After spending many years together, Unohana Retsu and Natsuki had grown quite close.
They didn't address each other by their titles. Unohana Retsu simply called Natsuki by his name, while Natsuki sometimes called her...
"Sister Retsu, I do know a few things. You could say that, by chance, I learned some secrets from eight hundred years ago."
"Though Soul Reapers live for a long time, not all of them get to live out those years in peace. Even a hundred years is enough for many things to vanish and be forgotten with time, let alone eight hundred."
"What I learned was that the first Kenpachi of the Gotei 13 was called Unohana Yachiru."
In just a few words, Natsuki told her what he knew, then gave Unohana Retsu a playful look. "What a coincidence. She even shares your surname, Sister Retsu. That can't be a coincidence, can it?"
Unohana Retsu felt his gaze and fell silent for a long while. At last, she said with a complicated expression, "Yachiru is dead."
"Why did she die?" Natsuki asked.
Unohana Retsu instinctively touched the spot in the middle of her collarbone. There, hidden beneath her hair, was a scar. Though hundreds of years had passed, the wound still ached whenever she thought of what happened.
She had once prided herself on mastering every sword style and technique. Even Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, the immensely powerful founder of the Genji School, who had established his own teachings in Soul Society long ago, had never impressed her.
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni's swordsmanship was indeed powerful, but she had believed that her own skill was no lesser than his.
Yet that exquisite, formidable swordsmanship had been no match for the instinct of a young beast.
The moment that blade pierced her,
she knew she had lost.
If