"I've learned Hirenkyaku!"
After flying a few laps in the air, Bambietta landed, still wanting more.
"I really am a genius! I learned Hirenkyaku in just one day!"
After some minor setbacks, she had finally succeeded.
Because she couldn't yet control her 'Explosion' talent well, she would easily cause explosions while using Hirenkyaku, making the learning process quite arduous.
"Very impressive. But it only took me one morning," Liltotto said calmly.
"Who asked you!" Bambietta rolled her eyes.
After Bambietta learned Hirenkyaku, Sora also received a system notification:
[Disciple Bambietta Basterbine has completed Hirenkyaku training. Rewards settled.]
Received Reward: 2,000 general experience points.
On the other side, Candice and Meninas were fighting.
Sora wanted to test Candice's strength, so he had them spar.
Zzzzzzzzt—
Candice raised her hand, and the lightning gathered in it raged through the air.
She was also a Quincy with a special talent, able to convert the reishi in the air into lightning to strike opponents.
Meninas struggled to dodge the incoming lightning bolts.
"You're dodging pretty well. How many recruit training cycles have you been through?" Candice asked.
Becoming a qualified Quincy required learning many things. The recruit training camp had a wide variety of programs. For an ordinary soldier, completing the full training took over ten years.
However, Quincy geniuses like Candice and Meninas could not be measured by common standards.
Those with outstanding performance could "skip grades."
"Twice," Meninas answered briefly. Candice's attacks were fast and frequent, leaving her little room for conversation.
"Only twice, and you can dodge so many of my attacks?" Candice was somewhat surprised. Meninas's performance exceeded her expectations. "The ability to dodge dense attacks isn't taught until the fourth training cycle, right?"
Candice had just completed the fourth cycle, so her ability development should have surpassed Meninas's by a large margin.
"The Professor taught me!"
After enduring her professor's barrage attacks, Meninas didn't find dodging Candice's attacks very difficult.
The next moment, Meninas rode a gushing stream of reishi, drifting behind Candice.
"Ordinary Punch!"
The punch Meninas threw at Candice looked unremarkable, but it actually contained astonishing power.
After these few days of training, Meninas's application of her own spiritual pressure had improved significantly. She could now use it to enhance her strength. Before, she had only relied on instinctual power.
Candice raised her hand to block, a ball of lightning in it. In the past, she often used this move to defend against close-combat attacks. Often, before the enemy could hit her, they would be numbed by the lightning.
Boom—
To Candice's astonishment, Meninas's ordinary-looking fist actually shattered the lightning ball.
Candice's arm took a heavy blow, and she fell directly from the air.
"How is your punch so strong!" Candice rubbed her arm through her glove, feeling the spot was already swelling.
"I'm quite strong~" Meninas rolled up her sleeve to show Candice her not-so-obvious muscles.
"I was careless," Candice was somewhat annoyed. Her arm was numb and swollen, greatly affecting her performance. She had lost this fight.
She hadn't expected to be affected so much by just one punch.
Meninas and Candice were actually close in strength, but Meninas's ability was more subtle and difficult to detect. Without Blut Vene, getting hit by her would result in considerable injury.
"I basically understand your situation now. Your use of lightning also needs some work. It's too dispersed, resulting in insufficient power," Sora paused. "Both you and Meninas are participating in the Sternritter recruitment. You can spar more these next few days to strengthen your practical combat abilities."
"Lightning is hard to control..." Candice scratched her face, looking troubled. "Just controlling its direction is difficult enough."
Candice's development of her lightning ability was not high.
"Your application of spiritual pressure also needs training. Once that improves, controlling lightning won't be difficult. These are spiritual tools to assist your training. You and Bambi get one pair each."
Sora took out two pairs of bracers from his reishi pocket. When he prepared them for Liltotto, he had made several extra sets to avoid running back and forth.
"Liltotto, you teach them how to use these. Meninas, let's start today's evasion training."
