rain forest

The cyan flame split from one beam to two beams, then three beams, four beams, five beams... until it burned the entire darkness.The chaos of meditation faded away, and Aoki watched very clearly the flames licking at the bottom of the darkness, and then the thick darkness was burned like a piece of paper, revealing the colorful colors behind it.

Forest, sunlight, fog, torii.

An all-too-familiar scene.

The same familiar silver-haired boy squatted on the torii gate, looking in a good mood, he waved at the girl: "Yo, Xiao Aoki."

Aoki looked up at him, and she was instinctively in awe of this shrine: "Squatting on the torii in such an indecent posture, aren't you afraid of being punished by God, come down."

Ichimaru Yin squinted his eyes and smiled: "Little Aoki is fine, so nothing will happen to me, right?"

Aoki curled his lips, agreed with Ichimaru's words, lowered his head and pulled off the priestess clothes on his body: "Yes, yes, but you come down for me, at least—"

Aoki paused, and tilted his head in confusion, what is it anyway?

Something seems wrong.

Confused, she saw Ichimaru fall from the top of the tall torii gate.

Aoki wanted to laugh at him, but before he could say anything, the girl saw a mass of blood on the boy's body, and her teasing words froze.She just froze in place.

Ichimaru Gin sat up slowly by himself, the wound on his body was terrifying.He opened his mouth and chanted Kidou, but Aoki couldn't hear a word, and then the unknown Kidou threw her behind the torii gate.Her back hit the shrine steps and hurt.

Do not--

Aoki wasn't sure if she had said the word, but her body involuntarily rushed towards Ichimaru.

However, being blocked, a light-colored barrier fell in front of the torii gate, strongly separating the two of them.

Ichimaru Gin smiled at her outside the barrier, with a gentle and tender smile.Aoki's vision was blurred, and the face of the boy outside the barrier was also blurred, like Gin Ichimaru, a handsome strange man, and Byakuya Kuchiki.

The voice of the person with a blurred face is also vague, but Aoki can hear every word clearly: "Take care of yourself."

This is farewell.

Outside the barrier, the light was shining brightly, and the white and glaring light engulfed the young man's figure. At that moment, his face was clear - Kuchiki Byakuya.

■

"Hey, wake up, wake up!"

There was a light slap on the face.

Aoki opened his eyes with difficulty, and saw the teacher on duty in the practice room.

"Teacher..." Aoki opened his mouth, unexpectedly finding it very difficult to speak.Then she realized that she was covered in cold sweat.

"You dare to try sitting meditation, are you dying?" The teacher reprimanded in a stern tone, "It's good to be self-motivated, but you have to do what you can. It's a taboo to have high hands and low eyes!"

"I'm sorry." Aoki bowed his head respectfully, on the surface he was a good student who obediently admitted his mistakes, but in his heart he was still thinking about the dream just now.

"This is not an example. Let's suspend the training. You go back to rest today." It is not a familiar student, and the teacher didn't say much, "Can you stand up? Do you want to call your team members to pick you up?"

"No, there's no need, I can do it myself." Aoki stood up while supporting the wall, his legs were as soft as noodles, and Aoki needed a lot of effort to keep his legs from shaking.

"Don't be brave." Came a drawn-out helpless voice.Aoki was supported by a pair of hands.

The girl turned her head: "Mr. Mushroom?"

The teacher gave the boy a strange look.

"...Takashi Watanabe... Tsuchimikado, have you forgotten my name?"

"I'm so sorry... why did Watanabe-kun appear here? Haven't you already practiced Hajikai?" Aoki asked, putting part of his body weight on Watanabe's hands.

Watanabe rolled his eyes: "Running errands for Master Kuchiki, you didn't take the bento box away."

Aoki moved his legs slowly and walked out: "What are you doing there?"

"The group of foodies asked me to make ice again," Watanabe replied in a low voice after being far enough away from the teacher, "I'll send you a copy when it's almost time. But you're not here, Kuchiki said you would be there Here, I came over and brought a bento box by the way."

"Where's the ice?" Aoki looked down at the wooden box on Watanabe's arm.

