Goddess of Ice: Corrupting Bleach - Chapter 44: Hinata vs Unohana

“”[Bankai]””

Two serene-sounding voices echoed throughout the underground training facility as two powerful Spiritual Pressures collided, causing the air to tremble.

One part of the cave was instantly flooded by crimson blood coloring everything red, while another part of the cave was flooded by an ocean of water, drowning everything with a thick layer of water that was mixing together with the blood.

“[Minazuki]”

“[Grand Ocean Domain]”

Two women stood opposite of each other, swords drawn. One had long black hair, a huge scar on her chest, and a deranged smile on her face, while the other had blue hair that now looked like flowing water and deep blue eyes. A thin film of water was currently covering her body while she wore a serene smile. Obviously, these two were Hinata and Retsu, who decided to have a little match, while simultaneously showing Ichigo what a Bankai could do.

Meanwhile, Rangiku, Yoruichi, Naruto, Tatsuki, and Ichigo were standing on the sidelines, watching the duo fight. Feeling the two powerful Spiritual Pressures colling, Ichigo couldn’t help but shudder a little.

“So this is a Bankai. What a terrific power.”

Hearing Ichigo’s words, Naruto chuckled in amusement while shaking his head.

“Not really. When you awaken your Bankai for the first time, it will be far from being this powerful. It takes a long time for a Bankai to reach this level of power.”

Ichigo simply nodded his head after Naruto stopped talking, but seconds later, his head snapped towards Naruto.

“Wait a moment! If that is the case, then why is Hinata’s Bankai so powerful!? No! When did she even learn to use it!?”

Seeing the utter confusion in Ichigo’s eyes, Naruto chuckled yet again before shrugging his shoulders.

“Well, I won’t spill Hinata’s secret, but let’s just say there is something special about her.”

Although Ichigo was far from satisfied with that answer, he decided to drop the matter. After all, he can’t expect Naruto to tell him Hinata’s secrets. That would simply be unreasonable.

“Oh well, I just hope Hinata doesn’t get hurt.”

“Mah, it’s just a little sparring match. No need to worry.”

Hearing Naruto’s assurance, Ichigo nodded his head and moved his gaze back to the fighting duo.

Neither of them had moved so far as they were still feeling each other out. However, a few seconds later, Hinata decided to make her first move as she slowly sunk into the water underneath her feet and seconds later, she was completely gone, preventing even Retsu from feeling her presence, causing her to frown.

“What outrageous stealth. Truly impressive.”

As soon as she finished praising Hinata, the water behind her moved, and a moment later, a water blade pierced into her back and came out of her stomach, splattering blood on the ground.

Seeing Hinata actually impaling Retsu, Ichigo’s eyes widened in shock.

“Oioi, didn’t you say it’s just a friendly match, Naruto? What the hell is Hinata doing?”

However, Naruto didn’t answer him and simply pointed at Retsu. Although there was a hint of surprise on her face, she clearly wasn’t bothered by her wound as she simply removed the blade from her body by walking forward, and as soon as the blade was no longer stabbed inside her body, the whole closed instantly as if it was never there.

“Seriously!? She heals just like that!?”

“Well, she isn’t Seireitei’s best healer for nothing. A wound like that is nothing for her, and Hinata knows that.”

While Naruto and Ichigo were talking, Yoruichi was dumbfounded that Hinata could actually sneak up on Retsu and even land a hit. Tatsuki was equally dumbfounded, but for other reasons. She couldn’t fathom how Hinata could so easily stab another person, and finally, Rangiku was simply watching the show with interest and curiosity.

Back at Hinata and Retsu, another water sword shot out of the ground from behind Retsu, but this time, a thin layer of blood delayed the attack briefly, allowing Retsu to swing her sword at the source of the blade, sending a bloody slash at the water.

Seconds later, Hinata emerged from the water around ten meters away from Retsu with a dissatisfied expression.

