The Supre Commander honestly had a headache.
Not because he didn’t want to hand down harsher punishnt.
Because... who exactly was going to enforce it?
Was Kurosawa Kenpachi the type to quietly sit in a prison cell?
Absolutely not.
If they tried to lock him up, they would need the deepest high-security prison in the entire shinobi system. And even then, success wasn’t guaranteed.
And if Kenpachi was imprisoned?
Would he still remain Squad Eleven’s captain afterward?
Or would Squad Eleven riot?
Or worse, fracture off entirely?
Every outco was a strategic nightmare.
Then there was Fujimoto Tōma.
Even worse.
The Commander already knew about Tōma sparring with Takeda Retsu inside the maximum-security underground prison training sector. A place almost nobody was allowed to enter without direct authorization.
He’d asked Retsu about Tōma afterward.
Her answer had been simple.
"Free-spirited. Dislikes bureaucracy. Don’t provoke him. If he gets angry... no one can predict what he’ll do."
And if the First Kenpachi trusted her judgnt...
Then yes. Headache.
If handled badly, the village might suddenly gain two catastrophic-level enemies.
So docking their pay was... diplomacy disguised as discipline.
And honestly?
It worked.
Tōma didn’t care about money.
Vice-captain pay was already generous. And the Corps’ financial system synced with civilian currency anyway. If he visited civilian cities, his card worked normally.
But Tōma barely spent anything.
Sotis gas.
Sotis food.
Worst case? He could just borrow money from Retsu. She barely touched her salary anyway.
As for Kenpachi?
Money was aningless.
Could you fight it? No? Then who cared?
So the punishnt stood.
—
Around the battlefield ruins, captains were still processing what they’d witnessed.
Kenpachi losing wasn’t just rare.
It was almost... unthinkable.
Even among captains, Kenpachi ranked near the top in raw combat power.
And he’d lost.
Even Aizen, who had always rated Tōma highly, looked surprised.
He had assud Tōma was high potential.
Not already this dangerous.
But as Aizen looked over the destroyed Squad Eleven compound...
Sothing flickered in his eyes.
A small smile.
Then he nodded politely to Tōma and left with the other captains.
Tōma watched him go.
...You definitely just found sothing interesting.
But what?
He couldn’t tell.
He nodded once toward Kenpachi and left.
Behind him, Kenpachi grinned like soone who had just discovered a new universe.
Yeah. He’d lost.
But now he had a mountain to climb.
Before, he’d wandered the battlefield world looking for soone worth fighting.
Now?
He was the challenger.
And for soone like him... that was perfect.
Behind him, Squad Eleven mbers exchanged looks.
Training ground destroyed? Fine.
Captain happy? Good.
That was enough.
—
"You spacing out?" Ikkaku smacked Renji upside the head.
Renji rubbed his skull like it was a greeting ritual.
"You know Tōma and I entered the Academy the sa year, right?"
"Yeah," Ikkaku said, smirking. "Difference is... kinda brutal."
"I didn’t even realize how strong he was," Renji said quietly.
He rembered sparring Tōma back then.
Every match had been instant defeat.
Now he realized...
Tōma had never used full strength.
Not even close.
Then Renji rembered a field training incident.
Back then... Tōma probably could’ve handled those wraiths solo.
He just... didn’t.
Didn’t want early graduation maybe?
Renji sighed.
"I wanted to catch up to him."
"You still can," Ikkaku said.
Renji blinked.
"If you give up chasing just because soone’s ahead... that’s the real loss."
Renji stared at him.
Then nodded hard.
"...Yeah. Got it."
—
From that day on, Tōma’s na spread across the entire Shinobi Defense Corps.
If anyone hadn’t known him before...
They did now.
And everyone asked the sa question.
If he was this strong...
Why was he still Vice-Captain of dical Corps?
Squad Three’s captain seat was still open.
The truth?
The Commander had considered it.
But promotions required willingness.
Forcing Tōma into command while he ignored paperwork might actually be worse than leaving the seat empty.
So the idea was quietly shelved.
—
anwhile...
Squad Eleven headquarters needed rebuilding.
Which ant...
dical Corps logistics division.
Normally, they would complain about workload.
Not this ti.
They walked into the ruins like heroes returning from war.
Because their vice-captain had done this.
Their vice-captain beat a frontline combat captain.
That was borderline mythological to them.
And the ripple effects were imdiate.
Combat drive inside dical Corps skyrocketed.
Recruitnt shifted too. So combat specialists started trying to join dical Corps.
This gave Takeda Retsu a migraine.
She was forced to add actual entry requirents.
dical track required advanced dical ninjutsu.
Logistics required trade skills. Or brute strength.
—
"You caused a logistical nightmare," Retsu said calmly one afternoon, arranging flowers.
"Couldn’t you and Kenpachi just fight in the underground training zone?"
"I don’t have access clearance," Tōma said.
Retsu paused.
"...Right."
"I’ll request clearance for you," she said.
"That would help. I’d rather not turn the village into rubble every ti."
She set the flowers down.
"How was fighting Kenpachi?"
Tōma thought.
"...Weak."
Silence.
But she couldn’t actually argue.
Similar raw strength.
Better chakra pressure control.
Far superior blade technique.
Kenpachi was simply a terrible matchup against Tōma.
Unless he changed.
"Though..." Tōma added.
Retsu’s eyes sharpened instantly.
"I think I figured sothing out about his limiter."
"Tell ."
"After my final strike seriously injured him... he got stronger."
"Stronger how?"
"Total chakra volu didn’t change. But compression and killing pressure increased."
Retsu’s eyes widened.
"So pushing him near death... forces him to break his own ntal limiter?"
"Probably."
She went silent.
Because before now... Kenpachi never had opponents strong enough to push him there.
Then she thought of sothing else.
Her own forbidden techniques.
Maybe she could help accelerate it.
"I wouldn’t rush," Tōma said.
She looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because after this fight, he’ll start learning control. Then he’ll co challenge again."
Tōma’s eyes sharpened slightly.
"I think he needs to break his own seal. If he learns full control... he’ll rember how he sealed himself. And how to undo it."
"And if that happens naturally," Tōma added quietly, "he’ll be stronger than if you forced it open."
Retsu studied him.
Then smiled faintly.
You just want a future rival, don’t you?
Still...
He wasn’t wrong.
If it failed, she could step in later.
"...Fine," she said. "We’ll wait."
And sowhere in Squad Eleven...
A certain battle addict had already started training in ways he never had before.
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