CHAPTER 11-12 FREE ONLY FOR FREE AND PAID MEMBERS ON MY PATREON
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"Brilliant!"
Even the spectating instructor couldn't help but gasp in amazement. Yoruichi's countermeasure was flawless. Pinned to the floor, her only path to victory was a grappling submission, and she had somehow found the microscopic opening to execute it!
Yoruichi's speed was terrifying. Her legs clamped down with immense force, wrapping around Lu Li's torso like supple, unbreakable vines as she aimed to lock him in a lethal choke.
Lu Li's eyes sharpened. He hadn't underestimated her, but Yoruichi had undeniably capitalized on his momentary vulnerability. In all his years of combat, he had always considered submission grapplers to be the absolute most annoying opponents to deal with.
In his old world, he had defeated several grandmasters of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and traditional ground-fighting. It wasn't that their techniques were flawed; it was simply that his raw physical strength was so overwhelmingly superior that he could brute-force his way out of their locks.
But this was different. Right now, Yoruichi's spiritual body possessed physical strength equal to his own. In fact, if she wasn't suppressing her Reiatsu, she would be vastly stronger. He completely lacked his usual advantage of absolute, crushing force. If she managed to fully lock him down, he would lose.
In a split second, relying purely on ingrained survival instinct, Lu Li launched himself into a violent backflip, stalling the lethal momentum of the long legs inching toward his neck.
The dynamic of the grapple instantly inverted. If Yoruichi didn't adjust her center of gravity, her head would smash directly into the floorboards. But if she did adjust, her lock on Lu Li would break.
That microsecond of hesitation decided the match.
Defying all expectations, Lu Li planted a hand on the floor mid-air. Instead of crashing down as Yoruichi anticipated, he shifted his momentum the moment she loosened her grip, violently twisting his waist to hurl her across the room.
Before Yoruichi could even scramble up, a devastating straight punch stopped mere millimeters from her face.
The kinetic wind generated by the strike blew her purple hair back. A bead of sweat rolled down into her golden eyes, which were still wide with lingering shock.
Lu Li slowly rose from his half-crouched stance. "Good match."
He hadn't pulled his punch out of chivalry or some misplaced pity for a beautiful girl. He simply remembered the earlier spar with Instructor Fujimoto. If he had actually followed through and landed that blow, the one getting injured wouldn't be Yoruichi—it would be him, obliterated by her instinctive, explosive Reiatsu flare.
The dojo was dead silent. A few seconds later, the collective sound of sharp intakes of breath filled the room.
"The Demon Princess... lost?!"
"The Shihouin clan's Hakuda... beaten by a transfer student?"
"Isn't Yoruichi a once-in-a-century genius? How could she lose..."
"I remember... Yoruichi actually beat the instructor in a spar once..."
Amidst the uproar, Aizen stood perfectly still, his face an unreadable mask. But internally, he was far from calm. His deep brown eyes tracked Lu Li's back.
To defeat Yoruichi Shihouin... is your Hakuda really that monstrous too? Just what exactly do you lack, Lu Li?
"Are you seriously telling me you've never studied Hakuda?" Yoruichi asked, her expression deeply complicated as she stood up. Thanks to the murmurs of the crowd, she had caught wind of his background—he was supposedly just a street rat from Rukongai.
"No one teaches Hakuda in Rukongai. I just figured out a few brawling tricks to survive," Lu Li lied smoothly.
He obviously couldn't reveal he was an anomaly from another dimension. Furthermore, to achieve an early graduation, he couldn't afford to play the weakling like Aizen; he needed to shine as brightly as possible to force the Academy's hand.
"Hmph. Don't get cocky. I underestimated you at the start. Next time, I'm going to absolutely crush you!" Yoruichi scoffed, clearly not buying his bullshit. To her trained eye, his brutal, seemingly instinctual strikes were heavily anchored in flawless foundational principles. He had definitely received systematic, elite training.
Seeing her pout, Lu Li found it genuinely amusing. Who would have thought the mature, sultry Yoruichi from the canon manga had such a childish, sore-loser phase? "We'll talk when you actually manage to win."
Turning away, he walked back toward Aizen. "Sosuke, care for a round?"
