#compassionate killer

[compassionatekiller]

@kenpxchi

Happiness.

There was a time when she thought she was happy.  Killing warrior after warrior, bathing in entire battlefields worth of blood, personally slaying the champions of Soul Society’s enemies...at the time, she had thought herself quite happy with her life.  Even as her opponents slowly started to disappear and that dreadful, all-consuming boredom began to set in, she had only ever regarded the height of her slaughters as the happiest times of her life.  She had believed that with every fiber of her being.  She would have sworn to her grave that it was so.

Then she met him, and for one glorious moment, she realized she had never known the meaning of the word.  When her sword clashed against his, when their twin smiles were as wide as the moon, even as his blade plunged into her chest and she realized with trembling elation that he was stronger than her, she finally learned the meaning of joy.  It was magnificent.  Breathtaking.

And she ruined everything!

When she fully understood what she had done to him, she could barely contain her disgust.  Her weakness and incompetence had robbed him of his strength.  She had healed the boy as quickly as she could, but the damage was done; his great power was now a shadow of its former self, shackled forever by his fear of losing his treasured foe.  Her bile rose at thought that this was all her fault, that this magnificent man’s potential had been hobbled because she hadn’t been good enough!  And so, for the first and last time in her life, Unohana Yachiru did the unthinkable.

She ran.  Before the boy had the chance to awaken, she ran as far and as fast as her legs would carry her.  Yet no matter how far she fled, she could not escape her sin.  Realizing that she would never be able to forget her great failure, Unohana completely cast aside all she had been.  As far as Soul Society was concerned, that was the day that “Yachiru” had died, and it was the day that “Retsu” was born.

It had been so long since that day.  They had both gone through so much.  So many new faces had come and gone, so many foes had reared their heads and been felled.  But now, finally, in that pit, with clashing blade and beaming grin and booming laughter, when his blade once again pierced her chest in the same spot as before, she finally felt that glorious emotion again.

Happiness.

She was on the ground now.  Her strength was fading, and her life with it.  Yet, she was still so happy.  He was finally whole again.  She had finally given him the fight he’d deserved.  The sin of her past, finally atoned.  With this...yes, with this, she could-

“DON’T DIE!”

...Oh, honestly!  Even after all these years, even after regaining his true power, he was still such a hopeless child.  He didn’t even have the good sense to see her off in triumph?  Why couldn’t he at least win with a smile?

What if he damages himself again?

A small thought.  An unbidden thought.  An absolutely unforgivable thought.  Fury spread throughout Unohana’s every pore at the very notion that she might yet again put his potential in jeopardy.  Through the sheer strength of her scalding spite, she dragged the last reserves of reiatsu she had within her body and used as much of it as she could to heal the wound he had dealt.  It wasn’t enough to close it completely, unfortunately.  But perhaps, if he could stop blubbering and bothered to think for once, then Isane...

She barely had the thought before she slipped into the inky blackness of unconsciousness.  She wasn’t sure how long it lasted; it could have been decades, or it could have been seconds.  Whatever the reality was, she felt the unbidden sting of light pierce her eyelids.  This feeling...was she laying on one of the medical beds in the Fourth Division?  How had she gotten here?

With a mighty groan and a bleary series of blinks, Unohana sat herself up, trying to shake off the last vestiges of unconsciousness as she asked the room she couldn’t yet quite see “Where...?”

[compassionatekiller]

Miscellaneous Headcanons Post #1

1. So quick disclaimer: I am not and never shall be an expert on how all of the Bleach Metaphysics actually work.  That being said, my basic understanding of things is that if something happens to either the Soul King or the Balance of Souls, everything is kinda totally fucked.  With this basic bitch interpretation in mind, my Unohana is an extremist when it comes to making sure these two things keep ticking along.  There is no sacrifice too great, no war crime too horrible, and indeed no method too extreme when the alternative is the death of everyone everywhere.

2. That being said, loyalty comes first.  Her loyalty to Yamamoto (and in any universe where she survives her fight with Kenpachi, Kyoraku) is all-encompassing and absolute.  No matter how much she might disagree, no matter what her personal values demand, no matter how much it may personally disgust her, she will set all of it aside and do as she’s told so long as he is the one telling her to do it.  She and Yamamoto both know this, and they have actually developed some loopholes to help them get around this when her doing what he’d be forced to order her to do would be...inconvenient.  Perhaps the most simple of these is also the most childish: she can’t follow any order he hasn’t given her.  Note how she’s one of the only sympathetic and reasonable Captains who didn’t openly rebel during Rukia’s execution, but immediately took the opportunity to collect Isane and fuck off to the Central 46 chamber once Yamamoto was very conveniently no longer on Sokyoku Hill to make sure she stayed.

