"Urahara Kisuke, Shihōin Yoruichi, and Kōe Shihouin, hurry up and come test!"
Hearing the instructor's voice, the students in the testing grounds silently cleared a path. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Kōe and his two friends lined up in front of the testing device.
"The heir to the upper-class noble Urahara clan, and the heir to the Shihōin clan, the Tenshiheisōban of the Five Great Noble Families. I wonder what their spiritual power levels are. I can't wait!"
"And then there's that Kōe Shihouin. A commoner taken in as the Captain-Commander's final disciple... I want to see just what kind of abilities he actually has!"
Murmurs of admiration for Urahara and Yoruichi rippled through the crowd, but when the topic shifted to Kōe, the tone soured into blatant dissatisfaction. It made him feel more than a little awkward, as if he had only become the final disciple through nepotism.
"Don't mind them. There are still geniuses among commoners, like you," Yoruichi spoke up to comfort him.
"It's fine. They'll shut up in a minute!"
"Oh?" Yoruichi's interest was suddenly piqued. She turned her head and lowered her voice. "You aren't going to hide it this time?"
"The old man said I could let loose a bit this time. It won't hurt."
The three soon arrived in front of the testing device. Calling it a machine was a stretch; it looked more like a ceremonial artifact. Before them sat a dried-up, hexagonal pond with five bamboo joints standing upright from the center to the edge. A handrest was mounted at the front of the pond.
The Spirit Pool. This was the artifact used to test a Shinigami's spiritual power level. It had remained unchanged since ancient times, rumored to be a spiritual tool bestowed by the Soul King himself.
Kōe, however, knew that was complete nonsense. This thing had been created at the same time as the Shin'ō Academy, designed specifically to establish a baseline recruitment standard for the Gotei 13. That was exactly why Kōe preferred to call it a machine.
Following the order, Urahara was the first to step up. The moment he placed his hand on the handrest, the pond before him instantly reacted.
Clear water began to continuously well up from the bottom of the pond, instantly submerging the first bamboo joint. Soon after, the second and third joints were swallowed up in quick succession.
The spiritual power levels detected by the Spirit Pool were divided into six grades. The number of bamboo joints submerged by the water directly corresponded to the test-taker's spiritual power level.
If the entire Spirit Pool filled with water, it meant the spiritual power had reached level six—the standard spiritual power level of most lieutenants in the Gotei 13.
Very quickly, the water representing Urahara's spiritual power crested the fourth bamboo joint and slowly approached the fifth.
That solitary bamboo joint acted like a dam, resisting the surging water and forcing it to rise at a sluggish pace.
The water reached one-third of the fifth bamboo joint.
One-half.
It was nearing the top. Just a little more push, and it would completely submerge the fifth joint!
The instructor in charge of the test had already shot up from his seat, muttering words of encouragement for Urahara under his breath, as if his cheering could magically force the water over the joint.
Unfortunately, although the water in the pool faintly crested over the top of the joint, it didn't completely spill over. This meant Urahara's spiritual power level was firmly set at level five.
"Level five, Full! Spiritual power is at level five, Full!" the instructor shouted excitedly. Starting from level five, depending on whether the water reached one-third, one-half, or the very top of the joint, the spiritual power level was further subdivided into three tiers: Low, Mid, and Full.
Even for someone born into an upper-class noble family, possessing such a high spiritual power level at this age was exceedingly rare. Calling him a genius would not be an overstatement in the slightest.
"As expected of an upper-class noble!"
"Idiot, a score like that wouldn't lose out even among the Five Great Noble Families. That guy is a genius!"
Amidst the endless shower of praise, Urahara smiled and walked back, giving Kōe and Yoruichi a high-five. Although the guy acted like he didn't care, Kōe knew he was letting it go to his head a little. The high-five was proof enough.
"Alright, my turn!" Yoruichi said, rolling her shoulders as she marched toward the Spirit Pool. Anyone who knew better would say she was going to take a test, but to an outsider, it looked like she was marching off to pick a fight.
Once the Spirit Pool returned to its dry state, Yoruichi lightly placed her hand on the handrest.
Just like with Urahara, the water rapidly submerged the fourth bamboo joint and began its journey to break through the next barrier.
Halfway.
Full!
The testing instructor stood up once again. Watching from behind, Kōe's face was full of exasperation. *'If you knew you were just going to stand up again, why did you bother sitting down in the first place?'*
This time, however, the instructor wasn't muttering to himself. His normally pale face was flushed beet red, as if he were the one taking the test.
"It crossed! Level six! Spiritual power is at level six!" he roared, letting it all out. The instructor looked at Yoruichi with unbridled excitement and shouted, "Lady Yoruichi, you can apply for graduation right now!"
Yoruichi simply shook her head and returned to the two boys, giving them each an enthusiastic high-five.
