"Above the scales, a nameless place, neither broken nor shattered, an inverted mountain peak, Bakudō!"
"Are you all right, senpai!?"
Once again, they were behind the Journal Hall. Jun had asked Isuzu to help him train in Kidō by casting Bakudō #73, Tōzanshō. Unfortunately, Isuzu's attempt failed.
"Mmm~ I'm fine~ But sorry, Jun, I failed."
"It's all right~ It was an idea I came up with on a whim, and I even asked you to help me, senpai. You didn't mind any of that, so why would I care about one or two failures? We can just try again."
"Okay!"
Seeing that Jun really didn't mind, Isuzu began casting again. Jun watched her and learned from the attempt, noticing that she had some problems controlling Reishi.
That was a fundamental weakness. As mentioned before, Jun and Aizen were exceptionally gifted at controlling Reishi, so Jun couldn't help Isuzu in that regard. But that wasn't her only problem.
"Senpai, your incantation doesn't seem to have much connection to the way you're directing the Reishi~"
"Huh? That's because I only recently started practicing Tōzanshō. I haven't figured out how to coordinate the incantation with the flow of Reishi yet."
Of course, that wasn't all Jun had noticed. Perhaps it was a difference in talent. It was like looking at a math problem: someone good at math could glance at it and see several ways to solve it, picking out the key to the problem.
Similarly, Jun had the ability to sense barely perceptible "nodes" in the movement of spiritual power. He called them "nodes" because he wasn't certain they existed. Asking Aizen wouldn't settle it either, because Aizen's talent was forcing Reishi to move as he wanted, allowing him to cast Kidō no matter what. So Aizen never needed to find "nodes."
Thus, Isuzu became Jun's test subject. He tried pointing out where the supposed nodes were, then matching them with different passages of the incantation. Thankfully, after several attempts, Isuzu got a feel for it.
"Oh no~ I failed again~"
"Uh, should we just give up?"
"Hm? Give up on what? You're amazing, Jun. Those nodes really are there~ I'm just not used to the feeling yet. Can you wait a little longer for me?"
"Of course." Jun wasn't in a hurry. Besides, today had turned into training for Isuzu. The girl was in high spirits after learning a special method, so Jun had been reduced to a spectator.
But Jun had gotten that wrong too. It wasn't just one day. For more than ten days afterward, he was a spectator, and he also got to see what a relatively ordinary pace of Kidō training looked like. Successfully casting a single Kidō took more than ten days, or even longer. To Jun, that was unimaginably slow. (But Isuzu was already highly talented in Kidō; ordinary people were slower still, to an unimaginable degree.)
For Jun, the difficulty in training Kidō was how to raise his casting speed until it was instantaneous. He didn't consider his training successful until he could cast a Kidō instantly, and surely that was not what most people considered success.
Finally, on the seventeenth day,
"Above~~ the scales~, a nameless~~ place! Neither broken~~ nor shattered~~, an inverted~~ mountain~ peak~~, Bakudō #73: Tōzanshō!"
As she chanted, drawing out some syllables and shortening others, the Reishi moved beautifully. This time, the casting finally succeeded, and a huge, ice-blue inverted pyramid appeared before them. Incidentally, after seeing the two of them training, Aizen hadn't come back.
Jun was still admiring the beautiful result when a soft body wrapped around him.
"Jun~~~! I did it! I did it~~!!"
"Yeah~ yeah~, congratulations, senpai."
"Hehe, it's all thanks to you, Jun. This is the first time I've mastered a Bakudō above number seventy so quickly. It took me more than a year to master number seventy-two, Cracked Wall~ Waaah..."
As she spoke, the girl burst into tears. Jun gently patted her back. No wonder she was so excited. If, as she said, a single technique took a year to master, and Jun had reduced that to one-twentieth of the time, his help had been extraordinary.
Besides, if training really took a year, those countless failures would be deeply discouraging. Jun greatly admired the perseverance of people who could train for a year until they succeeded. He certainly couldn't have done it himself; he would have gone off to do something else long before then.
Isuzu remained excited for quite a while, but she remembered why Jun had asked her there. She gave him a push, and Tōzanshō automatically enclosed him.
Jun found himself in a strange world. The sky and ground had vanished, and everything around him was a deep blue. The space was neither especially large nor small, and a barrier of light was visible around him, marking a boundary he couldn't cross.
"Jun~ Can you hear me?"
"I can. Can you hear me, senpai?"
"I can~ Now hurry and start training, Jun. I still need to use Kyokkō on Tōzanshō."
"Mm, I understand. Sorry for the trouble, senpai."
"Hehe, it's all right, it's all right."
Jun wasted no time and began training. The Bakudō could only last so long, and it was constantly consuming Isuzu's spiritual power. Isuzu was really doing him a great favor by coming to assist him; getting on with his training was the best way to repay her efforts.
Jun quickly cast Hadō #30, Rock's Judgment. He succeeded on his first try because he had simulated it in his head many times. Then came Hadō #31, Shakkahō; #32, Yellow Fire Flash; #33, Sōkatsui; #34, Azure Lightning Flash; #35, Tomb; #36, One-Jō Light; and #37, Flame Wind. He got stuck on #38, Lightning Punishment.