3. Officially, Rukia’s Sode no Shirayuki is considered the most beautiful Zanpakuto in Soul Society.  However, to Unohana, the most beautiful Zanpakuto in Soul Society is actually Yamamoto’s Bankai, Zanka no Tachi.

4. Minazuki is an it, and Unohana will not tolerate anyone who disrespects it’s identity.

5. Unohana is extremely put out by the Soul Society dating scene not treating Isane like the absolute catch she is, but is also the type who would be loudly and pointedly sharpening Minazuki in the corner if anybody actually tried anything.

6. So I’m too much of a brainless putz to ever properly portray this, but Unohana’s actually really fucking smart.  Like, not even headcanon wise; according to the official graph thing, Unohana has a perfect 100 in intelligence, ten points higher than Kyoraku and tying with Aizen (as does Ukitake, I feel I should note).  This means that, even if her focus is different, she’s actually just as much of a smartypants as Urahara.  It just doesn’t get shown off as much since she didn’t decide to specialize in Crazy Ghost Science like he and Aizen did.

[compassionatekiller]

Founding War Unohana Headcanons 1

To be clear, these headcanons are specifically for the time period between when Yamamoto first brought Unohana into the fold to the point where the last enemies are defeated and the modern Soul Society is the last faction standing.  I call this conflict the Founding War for the sake of convenience.  

0. IMPORTANT NOTE FIRST: Just to be clear here, for the purposes of this blog, the war that saw Unohana’s recruitment is not the first war with Ywach’s forces.  That war took place 1000 years ago; the Founding War took place over two-thousand years ago (as part of a related headcanon that Yamamoto only founded his academy after the current structure was fully formed once the conflict was over).

1. When Yamamoto first brought Unohana back to whatever place was serving as basecamp at the time, she was an extremely curt and straightforward speaker.  She preferred to stick to single-word sentences or just not speaking at all, which didn’t endear her to her fellows (especially since she was the 11th of 13 to be recruited).  Also, she had already taken on the name “Yachiru” by the time Yamamoto found her; nobody learned of the name “Retsu” until after the war, and even then it was only revealed to a select few.

2. Unohana was not a kind mistress to her fledgling Division.  She generally seperates people into two different catagories in her mind: “prey,” who need a reason to fight, and “predators,” for whom fighting is the reason.  I’ll be making an entire post about her weird double-standard ethics at some point, but the important part for this post is that she had very high standards for people she considers predators, and she was not pleased with those who fell short of her expectations.  At one point, after a particularly grueling battle where the 11th failed to hold the line while she was doing her thing, she out-and-out decimated her own Division in the Roman sense: she personally murdered a tenth of her own men to set an example for the survivors that she would not tolerate such weakness from her troops.

3. That being said, as hellishly high as her standards were and as horrible as the punishments were for failing to meet them, Unohana’s 11th Division was a true meritocracy.  She didn’t care what your past was, she didn’t care what your beliefs were, and she didn’t even care if you particularly liked to fight.  As long as you were both strong and competent, she would reward your efforts.  Of course, if you were weak and incompetent, then she’d kill you herself.  But she was fair; nobody got special treatment and nobody suffered any form of bigotry from her (aside from the aforementioned predator/prey dichotomy).  All were equal in Unohana’s eyes, for better and for worse.  For example, people like Chad, Komamura, and Tosen would be just as welcome and accepted as someone like Zaraki in her Division.

4. Unohana gained the name “Kenpachi” during this time.  Officially, the founding generation of Captains is considered the overall strongest generation in the Gotei 13′s history, at least until the Thousand-Year Blood War forces a bunch of extreme powerups from the modern generation.  This means that Unohana, for over two-thousand years, was considered the strongest non-Yamamoto Shinigami in Soul Society history period.  There are all sorts of debates that could be had on how true that actually is, but it still says something about the impact she made and the enduring mythical quality her legacy retained.  Before anything else, she is the reason the name “Kenpachi” is considered such a big deal within the Gotei 13.  Even in a time when she was surrounded by nothing but freaks and monsters, Unohana was still the most dangerous of them all.

