Chapter 41: Conflict
Facing the sudden shout directed at his friend, Hitsugaya's good mood—still not completely emerged from the warm memories and full of anticipation—was instantly shattered.
"Who are you?!"
His hand rested on the sword hilt behind his back as he stepped forward past Suoh.
His gaze sharpened, his expression unfriendly as he stared at the crude, impolite male student before him, coldly rebuking.
"I..."
The male student was somewhat overwhelmed by Hitsugaya's icy gaze and the spiritual pressure leaking from his angry emotions, momentarily at a loss for words.
"Toshiro, why are you here?!"
At this moment, a gentle, sweet female voice interrupted the standoff between the two.
Hearing the voice, Hitsugaya turned his head and only then noticed the speaker was actually his childhood friend, Hinamori Momo.
"Hinamori, long time no see."
But even with an acquaintance present, Hitsugaya only slightly softened his tone to give her a simple greeting, still remaining wary of this unfamiliar visitor before him.
The situation became somewhat awkward for a moment.
"Is there something you need from me?"
Naturally, the person in question, Suoh, wouldn't hide behind and watch the show. He stepped forward with a smile.
Everyone present were people Suoh recognized, though some didn't recognize him yet.
The red-ponytailed male student, the yellow-haired male student, one black-haired girl with two small buns tied behind her ears, and another black-haired girl with an onion-style haircut.
Abarai Renji, Kira Izuru, Hinamori Momo, and Rukia who wasn't yet Kuchiki Rukia.
The three vice-captain trio were classmates. After that incident during their World of the Living konso training, they'd shared life-and-death experiences and fought side by side—their appearing together wasn't strange.
Though Abarai Renji and Rukia were in different classes, they were childhood friends from the same district. Her appearing with those other three wasn't strange either.
What struck him as odd was why Abarai Renji would come looking to cause him trouble.
This somewhat surprised Suoh. He hadn't expected his encounter with these people would be under these circumstances.
"Abarai, that Suoh-kun is a friend of someone Hinamori knows."
"All things considered, he's an acquaintance now. How about we just let it go?"
Kira Izuru, who hadn't yet joined the Third Division, didn't have the gloomy expression from the original story. Instead, he looked quite gentle. He placed his hand on Abarai Renji's shoulder, softly trying to dissuade him.
His first impression of Suoh was very good—being confronted at his own door yet still able to smile. So he didn't want his friend to have a pointless conflict with him.
"That's right, Renji..."
Rukia on the side also spoke up at the right moment.
But before she could finish, Abarai Renji shook off Kira Izuru's hand and advanced a step toward Suoh.
"Senpai, senpai, you hear?"
"You should show proper respect to your seniors, brat!"
Feeling ashamed that he'd been intimidated by a shorty so much smaller than himself, and feeling annoyed by Suoh's dismissive attitude of using casual speech instead of honorifics, Abarai Renji came before Suoh, staring into his eyes and shouting loudly.
"Senpai? That depends on whether you deserve that title."
"If you want to fight, follow me."
The other party suddenly showing up to cause trouble—whatever the reason, Suoh no longer cared to ask. After all, it couldn't possibly be to specially make friends with him.
In the original story, Abarai Renji's early personality wasn't very likable. A large part was due to problems with his district of origin's environment.
Coming from South Rukongai District Seventy-Eight, he harbored his own inferiority complex, even once comparing himself to a stray dog before Kurosaki Ichigo.
His identity as a Shinoreijutsuin student was perhaps one of the few remaining sources of "dignity" he currently possessed.
Though rationally Suoh could understand and guess at some of his inexplicable emotions, that didn't mean he'd indulge the other party.
The smile just now had already been the out he'd offered. Since the other party wouldn't take it, he didn't mind teaching him a lesson.
"Hurry up. I'm in a rush."
Sneering once, Suoh withdrew the smile from his face. After dropping that line, he turned and walked toward the sparring ground's direction.
Though the Shinoreijutsuin forbade private fighting among students, it didn't prohibit students from dueling under limited rules.
Where there were people, there would be conflict. This was unavoidable.
Moreover, the Shinoreijutsuin wasn't a greenhouse for cultivating flowers. Better to channel than block—for this reason, the academy specially established a dueling ground for students to vent their emotions.
Seeing Suoh leave, Hitsugaya glanced at Hinamori Momo beside him whose face showed anxiety. Without saying anything, he raised his foot to follow.
Hearing this, Abarai Renji's expression became even uglier.
He hadn't expected his purpose for coming would be realized in such an alternative form. His face cold, he also followed with large strides.
"Renji..."
Rukia's final attempt to call out still failed to stop him.
"Ah, let's follow..."
The three people remaining at the entrance looked at each other helplessly, sighed, and could only follow as well.
The quiet courtyard was gradually left behind by everyone. The group's figures stretched into a line walking toward the dueling ground's direction.
The morning sunlight remained bright, but the atmosphere in the air had grown tense.
This sudden conflict wasn't without cause.
Everything's root stemmed from the word "reputation."
Suoh's outstanding classroom performance spread through teachers' mouths as well as upperclassmen teaching assistants, quickly making him famous throughout the entire Shinoreijutsuin.
Rumors had one characteristic—they constantly deformed and exaggerated during word-of-mouth transmission.
Recently, Suoh had even been crowned as the most outstanding student in nearly a hundred years at the Shinoreijutsuin, an absolute genius no current student could compare with.
Just because the Shinoreijutsuin's coursework was heavy and very difficult, plus descriptions of his appearance had gotten somewhat distorted in transmission, students' attention and thoughts were scattered.
So during this time, it hadn't had much impact on his student life.
And Abarai Renji was also one of the "victims" of this rumor.
Don't look at how he constantly suffered defeats in the original story's battles—among Class 2066's elite class students, he'd always been an undisputed standout.
And his homeroom teacher, Ounayahara Gengoro, was the type who valued reputation and profit quite highly, with a not-so-great temper.
Precisely because of this, he'd been taken and compared to Suoh, this Class 2069 super rookie.
"Your kidou level can't even compare to a first-year! Like this, you still want to become a Shinigami?!"
"How laughable!"
A few days ago during class break, Abarai Renji had suddenly been severely reprimanded by Ounayahara Gengoro in front of quite a few classmates.
That expression written all over with "It's because you're not striving hard enough that I'm losing face before the other teachers!" was like a sharp thorn deeply wounding his sensitive heart.
The anger and resentment suppressed for days finally erupted on the first morning of the holiday as he rushed over to find Suoh to vent.
He wanted to see with his own eyes just how amazing this genius praised to the heavens really was. Even more, he wanted to prove through defeating the other party that he wasn't as worthless as his teacher said.
As for Rukia, she'd just happened to overhear Kira Izuru and Hinamori Momo trying to dissuade him from looking for trouble in the corridor. Unable to let it go, she'd come along.
Thus, this powder-keg scene had come to be.
Rumors, pressure, and young pride—at this moment all intertwined together, pointing toward the dueling ground's direction.
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