Kenpachi Zaraki was walking around Seireitei with a rather bored expression. There had been no conflict for him to take part in, nor was there another war to be fought. All the strong opponents that he did want to fight either ran away, or refused to fight him completely, leaving him in a partial state of despair. He looked at the coliseum which was floating high in the sky while sighing with disappointment.
Yumichika who had been concerned with him then asked, "Why don't you go watch the fights with everyone else? You might have a fun time there?"
"What's fun about watching kids hit each other with sticks?"
Kai, Shido as well as the other members of class 1 were in a waiting hall, expecting to be called up there to fight. Many were worried about being publicly humiliated while others were excited to fight against other students.
"Don't feel embarrassed when you lose to me, Shido!," Kai said with enthusiasm. "I've obtained a trump card which will let me beat even Yuki-"
Strangely, Shido wasn't even paying attention to what Kai was saying. He was looking up at the holographic monitor with dark intent. He was suppressing some kind of rage from exploding out, which Kai had never seen before from his usual calm and collected self. The second Shido snapped backed to reality, he jumped a little.
"Were you saying something? I'm sorry, I was dozing out a little..."
Kai slapped Shido in the back, as if to cheer him up.
"It's no big deal! Let's just try our best!"
"Yeah..."
The floating coliseum was pack filled with people from all social classes. Citizens of both the Rukongai, and Seireitei from all corners of the Soul Society had come to watch. For the first time in hundreds of years, even some members of the wolfman clan had taken it upon themselves to come watch their own members who had entered the academy creating a unique gathering of people that has never been seen before.
There was a private booth for other captains as well as members of the 4 great noble families, however it was almost empty.
In the auditorium section there were 3 noticeable people sitting there. One of them was the captain commander, without his lieutenant surprisingly. The next was the grandmaster of Shino Academy, Yamada Fujinishin and the third was a man who seemed to be of high class origins. He had a shaven head paired with a flamboyant beard.
Shunsui garnered everyone's attention as he was about to start the opening ceremony.
"Hello and thank you everyone for attending the 2,056th Tekken celebration. As per usual, I'm accompanied up here with the grandmaster of Shino Academy as well as a member of Central 46 Shingetsu Azaemon, per the traditions."
He handed over the speaking role to Shingetsu who was feeling very nervous in front of the huge number of people.
"The Coliseum is so high in the sky, so that we can be as close to the Soul King as possible. This is done so that the students may have his blessings as they fight to show their skills."
Suddenly, he paused for a random moment. He never picked back up his speech and ended up causing an awkward silence in the middle of the arena. To break it, Yamada intervened.
"The first grandmaster of Shino Academy, Shigekuni Yamamoto was a man of incredible valour. When it comes to being a teacher, I could never hope to be as good as him however, I have inherited his pride, the same as the many grandmasters before me. Because of this, I can say with confidence that this generation worth of student's is the strongest it has ever been!"
The crowd roared with excitement and hype after that very bold claim. The expectations from these students were the highest it has ever been. Shunsui then took over to kick off the start of celebration.
"Before we start, let's get some rules settled in? For a student to win they must fulfil two conditions. Either have the opposition surrender or push them to a point that our mediator, Lieutenant Nanao Ise decides that they are no longer capable of combat."
He then waved his hand with a cheer on his as he looked at Nanao who was in the middle of the Arena. A red vein popped out of her head, as she held herself back from not shouting at him. He was acting childish despite the numerous eyes that were on him.
"For the first pair of competitors from class 1, we have Shinten Ryu from the noble Ryu family who will be put up against Yuki Tsubokoniri."
Upon hearing Shinten's name, he was a little upset that his wasn't called, but after hearing Yuki's he felt nothing but pity for him. This emotion was felt by everyone in the room as they all felt bad for the beating Shinten was about to receive.
Only Kai was aware of how strong Yuki had gotten but he was even more aware of Yuki's strength after seeing her in the Dojo.
Shinten on the other hand seemed to have walked into the arena, exuding an aura of absolute confidence. But deep on the inside he was screaming,
"Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck, Oh fuck!"
On the opposite side, Yuki was still as expressionless as ever, with her true emotions hidden to all.
They both reached the centre with the only thing blocking them being Nanao. By that point, Shinten's visible confidence had already broken down as he was now sweating bullets.
"Calm down, CALM DOWN! I've trained for the last 2 months to win this thing! I'm much stronger than before!"
He was slowly regaining his confidence, but upon eye contact he immediately broke down. Seeing his panic, a voice manly voice shouted from the crowd.
"SHINTEN MY BOY! STAY FOCUSED! AS LONG AS YOU LET YOUR BLADE GUIDE YOU, THEN YOU'LL NEVER LOSE!"
He looked to the crowd to see who said that, only to find his mother, father and younger brother both cheering on for him. This was the boost he needed to grab back onto his confidence.
Just above them, another noble family which was dressed in much nicer looking clothes than them then said,
"Well if it isn't the Ryu family folk. Is that meant to be your heir? If he comes out a total weakling just like you, then your family is finished."
Hayami heard their mockery, but chose to ignore it. He took the brunt of the insults but kept cheering for his son anyway.
"THEY MAY INSULT US! THEY MAY BELITTLE US! BUT THE RYU FAMILY, SWING THEIR SWORDS NOT FOR SOUL SOCIETY, BUT FOR THEIR BELIEFS AND IDEALS! SHOW THEM YOUR PASSION AND HONOUR AS A SWORDSMAN! SHOW THEM THE STRENGTH OF YOUR DREAM!"
Shinten then grabbed onto his Zanpakutō, and drew it with great force. The second he did, the air in the atmosphere changed as everyone could feel the fire of his passion burning from within him. Nanao who was right next to him, could feel it the most.
As he took a fighting stance, he confidently said,
"When I fight, it's with all my power!"
Yuki too, drew her sword and took her own unique fighting stance,
"I wasn't expecting this to be easy anyway."