Anime/Manga: Bankai Starting with Demon Slayer

Yoruichi was prepared to be teased or surrounded by screams, and looked at the kid in front of her with amusement.

But looking at Asuka's cold and wary gaze, she couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, kid. Your reaction right now... makes me feel so unattractive." Yoruichi's lips curled into a jealous smile: "Aren't you even a little bit embarrassed?"

Why be shy?

Asuka resumed her starting punching stance, which bore a resemblance to a familiar punching style: "At the moment a battle begins, there are only two types of opponents: those you can beat and those you can't... It doesn't really matter whether you're wearing clothes or not."

"what!"

Yoruichi laughed out loud, a genuine sense of pleasure: "Interesting! Truly interesting! Even those ancient relics in Soul Society who have lived for hundreds of years don't have your kind of pure instinct."

She casually picked up a spare training uniform from the side and put it on.

"Kid, are you ready? The current me is a completely different person from the black cat form."

Golden spiritual particles surged wildly across Yoruichi's body, and her aura was rising at an alarming rate.

"Are you prepared to break a few bones?"

"I can't ask for it."

Before the words were even finished, the bird moved first.

He knew that the gap between him and Yoruichi was widening infinitely, so he might as well take the initiative and see if he could fight for a chance of survival.

"The momentum is good, but unfortunately, the speed is too slow!"

"Instant coax——!!"

Boom!

It was already the next morning when the bird regained consciousness.

Ouch...that hurts...

He felt like his ribs were broken... his whole body felt like it was falling apart...

As she sat up, Asuka noticed that her upper body was wrapped in new bandages, each one tightly bound.

The memories of last night flashed through his mind like shattered pieces of a mirror.

All he remembered was that at the end of training, he didn't even see Yoruichi's figure clearly before he was knocked unconscious by a punch...

Such speed... that's Yoruichi's Hakuda...

The instant god... truly lives up to his name.

Chapter 141 A Leave of Absence at Tazhang Hill

Asuka leaned against the wall, savoring Yoruichi's movements.

He also once gathered his inner energy at his toes, combining it with the explosive power of Thunder Breathing to achieve a speed that was difficult for the naked eye to perceive.

But compared to that woman known as the Goddess of Instantaneity, she was as slow as a baby just learning to walk.

Moreover, the spiritual pressure around her was not aimless or scattered fluctuations, but rather like a highly compressed thundercloud, constantly stimulating every inch of her nerves.

When she moved, it was as if she had transformed into thunder, directly cutting through space.

"Tsk."

Asuka let out a disgruntled snort, directed at herself.

Both are hand-to-hand combat techniques, yet they become so incredibly powerful in Yoruichi's hands...

The training is still insufficient; more practice is needed.

He threw back the covers, enduring the sharp pain in his chest, and prepared to begin his busy day.

However, when he entered the store, he did not see the black cat sunbathing on the counter.

"Oh dear, although I know Asuka-kun is a diligent person, it's better to lie down at times like this."

Kisuke Urahara was squatting on the steps at the shop entrance, drawing something on the ground with a small stick in his hand.

He wasn't wearing his signature fisherman's hat today, and his messy blond hair looked somewhat listless in the sunlight.

"Good morning, store manager." Asuka stopped and greeted him without any respect: "It's the weekend, so there shouldn't be any deliveries today."

"Oh dear, Asuka-kun has become quite mercenary."

"Where's Master Yoruichi? Let's start training early today."

“Well, Yoruichi-san, she—” Urahara drawled, tapping his palm with his folding fan: “She has some ‘personal matters’ to attend to. You know, important people are always very busy.”

"Plus, she said she was a little too rough with you last night and is a bit embarrassed to see you today. You should rest well for the next couple of days and don't need to worry about your cultivation."

Upon hearing Urahara's words, Asuka's eyes revealed undisguised anxiety.

"rest?"

"Is there a problem?"

Asuka frowned: "How can training be abandoned halfway? It's one thing to skip extra training, but how can you stop doing the regular training altogether?"

“Spiritual practice is like rowing against the current. If you stop, the rhythm that your body has worked so hard to adapt to will be disrupted. I don’t have time to waste on things like ‘rest’.”

Especially when you are powerless and weak, resting is practically a crime.

"Asuka-kun, you're still so stubborn."

Kisuke Urahara dropped the small wooden stick, went into the shop, and circled the bird once.

"Actually, given your current situation, the fact that you've developed the performance of this prosthetic body to this extent far exceeds my expectations..."

"You know, this was originally a sealing artifact used to suppress your power, but I didn't expect you to actually make it display combat power..."

His expression became slightly more serious as he pointed to Asuka's still aching chest: "But if you keep squeezing her, she'll eventually break like a rubber band that's been stretched too far."

"Take a good rest for two days, just to give your body time to repair itself."

Urahara's voice was soft, yet it carried a real persuasive power.

Asuka looked silently into his eyes, having already accepted the explanation and no longer being stubborn.

Excessive rigidity leads to breakage; this is not a difficult principle to understand.

“You seem to have nothing better to do…” Urahara’s tone shifted, becoming light and even a little ingratiating: “Then why don’t you help this poor store manager, who can’t afford to hire employees, with some odd jobs?”

Asuka glanced at him sideways: "What trouble is it now?"

“Oh dear, how can you call it a troublesome matter…” Urahara took out a stack of paper talismans tied with red string and emitting a faint fluorescent light from his pocket.

