Day after day passed, and Tsuna had already completely mastered his Shikai abilities. After casually eliminating a Hollow on his way home from school, he made his usual stop at Urahara Shop.
The benefits of becoming a Soul Reaper were obvious.
For those wandering souls in Karakura Town with nowhere to go, Tsuna could now simply press the hilt of his Zanpakutō to their foreheads and send them to Soul Society with a Soul Burial. He no longer had to exhaust himself trying to persuade them to pass on of their own accord, nor did he need to worry about them turning into Hollows.
On a related note, in order to let Tsuna use his Soul Reaper powers at any time, Urahara had also made him a portable Reishi converter. It allowed Tsuna to convert Kishi into Reishi on his own and transform into a Soul Reaper whenever he needed.
Tsuna had traded information to Urahara in exchange for that device. He had no intention of leaving his physical body in someone else's care whenever he wanted to act as a Soul Reaper. Since the device was portable, it could only be used by one person, but for Tsuna, that was more than enough.
"Hello."
After once again skillfully shaking off the little tail following him from behind, Tsuna pulled open the door to Urahara Shop.
"Tessai-san, you're here? The shopkeeper told me to come."
"I know. Please follow me, Tsuna-san."
As usual, Tessai opened the hidden door leading down into the underground training area.
The moment Tsuna entered, he saw Urahara waving his folding fan at him in greeting. Beside him, Ururu and Jinta were carrying a large crate together.
"Shopkeeper, is Yoruichi-san not here?"
After being beaten up by Yoruichi so many times, Tsuna had actually grown somewhat attached to her. Their relationship had become something between teacher and friend, so not seeing that insufferably smug figure around felt a little strange.
"Kid, if you miss me, just say so."
Tsuna felt a weight drop onto his head. An annoying black cat had appeared there and was grooming itself as if it owned the place.
"Your Shunpo improved again?" Tsuna asked tentatively.
Over this period of training, he had already fully adapted to Yoruichi's spiritual pressure. It had become impossible for her to sneak up on him through his Hyper Intuition—and yet now she had suddenly appeared right on top of his head.
"Hmph. A little bit of improvement and you act like it's something extraordinary," the black cat said proudly, lifting her head. She had clearly hidden on purpose just to ambush him.
"Alright, alright. Let's begin today's training."
Urahara took a human-shaped mannequin out of the large crate and said,
"Tsuna-san, today's training course is… Bankai."
The moment Tsuna heard the word, he understood what Urahara had brought out.
It was the Tenshintai—a device that forcibly materialized a Zanpakutō spirit.
Just as expected, Urahara began explaining the device and the training.
"After observing you, I've determined that Tsuna-san's spiritual pressure has already reached the level required to learn Bankai. This tool is called the Tenshintai. It can force your Zanpakutō into physical form, allowing you to subjugate it by force and thereby master your own Bankai."
Urahara did not go into the technical principles in detail. Tsuna already knew a fair amount of information himself; as long as he understood the procedure, that was enough.
Just as Urahara expected, Tsuna raised no questions at all. He simply nodded and said,
"Got it. I just stab my Zanpakutō into it, right?"
"Kid, if you fail, you'll never be able to learn Bankai," Yoruichi warned, unable to hold back.
"It's fine, Yoruichi-san. Please get back where you belong."
Tsuna grabbed the black cat and tossed her back into Urahara's arms. Then he transformed into his Soul Reaper form and, without hesitation, thrust his black blade into the Tenshintai.
A tremendous burst of spiritual pressure erupted from it.
The Tenshintai's appearance began to change. A black suit, Hyper Dying Will Mode, X-Gloves—
it had become a perfect adult version of Tsuna.
"Oh… A Zanpakutō spirit that resembles its owner this closely? This is the first time I've seen something like it," Urahara commented.
The adult Tsuna opened his eyes, saw the younger Tsuna before him, and immediately understood the situation.
"So, the Tenshintai? Another me, are you planning to learn Bankai?"
"That's right, Tenth. I'll be relying on you. What's the trial this time?" Tsuna asked, patting the Tenth on the thigh.
To his surprise, the Tenth merely smiled gently and shook his head.
"There's no need for any trial between us. If you want Bankai, I can simply give it to you directly."
"What?!"
Both Urahara and Yoruichi cried out in shock.
"What kind of Zanpakutō is that? He can just learn Bankai that easily?" Yoruichi couldn't help complaining. She recalled how hard it had been for her to train her own Bankai with a Zanpakutō that neither obeyed her nor suited her at all, and she found herself grinding her teeth again.
"That really is a bit too easy," Urahara added. "When I learned Bankai, Benihime gave me no end of trouble."
"Well, if you put it that way…" The Tenth clearly heard their muttering and actually began to consider the matter seriously. "Some sense of ceremony might not be a bad thing."
"No need for that, Tenth," Tsuna hurriedly said. "We're all part of Vongola. Friendly cooperation is enough."
The Tenth firmly shook his head.
"No. Just as you said, if we're Vongola, then Vongola should have Vongola's own sense of ceremony. In that case, let's use this opportunity to give you a Vongola Trial."
