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A huge wooden tub, filled with light green medicinal liquid, permeated the air with a complex herbal scent.
The calm surface of the water suddenly rippled, and a somewhat pale face slowly floated upwards, with light green medicinal liquid sliding past both sides of his face.
Ishikawa Katori, bare-chested, stood up from the wooden tub and looked at the scar on his chest. A night of medicinal baths combined with special Kaido techniques had caused the knife wound, which had been a fatal injury yesterday, to now be scabbed over. In some places, the scab had even fallen off, revealing newly grown, fair skin.
Splash.
Standing up from the wooden tub, Ishikawa Katori wiped his body but did not wash off the herbal scent, which had already permeated his skin, with clean water.
Anyway, the smell wasn't particularly unpleasant, and according to the new knowledge Ishikawa Katori had acquired, these medicinal scents would be very beneficial for his recovery.
As Ishikawa Katori put on his clothes, he focused his attention on the system interface in his mind.
… …
Name: Ishikawa Katori
Race: Human
Level: Fifth Stage
Physique: Entry (263 / 500)
Spiritual Pressure: Intermediate (7113 / 10000)
Hakuda: Intermediate (1743 / 10000)
Shunpo: Intermediate (1767 / 10000)
Zanjutsu: Intermediate (0 / 10000)
Zanpakuto: Not Activated (Activation conditions unknown)
Kido:
[Hado]:
Low Level Hado [No. 1-29]:
[Hadō No. 4: Byakurai] Intermediate (5100 / 10000);
[Hadō No. 11: Tsuzuri Raiden] Intermediate (43 / 10000);
[Hadō No. 12: Fushibi] Intermediate (16 / 10000);
[Hadō No. 26: Kōen Sairin] Intermediate (36 / 10000);
Intermediate Hado [No. 30-59]:
[Hadō #31: Shakkahō] Intermediate (1643 / 10000);
[Hadō No. 33: Sōkatsui] Intermediate (1542 / 10000);
[Hadō No. 54: Haien] Low Level (864 / 1000)
[Hadō No. 58: Tenran] Low Level (940 / 1000)
High Level Hado [No. 60-89]:
[Hadō No. 63: Raikōhō] Intermediate (864 / 10000)
[Bakudo]:
Low Level Bakudo [No. 1-29]:
[Bakudo No. 1: Sai] Intermediate (15 / 10000);
[Bakudo Number Eight: Repulsion] Intermediate (2460 / 10000);
[Bakudo No. 9: Geki] Intermediate (43 / 10000);
[Bakudo No. 21: Sekienton] Intermediate (2 / 10000);
[Bakudo Number Twenty-Six: Kyōka Suigetsu] Intermediate (14 / 10000)
Intermediate Bakudo [No. 30-59]:
[Bakudo No. 30: Shitotsu Sansen] Intermediate (350 / 10000);
[Bakudo Number Thirty-Nine: Enkosen] Intermediate (163 / 10000);
[Bakudo No. 37: Tsuriboshi] Low Level (10 / 1000);
High Level Bakudo [No. 60-89]:
[Bakudo No. 61: Rikujokoro] Intermediate (943 / 10000)
※ Unactivated Kido Quantity: 58 (Please enter the activation interface to activate.)
Special Techniques:
[Chantless Kido] Intermediate (194 / 10000)
[Kaido]: Intermediate (7970 / 10000)
[Post-chanting]: Intermediate (342 / 10000)
Current Experience Points: 640
↓ Expand to view the Favorability Interface.
… …
There wasn't much progress in Spiritual Pressure, as usual. Even after yesterday's battle, it only increased by a little over 60 points.
Compared to other aspects, although Ishikawa Katori had primarily focused on high-level Kido this past month, the greatest progress was actually in the Low Level Kido he had incidentally cultivated. This was because after learning high-level Kido, cultivating Low Level Kido with the foundation of high-level Kido felt like a dimensionality reduction attack.
Within just one month, all the Low Level Kido Ishikawa Katori had activated reached the 'Intermediate' level.
"Hiss~~"
Looking at the three-digit number next to his current experience points, Ishikawa Katori felt a pang of toothache.
Kaido would have to be learned sooner or later, but in Ishikawa Katori's mind, Kaido's priority was far behind Spiritual Pressure and combat skills. Moreover, normally, with Ishikawa Katori's injuries yesterday, simply raising Kaido to Intermediate and over 3000 would have been sufficient.
But before investing experience points, Ishikawa Katori had no idea how many experience points to put into 'Kaido' to ensure he could quickly recover his combat power. And at that critical moment, he couldn't afford to think too much, so he simply poured all of it into Kaido.
This caused Ishikawa Katori's original cultivation plan to fail before it even began…
He had originally planned to use the 2800 experience points he had painstakingly earned to focus on cultivation for a month, raising his Spiritual Pressure to a high level, which was the level of a Gotei 13 Vice-Captain.
