Early morning, the underground space beneath Sōkyoku Hill.
Ishikawa sat cross-legged beside a rock garden, awaiting the arrival of the person he had long anticipated.
Although he had considered conducting this training at the lowest level of Muken, Ishikawa ultimately abandoned the idea.
It wasn't that he couldn't apply for the lowest level of Muken; after all, for Ishikawa, it was just a matter of drafting a form and signing his name...
The reason he didn't choose that location was simply because it wasn't suitable.
This was a Zanjutsu instruction session; neither he nor Unohana would view this instruction as a fight to the death.
Tap~
Faintly, the sound of landing echoed from the entrance. Ishikawa, who had been closing his eyes, suddenly opened them, a faint azure glow flashing within them.
His condition had already been adjusted to its peak!
Almost simultaneously with Ishikawa looking over, a figure descended from the entrance. Her landing was silent, the initial sound merely serving to announce her arrival to Ishikawa.
--Unohana!
At this moment, she still had her black, long hair parted in the middle, tied into a braided plait that hung down in front of her, looking as she always did.
But in her eyes, there was no longer gentleness; only coldness and...
An undisturbed stillness.
Unohana stopped far from Ishikawa, looking up and observing everything around her.
"Captain Unohana."
Ishikawa rose, greeting her respectfully.
Unohana's gaze shifted, falling upon Ishikawa. A hint of assessment flickered within her still eyes, but after a moment, she shook her head:
"You've really changed a lot."
Her undisturbed tone seemed to convey both regret and perhaps happiness at Ishikawa's transformation: "Compared to when I first met you."
Changed a lot?
Ishikawa was slightly startled, somewhat unclear about the meaning of Unohana's words, and completely unable to figure out whether she was regretting or happy about this change...
However, Unohana did not continue on this topic, instead changing the subject:
"I do not instruct people in Zanjutsu!"
"Huh?"
Ishikawa's gaze immediately became somewhat strange. Captain Unohana couldn't have come to refuse to instruct him, could she?
If so, all his efforts these past few days would have been in vain.
"Since you once entertained the thought of challenging me, then you should know my identity before I became the Captain of the Fourth Division."
Unohana said to herself:
"My Zanjutsu was born from challenging various schools of thought and experiencing various blades, so my instruction..."
"Will only be for you to experience everything I once experienced."
"Therefore, the instruction I can give you is..."
"Only combat."
Unohana paused in her words, slowly drawing the unusually curved blade from her waist:
"Endless combat with no rest until you give up or leave this place!"
Endless combat with no rest?
Ishikawa's expression became serious, but he felt no fear or inappropriateness, only anticipation.
Ishikawa did not reject this method of instruction; in fact, he was even more accepting of it.
Unohana's directness made Ishikawa abandon his original plan for pleasantries, and instead, he clasped his hand in the void.
Zheng—
Amidst the soft hum of a blade, a blade entirely formed from Reishi appeared in Ishikawa's hand.
The blade was about 1.6 meters long, its shape identical to Ishikawa's Zanpakuto.
Hado No. 78: Zangerin!
With his Zanpakuto not yet recovered, Ishikawa had been considering how to approach the upcoming Zanjutsu training.
Zanjutsu training.
Naturally, it couldn't be done without a blade!
After much thought, he chose the current Kido Blade. Ordinary blades were simply no match for a Zanpakuto and would need constant replacement.
If a blade shattered during instruction, it would only serve to pause the training for a replacement.
The Kido Blade, however, completely eliminated this concern; as long as Ishikawa's Reiatsu wasn't exhausted, the blade in his hand could be maintained indefinitely.
Moreover, Ishikawa had made some modifications to this Kido.
He adjusted the weight, length, shape, and even the sharpness and hardness of the blade to be almost identical to his Zanpakuto.
The cost of doing so was a significant consumption of Reiatsu to maintain its existence.
But what Ishikawa lacked least was Reiatsu. Although the overall 'quantity' of his Reiatsu was far from sufficient, the existence of Reiatsu Crest meant Ishikawa didn't need to worry about his Reiatsu being exhausted!
Since the moment he created Reiatsu Crest, Ishikawa had never ended a battle due to Reiatsu exhaustion.
"Are you ready?"
Unohana looked at the Kido Blade in Ishikawa's hand:
"Next, I will present to you, one by one, all the opponents I deemed worthy of remembering in this life, with Reiatsu equal to yours, in sequence..."
