Sup everyone! I am beyond late, BUT BLEACH IS FINALLY RETURNING! FUCK YEAH! Enjoy the show!

I woke up, and I just felt inexplicably happy. Well, it was pretty obvious why I was happy, actually. Although I had, and still have, more important matters to get to, I couldn't deny that I needed last night. Both the massage and what came after. My body was feeling better than it has been for a long while, and my mind was clear and undisturbed by nightmares or memories. I wasn't even feeling the urge to get out of bed and wake up fully as quickly as possible, I was just content with staying in bed, my arms around my women. The sun was bathing the room in a warm, golden light. My partners were curled into my sides with their heads somehow having moved to my chest while I was asleep. My muscles no longer ached from sheer stress. I was just happy. I rolled my head on the pillow to glance down at the women in my embrace, letting myself be too lazy to pick up my head. As always, Unohana was the picture of elegance, her face having softened with her lips in a soft, satisfied smile and her hair spreading out around her. Yoruichi, and it made me want to laugh just thinking about it, looked like a cat in the middle of a nap. Her fingers and hands hung down, kind of mimicking paws, and a lazy smile was haphazard on her face. I couldn't help but brush my fingers down their backs. They curled in more at the action, which made my smile grow. I watched them, enjoying how the golden light washed over them and made them glow with beauty.

Yoruichi was the first to stir, nuzzling into me as she yawned. I was content with watching silently as she sighed while stretching her back and arms, making measure to move as little as possible.

"Morning." I rumbled, which caused the werecat to look up at me as a smirk slowly grew on her face.

"Good morning to you, too, Ichi-kun~." Well versed in Yoruichi's quirks, I didn't react to her half-asleep subconscious teasing. I did glance down at her fingers as they lazily danced up my torso, though. "When were you gonna tell me you were a sex god?" I hummed, too happy and content to try avoiding questions.

"My tendency to brag kinda died in the Blood War." I mumbled. "Besides, the only two that needed to know now do." The mocha skinned goddess purred.

"You're goddamn right we do." She proceeded to lower her head back down to my chest as she snuggled into a comfortable position. "As much as I'd love to lay in bed curled up with you all day, I know you have plans." She finished. I sighed, bringing my hand up to run my fingers through her hair. Her happy smile grew and she tilted her head a little to give me better access.

"Yup."

"So what's on the agenda?"

"Ossan is helping out Toshiro today. From the feel of it, the Old Man is inside his house, which is bound to piss him off. But, Ossan's riddles are good for him. He needs to be quick thinking to properly use his matured Bankai, and Old Man's sheer vagueness will give him the push he needs." I glanced down to watch as the ex-captain's hair parted between my fingers, and soaked in how the light mixed with her violet locks. "I'm gonna murder Zaraki into shape starting today, so I guess its date night with Unohana."

"Oh? Where are you taking her?"

"Wherever I'm gonna take Zaraki, so she can both help me murder him and keep him from actually getting murdered."

"That doesn't sound all that romantic."

"It is when one of her favorite activities is fighting."

"Ah, keep forgetting about that."

"Don't worry about it, it's pretty easy to forget, since she's only fought once in the past few hundred years and it was after I forced her to."

"When is my date?" She purred.

"I've got an idea, and I'll be working on the details while I train Zaraki."

"Any hints for me on what to expect?"

"Halloween is in a couple days, isn't it?" Her eyes gleamed with anticipation.

"Oh, it already sounds like fun."

"Make sure you don't get too excited. I might disappoint you if you do."

"Oh I doubt that, when I know how good you are at using your head." My face warmed at her intentional phrasing, but it passed quickly. She was still mostly half-asleep, and was easier to deal with.

"What're you gonna do while Unohana and I are out?" I asked. She yawned and stretched her back again before snuggling back into my side.

"I'm gonna keep the bed warm for you. With how well last night went, all I want to do is lay in bed and enjoy the feeling."

"Aw, damn, now you're making me want to stay with you." I sighed as I straightened my head so I was staring at the ceiling.

"Please do, I wanna do more than just lay~."

"Bad kitty." I mumbled, a smirk dusting my face.

