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Thoughts totally devoid from current Bleach...

I find it interesting how easily most people accept Zaraki Kenpachi's verdit that Ichigo beat him when they fought. Kenpachi is the last man standing and he's on home turf. He can reasonably expect to be picked up and taken off to 4th Squad before seconds have passed, especially considering the bonkers and devoted Yachiru is waiting in the wings. He's effectively stopped Ichigo from proceding any further, has left him bleeding to death and unconscious and without any apparent back up. Ichigo could die there and then, Kenpachi certainly couldn't. ZK also knows Strawberry's objective, relayed faithfully by Ikkaku. Although Ichigo isn't dead he's certainly left in no shape to continue, and Kenpachi has no way of knowing about Yoruichi's sly wildcard role.

By any common definition Zaraki Kenpachi won the fight. If the criteria accords to tournament fighting he's the last man standing. If it's about stopping Ichigo (which we know it isn't because ZK fights for kicks) then to all intents and purposes Ichigo appears to have been neutralised. If it's about fun then Kenpachi has certainly had his fill. If it's about proving that fighting in partnership with your zanpakuto rather than trying to dominate it then Kenpachi was again the last man standing.

So what is Kenpachi's criteria for losing, and why should we accept it? I'm convinced that Ichigo found his Achilles Heel, in that part of ZK fears and distrusts himself (the zanpakuto having been explained to us as the source of power for a Shinigami, a part of themselves). Kenpachi must have known this deep down before the fight and so his bluster reeks of being a defensive position. Perhaps Ichigo 'beat' him the moment he made mention of it. Or perhaps it was the fact that Strawberry fought him to a standstill, that Kenpachi couldn't go on. Or could it be that at the moment that Ichigo won the psychological battle it became serious, and therefore ceased to be 'fun?' It certainly left him with a lot to think about.

He was rushed off to 4th Squad and there was no indication that he gave the order for Ichigo to be captured in what he must have believed to be a prone condition. He won by the criteria of any outside observer.

Ichigo, never one for self-analysis, has never made his thoughts known on the subject. I guess it's an experience he'd rather forget, the closest he's come to sheer uncontrolled terror he's experienced outside of his struggle with his inner Hollow. That construct-Kenpachi later emerges in his battle with that Hollow says a lot (ZK, Byakuya and Kariya could all be the only non-Hollow people who he has made the conscious decision to kill, something he cannot easily live with. Let's not forget, he purifies Hollow when he 'kills' them).

It's a deeply ambiguous fight and one that says a lot about both participants. But part of me thinks that Kenpachi's reputation for being unbeatable is intact. He couldn't have conceded such a highly questionable 'defeat' had he not been the last man standing.