The serrated blade ripped across Muten Natsu's chest, tearing open a gruesome wound as flesh peeled back. He pitched backward, blood droplets scattering through the air as they fell.
Kenpachi Zaraki did not press the attack. The disappointment in his eyes was obvious.
"What are you even doing...?"
Muten Natsu hit the ground, then vanished.
Spirit ink churned, and Muten Natsu appeared behind Kenpachi Zaraki. His bloodshot eyes locked onto the back of Kenpachi Zaraki's neck as he brought his blade down.
Sensing the rush of air behind him, Kenpachi Zaraki swung back in a reflexive counter.
He cut nothing.
The spirit ink flowing across the ground moved as if it had a will of its own, surging up and circling Kenpachi Zaraki's body.
Within the occasional swell of black ink, Muten Natsu's silhouette flickered in and out of sight.
Kenpachi Zaraki slashed at it, but only split the sticky ink.
Muten Natsu spun, Bokukō throwing out even more spirit ink. His path grew stranger and harder to read, while Myōki carved sharp arcs of light that repeatedly closed in on Kenpachi Zaraki.
"Now that's more like it!" Kenpachi Zaraki's counters were dodged with ease, and instead of frustration, his excitement only climbed. "Keep it going. Enjoy it a little more!"
"In my eyes..." Muten Natsu's voice shifted from one side to the other, "this feels more like torture."
The ink blade struck Kenpachi Zaraki's back. The blade pressure inside it was canceled out by his Reiatsu, but the viscous spirit ink still ate away at his already ragged Shihakushō.
Myōki came down along the inked trail. With Muten Natsu turning through the motion, it carved out a thin line of blood.
"Huh?" Kenpachi Zaraki swung back, genuinely surprised at the wound on his back. "So you've got something like this too?"
The spirit ink corroded the Reiatsu Kenpachi Zaraki released, stripping away part of his defense. With that weakened, Myōki could slip past his Reiatsu protection and leave real cuts.
"Interesting. You really are good!" Even with his back injured, Kenpachi Zaraki's grin turned wilder. He stomped the ground, Reiatsu surging out in a violent wave, trying to blow the sticky ink away.
The spirit ink rolled, spreading pitch-black ripples.
Ink Fortress blended into it, resisting Kenpachi Zaraki's Reiatsu and guiding that pressure down into the ground.
Kenpachi Zaraki's single eye, its white showing far more than the pupil, shifted as he raised his blade to block Muten Natsu's strike and reached for his head.
Spirit ink flowed.
Muten Natsu vanished in an instant, melting into the ink.
Kenpachi Zaraki swept his blade across and hit nothing.
His left hand followed the turn of his body, and the moment Muten Natsu surfaced from the spirit ink again, Kenpachi Zaraki clamped down on his shoulder.
"Got you!"
He slammed Muten Natsu into the ground and raised his Zanpakutō to cut him down.
Spirit ink wrapped around Muten Natsu's body, dragging him out of range and popping him behind Kenpachi Zaraki instead.
His twin blades spun with his turning body, striking Kenpachi Zaraki again and again and leaving bloody gashes across him.
Surrounded by spirit ink, Kenpachi Zaraki looked like he had sunk into a swamp, trapped and unable to break free.
Muten Natsu, meanwhile, was a ghost dancing inside that swamp. Every time his shadowy form became solid, another wound appeared.
Kenpachi Zaraki sprang into the air, and the spirit ink surged up after him, clinging like a shadow.
As the ink closed in, Kenpachi Zaraki swung his long blade, his brutal Reiatsu tearing the ink in two.
But the moment he landed, the two halves flowed back together, coiling around him once more.
Muten Natsu was like a cruel butcher, or a patient hunter, slowly adding wound after wound and bleeding Kenpachi Zaraki dry.
Just as Muten Natsu had said, this was not a fight.
It was torture.
"Aren't you good at this?" Kenpachi Zaraki was so delighted his grin nearly reached his ears. "It's been a long time since I've felt this excited. You can take more than this, right?"
He tore off the eyepatch over his right eye, revealing the perfectly intact eye beneath it.
Boom!
A violent surge of Reiatsu shot upward, twisting into a spiraling storm that spread outward.
Orihime Inoue's long hair whipped wildly. She had no choice but to release Santen Kesshun to brace against it.
"What... what is this?"
How could his Reiatsu jump so much just from removing an eyepatch? No, it was not a jump. It was several times stronger.
"That's a Research and Development Institute device," Yachiru Kusajishi said, pointing at the eyepatch in Kenpachi Zaraki's hand. On the side that had been facing his eye were five rotating eyeballs and five sharp-toothed mouths. "It can absorb Reiryoku without limits, nonstop."
