The Main Hall was far bigger than what Ichigo had expected from the outside. The hundreds of players who had been gathered outside the Academy doors fit easily into the Hall, with plenty of space to spare despite it being an indoor location. Ichigo and his friends stood near the back doors, trying out the new re-imagined interface and testing out simple bodily movements. The SoulDive had been previously calibrated to fit each player's own body proportions and imitate their actions, making the gaming experience as realistic as possible.
Calling up the Skills list, Ichigo pressed the basic skill of Power Slash which was acquired simply by selecting the Shinigami class. To his surprise, all his selection did was to call up the Power Slash description "Using the body's natural momentum, land a sharp and powerful slash diagonally down your opponent's body" instead of activating the skill as he had previously expected. As any other MMORPG, Wandering Spirits Online had allowed players to place individual battle skills on hotkeys to use them while in battle. The main question now was, without a keyboard, how were these skills to be used?
Just as he turned around to ask Renji this, there was a loud booming sound that reverberated throughout the Hall. The Hall, which had previously been filled with excited chatter from the players, fell silent and all eyes were riveted on the stage where an old man was slowly walking. From what Ichigo could make out from this distance, the man was an Elder, with wrinkles and scars on his face to show. His walking staff rapped against the floor of the stage as he regarded the crowd standing in the Hall solemnly.
"Some of you may know me," he began. His voice was clear and commanding, full of dignity and pride. "I am the Founder of the Shinigami Academy, Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni. All of you have today chosen to become Shinigami, training to become guardians who protect and maintain peace. As you know, the main foes of Shinigami are the Hollows, those who are unable to move on into the afterlife. As Shinigami it is your role to defeat them, and to defend all that we stand for. It will be an arduous journey, not for the faint of heart. A Shinigami's job is never fully completed, but with your help, balance may be restored. Dare you take on such responsibility?"
At his question, a roar of approval went up among the players. Yamamoto nodded, before continuing. "Very well. Now you shall begin your training. Create parties with those around you. I want at least three students and at most five in any one party."
Renji had sent out the party request to Rukia and Ichigo barely before Yamamoto finished his sentence. The pop-up notification appeared in front of Ichigo – Zabimaru has invited you to join their party. Without any hesistation, he accepted and noted how he could now see Rukia and Renji's character statuses, which consisted of their usernames, level and health bar, above their heads respectively.
"We shall now proceed with your training," Yamamoto said as several Shinigami entered the Hall. "Every party has been allotted an instructor. You shall be guided through the Academy by your instructors. Fight well, students." With that, he vanished off the stage. Vaguely, Ichigo could recall that Shinigami had the passive movement skill of Shunpo, Flash Step, which explained the Elder's departure.
"Zabimaru, Shirayuki, Zangetsu," an unfamiliar voice called. The three friends whirled around to see a white-haired Shinigami clad in standard garb smiling at them as though he had known them all his life. He must be their instructor, all three of them realized as they bowed to him.
"I am Ukitake Juushiro," the Shinigami said amiably as he began walking down a corridor, easily navigating through groups of people with his party following close behind. "You will be undergoing four different types of training here before you are allowed to step out from the Academy with the name of a Shinigami, namely zanjutsu, hakuda, hoho and kido. Alongside that you will also undergo special training to summon your own Zanpakuto and wield it well," here he stopped and turned around with something like a sinister glint in his eye, unbefitting his casual appearance. "There is no room for error as a Shinigami. Once you have left the Academy, you cannot come back for any more practice. Whatever happens to you out there – nobody will be able to help you."
Ichigo gulped nervously. It sure seemed like Shinigami training was going to take up significantly longer than he had expected. A backward glance at Rukia and Renji told him they were sharing similar thoughts.
Before they knew it, they were in front of a door in a relatively empty corridor. Ukitake-san pulled the door open, revealing an expansive space filled with earth and boulders. "Welcome to your first class, zanjutsu. This room will be where you will be spending most of your training, as it has been specially adjusted to simulate real terrain conditions."
He handed them a sword each, of similar make and model. "This is your Asauchi," he said. "It will eventually grow to become your Zanpakuto, and I never want to see any of you without your Zanpakuto as long as you are awake. Your Asauchi right now has the potential to become anything, and it is only through imprinting your soul's essence on it that it will have the ability to develop."
All three friends nodded as they held their swords for the first time.
"Now, let us begin…"
Ichigo and his friends lay on the hard ground, too exhausted to move a muscle. Ukitake-san had given them half an hour of rest before it was dinner, having trained them hard for a full six hours with minimal breaks. He was an effective teacher, with all three of them having mastered basic swordsmanship by this point.
"Guys, I think I'm going to log off," Rukia said as she sprawled on a boulder. "Is time here the same as that in the world outside?"
"No idea," Renji muttered as he called up his menu. The Game Status bar told him it was 06:52pm. "Darn it, I think I should go off too. I have to pack for my road trip."
