"You are a crazy bastard."
Sanji grunted. He couldn't find a way to defeat Ichigo with his level of strength.
They were similar in terms of speed, even though Sanji was moving at the speed of lightning.
Ichigo would've been faster than him if he hadn't combined the speed of lightning with the speed of Black Leg Martial Arts.
Black Leg Martial Arts focused on speed.
So, when he combined this kind of martial art with the speed of Rumble Rumble Fruit, he still couldn't compete with Ichigo in speed.
It was a good thing that he still had Haki.
Coating his body with Haki, he could increase his speed to another level, which allowed him to move faster than the speed of light.
As both of them moved, they left behind nothing but a flash of blur.
Whenever they collided, they would create a massive shockwave filled with lightning bolts.
Each of these bolts had the power to destroy an entire building.
But between them, despite lacking in speed, Sanji was still able to compete with Ichigo.
He couldn't defeat him, but competing on an equal level wasn't a problem thanks to Haki.
Using Observation Haki to predict his future movements while using Armament Haki to boost his strength.
As Borsalino said, 'Speed is Power', so power is also speed.
"You are not bad either. But I'm really curious. Are you truly human? I can heal fast because I have Reiatsu."
"How can you heal so fast as a human?"
Ichigo asked.
Sanji's eyes darkened for a moment, but he replied while smoking.
"A bastard experimented on my mother to genetically change my body. If not for my mother taking medicine to stop those changes, I would've become a complete inhuman."
Hearing that, a look of pity appeared on his face. He didn't even need Sanji to tell him who that bastard was because he could see the struggle.
And, this kind of struggle could only happen when the person mentioned by Sanji was someone close to Sanji.
He had just seen the betrayal in the Soul Society and how many people felt hurt because of that betrayal.
So, he knew Sanji was feeling similar. Unfortunately, he hadn't gone through these events, so he couldn't relate to Sanji.
Sanji shook his head and said.
"Enough about me! I am curious about your power. It feels so distant to me. I mean, how do you have power similar to Conquer Haki but use it as an energy source?"
"Conquer Haki? You mean that mental pressure you released?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah! So, what exactly is your power?" Sanji asked, looking curious.
"Well, I am also very new to this power, but Spiritual Energy is an energy of the soul, which Soul Reapers manifest in the form of a spiritual pressure."
"You are a Soul Reaper? Not exactly what I had in mind!" Sanji looked stunned when he heard the title of the man in front of him.
"Yeah! I was surprised too. When I was young, I could see ghosts and dead people's souls. One day, I got this power from my friend."
"Then, I started my journey as a Substitute Soul Reaper."
Hearing that, Sanji clicked his tongue and said.
"It still feels insane. How can the soul become an energy source? No wonder you call yourself a soul reaper."
"A normal human should never be able to release energy from the soul."
Ichigo snorted.
"I am a human, a normal human with spiritual pressure. Compared to me, you look more inhuman."
"A body that heals instantly, turns into lightning, and produces a powerful protective layer around the skin, which also boosts strength."
"To me, none of this sounds human."
Sanji gritted his teeth and said.
"You bastard, I was talking about an energy source, not the powers. Although I am genetically modified, I still rely on stamina to work."
"Even the power of lightning is produced from my stamina; everything that I do consumes stamina, and stamina is a normal thing for humans."
"We just train till our stamina reaches an absurdly high point so that we can use different kinds of powers."
"And that lightning, it is simply the power I got from eating a Devil Fruit. That protective layer is Haki, something that I had to squeeze out of my body through my will."
"All of these rely on stamina. What about you? Everything you do relies on an energy that normally doesn't even exist."
Hearing that, Ichigo couldn't help but feel embarrassed.
Indeed! Spiritual Energy might sound cool, but it was completely illogical. But how could he let someone else insult his powers?
Being a hot-blooded young man that he was, Ichigo immediately refuted Sanji.
"At least, my energy source is something that works on the real part of the body. What about your lightning? Can a fruit grant someone the power of lightning?"
"That sounds like a fairytale to me. And, how can you squeeze out something that can act as an armor through sheer willpower?"
"Hmph! How would I know why Devil Fruit exists? It's none of my concern."
Sanji snorted as he replied.
At this moment, two hot-blooded fools from fictional worlds were arguing with each other about their fictional powers.
And neither of them realized it.
"Enough! I have a mission. I need to defeat you as quickly as possible and then go and help my Captain."
Sanji said as he dropped the cigarette on the ground, and suddenly, his body blurred with blue light.
In an instant, he turned into a bolt of lightning and appeared behind Ichigo, trying to land a powerful kick to his back.
But Ichigo moved his wrist and blocked the attack before it could even land.
Although it seemed like an easy move for Ichigo, he was going all out with his Bankai.
So, Sanji could only fight him using almost every type of power he had.
But just as Sanji expected, Ichigo was much faster than the speed of Light, but that made sense.
Even Luffy, using Gear Second, could easily dodge speed-of-light attacks. Although his speed wasn't at the speed of light in Gear Second, it was close.
Sanji was using his lightning powers, which were faster than Luffy in Gear Second, but adding Black Leg Martial Art and Haki to that, his speed also surpassed the speed of Light.
But even so, Sanji was slower than Ichigo.
'It seems like I have no other choice but to use that move.'
He took a deep breath while dodging Ichigo's sword swing and started spinning rapidly until his feet started generating a lot of heat.
As the flames appeared, he channeled the lightning into the flames, and blue flames started emerging from his feet.
As blue flames merged with lightning, Sanji suddenly disappeared.
'What? He has gotten faster.'
Ichigo was stunned for a moment before his back was kicked.
Bang!
Ichigo's body flew several meters into the air before he stabilized himself in mid-air.
Just when he turned to the left, Sanji appeared on the right and landed a solid kick to his left ribs.
Bang!
Once again, Ichigo flung back rapidly, spinning in mid-air as he tried to stabilize himself.
'What's going on? He just appeared on the left. How did he appear on my right so quickly?'
'No, he didn't appear on my left.'
Suddenly, he sensed a similar situation, but this time, he tried to launch his sword in the opposite direction.
Bang!
Unfortunately, Sanji appeared behind him and kicked his back so hard that his bones started breaking apart.
'Tsk!'
Ichigo stabilized himself and looked around with his eyes. All he could see were several small lightning arcs that would instantly grow.
Because of this, Ichigo sensed his position, but that turned out to be a distraction.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sanji continued using this move to kick Ichigo from different directions, catching him off guard.
But none of his attacks did much damage to Ichigo. Instead, Ichigo kept taking hit after hit until his eyes suddenly glowed white.
And a lot of orange energy appeared around him, spiraling into a powerful hurricane.
[Getsuga Tensho]
The orange slash kept spinning around Ichigo, spreading out like a tornado as it tore apart those lightning arcs.
Suddenly, several hundred kilometers away, Sanji appeared.
His expression darkened.
'Damn it! This bastard has a seriously powerful body. Unless I use red lightning, I will not have enough power to seriously injure him or even defeat him.'
'But if I use that kind of power, my speed will decrease significantly. This guy is too fast, and his sword is quite sharp despite him not being as good a swordsman as Mosshead.'
As he thought about it, he took a deep breath.
'If I want to seriously injure him, I need to use a stronger attack. Perhaps this is the best opportunity for me to learn Advanced Armament Haki.'
'If I use Advanced Armament Haki, I might be able to defeat him, but I am not as good as Mosshead in Armament Haki.'
'Learning it in the middle of a battle will be quite difficult.'