“What do you make of that Shiba Kaien?”
Nanao asked it out of nowhere, during their after-dinner chat by the roadside.
“A genius.”
Silas’s reaction was very flat.
“Is that so? But you didn’t look the least bit surprised when you saw his test result.”
“True enough. After all… his surname is Shiba.”
Silas yawned as he said it.
“A fallen noble is still a noble, and this was a former Great Noble house at that. It’s no shock that one of their own would have talent like that.”
“I get the feeling he doesn’t even need the teachers here. His family’s heritage alone is enough to give him a fine education. Coming to the Shin’ō Academy might just be a formality. Don’t you think?”
“Mm-hmm…”
Nanao hummed softly.
She had read a great many books on the history of the Soul Society, and it came up in class too, so of course she knew a few of the rumors about the Five Great Noble Families.
Even though only Four Great Noble Clans remained now.
She gazed at the setting sun as it sank slowly below the horizon, a hint of melancholy in her eyes.
This was her fifth year since enrollment, and she still hadn’t turned the Asauchi the academy had assigned her into a Zanpakutō of her own.
As for which squad to choose after graduation, she had no idea at all.
Her talent in Kidō far outstripped that of ordinary people, but without awakening a Zanpakutō, could she really become a Shinigami…?
A large hand pressed down on her head, cutting off the thought.
“Alright, don’t dwell on it. Things have a way of working out. It’s been a long day, head back and get some rest early.”
Seeing the smile on Silas’s face, Nanao felt her cheeks warm and jerked her head to shake the hand off.
“Yeah. You too.”
With that she turned to leave, her books in her arms, tilting her head slightly before she went.
“By the way, tomorrow’s a day off. Still going to the library?”
“Yes. I haven’t finished ‘On the Current State of the Soul Society Over the Last Three Hundred Years’ yet.”
“Okay. I’ll wait for you at the usual spot.”
Nanao walked off with light steps.
Silas watched her go, then headed for his own dormitory.
Back in his room, he let out a slow, long breath.
“System, open the panel.”
A translucent blue screen of light unfolded before his eyes.
[Name: Silas Vane]
Spiritual Power Level: Rank 10 (EXP: 2665/3000)
Zanjutsu: Lv2 (EXP: 1825/2000)
Hakuda: Lv2 (EXP: 1760/2000)
Shunpo: Lv2 (EXP: 1695/2000)
Kidō: Lv3 (EXP: 1450/3000)
Zanpakutō: Asauchi Resonance 82%
[Special Abilities]
Hollowfication: Lv1 (EXP: 10/1000)
These were the attributes he had built up over his past four years at the Shin’ō Academy.
Experience could be earned through his own training, or by absorbing the fragments others dropped while they practiced.
The more skilled a person was, the higher the chance a fragment would drop.
When Silas’s Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Shunpo, and Kidō were all at Lv1, he was already a standout student, no weaker than an ordinary squad member.
At Lv2 they took a massive leap, reaching the level of some of the veteran Shinigami teachers who taught here.
His strongest attribute, Lv3 Kidō, had barely climbed to the level of a low-Seated Officer, with a good deal of help from the “Nanao-brand Kidō EXP pack.”
Looking over the various figures on the panel, Silas’s gaze came to rest on the bottom line.
Hollowfication.
That was a strange fragment he had picked up by accident a few months back, during a patrol internship out in the Rukongai.
It gave off an odd dark-red glow, unlike any fragment he had seen before.
He hadn’t known what it was at the time, but out of trust in the system, he had reached out and touched it.
Afterward, a thread of eerie Spiritual Pressure took root inside his body.
Hollow Spiritual Pressure.
Silas had never once tried to draw on that thread of Spiritual Pressure, nor had he ever deliberately triggered Hollowfication.
For Hollow power to surface inside a Shinigami’s body was an absolute taboo in the Seireitei of this era.
