Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Stage One Shikai
Chapter 9: Stage One Shikai
A massive Spiritual Pressure circulated within his body, and a surging, explosive power filled him, temporarily suppressing the pain.
"For our first Shikai, our synchronization rate isn’t high enough yet," the girl Akame’s voice echoed quietly beside Yato’s ear.
"End this quickly."
Hearing this, the three tomoe within Uchiha Yato’s eyes began to spin rapidly.
The world seemed to shift into slow motion.
The sweat dripping from the tip of Yuma Horiuchi’s nose, the rapid twitching of Yosuke Horiuchi’s arm muscles, the dust dancing in the air of the basement stirred up by the Spiritual Pressure...
Everything became visible down to the finest detail.
Akame’s Stage One Shikai granted Yato the full power of a standard Sharingan.
One tomoe, two tomoe, three tomoe—it depended entirely on the output of his Spiritual Pressure.
In a life-or-death moment like this, it naturally had to be three tomoe.
BOOM!
Uchiha Yato’s muscles bulged and instantly tensed, shattering the wooden posts behind him and propelling him forward to land securely on the ground.
Then, he pulled out the Asauchi embedded in his chest.
Under the Sharingan’s exceptional kinetic vision, it took only a single glance for him to capture every detail of this Zanpakuto.
The blade had a slight curve, the hilt wrapping was a deep crimson, the kurigata (knob) was made of horn, and the tsuba (handguard) was a classic, dark hexagonal prism.
Elegant, and deadly.
This was once a nameless sword, an initial Asauchi.
Now, it possessed its own name.
Akame.
Gripping his Zanpakuto, [Akame], with one hand, Uchiha Yato charged ferociously at the Horiuchi father and son.
"Fall back!"
Yosuke Horiuchi shouted loudly, the blade in his hand thrusting toward Yato’s neck.
Even before it touched his skin, the youth could feel a searing pain.
Yosuke Horiuchi was a former sixth-year student at the Shin’o Academy and had received the most orthodox training in Zanjutsu. This strike was incredibly precise, its intent overtly clear: force the enemy to defend.
However, this confident strike ultimately hit empty air.
Yosuke Horiuchi smelled a heavy stench of blood wafting from behind him, and heard Yato’s apathetic voice:
"Too slow."
"Fa... ther..."
Yosuke Horiuchi turned his head in shock, only to see his son’s body cleaved in half.
The youth named Yato stood with his sword lowered. His face held neither anger nor the thrill of vengeance.
Those crimson Sharingan eyes contained only absolute calm.
Caught between terror and fury, a strange thought abruptly surfaced in Yosuke Horiuchi’s mind:
When I casually execute commoners in the Rukongai, am I also this calm?
However, he only had the time for that thought to surface; he had no chance to dwell on it.
Because Akame’s blade had already sliced across his throat.
Blood sprayed, and his head fell.
The head and the heir of the Horiuchi clan had met their end, one after the other, under Uchiha Yato’s blade.
Yato tapped his toe lightly, flipping the scabbard from Yuma Horiuchi’s waist into his hand before tying it to his own.
The spinning of the three tomoe gradually slowed, revealing a clear sense of exhaustion.
"Huu..."
Yato let out a soft breath, feeling his brain begin to spin with dizziness.
Tonight, he had first slaughtered ten assassins from the Kusajishi district, then suffered heavy injuries fighting a lower-seated officer from Squad 9, and endured no small amount of suffering in the Horiuchi family’s basement.
Even though calling out Akame’s true name had drastically amplified his Spiritual Pressure and suppressed his injuries, it was only a temporary measure.
What he needed to do most right now was to recuperate and rest his body for a good while.
But Yato couldn’t.
Because that hurricane-like Spiritual Pressure appeared above him once again.
"Squad 9, 17th Seat. Kentaro Koizumi..."
A cold gleam flashed through Uchiha Yato’s eyes. Taking large strides toward the stairs, he pushed open the basement exit and saw the night sky again.
The moonlight was still radiant.
