While pleasantly surprised, Aizen suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy for Satoru.
From the moment he'd met Satoru until now, the guy had never once revealed his true strength.
Most likely, Satoru was just like him—someone who preferred to conceal his real abilities.
The only difference was that Aizen had been cautious and lucky enough to never encounter a situation where he was forced to show his hand.
Satoru, however, wasn't so fortunate.
First, he was harshly punished by Kinoshita for skipping class—had he not revealed his true strength, he'd probably be stuck in the Fourth Division for days.
And now, he was up against Unohana Retsu, an unreasonable battle maniac…
At this thought, Aizen chuckled and shook his head.
Well, it was good for someone as reckless as Satoru to suffer a little.
Given how miserable he was this time, Aizen decided he'd find an opportunity to secretly teach him a few tricks for concealing spiritual pressure.
At the front of the dojo, Satoru fought with every ounce of focus.
At first, he had gone all out because Unohana's brutal opening had terrified him, triggering an instinctive counterattack.
But as the fight progressed, he gradually noticed something peculiar.
Unohana seemed to be deliberately using the battle to correct minor flaws in his swordsmanship while also helping him familiarize himself with the techniques.
The abilities he had synchronized from Aizen couldn't be fully utilized without sufficient practice.
That was why he had been working so hard in his dorm to digest the footwork knowledge he'd gained from Aizen.
He had estimated that, relying solely on mental simulations and solo training, it would take him at least a month or two to fully master the swordsmanship he'd synchronized from Aizen.
But now, under Unohana's flawless guidance, his swordsmanship was improving by leaps and bounds.
In just over a minute, Satoru felt as though he had almost completely absorbed the swordsmanship synchronized from Aizen.
Realizing this, his gaze toward Unohana couldn't help but grow a touch more fervent.
If every time he synchronized power from Aizen, he could spar with Unohana to familiarize and digest it, wouldn't that be an absolute game-changer?
Noticing Satoru's gaze, Unohana curled her lips into a smile.
Good, very good.
Faced with her attacks, this boy wasn't just unafraid—he even wore an expression of exhilaration from the fight...
What fine potential. She truly couldn't wait to see how he would grow. Perhaps... he might even excite her?
As her spirits rose, Unohana's attacks grew increasingly fierce.
After another half-minute, Satoru finally faltered. His bamboo sword, poorly angled, snapped with a sharp crack, its splintered fibers bursting apart.
Whoosh!!
After cleaving through Satoru's sword, Unohana's blade continued forward—only stopping just short of severing his neck.
After a brief silence, Unohana slowly lowered her sword.
With a faintly regretful expression, she said, "We didn't get to finish."
But then, her familiar smile returned.
"Very well. We'll save the rest for next time... I look forward to that day, Satoru-kun."
Satoru's lips twitched, but he said nothing.
He took back his earlier thoughts.
Unohana was far too dangerous.
If she could just teach properly, she'd be a great instructor.
But once she got carried away, the sheer killing intent radiating from her was genuinely lethal.
Just now, he'd had the overwhelming premonition that he would die by her hand.
That was an experience he never wanted to relive...
Only then did the students finally remember they could breathe.
Gasping sounds filled the dojo as they struggled to steady themselves.
Under their nervous, awed, or exhilarated gazes, Unohana folded her hands and gave a slight bow.
"Everyone, today's special lesson ends here."
"It was a pleasure spending these two sessions with you all. I hope we have another opportunity like this in the future."
"Ah, one more thing—if any of you are interested in joining Squad 4, feel free to pick up our recruitment brochure at the career counseling office. I personally wrote the introduction section~"
With that, this gentle (?) and kind (?) captain slowly left the dojo, heading toward the Seireitei gates.
As they watched her retreating figure, the students couldn't help but burst into chatter.
Seeing Satoru approach, broken bamboo sword in hand, Sōjun wore a serious expression.
"Satoru, let's spar after school."
"If you don't want an audience, we can go to a nearby farm—it's Kuchiki property. I'll have everyone leave so it's just us."
Satoru nodded. "Sure."
Though he disliked trouble, helping a friend was a different matter altogether.
Moreover, while assisting Sōjun with his training, his own swordsmanship would improve as well—a win-win situation.
In the following days, Seinosuke seemed like a changed man. He dug out all the Kaidō textbooks that had been gathering dust in his dorm and started reviewing them from the first lesson, bit by bit.
Normally, this approach would be nothing more than self-deception, but Seinosuke was, after all, a once-in-a-millennium Kaidō prodigy in Soul Society. In just a few days, he mastered everything in the textbooks and began seeking out advanced extracurricular exercises.
Regarding this, Satoru remarked that he was glad such a tryhard wasn't in his field—otherwise, he might have cried from envy.
During their free time when they didn't have classes, the four of them would go to the Kuchiki family's training grounds to spar.
Aizen had little interest in this at first. He preferred training alone rather than improving through sparring with classmates.
Unfortunately, he couldn't withstand Satoru's relentless pestering and alternating tactics of persuasion and coercion.
The shameless guy even threatened that if Aizen didn't go, he would spread rumors at school that Aizen was hiding his true strength and that Satoru himself couldn't beat Aizen.
Faced with such a bizarre strategy—one that involved self-sabotage just to drag him down—Aizen was genuinely intimidated.
And so, four days passed in the blink of an eye.
That evening, after finishing dinner, Satoru was strolling around the courtyard to aid digestion when a voice suddenly echoed in his ear—
"Satoru, report to the 1st Division barracks for training tomorrow."
Satoru was startled but quickly regained his composure.
It was a message from Yamamoto, sent via Kidō.
Most likely, it was something like Tentōkūro—a one-way communication Kidō.
Satoru stopped in his tracks and raised an eyebrow.
"Hah, so I'm just supposed to go when you say so? What about my dignity?"
"If you have a reason for being unable to attend, you may inform me."
As soon as the words fell, Yamamoto's voice sounded again.
Satoru: "…"
Damn, it was two-way communication.
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