Sora still needed to continue Meninas's evasion training.
Without lifting a finger, a dense rain of reishi arrows shot towards Meninas.
"Not good!" Meninas quickly used Hirenkyaku, rising into the air to dodge the arrows.
"No wonder she's so good at dodging!" After watching for a while, Candice finally understood why her lightning couldn't hit Meninas.
Compared to the Professor's torrential downpour of attacks, hers was just a drizzle.
"You need to practice this too," Sora said.
"Then I'll have to find a way to squeeze out the time... I still have patrol duty, it's so annoying!" Candice scratched her hair, very troubled. "They say military police can't take leave, but our sergeant pushed all the tasks onto us and went off to get special training from an instructor himself!"
"You can use the spiritual tool the Professor gave you to train while on patrol," Liltotto said simply. "When you become an officer in Silbern, you can kick your sergeant however you want."
"That's true. I have to seize this opportunity!" Candice calmed down and listened to Liltotto explain how to use the tool for training.
...
Several days later, the day for the Sternritter recruitment finally arrived.
The Quincy of the Wandenreich gathered in the open square outside the city. Most were participating in the selection, while others had come to watch.
In the center of the square, an examiner was reading out the selection rules.
"Didn't they use arena tournaments for selection in the past? Why change it like this?"
"...This method... is pushing people to their deaths..."
The new rules caused an uproar among the Quincy. Some of the smarter soldiers already saw the danger.
Sora and his disciples were also in the crowd. He, Meninas, and Candice also needed to participate.
"Only 1 out of every 100 participants can pass the test?" Bambietta frowned. "Isn't that too dangerous?!"
"Idiot, it's that the person currently ranked first in points can leave the hunting ground voluntarily," Liltotto analyzed. "When the first person leaves, the second becomes the first, so actually, multiple people can leave... but... the number of Quincy in the hunting ground will decrease, and if the Hollows inside are strong, the longer you stay, the more dangerous it will be."
The examiner hadn't announced what level the Hollows were, but based on the rules, Liltotto deduced they probably wouldn't be easy to deal with. The hunting ground was isolated by a reishi shield, making it impossible to sense the situation inside.
"Liltotto's analysis is very reasonable. After you go in, you must not let your guard down," Sora wasn't sure if he would be grouped with Meninas and Candice and warned, "And participants can gain points not only by hunting Hollows but also by taking points from others. Once inside, be wary of other Quincy."
The current Meninas and Candice were still undeveloped geniuses and did not yet have the ability to fend for themselves. Sora did not want them to die there.
"Okay, I'll be careful!"
"Understood!"
Meninas and Candice nodded repeatedly.
"It's a shame I'm not a soldier yet..." Bambietta stared at the hunting ground. This recruitment was only for soldiers and Quincy returning from the human world. Neither she nor Liltotto were soldiers and couldn't participate.
"Silence!"
The examiner's voice was like a muffled thunderclap, silencing the noise.
"The selection officially begins. All participants, come here and line up to enter the hunting ground!" the examiner continued.
"Great!" Meninas clapped. "It seems there are no restrictions on teaming up with acquaintances!"
"We can be in the same group as the Professor!" Candice also felt this selection was secured.
In a situation where points could be stolen, teaming up with strangers carried the risk of being backstabbed at any time, while acting alone easily made one a target for groups. So, teaming up with acquaintances was the best choice.
"This way, it becomes a team competition..." Liltotto stroked her chin, analyzing. "The intensity of the conflict will probably be even greater."
"Do the Sternritter not care at all about the lives of the soldiers in the outer city..."
Sora frowned, connecting this to the war in the human world.
Through his investigation these past few days, he had confirmed that the Quincy in this war were basically soldiers who had come from the Wandenreich and their descendants born in the human world.
"Are they actively sending soldiers to their deaths?"
Sora was shocked.
Combining this with his understanding of Yhwach, he increasingly felt this was the answer.
