'What is going on?'
Currently, Kenpachi was rather confused as he swung down his blade, just for Yuna to casually push away the blade with her left hand while slicing her sword upward, leaving a deep wound on Kenpachi's body.
Moments later, Kenpachi felt his consciousness fade away while his eyes slowly closed. Suddenly, his eyes reopened while his blade clashed with Yuna's.
'Why am I blacking out during the fight?'
Kenpachi slashed at Yuna horizontally, but she simply ducked under the sword strike while stabbing her sword at Kenpachi, stabbing him through the heart.
Yet again, Kenpachi was about to lose consciousness before he abruptly woke up while clashing with Yuna.
'This has never happened before. This is so weird.'
While Kenpachi was deep in thought, Yuna yet again deflected his blade before giving another devastating wound to Kenpachi just for Retsu to heal him to full health again. Yuna was pretty sure that Kenpachi hadn't even noticed that their surroundings had changed due to Retsu using her Bankai, which allowed her to heal Kenpachi more easily.
As Yuna was killing Kenpachi again and again, Retsu couldn't help but look weirdly at Yuna.
"She didn't fight me like that at all. When we fought, she was much more rampant and less methodical. I wonder what the reason is?"
Hearing Retsu's question, Hisoka nodded her head as she continued watching Kenpachi getting killer repeatedly.
"It's because she has no interest in the current Zaraki Kenpachi. He's simply too weak."
While Retsu simply nodded her head, Rangiku couldn't help but look at Hisoka weirdly.
"When she fought me, she wasn't fighting like that either, and I'm much weaker than Captain Kenpachi."
Hisoka briefly rolled her eyes when she heard Rangiku's words before her gaze landed on Rangiku's face and moments later moved downward. Moments later, Hisoka could only sigh deeply while shaking her head.
"Well, there are two big... very big reasons for that."
Rangiku tilted her head in confusion and patiently waited for Hisoka to continue speaking. However, Hisoka seemed to be done talking as her gaze returned to the fighting duo.
A few seconds later, Rangiku thought about Hisoka's words, and after remembering how she briefly glanced at her breasts, Rangiku understood the situation.
"Ah, that makes sense."
Meanwhile, Yachiru was only spectating the fight with a small smile on her face.
'I don't think Ken-chan currently has much fun, but I'm sure this will end up as a fun fight soon~ I wonder... if he will be able to hear my voice soon.'
Meanwhile, the momentum of the fight had slightly shifted as Yuna was now frequently blocking Kenpachi's attacks due to getting significantly faster, causing a smile to slowly form on his face as he started to enjoy the fight.
"Is this pointless little dance really fun to you, Kenpachi?"
Hearing Yuna's words, Kenpachi frowned at glanced at her, and to his surprise, there was nothing but boredom visible on Yuna's face.
"Boring? How can fighting be boring? Don't you love fighting as well!?"
"I do love fighting, but can this even be called a fight? I'm just bullying a weakling here."
As Yuna said that, she moved from her position for the first time in this fight and instantly appeared in front of Kenpachi, slashing her sword at Kenpachi's head.
"Especially if that weakling is holding back."
As she said those words, Kenpachi instinctively leaned his head back, resulting in Yuna barely missing him. However, as her sword passed his right eye, it tore apart Kenpachi's eyepatch.
The moment the eyepatch was removed, enormous amounts of Spiritual Pressure erupted out of Kenpachi, immediately flooding the whole cave.
Suddenly feeling power cursing through his body, Kenpachi slashed at Yuna far faster than before without even noticing that his eye patch had been removed.
Due to Kenpachi suddenly being much faster, Yuna was late to react; however, just before Kenpachi's sword could reach her, a wall of ice blocked his sword, confusing Kenpachi.
"So you made me use my ice, huh? *Sigh* Anyway, my guess that that eye patch sealed away a part of your power was correct. You actually insisted on fighting me with your power sealed. Kenpachi, right now, I'm a little angry."
As Yuna finished speaking, the cave rumbled as the snowfall intensified, and Yuna's own Spiritual Power engulfed the cave. She slashed her sword once, resulting in it instantly turning bigger as it gained a transparent white color, activating her Shikai without saying a word. A moment later, she stabbed her sword into the ground while resting her hands on the top of the hilt.
"Very well, you are someone that matches your opponent's power to relish the fight. However, who do you think you are facing right now? Know your f*cking place! And since you don't seem to know it, I'll teach you! BanKAI!"
