After Retsu was called to take care of the captain of the elventh division by his vice-captain, the healer reflects on both the man and the girl's true potentials: the boy who took her title and the girl to which he gave her name.

This is mostly an excuse to have Unohana think on Yachiru's possible true identity as Nozarachi even though she's dead by the time we hear about it and no one seemed to have a clue anyway.

BTW, one of the arguments against Yachiru being Nozarashi on a thread on her wikia page is that she has a "functioning zanpakuto" that's different from Kenpachi. I personally always thought that the part where Isane thinks she never heard of a zanpakuto that works like Yachiru's (right before Kenpachi finally hears his goddamn zanpakuto for the first time and Yachiru disappears, at that) was a dead giveaway of the fact that it's not a true zanpakuto, and just yet another way Kenpachi's power was manifesting (two monsters which you cannot escape, come on).

That and I preemptively reject any argument based on anime/movie fillers, because those were sometimes downright canon-uncompliant. (Like, of course you can't have two people with the same zanpakuto, because zanpakuto are made from your soul and not independant spirits you make a contract with, if two people had the same I'd have to start asking questions. But that's for another time)

tags: Unohana Retsu & Zaraki Kanpachi, Kusajishi Yachiru & Zaraki Kenpachi, Unohana "Retsu" Yachiru, Zaraki Kenpachi, Kusajishi Yachiru, names, healing, Soul Society arc, zanpakuto materialization

The name which had been hers

Unohana Retsu had arrived at the scene, calm as ever.

She had taken in the sight of Zaraki Kenpachi, captain of the eleventh division, drenched in blood and with a large gash on his torso, unconscious on a roof where his vice-captain had brought him and called her from, without flinching. She was, after all, in charge of a military hospital – she used to be, before all, the first captain of the very division Zaraki-taicho was currently leading. Bloodstaining work was and had been, in a way or another, her business.

She'd taken care of his most grievous wound – a sight, indeed, to see Zaraki-taicho in such a state. The last time – the only time – she'd seen him so wounded, it had been by her own blade, about six centuries earlier. The man had been but a teenager, back then, perhaps even a younger child, but she'd seen – Unohana "Retsu", back then still Unohana Yachiru, had seen in him the perfect potential to lead the eleventh division after her.

It wasn't only about strength, reiatsu, or skill. It was also a matter of ferocity, of the thrill of the fight – something she'd come to lose, slowly but surely, as the centuries went on. Oh, rest assured, she still enjoyed a good fight, but to find one such fight... it was becoming rather tedious, and the results had come not to be worth the search. Back then, it had been about time to try and find another hobby. Another step of maturity reached, as Jushiro-kun would probably say.

Changing had been hard, but she didn't regret it. Learning to take care of others – not only healing them to better kill them, no, but truly wanting them to get better – had also allowed her to truly get to know those others.

That time of change, that had been when she'd stumbled upon the youth who would later become Zaraki Kenpachi. And she might have won – she'd been the one left standing by the end of the fight – but she had won with Minazuki, and him... The child lost, no only because he'd started restraining himself, but also with an asauchi he'd found on the corpse of a shinigami he'd killed. A nameless zanpakuto. No partner.

What made Zaraki Kempachi was a love of fighting and a terrifying ferocity, but also a monstruous reiryoku. Oh, he wasn't the only one with such brute spiritual power, but the others – Jushiro-kun, who couldn't use most of it because it was busy keeping him alive, Yamamoto-sotaicho, who had a tendency to burn things and people to a crisp when he let his reiryoku express itself into reiatsu, and perhaps, in a few decades, the young ryoka who'd just beat Zaraki-taicho and who didn't seem to be able not to leak reiatsu as his temper went – the others didn't have this particular quality.

When Zaraki Kenpachi unleashed his full spiritual power into reiatsu, you could feel death standing behind you – next to you, on both sides, under you and above you, and, lastly, right before you, where the shinigami himself was standing.

