Inside the quiet room.
Not long after the Teradaya was expanded, Suō Tsukasa soon had a small house of his own in the backyard.
The room was not large, and the furnishings were extremely simple.
The four-and-a-half tatami mats exuded the fresh scent of dry straw. The washi paper on the wooden sliding doors let in light but blocked sight, gently isolating the interior from the outside world.
A low window, carved with decorative patterns, faced the old tree in the backyard, allowing both the morning sun and the moonlight to stream in unimpeded.
It was late at night, the time for his routine spiritual energy manipulation training.
The training began.
Suō Tsukasa's eyelids drooped slightly, his hands suspended before his chest, his expression serene.
This was completely different from the somewhat clumsy and slow initial spiritual energy manipulation training.
Now, Suō Tsukasa's slender ten fingers were naturally spread, and a solidified number stably floated above the tip of each finger.
Humans have ten fingers, and after ten months of cultivation, his training method had undergone a unique transformation.
The spiritual light was a deep blue, the structure perfect, like ten small stars suspended at his fingertips, guided by invisible threads.
The transformation began with a slight movement of his mind.
As his thoughts flowed, the numbers at his fingertips began to change rapidly at an astonishing speed.
They no longer cycled in the fixed order of 1 to 0, as they did during his initial cultivation. Instead, they changed in a seemingly random and disorderly fashion.
Despite the apparent wild randomness of the numbers at his fingertips, the changes followed two basic rules:
For the same finger, the number displayed in adjacent cycles was never the same.The numbers displayed across all ten fingers in each cycle must be a complete combination from 1 to 0, with no repeats.
It was not completely out-of-control chaos, but variation within the rigorous framework of "adjacent difference, complete set per cycle."
This precision was only achievable after his spiritual energy manipulation ability had reached a high level of proficiency.
Nearly a year of spiritual energy nurturing and manipulation training had finally come to fruition, blooming at his fingertips into a cluster of deep blue, intricate flowers.
This cluster of flowers was composed of pure spirit particles, the petals were flowing numbers, and the stems were the spiritual pressure condensed at his knuckles.
The changing numbers subtly swayed like silent petals, and the circulating light illuminated Suō Tsukasa's chest in a dreamlike glow, lighting up his serene eyes.
"Hoo."
Exhaling lightly, the spiritual particle light in his hands faded.
Suō Tsukasa sat steadily on the futon, his gaze fixed in the direction of the Seireimon gate in the distance.
Tomorrow was the day he would register for the Shin'ō Academy.
His eyes swept over the stack of books on his desk, and his thoughts couldn't help but drift back to a long time ago.
Ever since the free-spirited Shiba Kaien first walked into the Teradaya with three seated officers.
The honest Hisagi Sentaro, the small-but-loud Kotetsu Kiyone, the taciturn Mitaka Hikohiko, and later, the gentle and quiet Shiba Miyako.
These core figures of the Thirteenth Division gradually became regulars here.
Over time, through conversations over drinks, Suō Tsukasa's friendship with these individuals deepened.
Especially the meticulous and gentle Shiba Miyako, after learning that he was about to register for the Shin'ō Academy.
The second time she visited the shop, she thoughtfully organized and packaged the notes they had used during their own time at the Academy and gave them to him.
She carefully instructed him on the reading order of the books, starting from the basics, fearing that he might encounter difficulties when studying on his own.
When giving instructions, her gaze always rested on Suō Tsukasa's face with concern.
That natural thoughtfulness had long surpassed the bounds of ordinary friendship, resembling an older sister carefully paving the way for her younger brother.
The Shiba couple—one a Lieutenant and the other a Third Seat—were both top figures in the Gotei 13.
To receive their notes, including their insights and annotations, was naturally highly beneficial for Suō Tsukasa.
Especially Shiba Kaien, who was one of the only three individuals explicitly mentioned as a genius in the original work.
He enrolled with a Rank Six spiritual power, graduated from the Shin'ō Academy in just two years, and achieved the rank of Third Seat in the Thirteenth Division in the same year he joined.
Coupled with the family scholarship he inherited from the Shiba family, one of the five Great Noble Families of the Soul Society, his notes opened a door to a higher realm for Suō Tsukasa.
In addition to the notes, Suō Tsukasa also learned from Shiba Kaien about the second step of the Shin'ō Academy's selection—class application.
While admission did not require an examination, applying for a class required competing based on ability.
Class One was the elite class. Once entered, it meant more resource allocation and guidance from better teachers—a step ahead meant a consistent lead.
Moreover, this choice was related to the students' development direction after graduation.
Class One students could apply to intern with their preferred division after graduation, rather than being randomly assigned to any division other than the First. It was the watershed between elite Shinigami and ordinary Shinigami.
Within the Gotei 13, there was no retirement system, and transfer approvals for ordinary Shinigami were very strict, typically only happening at the level of seated officers and lieutenants.
However, opportunity always comes with difficulty, challenge, and risk.
In addition to ensuring that the total score from the written exam and spiritual pressure level—the two internal academy assessment items—met the standard.
If one failed the assessment for Class One, they would be immediately disqualified for that year and would not have the chance to apply for other classes.
They would have to wait until the next year to reapply or choose to forego the challenge the next year and be randomly assigned to another class by the academy.
The simple logic behind this rule was: those who cannot accurately assess themselves are not worthy of joining the elite class.
The cruelty of this rule was fully demonstrated in the original work by Hisagi Shūhei.
Because of his experience of being saved by the Ninth Division Captain Muguruma Kensei when he was young, he deeply admired him and was absolutely determined to join the Ninth Division.
It was this obsession with applying for Class One that led to two consecutive years of failure and stagnation.
Otherwise, given his potential, which eventually allowed him to awaken his Bankai, he would not have been relegated to such a situation.
Most crucially, from their daily conversations, Suō Tsukasa finally obtained a clear time coordinate for his current location—
Kuchiki Rukia had not yet joined the Thirteenth Division.
This indirectly confirms that the current time is the period when Aizen's experiments on Shinigami souls regarding the Hōgyoku have concluded and he has shifted to experimenting on souls using Hollows.
"Still... can't relax."
"I'm still far from where I need to be."
Suō Tsukasa quietly closed his eyes. After clarifying his current position in the timeline, the path he was about to embark on became clearer than ever.
The survival crisis he had originally worried about had quietly passed, yet another storm was brewing.
Although this storm might not necessarily implicate him, he did not want to, and absolutely would not, just be a cold observer.
He wanted to use his own power to shift the tragic trajectory of fate.
With Shiba Kaien as a benchmark, he had a clearer understanding of his current spiritual pressure strength. Right now, he still needed more time to accumulate power.
When he opened his eyes again, only a determined resolve remained in the dark pupils within the quiet room.