"Enough of this! I'll cut you down!"
Renji shouted fiercely enough, but not one of his slashes actually landed on Kazuma.
It was all helpless fury.
Even after several more strikes, Renji hadn't so much as brushed the hem of Kazuma's clothes.
"Executive Militia soldier, tell me your name! Anyone who can wound me is no ordinary grunt."
As he cooled down bit by bit, Renji finally started thinking clearly again.
Of course, Kazuma said nothing.
He just stared back coldly, though behind the mask he was grinning ear to ear!
"Haha..."
Renji laughed, and as he did, his whole body shook as if he'd lost it.
He was so furious with this soldier that he'd started laughing!
'What on earth are you laughing at?'
Kazuma's lip curled, and he went back to griping about Renji in his head.
He was starting to think there was something genuinely wrong with the guy.
A flash then followed by a slash.
Kazuma left another wound on Renji's body.
From the side, Rukia leaned in and watched closely.
It wasn't often that Kazuma gave a live Zanjutsu lesson, and she meant to soak up everything she could.
She was watching so intently that all she was missing was a comfy chair and a bucket of popcorn.
Renji happened not to be thinking straight just then, so he missed the look on Rukia's face.
If he'd seen it, he might have burst a blood vessel.
He had gone through so much to come rescue Rukia, only to end up getting sliced apart, while the very person he'd come for sat there enthralled by the Zanjutsu lesson, not sparing a shred of concern for the poor man being carved up in front of her!
Renji's eyes turned wilder still.
He swung Zabimaru and slashed at the soldier with everything he had.
Kazuma, though, made it look almost unfair. Every motion landed right in the gaps of Zabimaru's attacks, and he turned the blade aside with ease.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
After several more swings, Renji stopped.
He'd already figured out that Shikai alone wouldn't be enough to beat the soldier in front of him.
"I wasn't going to use this, but for Rukia's sake, I'll stop holding back."
Renji drew a deep breath and made up his mind. He was going to use Bankai!
It was the trump card he was proudest of.
"Bankai! Hihiō Zabimaru!"
At Renji's roar, his reiatsu surged up to the third tier, and his appearance shifted as well.
Brown fur spread over his shoulders.
On the right it ran all the way down to his wrist, while on the left it reached only to his elbow, where a skull ornament sat among the fur. Zabimaru had changed too, into a giant skeletal snake.
Its skull had yellow eyes and a mane of bright red fur, and its body coiled around Renji like an enormous serpent.
The tail end of the skeletal snake was made of countless bone segments, and the number of joints could grow freely with how much spiritual power Renji poured out.
Each joint was linked by reiatsu.
"Well?"
Renji, naive as ever, believed that reaching Bankai made him a true powerhouse.
Where he'd picked up that idea, no one could say. In truth, his current Bankai didn't even bring him up to the level of a single Kensei.
Watching from the side, Rukia was stunned when Renji released his Bankai.
She hadn't even mastered Shikai yet, and here was her childhood friend, the one she'd grown up with, already this far ahead?
'No. Once this is all over, I have to train for real. I've fallen too far behind.'
The thought left Rukia feeling a little down.
She resolved to push herself in earnest. Bankai could wait.
At the very least, she had to master Shikai first.
Young people were always full of fire and drive, eager to grow and push past their limits.
Yet that same drive could sometimes tip into blindness and arrogance.
Renji swung Zabimaru, and the giant skeletal serpent shot toward Kazuma at blinding speed.
Kazuma casually raised his blade, halted the snake's head with ease, then shook his head, as if to say the attack was nowhere near enough.
A flicker of surprise crossed Renji's eyes, but he quickly sneered again.
"You're too naive. Did you think that was all?"
With a cold laugh, Renji drew out even more power.
Reiatsu gathered fast in the snake's head. Its jaws opened, and a massive blast of spiritual pressure fired toward Kazuma like a Cero.
Facing a reiatsu blast from that close, Kazuma didn't so much as blink.
He calmly pushed his blade forward, and the seemingly unstoppable blast split apart against his sword and scattered into the air.
Renji's eyes went wide.
He couldn't believe what he'd just seen!
He'd thought that attack would surely finish the soldier off, yet the man had brushed it aside without any trouble.
"Hmph. Not bad."
Renji gritted his teeth and swung Zabimaru again, ready to unleash another round of attacks.
Kazuma stayed perfectly calm the whole time, as if everything so far had been a minor footnote.
His movements were quick and sure. The long blade in his hand flowed like wind and rain, each slash landing exactly on the joints between the snake's bones.
Under the assault, the joints cracked sharply and shattered one after another.
Renji only sneered.
"You think that's enough to break Zabimaru apart? Every joint is controlled by my reiatsu. What you're doing is pointless."
Seeing the soldier's effort apparently wasted, Renji got a little of his confidence back.
The truth was, Kazuma knew perfectly well that attacking this way wouldn't actually destroy Zabimaru.
He was doing it purely for his own amusement.
So far he hadn't used a drop of reiatsu. He was handling Renji with polished Zanjutsu alone.
Besides, he had no intention of destroying Renji's Zanpakutō.
He knew that if a Zanpakutō was damaged in Bankai, it could never fully return to what it had been.
After all, hitting someone too hard wasn't always the right move.
He didn't want to break Renji entirely, so feeding him a little confidence here and there was the better choice.
As Renji poured out his reiatsu, the shattered snake bones pulled themselves back together and lunged at Kazuma again.
Kazuma stayed completely relaxed, swinging his blade lazily to block every one of Renji's attacks.
Even now, Renji still hadn't realized the soldier in front of him was just toying with him, playing him for a fool.
Just then, Kazuma took an absentminded step back.
When Renji saw it, he perked right up again, as if he'd caught sight of victory on the horizon.
"How's that? Is my attack finally too much for you?"
In reality, Kazuma had only stepped back because he'd been standing in one spot too long and his foot had gone numb.
He just wanted to shift around a bit.
The longer Renji fought, the more worked up he got, and Kazuma was happy enough to humor him for a while.
A smile touched Kazuma's lips, so faint it was nearly invisible.
'This guy is really easy to bait.'
He was feigning weakness on purpose, luring Renji into attacking over and over, while he studied Renji's techniques and weak points.
Watching Kazuma give ground step by step, Renji figured he had the upper hand and felt quietly pleased with himself.
'I'm finally going to take this soldier down!'
But all of it was still exactly where Kazuma wanted it.
He flashed aside, slipping another of Renji's attacks with ease, and in the same motion his blade lashed out at blinding speed and bit into Renji's arm.