5. Unohana did not get along with her fellow founding Captains, not at first.  She was something of a Grade-A Asshole back then, and given what little we know of them, the rest weren’t exactly saints either.  Unohana did warm up to them over time, after they’d proven they had enough power of their own to survive and not get in her way.  Not all of them ever returned the sentiment, but her strength was eventually respected enough that nobody contested her status as Kenpachi, however grudging that respect might’ve been.  

6. Even back then, when Unohana was at her absolute most evil and savage, she was still loyal to Yamamoto.  If Sasakibe was the Captain-Commander’s right hand, Unohana was his left.  She was his brutal enforcer, the one he sent to “ensure compliance” from the belligerent.  A glorified thug, perhaps, but a thug with unusually strong conviction in someone else’s cause.  Even back then, no one understood why she was so devoted to Yamamoto’s ideals; if she had her way, no one ever would.

7. Unohana’s official combat role within the Gotei 13 was somewhat unique, even compared to her predecessors.  The 11th Division was the dedicated direct combat unit among a bevy of combat units, and they took to their role with zealous fervor, ever throwing themselves into the absolute thickest of fighting where only madmen and madwomen like them could survive.  Yet this was not where Unohana could be found; no, instead Unohana was the Gotei 13′s very own “hero-killer.”  While the rest of her forces would busy themselves by repeatedly beating down the enemy lines, Unohana would hunt for the absolute strongest warriors that the enemy had fielded and slay them in single combat.  This both deprived the foe of a vital asset while also heavily demoralizing their remaining forces.  Considering it is canon she never suffered an injury until her fight with a nameless child, she was devastatingly effective at her function.  It was a big reason why she was eventually crowned “the strongest,” and she remained the “hero-killer” until she transferred to the 4th Division over a thousand years later.  

[compassionatekiller]

💭 has he made her proud

Topical Headcanons

Is Unohana proud of Kenpachi Zaraki?

After she had inflicted that terrible crime on him, Unohana had not been able to be in the same room as Zaraki without feeling a brand new wave of disgust and self-loathing. She couldn't bear to look at him, so strong was the reminder of her shame. The ache of her scar would forever be a reminder of her great sin.

And his fights! Every time he came back nearly dead against an opponent who should have been a joke to him, she had to choke back the vitriol she felt. Every time he returned with eleven new scars to show from a fight that should have been over with a flick of his wrist, her bile rose. Yet, with every near catastrophe, another chain was broken, another step in the right direction taken. With every near death experience, he became that much more alive than he had been in centuries.

Then the fated day finally came. They clashed and they killed and they died. They met, fell, and rose again and again. They fought and they grew and they regained what they had both lost that day. They laughed and laughed and laughed.

And then he ran her through.

Most of the time, that is where the story ends. She dies in Muken, finally undoing her one great sin, smiling fondly at the man she left behind.

In other times, in other places, some factor or another enables her survival. She lives to learn things she could not before; that he had finally learned the name of his Zanpakuto, that he had attained bankai, that he was not satisfied by what he'd regained. She learned that he was even stronger than before, and was only growing stronger still. She learned he had not settled for stagnation.

Is Unohana proud of Kenpachi Zaraki?

Yes, she is extremely proud of him. And the best part? If he continued down that path of improvement, if he continued to strive for ever-further heights, and most of all, if he continued to indulge in that pure joy that could only be found in battle, then he could only make her prouder yet.

[compassionatekiller]

@kamihaki

Unohana “Kenpachi” Yachiru stood within the main hall of the 11th Division facilities, staring out one of the windows and privately contemplating the absurd duty she was forced to entertain today.  She mused to herself that when Yamamoto had managed to sway her to his cause, she hadn’t imagined that he’d ever be silly enough to ask her to watch over some gormless academy brat.  Yet, here she was.  The most decorated mass murderer in Soul Society history, babysitting one of Yamamoto’s pet projects.

It was a temporary arrangement, sure, but that was besides the point.  What was she even supposed to do with the thing?  Their peerless leader had only told her to make sure the kid lived and make sure he learned something, but what in blazes was someone like Yachiru supposed to teach a pampered post-war pubescent?  She would have bet money the child had never killed anything in his life!

But there was nothing for it.  Orders were orders, and orders from Yamamoto were absolute.  She would just have to figure something out.  Perhaps she could have her guys and gals kick the guts out of the kid, teach him how to properly handle pain like a real Shinigami?  Or maybe she could take over the the training hall for today and try to beat some swordsmanship into the tot.  Anything was fine as long as the kid learned and didn’t die, right?

