Different Soul Reapers reacted to the two pieces of news in different ways, but almost all of them were shocked and excited.
The Third Division patrol had just changed shifts when two Soul Reapers with standard-issue swords slung over their shoulders squatted in a corner, munching on rice balls.
"Did you hear? Those two graduates, Harry and Hitsugaya, the ones the captains were fighting over, took Third Seat positions the moment they entered their divisions!"
The shorter Soul Reaper nearly dropped his rice ball, his eyes going wider than the messenger talisman at his waist.
"Our lieutenant spent a full hundred and eighty years climbing from Third Seat to lieutenant!"
The taller one was stuffing pickled radish into his mouth. When he heard that, he suddenly snorted.
"What do you know? Anyone who can make Captain Zaraki shout, 'Cut me down and become captain,' is already overqualified for Third Seat. I heard Third Seat Hitsugaya's Hyorinmaru froze an entire training ground while he was still at the Academy, and Third Seat Harry's Dangai Reitō can even double the power of Kidō!"
In the Fourth Division infirmary, several Soul Reapers carrying medicine boxes were gathered around a wounded man getting his bandages changed, chattering nonstop.
"Lieutenant Shiba is going to fight Third Seat Harry!"
The Soul Reaper with twin ponytails had glowing eyes, and she did not even notice that she had wrapped the bandage the wrong way.
"Lieutenant Shiba is a once-in-a-century genius. I heard his Shunpo is even faster than members of the Second Division, and his strength has basically reached captain level! Third Seat Harry only just graduated. Can this even turn into a real fight?"
The older Soul Reaper grinding herbs beside her tapped the back of her hand.
"Silly girl, a duel at this level isn't something you can understand. Just the clash of their reiatsu could flip over half a street. When you watch, remember to stand far away, or you'll get swept up in the aftershock."
At the edge of the Eleventh Division training ground, several shirtless Soul Reapers practicing swordsmanship were arm wrestling.
"Damn it, that kid actually went to the Tenth Division!" one bald Soul Reaper said, slamming his fist into a wooden post and sending splinters flying. "If he'd come to our division, I could've had a real blade-to-blade fight with him already!"
His companion spat to the side, but he could not hide his excitement.
"Who cares which division he joined? As long as he fights Lieutenant Shiba, that's enough! I bet fifty soul coins that Third Seat Harry won't last thirty moves. Lieutenant Kaien Shiba's Nejibana can grind a waterfall apart!"
In the Fifth Division corridor, Soul Reapers delivering documents hurried past with scrolls in their arms, but their mouths never stopped moving.
"Third Seat Hitsugaya was clearly better suited to the Fifth Division. Why did he end up in the Thirteenth?"
"Third Seat… we have to work ten years just to reach Seventh Seat, and they got it right after graduating…"
"Stop being jealous. Didn't you see the captains fighting over them? I care more about the match in a week. I wonder where they'll hold it. Should we sneak over and watch?"
Harry and Rangiku Matsumoto returned from Rukongai with the smell of alcohol on both of them.
Rangiku overheard the two ordinary Soul Reapers talking and could not help smiling as she asked Harry beside her, "Well? Little Harry, are you confident about tomorrow's match? Don't be afraid of losing. That's Lieutenant Kaien Shiba, after all. His strength is absolutely among the best of all lieutenants, and he could even serve as a captain."
Although Rangiku's tone made it sound as if she did not think highly of Harry, Harry knew she meant well. She was clearly saying it to reduce his mental pressure. Unfortunately, she was going to be disappointed. He did not feel any pressure at all.
Harry did not take Rangiku's words to heart, but someone else was very unhappy with her.
Momo Hinamori glared at Rangiku, her chest rising and falling sharply. "What do you know? Harry is the strongest. That Lieutenant Shiba or whatever definitely isn't Harry's match."
Momo could not bear to hear anyone speak badly of Harry, and what she had just said came straight from her heart. Since she knew Harry's true strength, she did not think any Soul Reaper below captain level could defeat him.
Rangiku was not going to argue with a young girl. She waved a hand carelessly.
"Fine, fine. I know Harry is the strongest. In your eyes, he's the strongest. Happy now?"
Momo was so angry at Rangiku that she hugged one of Harry's arms and said with a serious face, "Harry, tomorrow you have to fight seriously. Show your true strength and let this busty airhead see it!"
To become the Tenth Division captain in a proper and justified way, Harry had already planned to reveal a certain amount of strength. So he rubbed Momo's head and comforted her.
"Don't worry. I'll defeat Lieutenant Kaien Shiba."
Of course, defeating Kaien Shiba did not require him to use his full strength. If he did use everything he had, the captains would probably see him as an anomaly. After all, a Soul Reaper his age should not be able to possess such overwhelming power. An ordinary captain level was already supposed to be the limit.
