The second year
The day Shin'ō Academy reopened had arrived once more.
A year ago, four hundred children from Rukongai had stood on the training grounds in ragged clothes, their shoe soles worn through, their eyes filled with fear and uncertainty toward something new.
A year later, they stood in neat uniforms, and the formation on the training grounds was far more orderly than it had been the year before.
The boys' uniforms consisted of white tops and dark blue hakama, while the girls wore white tops with red hakama.
Yamamoto had personally designed the style. It was simple, sharp, and free of unnecessary decoration.
White was the color of Soul Society. Yamamoto had never explained why he had chosen blue and red. Four hundred second-year students stood in the middle of the training grounds, some of the childishness gone from their faces.
They had begun Zanjutsu, begun Hakuda, learned to take a few steps with Shunpo, and could chant several simple Hado spells.
They had all touched the threshold of the four fundamental disciplines—Zan-Sō-Haku-Ki. It was not much, but the door had already been pushed open.
They were no longer "new students." In a few days, the second-year curriculum would begin.
When news of the recruitment spread through Rukongai, it caused far more excitement than it had the previous year.
Last year, Yamamoto had set up four registration points in the First Division and waited more than a month to gather four hundred people.
This year was different. Four hundred students had returned home for recess, scattering to every corner of Rukongai, back to their ruin-like homes and among neighbors still struggling for a mouthful of food. They brought back more than the words "I'm doing well." They brought the uniforms on their backs and the skills they had