Following Kukaku Shiba into the warehouse, Tsuna saw a terrain of earth and rock identical to the underground space beneath the Urahara Shop. If nothing unexpected had happened, Urahara had a hand in this place as well.
A man with yellow bowl-cut hair and another with a white buzz cut approached them. One wore a strange smile that made his thoughts impossible to read, while the other looked thoroughly displeased, with a temperament that seemed explosively short.
Tsuna recognized them at a glance. They were Hirako Shinji and Muguruma Kensei of the Visored.
"Tessai, when did your shop start keeping another brat?" Hirako Shinji's carefree tone alone made it clear that he had taken Tsuna for the same kind as Koume and Jinta from the Urahara Shop. "Go on, then. What does Urahara want with us this time?"
"I merely came at Sawada-sensei's request. The one truly seeking you is Sawada Tsunayoshi." Kukaku Shiba stepped aside and gave Sawada Tsunayoshi the central position.
"Oh?"
Hirako Shinji had barely voiced his confusion when Tsuna opened without the slightest courtesy. "Mr. Hirako Shinji, could you let me see your Hollowfication?"
Hirako narrowed his eyes into slits. First, the kid had called his name backward, and now he mentioned Hollowfication. Had that bastard Urahara Kisuke told this brat everything about them?
Kensei was nowhere near as composed as Hirako. As one of the first people to undergo Hollowfication, that word had always been a wound in his heart. If he had only been stronger back then, he would not have dragged so many others down with him.
"Brat, don't think I won't beat you up just because you're young. Get out of here now, and I'll pretend I never saw you!" Kensei crouched before Tsuna with fury written across his face. Veins bulged faintly on his fist, and if he moved any closer, it would land on Tsuna's face.
Tsuna paid no attention to Kensei's threat. He was instead wondering whether the current Muguruma Kensei deserved to be called a unit of measurement—a "Muguruma." And how many Mugurumas was his own strength worth now?
Seeing Tsuna ignore him, Kensei glared at Kukaku Shiba irritably. "Hey, Tessai, is there something wrong with the brain of this brat you brought?"
"Muguruma, I'm the one who came looking for you today, so don't drag Mr. Tessai into this."
Muguruma Kensei suddenly felt an immense force press down on the hand he had pointed at Kukaku Shiba. At the same time, a dense spiritual pressure appeared beside him.
"Watch out!"
Just as Muguruma Kensei heard Hirako's warning, a fair fist entered his field of vision. It rapidly grew larger, yet he could not dodge, because one of his hands had already been seized by Tsuna.
Tsuna's fist smashed solidly into Muguruma Kensei's cheek, knocking the completely unguarded man to the ground.
"Hey, kid Sawada!" Hirako Shinji questioned in a low voice. "Is this how you act when you come looking for someone?"
Tsuna spread his hands, looking helpless. "Can't be helped. You wouldn't just show me your Hollowfication for no reason, would you? To avoid wasting time, I had to use some methods."
Hirako was speechless. Though Tsuna was right—they would never casually reveal Hollowfication, their trump card, to someone—the kid attacking the moment they met felt like he was here to smash up the place.
"Hirako, don't say another word." Muguruma Kensei sprang upright and crouched low. A faint red tint had appeared in his eyes, and fighting spirit surged in his heart. "Brat, your punches pack quite a punch! Can you take my..."
"One punch?!"
In the next instant, Kensei used Flash Step to appear before Tsuna. He threw a straight punch at Tsuna's face. Kensei had only one thought in his mind: reclaim his dignity the same way.
Facing Kensei's furious strike, Tsuna calmly opened his palm and caught Kensei's fist. Only then did Kensei realize that the brat he had looked down upon possessed spiritual pressure not inferior to his own.
"Interesting!" Delight immediately appeared on Kensei's face. During the hundred years he had spent hiding in the World of the Living, everyone else had found their own amusements in one way or another. Only he trained every day, until life had become dull as hell. Why would he not welcome someone coming to pick a fight?
"Hirako, move aside! Someone's come to smash up the place!" Kensei's face nearly bloomed with joy. After leaping back to widen the distance, he kicked Hirako out of his fighting range.
"Hey, hey, don't take it too far." Hirako said that, but he swiftly retreated to Kukaku Shiba's side. He also wanted to see what this brat who had come knocking was capable of.
"Don't worry. This won't take much time!"
With an excited expression, Kensei drew his Zanpakuto from behind his back. Spiritual pressure then burst from his body without restraint.
It was a dagger-sized Zanpakuto with a square hilt and a tiny ring above it. Perhaps because he still could not let go of the Hollowfication experiments of the past, Kensei had trained his Zanpakuto to remain in a constant state of Shikai since coming to the World of the Living.
Kensei skillfully spun the Zanpakuto twice around his hand, then gripped it normally and assumed a boxing stance. Looking at Tsuna, he said, "Its name is Tondemo. Brat, I'll let you make the first move!"
"Do you Visored really like telling your enemies all your information?" Tsuna complained numbly. If these guys talked a little less during battle, their record would not look so terrible.
"Brat, take this!"
