"Your mind's wandering, you know~"
While Yamada Seinosuke and Yushima Ōko were clashing, Unohana Retsu had already arrived at her long-sealed secret training ground—and there, a man had been waiting for her for quite some time.
"In your own home, if you still keep your guard up like you do outside, wouldn't that be a bit sad?
I'd like to think you wouldn't go so far as to throw me out, Captain Unohana."
That man, of course, was Higashino Shuuichi. Only when Unohana spoke did he slowly push himself up from the floor.
"Looks like your time in the Human World has changed you quite a bit~"
Unohana Retsu folded her hands at her lower abdomen, eyes narrowing slightly. She gazed at Higashino Shuuichi with the gentle air of a Tokyo housewife.
If he didn't already know what this woman truly was at her core, Higashino might very well have been fooled by that appearance.
"Has it? I don't really feel like I've changed much at all, Captain."
Unohana shook her head and replied softly, "If this were the old you, you wouldn't speak so directly.
Besides, if you really thought of this place as your 'home'… then why is it that in nearly ten years since you came back, you've never once set foot here?"
"Well, I am here now, aren't I, Captain~
Times have changed. With the positions we hold now, we're not exactly allowed to have too much contact."
Higashino Shuuichi answered with a smile.
"So this time you're here on business as well… is that it?"
Unohana Retsu asked it as though in passing.
"You could say that, I suppose.
But my main reason is that I missed you, Captain. I came back to see you~
And…"
Higashino Shuuichi's right hand settled on the hilt of his Zanpakutō, his expression turning suddenly cold and sharp.
"…to fulfill the promise between us."
A skull-like mask and skeletal armor slammed across his body in an instant, covering him completely.
Without another word, Higashino Shuuichi completed his Hollowfication in a heartbeat, then drew his Zanpakutō.
"Bungetsu: Kuro Ana (Crescent Sever: Black Rift)!"
A pitch-black spatial fissure swallowed the entire secret training ground, and within that darkness, Unohana Retsu burst into a bright, delighted smile, letting the rift pass straight through her.
This was the unspoken understanding between her and Higashino Shuuichi. Even though they hadn't spoken properly in a long time—even though she had never seen this particular move before—Unohana believed that this attack existed only to create the stage for their battle.
After all, with the level of power Higashino Shuuichi wielded now, if the two of them fought in the Soul Society in earnest, a mere secret training ground reinforced with barriers would never survive.
And she was not wrong. Bungetsu: Kuro Ana was a slash technique Higashino had developed as a variant of his Bungetsu-giri (Crescent Sever Slash), funnelling the power of a Garganta into the form of a cutting strike in order to forcibly relocate his opponent.
It was a variant slash he'd only developed after fully digesting the Chōzuki (Moon Scoop) technique he'd learned from Ōetsu Nimaiya of the Zero Division.
At this moment, using it to forcibly drag Unohana Retsu into Hueco Mundo for their fight could not have been more appropriate.
Of course, Higashino could have picked a more "stable" method—simply opening a Garganta and politely inviting Unohana to step through with him. He was certain that even then, she would very likely have agreed.
But that wouldn't have been nearly as cool.
Yes, in front of Unohana Retsu, Higashino Shuuichi always had this urge to show off. It was probably because he had spent so many years receiving her personal instruction in swordsmanship.
When you return in glory, you want the people back home to see you in a new light.
Even Higashino Shuuichi wasn't immune to that.
At the same time, this unrestrained surge of spiritual pressure from him naturally caused a bit of a stir throughout the Soul Society. Several captains thought Arrancar from Hueco Mundo had invaded Seireitei again.
But they quickly received a message from the Head Captain.
"Nothing has happened. No cause for concern."
"Nothing, huh?"
On his way to Fifth Division to ask Aizen about the situation, Ichimaru Gin received the Head Captain's message mid-stride, and a playful smile crept onto his face.
Because he knew very well—if this wasn't an Arrancar attack from Hueco Mundo, then in all of Soul Society, there was only one other person who could release spiritual pressure that felt this close to an Arrancar's.
But Higashino Shuuichi, already in Hueco Mundo with Unohana Retsu, had no mind to spare for the chain reaction his actions were causing back in the Soul Society.
He'd already spoken with Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni beforehand, so there was no need to worry that the Gotei 13 would do what they had last time and send someone to chase him down and cause trouble.
On top of that, he'd also asked Harribel to clear out an area in Hueco Mundo where they wouldn't be disturbed.
So before he even stepped out of the Garganta, his Kidō was already moving ahead of him.
