NOVEL NEXT Chapter 306: Healing
(Ryoto's pov)
The treatment Unohana was doing, if it even can be categorized as that, was torturous, to say the least. It was a good call having a piece of clothing in my mouth because I may really have bitten my tongue off by accident.
What Unohana was doing was practically the complete opposite of using healing Kaido. Healing the normal way is pretty straightforward. First, you recover your target's Reiatsu. Then, using said Reiatsu, the healer has an easier time healing by using both his own Reiatsu and the newly recovered Reiatsu of the injured person.
Unohana right now doesn't recover my Reiatsu and uses what I can only call life force to heal my wounds. Thanks to Jormungandr's blood, all my injuries closed themselves so my blood wouldn't drip out. It may be some kind of defense mechanism so I wouldn't kill everything near me while I'm injured. Otherwise, how would anyone help me if I was close to dying, but it's not a healing ability by any means. The closing was skin-deep at best, and even a tiny bruise would open them. My deeper wounds won't be healed by this ability.
That's why Unohana started by reopening my wounds so she could heal me. Of course, she couldn't do it carelessly, as even a drop of my blood could harm her, so she covered her hands in Reiatsu. It was a high-level technique that usually only helped prevent infections during operations on the field. In her case, it was powerful enough to prevent burns from acids if needed. The blood that got on her hands would 'eat' her Spiritual Energy, and as long as Unohana had any, she would provide this energy to her hands.
The healing process felt very forceful as if the body was forced to heal despite not being able to. The only comparison I could find was making someone do a split when it was his first time stretching his body. Unohana was also cutting the ends of torn muscles when they were torn in a way they were difficult to heal, as cleanly cut injuries were easier to reconnect.
Inoue-chan really helped a lot, as she was better at healing physical wounds than Unohana—or at least she will be. She is still new to all her powers, but they still help a lot, especially with blood loss.
Despite all the pain and would be screaming, if not for my mouth being sealed with a piece of cloth, I didn't move much. I stayed still as much as I could to not disturb my treatment, and I was mostly successful, but having an operation while being conscious and without any painkillers isn't something I want to repeat in the future. After some point, however, the pain I felt thankfully weakened. I probably got somehow numb to all that pain.
Finally, after what felt like hours, I was relatively healthy and healed, but I was soaked with sweat. I took a quick look around and noticed that Rin was in a similar state to me, as if she felt the whole process I went through. Strange, but I'll talk about it with her after I deal with Ywhach. I have my suspicions, but it can wait, and I can confirm them later.
Luckily, the hot spring with healing properties that Urahara built was nearby, so I moved my arm in a motion I hadn't done in a long time. The water unnaturally started moving towards my hand, and then I started doing a fast check-up with some healing water bending. I'm so glad that I trained this ability even though it wasn't as often as I would have liked. There weren't just as many opportunities to train it. Thankfully, I still trained the motions of water and fire bending while I was stuck in this world. They were, after all, based on martial arts, so I used them from time to time in sparring to not get rusty.
Seeing me seamlessly control water, everyone looked at me like I was an alien. All of them except Inoue-chan were shocked. The orange-haired girl had stars in her eyes as she started questioning me.
"Are you a water Prince? You have blue eyes and control water. There are dragons who control water, but you look human, but you also are Shinigami, but Prince makes the most sense. I'm sure you can use magic because you didn't use your sword."
I see her imagination still works and goes haywire, but it warms my heart seeing a young girl being so lively, so after I was done with the check-up, I patted her on the head affectionately, just like I tend to do to my children. I noticed that I tend to do that to younglings.
"That's the first time someone called me a Prince, and funnily enough, you aren't exactly wrong either. I'm an heir to an empire and future Emperor, although not of water."
I would explain more, but we are on a timer, and it was proven true as the air suddenly got hotter and drier to the point that the water started evaporating. That could be a sign of only one thing that I was aware of, and that was Yama-jii's bankai.
"It seems it's my cue. I'll be back soon."
I said my 'see you laters' to everyone and left since I planned on returning alive. One almost dying is enough for one day. I may have almost given up earlier and said my last words, but everything changed now. I'm too close to accomplishing my goal, and now I'm closer than I ever was with a powerful backer.
I may still be a bit roughed out because of my last battle, but I feel better than I was in the last 250 years. It's time for a father-son duo to reunite, and my sword is a tool to do precisely that.
---
It was incredibly hot, to the point where my lip cracked. That was the power of Yamamoto's bankai. If he had his Bankai active for too long, all the water in the whole Soul Society would evaporate until he eventually melted the whole Seretei and beyond.
I was rushing. I don't know how long Yama-jii can hold on in this situation. I also don't know if any of Ywhach's plans changed or if he already developed bankai stealing technology, so I need to hurry.
I combined Shunpo and Sonido to move faster than ever before. I also activated Tensa Zangetsu to boost my speed even more.
I barely made 'one step' as rain started pouring down. I could see Yama-jii but I was nowhere near him just yet. I could only see him thanks to my eyes, but I could see that in a few moments, I could very well lose another teacher.
I made a quick rotating motion with my hand and instantly switched places with Yama-jii. It was thankfully in time because as soon as I swapped places, I was forced to block incoming attacks. It may not be visible, but I also had Tensa Zangetsu covered in Haki to further increase its durability.
Ywhach and I locked eyes, and I confidently grinned.
"Ready for round 2?"
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END
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