Bab 100: Three Days

Seemingly recalling something, Shūsuke Amagai slowly scanned his surroundings with his peripheral vision, sweating profusely.

All these years, Shūsuke Amagai still remembered the unfinished words his father had spoken before his death.

The one who killed his father was the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto! He never expected that even after concealing his identity and hiding in the Expeditionary Force in Hueco Mundo, he still couldn't escape this calamity.

"Awake, kid?"

The voice from behind made Shūsuke Amagai jump in fright. In an instant, he flipped forward, changing from having his back towards Ailin to directly facing him. Moreover, during the flip, Shūsuke Amagai had already unsheathed his Zanpakutō.

"Who are you? Why did you bring me here? What are you planning?" Looking at the figure before him, fully concealed in a black cloak, Shūsuke Amagai calmly asked.

"Although your strength is a bit lacking, your talent is decent." Seeing Shūsuke Amagai's reaction, Ailin gave his praise.

After all, without any guidance, Shūsuke Amagai had completed his Bankai training within two hundred years, becoming the leader of the Expeditionary Force in Hueco Mundo. This talent was rare even in the Soul Society.

Of course, what made Ailin happier was that Shūsuke Amagai had already completed the cultivation of his Zanpakutō.

This way, not only could he repay the debt he owed Shin'etsu Kisaragi, but he would also gain a Captain-level Zanpakutō.

"However, kid, do you know that when you point your sword at your enemy, have you prepared yourself to either kill them or be killed?" As Ailin's words fell, his figure appeared in front of Shūsuke Amagai, raising his knee.

Bang!

"Urgh..."

Shūsuke Amagai's body was struck by Ailin's knee, bending him like a bow. Tears, snot, and saliva sprayed from his face as he flew three or four meters into the air before falling to the ground and rolling several times.

"Urgh..."

After crawling to his knees, Shūsuke Amagai dry heaved a few times.

A few minutes later, after feeling slightly better, Shūsuke Amagai slowly stood up, his eyes burning with anger as he held his sword towards Ailin with both hands.

"Not bad, even after being kicked by me and sensing the vast difference in our strength, you still dare to point your blade at me. You've got some guts. But I wonder, how long can you maintain this determination?"

Facing Ailin's taunts and ridicule, Shūsuke Amagai let out a loud roar and charged at him.

Ailin's body shifted slightly, and Shūsuke Amagai's Zanpakutō slashed past his nose, the resulting breeze even causing Ailin's black hood to flutter, revealing part of his face.

Ailin raised his right foot slightly and stepped on Shūsuke Amagai's Zanpakutō as it slashed down, directly stomping it into the desert sands of Hueco Mundo.

"Is this your sword technique? There's no form at all, you don't even know how to properly grip your sword, and you're only exerting about thirty percent of your strength at most..."

"Not to mention, you can't even control the force of your attacks, and your attack trajectories are so straightforward. With skills like this, can you even call it a sword technique?"

During the time Shūsuke Amagai was unconscious, Ailin had already created his Zanpakutō, "Raikahyo."

After absorbing Shūsuke Amagai's combat memories through "Raikahyo," Ailin realized that his foundations were far too lacking.

Perhaps it was because Shin'etsu Kisaragi had died early, leaving the fleeing Shūsuke Amagai without any proper guidance.

His sword techniques were all honed through over two hundred years of battling in Hueco Mundo.

While such sword techniques might be fine for fighting Hollows, this incorrect path would naturally have a low ceiling.

After over two hundred years later, when Shūsuke Amagai fought against the Substitute Shinigami Ichigo Kurosaki, he was only barely able to gain a slight advantage after achieving Bankai, and that was without Ichigo using his "Getsuga Tenshō."

Ailin wanted to repay the debt of Shin'etsu Kisaragi sparing his life by teaching Shūsuke Amagai. If he couldn't train Shūsuke Amagai to surpass the strength Ailin remembered from his father, how would that count as repaying the favor?

Moreover, since Shūsuke Amagai was in the Expeditionary Force in Hueco Mundo, he had never come into contact with Kidō and had not trained in it.

At the very least, Ailin hadn't obtained any memories related to Kidō from the Zanpakutō "Raikahyo's" memories.