Ririn looked completely lost. "Wouldn't that keep someone weak all the time?"
"Yeah," Yachiru Kusajishi replied as if it were obvious. "That way Ken-chan can enjoy the fight better. Otherwise, everything would end in an instant."
"Bankai."
Seeing his spirit ink about to be ground away by Kenpachi Zaraki's swelling Reiatsu, Muten Natsu made the call and unleashed his strongest attack.
"Rin'en Bokukō!"
A tide of spirit ink lifted Muten Natsu up. The ink stains he left behind greedily devoured the surrounding Reishi, feeding the Rin'en Bokukō swimming within. It grew at a terrifying speed, a scaled, vicious head bursting out of an inkfall as it lunged for Kenpachi Zaraki.
In the next instant, the terrifying head split cleanly in two, taking the building beside it with it. As the structure slid apart and collapsed with a deafening roar, everything shattered into spirit ink and rained down.
"How is that even possible?!" Ririn cried, clutching Orihime Inoue's collar so tightly her knuckles went white. "He didn't even use Shikai, and he still crushed Muten Natsu's Bankai?!"
Only then did Orihime Inoue realize it. Kenpachi Zaraki still had not released his Zanpakutō.
"Ken-chan still can't hear it..." Yachiru Kusajishi crouched nearby, her eyes unusually deep. "...that sound."
"Nice hit..." Kenpachi Zaraki stood where he was, using Reiatsu alone to blow away the spirit ink creeping toward him. "Can you do it again?"
The remaining ink writhed around Muten Natsu. He spat blood, his eyes burning red.
He had known Kenpachi Zaraki was strong, but he never imagined that after taking off the eyepatch, Kenpachi Zaraki would become this terrifying.
What now...
[Detected absorbable Reishi particles]
A light screen flashed into view. Muten Natsu narrowed his eyes and, following its prompt, fixed his gaze on the Zanpakutō in Kenpachi Zaraki's hand.
As Kenpachi Zaraki's Reiatsu swelled, the blade was shedding tiny fragments.
Those serrations along the edge had probably formed from the weapon breaking again and again.
Power that should have belonged to Kenpachi Zaraki's own Zanpakutō was collapsing under the strain of his overwhelming strength.
The stray spirit ink corroded the fragments into Reishi. As Soul Essence Stealing activated, Muten Natsu felt Myōki in his hand begin to tremble.
Yachiru Kusajishi seemed to notice something. Her expression turned serious as she stared at Muten Natsu.
"Your Reiatsu is still climbing..." Behind Kenpachi Zaraki, his Reiatsu distorted into the shape of a snarling skull. "You're full of surprises!"
Not enough.
Muten Natsu drew a deep breath, veins standing out on his forehead.
The severed finger left behind by the Research and Development Institute ignited with black flame, swallowing the complex control console of the Reishi Convergence device.
Flashes of light and booming detonations overlapped. Everything around the device melted like wax under extreme heat, turning into a thick, milky-white, liquid Reishi that surged up from underground. Like a waterfall flowing backward, it crawled up the outside of the research building and poured through the intake that opened when the device activated, getting sucked into the machinery inside.
In the next moment, Reishi erupted from the top of the device, spiraling upward through the air and forming a thick, high-density Reishi cloud that hung low over the Research and Development Institute.
From a distance, the research building coated in white liquid Reishi looked like a gigantic candle.
Then the candle began to burn.
A single spark of black flame appeared at the top of the building and, in the blink of an eye, ignited a vast stretch of the Reishi cloud.
The white Reishi cloud was swallowed by black hellfire. The drifting white mass became burning black flame, and the moment the Hell's Eye on Muten Natsu's forehead opened, it answered his call, stretching into shapes like a dragon or serpent and roaring as it rushed toward him.
Kenpachi Zaraki clearly did not expect an attack like this. His surprise lasted only a heartbeat before excitement took over.
"So you finally used it, Muten Natsu!"
With a savage grin, Kenpachi Zaraki charged, raising his trembling Zanpakutō.
Muten Natsu gripped Myōki with both hands. Ink stains coiled up his arms as he swung, drawing the black flames from the sky into his blade, then brought it down at Kenpachi Zaraki.
Violent Reiatsu collided with even more violent black fire. The shockwave erased the surrounding buildings in an instant.
The spreading aftershock toppled whole sections of structures. Dust rolled, surged, and burst, then was torn apart by chaotic currents of air.
When the dust finally began to settle, the blurred figures within the haze slowly came into focus.
The Hell's Eye on Muten Natsu's forehead closed little by little. Blood spilled from his mouth, dripping onto the hand Kenpachi Zaraki had clenched around his Zanpakutō.