As she spoke, Unohana's figure suddenly vanished.
This scene made Ishikawa's pupils constrict, and then his vision went black. Unohana Retsu suddenly appeared above him.
At this moment, Unohana seemed to have transformed into a hunting eagle, her gaze sharp and filled with killing intent.
Her Captain's haori spread out behind her; though it covered a small area, it gave Ishikawa a suffocating sense of oppression, as if it blotted out the sky.
"...one by one!"
The belated voice entered his ears, and the entire world was filled by the Unohana before him.
Pleasure!
Fanaticism~
Fighting spirit~
Killing intent~
And finally...
The stillness born of emptiness.
Everything perceived in an instant, as if by an unseen hand, instantly tore through Ishikawa's instinctive restraint and self-imposed shackles, ripping away his superficial disguise.
Allowing him, in that instant, to enter a state of combat.
The whites of his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins...
The corners of his mouth stretched outwards...
His pupils began to wildly dilate...
Ruthless, frenzied, utterly unconcerned!
At this moment, Ishikawa seemed to transform into a beast that had broken free of its chains.
His grip on the blade tightened, and the Kido Blade, entirely condensed from Reiatsu, shot straight towards Unohana's neck with a whooshing sound.
His first move was a killing blow!
A blade, by its very nature, was born for killing.
To master Zanjutsu, the most suitable method was...
Killing!
Constant killing, endless killing, treating all living beings as objects that can be hunted and slaughtered at will.
Regardless of whether the opponent is a human or a Hollow, regardless of who they are to oneself...
Even friends, lovers, or even family, it's all the same.
Kill!
Although Unohana arrived quickly, the moment she struck, her curved blade moved incredibly slowly.
Slow and light, as if it had no power or lethality whatsoever.
In contrast.
The Kido Blade in Ishikawa's hand was as fast as lightning, instantly striking towards Unohana Retsu's neck.
One fast, one slow; the clash of the two blades created an indescribably awkward sensation. Normally, such a slow blade would be utterly nonexistent against a fast one, but Unohana's strike had an extremely strong presence.
It created a strong visual contrast, even causing dizziness and nausea.
Even the lightning-fast Kido Blade in Ishikawa's hand seemed to distort at this moment, the distance between the blade and Unohana Retsu's neck seemingly stretching further and further.
And that slow blade, at just the right moment, collided with Ishikawa's Kido Blade.
Extreme slowness and extreme speed met in the air; time seemed to freeze in that instant.
Clang--!
A dull, thunderous explosion erupted, and a visible circular impact wave suddenly burst forth between Ishikawa and Unohana.
Ishikawa felt as if he had suddenly fallen into a vacuum, his face abruptly turning purplish-blue. He struggled to open his mouth, swallowing hard... all to no avail. He was sent flying like a cannonball, smashing into a nearby rock garden.
With a deafening crash, the rock garden disintegrated like building blocks.
Pfft—
Beneath the scattered rocks, Ishikawa opened his mouth, and the blood he had been holding back for so long gushed out.
With a squelch, Ishikawa plunged his blade into the ground, sliding back dozens of meters before finally stopping.
When he looked up again, the fighting spirit in Ishikawa's eyes grew even more fervent.
Inexplicable!
He couldn't understand at all why he had been defeated so easily.
Reiatsu difference?
No!
Just as Unohana said...
She had controlled her Reiatsu to be equal to Ishikawa's.
But in a battle of equal Reiatsu, Ishikawa, who usually held a complete advantage, was, under this one strike...
Utterly defeated!
Although Ishikawa hadn't used any combat techniques outside of Zanjutsu, including Shunko, this was enough to illustrate the terror of Unohana Retsu's single strike.
It's important to know that unlike other Captains who relied on their Zanpakuto abilities, Ishikawa had always faced his opponents with pure Zanjutsu.
Zanjutsu: Advanced (55203/100000)
Advanced Zanjutsu, stronger than most Captains.
Yet, at equal Reiatsu, before Unohana, he was...
Vulnerable!
"Is this all you've got?"
Unohana did not pursue, but instead waved the curved blade in her hand, saying coldly:
"This is only the first person."
Most importantly...
This was not Unohana's Zanjutsu, but the techniques of opponents who had once been defeated by her Zanjutsu!
