13- To the Academy

Rumi thought the trip to District 1 wasn't going to take long, especially with the three of them having reiryoku and Renji being able to fight well. Unexpectedly, there were a lot more fights along the way, way more than she expected, although majority of the fights started because of her and Renji, and as a result, it took them over a month to get to district one.

On the bright side, Rumi had successfully upgraded her Reiryoku to Moderately High level during their first week of travelling. Since she didn't know how much reiryoku other Soul Reapers have, she didn't have a clear idea on how strong her reiryoku was in comparison. But, Rumi did feel better that it wasn't average anymore.

In addition to the reiryoku improvement, she also sparred with Renji every now and then while using Mind's Momentum so that she could get used to it more and manage the after-effects better. That was the excuse she gave to herself but in reality, she just loved beating Renji up more and more. She also beated up some thugs but they were barely noteworthy so after a week, she could already beat them up well without even needing to use Mind's Momentum, making her lose interest in them.

So far, it was a pretty productive month for her.

Now, she was lazily leaning against a tree while Renji and Rukia were arguing about where they would stay before the entrance exam. Rumi would let them figure out, just because she didn't want to bother with the boring minor details. She had slept in a cave full of dead bodies, she could sleep anywhere after that.

Rumi closed her eyes and checked her stats silently.

[Name : Fujiwara Rumi.

Age : 36 days. (Soul Society)

Race : Newly crossed soul.

Relationships : Abarai Renji (Friends), Rukia (Friends).

Reiryoku level : Moderately High.

Stored reiryoku : 2100/10,000

Skills : Sloth (Passive), Guradian's Vigil (Passive), Fire Resistance (Passive), Mind's Momentum.

Tools : None.]

It really had been 36 days since she'd crossed over to this Soul Society. She didn't really get any choices or new skills in this one month but Rumi was optimistic she would get some soon if she were to take the entrance exam.

"Oi, Rumi, get up. We're going into the district now." Renji called her. It seemed that he and Rukia had reached an agreeing point.

With a lazy stretch, Rumi got up and hopped over to the two.

"Alright, let's go and see what the district one looks like." Rumi said.

"Probably a lot cleaner than our 78th district." Renji muttered to which Rukia agreed.

"Come on, stop being depressed." Rumi pulled the two towards the road. "We need to show those guys who's the boss."

"Now, you're talking." Renji replied with a grin.

With that, they officially set foot in the first district of Rukongai. Turned out it was actually much better than the 78th district. The streets were much cleaner, the buildings looked less shambling and the people looked less poor with relatively normal clothings instead of torn ones.

Rumi sighed at the clear difference between the districts.

If the differences between districts were already this large, how much would Seireitei differ from Rukongai?

Rumi felt a little excited to find out and more eager to live in a better place like that. The past 36 days had been fun, but she wasn't exactly eating delicious food or was sleeping in a cozy bed so if she had a chance to fix that, she definitely would, as soon as possible.

"So, when's the entrance exam thing?" Rumi found herself asking to Renji and Rukia.

Rukia paused, "Actually, I'm not sure. Let's ask around."

"Do you think they could tell that we're countryside bumpkins?" Renji muttered.

"I don't know, probably." Rumi replied, "Their clothes don't have holes."

"Good point." Renji nodded with a grim look after looking at his own clothes.

"So, I got a solution." Rumi said with a mischievous smile, "Let's borrow some clothes."

"You mean steal them?" Rukia asked, unimpressed. After spending some time with Rumi, Rukia already had a rough idea on what Rumi was like, so she immediately knew Rumi was up to no good.

"Well, it ain't stealing if I pay them back after." Rumi defended herself.

"And when's that?" Renji asked, joining forces with Rukia to make fun of Rumi.

"After I become a soul reaper, obviously." Rumi replied.

"And you're certain that you'd become one?"

Rumi replied with a teasing smile, "What do you think, Renji? Do you think I can kick your ass just fine?"

"With Reiatsu, sure but without? You'd be crying for mercy." Renji replied.

"Maybe but that just means I'm good at reiatsu. At least for beginner level before any soul reaper training." Rumi said. And she actually believed she should be quite strong for the beginner level and for a new soul like herself. As such, she had no doubts about whether she could become a soul reaper.

