Chapter 1

Bleach: My Zanpakuto Is a Little Trendy, by Yuànqián Zhāngshì

"You're good at Kidō too."

"I know a little."

"You have a water-type Zanpakuto too."

"You could say that."

"You want to stand in the heavens too."

"True."

"Then what's the difference between you and Sōsuke Aizen?"

"I'm not interested in an artificial Ōken. If I had to do something, I'd rather overthrow Soul Society's current, corrupt system."

So said the young man in a Captain's Haori, with the three great noble clans standing behind him, when faced with a Seireitei Headlines reporter's ill-intentioned question. He was over two hundred years old.

(A BLEACH fanfiction.)

Volume One: 001, Shinigami

Soul Society.

The area under the East Branch Bureau's jurisdiction.

"Boom~"

Flames, thick smoke, and a disordered crowd.

Put those three things together, and it meant Seireitei's annual round of explosions had begun again:

The commotion was taking place at Shin'ō Academy, also known as the Shinigami Academy, where Soul Society trained members of the Gotei 13, the Kidō Corps, and the Stealth Force.

Here,

students could learn not only the Shinigami's professional skills, Zankensōki, but also about the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo, and even Hell.

As for the explosion just now...

Shinigami of the Gotei 13 wouldn't dare make such a commotion within Seireitei. A thrilling sight like this could only be found at the training grounds, where students were fighting for their lives in pursuit of better grades:

The fifth-year students' promotion exams were underway on the field.

Unfortunately, there weren't many spectators besides the examinees:

Most of Shin'ō Academy's younger students were currently in the Shin'ō Grand Auditorium, watching the graduates choose their assignments. Not only could they meet full-fledged Shinigami there, but if they were lucky enough, they might even get a chance to see a Captain-level member of the Gotei 13.

After all,

even an ordinary member of the Gotei 13 was one in six thousand, carefully selected from Soul Society's countless souls.

Honestly,

having fewer spectators wasn't such a bad thing.

The "great seniors" might get far less exposure—put bluntly, fewer chances to show off and gain first pick among their juniors of the opposite sex—but it also eased the pressure on the students being tested in the training grounds.

After who knew how many rounds of commotion had passed,

"O sovereign!"

"Mask of flesh and blood, all creation, the thing that soars on wings and bears the name of man!"

The ringing chants continued without pause.

After receiving instructions from the examiner, the students on the testing ground all assumed the same stance: right hand extended level with the palm open, left hand braced against the back of the right.

Before their palms,

bright red flames gradually emerged from nothing amid heat and light, rapidly condensing into spheres under their users' control.

"Inferno and pandemonium, surge across the sea to the south and march onward!"

The syllables of the final passage came faster and in tighter unison.

"Hadō #31: Shakkahō!"

"Whoosh—"

More than a dozen fireballs shot toward the targets opposite the students, trailing fiery light.

"Boom!"

That said,

getting a Shakkahō to hit its target consistently was actually quite difficult.

To get a good grade on the Kidō exam, double A's in strength and speed alone wouldn't cut it. Accuracy was even more important—after all, no Shinigami wanted to see a teammate's Kidō explode behind them when their guard was down.

A certain redheaded roaring man with extremely flamboyant eyebrows could serve as a cautionary example here in the future.

But when it came to actually casting the spell, never mind accuracy, not many students even met the standards for power and speed.

Once the explosion had subsided,

"B grade."

"B grade."

The examiners glanced at the targets opposite them and recorded the results one by one against the roster.

There was no need to doubt their judgment. Most of the teachers employed at Shin'ō Academy were Seated Officers of the Gotei 13. Their seats might not be very high, but judging the strength of a Kidō spell was certainly a trivial matter for them.

Incidentally,

the Shinigami currently serving concurrently as Shin'ō Academy's headmaster was the Fourth Seat of a certain division... just a Fourth Seat.

"A grade, Nanao Ise."

Amid the steady announcements of B grades, that call stood out.

"Ise?"

"That noble young lady?"

Each class at Shin'ō Academy had no shortage of students.

Even after studying together for five years, students in different classes rarely went out of their way to learn about one another.