"Don't you mean naughty kitty~?"

"Sorry, but I can't get into a fight with Zaraki if I'm horny."

"I'd like to see the outcome of that." Unohana spoke up, apparently awake. My eyebrow twitched.

"Oi, the only Kenpachi I'd ever fuck is you, don't even think about that!"

"Fine. Then I'll think about how you'd fuck me. Though, after last night, I fear my imagination may fail me."

"You bet your ass it will." I huffed before releasing the women from my hold and sitting up. "Since both of you are awake now, time to make breakfast."

"You wait until both of us are awake before starting breakfast?" Yoruichi asked.

"More like I can't force myself to stop staring until you do." I corrected as I stood.

"…Wow, and I thought I already knew why I fell for you." The werecat mumbled.

"Why thank you." I chuckled. "You deserve a fried fish for that." I didn't even need to be looking at the goddess to know her eyes were wide.

"…I love you." She breathed.

"I love you too," I automatically responded, "But you're not getting extra fish out of me that easily." A laugh slipped out of me upon catching her soft 'dammit'. I grabbed a spare pair of hakama on my way out the bedroom, ignoring the bundled up pair in the corner that reeked of sex. Considering I was about to brawl with Zaraki alongside Unohana all day long, I took measure to enjoy the morning peace while I could. As much as I loved fighting, it was difficult to truly enjoy it when I couldn't go all out without killing somebody, so it usually left me more stressed. True to my word, I grabbed a fish from the ice chest and the necessary supplies to fry it before turning the stove on.

'King, why the hell did you stop?'

'You know why.'

'Yeah, and it's the flimsiest excuse I've ever heard.'

'We do have a lot of shit to do.'

'That ain't what's stopping ya an' you know it.'

'…What do you want me to say?'

'I want ya ta stop believin' ya aint worth it.'

'It's hard.' He sighed, and I didn't have to peer into my Inner World to know his hands were angrily passing through his hair.

'I know.' He growled. 'They're fukkin loud, I know, an' they've got no right ta make that much sense, but ya've got ta ignore the voices.'

'How loud they are and how much sense they make aren't why they're hard to ignore.' That silenced him for a moment, but he figured it out quick enough.

'Unohana an' Yoruichi can't pull ya outta yer downwards spiral if they don't know yer in one.'

'I am going to tell them.'

''Going to' is the important part there. Ya don't need ta wait, ya want to. Ya think ya deserve the hell, but ya know ya don't, so ya only torture yerself a little bit.' He snarled. I bit my lip.

'Fine. Then I'll move up when I was planning to tell them. After we're finished with the captains.' I relented.

'No. Today.'

'We can go back home after we're done with the captains. The Wandenreich are a lot less strict in watching the World of the Living, it'll be easier to not get caught.' I tried to reason.

'If ya don't tell 'em tonight, I'm takin' over.' He threatened.

'I'll stop you.'

'Fine by me. They'll know something's up, and we both know ya can't say no ta them fer shit like this.' I glared at the fish I was frying, lamenting at the fact that he was right. My jaw tightened and my glare hardened, the voices arguing that getting everyone ready was more important than getting my head on straight. 'King. Don't listen to 'em. They just want ta drag ya down. Ya know that.' I bit my lip, dark memories flashing behind my eyes. 'King, focus on me. They get worse when ya give 'em yer attention, ignore 'em. Say it.' One of my hands tightened around one of the utensils I was holding enough that the tool creaked. 'Say it, King. Ya know it makes 'em go away.' I swallowed the lump in my throat, but it just made my throat tighter. 'Fucking-KING! Abandon your fears!' He was yelling, but his voice was quieter. 'Move forward and never stop!' His familiar echoing speech was being swallowed by the others. 'You'll age if you pull back!' It was almost as if he was screaming through a mouthful of cotton.

"Ichigo?" I blinked at the questioning voice. My head snapped to the left to see Unohana standing next to me, worry swirling in her eyes and a palm on my chest. "What's wrong?" I sucked in a breath. A little quickly, I must not have been breathing during the attack. I released it slowly and closed my eyes for a moment before refocusing on the fish, learning that I hadn't burned it while I was stuck in my head.

