori sat up and looked at the patterns carved on the wall, instantly realizing where he was.
From the furnishings, it seemed to be a bedroom, and the air was filled with the scent of herbs.
"Yarrow, Spiritual Reed, Hell Buckwheat…"
Although he hadn't mixed herbs much, his Low Level Kaido allowed Ishikawa Katori to easily distinguish what herbs were in the medicinal scent.
He looked down at the bandages wrapped around his chest and nodded. Based on the 'Kaido' knowledge he had acquired, the bandaging was done very well, and the wound had been treated with medicine. He should fully recover in a few days.
Just then, the bedroom door was pushed open, and two people entered one after another. It was the Shiba siblings.
"He's really awake?"
Ganju poked his head out from behind Kukaku, saying in surprise, "It's just as Big Sister said."
Kukaku, on the other hand, grandly pulled a chair to the bedside, took a puff from her pipe, and said, "You're quite the actor, kid. How do you feel?"
"Huh?"
Ishikawa Katori was startled. What did she mean by 'quite the actor'?
"Indeed."
Unlike him, Ganju, who was behind Kukaku, nodded in agreement, looking at Ishikawa Katori and saying, "How exactly do you conceal your spiritual pressure?"
The combat power Ishikawa Katori displayed in the previous battle truly surprised him.
Especially his spiritual pressure intensity; this guy had always acted like a Shin'ō Academy student in front of him.
If it was just deceiving him, that would be one thing, but even Big Sister said that if Ishikawa Katori hadn't gone all out, she wouldn't have known his spiritual pressure had already reached a level comparable to a Low Level Seated Officer in the Gotei 13.
So that's how it is?
Ishikawa Katori said with a wry smile, "I didn't intentionally hide it from you two. It's just that I don't know what's going on myself. Perhaps it's due to my physique. As long as I don't fully activate it and don't let my spiritual pressure overflow my body, others can't detect my spiritual pressure fluctuations."
He wasn't lying to them. Since it was already exposed, there was no need to continue hiding it. Besides, he never intended to hide it from them from the beginning.
"You don't need to explain to us."
Kukaku waved her hand, "If it weren't for you this time, that brat Ganju would have been in danger."
"Big Sister, I…"
Bang!
"…"
Seeing Ganju, who was punched to the ground with a visibly swelling lump on the back of his head, Ishikawa Katori instinctively shrank back onto the bed.
"You what? If it weren't for you, Ishikawa Katori, you might have been fine, but did you think about what would have happened to Hawk and the others?" Kukaku lectured, stomping on Ganju's head repeatedly. It was clear that Ganju's unauthorized trip to the lower-numbered area had truly angered Kukaku.
This made Ishikawa Katori, who had originally wanted to go forward and persuade her, swallow his words of persuasion.
Moreover…
Ishikawa Katori was actually a bit annoyed with Ganju too. If he had known how dangerous the lower-numbered area was, although he would still have gone with Ganju, he definitely wouldn't have been as unprepared as this time.
If Shiba Kūkaku hadn't secretly followed them this time, he might have already died at the hands of that burly man.
Indeed, he should accumulate more experience points to deal with various emergencies.
"I've already sent Kin'en to notify your shop assistants. You'll stay here and recuperate for the next few days," Kukaku said to Ishikawa Katori after lecturing Ganju.
Ishikawa Katori didn't refuse. In his current state, even if he returned to the shop, he would need to rest for a few days and wouldn't be able to work. Compared to staying alone at the shop, being cared for here was clearly more suitable for recuperation.
As for Uzuki…
Don't let her age fool you; she can't even cook. She's lived in Soul Society for decades with a 'muddle through and wait to die' attitude. If he let her take care of him, his injuries would likely worsen.
"Thank you, Big Sister Kukaku."
"What's there to thank for? Just treat this place as your own home." Kukaku bent down, picked up the barely breathing Ganju from the ground, and left the room.
Watching Kukaku's back disappear, Ishikawa Katori retracted his gaze and sighed to himself, truly, the attitude at '9' favorability and '30' favorability were completely different.
Before, when he came to the Shiba, although he wasn't driven away, Shiba Kūkaku's attitude towards him had always been cold, never as warm as it was now.