"If I had known this would happen, I would have directly put all the experience points into Spiritual Pressure after gaining them yesterday."
Thinking of this, Ishikawa Katori regretted it immensely. After the battle began, he had never imagined it would be so dangerous, and he was even calculating in his mind how to use the experience points so as not to waste them.
This was because Ishikawa Katori was far superior to Toguro and the others in both Spiritual Pressure strength and combat skills.
Those Low Level Seated Officers who were villains were an example; Ishikawa Katori didn't need to put much effort into dealing with them. At that time, Ishikawa Katori's mental state could be described as 'I have the advantage'... As a result, he was defeated by someone weaker, nearly cut down by a single blow.
And the reason for this outcome…
It was entirely because, besides the two factors of Spiritual Pressure strength and combat skills, Ishikawa Katori had overlooked the most crucial factor in combat.
Instinct!!
In terms of raw strength, Toguro was indeed weaker than Ishikawa Katori, but the combat instinct he had accumulated over hundreds of years of life-and-death struggles was something Ishikawa Katori could never match. After all, his combat experience was far inferior even to those villains of Low Level Seated Officer rank.
So-called combat instinct includes not only quick reactions to danger and a keen sense of weakness, but also fighting will and combat intelligence. These things often have unexpected effects in battle.
Even though he had anticipated that Toguro would exploit his weakness to attack him, Ishikawa Katori still thought at the time that Toguro's arrival wouldn't be so swift, and he would have ample time to prepare a response. As a result, he was caught off guard by Toguro.
One wrong step led to many wrong steps, ultimately leading to the situation he was in yesterday.
This kind of combat instinct couldn't be developed in a short time, let alone for Ishikawa Katori, who had experienced fewer than five battles.
The person Ishikawa Katori remembered as having the strongest combat instinct was the Captain of the Eleventh Division, Zaraki Kenpachi!
Toguro naturally wasn't qualified to be compared with Zaraki Kenpachi, but the battle between Toguro and Ishikawa Katori had some similarities to the battle between Zaraki Kenpachi and the former Captain of the Eleventh Division: both involved one party who completely lacked skill and was not proficient in Zanjutsu, yet won by relying on instinct.
In the battle between Ishikawa Katori and Toguro, although he survived, from a combat perspective…
He lost.
Ishikawa Katori would not deny this.
After every battle, regardless of victory or defeat, Ishikawa Katori would reflect on the mistakes he had made in that battle, and he would not choose to selectively forget his failures.
Putting aside the flaws in this battle, from the very beginning of the fight, he made the most inexcusable mistake.
He underestimated his opponent!
If he had given Toguro and the others enough importance from the start, Ishikawa Katori could have put all the experience points he gained into Spiritual Pressure, using absolute strength to compensate for his lack of combat experience.
Actually…
At the moment he decided to take the hit, Ishikawa Katori also considered whether to put all his experience points into Spiritual Pressure and then use 'Spiritual Pressure Defense' at the Vice-Captain level to withstand Toguro's blade directly. This way, even if he was injured, it might only be a minor injury.
With Low Level Kaido, he could even continue fighting without needing healing.
But this idea was ultimately abandoned by Ishikawa Katori.
Because it was, after all, a 'maybe.' Leaving aside whether the Spiritual Pressure Defense would be as he imagined, at such a critical moment, even if Ishikawa Katori invested experience points in time, he wouldn't have enough time to familiarize himself with and Exploit the grown Spiritual Pressure to form a defense.
It could be said that in such a rush, the Spiritual Pressure he could mobilize wouldn't change much.
Therefore, Ishikawa Katori chose to stagger the timing and opted for 'Kaido,' a method that could exert its effect later.
Although he regretted his choice, given the circumstances at the time, it was indeed the best solution Ishikawa Katori could think of. Even if he had to do it again, Ishikawa Katori would make the same choice.
After reflecting on all the mistakes he had made from start to finish, Ishikawa Katori's demeanor subtly changed.
Every battle experience was a valuable lesson for him.
Although the villains' techniques were not worth mentioning, there were things about them that could not be learned elsewhere, and they were worth Ishikawa Katori's careful study.
"Indeed… I still need to make an effort to make friends."
Ishikawa Katori mumbled, took out a new work shirt, put it on, and left the bedroom.
"Hmm?"
After walking a few steps out of the bedroom, a look of surprise suddenly appeared on Ishikawa Katori's face: "It's actually this quiet?"
It was well known that ever since the tavern began operating, whenever Ishikawa Katori went downstairs, he would be greeted by an extremely noisy scene.
However, when he reached the first floor and saw the back of the person drinking at the tavern table, he understood why the tavern was so quiet.
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