A corridor at the academy.
Moriyasu and Rukia walked side by side, about sixty centimeters apart, heading out of the academy.
Moriyasu’s mouth curved up slightly, a smile staying on his face as he walked and spoke.
“Two months in, and you’ve made it to rank ten now.
Want to try applying for the Advanced Class?” As he spoke, he curled his right index finger against the base of his thumb, a small stone balanced on the thumb.
Right as he said “rank,” his finger snapped forward.
With a light click, the stone shot whistling toward Rukia’s temple.
Rukia, walking beside him, kept her eyes fixed straight ahead and answered without breaking stride.
“No need.
That’s the academy’s call to make, not mine.” As she spoke, her right hand rose naturally, curling into a fist, Reishi condensing across the back of her hand to reinforce her defense, and she batted the stone away with ease.
“Is that so?
Don’t you want to go to the Advanced Class, train alongside Red Baboon, Peach, and Lemon again?” Moriyasu kept going.
Reishi gathered at his right index finger, and it shot out like a coiled spring toward Rukia’s shoulder.
“But the teacher already made it pretty clear last time.
My potential isn’t there.
I’ll just let it be.” Rukia answered calmly.
As she answered him, the fist she’d raised opened naturally, Reishi condensing into a tiny concentrated point in her palm.
She caught Moriyasu’s finger with it, a faint smack sounding out.
Whatever small resentment she’d once felt had long since settled.
And this back-and-forth between the two of them hadn’t let up once in two whole months.
Whenever she was around Moriyasu, Rukia could find herself attacked at any moment, sometimes mid-conversation, sometimes mid-meal.
Even during class training, Moriyasu might suddenly turn an attack her way in the middle of sparring with someone else entirely.
Rukia’s Reishi control had reached a genuinely impressive level by now.
Her reaction to sudden attacks had become something close to pure instinct.
Lately, Moriyasu had even taken to fully suppressing his own Reishi, launching attacks from places Rukia couldn’t see coming.
She still hadn’t quite gotten used to that particular flavor of ambush.
Just as the two of them reached the academy gate, a white-haired old man in a white robe turned his head to look their way.
Moriyasu asked, “Someone you know?” “No way.
Look at that robe, obviously nobility.
Someone like me, straight out of the mud of the Rukongai, how would I know anyone like that?” Rukia shook her head lightly.
The two of them simply ignored the old man, not breaking stride at all, and walked right past him.
They’d gone no more than five or six steps when the old man in white called out.
“Miss Rukia, if you would wait a moment.” Moriyasu said with a smile, “See, told you it was for you.” And right as he said “see,” he reached out and flicked hard at Rukia’s forehead.
At the exact same moment, Rukia had already gathered Reishi at the point between her brows, blocking the flick completely.
She turned around, curious, and asked the old man, “Sir, is there something you need from me?” The old man turned to face her fully, came to a stop in front of her, and spoke softly.
“Might I have a private word?” As he said it, his eyes shifted toward Moriyasu.
Rukia’s brow tightened.
“Is it something that can’t be said in front of my friend?” “It’s fine, go ahead and talk.” Moriyasu waved a hand and walked off, coming to a stop twenty or thirty meters away.
Rukia’s brow furrowed once more, and she said briskly, “Whatever it is, just say it.” The old man laid his right hand over his chest and spoke slowly.
“Miss Rukia, I am the steward of the great Kuchiki clan of Soul Society.
I’ve come to speak with you about a certain matter.” “The Kuchiki clan?” Rukia’s gaze swept over the silver-white scarf draped around the old man’s neck.
At the academy, they’d already been taught how to identify Soul Society’s noble clans, the Kuchiki especially, as the foremost of them all.
Members of the Kuchiki house typically wore that scarf around their necks, one of their family’s distinctive marks, and no one in the entire Seireitei would dare imitate it.
Once she’d confirmed it, Rukia nodded and asked, “What would someone from the great Kuchiki clan want with me?” The Kuchiki steward smiled without answering, his eyes fixed on Rukia’s face the whole time, nodding steadily to himself as he studied her.