Unohana was shaken from her musings when her senses were assaulted by a reiatsu she did not recognize.  It was massive; even the incidental “glance” Unohana had taken was approaching the level of a Captain, and the more Unohana focused, the more she found.  The pressure was noticeable as well; it was like a crushing weight on all sides, akin to what one felt when one dived too deeply into water.  Yet, that was not the strangest thing.  There was...something else about it, something Unohana couldn’t quite put her finger on.  It was...well, wrong was not the word she was looking for, but...alien.  It was something completely unknown, and whatever it was, whatever it meant, it caused the hairs on the back of the Kenpachi’s neck to stand on end.

She turned around to find the source, but found her line of sight to that source blocked by the burly back of her dumbass Third Seat Gotou.  He was apparently having the time of his life getting in the face of whoever was in the doorway, though all of those “Huh?!”s and “Hah”s didn’t quite make him sound like the tough guy he desperately pretended he was.  He sounded more like an orgasming chimp than anything else, to Unohana’s totally-unbiased-why-do-you-ask ears.  That idiot knew better than to get in her way on the battlefield; why couldn’t he translate that situational awareness to their day-to-day?!  The exasperated Captain didn’t think that was too much to ask.

Step after surly step brought Unohana behind Gotou as she said “Get out of my way, fool.”  She gave him exactly one half-second to realize what was coming before the back of her fist slammed directly into his ribs, sending him sailing across the room and through the innocent wall.  As Gotou crumpled into a heap beneath the pile of rubble, Yachiru scanned the person standing on the 11th Division’s doorstep.  White hair, youthful, pale...

”Are you the student that Yamamoto-soutaichou spoke of?”

[compassionatekiller]

🗣👋 gently slides these over out of curiosity

Plot and AU Ideas

Commonality

Okay, so this one is a bit weird, but bare with me. The basis of this AU is that back when Aizen was a wee lad first getting inducted into the Gotei 13, he hadn't quite perfected his Perfect Friend Man mask yet. Unohana happens to meet him during this time and-having spent several centuries by this point perfecting her own Perfect Mom mask-instantly realizes what he's doing and what that implies. So she takes him aside one day and tries to talk to him about it. Due to their individual psychoses being so very different, Unohana isn't quite able to fully connect with him, not like he needed someone to. However, she came the closest, and more to the point, she bothered to try. That was more than anyone else ever managed, and Aizen never forgot that despite himself. This would end up developing one of two ways: either he appreciates the attempt and fucks with her minimally because of it, or he becomes deeply bitter that she gave him a glimmer of hope and dared to fall short causing him to specifically target her for torment. However, in this particular AU, her experience, control over her emotions, and especially the fact that she saw a glimpse of what lay behind Aizen's mask means she'd be exceptionally difficult to fuck with by Aizen's standards. He'd have to be extremely careful with his "revenge", but given who Aizen is, I'm pretty sure he'd take as much time as he needed to see it through.

Classical Myth AU

Unohana and Aizen are both gods within a pantheon. Unohana is the goddess of life and death, while Aizen is the god of progress and ambition. They end up having debates semi-frequently; Unohana would see things through the lens of the connection between life and death, and thus would see most everything as inherently connected and cyclical, which Aizen-ever focused on replacing the old with something better and new-would inevitably be at odds with. In this AU, Aizen is working to become a being that has transcended beyond godhood; while Unohana often disagrees with Aizen's viewpoint, she doesn't suspect just what type of person he actually is until he starts a great schism as part of his overall plan to ascend.

Fantasy AU

Unohana was once the terror of the battlefield, a feared and reviled madwoman who slaughtered all who dared to oppose her. However, after a certain traumatic incident scarred her psyche, she gave up her wanton bloodshed and took up the ways of the healer. After some years, once she'd established herself as quite the competent support, she is approached by a friendly and reasonable man named Aizen. He told her he was searching for a magical artifact called the Hougyoku that would allow him to save one he cared for, and that he was willing to pay handsomely for fellow adventurers willing to aid him in retrieving it. Unbeknownst to Unohana, however, Aizen sought the Hougyoku not for altruism, but for power. With it, he could transcend his mortality and become an Archlich, a type of lich that had no need to sell its soul, and thus was still its own master. Why he sought this goal was something only the master manipulator knew, but he was willing to do anything to achieve it. Unohana, having no reason to doubt Aizen, unwittingly began to aid the man's mad quest for power...

