During his walk through the halls to go to his room the students and teachers all watched Koji walk by.
"Did you hear that the new kid nearly killed a teacher?"
"I heard about that too. what do you think?"
Koji didn't look at anyone while he made his way to his room but found a student blocking the door.
The student in question didn't have the regular student robe as Koji and the others but Koji felt her giving off a sense of her higher authority while she spoke.
"Soul Master, I request to duel with you."
Koji had no reaction as he lightly pushed the girl to the side before entering his room and locking the door.
The girl was stunned and confused as was the others who watched.
'He rejected the duel. No one has ever said no. Now I want to fight him even more'
Just as the girl was about to knock on the door Zuang stopped her.
"Ms.Solomon I will have to ask you to leave master Koji alone."
Upon hearing the name Solomon all the students were stunned as she was Cinthia Solomon, the next Heir to the Solomon family.
Just as there was five schools made to train new soul guardians there were also five families who had risen to the top.
These five families were practically royalty to soul guardians as they had an unimaginable amount of wealth and influence.
The Solomon family's rank in the rankings was number five but that didn't meant they were weak.
So to reject a duel to one such family member was to say they aren't worthy of his time.
But despite this insult and Master Zuang's warning Cinthia still knocked but there was no answer as Koji had already fallen asleep like a baby.
But Cinthia didn't know and thought Koji was ignoring her.
'Is he ignoring me? A member of house Solomon? Seems master Koji does not recognize me as a Heir to the house of Solomon.'
The next day.
With the sun high in the sky Koji got out of bed and was hesitant to leave his room as he already had guessed the other students would see him as a freak for what happened the other day.
But Koji left regardless to meet old man Zuang outside his door.
"Good morning Koji. I trust you had a good sleep?"
Koji nodded as it was the first time in years that Koji had actually used a proper bed.
Just then the bell rung and zuang handed Koji a satchel.
"Here are some basic things for your lessons but first you must partake in the Combat test."
Koji nodded as he called Hatasho to his back and followed Zuang out and onto the field with a dirt patch in the center.
Koji was the first to arrive but one by one so did both students and teachers and soon the entire area was filled but yet everyone still kept looking at Koji before Madam Bo Stepped onto the patch of dirt.
"Hello cadets and welcome to our soul guard Academy. Over the next few years we will aid you in becoming fully trained Soul Guards."
Hearing Madam Bo's words only confused the new students as they looked at Koji before Cinthia Solomon raised her hand.
"Madam Bo, do you mean to say everyone present is a cadet? Including the New Soul Master?"
Koji clenched his fist as his anger started to rise but fortunately Madam Bo was quick to act.
"Let this be known to every teacher and student in this school that should they ask something about the new soul master then they must ask me!"
Madam Bo was known to be quite unreasonable if someone had disobeyed her instructions.
None spoke a word more about Koji but they kept thinking one single thing. How strong was Koji and his Hotoji.
One by one a student and teacher stepped up to the dirt patch and sparred until one of them collapsed. Koji was the last to enter the sparring area before he noticed both Xia and old man Zuang enter the ring.
All the while Madam Bo was smiling.
"You may begin!"
Xia was quick to fire an arrow while Zuang began meditating.
Many of the students thought Koji wouldn't last more then a second before they witnessed Koji grab the arrow and snap it in half before using cloud walker to close the distance.
"He really is a Soul Master!? He's using the technique Cloud Walking and sword Ki!"
Many of the students started to record the battle but Koji was moving too fast for the cameras to track.
Cinthia however was even more intrigued by Koji's skill has she saw no error in koji's basic attacks with his sword but was very surprised to see Koji wasn't tired.
After all Koji was very scrawny and looked absolutely starving but regardless Koji kept the momentum of his attacks while clones of Zuang kept appearing.
The team coordinated attacks by Xia and Zuang were hand in hand as when Koji defeated a clone of Zuang Xia fired an arrow.
But after a few minutes of fighting Koji could feel himself about to collapse as his breathing was heavy before he saw a symbol in the dirt.
Koji recognized the symbol as the symbol of life and began imagining a tree of myth, Yggdrasil, the world tree.
Afterwards two golems made of wood crawled out of the ground and joined in the fight which had everyone shocked but Madam Bo most of all.
