"Have you seen your teacher Ao's combat style?"
"He taught me my Kidō, isn't that a stupid question?" Kōe rolled his eyes, wagging his index finger as he spoke smugly. "Understated luxury, peerless charm—as expected of Ao!"
Kōe and Yoruichi had already left the hot spring. No matter how good it was, soaking for too long would make anyone dizzy. As for Urahara, Kōe had called out to him just now, but the man seemed lost in thought and completely ignored him.
Ever since earlier, Yoruichi had been asking him for information about Ao. At first, Kōe thought she had discovered something, which scared him half to death. But looking at it now, she was simply captivated by his magnificent figure! At this thought, Kōe started giggling foolishly to himself again.
This was already the third time. Yoruichi had tolerated the first two, but now? There was nothing left to say—she served him a direct iron fist. Some people just needed a good beating!
"Are you done now? Can you speak properly?"
"I can. Please, go ahead..."
Looking at Kōe, who had a massive bump on his head yet maintained a completely serious expression, the corner of Yoruichi's mouth twitched unnaturally. She almost burst out laughing. She secretly pinched her leg with her right hand to suppress the urge. She couldn't ruin the serious atmosphere she had finally managed to build.
"What do you think is the biggest flaw of Hakuda?" After asking, Yoruichi worried Kōe might not understand her train of thought, so she elaborated, "Or rather, what does Hakuda lack that prevents it from becoming a primary combat method for captain-level Shinigami?"
"Power!" Kōe blurted out the answer without a second thought. He wasn't worried Yoruichi wouldn't understand; when it came to Hakuda, her comprehension was far deeper than his.
A Shinigami's battle was fundamentally a clash of Reiatsu. Reiatsu was formed when a Shinigami could no longer increase the purity of their spiritual energy, instead compressing the spiritual energy within their bodies to create a highly concentrated force.
However, perhaps due to the limitations of their physical bodies, Shinigami could not maintain their Reiatsu externally for long periods like Hollows could. Or rather, they couldn't do so without relying on certain mediums—such as a Zanpakutō.
A Zanpakutō's Shikai could already further elevate externally released Reiatsu, and through Bankai, captain-level Shinigami could multiply their Reiatsu by several tens of times on top of that. From this perspective, a Zanpakutō could even be considered a Shinigami's true main body.
Therefore, the stronger a Shinigami was, the more they relied on their Zanpakutō in battle, using other methods only as support. As for pure Hakuda, it was almost entirely abandoned, let alone used as a primary tactic. The reason was simple: Hakuda's power was simply too weak, both offensively and defensively.
"Then what if we use other methods to compensate for the power that Hakuda lacks?"
"Like Kidō?" Kōe asked, narrowing his eyes at Yoruichi. It seemed the wheels of history hadn't derailed from their original tracks; Yoruichi was still heading down this path.
The Zanpakutō wasn't the only method capable of maintaining and elevating Reiatsu externally. Kidō, one of the four primary combat arts, could do the exact same thing. Because of this, the Grand Kidō Chief and Deputy Kidō Chief of the Kidō Corps could elevate their combat prowess to a captain's level relying solely on Kidō, without ever needing a Zanpakutō.
Kidō possessed immense power; high-level Kidō could even rival the Bankai of most Zanpakutō. However, it also had its flaws: one was casting speed, and the other was its absurdly high requirement for natural talent.
The higher the level of the Kidō, the longer its incantation. Including Kōe, there were no more than ten people in the entire Seireitei capable of casting Kidō in the nineties without an incantation.
Furthermore, reciting the incantation didn't guarantee you could successfully cast the corresponding Kidō. Learning this art truly required innate talent. Before Kōe, only two people had ever reached captain-level strength relying purely on Kidō. Walking this path was far more difficult than achieving Bankai.
"Exactly!" Yoruichi slapped her thigh, speaking with excitement. As shameless as Kōe could be, he was the one who understood her best!
