The Martial Unity

"Are you ready to leave the Academy?" Rui raised an eyebrow.

Generally, students graduated when the Academy no longer provided much utility to them, or when they were no longer merited to remain in the Martial Academy. In either case, the Martial Academy would graduate them and they would go on to operate as full-fledged Martial Artists.

"No," Kane admitted, sighing. "I need to grow stronger if I want to be able to forcefully gain my independence from Arrancar Family. Furthermore, if I leave now I'll just end up under their clutches."

"Right." Rui nodded, sighing. "Do what's best for your future Kane, that's what's most important at the end of the day."

"Yeah, I know, it's just a shame we won't be able to hang out anymore," Kane remarked.

"Like I said, we can still take missions together," Rui told him. "So cheer up, it's not all that bad."

"Yeah, I know." Kane sighed gloomily.

Soon it was time for Rui to depart the Martial Academy. He took his time bidding farewell to the many acquaintances he had made in his time in the Martial Academy. His close friends, peers, instructors, and other staff. Finally he stood at the gate, ready to leave.

"Man." Rui muttered. "I'm going to miss this place."

He turned around and walked past the gates of the Martial Academy, no longer a student.

From now on, he was a full-fledged independent Martial Artist. And now the burden of debt that he had incurred over the past few years would not actually be placed on his shoulders. The net sum had been calculated and given to him before he departed, and the sheer amount was not something that could be repaid in any short amount of time.

"For now, I should forget about staying independent." Rui shook his head.

He immediately began jogging towards the Quarrier Orphanage. This is where he would be staying until he repaid all his debt, at the very least.

It didn't take long for Rui to reach the Quarrier Orphanage. He was greeted the second he reached the gates.

"RUIIII!" Alice squealed energetically when he reached the Orphanage, as she pulled him for a hug. "You've grown so tall!"

"Thanks." Rui squeezed. "Good to see you too, Alice. You're choking me you know."

"Ahhh~ my bad my bad." She laughed as she let go of Rui. "Come in. I'm so glad you're back!"

Rui let her drag her in with an amused smile as the other members of the Orphanage. The children and the adults of the Quarrier Orphanage quickly swarmed him as they greeted him.

"Congratulations on graduating from the Academy." Farion smiled as he hugged Rui.

"Hehe, so you've become a full-fledged Martial Artist now, eh?" Nina smiled.

"Congratulations Rui." Julian smiled welcomingly. "You've truly come a long way."

"Big brother!" Max and Mana greeted him as the children followed suit. "You're back, teach us Martial Art."

"Alright alright." Rui laughed. "Good to finally be back with all of you."

"Rui." Lashara called out to him.

"Mom." Rui walked towards her.

"My precious baby." She pulled him for a hug.

He remained lowered until she was finally satisfied, letting go. "You'll be staying here?"

"For the foreseeable future, surely." Rui confirmed.

The orphanage fawned over him some more before finally letting him be.

"Phew." He collapsed into a couch.

"So." Julian sat across from him. "What do you plan to do from here on?"

"Nothing much has changed really." Rui shrugged. "I don't believe I'm too far from the Squire Realm, and that is my immediate goal."

"I see." Julian sipped some tea. "Will the debt hinder you too much?"

"Hmmm..." Rui pondered. "It will impede me to a certain extent I would imagine, but it doesn't change too much. At the end of the day, I still plan on completing missions and that doesn't change regardless if I'm in debt or not."

"What about the cost of training and growth resources?" Julian asked.

Previously, the cost of the training and growth resources were all covered by the Martial Academy outside of the cost of gaining access to techniques. Rui could simply walk in and purchase the techniques that he wanted and immediately begin training with the training equipment and resources that he needed while being guided by a veteran Martial Squire with a large amount of experience in guiding Martial Apprentices with the training and mastery of those particular techniques. He could use all the rejuvenation potions he wanted in the world without a care.

"Well..." Rui scratched his head awkwardly. "That's going to be much harder than it used to be."

The Martial union offered essentially the exact same resources the Martial Academy did, but all of them cost the Martial Apprentices. These resources weren't cheap.

"Thankfully, my training and growth resources needs have reduced tremendously." He told Julian.

"Oh?" Julian frowned. "Why is that?"

Rui proceeded to tell Julian everything about the Mindmirror Symbiote.

"Fascinating." Julian's eyes lit up with interest. "That's quite remarkable. I know of symbiotic Martial Art, but I've never heard about the Mindmirror Symbiote before. It's genuinely shocking to know that such extreme symbiotes exist."

"Yeah." Rui nodded. "I was pretty shocked too."

"In that case, the reduced training and mastery speed might actually be perfectly timed." Julian speculated. "Since you no longer have the ability to train for free, it's quite likely that the debt you're enduring will also prevent you from training at your previous speed. So your financial constraints match your mental constraints."

Rui nodded. "True, this is one of the considerations I had when I picked the Mindmirror Symbiote for my previous training stage. I knew I would be leaving the Martial Academy once the training stage ended. Thus, it would coincide very well with my debt constraints and I would avoid wasting potential that could have been used to grow stronger faster."

"That's quite wise of you." Julian nodded.

The two of them conversed for quite some time before it was time for lunch."