This time, there were almost no murmurs of discussion. It wasn't that the crowd thought Yoruichi's results were a given, but rather that they were completely stunned into silence by her level six spiritual power.
While it was true that nobles were superior to commoners in talent and spiritual power, level six was the benchmark for a lieutenant in the Gotei 13. Based on that alone, she could rank among the top thirty in the Seireitei.
Even for someone born into the Five Great Noble Families, this was truly an exaggeration of talent.
That was exactly why the instructor had asked if she wanted to graduate immediately. With a spiritual power of level six, a student could apply for graduation at any time and freely choose whichever squad they wanted to join. The Shin'ō Academy simply had nothing left to teach a monster like her.
However, there were still those present who held dissenting opinions—such as Shikaon Susumu.
In his eyes, the fact that he, a mere commoner of the same age, had gone from having no spiritual power to reaching level four made him countless times more impressive than these nobles who were born with innate spiritual power.
"It's just level six, isn't it? I guess that's all the upper-class nobles and the Five Great Noble Families amount to."
This undisguised contempt instantly provoked the ire of the other noble students. They had held their tongues earlier because their own scores hadn't matched his, but now, Shikaon Susumu's words had instantly ignited the powder keg in their hearts.
"Shut your filthy mouth, commoner!"
"A commoner is a commoner! Not only lowly, but stupid too!"
"Even though nobles are born with spiritual power, and upper-class nobles and the Five Great Noble Families can reach levels four and five, reaching level six at this age is an unheard-of achievement!"
"Level six is a height you commoners could never hope to reach in your entire lives!"
At that moment, Kōe shook out his hands and walked up to the Spirit Pool. A youth from a middle-class noble family pointed at him and sneered, "He's someone called a genius, just like you. But open your eyes and watch closely, commoner! Your absolute limit is level four!"
"Yeah, the gap between level four and level five is massive, let alone the even harder level six." Another youth shook his head, a mocking sneer on his face. "It's a pity that foolish commoners don't understand that."
The Spirit Pool returned to its dry state once more. Acting as if he hadn't heard the jeers behind him, Kōe expressionlessly placed his hand on the handrest.
This time, the testing instructor didn't stand up. That was because he had only made it halfway down into his seat before the sight before him caused his jaw to drop. He froze in place, hovering awkwardly with his rear jutting out.
The water in the Spirit Pool had already surged past the fifth bamboo joint. Furthermore, unlike with Urahara and Yoruichi, it showed no signs of losing momentum. It continued to rise at a rapid pace.
The half-crouched instructor desperately wanted to say something, but his gaping mouth simply wouldn't close. All he could manage were a few strange, meaningless noises.
*'At this rate, the Spirit Pool is going to overflow!'* the instructor thought to himself as he watched the water approach the one-third mark of the final section. *'As expected of the Captain-Commander's disciple. He's going to ascend to the heavens!'*
Just as he was about to cheer for the first student in the history of the Shin'ō Academy to reach the absolute maximum spiritual power level upon enrollment, the astonishingly rising water suddenly stopped. Without a single warning, without any buildup, it just... stopped?
The instructor collapsed into his chair and began coughing violently. The sensation of plummeting from the clouds straight into the abyss, the sheer frustration of having his triumphant shout choked back down his throat—it was unbearable!
"L-Level six, Low!"
This time, there truly wasn't a single whisper of discussion in the entire venue. The noble youth who had just mocked Kōe even shrank to the very back of the crowd. The slap to the face had been far too swift and brutal.
Meanwhile, Shikaon Susumu gritted his teeth, glaring fixedly at Kōe in the distance. As a fellow commoner, he was unwilling to accept being overshadowed like this.
*'I have to work harder. I'll become the Captain-Commander's disciple too!'* Susumu clenched his fists and swore to himself, completely ignoring Kōe's own merits and attributing all of his achievements directly to Yamamoto.
"Thanks!"
Kōe said with a smile. After stating that he would not be graduating early, he returned to Yoruichi and Urahara. He deliberately ignored their outstretched hands, refusing to partake in such a cringeworthy celebratory high-five.
"Are you trying to provoke us?"
"No, no, no!" Kōe wagged his finger, a cheeky grin on his face. "I'm teaching you the proper way to flex."
Yoruichi was momentarily speechless. She exchanged a glance with Urahara, and the two of them simultaneously gave him a thumbs-up. *Nice flex, boss!*
"Don't be like that. I'm only doing this once. The stage belongs to you guys from now on."
*Tch!* The two of them waved him off in unison. He said that as if he, Kōe Shihouin, could ever obediently keep a low profile in the future. Besides, they had noticed it during the spiritual power test—the Spirit Pool wasn't something that could be tricked with Kidō or cheap tricks!
Kōe just smiled and didn't bother explaining. He had been telling the truth. Perhaps a true genius couldn't keep a low profile, but what if, in the eyes of others, he wasn't a true genius at all?