Muguruma Kensei's expression darkened further. Announcing his name was a sign of respect for his opponent. Since Tsuna did not need respect, there was no reason for him to show the kid any courtesy. Captain-level spiritual pressure filled the entire warehouse as Muguruma Kensei gripped Tondemo like a boxer and threw a punch at Tsuna.
"Kensei really is..." Even Hirako, watching from the side, did not know what to say. Muguruma Kensei had always been this hot-tempered. Hirako was worried that if Muguruma's punch damaged their guest, it would be hard to explain to Urahara Kisuke.
At the same time, elsewhere in the warehouse, the other Visored...
"Kensei's spiritual pressure? That idiot, I'll go take a look." The green-haired girl in a white-and-orange bodysuit, who had become obsessed with superheroes in the World of the Living, vanished in a flash.
"Hachi, honestly... Let's go take a look too..."
Fist collided with fist. The shockwave from the erupting spiritual pressure blew away all the dust. Seeing Sawada Tsunayoshi before him wearing boxing gloves and burning with yellow flames, Muguruma Kensei's excitement only grew stronger.
"Honestly, we might get along surprisingly well!"
After exchanging two more excited punches with Tsuna, Muguruma Kensei suddenly condensed a ball of high-density spiritual pressure in the hand holding his Zanpakuto. His entire right hand shone intensely. Under the cover of his left hand, Muguruma Kensei continued his assault.
Bomb Rush!
The spiritual pressure gathered in Kensei's hand was like a bomb ready to explode at any moment. The instant he struck, it detonated, unleashing tremendous destructive power.
Maximum Sun!
An even more intense light illuminated the entire field. It was Tsuna's attack in the Shikai state of his Sun Attribute Flames. The same high-density spiritual pressure, the same dazzling radiance, collided with Kensei's Bomb Rush in an instant.
White light flooded the entire area, so blinding that no one could open their eyes. When the brightness faded, Hirako saw Kensei and Tsuna throwing punches at each other in a wild barrage, both of them bearing wounds to varying degrees.
This was the instinct of two boxers. Neither had waited for the explosion to end. Instead, they had both attacked the other at the very instant of the blast.
"This is exhilarating!" Kensei shouted. "Stop, brat. My Tondemo is a wind-attribute Zanpakuto. It's not only capable of close combat!"
Threads of green drifted around the two of them. They were threads condensed from wind under Tondemo's control, each one incomparably sharp. If Kensei bound Tsuna with those threads, Tsuna would lose.
Kensei did not want the young opponent he had just met to suffer serious injuries. As long as Tsuna spoke up, he could stop. It was not easy to find a suitable opponent after all.
Yet Kensei did not hear Tsuna beg for mercy. He only saw Tsuna yawn and say listlessly, "How boring."
Tsuna's spiritual pressure suddenly spread throughout his body, accompanied by yellow flames. The wounds on his body began healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The sudden change made Kensei instinctively mobilize every thread drifting around them. A punching bag amid a raging wind—an opponent bound by wind threads could not move freely and could only take hits like a punching bag.
But Sawada Tsunayoshi clearly had no intention of becoming Kensei's punching bag. He stepped forward once more toward Kensei, charging ahead while enduring those sharp threads.
The moment the threads cut wounds into Tsuna's body, yellow Sun Attribute Flames ignited there. As his wounds healed, Tsuna's movements became faster and faster, until Kensei could barely keep up with his speed.
This was the property of Sun Attribute Flames: Activation. They increased the vitality of cells through Sun Attribute Flames to heal injuries, then used that Activation to enhance the power and speed of one's attacks.
Tsuna's attack speed grew faster and faster. Suddenly, Kensei felt as if his vision had blurred. Three Sawada Tsunayoshis appeared before him, all throwing punches at him at once. It was already too late to defend.
Maximum Machine Gun!
All three punches struck Muguruma Kensei at once. He fell and rolled across the ground in one fluid motion. After only a few exchanges, Muguruma Kensei had been knocked down by Tsuna.
"What a terrifying young man. Since when did the Soul Society produce someone like him?" Hirako asked Tessai beside him. Though Tsuna's outfit resembled a modern uniform more than a Shinigami Uniform, Hirako had recognized him as a Bleach from the fluctuations of his spiritual pressure.
"Mr. Sawada is not from the Soul Society, but from the World of the Living," Tessai explained. Over the past century, they had never revealed the Visored's whereabouts to the Soul Society, much less brought someone from there to their base.
"The World of the Living?" Hirako clicked his tongue, unsure what he was thinking. Now that Kensei had lost, perhaps they could finally have a proper talk?
Hirako had just lifted his foot when he heard Tsuna's voice. "Mr. Muguruma, without using Hollowfication, you're not even worth one Muguruma."
Hirako withdrew the foot he had just extended. Based on what he knew of Muguruma Kensei, this battle was probably not about to end.
Sure enough, Muguruma Kensei flew into a rage upon hearing Tsuna's provocation. "Hollowfication, Hollowfication? Then let me show you a power even stronger than Hollowfication!"
Bankai! Tekken - Danpū!
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