The training grounds fell dead silent.
Every new student stood there, eyes still wide.
They stared at Renji Abarai, still on his knees in the middle of the field.
Then over at Moriyasu Tokoyo, standing opposite him, wooden sword still hanging naturally at his side.
What had just happened had gone by too fast to follow.
Less than a minute had passed, and the two of them had already traded three exchanges.
Everyone knew Moriyasu Tokoyo had the lowest spiritual power rank in this year’s class.
Even with the jump a couple of days ago, he’d only reached rank eighteen.
Renji Abarai, standing across from him, was one of the standout students in this year’s group.
He’d entered at rank fifteen, and according to the teacher, he was close to reaching fourteen.
On top of that, he was clearly muscular, with plenty of old calluses on his hands, the look of someone with real fighting experience.
And yet Moriyasu had overwhelmed him with such ease.
The students kept replaying the fight in their heads, trying to pinpoint exactly why Renji had lost.
Up in the corridor, Rangiku rose to her feet with a grin, tossing out a remark.
“Guess I’ll be counting on you for my drinks tonight, Ounahara.” With that, she strode out toward the training grounds.
Taking on today’s teaching assignment at the academy had really just been a way to kill time.
Anything to avoid her captain sending her out on Rukongai patrol duty again.
She hadn’t expected to see a fight this entertaining out of it, though.
Rangiku walked to the center of the training grounds and stopped beside Moriyasu, offering a smiling compliment first.
“Not bad.
You’ve got real skill handling Reishi.
Keep it up!” After that word of encouragement, she looked down at Renji, still kneeling, fists dug into the sand beneath him, and asked: “Do you know why you lost so completely?” Before Renji could respond, the students around them started moving in toward the center.
They stopped about a meter out, waiting quietly for Rangiku’s explanation.
“I…
I was just too weak.” Renji didn’t look up.
His eyes had gone unfocused, blurring further by the moment.
As far as he was concerned, losing meant being weak, plain and simple.
Back in the Rukongai, when thugs had beaten him bloody, there’d never been a reason for it, only that he’d been weak, so he wasn’t about to make excuses now either.
“You really don’t use your head at all, do you.” Rangiku sighed faintly.
“Look up.” Renji lifted his head, lips pressed tight together.
Rangiku held up one finger.
“In your first exchange, why did you choose to attack Moriyasu from the right, and with a horizontal sweep, specifically?” Renji frowned.
“Because at the time, it felt like attacking from that side would land clean.” “That’s exactly where you went wrong.” Rangiku turned slightly, pointing her extended finger at Moriyasu.
“The reason you picked that particular attack is that before the two of you even started, he was already using small, subtle movements to make you feel like there was an opening on his right side.
And sure enough, you attacked exactly the way he wanted you to.
You walked right into his trap.” “What?” Renji’s eyes went wide, a disbelieving gasp escaping him.
The first exchange replayed itself over and over in his mind.
Moriyasu had looked so loose, so unguarded back then, like he had openings everywhere.
He’d only attacked because he’d caught that moment when Moriyasu’s right foot seemed to falter against the ground…
Renji’s pupils snapped tight, and his head whipped toward Moriyasu at once.
“My second attack, that was you baiting me too!” It suddenly clicked for him: after Moriyasu had hopped backward, his body had looked unsteady.
He’d thought he’d found his chance again, leaping into a jumping strike meant to end the fight outright.
But all of it had been part of Moriyasu’s plan from the start, which was exactly how he’d been able to thrust his sword out and land it precisely on Renji’s chest.
Moriyasu just smiled at Renji, offering no explanation.
Rangiku spoke up instead.
“And it wasn’t just the second time.
That last attack too, when you threw everything you had into it, pushed your spiritual power to the very peak of rank fifteen.
The way you attacked and where you aimed, none of it was any different from the first two times.
You got baited again.
Falling for the same trap three times in a row, well, all I can say is you’re a little slow on the uptake.” Renji stared blankly at Moriyasu, unable to get a single word out.
“Lieutenant Matsumoto, how did he actually pull that off?” Kira Izuru asked, unable to hold the question in any longer as he looked at the thoroughly dazed Renji.
“Eyes, movement, even the rhythm of his breathing.” Rangiku lifted her head and explained to the students gathered around.
“When two people fight, of course you keep your eyes locked on your opponent.
That’s the basics of combat.” “But that’s exactly the kind of thing that can be exploited too, and that’s precisely what Moriyasu did.” Seeing the blank looks on the students’ faces, Rangiku scratched at her hair.
“This is really a matter of combat experience.
Put in enough practice and you’ll be able to recognize it, and use it yourselves.” Momo stepped forward too, voicing the question on her mind.
“But on that last attack, when Renji unleashed everything, why did his sword end up being the one that broke, and not Moriyasu’s?” “Honestly, I’m not entirely sure about that part myself.
I’ve got a vague guess, at best.” Rangiku turned her head, smiling.
“Why don’t you explain that one.” Moriyasu nodded, raising his wooden sword level in his hand, and looked at Renji, speaking gently.
“When you unleashed everything just now, you really did get close to rank fourteen.
You let that power burst outward, forming reiatsu that wrapped around your whole body and the weapon in your hand.
Nothing wrong with that.
That’s just how fighting normally works.” He extended two fingers and ran them along the flat of his sword.
“But think back carefully.
What exactly is reiatsu?
What’s spiritual power rank?
What’s Reishi, even?” He paused a moment, and seeing that even Rukia still looked lost, cut straight to the point.
“Everything, us included, everything in Soul Society, is made of Reishi.
So a Shinigami’s fight is a fight of Reishi.” “And the power you just unleashed was every bit of Reishi normally stored in your body, all released at once.” His fingers traced along the wooden sword, moving from the flat of the blade to its tip.
“Sure, your total reiatsu output is higher than mine.
But since you spread it across your entire body and your weapon, on average it works out to something like rank sixteen.” “But Moriyasu, you shouldn’t have been using anywhere near your full rank eighteen just now.” Kira Izuru cut in suddenly, this was exactly the part that had been bothering him most.
“That’s because I concentrated all of my rank eighteen worth of Reishi into just the tip of the sword.
Right there, at that single point, the amount of Reishi packed in was equal to what Red Baboon had loaded into his own weapon.” “Add in the force of his swing on top of that, and I struck straight at the point of impact on his weapon.
Naturally, his was the one that broke.” Moriyasu lowered his hands and summed it up with a smile.
“Fighting comes down to skill.” With that, he walked quietly over to the edge of the field.
Rukia followed right along with him.
Wooden sword in hand, eyes set with determination, she planted herself directly across from him and took a stance.
“Teach me.” “Sure.” Moriyasu picked his sword back up and began coaching Rukia.
Rangiku, still in the middle of the training grounds, clapped her hands.
“Everyone, get moving.
Today’s your Zanjutsu training, after all.” “Try using your movements and your eyes to lead your opponent into attacking exactly where you want them to.” The moment she said it, the students all began pairing off, everyone but Renji, who was still on his knees.
Rangiku said quietly to him, “Are you giving up?” Give up?
Renji ground his teeth, forced himself back to his feet, and growled.
“No.
I absolutely will not give up.”