"It's been a long time since anyone dared point a Zanpakutō at me..." Unohana looked at the blade in front of her, slightly longer than a standard asauchi, and spoke in a low voice.
"Oh? Well, now someone has," Natsuro replied casually.
"If you sheath your sword now, I can pretend this never happened," Unohana's tone darkened, her gaze taking on a dangerous glint.
Natsuro sensed the shift in her demeanor and responded seriously, "No. Since I've issued the challenge, I won't back down."
"Heh heh..." Unohana suddenly laughed, her voice twisted with a hint of madness, starkly different from her usual gentle tone. With a voice laced with menace, she said, "Let me warn you, if you can't satisfy me... you'll die."
"Hm?" Natsuro's eyes sparked with intrigue. "Don't worry. I'll make it worth your while."
"Good. Then follow me."Unohana's gentle façade vanished completely, replaced by a sharp, commanding presence. She turned and strode forward toward their battleground.
Natsuro smiled at her back and followed.
Along the way, they passed several Soul Reapers who instinctively tried to greet Unohana, but the look in her eyes froze them in their tracks, as if their bodies refused to move.
It was clear: after today, yet another version of the Unohana rumors would spread across Soul Society.
Eventually, Unohana brought Natsuro to a certain location.
"This is... the underground prison beneath Shin'ō Academy?" Natsuro asked, puzzled. Why bring him here for a fight?
Unohana didn't answer. She simply walked forward. Surprisingly, none of the guards stopped her.
Still puzzled, Natsuro followed. They descended all the way to the eighth level of the underground complex, a floor reserved for the most dangerous criminals. But Unohana didn't use any keys or unlock anything. She simply walked to an enormous open space.
"This must be... Muken?" Natsuro said in surprise. "Didn't expect there to be such a massive open area underground."
Unohana turned to face him. Her long black braid, normally tied in front, had been loosened and now flowed freely down her back.
Natsuro's eyes narrowed when he saw the large, savage scar on her chest.
Unohana gently touched the scar and murmured, "This... was left by him. It's a shame…"
She didn't finish the thought, clearly lost in old memories.
Then, she finally spoke again. "Vice-Captain... if you die here, no one will ever know."
With that, she drew her Zanpakutō, appearing just like a normal asauchi.
Natsuro recognized it. Unohana's Shikai was a biological-type sword with healing properties and no real combat power. So this was her real sealed blade.
"Relax, you're not going to kill me," Natsuro said nonchalantly. Then he asked, "If I remember right, being a captain requires having achieved Bankai, right? So... aren't you going to use yours?"
"That depends... on whether you're worthy of seeing it," Unohana replied as she gripped her sword.
"You won't have to wait long to find out," Natsuro said as he tightened his grip on Meikyō Shisui.
There were no referees, no spectators, and no announcement to start this match.
But in the very next instant... Both of them moved. Swords drawn, they clashed with explosive force.
BOOM!!
Just from that first collision, both Natsuro and Unohana smiled.
Because from a single blow, they could already sense the other's level. This, this was real combat.
Spiritual pressure, power, sword angle...
This was the kind of fight that brought joy.
They tacitly refrained from using techniques, clashing like two primitive warriors, relying only on raw strength.
But if you called them primitive, then the weapons in their hands were far from crude, each swing carried the power to kill anyone foolish enough to underestimate them.
No one knew how many times their blades collided before they finally separated after one heavy strike.
"You're not bad," Natsuro said with a genuine smile.
Unohana looked at her blade in mild disbelief, then smiled... A beautiful, eerie smile, and said with chilling gentleness, "You're not bad either."
She hadn't expected there to be anyone besides him who could bring her such joy.
This... was incredible.
Even though he'd appeared late in her life, as long as she could still wield a sword, still fight...
Then it wasn't too late!
A worthy opponent like this, she'd wait a hundred years for one.
"Still not using your Bankai?" Natsuro asked softly. He was excited too, but he wanted to see her at full power. That would make the cutting even more fun.
"Heh... But you haven't used any abilities either, not even your true Shikai," Unohana replied.
"Good eye," Natsuro nodded. Since Unohana's Shikai wasn't combat-focused, he hadn't used Meikyō Shisui's abilities either. He was relying solely on physical strength so far.
"In that case, show me more!" Unohana shouted, lifting her sword. "If you can make me happy enough, I will use my Bankai!"
"Then... be careful," Natsuro warned.
That simple sentence made Unohana ecstatic, but also extremely cautious.
Fighting him left no room for distraction. But this state, this tension, was exactly what she had longed for.
At that moment, a sound like thunder rippled from Natsuro's blade.
"First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"
In the blink of an eye, Natsuro vanished. In his place, lightning exploded in every direction, crackling across the ground in blinding streaks, surging toward Unohana faster than the eye could follow.
Unohana narrowed her eyes. This was not a flashy move, it was a sword strike powered by pure speed, augmented with precise slashing force and accompanied by thunder.
But if he thought a flashy thunder sword would be enough to beat her, that was delusional.
Just as Unohana prepared to meet his blow head-on with a two-handed counter...
Natsuro vanished again.
Unohana was stunned. How?! To change direction in the middle of that kind of high-speed charge...
It was unthinkable.
She began to hear footsteps, on the ground, on the walls above, even on nearby structures...
Soon, thunder and footsteps mixed into a chaotic rhythm, echoing around her from every direction.
Every direction... She couldn't tell where Natsuro was anymore.
A chilling sense of danger welled up inside her. To lose track of your opponent's position in a battle like this...
Meant only one thing.
BOOM!!
