Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 164 - Awakening

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four

The days of the trial passed in a blink. Over the course of a month, all twenty students made their own gains. On the eleventh day inside the cave, one student broke through with a resounding surge. He was a refined-looking young man, and he had the good fortune to earn his Zanpakuto's recognition without paying too steep a price. He was the first to step out of his cave and into the central courtyard of the Cave of Trials.

Food and water had been left in the courtyard so the students wouldn't collapse from spiritual exhaustion.

Three days later, a second student emerged. Then a third. Then a fourth.

By the twenty-sixth day, half of the twenty students had passed their Zanpakuto trials and walked out of their caves. They traded stories of how they'd obtained their blades, some beaming with joy, others tinged with regret. For a few, their own weakness had resulted in a Zanpakuto of lesser power. But they'd turned misfortune into a blessing: the trial hadn't been particularly grueling for them, and they'd earned their Zanpakuto's recognition with relative ease.

When the twenty-seventh day arrived, the door to Momo's cave swung open. She walked out beaming, cradling her Zanpakuto, which had changed color.

She had passed.

"Momo, you're out." Izuru Kira was already waiting in the hall.

"Kira, look — I awakened my Zanpakuto!" Momo showed him her blade.

"Congratulations." Kira smiled, and at the same time, Momo noticed the round tsuba of Kira's Zanpakuto had become square. She knew his blade had awakened too.

"Wow, Kira, you awakened yours too?" She stepped closer, curious. "What kind of Zanpakuto is it?"

"A big fellow who was very hard to get through to." Kira smiled faintly, then drew his blade and spoke the release call.

"Raise your head, Wabisuke!"

Reiatsu erupted from the Zanpakuto in his hand. The straight blade stretched and bent downward, forming a sharp right angle.

"My Zanpakuto's name is Wabisuke. He's a gloomy sort. I had to put in real effort to open his heart."

In Kira's inner world, that great mansion was the weight of his own burdens, the pressure of carrying his family's rise and fall. And Wabisuke was the embodiment of all that pressure.

For ten full days, Kira tried to communicate with Wabisuke and got nowhere. Standing there at a loss, he noticed the mansion behind the spirit. It looked strangely familiar, though he couldn't place where he'd seen it.

So Kira stepped over the threshold, wanting to see what lay inside. Wabisuke didn't stop him.

Once inside, Kira realized it was his ancestral home. Some of the furnishings were twisted or displaced by the distortions of the inner world, but Kira could still make out the unchanged layout.

He stood there, memories flooding back. His family's home had been sold off because of the clan's decline, and the buyer had been a rival of the Kira family. The controversy had pushed them to the brink of fracture, on the verge of being expelled from the noble houses. As a candidate for next family head, Kira had no choice but to endure the pressure from his uncles and the petty schemes of his own generation, training relentlessly to become a Soul Reaper as fast as possible.

Memory after memory surged into his mind: the deaths of his ancestors, his father's suffering, the uncles who coveted the position of clan head and launched scheme after scheme, even collaborating with their rivals, only to bring ruin upon themselves. The ancestral home had been sold. It still hadn't been reclaimed.

His father's illness weighed heavily on Kira. Only by becoming a Soul Reaper would he have the right to compete for clan head. Because of all this, Kira's once-cheerful nature had grown subdued and quiet.

"Have I really been carrying this much pressure?"

Back in his own room inside the ancestral home, Kira lay on the bed and sighed softly, turning over the memories one by one. Without realizing it, he drifted into a dream. The memories twisted and tangled together, bearing down on him until he could barely breathe, until, finally, he caught a glimpse of light.

He snapped his eyes open. His gaze was absolutely resolute.

Yes, that light. The light his master had brought him. In that forest, Kira had met Wayne, taken him as his teacher, learned his combat techniques and experience. Wayne had taught him and trained him with care, helped him stand out in the Shin'ō Academy examinations, shown him how to improve his own strength, and given him the foundation to earn enough that he'd never again have to bow his head before his uncles. It was Wayne who had brought him here, to this place where, in his very first year, he had the chance to awaken his Zanpakuto.

"Master, I will not fail your teachings!"

With absolute confidence, Kira rose from his bed and made his way back to Wabisuke. At the threshold, he sat down beside that towering spirit.

"You must be exhausted. You've been carrying everything on your own all this time."

Wabisuke's face slowly turned toward Kira. He said nothing. But the weariness in his eyes was unmistakable.

"That heavy iron ball. Those thick stone slabs. And your deeply bowed head. Is all of this because of me?" Kira let out a breath. "You're right. You are the embodiment of my soul — I understand you. I understand the pain you've borne because of the pressure I carry. But..."

A golden light flashed through his gaze.

"But so what if there's pressure!"

Wave after wave of Reiatsu rippled outward from Kira's body, as though to scatter that wretched weight into nothing. His Reiatsu level began climbing at a visible pace, as if to shatter all that pressure to pieces. Wabisuke's eyes widened in astonishment.

"I've already found my direction. I've already built the strength I have now. I've already earned the wealth and means to reclaim my ancestral home. After all that effort — what does this so-called pressure even amount to? My future is perfectly clear. My goal is perfectly defined. So..."