"…That's a bit tough to answer." My voice was quiet, I felt exhausted despite knowing I wasn't. "There's a lot of stuff wrong."

"Then it isn't 'tough to answer', is it?" I snorted softly at her minor joke. "It's not going to get easier if you keep it bottled up. Talk me through it." Her hand came up to rub my back for a moment, before she switched it up to dance her fingers up and down my spine. I focused on the feeling.

"Part of it is stuff you already know. Getting everybody ready for the Wandenreich, making sure they don't become aware of what we're doing, figuring out what to do to beat them. Even with Zangetsu able to manifest and help lighten the load, it's still only three people handling the training of dozens, and each of those people require different training for different things. Like, Zaraki's training is simple, but is going to take up a lot of time. Meanwhile, Byakuya's training is changing his outlook and rearranging his priorities, which could take anywhere from an hour to a week and is far more mentally exhausting than physically. I haven't even started on figuring out what to do for the lieutenants, and getting the unseated Shinigami to a point where they're not cannon fodder only just now crossed my mind. Not to mention, as Ossan reminded me the other day, since the Winter War was prevented, we're no longer in a situation where Yama's authority is greater than Central 46. Sure, those jackasses haven't been replaced yet, but once they are, the first thing they're gonna do is remind us that they hold all the political power."

"While those are all valid points, something is telling me that's not what was clouding your mind earlier." The raven haired woman hummed as she stepped behind me and wrapped her arms around me. I appreciated the gesture greatly.

"I'll tell you both tonight." I sighed. "I need to be completely aware for today's training, and that conversation will tire me out a lot."

"You understand that you have now made it so that you cannot get out of telling us."

"That was the point." I confirmed. We fell into a comfortable silence after that. It was nice, feeling Unohana hold me from behind while I worked on finishing breakfast. My body was warm, both from her and from Shiro sending out soothing waves through my body. It angered Shiro more than it did Ossan that their attempts to calm my panic were never as successful as Unohana's or Yoruichi's. To that same extent, both halves of my zanpakuto were calmed by the fact that there was anyone that could calm me down. For the past five years, I mostly just was calmed by the fact that anyone was there period. The food finished quick enough that I could stop that train of thought before it got any real traction.

Just in time, Yoruichi was stalking into the room, her eyes half lidded and her nose turned up to follow the smell of the fried fish. Unlike Unohana, who was wearing the basic Shinigami uniform, Yoruichi was naked. I ignored it pretty easily, she usually was naked. She wasn't an exhibitionist, but she definitely preferred to be without clothes. I once asked her about it. She had explained that because of her cat form, she felt more comfortable whilst naked. I set the table, and we ate in comfortable silence. They sat closer to me than normal. Unohana most likely did it intentionally, to provide more comfort, while Yoruichi probably did it for her own comfort. The gentle nurse sat close enough that I could feel her body heat, reminding me of her presence. Yoruichi was halfway in my lap, only leaning out to devour her fish. I smiled as I watched her tear into the meal happily. As I sipped my coffee (I had added some sugar today, the sweet taste did a wonderful job of clearing my mind) I slipped my right arm around the werercat's waist and tugged her closer. When she snuggled into me in response, I closed my eyes to fully take in the sensation.

We finished eating far quicker than I expected to. I had managed to eat three mouthfuls of food, and I completely finished my coffee. Unohana and I had gotten dressed pretty quickly, while the ex-captain had wasted no time in curling up under a blanket on my bed. I smiled at the sight.

"What is the schedule for today?" The First Kenpachi asked.

"Date night." I hummed. One of her eyebrows raised in time with the corners of her lips.

"Oh? And what shall that entail?"

"Undoing your sin." A lovely pleased sigh fluttered out of her.

"Yoruichi-chan was right. You do know how to get a woman excited." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Come on, last time it took a week for us to get him back up to full strength." She frowned as she followed me out the front door.

"That is an uncomfortably long time. For two captains to be in an undisclosed location for a week is curious behavior. Not only would the Quincy become suspicious, but the Central 46 as well."

"Well, last time we didn't really know what the best method was, and I was only fighting with about a quarter of my strength."