Rangiku glanced at the two of them suspiciously. She knew Momo Hinamori had an almost blind worship of Harry, but she also knew Harry was not an arrogant person.
So she hesitated and asked, "Wait, Harry. You don't actually think you can defeat Lieutenant Kaien Shiba, do you? You should know his reiatsu has already reached the third grade."
Harry smiled faintly. "Who knows?"
After hearing Harry promise that he would defeat Lieutenant Kaien Shiba tomorrow, Momo instantly became confident.
She lifted her chin and glanced at Rangiku. "Lieutenant Matsumoto, you'll understand tomorrow. Harry's strength is beyond your imagination."
Rangiku fell silent.
No way. No way. Was Harry's strength really greater than Lieutenant Kaien Shiba's?
Even Rangiku was no longer sure.
Inside the Seireitei, on an open ground specially prepared for duels, sunlight was torn into fragments by the leaves and scattered across the hems of the spectators' clothes.
The ordinary Soul Reapers at the outer edge stood on tiptoe and craned their necks, their faces full of curiosity. Everyone wanted to squeeze to the front and claim the best viewing spot.
The twelve captains present stood in a ring on the inner side, their reiatsu forming an invisible wall that separated the two people in the center from the outside world.
Kenpachi Zaraki crouched on a broken pillar with Nozarashi over his shoulder. His blood-red eyepatch snapped in the wind raised by spiritual pressure. He licked the edge of his blade, and a beastlike growl came from his throat.
"I hope one of these two is worth cutting."
Retsu Unohana stood beside him and answered with a smile, "Captain Zaraki is truly frightening. Perhaps neither of them wants to be chosen as your opponent."
Kenpachi snorted coldly and did not reply.
At the center of the open ground, Kaien Shiba stood with one hand on his waist and laughed loudly. His trident, Nejibana, pointed diagonally toward the ground, and pale-blue water flowed from its tips, drawing winding trails across the stone. His reiatsu was like the rising tide, each wave higher than the last.
"Kid, don't be nervous. There's no shame in losing!"
Harry stood where he was. The hem of his black shihakusho lifted slightly under Kaien's reiatsu. One hand rested on the hilt of Dangai Reitō, and the markings on the sheath glowed with a faint purple light.
His reiatsu did not surge outward like Kaien's. It was more like a taut bowstring, calm on the surface, yet hiding enough force to tear through anything.
The two of them were ten steps apart, and the air between them seemed to solidify into a transparent wall. Tiny sparks of reishi drifted across it, traces left behind by the collision of two different kinds of reiatsu.
"Lieutenant Shiba, are you really that confident? If you lose, you'll lose face," Harry kindly reminded him.
Kaien Shiba froze for a moment, then laughed boldly.
"Is that so? Then I'm looking forward to it. If you really can beat me, I'll be very happy!"
A Soul Reaper in the back row suddenly grabbed his companion's arm.
"Look at the captains' expressions. This isn't an ordinary spar between lieutenants at all."
His companion looked at him with some disdain.
"What an idiot. Look at their reiatsu. They've probably already reached third-grade spiritual pressure. At the very least, this is a battle between top lieutenants, and it may even reach captain level. We're really in for a show today."
When the First Division lieutenant acting as referee announced the start of the match, Kaien Shiba abruptly stopped smiling, and the water around Nejibana suddenly began to boil.
Harry lightly tapped the hilt of his sword with his fingertip and released his Zanpakuto as well.
"Rend delusion, ferry all souls to the end, amplify, Dangai Reitō!"
The Asauchi in Harry's hand changed rapidly, finally transforming into a long blade with a translucent dark-purple body.
Patterns of condensed reishi flowed across the blade, and silver-gray threads wrapped around the hilt. Three diamond-shaped spirit crystals hung from the end, releasing faint, fragmented hums as his reiatsu fluctuated.
The moment Harry released his Zanpakuto, the captains narrowed their eyes. They sensed a large amount of reishi gathering toward Harry, constantly amplifying his strength.
"This is… a Kidō-type Zanpakuto. It can actually control reishi. What an extraordinary ability," Thirteenth Division Captain Jūshirō Ukitake sighed.
The other captains nodded slightly. Controlling reishi across such a wide range could at least triple the power of Kidō, and this was only Shikai.
Kaien Shiba, who possessed captain-class strength, naturally noticed the ability of Harry's Shikai as well. He became even more cautious and decided to fight Harry with all his strength.
Otherwise, if he actually lost, it would be embarrassing.
