Goddess of Ice: Corrupting Bleach - Chapter 39: vs 9th Division

Renji was currently lying on the ground wearing blood-covered clothes, and he simply couldn’t believe what had just happened. Somehow, he had lost to Ichigo again, but this time, his strength wasn’t restricted. Somehow, a 17-year-old young man who had just gained his Shinigami powers had defeated him, a Lieutenant of the Gotei 13.

Worst of all, he initially was easily overpowering Ichigo, especially after he released his Shikai, but after receiving a possibly fatal wound, something suddenly changed within Ichigo.

His sword, which was initially filled with doubt and insecurities, suddenly oozed confidence and determination, and somehow, that change was enough to suddenly overpower Renji, utterly dumbfounding him.

“Shit.”

That was really all he could say as he felt his consciousness slowly drift away. Frankly, he wasn’t as sad about losing against Ichigo as he had expected. After all, after seeing Ichigo’s massive potential, a flame of hope was rekindled within Renji. The hope that Rukia’s life could be saved.

Although he knew that the punishment for Rukia’s crimes would be the death penalty when he captured her, he never expected it to actually happen. After all, wasn’t Rukia from a noble clan? Since when did noble clans follow the rules?

And not only was she from a noble clan, she actually was the clan head’s little sister and a Lieutenant of the Gotei 13 on top of that. At worst, Renji expected her to be imprisoned for a few years before returning to her duties.

‘Should I try saving her as well?’

As these thoughts passed through his mind, he closed his eyes and finally let go of his consciousness, resulting in him fainting.

Meanwhile, in another part of Seireitei, Shuhei Hisagi was in a somewhat similar position to Renji, but instead of being covered in blood, he was covered in bruises and burn marks.

“Seriously, I don’t like people holding back on me.”

Hearing the complaints of the woman who had just defeated him, Shuhei chuckled in amusement.

“Well, if it helps you, I don’t think I could defeat you with my Shikai either.”

Hearing that, Tatsuki nodded in satisfaction and continued talking.

“Well, I would have preferred you simply giving it your all, but those words are better than nothing.”

This time, it was Shuhei’s turn to nod his head, but before he could say anything else, a third person appeared behind Tatsuki, their sword already slashing downward, causing Shuhei’s eyes to widen in surprise.

Tatsuki noticed the arrival of the new person as well and immediately turned around and raised her hands to block the blow. However, she immediately realized that the blow was coming too fast and that she would at least receive a minor wound, causing her to growl.

Fortunately, just as the tip of the blade was about to touch her skin, a glove-covered hand intercepted it, resulting in it stopping not even a centimeter away from Tatsuki’s face.

“Captain Tousen!?”

The man who had just appeared had dark skin, dreadlocks, and wore big glasses, hiding his eyes. Additionally, from the info Naruto had gotten from Kisuke, he knew that the person in front of him was actually blind.

“Now, now, please refrain from damaging my girlfriend’s face. Don’t you know how important a woman’s appearance is to them? Besides, since when do dignified Captains sneak attacks?”

Hearing Naruto’s question, Tousen scoffed while taking some distance from Naruto while pointing his blade at him.

“Aren’t you just intruders? For the sake of justice, everything is permittable.”

Naruto couldn’t help but scrunch up his face the moment Tousen used a phrase like “for the sake of justice”.

“Urgh, so you are one of those types? You do whatever you want and then slap the term justice on it, removing the necessity to take responsibility or feel guilty for whatever you have done.”

“Don’t insult Captain Tousen like that! He is a great man! He’s someone who always strives for justice!”

Naruto scoffed in disdain as his gaze never left Tousen. Since he had tried a sneak attack once, Naruto had little doubt he would do so again.

“Strives for Justice, huh? In that case, what is justice? Is killing Hollow’s justice? Maybe from the perspective of a Shinigami’s point of view, but what about the Hollow side? Pretty sure they don’t think them getting killed is justice.

No, the is no universal justice. It lies in the eye of the beholder, meaning it’s the same as saying you do something because you thought it was the best thing to do, which is nothing bad but don’t try to hover over others by using grand terms like justice. Take that word, write it on a piece of paper, and shove it up your ass.”

