"So it's you, Arata."
When Soi-Fong saw who was coming, her eyes slightly sparkled and with a quick hand gesture, she signaled the Onmitsukidō soldiers to withdraw.
"What is it, has our great genius finally found time to report to the 2nd Division today?" Soi-Fong smiled lightly, a hint of anticipation in her tone.
"Captain Soi-Fong, you're teasing me. I really was overwhelmed with work earlier. I just finished a task for the Captain-Commander today, and I came straight to you afterward." Arata scratched his head and answered with a crooked smile.
He said many kind words, simultaneously showing how busy he was and how much he respected Soi-Fong.
"Alright, if it's related to the Captain-Commander, then it's understandable." Soi-Fong nodded when she heard that, and the slight dissatisfaction she had toward Arata gradually faded.
She crossed her arms and eyed Arata from head to toe. "Since you're already here, let's begin. Let me see just how capable this once-in-a-century genius truly is."
Arata skillfully took off the upper part of his shinigami uniform, revealing a tight black vest underneath.
Soi-Fong's gaze lingered on his muscular build for a moment, then moved away as if nothing had happened.
"Let's start with the basics, single shunpō." Soi-Fong walked to the center of the field. "Watch closely."
As soon as she finished speaking, her figure suddenly vanished.
Arata's pupils slightly contracted, his perception of spiritual pressure was fully open, but he managed to catch only a barely visible trace of a silhouette moving at high speed across the training ground.
"So fast! She truly is worthy of being the commander of the Onmitsukidō and 'Flash Goddess'." Arata exclaimed internally. This speed far surpassed what she had shown during the battle in Hueco Mundo.
Although Soi-Fong's shunpō wasn't on Yoruichi's level, she too was a master of stealth and mobility, and far stronger than Arata.
After a short time, Soi-Fong reappeared in the same spot, and there wasn't even a trace of disturbed breathing on her face. "Did you see clearly? Now it's your turn."
To Arata, those words sounded like: "You've already learned 1+1=2, now let's go straight to solving advanced calculus!"
But now it didn't matter anymore, he could only try and rely on his own talent.
Arata took a deep breath, mentally repeated the key points of Soi-Fong's movements, simultaneously tensed the muscles in his hips and legs, and shot forward like an arrow fired from a bow.
"Boom!"
With a dull thud, Arata almost smashed into the wall of the training field.
Fortunately, at the crucial moment, he quickly lifted his fingers from the ground and braced against the wall, barely managing to stabilize himself, then looked back at Soi-Fong.
The good news was that his physical condition had significantly improved compared to before, and with a simple effort, he could leap two hundred meters in an instant.
The bad news was that his shunpō skills couldn't keep up with his physical strength at all. Before his mind could even react, his body had already flown forward on its own.
"Just as I expected." Soi-Fong immediately shook her head, a small, knowing smile on her lips. "Even back during teacher training, I noticed that you had excellent physical qualities and talent for shunpō, but..."
Soi-Fong shifted the topic: "You truly lack systematic instruction, so your technique is a disaster. You're just relying on raw power."
"Back when you were in Hueco Mundo, your body wasn't yet this strong, so you could still manage to keep things under control. Now you can't control your speed at all, can you?"
Exposed, Arata awkwardly touched his nose. "Uh… is it really that obvious?"
Even though he himself was aware of the problem, the feeling was completely different when he heard it directly from Soi-Fong's mouth.
"Of course." Soi-Fong approached, placed her hands on her hips, and raised her head, looking up at Arata from below, with her chin lifted and chest out.
If someone on the side had seen this, the sight of a one-and-a-half-meter person and a two-meter-twenty person standing face-to-face would have looked utterly comical.
"The way you use power is completely wrong at least when it comes to engaging the muscles in your hips and legs."
"Even though I can see you're trying to precisely control your spiritual pressure output, right now you're just a complete beginner, I'd say... "
Soi-Fong narrowed her eyes. "You've been putting all your focus into kendo and the use of your Zanpakutō, haven't you?"
Arata's heart trembled for a moment. As expected of a professional, Soi-Fong had a sharp eye, instantly seeing through his weaknesses in speed and movement.
"Captain Soi-Fong is right," he admitted honestly, "ever since I awakened my Zanpakutō, I've really put most of my time into training in that direction."
Soi-Fong quietly snorted through her nose. "No wonder the Captain-Commander specifically requested that I train you well. Looks like even our genius has areas where he doesn't quite shine."
Arata awkwardly scratched his head and didn't say anything. Although his current performance was lacking, as long as he had proper guidance and enough training, the Soul King bloodline talent would eventually break through on its own.
Suddenly, she extended her hand and lightly touched Arata's chest with her fingertips. "But it doesn't matter. Since you've come to the 2nd Division, I'll teach you everything I know."
Whenever Soi-Fong saw Arata's purple hair and bronze skin, the image of a woman who once meant a lot to her would always surface in her mind.
Arata flinched slightly.
A trace of nostalgia and complex emotions flashed in Soi-Fong's eyes, but she quickly returned to her usual stern expression.
"Alright, enough talk." She stepped back.
"If you don't properly master the basics of shunpō today, don't even think about going home!"
---
Ten hours later, under the bright moon and sparse stars.
When he returned to the Kendo club, Arata immediately took a hot bath.
As he let the water wash the soreness from his muscles, he mentally repeated the shunpō techniques he had learned from Soi-Fong that day.
"Ding!"
The system's notification sound suddenly rang out.
[Due to your actions, Soi-Fong's fate has slightly changed, you have gained 145 destiny points.]
Arata was slightly surprised. Why did the system suddenly evaluate Soi-Fong's fate?
He had only spent one day practicing shunpō with her. Could that already affect her destiny?
"Shhhhhh—"
Arata stepped out of the bath, water droplets rolling down the lines of his muscles.
As he reached for the towel hanging on the rack, he suddenly sensed a wave of spiritual pressure from outside, behind the window.
"Who's there?!"
With just one thought, his Zanpakutō appeared in his hand. At the moment when the bathroom door trembled from his spiritual pressure, Arata had already completed Meigetsu's Shikai.
The dark purple flame burned in the moonlight, aimed directly at the black shadow that had appeared on the windowsill at some point.
"Meow~"
A loud, lazy meow echoed through the room, and a completely black cat was gracefully licking its paw.
Golden feline eyes shimmered in the night, curiously observing the naked man in front of it.
Arata's pupils suddenly contracted.
If he had seen this black cat anywhere else, he wouldn't have made such a fuss.
But this was the world of the Shinigami, and a black cat usually meant only one person.
He calmly got dressed, then took out an item from the system space that he had once won in a lottery [Strange Catnip].
"I really didn't expect Lady Yoruichi to visit me so late at night." Arata put away his Zanpakutō and looked at the black cat with mild surprise.
As soon as she heard the word "Yoruichi", the cat's ears immediately perked up, but she soon pretended to be calm, tilted her head, and looked at Arata as if she didn't understand a thing.
Before that, he hadn't been a hundred percent sure, but after that reaction, Arata immediately confirmed in his mind, the black cat in front of him was the woman named Shihōin Yoruichi.
He sprinkled the catnip into his palm, and the rich scent instantly filled the entire bathroom.
The black cat's tail unconsciously began to sway left and right, and in the next moment, the cat jumped straight at Arata!
"Meow!"
———
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