"A quarter of your strength?"

"That's a lon-" I paused in my stride and mentally double checked how far we were from the 11th Division. "Actually, we have the time. This is going to be a little confusing, so bear that in mind."

"Go on."

"So, uh, starting off, you're aware that my Shikai was different before and after I time-traveled, right?"

"Though I am only aware of your Shikai from rumors, they spoke of a completely different weapon than the pair you wield." She confirmed.

"Well, for a long time, I was under the impression that Shiro and Ossan were completely separate from each other. When my Shinigami powers first were awakened, Ossan suppressed Shiro in an attempt to make me more in tune with my Quincy powers. This was because Yhwach was such an overwhelming threat that Ossan thought the best way to keep me safe was to make it so that Yhwach didn't deem me an enemy. So, until about two years into the Blood War, I was only fighting with my Quincy powers masquerading as my Shinigami powers, and the occasional power boost from my hollow powers leaking through. Furthermore, I didn't know how to control my reiatsu, so I was leaking it everywhere, and I didn't have an asauchi." Unohana became confused at that.

"You battled with a sword capable of entering both Shikai and Bankai, but it wasn't an asauchi? How is that possible?"

"Funnily enough, it was because of how Ossan was keeping up the illusion that he was a zanpakuto spirit. Using his Quincy ability to draw in and condense reishi to a point it becomes physical, Ossan used my reiatsu to manifest Shinigami robes, and my blade. Looking back on it, I was pretty dumb to not realize that I was the only Shinigami whose Bankai changed their clothes. And the only Shinigami who could decipher how much of their reiatsu they have left based on how much of their clothes are left."

"Excuse me?"

"Since my clothes were essentially just my condensed reiatsu, when I started running low on reiatsu, my clothes started eroding away."

"Oh my. That must've been quite the sight." I rolled my eyes again.

"Moving on, I eventually did manage to get an asauchi, and unlock the full powers of my zanpakuto. About a year and a half into the Blood War, the Zero Squad came down from the Royal Palace. Still pisses me off that they only came down because the Wandenreich finally started hacking at the barriers to the Royal Palace, but whatever." I mumbled. "When they came down, they offered to take some of us up with them for training, and ended up taking Renji, Rukia, Byakuya and I. Rukia unlocked Bankai because of it, Renji's situation confuses the shit outta me, Byakuya was taught the difference between Shikai and Bankai, and I basically rebuilt myself from the ground up. Using Ichibe's words, 'my foundation was made of chains, and needed to be melted down into steel'. I found out the truth of my zanpakuto, accepted it, got an asauchi, some pretty badass clothes, some training in how to control my reiatsu and how to actually use my powers."

"I see." A shinigami crashed through the wall to our right, slamming into the stone on our left before slumping down unconscious. A wooden sword was held in his right hand, and I mentally approved that it was still in an iron grip despite his state.

"This is fucking annoying!" I heard Zaraki shout. "How the fuck am I supposed to talk to my zanpakuto spirit if you shits are so WEAK?!"

"Maybe find Ichi-chan?" Yachiru squeaked.

"I WOULD if I COULD! But the bastard can hide his fucking reiatsu now! I'd just be running around for hours screaming his name, and that wont help jack shit!"

"Or maybe you wait for me to come to you, like I told you I would?" I questioned as Unohana and I stepped onto the Squad 11 grounds. Zaraki's infamous manic grin ripped across his face.

"Looks like that speak of the devil shit is true after all!" I stepped up to him, and not caring that he had a good five inches on me, punched him into the ground.

"Fucking dumbass." I growled. "We're trying to not let the Quincy know we're onto them, not scream it to the goddamn Soul King."

"Oi, I didn't say crap about those cowardly wimps."

"You shouted for everyone to hear that you're trying to talk to your zanpakuto spirit. You know, the one you aren't supposed to be aware of for four fucking years." The eyepatch bearing captain squinted his visible eye and seemed to contemplate for a long moment.

"Shit, yer right. This hiding the time travel crap is irritating." I huffed.

