29 - Graduation
Kaien brought Rumi to a secluded place in West Rukongai for their sparring section.
"Now come at me with all you have, Fujiwara." Kaien said.
Rumi drew her Zanpakuto from the shealth and charged towards Kaien with Shunpo. Since she had yet to release her Shikai, the speed wasn't as fast as Kazehime's Shikai state but Kaien was still taken aback by her speed. It was much faster than the level of Sixth seat Shinigami, and that wasn't even her Shikai state yet.
But since he was a lieutenant and an experienced one at that, Kaien could see through her current Shunpo speed and block her sword easily. Once her attack was blocked, Rumi used a mix of Shunpo and wind reiatsu to appear behind Kaien and attack again. Kaien once again turned and blocked the attack easily, but Rumi kept her speed and tried to find openings to attack with high speed continuously.
After exchanging a few more moves, Kaien gauged her skill level.
'Her speed is astonishing, and her swordsmanship is not bad, but she lacks power.' Kaien thought. Although Rumi had been attacking continuously at high speeds and her sword moves weren't bad, Kaien couldn't help but noticed her swordsmanship lacked power burst.
'Is it reiatsu? No..., it isn't reiatsu.' Kaien thought. Rumi's reiatsu itself was strong, he understood that much when he traded blows with her for the first few times. If he wasn't wrong, her reiatsu could be High level, which was normally for Third seats and Lieutenant level Shinigami so it couldn't be because of reiatsu issue.
"Is that all, Fujiwara? Put more power in your attacks." Kaien said, as he pushed her sword back with more strength, "Unless you want to get injured."
Rumi had to take a few steps back as Kaien pushed her back. She knew lieutenants were strong but she felt that Kaien was on another level. His casual move alone was enough to push her back a few steps and her hands were still twitching from the aftermath.
'His reiatsu is stronger and most likely, he has more reiryoku than me as well. I can't match with him in endurance or power burst. If this goes on, I'll get beaten up.' Rumi thought.
Then, she held her Zanpakuto in front of her and chanted, "Let's play, Kazehime."
At the release command, Kazehime changed into its Shikai form from the normal katana, its thin, elongated silver blade looked as if it would cut through the wind at any moment.
"So, that's your Shikai state. I've been wanting to see it myself. Alright, come at me, Fujiwara. Show me how strong your Shikai is." Kaien said.
With Kazehime unleashed, Rumi's speed was enhanced to four times faster and her blade cut through the air with minimal resistance. She appeared from the side of Kaien and her blade aimed at his shoulder. Kaien quickly defended himself with his own Zanpakuto but his hands twitched a little at Kazehime's rush of power and speed, especially since he had yet to unleash his Shikai.
Kaien laughed heartily at that, "Impressive. Your Shikai is enough to push me back like this. If I were a bit slower, you would've pierced my shoulder. I guess it's time to get a little serious myself."
Rumi's eyes widened as Kaien put more reiatsu on his sword and suddenly he was pushing her back again. Although she was much faster than before and now even a little faster than Kaien, Kaien was still following her attacks and adjusting to her speed extremely well. It was as if he prefectly knew how she was going to move and how her attack was going to be.
"Not bad, Fujiwara. But you lack actual experience." Kaien said, quite impressed by Rumi's performance so far. It had been more than fifteen minutes since they started sparring and now he was forced to become a little serious once she unleashed her Shikai. This wasn't a feat required for a Sixth seat, this has to be at least fourth seat Shinigami.
"Kaze no Yaiba." Rumi sent the mutiple invisible wind blades towards Kaien, she knew her experience was far lesser than Kaien and it wouldn't be enough to win against Kaien but it didn't matter. If experience was an issue, couldn't she more or less make up for it with Mind's Momentum?
Activating Mind's Momentum decisively, Rumi skillfully dodged Kaien's counterattacks and sent her own invisible wind blades to attack Kaien. Kaien's eyes widened at Rumi's sudden improvement in precision and prediction of his moves. It was as if she had levelled up to a higher state of battle proficiency suddenly, she was reading his moves and counteracting each move with extreme precision. With her enhanced speed and power because of Shikai in addition to this heightened battle sense state, Kaien found himself having to use more and more of his actual power to avoid being pushed back. Before the spar started, he had decided to adjust his strength to Fourth to Fifth seat level instead of his actual level so that it wouldn't be one-sided beating but as time went by, he found that he was getting closer to using his actual strength.
'At this rate, I might have to use almost my actual strength..' Kaien thought. He hadn't imagined sparring with a potential Sixth seat would make him use this much of his strength, but it was happening.
On the other hand, Rumi realized that her reiryoku was quickly depleting even with Sloth's efficiency in spirtual energy usage. She had been in Shikai state for about fifteen minutes now and using Mind's Momentum for at least ten minutes just to almost equally match with Kaien, who still hadn't unleashed his Shikai. As a lieutenant, he was bound to have more reiryoku than her so Rumi understood that if this kept going, she would run out of reiatsu first and would have to use up her stored reiryoku. That wasn't a pleasant option since stored reiryoku was her only hope to upgrading her rather mediocre reiryoku level.
"Hado Number 33, Sokatsui." Since she couldn't drag on the spar much longer, Rumi decided to also use Kido at the same time.