"Here's my idea!" Yoruichi stood up directly, pacing in circles in front of Kōe as she explained. "By using Kidō to appropriately elevate and maintain Reiatsu around the body, it increases the power of Hakuda while simultaneously covering for Kidō's slow casting speed and vulnerability to being interrupted in close combat! But that won't work either... let me think about it some more."
Shunkō, a combat technique that fused Hakuda and Kidō. Its creator was none other than the Shihōin Yoruichi standing right in front of him. However, at this point in time, Shunkō was still purely theoretical—even the theory itself hadn't fully taken shape.
Of course, Kōe knew the theory behind Shunkō, and since becoming a Shinigami, his understanding of it had grown even more concrete.
Just as Yoruichi said, using Kidō compensated for the power Hakuda lacked, while the agility of Hakuda reduced the chances of Kidō missing its target, drastically increasing its overall lethality.
On the defensive end, Shunkō was equally outstanding. By releasing Kidō from the body, one could neutralize enemy Kidō-like attacks with an equivalent amount of Reiatsu, solving the biggest headache for Hakuda specialists.
"No, seriously, can you stop spinning? I'm getting dizzy! If there's something you can't figure out, why don't you sit down and talk it over with me?" Kōe rubbed his temples, offering a helpless suggestion.
"Oh right, you're here! I almost forgot!"
Great. One second ago she was demanding he listen carefully, and the next she had completely forgotten he existed! Kōe scoffed. *Heh, women!*
Yoruichi didn't care what Kōe was thinking. She suddenly squatted in front of him, grabbed his shoulders with both hands, and asked earnestly, "Do you know who inspired this idea of mine?"
Kōe shook his head. He genuinely didn't know the answer to this. In his past life, he had never heard about what Yoruichi saw that sparked her desire to develop Shunkō.
"It was Teacher Ao! His combat style gave me the inspiration! Through precise judgment, he casts the appropriate Kidō to neutralize an offense with an offense. That's it! What I'm lacking is precise judgment!"
Hearing this, Kōe was completely dumbfounded. *The person who inspired Yoruichi was actually me? I'm the original driving force pushing the wheels of history forward?!*
What Ao displayed was simply Kōe's most familiar combat style. However, his original intention had merely been to maximize his greatest advantage—his spiritual energy manipulation—to finish battles while conserving as much stamina as possible. To think that this would actually inspire Yoruichi... he truly never saw it coming.
"Do you think you could ask Teacher Ao to design a new Kidō for me? One that can automatically detect the opponent's Reiatsu strength and then release a corresponding amount of Reiatsu to neutralize it?"
"You're dreaming," Kōe replied instinctively, having just snapped out of his daze. Seeing Yoruichi's expression instantly darken, he hurriedly explained, "I mean, how could a Kidō like that possibly be developed! It's not that I don't want to help you!"
"Just because you can't do it doesn't mean Teacher Ao can't!"
*Who are you looking down on? Aren't Ao and I the exact same person?!* Kōe roared in his heart, but he couldn't say that out loud to Yoruichi. Instead, he tried to persuade her gently, "A Kidō with independent judgment—wouldn't that be the same as having self-awareness? Do you really think something like that can be created by a human?"
Yoruichi pouted heavily and plopped down onto the ground. She knew that such a Kidō was too unbelievable, so she had only asked with a 'give it a try' mentality. As expected, no matter how amazing Ao was, he still hadn't transcended the boundaries of a Shinigami.
"You! Take me to see Teacher Ao!" Yoruichi pointed at Kōe, speaking in a huff. "I want to take him as my master!"
"Huh?" Kōe was stunned. *What kind of drama is this now?*
"I want to learn Kidō from him so I can fuse Hakuda and Kidō together!"
Great. It seemed that not only had he set the wheels of history in motion, but he had also accidentally dragged himself under them. At this moment, Kōe only wanted to say one thing: *Can you please complete your homework independently!* However, looking at Yoruichi's current state, saying that out loud would probably end their friendship.
Other transmigrators just had to learn things and be done with it. Why did he feel like he was playing the role of a parent? *My life is just too hard!!!*
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