Chapter 119: Bankai
[Fight with Unohana Retsu]
[Description: Unohana Retsu's attachment to Squad 11 runs deeper than anyone would expect. She has always believed only the truly strong deserve that name... and whether you can reach that standard is a critical indicator for her. Win or lose, you will receive corresponding rewards. But. Obviously.]
[You win, you get more.]
[Rewards: Victory -- (designated Zanpakuto Bankai); Defeat -- (Biological-type Zanpakuto +10)]
Whatever the mad old woman's personal taste in fights: the quest itself had plenty to complain about.
'There are separate rewards for winning and losing? That's genuinely something else.'
Two outcomes, two different packages.
Victory: a designated Bankai, nothing more to say. And no qualifier on the designation, either. Which meant if the conditions were met, Matsushita Yusuke could name the Rule-type Zanpakuto directly and send that completely undeveloped little weapon jumping multiple tiers at once.
That was completely unreasonable.
But corresponding to that unreasonable reward: the harder the prize, the more absurd the difficulty to match.
With rewards scaled this high, the actual challenge for current Yusuke was going to be equally extreme.
A quick calculation, a quick assessment of the situation.
'This victory condition is probably out of my reach right now.'
Confidence mattered. But the opponent was the mad old woman. Preparing for the worst was simply being realistic.
And fortunately, even if it ended with him on his knees, there was a consolation prize of Biological +10 waiting. Yusuke settled his mind quickly, adjusted his stance, and got ready.
Either way I walk out with something. What's there to be afraid of?
"Then I won't hold back!"
Seeing Yusuke snap into a combat state that cleanly and that fast, something in Unohana Retsu's eyes visibly brightened.
Good.
"Able to get into this state so quickly... as expected, you're no ordinary fighter!"
The last word rang out sharp and high, and in the same breath Unohana's figure vanished. In barely a moment she was right in front of him.
Fast.
Not a figure of speech. A statement of fact.
Yusuke had barely begun reaching for his blade before she was already there.
A low dive, a light spring, a flash of white.
Every movement flowed into the next without a gap. Unohana shifted her frame, burst through the space between them, and the blade came down.
Even though there had been distance between them just a moment ago, it might as well have been an instant.
Technically flawless. Completely aggressive.
No time to block.
Every hair on Matsushita Yusuke's body stood up. One word came out before he could think about them.
"Tozansho!"
Whoosh. CLANG!
The incoming blade didn't draw blood. It crashed solidly into a wall of crystals that materialized out of nowhere.
Semi-transparent crystal formations appeared around Yusuke, holding Unohana's attack at the perimeter.
Unohana raised an eyebrow. Her tone was more curious than impressed.
"Kido?"
Bakudo #73: Tozansho.
In canon it had been used by certain vice-captains as a temporary field enclosure, with isolation and defensive properties on top of that.
Under normal circumstances it absolutely should not have been able to hold a captain's strike. Yusuke had put in considerable additional work beforehand. A custom modification, adjusted specifically for this situation.
Unohana gave a quiet sound, something approaching appreciation moving through her eyes.
"A little different."
Where the original formed a cone, Yusuke had built something flat, like tempered glass. Transparent.
It only looked fragile.
Unohana turned and slashed again. The blade stopped, briefly, then shattered through one of the layers.
The crystal wasn't a single wall.
Yusuke had stacked them. Thickened, reinforced, layered.
Breaking through wasn't going to be trivial.
It wasn't going to be hard, either.
Unohana's feet kept moving, her whole frame spinning like a current, the blade crashing in again and again, smashing through the crystal layers one after another.
Yusuke's scalp started tingling.
Wouldn't a normal person dodge the angle and go for a different opening? You're just driving straight through head-on. How am I supposed to use anything I prepared for this? This isn't how Shinigami fights work. I refuse to accept this.
CLANG!
Tozansho shattered completely. Yusuke saw the blade flash forward and had no choice but to grit his teeth, grip his own blade with both hands, and raise it in front of him.
The expected slash didn't come.
Instead, a slender hand came in from the left, slipping directly through his defense.
Done. The thought had barely formed before the slap arrived.
CRACK!
Matsushita Yusuke went airborne like a snapped string, hit the ground, and tumbled several times before he managed to stop.
"Cough cough, ow..."
He got up looking thoroughly wrecked, one hand pressed to the side of his face where it had already started swelling, expression radiating pure wariness.
Damage: minor. Humiliation: severe.
Unohana stood a short distance away, straightening up with a faint smile, tone sitting somewhere between instruction and amusement.
"Don't put all your attention on the weapon. That's how you leave yourself open from every direction. And another thing: you're quite good at Kido, aren't you? In my view, though, you're not fluent enough with it yet."
Nothing to argue with there.
One exchange had been enough. The lesson was obvious.
Unohana Retsu had an enormous range of tactical responses to draw from.
And every piece of her footwork, her movement, her spacing...
All of it had been refined and honed with one specific goal: close the gap.
"Even without a chant, Kido still needs a moment to build and a target to lock onto. Before that window opens... my blade will have already crossed your throat."
No question about it.
Continuing to rely on Kido at this range was just going to produce more of the same. Better to set it aside entirely. Come back to it when the situation improved.
For now?
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Matsushita Yusuke worked through that, then looked up at the sky, and made a decision.
"Captain Unohana, you're a genuine powerhouse. So I won't keep anything in reserve."
Which in practice meant.
"I have one move left, and only one. If you're willing... I..."
"Use it."
Unohana's voice came back sharp and clear.
"Treat this fight as a life-or-death exchange. Everything you have. Let me see exactly what you're capable of."
She'd gotten into it. The enthusiasm was plainly visible.
At that point, what else was there to say?
Yusuke's expression went very still. Both hands on the blade. A slow, deep breath.
Exhale.
Breath inward, air suspended.
He stood in place and closed his eyes.
He looked, for all appearances, like someone who had completely stopped resisting. An unusual and particular kind of stillness.
Unohana did not read it that way. If anything, it was the precise opposite: the quality of stillness in this young man in this moment had made something in her tighten slightly.
That was, in the most literal sense, her guard going up.
This young man.
Worth fighting.
"I stand at the heart of the Adamantine Dharma Realm. All form is my body. All that is solid is my nature. Neither born nor destroyed. This is the Indestructible."
Yusuke's Zanpakuto came apart. Fine golden dust in that moment, wrapping around him as it dispersed.
Then, in the next instant.
A surge of force punched straight up into the sky.
Yusuke stood without moving. His hair rose into the air. Hands brought together, he spoke quietly.
"Bankai. Kongokai."
The word landed.
And with it, without warning, a wind came from nowhere and roared outward.
In an instant, everything changed.