Kōga Tatara saw Jun, and his whole demeanor changed.
It was like a mischievous student seeing the dean of discipline. Unless they were a complete delinquent who had given up on themselves, they were bound to feel uncomfortable, and one thought was sure to cross their mind:
"Why did I have to run into this guy!!?"
Jun saw Kōga too, but instead of saying anything to him, he asked the three little ones in front of him,
"Is he the one who's been leading you?"
"Mm-hm~"
"I see." Jun waved to Kōga. "You~ come over and join us."
Kōga definitely didn't want to go, but the most basic rule at the academy was to treat instructors with respect. Even if he didn't want to, he had to go over, so the little guy reluctantly sat down in front of Jun.
"We've been talking for a while, and I still don't know your names. Since you're their leader, let's start with you," Jun said to Kōga with a smile.
Kōga's little face scrunched up. "Kōga Tatara."
"Daijin Hibiki."
"Matsutoshi Jūrō."
"Shimokawa Tōichirō."
"Oh~ Kōga, Hibiki, Jūrō, Tōichirō. Those are all good names."
"Hehe~"
Jun praised the children. Even though he didn't get along with Jun, Kōga was happy too. Jun then said,
"The answers to the questions you came to me with might be found in your everyday lives. So~ could you show me how you usually practice?"
"Uh."
The three little ones looked at Kōga. A look of annoyance crossed his face, but he still couldn't refuse.
"Come on!"
"Oh."
The four began fighting in front of Jun. Perhaps because they were nervous in front of him, the three little ones were quickly knocked down by Kōga. The fight Jun saw was a sorry sight, but considering their ages, Kōga was actually just too strong.
Shimokawa Tōichirō, the youngest, pouted and was about to cry again, but Kōga was genuinely angry. His inexplicable anger was even greater than when no one was watching.
"You three!! What kind of fighting is that!! Are you all useless!!?"
"Waaah~~ ahhh~~"
That shout made two of them burst into tears. Even Daijin Hibiki, the oldest, had red eyes, because this was far too embarrassing in front of Jun.
"Why are you angry?"
"Huh?"
Jun's question caught the attention of the four children, and he asked again,
"Why are you angry? That was a good fight~"
"Huh!?" Kōga grew annoyed. So this instructor's standards were that low? He no longer cared that Jun was an instructor. Pointing at the three younger children, he shouted, "Are you an idiot!? What kind of fighting was that!? I beat all three of them to a pulp by myself! Can't you see that!?"
Jun wasn't angry. In any case, the kid was in his hands now, and there would be plenty of time to deal with him later. Jun smiled.
"No, no. What I saw were three children who fought very hard, and one very strong child." Jun's words stopped the three little ones from crying, and Kōga was a little confused too. Jun pointed at Kōga and said, "You care a lot about them, but you're mistaken. It's not that they're too weak. It's that you're too strong."
"Huh!?" Kōga's little face turned red. "What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Hehe, it's true. You, Kōga Tatara, are too strong," Jun said with a smile. "You're the strongest in this year's class. Did you know that?"
"Huh!?" This time, Kōga was genuinely dumbfounded.
Students weren't told their entrance test results, for fear that they would become too full of themselves. Generally, after twelve years at the academy, in the fourth term, they could begin testing themselves to learn their own stats.
Why that particular time? Because after more than a decade of training, they could basically finish developing the abilities they could cultivate through their own efforts. As the saying went, everyone was born with a talent that had its use. People's aptitudes could be divided into two types: Talent and Ordinary.
Ordinary meant being ordinary, while Talent meant having talent, which was necessarily a higher level than being ordinary. Once a person's ability reached the level of Talent, they had necessarily risen above the ordinary. In other words, they had leveled up from Ordinary.
But to level up, they needed to fill their experience bar. The academy's twelve-year system let students fill their experience in Ordinary, then look for their own Talent. If they had Talent, they could develop it. If not, how they developed was up to them, but the saying that diligence could make up for a lack of talent could sometimes truly work miracles.
So Kōga definitely didn't know his own abilities at this point. He could sense that he was stronger than the others, but he couldn't tell by how much.
Jun patted Kōga on the shoulder. "You're a genius, a real genius. When you practice with them like this, you grow much faster than the three of them, so no matter how you practice, you'll feel as though they're getting weaker and weaker. But in fact, all three of them have already become very strong. You're just stronger!"
"I..." Kōga didn't know what to say. No matter how unruly a student was, they couldn't have a thick enough skin to brazenly admit, I'm awesome, I'm the best in the world. Just how thick-skinned would someone have to be?
Jun went over and patted the three little ones on the shoulders. "You should be more confident. You're quite impressive. At least, considering how long you've been at the academy, I think you're already doing very well."
"You also have a genius like Kōga leading you. Although you'll feel terribly discouraged when you practice with him, that's only because he's far, far too strong. You understand that, don't you?"
The three little ones quickly nodded. Things were just as Jun said; no one understood Kōga's strength better than the three of them.
"So your problem isn't a problem. Kōga is training you to become stronger. It's just..." Jun looked at Kōga. "You need to change your temper. Caring about someone doesn't mean shouting at them. If you think they're doing something wrong, tell them. Insulting them all the time is just you enjoying the thrill of bullying them. It isn't sincerely helping them."
"No! I..." Kōga didn't have much of a defense.
"Have you ever given them guidance?"
"Ah~~ argh, argh, argh~~" Kōga went wild. "That's because they're too stupid! They're full of openings from head to toe! Damn it!"
Jun smiled. "That's impressive. Your powers of observation are so strong that you can see every single opening from head to toe. So why don't you correct them one by one?"
"Ah."
