"Kenny…"
When Baraggan's colossal death-infused axe slammed Kenpachi into the ground, a familiar voice echoed beside his ear.
Lying face down against the battlefield, Kenpachi lifted his eyes with difficulty. The next instant, he found himself staring into a pair of pure, innocent, almost childlike eyes, as if the war around them were nothing more than a distant game.
It was Yachiru.
"Now's not the time to be sleeping, Kenny," she said in that same sweet voice as always, as if she were simply calling him to keep walking.
Kenpachi's mouth fell open. For one rare moment, he completely forgot that he was standing in the middle of a battlefield.
"Yachiru… where the hell have you been?"
Ever since he had awakened his shikai, she had simply vanished. At first, Kenpachi had tried to look for her himself, but the war had advanced too quickly, too mercilessly, and he had been forced to leave the search to his subordinates. Even so, the question had never truly left his mind.
Why had she disappeared?
And more importantly, why was she here now, in the Soul King Palace?
Yachiru, however, did not answer. Instead, she slowly reached for the sword at her waist, drew the blade, and pointed it at him.
Kenpachi frowned, feeling something inside him shift out of place.
"Yachiru… is that… a zanpakuto? How? You didn't have…"
The words died before they could fully form. His mind, never exactly famous for delicate reasoning, seemed to freeze completely.
Only then did he realize it.
This place was not the Soul King Palace.
It was an empty, endless space suspended in a dimension without a horizon, where there was no true sky and no true ground, only a vast silence that seemed to exist somewhere inside him.
The next instant, the blade in Yachiru's hands began to swell. The sword expanded violently, distorting the very proportions of the space, until it became dozens of times larger than before.
It was Nozarashi.
Kenpachi's zanpakuto.
"Hey!"
Yachiru let out a light, almost cheerful cry and charged at him.
Completely thrown off balance, Kenpachi hurriedly raised his own sword to block. The impact made the void tremble.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing, Yachiru?! Stop it!"
But she did not stop. On the contrary, the spiritual pressure erupting from her small body was not inferior to his own. Every strike came heavy, direct, and brutal, carrying a force that had nothing to do with her tiny, smiling appearance.
"Kenny has to learn it here," she murmured as her sword descended again. "Otherwise, you'll die."
And then, amid the clash of blades, she spoke two words.
"Bankai."
At that moment, countless Bleach fans immediately remembered every time Ichigo had communicated and fought with Zangetsu and his inner Hollow within his own inner world.
Kenpachi and Yachiru's situation was almost exactly the same.
In other words…
Yachiru's true identity was the manifestation of Kenpachi's zanpakuto.
With that, many questions the audience had carried for years finally received an answer. Why had Yachiru, despite being a lieutenant, never possessed her own zanpakuto? Why had she disappeared the moment Kenpachi learned his shikai? Why had she appeared out of nowhere at this critical moment?
In the original Thousand-Year Blood War arc, the revelation of Yachiru's identity and Kenpachi's bankai awakening had been far too rushed, almost abrupt. Because of that, Alex had altered several parts.
From the very beginning, Yachiru had never possessed a zanpakuto of her own.
In addition, taking inspiration from the relationship between Ichigo and his inner Hollow, Alex designed an inner-world battle between Kenpachi and Yachiru, giving his awakening much greater emotional and narrative weight.
This sequence also carried echoes of the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc from the anime. Although it had been an anime-original arc created by the production team, its quality was undeniable, and its structure was too valuable to ignore.
After nearly half an episode of brutal combat, Kenpachi fell to his knees once again. Across from him, Yachiru ran toward him with light steps, like a child crossing an open field, and gently placed her small hand on his blade.
"As long as Kenny uses me properly," she said with a smile, "there won't be any enemy you can't cut."
As soon as she finished speaking, her body began to dissolve into a translucent, almost spiritual form, gradually merging with that inner space.
Kenpachi's eyes widened.
"Wait! Yachiru, where are you going?!"
She did not answer.
She only left him with one final smile.
In front of their screens, countless viewers were overcome by an emotion that was difficult to put into words. Since the beginning of Bleach, the duo formed by Kenpachi and Yachiru had gained a massive following. The savage brute and the tiny girl who was always hanging off him formed a strange, chaotic, yet strangely warm combination.
No one had expected her true identity to be the manifestation of his own zanpakuto.
And yet… perhaps that was not such a bad thing.
At least this way, the two of them could remain together forever.
Compared to the twisted fate of Peter and Whisper, it was almost a merciful blessing.
The scene returned to the battlefield in the Soul King Palace.
Facing Baraggan, who had pressured Retsu Unohana to the very limit, Kenpachi raised his head. His voice was low, but it cut across the entire battlefield like a blade.
