Even the Captain-Commander Can't Hit Me in the Face! I'm Reporting This Abuse of Authority

The two blades collided, then parted at once.

Swish, swish, swish—

Three Flying Slashes of pure sword intent shot out, without a trace of spiritual pressure mixed in.

"Pure sword intent?"

Swish, swish, swish—

Unohana countered with three blasts of sword pressure.

After that exchange of probes, neither moved again.

"Captain, I just remembered: if we unleash our spiritual pressure without holding back, the Twelfth Division and the other captains should be able to sense it, right?"

"Don't worry. I had someone set up a barrier around us. As long as we don't use Bankai, only a few fluctuations will leak out."

"You can just set up a barrier like that whenever you want? Never mind, as long as no one can sense us."

Unnoticed by Wang Chuan, a vast hemispherical barrier completely covered the area, making it difficult for the fluctuations from their battle to reach the outside world.

Then the two began a series of close-quarters exchanges.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

There were no flashy long-range attacks, only powerful clashes at close range.

They relied solely on the Zanpakuto in their hands for their swordsmanship duel.

Neither used Shunpo, Kidō, or Hakuda.

The wounds on their bodies gradually multiplied.

Bang—

Unohana kept her Zanpakuto moving as she praised him. "Interesting swordsmanship. You keep finding the openings in my swordsmanship with the Breath of All Things."

"Your swordsmanship is exquisite, Captain. I can barely fend it off."

"Stop saying pointless things and let me enjoy myself more."

"Then, as you wish, Captain."

The spar gradually developed into a duel. Though Unohana's swordsmanship was superb, his swordsmanship was not without flaws either. Or rather, all swordsmanship had flaws. There was no perfect swordsmanship, only a perfect swordsman.

That was why Wang Chuan had been able to use the Breath of All Things to sense the rhythm of Unohana's swordsmanship and find the places where it faltered, allowing him to match her evenly until now.

Wang Chuan was gradually getting carried away in the duel too. In any case, Unohana had made ample preparations and wouldn't let anyone outside sense it.

Wang Chuan made his decision.

"Gate of Spirit, fully open!"

In an instant, Wang Chuan's spiritual pressure, already amplified by Surpass the Peak, exploded upward again. He slashed out, sending Unohana flying.

"How interesting. How exhilarating."

Then Unohana unleashed her spiritual pressure as well.

She was getting carried away too, completely disregarding her self-imposed limits.

At this stage, both relied on their immense spiritual pressure and countered each other's moves as they fought at high speed.

Defense? Shunpo? None of it mattered.

The most important thing now was to land a slash on the other person and cut them down until they couldn't get back up!

Their spiritual pressures kept colliding, and the hemispherical barrier trembled constantly, as if it would shatter the next second. Yet it still held firm.

Wang Chuan wondered why the collision between his and Unohana's spiritual pressures, both above Captain-level, still hadn't been detected by the Twelfth Division or the other captains. He could only conclude that Unohana's barrier was effective enough, and that everything really would be fine as long as they didn't use Bankai.

But the feeling of freely unleashing his spiritual pressure was far too exhilarating for Wang Chuan to bother thinking so much. He was completely carried away!

Boom—

The two clashed once more.

Time passed, from noon until night.

Their spiritual pressures continued to collide fiercely.

By now, Wang Chuan's spiritual pressure had grown to a terrifying degree. Fine cracks had even begun to appear in his spirit body.

With another strike, Wang Chuan sent Unohana flying again, adding a fresh wound to her arm.

"This is truly delightful."

"It's truly my honor to have given you a good time, Captain."

"In that case, why don't we enjoy ourselves even more? Bankai—"

Wang Chuan instantly deactivated his Shikai and closed the Gate of Spirit.

Seeing Wang Chuan stop, Unohana halted her Bankai and flew into a rage.

"Captain, Bankai is going too far. The barrier you mentioned won't hold."

Hearing that, Unohana calmed down as well.

"What an unsatisfying activity. I hope you can give me a better time next time."

Unohana slowly sheathed her Zanpakuto and turned to leave, without mentioning treating Wang Chuan.

Phew—

Once he saw that Unohana had really left, Wang Chuan let out a long breath and looked at his wounds.

"She really is hard to deal with. As expected of the sword demon who calls herself Yachiru."

"If that had gone on any longer, my spirit body probably wouldn't have held out. Maybe next time the captain will drag me into Muken."

"Forget it, forget it. No point thinking about something so terrifying."

"I gained a lot from this spar too. Next time I can laugh at the navy and show him what exquisite swordsmanship looks like!"

"Also, there's an upper limit to how much Surpass the Peak can increase my spiritual pressure."

The intense battle with Unohana had also allowed Wang Chuan to test more of his Zanpakuto's properties.

First, Surpass the Peak could indeed keep increasing his spiritual pressure, even exponentially, but it wouldn't make his spirit body burst unless he deliberately removed that restriction.

Second, by releasing spiritual pressure in quick bursts, he could keep his spirit body from bursting. Even if his spiritual pressure slightly exceeded his limit, as long as he used it quickly enough, the damage to him wasn't as great as he had imagined. But that still didn't change the total amount he could release at once.

