The Sword That Tames Everything

**an article prescribed by TheGoldenBuddha and Ash9876.**

**Date Started:** 26 December, 2021
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Next Role-Play**: N/A
**Users Involved:** User:TheGoldenBuddha, User:Ash9876
**Setting:** Soul Society
**Characters Involved**:
* **Shinigami**: Kiokushi Hotsuka, Nobutsuna Yamakage

## The Basics

It's been a very busy couple of days for the newly appointed captain Kenpachi Kiokushi, seeming as if her new workload would never end. As she was browsing through all the paperwork and mail on the desk of her office she looked back to her drawer filled with letters left on them that she never responded to considering she didn't have the time to. "I think I ought'a take a look right now." She said as she opens one of the drawers up and reads the first letter, that has an beautifully decorated envolope. She opened it up, and the note was from a previous officer of the Eleventh Division that wanted to meet up with Kiokushi and test her to the limits seeing if she's really worthy of her new mantle of Kenpachi with the others preceeding her all being monsters on the field. "Dam. whoever wrote this handwriting's really neat....." Her eyes sprint from word to word as she continues reading. "Meet at the Zanjutsu Training Hall?" Kiokushi reads out loud.

"Man even tho I been busy, I don't think I should turn down an opportunity like this!" Kiokushi grabs her Zanpakuto beside her chair and stood up as she walked through the halls of the Eleventh Division barracks she told everyone that she was going to meet with this supposed master of the Zanjutsu arts from the Yamakage Clan. Telling Kenzo to take charge of the division in her absence, presuming that her "training" might take a few days. The Zanjutsu Training Hall was not too far from the barracks of the Eleventh Division, being locateed right next to the Shino Academy and is a popular hub for both students and graduates alike to train in the art. "He said he was going to be right here." Kiokushi said still holding the note in her hand as she tries to figure out just how Nobutsuna Yamakage was.

"Greetings, Kenpachi." A voice spoke from within the hall. He was an elder gentleman, with darker skin that befitted the description of the Yamakage Clan. However, contrary to most of their members who were full of vitality, this man appeared quite frail for the most part. Truly, he did not even meet the basic definition of an 11th Division member.

"My name is Nobutsuna Yamakage. I am the one who called you here." He bowed, surprisingly respectfully for nobility, while standing still. "I am thankful you accepted my invitation. But tell me...as Kenpachi, why do you believe you can learn from me?"

Kiokushi was first dumbfounded by the question, not realizing what it truly meant and how to respond. But she still responded anyways "Hey Sir!? I believe I can learn from you due to how quick I can adapt to fighting situations and my uh...." she says stopping to think of another reason. "My love for fighting! Yeah." The newly minted Kenpachi ends of her claim at that.

"..." Nobutsuna seemed a little...disappointed at the person in front of him. The Kenpachi was the strongest soldier of the Gotei 13 in every generation. There was only one reason for that strength. Their pursuit for power surpassed the very concept of duty. The idea of sacrificing oneself for the sake of the Gotei 13 did not exist for the Kenpachi. The Kenpachi's sole purpose was to continue being the strongest, until another took their place.

"Very well." Nobutsuna said calmly. "Take one of those wooden blades there. I would normally allow you to use your zanpakutō, but unfortunately, I am unable to use one myself." Nobutsuna was methodical in his ways but there was a clear dissatisfaction in his voice. The fact that she *hesitated* to mention her love for fighting. The way she stumbled across her reasoning. The way she attempted to use *reason itself* to justify pursuing a fight. It was very unlike a Kenpachi.

Nobutsuna stood still with his wooden blade in hand, awaiting Kiokushi to pick up hers. "*Your mind and resolve keep wavering and pulling back. A Kenpachi...should not have such anxieties.*" Nobutsuna thought to himself, taking another breath as he did.

"Bet." Kiokushi said as she took the wooden sword given to her by Nobutsuna. She noticed that he seemed to be a little underwhelmed by her, with her irking to show him that she is truly deserving of the title. "You wanna test my gangster?" Kiokushi said with her sword pointed directly at the old mans neck, underestimating him herself viewing him as someone just fragile.

"The fact that you believe you need to verify your strength..." Nobutsuna began to say, his aura changing from a meek old man into something else, "Is proof you are not good enough, Captain Kiokushi." His words were not malicious, but they cut deep into the heart of Kiokushi's issues with herself. "I am not here to teach you how to be a better swordswoman. I do not have the power or skill to match you in any capacity."

Nobutsuna breathed in between his sentences, "I am simply here to guide your blade, just like the Kenpachi would have done before you." Nobutsuna readied his blade, "My name is Nobutsuna Yamakage. I served as the 11th Division's Fifth Seat for fifty years and have overseen the birth of two Kenpachi." Nobutsuna's spiritual pressure was mediocre at best. It could hardly be felt even from this small distance. But Kiokushi would have instinctly felt it. Its sharpness was incomparable. What the man lacked in power, he instead transformed into sharpness. Even someone as powerful as Kiokushi would hesitate to break through, that was how impenetrable his guard was.

Every angle, every strike seemed like it would break through and kill him. That was truly how weak Nobutsuna was. Yet, for some reason...one instinctively knew that they just *couldn't*, not that easily.

Kiokushi looked baffled that a frail old man like Nobutsuna would even dare challenge her let alone want to teach her, but upon hearing that he has lived long enough to see the growth of two Kenpachi she became further interested in what he had to teach her by whatever methods. "Hmph. Your guard is not letting down, but do you mistake me for a fool?" Kiokushi yelled out as she dashed toward her trainer with the force of a great typhoon as she swiftly yet bluntly attempts to land a blow on an enemy's most vital point, their chest. "Gotcha!" she says as her speed catches up to Nobutsuna in a blink of an eye. Showcasing just how animalistic, yet mastered her fighting style was, though she has not been prepared nor knowledgeable of what Nobutsuna was trying to teach her.

"I...see." Nobutsuna did not move, not in the slightest. He had already been overpowered, as he expected. No matter how incomparable one's sharpness was: a needle was simply a needle. Compared to a blade, he had been nothing. But this blade was still dull, or rather...it chose to remain sheathed.

"You did not once hesitate to strike my weakness. You immediately discarded my potential due to my low spiritual power, and won the exchange." Nobutsuna spoke, calmly. He retracted his sword, no longer requiring it.

"Is that love for fighting? Or is that simply a pursuit for victory?" Nobutsuna asked. "To gain victory over the weak is simple. But what will happen when you face an insurmountable enemy? You say your sword is adaptable...yet all I see before me is a stagnant blade."

Kiokushi grinned slightly at her newfound mentor trying to test her willingness to a fight. "I've learned now that it's better to keep myself in check instead of brawling all out like a beast unless it's called for." She said replying to Nobutsuna's dismissal of her victory being solely based on her neccesity of winning the battle. "Although I do love combat, I won't let it consume me unless I have far more important things to worry about at hand." Recalling back to the lessons she learnt from battling captain of the Thirteenth Touwa.

"If you wanna say that I ain't as good as a Kenpachi as my predecessor Zaraki just because I'm not as bloodthirsty you're damn wrong, I know when to stand up and when to back down." Awaiting a response to validate her from the old man.