Tang San was listening to his instructions from the principal as the students of Nuo Ding Academy gathered in the local church-like building. Or rather, he was reading while she talked. It wasn't anything he hadn't heard before, and his Master, Yu Xiao Gang, had given him a long book on the theory of soul structure to read.
It wasn't exactly a church, since the people of the Heaven Dou Empire didn't exactly worship any one god per se. Sure there were holy days dedicated to some of the old gods, and they would gather and listen to the stories of those old gods and the creation of this world, but that wasn't the primary purpose of this building, so calling it a church, a place of worship, isn't altogether accurate.
The real purpose was as a sort of governing building. A place where the locals could gather to have their voices heard, and a place where the monitoring of Spirit Masters could take place.
It wasn't like Spirit Masters were being controlled by the Heaven Dou Empire. But even so, Spirit Masters are potentially powerful individuals, and it pays to keep track of them. It wasn't mandatory, but the government paid the Spirit Masters a little to take part; money that went to the less privileged students' food bills.
At the moment, the children of Nuo Ding Academy were being gathered to have their spirit energy levels checked. It happened once a month, even though progression in spirit ranks was an altogether slow process, and someone would be considered to be doing pretty well if they managed to grow one or two ranks a year.
"This is sooooo boring. Brother, can't we just leave." Xiao Wu whined. She was slumped on the ground next to him, fanning herself against the heat with one hand.
Tang San only half glanced down at his adopted little sister, his usual smile passing over his face, the one that gave the impression of a patronizing adult, even though they were both only seven years old. "Not yet. They are going to be awakening the new children's spirit's first, then they will measure our spirit ranks." He said calmly.
Xiao Wu puffed out her cheeks and stared up at him with her large pink eyes, eyes like none Tang San had seen in anyone else before. They were a trait completely unique to the girl, probably stemming from her strong connection to her Beast Spirit, the Soft Boned Rabbit Demon; a spirit beast that was probably wrongly named a demon, since it is pink and fluffy and cute. "I don't see why I should even bother letting these people know my rank. I know it, isn't that good enough?" She said, swinging her head around so that her long brown braid flicked through the air like a whip. The braid was so long, that when standing, it came down to her heels.
"I suppose that is good enough. But if you leave now, the lady principal might take your carrots away." Tang San said in a neutral voice. He saw the way that Xiao Wu stiffened at the threat towards her carrots.
"She'd better not! If she tries to lay a single finger on my carrots!.." Xiao Wu bristled with indignant rage.
"Calm down. I'm sure if we just stay here, there won't be anything to worry about." Tang San said, carefully turning a page as the lecture from the principal continued undisturbed by the scene Xiao Wu was making.
"Why does the sun hate us?" Xiao Wu complained about the heat. Her eyes turned towards another student, one that was eleven years old. "You! Go get me a glass of water!" She said sharply.
"Y...yes Big Sister Xiao Wu, right away!" The boy said, running off as fast as he could to carry out the seven-year-old's demands.
Tang San rolled his eyes at the scene. It was widely known that Xiao Wu ruled over Nuo Ding Academy with an iron fist. No one dared question her after she beat up nearly a dozen upperclassmen during her first few days at the school. Not to mention her brother was also another possible contender for the title of strongest in school.
While most of the eleven year old upperclassmen were rank nine to thirteen, the two seven year olds had already reached rank fifteen. Not only that, they were a good deal more skilled at fighting than the other high ranking students and they were practiced in teamwork with one another.
"Why did we have to come on the same day as those little kids anyways? If we came by tomorrow, this would go a lot faster." Xiao Wu said, glancing over to where the little six year old boys and girls were having their essence spirits awakened.
"A good question, how about we ponder it for a few moments." Yu Xiao Gang said as he walked up to the small children.
"Master." Tang San said, bowing his head slightly in respect to his teacher. Yu Xiao Gang looked like he was half asleep, his eyes nearly closed and his posture slouched. His white hair showing from underneath the cape he wore on his head and unshaven face gave the impression that he didn't care too much about appearances.
Yu Xiao Gang had taken Tang San as his personal pupil during the first day of school, and had done his best to instruct him ever since. He was not the strongest of spirit masters, but his powers of deduction were terrifying in their own right, earning him the reputation of being the wisest philosopher of the age, and the endless respect of Tang San.
Sometimes the boy wondered if his master could read minds, as he always seemed to know more than was possible to know. But this would mean that he would have known Tang San's dark secret; the fact that he wasn't truly a boy of seven years.
Tang San was the reincarnation of a skilled warrior monk of the same name. One who had taken his own life after stealing his sect's sacred scrolls of knowledge. Though for some reason, he had not lost his memories during the cycle of reincarnation, and had found himself being reborn in another world, making him a child with all the knowledge gathered by an entire sect of trained spiritualist assassins over the course of a thousand years.
"If we consider the fact that our principal choose this day in particular to come, then she must be seeking to gain something. Most likely she is hoping to find a few talented young Spirit Master Trainees to recruit for the school before anyone else can get to them. And she believes the best way to do that would be showing off her prized genius students from humbled beginnings; a show of strength in order to seem more appealing than the other schools." Yu Xiao Gang said. He looked down at Tang San who nodded in agreement. It made sense, and since the master had said it, it was probably true.
Too bad for the principal, it didn't seem as though the pickings this season were that good. Out of the fifty three children who had been practically climbing over each other to get tested, only four had turned out to have any spirit power at all. Even then, they weren't genius level, just a few rank threes from lesser clans.
