10 Kidō

Shunsui and the black-haired girl were heading back to the cave.

'Thank goodness he saved me. I'm so glad; I should really keep my promise. I will make sure to guard him for the rest of my life.'

She kept on thinking thoughts like that, but after a bit of time passed, she reverted back to her true nature.

'I only escaped because I wanted to save my life. I shouldn't get punished for wanting to live. He watched over me while I was being eaten by the hollow. He's really cruel. Maybe I should just kill him now. No, what are you talking about, he saved your life. But he punished me first. I was nearly killed by a hollow, and he just stood there watching me. He should die as well. I really want to kill him.'

The more the black-haired girl thought about it, the angrier she got. After all, from her perspective she couldn't see what she did wrong. She felt that Shunsui was punishing her unjustly. Her rage started bubbling up, and she prepared a Kidō.

'Kyōraku is very strong so if I want to kill him, I'll need to kill him in one shot. After I kill him, I'll say that he was killed by a hollow, and that I saved them by eventually killing the hollow. The two will be full of gratitude and I'll date Ukitake, as he's the disciple of the Captain-Commander. He'll protect me, and I'll be able to live happily.'

A red beam suddenly shot out of her hand, but bounced off an invisible barrier around Shunsui.

"What!"

Shunsui shook his head, disappointed.

"I gave you another chance, because that was what my friend would do, but you decided to give it up."

"No, no, no, no!! Actually, I just thought you were a hollow! Please forgive me!!"

She kept on babbling, but Shunsui simply raised his sword and swung it down. Her body split into two, and Shunsui picked up the remains and looked for a hollow to dispose of the evidence.

Takashi suddenly opened his eyes and found himself in his inner world. He found his Zanpakutō Spirit in the exact same spot as last time, this time with a bag of chips. The TV was playing the match between the Buccaneers and the Chiefs.

"This was a really bad game. Why are you watching this?"

"Don't care."

"What's your name?"

Again, his Zanpakutō Spirit opened its mouth, but no sound came out.

"Guess I'm still not qualified enough to hear your name. Why am I here?"

"Don't know."

"Do you know what happened to me after I fainted?"

The television screen changed, showing him lying on the ground, and Jūshirō was healing him. He continued watching until Shunsui brought him to the cave, then the TV turned off.

"How much longer do we have for the test?"

"Seven hours left."

"This is bad. I don't know if we can make it to the top. How can I wake myself up?"

"Don't know."

"Can you wake me up?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Only you can wake yourself up."

"Hmm."

Takashi stood deep in thought for quite some time. The TV screen turned on again, and it was showing the cave where they were at.

"What are you showing me?"

"Just watch."

As Takashi watched he noticed that Shunsui and the black-haired girl were gone for some reason. There was a hole in the cave that might have something to do with their disappearances. A weak hollow appeared at the opening of the cave and glanced inside. Takashi prayed that it wouldn't come in. Usually, they could dispatch that hollow in one blow, but now, Takashi and Jūshirō were unconscious and couldn't fight back. The hollow kept on moving forward, slowly but surely. Takashi was getting worried.

'Wake up! Wake up!!'

The hollow seemed to realize that there was nobody conscious there, and started running to Takashi and Jūshirō's bodies.

'Wake up!!! Wake up!!!! WAKE UP!!!!'

Takashi's eyes shot open, and he waved his sword, but because he forced himself awake, he wasn't very accurate and completely missed the hollow. The hollow easily avoided the attack, shaken by the close encounter, but saw how weak Takashi was and decided to take its chances. Takashi's body was barely responding to his thoughts, and all his actions seemed to have a delay, making it easy for the hollow to dodge. However, Takashi's attacks were still extremely powerful, and the hollow could not any closer, placing them at an impasse for now.

This stalemate continued for a while, but with every attack, Takashi was getting weaker. He had forced himself to wake up, and was constantly expending energy just to stay awake, and doing this rigorous exercise was not helping.

'I can't survive for much longer. Shunsui, girl who's name I never learned, please come. Save us. I don't want to die, and I don't want Jūshirō to die.'

