[Death] Acacia inkstone

The March warbler flies and the grass grows.

Sakurai Kaoru flicked his sleeves and opened the door.Today's sunshine is really dazzling, she built a pergola in front of her forehead with her hands, and her gaze fell to the arena in the distance:

Well, the graduation examination is about to begin.

This is Kaoru Sakurai's sixth year at Mao Lingdai.If she can successfully pass today's graduation assessment and be successfully hired by one of the Goutei [-] teams, then she and Maoling will end today.

Sakurai Kaoru walked through the bustling crowd and finally found the place where the queue was waiting for the test.The students in front of and behind her were obviously very nervous, all of them were silent, but they all cast their eyes directly at a certain place in the arena.Kaoru Sakurai looked at them curiously for a while, then stood on tiptoe and tried to look into the field as well - but it didn't last long.

What the hell are they looking at?

A moment later, Kaoru Sakurai crossed her arms, helplessly staring at the back of the girl who was half her head taller than her, with a gloomy expression on her face.

Maybe they are admiring the graduation assessment performance of other students?

Perhaps they were trying to extrapolate themselves from the exam questions other people had drawn?

Maybe...they're just too nervous to find something to do?

……

After thinking for a long time, she turned her head and looked at the team winding like a long dragon behind her, and secretly sighed in her heart:

Sure enough, those who are not tall are being bullied.

"The following candidates are—"

"No. 750 No. [-], Kaoru Sakurai."

When a cold and emotionless female voice sounded, Sakurai Kaoru gasped, and the face of the owner of the voice——the director of the Teaching Office of Mao Ling could not help appearing in his mind.

She shook her head, trying to get the serious and rigid old woman's face out of her mind, and at the same time began to repeat a sentence in her heart:

Don't get the sword test, don't get the ghost test, don't get the Shunbu test, don't get the healing skill test...

It's just that before she finished saying this sentence in her heart, she had already walked to the assessment point in the center of the venue.

"Sakurai Kaoru's assessment test question is—" The director stood beside the captain's seat, reached into the large wooden box placed on the table in front of her, and after stirring a few times, she took out a scroll from it.

Kaoru Sakurai looked at the black paper scroll that was slowly opening, and his mind was a little dazed for a moment:

She felt that she was probably going to die.

Decades ago, the graduation assessment of Maou Lingju Academy was still a comprehensive test integrating ghost way, unarmed combat, sword technique, Zanpakutō control level, healing technique, shunpo and strategy technique.Each student must participate in the assessment of all items, and the scores of each item are added together, and each team will be admitted in order of scores.However, for some students with extremely high scores in individual items but not good enough in other items, they can obtain priority admission qualifications from certain specific teams. For example, the fourth team pays special attention to healing skills, while the eleventh team attaches great importance to it. Zanpakuto control level.

It's just that since the Aizen rebellion subsided, the world of corpses and souls has been very peaceful. As a result, the graduation policy of Zhenyang Academy of Spiritual Arts has also been reduced accordingly.Therefore, by Kaoru Sakurai's time, although she still has to participate in the assessment of individual items, the difficulty has been greatly reduced. Except for the students with particularly outstanding scores who can get excellent, everyone else will only be divided into pass and fail Two categories, and those who pass all items can graduate.But... Despite this, there are still a small number of students who are difficult to graduate because of their weaknesses in certain aspects-such as Sakurai Kaoru.

The breeze blew across his cheeks, but Kaoru Sakurai who was standing in the middle of the venue felt a little chilly.

The assessment she took today was actually a special test—to put it bluntly, it was the last straw that would allow her to graduate smoothly.You know, how could she, who has been absent frequently from class since the third grade, pass the graduation test easily like everyone else?

Kaoru Sakurai glanced at the stern woman standing beside the captain's seat—Megumi Hayami from the corner of her eye, and subconsciously clenched her hands.

The assessment she participated in this time was set up to give students as many opportunities as possible to graduate - the test of adaptability.The examiner will design some test questions for each item, and then ask someone to write them on the scroll, and use the color of the scroll paper to mark the difficulty of the questions. The lowest is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and the highest is black.As long as candidates can successfully answer the questions drawn, they can graduate.Therefore, in the minds of most candidates, it is not so much a test of resilience as it is a test of "luck".

"Sakurai Kaoru examinee's exam question is strategy, please solve the chess game on the table within the stipulated time." Lu Chuan waved his hand, signaling two assistants on the sidelines to bring a wooden table.

Sakurai Kaoru frowned and walked to the table, but he was relieved.In fact, she is already mentally prepared not to graduate, isn't she just staying in the first grade, what is there to be afraid of?She lowered her eyes, and her eyes fell on the torreya chessboard placed in the middle of the red lacquered wooden table, and she was suddenly startled.Her exam questions actually used a very expensive... Torreya wood chessboard?Then he slowly moved his gaze to the side, this chess piece...was actually made of that wisdom stone?

Kaoru Sakurai kept telling himself to calm down and take a closer look at the chess game, but his hands still trembled uncontrollably when they touched the cold table.She knew very well that the chess game presented by this high-quality chessboard must be extremely difficult to solve.Kaoru Sakurai was a little puzzled when Matsushita's breath was finally brought up again, even if she got the most difficult black scroll, it wouldn't be such a difficult problem for her, right?