Unohana!
After challenging various schools of thought and experiencing various blades.
She declared herself...
--Yachiru!!
Even though he had held Unohana in high regard, only after experiencing it firsthand did Ishikawa realize he had vastly underestimated her!
Inexplicably strong...
But...
The fanaticism in Ishikawa's eyes intensified to the extreme.
It was simply amazing!
This woman was truly amazing!!
In that instant, the curve of Ishikawa's mouth grew wider and wider, the bloodshot veins in his eyes were almost completely red, and the fighting spirit around him boiled to its peak.
Excited?
Thrilled?
Pleasured?
...
Perhaps all of it!
But when these emotions reached their peak, what remained in the end...
Only calmness.
Extreme madness, conversely, leads to tranquility!
Once upon a time, when he challenged Zaraki as a Vice-Captain, Ishikawa had also entered his current state.
But after Ishikawa became a Captain, no matter how many times he fought Zaraki, he could no longer feel any of this from him.
Because...
No matter how much he burst forth, Ishikawa could defeat him, or even easily kill him, through Zaraki's repeated excavation.
The reason was simple...
The chains he had put on himself had reached a point where they could only be gradually broken free by constantly dying and coming back to life.
Therefore, when fighting him, Ishikawa no longer experienced the joy of the first time.
Instead...
It was merely the impatience Unohana now felt when facing him!
Ishikawa, holding the Kido Blade, slowly stood up from the ground.
The moment he rose...
Buzz—
Invisibly, the entire space seemed to dim in that instant.
The sinister aura, which had not emerged from Ishikawa for a long time, once again freely emanated from the depths of his soul.
And...
At this moment, it seemed to solidify, forming a visible Gray Fog that spread outwards from Ishikawa.
Ishikawa's Reiatsu, too, at this instant, gradually deepened from azure, finally revealing a hint of purple.
"I'm sorry, I might not be able to meet your expectations."
Ishikawa slowly raised his head; his face no longer held the previous ferocity, but had returned to its original calmness.
But this calmness was utterly different from before; enveloped by the Gray Fog, it gave off a terrifying feeling, as if staring into an abyss, and his eyes were filled with stillness.
This stillness, similar yet different from the stillness in Unohana's eyes.
The stillness in Unohana's eyes was due to the emptiness she felt from having no one to fight, an emptiness so profound that she grew weary of fighting and killing, eventually turning into stillness.
And the stillness in Ishikawa's eyes was just pure stillness.
"I am not like Zaraki."
Ishikawa's voice sounded somewhat ethereal, as if echoing in a cave:
"Even if you deliberately lure me, tearing apart the shackles I unconsciously created, I will become crazy, bloodthirsty, excited, and battle-crazed as you expect... But when these reach their peak..."
"Will they return to calmness?"
Unohana interrupted Ishikawa's words, staring into his eyes.
"Perhaps to many, you are very similar to Zaraki, but I have never found you to be similar to Zaraki in any way."
"Because..."
Unohana lowered the blade in her hand, a cold, disgusted expression appearing in her eyes:
"Compared to Zaraki, you are more like me."
"Rather than calmness, it's an indifference to life. The death of anyone will not bring you the slightest emotional fluctuation."
"Everyone is an object that can be killed."
"Saving people is done casually, and killing people is the same!"
Unohana looked at Ishikawa, who was enveloped by the Gray Fog, and said coldly:
"I discovered this the first time I met you. Every time I see you, I feel like I'm looking at myself, and I feel an immense disgust."
"No matter how long we've known each other, no matter how well you've disguised it, this disgust cannot be erased. Sometimes, I even have the urge to eliminate you!"
"Do you know?"
Unohana's lowered blade gradually rose, her eyes narrowed, and a curve appeared at the corner of her mouth.
Although she was smiling, there was no hint of amusement in that smile; only killing intent.
"Now, I have been suppressing my killing intent towards you!"
"And precisely because of this."
Unohana took a step forward, walking towards Ishikawa: "I never believed that you, who are so similar to me, are qualified to be compared to Zaraki, who once defeated me."
"At least..."
Without warning, Unohana suddenly vanished from her spot.
"Before killing me!"
A voice full of killing intent came from beside Ishikawa's ear, the sound of the blade cutting through the air and the words entering his ears simultaneously.
The flash of a blade appeared!