Shunsui was on his way back to the cave, when he sensed a hollow. He quickly found its location, and realized that the hollow was at the undefended cave. He immediately upped his speed, and got there just in time to see Takashi drop his Zanpakutō. Shunsui instantly killed the hollow and went to support Takashi, but Takashi's eyes were already closed.

'I can't believe myself. I was blinded by revenge, and nearly had my friends killed because of that. The lives of my friends are far more important than getting revenge on that girl. How could I be so blind?'

Shunsui was filled with self-loathing, as he felt that he had been far too rash, and hadn't stopped to consider the consequences.

'I swear that I will never make such a mistake again.'

Shunsui swore an oath, and he stood there and guarded them both until Jūshirō woke up, with only three hours remaining.

"Let's get going."

"What about Takashi?"

"I don't think he's going to wake up anytime soon. Can you carry him?"

Jūshirō was surprised, as he didn't know how Shunsui would make it up the mountain with only one person capable of fighting, but he trusted his friend, so he picked Takashi up.

Now that Shunsui had unlocked his true Zanpakutō, his fighting prowess had gone up a notch, and there were no hollows who could threaten them on that mountain.

Jūshirō was surprised that Shunsui had two swords, as he was the only Shinigami ever who had two swords for his Zanpakutō, but he was also glad for his friend.

With Shunsui's improved strength, they easily made it up the mountain with one hour to spare. When they arrived at the top, only 15 people were already there. They waited there for one more hour, but nobody else arrived.

After 24 hours had passed from the beginning of the test, Yoichi appeared on the mountain.

"Congratulations, everyone who passed. You get to live. Everyone who doesn't, dies."

Yoichi swung his Zanpakutō and opened the Senkaimon.

"Let's go."

"What about the people who are still on this mountain?"

"You're that stupid student from then? You're still alive? I'm surprised. Didn't you hear what I said? Everyone who fails, dies."

Everyone passed through the Senkaimon, and arrived back at the Soul Society.

"Everyone who survived, well done. You get tomorrow off."

Everyone started dispersing.

"Takashi, I want to talk to you in private."

"Yes, Teacher."

Shunsui and Jūshirō looked at Takashi but he waved for them to go on without him.

Yoichi and Takashi walked to a more private place: the clearing where they had class.

"I was watching over the exam, and I noticed you tried to use Hadō #90 and failed. I do have a warning for you. Do you know how Kidō is created?"

Takashi shook his head.

"A Kidō is created when a Shinigami wants to have a phenomena happen. They have an image of that phenomena in their head, then they use their Reiryoku to create that phenomena. After that, they create an incantation, to make it easier to cast, as instead of figuring out how to use your Reiryoku yourself, the incantation will create a path to follow. That's why stronger Shinigami can cast without incantation; because they can create the path themselves. This means that as long as you have the image of a Kidō, you can guess the path yourself and try to recreate it. If you know the incantation, even if you don't say it, it will make it easier as you will have an idea of what the path is. When you used Hadō #90, I could see you knew what it looked like as well as the incantation, as the path you formed was surprisingly good for someone of your level. I will not ask you where you have seen Hadō #90, or learned its name and incantation. However, since you don't have enough Reiryoku, you can't finish forming the Kidō. This will cause the path to collapse and the gathered Reiryoku to disappear by creating a massive explosion. Since your path was so well formed, the collapse was extremely powerful. That was what you were counting on when you used it on the hollow, right?"

"Yeah."

"The problem is you don't know about Reiryoku veins. Reiryoku veins are what carries Reiryoku around your body. They're very important as when you use Kidō, they move Reiryoku to your hands, and when you use Hohō, they move Reiryoku to your feet. However, when you use something like Hadō #90, your veins can't support all your Reiryoku moving in one direction, causing them to rupture. As long as you don't use Kidō and rest for a bit, they'll heal, but if you do this multiple times, then your Reiroku veins might be permanently destroyed, forever stopping you from using Reiryoku."

Takashi was horrified at how dangerous high-level Kidō was. He had seen Aizen, Urahara, Tsukabishi, and Ushōda spamming them, and forgot about how perilous they were.

"I won't use high-level Kidōs anymore until I am strong enough."

Yoichi gave him a thumbs up.

"You can go now."