“As expected, when the first assassination doesn’t work out, chances are low for the second one to succeed. That ridiculous healing power really has bad compatibility with my preferred style.”

As she finished speaking, she glanced at her sleeve, which had a small cut in it, causing her frown to deepen.

‘This won’t be easy at all.’

“Oh? I knew you weren’t someone that likes fighting head-on, but surely you are not giving up yet, are you?”

“Nah, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

As soon as Hinata finished speaking, ten orbs of water formed behind Hinata and started hovering in the air.

“[Water Arts: Ten Planet Formation]”

Retsu briefly looked at the ten orbs of water floating behind Hinata, but before she could find out their purpose, she slightly tilted her head, dodging a laser-like water beam that just shot out of one of the planets, leaving a small gash on her cheek that healed instantly.

“I see. This is quite troubling.”

“Despite her seemingly worried words, a crazy smile appeared on Retsu’s face as she charged at Hinata, her sword swinging like crazy, forming a bloody dome around her.

As soon as Retsu started running, the ten planets started blasting water beams at her. Although most of them were repelled by the blood around her and her sword, but a few still managed to graze her, resulting in gashes appearing all over her body which healed instantly.

Moments later, Retsu arrived in front of Hinata and slashed her blood-covered sword at her, forcing Hinata to block the strike, causing her knees to buckle lightly. Physically, Retsu was stronger than her.

The collision of two blades caused a shockwave, resulting in the water-blood mixture they were standing on getting blasted away. However, despite the “ground” they were standing on destabilizing, neither of them lost their balance as both of them were extremely skilled fighters.

Again and again, the duo clashed as sword met sword, while Hinata’s water beams were mostly blocked by Retsu’s blood, only occasionally leaving a few scratches, which healed instantly.

The duo continued clashing like that for multiple minutes before both of them slid away from each other due to an especially strong clash, allowing both of them to take a few deep breaths.

Unlike Retsu, whose wounds healed instantly, there were a few bloody cuts on Hinata’s body due to her having to compensate for Retsu’s greater physical strength. Although it looked like Retsu had the upper hand, due to having no wounds on her body, Hinata had noticed that the speed at which her wounds healed had slowed down a little. They were no longer healed instantly and took around a second or two to heal now. Clearly, if they continued fighting, Retsu would, at some point, stop healing.

However, instantly of continuing to fight, Retsu shook her head and sheathed her sword, causing all the blood covering the cave to vanish.

“This fight is not to my taste. I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy fighting you, but it simply doesn’t feel proper. If I couldn’t heal myself, I would have lost the moment the fight started.”

Hearing Retsu’s words, Hinata put away her sword as well, resulting in the water vanishing, and shrugged her shoulders.

“Probably. But if we were to continue fighting, I would assumably lose in the end. What was it again? Luck is a skill in itself.”

“Luck is a skill in itself? Somehow I don’t like that saying. Where does it come from?”

Hinata simply shrugged her shoulders with a wry smile on her face after Retsu asked her question.

“Yuna like saying stuff like that.”

“She does? How weird.”

“Hee. You haven’t even heard the bad ones. ‘Luck is a skill in itself’ can still be considered as understandable. Trust me, Yuna has a LOT of worse ones in her repertoire.”

While Retsu was slightly appalled due to Hinata’s words, Ichigo couldn’t help but be awed by what he had just witnessed. This was the highest-level fight he had ever seen, and he couldn’t help but feel a little excited about reaching that level of power. Obviously, he still had Naruto’s words that just getting his Bankai wouldn’t be enough to become that strong; he was still looking forward to being able to activate his Bankai.

Similar to Ichigo, Tatsuki was excited about what she had just witnessed as well. Although she wasn’t a Shinigami, which she felt would limit her growth, Naruto had assured her that what she had just witnessed was not a level of power she couldn’t reach.

‘That was so awesome. I can’t wait to have that kind of exciting fight!’

Yoruichi, on the other hand, had completely different thoughts, as she knew more about the current situation than the other people in the room.