The moment Asuka saw the talisman, she sensed it.

This is not the counterfeit product from before.

Previously, Urahara had sold many "spiritual objects" to superstitious elderly people, housewives seeking psychological comfort, and those praying for good fortune. These objects claimed to be able to exorcise evil spirits, ward off evil, and bring wealth.

Most of them are just fancy-looking but actually useless items.

But these are different; they genuinely emanate the aura of spiritual particles...

"These are exorcism charms ordered by some residents in the eastern suburbs of Karakura Town. Although they are just little things for psychological comfort, they are requests from regular customers, and I would be very troubled if I turned them down."

He slipped the talisman into Asuka's hand and continued with a smile, "That place is called Tazhang Hill. Although it's rumored to be haunted, the scenery is actually quite nice, making it a good place to relax."

"Just think of it as a long trip, and take the opportunity to breathe in some fresh air in the countryside."

Asuka looked at the talisman in her hand, then at Urahara's face, which was grinning like a fox.

"Wouldn't it be faster for you to deliver it yourself?" Asuka coldly exposed Urahara: "You're just too lazy to run around."

"Haha, you saw right through me?" Urahara scratched his head, seemingly unfazed.

"I really can't get away today because there might be an important client at the store. Please, Asuka-kun!!"

Asuka muttered something under her breath, but ultimately did not refuse.

He had a feeling that Kisuke Urahara wouldn't do something so meaningless.

Although the man said it was to cheer him up, since the talisman really seemed a bit off, and he specifically mentioned ghosts and such...

This task is probably not as simple as it seems on the surface.

However, compared to being cooped up in a room and experiencing that suffocating sense of frustration, going out for a walk is definitely an option.

"understood."

He went back inside and put on a dark blue coat to cover the bandages on his body, and put his Zanpakuto in a baseball bat bag and tied it around his neck.

I got on my bicycle and rode towards the eastern suburbs, as Urahara had indicated.

Only after his figure gradually disappeared from Kisuke Urahara's sight did he put his hat on his head, and his playful expression receded like the tide.

"Oh dear, Yoruichi-san, you really went a bit too far."

Urahara said without turning his head.

From the shadows behind him, a lithe figure slowly emerged.

Yoruichi Shifūin changed into a long combat suit, exposing her shoulders and legs, showcasing a healthy and energetic beauty.

Although her expression was calm, there was a complex emotion hidden in her golden eyes.

“That brat… is very strange…” Yoruichi crossed her arms, her voice low: “Although I held back last night, Shun’s full-force attack should have shattered all his spiritual energy channels.”

"But look at him, he's clearly recovered most of the way... Don't tell me this is the effect of your prosthetic body?"

“So, he’s an ‘otherworldly being,’” Urahara said, pulling his hat down low. “His powerful will to survive… even affects the artificial body he inhabits….”

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow: "So, why did you send him to Zhang Zhiqiu? Don't tell me you were just too lazy to deliver those trash talismans."

"Things haven't been very peaceful there lately."

Urahara turned and walked into the shop, his voice faintly drifting back: "I detected an abnormal distortion in the spiritual pressure nodes there; it's possible that a newly formed Hollow is restless..."

"Let's see just how far he can defy the rules of this world when faced with dire circumstances..."

……

The bird was unaware that it was stepping into an elaborately designed examination room.

He pedaled for several hours before finally reaching the area where Tazhang Hill was located.

As Urahara said, the atmosphere here is completely different from that of modern areas like Karakura Town.

The buildings here are generally low-density, and there are many old trees over a hundred years old along the roadside, giving the air a sense of the weight of time.

Following the address, Feiniao first delivered the talismans to those so-called old customers.

When those people saw that Asuka was just a teenager, most of them looked at him with a hint of suspicion. Asuka was too lazy to explain, so he delivered the goods, took the receipt, and left.

"There's nothing wrong with these people... Could it be that I'm overthinking it, and they really are just some new product from unscrupulous merchants?"

The bird muttered to itself as it walked out of the residential area.

Now that he was here, he wasn't in a hurry to go back.

He rode aimlessly along the street, and before he knew it, he came to a small hill that was slightly higher than the ground.

This place appears to be an abandoned cemetery, with several tombstones broken and the names illegible.

"Ok?"

The bird stopped in its tracks.

He parked his car on the side of the road and hesitantly ventured deeper into the hill.

Because in his field of vision, a large number of souls were gathered on this desolate cemetery.

They sat in twos and threes on the graves or under the withered trees, some with their heads down in deep thought, others talking to themselves into the air.

“There are quite a few wandering spirits in Karakura Town, but this is the first time I’ve seen them all clustered together like this.” Asuka narrowed her eyes slightly and walked casually among the spirits.

When he reached a flat meadow at the top of the hill, he noticed that the atmosphere there was different.

Surrounded by the spirits, a boy wearing a white open-chested shirt and blue trousers was lying casually on a tilted tombstone.

He rested his head on his hands, closed his eyes, and wore a huge orange pair of headphones, looking as relaxed as if he were taking a nap on the sofa at home.

Those wandering spirits, invisible to ordinary people, surrounded the boy, and there were even a few child-like spirits trying to touch his earphone cord.

The boy didn't seem to mind at all; he even moved his toes slightly, clapping along for them.

Feiniao stood a few steps away, watching this strange yet harmonious scene, feeling somewhat puzzled.