Captain Unohana's Invitation / Tokoyo Misao Makes a Mistake
He hoisted Tokoyo Misao onto his shoulder. "All right, stop pushing yourself. I'll take you back for treatment."
Tokoyo Misao didn't resist. He let the man carry him and slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was lying in a room in the Fourth Division. A glance around showed him three senior students and Renji Abarai lying nearby.
Izuru Kira and Momo Hinamori had fallen asleep in their chairs.
He slowly sat up, but the movement woke Izuru Kira.
"Big brother Misao, you're awake?" Izuru Kira hurried over, calling out happily.
"Captain Unohana said all the bones in your body are cracked, and the ribs in your chest are broken. You need plenty of rest, so just tell me if you need anything."
"Some water."
Tokoyo Misao opened his mouth. His voice was extremely dry, and his lips stung.
"Right away!" Izuru Kira rushed out the door and came charging back with a large jug of water.
He brought the spout straight to Tokoyo Misao's mouth.
Tokoyo Misao reached out, gripped the jug's handle, and rolled his eyes at him.
Only then did Izuru Kira sheepishly let go and sit down beside him.
Tokoyo Misao gulped down more than half the jug before he felt a little better.
"What's the situation now?"
Izuru Kira understood what he was asking and quickly answered:
"Lieutenant Kaien Shiba came by especially to explain things a little while ago."
"During this internship, we most likely fell into a trap set by the traitor to Soul Society, the former Twelfth Division captain, Kisuke Urahara. That's why we nearly all died."
He patted his chest as he spoke, still shaken.
They were only interns, yet they had been ambushed by a Captain-level figure.
By all rights, they should all have been wiped out.
But Tokoyo Misao had fought his way through, allowing a few students to survive.
He looked excitedly at Tokoyo Misao:
"If it weren't for you, big brother Misao, we really would all be dead. So the Gotei 13 gave us compensation this time."
"What compensation?" Tokoyo Misao was somewhat curious.
"We can get food with a higher concentration of Reishi, and Captain Aizen will also teach us during our studies at the academy. Not calligraphy, of course."
He spoke faster and faster, his expression growing more excited.
"Not only that, as long as we graduate, we'll definitely be able to become Soul Reapers and join the Gotei 13."
Chapter 43: Captain Unohana's Invitation
Joining the Gotei 13 directly.
For an ordinary student, that would indeed count as decent compensation.
But for the few interns who had survived, it hardly counted for anything.
It was true that many ordinary students, even if they studied diligently at the Shin'ō Academy of Spiritual Arts for six years and graduated,
could not all join the Gotei 13 and become Soul Reapers
unless they could demonstrate outstanding results—such as learning Shikai, or having a special talent in some area.
Many students could only become hired muscle for nobles, or work as bodyguards for merchant associations around Junrinan.
But either way, it was far better than living in a place like Rukongai.
Tokoyo Misao asked, "Did they give us the right to choose our divisions freely?"
The excitement instantly froze on Izuru Kira's face. He scratched his head and gave an awkward chuckle, but didn't answer.
"Whether it's you or me, we're already good enough to become Soul Reapers when we graduate.
Without the right to choose our divisions freely, it doesn't count as compensation.
By comparison, Captain Aizen's instruction is much more valuable."
As Tokoyo Misao spoke, his gaze fell on Renji Abarai and the three senior students, who had just opened their eyes.
Shūhei Hisagi struggled to prop himself up and picked up the conversation:
"Misao is right. Getting instruction from a captain is a very rare opportunity. You must make the most of it."
For the three senior students, who were about to graduate, the opportunity had come too late.
Nor would they choose to repeat a year just to listen to Aizen's instruction.
Shūhei Hisagi looked up at Tokoyo Misao and spoke with sincere eyes:
"Thank you. If it weren't for you, we would all have died there."
"No need to thank me. In the end, we should thank Captain Aizen and the others for arriving so quickly. I was at the end of my rope too."
Tokoyo Misao smiled and shook his head, giving all the credit to Aizen.
"That's right! Thank goodness Captain Aizen arrived in time!" Momo Hinamori chimed in excitedly.
Stars glittered in her eyes, which were completely unfocused.
It was clear that Captain Aizen's face was the only thing left in her mind.
Beside her, Izuru Kira lowered his head dejectedly.
Tokoyo Misao got out of bed, went over to him, and patted him on the shoulder. In a soft voice, he said:
"I told you from the start, didn't I? Look straight at your goal, become him, and then surpass him."
Izuru Kira's pupils trembled. His head remained lowered, but his fists were clenched tightly, and he nodded hard.
Tokoyo Misao moved his body a little. Apart from some pain still in his chest, the bones elsewhere were still cracked.
But with his delicate Reishi Manipulation, he had already filled in those cracks.
His broken ribs would still need a few days to heal.
"How can a patient get out of bed whenever he pleases?" a voice came from the doorway.
He turned to see a woman walking in, wearing a white haori, her glossy black hair braided and draped over her chest.
