Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 137 - Zan, Ken, Sō, Ki

The next morning, the dormitory roused early to an assembly whistle. As Soul Reapers of Soul Society, their wake-up call was never going to be a blaring loudspeaker. Instead, it came through Kidō, Bakudō #79, Tenteikūra.

That was also why no one had been notified at the previous day's meeting with old man Yamamoto. No advance warning needed.

Tenteikūra traces the spiritual nerve pathways through Reiatsu and transmits its signal without interference regardless of which of the three realms the recipient happens to be in. By any measure, it was the finest wireless communication the Soul Reaper world had to offer.

That said, mastering a Bakudō technique sitting near the eightieth number was flatly impossible without a certain level of Reiatsu, and serious study to back it up.

"Incredible! You can actually send messages like that!" Yū Nakai, jolted awake by Tenteikūra, was practically vibrating with excitement. It was his first real encounter with Kidō, and he couldn't help but be swept up in it. Plenty of the other new students, it was safe to assume, felt exactly the same.

About half an hour later, Wayne and Yū Nakai arrived at the classroom. It was enormous, a tiered lecture hall that could seat over two hundred. By the time they walked in, a good number of new students had already settled into their seats. Class A students. Their self-discipline was a given. That said, there were always a few naturally gifted souls out of Rukongai who had no patience for stuffy old rules, though under the teacher's "attentive guidance," even those types tended to straighten out over time.

"Students, welcome to Shin'ō Academy. I am your teacher. Jūzō Kiyono."

Once most of the class had filled in, a teacher with glasses thick as bottle bottoms walked through the door.

"You're all outstanding students, so I won't waste your time. We'll go straight into today's first lesson — an overview of the curriculum."

He picked up a booklet from the desk beside him.

"Could I ask — which of you is Tsukishiro Hinamori?"

The moment those words landed, heads swiveled across the room. Everyone wanted to know who had been singled out by name on the very first day.

"That's me." Wayne's brow tightened slightly. He raised his hand and stood. "Is there something you need, teacher?"

"I heard about what happened during your entrance exam. A colleague of mine specifically asked me to pass along that you are blind, so I've arranged a special seat for you. Your lesson materials and textbooks were also prepared on short notice — they use an ink that can be perceived through Reiatsu, so you'll be able to read without trouble. You do know how to read?"

"Of course." Wayne nodded. The written language was something he'd picked up from Momo, rooted in the foundational memories carried over from his previous life. Perhaps it was one of the perks of being a reincarnator, but he'd encountered almost no resistance learning to read. The characters simply made sense to him.

"Good. That saves me from finding you a translator or arranging remedial lessons." Teacher Kiyono pushed his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose. "However, since your materials are specially made, your book fees will run a little higher than everyone else's. Considering you come from the Rukon District, though, you can carry the balance for now — settle it with Mizusue yourself later."

"Mizusue?" The name tugged at something in Wayne's memory. The female seated officer from the 4th Division who had asked him so many questions during the exam, hadn't she gone by that name? Had she arranged all of this?

"Please pass on my thanks to Teacher Kiyono on my behalf, and to Senior Mizusue as well. I'll deliver the payment in person."

"Mm." Teacher Kiyono nodded, then turned back to address the room. "Today I'll be introducing the four main pillars of the Shin'ō Academy curriculum — Zankensoki. Let's begin with Zan, which covers what we call cutting techniques, swordsmanship, and so forth. According to..."

With that, the teacher launched into a thorough and unhurried lecture. Wayne couldn't claim to know every detail inside out, but he was well acquainted with the territory.

Zankensoki. Four combat disciplines. Four pillars every Soul Reaper trained in.

Zan, swordsmanship, blade arts. The study of sword technique to better wield one's Zanpakutō in combat. It was primarily applied during the unreleased state of the Zanpakutō, foundational tempering, basic combat refinement. Train it deep enough, and you'd reach a point like Wayne's, where Reiatsu and blade craft alone were enough to send destructive sword gleams arcing out with every swing.

Ken, martial arts, close combat. Called Hakuda within Shin'ō Academy. Bare-handed techniques for hardening the body and forging the spirit. Generally, once a Soul Reaper awakened their Zanpakutō, Hakuda started to fall out of favor, after all, who needed fists when you had a companion blade at your hip?

