"Oh, you've already said it's impossible—so what's the point of competing at all?"
Kurosaki Rei found Yoruichi rather amusing. Was this the strange way nobles' brains worked?
Yoruichi was momentarily at a loss for words. Looking at Kurosaki Rei's face only made her more annoyed—it was somehow even more infuriating than her lazy childhood friend.
"Then… how about this," she said. "You run half the course, I run the full course. We'll see who finishes faster. That's fair enough, right?"
After a brief pause, she added, "And although it's basically impossible—but if you really do win, then in the future I'll… I'll call you big brother."
Kurosaki Rei raised a hand to his chin, imagining Yoruichi calling him that with a face full of reluctance and embarrassment. Mm… better not. He didn't have that kind of weird taste.
"That won't be necessary," he said. "If I win, just teach me some advanced Shunpo techniques."
Kurosaki Rei's goal was very clear. He hadn't come into this mission world to tease little girls. What he wanted was Yoruichi's advanced Shunpo technique—Utsusemi.
From its depiction in the original work, Utsusemi was clearly different from ordinary Shunpo. It was a near blink-level movement technique.
Yoruichi frowned slightly at his request. She hadn't expected Kurosaki Rei to be so studious and motivated. But thinking it over carefully, with this wager she really couldn't lose.
If she won, she'd reclaim her pride and make this high-profile transfer student obediently call her "big sis" in the future. And even though it was practically impossible—if she somehow lost, she'd still end up as Kurosaki Rei's teacher. Come to think of it, that sounded pretty satisfying too.
"Alright. It's a deal."
Yoruichi nodded and beckoned to Kurosaki Rei. "I'll teach you the basics of Shunpo first."
Kurosaki Rei stepped forward and began receiving Yoruichi's hands-on instruction.
To be honest… Yoruichi's teaching ability was pretty terrible—on a completely different level compared to Aizen. Heaven and earth apart.
The fact that Ichigo managed to learn anything from her really spoke to his exceptional comprehension.
That said, despite her poor teaching skills, Kurosaki Rei still understood everything. Fortunately, he had extremely strong absorption when it came to martial techniques.
"So that's how it works. I'll give it a try."
Under "close personal guidance" from Instructor Yoruichi, Kurosaki Rei felt he'd grasped the key points and moved to the side of the training field.
The core theory of Shunpo revolved around footholds. By relying on instantaneous muscular explosive force, one advanced in a straight line from one foothold to the next. Simply put, this footwork wasn't particularly flexible and required both footholds and advance planning of the destination.
Based on Shunpo's principles, the testing field for this class was segmented. Each foothold to the next was one segment, about twenty meters long. The entire course consisted of ten segments—two hundred meters total.
Yoruichi's proposed competition was simple: she would run the full 200 meters, while Kurosaki Rei would run 100 meters. Whoever finished faster won.
Standing in position, Kurosaki Rei focused his mind and calmed his breathing. He lowered his stance slightly, the muscles in his calves tensing and bulging, like a beast coiled within.
In the next instant, power surged like a tide. The reaction force generated after he drove power into the foothold gave him explosive acceleration. He shot forward, almost flying, and crossed the distance in a blink, arriving at the next foothold.
After stabilizing himself, he glanced at the display screen to the side, which recorded the time for that segment:
0.973 s
Seeing the number, Kurosaki Rei frowned slightly. Shunpo hadn't given him a massive leap in speed. Under normal circumstances, after accelerating to top speed, he could already run twenty meters in about one second.
And this was just a single segment—yet his calves already felt slightly sore. That meant Shunpo, at least in its current form, wasn't a technique he could use continuously for long periods.
"Oh? Not bad."
Yoruichi looked a little surprised. Not only had Kurosaki Rei succeeded on his first try, but considering his spiritual pressure level, his speed was already above average within the Academy.
She stepped lightly and appeared beside Kurosaki Rei in an instant. The number on the screen read:
0.491
Kurosaki Rei fell into thought. He realized he'd fallen into a mental trap just now.
It was true that he could run twenty meters in one second—but that was after accelerating. The advantage of Shunpo was that it allowed one to reach peak speed instantly, compressing the acceleration phase of normal running into an almost negligible amount of time.
It was a burst-movement technique, extremely suitable for emergency repositioning or chasing down an enemy in combat.
As for Yoruichi's Shunpo just now—it completely crushed his. And he could clearly feel that she was deliberately suppressing her spiritual pressure to roughly his level.
This girl wasn't cheating him at all. Her Shunpo mastery was truly on another level. Her speed wasn't determined by "stats," but by technique.
Worthy of the future title "Flash Goddess." Kurosaki Rei sighed inwardly—but he had no intention of giving up on the wager. After all, that had been his first-ever attempt at Shunpo. He still had room to improve.
After repeatedly practicing Shunpo, the soreness in his legs gradually lessened as he began to grasp the technique more precisely.
After about twenty attempts, Kurosaki Rei stopped practicing. Instead, he sat down and closed his eyes in meditation.
"Hey, there are only twenty minutes left until class ends. You're not going to keep practicing? At this rate, you're definitely going to lose~"
Yoruichi said cheerfully as she stood beside him, her brows filled with amusement. She was in an excellent mood. Kurosaki Rei might be a genius, but in Shunpo, she had completely crushed him.
Although Kurosaki Rei had improved with practice, the progress wasn't particularly dramatic.
"Don't worry. I never go back on my promises. I'll accept the result of the competition," Kurosaki Rei said, waving his hand dismissively, as if shooing away a fly. "Let me have some quiet time."
Yoruichi didn't get angry. In her eyes, victory was already guaranteed. Anything Kurosaki Rei said or did now just sounded like the barking of a defeated dog.
Kurosaki Rei sat there cross-legged. In his mind, another version of himself appeared, repeatedly reenacting the entire Shunpo process. He himself merely watched, observing muscle contractions and the flow of power.
At the exact moment the bell rang to end class, Kurosaki Rei opened his eyes.
Yoruichi, standing nearby, felt that something about him had changed. Those pitch-black eyes seemed deeper than before.
But she didn't dwell on it. Instead, she walked straight to the starting point and, under the gaze of many onlookers, moved.
Afterimages rippled through the air. There was almost no sound. A moment later, Yoruichi's figure solidified at the finish line.
On the display screen at the end point, a string of numbers appeared clearly:
4.396 s
She came to a stop just as quietly, her dark-purple hair gently fluttering.
Elegant. Too elegant.
Even Kurosaki Rei couldn't help but admire her. No wonder she served in the Onmitsukidō—with Shunpo like this, she could kill without sound or trace.
"Your turn, little brother."
Yoruichi stood at the finish line and crooked her finger at Kurosaki Rei. Even her form of address had changed—she clearly believed she'd already won.