Kido

Kido (Demon Arts) is a form of Shinigami combat based on advanced spells. These spells are produced with strong Reiryoku and fall into two categories: Hado for direct attacks, and Bakudo for battle support. It is one of the four basic fighting styles of the Shinigami. Kido spells are triggered by an incantation. Experienced users can trigger them without an incantation, though the effectiveness of the spell may be diminished.

Most spells are graded on a scale from 1 to 99, spells of the latter being the most powerful and the most difficult to perform. To use Kido, a Shinigami must recite the specific incantation for the spell, which is often long and requires a few seconds to speak.

There are three main types of Kido: binding spells, destruction spells, and healing spells.

Bakudo (Binding Spell): Supplementary spells which can immobilize an enemy or have an effect besides a direct strike.

- Barriers (Kekkai): Focused spiritual energy formed into a solid form of energy. This energy can take on many shapes or colours as determined by the user. Barriers are protective in nature, and can be as simple as a barrier only protecting one direction or encompassing all sides of an area. Barriers can be used for containment, and some barriers can be used offensively. Barriers can mask spiritual pressure and can make one spiritually and physically invisible.

- Seals (Fū): Somewhat similar to barriers, but far more powerful and require far more preparation to create. Seals can only be used by those of sufficient spiritual power and are meant to hold the most powerful and/or dangerous artifacts or beings. Seals are usually hard to break.

Hado (Path of Destruction): Offensive spells which inflict direct damage to the enemy. Their effectiveness differs depending on the user. It is said the effectiveness of the higher-ranked spells are beyond imagination.

- Gisei Hado (Sacrifice Path of Destruction): A particular offensive spell like Ittō Kasō that requires the user to sacrifice a certain portion of themselves in order to use it.

Kaido (Turn Way): Also known as chiryoyo kido (Healing Spiritual Arts). These spells do not have known names, numbers, or incantations to cast, and simply heal the target. When one heals with regular healing kido, they perform Reiatsu restoration first. By doing so, one can attempt to recover the physical body using the patient's restored Reiatsu and the healer's external Reiatsu. Therefore, restoring the Reiatsu when the physical body is in a fully healed state is no trouble at all.

Kido can be categorised in four stages:

Untrained – Those in this category, possess no skill for kido

Practitioners – Practitioners of the technique can use kido ranging from 1 to 30 in any category

Experts – Experts of the technique can use kido ranging from 1 to 60 in any category and can use incantation abandonment for at least 50% of the kido

Masters – Masters of this technique can use all the kido