*Clang*

Metal clashed as Tousen appeared in front of Naruto and swung his blade down, resulting in Naruto blocking it with his gloves yet again.

“What does a mere intruder know about justice? You illegally entered Seireitei to free a criminal. How could you possibly claim yourself to be just.”

“Ha, I am! As I said: It lies in the eyes of the beholder. It’s my own personal justice. I want to save Rukia, and I think the best way to do it is by forcefully breaking into the city and rescuing her. So, I’ll just do that.”

While these two were arguing, Tatsuki couldn’t help but look at Naruto in bewilderment. As far as she remembered, she had never seen Naruto argue his point like this.

‘That idiot is actually quite smart, huh? Wait a moment, isn’t he at the top of the class every year? Right, he is. He is always acting like an idiot goofball around me, so I completely forgot about that.’

Shuhei, on the other hand, wore a thoughtful expression as he pondered Naruto’s words.

‘Justice lies in the eye of the beholder… I have never seen it like that, but I can see the point he wants to make. I need to think some more about his words.’

“[Cry Suzumushi]”

As these words left Tousen’s mouth, a loud, high-pitched ringing echoed over the battlefield, attempting to knock Naruto out, but before that could happen, Naruto raised his right hand and slapped it down, resulting in a powerful gust of wind, which disturbed Tousen’s sound wave.

“You didn’t think something so basic would work, did you?”

Tousen shook his head with a sad expression as he readied himself for the next move.

“You should have allowed yourself to get knocked out. Like that, I could have captured you painlessly, but since you insist on resisting, you’ll have to feel some pain. [Suzumushi Nishiki: Benihikou]”

Tousen swung his sword in an ark, resulting in hundreds of copies of his sword appearing in its path, and moments later, all the words honed in on Naruto’s position, crashing into it, resulting in a smoke explosion.

“NARUTO!!!”

Seeing such a devastating attack landing on Naruto, Tatsuki immediately yeller Naruto’s name with fear in her voice. However, before could Tatsuki could do anything else, a relaxed, slightly apologetic voice came out of the smoke.

“Oops, sorry I worried you, Tatsuki. I forgot that you aren’t really used to stuff like that.”

Moments later, the dust settled, revealing an unhurt Naruto, casually standing surrounded pile a pile of swords. It looked like, despite being the focus of the attack, not a single sword had actually hit Naruto. Obviously, that wasn’t because Tousen’s aim was shit, but because Naruto gently guided the sword away from his position using his wind.

“N-Naruto!? Y-You’re fine! D-Don’t scare me like that!”

“Haha, sorry, sorry~”

While Tatsuki was glaring at him, Naruto awkwardly scratched his head while his gaze returned to Tousen, who was now frowning deeply.

“Well, any more party tricks you want to show off? You should have a Bankai, right? Show me what you can do.”

Naturally, Tousen wasn’t happy that his technique was dismissed as a party trick, but he controlled his anger as he raised his blade.

“Very well, since this is what you want, I’ll give it to you. Frankly, a mere intruder isn’t worthy of me using my Bankai, and I’m not even sure why you know of it in the first place, but I have no time to dawdle around here any longer. [Bankai: Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi]”

As soon as Tousen finished speaking, a black dome grew out of the ground that swiftly covered Naruto and Tousen, and as soon as it was fully closed, Naruto immediately realized what was going on.

‘I can’t see anything, nor can I hear anything. Mhh~ Sense of smell is gone as well. Well, at least I still have my sense of touch; otherwise, things would get really nasty.’

As those thoughts were passing through Naruto’s head, he felt something touch his clothes, and he immediately realized that it was a blade, allowing him to twist his body out of the way, resulting in him only getting a small gash.

‘Good thing I usually follow my instincts during the battle; otherwise, that might have dealt some real damage~’

[Even if you say that, isn’t the situation pretty bad?]

‘Rather than bad, isn’t it annoying? I want a fun fight and not this mess.’

While talking with Naruto, he yet again felt a sword touching him, resulting in another close call.

‘Yep, definitely annoying~’

Meanwhile, Tousen was utterly bewildered by what was happening in front of him.

