After just one afternoon of the rock-paper-scissors drill, Rukia’s control over her own Reishi had improved dramatically.
This kind of rapid, localized shifting of concentration, though, took a serious toll on both mental focus and physical stamina.
By the time training wrapped up, the group was nearly ready to collapse, and they made straight for the dining hall to eat and drink like there was no tomorrow.
Gulp, gulp, Renji swallowed a giant meatball whole without even chewing, then suddenly his eyes went wide.
A powerful presence burst outward from his body: spiritual power rank fourteen.
He’d ranked up!
A wave of pure joy welled up inside him, and he immediately turned his head toward Rukia.
Rukia laughed and praised him.
“Renji, ranking up this fast, looks like hitting rank twelve by the exam won’t be a problem for you.” “Renji, that’s amazing!
Keep it up!” Momo called out too.
“Go, Renji.
We’ve got to keep up too.” Kira said with a smile.
Renji held his head up high, then looked over at Moriyasu, still eating on his left.
“What are you looking at me for?” Moriyasu asked, another meatball already headed for his mouth.
He went on.
“At the rate you’re growing right now, there’s no way you’re hitting rank twelve by the exam.” “Huh?
Why not?” Momo asked at once.
“The higher your spiritual power rank climbs, the more each level costs, exponentially.
If you don’t know what exponential means, just think of it this way: each rank takes several times more than the one before it.
If Renji keeps at it the same slow, steady way he’s been going, there just won’t be enough time.” Moriyasu wiggled his fingers, picked up his soup, drained it in one go, and gave his stomach a satisfied pat.
Belch.
He let out a contented burp, and in that same instant, the spiritual power flaring off him jumped straight to rank seventeen.
Everyone at the table stared, eyes wide.
“Moriyasu, how in the world are you doing that?” Rukia braced her hands against the table and shot to her feet, shouting in disbelief.
“It’s only been a few days since you enrolled, and you’ve already climbed from nineteen straight to seventeen.
That’s way too fast.” “Moriyasu, I want to know too.” Kira Izuru hurried straight over to Moriyasu’s side, hands pressed flat to his sides, standing at rigid attention.
After these past couple of days of Kidō and Zanjutsu practice, he’d gotten a clear sense of just how strong Moriyasu really was.
Only a few days in, and his spiritual power rank had already climbed two full levels.
Not only did Moriyasu have exceptional control over Reishi and real combat skill, he clearly had a unique understanding of training too.
His own family had once had a Shinigami in it, so he understood better than the other three that for a Shinigami, fighting skill alone wasn’t enough.
Training was what mattered most.
He bowed low and respectfully at once.
Just then, Renji got up from his seat too.
He walked straight up beside Kira, pressed his hands to his sides in the same way, bowed deeply, and mumbled through his lips, “Teach me.” Moriyasu crossed his arms and, legs crossed comfortably, looked over at Renji.
“What are you supposed to call someone when you’re asking them for a favor?” Renji gritted his teeth and forced the words out through clenched jaw.
“Moriyasu, please teach me.” “That quiet?
Skip breakfast or something?
No energy at all, and you want to learn something?” Moriyasu said again.
Renji sucked in a deep breath, puffed his chest out, straightened up sharply, and bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Moriyasu, please teach me!” Kira’s ears rang from the sheer volume, his head buzzing, but he shouted at the top of his own lungs too.
“Moriyasu, please teach me!” Their voices echoed through the dining hall.
The dining hall wasn’t segregated by year, so upperclassmen all over turned to look, thoroughly confused.
“You two idiots, keep it down.
Moriyasu’s not exactly stingy about this stuff.” Rukia walked over and gave them each a smack, then turned to Moriyasu.
“So how do we actually rank up faster?” “You wouldn’t even give me one of your meatballs, and you want me to teach you something?” Moriyasu turned his head away with a cold snort.
Momo shot up at once, ran over to the serving window, got a fresh plate of meatballs, set it right in front of Moriyasu, and said cheerfully: “This is from all four of us.
Please, accept it.” Moriyasu nodded, picked up a meatball with his chopsticks, popped it in his mouth, chewed a few times, swallowed, and spoke, unhurried.
“You already know most of our body’s Reishi sits at Saketsu and Hakusui.
Those two spots are also a Shinigami’s weak points.” “And precisely because they’re weak points, the body reflexively concentrates Reishi there for defense.
It’s instinct.” He said this while poking through the meatballs on the plate with his chopsticks, picking out a small one and holding it up for the other four to see.
“Say our Saketsu and Hakusui right now are the size of this meatball.
Once they’re packed full of Reishi, that’s our current spiritual power rank.” With that, he ate the small meatball in one bite, then dug through the plate for the biggest one there and held it up.
“So if you want to raise your spiritual power rank, you need to grow Saketsu and Hakusui into a meatball this size.” Renji looked completely lost.
“What meatball?
Weren’t we talking about how to train?
How’d we end up talking about food?” “Idiot, Moriyasu’s using it as a metaphor.
How do you not get that?” Rukia shot him a look, then turned back to Moriyasu.
“So how do we actually make it bigger?” Moriyasu smiled.
“Simple enough.
First, burn through all the Reishi in the small meatball completely.
Then flood it with a huge amount of fresh Reishi to stretch it out.
In practical terms: train until your Reishi’s completely drained, then eat a huge amount of food loaded with Reishi.
That’s really all there is to it.” Rukia’s eyes lit up.
She flattened her left hand, made a fist with her right, and knocked one against the other in front of her chest, like a lightbulb switching on over her head.
“No wonder you’ve been eating so much every meal, this whole time.
It’s all to stretch that meatball out, isn’t it?” Moriyasu just smiled and didn’t answer.
What he’d told them was true enough.
That really was how training worked.
But he himself was different.
He didn’t need to train that way at all.
The four of them all looked like they’d gotten it now.
Renji let out a loud shout and bolted for the training grounds, with Kira hurrying right after him.
Momo waved at Moriyasu with a smile, then dashed off too.
Moriyasu looked at Rukia, a little puzzled.
“Rukia, why aren’t you going with them?” Rukia shook her head.
“Right now, stretching the meatball out matters less to me than sticking with Reishi control practice.” She wasn’t wrong about herself.
What she needed most right now wasn’t rushing to raise her rank, it was learning to master the strength she already had.
“Good call.
Then go on and keep practicing rock, paper, scissors.” Moriyasu stood up, and without warning, jabbed his chopsticks straight at Rukia’s forehead.
There was a sharp thud, and Rukia dropped to a crouch, both hands clapped over her forehead.
“What was that for?” “If you’d used your Reishi to shield your forehead in that instant, it wouldn’t have hurt at all.
You need to make that reaction second nature, so whenever I’m around you, expect me to try catching you off guard.” Moriyasu turned around with a smile.
“Want to take a walk by the river with me?” Rukia grimaced as she got back to her feet and followed after him.
The two of them headed out toward the small river past the edge of town.
Along the way, Moriyasu would flick a finger against Rukia’s forehead every so often, or thump a fist lightly against the back of her head.
Every time it stung, Rukia would let loose a string of curses, but she never actually retaliated, just gritted her teeth through it.
Each time one of Moriyasu’s hits landed, the pink reiatsu trailing behind the two of them would twitch, just slightly.
This captain was still tailing them, even after class had ended.