A Way to Improve Quickly

By rights, given the density of her Reishi at Eleventh-Class Rei'i, a kick from Tokoyo Misao at Eighteenth-Class Rei'i should not even have been able to break through her defenses.

But the pain in her abdomen now made her realize that relying on her Eleventh-Class Rei'i to overwhelm Tokoyo Misao would not work.

She took a deep breath and stood up.

She knew next to nothing about tactics, but she had even more fighting experience than Renji Abarai.

She tightened her one-handed grip on her wooden sword, walked to a spot two meters in front of Tokoyo Misao, and stopped. Keeping her eyes fixed on his body, she slowly moved her feet.

Tokoyo Misao smiled. "At least you have more of a strategy than the Red-Haired Baboon. Come at me."

This time, Rukia pushed off hard with her right foot, shooting toward Tokoyo Misao like a sword. Holding her weapon in one hand, she slashed upward.

Tokoyo Misao merely stepped lightly backward and easily dodged the blow.

But Rukia had expected that. The corners of her lips curled up slightly, and she pointed a finger at Tokoyo Misao's chest with her free left hand, quickly chanting:

"Hadō #1, Shō."

But in the next instant, her triumphant smile froze.

When Rukia pointed her index finger and used Hadō, Tokoyo Misao had also pointed a finger at her. Though he acted later, his attack arrived first, and he used the same Hadō: "Shō."

Rukia's Kidō was simply canceled out.

She had no idea what had happened.

"Don't space out, Rukia."

After countering Rukia's Hadō, Tokoyo Misao moved his finger slightly, pointing it at her forehead, and chanted again:

"Hadō #1, Shō."

With a bang, the blast of air struck Rukia directly between the eyebrows, knocking her backward into the air. She flipped twice before landing.

She knelt on one knee and touched her forehead, still replaying what had just happened in her mind.

Why did my Hadō disappear?

The corners of Tokoyo Misao's lips curled up again.

Just after he had successfully attacked Rukia with Hadō, the pink Reiatsu in the distance had stirred again.

In other words, that captain had come for Rukia both yesterday and today.

And in the Soul Society, there was one and only one Captain-level figure who cared so much about Rukia.

Once he understood who was hiding in the shadows, Tokoyo Misao decided to pay him no further attention. He looked at Rukia and explained with a smile:

"Kidō was explained quite clearly in the last lesson. As long as you counter with a force that is its exact opposite and contains the same amount of Reishi, you can annihilate the Kidō.

"This technique is called Hanki Sōsai."

"Hanki Sōsai?" Rukia's eyes widened. "The teacher never taught us that technique, did he?"

As she spoke, she turned toward the corridor, only to find Teacher Ōu sitting there cross-legged with his forehead in his hands. He was not looking toward the training ground at all.

She could not help pouting. In the few days since she had arrived at the academy, she had kept feeling that this teacher was unreliable, nowhere near as good as Tokoyo Misao.

Rukia took a deep breath, readjusted her stance, and attacked Tokoyo Misao again.

But the result was no different this time. Once again, she was knocked to the ground.

Tokoyo Misao held out an open hand to stop Rukia and said gently:

"I think your problem right now is that you have powerful Rei'i but aren't making good use of it. What you need to learn most is how to control Reishi."

Rukia nodded solemnly, then put her wooden sword down beside her and stood straight again. She crossed her hands in front of her chest and bowed deeply.

"Please teach me."

"No problem." Tokoyo Misao smiled and walked over to Rukia, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her upright.

Then he clenched his right hand into a fist and said, "Let's play a game. Do you know rock-paper-scissors?"

Rukia nodded.

"Then it's simple. Concentrate your Reishi in your fist."

Rukia held out her little fist and closed her eyes. Carefully sensing the flow of Reishi within her body, she guided it into her fist.

The Reishi covered her fist in a layer of cool white light.

"Not bad. You managed to reach Fourteenth-Class Spiritual Pressure on your first try at gathering it. Rukia, you're very talented."

Smiling, Tokoyo Misao opened his clenched hand. In an instant, it too was covered in a layer of Reishi, though only at Eighteenth-Class Rei'i.

The next moment, his palm shot out and knocked Rukia's fist aside.

With a bang, the force actually sent Rukia flying into the air.

She immediately adjusted her posture in midair and landed, surprise in her eyes.

"I see. Concentrating too much Reishi makes the body's defenses drop rapidly."

"That's right. We usually spread Reishi throughout our bodies unconsciously to better protect ourselves.

"If you concentrate most of your Reishi in one place, you can indeed gain greater attack power or defense there.

"But at the same time, the Reishi in the rest of your body grows thinner, making those areas easier to injure."

Tokoyo Misao bent down and picked up a few pebbles, tossing them in his hand a couple of times. He held one between two fingers of his left hand and infused it with Reishi. Looking at Rukia, he continued:

"So you need to be able to gather Reishi in any part of your body at any time. We'll start with rock-paper-scissors."

"Now I'll throw pebbles at you. You'll have to switch your Reishi to completely cover your fist, your palm, or two fingers to defend yourself."

"Yes!" Rukia answered loudly.

Tokoyo Misao flicked a pebble at Rukia, who used rock, paper, and scissors to switch the Reishi in those areas and defend herself.

The two of them made no effort to conceal what they were doing, and their voices during the exercise were not quiet.

Momo Hinamori, Izuru Kira, Renji Abarai, and the others training nearby had already been paying attention to them.

After hearing Tokoyo Misao's training method, they all began practicing it as well.

The three of them formed a group: one threw pebbles while the other two defended with rock, paper, and scissors.

