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Despair!
A bitter glint flashed in Ishikawa Katori's eyes; even with his desperate attacks, he hadn't managed to inflict any damage on his opponent.
The last person who made him feel this way was Daimaru.
In his other battles, though he had certainly faced tough fights, Ishikawa Katori had never felt this kind of despair against an enemy, a sense that they were simply impossible to defeat.
Ishikawa Katori glanced at the system interface in his mind.
The large '0' after the experience value made Ishikawa Katori realize that he might truly die this time.
Though...
He seemed to have died once already under unclear circumstances, otherwise he wouldn't have woken up suddenly in Soul Society.
No rescue, no experience points, no way to escape, and unable to win...
Heh heh.
Ishikawa Katori's blood-stained lips twitched slightly, forming a chillingly cold arc.
Indeed, people who stay in a familiar environment for too long lose their fighting spirit. When on the verge of death, he was actually thinking of relying on others.
From this perspective, he had indeed changed!
Slowly raising his head, Ishikawa Katori looked at Genji, who had already adopted an attacking stance, his lips gradually stretching wider to both sides.
What if he was content with the status quo?
As long as he liked it, it was fine. Precisely because he was content with the status quo, Ishikawa Katori didn't want to die, couldn't bear to die~~
"Heh~~ Then let's try to live."
His seemingly self-spoken words were like a signal; Ishikawa Katori and Genji charged at each other almost simultaneously.
At this moment, time itself seemed to slow down immensely.
Under the crisis of impending death, Ishikawa Katori's brain began to operate furiously. All the knowledge the system had given him over the past five years, whether it was what Ishikawa Katori often pondered or what he deemed useless... everything flooded into his mind at this moment.
How to survive...
Escape?
How to escape?
There was no relevant knowledge.
Then...
How to survive?
Take out the opponent!
Ishikawa Katori grinned. Even after searching through all the knowledge in his mind, he couldn't find a way to defeat his opponent.
Buzz—!
All he could do was make the spiritual pressure around him grow even more frantic, and his entire demeanor became increasingly chilling at this moment. The arc of Ishikawa Katori's grin grew wider and wider, even tearing at the corners of his mouth.
He looked utterly deranged, a sight that, to an observer, was no less insane than the irrational Genji.
He's gone mad!!
This was the first thought that popped into Ganju's mind, followed by urgency: "Big Sister, hurry and help him!" As he spoke, he was about to rush into the battlefield.
However...
He was held back by a hand pressing down firmly.
"Don't move!"
Shiba Kūkaku stared intently at the two increasingly close figures in the battlefield, expressionless, as if she didn't care at all. But the force of the hand pressing on Ganju's shoulder grew stronger and stronger, making Ganju's face turn pale with pain, yet he still bravely shouted: "If we don't move, Ishikawa Katori will really die!"
Bang~
Almost at the same moment Ganju's words fell, Ishikawa Katori's body was once again sent flying.
"Ishikawa Katori!!"
Ganju's expression changed, but Kukaku's eyes, next to him, lit up. Her gaze fixed intently on Ishikawa Katori, who was flying backward, and seeing the faint lightning emanating from his body, her eyes showed shock.
"He actually did it?"
What?
Ganju was slightly startled, but then he felt an incredibly violent spiritual energy fluctuation suddenly erupt from the center of the battlefield.
...
If there was no way to defeat the opponent in his mind, then how could he survive?
Without a doubt.
Find a way!!
Under the pressure of mortal danger, Ishikawa Katori's vast knowledge base in his mind was fully mobilized at this moment, constantly merging, failing, merging, failing... In just a brief instant, Ishikawa Katori himself didn't know how many times he had simulated and tested errors in his mind.
Until he collided with Genji once more, and felt the bizarre spiritual pressure around the latter that seemed to devour people, a flash of lightning flickered in Ishikawa Katori's eyes.
The characteristics of spiritual pressure, and also...
The attributes of Kido!!
Ishikawa Katori shot backward, but unlike before, he didn't spill blood in mid-air. Instead, he stopped abruptly just as he was about to hit a giant tree.
The key lies in the Kido attributes and the characteristics of spiritual power.
All this time, Ishikawa Katori had been thinking of fusing Kido with Hakuda to create the Shunko from his memory.
But in his single-minded pursuit of fusion, he had overlooked the inherent characteristics of spiritual power itself.
Although everyone's spiritual power is largely similar, the characteristics within each person's spiritual power are completely different. It is precisely because of this that one can distinguish the identity of a spiritual pressure's owner by investigating it; similarly, it is also because of this that Zanpakuto, born from each person's spiritual power, have various abilities!
Just like fingerprints, it's almost impossible for two people to have identical spiritual power characteristics.
Ishikawa Katori slowly raised his head, looking at his blood-stained hands, and a faint rumble of thunder suddenly sounded around him.
The thunder grew from weak to strong, and the gust of wind it stirred made Ishikawa Katori's black hair wildly sway.
After understanding the characteristics of spiritual power, and then based on the attributes of the Kido integrated, he changed the characteristics of the spiritual power.
As the lightning appeared, the characteristics of the spiritual power within Ishikawa Katori's body gradually began to change.
When the characteristics of spiritual power and the attributes of the integrated Kido reach the same frequency, after they combine, the most crucial point is still needed: the degree of mastery over the body, which can also be said to be the strength of Hakuda.
And after achieving this, the combined product is...
"—Shunko!!"
Ishikawa Katori let out a low cry, and the lightning, as if receiving a signal, instantly exploded. The surrounding soil and tree debris were all swept up by the overflowing spiritual pressure around him, gradually floating into the air.
"Roar, roar, roar..."
As if instinctively sensing a threat, Genji let out a series of low growls, and a wary look actually appeared in his wild eyes.
Meanwhile, Ishikawa Katori, enveloped in the lightning, turned pale, and blood gushed from his mouth.
Was he too heavily injured after all?
Fortunately, it wasn't too late!
Ishikawa Katori's hands slowly drooped to his sides, and he slowly raised his head to look at Genji opposite him.
He should have thought of it earlier!
Because of the profound impression Yoruichi left, Ishikawa Katori had overlooked others who could use Shunko.
If Yoruichi and Soi Fon were compared, one would find that although both had learned Shunko, the attributes they displayed were completely different.
Yoruichi's Shunko was lightning-based, and the Kido integrated into it felt somewhat like Raikōhō; whereas Soi Fon's Shunko was wind-based, and the Kido integrated into it was very easy to discern, because there was only one wind-type Hado: 'Hadō No. 58: Tenran'!
With different Kido integrated, the nature of the spiritual power naturally had to change accordingly.
And what Ishikawa Katori successfully integrated into Hakuda was...
The first Kido he learned, and also the Kido he had studied most deeply.
Hadō No. 4: Byakurai!
[Shunko]
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