"Did I misjudge a node? Never mind. I'll start practicing instant casts from number thirty."
In a single afternoon, Jun mastered the instant casting of Hadō #30, Rock's Judgment. He then contacted Isuzu outside. Tōzanshō was dispelled, and Jun emerged.
"Are you all right, senpai?"
"Mmm~ I'm okay. I just used up quite a bit of Reishi, but I'll be fine after a little rest."
Despite what she said, Isuzu looked to be in very poor shape to Jun. She definitely wouldn't recover with just a little rest.
"Senpai, don't wear yourself out so much just to accommodate me! If you do that, how could I bring myself to trouble you again?"
"Hehe, clever boy. I know I was wrong. I was just happy today. Tomorrow, I'll call you out earlier."
"Mm, that's more like it. Head home first, senpai. I'll bring some food back in a little while."
"Okay~~. How did your training go today, Jun? Did I help?"
Jun gave his arm a shake. "Of course you did! I'm a man who's already finished training Hadō #30!"
"Wow! That's amazing! You finished training it in one day?"
"Yep! Just one day!"
Isuzu praised him for quite a while longer. Jun laughed and joked his way through it, but after they parted, he sighed.
"Sorry for lying to you again, but it couldn't be helped. You only need to know that I succeeded. As for the difference between our definitions of success, you don't need to know about that."
From that day on, Jun's training schedule changed. He still trained in Hakuda and swordsmanship with Aizen in the mornings, and that was the only time he saw him. Aizen even teased him, saying, "You've got yourself a big sister and forgotten your senior, huh?"
Jun could only smile at that. Aizen wasn't so petty; he didn't mind Jun's situation at all. But to keep Isuzu from learning too much, Aizen rarely visited the Journal Hall after that. When he did occasionally show up, he was just an ordinary student dropping by the Journal Hall, and there were plenty of those.
In the afternoons, Jun trained in Kidō with Isuzu. She seemed content after mastering Tōzanshō, and aside from improving her proficiency with it, she never practiced any higher-numbered Kidō.
Jun didn't know how he should feel about that. Perhaps training harder was the best way to repay senpai for taking care of him. Such fulfilling days passed quickly, and before he knew it, his tenth year at the academy was over.
More than five years passed after that. In Jun's sixteenth year at the academy, Aizen smiled faintly after their morning sparring session ended.
"I'm leaving."
"Mm. Have a safe journey."
"Tsk~ I wonder what'll happen to me after I leave."
"Don't get too caught up in your thoughts. Your first priority should be continuing to develop your strength."
"Mm, you're right. What about you?"
"What do you mean?"
"When are you planning to graduate?"
"I'm doing the sixty years too, or fifty-eight years. I enrolled at the wrong time."
Aizen looked a little surprised. "You're different from me. You're a well-known genius."
Jun smiled indifferently. "What does being a genius have to do with anyone else? I'm me, just me."
Aizen gave him a thumbs-up. "That's the spirit!"
"Haha, I'm all right." Jun was quite happy; praise from Aizen was rare. "Which division are you joining?"
"The Fifth Division."
"Why?" Jun was asking about the issue of Aizen's mother, even though he knew Aizen had belonged to the Fifth Division in the original story.
But Aizen's answer took Jun by surprise. Aizen looked helpless, his face full of conflicted feelings. "What other reason could there be? My dad's in the Fifth Division."
"Ah, I forgot."
"Sorry~ I didn't mean it like that." Aizen was referring to the fact that Jun's parents were both dead.
"I know."
Aizen sighed. "Then I'm off."
"Mm," Jun replied. Aizen turned to leave, but Jun suddenly called out, "Hey~ Do you want me to see you off?"
"Haha~" Aizen looked back at Jun, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "It's fine. It's the thought that counts."
"Stay alive."
"Don't worry. You know what I can do."
"Yeah."
Jun knew he didn't need to worry about Aizen, but he couldn't put his mind at ease. He and Aizen were no longer one person inside the story and one outside it.
Jun didn't know how to define his relationship with Aizen. If they were friends, they were wary of each other, yet he couldn't call them enemies either. Perhaps kindred spirits suited their relationship better, though their relationship as kindred spirits was a little strange.
Besides, it seemed he would have trouble seeing Aizen at the academy from now on, and Jun felt a little wistful.
"Tsk~ Goodbye. I wonder when we'll see each other again."
But Jun had no idea.
"I am Sōsuke Aizen, seventy-second seat of the Fifth Division. Starting today, I will serve as a swordsmanship instructor at Shin'ō Academy for two months. Now, let us begin today's lecture. My subject today is the relationship between swordsmanship and the heart."
Jun sat below with a stiff expression. On the podium, Aizen looked over the students from time to time with a smile as warm as a spring breeze.
The students thought this instructor was a good-natured, good teacher. Of course, that was indeed the persona Aizen had given himself, but only Jun could see the amused look Aizen gave him.
How the fuck did you pull that off? You've only been gone a year, and you can already come back as an instructor? Give me back my sadness, you bastard!