Retsu Unohana's Past

The warm pool water continuously seeped into and washed over Liu Chuan's body.

The waves of soreness, numbness, swelling, and pain gradually faded, replaced by a sense of ease and clarity that seemed to rise from the depths of his marrow.

He could clearly sense that old injuries and fatigue within him—things even he hadn't consciously noticed—were being forced out bit by bit by the warm yet domineering current.

The circulation of his Spiritual Power seemed to have sped up slightly, and its flow had become smoother and more natural.

"Feel it? The wonders of White Bone Hell."

Tenjiro Kirinji was still leaning against the edge of the pool with his eyes closed, but his lazy voice carried clearly, as though he were teaching Liu Chuan a lesson.

"This water might look gentle, but it's actually tyrannical. It can squeeze out everything that doesn't belong in your spiritual body and blood—old injuries and impurities."

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name. Read novels every day on Duhaoshu, ᴛᴛᴋ.ᴛᴡ, hassle-free.]

He paused, seemingly feeling the flow of the water, then continued.

"The principle's simple. The rules inherent in the water create a special kind of 'inverse difference' with the Spiritual Pressure and blood inside your body."

The healthy, active Spiritual Pressure and blood would be gently nourished by the pool water.

But those stagnant, inert parts marked by 'injury and illness' would be forcibly 'pushed out' by that inverse difference, expelled through the pores and carried into the water with sweat.

"So look at the water. Isn't it a little darker than before?"

Liu Chuan lowered his head. Sure enough, the originally clear water around him—especially near the outline of his body—had taken on a faint grayish murk that slowly spread and dissipated through the pool.

"If a severely injured patient soaked in here," Tenjiro Kirinji said, his tone carrying a doctor's cold ruthlessness.

"The 'injury and illness' in their body would be squeezed out in massive quantities and at great speed. The results would come quickly."

"But the side effect is that their Spiritual Pressure and blood would also be consumed in huge amounts."

"If the duration or intensity is even slightly off, or if the patient is too weak to begin with, they might be squeezed dry into an empty shell. They'd truly be nothing but white bones at the bottom of the pool."

"That's why it's called White Bone Hell. It's not just meant to scare people."

"You don't have any major injuries, but after all these years, you must have accumulated plenty of hidden injuries and impurities. This treatment will let you face the trials ahead in your best possible condition."

He turned his head and pointed with his chin toward a nearby pool whose water was an eerie dark red, like thick blood plasma.

"See that one over there? That's Blood Pool Hell. It does the opposite—it 'fills' you up."

"Through the skin, it forcibly injects Spiritual Pressure and blood into whoever's soaking in it, rapidly replenishing both. It can even stimulate the spiritual body to regenerate itself."

"Throw anyone suffering from severe injuries, blood loss, or depleted Spiritual Pressure in there for a while. As long as they aren't completely dead, it'll pull them back."

Liu Chuan listened in silence, gaining a more intuitive understanding of the methods of this Hot Spring Demon.

This was far more than a simple hot spring treatment. It was an art of control that brought the boundary between healing and destruction to absolute precision.

Beneath the brutal, straightforward surface lay control that had reached the pinnacle.

"I heard," Liu Chuan said at the right moment, steering the conversation toward something else that interested him—one of the rumors circulating through the Seireitei.

"Senior Kirinji was the creator of Kaido? And Captain Retsu Unohana, the current captain of the 4th Division, learned her Kaido from you?"

At the mention of Kaido and Retsu Unohana, Tenjiro Kirinji seemed to perk up. He shifted into a more comfortable position, resting both arms on the smooth black stone at the pool's edge as he opened his eyes.

"Yeah, I was the one who first organized and established that Kaido stuff. As for Unohana..." He smacked his lips, as if recalling something.

"She did learn from me. And she learned fast—very well, in fact."

He paused and looked at Liu Chuan with a teasing glint in his eyes.

"What, interested in her? Makes sense. You must've met her down there. It's hard to imagine that beneath her current gentle, compassionate healer's appearance was once the Kenpachi of the original Gotei 13—the one who delighted in slaughter and was said to have mastered every school of swordsmanship in the world."

Liu Chuan nodded. That was exactly what puzzled him.

The enormous contrast between the records in the Great Spirit Library and the reality of the Seireitei had always left him wondering.

Tenjiro Kirinji fell silent for a moment, seemingly lost in distant memories. The hot spring steam swirled around him, blurring his features.

"The first time she came to learn Kaido from me was a long time ago."

He spoke slowly, his voice carrying a rare hint of nostalgia belonging to one who had lived through ancient times.

"Back then, she'd just returned from Zaraki District in Rukongai. Her injuries were severe—not merely wounds to the flesh. Her spiritual body's foundation and her sword heart had both suffered blows that nearly shattered them."

"Zaraki District?" Liu Chuan's heart stirred. It was the most chaotic area of Rukongai, infamous for its disorder and abundance of powerful fighters.

"That's right, Zaraki District." Tenjiro Kirinji confirmed, his tone complicated.

"She didn't explain much, but she vaguely revealed that she... lost there. Lost to someone."

"Her Yachiru swordsmanship—the blade arts she claimed had exhausted every school in the world—was utterly crushed before that person."

He seemed able to see that scene before him: the incomparably proud first-generation Kenpachi, dragging her broken body to find him for the sole purpose of learning the Kaido of healing and saving lives.

"Hard to imagine, right? A Kenpachi who lived for battle actually lowered her head to learn how to save people."

Tenjiro Kirinji curled his lips, though it was impossible to tell whether it was mockery or reflection.

"But she did it. And she studied with extreme seriousness, almost obsessively."

"My guess is that defeat didn't just defeat her. It made her fundamentally question the path she'd pursued in the past, and the meaning of her own existence."

"A sword was no longer only for slaughter and victory. Perhaps... it could be for something else as well?"

"As for who she lost to..." Tenjiro Kirinji shook his head.

"She kept her mouth shut the whole time and never revealed her opponent's identity to anyone."

"After that, Retsu Unohana changed. She concealed every bit of her sharpness and turned to studying Kaido and medicine. In the end, she became the captain of the 4th Division. Now, she's the most respected healer in Soul Society."

Liu Chuan listened quietly, his heart filled with curiosity as well.

Retsu Unohana's past truly hid a shocking secret. A defeat in Zaraki District that had utterly crushed the first-generation Kenpachi had made her abandon the path of killing and seek salvation instead.

Come to think of it, didn't the current captain of the Eleventh Division have the surname Zaraki? There might be some connection between the two. Liu Chuan silently committed it to memory.

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