18 Real world (1/2)
Two months easily went by since Itsuki's episode with Rangiku. At first it was a bit awkward but was shrugged off by Itsuki's determination to get stronger. Training with Rangiku consisted of the occasional spars and him directing her on her kido. With the sparring it helped develop her Hoho, Hakuda and Zanjutsu as her zanpakuto's handle started to take on a dark red shade with her tsuba slowly morphing into the shape of a cat. Training in Kido helped develop her control of reiatsu and helped her have a stronger connection to her zanpakuto.
- Zanjutsu Hall -
In one of the training dojos two people can be seen crossing swords, well one of them was purely attacking while the other was defending. It was mainly Itsuki attacking as he wanted Rangiku to know how to properly defend herself, and, he was, by no means, gentle to the opposite sex. Whenever he saw an opening he would strike immediately but he still gave her a chance to block and then counter attack. This carried for a few more bouts until Itsuki moved back and stopped attacking once he noticed Rangiku about to collapse.
”Do.. huff…you always…huff…have to…huff…hit so hard…huff”
You could see that Rangiku was close to collapsing. Itsuki let her rest as he started packing up.
”Get some rest, tomorrow is the trip to the real world”
After helping Rangiku to her dorm. Itsuki made his way back confused by his circumstances. He has made no progress at all with his Zanpakuto. He had even asked Onabara Gengoro but he was also stumped into what the issue was. Although he had a faint idea to what it was, he wasn't sure if it was right because it was really rare if that was the case.
In the past two months, apart from his futile attempts to connect to his inner world, he mainly focused on Hiten mitsurugi-ryu and showed immense improvements in it. If you wanted to rank his swordsmanship, he could now be considered a fully fledged swordsman getting closer and closer to expert swordsman.
As they were leaving they met up with Gin, his zanpakuto now looked like a wakizashi with a light blue handle and an 'S' shaped tsuba. Gin had his own way of training and would sometimes join them in their spars. This would then result in a 2 v 1 situation against Itsuki.
After saying their goodbyes, they went their separate ways to start preparing for the event. Itsuki had a feeling that he will have a breakthrough with his zanpakuto during this time's journey to the real world.
- The next day -
The next morning, all the first years were gathered for their real world experience. They were told to meet up in the assembly hall and were then led to the senkaimon. The senkaimon was a giant white gateway in the middle of what seemed like a large courtyard on top of a large tower. Members of the kido corps were already there. They wore black garments, sandals and had a large white mask covering their face excluding their eyes. They stood outside the senkaimon, each on wither side of the gate. The kido corps were similar to the Onmitsukido, extremely secretive. The kido corps, however, are experts in the use of kido and not much is known about their activities.
As the two kido corps member did their chants, the gateway started glowing as they prepared a passage to the real world. They were designated a place where only weak hollows appear and was the perfect practice ground for Konso. A senior student was in charge of around 20 students and Itsuki's group was being led by Shiba Aiko, the same girl that appeared to collect them when they first entered academy.