Chapter 14: A Way to Improve Quickly

After just one afternoon of rock-paper-scissors training, Rukia had made tremendous progress in controlling her own Reishi.

The method of switching her concentration between different areas also took a great deal of mental and physical energy.

When training ended, all of them were so exhausted they could barely stand. They went to the cafeteria and ate and drank ravenously.

Gulp, gulp. After swallowing a large meatball without even chewing it, Renji Abarai suddenly widened his eyes.

A powerful aura burst from his body—Rei'i Grade fourteen. He had advanced!

Great joy welled up in his heart, and he immediately turned to look at Rukia.

Rukia laughed and praised him. "Renji, you advanced so quickly! Looks like you'll have no trouble reaching Rei'i Grade twelve by the test."

"Renji, you're amazing! Keep it up!" Momo Hinamori called out as well.

"Keep it up, Renji. We have to work hard too," Izuru Kira said with a smile.

Renji Abarai lifted his head high and looked to his left at Tokoyo Misao, who was still eating.

"Why are you looking at me?" Tokoyo Misao was still stuffing meatballs into his mouth as he continued.

"At your current rate of progress, you definitely won't reach Twelfth-Class Rei'i by the test."

"Huh? Why not?" Momo Hinamori immediately asked.

"The higher the Rei'i Grade, the more it increases exponentially.

"If you don't understand what exponential means, you can think of each grade as several times the previous one.

"If Renji keeps going at this steady pace, this little time won't be enough."

Tokoyo Misao curled his fingers, picked up his soup and gulped it down, then patted his stomach contentedly.

Burp—he let out a contented belch. Then his Rei'i burst forth, instantly reaching the seventeenth class.

Everyone present widened their eyes.

"Misao, how on earth did you do that?" Rukia pushed herself up from the table with both hands and shouted in shock.

"It's only been a few days since we entered the academy, and you've already broken through from the nineteenth class to the seventeenth. That's far too fast."

"Big brother Misao, I want to know too." Izuru Kira ran straight to Tokoyo Misao's side and stood ramrod straight, his hands against his legs.

After practicing Kidō and Zanjutsu over the past two days, he had gained a clear understanding of Tokoyo Misao's formidable strength.

In just a few days, his Rei'i Grade had risen by two whole classes.

Not only did he possess powerful Reishi control and combat skills, he also surely had his own unique understanding of cultivation.

His family had been Soul Reapers, so he understood better than his other three companions that fighting alone was not enough for a Soul Reaper. Cultivation was the most important thing.

He immediately bent forward in a respectful bow.

At that moment, Renji Abarai also rose from his seat.

He walked straight over to Izuru Kira's side and likewise bowed deeply, his hands against his legs. His lips moved. "Please teach me."

Tokoyo Misao folded his arms across his chest, crossed his legs, and looked at Renji Abarai.

"How should you address someone when you're asking them for a favor?"

Renji Abarai gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words. "Big brother Misao, please teach me."

"Your voice is so quiet. Haven't you eaten? You don't sound energetic at all, and you want to learn something?" Tokoyo Misao said again.

Renji Abarai drew a deep breath, swelling his chest. Then he abruptly straightened up and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Big brother Misao, please teach me!"

Izuru Kira's ears ached and his head buzzed from the shout, but he too yelled at the top of his voice, "Big brother Misao, please teach me!"

Their voices echoed through the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was not divided by year, so the upperclassmen all turned to look at them in confusion.

"You two idiots, keep it down. It's not like Misao is stingy." Rukia walked over and patted them both, then turned to Tokoyo Misao.

"So what do we have to do to improve faster?"

"You wouldn't even let me have your meatballs, and you want to learn something?" Tokoyo Misao turned his head away and snorted.

Momo Hinamori immediately got up, ran to the serving window, and brought back a portion of meatballs. She set it down in front of Tokoyo Misao and said with a cheerful smile:

"It's a gift from all four of us. Please accept it."

Tokoyo Misao nodded, picked up a meatball with his chopsticks, and tossed it into his mouth. After chewing a few times, he swallowed it with a gulp and spoke unhurriedly:

"You should know that most of the Reishi in our bodies is located in the Saketsu and Hakusui. Those two places are also our weaknesses as Soul Reapers."

"Because they're weaknesses, our bodies involuntarily concentrate Reishi in those two places to defend them. It's our instinct." As he

spoke, he poked through the meatballs on the plate with his chopsticks, picked out a small one, and showed it to the four of them.

"Suppose our Saketsu and Hakusui are currently the size of this meatball. Once they're filled with Reishi, that gives us our current Rei'i Grade."

With that, he ate the small meatball in one bite, then found the largest meatball on the plate and held it up.

"So to raise our Rei'i Grade, we have to turn the Saketsu and Hakusui into big meatballs."

Renji Abarai was utterly confused. "What meatballs? Weren't we talking about how to cultivate? How did we get onto food?"

"Idiot, Misao's using a metaphor. How can you not even understand that?" Rukia rolled her eyes at him, then looked at Tokoyo Misao and asked, "So how do we make it bigger?"

Tokoyo Misao smiled. "It's simple. First, use up all the Reishi inside the small meatball, then use a large amount of Reishi to stretch it bigger.

"The actual method is to train until your Reishi is exhausted, then eat a lot of food containing Reishi. That's all there is to it."

Rukia's eyes lit up. She held her left hand open and knocked her right fist against it in front of her chest, as though a lightbulb had lit up over her head.

"No wonder you ate so much at the last few meals. It was to stretch the meatballs bigger, right?"

Tokoyo Misao smiled but did not answer.

Although what he had said was true, and that was indeed how one cultivated.