The ground of the open field cracked like a spiderweb under the pressure of their reiatsu. Kaien Shiba's trident, Nejibana, pointed diagonally toward the ground. Pale-blue water wound down from the tips and gathered into a puddle around his feet.
"Be careful, Third Seat Harry!"
He pushed off with the tips of his toes, and the puddle suddenly exploded. Thousands upon thousands of water arrows shot toward Harry like a rainstorm. At the same time, the shaft of his trident turned into a rotating water wheel and slashed toward Harry's face with a sharp whistle that seemed to tear through the air.
Harry held Dangai Reitō diagonally across his chest, and the dark-silver reishi flowing across the blade suddenly brightened.
The narrow straight sword had just completed its Shikai, and the space on both sides of the blade was faintly twisting. That was the air being warped by high-density reishi.
"Hadō #31: Shakkahō."
Harry's fingertip swept across the back of the blade. The reishi around Dangai Reitō instantly condensed into a crimson torrent of flame, but it did not shoot in a straight line like ordinary Kidō. Under the influence of Dangai Reitō, it turned into a spiral, accurately shredding every water arrow before crashing into the water wheel without losing momentum.
"Interesting."
Kaien Shiba spun aside to avoid the remaining blast of flame. Nejibana stabbed hard into the ground, and countless streams of water suddenly burst from the dueling field. Dozens of currents, like living snakes, wrapped around Harry's limbs.
"Water-Bind Shackles!"
The water instantly hardened into an ice-blue prison, trapping Harry in the center. Kaien's trident, wrapped in a vortex of water, was already thrusting toward the heart of the prison.
"Can you take this one?"
"Bakudō #30: Shitotsu Sansen."
Harry's voice pierced through the water prison. Three golden reishi spikes suddenly shot up from beneath Kaien Shiba's feet, their tips flashing with lightning.
This was originally only a mid-level Bakudō meant to restrain movement, but under the reishi amplification of Dangai Reitō, its power rose sharply, nearly catching up to high-level Kidō.
Amid crackling lightning, Kaien Shiba had no choice but to pull back his trident and defend.
Harry seized the opening and raised Dangai Reitō toward the water prison.
"Hadō #63: Raikōhō."
White-gold lightning exploded along the blade. It was not spherical, but turned into countless fine strands of thunder that spread instantly through the lines of the water prison.
Water naturally conducted electricity, but now it had become a carrier for the lightning threads. The entire water prison lit up with a blinding white glow in an instant, followed by a deafening explosion.
The water prison was torn apart by countless bolts of lightning, yet the thunder did not harm Harry at all, as if it consciously avoided him.
Kaien Shiba was thrown several meters back by the shockwave. When he landed, he staggered half a step, and his gaze toward Harry became much more serious.
"Your Kidō… its reishi density is more than three times higher than that of an ordinary Soul Reaper. What a powerful Zanpakuto ability!"
Harry stood with his sword planted before him and smiled lightly. "You flatter me. Your Zanpakuto ability is powerful too. If you can create a large body of water, it will become extremely troublesome."
Kaien Shiba suddenly burst into laughter. His trident struck the ground heavily, and all the accumulated water in the dueling field began to boil, transforming into surging waves that shot into the sky.
"Hahaha, then you guessed right. Take this, Nejibana: Vortex Surge!"
Suddenly, with Kaien Shiba at the center, a massive amount of water rushed out and directly enveloped an area several hundred meters wide.
Within the surging currents, dozens of afterimages of Kaien Shiba appeared. Each afterimage held a trident and stabbed at Harry from a different direction. To everyone's surprise, every one of these dozens of Kaien Shibas was solid.
Faced with such a powerful attack, Harry showed no panic at all.
"Hadō #78: Zangerin."
A golden disk three times larger than normal spun in front of him, its edges marked with dark patterns of distorted space.
Aside from its size, Zangerin immediately underwent another change.
In the next instant, the Zangerin disk suddenly split into hundreds of golden blades. Under Dangai Reitō's control, they locked precisely onto each afterimage.
The moment the golden blades collided with the waves, the surrounding air vibrated with a hum. Even the Soul Reapers watching from far away could not help covering their ears.
No one saw the final result of the collision clearly. They only saw the water waves and golden blades explode at the same time, stirring up a sky full of mist and shattered reishi.
When the water vapor dispersed, the Soul Reapers finally saw the scene inside the open field.
The two fighters were standing on opposite sides of the field, just as they had been during the first standoff.
Other than some water stains on their clothes, neither of them had been injured at all.
How could the Soul Reapers not understand what that meant?
One ordinary Soul Reaper said in shock, "A battle at that level was only a warm-up for them? There's no doubt about it. Both of them have already reached captain level."
"Holy shit, we're actually watching a captain-level battle!"
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