Mechanics of Bleach - Footwork

[Shin - Zantetsu]

What's up all, just wanted to place a theory on what I think the differences between Shunpo, Sonido and Hirenkyaku are. What I do know is that they are definately not the same in their nature or mechanics. Here we go.

Shunpo - Used by the Shingami is an actual stepping technique, it seems to involve redirecting spiritual power to the feet to boost the speed and distance of a 'single step' to the point that anyone that hasn't been trained enough in following such a quick opponent cannot even see the movement, only the end result. It involves movement through the immediate environment and that results in the WOOSH or TSWAF or whatever such sound is usually associated with it. The length and distance depends on the skill, experience and power of the Shinigami using it. Also, since Shunpo is actually a single step tech, skilled Shinigami like Yoruichi, Byakuya, Soifon and others can chain multiple flash steps together, by executing another step immediately the first step ends. I remember Yoruichi saying something ages ago when she took Ichigo and escaped from Byakuya about her being able to execute two hundred steps without breaking a sweat in her prime (something along those lines, it was ages ago I'll have to go check it out again.)

Sonido - Sonido is a completely different movement and is not so much a technique as it is an abiltity. It involves the movement in and out of a very weak version of the Caja Negaccion generated by the Menos using it themself. As you already know the Caja Negaccion sends the user in to a dimension not on the same plane so they end up seemingly intangible and unable to interact with anything on the current plane of existence and likewise nothing can interact with the individual.
Sonido, I believe involves:
1. Moving in to a weaker version of this generated by the user( since Menos Grande can actually use Negaccion).
2. Covering the desired distance on this plane.
3. Returning to the current plane in the corresponding location.

This, though unexplained, synchronizes extremely well with what we've seen so far. Here's how:

1. As the user exits this dimension and becomes intangible, there is a vacuum left by the suddenly non present mass which results in the popping or buzzing sound as air rushes in to fill the void hence the term 'Echoing movement' as the sound is left behind where the character was before.

2. The moment character has exited the plane, they are technically not present anymore and thus have become 'Spiritually Invisible' resulting in no possible way to track said user until they return to current plane.

3. The user becomes visible both physically and spiritually the moment they re-enter the plane and the suddenly present mass displacing the air in the space they just occupied causes another BAAMF or BUZZ or whatever you wanna call it as they break out of this weak modified Negaccion.

Hirenkyaku - There's not much to explain here as I think Ishida already did before (to Orihime in SS, or was I dreaming?). This technique is not a step at all.
Quincies can't uses spiritual energy to augment their mobility even though they have high agility and reflexes. What they can do however is gather external spiritual particles and energy very quickly and manipulate them.
This is a movement in which a platform of spiritual particles is created under the users feet and rapidly moved to another location with them standing on it. A sort of extremely rapid 'Spiritual Skateboard' on which he can still use his arrows.
This explains how he could use it to blitz Mayuri even when his whole body was paralysed and also the way he appears to slide through the air during his high speed feats.

As can be seen above thes are all extremely different techniques with their own pros and cons even though the speed at which they operate makes them seem similar. None of them are superior, it all depends on who's using it.

E.g. Uryuu can hirenkyaku pretty fast but I'm sure Ryuuken can still burn him for now. Hirenkyaku's advantage comes in the fact that the Quincy's body is free to do other things (Aim and shoot) while they stand on their moving platform and it requires no direct physical effort. (Shunpo users need to step hard and Sonido users need to use their own movement speed to cover distances within their alternate dimension.)

As I said before, some shinigami can Shunpo, then they have to Shunpo again while Yoruichi and Soifon can map-hack and chain them all over the place (because, there's Shunpo, then there's WTF-SHUNPO!!!)

Sonido, while awesome with lack of detection doesn't seem easy to chain. Some stronger individuals will Sonido faster and further than others but the only individual shown to be able to chain or add extra steps in is Zommari le Roux. It's a good nerf because if all Sonido users could do that it would be excessively hax. (We can all laugh at his Pumkin release but he was pitted against Byakuya for plot reasons, else he woulda been skewering many a slower shinigami without having to even release.)

Well there you go, what do ya think? As usual all opinions and your own ideas welcome.

[Undying]

K, you got everything right, I got nothing to say, bye...

xD

No seriously, you have the entire thing right (and I agree with the Sonido idea, since apparently Arrancars use the Pesquisa to detect Sonido-users, when Ulqiorra says "he got through my Pesquisa!" when Ichithing went medieval on his ass.

I think that varying Shunpo/Sonido techniques leave behind a molded mass of reishi that is the tangible after-image, either by leaving another object as the basis for it (a piece of cloth of the Utsuemi technique, for example), or just a mass of reishi that feels solid until it evaporates.

Sonido techniques like Gemelos Sonido probably function on the same idea, only with your void theory, it simply means allowing some of the body to remain within the normal realm, outside the Caja Negacion, thus allowing for creating multiple clones.

I also assume that Soi Fon's bunshins work on the same principle.

Quincy get some of the easy part, enabling them to literally surf around on reishi when in dense spiritual atmosphere like in HM.

Arr.

[Shin - Zantetsu]

@Undying - i agree with the idea of the reishi constructs what evaporate. i think like moulting cicada, one leaves an empty outer shell of reishi and make it convincing by leaving and article of clothing as an after effect of slipping out of said shell. zommari perhaps does a powerful version of the same thing while jumping in and out of the custom negaccion and changing position constantly. the time it takes for them to dissipate means that at his max speed only five be present at a time. i like your idea.

[Kurouno]

I believe this is a very well put-together theory, but I'm going to have to disagree on the Sonido analysis. If the user were dimension-jumping, I'd think they'd be a lot harder to block and defend against. Chad's powerup would most likely not have allowed him to defend against Gantenbainne's attacks. Also, if they could actually dimension-jump, they could simply do an attack that gives them forward momentum, dimension jump, and reappear just outside of their effective range while leaving time to defend against said attacks. Theoretically, it would completely overpower someone's reflexes in that manner.

Speaking of reflexes, if Sonido granted the user a temporarily undetectable state, an opponent, a Shinigami for example, would have to have superior reflexes that surpass the Arrancar's attack speed in order to keep up, don't you think?

Considering the theme of duality between Shinigami and Arrancar, I personally don't think there is much of a difference between Shunpo and Sonido, other than the sounds effects being made, and that is probably just a result of the way their Reiatsu is composed. Besides, Hitsugaya's group wouldn't have been able to detect Grimmjow's group moving around until they reappeared, if that were the case, and Hitsugaya clearly called the movement of the two Arrancar before they appeared to attack Matsumoto and himself, while Rukia was able to check their movements.