Still, Wang Chuan was very curious where Surpass the Peak's seemingly endless spiritual pressure came from.

—The wound-recovery dividing line—

Half a month later, Wang Chuan arrived at the First Division on schedule and requested an audience with the Captain-Commander as instructed.

The silver-haired lieutenant of the First Division, whose pair of mustaches gave him something of the air of an English butler named Sebastian—Chōjirō Sasakibe Tadaoki—led him to the Captain-Commander's office.

The Captain-Commander's office was very simply furnished. The only thing that caught the eye was a self-portrait, which Yamamoto-sai called "a monster wrapped in flames."

"Captain-Commander, Wang Chuan, the Fourth Division's eighth seat, is here."

"I know. Sasakibe, you may attend to your duties."

"Yes, Captain-Commander."

"Captain-Commander, Wang Chuan, eighth seat of the Fourth Division, reporting."

"Mm."

And that was that. The Captain-Commander went on dealing with matters, leaving Wang Chuan standing there.

Wang Chuan more or less understood what was going on. His behavior had been too unruly. The arrangement alone—four months in the Fourth Division and four months in another division—was already an enormous concession the Captain-Commander had made out of regard for Unohana.

He wasn't Teacher Du and didn't have a healing-type Zanpakuto. His own Zanpakuto enhanced combat far more than healing Kidō. He was clearly a combatant, so what sense was there in insisting on staying in the Fourth Division?

After letting his thoughts wander for a while, Wang Chuan saw that the Captain-Commander still had no intention of speaking, so he began staring at the self-portrait.

There was no mysterious sword intent hidden in the painting. Wang Chuan was simply bored.

"Interested in the painting?"

"Just looking."

"See anything?"

"I don't know much about painting."

"Never mind. Come with me."

With that, he walked ahead to lead the way, and Wang Chuan followed close behind.

"Do you know why I made you wait there?"

"Because I don't follow the rules very well?"

"Then why did you make that choice?"

"Captain Unohana is strong enough."

"You don't seem like the sort of person who would stop at nothing for a fight."

"Well, I'm rather afraid of dying."

"Afraid of dying, so you'd rather draw closer to death to become stronger? Interesting."

"Half a month ago, that was you and Unohana fighting, wasn't it? Quite a fierce battle."

"You're joking, Captain-Commander. It wasn't that fierce."

Wang Chuan tried to laugh it off. If it became known that they had fought while freely using spiritual pressure above Captain-level and could hide it with a barrier, they would certainly be asked, "What exactly are you two trying to do? Do you have any regard for the Gotei 13?"

Yamamoto-sai glanced at Wang Chuan and said quietly, "Are you doubting how familiar I am with Minazuki?"

Wang Chuan's smile vanished at once, and he said no more.

"What do you think of Unohana's strength?"

"Very strong."

"And what do you think of your own?"

"Not strong enough yet."

"Of sword, step, fist, and Kidō, let's leave sword and Kidō aside for now. How are your step and fist?"

"They're a bit lacking compared to my Zanpakuto and Kidō."

"Then I'll take a look at those two first."

"Thank you for your guidance, Captain-Commander."

Bang—

You immoral old man! Is this what you call guidance, using Shunpo right off the bat and bringing your fists straight to my face? What if you ruin my looks? How am I supposed to find a partner then?

Just because you're the Captain-Commander, you can hit people in the face whenever you want? I'm reporting this abuse of authority!

With all that graying hair and beard, and that cross-shaped scar on your forehead, you're just jealous of my handsome face.

Though such strange thoughts ran through his head, Wang Chuan didn't stop moving. He unleashed even stronger spiritual pressure and charged at the Captain-Commander.

After an intense exchange of punches and kicks, the Captain-Commander signaled for Wang Chuan to stop.

"All right, that's enough Hakuda and Shunpo. Your fundamentals are good, and you adapt well enough. Those are sufficient for your needs."

"Next, let me see your Shikai."

"All right."

With that, he drew his Zanpakuto and activated his Shikai.

"Come, let me experience your Shikai."

"Then please be careful, Captain-Commander. My Shikai can continually increase my spiritual pressure, and even now I haven't found the upper limit of that increase."

"So you grow stronger and stronger until your spirit body collapses? Then is this spiritual pressure something you've accumulated over time, or where does it come from?"

"I don't know."

"You could look into it further. It might help with your Bankai."

"All right, Captain-Commander."

"Enough talk. Show me what you can do."

Bang—

Boom—

The sounds of violent collisions rang out without cease, until three hours later.

"That's enough for today." Yamamoto-sai stopped and went no further.

"Your Zanpakuto has a very high upper limit, but you yourself are holding it back."

"You need to increase your base spiritual pressure and improve your capacity to withstand it. I'll give you special training in that area later."

"Thank you, Captain-Commander."

Wang Chuan bowed respectfully.

Though the old man was jealous of his handsome face, he was still a pretty good person.

"You have great potential. Don't waste it."

"Yes."

After that, he left the special training room.

Wang Chuan was going to stay here for a while. As for when he would leave, that depended on when he could satisfy the Captain-Commander.

As he was now, he still had a ways to go before he could match either Unohana's Bankai or the Captain-Commander's Bankai.

He would set himself a small goal: achieve Bankai first.