Early morning, the underground space beneath Sokyoku Hill.
Duan Mu sat cross-legged beside an artificial mountain, waiting for the person he had been anticipating for so long to arrive.
He had considered conducting this training in the deepest level of Mukken, but in the end, Duan Mu abandoned the idea.
It was not that he could not apply to enter Mukken's deepest level. For Duan Mu, it was merely a matter of drafting a form and signing it himself...
The reason he had not chosen that place was simply that it was unsuitable.
This was guidance in Zanjutsu. Neither he nor Unohana Retsu would regard this instruction as a life-and-death struggle.
Tap~
Faintly, the sound of someone landing came from the entrance. Duan Mu, who had kept his eyes closed, suddenly opened them, a blue radiance flashing within.
His condition had already been adjusted to its peak!
Almost at the same moment Duan Mu looked over, a figure dropped from the entrance. Her landing was completely silent; that first sound had merely been to inform Duan Mu of her arrival.
—Unohana Retsu!
She still had long black hair parted down the middle, tied into a braid that hung in front of her. She looked just as she usually did.
But there was no gentleness in those eyes anymore. There was only coldness and...
An utterly still deadness.
Unohana Retsu stopped some distance from Duan Mu and raised her head to observe everything around her.
"Captain Unohana."
Duan Mu rose and greeted her respectfully.
Unohana Retsu's gaze shifted onto Duan Mu. A hint of scrutiny faintly surfaced in her dead eyes, but after a while, she shook her head.
"You really have changed quite a bit."
Her voice was devoid of emotion, sounding almost regretful, yet also as though she was