"Captain Unohana!" Izuru Kira and Momo Hinamori immediately stood at attention and greeted her.
The newcomer was none other than Retsu Unohana, captain of the Fourth Division, the Gotei 13's medical division.
Wearing a kindly smile, she took small steps over to Tokoyo Misao and looked up at him.
"Back to bed. You're a patient."
"I've already filled the gaps with Reishi Manipulation, so I can go back just fine. My broken ribs will be better in a few days." Tokoyo Misao held out his hand as he spoke.
Captain Unohana opened her eyes and reached out with her right hand, placing it on Tokoyo Misao's wrist.
A trace of Spiritual Power entered Tokoyo Misao's body through her fingers.
After it made a quick circuit, her eyes showed some surprise.
"I didn't expect your Reishi Manipulation to have reached this level. Although you didn't use Kaidō, you were still able to use Reishi to fill and mend the gaps. That really is an incredible talent."
"Would you be interested in joining the Fourth Division? With your ability, you could take Kaidō further." She withdrew her hand and extended the invitation to Tokoyo Misao.
In the entire Gotei 13, only the Fourth Division could use Kaidō to quickly treat the sick and injured.
But even in the Fourth Division, ordinary members only knew how to use medical equipment for emergency aid. They couldn't use Kaidō at all, and many Seated Officers hadn't even mastered it.
The root of the problem was that their manipulation of Reishi was too crude.
And that was a matter of talent. There was no way around it; only by training hard for years would they have a chance of learning it.
In fact, though, the Soul Reapers who came to the Fourth Division were people whose results at the Shin'ō Academy of Spiritual Arts had not been outstanding.
They had little ambition to begin with, and Soul Reapers from other divisions often bullied them in the Seireitei.
After learning first aid, most of them simply drifted through their days. They had never even thought of working hard to learn Kaidō.
Tokoyo Misao's Reishi Manipulation, however, was truly outstanding.
He had even used the simplest Reishi alone to fill and mend his own cracked bones. He would surely learn Kaidō with half the effort and twice the results.
"Well?" Captain Unohana asked again with a smile.
"Thank you for the invitation, Captain Unohana, but I'm still only a first-year student, and I'm more interested in the Sixth and Second Divisions." Tokoyo Misao shook his head and declined.
"Is that so? What a shame. But you're welcome in the Fourth Division anytime."
Captain Unohana kept smiling, then pointed at the bed.
"Now please lie back down. You may not get up until you've fully recovered."
"But I've already..."
"Lie back down."
Tokoyo Misao looked at Captain Unohana's gentle smile and listened to her soothing tone, yet he felt as though he were standing in the cold. A chill shot from the base of his spine all the way to his brain.
He stopped arguing and obediently returned to bed.
"That's better. And you two." Captain Unohana looked at Izuru Kira and Momo Hinamori.
"The patients need rest. Our members will take care of them here, so hurry back to school. Don't miss your classes."
"I'll have someone take you back." She turned her head and called out, "Kiyonosuke."
"Understood. I'll take them safely back to the academy right away."
The person answering from the doorway was Kiyōnosuke Yamada, lieutenant of the Fourth Division.
He beckoned to Izuru Kira and Momo Hinamori and led them out of the Fourth Division.
"You're still only students at the academy, not Soul Reapers. So, strictly speaking, you're not allowed in the Seireitei. Letting you come in was already an exception."
"So follow me out, and don't let your eyes wander. Understood?"
Izuru Kira and Momo Hinamori answered loudly in unison, "Yes!"
Chapter 44: Tokoyo Misao Makes a Mistake
Half a month passed.
In a special classroom at the Shin'ō Academy of Spiritual Arts.
Sōsuke Aizen was giving special instruction to Tokoyo Misao's squad from the last trip to the World of the Living.
The subject of this lesson was developing a Zanpakuto and Shikai.
Aizen stood at the front, looking gently at the students below as he spoke softly:
"You can think of the Asauchi in your hands as blank sheets of paper."
"Only by pouring your souls into them can you develop them into Zanpakuto."
"You've already seen a Zanpakuto's Shikai."
"Once you've developed your Asauchi into a Zanpakuto, you can use Jinzen to converse with it and learn its name. Then you can obtain its ability, Shikai."
"You've all done very well over the past month."
His gentle gaze swept over the Zanpakuto on Momo Hinamori's, Renji Abarai's, and Izuru Kira's desks. He nodded approvingly, then finally looked at Tokoyo Misao's desk.
His tone grew a little subdued. "But Misao, why is yours still an Asauchi after all this time?"
The other three all turned their eyes to Tokoyo Misao's desk as well.
The standard-issue Asauchi from the academy lay quietly on it.
"Was there something wrong with my explanation of how to nurture a Zanpakuto? Or was it so profound and obscure that you couldn't understand it at all?"
The smile vanished from Aizen's face, and he looked somewhat discouraged.
He was the Fifth Division Captain himself, personally teaching students how to nurture their Zanpakuto, yet someone still couldn't learn it.