'That's Spiritual Summoning! Just how talented is master Koji?! This can be bad for Xia and Zuang! I need to stop the fight now!'
However Zuang and Xia immediately held their hands up high just before the two golems advanced towards them both.
"We surrender!"
"We surrender!"
However the golems continued until Cinthia jumped into the ring and burned the golems to ash with just a touch of her fingers.
"Master Koji, I, Cinthia Solomon call you to a duel! What say you!"
Koji however had used too much of his energy and passed out while Cinthia was embarrassed as the students were both amazed by Koji and amused by Cinthia.
Madam Bo walked to the ring while Cinthia returned to her seat before Zuang carried Koji over to a stretcher to rest.
"On behalf of our Soul guard academy and as your new headmaster I welcome you all to our school and hope you grow to be the strongest you can be."
Everyone began celebrating all while Cinthia was about to sneak away to follow Koji but was stopped but Xia.
"Ms.Solomon I must ask you to return to your seat until the entrance ceremony is complete."
Cinthia grunted but eventually returned to her seat while Madam Bo held up a black and white token with gold lining in her hands.
"Tomorrow you will receive your team tokens that will give you your team number. However for those that receive a black token then you may select two candidates to join your team as you lead them through the school year."
Many had begun to picture themselves in a team with Koji as his fight with Master Zuang and Master Xia had a profound impact on them but madam Bo only laughed.
'I doubt Koji will take anyone for his team and will most likely go alone.'
Madam Bo knew enough about Koji to know he wouldn't like to be paired with other students and clearly knew he was strong enough to lead a team if he so chooses.
Cinthia however already had a objective instead of dueling Koji.
'I must join master Koji's team! I must! I don't care if I tarnish my reputation!'
Koji's school troubles had officially begun as he was now a student of the soul guard academy.
Koji woke up in the medical ward next to Zuang and sighed as Zuang offered a glass of water.
"Did I fail the test? Does this mean I have to be in a team with other people? Dammit."
Zuang started laughing which naturally confused Koji.
"Failed? You made myself and Xia surrender the match, you won. But I must ask about how you used Spiritual Summoning."
Koji had a look of confusion as he began remembering the symbol in the dirt he saw.
"Spiritual summoning? What's that? Can I call spirits to help me?"
Zuang shook his head as he held out his hotoshi for Koji to see.
"Spiritual summoning calls on the spirits of the underworld to our dimensional plane but from there they have wills of their own. If you weren't strong enough to summon them then you probably wouldn't have survived the attempt."
Koji's eyes behind his mask widened as he didn't even feel it to be that dangerous.
Zuang however was still in shock of Koji using Spiritual Summoning and was able to succeed.
'He truly is one of a kind but can be thick in the head sometimes.'
Koji then noticed it was just him and old man Zuang in the medical ward.
"I think I still have more to learn since I'm the only one to be taken to the medical ward."
Zuang was once again dumbfounded by koji's words as he was completely unaware of his talents as a Soul guardian.
Soon after leaving the Medical ward Koji could see dozens of students in the halls and talking to each other until one of them noticed Koji and bowed before the others noticed and bowed as well.
Koji however felt embarrassed and whispered to Zuang.
"Why is everyone bowing down? I haven't done anything to deserve it."
Zuang's mind was on the edge because of how oblivious Koji was before he explained while using sword ki on his hotoshi.
"Both you and I have a certain degree of control over the technique called Sword Ki. Being able to use this alone can grant you the title Soul Master."
Koji had finally reached his room before he bowed to Zuang and closed the door before feeling his stomach rumble.
Meanwhile Madam Bo, Xia and Zuang were meeting in the headmaster's office.
"The other schools will soon learn of what happened today and will naturally investigate but so will the Soul Hunter Society. We must be prepared for another outburst like yesterday."
Zuang nodded in agreement as Madam Bo placed three black tokens in front of Xia and Zuang.
"Obviously we must make Master Koji a team leader but I have named six others as newly made team leaders."
Xia and zuang didn't object to making Koji a team leader as it would benefit both them and Koji.
Xia and Zuang then looked at the names they were given and had no complaints as they trusted Madam Bo's choices and left after stuffing the black tokens in their pockets.
'This will be an interesting year to see.'