When did Mao Ling start to make things difficult for students?

After jotting down the rough shogi game, she closed her eyes and began to recall the ancient books she had read in the corridor of the Great Spirit Book.

"Candidate Sakurai, the time for a stick of incense is coming soon." Hayami Hui said coldly: "If you don't answer the question again, it will be regarded as zero points."

Sakurai Kaoru frowned, this rigid woman has never waited to see her, and now seeing her downcast appearance, she is probably very happy in her heart.Anyway, in the eyes of this woman, a person with low spiritual power like her, not to mention Zhenyang Ling, is not even worthy of stepping into the gate of Jinglingting.

"That's right, I can't answer." She pretended to smile bitterly, but from the corner of her eye, she turned to Megumi Hayami's face with a superficial smile.

"In this case, I will announce that Kaoru Sakurai failed the examination result," Megumi Hayami motioned to the assistants on the sidelines: "Go and remove the things—"

"Wait. It's true that I can't solve this chess game," Sakurai Kaoru paused, and slightly raised the volume: "Mr. Ke Hayamizu, you changed the test questions into an ancient puzzle that no one can solve so far. Do you really think you won't be discovered?"

"Nonsense!" Hayami Hui was full of disdain, "Why would I do such a meaningless thing?"

She waved to the two assistants who were stunned by the side: "What are you doing standing there? Didn't you hear what I said? Hurry up and take things down."

"Mr. Hayami, why are you in such a hurry?" Sakurai Kaoru walked around the wooden table, with a faint smile on his face instead: "If you guessed correctly, this question was given by Captain Kuchiki, right? How about just Captain Kuchiki, please come forward and have a look, is this the exam question you wrote on the black paper scroll?"

Before the words were finished, Kaoru Sakurai saw the woman next to the captain's seat, and her face darkened immediately.

"Oh?" The black-clothed girl in front of her eyes looked very calm, and she didn't show any panic because she couldn't solve the problem. There was even a smile on the corner of her mouth, as if she was the winner.This aroused Kuchiki Byakuya's interest, Mao Ling hadn't had a student like her for a long time.Tapping the table with his index finger a few times, he had no intention of getting up, but said seriously, "How do you know that this question is from me?"

"Back to the captain," Kaoru Sakurai took a step back to the left so that everyone could see the chessboard on the table: "The student recognizes that this chessboard is a torreya wood chessboard, and the chess pieces are made of that wisdom stone, and they are very old. .”

"The only person who has the ability to take out such a chess set and has the qualifications to ask questions is Captain Kuchiki from a famous family."

"Then why do you assert that the examiner Megumi Hayami changed the title without authorization?" Although it was half an arena away, Kuchiki Byakuya recognized from the very beginning that the unsolvable chess game arranged on the board was not made by him .It's just that he didn't tell the truth immediately, but chose to wait until the end of the test to see if he could find any clues.And if Sakurai Kaoru's performance here is acceptable, after telling everyone the truth, it doesn't hurt to give her a pass.

"Students recognized this chess game as an unsolvable puzzle recorded in ancient remnants, and Mao Ling would definitely not give candidates unanswered questions, so I don't think the questions should have been like this. And all the scrolls were written After the questions are written, they are handed over to the examiners for storage by the testers, so I think it should be Mr. Hayami who modified the questions."

What she said is indeed reasonable, no matter how difficult the assessment questions are, there are always correct answers.It's just... He frowned and pondered, this game was only recorded in a very old file, and very few people knew about it, but how could she, a mere student of Zhenyangling, recognize it?

"The chess game on the chessboard is indeed different from what I wrote at the beginning." Byakuya Kuchiki said in a deep voice, and before he finished speaking, he heard the noise coming from inside and outside the arena.

Everyone was obviously taken aback.

"Ms. Hayami has always disliked me, but I also know that my ability does not meet her expectations. But such a reckless thing as changing the test questions..." Kaoru Sakurai stared at Megumi Hayami coldly, with deep eyes, looking Without emotion: "She won't do it."

"You're not her." Sakurai Kaoru chuckled, she was always peaceful, but at this moment she was rarely provocative: "I don't know why you are making things difficult for me."

"It's just..." She glanced at the chessboard out of the corner of her eye: "Since you did this, you should know the consequences."

"who are you?"

The expression on Megumi Hayami's face froze for a moment, and the eyes cast from all directions fell on her like shackles. Originally, she just wanted Kaoru Sakurai to make a fool of herself in public and fail the examination, but unexpectedly, she became the focus of the audience... When that person encouraged her, he clearly promised that everything would go well, but now...

Fortunately, just to be on the safe side, she kept a backhand.

"It's no wonder you don't know who I am," she forced a smile, but her mind was already in a state of confusion: "After all, there are too many people who dislike you in Zhenyang Ling, how can you distinguish them one by one?"

She stunned and pulled out the Zanpakutō, and threw it at the captain's seat with all her might—

With a bang, the entire arena was enveloped in a puff of thick smoke.

And when the smoke cleared after a stick of incense, "Hayamihui" disappeared.

. . .