The jagged blade had split Muten Natsu's collarbone and several ribs, reaching all the way to his beating heart.
At the same time, Myōki had carved into Kenpachi Zaraki's waist and abdomen, wedging against his spine.
Blood burst from both wounds almost at the same time. The two staggered apart, and a crisp cracking sound drew both their attention.
Kenpachi Zaraki's blade had snapped.
A long section of it was pushed out of the wound by the surge of Muten Natsu's blood.
Thud.
They both fell almost at once.
Tap.
Yachiru Kusajishi landed lightly beside them, braced her hands on her knees, and bowed deeply to Muten Natsu.
"Thank you very much!"
Orihime Inoue had been about to raise Santen Kesshun to defend, but Yachiru Kusajishi turned to her with a bright, sunny smile.
"Ever since Ken-chan saw you use that flame, he's been looking forward to fighting you. He got to have so much fun today. Thank you!" Yachiru Kusajishi hoisted the unconscious Kenpachi Zaraki onto her small frame. "Let's kill each other again sometime. See you next time!"
Muten Natsu opened his mouth, but no sound came out. All he could see was the golden light of Sōten Kisshun.
That was exactly why he said it.
This kind of meaningless fight was the worst.
Watching Yachiru Kusajishi disappear with Kenpachi Zaraki, Muten Natsu could not help feeling curious.
How did those two end up together in the first place?
...
Many years ago, in the North Rukongai, District 79, the Kusajishi District.
"Where did you come from?" The unscathed man sat on a rock, surrounded by fresh blood and severed limbs. "Little one."
A pink-haired little girl, completely out of place in the slaughter, crawled closer. Curious, she reached out a small hand and touched the man's bloodstained Zanpakutō.
"This is a sword. Aren't you scared?" He watched her closely. "It's for killing. You could die too."
The toddler, still too young to walk, looked up. Her tiny palm was smeared with blood, yet she beamed at him with a brilliant smile.
"Little one, what's your name?"
The girl stared at him, blank and confused.
"You don't have a name?" the man murmured. "Neither do I."
"Yachiru Kusajishi. From today on, that's your name. Yachiru of Kusajishi." He took her small hand. "My name is Kenpachi. Only the strongest Shinigami of each generation can carry that name. Starting today, I am Zaraki Kenpachi."
"Hah!"
A cute, bright voice pulled Kenpachi Zaraki back to consciousness.
He opened his eyes and saw Yachiru Kusajishi's smiling face right in front of him.
"Yachiru."
"Yay! Yay!" Yachiru Kusajishi bounced in place, delighted. "Ken-chan finally woke up! I already called Unohana. She should be here about now."
"Where is he?"
"No idea." Yachiru Kusajishi tilted her head. "But that big white bunny with the huge chest can heal people, so he'll be fine!"
"That's good..." Kenpachi Zaraki's breathing was rough. "Then I can get revenge."
"Revenge for what?"
"I lost..."
Yachiru Kusajishi pouted. "Ken-chan didn't lose!"
"Idiot. What's with that face?"
"You really didn't lose! He had two Zanpakutō. That was three against one... no, four against one." Yachiru Kusajishi planted her hands on her hips. "Ken-chan should be the winner!"
Kenpachi Zaraki tugged at the corner of his mouth, letting out a sound that was almost a laugh.
"Hah."
Yachiru Kusajishi smacked him. "No laughing!"
Pfft.
Kenpachi Zaraki spat out a large mouthful of blood.
"Captain Zaraki!" Isane Kotetsu rushed over. "I'll treat you right now."
A soft green light glowed in Isane Kotetsu's palm as she administered emergency treatment, stabilizing Kenpachi Zaraki's injuries for the moment.
Kenpachi Zaraki turned his head and stared at Isane Kotetsu.
"She didn't come?"
"Captain Unohana went to the other side," Isane Kotetsu said as she helped stop the bleeding. "The medical squad will be here soon."
The scar on Kenpachi Zaraki's face twitched twice.
"So I really did lose..."
Yachiru Kusajishi pressed her lips together. "Ken-chan..."
"Captain Unohana said that because you only care about fighting, if you didn't win, then you lost," Isane Kotetsu repeated Retsu Unohana's words. "But for Muten, fighting is just a way to solve a problem. As long as he got what he wanted, no matter how the fight ended, he didn't lose."
"She actually said that..." Kenpachi Zaraki's grin turned feral. "Muten Natsu really has changed her a lot!"
Isane Kotetsu lowered her eyes.
Had Captain Unohana really changed?
In Isane Kotetsu's memory, her captain had always been gentle.
Just especially gentle to Muten Natsu.