"Cough, cough, cough!!!"
Cole hurriedly forced out a few loud coughs, finally cutting off whatever Unohana had been about to say next.
But Rukia had already heard part of it. Her gaze turned dangerously cold as she looked at Cole beside her and ground out through clenched teeth,
"If you win… what were you going to do to Captain Unohana?"
"N–nothing, just… just a little punishment game, like… like, uh, making her do frog jumps in place with her hands up or something…"
Sweat poured down Cole's back as he frantically ransacked his brain for ideas.
He thought of the "games" he'd played with Unohana before, and felt that if he spilled those details, Rukia would absolutely explode on the spot.
Seeing how troubled he looked, Unohana couldn't help covering her mouth and laughing softly.
In the end, he was still just a kid.
Even lying took him ages to piece together.
Cole caught Unohana's stifled laughter out of the corner of his eye and glared at her fiercely.
"Hana-nee, if you laugh one more time, I swear I'll make you cry and beg for mercy later. This time I won't hold back."
Unohana's face flushed a lovely red, but her eyes burned hotter than ever. She couldn't suppress the spiritual pressure that burst out of her as she said,
"All right then—let's kill each other!!"
Seeing how much stronger Cole had grown, watching him display that swordsmanship, she could no longer restrain the urge to fight.
She craved pain.
She craved blood.
She craved the bliss that came with slaughter.
And what would happen afterwards was even more intoxicating to imagine.
Watching the two of them flirting like this, Rukia was about ready to go insane. She snapped,
"Cole, do you want to team up with me?"
Cole's head was pounding.
He still needed to go and absorb spiritual power. After that, he had to head to the World of the Living to support the Shinigami there.
Where was he supposed to find the time to fool around with these two?
Especially with Unohana. Once she released her zanpakuto Minazuki into bankai, they could stand there hacking away in that blood pool for two or three hours at least.
And she was a hardcore masochist on top of that.
The more you beat her, the more excited she got.
Just as Cole was about to refuse, Unohana had already finished her preparations to attack.
"Cole-kun…"
"Teikai (Calm the Sea)!"
Cole suddenly spoke, slamming his golden staff into the ground. Invisible suppressive force instantly pinned Unohana in place.
She felt her body grow heavy. Before she could even speak, darkness crept into her vision and swallowed her whole.
Cradling the limp Unohana in his arms, Cole looked over at the stunned Rukia and sighed helplessly.
"What are you spacing out for? Let's go."
Once Unohana's desire to kill flared up, she went completely yandere and deranged. The only way to vent it was to have a proper fight.
The problem was that they didn't have the time right now.
So he could only resort to this stopgap method—carry Unohana away and deal with it later.
As for what to do after that…
He believed the considerate big-sister type would understand him.
Rukia snapped out of it, snorted softly, but there was a smile on her face as she followed after Cole with a little satisfied squint.
The three of them returned to where they'd been before.
Cole stretched out his hand toward the white desert in front of them and chanted,
"Bakudo #75: Gochutekkan (Five-Pillared Iron Pillars)!"
"Bakudo #73: Tozansho (Inverted Mountain Crystal)!"
"Bakudo #37: Tsuriboshi (Hanging Star)!"
Three binding kido fired off in rapid succession.
First, five stone pillars bound together by iron chains dropped out of the sky. Then a massive inverted triangular space formed.
Finally, a blue "hammock" of spiritual energy appeared within that space.
Cole stepped into the space and gently laid the sleeping Unohana down on the hammock.
Rukia was speechless.
"Cole, using high-tier kido as a rest lounge… I'm pretty sure only you would do something like this."
While Bakudo spells were meant to restrain, their training difficulty was even higher than destructive kido.
Using high-level Bakudo as a bed to rest on…
Was like using an anti-air cannon to shoot at mosquitoes.
Total overkill.
Cole stepped back out of the barrier and grinned.
"Kido is meant to be used like this. That way it's more comfortable when you rest."
Not far away,
Yachiru and Nel, who had been playing together, were staring at the blue hammock with shining eyes.
They could tell just by looking that the hammock must be incredibly springy.
Perfect for jumping around on.
So Yachiru hopped over with a thump and landed on Cole's left shoulder, giving him a pitiful look.
"Cole, Ken-chan's wounds are really serious too, he needs a hammock to rest on…"
"Huh!?"