"Yeah, and it's only gonna get worse from here. Come on, I just thought of where we're gonna help you get your zanpakuto." The current captain of the 11th stood up and followed behind me alongside the First.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"My training spot where I helped out Unohana. Little bit 'cause irony, mostly the fact that it's one of the most private spots in the Seireitei."

"Ok, what are we gonna do?"

"Unohana and I are gonna take turns beating the shit out of you. Then we're gonna heal you. And then we're gonna do it again. Repeat until all of your stupid-ass self-restrictions are gone."

"What do you mean, 'stupid-ass restrictions'? I can enjoy fighting a helluva lot more people cuz of it."

"Go ahead." I permitted.

"Wh-" Unohana didn't hesitate to hop up and sock him in the back of the head. "Hey-the fuck was that for?!"

"You can stop bullshitting yourself. You don't want to fight anybody that's willing, you want to fight the strongest person you can, just like Unohana and I. There's a reason Unohana and I share the ideal that the best fight is one you don't have to try to make fun. You're more powerful than Unohana, and you can cut her down faster than she can keep up at your best. That doesn't mean give her time to heal, or hold back on your swings. That means she ain't good enough for you, so you move onto someone else. She did the same thing to everyone before you, and I've done the same to everybody."

"What if I run outta people to fight?"

"You won't. You weren't around to hear it the first time, so I'll repeat myself. There are only three people that are powerful enough to make me use Bankai. Only two of those people I need Bankai against to keep up with. Neither of those two are anyone in the Seireitei, and none of those three are you."

"How am I gonna fight them if I don't know who or where they are?"

"I was talking about how you can fight me, dumbass."

"…Oh." We remained in silence until we entered Kisuke's training ground. I took them to the healing springs, and gestured to the rocks around the small pool.

"We're gonna be hacking and slashing at each other for as long as I feel comfortable with, so if you don't want anything getting fucked up, put it here." Unohana immediately stepped up and started removing her captain's robe.

"Whadaya mean 'as long as you feel comfortable with'? We're trainin', aren't we?" Zaraki whined.

"As much as I would love to get into a week-long slaughter-fest with the two of you, that would raise the suspicions of a lot of people we don't want getting suspicious. So shut up and get ready." I was getting tired of his questioning. Especially because he normally doesn't question crap.

"Ichigo?" My eye twitched as I turned to Unohana, who had removed both her captain's robe and the obi she was known for wearing. "How bloody do you think this spar will become? I'd rather not overwork the dry-cleaning company." I was about to ask what she meant by overworking the dry-cleaning company, but then I remembered that we had really been putting them through the ringer these past few days with thoroughly fucked up clothes.

"You and I should be fine for a few hours. Until Zaraki starts really breaking past his seals, all we'd need to worry about is his blood splatter."

"Oi, yer talkin like I won't be able to hack you two up!" the ragged captain argued, having completely removed his top.

"You're definitely not gonna be able to cut me until you get your Shikai, and with how much you've suppressed yourself, you're not gonna be able to land a blow on Unohana for a while." I passed my eyes over the two captains. Zaraki was currently only wearing his hakama, with his unsheathed sword resting on his shoulder. The sheath was lying on top of his captain's robe and shihakusho. Unohana kept her shihakusho on along with her hakama and sandals, but otherwise had removed everything. Yachiru was playing with the sheath of Minazuki.

"Oi, Yachiru." The pink haired spirit immediately stood to attention at my call, albeit mildly confused. I noticed the confusion also dusting the faces of the other two, but I ignored them. "You excited?" I could see her confusion grow incredibly, before realization cleared it all away. Her pink eyes sparkled.

"Yep! Thank you, Ichi-chan!" I smirked.

"Of course. I hate it when I see situations like you and Zaraki anyway."

"The fuck do you mean, Ichigo?" The ragged captain sounded ready to forgo the battle and go for the kill. His immediate reaction made me smile all the more.

"You'll understand when we start hacking at those seals. Everyone ready?" The First nodded, clearly keeping calm through her awareness of my knowledge. Zaraki was glaring at me, obviously suspicious, but lifted his sword from his shoulder.

"Sure." He growled. I smiled widely.