Once she'd taken care of the most pressing issues, Retsu had brought the captain of the eleventh division back to the fourth for him to heal completely – and, hopefully, for him to rest. Retsu wasn't optimistic about this one, considering she knew the eleventh division pretty well – almost as if she'd founded it, which she had.

Here she was, now, looking one last time at the still form of the boy – a man, now, and for a few centuries already – who'd once beaten her, even if she hadn't quite lost back then.

She'd felt the fight against the ryoka all the way to the fourth division, and she could tell – had it been the boy she'd fought centuries ago, the ryoka wouldn't have won, because Zaraki-taicho was unconsciously restraining himself – a first level of power had been released, a first shackle to go with this fight.

Yes, she now knew what had to be done for Zaraki to gain back his power – but where to find the necessary opponents, for a fight to the death, for a fight that would force him, not only to free his own power, but also to finally hear the voice of his zanpakuto? The other captains would make for a good fight, but for all that Retsu used to kill whoever she wanted, not only had she grown out of that phase, but she'd always had – some form only, back then, of – respect for what the Gotei was for, which meant she generally stopped herself from defying the other captains unless they were asking for it. You couldn't run a military organization, or take care of hollows – vasto lordes were such a treat, on the matter, and would do nicely against the boy, but they were hard to find – if the captains needed replacing every two months.

Speaking of which, for a ryoka, that fight – only felt, not seen, but felt all the way to the barracks of the fourth, which said enough – had been impressive. Unless all the ryoka were Soul Society exiles – which was supposedly not the case, if the various reports were to be believed – that begged the question of where exactly such a ryoka came from. And, if the various wounds she'd treated since the ryoka had broken in meant anything, one of them – orange hair, said by Ayasegawa Yumichika to look disturbingly like the former vice-captain of the thirteenth, probably the one who'd gone against Zaraki-taicho according to Madarame Ikkaku – was growing at an alarming rate. The ryoka might have won this time, but a rematch was always a possibility.

Retsu turned around to leave the room, and.

A small girl was standing there, in between the door and the captain of the fourth division – not looking at her own captain, for once, her head tilted and her eyes on Retsu.

Kusajishi Yachiru.

A girl Zaraki had taken in only a few years before killing the previous Kenpachi and becoming a shinigami, a captain, the eleventh Kenpachi – a girl he'd named with her name, mere years before their paths crossed again.

A girl about which Retsu couldn't help but wonder, sometimes.

"Re-chan! Is Ken-chan going to be alright?"

A smile – a true, gentle smile, for there was no point bringing out the fear of death for such a question.

"Of course. He was badly wounded, but you called me soon enough that there was never any risk, Kusajishi-fukutaicho."

The girl was truly an enigma, Retsu mused.

While it was true that aging could be tricky for young souls with a lot of reiryoku, and the amount of reiatsu Kusajishi Yachiru could use was frankly surprising in one so young, she rarely used it – and overuse of spiritual power was the only known factor for delayed aging in childhood. Moreover, eight decades to age physically to an eight years old only was pushing it. The youngest children couldn't use their spiritual power and so aged normally, at least until they reached about the age the girl actually appeared to be.

Of course, Retsu's interest on the matter wasn't purely that of a healer. Something had to be said about the girl being basically Zaraki-taicho's adopted daughter – and a capable vice-captain, as far as fighting went, which was more or less all that was necessary for her division – and sporting the very name Retsu didn't use herself anymore.

The girl was, as it was, looking rather pensive as her eyes seemed to look in the direction of... Zaraki's broken asauchi?

"Ken-chan said he wanted to listen to his zanpakuto, now, but he doesn't know how to do it... He said he remembered what it felt like not to have a name, just like me too when he found me..."

Retsu blinked – of course, it wasn't a secret that Zaraki-taicho had been the one to name the girl, and even if it had been, she'd probably have guessed anyway considering "Yachiru" used to be hers and he knew it.

But...

There was something, something about the way the little girl had just spoken...

Retsu wasn't entirely sure, but something felt off. As if the girl was talking about herself – which she was – but not only.

Or perhaps...

