"Maybe my Zanpakuto is just unusual. This attempt failed, but thank you anyway, Sosuke."
Luke got up to wash up. This time, during his "conversation" with his Zanpakuto, he had vaguely grasped something. It had not been a total loss.
After rinsing off, Luke stepped out of the bathroom and looked at Aizen, who was already dressed in his uniform and preparing for class.
"Sosuke, can you help me try again? I feel like hypnosis really can work."
Aizen paused mid-step. "You are not going to class?"
"No. The Captain-Commander will not be teaching either, and there is only so much I can learn in class. The urgent thing is to attain Shikai."
Shin'o Academy did not take attendance, and perfect attendance would not earn anyone a passing grade. In the end, only the final examination results mattered.
"This method is dangerous, Luke. You experienced that yourself. Even so, do you intend to continue?"
Aizen looked at Luke with a grave expression.
Luke met his gaze and nodded. "Sosuke, passing this assessment is important to me. More important than you realize."
"All right. Then I will stay in the dorm and train with you."
Aizen set down the bag containing his calligraphy supplies, his face full of helpless resignation. "But let us be clear: if your Spiritual Pressure loses control, I will call a teacher."
Luke grinned. "Thanks, Sosuke. I owe you one."
Aizen smiled as well. "You already owe me quite a few favors."
...
"Still no good?"
Aizen glanced at the sky beyond the window. Sunrise was nearly here, and today was the day of the final examinations.
For the past two days, he had used Kyoka Suigetsu to hypnotize Luke in their dorm room, guiding him into the depths of his soul again and again. Yet every time, Luke said he had been "kicked" out.
Based on Aizen's understanding of Zanpakuto awakening, however, Luke was not so much being expelled as choosing to leave on his own.
Aizen still held the same view as before. Luke himself was resisting that power.
He considered himself somewhat versed in psychology. From Luke's descriptions, Aizen believed that cage represented Luke's closed-off heart, while the imprisoned demon god represented the restraints he had placed upon himself—the imprisonment of his own power.
"Luke, unless you can resolve that inner conflict yourself, no matter how strong your Spiritual Pressure becomes, I am afraid you will never attain Shikai."
Aizen sighed. He had not expected this outcome. He had thought that with Kyoka Suigetsu's help, someone as talented as Luke would attain Shikai easily.
Regret lurked in his gaze as he watched Luke. Aizen had thought he had finally met another genius like himself, someone without a single weakness. Yet Luke could not awaken his Zanpakuto. In a sense, that had locked the upper limit of Luke's potential as a Soul Reaper.
After a moment of silence, Luke waved a hand. "It is fine. You have already helped me a great deal, Sosuke. I think I may have figured out what is going on with my Zanpakuto."
Aizen looked pleasantly surprised. "Oh? Did you manage to communicate with it? There is still some time. Shall we try once more?"
Luke shook his head. "No. While there is still time, I am going to rest and get myself into condition. I have no idea who my special examiner will be today."
"Fair enough. Get some sleep. You can probably rest for another three hours. I will bring you something from the cafeteria."
Aizen did not think Luke had given up. He was now intensely curious whether Luke could break through this assessment.
"Thanks, Sosuke."
Luke did not stand on ceremony. He dropped onto the bed and immediately fell asleep. A hard battle awaited him today, and he needed to bring his mind to its peak.
Three hours later, Luke woke exactly on time. The table was already covered with food Aizen had brought back, but Aizen himself was gone. He had likely headed to the examination hall first.
After quickly washing up, Luke tore through the meal, replenishing the energy his body needed.
Once he finished eating, he checked the time and jogged toward the examination hall.
The dorm supervisor had informed him yesterday that although he was challenging the early graduation assessment, he still had to take the standard exams. Only after completing every required course assessment would he face the "final trial."
Just as he had anticipated, aside from passing the final trial, there was one other requirement for early graduation: attaining Shikai.
Even if he passed the examiner's trial, he still could not graduate unless he learned his Zanpakuto's true name and released its Shikai.
Luke glanced at the black-sheathed, white-hilted Asauchi at his waist.
Getting to keep you really will not be easy.
Items obtained in a mission world could not be brought out unless they were mission rewards.
And if he wanted to take this Asauchi with him, he had to learn his Zanpakuto's true name and attain Shikai. Put simply, he had to bind this Asauchi to himself.
As Luke entered the examination hall, he checked his current status.
[Explorer No. 404040404's base attributes are as follows:]
[Constitution: 18 points (+1)]
[Strength: 17 points (+1)]
[Agility: 18 points (+1)]
[Spirit: 24 points (+2)]
[Charm: 6 points]
[Luck: 1 point]
Over the past month, he had spent a great deal of time and energy on his Zanpakuto, so his physical attributes had not improved much. His Spirit attribute, however, had risen another two points. By now, he should qualify as a fairly competent Rank 16 in Spiritual Might.
"Is this the composure of a genius challenging early graduation? Showing up this late—you really are relaxed."
The moment Luke entered, he heard a teasing voice. It was Yoruichi.
Luke rolled his shoulders. "It is not a timed written test. Arriving a little late does not matter."
