An old artifact

' Welcome, my dear children, I am priest Wang from The Fire Temple and I'm here on this wonderful day to explain, and guide you on this wonderful journey, and I and my wonderful disciples will answer any and each question you may have '

' This guy is weird. ' Ichigo voice sounded

' Priest Wang always had this '''wonderful''' disposition, I've heard from dad that even when he joined a school, priest Wang was just as joyous ' a girl voice sounded behind Ichigo

' He doesn't appear that old though '

' Don't be tricked by Master's Wang behavior, even though he may appear quite young, he is a spirit level cultivator ' one of the disciples interjected

' Spirit level ? Then why is he just a priest ? '

' Sigh, Master Wang refused being promoted to Head Priest because he thinks that it's his duty to guide the young generation, also he knows it himself that he isn't really a good choice for a head priest '

' Oh , thanks, i guess ' responded Ichigo

' You don't have to be that suspicious, I've heard the same thing from dad ' the girl said, this time actually picking Ichigo's curiosity and making him turn.

Ichigo saw a girl smaller than him with shoulder length golden hair, dressed in simple clothing without any decorations, but what attracted his attention was her eyes, this girl had red eyes.

' Oh, hi, I'm Ichigo Kurosaki '

' Hi Kurosaki I'm Su Xinyi, please call me Xinyi ' said the girl joyously

' As you may know not all the sects are present at this wonderful ceremony. Unfortunately not all the sects have special schooling programs and only that have one are allowed to recruit children of your age. The duration of the schooling program is at minimum four years, now please form groups of five and wait for either me or one of my wonderful disciples to pick you up and show you around '

' Kurosaki, do you want to be in a group with me, asked Su Xinyi

' Why not ? Oh, and if you want me to call you Xinyi, you should start calling me Ichigo '

' Okey, Ichigo ' replied Xinyi

'Ichigo did you find a group already ? ' Diao Chan asked

'Not a full group, oh Diao Chan this is Su ..Xi-Xin...'

' Xinyi ' replied Xinyi

[ AN Ichigo will occasionally have problems with remembering names, this is something I've decided and it will be somewhat important later in the story , remember, Ichigo's not stupid, he did manage to have pretty high grades in his school despite the fact he missed most of his classes ]

' Sorry, I'm not very good with names '

' You never were Ichigo ' a new voice sounded

Turning around Ichigo saw Xiao Bai approaching his small group

' Oh, Bai do you want to join us ' said Ichigo.

' Sure ' responded Xiao Bai awkwardly " I still can't believe that he forgave me for that fight two years ago "

' Great now we only need one more person, I'm Su Xinyi by the way, please call me Xinyi '

' Xiao Bai ' came the answer

' Ichigo, what's that ' said Xinyi pointing to the small scroll in Ichigo's.

' Oh, this is a recommendation from mister Imoyama '

' Who ? Well doesn't matter, but that is the Heavenly Pill Association crest on the scroll '

' You don't know mister Imoyama,but he seemed pretty famous, a lot of people said that I was lucky to gain this from him '

' Never heard of him '

Twenty minutes later another child Xu Num joined the group.

Scene Break

' Master Wang, the group with the girl cardinal Xiao marked as strange joined a group '

' Sigh, my wonderful disciple why did you thought it was important to announce me of something so obvious '

' The girl, Diao Chan, is in the group with Heavenly Pill Association's regional leader daughter, the boy who managed to obtain the recommendation letter from Alchemist Lao, another kid from her village, and a kid from the south '

' Sigh, this is really good then, as long as that group remains the same I can be the one that guides them without a problem .'

' Why are we doing this master ?'

'Sigh, you see my wonderful disciple ever since that thing took control over the temple things started going downhill. Unfortunately we must respect the pope's orders for now as we don't have any sort of evidence pointing towards whatever that thing is doing.' Said Priest Wang sadly taking a small break

' I was ordered to report anything unusual about that girl, but it doesn't mean that what I'll report will necessarily be true. Cardinal Xiao, talked about how that girl spirit required twice the amount of spiritons that a normal spirit awakening takes. My suspicion is that there may be another spirit hidden, but I'll simply report that her spirit was simply a very strong ice spirit, this will of course fall under probing but is enough to buy her some time '

' As for the other two... Alchemist Su's daughter presented signs of awakening an inner constitution, but being who she is the temple won't try anything, and that other boy is related to the white flame user so even without the Heavenly Pill Association's help he would have been safe '

Scene Break

' Well my wonderful children, it seems that today is your lucky day. I'm priest Wang, now could you please introduce yourselves and your spirits ? '

' I'm Su Xinyi , and this is my spirit Huo '

' Kurosaki Ichigo, this is my Hollow Fire '

' Xiao Bai, this is my flame Hoozuki '

' I am Diao Chan,and this is my spirit Bīnghuā '

' My name is Xu Num and this is my spirit Huǒrè de jīngshén '

' Wonderful, now follow me and when you see a school that picked your interest feel free to ask, and this should remain in between us but I know more about each and every school compared to my wonderful disciples '

Scene Break

' Priest Wang what about this sect ' asked Xiao Bai

' A very interesting choice my wonderful child, the Seven Mysterious Fire Sect is one of the oldest sects in the area and they teach wonderful children like you for a period of five years , they are quite generous with their students and they don't even require said students to join their sect after you finish your scholarship.'