Even the Hollowfied captains of the Visored, in the original story, largely kept their Hollowfication abilities hidden from others after they returned to the Seireitei.
Shiba Kaien turning up today, together with that earlier Hollowfication fragment, let Silas roughly place where they stood on the timeline.
Aizen’s Hōgyoku experiments had already begun.
The Soul Society, never truly peaceful to begin with, now carried one more danger lurking in its shadows.
In a dozen or so years, the event that would shake the whole Seireitei would arrive.
The captains’ Hollowfication and defection.
Decades after that, Aizen would pick out several students from the Shin’ō Academy, ones with clean backgrounds and rare talent, and groom them as his pawns.
Kira Izuru, Hinamori Momo, Abarai Renji.
Over that same stretch, countless Shinigami and high-spiritual-power souls were crushed and fed into the Hōgyoku by Aizen.
Using the power of Kyōka Suigetsu, Aizen papered over every one of those incidents without a seam.
Silas reminded himself that he didn’t have Hinamori Momo’s HP bar.
Nor was he some rare, gifted genius worth close scrutiny.
So the ability he showed in the open stayed at the Lv1 level.
The very bottom of the elite class, yet outstanding among ordinary people.
Until he had strength enough, he would do his best not to draw too much attention from those dangerous people.
Beyond the window, night settled over the Soul Society.
The silhouette of Sōkyoku Hill loomed in the twilight, and the lights of the Seireitei flickered on one by one.
The barracks of the Gotei 13’s various squads crouched across the Seireitei like silent behemoths.
Silas walked to the window and looked toward the Fifth Division barracks.
The ones living there now would be the current Captain, Hirako Shinji, and that ever-smiling lieutenant, Aizen Sōsuke.
“There’s still time.”
Silas spoke softly, and clenched his fists.
His strength as it stood was nowhere near enough.
But he had the system.
As long as he kept his head down and survived, he would come to hold power that feared no danger.
Before long his roommates came back, and they traded greetings.
Silas closed the panel and lay down on his bed.
The night passed in silence.
Early the next morning, Silas set out.
After breakfast, he went to the training grounds.
A few diligent students had already started practicing there.
As they moved, fragments of Spiritual Pressure and training insight dropped from them now and then.
Silas had tested this before.
These fragments could linger for a few days before they faded.
So he came to the training grounds every so often to collect them.
He had spent the past few days helping with the freshman entrance exams, and since today was his day off, he had come straight to the grounds to soak up the fragments scattered across the floor.
A few people noticed Silas and said hello.
Most of them already knew this fellow who liked to drift from one training ground to another.
To keep from seeming odd, Silas would now and then help swap out training equipment or tidy up damage to the grounds.
As a result, he was oddly well-liked among the teachers and students.
[Obtained Spiritual Power Fragment x15, Spiritual Power Level EXP +45]
[Obtained Kidō Insight x2, Kidō EXP +10]
[Obtained Hakuda Insight x9, Hakuda EXP +45]
[Obtained Shunpo Insight x8, Shunpo EXP +40]
[Obtained Zanjutsu Insight x12, Zanjutsu EXP +60]
…The training insights and assorted realizations packed into the fragments were absorbed and digested by Silas in no time.
His proficiency with some unfamiliar techniques was steadily climbing too.
This feeling of things being stamped straight into his body and mind was far more satisfying than gritting his teeth and grinding out the training alone.
While gathering fragments, Silas would glance now and then at the students drilling on the field.
The lower-grade students were riddled with flaws in Silas’s eyes, which made it hard for them to hand him any experience.
By now, only the upper-grade, skilled students could still drop experience for him.
Once his Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Shunpo, and Kidō all reached Lv3, the efficiency of milking experience from the school would probably drop off further still.
“I need more ways to collect fragments. This little Shin’ō Academy can’t satisfy me anymore.”
Silas looked up at the clear sky.
The timing was just right.
Time to meet up with little Nanao at the library.