A deeply aggrieved look swept toward Urahara and Yoruichi, those two meddlers who had made sarcastic comments. It was enough to make both of them shrink back.
The Tenth had originally agreed to hand Tsuna Bankai directly—but because those two interfered, it had now turned into a full-blown Vongola Trial.
Urahara immediately dragged Yoruichi behind a large boulder, where the two of them secretly peeked at what was happening.
Tsuna withdrew his gaze and asked the Tenth,
"So what's the trial?"
"Simple. Let me see how much you've grown since gaining your power."
Without another word, the Tenth threw a punch straight at Tsuna's face.
Tsuna blocked at once, using the force of the blow to widen the distance. The power of the Sky Flame surged through him, and he too entered Hyper Dying Will Mode.
Super Glide.
Sky Flames burst from the X-Gloves, and Tsuna shot into motion, circling around the Tenth at tremendous speed.
Tsuna knew that whatever abilities he possessed, the Tenth possessed as well—and likely used them even better. That being the case, facing him head-on from the start would be unwise.
He switched forms.
Flying behind the Tenth, Tsuna rapidly changed to the Storm Attribute, and a swarm of rocket bombs shot toward the Tenth's back.
"How nostalgic," the Tenth murmured.
He turned around without the slightest hurry. Sky Flame ignited in his hand, and with a casual sweep, he created a wall of fire that blocked every rocket bomb.
A string of explosions churned up smoke.
From within that smoke, a blade flashed.
Shigure Sōen-ryū, First Form: Shajiku no Ame. (Axle of Rain)
A long blade wrapped in Rain Flames thrust toward the Tenth.
The Tenth made no move to dodge. He simply raised two fingers and clamped down on the blade, firmly arresting the strike. The flames wrapped around the blade vanished instantly, unable to affect him in the slightest.
Zero Point Breakthrough Revised: Barehanded Blade Catch.
What Tsuna had not expected was that the Tenth didn't even need to form the hand sign for the Revised Zero Point Breakthrough. He used the technique with nothing but two fingers.
The moment his blade was caught, Tsuna switched attributes again—still Storm.
The skull launchers pointed straight at the Tenth, and a red blazing arrow blasted out at point-blank range.
Driven by maximum spiritual pressure, the crimson flames completely swallowed the Tenth.
As the flames gradually faded, the Tenth reappeared exactly as composed as before, smiling as he said,
"Don't forget. The powers of the other attributes—I have them too."
A layer of green lightning covered the Tenth's body.
That was the power of the Lightning Flame, whose property was hardening. The Tenth had used it to defend against the Red Flame Arrow.
Without another word, Tsuna switched equipment again. A pair of purple-flame-wreathed tonfa appeared in his hands, and he charged the Tenth.
The tonfa whistled powerfully through the air in Tsuna's grip. During his training with Yoruichi, Tsuna's Hakuda had also advanced at remarkable speed.
"But attacks on this level aren't enough," the Tenth said mildly.
He had not expected Tsuna to fight him with the Cloud Attribute. Hibari was strong because of his own individual mastery; at Tsuna's current level, trying to touch the Tenth with tonfa was still difficult.
The Tenth dodged three consecutive strikes in a row.
Then his eyes lit up.
"I see!"
He abruptly stopped moving, allowing Tsuna to attack.
To the Tenth's side, a bright light appeared.
Tsuna's tonfa passed right through the Tenth's body—
because the "Tsuna" wielding them had not been real at all.
Three identical Tsunas appeared at the Tenth's flank, and all three attacked at once with punches.
Sun Attribute: Extreme Charge Cannon!
The Tenth smiled faintly. He split into two afterimages of his own and, one-on-one, raised a hand to catch the strikes.
"Nicely done," he praised.
The truth was that when Tsuna had switched from Rain earlier, he had not actually changed to Cloud. He knew perfectly well that, in close combat alone, he had little advantage, so he had shifted to Mist instead. The Tsuna wielding the tonfa the whole time had only been an illusion created by the Mist Attribute.
Tsuna also feared the Tenth's Hyper Intuition, so he had kept himself hidden close by until the Tenth noticed something was wrong. Only then had he launched a multi-angle Extreme Charge Cannon attack.
It had come very close to working.
The moment the Tenth caught Tsuna's punch, Tsuna changed to the Sky Attribute once more.
Yet this time there was no Dying Will Flame burning on the X-Gloves.
Zero Point Breakthrough!
To catch Tsuna's strike, the Tenth's hands had been wrapped in flame too.
That was enough.
The activation condition for Zero Point Breakthrough had been met.
The flames in the Tenth's hands were instantly converted into cold.
A flower of ice bloomed over one of the Tenth's hands, sealing it away.
The Tenth looked at Tsuna and asked,
"Oh? Me? Did you forget? We naturally possess all seven attributes of Flame."
In Reborn!, when Xanxus was sealed by Zero Point Breakthrough, he shattered the ice by using the resonance of seven-attribute rings to generate an ultra-high-energy Dying Will Flame.