"Damn it!"

Shūsuke Amagai gritted his teeth, unable to refute the cloaked man's taunts. Lies have never hurt anyone, but the truth is the sharpest blade.

"Sever, Raikahyo!"

With Shūsuke Amagai's roar, his Reiatsu suddenly increased by more than three times. The Zanpakutō in his hand also transformed.

The front portion of the Zanpakutō became a crescent-shaped hook, with raging flames erupting from within this hook. Then, under Shūsuke Amagai's control, these flames spread along the entire blade of the Zanpakutō.

Rumble! Boom!

The hilt at the back of the Zanpakutō also began spewing bursts of flame-like shockwaves. With each burst, Shūsuke Amagai could use the force of the explosive flames to pull his Zanpakutō out from under Ailin's foot.

"Rairenhō!"

Boom!

Following Shūsuke Amagai's roar, the fireball within the crescent hook at the front of Raikahyo suddenly exploded, engulfing both Ailin and Shūsuke Amagai.

Bang—

Bang, bang, bang, bang—

Within the dozens of meters high explosive flames, a figure was blown away by the shockwave, skipping across the desert sands like a skipping stone, with remnants of fire trailing behind. After rolling several times in the desert, the flames finally extinguished.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

At this moment, Shūsuke Amagai's entire body was burned, and being hit by the Rairenhō explosion at such close range had also caused him severe internal injuries.

However, his gaze towards the center of the explosion now held a glimmer of anticipation. Surely, after taking such a close-range hit from him, that man couldn't be unscathed, right?

But in the next moment, Shūsuke Amagai's eyes suddenly narrowed. As the smoke from the explosion cleared, all that remained was a blackened crater over three meters wide.

Shūsuke Amagai wasn't so arrogant as to think that his Rairenhō, which had severely injured himself, could completely obliterate that man.

The more likely scenario was that before the explosion reached him, the cloaked man had already fled from the center of the blast.

"Not bad determination. However, to use such a mutually destructive technique without even understanding the difference in our strengths, should I praise your courage or mock you for being foolish?"

As expected, the cloaked man's voice rang out beside Shūsuke Amagai. Turning his head to the right, he saw that the cloaked figure didn't have a speck of dust on him.

"Heh, if I'm not mistaken, that just now was probably my best chance to land an attack on you, right? I don't believe I'll have another opportunity to hurt you besides that. It was precisely because I realized the gap between us that I resolutely launched that attack. But now it seems..."

Shūsuke Amagai shook his head, as if he had lost all his strength, and collapsed to the ground.

"My life is here, if you want to take it, then come and get it!"

"It seems I underestimated you."

Hearing Shūsuke Amagai's words, Ailin chuckled. Then, he walked over and squatted in front of Shūsuke Amagai, extending his right hand.

"Before I die, could you tell me who sent you to kill me? The strongest Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, or someone else?" Shūsuke Amagai closed his eyes, resigning himself to his fate.

"Kid, you think too highly of yourself, don't you? Do you really think someone like you warrants the Captain-Commander sending someone to kill you?"

Ailin laughed lightly as his hand emitted a green healing light, treating Shūsuke Amagai's injuries.

"Hm?"

Hearing Ailin's words, Shūsuke Amagai was puzzled.

This cloaked man wasn't here to kill him?

Before he could ask, his entire body felt as if it were soaking in a hot spring, warmth spreading through him. Moreover, the pain from his injuries rapidly faded away, and even his fatigue seemed to vanish.

Opening his eyes, Shūsuke Amagai saw the green light in the cloaked man's hand.

"Healing Kidō?"

Although Shūsuke Amagai was still young when he left the Soul Society, he knew that only healing Kidō emitted a green light.

Judging from how quickly his injuries were healing, this cloaked man's healing Kidō proficiency was quite high.

"Just who are you? What is it you want to do?" At this moment, Shūsuke Amagai was utterly confused.

What did this cloaked man want to do? He had abducted Shūsuke Amagai from the Expeditionary Force's camp, treated him like that, and now he was healing his injuries...

"Shin'etsu Kisaragi was your father, right?" Ailin's casual words immediately made Shūsuke Amagai break out in a cold sweat. It seemed his identity had been exposed.

