Ichi Guo leaned back against one of the walls of the church, watching his little sister with a smile on his face. They had moved out of the way right after his sister's spirit was awakened. He himself was planning on getting himself registered and getting his month's spendings after everyone else had left the area.
So while he was waiting, he just watched his sister experimenting with her newly awakened spirit. It warmed his heart to see the childish excitement on her face as she moved her spiritual energy through the black chains, making them move, strengthening them or breaking them apart. The joy in her eyes at having an entire new world opened up to her, it was just like the old days in the forest, teaching her how to swing a sword properly for the first time.
"So, what are you going to call it?" He asked her in a joking manner. He had known she had been wondering what kind of spirit she was going to get for days, and one of the things she had been thinking about was naming the spirit.
Usually the name was inherited, since most people's spirits end up very closely resembling their parents. But if your spirit was mutated, then you could name it yourself. Rukia had long since decided she wasn't going to have anything to do with the flower or gauntlets of her mother and father, and Ichi Guo himself assured her that she wouldn't get one of them. He had a suspicion when it came to her spirit, and her next few words confirmed the first of them.
"Hm... Tensa." She said, a thoughtful look in her eyes.
"Heavenly chain? Nice choice." He said, looking down at her and smiling knowingly. "You take care of her, old man." He whispered to himself, too quietly for her to really hear him.
He had no idea how or why it was, but part of his Zanpakuto spirit had been born within his little sister. He had first started to suspect the night he got his first spirit halo, and time made him more and more of a believer.
"Excuse me." Ichi Guo's face returned to its stony expression as he glanced to his side to see a middle aged woman approaching the two of them. He could sense four spirit rings, not of the highest quality, but it meant she was at least rank forty.
She was dressed in a purple outfit that somewhat resembled formal wear if the slacks were replaced with a skirt that was bordering the classification of mini. She wasn't especially tall, but she wore high heels to hide that fact. Her wavy dark hair, stylized glasses, and the way her top seemed to be missing a button or two made her look a bit like the cross between a librarian and a stripper. Just one glance told Ichi Guo that he didn't really care for this lady, even before she started to talk, and if Rukia's sudden distasteful expression was anything to go by, she actually hated the woman on sight.
"Hello there darling. That was quite a show you managed, you really are a talented young girl." She said, having eyes only for Rukia.
Rukia's scowl turned into a false cheerful expression, and Ichi Guo had to stifle a laugh as she responded to the woman. "Thank you very much, Puo Puo." It was a respectful term of address, very respectful... if you were taking to your grandmother. The woman's eyebrow twitched at the term, but she did her best to retain control.
"Please, my name is Ping Qang, I'm the principal of Nuo Ding Academy. My school prides itself on helping talented young children like yourself learn the ins and outs of becoming top notch Spirit Masters, and I think we might just have a spot for you." She said, trying to keep her self-control up.
"No thanks." Rukia said shortly and quickly, clearly not even considering the offer.
Ping Qang's face was priceless as she tried to recover from the sudden dismissal. "Maybe you would like to take some more time to consider. It would be an absolute shame to waste your talents. If you want to grow then you are going to need a teacher." She said still forcing a smile.
"I already have someone to teach me." Rukia said, moving closer to her brother and grabbing onto his arm. "My brother is going to teach me everything I need to know."
Ping Qang stared at them for a second before starting to laugh a little. "Child, you need a real teacher. Regardless what childish fantasies you have, your 'brother' is only a child himself. He can't teach you all you need to know."
"Oh! You think you are stronger than my brother?" Rukia said before giving her own cold smile. "Do you want to prove it?"
"Excuse me?" Ping Qang asked, confused.
"How about a bet? You fight my Ichi-nii, and if you win, I will become a student at your school. But if we win then..." Rukia paused for a second, thinking about what the stakes would be. "Then we get to take whatever books we want from your library." She finished with a grin.
Ping Qang looked confused for a few more moments but then smiled herself. "While I usually don't promote gambling, this is for your own good, so I will accept these conditions." She said with a nod of the head. Then she started to lead the two siblings towards a spot nearby that the school apparently used for practices.
"Since when are you interested in books?" Ichi Guo asked his sister in Japanese, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"I'm not, but she's got to bet something, and I couldn't think of anything else that a school has." She said innocently.