Yhwach was actively reclaiming his power!
"Could it be that he can't use Auswählen while sleeping, so he's reclaiming power this way?"
Sora's heart sank. If his guess was correct, then Yhwach's current state was probably different from the original timeline.
But looking at it from another angle, the probability that Yhwach hadn't awakened yet was higher. Otherwise, he wouldn't need to reclaim power in this manner.
"I cannot let him have his way."
Sora began to calculate how to disrupt this selection event.
If it was really as he thought, that this recruitment was actually helping Yhwach reclaim power, then he had to interfere. He needed to delay Yhwach's revival as much as possible.
"This selection is not simple. Liltotto and Bambi shouldn't stay here," Sora had them leave first. "You two go back, pack your things, and prepare to leave."
"Leave?" Bambietta didn't understand.
"Is it that serious?" Liltotto frowned. "But if we leave, where can we go?"
"The war in the human world is over. We can find a suitable place to live in seclusion and train," Sora said. "Things might not necessarily get that bad, but it's better to be prepared."
"Understood. Be careful, Professor," Liltotto pulled the confused Bambietta away.
"Follow me. We'll go in the first group," Sora assessed the strength of the hunting ground's reishi shield and was confident he could get his disciples out.
"Okay!" Meninas and Candice nodded.
The three of them got in line smoothly. Many people were adopting a wait-and-see attitude and weren't eager to queue up.
However, those willing to go in the first round were basically stronger groups who had enough confidence in their team's strength.
"...Once inside, the hunt will begin immediately. I hope you will not let your guard down," the examiner brought everyone to the entrance and repeated the rules once more.
Sora's group followed the crowd, entering the hunting ground one by one.
There was some kind of reishi formula at the entrance.
As Sora stepped in, he felt the world spin.
"A teleportation formula..."
Sora looked around. There was no one beside him.
The entrance had a teleportation function that scattered the groups.
"Scattering them makes conflict easier... and once they regroup, it's even easier for fights to break out..."
Sora felt that the design of this selection test was geared towards promoting conflict among the participants at every turn.
"Meninas and Candice are in different directions. I'll find them first and regroup."
Sora sensed his disciples' locations and chose to head towards the closest one first.
The hunting ground simulated the environment of Hueco Mundo's Forest of Menos—pale, gloomy, desolate, with towering rock pillars everywhere.
"Aaargh—"
Screams occasionally came from the distance. Lone Quincy had already been ambushed by Menos and had died miserably in their mouths.
Sora's left hand moved faster than the eye could see. A Heilig Pfeil pierced through a Menos that was trying to sneak attack him.
"Aow—" the Menos cried out and fell.
"The Hollows placed in the hunting ground are actually Menos Grande..."
Sora's sharp spiritual sense had already detected the spiritual pressure fluctuations of many Menos.
"So this is the point token."
Sora noticed a particularly bright mark on the corner of the Menos's mask.
He broke off the corner, and the bright mark turned into reishi and floated into the bracelet he had received upon entering.
The Menos in the hunting ground all had marks on their masks. Participants gained points by killing them and collecting these marked fragments.
"Come out. I 'see' you."
Sora turned his head and looked towards the right side of the rock forest.
"Oh my, we've been discovered. How scary."
Three Quincy emerged from the rocks.
These three were lucky; they had landed near their companions from the start, allowing them to regroup in the shortest amount of time.
"You don't seem to be a soldier. I don't recall teaching you. You must be one of the Quincy who returned from the human world," the leader paused. "Forgot to introduce myself. I am Giselle Gewelle, instructor of the Sixth Military Police Corps."
"So you're an instructor from the Military Police," Sora smiled faintly. "Do you want this point token? It's only just begun, are you already so eager to snatch points?"
"No, we came to invite you to join us!" another Quincy said.
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The Bleach story will come to an end in December. I want to thank everyone who has been reading this project; your support has been crucial in getting to this point.
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