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Contentio
I would throw in Sasaki Kojiro from Record of Ragnarok into contention. Reasoning below:
Thousand Image Defense
Sasaki Kojiro has spent his entire life, and a good portion of his time in Heaven, honing his natural skill for 'visualizing' opponents (in order to fight and best them without actually fighting) and perfected it into the Thousand Image Defense. Summed up, he mentally simulates every single eventuality in battle against a perso based on analyzing their combat style (or even simply how they walk, breathe, and hold themselves if they're not being kind enough to show off for Sasaki).
Of note, this is all 100% innate skill and not something esoteric. He just is this goddamn good, good enough to dodge or deflect hundreds of attacks that are explicitly FTE to him from an opponent moving so fast their afterimages form a dome around Sasaki
He can also utilize it offensively as a form of combat precog, seeing the next attack from a massively FTE-to-him opponent and actually attack back in a timeframe such that his foe is nearly caught offguard, and also being able to weave through FTE attacks by the dozen to blitz his superior foe. The god of war, Ares, also comments that Sasaki is actively reading thousands of steps ahead in the midst of combat
Also, there's the fact that Sasaki can use this ability and 'Scan' things without even sight, and scans all of creation at once, proclaiming himself capable of copying even the techniques of Gods after a single battle with Poseido
Nito Ganryu Style
Sasaki in his life was canonically a single-sword wielder, preferring an overly large nodachi. However, in death, he kept using his image-training to copy the man who bested him in battle, Miyamoto Musashi, and emulate him so well that the man's own son believed Sasaki was Miyamoto
Sasaki also has, according to Miyamoto (whom most other swordsman thought was Humanity's best representative of 'Swordmaster' against the Gods in this tournament), perfectly burned every swordstyle of every opponent he's ever faced into his Nito Ganryu Style, exceeding the point of being mere 'imitation'
Summatio
Sasaki Kojiro, a 9-B combatant, is capable of perfectly copying techniques with mental image-training, can dodge hundreds if not thousands of FTE blows at once with his Thousand Image Defense, and generally he's never going to be hit by a foe unless said foe is so absurdly faster than Sasaki that his seeing thousands of attacks ahead in combat and perfectly knowing, for a fact, what his opponent is about to do will not aid him.
Further, unless his foe is somehow immune to....skill in general??....Sasaki is going to slowly start stealing their techniques for his own, and simply surpass them. Sasaki only needs them to exist and his scanning prowess will apply, seeing how as eyesight isn't even necessary.
For all these reasons, I think Sasaki should be in contention for most skilled
Contentio
I would throw in Sasaki Kojiro from Record of Ragnarok into contention. Reasoning below:
Thousand Image Defense
Sasaki Kojiro has spent his entire life, and a good portion of his time in Heaven, honing his natural skill for 'visualizing' opponents (in order to fight and best them without actually fighting) and perfected it into the Thousand Image Defense. Summed up, he mentally simulates every single eventuality in battle against a perso based on analyzing their combat style (or even simply how they walk, breathe, and hold themselves if they're not being kind enough to show off for Sasaki).
Of note, this is all 100% innate skill and not something esoteric. He just is this goddamn good, good enough to dodge or deflect hundreds of attacks that are explicitly FTE to him from an opponent moving so fast their afterimages form a dome around Sasaki
He can also utilize it offensively as a form of combat precog, seeing the next attack from a massively FTE-to-him opponent and actually attack back in a timeframe such that his foe is nearly caught offguard, and also being able to weave through FTE attacks by the dozen to blitz his superior foe. The god of war, Ares, also comments that Sasaki is actively reading thousands of steps ahead in the midst of combat
Also, there's the fact that Sasaki can use this ability and 'Scan' things without even sight, and scans all of creation at once, proclaiming himself capable of copying even the techniques of Gods after a single battle with Poseido
Nito Ganryu Style
Sasaki in his life was canonically a single-sword wielder, preferring an overly large nodachi. However, in death, he kept using his image-training to copy the man who bested him in battle, Miyamoto Musashi, and emulate him so well that the man's own son believed Sasaki was Miyamoto
Sasaki also has, according to Miyamoto (whom most other swordsman thought was Humanity's best representative of 'Swordmaster' against the Gods in this tournament), perfectly burned every swordstyle of every opponent he's ever faced into his Nito Ganryu Style, exceeding the point of being mere 'imitation'
Summatio
Sasaki Kojiro, a 9-B combatant, is capable of perfectly copying techniques with mental image-training, can dodge hundreds if not thousands of FTE blows at once with his Thousand Image Defense, and generally he's never going to be hit by a foe unless said foe is so absurdly faster than Sasaki that his seeing thousands of attacks ahead in combat and perfectly knowing, for a fact, what his opponent is about to do will not aid him.
Further, unless his foe is somehow immune to....skill in general??....Sasaki is going to slowly start stealing their techniques for his own, and simply surpass them. Sasaki only needs them to exist and his scanning prowess will apply, seeing how as eyesight isn't even necessary.
For all these reasons, I think Sasaki should be in contention for most skilled