"Ban… kai."
In an instant, the breath of death and the blood-red world were scattered.
The enormous sword that had once looked like a slab of pure destruction shrank, returning to the appearance of a simple, almost crude blade.
At that moment, many veteran fans remembered a legendary jab from Byakuya Kuchiki during the Soul Society arc:
"Something that small is a bankai?"
Well.
After so many version updates, it seemed the smaller the bankai became, the more absurdly powerful it was.
First Ichigo. Then Yamamoto. And now Kenpachi.
With every bankai, the weapon became smaller.
And the monster behind it became greater.
Kenpachi's skin took on a bizarre shade of red, as if his entire body had been dyed in boiling blood. He roared and charged toward Baraggan.
Before the enemy could release another wave of decay, Kenpachi brought down his sword.
Baraggan's wrist was severed in a single slash.
Even Baraggan himself was shocked. For a brief instant, the ancient arrogance on his face cracked. Left with no choice, he raised the Axe of Extinction and entered close combat against Kenpachi.
But even in his second release, the Twentieth Espada was forced to retreat, step after step, strike after strike.
That advantage, however, would not last.
When Kenpachi, completely consumed by instinct, drove his blade into Baraggan's shoulder, the terrifying breath of death spread through the wound like an invisible plague. The corrosion seeped into his flesh, aging it in seconds. His skin began to crack, rot, and peel away.
Baraggan looked at him coldly.
"So your power has increased, but the essence of your body remains unchanged."
Behind them, Retsu Unohana immediately sensed the danger. Without hesitation, she pulled Kenpachi back before the decay could spread any further. Then, with surgical precision, she cut away every part that had already been corrupted and activated Minazuki to begin healing him.
But Kenpachi, in that state, simply did not understand the meaning of the word stop.
With another roar, he charged at Baraggan again.
Unohana's brows drew together, and for the first time in a long while, genuine irritation flashed through her eyes.
That idiot.
At this rate, it would not matter how many times she healed him. It would be useless.
But immediately after that, another idea came to her.
If Kenpachi wanted to fight so badly, then let him fight.
All she had to do was keep him alive while he attacked like a mad beast. Heal him in the exact instant between one mortal wound and the next. Allow him to cut, advance, destroy himself, and rebuild himself, until he defeated that Espada with an almost impossible ability before his body was completely consumed.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the First Espada, Coyote Starrk, was the first to fall before Shunsui Kyoraku in his bankai state.
"Forgive me, Lord Aizen…" Starrk murmured as his body was thrown from the Soul King Palace into the endless void below. "I won't be able to serve you to the end…"
During his fall, memories of his life in Hueco Mundo passed before his eyes like fragments of light. The day he tore away his own mask. The birth of Lilynette. The loneliness. The companionship. The silence that had always followed him, even among allies.
Played by Hollywood star Christian Bale, Starrk might not have possessed the overwhelming popularity of Ulquiorra or Harribel, but among the Espada, and even among the entire villain faction, he still stood near the very top.
The audience sighed once again.
It was not only the fall of another beloved character.
It was also the feeling that Bleach was moving, step by step, toward its ending.
Then the screen changed again.
"Bankai."
Rukia's voice echoed out, and pure, flawless white light enveloped the entire Soul King Palace.
When Rukia slowly emerged from within that radiance, dressed in an ancient ceremonial gown that was elegant, majestic, and pristine, her new appearance completely stunned viewers both at home and across the Atlantic.
The internet exploded.
"My God, she's way too beautiful!"
"Alex understands. There's no helping it, that bastard really understands."
"I was too shallow. I spent all this time paying attention to Orihime, Harribel, and the more obvious bombshells, and I never realized Rukia was this beautiful too."
"You can always trust Alex's taste."
"Isn't that actress only fifteen this year? With resources this good so early… I feel like I'm watching the birth of a second Rebeca Verne."
"Rebeca Verne didn't have projects this big when she was fifteen. And did her backer back then even come close to Alex?"
"Damn it. Another day of being jealous of that scumbag Alex."
"Do you think Alex might have already gotten his hands on her?"
"Come on, that's a bit much. The lesson from that actor who ruined himself with his own scandal is still fresh in everyone's mind."
"I agree. I feel like Alex would go after Taylor first."
And, as always happened whenever the audience became too excited, the direction of the comments drifted completely off course.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Additionally, more chapters exclusive content are available on Patreon: https://patreon.com/ImmortalEmperor?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
- CHRONICLES OF THE ICE SOVEREIGN
-PLAYING ANIME LEGENDS
-THE OTHER WORLD'S ANIMATOR
Join now and help shape the future of the story while enjoying special rewards!