"Hehe." Before leaving, Jun patted Kōga on the shoulder again. "Keep at it, young man. Remember, helping others is helping yourself."
Jun had no intention of doing anything with Kōga right away. There was plenty of time ahead; he had to cast a long line to catch a big fish. Jun could tell that Kōga was still wary of him, so the first step was to dispel that wariness. Besides, today's chance encounter had been enough to provide the groundwork for their next meeting.
Besides, Jun didn't want to raise Kōga the way he had raised Jing back then. First, it was too tiring. Second, they were neither family nor close, so why should he raise him like that? Jun paid close attention to Kōga, but he had no intention of being the boy's father and mother.
He recalled how Kōga Kuchiki was described in the original story: a genius Soul Reaper with his own pride. Because of the special nature of his Zanpakuto, Kuchiki Ginrei and Shigekuni Yamamoto feared him, and over time, he too began to hate his own Zanpakuto.
Thinking of this, Jun took out his Zanpakuto and slowly drew the blade, smiling softly.
"Tell me, why do they want to suppress the secret of Zanpakuto? Or is it that they simply can't see through it? Which name do you like? Hmm?"
The blade trembled gently, letting out a soft hum. Jun put away his smile and sheathed it.
More than a hundred years had passed. Jun naturally had a Shikai and had already attended an appraisal. The name of the Shikai he presented to the world was Clear Rain, but that wasn't his true Shikai.
The reason Jun could hide his Zanpakuto was that his knowledge of Kidō had grown to an incredible level, thanks in part to Instructor Hanazawa's insights from back then.
The emergence of Sōdō gave Jun all the foundations he needed. It was Sōdō that allowed Jun to truly understand the words, "Everything in Soul Society is made of Reishi." Zanpakuto were naturally no exception.
So was there any fundamental difference between Shikai and Bankai? The answer was no. It was still Reishi. Whether Shikai or Bankai, their essence remained nothing more than Reishi.
If the manipulation of Reishi was Kidō, then Shikai and Bankai were actually also forms of Kidō. The Zanpakuto system invented by Ōetsu Nimaiya was a Kidō system, fundamentally no different from the ninety-nine Kidō spells.
After coming to this understanding, Jun thought of two people from the original story: Yumichika Ayasegawa and Retsu Unohana.
Yumichika Ayasegawa had two Shikai. One was called Fuji Kujaku, and the other Ruri'iro Kujaku. He called Fuji Kujaku a half-Shikai, but they were actually two Shikai. Remarkably, one was a slashing type, while the other was a Kidō type.
Yumichika Ayasegawa's innate affinity for Kidō led him to mistakenly believe that Ruri'iro Kujaku was his true Shikai. However, that wasn't the case. According to Jun's current theory, it wasn't.
Jun's theory could wait. Now, to look at the other person: Retsu Unohana. This formidable figure, who had taken part in a Thousand-Year War, had a Shikai, Minazuki, that was a creature with healing abilities.
However, consider her past. Retsu Unohana had once gone by the name Yachiru Unohana. She had taken the name Yachiru because she believed she had mastered every school of swordsmanship.
This lady had once been the greatest villain in Soul Society, without equal! The issue of private academies in Soul Society had come up before. In the era before the Gotei 13 existed, private academies were everywhere, and Old Man Yamamoto's Genji Academy was the most famous of them.
Each private academy taught a different school and wouldn't casually teach outsiders. So how did Yachiru come by hers? The answer was simple: she killed for them.
Yachiru Unohana slaughtered the people of those academies indiscriminately. As long as they refused to hand over their secret techniques, people would keep dying. Yet Sister Unohana had survived all along while doing this. Did her strength need any further explanation?
Eventually, she fought her way to Genji Academy and was finally defeated by the strongest man in Soul Society. However, Old Man Yamamoto didn't kill her; he merely kept her by his side, presumably to suppress her killing intent. The old man certainly knew how to play that kind of taming game.
Then, after the Thousand-Year War, a group of distinguished veterans became Soul Society's new guardians. They established the Gotei 13, and Sister Unohana was the first captain of the 11th Division.
Sister Unohana then learned Kaido from an old comrade, Tenjirō Kirinji, who was now a member of the Zero Division, and transferred to become the Fourth Division Captain. The second Kenpachi was selected; he didn't become captain of the 11th Division by defeating Sister Unohana. With her strength, few of the Kenpachi throughout the generations could have beaten her.
After transferring to the Fourth Division, Sister Unohana was rather like a butcher who had laid down her blade and become a Buddha on the spot. Then Ōetsu Nimaiya appeared and invented the Zanpakuto system. Sister Unohana received her Zanpakuto, and her Shikai appeared: that manta ray.
Many people thought Shikai was a necessary step on the path to Bankai, but that was wrong! Completely wrong! Shikai was part of the Zanpakuto system developed by Ōetsu Nimaiya. Before he invented Zanpakuto, Bankai already existed; it just wasn't called by that name.
The Zanpakuto system made Bankai relatively easier to learn because it provided an intermediate stage, Shikai. But Bankai had already existed before Shikai.
Thus, Retsu Unohana's Shikai was a healing type, while her Bankai, Minazuki, was one of the most powerful offensive Bankai in Soul Society, even using blood as a blade. That was where her true nature lay, the sublimation of her true soul, her true self.
So Jun understood the true meaning of Shikai. It was really just something to play with. You could have your Shikai represent your true self, or you could have it represent the self you wanted others to see.
Jun's true Shikai was not something he could show others yet. His true self was incompatible with the present Soul Society, just like the thoughts he had always held.
So Jun could only show Soul Society the self they wanted to see. That was how Clear Rain was born.
"Wash away evil, cleanse all sin! Fall, Clear Rain!"