The first examination was Hakuda, scored through a direct evaluation by the examiner.
Before long, it was Luke's turn. The instructor responsible for the Hakuda assessment gave him a complicated look, then awarded him full marks without even testing him.
Luke was not surprised. During an earlier Hakuda class, this instructor had sparred with him in hand-to-hand technique—and lost.
Next came the swordsmanship examination. Unsurprisingly, another perfect score.
Perfect marks in Hadō.
Perfect marks in Binding Spell.
Perfect marks in Kaidō.
Perfect marks in Flash Step.
Rank 16 Spiritual Might.
Many of his classmates had been waiting to watch the show, so they courteously let him test first. Even so, by the time he finished every course, it was already afternoon.
Following the instructions of the teacher from the final examination, he headed for the final assessment room on the top floor of the academy building.
Few people came to the academy's top floor. Most of the instructors' offices were located there, along with several locked rooms no one could enter under normal circumstances.
Luke now stood before one such room. A massive plaque hung above the door, weathered enough to be an antique. Two characters had been written upon it in heavy, forceful strokes: Genryu.
When Luke knocked, the sliding doors drew apart, revealing the room beyond—and the woman seated cross-legged before a tea table.
Retsu Unohana, Captain of the Fourth Division.
Sosuke, this is one hell of a winning draw.
The corners of Luke's mouth rose unconsciously. He could already feel the battle blood in his veins beginning to boil.
From the perspective of his mission, he had undoubtedly drawn the worst possible lot. But from his own perspective, calling this a winning draw was not wrong either.
As expected, his single point of Luck had to count as exceptionally high.
Luke removed his wooden sandals and stepped into the tatami-floored Japanese room. Behind him, the doors closed and locked.
At the same time, he sensed an unusual force field filling the room. It was likely Kirio Hikifune's handiwork.
Once someone entered this room, their Spiritual Pressure would be restricted. Unless they unleashed enough explosive Spiritual Pressure to destroy the installed device outright, the highest Spiritual Pressure they could exert here was fixed at Rank 16.
It seemed the Captain-Commander's orders carried weight. The people below had acted quickly and taken this assessment seriously enough to give him relative "fairness."
At the very least, he did not have to worry about a captain getting too caught up in the fight, forgetting to suppress her Spiritual Pressure, and crushing him outright.
At Unohana's silent gesture, Luke slowly approached the tea table and sat down, his expression calm.
"This is the examination room I selected. It is also one of the Captain-Commander's tea rooms."
Unohana's voice was gentle as her pale hands moved expertly across the tabletop, arranging the tea utensils.
Luke surveyed the room. The Captain-Commander's fondness for tea was well known. He enjoyed tea gatherings and was said to hold one each month for the First Division.
But this did not seem to be a room for those gatherings. Though it was a large Japanese-style room, nearly two hundred square meters in size, only a single tea table stood in the center of all that open space.
A huge painting hung on the wall beside them. It depicted a fierce tiger and a savage demon. Its brushwork was bold and grand, yet sharp with a chilling, murderous edge.
They say dragons and tigers contend. Today, a tiger and demon will kill each other.
Luke sat on the tiger's side, watching Unohana handle the tea set without speaking. For a time, the room was utterly silent.
Unohana appeared highly accomplished in the art of tea. Every movement carried an almost artistic grace.
She used a silk cloth to wipe the tea caddy and tea scoop one by one, then warmed the bowls, rinsed the whisk, and wiped the tea bowls clean.
It was as though she had not come today as an examiner to battle Luke, but to meet a friend over tea.
In the wide Japanese room, fragrant tea simmered slowly over the brazier. Wisps of steam curled from the kettle's spout, spreading like clouds between the two people seated across from one another.
Within this small space, there was no scent of blood-soaked killing intent. The only fragrance in the air was the calming aroma of tea.
Unohana turned a freshly prepared cup of tea and slowly pushed it toward Luke. Neither of them spoke. The scene was as still as an old silent film, touched by an inexplicable Zen-like serenity.
Luke accepted the cup, blew lightly across its surface twice, then drained it in one swallow and set the cup back on the table.
The sound of porcelain touching the rosewood tabletop seemed to shatter the silence—and somehow make it even deeper.
Unohana did not drink the tea before her. Instead, she set a fresh kettle of water to boil. Her narrowed eyes slowly opened, and she met Luke's gaze across the tea table.
Like ancient swordmasters meeting on a narrow road, their invisible auras had already begun to collide.
Author's Note:
The novel has finally received a recommendation slot. As a new author, I would greatly appreciate your support through follow-up reads, monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, chapter comments, and any other engagement that can help this book reach the new-release rankings.
To show my sincerity, I will post three updates daily during the free period, totaling seven to eight thousand Chinese characters a day. I hope for everyone's support.
I am also running a bonus-update event for the free period:
1. One extra chapter for every additional 200 monthly tickets, including the tickets already received.
2. Three extra chapters for each Alliance Leader.
New books have word-count requirements for recommendation placement, and seven to eight thousand characters per day is already my limit. All owed chapters will be repaid after the premium launch. I will guarantee at least ten updates that day and do my best to clear all owed chapters immediately, followed by continued mass updates!
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register