Chapter 018: Chantless Kido
It came up from the ground without warning.
The attack was instant, and almost no one in the area had time to react at all.
This one was nothing like the first Hollow. It was built like a person -- four limbs, upright shape -- but the body stood close to four meters tall. The arms were enormous, all mass and reach. The legs were shorter by comparison, out of proportion in a way that read as vaguely gorilla-like.
Strange-looking. Almost ridiculous.
Until you looked at the head.
After that, no one had any more room for dismissiveness.
The mouth was extreme in a way that went beyond description -- or rather, it was a description, in the most literal sense. The face had something approximately human about it, but there were no cheeks. The mouth had been torn open, two splits running all the way back to where the ears should have been. When it opened, the entire upper jaw lifted -- hinged like a crocodile's, peeling back to reveal a throat that had clearly already seen use.
Thick ridges of teeth, trailing wisps of heat. A smell underneath it, iron and rot, the kind that meant whatever had gone in there had not come back out.
Two Hollows. Working together. How was that possible?
"Watch out!"
Someone shouted it, too late.
Even with the warning, two students couldn't clear the reach in time. The Hollow's fingers closed around them -- a sharp crack of bone giving way, clean and horrible -- and it pulled them toward its mouth, bathing in the sounds they were making.
High appetite type. Compared to standard Hollows, this category displayed stronger aggression and sharper combat instincts, partly a product of extended conflict with Shinigami over time. The longer something like this stayed alive, the worse the problem got.
"Someone help them! Anyone!"
"Support -- use Bakudo, bind it!"
"There isn't time! A full chant takes too long, and anything low-level won't push through its defense!"
Not far away, Kishinoshin's palms had gone damp.
"Yoruichi-sama, we should--"
The words formed and then stopped in his throat.
She outranked him. Whatever he felt about the situation, this was ultimately her call. She'd guaranteed it would be fine. If she decided not to move, there was nothing his voice was going to accomplish.
"It's fine, Kishinoshin. Relax."
WHERE is this confidence coming from?!
Two students on the edge of being killed. And then --
A streak of white-blue light cut across the gap and landed cleanly against the Hollow's face.
A brief, sharp hiss.
Then the report came -- a contained, percussive crack, like a small explosive detonating directly inside its mouth.
The Hollow screamed. It lurched backward, both students tumbling free as its grip went slack. One hand slapped at the ruin of its jaw. The sounds coming from it were raw and ugly.
Then Matsushita Yusuke was visible.
Right hand extended at shoulder height. Index finger slightly raised. A faint trace of light still fading at the fingertip.
Hado #4: Byakurai.
The skill he'd built up, the one that had crystallized in class and been waiting for exactly this moment.
[Basic Master: For Kido numbered 10 and below, chant can be reduced without affecting power output, enabling rapid casting.]
Even with the hit landing, Matsushita Yusuke didn't ease up. His eyes were already moving, scanning left and right, and his voice came out at a volume that cut through the noise.
"Stop standing there. Get them out now!"
Two Hollows. To shut both down, everyone had to work together.
The first one -- the big tadpole shape -- was already turning toward the group. Matsushita Yusuke assessed fast and landed on his answer quickly.
Close-range combat was out.
He'd been watching the other students through the entire approach, and what he'd seen was consistent. No one here had real close-combat experience. That wasn't an insult -- it was just the product of training with wooden practice blades for years. No live experience, no instinct, no reliable read of an actual fight.
The only move that reduced the damage was distance. Pull everyone back. Cover from range.
Suppress with volume. Don't let them get close.
Matsushita Yusuke's mind was already on the next action.
"I'm taking point. Everyone else covers!"
Both arms came up simultaneously.
Left hand spread flat, pressing down toward the ground at distance. Right hand curled into a blade-pointing shape, two fingers extended, a short jabbing gesture.
Hado #5.
The air compressed and punched outward, catching the tadpole-Hollow mid-charge. The impact didn't take it down, but the forward momentum stopped. It staggered, slowed -- which was the point. A full-powered hit against a normal spirit at that range would have sent them thirty feet sideways. Against this thing, stalling was the realistic target.
Keep them off close range. That's enough.
While the left hand held the line, the right was already moving.
Hado #9.
A sharp crack and a hiss. In the moment after, a deep crimson arc of electricity snaked out and connected with the second Hollow's head, driving it into the damage it had already taken from the first hit.
The thing's footing went uneven. Another raw, ugly sound from somewhere inside it.
Against a tree, that strike would have split the trunk -- three people's arm-span in diameter, cut through cleanly. Against this, it got a stumble and a pained reaction.
That was the gap between a Hollow's physical threshold and a normal target's. The kind of understanding that couldn't come from a classroom. Matsushita Yusuke kept adjusting his mental model in real time -- using what was in front of him to calibrate, to make the numbers match what was actually happening.
"Everyone on Kido, push both of them back! Stay out of reach -- no injuries, no one dying!"
Matsushita Yusuke had taken command of the situation somewhere in the middle of all of this, without announcing it or being voted in. He'd just become the one talking, and no one had anything to say against it.
Across the rubble field, the two observers had a very different conversation going.
"How did he do that?"
Kishinoshin was staring. He said it again, slowly, making sure he hadn't missed something.
"He didn't... chant. Did he?"
Using Kido required speaking the incantation. That was the rule. It applied to virtually everyone, up to and including himself.
But sometimes there were exceptions.
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