The rising dawn over the Seireitei had not yet dispersed the thin mist drifting from the Rukongai, and the bronze gate of the Seireitei Academy, engraved with the ancient seal script for "Genryū," was already submerged in a bustling crowd.
Shiba Kaien took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the crude amulet his sister, Kūkaku, had forced into his sleeve—a crookedly folded paper crane.
He could feel the gaze of his younger brother, Ganju, cast from the street corner, a mixture of envy and expectation; even heavier was the invisible pressure branded onto the surname shiba. As the young head of the fallen Shiba Clan, one of the Four Great Noble Clans, reviving the family had become an obsession carved into his very marrow.
However, reality was cruel. As his gaze swept over the noble examinees around him, surrounded by servants in fine clothing...
The glory of his ancestors, who once controlled the "Tenkyūpō" and stood alongside the Kucihki, Shihōin, and Tsunayashiro as the Four Great Noble Clans, now only remained in the dilapidated ancestral home and the forced hope in the eyes of his clansmen.
"There are so many people..." Kaien sighed softly, honestly lining up at the end of the winding, long queue.
The Seireitei Academy was formerly the "Genryū" school and "Genji Juku" from two thousand years ago.
The institution was officially renamed Seireitei Academy by Captain Commander Yamamoto after the Soul Society defeated the Quincy a thousand years ago.
The Seireitei Academy primarily trains members for the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Kidō Corps, and Onmitsukidō.
The curriculum includes "Zankensoki" training and Soul Burial internships in the Human World; the school system lasts six years, allowing outstanding students to skip grades and graduate, and it is open to residents of the Rukongai.
It is not only the sole ladder to the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Kidō Corps, and Onmitsukidō, but also the heavenly ladder for the souls of the Rukongai to break free from the shackles of fate and secure the "iron rice bowl" of being a Shinigami.
A six-year curriculum, mastery of Zankensoki, Soul Burial internships, skipping grades to graduate—every word tempted countless souls to pour in from every corner of the Soul Society, day and night.
Kaien thought arriving at dawn was early enough, but he didn't expect the queue to be filled with figures who had been sleeping on the ground since last night; some were even gnawing on "dry rations" so hard they could break teeth, the food used by the lowest class of the Rukongai to maintain their spiritual bodies.
The sun climbed to the zenith, and the glaring sunlight baked the stone slabs; the queue crawled slowly like loaches in a dried-up riverbed.
Small-scale conflicts broke out from time to time in the surroundings: a ragged youth from the Rukongai bumped into a noble family's maid due to the crowding and was immediately pushed and cursed at by several wicked servants wearing chrysanthemum family crests.
A noble youth bearing the Sugawara family crest sat on a servant's back, leisurely eating a spirit fruit... Kaien looked away.
He subconsciously thought of the man named Shihōin Hiroki—not long ago, this person had forcefully taken over the Sixth Division and "suppressed the rebellion" with lightning-fast methods, and the forces under him were mysterious and unpredictable.
The worried words of his family elders echoed in his ears: "Shihōin... is more dangerous than Tsunayashiro..."
Finally stepping into the circular testing ground covered in killing aura stones, Kaien smelled the burnt scent that had not yet dissipated in the air and a very faint smell of blood—it belonged to the last unlucky fellow who had suffered a backlash because his Spiritual Pressure went out of control.
The oppression inside was more suffocating than the heat.
"Spiritual Pressure Level 20, pass. Next."
"Yay! Great!" A passing examinee wept with joy.
However, what he didn't know was that with Level 20 Spiritual Pressure, he was destined to be mere cannon fodder.
"Next! Shiba Kaien!" The examiner's withered finger tapped the table impatiently, his eyes hollow.
"Place your hand on the crystal spirit ball and inject your Spiritual Pressure." His tone was devoid of respect, clearly not holding this descendant of a fallen noble family in high regard.
The crystal ball felt ice-cold. Kaien closed his eyes, and all distracting thoughts faded!
"Buzz—Boom!!!"
The examiner scrambled back several meters, clumsily knocking over the table.
All the floating warning talismans in the testing ground were crushed to pieces by an invisible storm in an instant!
In the dead silence, the violent reishi vortex deep within the crystal ball gradually calmed, solidifying into a clear, solid, and indisputable symbol—
"VI"
"L-Level 6 Spiritual Pressure?!!!" The examiner screamed, losing his composure, his eyeballs nearly bulging out of their sockets.
He suddenly looked up, the contempt on his face replaced by extreme shock and awe. "shiba... is he really a descendant of THAT Shiba Clan?!"
The crowd erupted, and the three supervising Shinigami, who had been lazily leaning against the high wall of killing aura stones, stood up with a "swish," their fingertips unconsciously crushing their jade tea cups.
"Worthy nephew! I am the head of the Sugawara Clan!" A richly dressed fat man desperately squeezed through the crowd, his face full of flattery. "My humble house has a daughter who just turned a hundred years old..."
Several other heads of minor noble clans followed closely behind: "Does the Shiba Clan need sponsorship to rebuild your ancestral home? My family's stone is of the finest quality!" Even noble children squeezed to the front to try and get close.
However, the clamor surrounding Shiba Kaien was ruthlessly crushed by an even more violent and ferocious hurricane of Spiritual Pressure that suddenly erupted from another testing platform!
Crack—Boom!
The testing platform in the northwest corner cracked at the sound, and stone chips flew! A young girl in coarse hemp clothes—Isayama Yomi—withdrew her palm from the crystal ball expressionlessly.