Yuna's Spiritual Pressure erupted as the world around her turned white as Yuna simply stood still within the raging storm. Now, she wore a tight-fitting ice armor as ten tails leisurely swayed behind.
Seeing her new form, Hisoka couldn't help but tilt her head in confusion.
"That form... Is Kurama with her, and why is it ten tails instead of nine? Wait a moment; her Shikai looks completely different from the one she used against me! The hell!?"
Rangiku heard Hisoka murmuring these questions and briefly glanced at her before she started speaking.
"Kurama? That's the name of her sword. And since you are wondering why her Shikai looked differently, she has two Sword Spirits for some unknown reason."
Hisoka's eyes widened in surprise as she realized what was going on. Or at least assumed to know what was going on.
"I see, so Kurama came with her, huh? That tsundere fox really hasn't an easy life."
"T-Tsundere fox?"
"Yeah, he always acts like he hates everything around him, but he's actually a big softy."
Rangiku couldn't help but look at Hisoka weirdly after she finished describing Kurama's personality.
"How in the world did you get to know Yuna's Sword Spirit?"
To that question, Hisoka could only shrug her shoulders as she pointed at Yuna.
"As I've previously mentioned, I knew Yuna-sensei in my past life, and Kurama was with her as well. Or, more strictly speaking, their relationship started with Kurama getting forcefully sealed inside sensei because someone else was controlling him to rampage in our village. In my previous life, Kurama was a powerful energy construct with sentience, so I'm not really sure why he suddenly turned into a Sword Spirit."
After Hisoka finished her explanation, Rangiku nodded her head in understanding as her gaze returned to Yuna.
"That might be the reason why she has two Sword Spirits."
This time it was Hisoka's turn to nod in agreement. That has been her assumption as well.
Meanwhile, back to Yuna and Kenpachi's fight, Kenpachi was looking at Yuna's new form in a daze as her powerful Spiritual Pressure crashed into him.
Moments later, his was twisted in ecstasy as he roared like a wild beast and attacked Yuna like a madman.
However, Yuna was unmoving, as ten tendrils of ice shot out of the ground and attacked Kenpachi, who slashed down his sword, thinking he could easily slice through a bit of ice. Unfortunately for him, the moment his sword made contact with Yuna's ice, only a loud clang could be heard as Kenpachi had to step due to the recoil. Not only did he not cut it, but he also didn't even leave a scratch on it, briefly dumbfounding him just for another ice tendril to smash into his stomach, sending him flying away.
"What are you doing, Kenpachi? Call out your sword's name."
Hearing Yuna's words, Kenpachi scoffed as he wiped away the blood coming out of the corner of his mouth.
"My sword has no name. It's just a bland sword with no other forms."
Yuna scoffed in disdain as soon as Kenpachi stopped speaking and resumed speaking, disdain filling her voice.
"Nonsense, every Zanpakuto has a name after it shared enough time with its wielder. I wonder why you can't hear its voice? I see; it's because you don't want to cooperate with it?"
Yet again, Kenpachi scoffed in disdain as he looked at his sword in indifference.
"Cooperate? What nonsense. This is my fight, and I'll fight it alone. I have no need to fight side by side with my Zanpakuto. Zanpakuto are just tools for war. Cooperating with your Zanpakuto is something only a coward that is afraid to fight by themselves would say. It's not some strong like you, and I should say!"
As soon as Kenpachi finished speaking, his Spiritual Pressure grew even fiercer as he yet again attacked Yuna with his sword. Seeing that and hearing his words, Yuna sighed deeply as she raised her blade.
"Strong? You? please don't make me laugh."
As soon as she finished speaking, she vanished from her position and appeared in front of Kenpachi, and sliced her weapon downward.
Although Kenpachi was shocked by Yuna suddenly appearing in front of him, he still managed to raise his sword to block the attack. However...
"Weak."
Yuna's blade cut through Kenpachi's like it was made out of tofu, leaving a massive wound on his chest as Kenpachi fell to his knees.
"So, what now? Your 'tool for war got broken'."
Kenpachi could feel his consciousness fading away as he looked at his broken sword, wondering what had gone wrong for him to lose so easily.
"Shit."
As that single word left his mouth, his consciousness faded away. However, moments later, he quickly opened his eyes, looking around in confusion.
"I-I blacked out again?"
However, moments later, he looked down at his sword and widened his eyes in shock as it was still broken.