In the early stages of training, though, Hakuda was the finest way to build a genuine foundation. Just as Wayne had once drilled Kira through it: start with the horse stance and the straight punch, work from the ground up. Steady, methodical. That was how you built something that wouldn't crack.

So, footwork, movement technique. Among Soul Reapers, there was a technique called Shunpo, similar, in principle, to the Sonído Wayne had used as a Hollow. Just not as fast. Sonído drew on explosive Reiatsu force and spatial displacement. Shunpo worked by infusing Reiatsu directly into both legs, generating a burst of instantaneous movement. The raw speed was roughly comparable, the difference was that Shunpo could be detected through Reiatsu sensing, while Sonído left no trace.

Ki, Kidō. Divided into Hadō, Bakudō, and Kaidō. The first two required chanting incantations. The third demanded exceptional precision in spiritual power control. For someone like Wayne, who had no feel for Kidō whatsoever, the Ki pillar was already half gone before he'd started.

Whether Kaidō was ever within reach depended entirely on where his path took him from here.

With the overview done, the teacher had the students begin sampling each of the four disciplines in turn. They were also asked to declare a primary focus.

Momo sat beside Wayne, wrestling with the choice. "Big brother, I don't know how to pick... I kind of want to try all of them."

"Then go with Kidō." Wayne made the call for her. "Of the four, Zan and Ken can't really share a primary focus, and Sō is a support technique. Kidō covers attack, control, and healing — the whole system is far more well-rounded than any of the other three. Honestly, Kidō on its own can hold its own against all the rest combined. Your feel for spiritual power rhythm is excellent, and your instinct for Kidō is sharp, it should be a natural fit."

"Then... I'll go with Kidō." Momo's cheeks went faintly pink from the praise, and she went with his recommendation.

"What about you, big brother?"

"Me..." Wayne considered it. For himself, Kidō was already off the table. If an opportunity came up later, he could drop by the 4th Division and pick up what he needed in Kaidō, that would be enough. For the other three, both Zan and Ken had merit. As for Shunpo, a bit of study would suffice. Wayne had used Sonído until it was second nature in his previous life, a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow who'd run Sonído into the ground. Once he understood the mechanics of Shunpo, his footwork wouldn't fall short of any specialist.

"I'll probably focus on Zan." He gave Momo his answer. "I have no talent for Kidō, so swordsmanship is the better call."

"Oh... I see." A flicker of disappointment crossed Momo's face. Not being able to focus on the same thing as her big brother left her a little sullen, but there was nothing for it. Wayne sitting through Kidō classes would be a waste of his time, plain and simple.

With their choices made, the first lesson of the day began.

Hakuda.

Declaring a primary focus didn't excuse anyone from learning all four. They all had to go through the fundamentals.

The bedrock of Hakuda was physical conditioning and Reiatsu output. It was nothing like Yoruichi's Shunkō, that was an integrated technique fusing movement, Kidō, and bare-handed combat, something Wayne had no path to learning. But channeling Reiatsu through his strikes? No obstacle there at all.

For now, it was basics: horse stance, straight punches, methods of leveraging force, a sequence of foundational drills. Wayne used them to pick at gaps in his own form, cross-referencing against the battles burned into memory from his previous life. Moments where he'd used force poorly. Angles where a lighter method would have done the same work.

Momo and Kira had no idea he was running a full internal audit. They just assumed that, maybe because Wayne couldn't see clearly, he was working harder than usual to calibrate his movements.

The teacher didn't step forward to correct him. It was plain enough that Wayne was performing each movement correctly first, and only then beginning to adjust and refine.

"He's reviewing from real experience." The teacher gave Wayne a measured look, then turned back to the rest of the class. He had come out of the 2nd Division, a product of the Stealth Force. Beyond swordsmanship, his sharpest skills were Hakuda and Shunpo. He'd seen enough real combat to recognize what he was looking at: the moment Wayne threw his first combination and immediately began reworking the angles, mapping out his next line of attack, the picture was clear.