This incident, though dangerous, yielded extremely rich rewards.
Current Experience: 18600.
Looking at the experience value on the system interface, Ishikawa Katori's eyes turned red. In nearly four years since arriving in Soul Society, this was the first time he had accumulated so much experience!
Moreover, after Kukaku's favorability reached 30, gaining one point of favorability directly gave him 2400 experience points.
What would it be if it reached 40, 50… or even broke through 60 points?
Ishikawa Katori shook his head, extinguishing the dangerous thoughts that arose in his mind.
"I should first figure out how to convert this experience into combat power."
Ishikawa Katori opened the Kido details page, his eyes deep in thought.
…
Kido:
[Hado]:
Low Level Hado [No. 1-29]:
[Hadō No. 4: Byakurai] Intermediate (3320/10000);
[Hadō No. 11: Tsuzuri Raiden] Low Level (213/1000);
[Hadō No. 12: Fushibi] Low Level (154/1000);
[Hadō No. 26: Kōen Sanshō] Low Level (432/1000).
Intermediate Hado [No. 30-59]:
[Hadō #31: Shakkahō] Low Level (643/1000);
[Hadō No. 33: Sōkatsui] Low Level (432/1000).
[Bakudo]:
Low Level Bakudo [No. 1-29]:
[Bakudo Number One: Sai] Low Level (215/1000);
[Bakudo Number Eight: Repulsion] Low Level (843/1000);
[Bakudo Number Nine: Geki] Low Level (432/1000);
[Bakudo Number Twenty-One: Sekienton] Low Level (89/1000);
[Bakudo Number Twenty-Six: Kyōka Suigetsu] Low Level (14/1000).
Intermediate Bakudo [No. 30-59]:
[Bakudo Number Thirty: Shitotsu Sansen] Low Level (143/1000);
[Bakudo Number Thirty-Nine: Enclosed Fan] Low Level (142/1000).
※ Number of unactivated Kido: 37 (Please go to the activation interface to activate.)
…
By 'teaching' students, Ishikawa Katori had collected many Kido in the past six months. However, among the Low Level Kido, many had overlapping functions and were not very practical. Ishikawa Katori had given up on these Kido, and even with ample experience points now, he wasn't prepared to activate them.
The Low Level Kido he had activated, whether Hado or Bakudo, were the most practical among the Low Level Kido and were also the most frequently used by Gotei 13 members.
He didn't lack Kido now; what he lacked were Intermediate Kido.
However, the Intermediate Kido that students knew and could fully release in front of Ishikawa Katori were only four. Unless a Gotei 13 member came to him to learn Kido, the possibility of learning 'new Intermediate Kido' from the 'Shinigami Cram School' was extremely low.
As for High Level Kido, that was even more of a pipe dream.
Moreover, even if a student did bring 'High Level Kido' to ask for his guidance, Ishikawa Katori's spiritual pressure intensity would not meet the standard for releasing 'High Level Kido'.
Ishikawa Katori looked at the Kido details page, a conflicted expression on his face: "Indeed, all these Low Level Kido are worth investing experience in." After all, these Kido were all 'gems' he had carefully selected from a pile of Low Level Kido. Even if he learned Intermediate Kido, these Low Level Kido could still play a role in battle.
"Hmm, I should first upgrade the four Intermediate Kido to 'Intermediate'. That way, at least I won't be like this time, with no other attack methods besides 'Byakurai'."
Ishikawa Katori had also considered whether to directly spend a large amount of experience points to upgrade Byakurai to High Level, but after careful thought, he abandoned the idea.
Although Byakurai was practical, it was still a Low Level Kido. Once the mastery reached a certain level, its power completely depended on one's spiritual pressure intensity. Even if it was upgraded to High Level now, the power it could exert would be extremely limited.
And under the condition of the same spiritual pressure intensity and mastery, the upper limit of power for Intermediate Kido was clearly higher than that of Low Level Kido.
Of course…
The main reason was still insufficient experience points. 18,000 experience might seem like a lot, but besides Kido, Ishikawa Katori also needed to consider Hakuda, Shunpo, spiritual pressure, and other abilities. He couldn't invest all of it into Kido.
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