After finishing his speech, the old man departed under the reverent gazes of the students. However, Kōe felt that these people were actually looking at Kyōraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jūshirō.
Logically speaking, Old Man Yama should have been the figure the students admired most. But at the Shin'ō Academy, his identity as the academy's founder and headmaster subtly overshadowed his position as Captain-Commander, making the students feel that the gap between them wasn't quite as insurmountable.
Speaking of the title of academy headmaster, although the Shin'ō Academy was the only Shinigami academy in the Seireitei, given Yamamoto's strength and status, this title was truly superfluous. It even subtly lowered his prestige.
After all, in the current Seireitei, the Shinigami who held important positions were basically all from middle-class noble families or higher. These nobles with long histories had their own pride and foundations. To them, the Shin'ō Academy was somewhat redundant, and even posed a slight threat to their status.
In fact, when Yamamoto first founded the academy, the majority of the high-ranking nobles were opposed to it. At the time, Yamamoto had even proposed unifying all the secret techniques of the noble families, making the Shin'ō Academy the true cradle of top-tier Shinigami.
Naturally, such a proposal was impossible to pass. Of course, Yamamoto wasn't naive enough to desperately try and make it a reality. The emergence of new things required compromise and concessions, and this was the upper limit Yamamoto had set for himself—an illusory, unreachable upper limit.
In the end, the noble factions, led by the Five Great Noble Families, reached an agreement with Yamamoto. That was, the Shin'ō Academy would teach all currently public forms of Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Shunpo, and Kidō among Shinigami.
As for the unique secret techniques possessed by the nobles, those were considered personal achievements. Whether to make them public or not was entirely up to the willingness of each family, and no one was allowed to forcefully intervene.
In order to establish the academy's status, both sides also agreed on the concept that the Shin'ō Academy was the sole pathway to entering the Gotei 13. Of course, this excluded high-level talents, and the so-called high-level talents were the major noble families of Soul Society.
Perhaps this was a kind of compromise, but in Yamamoto's eyes, it was the best possible outcome at the time.
His original intention wasn't to weaken the power of the nobles anyway. He believed that with the academy's development, the initially resistant nobles would automatically join in. The addition of exceptionally talented nobles would also make the academy even stronger. It was a mutually beneficial endeavor.
And that proved to be the case. With a good atmosphere and numerous students, the number of talents emerging from the academy was naturally far greater than that of individual noble families working alone.
At first, only low-ranking nobles and commoners joined. Later on, middle-ranking nobles would occasionally enter the academy to study. Up until now, almost all middle-ranking nobles would enroll in the academy, bringing Yamamoto one step closer to his expectations.
But if you thought the academy was already incredibly powerful, you would be dead wrong. Currently, the high-end combat power in the Gotei 13 still mostly came from the high-ranking nobles and the Five Great Noble Families, and they had almost no experience studying at the academy.
"Spiritual power level four!" a middle-aged Shinigami wearing a black training uniform said with a smile. "A commoner background. Make sure you study hard from now on."
At the same time, the surrounding students gathered in twos and threes, whispering among themselves.
"A commoner actually reached level four? Are you kidding me?"
"His name is Shikaon, I think it's Shikaon Susumu?"
"Yeah, that's his name. That's amazing. He's probably on par with the heirs of high-ranking noble families."
"Looking at his smug face really pisses me off!"
Following the entrance ceremony was the spiritual power level test. Based on the test results, this year's freshmen would be divided into two classes: Advanced and Preparatory.
It was obvious that the boy before them—with a spiritual power level of four, green eyes, red hair, and a commoner background—would enter the better Advanced class. This also drew the dissatisfaction and jealousy of the noble-born youths present.
Someone even shouted out things like, "Get lost, you lowly commoner."
These words fell upon Shikaon's ears as if they were praises sung in his honor, causing his already raised head to lift a few fractions higher.
Almost everyone was looking at him with either envious or hostile gazes. This made Shikaon swell with pride; this feeling of being the center of attention was unprecedentedly wonderful.
Shikaon held his head high, his gaze sweeping across the crowd like a king looking down upon his subjects. Suddenly, he spotted three people—three people who were currently yawning. It was none other than Kōe's trio.
Shikaon frowned. *Are they pretending to ignore me?* The pretentious posturing of nobles and their pitiful egos really disgusted him. *Just wait, let's see what level you guys get!*
Completely unaware that they were being targeted, Kōe and the other two were casually chatting.
"Why didn't we go test first? That way we could have slept a little longer."
"It's probably because the testing goes in the order of the roster, and we're at the very end of the roster."
"Then why are we at the end?"
"That is a great question," Kōe said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Because we were digging a hole last night, we were late today. Because we were late, we're at the end of the roster. And the reason we want to finish early and go to sleep is also because we were digging a hole last night!"
Hearing this, Yoruichi showed a rare look of embarrassment. She patted Urahara's shoulder and poked Kōe's arm, saying in a fawning tone, "I know I was wrong, don't blame me."
"Ugh, talk normally!"
"The hole is already dug! What, are we going to go fill it back in some day?"
"That's actually a great idea!" Urahara beside them suddenly seemed to gain energy, clenching his right fist as if making an important decision. "Let's find some time to go fill it in."
"You don't want the secret base anymore?"
"Are you mad? Don't mind Yoruichi's jokes!"
Urahara waved his hands, grinning widely as he said, "No, no, no, I just think that base is too far away. We can change locations and dig another one!"
"Hah? Dig another one?" Kōe asked in shock, his mouth wide open. "Dig where?"
"The closer the better. For example... here?" Urahara pointed at the ground beneath their feet.
"Hehe." Kōe let out two dry laughs. *Digging a secret base right under the Shin'ō Academy? Are you sure you're not joking?*
*Even Yoruichi wouldn't agree to something like this, right? After all, this is the Shin'ō Academy, one of the most important locations in the Seireitei!*
"That's a great idea, Kisuke!" Yoruichi's eyes lit up. She slapped Urahara's back and said excitedly, "Tonight, tonight it is! We'll dig a new base right here. This time, I'm definitely going to lay down floor tiles too!"
*Alright, Yoruichi agreed to this kind of thing. She actually agreed!*
Kōe clutched his head with both hands. Watching the two of them passionately discuss their plans, he felt like he was going crazy. He really wanted to pretend he didn't know them. No, he wanted to cut ties with them completely!
"How about it? It's a great idea, right, Kōe?"
*A great idea? Hehe. More like a great idea to get ourselves killed.*
"You guys aren't just digging a hole anymore, you know that?" Kōe said weakly, holding his head. "You're digging your own graves!"
"Are you saying we should change locations?"
"I'm saying we shouldn't change anything!" Kōe snapped in exasperation.
After enduring immense hardship and talking until he was blue in the face, Kōe finally managed to suppress the wild ideas in Yoruichi and Urahara's heads. When the two finally decided to leave the secret base as it was, he was so moved he almost cried.
At the same time, it was finally their turn to test their spiritual power levels. In that moment, the eyes of the entire venue focused on them!