Kira leaped to his feet. His continuously rising Reiatsu swirled around Wabisuke, lifting the great iron ball from his shoulders and shattering the stone slabs on his back.

"So, my Zanpakuto — you no longer need to bear all of this for me. I've grown stronger, but it's not enough. I will grow stronger still. To make amends. To reclaim what is rightfully mine. And you will be my eternal partner on that path. So..."

Kira's Reiatsu shifted from pale blue to golden yellow, the surge of spiritual energy reaching its peak.

"So, my partner — you don't need to bow your head and carry everything alone anymore. Rise up. Grow stronger alongside me. So, raise your head! Wabisuke!"

The entire inner world shattered. Kira awakened from the spirit's world. In his hand, Wabisuke had achieved its initial Shikai release, gleaming with a dark luster. Even burdened with what it still had to carry, it would carry it forward together with its master.

---

"Well... that's more or less how it went." Kira smiled at Momo. "Wabisuke's ability is a bit unusual, but I believe that as long as we work together, one day we'll walk the path of the Soul Reapers and become something far stronger."

"Ohh..." Momo had clearly been moved by his story. "Whatever the case, congratulations, Kira. You've taken your first step toward becoming a Soul Reaper!"

"Yeah. And I have to thank both you and Big Brother Tsukishiro for that. Without the two of you, I don't even know if I could've passed the Shin'ō Academy entrance exam, let alone awakened my Zanpakuto." Kira looked toward the deepest cave, his gaze filled with boundless gratitude.

"What about you? How did you release yours?" He turned back to Momo.

"Hehe, my awakening was pretty simple." Momo hugged her Zanpakuto and rubbed her cheek against the hilt, clearly unable to put it down.

Compared to Kira's trial, Momo's had been far simpler.

When she found herself inside the plum grove, she began greeting every Sprite she could see, one by one. None of them responded.

In a plum grove that vast, finding even one Sprite willing to communicate was no easy task. For more than twenty days, Momo searched for a Sprite who would speak with her, and every time, the result left her disappointed.

As time wore on, her mood grew anxious. There were even times when the Sprites attacked her, and she truly wanted to cry. These were the manifestations of her own heart and soul, so why wouldn't they communicate with her?

The Sprites kept circling around her, refusing to let her come close. Watching them fill the air, Momo bit her lip, her eyes full of frustration.

"What do I have to do to reach them?"

She leaned against a plum tree and slowly sat down, thinking over ways to connect with the Sprites. But nothing came to her. Instead her thoughts grew hazy, and just like Kira, Momo drifted into a dream.

In the dream, she saw her big brother. She saw Shiro-chan. She saw Granny. The four of them lived happily together, the watermelons in the courtyard sold briskly, she and her big brother had become Soul Reapers, and Shiro-chan had entered the Shin'ō Academy. Outside of their duties, the family was always together. In summer they ate chilled watermelon. In winter the four of them crowded around the kotatsu, warming themselves by the fire and eating tangerines. The whole family laughed and talked. Not a worry in the world.

Yes, this was Momo's dream.

There had been a time when she, Shiro-chan, and Granny had depended on one another, living hand to mouth, wearing tattered hemp clothes. Life had been manageable, but it was only making the best of hardship. Then came that day, the day her big brother arrived on their doorstep. His arrival had changed everything. From changing how the watermelon field was watered so no one had to toil so hard, to going out alone deep in the night to hunt so everyone had enough to eat. Every single day, her life grew a little better.

Then she and her big brother both entered the Shin'ō Academy, and through his efforts their quality of life was raised by countless degrees in one stroke. She moved from a cramped little room into a great manor she'd never dared imagine, living there together with Granny, Shiro-chan, and her big brother.

Gradually, a layer of soft pink spiritual energy began to ripple outward from the sleeping Momo's body, energy filled with gentleness and the warmth of happiness. It drew the Sprites around her. One by one, more and more of them began circling above her. That Reiatsu brimming with happiness made the little Sprites grow joyful in turn.

It also drew the attention of the most brilliantly blooming plum tree in the entire grove. From a branch of that tree, a Sprite slightly larger than all the others flew out from within a great plum blossom. She danced up into the air and drifted slowly toward Momo.

Before long, with a soft cry, Momo opened her eyes, a smile on her face. What entered her sight was a small Sprite with bright, clear eyes.

The moment she saw her, Momo instinctively knew, this was the one she'd been searching for all along.

"Hello. My name is Momo Hinamori." Her voice was soft and gentle, filled with warmth. "Would you... like to come home with me?"

The little Sprite tilted her head, seeming not quite to understand. But she felt the faint, gentle Reiatsu Momo was giving off, and it made her feel at ease. She extended her small hand toward Momo. And Momo reached out and touched it.

Whoosh,

A breeze swept through. All the Sprites vanished. Only the one before her remained, a Sprite brimming with spirit. She settled into Momo's palm and began to dance. As she danced, plum blossoms drifted down one after another, wrapping themselves around Momo.