But before the awakening ceremony was over, just as Xiao Wu and Tang San were nodding off, one of the six-year-olds gave a small cry of panicked surprise.
At first, Tang San didn't believe his eyes, he even switched on his Purple Eyed Demon ability to verify what he was seeing, but it was really there. Through the front door of the Church in walked a large black cat, one and a half meters in length, two and a quarter if you include the tail, standing at about a meter off the ground. A silver vertical stripe in the center of its forehead and its white on black eyes, as well as the bits of bone over where the tail started, helped him identify it as a Night Storm Panther, somewhere close to two hundred years; a pale patch of fur on its side giving the impression that it had been injured recently, but had made a full recovery. Though, even its presence seemed uninteresting compared to the fact that there was a small girl riding on its back.
She looked like she was probably only five years old, six tops. She had pure black hair that fell down to her shoulders in a sort of controlled chaos and did a lot to frame her face, and her eyes were a shiny silver color. She looked a little nervous riding on top of the spirit beast, doing her best to avoid eye contact. She seemed to not like the stares.
Right next to her, walking beside the cat, was a young boy, who looked around eight years old, with bright orange hair and dark golden eyes. He walked with a sort of purpose, or maybe attitude is closer, as if nothing bothered him, not the girl on the cat nor the people staring.
Then, the girl started to speak, and Tang San found himself surprised again. "Ichi-nii, they're staring at me." She said, sounding rather unhappy. But the surprising thing was that she wasn't speaking the native tongue, but rather Japanese.
Tang San remembered studying the language in his time in a previous life. Mostly so that he could decipher the scrolls on techniques and medicine that came from that cluster of islands off the coast. But to his knowledge, Japan didn't exist in this world, nor did its language.
"Of course they're staring. You came in here riding Yoruichi like a warrior princess from a fairy tale. What did you think was going to happen?" The boy said in a relaxed, maybe a bit teasing tone of voice. It was hard to tell when it wasn't your native tongue. The girl shifted around uncomfortably on the cat's back. "I thought you said that you would feel better with her around?"
"I know but... What if they try to take me?" The girl mumbled looking towards where the teachers stood in dumb struck astonishment.
"Then I'll kick their asses, now chin up, this is supposed to be a happy day for you. You're finally going to get your spirit awakened." The boy said, rolling his eyes. The cat gave a low purr and looked towards Tang San and the other children. "Yeah, I know Yoruichi, I sense it too. But it shouldn't matter. We don't mess with it, it doesn't mess with us." The boy said, patting the cat on the head until it lost interest and turned back to the front. Tang San had no idea what that might have meant, but he didn't have time to ponder it too much. Translating what they were saying was taking all of his attention.
The six year olds scrambled to make room for the new party to make it up to the front of the group. "My little sister needs to have her essence spirit awakened." The boy said, having switched to the native language, and giving a slight gesture to the girl on the back of the spirit beast. His eyes were staring intently at the young spirit master in charge of the ceremony, as if daring him to question the boy's instruction.
"I... I see." The young man said, seeming a little on edge by the presence of the spirit beast. Even if an average spirit master could take on a beast of that age, it was rather intimidating to simply stand next to one. "What would her name and age be?"
"Rukia, age six." The boy said, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.
"R... Ruku... Aio... um..." The man struggled with the foreign name, unsure of how to spell it, his eyes moving from the clip board in his hand to the cat in front of him.
"Ru K Ao." The boy said, breaking it down for the man.
"Yes... thank you. Right, Rukia, please step onto the circle, and we can begin." The man said, stepping away from the cat and signaling to the magic circle on the ground.
Rukia climbed off of the cat and walked into the middle of the circle, same as all the children before her, only with a lot more people paying attention.
The glow was the same as before as her spirit started to be drawn out, her left hand shining from the spirit mark coming into existence. It looked like a five pointed star surrounded by a circle made of chains. Then, the essence spirit itself started to materialize. Small ribbons of blue light started to float around her hands, each one interlocking with another before turning dark until she had a long black chain in her hands.
She smiled as the chain hummed in her hands, giving off a faint glow before becoming a steady object in the world.
"Alright, now to test your spirit energy level." The Spirit Master said, holding out one of the crystal orbs they used to check spiritual power out to Rukia. She took it in both hands, and immediately the crystal started to glow with a steady mixture of bright blue and deep purple light.
The spirit master dropped his clip board in surprise. "I don't believe it. It's... a fully innate spiritual power." He said in amazement.
Tang San himself was also surprised to see it. A 'fully innate spiritual power' was what they called it when someone was already rank ten at the time of their spiritual awakening. They were supposed to be extremely rare. Only one out of every ten thousand spirit master, even in noble families, had it. Not only was it a leg up on everyone else, who had to spend time on reaching rank ten, but those who had it usually grew at a rate much faster than others.
And if you included himself and Xiao Wu, then there were three individuals with it in that one room at the same time.
With everything he had just seen in such a short period of time, he couldn't help but wonder, who were these people?
No, Ichi Guo and Rukia aren't joining the school. Ichi Guo is just going to kick the principle's ass while Yu Xiao Gang analyzes his spirits and then peace out.
Rukia and Ichi Guo healed the monster cat as part of a training exercise, and then it decided to follow them around from then on. Rukia will have been the one to name it, but she named it after the stories her brother told her about the original Yoruichi.
I don't care what you say, Yu Xiao Gang can totally see the future. That's how he knew to seduce the girl who would one day become the pope. Because he knew he would need that leverage over her to help save the life of the student he was going to someday have.