C18 Ten Bamboo Spiritual Pressure

"Great wine!"

Taku deftly uncorked the bottle and, after inhaling deeply, bellowed his approval.

His spirited demeanor was so striking it left onlookers agape.

Yet, confronted with the aromatic allure of millennium-aged wine, many couldn't resist swallowing hard in anticipation.

Even Kyoraku Shunsui, having snapped back to reality, felt compelled to caution Shiba Taku to take it easy.

This was, after all, a rare vintage from Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni's personal collection, possibly one of a kind, and even he hesitated to partake.

In the vast examination hall, only Aizen and Ichimaru Gin, who were there to stir the pot, managed to remain detached.

Their purpose was to probe whether Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni still harbored a grudge over events from a century ago.

Their suspicions, it appeared, were confirmed.

Yet, they considered Yamamoto's tactic of using an oblivious pawn in this game to be a poor play.

But Yamamoto could hardly be faulted, considering that not just Kaien Shiba but another member of the Shiba Clan had met with misfortune.

For one family to suffer two such incidents was bound to raise suspicions.

Aizen, aiming to keep Taku out of the Gotei 13, had acted preemptively to avoid publicly employing his hypnotic Bewitching Mirror Flower again, which might expose his scheme.

He intended to make Taku an unpredictable element in his machinations.

"Wife, care for a sip? It'll warm you up on this chilly day," Taku offered generously after savoring the wine's bouquet, making his way over to Lucia.

Lucia watched Taku, still not sobered from his inebriation, as he continued to drink.

His repeated endearments of "wife" were enough to make her seethe.

She had resolved to deny their connection, but now, with him approaching, she found herself inextricably bound.

And with Kyoraku's scowl darkening by the moment, Lucia realized there was no escaping the situation.

"Damn it, how dare you be so brazen, completely disregarding the rules of the Shinoreijutsuin? Today, I'll make an example out of you," Abarai Renji seethed with anger.

The audacity of calling someone "wife" in such a bold and disrespectful manner was like a ruthless trampling over the bond of childhood friends.

Renji, whose temper flared more intensely than his stern-faced big brother, couldn't tolerate such provocations.

To avoid further entanglement with the drunken Taku, Renji, who had already stepped aside, executed Flash Steps, vanishing in an instant and reappearing right in front of Taku.

Witnessing the seated death god lash out with a ghostly swiftness, everyone present immediately realized that trouble was brewing.

Curiosity painted the faces of many onlookers, eager to see how the drama would unfold.

To them, it seemed a foregone conclusion: a seated death god taking down a drunken, three-bamboo-spiritual-pressure kid would be a cinch.

"You wretched fool, if you won't come to your senses on your own, I'll just have to snap you out of it myself."

Renji lunged for the sake bottle in Taku's grip while his other hand flew towards Taku's cheek in a furious swipe.

"Renji, stop!"

Lucia's voice rang out in a desperate plea.

She wasn't defending Taku; her intervention was solely to uphold Ukitake's promise.

The last thing she wanted was for the already ailing Ukitake to face repercussions because of this incident.

"What's this? My 'wife' being harassed?"

Taku's brow furrowed, and with a fierce glare from his bleary eyes, his long black hair stirred as if caught in an unseen breeze. A chilling and indescribable aura began to emanate from him, growing more intense by the second.

Boom!

His spiritual pressure erupted violently, like a raging tide.

The resulting whirlwind morphed into shockwaves that rolled outwards, leaving a palpable sense of suffocation in their wake.

Renji, caught in the direct path of the onslaught, was hammered by the ferocious power as if struck by a massive mallet.

He was sent tumbling through the air.

Crucially, his trajectory was aimed straight at the testing machine.

Boom!

A dull thud echoed as the impact reverberated.

The testing machine shuddered under the force, its screen's numbers whirling until they finally came to rest.

"Clang, 709, Seven Bamboo Spiritual Pressure, top of the class!"

The testing machine emitted an emotionless chime, shattering the silence that had enveloped the arena. As the scarlet digits flashed on the display, a wave of shock rippled through the crowd, the spiritual pressure hitting them like a physical force. The number was a stark contrast to the one Ichimaru Gin had revealed earlier; what was expected to be a mere three bamboo had skyrocketed to seven—a staggering discrepancy.

"Did you just harass my wife? You're asking for a beating!" Taku's voice cut through the tension abruptly.

Abarai Renji, who had been transfixed by the machine's alert, was staring intently at the screen. He hadn't anticipated that a drunken man could cover the span of ten meters so swiftly and confront him face-to-face. Taku, with a swig of liquor fueling his vigor, clenched his fists and lunged forward, his spiritual pressure tangible and fierce, wrapping around his fists.

A sense of impending doom blossomed within Renji. As the fist loomed larger in his sight, and he scrambled to formulate a defense, his vision blurred. When he regained his senses, he found himself whisked away by Kyoraku Shunsui.

Boom! The sound of an explosion reverberated like thunder, and a wild gale once again swept across the testing hall. Accompanied by the crisp sound of shattering, the once stationary punching machine was sent flying like a ragdoll, eventually crashing into a wall dozens of meters away. The impact was so severe that it punctured the wall, leaving the testing area in disarray. The machine, now visibly damaged, was embedded in the wall.

The sudden turn of events left everyone in the arena dumbfounded. Some rubbed their eyes in disbelief, hoping to clarify whether the scene before them was reality or illusion. But no matter how much they rubbed, the scene remained vividly before them.

Caught off guard by Kyoraku Shunsui's timely intervention, Renji was filled with surprise. Yet, in that moment, he had no time to worry about making a good impression on his future brother-in-law or to offer any polite thanks. His gaze returned to the testing machine, urgency etched on his face.

"1000, Ten Bamboo Spiritual Pressure!" The mechanical voice, now hauntingly hollow, resonated throughout the testing ground, refusing to fade. As the crowd stared at the four scarlet digits locked on the screen, their pupils shrank in shock. They turned to look at Shiba Taku, still reeling from his inebriation, with faces etched in disbelief.

Right now, the one thought likely dominating their minds was simply, "Damn."