Yoruichi glared daggers at his back, grinding her teeth. She had absolutely been careless at the start, but even if she had gone all out from the first second, she couldn't confidently say she would have won. This transfer student was a genuine grandmaster of unarmed combat.
She hadn't lost a single Hakuda spar in her entire life. It wasn't even about the Shihouin clan's pride anymore; she simply couldn't swallow the indignity of the loss. Remembering how he aggressively targeted her lower half with that dirty axe kick, she swore that next time, she would kick him square in the balls!
Currently sparring with Aizen, Lu Li suddenly felt a violent chill run down his spine, causing him to hesitate for a fraction of a second and take a half-hearted punch to the chest.
Aizen looked at him strangely. Is Lu Li going easy on me to save my pride?
The rest of the period was spent sparring with Aizen, who humbly asked for pointers. Lu Li obviously didn't know this world's specific Hakuda stances, but he taught Aizen a few highly practical, lethal martial arts concepts. Aizen's performance during the drills was utterly average, making it impossible to tell if he was actually absorbing the lessons. Lu Li almost wanted to grab him by the collar and ask, Aren't you exhausted keeping up this act? Can we just have a real fight?
"You would make an excellent teacher, Lu Li. I learned a great deal today," Aizen praised warmly after class. He truly had gained invaluable insights. Lu Li's unorthodox, deadly combat philosophy was fascinating and would likely prove highly useful for his future endeavors.
"By the way, Lu Li, have you ever studied Kido?" Aizen asked. Their next class was the Demon Arts.
...
Staring at the towering, muscular man at the front of the classroom—sporting reflective glasses, a bizarre horned hairstyle, and a dark blue robe—Lu Li felt a profound sense of surrealism.
Good lord. Is that Tessai Tsukabishi, the Grand Kido Chief? He actually teaches at the Academy?
"You must pay close attention to this class, Lu Li. Instructor Tsukabishi is the Grand Kido Chief. He only guest-lectures at the Academy for one month every year," Aizen whispered.
Lu Li was amazed. He hadn't realized the quirky guy who would eventually work at Urahara's candy shop was already the commanding officer of the Kido Corps this early in the timeline. Judging by the students' ramrod-straight posture and absolute reverence—terrified they might miss a single crumb of "Kido truth"—Tessai's authority was absolute.
"I was informed we have a transfer student joining us today. I will briefly review the fundamental principles of Kido. The rest of you need not be disappointed; true mastery is always found in the absolute basics," Tessai's booming voice echoed through the hall.
His reflective gaze lingered on Lu Li for a split second. Though he had just arrived, the boy was already infamous within the Academy.
The other students didn't dare complain, listening intently as Tessai broke down the fundamentals.
Lu Li listened with intense fascination. This was his first actual exposure to supernatural combat arts. While he was a martial arts fanatic, he recognized the immense tactical value of Kido magic. If integrated perfectly into close-quarters combat, it could be devastating.
The eccentric-looking man was a surprisingly phenomenal teacher. Under his clear guidance, Lu Li quickly grasped the core concepts.
Kido was divided into three categories: Hado (Way of Destruction), Bakudo (Way of Binding), and Kaido (Way of Healing). Simply put, it was the art of manipulating internal Reiryoku via spoken incantations to manifest specific spells.
The incantation itself wasn't strictly necessary for casting. It functioned as a vocalized "mold" to help the Soul Reaper shape their spiritual energy. If a practitioner achieved absolute mastery over a specific spell, they could employ Eishohaki—Incantation Abandonment—to cast it instantly, albeit with a slight reduction in raw power.
However, the average Soul Reaper lacked the requisite spiritual control. Most could only abandon the incantations for the lowest-level spells. Only absolute freaks of nature could instantly cast high-level Kido.
Freaks of nature... Lu Li thought, glancing sideways at the seemingly harmless Sosuke Aizen sitting right next to him.
"Student Aizen," Tessai called out toward the end of the lecture. "You seem to be well-acquainted with the new transfer student. I assign you the task of guiding him through the casting of low-level Kido."
Aizen didn't seem surprised. He actively hid his true combat strength in every subject, yet his Kido grades still comfortably sat at the top of the class.
Furthermore, Aizen was incredibly curious. He wanted to personally test just how deep Lu Li's Kido talent truly ran.
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