"...Are you a foodie? If you're like this, you still need to eat ice, go back to sleep!" Watanabe looked at Aoki with contempt, "By the way, I'll carry you on my back, how long will it take you to get to the dormitory like this? , I can’t go up to the girls’ dormitory, you have to climb the stairs by yourself.”

At this time, the girls' dormitory is empty.Aoki's dormitory is on the fifth floor.

The girl obediently lay on Watanabe's back.

"It would be great if someone came to pick me up." Aoki had to stop to rest when she climbed to the first and a half floors, she leaned against the corner and muttered gloomily, "I can't climb at all."

"Although I've come to pick you up, I can't carry you on my back now, little Aoki."

Aoki bent over, keeping his head down and panting: "If the bento box is in my hand now, I will definitely throw it on your head."

"Don't be like this, you can't treat sick patients so cruelly."

"The patient doesn't stay on the hospital bed well, isn't it just looking for smoking?" Aoki raised his head and looked at Ichimaru who was coming down the stairs, squinting his eyes dissatisfied.

"I'm glad that little Aoki cares about me. But—" Ichimaru stood in front of Aoki with folded hands, "What's wrong with you? Even the mirror door has disturbing fluctuations."

Has it reached this level... Aoki supported the wall and straightened his waist: "Isn't it because you said something that doesn't fit the image of the character, and it made me go mad."

"Is there such a setting in our world as madness? Aoki, have you read a novel about madness?" Ichimaru stretched out his hand to the girl who stopped every step, "Although I can't carry you on my back, it's okay to hold you."

Aoki's gaze shifted from the boy's face to his skeletal hand, and after taking a look like this, she put her hand on it.

Immediately, Ichimaru gathered his fingers, held Aoki's abnormally cold hand, and then gave a pulling force, and Aoki was dragged away.

Up to the second floor, Ichimaru turned around and said, "Let me carry you on my back. You should drag me with all your weight, it's too impolite."

"Do you think I'm willing..." The girl paused every word, her voice almost broken.As soon as he said something, he was distracted, and the uncontrollable spiritual pressure needle came out of Aoki's body like a needle.

Just like coughing, once you relax your vigilance and let it make its first sound, you can't stop it.

Ichimaru Gin's eyes tightened, and he grabbed Aoki and dragged her into the nearest unoccupied dormitory, and at the same time took out something from his arms - 28's money bag.He took out a black cloak from inside, and wrapped himself and Aoki together.

Aoki tried her best to control the Reiatsu, but there were still strands of blue coming out of her body, some even in the shape of flames.Aoki gritted his teeth and said, "What kind of damn setting is this?"

"Reiatsu runaway." Ichimaru Gin released his own Reiatsu to guide Aoki, "Congratulations on getting a chance to experience it."

Probably because the pain was unbearable, Aoki completely softened, all supported by Shimaru, she was obviously still suppressing the Reiatsu, trembling constantly, and the voice from her throat was rough: "You will be found, you .”

"If you don't do this, you will die. It explodes with a bang." Gin Ichimaru's forehead was dripping with sweat, and the white bandage that was not covered by his clothes was gradually turning red. His voice was not relaxed, but his tone was pretentious. Tsukuru didn't care, "Don't worry, this cloak can completely isolate Reiatsu, it's made by Urahara, and the quality is guaranteed."

Aoki didn't answer, she tightly clenched the sleeves of Ichimaru Shiba's costume, closed her eyes and tightly suppressed the flames in her body.After many times of practice, the tamed flame broke out wildly again, even worse than in Xuquan, not only wanted to squeeze Aoki dry, but also wanted to burn her to ashes.

I don't know how long it took before the restlessness in the body subsided.

Aoki was dazed and semi-conscious.Ichimaru wrapped Aoki in a cloak and carried him up to the dormitory on the fifth floor.

After setting the mirror door, Ichimaru untied Aoki from the cloak and stuffed it under the bed.The girl who was drifting between coma and waking, and wanted to get closer to the former, subconsciously tugged on Ichimaru's sleeve.

Ichimaru Gin gently stroked Aoki's head with the other hand: "Relax and sleep, I'm here."

He didn't know if his words could be conveyed to Aoki, but this is the only thing he can do now.

After a while, the girl let go of her hand.