The other way around?

"Kusajishi-fukutaicho, Zaraki-taicho is the one who named you, right?"

...As if the girl was talking about herself, and that not only when she was obviously the subject of her words?

A big smile, and happiness, despite the situation – Retsu could imagine: "Kusajishi" was enough of an explanation.

The last fifteenth districts of each quarter of the Rukongai were complicated, full of gangs and other criminals – a haven, long ago, for her to search and kill the most ruthless – and the last five where no places no be a child in, especially if you didn't have a family already. The shinigami dispatched in those districts to manage the fields of arrival – where konsoed souls and purified hollows arrived into Soul Society – tried to relocate the youngest souls to lower-numbered districts when no one took them in at their arrival, but that didn't always happen, and found family could be lost as easily as blood families – in death.

Kusajishi was the seventy-eighth district of the northern quarter of Rukongai.

"I was barely more than a baby, just brought into life, and I couldn't tell him my name! I didn't even know if I had one, but Ken-chan, he kept me with him even if I couldn't tell him, and he said he'd give me the name of the only person he ever cared about! So now I'm Yachiru."

Then, the girl looked at Retsu, and bowed.

"Thank you for the name, Re-chan!"

And she jumped away, running back to Zaraki-taicho.

Retsu was left to wonder, once again, as she watched the scene: Zaraki Kenpachi, unsconscious and wounded, his broken and nameless asauchi, and the girl with no name who'd been given one when she couldn't tell the man how she was called.

It was possible, Retsu guessed, that the boy had told the girl who she was – neither of them talked about it, but they both knew, they'd both recognized each other, and Retsu guessed the only reason he hadn't come to her was because he respected her change of pace. Or at least, because he wouldn't fight her unless she showed him that she wished for it too.

It seemed less likely, on the other hand, that Kusajishi Yachiru was truly aging at a ridiculously slow rate for no particuliar reason.

It added to the wondrous quality of the girl that Retsu knew what her zanpakuto was like, and it fit in no usual category – melee-type, kido-blade, creatures, et caetera – or at least, it didn't act like such. Almost as if her zanpakuto was, somehow, fake.

She couldn't tell him her name.

Those words, if nothing else, were suspicious.

Retsu didn't go further – she had no need to, not yet, and even with all the rather particular facts, it still sounded preposterous. Such a hypothesis... Well. Unless the boy finally managed to hear and unlock his zanpakuto, nothing would ever be proven.

Though Zaraki-taicho certainly had enough reiryoku to spare for materialization, and was low enough on self-awareness to actually realize it were he to be constantly letting his zanpakuto running around under the guise of a little girl who'd somehow survived Kusajishi alone as a baby, with a fake zanpakuto, and an aversion for aging. In fact, he might have been so deaf to his zanpakuto's calls that the spirit could have decided to communicate through a more hand-on medium.

None of this mattered, in the end, because it was such an outlandish theory that it surely had no reality to rest upon. And even, should it prove to be true – which it most definitely wasn't – then it only meant there was still a chance for the boy to find his zanpakuto despite having ignored it for six centuries.

Retsu smiled at herself, and closed the door behind her.

Whatever was going on, even if the girl was only and truly Zaraki-taicho's adopted daughter, they sure made an interesting duo. Though you could probably blame part of it on the harsh conditions of Kusajishi she'd grown up in, her personality was unexpectedly open to violence for one her age, and she lacked any true form of fear except for her captain to be too wounded to answer her.

At this point, someone else than Zaraki Kenpachi might be unable to care properly for her.

There was no point, and no wisdom, in Retsu sharing her thoughts on the matter with anyone. Besides, as the head of the medical division of the Gotei 13, it was both her duty and her right to keep her patients' informations to herself, as long as it wasn't an open threat on the organization and its duty towards the three worlds.

She'd simply keep an eye on the girl with her name, just in case it was more complicated than that – which was already complicated enough – and there was a medical reason to her lack of growth.

Retsu chuckled at the thought. To believe she had actually come to care so much about healing...