But, her other two friends insisted that she shouldn't make any more trouble at a new district and they even kept a close eye on her so Rumi couldn't exactly go and implement her plan for the time being.

On the bright side, Rukia ended up being the one to collect information on the entrance exam of Shin'o Academy after losing rock, paper, scissors with her and Renji. She wasn't happy about it but she got the job done.

"Turns out the entrance exam is two days from now." Rukia said.

"We're just in time then." Renji replied.

"See? If I didn't destroy the house, we'd have missed the exam!" Rumi said.

"No, we normally would've taken two to three weeks to get here. It's because you insisted on sleeping at least 10 hours a day that we took this long to get here." Renji pointed out.

"Okay..makes sense. But.." Rumi continued, "It was fun."

"Maybe for you." Renji said.

"Us? Not that much." Rukia sighed.

"Come on, don't pretend like we didn't have the best time exploring!" Rumi said.

"Still that doesn't make it right." Rukia said, "And yes, I know you destroying the house was an accident. But it doesn't make it better or you mentioning it proudly doesn't exactly help."

"How did you know I was gonna say that was an accident?!" Rumi exclaimed.

"Please, we spent a whole month with you." Renji rolled his eyes.

"Damn it.." Rumi muttered.

---------------

Two days later, it was finally the entrance exam day. Rumi decided to check on her stats one final time despite knowing there weren't many changes to it before heading out. Perhaps, it was just the exams nerves.

[Name : Fujiwara Rumi.

Age : 38 days. (Soul Society)

Race : Newly crossed soul.

Relationships : Abarai Renji (Friends), Rukia (Friends).

Reiryoku level : Moderately High.

Stored reiryoku : 2295/10,000

Skills : Sloth (Passive), Guradian's Vigil (Passive), Fire Resistance (Passive), Mind's Momentum.

Tools : None.]

Although there weren't new skills, she accumlated about 175 reiryoku units in two days. Rumi could proudly say that she worked hard to get extra few hours of sleep in those two days.

Nodding in satisfaction, Rumi decided to get dressed in one of the nicer robes she stole from a local of the 1st district. It wasn't easy with her two friends keeping a close eye on her but she did manage to go out and steal while they were distracted. Of course, the reason they were distracted in the first place was the result of her master plan but those were just minor details.

"Now, this is better." Rumi said to herself after she got dressed and looked at the mirror.

Then, she decided to go meet Rukia and Renji and head to the Seireitei gate for the exam.

"Rumi, did you actually steal clothes?"

Of course, that was what Rukia would point out as soon as she saw her, Rumi sighed.

"Yeah, I wasn't about to go to an important exam in ragged clothes." Rumi defended her point.

"Good point," Renji sighed. "But when?"

"Not important." Rukia shook her head, "Let's just go to the exam."

"Rumi-"

"Come on, those are just minor details." She insisted. "We're gonna be late if we don't go now. Come on."

With a sigh and "This isn't over", Renji and Rukia followed Rumi.

It didn't take that long to get to the gates as the first district was closest to Seireitei.

As soon as they got there, they saw a long line of people already there.

"Wow..that's a lot of people." Rumi muttered.

"That's a given, becoming a soul reaper is the only way to have a better life for people like us." Renji said.

"That's true," Rumi nodded, "But it's kinda sad that not many will pass."

Rukia also nodded, agreeing what Rumi and Renji just said. Becoming a Soul Reaper was the only way to escape poverty and live a better life for the ones in Rukongai. So, it was normal for many souls to dream of becoming one and coming to the exams in hopes of that. But, at the same time, as Rumi said, only a small number of them would pass the exam and get into the Shinigami Academy.

Although it was quite sad, it was how it worked.

"Alright, let's focus on passing the exam ourselves." Renji said, "It won't help to get distracted now."

"I guess," Rumi replied with a chuckle.

Soon, the gates opened with a rumble and a Soul Reaper stepped outside.

"Now, for those of you who want to pass the exam, you must go through two tests. First one is to pass through the gates today. Our gatekeeper will release his reiatsu a bit and only those who can resist and make their way inside could take the second test." The soul reaper announced.