Cole looked over speechlessly at Kenpachi in the distance.
The guy was stretched out snoring on a sand dune, with basically zero medical treatment. And yet, purely by relying on his monstrous physiology, he had forcibly stopped his wounds from worsening.
Judging from that alone—
He'd probably be fully healed within three days at most.
What did he need a hammock for?
Seeing that Cole wasn't going to agree, Yachiru puffed up her cheeks angrily and bit him.
"Cole, you big meanie! And here I was thinking Vice-Captain Matsumoto had such a great body and planning to put in a good word for you in front of her…"
"I don't need that!"
"Stop talking nonsense!"
With veins popping on his forehead, Cole grabbed the scruff of Yachiru's collar and lightly tossed her onto Kenpachi's belly.
Let Yachiru help him "build his reputation"?
Had he lost his mind?
At the side, Nel was still staring at the blue hammock. She suddenly seemed to recall something, her eyes lighting up in surprise.
"Nel remembers! A little while ago, Cole was on that bed, bullying—"
"Mmm-mmm-mmm…"
Cole hurriedly covered her mouth and, with a flick of his fingers, popped off two more Tsuriboshi (Hanging Star) kido, forming twin blue nets in the air.
"Don't say weird things. Look, I built you two a new toy. You can stay here and play with it as long as you want."
With a brand new toy in front of them, Nel and Yachiru immediately got excited.
The two of them leapt straight onto the blue hammock and started bouncing up and down.
Seeing them finally shut their mouths, Cole let out a long breath of relief.
He quickly grabbed Rukia and took her over to another barrier.
This was a large formation designed to absorb spiritual power.
After the absorption and compression from earlier, the interior of the formation was crammed full of spiritual energy, compressed to the point it was nearly tangible.
Cole couldn't help swallowing.
He had a strange feeling—that once he absorbed all of this spiritual power, his zanpakuto would definitely be able to reach full release.
With that thought, he took a deep breath and strode into the barrier.
The compressed reiryoku surged over his body like a tidal wave.
The attributes of his zanpakuto climbed in a straight line.
When they hit a certain threshold, Cole couldn't hold back a sharp breath.
"It worked!?"
In his mind, it was as if some inborn message had awakened.
He suddenly knew the true name of his zanpakuto in its bankai state.
And as long as he knew that true name, he could unleash a Shinigami's ultimate trump card—bankai.
"I finally got bankai. That was not easy!"
Cole was so excited he could barely contain himself.
Stepping out of the now-drained barrier, he swung his golden staff down and tapped it lightly against the white desert.
"BOOM!!!"
A huge crater exploded out of the sand.
The surrounding yellow sand rose like a tsunami, crashing heavily down on the ground all around.
And this was just his shikai (Initial Release), not bankai.
The power of bankai was far greater than this.
Rukia was excited too, and she couldn't help looking at Cole with sparkling eyes.
"Cole, what's its ability?"
Although a Shinigami's bankai was supposed to be their deepest secret, she felt that Cole didn't really care about hiding the abilities of his zanpakuto.
Cole's lips curled up. He slipped an arm around Rukia's waist and lifted her, placing both of their feet atop the golden staff.
With a thought…
The golden staff rose against the wind.
Just like that, Cole and Rukia stood serenely in the sky, like exiled immortals walking on clouds.
Cole reached out and trailed his hand through a tuft of cloud, smiling.
"This is one of its abilities. It lets me stand on my zanpakuto and fly freely. I can go thousands of meters up. How is it? Pretty nice, right?"
Rukia nodded, intoxicated.
Flying on an object like this and just walking on air with hoho were completely different things. The former felt dozens of times more comfortable than the latter.
"What about the other abilities?"
Rukia looked at Cole eagerly. She couldn't wait to find out the true power of the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Were all of its abilities this pleasant to experience?
Cole smiled, lifted the golden staff, and pointed it toward the distant white desert.
"Watch closely. Don't blink."
"Bankai!"
"Teikai Shinjin (Sea-Calming Divine Needle)!"
In an instant, a violent suppressive force descended from above like the weight of the heavens themselves, making the entire white desert boil.
The white sands that hadn't changed in thousands of years…
Now surged up into a white sand tsunami nearly a thousand meters high.
Everything within several kilometers was turned to wasteland.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For 20+ Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!]
[[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]