Holding his Zanpakuto, Kentaro Koizumi stood in the center of the training grounds, quietly watching Yato emerge from the basement.
The Seated Officer was surrounded by corpses.
The servants, relatives, and guards of the Horiuchi clan had all died by his sword.
Blood dyed Kentaro Koizumi’s shihakusho an even deeper shade of black.
Anyone who could become a Seated Officer was a core pillar of the Gotei 13. Hailing from the front lines, his mental fortitude was immense. Even after killing so many, Koizumi’s expression remained completely unchanged.
"From the moment I sensed the eruption of Spiritual Pressure underground, I started killing."
He paused, his eyes sweeping over those crimson Sharingan as he couldn’t help but praise:
"It really is Shikai. I don’t know what happened down there, but from the looks of it, the Horiuchi family and I messed with the wrong person."
Uchiha Yato gave no response. Instead, his eyes locked onto the man’s movements as he closed the distance rapidly.
His injuries were too severe; he couldn’t drag this out. Just as Akame had said, he had to end this quickly!
As for why Kentaro Koizumi had ruthlessly silenced everyone, it wasn’t a difficult question to answer.
Upon sensing the Spiritual Pressure detonating below, Koizumi understood that Uchiha Yato would inevitably kill the Horiuchi father and son, blowing this entire matter wide open!
Regardless of the outcome, the death of a lower noble house’s patriarch and heir would absolutely draw an investigation from the Central 46.
Intercepting and attempting to murder a new student of the Shin’o Academy, forging an acceptance letter... these were capital crimes.
For the sake of his own safety, silencing all witnesses was an inevitable necessity.
The process of exterminating them was abnormally easy, even exceeding Kentaro Koizumi’s expectations.
The Horiuchi clan was never known for their Spiritual Pressure or martial prowess. After moving away from the Seireitei, they shifted their focus entirely toward business.
Wealth without sufficient power to protect it was as fragile as wet paper.
"As long as I kill you, no one will ever be able to trace this back."
Watching the youth walking toward him, Kentaro Koizumi’s killing intent soared to its absolute peak.
At a specific moment, both of them erupted with power, their bodies vanishing from their original spots!
CLANG!
Their Zanpakuto collided, unleashing a series of ear-piercing metallic screeches.
"A special type that directly reinforces the physical body?"
Koizumi shouted loudly, his eyes locked firmly onto the Sharingan.
He had used Shunpo to boost his speed and executed a familiar kendo style to amplify his Zanjutsu’s destructive power, yet he was still being suppressed by this rookie who hadn’t even enrolled yet.
Yato couldn’t be bothered to answer. He simply continued to shift, slash, and charge, engaging Koizumi in brutal close-quarters combat.
Bluestone slabs were pulverized under their tremendous force, and fresh blood constantly splattered onto the ground.
The two fought with reckless abandon, pushing themselves to the absolute limit to slay the other.
At a critical opening, Yato seized the moment, violently raising his leg and driving his knee directly into Kentaro Koizumi’s face.
CRASH!
Koizumi was sent flying backward like a broken ragdoll, only coming to a halt after smashing completely through a building.
Yato absorbed the recoil force and, without pausing for even a second, bolted madly toward Koizumi’s position!
The Sharingan granted him peerless kinetic vision, and his surging Spiritual Pressure skyrocketed his physical capabilities to entirely new heights.
In a pure clash of blades, a lower-seated officer was no longer his match.
However, Uchiha Yato only sprinted forward twenty-odd meters before halting in place, advancing no further.
In the ruined building ahead, a thick cloud of dust filled the air.
An overbearing Spiritual Pressure roared like a hurricane.
Using his Zanpakuto as a makeshift cane, Kentaro Koizumi limped out from the wreckage.
"What a truly extraordinary genius. If you manage to survive tonight, you might even become someone on the level of a Lieutenant... What a pity..."
He spat out a mouthful of blood and smeared it across his Zanpakuto with his hand, his soul resonating with the blade—
"Reap, Blood Scythe!"
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