‘How incredible. To think that young woman was such a monster. Shit, I can’t read the situation anymore. What will happen to Aizen’s plan? The reason that we didn’t make a move on Aizen and allowed him to do what he wanted was that we had no one who could fight him since every strong fighter had seen his Zanpakuto’s release, bringing them under Aizen’s illusions.

However, can’t we just send Hinata after him and end this whole mess before it even starts? She clearly considers herself to be an assassin, so isn’t this perfect? Since Captain Unohana can be ‘killed’ without her being able to resist, shouldn’t the same be possible for Aizen? Shit, I really need a method to contact Kisuke. That shrewd merchant surely has more plans regarding Aizen that I’m not even aware of, and I would rather not ruin whatever he wants to do.’

Just like Yoruichi, Rangiku had pretty different thoughts from everyone else as well, as she casually sipped from the steaming cup filled with brown liquid she was holding.

‘Yup, that was fun to watch~’ Mhh~ I think I’ll add a little more rum~’

And finally, Naruto was rather casual about this whole matter.

‘As expected, those two fighting styles aren’t really compatible. Hinata prefers ending fights in a single strike, while Retsu even went so far as to perfect her healing technique to extend the duration of her fights.’

While all that was happening, Ishida decided not to spectate the fight between Hinata and Retsu and stayed in the ice house Yuna had created. He had lost most of his power, and he felt like watching two powerhouses using Bankai fight wouldn’t be healthy for him. Obviously, he could ask someone to protect him from the overwhelming Spiritual Pressure while he was watching, but that was below his pride.

A few more hours passed, and surprisingly, another person found his way inside the hidden underground cave. It was Renji, who Ichigo had barely defeated a while ago. Due to being somehow familiar with Ichigo’s Spiritual Pressure by now, he had managed to feel his presence as he was training to unlock his Bankai, allowing Renji to find this place.

As he was walking towards the familiar Spiritual Pressure, a pair of deep blue eyes appeared behind him as two hands moved towards his body; one holding up his head from behind while the other was pressing a blade to his neck.

“Who are you, and what do you want?”

A female, calm and serene voice echoed into Renji’s ear, causing him to shiver in utter terror. He did not know who this unknown person was nor how she had appeared behind him, but considering how easily she managed to sneak up on him, she was, at the very least, at the level of a strong Captain. Well, at least in regards to her stealth.

“I-I had fought Ichigo before and became somewhat familiar with his Spiritual Pressure, which allowed me to find this place. Since Ichigo is blatantly oozing his Spiritual Pressure, I assumed this was a safe location that I could use for training purposes.”

Hearing Renji’s explanation, his captor’s hostility dimmed slightly but was still far from getting extinguished.

“I see; that’s how you found this place, but considering you fought him before, aren’t you Ichigo’s enemy?”

“I WAS his enemy. Now I share his goal and want to save Rukia. Since she is from a noble clan, I captured her, assuming she would receive a much lighter sentence, but for some reason, her clan didn’t do anything and just ignored that one of them would be executed soon. Hell, Rukia’s big brother is the head of the clan, so why the hell should I assume that she will be executed after returning back to Seireitei!? Rukia is my friend, and I don’t want her to die!”

Hearing the deep emotions in Renji’s outburst, his captor paused for a moment before removing her sword from his throat.

“Very well, I believe you. The name’s Hinata, by the way.”

Renji sighed in relief when the sword was removed from his neck, and he couldn’t help but brush over the corresponding place with his hand, wondering if there was some blood. Yet again, he sighed in relief when he saw no blood and decided to introduce himself.

“Renji Abarai, Lieutenant of the 6th Division… Although I’m not sure if I’ll keep that rank after this mess is over.”

Hinata simply nodded her head after Renji finished his introduction and motioned him to follow her, and moments later, they reached the place where Ichigo was currently fighting Zangetsu.

