"So... you were just having Captain Unohana cut you up so you could deeply experience the mysteries of Kaidō healing yourself?"
Sosuke Aizen's expression turned strange after hearing Luke's explanation. "Have you become addicted to getting cut?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Who gets addicted to having their heart sliced open by a lightning-fast slash?"
Luke was speechless. To prevent Sosuke Aizen from getting even stranger ideas, he had just explained the situation and asked him to keep it confidential.
After spending two months together, Luke could not vouch for much, but he could at least say that Sosuke Aizen knew how to keep his mouth shut. He probably would not spread it around.
"But I have heard that cries of 'Teacher, please do it again' often come from the Kaidō classroom after school."
Sosuke Aizen delivered that line with a perfectly straight face.
Luke's expression froze. "That is because I desperately want to improve... Wait! Who exactly told you about that?"
Sosuke Aizen swept his gaze across the classroom. "At Shin'o Academy... there is probably no one who does not know. It has become one of the academy's Seven Mysteries."
"Huh? This academy has Seven Mysteries?"
Luke was stunned again. Weren't school legends supposed to be something found in middle schools and high schools in the World of the Living? Usually involving ghosts or something. But these were Soul Reapers. They were into this too?
"Yes. Have I never told you, Luke?"
Sosuke Aizen solemnly listed them off. "The bloodstained bamboo sword in the equipment storage room; the Asauchi that disappears at midnight; the dormitory where Reishi grows thinner after nightfall; the white mouse that never stops bleeding; the rice that vanishes from the cafeteria late at night; the staircase whose floors keep changing; and... the Kaidō classroom that gives off strange sounds after school."
Luke pressed a hand to his forehead. He had to hand it to the students of Shin'o Academy. Whether they were humans or Soul Reapers, it seemed no one could escape the guilty pleasure of gossip.
And he really wanted to point out that, of those Seven Mysteries, Sosuke Aizen was clearly responsible for some of them too!
The Reishi in the dormitory becoming sparse at night was obviously because this training maniac was draining it all!
"Luke, about the cafeteria rice at midnight..."
Before Sosuke Aizen could finish, Luke raised a hand and shook his head, firing back in one breath, "Absolutely not me!"
After that little interruption, he and Sosuke Aizen settled down and resumed resonating with their Zanpakuto. Though Sosuke Aizen was merely going through the motions—he had long since achieved Shikai.
Luke had gained a great deal during his two months at Shin'o Academy. Not only had the levels of his various combat specializations risen, but he had also mastered a whole pile of skills.
For example, [Utsusemi], the advanced Flash Step technique he had won from Yoruichi; the Soul Reaper Kaidō he had learned from Unohana; and the various Binding Spells and relatively practical Hadō spells he had picked up in Kidō class.
His Kaidō had already reached a respectable level. Now Captain Unohana only needed to handle the cutting; Luke could perform the healing himself, though his speed still needed work.
A fatal wound running from his left shoulder to his waist could now be healed in just ten minutes. If he joined the medical division as support, that level would already be more than adequate.
But Luke wanted to use it in the middle of combat, and for that, it was still far too slow. At minimum, he needed to instantly recover from minor injuries and heal severe wounds within a few breaths.
He was not considering fatal injuries for the time being. No matter how quickly he trained his Kaidō, if an enemy could inflict a fatal wound on him, he would probably be beyond saving anyway.
If possible, Luke wanted to reach the point where even severe wounds could be restored in an instant. That would give Kaidō tremendous practical value in battle.
But that goal still seemed far away. At the very least, he doubted he could reach that level during his stay in this world.
Of course, his current training was far from useless. Kaidō could already be applied to combat on a basic level, and he could heal injuries to his body quickly.
As for Spiritual Pressure, it was not that Luke was slacking off. He simply did not want to become a flashy fraud who possessed nothing but attributes.
His master had taught him this before: he did possess the beauty of raw, absurd stats, but that was only compared to ordinary people. If he relied solely on brute force, then one day he would suffer when he encountered a true master.
That was why cultivating martial skill was his highest priority. He had already learned how to train Spiritual Pressure and could practice it whenever he wanted, but missing out on a place like Shin'o Academy—where he could freely acquire high-quality techniques—would be a terrible waste.
More importantly, he had analyzed his mission. If he wanted to clear Shin'o Academy quickly, he would probably have to face some kind of special examination.
The examiner's Spiritual Pressure would definitely be higher than his, but they probably would not bully him by relying on that advantage. Therefore, what he most needed to improve right now was his overall skill.
Still, over the next while, he would ask Captain Unohana to go a little easier on him. His Kaidō had already reached a solid foundation, so there was no need for their after-school instruction to be so intense every day. That would preserve enough stamina for him to start grinding at night again.
Luke lowered his head and looked at the Asauchi resting before his knees. For the past two months, he had tried to resonate with it every day, but every attempt had failed.
He did not think it was because his Spiritual Might rank was too low, nor because he lacked the talent to resonate with a Zanpakuto. Rather, something deep within his soul seemed... strange.
He examined his heart and stared into his soul. Facing that boundless violet-black expanse felt like gazing into an abyss.
The deepest he had ever looked, he had felt as though he were falling. Terrifying roars seemed to echo beside his ears.
"Sosuke, what was it like when you first heard your Zanpakuto's voice?"
After some thought, Luke decided to ask Sosuke Aizen.
"My Zanpakuto's voice?"
Sosuke Aizen opened his eyes. He had not actually been resonating with his blade; he had been training his Spiritual Pressure. "A Zanpakuto's voice is the voice of our own soul. I have somewhat forgotten what mine said to me the first time."
Luke did not believe for a second that Sosuke Aizen had forgotten. More likely, he simply did not want to reveal such private information, so Luke phrased the question differently.
"Does a Zanpakuto speak like a person? Is its voice calm or violent? Gentle or terrifying?"
Sosuke Aizen gave Luke an odd look. "A Zanpakuto is a reflection of one's own soul. Unless you hate yourself, it generally should not bear hostility toward its owner. As for whether it speaks like a person... Luke, aren't you human?"
"Of course I am human."
Luke's face darkened slightly. He understood what Sosuke Aizen meant. Normally, a Zanpakuto would obviously speak in human language—unless Luke himself was not human.
After all, a Zanpakuto spirit was born from its owner's soul. Their linguistic knowledge should naturally be the same. Even if Luke knew many foreign languages, it would still count as human speech if his Zanpakuto spoke one. It should not be saying something he could not understand at all.
But that was precisely the problem. Amid those terrifying roars, he seemed to have heard several faint, incomprehensible whispers.
"Then, Luke, do you hate yourself?"
Like a psychologist, Sosuke Aizen seriously began analyzing Luke's problem.
Luke fell silent for a moment, recalling the life he had lived before entering Endspace.
He had had no parents since childhood. His master had taken him in when he was still an infant, and in this life, there had only been two people he truly cherished.
One was his master.
The other was his senior sister.
But both of them had died before his eyes.
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