The Plan's Opening Ceremony-The Slaughter of Rukongai: Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru Kusajishi Appear!

Rukongai, District 80, otherwise known as Zaraki District.

Ten Unohana, still a twelve-year-old child, sat casually on a rock with his blood-dripping Zanpakuto in hand. As he gazed at it, his mouth split into a bloodthirsty grin.

"Bastard, what the hell are you doing?" a bold voice said angrily.

Ten ignored her. He simply drew his Zanpakuto, nearly as tall as he was, and casually swept it behind him. "Aaah—" A Zaraki District civilian behind him was cut in half at the waist.

"Bastard—stop!" Ten curled his lip as he looked at the furious Yoruichi.

Ten gave Yoruichi a conflicted look, then steeled himself and said, "Who told you to follow me?"

With that, he flicked his Zanpakuto, sending all the blood flying off its blade.

Yoruichi glared at the indifferent Ten, stepped forward, and said to him, enunciating every word, "Ten. U. No. Ha. Na—what the hell are you doing?!"

Ten stood up. "Killing people, obviously." He started toward a crowd in the distance. Yoruichi blocked his path and said, "Bastard, you've changed. You weren't like this before."

"What I was like doesn't seem to be any of your business, does it?" Not wanting Yoruichi to see the conflicted look in his eyes, Ten grabbed her and hurled her into the distance.

Then, without looking at Yoruichi as she swiftly got back to her feet, he used Shunpo to rush away.

Before long, cries for help came from the distance.

"Aaah—"

"Help!"

"Kill him!" "Get him!" "No!" "Don't kill me!"

Ten charged into the crowd and slaughtered them at will, like a tiger among sheep, raising an uproar.

"Bastard, wait!" Seeing Yoruichi arrive, Ten quickly killed a few people before heading off into the distance again.

One chased and the other fled, and several days passed. But Yoruichi's Shunpo was no match for Ten's, and over those days, he had killed his way through Zaraki District several times over.

As a result, hardly anyone remained in Zaraki District. Those who did were extremely well hidden. He could find them if he looked, but it would waste too much time to be worthwhile, so Ten prepared to move to Kusajishi District and continue his slaughter there.

"Ten Unohana, I'm going to capture you and hand you over to Mama Hana." After several days of pursuit, Yoruichi looked much more haggard, but Ten continued to ignore her and headed for District 79, Kusajishi District.

Yoruichi cried out in shock, "That's District 79, Kusajishi District!!!" Knowing she couldn't capture Ten if he fought her seriously, Yoruichi added fiercely, "Damn it, I have to hurry back and report to Mama Hana. I can't let that bastard go on like this."

With that, Yoruichi stopped chasing Ten and headed for Seireitei instead.

"Aaah—" "Help!" "Someone, help me!"

Hearing the screams behind her, Yoruichi sped up her Shunpo.

Ten watched Yoruichi depart, a conflicted look in his eyes. For a long time, he said nothing.

His Zanpakuto hung at his side. The blood on it ran down the cutting edge to the broken tip and dripped off—the blade had grown sharper!

He flicked off the last drop of blood, then slowly raised the Zanpakuto before his eyes. "When exactly are you going to wake up, Shasha?!"

As soon as he spoke, Ten felt a wave of dizziness. When he came to, he was sitting on a dragon couch in a palace.

"This is... Shasha!" Ten exclaimed in delight. Then a soft, sweet voice came from beside him. "Master."

Ten turned in delight. A woman dressed entirely in blood-red stood beside the dragon couch. She had expressive, upturned phoenix eyes above a delicate little nose, an oval face with a rosy complexion, and a small pink cherry mouth. Her flawless, tender skin could only be described as ice and jade.

Ten happily threw his arms around the woman and cried, "Shasha!"

But he soon shoved her away. "You're not Shasha. Who are you?"

"Master, Shasha is right here!" Another woman entered through the door, dressed in a yellow phoenix robe. She sat with noble elegance in a phoenix palanquin.

The palanquin was carried by several women identical to the blood-robed woman Ten had mistaken for Shasha, though they lacked her bearing. It was a strange sight.

Although the blood-robed woman looked exactly like Shasha,

a closer look showed that Shasha surpassed her in bearing, figure, and height.

A little dumbfounded, Ten ventured to the woman in the phoenix robe, "Are you Shasha? Is she the other part of my Zanpakuto?"

Shasha stepped down from the palanquin, her golden hair ornaments swaying, and walked up to Ten. She gracefully sank into a curtsy

and said, "You're right, Master. She is the other part of your Zanpakuto—the Hollow's Zanpakuto."

Ten nodded and pointed to the women carrying the palanquin. "And they are?"

Shasha pointed at the blood-robed woman. "Her clones."

The blood-robed woman smiled and nodded, then walked over to the others. They stood behind her and merged into her form, vanishing from sight.

Ten watched her and asked, "What's her name, Shasha?"

Shasha said, "Her name is also Blade of Slaughter."

Ten frowned. "What?!"

Shasha explained, "A person can't have two Zanpakuto, only Twin Zanpakuto. But Twin Zanpakuto are actually one Zanpakuto too. A Zanpakuto splits off from the soul and is bound to it, so each soul has only one. And a single body can't hold two souls, so a person simply can't have two Zanpakuto."

Ten said, "Then does she use a Tang sword as her vessel too?"

Shasha shook her head. "No, she doesn't use a Tang sword as her vessel. She uses a scythe called Poppy Scythe. But the Poppy Scythe is actually part of the Blade of Slaughter. Master, you can think of the Blade of Slaughter as Twin Zanpakuto."