"Defiant dragon, filth-choked earth, unstoppable wrath, source that wakes from slumbered dreams—winds, flames, ice, lightning, and land, break forth from karmic ruin, return unimpeded—reduce all to nothingness, return all things to the beginning…
Hadō no 99: Goryūtenmetsu (Five Dragons of Destruction)!"
The ground split apart, and five colossal cyan dragons thrust up into the sky, their target only one—the tiny Shinigami standing at the center: Unohana Retsu.
"Heh~"
At the heart of the storm, Unohana's long hair—normally braided and resting neatly upon her chest—whipped freely through the air, as if caught up by the winds those dragons stirred.
The scar below her collarbone, left from her battle with a young Zaraki Kenpachi, was now boldly and openly displayed before Higashino Shuuichi's eyes.
"I've been waiting for this day for a long time too, Shuuichi.
I hope after today… neither of us will have any regrets~"
Her words were a whisper only she could hear. From Higashino's perspective, all he saw was a circular arc of her sword carving through the air around her, and in that instant, heaven and earth themselves seemed to split into upper and lower halves.
He could almost hear the five dragons roaring in his ears—but in the next moment, those dragons, which had been poised to launch a ferocious assault on Unohana, all collapsed from midair in unison.
The connection between their bodies and the earth beneath them had been severed in a single stroke.
No matter how imposing they looked, once cut off from their supply of spiritual pressure, there was only one fate left to them—dissipation.
"Are you kidding me, Harribel-sama? That Shinigami captain called Unohana Retsu is really just a medical-division captain?
At that level of a single slash, even Starrk-sama might not be able to withstand it, right?"
From afar, Harribel's Fracción, Sung-Sun—who had, under Higashino's orders, evacuated other Hollows from the vicinity and was now standing guard with the others—couldn't help blurting it out.
To be honest, Harribel was shocked as well.
Even when she'd first received Higashino's request, she had already guessed to some extent that any captain Shuuichi-sama treated this seriously had to be incredibly powerful.
She just hadn't imagined that her expectations were still far too conservative.
How could a single slash reach that level of strength?
To Higashino Shuuichi, though, this was entirely normal.
And he knew full well this still wasn't Unohana Retsu's strongest form.
"Charge, Heisha!
Zen Heisha: Kimō – Rai (Good Strategist: Stratagem – Thunder)!"
Lightning wrapped itself around Higashino Shuuichi, arcs crackling and dancing along his fingertips. The moment his Zanpakutō released, his spiritual pressure shifted in nature.
"Nadegiri!"
A heartbeat ago, he had just stepped out of the Garganta, and Unohana had only just cleaved those five dragons in half.
Now, in the very next instant, Higashino used the brief window of her resheathing motion—lightly tapping one foot down in front of Unohana as thunder rumbled and roaring arcs of lightning stretched down from the Garganta in the sky, trailing a brilliant stairway behind them.
But that was just the aftertaste.
The true main course was the slash that came crashing down from above.
The earth fractured in an instant. Spiritual pressure howled out. Thunder followed close behind, lightning stitching a radiant dragon between heaven and earth.
"Yes… that's how it should be, Shuuichi~"
Under that world-shaking slash, there wasn't a speck of fear in Unohana Retsu's eyes.
In those beautiful eyes, there was only pure, undiluted satisfaction—ecstasy, even—and that thing people call "joy."
A normal person, facing such an attack, would either be desperately looking for a way to dodge if they were smart, or mentally drafting their will if their reflexes were quicker than their brains.
Unohana Retsu chose to meet it head-on, blade to blade.
Just as she once had against Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni.
"To be defeated by the same technique twice—that would be shameful.
Bankai, Minazuki (All Things' End)!"
Blood. Endless, boundless blood.
In that instant, blood came pouring forth—from the blade of Unohana's Zanpakutō, from the surroundings, from the sky, from the earth, even from the Nadegiri slash itself—gushing like a waterfall.
In the blink of an eye, the entire world sank into a blood-soaked Silent Hill.
And in that world of blood, there was only one sovereign.
A massive blood-drenched blade, lightly lifted in Unohana's hand.
The moment that blade met Higashino Shuuichi's Nadegiri, thunder, force, and even the gouged ravines in the earth were swallowed whole by the endless blood.
Without a sound, everything was inevitably reduced to nourishment for the blood sea.
Meanwhile, several Reishi constructs that had been hiding in secret places were also dragged out into the open as the blood sea took shape. They let out pitiful shrieks, then were all, without exception, dragged beneath the surface.