Beneath her raven-feather-like bangs, her gaze was as cold as a blade, and the "VI" shaped spiritual light churning inside the crystal ball actually appeared dark red, like coagulated blood!
With a dull thud, the needle of the Spiritual Pressure recorder in front of her snapped under the heavy burden!
The crowd was stunned into silence for a moment by this even more exaggerated scene.
"Isayama... Yomi?"
"What's going on today! Another Level 6 Spiritual Pressure!" The aftershocks of the previous cheering for Shiba Kaien had not yet subsided.
Before the crowd could even process the symbolic meaning of the fallen noble's resurgence, the commotion in the northwest corner exploded like a drop of water in a pan of hot oil!
Exclamations, discussions, and the sound of gasping mixed together, instantly drowning out all other noises.
Everyone's eyes were drawn like magnets, "swish," tearing away from Shiba Kaien and casting toward that testing platform with uncertainty.
The surface of the testing platform made of special killing aura stones showed hideous cracks, and stone chips fell rustlingly.
The remaining Spiritual Pressure light inside the crystal ball wasn't the brilliant, vast ocean blue of Shiba Kaien's, but a dark ochre-red like coagulated blood, even faintly revealing strands of ominous black energy.
Even more exaggeratedly, the precise Spiritual Pressure intensity needle on the recording table had snapped, unable to withstand the massive impact!
The twisted metal fragments silently proclaimed their owner's violent power.
The noise stopped abruptly. After a brief, suffocating silence, a larger and more chaotic wave of sound erupted!
"It's a fake, right?! A commoner from Rukongai... how is it possible!"
"Another Level 6? And such a... wicked Spiritual Pressure?!"
"Isayama... Yomi? Never heard of her! Which district is she from?" Some harsh words mixed with unbelievable exclamations poured out.
However, reacting faster than the doubt were the hyenas who smelled "prey."
After the brief shock, the noble youths who had previously surrounded Shiba Kaien—their smiles frozen on their faces, eyes still carrying jealousy and resentment—instantly became like sharks that had smelled blood.
With a posture even more crazed and greedy than when they were competing for Shiba Kaien, they surged and pushed toward Isayama Yomi's testing platform with a clear goal!
"Let go! Everyone get out of the way!"
"Don't block the path, you filthy commoner!"
"Out of the way! The Sugawara Clan wants her! Get lost!"
They roughly pushed aside the Rukongai youths in front of them, not even caring about stepping on the hard biscuit crumbs dropped by the others, their movements as intense as if they were competing for a high ground on a battlefield.
A noble youth wearing the Sugawara family crest, trying to cut in line, was even pushed into a stumble by an even more urgent companion behind him. The expensive jade pendant at his waist fell onto the stone slab with a "snap" and shattered into several pieces, but he didn't even bother to look at it.
In almost the blink of an eye, Isayama Yomi was surrounded by this group of gorgeously dressed young men and women with different expressions.
Countless faces filled with eagerness, hypocrisy, calculation, and even unabashed possessiveness pressed toward her; countless gazes, either greedy, stunned, or carrying evaluative value, swept back and forth over her like searchlights.
"Miss Isayama Yomi! A pleasure to meet you!" A young man with a powdered face in chrysanthemum-patterned fine clothes squeezed to the very front first, trying to strike his most handsome pose, his voice rising to try and drown out the others. "I am the eldest son of the Kikuchi Clan! Our Kikuchi Clan..."
"This beautiful young lady!" His flattering words were unceremoniously interrupted by an even younger boy wearing an even more gorgeous haori next to him.
The boy had a smile of certain victory on his face, his eyes sparkling with what he thought was charming light. "I am Ishida Shinnosuke, the heir of the Ishida branch family! How can a pearl with such talent like yours be left to wander the streets?
My family's estate is vast, with abundant resources and Kendo masters to guide you. If you would deign to join us..."
"Get lost! What the hell is the Ishida Clan!" A coarse voice accompanied by a powerful arm shoved Ishida Shinnosuke down, the force so great that the young master almost fell to the ground.
A burly young noble wearing clothes with a bear family crest took his place, grinning at Isayama Yomi and revealing what he thought was a simple and honest smile.
With his bulging muscles, it looked particularly oppressive: "Miss Isayama! Don't listen to those pretty boys! Our Uehara Clan values practical work most! Join us, and I guarantee you..."
"Clatter—"
"Thud!"
The crowd jostled like a boiling pot of porridge.
Someone cried out in pain from being stepped on, someone was squeezed out of the inner circle and fell to the ground, fine clothes stained with dust; curses and self-recommendations mixed with the shouts of the examiners trying to maintain order. The scene was ten times more chaotic than when Shiba Kaien was tested for Level 6!
Outside this chaotic vortex that was like the eye of a storm, Shiba Kaien still stood where he was.
The shock on his face had not faded either, his gaze tightly locked on the figure at the center of the storm—Isayama Yomi.
She wore a set of coarse hemp clothes that were washed until they were pale and even a bit worn at the edges, looking out of place under the siege of these people in fine clothing, yet she was like a silent black reef, standing firm amidst the bustling, wild waves.
Beneath her raven-feather-like, black, and neat bangs, those eyes were terrifyingly calm. There was no self-satisfaction, no panic of a first big scene, and even the olive branches extended by those "prominent families" caused no ripple.
Her gaze passed through the jostling crowd and, at some point, accurately landed on Shiba Kaien's face a few steps away.
That gaze was not a provocation, nor was it curiosity; it was more like... a cold confirmation.
Kaien's heart was inexplicably gripped by that gaze for a moment.
"Is this the short-lived ghost Hiroki mentioned?"