As blue flames discharged from Rumi's left palm and headed towards Kaien at high speed, Kaien's eyes widened. Rumi had just abandoned the full chant for the spell yet, the destructive power of the spell seemed like it would have at least 80% efficiency compared to its full chant version. In any case, Kaien knew that he couldn't dodge the spell at this rate and stopping the spell head on with the current power level he was using would be impossible.
"Rage through the seas and heavens, Nejibana." Kaien released his Zanpakuto Shikai form to create a strong water wave to stop Rumi's kido spell. As his Shikai power met with the destructive power of Rumi's Sokatsui, it created a shockwave and hit Rumi. Rumi used her wind reiatsu to defend it but in the end, she was no match for Kaien's actual power at this point.
Rumi was a little out of breath when she finally hit the ground and at that point, she stopped using Mind's Momentum or reiatsu boost.
She had already lost the spar the moment Kaien unleashed his Shikai. After all, Kaien was superior in almost all of the aspects, be it reiatsu, reiryoku or combat experience. While her bursts of power and enhanced speed was able to push Kaien to use his Shikai, that moment at the same time brought her defeat.
"That was outstanding, Fujiwara. To think that you could force me to unleash my Shikai.." Kaien said, still shaken himself by this outcome. He had done it, he had even unleashed his Shikai to defend against her attack. That couldn't even be a Fourth seat level, it had to be a Third seat level.
'Sixth seat with the power level of a third seat? What a monster...' Kaien thought to himself. He had never expected a first year student who had yet to graduate to have Third seat level power. How exactly strong was she going to get in a few years? Kaien found that he wouldn't be surprised she became Captain level at some point in the future.
"Welcome to Thirteenth Division, Sixth seat, Fujiwara." Kaien said, stretching his hand out to Rumi.
Rumi got up and shook his hand, "Thank you, Lieutenant Kaien."
"Once you graduate, come and report to the division. We'll be waiting for you and hold the official ceremony then." Kaien said.
Just like that, Rumi had secured her position at Sixth Seat in Thriteen Division.
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After that day, Rumi prepared for her graduation exams. First, she learned Hado spells from 41 to 50 then refined her Zanjutsu a bit more. Although it hadn't levelled up much in her Stats, her actual Zanjutsu was significantly better than before as she put in effort. Her Hakuda was still a bit rough, but it was up to the standards and met the graduation requirements. So, by the day of her final graduation exams, Rumi could already use up to 50 Hado spells and up to 30 Bakudo spells, in addition to improved Zanjutsu, Hoho and Hakuda.
Before leaving the room, Rumi decided to do a daily Stats check.
[Name : Fujiwara Rumi.
Age : 169 days. (Soul Society).
Race : Soul (Shinigami).
Relationships : Abarai Renji (Close Friends), Rukia (Close Friends), Hinamori Momo (Close Friends), Kira Izuru (Friends), Hitsugaya Toshiro (Mentee).
Reiryoku level : Moderately High.
Stored reiryoku : 9125/10,000.
Spirit class : 5.
Skills : Sloth (Passive), Guradian's Vigil (Passive), Fire Resistance (Passive), Cold Resistance (Passive), Mind's Momentum, Falsifier.
Abilities : Zanjutsu(Intermediate), Kido (Intermediate), Hakuda (Advanced Beginner), Hoho (Intermediate).
Tools : Zanpakuto, Disguise Pendant.
Zanpakuto : Kazehime (Shikai).]
"I only need a bit of reiryoku to level up to the next level.." Rumi muttered. If she could get a few days to sleep peacefully, she might just get her reiryoku level up. But, first, she needed to pass the graduation exams.
Rumi was confident though. She felt that with her improved Stats and skills, she could breeze through this graduation exams and become an official Shinigami.
Thus, carrying Kazehime's unreleased form, Rumi headed to the exams.
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Rumi expected that the exams would be harder, seeing how Ounabara senseu had been making a big deal about it, but to her surprise, it was much easier than she thought. As such, it wasn't even nearly interesting or fun as when she sparred with Lieutenant Kaien. But again, Rumi knew graduation exams shouldn't be more difficult than getting tested for Sixth seat position.
Because realistically speaking, majority of students don't go and become seated officers in Gotei 13. They had to go through numerous tests and exams just to get into Gotei 13 itself so it would be a problem if the difficulty of the final exams was made to be as challenging as getting a seated position.
On the other hand, the instructors present at the exam site were all shocked to see Rumi's rapid improvement in Hakuda and other skills. It hadn't even been four months since the start of the academy year, yet one first year student had managed to not only fulfill the graduation requirements set for the learning period of six years, but also exceed the requirements in almost all aspects, to the outrageous point of learning 50 Hado spells and 30 Bakudo spells, and even achieving Zanpakuto Shikai state in a little more than two months.
This was simply breaking all the records set by previous geniuses ever since the academy was founded. Fujiwara Rumi would be the one and only genius to achieve Shikai in such a short time and graduate in less than four months. She would go down in history as the greatest genius of the academy.
And as the sun set in the horizon, Fujiwara Rumi had officially graduated from the Shin'o academy.
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A/N : Rumi finally graduates and yes, this arc is officially over.
Next arc will be her time in Thirteenth Division with Kaien and Ukitake.