"That... wasn't a dream? What happened to my wound?"
Hearing Kenpachi's words, Yuna scoffed in disdain as she leisurely pointed at Retsu.
"She's been healing you every time I killed you. From the very start of this fight, you never were fighting alone."
"WHAT!"
Kenpachi looked at Yuna in bewilderment and quickly realized that every time he passed out, Retsu had likely healed him back to his top condition, causing him to clench his fist in anger. However, before he could say anything else, Yuna continued speaking.
"You are having a misunderstanding from the start here. Zanpakuto Spirits are not some outside entity. They are a part of their wielder. You are not fighting me alone; you were fighting me with a part of you missing."
[I'm not a part of you! I refuse!]
'Well, you are kinda inside me, but your circumstances are very clearly different.'
[Urgh, I really wished you formulated that differently, but at least you agreed with me.]
'Well, it is what it is. After all, you weren't born inside me.'
[Gah, CHaos born inside Yuna!]
'Hehe, that's right, Chaos. After all, what could represent me better than chaos?'
[Gahahaha!]
While Yuna was mentally chatting with those inside her, Kenpachi was looking at her in a daze. He had never seen it from that perspective and couldn't help but be somewhat bewildered due to what he had just hurt.
'A part of me? Is that really true? Wouldn't that mean I have been fighting all this time halfheartedly?'
As those thoughts passed through his mind, he gritted his teeth in anger. He loves fighting to the degree that he would even seal his power to enjoy the fight longer; however, he quickly remembered what had happened so far, making him realize that he had pretty much bored his opponent the whole time. So far, he had assumed that everything was a dream due to him repeatedly passing out just after receiving a deadly wound, but now that he realized what really happened, he couldn't help but get angry.
'I bored my opponent during a fight, not because I'm too weak, but because I was holding myself back. Unacceptable!'
Kenpachi quickly calmed down as he glanced at his broken sword.
"Is it true? Are you really a part of me? If it's true, you must love fighting as well, right? In that case, let's savior this together! You must feel disgusted, right? We bored our opponent, because I wasn't using everything I had. Don't you fight this unacceptable?"
Kenpachi's frowning face quickly twisted into a grin as he suddenly heard a faint whispering in his mind. It was very quiet at first, but the more Kenpachi heard, the more he accepted that his Zanpakuto was part of him. The reason for that was rather simple: His Zanpakuto Spirit was clearly furious, not at Kenpachi for ignoring it for so long, but he was angry at him because he was boring his opponent.
"Hahaha, that's right! IT'S UNACCEPTABLE!!! SWALLOW, NOZARASHI!!!"
Yet again, Kenpachi's Spiritual Pressure erupted, increasing far beyond what he previously could output, as a maddened smile appeared on Yuna's face. Moments later, Kenpachi revealed himself, carrying a colossal butcher knife far bigger than himself that looked more like an axe than a sword, resulting in Yuna's smile becoming even more deranged.
"YES!!! THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, KENPACHI!!! LET'S PARTY!!!"
As soon as Yuna finished speaking, she yet again vanished from her position and appeared in front of Kenpachi, slashing down her sword as Kenpachi slashed upwards with his own, resulting in the two swords clashing with an enormous shockwave that ruptured the earth.
Meanwhile, Retsu was moving her hands around in a strange manner. Moments later, a Kido barrier appeared between the spectators and the two people fighting, shielding them from the overwhelming Spiritual Pressure that was constantly clashing in front of them.
"Haa~ when I first fought him, he didn't even use his Shikai. *Sigh* I really let him down all those years ago."
Hearing Retsu's words, Hisoka shook her head with a wry smile on her face and started talking as well.
"There's nothing you have to feel bad about, Captain Unohana. Only a monster can fight a monster. No matter how talented normal people like us are, we will never be able to beat true monsters like them."
Hearing Hisoka's words, Retsu's shoulder sagged a little, but she nevertheless nodded in agreement. After all, when she first met Kenpachi, he was just a mere child, while she was the strongest Captain of the Gotei 13, and despite that, she still was weaker than him. Something like that was not something that could be explained away by simply calling the other party more talented. Clearly, Kenpachi was a monster, and so was Yuna.
However, before she could say anything else, Hisoka continued speaking.
"However, Yuna-sensei surpasses even that."