' Priest Wang, I want to join this sect ' responded Xiao Bai

' Very well my wonderful child, I'll talk with one of the teachers to test you '

' Bai, good luck '

' Why would I need luck when I have an amazing spirit '

' It's your lucky day my child, you'll get tested right away. '

" Sigh using my influence like that is leaving a bitter taste in my mouth, but I must look convincing so it's a necessary price "

' Xiao Bai, middle level mortal roots '

" Why are the even bothering checking the spirits and the roots when the temple already does that and also records it "

' Your spirit is an advanced mutated spirit, you pass. '

" Impossible " thought Priest Wang looking surprised, but not as surprised as Xiao Bai

" HIS SPIRIT EVOLVED " thought the priest trying to regain his calm

" Something like that is impossible for someone so young, a spirit can't simply evolve just like that. Something must have forced his spirit into evolution, the only question is what. '

' Well, congratulations my wonderful child it appears that you managed to join the sect you wanted ' said the priest to the still stunned child

" His surprise is genuine so the possibility of him hiding it disappeared. Now that I think about it, that thing did put two cardinals to search for something in the village this kid was born, well I guess I'll hide this from the higher ups as well"

' Sigh, now let's continue our wonderful journey '

While listening to priest Wang explanations Ichigo felt a something from one of the testing grounds, all his instincts were telling him that he must obtain whatever was calling him over there.

'Priest Wang, what can you tell me about that sect ' said Ichigo pointing at the almost empty grounds

' That my wonderful child is the Heaven Searching Sect, I'm afraid that even I don't know all that much about it's origins or traditions. The only thing I know about them is that they have an unusual way for selecting disciples. You those stands over there, they use them to pick their disciples, you can only pick one object and they make the selection based on what object you picked '

' I want to try priest Wang'

' Very well my wonderful child, but do not be disappointed if you don't get selected. ' said priest Wang whilst approaching the stands with Ichigo

' Name ? ' asked a voice behind the stand

'Ichigo Kurosaki, my spirit is a inc...'

' Just the name kid, anything else will be sorted if you pass the test, tell me when you're ready '

" Whatever is calling me is in the middle stand " thought Ichigo

' I'm ready'

' Pick a object from one of these stands ' said the examiner as he pointed at three stands

Ichigo without hesitation reached towards the second stand and picked a sky blue stone

" Star-soul metal, sigh, it seems that you will fail kid, no one that picked that passed, well now I can only hope you won't take it to heart seeing as ..."

' You pass ' the examiner said

' What ? ' said priest Wang surprised

' Did you heard that priest Wang, I've passed ' said Ichigo happily

Scene Break

Examiner's P.O.V

" Sigh, this is the twentieth that failed. Did they really think that this is a easy test "

' Brother Fang did anyone passed on your part ' a voice sounded, but only the examiner seems to heard it

' No brother Fu, no one did, what about your side '

' Well this month is quite good, I've passed five '

' Ohhh, quite good indeed '

' Well another group wants to try so I'll contact you later, don't block the mental connection because this lot not only passed they even picked interesting objects '

" This is really annoying, it is true that the test may appear confusing at first, but picking what you instinctively need over what you instinctively want shouldn't be that hard, so why does so few actually manage to do it, why only tho..."

' Excuse me mister examiner,but my wonderful protege wishes to be tested '

" Wang Lin, spirit level stage, the third no fourth stage "

' Name ? '

' Ichigo Kurosaki, my spirit is a inc...'

" I can't see it, he probably has some sort of protection against divination on him "

' Just the name kid, anything else will be sorted if you pass the test, tell me when you're ready '

" No, it doesn't seem to be an artifact protecting him '

' Ready '

" He is reaching for the star-soul metal... I cannot see the the metal anymore, it's obvious that it was destined for him"

' You pass '

' Brother Fu, did you said that it's a good month ? '

' Yes I did, brother Fang, did something happened '

' I just wanted to correct you, it's a good year brother '

' Hoooh, and why is that '

' Doesn't matter, you won't be able to see it anyway."

End of P.O.V

' Why did you failed them teacher Fang ? '

' Sigh, because their choices were wrong. '

' Why is that teacher Fang ? '

' Allow me to answer that question senior Fang. ' a new voice

' Hmm, if you so desire. '

' Hi there little one, I'm Da Lan. You did put the right question kid, why did their choices were wrong ? Well to make things easier for you I'll use a simple explanation, they choose with their minds and not with their hearts '

' I don't understand '

' You will understand in time, you passed the test after all. Now for the true reason of my visit, Kurosaki Ichigo welcome to our sect, one of the oldest traditions our sect have is the soul mapping ceremony, the reason I came here is to take you to the ceremonial crystal '

' Ceremonial crystal ? '

' It's an old artifact, those type of crystals were used in antiquity to test the ability of an disciple, but after the apparition of Soul crystals this practice slowly died, even the name and proper way of reading the soul map has disappeared. Sigh, unfortunately this ceremony of ours is nothing more than a beautiful light show now that all modalities of reading the showings are lost. '

' So I will get tested with an soul crystal also '

' Yes kid you will '

Scene Break

In a small tent a two meter crystal ball with two golden pillars beside it, each pillar having four intricate runes inscribed onto them, near each pillar a new set of rune arrays, one for each cardinal direction, each array being formed by sixteen smaller arrays and each and every single one of these smaller arrays was formed from sixty-four runes.

A small boy with orange hair approached the large artifact and put a hand on it.

Nothing happened for several seconds, afterwards a sky blue orb appeared inside the crystal ball, a red much bigger orb encased the blue one making it hardly visible, black lines started forming on the surface of the orb slowly making their way towards the center but stopp before it reached the blue orb and finally a purple fire erupted over the red orb.

' Well how did I do ? ' asked the orange haired boy