Chapter 21: Blooming Flowers
Within the quiet room.
Not long after Terada-ya's expansion, Suoh Tsukasa had gained a small house of his own in the back courtyard.
This room wasn't large, and its furnishings were extremely simple.
Four and a half tatami mats released the fresh scent of dried grass. Washi paper on the wooden sliding doors let light through while obscuring shadows, gently isolating the interior from the outside world.
A low window carved with decorative patterns faced directly toward the old tree in the back courtyard, allowing both morning light and moonlight to flow in without obstruction.
Late at night—this was his customary time for spiritual power control training.
Training began.
Suoh's eyelids lowered slightly, both hands suspended before his chest, his expression serene.
Completely different from his first spiritual power control training session's somewhat clumsy, slow situation.
At this moment, Suoh's slender ten fingers stretched naturally, each fingertip steadily suspending a condensed, solid number.
Human hands possessed ten fingers total. After ten months of training, his practice method had undergone a distinctive transformation.
The spiritual light shone deep blue, the structures perfect—like ten tiny stars suspended at his fingertips, pulled by invisible threads.
Change began with the slightest shift in thought.
As his mental focus flowed, the numbers at his fingertips began changing and shifting at astonishing speed.
They no longer cycled in orderly fashion from 1 to 0 in fixed sequence as during his first training session. Instead, they transformed in seemingly random, chaotic patterns.
The fingertip numbers appeared wildly random, yet their changes followed two basic rules:
1. On the same finger, adjacent rounds must display different numbers
2. Each round across all ten fingers must display the complete set from 1 to 0, without repetition
Not completely uncontrolled chaos, but variation within the framework of rules: 'adjacent difference, complete each round.'
This was the precision he could only achieve after his spiritual power control ability reached a higher level.
Nearly a year of spiritual power and control training had finally borne fruit. At this moment, a cluster of deep blue flowers bloomed at his fingertips.
This cluster of flowers was composed of pure spirit particles—petals were flowing numbers, stems were spiritual pressure condensed at his finger joints.
The changing numbers swayed like silent petals, light flowing and transforming, illuminating Suoh's chest with a dreamlike quality while lighting his calm eyes.
"Phew."
With a light exhale, the spirit particle radiance in his hands faded.
Suoh sat steadily on his bed, his gaze looking straight toward the direction of the White Path Gate in the distance.
Tomorrow would be the day he went to register at the Shinoreijutsuin.
His eyes swept over the books stacked on his desk, and his thoughts couldn't help drifting back to long ago.
Since the day that hearty-natured Shiba Kaien first brought three seated officers into Terada-ya.
Straightforward Kotsubaki Sentaro, small but loud Kotetsu Kiyone, silent and taciturn Mitaka Hiko, and later the gentle and refined Shiba Miyako.
These core members of the Thirteenth Division had gradually all become regulars here.
Back and forth, over cups and conversation, Suoh's friendship with these people had grown increasingly close.
Among them, especially the careful and gentle Shiba Miyako—after learning he was about to register at the Shinoreijutsuin.
On her second visit to the shop, she'd thoughtfully organized and packaged the notes from when they'd entered school in the past and gifted them to him.
She'd carefully instructed him on the reading order from shallow to deep, afraid he might encounter difficulties while studying alone.
As she gave instructions, her gaze remained caringly fixed on Suoh's face.
That natural thoughtfulness had long exceeded the scope of ordinary friendship—somewhat like an older sister in the family carefully considering and paving the road ahead for her younger brother.
The Shiba couple—one a lieutenant, one a Third Seat—both were outstanding figures in the Gotei 13.
Being able to gain the insights and annotations from their notes naturally brought Suoh tremendous benefit.
Especially Shiba Kaien, one of only three geniuses specifically mentioned in the original work.
Entering school at Sixth Class spiritual pressure, graduating from Shinoreijutsuin in just two years, and achieving Third Seat position in the same year he entered the Thirteenth Division.
Combined with his family's scholarly heritage as originally one of Soul Society's five great noble clans, his notes pushed open a door for Suoh toward higher realms.
Besides the notes, Suoh had also learned from Shiba Kaien about the Shinoreijutsuin's second screening step—class application.
Though enrollment required no examination, applying for classes required competing based on strength.
Class 1 was the elite class. Once admitted, it meant more resource allocation, superior teacher guidance—truly a case of one step ahead leading to steps ahead throughout.
Moreover, this choice related to students' development direction after graduation.
Class 1 students could apply to join their desired division for internship after graduation, rather than being randomly assigned to divisions other than the First—it was the watershed between elite Shinigami and ordinary Shinigami.
Within the Gotei 13, there was no withdrawal system. Transfer approval for ordinary Shinigami was extremely strict—basically, transfers only occurred among seated officers and lieutenants.
But opportunity always accompanied difficulty, challenge, and risk.
Besides checking whether the total points from two in-school examination items—written test and spiritual pressure level—met standards.
Once elite class examination application failed, that year one would be directly judged as failed enrollment, with no chance to apply for other classes.
One could only wait until the following year to reapply, or give up the challenge next year and be randomly assigned by the academy to other classes.
The logic behind this rule was simple: those who couldn't accurately assess their own abilities didn't deserve to join the elite class.
This rule's cruelty was thoroughly demonstrated in the original work through Hisagi Shuuhei.
Because of his childhood experience of being saved by Ninth Division Captain Muguruma Kensei, he deeply admired him from the bottom of his heart and was determined to join only the Ninth Division.
Precisely because he stubbornly applied for Class 1 yet failed twice, he wasted time and failed enrollment twice.
Otherwise, with his qualifications that ultimately allowed him to successfully awaken Bankai, he wouldn't have fallen to such a state.
Most crucially, from daily conversations, Suoh had finally obtained clear coordinates for the timeline he currently inhabited—
Rukia Kuchiki had not yet joined the Thirteenth Division.
This indirectly proved that the current period was after Aizen's experiments with Shinigami souls regarding the Hogyoku had ended, transitioning to the phase of conducting soul experiments using Hollows.
"Still... can't relax."
"Right now, I'm still far from enough."
Suoh quietly closed his eyes. After clarifying the temporal node he occupied, the road ahead he was about to embark on became unprecedentedly clear.
The survival crisis he'd originally worried about had quietly passed, yet another storm was brewing.
Though this storm might not necessarily involve him, he didn't want to—and absolutely wouldn't—be merely a cold-eyed bystander.
He wanted to use his own power to deflect tragedy's destined trajectory.
Having Shiba Kaien beside him as reference let him understand his current spiritual pressure strength more clearly. Right now, he still needed more time to accumulate.
When he opened his eyes again, in that quiet room those jet-black eyes held only resolute determination.