"You shouldn't do things like this just to spite people." Ichi Guo said calmly, not really all too interested in the fight. He might have even been a little disappointed in his sister for being so childish. She should have just told the lady to piss off and then ignored her. Instead she arranged a fight to show off how strong her brother was.
"You aren't going to let her win to teach me a lesson, are you?" Rukia said, looking up to her brother with a pout on her face. Ichi Guo rolled his eyes at the expression, but his answer was clear enough, so Rukia smiled. "Then I have nothing to worry about."
With Yoruichi in their small party, their presence didn't go unnoticed. The children saw them entering the training area with the principal and being curious children, they gathered around at a safe distance to watch what was happening.
"What's going on?" Xiao Wu asked as she walked up, a small path being made for her so she didn't even have to struggle to get front row seats.
"The principal is going to fight that boy who was with the monster cat girl. I heard something about some kind of bet." Wang Sheng said. The rather dim twelve year old son of a farmhand was one of the few students who still actively and willingly interacted with Xiao Wu beyond being a punching bag. He had been one of the dorm mates for Xiao Wu and Tang San when they had first got to the academy and saw himself as a monitor and guardian figure, even though his spirit power was only a rank nine and his tiger spirit wasn't all too powerful.
His black hair looked like it had never been brushed and there were a few bits of straw in it from when he had been sleeping during his part-time job.
"Kid's got to be stupid. I like a good fight as much as the next guy, but the principal is a rank forty six. Little much for a small fry kid to handle." Wang Sheng said, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Hm..." Xiao Wu hummed, staring towards where the orange haired boy was walking by. "I'm not so sure. There's something weird about that guy."
"What do you mean by that?" Tang San asked. He had his own suspicions about the boy, but wanted to hear Xiao Wu's take on it.
"Well... he smells red instead of white. Not a bright red, more of a rusty red. You know?" Xiao Wu said, looking to the two boys for confirmation, as if that was supposed to have explained everything.
"Uh... no." Wang Sheng said dumbly. "Don't be stupid, you can't smell color, no one can." The comment earned him a sharp kick in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him.
"Who asked you!?" Xiao Wu said sharply, turning up her nose, but then her small attention span snapped when she saw the large black cat and the little girl standing together near a wall with a perfect spot to watch whatever was going to happen, and before anyone could stop her, Xiao Wu was moving over. "Hello there!" She said cheerfully, startling the little girl a bit. The monster cat's ears twitched and it started at Xiao Wu, but otherwise didn't react. "I'm Xiao Wu, it's nice to meet you. What are your names?" She asked, seemingly unconcerned about being close to the cat.
"I...it's nice to meet you. I'm Rukia, and this is Yoruichi." Rukia said, giving a small tilt of the head towards the big cat. She looked more surprised at Xiao Wu's presence than was called for, as if she was meeting a unicorn rather than a seven year old girl.
"It's nice to meet you! Hey, can you tell me something?" Xiao Wu said in her normal cheerful tones as she pointed towards the girl's brother. "Why is it that he smells red?"
"Big sis, you not still on about that, are..." Wang Sheng started, but didn't get to finish before Rukia started to respond.
"It's been like that ever since my brother got his spirit awakened. It was white like everyone else's before that." Rukia said politely. "I'm not too sure how come, but that's the way it's been since then. Do you know why?"
"Hm... nope!" Xiao Wu said, tapping her chin. "I've never met any humans who didn't have white smells. You and your brother are the first. But now that you mention it, yours was also white before you woke up your spirit. Now it's all blue, with a bit of purple." Xiao Wu said as she started to sniff at the air around the girl. "Yeah, definitely purple."
"Bro San, why are girls so crazy?" Wang Sheng whispered to Tang San, unfortunately for him, Xiao Wu's rabbit ears picked it up and she gave him a death glare. Shivering in fear, he backed up a few steps until he bumped into Yu Xiao Gang who had joined the small party.
"She isn't crazy. She is just running into the same problem as a man who can see in a world where everyone is blind. Words simply don't exist to express what she is experiencing, and no one who can't see will believe her." Yu Xiao Gang said in his normal calm voice.
"Master, do you know what Xiao Wu is describing?" Tang San asked, curiosity clear in his eyes. More knowledge was within his reach. The former monk now child couldn't control himself. Old habits died hard. Actually, dying clearly wasn't enough to get rid of them.