Hearing Hisoka's words, a chill passed through Retsu's spine as her gaze returned to the two people fighting, causing her eyes to widen. Despite Kenpachi having activated his Shikai, he was entirely suppressed by Yuna, barely able to defend himself from her relentless sword strikes.
'Despite Kenpachi stopping to hold back, she is still cornering him. I want to fight her again. No, I don't want to just fight her; I want to fight her as an equal. I want her to exhaust herself fighting me. Even if I'm defeated in the end, I want to give her at least a good fight. I WILL BECOME STRONGER, NO MATTER THE COST!!!'
As Retsu was spectating the fight in front of her, the fires of ambition reignited in her heart. Up until now, she had always seen her ending as the stepping stone for Kenpachi to finally regain his true strength, but now things were different. There was someone in front of her who even surpassed Kenpachi. Someone that told her that other strong foes were out there and someone that claimed she could make her even stronger.
Thinking about all of this, Unohana couldn't help but lick her lips in excitement.
'Seems like things are about to get rather interesting. I'm looking forwards to it.'
As these thoughts passed her mind, Rangiku looked around in confusion. While she was spectating the fight, she wanted to ask Yachiru if she would like to have another cocoa, but somehow, she was no longer there. After wondering where she had gone for a while, Rangiku simply shrugged her shoulders and ignored this matter. After all, despite looking like a young child, Yachiru was a Lieutenant and had the power to back up that position, so Rangiku wasn't really worried about her.
Meanwhile, Yuna and Kenpachi clashed, again and again, destroying everything around them as their weapons continuously met while producing powerful shockwaves.
"HAHAHA!!! WHAT IS THIS!? THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!! I ENJOY EVERY FIGHT I HAVE, BUT THIS IS DIFFERENT!!! THIS ISN'T JUST FIGHTING; THIS IS A TRUE BATTLE!!!"
Hearing Kenpachi's maddened laugh, Yuna increased the pressure on him as she started moving even faster as the ice tendrils attacking Kenpachi increased even further.
"HAHAHA, TRUE BATTLE!? NOT YET, KENPACHI!!! YOU HAVE STILL MORE TO SHOW ME!!! COME!!! USE IT!!! SHOW ME YOUR BANKAI!!! ONLY BY USING YOUR FULL STRENGTH CAN THIS TRULY BE CALLED A TRUE BATTLE!!!"
Again and again, the duo clashed as Kenpachi was constantly getting pushed back, occasionally receiving a small wound. Despite that, his face was still twisted into a maniac grin as he ignored all his injuries. Frankly, calling him a beast rather than a human would be rather fitting as he seemed to not even realize what was going on around him as he was totally lost in battle.
However, no matter how battle-crazed he was, there was a point where his body could no longer keep up with his desires, so after around an hour of constant high-intensity fighting, Kenpachi simply keeled over, falling on his back.
Moments later, Yuna approached his unmoving body and looked at him with a disappointed expression.
"That's it? That was, at best, a warm-up. How disappointing."
Hearing Yuna's words, Kenpachi gritted his teeth in anger. He was doing so not because of Yuna's seemingly mocking words but because he was weak. He was utterly exhausted, yet his opponent still stood tall, seemingly not even winded from all the fighting they did.
However, before he could do anything else, the world around him seemed to slow down, and before Kenpachi realized what was going on, Yachiru stood in front of him.
"What are you doing, Ken-chan?"
Naturally, Kenpachi was confused due to Yachiru suddenly appearing in front of him in the middle of the battle.
"What are you doing here, Yachiru?"
However, Yachiru completely ignored his words and simply resumed speaking.
"Why are you napping on the floor, Ken-chan? There is still a lot more fun to be had. Look, despite fighting that hard, Yuna is still bored. You can't just end it like this. You should at least give her a proper fight before you go to sleep."
"Yachiru, what are you talking about?"
However, Yachiru, yet again completely ignored his question as she continued talking.
"Come on; we are just getting started. Silly goose, if you would just use me properly, we wouldn't have bored our opponent like this."
As those words left Yachiru's mouth, she touched Kenpachi's hand, causing a lot of power to enter his body, confusing him greatly.
"W-What did you just do?"
"Silly Ken-chan, this is the power everyone around you has been using. It's the power everyone has been calling..."
Before she finished speaking, Yachiru's childlike expression turned ferocious as the aura of an incredibly sharp blade erupted out of her body while her eyes reflected the blade Kenpachi was holding, despite not even looking at hit.
"...Bankai."