‘He is dodging my attacks? How? He shouldn’t be able to sense anything. Don’t tell me… he dodges the moment he feels my blade touch him!? What kind of monstrous reflexes does this guy have?’

While Tousen grew more and more flustered as he repeatedly tried to seriously wound Naruto, Naruto became more and more annoyed, and after around three minutes of this, Naruto became too annoyed to continue.

‘Fine, this is getting annoying, so let me finish this. I wanted to keep it hidden for a while longer, but the only other choice I see is either attacking randomly or a sacrificial move, which would result in me getting scolded.’

“Tousen, you better prepare yourself~”

Tousen frowned as soon as he heard Naruto’s somewhat playful voice. He couldn’t help but take some distance from Naruto, thinking he was planning to use some kind of secret technique.

Moments later, powerful Spiritual Pressure started oozing out of Naruto, causing Tousen to widen his eyes in shock.

‘No way! It’s impossible for him to do that! How could an outsider possibly archive it!? Even Kurosaki Ichigo, Aizen-sama’s test subject, can’t do it yet!’

Ignorant of Tousen’s thoughts, a grin appeared on Naruto’s face as his Spiritual Power became even stronger, and moments later, he smashed his gloved fists together, resulting in a shockwave of Spiritual Pressure.

“BanKAI!!!”

The wind that initially stopped moving due to Tousen’s Bankai stirred, causing his eyes to widen as it revealed Naruto’s current form: His whole body was covered by highly ornamented yellow armor that looked like it was crafted from the wind itself, while ten yellow tails that seemed to be made out of concentrated Spiritual Power were waving behind his back.

“[Ten-Tailed Wind Demon Fox]”

[This feels weird. It’s somewhat similar to how we could interact in the Shinobi world, but at the same time, completely different.]

‘Yeah, I get the same feeling. Guess we’ll just have to get used to it.’

Meanwhile, Tousen couldn’t believe what had just happened. An outsider actually used Bankai. Average Shinigami could even have trouble reaching their Shikai, but here was someone who previously had never stepped into Seireitei, and yet he had reached Bankai. Only a freak accident like Ichigo was supposed to reach such heights, but here it was. Another freak that somehow managed to do the impossible.

‘I need to get rid of him. He’s too much of a variable and might mess something up with Aizen-sama’s plan. Unlike the other Captain-level Shinigami, this one hasn’t seen Aizen-sama’s Shikai, so he can’t be controlled. Yes, he needs to die or, at the very least, lose his Shinigami powers.’

While Tousen had an inner monologue, Naruto clenched and unclenched his fists before nodding with satisfaction clearly visible on his face.

‘Yeah, I can work with this. The tails are still a little hard to control, but I should manage somehow.’

Noticing Naruto seemingly not being used to his Bankai yet, Tousen sighed in relief. This would make this whole mess a lot easier to manage. However, before he could utilize Naruto’s unfamiliarity with his Bankai, Naruto smirked as his case moved toward Tousen’s position.

“Hey, Tousen, can you feel the wind?”

At first, Tousen wasn’t sure what Naruto was talking about, but moments later, he realized that the wind within his Bankai was no longer at a standstill.

‘Don’t tell me he did this? Can he locate me using the wind? He DOES still have his sense of touch, but does that really extend to the wind? That would be very bad as it pretty much is an almost perfect counter against my Bankai.’

Unfortunately for him, as soon as he finished thinking about what a huge advantage he would have if Naruto could locate him, Naruto bent his knees and shot toward his position, almost causing him to curse out loud.

‘Damn, so he really can locate me? That is bad, very bad.’

Naruto reeled back his fist and punched forward, forcing Tousen to block the punch with his blade, and as soon as the fist impacted his sword, his eyes bulged due to sliding back multiple meters.

‘What insane strength! I should focus on dodging rather than blocking.’

However, as these thoughts passed through his mind, Naruto had already appeared in front of him, forcing him to block yet another attack, causing him to groan as he slid backward.

‘It’s not just strength, but speed as well. This is bad, very bad. I need to kill him as soon as I can.’

Meanwhile, Naruto had slightly different thoughts as he was swinging his fists at Tousen.