Ichigo watched them blearily, before deciding that he would like to explore this game world for a while more before logging out. After all, he had no plans for the next day or so. As he was about to make his intentions known, a hissed Fuck came out from Renji's mouth. While that was a normal occurrence where Renji was concerned, the way he was jabbing frantically at his menu told Ichigo that something was wrong.
"What is it?"
"Fucking thing won't let me log out," Renji said.
"Seriously? Wouldn't you think they'd fix such a major bug before the official launch?" Ichigo said, confused as he imitated Renji and tried to log out.
You are unable to log out. You are unable to log out.
The words flashed boldly in his eyes, and for the first time Ichigo was suddenly afraid. What if the game had trapped him – all of them – in here?
Faking a brave smile, he stood up and dusted himself off, realizing that the soreness he had felt earlier had worn off completely. "Let's go out and see if we're the only ones facing this problem. If not, we can try to contact one of the Game Masters."
Rukia let out a derisive snort. "The GMs? They're barely even online most of the days, what are the chances we'll get to contact them?"
"It is official launch day, you know," Renji cut in hotly. "Surely they'd know what's going on?"
"No matter what, we gotta go find some answers." With that last statement, Ichigo left the room.
The mass canteen was full of other players, most of them bearing the same look of confusion as they queued up for their dinner. There had been no word from the GMs at all, and the Shinigami Elders were of little help. Ichigo watched as players furiously jabbed their menus to no avail, the pop-up message repeatedly appearing in front of their avatars. Shouts of frustration were everywhere, but nobody could do anything to assuage the situation. After all, what could one do when they had been trapped in a virtual universe with possibly no way back to the real world?
There has to be a reason, he thought to himself. The game developer would not have done this knowing the legal repercussions he would face for trapping hundreds of lives in a game. The reason is somewhere out there and we need to find it.
Rukia and Renji both looked up as he stood up, plate empty. The food was prepared by the Shinigami chefs, and had been tasteless. It looked aesthetically pleasing enough, but was about as tasty as a piece of white bread. The juice was little better, tasting more like water than juice. "Where are you off to?" Rukia asked.
"I'm off to find out why this is happening."
"The GMs aren't even helping, how are you going to find out anything?" Rukia replied, jabbing at a piece of virtual meat.
"That's exactly why I'm going to find out for myself. Since they aren't helping, we have to do it by ourselves."
He had a point and Rukia knew it. He had never been one to back down from his doubts, always choosing to understand everything and get to the root of the problem no matter how long it took him. This was just one of many incidents that tested his determination, albeit in a different context.
"I'm coming with you," Renji said as he shoved the last piece of food into his mouth. "And so is Rukia."
Ichigo grinned, relieved. "I knew you would."
They returned their plates and made their way out of the canteen, three white-clad figures in a sea of gloom and despair.
"First of all," Ichigo said as they stepped back into the training room, "We are going to have to master our characters as best as we can. That includes our party play, our skills and our ability to take down enemies. Which also reminds me, have either of you figured out how we will use our active skills?"
Renji had just opened his mouth to say something when there was the scrape of a sword being drawn from its sheath. Rukia had pulled out her Asauchi, the blade glinting in the false light of the room. She crouched down into an aggressive stance, then raised her sword as she ran towards one of the dummy targets they had been training on earlier. "Power Slash!" The sword swung in a perfect diagonal cut, ripping the dummy into two.
Ichigo and Renji stood rooted, mouths hanging open. "How did you learn to do that?"
"I was experimenting earlier," Rukia shrugged. "It's actually easier than it seems. The skill description has stated the actions required for it to be invoked, so all you have to do is follow the actions, which is use your natural momentum and wield your weapon correctly."
"Let's try it out," Renji nudged Ichigo, who was still flabbergasted at how foolproof the skill invocation was.
Time passed quickly enough, and they found themselves worn out as their Game Status bars flashed that it was already 11:40pm.
"We should go and get some shut-eye before we resume training," Rukia suggested. "Ukitake-san did tell us that he will be teaching us the basics of kido tomorrow morning."
"Good point, but where are we going to find a place to sleep?"
"There are Shinigami dorms around the Academy. I saw the signs outside the canteen," Renji supplied. "One of the instructors told me that every student has a place in the dorms."
"Lead the way then," Ichigo yawned, sheathing his Asauchi. "This is just the beginning of our adventure."
The dorms were simple, resembling the ryokan in Japan with sliding doors, tatami flooring as well as two futons in each room. There was a bathroom attached to each room and a closet with several sets of yukata. Renji and Ichigo, upon entering the room, chose their futons and each took a quick shower. The aches and pains of training had left fast enough, leaving behind mental exhaustion. It was enough to guarantee their swift entrance into a deep dreamless sleep.
It was, however, inadequate for Rukia. She had found her way to an empty single-player dorm and was now lying wide awake on her futon. She thought of ebony hair as dark as her own, of grey-set eyes and a stern "No, Rukia, you may not buy that game. It's not going to be of any good for you."
He had been right, she thought to herself as she curled up into a ball. Nii-sama was right, I should have listened. And now she had no way of going back to him.
A/N: Rating changed to T for use of language.