Yu Xiao Gang nodded as he walked up next to them to look out towards the principal and Ichi Guo. "There is an advanced skill referred to as the inner sight, in which individuals gain the ability to sense spiritual power. It is a sort of sixth sense, often compared to the sense of smell, as multiple sources can be sensed from afar, and sometimes sources mingle while other, more powerful, spiritual energies would overshadow the others." Yu Xiao Gang explained, giving the two girls sideways glances. "When starting to prefect this skill, they can tell the difference between types of spirits from a long ways away. These differences are often compared to colors. Such abilities usually take decades of training in order to achieve. Mastery on this level are normally connected with the Spirit DouLuos and Titled DouLuos. For two children of less than ten years to already be able to use it... I'm impressed."
"That's right! Xiao Wu is the most talented ever!" Xiao Wu said, puffing out her chest in pride.
"If she just focused those talents." Tang San said with a sigh. If she ever had actually knuckled down to train, Tang San was sure that she would have quickly surpassed him in ability. Her level of raw talent was beyond just frightening.
The group silenced themselves as Ping Qang released her spirit halos. The four rings of light appearing around her; one white, two golden, and one purple. Most of the students in the clearing were whispering; each one of them thinking that the young boy didn't stand a chance against a Spirit Ancestor.
"I hope you don't have hard feeling about this, but you children need to understand that you need proper teachers. I won't let you ruin that poor child's future." Ping Qang said, earning only a grunt of annoyance from Ichi Guo, not at all intimidated by the show of power. Ping Qang raised her hands and a soft yellow glow formed in her right hand, becoming more distinct until it became a solid object.
"The principal is bringing out her essence spirit to fight a kid? Kind of harsh, don't you think?" Wang Sheng mumbled. "That blade is pretty sharp."
Her spirit was a knife, just over fifteen centimeters long, with a covered blade and a golden handle that looked similar to a star, earning it the name 'Falling Star Blade'.
Rukia scoffed at the comment. "You call that a blade? Please, that thing is hardly even a letter opener." She said as Ichi Guo raised up his own hand.
"Tengoku hikisakimasu, Zangetsu." The orange haired boy said in a flat tone of voice. Ribbons of black and bloody red spirit energy flowed from his palm and condensed into the shape of a massive black blade which resembled a butcher's knife. The slab of metal was nearly twice the size of the boy's body but he swung it around with one hand to point it off to the side in a casual position, a white cloth tied around its handle was left flowing behind him. "I'm ready when you are."
"My brother is going to destroy her." Rukia said confidently.
"Wh... what was that he just said?" Wang Sheng asked, having been unable to understand Ichi Guo's words.
"'Rip open the kingdom of heaven, Moon Killer'" Tang San translated before interpreting. "Though it is probably the symbolic moon, meaning a worldly imitation of perfection that can't be reached, a sort of pretender to godhood. So a more actuate translation might be, Killer of the False God. An intimidating spirit chant, if anyone actually understands it."
Rukia blinked in surprise. "I didn't know that anyone other than my Ichi-nii and me spoke Japanese." She said, looking suspiciously at Tang San.
"I studied it for a while in order to interpret some writings on their medicine. A Rukia is a type of shrub, right? One that is often used as a cure for morning sickness." Tang San said, noticing as the girl blushed before grumbling in Japanese about how she wasn't a shrub and that her name meant a surreal dawn.
Ping Qang wasn't exactly intimidated though. She still believed herself to have the complete advantage, but she was disappointed that the young boy hadn't simply pulled out whenever she had revealed her spirit halos to him. It wasn't like she enjoyed hurting children.
She would just have to finish the fight as fast as possible without causing the child any real harm. The school had a few healers that could handle any bruising or scrapes.
So she summoned up her second spirit halo, a bright golden ring and prepared to use her essence spirit's speed to her advantage, ending the fight before it could really start.
"Falling Star Blade: Second Spirit Skill: Shooting Slash!" Ping Qang moved as if the knife in her hand was dragging her through the air in a straight path to Ichi Guo at a speed that would have startled your average individual who had never seen a speed type essence spirit before. She had dulled her blade in order to prevent undue harm from coming to the child, but her speed was still the real deal. With the speed and power allowed to her as a Spirit Ancestor, she was sure that she would be able to take him before he could even react.