‘Good, I’m getting used to it. Seriously, locating someone only using wind is a pain in the ass, but this is pretty good training. I hope he can keep this up a while longer~’

[If he heard your thoughts, he would probably start crying.]

‘Mah, in that case, he should man up.’

Just like that, the battle continued with Naruto chasing after Tousen using his wind while Tousen was frantically trying to attack Naruto, only resulting in his attack getting dodged or blocked.

‘Damn, he could already dodge my attack while being unable to perceive my position. Now that he actually knows where I am, he can easily block all my attacks. This is bad. Very bad.’

The battle continued as Naruto decided to heat up things a little, this time using wind blads to chase Tousen around the black dome he himself had created. Frankly, this was a horrible match-up for him since Naruto’s Bankai was focused on making him stronger, while Tousen focused on making the enemy weaker, which unfortunately didn’t work this time. Well, at least not by much, as Naruto still wasn’t that proficient in using wind to locate Tousen.

A few more minutes passed, and Tousen was currently kneeling on the ground, panting heavily as blood dripped on the ground from the multiple gashes on his body he received due to not blocking wind blades in time, while Naruto was towering over him, his hand leisurely crossed in front of his chest.

“Well, guess that’s that.”

Before Tousen could say anything, one of Naruto’s tails moved and snaked around Tousen’s neck and lifted him from the ground.

“Well, right about now would be a good chance to cancel your Bankai.”

Instead of doing what Naruto asked him to do, Tousen could help but get angry and slash his sword at him, leaving a small gash on Naruto’s face, causing Naruto to shake his head with a wry smile on his face.

“You are quite stubborn, huh?”

While Naruto spoke, the wound Tousen left on his cheek knit itself together like it wasn’t there in the first, utterly dumbfounding Tousen while causing Naruto to chuckle in amusement.

“Yup, pretty cheat-like, isn’t it~”

Before Tousen could comment further, a fist smashed into the side of his head, robbing him of his consciousness and canceling his Bankai.

Meanwhile, outside of Tousen’s Bankai, Tatsuki was looking at the black half-sphere in front of her with a bored expression on her face.

“Seriously, why do we have to meet the Captain with the least flashy Bankai? Or rather, why do we have to meet the one whose battles can’t be spectated? This is so boring~”

Hearing Tatsuki’s complaints, Shuhei couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement. His whole body was still hurting due to Tatsuki beating him up, but personally, he held no grudge against her. Why hold a grudge after something that was more or less a sparring match?

“Well, it can’t be helped. Besides, you don’t seem to be worried in the slightest. His Bankai might not be flashy, but he is still a Captain.”

“Meh, considering how confident Naruto was, I’m sure he’ll win.”

Moments later, as if he wanted to confirm Tatsuki’s words, the black sphere in front of her popped, revealing Naruto holding an unconscious Tousen by the neck with one of his tails while his arms were leisurely crossed in front of his chest.

“No way, it looks like Captain Tousen didn’t stand a chance at all. What kind of monster is he?”

Tatsuki, on the other hand, quickly walked toward Naruto with a happy expression on her face. Obviously, she was happy that her boyfriend had won the fight and even did so seemingly without a scratch on his body.

“Ohh! Well done, Naruto! Congratulations on your victory!”

“Haha, thanks!”

Seeing Tatsuki in a good mood, Naruto naturally was happy as well, as he gave Tatsuki a huge smile, causing her to blush a little. Obviously, Naruto noticed her blushing, causing him to smirk.

“Hehe, how about a little kiss as a victory present~”

Tatsuki blushed even harder when she heard Naruto’s teasing words, but despite her blushing, she leaned forward while puckering her lips, causing Naruto to smile.

He quickly tossed aside Tousen, like a toy he did no longer like to play with while disabling his Bankai and lightly raising Tatsuki’s chin with his hand before giving her a deep kiss.

Seeing Naruto and Tatsuki kissing, Shuhei’s face deadpanned as a spark of anger shot through his eyes.

‘Really!? REALLY!? First, the girlfriend beats me up, and then the boyfriend beats up my Captain, and after everything is done, they even start making out in front of me. They really want to piss me off, don’t they?’