Fourth Division barracks, office.
Today was my first day in the division, and right now we were in the middle of the induction ceremony.
The room was laid with tatami.
Captain Unohana and the lieutenant were seated at the head of the room, while the rest of us new recruits sat below them.
Once she confirmed that everyone was present, Captain Unohana began to speak.
“First of all, welcome to the Fourth Division, everyone.
I sincerely welcome each and every one of you.”
Her gentle smile looked perfectly calm.
If that were all you saw, you’d naturally think, Ah, of course.
This is exactly what you’d expect from the captain of the Fourth Division.
“As you all know, the Fourth Division’s main duties are medical relief and rear support for Soul Reapers from the other divisions.
Because of that, our work is somewhat removed from what people usually imagine when they think of a ‘Soul Reaper’.”
A division that heals people and supports the organisation as a whole.
That sounds good when you put it like that, but from what I knew and everything I’d seen and heard, the Fourth Division’s standing was pretty low.
People tended to look down on it.
Still, no captain was going to tell a room full of new recruits that on their very first day.
“But that makes our role no less important.
We keep support running smoothly so that members of the other divisions can fight.
In a sense, you could even say that ours is one of the most important jobs in the entire Gotei 13.
I want all of you to keep that firmly in mind as you carry out your duties each day.”
That was a clever way of putting it.
Say it like that and, yes, the Fourth Division really did sound important.
Apparently, though, most people assigned here fell into one of two groups: those who had wanted the Fourth Division from the beginning, and those who had failed to get into another division and ended up here because they had nowhere else to go.
The first group was one thing.
The second, apparently, tended to do the bare minimum and then apply for a transfer elsewhere—in other words, treating the Fourth Division as nothing more than a stepping stone.
…Even someone like me, fresh out of the Academy, knew all that.
I wonder what Captain Unohana, the person at the very top of the division, thought about it.
“Thank you, Captain.
That concludes the induction ceremony.
If any of you have questions, we’ll take them now.
Otherwise, we’ll begin explaining your duties straight away—”
“May I ask something?”
Just as the lieutenant was trying to bring things to a close, I slowly raised my hand.
“Hmm.
You are…”
“My name is Yukawa Airi.
And my question is—would it be possible for me to receive combat training?”
“Hm?”
The lieutenant furrowed their brow, clearly not understanding what I meant.
Well, fair enough.
I wasn’t even sure whether this was the right place to ask.
“Combat training is already required as part of every Fourth Division member’s duties, though naturally we do it less often than the other divisions…?”
“No, that’s not quite what I meant…
I phrased that badly.
Let me correct myself.
What I mean is, would it be possible for Captain Unohana herself to teach me swordsmanship directly?”
“…!”
For the briefest instant, Captain Unohana’s eyebrow shifted.
Until then, she’d worn that perfect smile like an iron mask, so the tiny flicker of surprise stood out all the more.
The lieutenant, on the other hand, only looked even more confused.
“I understand why you might want to learn from the captain herself, but the captain is an extremely busy person, and—”
“Very well.”
Captain Unohana cut straight through the lieutenant’s attempt to politely tell me not to push my luck.
“—Huh!?
C-Captain!?
But that’s…”
“I would like to speak with her for a moment.
Please take the other new recruits with you and begin explaining their duties ahead of us.”
“B-But…!”
The lieutenant still tried to protest.
Captain Unohana kept smiling.
“I said, please.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!!”
…Scary.
Her expression never stopped smiling, but there was an almost terrifying pressure behind it, the sort that didn’t leave room for anyone to argue.
It wasn’t quite spiritual pressure.
It was something more instinctive than that.
Like a frog frozen beneath a snake’s stare.
Before long, the lieutenant and the other recruits filed out of the room, leaving just Captain Unohana and me behind.
One-on-one…
O-Okay.
This is…
kind of nerve-racking.
“Now then…
Yukawa, wasn’t it?”
“Y-Yes.”
“I’ll ask you only once.
