Under the watchful eyes of the students, Satoru walked up to Kinoshita and stopped.
Facing his teacher, he suddenly bowed deeply. "Sensei, I was wrong!"
Kinoshita: "...?"
Before the teacher could respond, Satoru straightened up. "Sensei, I've already apologized. Can we pretend this never happened and let me go back?"
Kinoshita's eye twitched as he shook his head:
"No."
"Oh well, then I wasn't wrong."
"?"
Kinoshita nearly had an aneurysm from rage at Satoru's audacity.
"You've got guts, kid! You're the first to dare provoke me before a spar!"
Laughing in extreme anger, Kinoshita sank into a stance and raised his bamboo sword.
Satoru mirrored the stance with his own weapon.
After two seconds of staring, Kinoshita suddenly moved.
With a powerful step, he closed the distance instantly and delivered an upward diagonal slash.
CRACK!!!
Satoru angled his sword to block, the impact resonating loudly through the dojo.
Feeling the tremendous force behind the strike, Satoru grimaced.
"I give up! I surrender!"
"Surrender denied!!"
As Satoru's homeroom teacher, Kinoshita knew his tricks well and immediately rejected the plea.
With a twist of his wrist, Kinoshita's sword slid along Satoru's blade before redirecting toward his ribs.
Satoru retreated while desperately parrying attacks from all angles.
For a while, the dojo echoed with rapid clashing sounds—like pouring rain, like popping beans.
Unlike real-world kendo, Shinigami combat techniques prioritize lethal efficiency, with every strike aimed at vital points.
Minor accidents frequently occurred during student spars, leaving the infirmary crowded after every practical lesson.
At Kinoshita's level, such incidents should never happen under normal circumstances.
But today, he was determined to teach Satoru a proper lesson—one that would make the boy remember this fear every time he thought of skipping class.
Seeing Satoru successfully block his first attack, Kinoshita gave an almost imperceptible nod.
Though often infuriating, there was no denying that Satoru put in genuine effort when it came to training.
That was probably one of the few redeeming qualities the kid had.
At this thought, Kinoshita's lips curled slightly.
In that case, it was only reasonable for him to dial up the spiritual pressure a bit, wasn't it?
Satoru, watching his opponent's movements and preparing to counter, suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of spiritual pressure crash over him.
His head snapped up in shock as he saw his homeroom teacher radiating an aura of immense power.
Satoru sucked in a sharp breath. "Wait, this is way too much! That's professional Shinigami-level spiritual pressure! How can you use something like that against a student?!"
Kinoshita grinned. "Prepare yourself, brat. What kind of punishment would it be if it wasn't like this?"
Without waiting for a reply, he swung his bamboo sword down.
Satoru hastily raised his own sword to block the strike.
In that instant, his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull.
The terrifying force transmitted through the bamboo sword felt like an entire mountain had just been dropped on him!
At that moment, he finally understood why the power released in battle was called "spiritual pressure."
The sheer, suffocating weight of it was unbearable.
With all his strength, he barely managed to deflect the blow, his arms left numb from the impact.
Seeing his stunned expression, Kinoshita smirked in satisfaction.
"Now you see what an adult is capable of, kid?"
"Next time you think about skipping class, make sure to remember today!"
With that, he lunged forward again, bamboo sword flashing.
Satoru couldn't help but feel like he'd been screwed over.
Slacking off wasn't an option anymore—Kinoshita's movements were too fast, too ruthless. If he let his guard down even slightly, he'd be beaten to a pulp.
The other students in the dojo, too, had stopped laughing, watching the fight with serious expressions.
Sōjun frowned slightly.
As the young master of the Kuchiki clan, he knew Kinoshita well.
Their homeroom teacher had once been the fourth seat of the 13th Division, a veteran of numerous Hollow extermination missions. He'd only stepped down from the frontlines after sustaining an injury to his saketsu during battle, later becoming an instructor at the Shin'ō Academy.
At this level of intensity, if Kinoshita's old wound acted up and he lost control of his power, Satoru could end up seriously hurt.
Slowly, he rose from his kneeling position, preparing to intervene.
Seeing this, Seinosuke also stood up.
Satoru continued to retreat, shouting, "Hey, hey, Kinoshita! I was going easy on you earlier! If you keep this up, I'll have to fight back for real!"
Kinoshita laughed. "Oh? Then by all means, show me what you've got!"
Satoru flashed a cold, ruthless grin. "Fine! Don't say I didn't warn you!"
Even as he taunted, he'd already made up his mind—the second Kinoshita paused, he'd turn tail and run.
Unfortunately, Kinoshita seemed to have seen right through him, showing no signs of stopping.
He raised his bamboo sword high, ready to leave a lasting impression on Satoru.
With no room left to retreat, Satoru lifted his own sword, bracing himself to minimize the impact.
Meanwhile, Aizen, still kneeling quietly in place, let out a soft sigh.
While the other students were still dumbfounded by ordinary Shinigami-level battles, he had already quietly grown stronger once more.
That guy Satoru was always boasting about how disciplined he was.
In contrast, he himself—who never spoke a word yet continuously grew stronger in silence—was far more deserving of that term.
As he thought this, he turned his head to see how Satoru's fight was going.
Just as Satoru's bamboo sword swung upward, halfway through its arc, a series of voices suddenly echoed in his ears—
[Detected power increase in bound target "Sousuke Aizen." Automatically synchronizing training progress… Synchronization complete!]
[Your spiritual pressure has increased. Current Reiryoku level: 13!]
[Your spiritual pressure has increased. Current Reiryoku level: 12!]
[Your spiritual pressure…]
[Your spiritual pressure has increased. Current Reiryoku level: 5!]
[Your understanding of Kidō has improved. Mastered Hadō #39: Enkōsen!]
[Your understanding of Kidō has improved. Mastered Hadō #39: Enkōsen (Incantation Omission)!]
[Your understanding of Kidō…]
[Your understanding of Kidō has improved. Mastered Hadō #81: Dankū!]
[Your understanding of Hadō has improved. Mastered Hadō #32: Ōkasen!]
[Your understanding of Hadō has improved. Mastered Hadō #32: Ōkasen (Incantation Omission)!]
[Your understanding of…]
[Your understanding of Hadō has improved. Mastered Hadō #73: Sōren Sōkatsui!]
[Your understanding of Zanjutsu has improved…]
[Your understanding of Shunpo has improved…]
[Your understanding of Hakuda has improved…]
One notification after another flooded his mind like a rapid-fire barrage.
Especially for Kidō and Hadō.
Each technique was announced twice—once for the incantation version and once for the incantation-omitted version—resulting in over a hundred notifications. It was downright absurd.
Even more absurd was that his brain seemed to process all these notifications in an instant, with less than a hundredth of a second passing in the outside world.
Satoru never would have imagined that Sousuke—whom he had always considered unremarkable, barely on par with himself—had already mastered so many high-level Kidō techniques.
And his Reiryoku level was even…
…Wait.
What level was it again?
Before Satoru could react, an overwhelming surge of terrifying spiritual pressure erupted from his body like a raging sea.
The spiritual pressure manifested so abruptly that he didn't even have time to control or suppress it—it simply exploded outward.
Kinoshita, who had been mid-swing with his sword, froze in place.
Under Kinoshita's utterly dumbfounded gaze, a pillar of spiritual pressure erupted from Satoru's body—
BOOM!!!!!