So it surprised her as much as everyone else that when she started to get close, the boy accelerated to a speed that nearly matched her own, quickly moving past her charge. Before she could react to this new situation, she felt something wrapping around her ankles, tying them together so that she fell forward onto the ground with her arms still stretched out from her charge.
She was still trying to figure out what happened when she felt a foot pressing down on her back and her hair was blow to the side from the wind coming off of the boy's weapon as he swung it down just centimeter's from her face so that all she could see on her right side was the polished black metal.
"That makes one strike. Two more and you lose." Ichi Guo said as he pulled up his blade out of the ground and released to piece of cloth from the bottom of his sword that had tied Ping Qang's feet together.
"Wh...what?" Ping Qang said, still not believing what had happened.
"If I only beat you once, it would be because I took you by surprise. Twice could be a miracle. But three times... then it could only mean that I really am better than you." Ichi Guo said, giving a cocky smirk. "Now get back up, before I decide to start the next round while you're already on your hands and knees."
Tang San was as startled as the rest of the students at the events that had unfolded in front of them, the way that Ichi Guo was treating the entire thing like he was the one dealing with a child. But deeper down, he was annoyed. "He should have just taken the win." He mumbled. Tang San was a firm believer in not looking a gift horse in the mouth. So when you win against a strong foe, whether through deceit, luck or careful strategy, you take that win to the bank, because it still counts. This act of not just winning, but then saying you will do it two more times to prove yourself is just cocky.
"That... that little kid just beat a Spirit Ancestor." Wang Sheng said, slack jawed as he stared in disbelief.
"That part isn't all that surprising." Yu Xiao Gang said, pulling at one of the small hairs on his beard. "He wouldn't have accepted the challenge if he didn't have a plan in mind for dealing with a stronger opponent."
"Right, like when Xiao Wu attacked that one pervert that had been targeting the school girls." Tang San said, causing Wang Sheng to shiver at the memory.
A few weeks back, some pervert had shown up and started to try to lure away the young girls of the academy. The teachers didn't know what to do, because the man was a Spirit King, and was therefore stronger than them. It was Xiao Wu that ended up being the one to stop it. Her methods were both cunning and cruel, tricking the man into eating poison to weaken him to the point where he couldn't fight back before breaking half the bones in the man's body.
"Pig deserved it." Xiao Wu scoffed angrily.
"Yes, well. The thing that is strange here is that speed he showed. His spirit isn't a speed type, yet he managed to reach high speeds without the need for a spirit halo skill." Yu Xiao Gang said looking towards the orange haired boy. "Meaning that he has already discovered a way to use his spirit energy outside of just his essence spirit."
The principal still looked a bit shocked as she got to her feet, but soon a sort of greed passed over her face. "I should have guessed. Talent runs in your family, doesn't it?" She said with a smile, one Ichi Guo didn't return. "How about we make things more interesting then. Raise the stakes. If I win, you will also join my academy, along with your darling little sister." She said with a sickeningly sweet voice. "And if I lose, then you can have this." She reached into her shirt and pulled out a necklace, one with a bright pink gem in the center.
Ichi Guo was about to make a smart-ass comment, but before he could, the woman focused a bit of spirit energy into the gem and it glowed. Out of the necklace popped a spare pair of glasses. Now it was Ichi Guo's turn to look surprised.
"I suppose you have never seen a spirit artifact before? This necklace can hold up to ten tons of anything you want to fill it with. So what do you say? We have a deal?" Ping Qang said with a smile.
"It would seem our principal's greed has overwhelmed her good sense." Yu Xiao Gang said with a sigh. "Why must I forever be cursed to work with such greedy people?"
"Go get her Ichi-nii!" Rukia shouted, much more excited about having that necklace than the books.
Ichi Guo himself recovered and grinned, his own interest piqued. "Sure. It's a bet." He said, lifting up his sword and resting it on his shoulder. "Now, how about we actually get this started."
Ping Qang's smile slowly slid off of her face as four dark purple rings appeared behind Ichi Guo's body, slowly circling as he continued to grin.
"No fucking way." Wang Sheng said in disbelief.
"I told you. My brother is going to destroy her." Rukia said proudly.