Ten stared. "Twin Zanpakuto?!"

Shasha pondered for a moment. "You could say they are, or you could say they aren't. How should I put it? The two blades of Twin Zanpakuto usually don't differ much in shape, and their abilities complement each other. Or their abilities are similar, or even identical. But Master, you could say the two of us are different Zanpakuto, forcibly fused into one by a certain power. And that power is—"

Ten looked at Shasha in surprise. He sensed that this chain was none other than the Chain of Fate found on the chest of a dead person who had yet to become a Hollow. But what exactly was going on here?

Shasha glanced at the blood-robed woman, then said to Ten, "Master, she's actually my Hollow part, so the silver chain connecting us works much like a Chain of Fate. This silver chain is much prettier, though."

Ten nodded.

Watching the blood-robed woman gradually lower herself to the floor, Ten slowly walked over with an evil smile on his face. This is—a beauty dog! Grasping the silver chain, he said, "From now on, you'll be called Ginhime."

As he spoke, he looked at the blood-robed woman's poppy-like allure, which captivated the soul.

Ten looked at the two women. "I see. Then what does my Shikai look like? And what are its abilities?"

Shasha said, "Your Shikai's abilities actually have two parts, Master. One part is me, and the other is Ginhime. My ability is to absorb the beings you slaughter and use them to increase your strength;

"Ginhime has rather more abilities, but most of them aren't very useful and can't even be used in battle. Only a few are useful. Her main ability is to absorb everything from the outside world into the Zanpakuto world and control it. Of course, what 'everything' means depends on your strength, Master. The stronger you are, the more you can absorb. Eventually, you can even absorb and control time and space. Of course, that also requires you to be extremely powerful."

"I see! Then I'll go out and have a look at my Shikai!" With that, Ten vanished from the Zanpakuto world.

In the real world,

Ten looked at his precious Tang sword-shaped Zanpakuto and declared, "I am slaughter. Come forth from your sheath, Blade of Slaughter!"

The Tang sword in Ten's hand barely changed shape. Only a few deep blood grooves appeared on its blade, adding an air of slaughter to a weapon already known as a blade of slaughter.

Ten slowly grasped the end of the silver chain on the Tang sword's hilt with his left hand and said, "Bewitching relic, bloom! Poppy Scythe!"

Clang.

Hum.

A long-handled black scythe appeared in Ten's hand at the end of the silver chain, its blade giving a faint hum as it cut through the air.

Wisps of black mist coiled around the scythe's shaft, with flashes of blood-red light flickering within. A closer look revealed that the flashes came from the silver chain wrapped tightly around the shaft, which had turned blood-red within the mist. The scythe's blade formed an enormous crescent, engraved with dizzying purple runes. At the junction of blade and shaft was a cluster of poppies that changed color beneath the black mist and blood-red light. Purple runes, much like those engraved on the blade, occasionally danced around the poppies.

The entire scythe was nearly three meters long, and its blade was nearly half the length of its shaft. At first glance, the whole scythe gave off a bewitching air.

Ten casually swung one of his weapons around. No, better count them as two—two weapons.

The two weapons were connected by a silver chain.

Ten held them before his eyes and asked, "What's going on? Didn't you say Ginhime was also called Blade of Slaughter? What's going on? And what's with the order of the Shikai?"

Shasha's voice slowly sounded in his mind. "Master, your Zanpakuto is made of two parts forcibly fused together, so your Blade of Slaughter actually has two Shikai states: Half Shikai and Full Shikai, collectively called Dual Shikai. The Poppy Scythe is one Half Shikai, and the Blade of Slaughter is the other. There's no required order for the two Half Shikai. When your Zanpakuto is unreleased, you can release either the Blade of Slaughter or the Poppy Scythe at will. Of course, once you've achieved Bankai and no longer need to speak the Shikai release command, you can release both the Blade of Slaughter and the Poppy Scythe at the same time."

Ten rested the Poppy Scythe on his shoulder and casually flourished the Blade of Slaughter in his other hand. "I see! Then let's go kill a few people and see how it feels!"

With that, he headed into the distance.

But he had not gone far when he smelled blood. "Heh heh, let's go have a look. I'll finish everyone off while I'm at it."

Ten turned toward the source of the smell. He had not gone far before he saw corpses on the ground. The farther in he went, the more corpses there were. Finally, near the center, Ten heard a hoarse voice filled with a mad urge to slaughter.

"Where did you come from, kid?"

Ten thought the voice was talking to him and felt a little angry. Just as he was about to show himself and kill its owner, the person whose very voice carried the aura of battle spoke again.

"This is a sword. Aren't you afraid?"

Only then did Ten realize the man wasn't talking to him.

"It's a tool for killing people. You'll die too," the voice said again.

By this point, Ten found it a little interesting and sealed his Zanpakuto's Shikai.

"Kid, what's your name?"

There was a pause.

"You don't have a name?"

"Neither do I."

"Everyone else calls each other by name, but I don't have one."

"What's that like?"

Clearly, the man was already talking to himself.

"Yachiru. I only want one person to have that name."

"Now I'm giving it to you."

"My name is Kenpachi."

"That's the name given to the strongest Soul Reaper of each generation. Starting today, that's my name."

"Actually, I've... waited a long time for this day..."

Ten laughed wildly. "Actually, I've waited a long time for this day too, Kenpachi Zaraki!!"

And so, Kenpachi Zaraki and Yachiru Kusajishi—appeared!!!