"Great." I was instantly in front of the eyepatch-bearing captain, booting him in the face with hopefully enough force to knock off his famous eyepatch. He was flung across the grounds, skipping along the dirt until he crashed against a rock formation. Based on the explosion of yellow reiatsu immediately following, I was successful. "Unohana, I get the first turn. Get your Kaido ready, he's gonna need it pretty damn soon."

"He wouldn't be able to grow much with short skirmishes, won't he?" The captain of the fourth seemed deeply confused.

"With the time limit we've got, we have to emphasize efficiency over fun. So, what we have to do above all else is show off the gap between him and us. Make him focus on that difference more than the battle." As I stepped forward, Zaraki lunged out from the rock formation, a manic grin on his face with his scratchy laughter filling the air. His blade was above his head, and he brought it down only to have it stopped by my left forearm. I managed to catch the falter in his grin just as my right fist rocketed into his chest. I heard multiple ribs crack and break right before he shot into the ground. There was hardly a moment for the dust to settle before he sprang up again, ignoring the potentially fatal injury. His sword was coming up in a diagonal slash, so I drew Shiro's blade and met his strike. As soon as the two weapons collided, mine pushed his back, crashing the back of his blade into his chest before I dragged him along the ground and through a pillar of rock. Seeing that he refused to go down, I narrowed my eyes and punched his face into the ground with my free left hand. He bounced up for a bit as the ground broke, and he tried to get up, but only pushed himself into a blood-filled coughing fit. I sheathed Shiro's blade as I turned around to take a seat next to Yachiru, Unohana already coming up to get him back into fighting shape.

I sat down next to the zanpakuto spirit, and automatically began petting her head like she told me she loved a few years ago. She nuzzled into my palm.

"I'm really happy that you're doing this, Ichi-chan." The pink-haired girl reaffirmed.

"I know. I just wish helping out you two was the only reason I was doing this." Her eyes stopped gleaming as the dark pink orbs dropped to the ground.

"…You said you and that Kisuke guy were the only ones to survive. That means Ken-chan died. He lost." I lowered my hand to rub her shoulder comfortingly.

"It ain't because of you, don't blame yourself. I wasn't there when he died, I was in the World of the Living at the time, but I heard what went down. He was in Bankai, using its full power. The Sternritter he was fighting just had some stupid powers that made him nearly impossible to kill, especially in a long fight. It was difficult, but I avenged him by killing the Sternritter that did him in. I'll make sure that doesn't happen, alright? It's a promise." Yachiru looked back up at me, meeting my eyes before a smile began to grow on her face.

"You're already doing so much, but, thank you, Ichi-chan." Instead of speaking, I just nodded before we both turned to the captains' battling. Like I had said, Zaraki couldn't hit Unohana, who was weaving around him and leaving a laceration upon his body with nearly every movement. His infamous grin was replaced with a deep frown, and I could tell he was focused on trying to hit his opponent over anything else, even trying to give up dodging just to put more effort into swinging his sword. From what I could glimpse with her darting around, Unohana was also frowning, probably from finally seeing the difference between his full released self and as he was now in its entirety. Due to the fact that Unohana's power was focused around extending the fight instead of ending it, their match was a lot longer than mine, which was more of a curb-stomp than anything else. By my estimate, it took about 10 minutes before Zaraki fell to a knee from blood loss. Once he did, I came up, palmed the top of his head, and flooded his body with Kaido. As his wounds closed up, I watched his face.

His grin was long gone. His eyes were contemplative. His body was no longer tense with anticipation, and his gaze was locked onto the blood on his skin. The blood that was only his. His grip was so tight on the hilt of his sword that his knuckles were white. The chipped blade of his sword-it couldn't yet be called a zanpakuto-was clean of blood. Once he was back up to fighting condition, I lifted my hand and backed up as he stood. He watched me for a moment, before his eyes narrowed as he realized I wasn't going to draw Zangetsu. Silently, the current captain of the 11th lunged forward with his blade cutting across the air. Good, meant that he already was focused on just trying to close the gap between he and us. I met his lunge with my fists, strengthened by Hierro. His sword sparked against my collarbone as my knuckles pounded against his body. He coughed blood, but still tried to let loose his own fist against my face. I felt one of his fingers break, but I didn't so much as twitch as I kept punching away. He backpedaled, but I stayed close. His serrated blade came up to slash at my eyes, but once again stopped in its tracks upon contact with my body. My left hand broke his jaw. My right, one of his ribs. I kicked out and shattered his right hipbone. His weapon swung out to get me to back up, but I just punched it back before continuing the onslaught. I broke his nose before I hit him with a right cross and sent him to the ground again. He didn't get up, so I huffed and retreated to sit next to Yachiru again.

