On a small slope less than five meters high, four people fought to the death. The first to charge up was a long-haired, cross-eyed man. Unable to see with both eyes, he had his sword knocked aside by Rei and was stabbed through the chest.
The cross-eyed man proved himself a veteran who had spent years in Zaraki District. He clung tightly to Rei's right sword hand as his two companions swung their swords at Rei. Rei dodged the first strike from the round-faced bald man, only for the other, a horse-faced man, to slash him across the back.
The round-faced bald man came at him again, but Rei kicked him rolling down the slope. The horse-faced man was shouting, "Aaaah!"
Who knew what the man was yelling about? He raised his sword to strike Rei again, but his windup was too large. Rei's left hand pierced his throat, and he fell to the ground, twitching.
"Ugh!"
The cross-eyed man was still holding on to Rei. His fingernails had broken the skin of Rei's right hand and dug deep into the flesh. Rei twisted his Zanpakuto slightly, and the cross-eyed man screamed, his eyes red, but he still refused to let go.
The cross-eyed man finally dragged Rei rolling down the slope with him. He died at last, but Rei, still lying on the ground, was in serious trouble.
Rei had just kicked the cross-eyed man's corpse away and hadn't had time to pull his sword out of him when the round-faced bald man pinned him down and raised a short blade to stab through his throat.
Rei twisted his body to the right with all his strength, making the blade strike his left shoulder instead. The left hand controlled by Yanis fired a Bala upward—and actually missed.
Yanis, you idiot!
Sorry, boss. I didn't do it on purpose...
Rei cursed Yanis out in his inner world, while the round-faced bald man gave a cruel smile. Keeping a firm grip on the hilt, he twisted it slightly, making Rei break out in a cold sweat from the pain.
Rei grabbed the blade with both hands and tried to pull it out. But with his left shoulder stabbed, his left hand had no strength, and the meager Reiryoku he generated was needed to stop the bleeding. He had no strength to pull it out.
The round-faced bald man sat on Rei's stomach, keeping him from rolling over while pressing the blade in harder. He laughed darkly. "Hehehe, despair! An expert like you must hate dying at my hands, huh? Hehehehe, I'm so excited my hands are shaking..."
"Hiss..."
Though he said his hands were shaking, the bastard twisted the hilt a few more times, three turns left and three turns right. Rei sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, only to get a lungful of the man's foul breath. They were face-to-face, only about thirty centimeters apart.
To stay alive, Rei stopped trying to pull the blade out and clamped both hands around the man's neck to strangle him. The left hand controlled by Yanis opened its mouth and bit the man's neck. This was a Hollow's instinctive way of fighting.
The round-faced bald man let go of the hilt in pain and pushed Rei away. Because Yanis's mouth on the left hand couldn't protrude very far, the bite was shallow.
But it showed Rei a way to finish the bald man quickly. Rei used all his strength to lunge upright at him, seized him, and sank his teeth into his neck...
"Ptooey. Hah, hah... This feeling of being about to, about to breathe my last at any moment is awful. I nearly died at the hands of those scumbags."
Rei lay on his back on the slope, gasping for breath. While the corpses were still warm and traces of Reiryoku remained in their souls, Rei forced himself to his feet and absorbed their Reiryoku.
Rei's face twitched several times as he pulled the short blade from his left shoulder. Injured so often, he had gradually begun to grow accustomed to pain.
After forcibly restoring a tiny amount of Reiatsu, he left. That much power wasn't enough to use Shikai, and without Shikai, he couldn't heal himself. He could only endure a while longer...
Kenpachi Zaraki slept unconscious for an entire day. When he woke, he was lying in a makeshift tent built from branches. A faint smell of blood lingered nearby. He felt around beside him, but his nicked long sword was gone.
"Yachiru!"
"Yep, you're awake, Kenny!"
Kenpachi called out in a hoarse voice. Yachiru, who looked no more than five, returned dragging the large sword, blood on her face.
"Idiot, what did you go do?"
"I didn't do anything!"
Looking at Yachiru's innocent smile, Kenpachi had never longed so much to grow stronger. He had actually fallen so low that he needed a little girl to protect him.
A group had taken advantage of Kenpachi's injuries to ambush him, but the young Yachiru had slain every one of them with a sword.
Kenpachi asked in a low voice, "Yachiru, did that guy die?"
"Little Rei? Probably not yet!"
Yachiru thought for a moment before giving her assessment. Whether he was dead or not, she had to give Kenny something to look forward to... meeting Nangong Ling again and fighting him.
"I see. Got it."
A look of delight appeared on Kenpachi's face. Before, he had always wanted to become weaker so he could better enjoy a fight. Now he felt he no longer needed to be weaker. He needed to be stronger.
Fighting trash a thousand or ten thousand times was no match for fighting an expert like Nangong Ling once.
Kenpachi took back his Zanpakuto, held it up before him, and said quietly, "Idiot, this is all your fault! I should be the one protecting her. Can you tell me your name now? I want to get stronger."
The nicked Zanpakuto: "..."
"Still no good, huh..."
Kenpachi covered his face with one hand and gave a faint, bitter smile. He wanted to be strong without holding anything back. He wanted to grow stronger, find the person he admired, and fight him again on equal terms.
Meeting the powerful Nangong Ling had made Kenpachi realize that the world wasn't so boring after all. At least, among the vast sea of people, there were those who could surprise him.
In the shadows, a man dressed as a Soul Reaper had overheard their conversation. He was the Soul Reaper responsible for guarding this district, and he had come because of the Reiatsu that had just shot into the sky.
He summoned a Hell Butterfly and reported to Seireitei that two Captain-level experts had appeared here and fought each other. Then he went looking for the other expert.