At the end of his words, a rather giant guy with black robes came outside.

Rumi overheard some of what others were saying and it turned out that the big guy was a gatekeeper named Jidanbo, a former resident of Rukongai and he was quite kind to Rukongai residents.

Another thing was that she barely felt any reiatsu pressure from Jidanbo even when the other applicants looked like they were struggling.

Rumi turned her head to see how Renji and Rukia were doing and saw that they were both fine as well. So, she gave them a thumbs up and crossed the gate.

"Great, you're one of the fastest ones to pass through the gate." The soul reaper guy said. "Now, you may register your name over there and wait for the second test."

Rumi looked at the area she was pointed to and saw a counter with a few soul reapers arranging stacks of papers.

"Hi, I was told to register my name here." She said, walking over to there.

"Sure, what's your name? and where do you come from?"

Rumi replied, "Fujiwara Rumi. From 78th district." She then wrote down her name spelling and completed the registeration process.

It didn't take long for Renji and Rukia to pass through the gates and join her.

"Hey, Rumi."

"Rukia, Renji! You guys are here!" Rumi said.

"Yep."

"So, how was the first part? Easy?" Rumi asked.

"Yeah, we didn't feel that much pressure." Renji replied. "You?"

"Same, I barely felt any." Rumi said. "Now, I'm excited for the second part."

"You and me both." Renji said.

"Hey, don't forget about me." Rukia said.

"How would we?!" Rumi exclaimed, putting her hands on Rukia's shoulders.

------------

"Now, the second part of the exam is to put your reiatsu into these crystal balls. They will measure your reiatsu and tell you if you pass and which class you get into at our Shin'o academy."

Rumi nodded at the explanation. That was simple enough. Now that she could somewhat control how much reiatsu she was using, this should be a piece of cake.

"Fail."

"Fail."

"Fail."

Rumi could see that many were failing and Rukia starting to get a little nervous.

"Hey, you'd be fine." She said to Rukia.

If Rukia could create bigger beams of light with her reiryoku than Renji, Rumi was sure she would have no problem passing this exam.

Rukia nodded and waited for her turn. Soon, she got onto the stage and placed her hands on the crystal ball before releasing her reiatsu. The crystal emitted a faint light at her reiatsu.

"Class Two."

Rukia sighed in relief at that.

"I thought she'd get class one." Rumi muttered. But she couldn't dwell on it much as it was her turn next.

She went up and placed her hands on the crystal ball like Rukia did. Then, she focused on her reiryoku and released it. As her reiatsu released, a gush of wind surrounded her and the crystal emitted a bright light when it came to contact with her reiatsu.

"Class one." The soul reaper announced. "Elemental reiatsu..and this amount of reiatsu. Impressive. I haven't seen such impressive reiatsu in a while." He muttered.

"Oh, thank you." Rumi said with a chuckle.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Fujiwara Rumi. From 78th district." Rumi answered.

The soul reaper nodded, "Congratulations. You're the first student of this batch to get into class one."

Rumi nodded with a smile.

She really did it.

She got into the Soul Reaper academy and even Class One, which seemed to be an elite class at that.

A warm feeling spread in her chest and she couldn't help but feel a little pride at that.

At that moment, the System that was mostly dormant for almost one month gave her four choices.

[Congratulations for getting accepted into Class One at Shin'o Academy. Path to become a Soul Reaper has opened. Please choose one of the four options for your future growth.]

[Option 1 : Kido Talent.

(Short explanation : Enhance your talent in kido spells. Kido is a form of Shinigami combat based on advanced spells.)

Option 2 : Hohō Talent.

(Short explanation : Enhance your talent in Hohō. It is a defensive style of fighting which relates to footwork and also known as Fast Movement.)

Option 3 : Zanjutsu Talent.

(Short explanation : Enhance your talent in Zanjutsu, swordsmanship.)

Option 4 : Hakuda Talent.

(Short explanation : Enhance your talent in Hakuda, close combat style, Hand-to-hand combat.)]

Looking at the options, Rumi felt a sense of excitement.