"At long last… I finally get to see it, Captain—your Bankai."
But in truth, the blood sea's effect ended there. Standing with his feet in the same sticky blood as Unohana, Higashino Shuuichi smiled as he spoke.
He knew exactly what Unohana Retsu's Bankai did—its power to convert all spiritual pressure within this blood sea into nourishment for the sea itself.
In other words, within this blood ocean, the only thing that truly mattered was pure, physical close combat. Every non-physical attack would be swallowed indiscriminately.
Even the residual sword pressure from a swing of Nadegiri would be no exception.
Only Unohana Retsu, as the blood sea's master, enjoyed the extra perk of limitless regeneration.
But as far as Higashino Shuuichi was concerned, with his own infinite regeneration, he wasn't much different.
So, when you did the math, this was a very fair fight for both of them.
No flashy hax abilities—just the purest form of swordsmanship.
So even before his words had fully left his mouth, Higashino Shuuichi was already on the move—charging forward in a way he hadn't felt in a very long time, each step landing with solid, grounded weight.
Every footfall kicked up blood waves several times taller than a man in the boundless sea of red.
Blurs of steel intersected, figures overlapped.
This was the most primordial kind of clash between Zanpakutō.
They separated in an instant—only to collide again the next.
"'Finally see it,' huh? Funny, because you're not acting at all like someone who's seeing my Bankai for the first time, Shuuichi."
In the deadlock between them, Unohana Retsu spoke to him.
Normally, the first time a Shinigami encountered her Bankai, they would still try to test their own Bankai's functionality within it before realizing how abnormal her ability truly was. Someone like Higashino—who abandoned every other technique the moment her Bankai appeared and immediately switched to a pure sword duel—that was a first for her.
"It is my first time seeing it.
I never said it was my first time learning about your ability, though.
You should know who I'm working for these days, Captain~"
Higashino had his explanation ready.
He could dump anything he wanted on the Tsunayashiro clan. There was nothing more fitting than the clan that sat on both the Great Spirit Book Corridor and Eizō Hall to take the blame for everything.
That was one of the main reasons he was so reluctant to give up his current position.
"Quite true. I almost forgot… there is the Tsunayashiro clan."
Unohana smiled faintly, then her smile toward him turned even brighter.
There was no need to say anything more—everything they needed to say was already understood.
Higashino, seeing his body pierced through by blood, immediately swung a heavy blow, using the force of it to try and open some distance and buy his body a few moments to regenerate.
"You've gone bad, Captain!
That whole thing where your mouth is saying one thing and your hands are doing another—that trick was my invention!"
Higashino was a little stunned—but it also felt oddly reasonable.
Just now, Unohana had used her words to distract him and then exploited the diffusion of blood to land a sneak attack. The tactic was completely unlike the "old" Unohana—all inside and out, it was a page from his own playbook.
But for something like this to show up in her hands, Higashino didn't find it strange at all.
There is no end to learning. And in order to better enjoy battle, Unohana Retsu would always be willing to accept—and master—new tricks.
"Now really isn't the time to be thinking about that kind of thing, is it, Shuuichi~"
Unfortunately, Unohana had absolutely no intention of answering his complaint—and even less of letting him off the hook. As Higashino tried to widen the gap between them to buy time for his body to recover, Unohana Retsu stuck to him like his own shadow.
The blood blade stabbed into his chest again.
"Fine, fine, Captain. So you just quietly pilfer all my little tricks for yourself, is that it?"
To be honest, Higashino Shuuichi wasn't really the type who liked to talk nonsense in battle—but those last two moves of Unohana's had tilted him ever so slightly into "mentally broken" territory.
That slash aimed at his right arm had only been a feint. The real attack was the hidden shadow blade she'd been charging the entire time.
It had stabbed in from behind and burst out through his chest.
And wasn't that exactly the cheap little gambit he used to rely on back when his strength was still low, fighting Unohana over and over?
If he was being honest, Higashino was slightly mad.
But deep down, there was also a little flicker of smug joy—because if you thought about it, wasn't this just another form of recognition?
Even if the price was a bit steep.
Still, for him it was only the kind of mortal wound that would have killed an ordinary Shinigami on the spot—Higashino didn't care in the slightest.
A skull mask surfaced over his face in that instant, his body fully completing Hollowfication. The shadow blade buried in his body shattered completely under the overwhelming density of spiritual pressure condensed in his Hollow core.
"Your Bankai is definitely powerful, Captain.
Just don't forget—
I'm not an ordinary Shinigami."
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