Now the Tenth alone could assemble all seven attributes himself.
With his free hand, he lit the Sky Flame, then successively ignited Storm, Rain, Sun, Lightning, Cloud, and finally closed his fingers, causing the Mist Flame to appear.
As long as he pressed the energy created from the seven Flames against the ice, he could undo Zero Point Breakthrough's sealing.
In response to the Tenth's reminder, Tsuna merely answered calmly,
"I know."
While the Tenth was dealing with the ice on his hand, an enormous surge of spiritual pressure swept through the field.
Tsuna's true objective had always been only one thing—
to buy time.
Time until he could unleash his finishing move.
One of his hands moved behind him, and a cylindrical mass of soft orange flame burst out. His other hand clenched into a fist before him as he gathered an immense amount of spiritual pressure into it. The orange light on that fist grew deeper and deeper.
"What technique is that? The brat was still hiding something?" Yoruichi exclaimed.
During all the time Tsuna had trained with her, he had never used this move once.
"That technique clearly requires time to gather spiritual pressure," Urahara commented. "Ideally, the opponent also needs to be unable to move. Using it against you would be suicidal."
"I see," the Tenth said.
The ice on his hand had just melted away when Tsuna's fist, saturated with a vast quantity of rigid Sky Flame, came up before him.
Tsuna himself acted as the central support point. The soft flame erupting behind him provided the stabilizing thrust, while the rigid flame formed the offensive tip.
This was—
X-BURNER!
A scorching beam of rigid Sky Flame blasted straight at the Tenth, tearing through everything in its path and gouging a long trench across the ground.
Faced with an attack of that magnitude, the Tenth calmly raised a single finger.
He too used rigid flame—and at his mastery of X-BURNER, he no longer needed both hands to perform it. One finger alone was enough to unleash an X-BURNER that eclipsed Tsuna's.
BOOM!!!
The two torrents of powerful flame collided in deadlock before the Tenth.
Tsuna sighed inwardly.
Not enough mastery. The Tenth had still reacted in time.
Since that was the case, there was nothing left but to look for another opening.
Tsuna shifted the direction of the soft flame behind him so that it blasted downward. He voluntarily cut off the output of his rigid flame, then used Shunpo to launch himself up into the air above the battlefield.
With Tsuna no longer countering it, the Tenth's flame shot through the position Tsuna had just vacated.
The Tenth immediately canceled the move and, with a wave of his left hand, launched several missiles toward Tsuna. They were Gokudera's high-mobility variable missiles.
They were extremely fast.
Midair, Tsuna inverted his body and formed a rectangular hand sign with one hand upright and the other reversed.
Zero Point Breakthrough Revised!
A chain of explosions rang out. Tsuna dropped out of the smoke.
Since Revised Zero Point Breakthrough had absorbed the fire from the missiles, Tsuna's spiritual pressure had recovered a little. Though he fell from the sky wrapped in smoke, he came through unharmed.
Just as Tsuna was considering what to do next, his pupils contracted.
The Tenth had suddenly appeared right in front of him.
"It was an illusion," the Tenth explained.
Exactly like Tsuna's earlier tactic, the missiles the Tenth had fired had been illusions. His real body had already used that moment to chase Tsuna down in person.
Is this the end?
Tsuna felt unwilling to accept it.
He should not have been so overconfident. Instead of trying to use X-BURNER against the very person who invented it, he should have switched to the Storm Attribute C.A.I. System and attacked while the Tenth's hand was still partially frozen, preventing him from breaking the ice in the first place.
But it was too late now.
At such point-blank range, the Tenth only needed a single Flame Punch to defeat him.
Yet the imagined attack never came.
Instead, Tsuna's right hand was gently guided by a soft flame toward the Tenth's chest. At the same time, the Tenth placed his own hand before his chest. Their positions mirrored each other, backs of their hands facing one another as they hovered opposite each other in the air.
A gigantic Vongola crest appeared between them.
Tsuna's eyes wavered.
He understood.
This was the Tenth passing something down to him.
"I'm glad I could fight you," the Tenth said.
"Congratulations—you've earned my recognition. All of Vongola's power is now released to you. Go and become stronger, Tsunayoshi Sawada!"
The back of the Tenth's hand drew ever closer to Tsuna's. The crest between them shrank until it was just the size of the back of a hand. As their hands finally pressed together, the Vongola crest sank into Tsuna's X-Gloves.
And with it, every Bankai release phrase of his Zanpakutō opened itself to him.
Dye everything, embrace everything, Sora. (Sky)
Call of offense, unending rage of tide, Arashi. (Storm)
Wash in blood, song of tranquility, Ame. (Rain)
Destroy adversity, illuminate the earth, Taiyo. (Sun)
Bear the damage, eliminate the threat, Kaminari. (Lightning)
Unbound, the lonely path of pride, Kumo. (Cloud)
Create from nothing, alter what exists, false illusions of the unreal, Kiri. (Mist)
======================
Support by Dropping Powerstones, Comments, and Reviews:>
300 Powerstones – Bonus Chap
600 Powerstones – Bonus Chap