However, Renji’s eyes only briefly rested on Ichigo as his gaze was drawn to a group of multiple women and a single man sitting around a table, drinking an unknown steaming liquid. Or rather, his gaze was drawn to one of them.

“C-Captain Unohana!?”

Hearing someone calling her name, Retsu’s gaze landed on the source of the call and immediately noticed and recognized Renji, causing her to give him a motherly smile that scared the shit out of Renji.

‘Holy hell, that smile is something else. Although it feels look like a kind smile, it felt like a demon had just smiled at me. Why in the world is she so scary? Isn’t she just a kind healer? Whatever. Although I don’t know why she is here and hasn’t reported anything about this whole situation, I’ll just keep my mouth shut and pretend I’m blind and deaf. I feel like that’s the safest option.’

Seeing that Renji had apparently understood her “kind smile”, Retsu nodded in approval and redirected her gaze back to the desperately struggling Ichigo.

‘This boy has a lot of potential. It has only been slightly more than two days, and his fighting style has evolved to a significant decree. If he continues growing like that, he should be a fun opponent.’

As these thoughts passed her mind, she licked her lips in anticipation, causing a chill to go down Ichigo’s spine, resulting in another gash appearing on his body.

‘Shit, what was that? Why did I suddenly feel a chill?’

While Ichigo continued struggling, Rangiku had noticed Renji as well, resulting in her smiling brightly.

“Oh. So you found this place as well, Renji. It’s been a while; good to see you again.”

As Rangiku was greeting Renji with enthusiasm, she moved her upper body, causing her boobs to move, resulting in Renji blushing a little.

‘Damnit, I really wish she could stop with these attacks… What am I talking about? I obviously want her to continue acting like that. I’m a man as well!’

“Lieutenant Matsumoto, it’s good to see you again. Everyone was worried when you suddenly vanished while patrolling the city with Lieutenant Kira. Since he claimed that he was knocked out instantly without seeing the attacker, no one knew what they were supposed to do with the situation.”

As Rangiku and Renji were chatting, Yoruichi approached Renji as she still somewhat considered herself to be the leader of this little group.

“Anyway, all the chatting aside, why are you here?”

Feeling that the atmosphere suddenly got serious, Renji straightened his back as his Spiritual Power started moving, resulting in a bamboo with a snake for a tail appearing next to him.

“I need a location where I can safely master my Bankai. Currently, I’m seen as a criminal within Seireitei, so doing it anywhere else won’t cut it. Frankly, I’m very close to reaching my goal, but I just need a little more time. Just in case you are wondering, I also desire to save Rukia now.”

For a few seconds, Yoruichi didn’t say anything and only let her gaze wander all over Renji, making him rather nervous. However, after letting him squirm from her gaze for around a minute, she concluded that Renji was serious and nodded her head.

“Very well. I’ll allow you to use this place until you have unlocked your Bankai. As long as you don’t make any trouble, I guarantee your saf…”

“DON’T DO IT!!!”

Before Yoruichi could finish speaking, a tall young man wearing glasses came frantically running at Renji, causing him to consider drawing his weapon. However, since he didn’t feel any hostility, Renji decided not to do so.

Moments later, the man reached Renji and put his hands on his shoulders while looking at Renji with bloodshot eyes.

“Listen well, newcomer: Do not be tempted by the steam! AVOID THE STEAM, FOR WHAT IS INSIDE IT IS NOT FOR MORTAL EYES TO SEE!!!”

Realizing that the person in front of him was either some kind of fanatic or had gone crazy, Renji threw a questioning glare at Yoruichi. After all, she was just about to guarantee his safety when a crazy person suddenly appeared.

However, instead of commenting in the slightest, Yoruichi simply averted her gaze and continued watching Ichigo fight, pretending that Renji wasn’t even here, causing him to grit his teeth.

‘Whatever. I’ll just unlock my Bankai and get out of here. I have no idea what all these people are doing here, and I don’t want to know either. The less I know, the better.’