The first Sunday of April.
The weather was exceptionally refreshing after the rain.
Takashi and Ichigo went to the Fifth Division as invited.
When they saw Aizen, he was standing under the barracks’ porch, hands tucked into his sleeves, gently comforting a subordinate who had likely made a small mistake, as usual.
Takashi and Ichigo waited at the other end of the corridor for him to finish his official business before stepping forward to greet him.
“Shinomiya-kun, Kurosaki-kun, welcome to the Fifth Division. Did you encounter any trouble on the way?”
“Not really, it’s just a bit far. It would be convenient if there were transportation, like buses or something.”
Ichigo rubbed the back of his head and gave a wry smile.
“A very pertinent suggestion. I will propose it to the Captain-Commander and Central 46 at the next Captains’ Meeting.”
Aizen pondered.
This made Ichigo feel a bit guilty.
“No… there’s no need to make such a big deal out of it. It’s not completely unbearable, right, Takashi?”
“To be honest, I don’t think buses are enough. Trains would be better. Speaking of which, is there any merit in building subways under each district? It feels like a good investment project.”
Takashi’s pondering look was exactly like Aizen’s.
“Hey!”
“A very bold idea. But if it’s you two, you might actually be able to do it.”
“Teacher Aizen, shouldn’t you be discouraging your students from being so unrealistic at a time like this?”
“Kurosaki-kun, I need to correct a misconception. As a teacher, what I should discourage students from is giving up on their ideals. No matter how reckless they may seem, that is the privilege of a genius.”
Aizen spoke with deep meaning.
Ichigo felt the latter half of the sentence was slightly extreme, but before he could figure it out and argue, Takashi interrupted, “We can talk about the investment project later. Let’s talk about business.”
“Just as Shinomiya-kun said. However, let’s move to another place before we begin.”
Subsequently, Aizen led them to the outside of a building that could be called either a grass hut or a dojo.
It looked simple, but it occupied an entire independent courtyard and was located in a core area deep within the barracks.
Clearly, it wasn’t as shabby as it looked.
Aizen suddenly asked a seemingly irrelevant question.
Takashi and Ichigo glanced at each other.
The latter answered first.
“Impressions… if I had to say, although the uniforms are different from the Spirit Arts Academy, the atmosphere here seems similar.”
“You mean an academic air, right?”
Takashi picked up the conversation.
“Yes, yes, yes! It feels like an educational institution.”
Ichigo’s eyes lit up.
“Actually, I have a similar feeling, but I think I know where the reason lies.”
Takashi looked at Aizen, who was smiling without saying a word.
“Based on my observations, I’ve found that the emotions of the Fifth Division Squad Members are very stable. Although their Spiritual Pressure isn’t intentionally hidden, it doesn’t feel very substantial. It’s like the sound of breathing or a heartbeat; you won’t care even if you notice it. Rather than saying they lack aggression, it’s more like they intentionally avoid affecting others.”
“It’s practically the opposite of Ichigo’s situation, where he still can’t completely suppress his own Spiritual Pressure.”
“Hey, don’t use me as an example while you’re talking! I feel like I’m doing quite well now. The Instructor of the Kidō class even praised me a few days ago.”
Ichigo was a bit dissatisfied.
“In your case, any slight improvement is enough to make a teacher feel relieved… Don’t interrupt me. Where was I? Anyway, if you ask for my impressions of the Fifth Division, my conclusion is that the Kidō level of the Fifth Division Squad Members is most likely above the passing line.”
Takashi’s words were startling.
Even Ichigo didn’t have time to be angry; he immediately exclaimed, “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Currently undergoing the baptism of knowledge at the Spirit Arts Academy, he was no longer that clueless newcomer with no common sense.
He knew exactly how much weight an above-average Kidō level carried.
To put it bluntly.
Over the course of six years, at least half of the students who pass the graduation exam fail to reach this standard.
In this situation, unless the Fifth Division only recruited Kidō specialists, it would be impossible for everyone to be proficient in Kidō.
“But wouldn’t doing so be reported by the Kidō Corps?”
“Oh, the Grand Kidō Master and Vice Kidō Master have defected, and now there’s no one to lead a protest. Then it’s fine.”
“Shinomiya-kun’s observations are very meticulous, and your ideas are bold. To that, I can only say… correct. The vast majority of the Fifth Division Squad Members possess considerable Kidō strength.”
“And the reason is related to this building behind me.”
As soon as he said this, Takashi and Ichigo subconsciously looked at the grass hut dojo.
Aizen didn’t keep them in suspense and directly revealed the answer.
“It has a name: the Spiritual Power Restoration Chamber.”
“As the name suggests, it is a training ground that can accelerate the recovery of the mental energy consumed by using Kidō.”
“With its help, Squad Members can undergo high-intensity Kidō training during specific periods. Combined with the theoretical knowledge they master daily, they can truly raise their Kidō baseline.”
“Even if they are limited by talent and cannot further master Kidō with higher difficulty coefficients, I believe that if they can discard the incantation while still retaining most of its performance, combine them into new Kidō, and then match them with tactics and combat experience, it is still quite a remarkable achievement.”
“Allowing those who are not geniuses to also become strong. That hope is precisely the support that keeps the Squad Members’ emotions stable.”
“It is no exaggeration to say that the current Fifth Division’s overall Kidō strength is second to none among the Gotei 13. Of course, it is still slightly inferior compared to the Kidō Corps.”
At the end, he didn’t forget a wave of self-deprecation.
Even though there were no members of the Kidō Corps present.
“I didn’t expect the Fifth Division to have such a good thing.”
Takashi sighed.
“The cost of excessive mental exhaustion in daily practice is much more troublesome than overextending physical strength.”
“Therefore, the benefits of having a training ground that helps people quickly recover mental energy are self-evident.”
Takashi, who possessed Compound Potions and could complete high-intensity training every day without fear of exhaustion, had a deep understanding of this.
It seemed he would have to visit the Fifth Division often in the future.
“So Teacher Aizen, this place can solve my problem, right?”
Ichigo was a bit impatient.
Aizen shook his head: “I’m sorry, it cannot.”
“Huh?”
“Its function is to recover the mental energy consumed by using Kidō, not to help people control their own Spiritual Pressure. Although it can have an auxiliary effect, it hasn’t reached that stage yet.”
“The more I hear, the more confused I get.”
“Fine, let’s be more direct… Kurosaki-kun, give up on Kidō.”