When you said you wanted to train directly under me…
do you truly understand what those words mean?
I can still pretend I never heard them.
Are you genuinely prepared for what you’re asking?”
“…!”
The next instant, an oppressive force crashed down on me so heavily that breathing itself became difficult.
No.
This wasn’t my imagination.
There was actual weight pressing down on my body.
Captain Unohana’s spiritual pressure.
And it was so intense that it carried physical force with it, powerful enough to pin someone in place and refuse them even the freedom to move.
I-I can’t breathe…
I’m just sitting here, and I’m already starting to feel sick…
“I…
I want to save more of my comrades…
more lives…
That’s why I want you to train me, Captain…”
“What a strange thing to say.
If all you want is to save people, there is no need to ask me to teach you.
There are any number of ways to save lives.
Simply improving your Kaidō here in the Fourth Division would be enough to fulfil that wish, wouldn’t it?”
Th-That’s probably true…
But.
But that’s not enough!!
“That alone…
isn’t enough…!
If there’s an injured person behind the enemy, I can’t go and save them…
That’s why I want to become stronger!!”
“Oh?”
The corners of Captain Unohana’s mouth lifted ever so slightly.
“No.
It’s not just that!
If I can, I want to save people who were my enemies too…
Even Harribel or Bambietta, if they were standing against me, I still wouldn’t want to kill them…
If we talked, I’m sure we could understand each other…
I’m sure I could reach out a hand to save them—and squeeze those boobs while I’m at it…
That’s what I want to believe!
And for that, I need strength!!”
The moment I finished, the spiritual pressure weighing down my entire body vanished.
Freed from the unbearable tension, sweat burst out all over me.
“Haa…
Haa…”
“I see.
I understand your feelings, at least to a certain extent.”
She’d stopped pressuring me.
Did that mean I’d passed this part, at least?
No good…
My head felt starved of oxygen.
I couldn’t think properly at all.
“However, reality is not so kind that such ideals will always work.
For example…
what would you do if an enemy whose life you had saved told you, ‘Kill me.
If you won’t, I’ll take my own life’?”
“If that happened—”
Suicide…?
If they were absolutely determined to kill themselves, then…?
“—Then do it somewhere I can’t see you.
Use a method that would already be too late by the time I got there.”
“…I see.
Very well.”
Had that answer satisfied her?
Captain Unohana rose smoothly to her feet and started towards the door.
“In your current state, you won’t be fit for work.
Rest a little longer, then report to the Coordinated Relief Station.
Join the other new recruits there and learn the Fourth Division’s duties.
I’ll inform them myself.”
“Yes…”
Maybe she was taking pity on me because I still hadn’t got my breathing under control.
But…
judging from the way this was going, had I failed?
“Oh, and one more thing—”
She stopped just before leaving the office and looked back as though she’d only just remembered.
“—About your request for training.
Very well.
I’m not a woman with much free time, so it will be irregular, and for now it will only be provisional.”
“R-Really!?”
“Yes.
Of course.
Until then, learn your Fourth Division duties properly.
And retrain yourself thoroughly in Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō and Kidō.”
With that, Captain Unohana finally left the room.
Thank goodness…
Looks like I passed after all.
Still…
“All I asked was for the captain to teach me swordsmanship.
Why did that turn into such a huge ordeal…?”
I muttered to the empty room, not really speaking to anyone.
And what was this horrible chill crawling down my spine…?
Unohana walked through the corridors of the barracks in an unusually good mood.
The reason hardly needed explaining.
It was because of the exchange she’d just had with Airi.
—I want to save my allies even if they’re behind the enemy.
I want to save even my enemies.
And if you think you can die, then go ahead and try…
Unohana replayed what she’d heard in her mind.
Now, Unohana held the position of captain of the Fourth Division.
She was the person responsible for the healing branch, a master of Kaidō who supported the other divisions.
But her true nature stood at the complete opposite end of that role.
The first captain of the Eleventh Division.
The original Kenpachi.
Unohana Yachiru.
That was her true self.
