15 - Classes and Kido

Rumi had another dream that night.

She was inside a field, the grass was so beautifully green and the colors of the flowers were vibrant. The sun was bright in the sky, but the light breeze running through the field made the heat more tolerable.

With a particular breeze, a single daffodil landed in her palms.

Looking at the daffodil in her palm, Rumi felt a sense of familiarity.

That was when she heard a little girl's laughter in the distance. With every breeze, the laughter came from different directions as if it was running around her and teasing her.

Soon, Rumi found herself awake in her bed. As she opened her eyes, she saw her Asauchi on the bedside table.

She didn't know why but she felt just a bit closer to her Asauchi.

Maybe she was imagining things, or maybe not.

---------

Rumi knew going back for a nap was a bad idea, but she quite liked the feeling of sleeping and getting stronger, not exactly but she liked to think it was. And since Reiryoku played a huge role in reiatsu, it could be said that sleeping more was beneficial to her.

So, Rumi had no remorse, even as she arrived an hour late to her class and everyone in the class, including the instructor was glaring at her.

"Sorry, I overslept." She briefly said before slipping into one of the random seats.

"Fujiwara san?" Turned out she did end up in a seat beside Momo's.

"Oh, Hinamori, hi." Rumi said as she made herself comfortable in her seat.

Momo nodded before continuing, "Fujiwara san, you're late."

"I overslept a little." Rumi replied.

"You're late for an hour.." Momo muttered.

"Yeah, I took an hour nap." Rumi shrugged, "So, what're we doing?"

"Lectures, sensei was teaching us about the theories..."

"Boring stuff, then." Rumi muttered, which made Momo speechless.

"Fujiwara san, I don't think..."

"Those two in the back." The instructor called them out, "Especially, you, the one with silver hair, do you think you can act as you please here?"

"No?" Rumi replied, "I was just asking Hinamori here what we're doing."

"Is that so? Then, you should also know that we're doing a lecture. Answer this question." The instructor said, pointing to a question on the blackboard in front.

Rumi looked at the question and realized that she had never seen all these information before, so she replied, "I don't know the answer."

"Then, perhaps, you'd be better off paying attention." The instructor then turned his attention back to teaching, for Rumi's relief.

Rumi did pay attention afterwards, for a whole thirty minutes before she got bored and started to skim through the textbooks and read only the parts that piqued her interest.

Once the lecture was over, they had a short break and then it was time for their first Kido Class. Rumi was quite excited at this since she got Talent Enhancement for Kido. Maybe she was actually gonna breeze through the class.

Rumi hopped over in excitement as she made her way to the class with Momo. It seemed that Momo noticed her excitement, and asked, "Fujiwara san, you seem excited about Kido class?"

"Me? Yeah, I guess I'm kinda excited." Rumi replied with a smile. "What about you, Hinamori?"

"Me too, actually. But I'm also a little nervous." Momo replied.

"Oh.." Rumi was about to continue but when she saw Renji in the distance, she called, "Oi, Renji! Come here."

"Huh, Rumi?" Renji turned to look at her before coming over, "How do you feel being late and getting called out for not paying attention in front of the whole class?" His tone was teasing as he mocked her.

"Nothing," Rumi shrugged, "It wasn't that serious, Renji."

"Heh, sure it wasn't," Renji snickered, so Rumi hit him with her Asauchi on his head.

"Oi, Rumi!" Renji winced in pain as he was hit and said, "Using your asauchi to attack isn't fair."

"Please, If I wanted to attack, I'd have drawn the sword instead of hitting you with the whole hilt." Rumi rolled her eyes.

"That's it, Rumi. You and me are gonna have a spar after this kido class." Renji said.

"Fine by me if you wanna get your ass kicked." Rumi said with a playful smirk, then put her Asauchi back in its place.

"Say that about yourself, Rumi." Renji smirked. Then, he turned to look at Momo and back at Rumi, "So, this is your new friend?"

Rumi nodded, "Yeah, she's my roommate, Hinamori Momo. Hinamori, this is my friend I told you about, you know, the one with spiky hair and dumb face. He's Renji, Abarai Renji."