"Don't be so tense, kid. I owed your father a favor, and since he's gone, I'm repaying that favor to you instead.

For the next three days, I'll guide you here. As for how much you can learn from me, that's up to you. From now on, your father and I will be even, owing each other nothing."

After saying that, Ailin withdrew his spiritual power.

Shūsuke Amagai also noticed that the injuries he had sustained from his Raikahyō Explosion had completely healed.

"Whew..."

"Such healing ability, there are probably very few people in the Seireitei who could do this."

In the over twenty years since joining the Expeditionary Force in Hueco Mundo, Shūsuke Amagai had seen the Shinigami there use healing Kidō before.

But compared to this mysterious cloaked man, their healing prowess was like a firefly next to the moon. It was fortunate that this cloaked man wasn't his enemy.

"Kid, how long do you plan to lie there? I told you, the favor I owe your father is only enough for me to stay here for three days. If you want to spend that time lying around, I'll be more than happy to easily repay a favor."

Hearing those words, Shūsuke Amagai quickly stood up and bowed to Ailin. "Please, sir, I ask that you guide me."

"Kid, since we only have three days, my guidance will focus more on the basics. In these three days, remember as much as you can."

It was different from Byakuya. Byakuya was Ailin's nephew after all, and Ailin already favored him greatly. When teaching Byakuya, Ailin had even released his Bankai, using battle to ingrain the four Shinigami combat disciplines into Byakuya's very instincts.

There was no need for such dedication when teaching Shūsuke Amagai. Of course, that didn't mean Ailin would be perfunctory.

"Yes."

For Shūsuke Amagai, who had been training alone in Hueco Mundo, he knew how extravagant it was to receive guidance from a powerful expert.

His father's playful teachings had allowed him to complete his Shikai training in just over twenty years. Even for Bankai, Shūsuke Amagai remembered his father teaching him how to cultivate it better.

This mysterious cloaked man before him likely wasn't weaker than his father.

"Since time is limited, my focus for you will be on swordsmanship, with some flash steps and hakuda as well. I won't cover Kidō at all.

Swordsmanship, as the name implies, is the art of using your Zanpakutō to cut down your enemies. Before a swordsman practices their sword swings, they must first learn how to 'grip the sword'.

Someone who can't even hold their sword steadily, how can they unleash powerful slashes? Only the grip most suitable for you will allow you to swing your sword in the fastest and strongest way, exerting your full power."

In the following time, Ailin started from the basics of gripping the sword and step-by-step laid the foundations of swordsmanship for Shūsuke Amagai.

After Shūsuke Amagai found his most comfortable grip, Ailin then guided him through the most basic sword swinging techniques one by one.

Just on swordsmanship, Ailin spent two full days and nights teaching Shūsuke Amagai.

Shūsuke Amagai knew that guidance from a powerful expert was an extremely rare opportunity, so he didn't even sleep.

As long as Ailin was still teaching, he kept practicing. It was fortunate that both Ailin and Shūsuke Amagai were Shinigami of certain strength, so not sleeping for a few days didn't significantly impact their bodies.

"I've taught you everything I can about swordsmanship. How far you can cultivate it in the future mainly depends on your own efforts. Today is the last day, and my plan for you is to teach you flash steps during the day and hakuda at night."

"Yes, teacher."

A hint of regret flashed in Shūsuke Amagai's eyes, but he obediently sheathed his Zanpakutō.

These two days of swordsmanship training made Shūsuke Amagai feel that his strength had increased significantly. Now, with swordsmanship alone, he could easily defeat his former self from two days ago.

If before, Shūsuke Amagai felt he could only secretly survive in the Expeditionary Force, then these two days of learning made him feel that as long as he continued cultivating according to the teacher's guidance, avenging his father might not be an impossible task.

When Shūsuke Amagai called him "teacher," Ailin denied it.

He only wanted to repay the debt from when Shin'etsu Kisaragi had spared him and the others. He had no intention of taking Shūsuke Amagai as his disciple.

However, even if Ailin rejected him, Shūsuke Amagai directly stated that in his heart, Ailin was his teacher, and Ailin didn't need to acknowledge him as a disciple.