He'd already heard the story, Wayne cutting the examiner down with two strikes during the entrance exam. He had no intention of criticizing anything Wayne did. He'd just let him sharpen himself.

Forms were fixed. Application was fluid. Different levels of Reiatsu produced different results from the same technique. No matter how cleverly a seated officer adapted their form, they couldn't survive a single punch from the Captain-Commander. But at equal levels, every technique mastered over an opponent added one more sliver of a chance at winning.

The teacher left Wayne alone and continued with the rest of the class. As long as Wayne wasn't asking questions, and as long as his starting form was sound, looking the other way was fine. He had no desire to criticize Wayne only to get a response like: want to spar and find out?

Honestly, whether he'd even come out on top was an open question. Students openly challenging their teachers was not exactly rare at Shin'ō Academy. There were many gifted students. The teachers were not all elite fighters drawn from the best of their divisions.

He himself was certainly not.

The first lesson covered foundational technique and theory. No paired sparring yet, that would come later, once students had fully internalized the basics. And these weren't techniques designed purely for human opponents. Soul Reapers' primary enemies were Hollows, and Hollows had no consistent shape, no standard size, no reliable form. If Wayne were to bring the 12th Division of Soul Society the data he'd accumulated over decades in Hueco Mundo, combined with what he'd learned from Szayelaporro on Hollow classification, rank assessment, and ability categories, he was certain Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi would hand him a seated officer position of at least the 10th Seat or higher. Though at this point in time, what Mayuri Kurotsuchi probably wanted more was to strap Wayne to a dissection table.

"Big brother..." Not far away, Momo watched Wayne's movements with a quiet crease of worry on her face. She didn't fully understand his situation, and it had been pulling her attention away from her own lesson.

"Don't worry about him." A large, powerfully built male student nearby spoke up without being asked. "That guy is something else, I watched him during the exam. Two strikes and the examiner was airborne. Someone who can do that doesn't make mistakes with something like this." Momo turned. Standing beside her was a tall, broad-shouldered young man with vivid red hair.

"You're right." She gave him a small nod. "Thank you. I trust big brother."

"Is he actually your big brother?" The young man looked genuinely surprised.

"Yes. My name is Momo Hinamori, and my big brother is Tsukishiro Hinamori."

"Tsukishiro Hinamori." The red-haired young man went quiet for a moment, his movements slowing a beat. "Never heard the name before, but I'll remember it. I hope I can catch up to him someday."

"Yeah! Big brother is really exceptional, so we all have to push each other forward!" Momo said warmly. "Oh, I still don't know your name?"

"Me? I'm..."

"Renji Abarai! Step out!" The teacher's voice cracked across the room. The red-haired young man snapped rigid.

"Sir!" Renji Abarai stepped out of line immediately.

"Spacing out in class, sloppy form, you'll be cleaning the training ground after class!" The teacher had no intention of touching Wayne, but there was nothing stopping him from coming down hard on this wild kid out of the fortieth district of Rukongai. He had a rough working knowledge of most of the students here. This one, born in District 78, extraordinary Reiatsu potential, remarkable physical capability, and a streak of reckless brashness a mile wide. A perfect candidate to make an example of.

"Uh... yes, sir." Renji grimaced and had no choice but to accept it.

"Sorry, sorry." Momo quickly apologized. It was her own distraction that had gotten him into this.

"It's nothing. Just sweeping." Renji laughed it off easily. Momo gave a small nod and quietly filed the name away.

"Renji, huh?" Wayne turned and glanced in Momo's direction, taking in the red-haired young man standing beside her. "Right, Renji Abarai and Rukia enrolled at Shin'ō Academy the same year as Momo and Kira. Back when they were younger, Rukia's natural talent for Reiatsu control ran higher than Renji's, but as they grew older, his physical ability began to far outpace hers, which is what ultimately put Abarai in Class A while Rukia ended up in Class B."

These main-storyline characters were showing up more and more often.

Which meant the time left before the main story began was running out.

He held his gaze on Renji Abarai for one long moment, then pulled his attention back to the drill. Improve faster. Graduate faster. Get everything in place before the clock ran out.

➤ Next: Special Tutoring