[compassionatekiller]

Unohana’s Weird Ethics 1

So.  Unohana, as a person, does not have what one might call a “normal” or “healthy” relationship with what we accept as morality.  However, that does not mean Unohana doesn’t have moral fiber!  It’s just that her morality is a bit...different.  It’s the sort of morality that doesn’t see anything inherently wrong with killing someone but does consider interfering in an another’s even escapade to be an ethical travesty.  It’s going to take multiple posts to unpack everything about her unusual values, so for this one, I’m going to focus on a particularly major point of her mentality. 

Unohana believes that every being that exists can be separated into one of two categories: Predators or Prey.  

The thing that determines who is what is nothing less than ones core instincts.  

Prey are those that only fight for some other purpose.  The battle is a means to an end, and even if the Prey ends up enjoying those means, the fight is never the goal in and of itself.  Their instincts do not allow them to indulge in battle without reason.

Predators, in stark contrast, are those for who the fight is the goal.  Each might have their own ways of getting there, but battle is reason enough unto itself.  They fight for the sake of fighting.  That is their instinct.

It should be noted, however, that being Prey in Unohana’s estimation does not mean she thinks that person is weak.  Prey animals, after all, still have powerful jaws and enough teeth to pack a mean bite.  They have horns with which to gouge and hooves with which to crush.  They are not helpless victims to be slaughtered by the meanie-pants Predators.  Unohana would consider both Yamamoto and Ichigo to be Prey, and they’re some of the strongest people in history.  Even bloodthirsty maniacs like Grimmjow and Nnoitra would be Prey, as they ultimately fight to prove their superiority or die trying.  The vast majority of everyone everywhere are Prey.

The major figures in Bleach that we know for a fact she would consider Predators are herself, Zaraki, and Ikkaku.  The Fight is not the only thing in their lives, but it is the most important thing.  Just as real life predators cannot survive without the flesh of others, Predators cannot live without conflict in their lives.  Ikkaku would have an existential crisis if he were crippled to the point he couldn’t engage in glorious battle any longer, and Zaraki would probably cease to exist on the spot.

Unohana inflicting a (mostly) peaceful existence on herself was both pure hell and completely intentional.  She came to care about others much more as her second go-around as Retsu, but make no mistake; despite her ever-present smile, Unohana is miserable without battle in her life, as she knew she would be.  “Retsu” was reimagined as her own private punishment for herself, a never-ending agony that would only cease when she atoned for her greatest failure.  The only reasons she didn’t go completely mad during all those centuries is because 1. she still deployed to battlefields in order to heal the wounded, 2. Isane was there, and 3. as a professional combat medic, she still got to fight on very rare occasions.  Sure, beating people back with Kido isn’t nearly as satisfying as cutting them down with Minazuki, but it was something.

All of this matters because Unohana has a double-standard when it comes to what she expects from people.  Predators and Prey do not get the same treatment from her, especially in battle.  

For Prey, Unohana is an extraordinarily patient woman.  She takes things at a relatively slow pace, preferring to draw out the potential she sees in them through careful and (now-a-days) compassionate tutelage over an extended period of time.  She does her best to let them learn at the rate they are most comfortable learning, contenting herself with nudging them to be that little bit better than they were before.  Since most people are Prey, most people will know Unohana to be a caring and understanding figure, someone who is very reasonable and always willing to lend a helping hand.

For Predators, however, Unohana is a much more brutal and demanding taskmistress.  She is relentless in her drive to push them to be their best selves, and she is particularly harsh when they fall short of their own potential.  She is not incapable of patience with Predators, depending on the situation, but that patience is predicated on the notion that it will push them further than a merciless march.  However, since fellow Predators are so very rare, Unohana also feels a great deal of responsibility towards them.  This means refining them into their best possible selves, yes, but it also means ensuring they never run out of worthy foes.  She knows the awful feeling that comes from running out of people worth fighting, and she refuses to leave anyone else like her to suffer in that way.

There are other things I could talk about, like how she bitches out Zaraki for showing admiration to an enemy, but I think that’s best saved for the eventual post about the differences in her morality as Retsu and her morality as Yachiru.

[compassionatekiller]

Interest Check

How many of ya’ll (besides Zaraki, cause duh) would be interested in rping with “Yachiru” in addition to “Retsu”?  I normally play her as just Retsu whenever I ask or answer things, but I’ve been in the mood for murder mom recently for some reason, so if ya’ll’re interested, please leave a like or reblog or something.