In front of the bulletin board of the Shin'ō Academy, several senior students gathered in a circle
The curriculum is posted every Monday in the most eye-catching position on the bulletin board. In black and white, the names of every week, every day, every section, and every teacher are written.
Today is Monday, and less than half an hour after the new week's class schedule was posted, three layers of people have already gathered around it.
"Ninth Division, Kumenoi Captain's Reiatsu class is cancelled."
The person standing at the front read the red letter on the curriculum. His voice was not loud, but everyone around him could hear it clearly. He paused and continued reading.
"Seventh Division, the Kendo class of the executive captain is cancelled, Tenth Division, the Kidō class of Captain Shiba is cancelled"
After he finished reading, he turned his head and looked at the person behind him. The expression of the person behind him was as confused as his.
Someone spoke, not loudly, but everyone around them was listening. "Why are so many captains' classes canceled? Last week, three captains took classes, and this week there are three more captains."
No one answered. Some looked down at their class schedules, some looked at the white paper with red letters on the bulletin board, and some looked at the gray-white sky in the distance.
"Is there something wrong?" The voice came from behind the crowd, with an uncertain tone, like asking and guessing.
no one answered
Something happened, this thought was spinning in everyone's mind, but no one said it
In the Spiritual Arts Academy, it is not uncommon for captain courses to be canceled. Some captains are on missions, and some captains have temporary problems. But that is occasionally, one captain and two captains in one period and two periods, instead of six captains at once like now, they are all suspended for a long time.
Soon, the crowd standing in front of the bulletin board began to disperse.
Some people went to class, some went back to the dormitory, and some went to the cafeteria. But after they left, the topic did not disappear. There were people talking about it in the corridor, in the classroom, and in the cafeteria.
The upperclassmen tell the younger students, and the younger students tell the freshmen. The news spreads in every corner of the Spiritual Arts Academy, like water seeping into the sand, silently, but everywhere.
Then some well-informed people began to reveal various information
In the cafeteria, several students crowded around a long table with plates. One of them poked the rice in the bowl with chopsticks and didn't take a bite for a long time. "My brother is at Tenth Division,"
He lowered his voice very low. "He said that many people from his squadron were transferred to West Rukongai. They didn't know what they were going to do. If I asked him, he wouldn't tell me. He just said they had a mission."
The person next to him put down his chopsticks. "Tenth Division has transferred people? Isn't that the main patrol force of Rukongai? Even they have been moved. What happened to the west?"
"More than Tenth Division"
A girl wearing glasses opposite took over. Her voice was softer, as if she was talking about a secret that should not be discussed loudly. "My family is engaged in grain trading. My father said that recently Seireitei purchased a lot of dry food. It was not the usual monthly replenishment amount. Instead, the quantity was ordered for several months at once, and the rush was very urgent. It was required to have it all ready within a few days."
As soon as these words came out, the long table was quiet for a few seconds. Dry food. Bulk purchase. Urgent. When these words are put together, an unsightly picture will appear in the mind of any Soul Reaper.
"Dry food..." Someone put his chopsticks on the edge of the bowl and lost his appetite.
"Is there going to be a war?"
No one answered him, but no one refuted either.
At the other end of the cafeteria, a well-dressed boy was surrounded by several classmates. His family is in the weapons business and supplies supplies to Lower Nobility. He has much better information than ordinary students. "My family has received a lot of orders recently."
There was a certainty in his tone that no one could be deceived by this kind of thing. "I usually only get a few knives a month, but recently the orders have more than doubled. They are all rushing to get ready stock. There is not enough ready stock, so I have to rush to make more money."
Several students surrounding him looked at each other, and someone whispered, "Are we going to fight again?"
At the same time, a new group of people gathered in front of the bulletin board. The students who came later could not squeeze in. They could only stand on tiptoes and look at the white paper with red letters densely scratched through the shoulders of the people in front. Someone pointed to the red letters on the curriculum and counted them one by one to the students next to them. "Last week was Captain Eighth Division Katori, Third Division Classes for captains Yan Yuan and Eleventh Division Captain Unohana have all been suspended. This week, six captains, Seventh Division, Ninth Division, and Tenth Division, have been added. A total of six captains have been suspended for a long time."
"Captain Unohana? That Captain Unohana who teaches flower arrangement has also stopped?" A junior student asked in a daze. Her flower arrangement class was taught by Unohana. The captain, whose face was as black as the bottom of a pot but whose pruning accuracy was down to the millimeter level, also stopped classes.
"Eleventh Division is a full-time combat team," a senior student next to him crossed his arms and frowned deeply.
"When have you ever seen a combat team captain suspended for a long time?"
The underclassman shook his head.
"Can Hollow Disaster be so serious?" someone asked.
"My family belongs to West 47th District," another lanky boy who had been silent until now suddenly said, and everyone's eyes turned to him.
"When I went back for the holidays, I heard from my family that there are often Soul Reaper patrols passing by in the west. In the past, we didn't see them once a month, but now they happen every day, and they always go further west."
"Further west? Is there any place further west?" someone asked.
The tall and lanky boy shook his head. "I don't know. My family said that the patrols didn't stop until they reached West Eightieth District and continued to the west."
There was silence in the cafeteria for a moment. West Eightieth District is the boundary of Rukongai. Going west is not Rukongai. It is wilderness, a place with nothing or somewhere.
"Could it be...Quincy?" A senior student boldly guessed
The chopsticks of several people around them stopped at the same time. Some people raised their heads, while others turned their heads.
"Don't talk nonsense" someone said, but his voice lacked confidence.
"Then tell me, besides Quincy, what else can move so many captains?"
No one can answer this question
In the afternoon class, discipline was much worse than usual. Some people were distracted, some were talking in low voices, and some copied the red words on the curriculum into the blank spaces of their notebooks and read them several times.
The teacher shouted quiet twice, but it had little effect. Of course he saw the red letters on the curriculum and knew what the students below were discussing, but he couldn't explain it.
All he could say was that the transferred captain's classes would be temporarily replaced by ordinary teaching, and the classes would continue as usual.
In the evening, the dormitory area was much busier than usual. People who were supposed to be in the study room gathered in the corridor, and people who were supposed to be practicing swordsman stood chatting at the door of the dormitory. There was only one topic.
"I heard that the entire Eleventh Division division was mobilized."
"The entire squad? Captain Unohana personally leads the team?"
"Of course, Eleventh Division, when did the captain not personally take action?"
"That's not right, then who is in charge of Seireitei's daily defense? Isn't Seventh Division an inner court guard? Even Seventh Division has been transferred."