As he transitioned from the streets of the Second Division to those of the Fourth Division, the atmosphere gradually shifted from sharp and intense to tranquil.
Hasumi Ren strolled through the Fourth Division barracks. The medicinal gardens lining the path were filled with a wide variety of herbs, their leaves unfurling in the warm sunlight.
A faint, soothing scent of medicinal herbs lingered in the air, naturally putting one's mind at ease.
This afternoon, he had another Kendo lesson with Unohana Retsu.
In the center of the training grounds on the back mountain, a lone figure stood in silence.
Unohana had already drawn her Zanpakuto, its blade gleaming with a faint, chilling light.
Ren slowly approached the edge of the training grounds.
"Captain."
Unohana slowly turned around. A faint smile graced her face, her features soft and gentle, radiating the warmth of a seasoned healer.
Yet, the Zanpakuto in her hand exuded a terrifying, heart-stopping sharpness.
"You're here."
She gently raised her blade, pointing the tip directly at Ren.
"Your strength has improved rapidly, far exceeding my expectations. Therefore, I have given it some thought..."
"In order to fully draw out your potential, we will be using real swords for our sparring sessions from today onward."
"If you lose focus even for a moment, you will get hurt. Hasumi Ren... are you ready?"
Hearing this, Ren's expression grew noticeably more solemn.
He gave a slight nod, drew his own Zanpakuto, and settled into his opening stance.
"Captain, please guide me."
In the next instant, Unohana moved.
There were no afterimages from Shunpo, nor was there any fierce eruption of spiritual pressure. She simply lifted her foot and took a slow, deliberate step forward.
Yet, despite the seemingly sluggish motion, she appeared right in front of Ren in the blink of an eye.
Her Zanpakuto swept toward his neck in a flash of biting cold light, carrying an unstoppable, overwhelming momentum.
It looked like an ordinary slash, but it contained killing intent and technique refined through countless battles.
Ren's pupils contracted sharply, his senses flaring to maximum alert.
The sheer pressure radiating from Unohana with a live blade in hand was on a completely different level than when she used a wooden sword.
Not daring to be careless for even a fraction of a second, he condensed his spiritual pressure to its absolute limit along his blade and swung up to parry her strike.
The deafening clash of steel rang out across the training grounds, the sheer force of the impact sending a violent rustle through the leaves of the nearby forest.
A tremendous force traveled down Ren's blade, numbing his arm and sending him skidding backward uncontrollably.
He stumbled back several paces before finally regaining his footing, the spiritual pressure within him churning violently from the blow.
"Not bad. You have improved since last time."
Unohana's face still held that same faint smile as she raised her Zanpakuto once more.
"Again."
The moment the word left her lips, she lunged again. A flurry of blade shadows intertwined across the training grounds as a relentless storm of razor-sharp slashes enveloped Ren.
Every strike was flawlessly precise; every swing carried an unstoppable force.
She wielded her Zanpakuto to absolute perfection. It was a brand of Kendo forged in the fires of countless life-and-death battles, radiating a killing intent that seeped deep into the bone.
Ren focused entirely on defending himself. His Zanpakuto danced in a blur, his blade shadows clashing against Unohana's in an endless, ringing symphony of steel.
Before long, a few shallow cuts appeared on Ren's body.
However, under Unohana's intense pressure, his Kendo was also progressing at an astonishing rate.
From barely surviving a few exchanges at the beginning, he had grown capable of holding his own for a short while against Unohana, even with her suppressing her true strength.
System prompts chimed continuously in his mind, but he deliberately ignored them.
He shifted his footing lightly, perfectly blending Shunpo with his Kendo. His figure weaved nimbly through the storm of slashes, his Zanpakuto alternating between desperate parries and sharp counterattacks.
His control over the spiritual pressure coating his blade grew increasingly refined, and his techniques became far more fluid.
He was finally beginning to understand that the Yachiru Style swordsmanship Unohana was teaching him wasn't just a collection of forms.
It was the physical manifestation of her profound understanding of Kendo, her absolute mastery over killing intent, and her flawless manipulation of spiritual pressure.
Unohana had seamlessly woven all of these elements into her swordsmanship, ultimately forging a style entirely her own.
And now, Ren was slowly but surely inheriting that very legacy.
The atmosphere on the training grounds grew increasingly heavy. Dense spiritual pressure clashed in the air, and the ground was soon scarred with deep, jagged gouges from their stray slashes.
Unohana's attacks grew fiercer by the second, her killing intent thickening palpably.
A long-suppressed instinct buried deep within her soul was slowly being awakened by Ren's resistance.
Meanwhile, Ren was gradually adapting to Unohana's punishing rhythm.
He could feel his Kendo evolving in real-time. Every attribute fragment dropped from their clashes deepened his comprehension of the blade.
Time lost all meaning. The sun gradually dipped toward the west, casting a golden, mottled glow across the training grounds.
Unohana delivered another devastating downward slash, her blade carrying a terrifying surge of killing intent as it cleaved straight toward Ren's chest.
She had subconsciously increased her strength behind this strike, seeking to push Ren to his absolute limits.
A sharp glint flashed in Ren's eyes. This time, he didn't attempt to parry, nor did he retreat.
He abruptly twisted his Zanpakuto, instantly condensing his spiritual pressure to its absolute peak along the edge.
Shifting his body just a fraction of an inch, he used a burst of Shunpo to slip past the trajectory of Unohana's descending blade.
Simultaneously, his own blade—gleaming with a faint, icy light—slid smoothly along the flat of Unohana's sword, thrusting directly toward her wrist.
The counterattack was lightning-fast and flawlessly precise. It was a microscopic opening he had managed to perceive only after absorbing countless attribute fragments.
A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Unohana's eyes. She clearly hadn't expected Ren to launch such a daring counteroffensive.
She flicked her wrist slightly to evade the thrust, but she was a fraction of a second too slow.
*Rip.*
The tip of Ren's blade grazed Unohana's sleeve, tearing away a tiny shred of black fabric.
The edge bit into her skin, leaving a very shallow cut.
Yet, this was the very first time Ren had managed to land a physical strike on her during their sparring sessions.
However, the very instant his blade tore through her sleeve, an unimaginably terrifying killing intent erupted from Unohana's body.
It was a cold, frenzied bloodlust that pierced straight to the bone. Like a miasma rising from the deepest abyss of hell, it instantly suffocated the entire training ground.
A frantic rustling echoed from the distant woods as countless birds, literally frightened to death by the sheer weight of her killing intent, plummeted lifelessly to the ground.
Ren's entire body froze instantly. A paralyzing chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head. He felt as though he had just been locked onto by a primordial beast; even drawing a breath became agonizingly difficult.
He could sense that this killing intent wasn't specifically directed at him. It was a purely instinctual eruption—a primal battle reflex that Unohana naturally unleashed the moment she was wounded.
He raised his eyes to look at Unohana, his pupils contracting sharply.
Unohana was staring silently at the shallow cut on her arm. The gentle, tranquil expression she always wore had completely vanished.
In its place was a faint, deeply unsettling smile.
There was not a single trace of anger in that smile.
Ren watched as the corners of Unohana's mouth slowly curled upward.
It was a smile of pure, bloodthirsty euphoria.
Ren was completely stunned. He had never seen Unohana Retsu look like this before.
A moment later, noticing the shock in Ren's eyes, Unohana snapped out of her trance.
She raised a hand and lightly touched the corner of her own mouth.
She paused, looking momentarily surprised by her own reaction.