This left Rukia thoroughly confused.
“If you’ve got something to say, out with it.
I still need to go train with my friend.” “Miss Rukia, this old man has come to tell you that the Kuchiki clan wishes to invite you to join the family.” “Today, this old man has only come to give you advance word of it.
Tomorrow, our clan head himself, Lord Byakuya Kuchiki, will come in person to extend the invitation again.
We hope you’ll be prepared to give your answer then.” The Kuchiki steward studied Rukia’s face for another moment before finally turning to leave.
Rukia’s dark eyes stayed fixed on his retreating back, her brow furrowing once more.
She simply couldn’t understand why the great Kuchiki clan would want to adopt someone like her.
Adoption itself wasn’t especially strange.
Everyone who arrived in Soul Society lost their memories, after all, so most people ended up forming new families one way or another.
Even in the Rukongai, plenty of families actively chose to take in others.
And nobles from the Seireitei would occasionally come by the academy to look over the students, checking for anyone worth adopting.
But this was the Kuchiki clan, foremost of all the nobility, not some arrogant minor house, and certainly not some old woman from the Rukongai.
Picking someone to adopt wasn’t going to be random, or some fit of generosity.
There had to be a real purpose behind it.
Hearing footsteps approach from behind, Rukia spoke up.
“The Kuchiki clan wants to adopt me.
Help me work out why.” Ever since arriving at the academy and training alongside Moriyasu, she’d unconsciously picked up his habit of analyzing a situation before reacting to it.
Hearing that a great noble clan wanted to adopt you, for practically any other student at the academy, that news alone would have been thrilling beyond words.
But having spent so long around Moriyasu, Rukia’s first instinct was that there had to be some hidden motive behind it.
Whether that motive worked for her or against her was something that still needed working out.
The corner of Moriyasu’s mouth curved up slightly.
He, of course, already knew exactly why the Kuchiki clan wanted to adopt Rukia.
Because Rukia was, in fact, the biological younger sister of Hisana Kuchiki, wife of the clan’s current head, Byakuya Kuchiki.
And that same brother-in-law of hers had been the one showing up every two or three days this whole time, tailing them and watching from hiding.
That he’d held off this long before finally sending his steward to bring it up was already more restraint than Moriyasu had expected.
Even so, he just looked at Rukia’s face and said nothing.
After a moment, Rukia lifted her head sharply and looked over at him.
“What?” Moriyasu rolled up his sleeve, revealing the Eternal Eyes crest on his arm guard.
“Remember the other day, you asked me what this crest actually means.” “Right, I really was curious about it.
I even looked through the clan registry books during free time.
There’s genuinely no record of this crest anywhere.” Rukia nodded.
A few days ago, she’d asked Moriyasu what the family crest meant.
He’d told her he didn’t know.
One of the reasons he wanted to become a Shinigami, he’d said, was to investigate the Tokoyo clan’s history.
Rukia had understood, then, that what Moriyasu was really after was tracing his own roots.
“The Kuchiki clan is one of the oldest houses in Soul Society, and the leading noble family besides.
I’d bet they’ve got some seriously ancient records tucked away.
Maybe there’s something about the Tokoyo clan buried in there somewhere.” Moriyasu’s expression stayed calm as he finished, his eyes settling on Rukia.
“Got it.
So when the Kuchiki clan head comes tomorrow, I’ll agree to join the family.
Then once I’ve earned their trust from the inside, I’ll find a way to look through their family records and see if there’s anything about the Tokoyo clan.” Rukia didn’t hesitate for even a moment, nodding at once.
Moriyasu broke into a smile.
“Want some dango?” “Sure, let’s go get dango!” Rukia turned around, excited, and set off with a brisk, confident stride.
Just two or three steps in, she snapped her right hand up, Reishi gathering in her palm to block another of Moriyasu’s ambush attacks.
The two of them continued their little battle of attack and defense all the way toward the food stalls of Junrinan.