"You're the one who's dumb, you couldn't even answer a question in class." Of course, Renji would never let her live this down, would he? To be honest, Rumi kinda knew she had it coming but that didn't mean she enjoyed it.

"I couldn't answer coz I wasn't paying attention. There's a difference, Renji." Rumi replied smugly.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Renji made a face to show that he wasn't buying any of that. But, after that, he turned to Momo and said, "Name's Abarai Renji as this idiot Rumi said. Nice to meet ya."

Momo nodded hurriedly, "Hinamori Momo. Nice to meet you."

"Good, now that you're all friends, let's go to Kido class together!" Rumi put one arm on Renji's shoulder and one arm on Hinamori's, although Renji had to bend down a bit so that Rumi could put her arm on his shoulder. It was a bit uncomfortable for Renji but he kinda got used to it after spending a month with Rumi.

So, they all made it to the class together just in time, luckily. Soon after, another short lecture on the basics of Kido was conducted in the training field.

"First, we'll try our most popular spell in Hado category. Now, note that since this is our first class, it's normal for ordinary freshman to not be able to cast this spell on the first day. But, since you're elite class, I expect all of you to at least be able to cast the spell by the end of the day. If you're not able to do it by the end of the class, you better make time between classes and practice the spell so that you'd be able to cast it by the end of the day. Got it?" The instructor said.

"Damn, he's strict," Rumi commented.

"Quiet, do you wanna repeat what happened this morning?" Renji hushed her quickly, "I doubt he'll let you off as easily next time."

"Heh, you're worried about me? How cute." Rumi said playfully.

"Oi, that's not-" Unfortunately, Renji's voice was loud enough to make the instructor twitch his eyebrows in anger. "You two in that corner! I believe you're Fujiwara Rumi and Abarai Renji from 78th district."

"Yes," Renji replied quietly.

"And Fujiwara, this is your second time disrupting the class today. Now, hurry and come up to give us a demonstration on how to do the spell number 31 of Hado." The instructor said.

Renji had a look of "I told you so" on his face and Rumi could even see he looked a bit happy as she was about to be in trouble. But, Rumi could deal with that later.

"Okay," She replied to the instructor and started heading to the front.

"I'm guessing you also haven't memorized the spell." The instructor stated, he didn't want to discriminate but this girl Rumi was just a huge walking mess. She was late for almost all the classes and it had only been two days since the start of the semester and was also stated by multiple teachers to be not paying attention in class.

While all that trouble would normally land her in a series of disciplinary actions, he refrained himself a bit as he had heard of her feats during the entrance exam. She was reported to be the one with most powerful reiatsu among the freshmen this year and her casual emission of reiatsu during the exam was enough to compare it to a non-seated Soul Reaper. Since she wasn't even trained by the academy yet, that was a very impressive feat and indicated her potential. If she was trained well, she might even be a Lieutenant class some day, the instructor thought.

That was why he couldn't understand why the girl seemed like she didn't care about the classes, or take the academy seriously. In any way, he was determined to steer her back to the path.

Rumi, on the other hand, had no idea what the instructor was thinking. She simply nodded as in fact, she hadn't done any preview or memorized the stuff before classes. In her mind, since the instructor said it for her, it saved her trouble of having to mention it herself.

"Repeat after me then." The instructor said with a sigh, "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"

Rumi blinked, "Do I have to say it all out loud?"

"Unless you happen to be a super genius and know what you're doing, yes." The instructor said, "Now, say it."

"But, that's way too long. What if I get attacked when I was reading all that?" Rumi said.

"Fujiwara." The instructor was about to lose it, he had every right to.

"Number 31 spell of Hado, Shakkaho." Rumi aimed her palms towards a target and chanted, she kinda heard the instructor saying Kido spells can also be casted without full incantation, by stating the spell number and name, although it would weaken the effect of the spell. But, since she wasn't even fighting anyone, what was the big deal?

As soon as Rumi finished stating the spell, a medium sized crimson red energy orb emerged from her palms and flew it directly to the target and as it made contact with the target, it exploded and burned the whole target away.