But some names were always widely known, even if they weren't famous enough for everyone to recognize. Nanao Ise was clearly one of them.

"No, I heard she was from a priest's family—"

Although most people kept their discussion to whispers, there were also those who deliberately shouted:

"Isn't that still a noble?"

"Of course she's different from us commoners from Rukongai!"

As for why this kind of opposition existed, tracing it back would take them far too long.

"Phew."

Having finished her exam, the little girl steadied her breathing.

Nanao paid no attention to the unusual looks around her—or rather, she had long since grown accustomed to situations like this. Bearing the name of the priestly Ise Clan, she often encountered stares that pricked like needles, even among the nobility.

Even though she was still just a child who looked no more than seven or eight, and had long since ceased to be a member of the main family.

Looking no different from usual, Nanao walked out of the training grounds with mixed emotions. Kidō was the last of the Zankensōki tests, and with an A grade in it, she had undoubtedly passed her promotion exams.

For Ise, who was proficient in only three of the four Zankensōki disciplines, that was rather difficult. The difficulty wasn't in getting promoted, but in achieving grades that would let her remain in Class One after advancing to the sixth-year graduating class.

"Hey!"

As soon as she stepped off the stairs outside the gate, a gentle, familiar greeting reached Ise's ears.

The bangs hanging over the girl's forehead concealed the expression in her eyes. Just as Ise composed herself and prepared to look up and say hello—

A broad palm pressed against her forehead, forcing the petite girl to tilt her head back early.

"An A in Kidō."

"You did so well. Why the long face?"

"You already wear those thick glasses at your age, sealing away most of your looks. If you keep frowning all day too, you'll completely waste that budding beauty of yours."

The newcomer's tone was as nagging as a mother's.

Ise didn't mind the concern, but—

"My neck's going to break!"

He didn't know his own strength.

The girl gripped his wrist tightly, trying to remove the hand pressing on her forehead. Her reaction perfectly matched the popular stereotype of a tsundere, but when a little girl did it, there was no question of whether it was still in fashion:

Lolis were the treasures of the world.

"Ah!"

"Sorry, sorry."

The tall man hurriedly pulled his arm away.

There was no cutest height difference between these two. The man stood a full 187 centimeters tall, compared with Ise's child-sized frame of less than 130 centimeters...

Looking up was torture for the body.

"A gift to congratulate you on advancing, and to apologize."

A small, exquisite package emerged from behind his loose blue-and-white uniform.

Without giving Ise any chance to refuse, its familiar size and sweet aroma instantly reached her nose and defeated the girl's budding taste buds.

"Well?"

"Mm..."

While she hesitated, the package was already pressed into her hands.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Her mosquito-quiet thanks met a cheerful, easygoing reply.

"Aren't you going to open it?"

"I want to wait until I get home and let my uncle and the others try it."

Ise shook her head and asked rather carefully:

"...May I?"

"Since it's a gift, of course it's yours to decide what to do with it, Nanao."

Ise had a sweet tooth and was especially fond of yōkan. Her serious nature, cultivated from childhood, had also led her to study it in great depth:

The yōkan the man had brought didn't come from Soul Society.

Only in the World of the Living would such "flamboyant" cardboard packaging be used, and the "family crest she had only seen in extracurricular books"—the trademark—in the most conspicuous spot came from Kodake-ya, a famous Japanese confectionery shop in the World of the Living.

Even full-fledged Shinigami who wanted gifts from the World of the Living had to cultivate connections in advance with the Soul Burial Squads of the Thirteenth Division, who took turns serving there, to say nothing of ordinary students like them.

It was a souvenir brought across worlds, after all. With Reigai and Reishi conversion involved, the difficulty of bringing it back was easy to imagine.

"Thank you, A-Qing."

"That's the second time. I told you, there's no need to be so polite."

The tall male student Ise called "A-Qing" replied with the same gentle smile as before.

A-Qing.

A fifth-year student at Shin'ō Academy whose real name was Haruto.

His proportions weren't exaggerated. Given that he was a hundred million or so points taller than an ordinary person, he could even be called lean.