Forbidden Kido

The meeting went smoothly. Most of the agenda was talking about the various pranks that Yachiru had ordered the members to do and new pranks she came up with. Orihime was happy to be involved but didn't say a lot.

[75% Dormancy… Undergoing First Transformation… Host Unconscious in 1 minute.]

The message came abruptly causing Orihime to panic. The meeting was almost over and people began chatting. She got up and some turned their heads to look.

"I'm feeling a bit tired, I will head back first. Enjoy the rest of the treats."

Although faking a smile, Orihime was upset. She wanted to stay and chat with the others.

Cutting it down to the second, she was just able to get into her room and close the door before falling unconscious. Orihime began to dream of random things that had happened the last few months, scenes from places she didn't recognize, and just completely nonsensical events.

When she woke up, she wiped her mouth as drool had accumulated. Orihime slid the door open slightly and saw that it was the middle of the night. She was most likely not asleep for more than a day otherwise some of the staff would have checked on her.

'Hogyoku, what happened?'

[Improved Abilities and Enhancements:

-Spiritual Power Growth: +1 per 20 days -> +1 per 15 days

-Superior Spirit Control: +25% -> +40%

-Race (Enhanced Human) -> (Spiritual Human)

-Race Adjustments: Lifespan 500 years -> 3000 years]

'Woah, that's a lot more detailed. I want to test out the difference but I'm still too tired… What has my power reached to anyway?'

[Spiritual Power: 10]

'Not bad, a third of the way to captain-level.'

…

The next day, Orihime attended the academy normally, while pondering the information from last night. The growth improvement was explained as the rate at which her power grew during recovery. Essentially it just directly sped up her spiritual power growth.

Race change was strange to Orihime. She always assumed that Soul Reapers were just souls of powerful humans that attain spirituality and become strong. However, hogyoku seemed to imply that they are a race. This explains why souls are able to procreate in the Soul Society.

She wanted more details on the origins of the races, but all of that was higher-order knowledge, which she didn't have access to. A change in lifespan didn't seem very relevant due to how large it was, but it was a silent comfort to know it was so long.

The thing that confused her the most was spirit control. Orihime's control over her spiritual power was always over ninety percent so she didn't understand how an increase of fifteen percent would affect her. Although hogyoku now lists her control at one-hundred percent she couldn't really fathom what that meant.

Once classes were over, she made her way to the Kido training area. There were often students here trying to get some practice in and today wasn't an exception. When she arrived, many recognized her and wanted to watch her techniques.

Kido was understood to use a portion of the surrounding spirit particles when activated. This is why there is such a large margin of error for weaker Kido users. The environmental factors were a difficult hurdle to overcome when using Kido. However, Orihime was stunned after casting Red Flame Cannon.

Not only did she not use an incantation, but she had full control of the Reiatsu, and even a significant portion of the spirit particles enhancing the art. She suddenly realized the implications of having control over the limit. While controlling all of the spiritual power in her body was impressive, controlling all of the spirit particles in the air would be ground breaking.

The Kido she had invented along with professor Shishige came to mind. She quickly circulated the Reiatsu using the method they created and Orihime realized the problem before. The difference between a few percent of control was astounding.

The reason this Hado needed captain-level strength is because it implied a decent level of control with enough spiritual power, one could fuel it with just their Reiatsu alone. However, with Orihime's above perfect control, she could manipulate the particles to maintain a stable beam.

The training dummies and the wall behind them turned molten from the sheer heat of this Kido. Orihime was so shocked, she hadn't notice her hand was singed from the residual heat of maintaining the beam.

The training arena was created with some of the densest spirit particles in Soul Society. The only way for them to be destroyed like this would be the power of a rank seventy or higher Kido. After a few moments, she finally heard the students around her.

"Are you okay? Your hand is burned."

Looking down, she realized where the pain was coming from. The fingers that maintained the trajectory of the Kido were charred black and her palm was red and blistering. If not for the spiritual limiter, she may have lost her hand from the power of that Kido.

She nodded to the students and walked to the medical support facility with a blank expression. When she arrived, the professors in charge were stunned. They immediately treated her hand and after several hours, Orihime was finally able to go back home.

"That is definitely an upper seventy or even eighty ranked Hado. I was only putting out twenty percent of my spiritual power and it still caused such collateral damage.

If I used all of my strength and included an incantation to boost it, the power would be unbelievable. A student creating a Kido like this… It's sure to impress even the Captain-Commander."

Although incantations were created as a tool to make casting easier, this was just at the lower end. Once a practitioner was powerful enough, they could naturally forgo the incantation to increase its speed. However, the brilliance of an incantation is the exponential increase in power of the Kido.

Orihime only understood this in theory, but had discounted it due to her high control. After confirming the importance of controlling the spirit particles in the environment, she was able to figure out incantations' purpose.

Even someone with great control could benefit from an incantation. If Orihime used a low rank Kido with incantation, the output could rival a non-incantation Kido several tens of ranks above it. After the initial shock wore off, all that remained was pain and excitement.

Spending the rest of the day pondering, she decided on a completely original name—Demonic Piercing light, Makanko.

…

The next day she arrived early to share the good news with her professor but instead found a squadron of the punishment force arresting him. Additionally, they were confiscating all of his research related to the space Kido they had been working on.

Orihime was always aware that the Kido they were suggesting would push the envelope on forbidden classification, but the punishment was for use. She never heard of someone being punished for researching.

That was when she saw professor Shishige being carried out on a stretcher with a large section of his body gone. There were no wounds or blood, it was just gone. What Orihime did not know was that her offhanded comment of expanding the Hakusui using the dimensional pocket theory had sparked greed in him.

For so long, Shishige was a waste. Even though he lived for over a thousand years, he knew his lifespan was reaching the limit. He was being sustained by daily healing Kido. When Orihime hinted at the potential to expand the Hakusui, he began working without rest.

Finally completing it, he used it on himself. At first, it worked and he could feel his spiritual power growing. However, his millennia of torment weighed heavily on his mind. He kept expanding it, until it cracked causing him to falter. Space was torn and separated from the realm, causing a large section of his torso and arm to simply disappear.

Having detected this anomaly in space, the stealth force and punishment force were sent to investigate. Once it was discovered that Shishige had used space manipulation, it was branded as forbidden and he would face imprisonment. Although, given his condition he was essentially sentenced to death.

Orihime only learned of an abridged version from the headmaster when he explained the removal of Kido Theory from the curriculum. However, having spent so much time with professor Shishige, she assumed he was unable to resist testing the Kido, which led to this situation.

Classes ended and Orihime remained sulking. She did not want to return home but she also did not want to remain at the academy. She pondered going back to the world of the living, but realized that would be too foolish.

"Orihime… Saiko, Oshino, and I were planning to attend a festival out in the districts. Do you want to join?"

Orihime looked up to see the three of them standing there with worried faces. Her relationship with professor Shishige was well known to the sixth-years. Having lost a mentor was no simple thing. She nodded unconsciously and simply followed them without speaking a word.