"So, this is the spell. Not bad, right?" Rumi asked the dumbfounded instructor.

"You abandoned the chant in your first try. Do you know how reckless it is?" The instructor said even if he was quite impressed by the power of the spell. Normally, even normal talented ones would cast this spell to this level after a few months and even then, it would be with a chant. To achieve this level of power without the chant, it would take an extreme genius in Kido. But, he was an instructor so he had to maintain his composure and call Rumi out for her recklessness, "Even though it worked out, it is still a reckless move, Fujiwara."

"What's the big deal? I had a feeling I could do it and it turned out just fine." Rumi defended herself even if she knew she was a bit reckless. Her reasoning was quite simple though-there wasn't any actual danger to her being a bit reckless with abandoning the chant here, except maybe the spell exploding in her face, but that was about it, pretty much. If that was an actual battle, she definitely wouldn't have done what she wasn't sure to succeed.

Rumi liked to think she wasn't an idiot who blindly jumped into trouble, thinking everything would work out by plot armor or the power of friendship. But since this was a class setting, she figured she could just have fun.

"Try it with a chant this time. Properly." The instructor said, although his mind was still on the medium sized orb of Rumi's Shakkaho spell. Kido spells would be weakened if their full chant was forgone, so if Rumi's weakened version of Shakkaho was this strong, how strong would it be if she were to chant it normally?

"Sounds like too much work." Rumi replied. She didn't get why she needed to say that whole lengthy chant. The level of damage her previous spell made was good enough, so she didn't really see the need to do more work when it wasn't needed.

The instructor looked unimpressed so she sighed and started to chant, "Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"

Another crimson red energy orb that was slightly bigger than the first one emerged and flew towards the target, then exploded it wholly. This time, explosion was bigger and a few other targets nearby were also affected. Needless to say, there was nothing left of the main target.

"That's an impressive Shakkaho spell, Fujiwara. I guess I'll let you off the hook this time." The instructor said, "But, I'll warn you to pay attention in other classes. Being talented in Kido won't help in other three categories."

Rumi nodded, not because she was planning to listen to him but because she wanted to get this over with. After that, she went back to her group.

Momo was really impressed with her and said, "Fujiwara san, your spell was really amazing!"

"Thanks, Hinamori." Rumi replied, then turned to Renji and asked with a playful smirk, "How was my Kido spell, Renji?"

"..I guess it's not bad." Renji replied.

"Someone's jealous, pfft" Rumi pointed to Renji's face and laugh, making Renji's face more sour.

"Damn it, Rumi. I'm gonna be amazing at my spell too. Hmph, you ain't the only one with talents." He said. Renji swore to himself that even if he couldn't surpass Rumi because she was a monster, he would at the very least be the second strongest in Class One.

Unfortnately, that was shattered when Momo casted her Kido spell and then, another student named Kira Izuru casted his spell. Kira Izuru wasn't as amazing as Rumi but the spell he casted still caught most of the attention in Class One.

"Damn, he's good at it." Renji thought. That just gave all the more reasons for him to prove he was strong- And, the spell exploded in his face.

"Abarai, stay after school." The instructor said.

"Yes..." Renji replied. Now, his uniform was hanging off of his shoulders, his hair was all messed up and his face was stained with black ashes and smoke. It was embarrassing and to make it worse, he could even hear Rumi pointing fingers and laughing at him.

He swore he would make fun of Rumi even more next time he gets a chance.

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

AN: So, I just want to talk about Rumi's progress in Kido. It might be really weird to see a character abandoning the chant and cast a Kido spell quite strong in their first try, but I just couldn't imagine Rumi not being good at things she showed interest in, especially with Sloth's efficiency and the Kido talent enhancement. While I don't know much about canon characters' progress in Kido while they were students, I intended Rumi to be one of the most talented (or maybe most talented if canon characters' progress are a bit slower) students in Kido. I still hope the reasoning made sense.

And, finally, let me just say I love writing Renji and Rumi fighting with each other and making fun of each other at every given chance.