The man was good at concealing his Reiatsu and had keen detection abilities. He soon found Rei eating after killing some people. The corpses scattered across the ground told the Soul Reaper that he was extremely dangerous.
By now, Rei had fully healed his injuries using his Shikai's ability. His Reiatsu had recovered as well, and had even improved considerably.
Boom!
"He found me? You've got to be kidding. This Reiatsu... it's actually making it hard for me to breathe?"
He backed away a little and only then escaped the range of the Reiatsu, allowing him to breathe freely again. But the terrifying pressure still made cold sweat pour down his face.
Rei wasn't hopeless at sensing things like Kenpachi and Yachiru, who could only sense powerful Reiatsu. His own perception was fairly keen.
Rei had sensed the man as soon as he came within a hundred meters. The man had continued to approach until he was less than fifty meters away, and only then did Rei frighten him off.
"What's your name? Did you just get here, or have you been following me for a long time?"
While the man was struggling to breathe, Rei had already moved to his side and locked onto him with his Reiatsu. The slightest movement from the man and Rei would kill him.
"My name is Kisaragi Shingetsu. The Reiatsu you unleashed in your earlier fight with that man traveled more than ten ri, which is why I just tracked you here."
The red greatsword in its Shikai state was intimidating. Knowing he couldn't win, the man honestly explained the situation. Rei asked coldly, "Why were you tracking me?"
"With your power, why not join the Gotei 13?"
"Ha, join the Gotei 13? Has some short-lived captain kicked the bucket? I'd have to be a captain at the very least... And don't follow me again, or I won't care whether you're a Soul Reaper. I'll kill you all the same."
Kisaragi Shingetsu's reason for following him made Rei laugh. He had followed Rei all that way just to see whether he could join the Gotei 13. Although his purpose wasn't malicious, Rei still gave him a warning.
"He wants to be a captain? I don't think any captains have stepped down recently..."
At this time, Kisaragi Shingetsu was only the Fifteenth Seat of the First Division and still quite young. He mainly led a squad to slay Hollows in remote regions like this one, with each assignment lasting several years.
Kisaragi Shingetsu began drafting a report, describing Rei's existence and attire. He even stated outright that the young man aspired to become a captain.
What he didn't know was that the Captain-Commander had long since read the intelligence on Rei; he simply hadn't expected him to grow so quickly. As for the other, irrational Kenpachi Zaraki, he had learned of him from Retsu Unohana several hundred years ago.
This was South District 80. Rei headed toward the lower-numbered districts, on his way back.
Along the way, Rei kept trying to make Blood Drink materialize and tell him how to achieve Bankai, but Blood Drink ignored him. Rei then entered his inner world and attacked Blood Drink, determined to learn how to achieve Bankai through force.
"Blood Drink, tell me how to achieve Bankai."
"I already know why you've come. Come on!"
As soon as Rei entered, Kurenai, Blood Drink's incarnation, tossed him an ordinary, entirely white Asauchi.
Rei no longer dared call Blood Drink Kurenai, addressing him by his proper name instead. After all, Zanpakuto disliked nicknames and even disliked their masters getting their names wrong.
In the original timeline, plenty of people got their Zanpakuto's names wrong, causing their Zanpakuto not to release their full power. Rei hadn't made that mistake.
"Think back to what I said to you during the fight before. Once you understand it, you'll be able to meet the conditions for Bankai..."
After fighting for several hours, Blood Drink finally acknowledged Rei's strength a little and gave him that hint. But both still held their Zanpakuto and continued to slash at each other.
The difference was that Kurenai, the incarnation of consciousness, held the normal Shikai form of Blood Drink, while Rei held an all-white Zanpakuto that Kurenai kept cutting apart.
"Think back... If I'm afraid of death, why seek power? That's right. Since I chose to fight, I can't stop, can I? I told you, I'm no longer afraid."
Rei thought he had figured it out, and his expression turned fearless and wild. But Kurenai, facing him, still shook his head and slashed at him again.
The white Zanpakuto shattered. In the inner world, Rei was stabbed hard in the chest with a sword, and then his consciousness was driven out of his own inner world...
"Cough, cough, ptooey... Was I wrong? Damn it..."
Driven out, Rei spat blood. He really had suffered internal injuries. But he had no intention of stopping. Once his injuries healed, he entered his inner world again and continued fighting Blood Drink...
Rei turned toward District 80 of East Rukongai and headed for Seireitei from there. This time he walked slowly, without using Sonído to travel, and only began to speed up when he reached District 22. It took him three months to return to East Rukongai District 1.
During that time, he continued devouring Reiryoku, but killed only those who could be called "experts" among the common people.
He set out again from West District 1 and traveled to West District 80, finally returning from North District 80. Along the way, he passed Silverfall Town, where he had first gotten his start. It had been almost completely rebuilt.
Rei spent most of each day in a state of Zan Zen. Only when he encountered a formidable person did he kill him and take his Reiryoku. If they dueled in full view of a crowd, Rei would give up taking the corpse and go without that bit of Reiryoku.
Another half year passed, and Rei returned from North District 80 to North District 1. By then, the only places he hadn't visited were South District 1 through South District 22.
During that time, he had devoured more than a hundred experts. Even without Shikai, his Reiatsu far surpassed that of standard captains. He no longer needed Sonído either, having learned the Soul Reapers' exclusive Shunpo.
The Gotei 13 weren't the only powerful ones in Soul Society. Some people living in seclusion were also extraordinary. They had no interest in becoming Soul Reapers, caring only about how to spread their schools.
By now, Rei had encountered ninja schools, martial arts schools that didn't use Zanpakuto, schools that trained only in leg techniques, as well as swordsmanship schools, spear schools, and various other weapon-based schools.
There were also cursed races hiding deep in the mountains, such as the werewolf clan...