An ear-splitting crack rang out. A blinding slash of lightning crashed down toward Unohana.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opening, a perfect strike. Natsuro had spent all this time searching for it.
CLASH!!
Blood splattered across the air, but at the same time, their blades collided.
Natsuro looked at Meikyō Shisui, now locked against Unohana's sword, and raised his brows. She actually blocked that? Even at the last second, she reacted.
His face lit up with excitement. Now this, this was a fight!
If she had fallen from that single blow, he'd have been bored out of his mind.
"Got you!" Unohana grinned dangerously.
She wasn't about to let Natsuro widen the gap again and use that lightning-speed movement she had no answer for.
In the next instant, their blades separated, and Unohana began swinging furiously. Her blade carved through the air like a storm, sending dense waves of slashes toward Natsuro, so many that they sealed off every possible escape route.
But he didn't intend to retreat.
His eyes locked onto Unohana's sword, it looked like a single blade, yet it produced multiple afterimages with each swing.
Natsuro gripped his sword tightly, inhaled deeply...
And then Meikyō Shisui burst into a flurry of phantom blades, colliding again and again with Unohana's strikes.
Perhaps, in that moment, they shared the same thought, when they drew near, it was the perfect time to strike. If either of them hesitated for even an instant, the only thing awaiting them would be a merciless slash.
"Second Form: Hachikanzan (Eight-Crown Slash)!"
If the First Form was all about pure speed and a flawlessly timed, pinpoint strike, then the Second Form was a sword style that pushed swing speed to its absolute limit.
And in a duel like this, that was the most fitting style.
Natsuro's blade and Unohana's clashed countless times in the blink of an eye, yet neither could gain the upper hand.
In terms of technique, Unohana was clearly superior since he hadn't spent nearly as long practicing the blade.
But there was one thing he surpassed her in, sheer sword speed.
So in this contest of strengths and weaknesses, their blades clashed endlessly. Even when Unohana spotted an opening in Natsuro's form, she couldn't exploit it, because if she did, her own guard would be compromised.
And Unohana knew, he wouldn't miss that chance. If it came to that, she might be the first to be cut down.
Their silhouettes blurred as they crossed again and again, both of them mentally stretched to the limit.
In this extreme duel of blades, even the tiniest lapse in focus could lead to fatal mistakes.
Their swords had become the deadliest of weapons, locked in a fierce contest.
And still, after all that time… neither of them made a single error.
"Exhilarating!" Natsuro couldn't help but shout, pouring even more power into his blade as it once again clashed with Unohana's. The force of the impact finally knocked them apart.
"You're impressive," Unohana admitted. She hadn't expected him to be this strong. She didn't bother thinking about how someone who'd only just arrived in Soul Society could be so powerful.
All she knew was, she was having fun, and that was enough.
Natsuro smiled as well. Up until now, his most satisfying fight had been the final battle in the Naruto world.
But now, in the Bleach world, even though he couldn't rely on the abilities he was most familiar with…
The sheer joy of battling with swordsmanship alone, this thrill, was more than enough.
Just from this, Natsuro knew, coming to this world hadn't been in vain.
In the next instant, he vanished once again from Unohana's sight.
"Not good!" Unohana muttered. Above her, sword beams began raining down like a storming tide.
"Third Form: Zandanshi no Ame (Rain of Severance)!"
If the version he used during his graduation was like a drizzle, then what poured down on Unohana now was a torrential downpour, enough to cause a flood.
"Bakudō #81: Dankū!"
A massive spiritual barrier rose above Unohana. Even she couldn't afford to ignore this attack.If it were just the earlier "drizzle," she could've batted it away with her sword.
But now, he was going all out, this was the true power of the Rain of Severance.
It was never meant as an area-of-effect technique. It was a hyper-focused form designed for small-scale devastation. When used on a larger area, the "rainfall" decreased, and with it, the power.
Still, even the weaker version wasn't something an ordinary Soul Reaper could survive.
Unohana's hastily-cast Bakudō wasn't enough.
The downpour crashed through her barrier like a broken dam, flooding downward like the Milky Way falling from the heavens.
"So strong…" Unohana muttered in awe.
Her spiritual pressure surged, and her sword began to whirl, splitting the falling river of sword beams apart as if slicing open a galaxy.
But even then, she couldn't fully cut through them all.
The sword energy was like rain, seeping through every crack.
Finally, several of the sword beams slipped through and struck her body.
In just a moment, blood streaked across Unohana's skin, staining her uniform in crimson.
And with that…
The storm of sword rain ended.
Natsuro looked at her and asked, "Still not going to use your Bankai? If you don't… you won't get another chance."
Feeling the pain from her wounds, Unohana suddenly broke into laughter... Loud, unrestrained laughter.
"I never imagined… that one day I would be pushed to this point. Even more so, I never thought I would use my Bankai... on someone else."
Natsuro held Meikyō Shisui and looked at her with deep respect.
If it were purely a test of sword technique, he would have lost. But he won because his base stats, his strength, speed, and reflexes far surpassed hers.
And that was enough to compensate, even surpass their difference in technique.
Unohana kept smiling as she looked at him.
Then, she took her sword in one hand, holding it horizontally in front of her.
With the other hand, she grasped the blade itself.
Blood slowly began to seep from her palm, coating the Zanpakutō. Her hand slid along the entire length of the blade, painting it in red.
The shape of her Zanpakutō began to change... It became a curved, blood-stained scimitar.
At that moment, he felt the entire world shift.
Then, he heard a voice in his ears, cold and echoing.
"Bankai: Minazuki....
All Things Ends"
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Currently on Chapter 475 - The Rule of the Shinigami