The next moment, Gion's defenses—which Yaen had nearly ground down like soybeans in a mill—instantly collapsed when faced with an attack several times more ferocious than before.
"Ah~"
With a moan from Gion, a large amount of blood sprayed from her body, almost instantly dyeing her peach-colored shirt red.
Yaen waved Senbonzakura's hilt, controlling the cherry blossoms as they withdrew from Gion's body and began drifting slowly around him instead. He spoke gently.
"Don't worry, Lieutenant Captain Gion. Every attack avoided your vital points."
However, when Gion used Kompira to support herself against the ground and slowly stood up with one hand clutching her chest,
Yaen suddenly discovered that Gion's clothes had been reduced to tatters, exposing large patches of fair, delicate skin. Her expression was also filled with shame and fury.
This is bad. She completely misunderstood!
Yaen swallowed and helplessly raised one hand to his forehead, covering most of his eyes.
Even so, there were inevitably tiny gaps between his fingers, allowing Yaen to clearly see that Gion's expression had become almost unbearably grim.
"What a fine way to avoid all the vital points..."
Gion's chest rose and fell rapidly as she gritted her teeth and said, "Yaen, is this what you use your Devil Fruit ability for? Such a lecherous purpose?"
Before Yaen could explain, Gion's figure flashed, and she directly left the training grounds with the Marine Six Styles: Soru.
"Sigh..."
Yaen let out a helpless sigh and released Senbonzakura's Shikai state. As the cherry blossoms returned to their blade form and slid back into the sheath, he raised his head forty-five degrees toward the sky, his face full of melancholy. He deeply regretted choosing Soul Reaper Blade: Senbonzakura as his apparent ability to fool Sengoku.
Back then, Yaen's constitution was considerably weaker than an ordinary person's. To strengthen him, Sengoku had exhausted every means to collect Devil Fruits for him.
In the end, three choices were placed before Yaen: a lower-grade Logia Devil Fruit, a Zoan Devil Fruit, and an unknown Devil Fruit. Sengoku let Yaen choose for himself.
Yaen chose the unknown Devil Fruit.
It was not because Yaen possessed a strong gambler's mentality.
In fact, Yaen had chosen that unknown Devil Fruit precisely out of caution, hoping to use it to conceal his special ability—Zanpakutō.
Based on his current research and understanding of his own abilities, Yaen had discovered that every year, on his birthday, he randomly awakened a Zanpakutō.
These Zanpakutō had different names, uses, and abilities, but most of them were useless, minor blades. Only a small portion were Zanpakutō familiar to Yaen, such as Senbonzakura, Tenken, Tobiume, Gogyo Ken, and Zanji no Togen.
These initially awakened Zanpakutō could only use Shikai. As for the more powerful Bankai, only the Zanpakutō that had undergone Bankai in Yaen's memories could be released further, and they also required sufficient Reiatsu to infuse them.
Unfortunately, Yaen was not a true Soul Reaper and had no idea how to cultivate Reiatsu. His only method was to shatter those useless Zanpakutō and obtain it from them.
According to Yaen's calculations, the Reiatsu obtained after shattering an ordinary Shikai Zanpakutō could simply be counted as one basic Lieutenant Captain-level unit.
Senbonzakura required at least fifteen Lieutenant Captain units of Reiatsu to perform Bankai, while Tenken required thirteen.
As for another Zanpakutō capable of Bankai, Zanji no Togen, Yaen had already shattered it as a test subject, unexpectedly obtaining as much as six Lieutenant Captain units of Reiatsu.
As Zanji no Togen's original owner was Kensei Muguruma from the anime Bleach, Yaen had simply counted each Lieutenant Captain unit of Reiatsu as "one car" for convenience.
Thus, Yaen currently had a total of "nineteen cars" of distributable Reiatsu. This was enough to release Senbonzakura's Bankai, but far from enough to release the Bankai of two Zanpakutō simultaneously.
Therefore, Yaen, with his weak and sickly body, understood that the longer he lived, the stronger he would naturally become. There was no need for him to take unnecessary risks.
Just as Yaen was feeling melancholy, Sengoku appeared beside him after a few quick movements and said with a beaming smile,
"You little brat, congratulations on defeating Lieutenant Captain Gion. Perhaps you're the strongest rising star among the young Marines of this generation."
"Old Man, don't try to flatter me so awkwardly."
Yaen shook his head and said gloomily,
"You know my situation. My potential is limited. This is probably as far as I'll get in this lifetime.
"As for Lieutenant Captain Gion, her potential is limitless, and she has the bearing of an admiral. After causing this misunderstanding today, I'm afraid she'll take revenge on me in the future. To avoid conflict, I think I'd better leave the Marines and go home to farm."
When Sengoku heard this, his face darkened. He grabbed Yaen and said,
"It's already been proven that you have enough ability to protect yourself. Even if you talk until the sky is full of flowers today, you still have to join the Marines."
Yaen lightly rubbed his forehead and asked, "Then... there's no room for negotiation?"
"There is. We can discuss your position," Sengoku said.
Yaen fell silent for a moment. Looking at Sengoku's unyieldingly firm attitude, and the faint trace of pleading hidden in his resolute eyes, he let out a soft sigh and replied,
"All right. Since this is what you want, Old Man, I agree."
Seeing this, Sengoku could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Over the past ten years, Sengoku had been busy with Marine affairs, so he naturally had no time to accompany his two adopted sons, Corazon and Yaen, every day. Even so, he understood their personalities quite well.
Unlike Corazon's kindness and gentleness, which came from the depths of his nature, Yaen was someone Sengoku had never quite been able to understand.
Ever since he had rescued Yaen from the sea, Sengoku had noticed that Yaen's eyes were different from those of everyone he had encountered on the ocean in the past.
Although Yaen had been born with a frail body, Sengoku firmly believed that a man with such unusual eyes would never remain unknown upon the sea.
Because of that, Sengoku, moved by compassion at the time, simply adopted both Yaen and Corazon as his sons.
And as if to repay him, Yaen, whose body Sengoku had believed to be frail, soon demonstrated his value.
Whenever Sengoku encountered a difficult decision regarding the development of the Marines, he could always find an answer through Yaen.
When it came to systems, Yaen seemed to possess an inherently unique perspective and way of thinking.
With Yaen's assistance, Sengoku, who was then an admiral, considerably improved the Marines' internal selection system, promotion system, and military merit system.
This became an exceptionally outstanding achievement on Sengoku's record in the eyes of Marshal Kong Gokei, and one of the most important proofs of Sengoku's qualifications to lead the Marines as fleet admiral in the future.
That was precisely why Sengoku, who understood that Yaen was no ordinary person, forcibly demanded that Yaen become a Marine. He wanted to prevent Yaen from walking down a path that opposed the Marines.
Because Sengoku... did not want to personally send Yaen to the "undersea great prison," Impel Down.
Before you continue