Breathing in the faint, delicate fragrance, Momo felt as though she were enveloped entirely in happiness. She pulled the little Sprite close and kept rubbing her cheek against her, again and again.

"Hehe, thank you for coming home with me. Thank you for bringing me this happiness. Trust me, I will make you the most beautiful flower in the world. So please, dance for me. Bloom for me! Tobiume!"

Pink Reiatsu surged skyward. Momo's spiritual energy climbed rapidly. For a moment, the entire world seemed blanketed by falling plum blossoms, until both of them were completely immersed in joyful smiles.

Soon, Momo returned from the spirit's world. When she opened her eyes, a Zanpakuto with a pink hilt was gripped in her hand. The blade split into branches like the fork of a tree, shining with the same pink light.

"Hehe, I did it!" She leaped up. "Well then, I look forward to our future together, Tobiume~"

---

"Wow, I never would've thought an awakening like that was even possible." Kira was genuinely happy for her. "Congratulations, Momo. Tobiume will definitely become your greatest partner."

"Yeah! Hehe." Momo's face was full of joy. "It's all thanks to Big Brother, and Shiro-chan and Granny too. With Tobiume joining us, our lives will only get better."

"They definitely will!"

"I wonder how Big Brother is doing." Momo looked toward the door at the very deepest end of the cave. "I'm sure the Zanpakuto he awakens will be incredibly powerful."

"I believe in Big Brother Tsukishiro too." Kira looked toward Wayne's cave. "Let's wait and see. There are still three days left."

"Yeah."

So the two of them rested in the courtyard, waiting alongside their awakened classmates for the trial to conclude.

---

The twenty-eighth day. The remaining caves showed no sign of movement. Twelve students had now successfully awakened their Zanpakuto.

The twenty-ninth day. A red-haired young man emerged from one of the caves, a large Zanpakuto covered in jagged teeth slung over his shoulder.

"Abarai." Kira spotted Renji and stood to greet him.

"Ah." Renji saw his classmates and walked over.

"Congratulations — you awakened too." Momo stepped forward.

"Yeah. Took a lot of work." Renji patted his Zanpakuto. "His name's Zabimaru. He's the leader of a troop of baboons. They chased me around for days, and finally I got fed up and started fighting back. Little by little I beat the whole group into submission, until only he was left. After the two of us beat each other half to death, he finally acknowledged me and told me his name."

"Wait — you fought your way through it?" Momo blinked.

"Ha. That does sound like you." The corner of Kira's mouth twitched.

"Whatever. Point is, I awakened. And I'm pretty happy with this battle-hungry guy." Renji hoisted Zabimaru back onto his shoulder and looked around. "Where's Big Brother Tsukishiro?"

"Big Brother still hasn't come out." Momo looked toward the distant cave. The eager light that had once filled her eyes had turned anxious. The trial was almost over. When the bell struck on the thirtieth day, all the doors would open, and any student who hadn't walked out in time would face failure.

"Let's wait a little longer." A shadow of worry crept into Kira's expression. "Big Brother Tsukishiro will definitely manage to awaken."

"Yeah." Momo nodded, her eyes fixed anxiously on the distant cave.

---

And so, in their long wait, the thirtieth day arrived.

Morning. The cave showed no sign of movement.

Noon. Still silent.

Nightfall. Less than ten minutes remained before the trial ended. Momo stared at the water clock on the wall, watching time pass drop by drop, her heart rising into her throat.

Then, with one minute left, a tremendous boom rang out from the distant cave. A powerful wave of Reiatsu spread outward like ripples on water.

"Big Brother!?" Momo looked toward the distance, waiting for that figure to appear.

One step. Two steps.

At last, someone walked out of the shadows, dragging a long two-handed greatsword, advancing one pace at a time.

Momo's heart seemed to skip a beat.

The person before her was not her big brother. It was the student who had entered the cave second, right after him.

The next second, Momo's anxious gaze snapped back to the water clock. The final drop fell. The bell signaling the end of the trial rang out.

The awakening examination of the Cave of Trials was officially over.

Fourteen students stood present. The remaining six had not been able to walk out of their caves. A low hum sounded, and all the remaining caves opened at once. Several students trudged out, heads hanging in defeat.

Then, from the deepest part of the caves, footsteps, slow and steady, drawing closer.

One step. Two steps. Wayne's figure came into view before Momo and the others.

The Zanpakuto cradled in his arms showed no change at all.

"Big... Big Brother..." Momo's voice trembled. A thin veil of moisture clouded her eyes.

"Oh? Momo, you're all out already." Wayne looked at the Zanpakuto in everyone's hands and knew they had all successfully awakened. "Congratulations. You've all awakened your Zanpakuto."

"Big Brother Tsukishiro." Kira's composure crumbled. He could see it clearly, Wayne's Zanpakuto still looked exactly the same. Still an Asauchi.

"Big Brother... your... your blade..." Momo couldn't hold back any longer. Clear teardrops slid down from the corners of her eyes, one after another.

"Ah." Wayne smiled faintly and reached out, gently stroking Momo's head. The words left his lips softly, the final result of this trial.

"I failed."

➤ Next: The Reason