After Kenpachi retired for the day, Kazuya and Orihime fell on their buttocks, panting heavily. The training session was nowhere near as long as it was during the previous five days, yet they felt more exhausted than usual. It felt like a lot had happened in a short period of time, and it almost overwhelmed them.
so much so that even though it was winter, they were sweating! Small flakes of snow could be seen falling from the sky at a gentle pace, and it felt like a once tense atmosphere had now become the most peaceful.
All the spectators who were watching through the windows went back to their duties, all gossiping about what had just happened.
Orihime noticed it and sighed, "I barely even noticed that we were also making a spectacle for those nosy twits." Don't they have anything else to do besides watch Kenny beat us up? "You realize this happens every day, right?" she asked rhetorically.
However, Kazuya's attention wasn't on any of what she was saying but on her, and it was at that point that she noticed the unusual way he was staring at her, and it felt creepy.
"What is wrong with you?" she asked.
Kazuya realized this right then, shaking his head as if recovering from a trance. "It's nothing; are you okay?" he asked.
"Apart from my head hurting and itching like hell, I'm fine," she replied.
Kazuya nodded with a slight smile. "Good," he awkwardly remarked before getting up.
"You thought the worst when you saw me crash into that wooden wall, didn't you?" she asked.
"Why wouldn't I?" If that wall was made out of solid stone instead of aged wood, it would have been fatal for you," Kazuya replied, "but I'm glad you are safe." Now I'm going to clean myself up. "You should come too and get yourself treated; your injuries look a lot worse than you think."
Orihime felt something was off about Kazuya's attitude, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She got up and said, "You don't have to tell me, big man." "My head hurts a lot more than you think," she replied in a childish way that made Kazuya shake his head.
"By the way, are our weapons ready yet?" "They were slated to be ready by today, aren't they?" Orihime asked.
"They were slated to be ready by tomorrow, and that is if the blacksmith can pull it off." The old woman gave him an impossible task to do in a minute. It'd be a miracle if they got forged successfully without any problems. So I don't know. "But maybe afterwards we could meet with Shizu to talk about it if you can't wait," Kazuya replied.
"Or we could just go meet the blacksmith himself," suggested Orihime. "There is no need for pointless talk; I mean, he's right there in the cave, isn't he?"
"No, I don't think that would be appropriate." We aren't familiar with him, but the old hag is, and it's thanks to her that he is upgrading our equipment. "So I think it would be more respectful to go with her instead of going alone," Kazuya explained.
"Whoa, slow down," Orihime interrupted. "A simple answer would have done it; you don't need to get all analytical about it." "With that kind of behavior, it is no wonder Kenpachi never liked sharing a room with you."
"Shut up, woman," Kazuya spat at her.
"There's the spirit," she commended with a playful laugh, feeling like Kazuya was no longer acting out of character. "That's the big man I've always known."
-
Earlier on, Genta and her master had watched the event between Kenpachi and his students from where they were on the top floor. Thankfully, the situation did not escalate, and the Master did not have to intervene in the event, as she had her hands full training Genta on mastering the Multiple Kaifuku.
Shizu was impressed by Kazuya's sudden show of maturity through humility, and she took note of the rage that led to it. Contrary to what most people thought, she believed Kazuya's anger wasn't out of mere frustration due to an overly strict Sensei, but rather, was out of chivalry.
It seemed Orihime was a lot more precious to him than even he thought, and that could perhaps explain his sudden fit of rage on seeing her getting hurt by Kenpachi.
She and Genta got back to training, with Genta trying to wrap up her lessons on the technique, but with a pitiful amount of success.
As instructed, she stretched both arms towards the flower pot. At this point, her lower arms were now laced with marks from the several floggings from her master's wand. At first glance, anyone could tell she had gone through a lot to get to this point (even though her progress was barely evident), given the way she looked with the marks on her arms.
She wasn't allowed to heal herself, as the painful yet temporary marks would serve as a reminder of discipline to drive her forward on this course.
The flower pot, however, showed that she was making some progress, and the flower seedlings had budded and grown past the infant stage. But it wasn't fully grown yet, and until that was done, her training wouldn't be over. Natural growth was impossible, as it would have taken the plant over a month to reach the stage it was at without any magical channeling.
Throughout the seven days, her master continually corrected, berated, and instructed her on how to get it right, but she kept failing at it. The progress made in growing the plant past the infant stage was only due to a few little successes flanked by numerous disappointing failures.
Knowing the kind of person Genta was, the Master always hit her with the wand to get the little mage's mind out of moody disappointment and back into focusing on the task at hand. It had been a very long week, as each day felt like a strenuous month for both of them, especially Genta.
Now, with the Master's whippy wand already in a position to strike her apprentice should she make the mistake again, Genta had stretched forth both hands, ready to channel her magical energy into the growing flower.
Then she began to do so, and with the Master's experienced eyes, it could be seen that Genta was making a lot of progress in efficiently channeling her power, as her magical energy wasn't just spilling out all over the place like it was during the first day. But, that would not be enough, as the forceful growth of the plant was the indicator that the student had at least mastered the fundamentals of the Multiple Kaifuku. Until Genta does that, all achieved improvements could be deemed insignificant.
"Focus, child," Shizu guided. "Visualize the life force synthesising from within your healing energy." Visualize the work of life in action. Become one with it. Fuse with it. "Flow with it."
It had taken over a minute, but nothing was happening. At this point, Shizu was about to give up and strike her apprentice again with the wand, but to her surprise, something unexpected happened—the flower had begun to grow, right before her eyes!
The plant grew so fast that it branched out of the pot, covering it entirely as it budded forth a lot of flowers within a few seconds.
The ironic thing was that while Shizu was amazed by Genta's sudden improvements, Genta was not even aware of what she was doing. Then, like the Master had done several times now, she whipped Genta's arm with her wand, and the sudden pain brought her back into consciousness.
Genta's eyes opened, and she couldn't believe them. She thought she had just gotten whipped because she failed the task again for the hundredth time, but now she was seeing an enormous flowering plant that had grown to the ceiling, with no sign of the flower pot in sight because it had also covered the ground as well.
The sight of the large plant was such a sight to behold that several mage close by had to stop to watch.
Genta was still not fully sure of what had just happened, so she had to address the elephant in the room. "What just happened?" she asked.
"You overdid it, Genta," Shizu said to her, "but I'm proud of you."
"I did this?" Genta asked with a suddenly elated face. "No way!"
"It was all on you, my child," she said. "Well done."
Genta felt so excited that she couldn't help hugging her master while crying out "Thank you" too many times to remember.
Meanwhile, at about that time, Tano, the blacksmith, had also finished his work, ranking up their equipment. Looking at the finished products hanging on the nails on the walls and sitting on the open shelves made him proud of himself, and he was excited for when they would try them out. He had put a lot of time and effort into crafting them, and he hoped they would prove useful to them.