She had taken the name Yachiru out of pride in having brought countless schools and styles of swordsmanship under her command.
Even learning Kaidō had been nothing more than a way to heal herself so that she could continue enjoying battle forever.
As stated before, the Fourth Division specialised in healing.
Its members still trained, of course, but compared with the other divisions, their combat skill tended to be lower.
If someone truly wanted to grow stronger, the natural thing would be to ask for something else.
Permission to join another division’s combat training, for example.
Normally, no one would ask Unohana herself to teach them the sword.
And if someone did make such a request, there was only one obvious conclusion.
They knew about her past.
They knew that the calm Fourth Division captain had once been a criminal without equal in Soul Society’s history, and they were still asking the original Kenpachi to teach them how to fight.
Unohana had asked Airi whether she understood what that meant.
She had slammed the girl with enough spiritual pressure to make it entirely unsurprising if a rookie Soul Reaper lost consciousness on the spot, testing her intent and resolve.
Yet even while being crushed beneath it, Airi had still managed to roar back.
—If an enemy stands between me and an injured ally, I’ll beat them down if that’s what it takes to save my comrade.
And she’d gone even further.
—I want to save my enemies too.
And if someone tries to kill themselves, I’ll tell them, “Then die somewhere I can’t see you, in a way I can’t possibly reach in time.”
Put another way, it was practically a declaration:
As long as I can see you, I won’t let you die, no matter what I have to do.
I’ll keep improving as a member of the Fourth Division until I can deal with anything that happens.
If you think you can still manage to die against someone like me, then go ahead and try.
And she’d said all of that to Unohana.
Thinking that far, Unohana once again recalled Yukawa Airi.
Her grades at the Academy had been average.
Kidō and Hohō were her stronger areas, but even those were nothing especially remarkable.
Her actual skill was ordinary.
And yet, even when Unohana had driven spiritual pressure directly into her, she had refused to yield.
That alone showed that the spiritual power lying dormant inside her was far greater than that of an average Soul Reaper, and that her body was far stronger than that of a mediocre seated officer.
—Perhaps she might grow into someone capable of granting my wish…
my desire.
If so, perhaps she’s worth the gamble.
Unohana returned the greeting of a passing squad member while repeating that decision to herself.
Someone who was merely excellent on paper would probably be unable to endure Unohana’s training.
Unable to endure the sword of the first Kenpachi.
If that was the case, then perhaps someone like Airi—ordinary grades and all—had a much better chance.
There was no need to rush.
Time was something Unohana had plenty of.
All Airi needed to do was keep following her training without breaking in spirit or losing her life.
And if she failed…
Then she failed.
In the grand scheme of the Soul Reapers as a whole, one squad member dying was hardly an unusual occurrence.
Author’s Notes
● Captain Unohana — About the Yachiru Era
It’s unclear exactly when she fought Kenpachi Zaraki as a boy.
I think it’s probably safe to say it happened while Unohana was captain of the Eleventh Division.
My guess is that it was sometime after a thousand years ago.
(If it had been a thousand years ago, I feel like young Kenpachi would’ve gone and challenged His Majesty.
On top of that, my personal theory is that seeing His Majesty fight the Head Captain stirred up Unohana’s lust for battle, so she went on a rampage in the outer reaches of Rukon District—and that’s where she met young Kenpachi.)
I’m assuming she’d already learned Kaidō from Kirinji long before this.
(She’d probably already had the desire to keep fighting forever.)
After losing to young Kenpachi, she changed her hairstyle to hide the scar on her chest.
She left the Eleventh Division and moved to the Fourth Division, partly as a form of self-punishment.
I also think this was when she changed her name.
(Take the written characters for ‘sword’ and ‘eight’, break them apart and recombine them → rename herself Retsu.)
I’m treating that as having happened roughly nine hundred years ago.
That’s the understanding I’m using as I write this.
Because there isn’t a proper timeline!
The original story doesn’t tell us what year named characters did things—when they joined, when they became captains, that sort of thing.