The scale of the Spiritual Arts Academy has gradually stabilized in the past few years.
There are six grades, each with 120 students, plus those who have repeated grades and those who have repeated classes, the total number remains at around 700.
This number is the conclusion reached by Yamamoto and the team captains after years of verification.
Seven hundred people are just enough to fill the vacancies caused by natural attrition of Soul Reaper. Some people died in battle, some retired, and some withdrew from the front line due to injuries. Spiritual Arts Academy graduates came in batch by batch, flowing into the gaps in each team like water, no more, no less, just enough.
Occasionally there will be a surplus of personnel, and there will be more Menos Grande crusade missions. First Division's transfer orders will be issued one by one. Each squad will take turns to go into battle, and the excess manpower will be put into the depths of Rukongai or the battlefield of World of the Living.
One batch is lost and another batch is replenished. The numbers are like being held down by an invisible hand, always floating up and down within a certain range, neither rising nor falling.
Thirteenth Division also maintains a stable scale in this rhythm.
No more, no less, just enough to cover World of the Living's garrison, virtual suppression, Soul Burial's guidance, and various coordination tasks occasionally transferred from First Division.
Lieutenant has already managed the daily operations of the squad so Jingjing You Tiao that Shuichi doesn't need to interfere too much. He goes to the Spiritual Arts Academy for Hakuda class once a month, one grade at a time, and the six grades come in turn. This month it's the third grade's turn.
The weather is fine today, the sun is shining unobstructed, and the third-year students have already lined up on the fighting field.
I am in my third grade, and I am no longer a new student. I have been taking the captain's class for two years, and I have seen all kinds of teaching styles. I am no longer as nervous as I was in the first grade.
Shuichi's Reiatsu perception naturally spreads when entering the fighting field. He knows how many students are within the range, Reiatsu's strength and weakness distribution, whether anyone is injured or Reiatsu is unstable. These are the basic information that a captain should master when entering the teaching field.
There are thirty students in the second class of third-year students. Reiatsu is uneven, but most of them are within the normal range. There are a few that are slightly stronger. They should be those with higher Spiritual Might Test when they entered school.
Then he sensed one of them, not strong, but familiar
Shuichi's eyes did not stay on her for long, and he started to teach.
"Today I will review the leg sweep." His voice was not loud, but the fighting arena was very quiet, so I could hear every word clearly.
"Front kick followed by leg sweep, in pairs, one attacking and one defending. The attacker kicks forward to force the defender to retreat. After the defender takes a step back, the attacker immediately follows up with a low leg sweep. Pay attention to the height of the sweep leg. Kick the calf, not the knee, nor the thigh. If you kick high, the opponent will not fall, and you will lose your balance first."
He asked the two students in the first row to come out to demonstrate, kicking forward, retreating, and sweeping their legs. The movements were not perfect, but the rhythm was correct. Shuichi squatted down and used his palms to compare the height of the student's leg sweep. "A little lower, kick here."
His palm pressed three inches above the student's ankle. The force was very light, but the position was clear. The student nodded and did it again. This time, the height of the leg sweep was accurate.
After teaching for a period of time
"Practice in groups."
Thirty students were divided into fifteen groups, and the fighting arena immediately became lively. The strength of the kicks varied. Some people kicked too hard and pushed themselves backwards. Some people grimaced in pain when their insteps hooked on the ground while sweeping their legs. Some people couldn't stand upright after sweeping their legs and sat down on the ground.
Shuichi walked slowly between the queues, occasionally stopping to correct an action, occasionally squatting down to demonstrate the correct height with his hands, and occasionally saying nothing, just watching for a while and then continuing to walk.
His eyes returned to the same direction again and again during the teaching process. There was a girl in the middle left position of the queue, and he repeatedly confirmed her Reiatsu with Reiatsu.
"What's your name?" Shuichi asked
Girls look at Shuichi
"Everyone calls me A-Jing"
Shuichi looked at her and recalled something. The last time he went to World of the Living to see a woman who was High-Reishi Unit a few years ago, she looked very similar to her, so Shuichi made a bold decision
"From now on, your name will be Takeda Suzuko"
Everyone present heard it, because the word "Takeda" was so unfamiliar to the ears of Rukongai students. They didn't know what Takeda Family was, but they knew that it was a surname, a complete surname with a provenance, and not a surname that was called casually.
A-Jing
No
Suzuko looked at Shuichi. She didn't know what "Takeda Suzuko" meant, where the name came from, and why Shuichi gave her this name.
"Takeda...Suzuko?" She repeated her name
Shuichi nodded without explaining why it was called this name, because it was not needed.
The name is the name, her name is Takeda Suzuko, from today on she is Takeda Suzuko
Shuichi turned around and walked back to the front of the fighting arena. "Continue! Sweep the legs, the third group, start!"
The students recovered from the brief pause and continued practicing. The sweeping movements of their legs made a tiny sound on the rammed earth, and the dust they raised danced in the sunshine.
After class, she walked out of the fighting arena holding the protective gear she used for practice, her steps a little faster than usual.
"Suzuko~!"
A girl passing by said hello to her, but she didn't respond and just kept walking.
"Are you saying Suzuko is so anxious to find A-Sheng from Class 4?" one of the girls said softly.
"Sure, the two of them are still neighbors."
"Or a neighbor? Where did you hear that..."
She did not go back to her dormitory, but walked directly to the north of the dormitory area. The dormitory area for third-year students is in the northwest corner of the Spiritual Arts Academy
A-Sheng's dormitory is in the first one in the northernmost row
The door opened, and A-Sheng stood at the door, holding a rice ball in his hand and chewing a bite in his mouth.
"What's wrong?" A-Sheng's voice was a little vague, and his throat hadn't been completely freed from the mouthful of rice balls just now. Suzuko looked at him, moved his lips, and closed them again.
A-Sheng waited for a while. He knew Suzuko. When she was not speaking, she was not hesitating, but looking for the right word. He leaned against the door frame and continued to eat the rice ball, waiting for her to find the word.
"I have a name." Suzuko finally spoke. His voice was not loud, but each word was spoken with more emphasis than usual.
"Takeda Suzuko."
A-Sheng stopped biting the rice ball. He looked at Suzuko, and Suzuko looked at him. There was a threshold between the two of them, and the sun shone down from above, drawing a bright dividing line on the ground between them.
"Hakuda class, given by the captain." Suzuko said. When she said this, her voice was a little more steady than before, as if after saying the most difficult words, the rest was no longer so difficult.
A-Sheng's eyes slowly opened wide. He has known Suzuko for many years, starting from West 47th District's broken house. At that time, she had no name. People on the street called her "that girl who doesn't talk much". Later, some people started calling her A-Jing.
He thought the name "A-Jing" was quite good. A quiet person would be called A-Jing. It was easy to remember and understand. He never thought that one day she would have a surname, a real, complete, and well-established surname.
"Takeda Suzuko?"
He read out the four words one by one, as if to confirm whether the sound of these four words when put together was correct, "Wait, who named you? Captain?"
Suzuko nodded
A-Sheng couldn't believe it. "Which captain knows you?"
Suzuko shook his head: "I don't know"
A-Sheng scratched his head and looked at Suzuko