Unohana was already kneeling by his side with Kaido lighting up around the battered captain by the time I sat down. The pink haired spirit was frowning, and I could tell her unhappiness wasn't from how badly her wielder was getting beaten. I began petting her again.

"It's alright. He's already stronger. It's slow right now, but he's getting there." She nodded at my words, but her frown didn't lessen. I turned to watch the First Kenpachi healing her successor.

I just wish I knew how to speed all this up. Last time, we just fought like maniacs with the idea that eventually all of his self-imposed seals would break away. That if he kept on losing, he would keep on shedding them away until there was nothing left holding him back. It worked in the end, but there had to be a better way. With my knowledge on how zanpakuto worked, how Zaraki was suppressing himself, how his seals broke. There had to be a better, faster way of getting him up to full strength.

I watched, bored, for 45 minutes as Zaraki was slowly cut down by Unohana.

I caught him as he fell, and shot my reiatsu into him once more to heal him. I had to follow him as he continued to drop onto his knees, and I kept silent as he flipped his blade before stabbing it into the ground in front of him so he could stare at it. I could hear his teeth grind against each other. However, he wasn't angry. He was frustrated. It was obvious, by how his body shook lightly, how he didn't make any noise, how he kept a laser focus on his weapon.

I let him think as he healed. Zaraki stood on his own once he was back at 100%, so I stood along with him and backed up as I drew Shiro's blade.

He glared at me, but didn't move. I let him have a moment. His glare didn't let up, but I saw that he actually started thinking once he saw that I wasn't advancing. He seemed to be contemplating something, and he seemed to not be happy about it. Before long, the ragged captain snarled to himself before he adjusted his stance. I raised an eyebrow before I analyzed the positioning of his feet, and watched his hands move in front of him.

"Fuck off with that." I immediately growled. He froze, his left hand open in preparation to grab onto the hilt and his eyes wide. "Stop with the goddamn compromises."

"Compromises?"

"It's the entire reason why you've got so much power under lock and key. You're compromising."

"Whadaya mean?" I rested Shiro's blade on my shoulder.

"You're too strong to get a fight out of most people, so you compromised and made yourself weaker. Your reiatsu is too intense for most to handle, so you compromised and got a limiter. Most Shinigami can't survive your first strike, so you compromised and let them come at you. Stop compromising. If they can't keep up with you, stop trying to fight them."

"But the old man said-"

"I don't give a damn what Yama said. What do you think of two handed sword-fighting?" He rolled his eyes.

"Waste of a goddamn hand, but-"

"But nothing. You don't like it, don't fucking do it. Stop adjusting for other people. Stop stooping to other people's levels. If they can't handle what you've got, don't fight them. Find someone stronger. If they can't keep up, move on." Zaraki growled.

"What if no one can keep up, huh?!" He roared. I could hear the fear in the corners of his tone. "What if no one can handle me?! What if I-"

"Abandon your fear." That halted him in his tracks. "Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate." I slipped Shiro's blade off my shoulder as I began stomping towards the stunned captain. I could feel it. He was at the edge. He just needed the final push. I drew Ossan's blade and met Zaraki's eyes. "You want a fight? Fuck everyone else. Fuck everything else. Fight."

His eyes widened. And that's when I felt it. The buzz on my skin. The soft rumbling of the ground as reiatsu filled the air. The bloodlust filling the air creating the sense of a blade at my throat. His eyes burned yellow, and his grin ripped across his face once again. I lunged, my own grin spreading across my face as his reiatsu exploded.

And then, finally, I clashed blades with Kenpachi.

Next: Diamond-Dust Rebellion