Hollows Can Possess Intelligence Too / Shūhei Hisagi's Shock

At the same time, he gripped his Zanpakuto with both hands and slashed at the Hollow's face, sending out a flash of white.

The blade struck the white mask covering the Hollow's face.

Crack!

The Hollow's mask fractured with a sound like breaking stone.

"As expected of you, Shūhei! You're so strong." Renji Abarai stared intently at the battle ahead.

Shūhei Hisagi landed back on the ground in a low stance after his successful strike, his eyes fixed on the giant Hollow's face.

His slash had indeed landed, but it had only cut through a third of the mask. That was nowhere near enough to put his opponent out of the fight.

The enemy was too tall. He would have to find a way to attack the back of its neck.

Shūhei Hisagi lowered his body slightly as Reishi gradually gathered beneath his feet.

Just then, the giant Hollow lowered the hands covering its mask and let out a long howl at the sky:

"Rooaaar—!!!"

Its howl spread through the air in waves, like ripples across a lake after a stone had been thrown in.

The sound was so shrill and piercing that everyone hurriedly clapped their hands over their ears.

The roar continued for about seven or eight seconds before the giant Hollow suddenly closed its mouth and narrowed its eyes at Renji Abarai and the other two nearby.

Shūhei Hisagi immediately sensed that something was wrong. He turned around and shouted, "You three, run!"

At the same moment as his shout, four new Hollows arrived and surrounded Tokoyo Misao and the other three.

Chapter 32: Hollows Can Possess Intelligence Too

During this field exercise in the World of the Living, Shūhei Hisagi had been held up by a Hollow.

The other two senior students had already fallen, gravely injured, and were now barely breathing.

The rest of the squad had most likely all been killed.

Now, four Hollows had appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Tokoyo Misao and the other three, cutting off every escape route.

The four Hollows were all different in appearance.

One Hollow was about four meters tall and looked extremely stocky. One glance was enough to tell that his defenses would be formidable.

Behind the squad was a Hollow about two meters tall, with a somewhat more proportionate build.

Its yellow-glowing eyes alternately narrowed and opened, and its enormous mouth was left uncovered by its mask.

Its position seemed to block the group's retreat. It was a rather intelligent one.

Another Hollow resembled a manta ray. Its flat body floated above the squad, apparently to keep them from escaping through the sky.

The last one was rather short, about 1.5 meters tall. It stood ominously behind the burliest Hollow, concealing itself from view.

This was a Hollow squad equipped for every role. However one looked at it, something seemed wrong.

Momo Hinamori spoke, her voice trembling slightly. "Why do they seem so smart? Aren't Hollows formed when souls fall into madness?"

She had noticed that the four Hollows had taken separate positions to surround the squad. They were clearly quite intelligent, which was completely different from what she had learned at school.

"Except for the one in front, who looks like a beast, the others are obviously no fools."

Renji Abarai stood at the front of the squad, staring intently at the burliest Hollow.

The way it occasionally reached up to scratch the back of its head, looking rather simple-minded, made it clear that it wasn't very intelligent.

But the other three Hollows were a different story altogether.

Izuru Kira stood in the middle and asked Tokoyo Misao behind him, "Misao, what should we do now?"

In Tokoyo Misao's eyes, these Hollows were clearly quite different from the one that had attacked Shūhei Hisagi.

A normal Hollow's Spirit Ribbon was deathly pale. Compared to an ordinary soul's, it looked as though it were covered in an aged gray and might shatter at any moment.

But the deathly pale Spirit Ribbons of these four Hollows were covered in red spots.

It was as though someone had dipped a brush in cinnabar and dabbed it randomly across their Spirit Ribbons, leaving irregular red spots all over them.

These four Hollows were very likely the ones Aizen had modified. They were definitely not ordinary Hollows, but Hollows that had fused with some of a Soul Reaper's power.

And... the densely packed Spirit Ribbons in the darkness at the end of the street meant there were many more Hollows there.

Misao said softly, "There's no need to be nervous. I'm right behind you. Fight in the formation we usually practice."

His voice was perfectly calm, brushing over the three of them like a gentle breeze. Their nerves settled at once, and their gazes turned resolute.

Perhaps they really would feel nervous and afraid when faced with Hollows appearing out of nowhere, but as long as Tokoyo Misao stood behind them, there was nothing to fear.

Renji Abarai roared, "Yeahhh!" Gripping his Zanpakuto in both hands, he raised it high, planted his right foot forward, and charged at the burliest Hollow.

When he was about two meters away, he stomped off the ground and leaped toward the Hollow's mask.

The veins bulged on his forearms as his Reiatsu erupted at full force, and he brought his blade down fiercely.

Reiatsu wreathed the blade as it let out a terrifying shriek. The pressure from the descending sword alone made the burly Hollow's movements sluggish.

Even the manta ray-like Hollow overhead seemed in danger of being forced to the ground by the Reiatsu at any moment, and it flapped its broad white fins incessantly.

The hulking Hollow really was slow to react. The blade was less than ten centimeters from his mask before he moved.

Only then did it clench its fist and swing at the charging Renji Abarai.

But the instant it threw the punch, a golden light suddenly appeared and wrapped around its fist, preventing it from putting any force behind the blow.

"Good work, Kira!"

Renji Abarai roared and brought his blade straight down on the hulking Hollow's white mask.

With a bang, the mask shattered, and the blade lodged between the burly Hollow's brows.

Renji Abarai kept a tight grip on the hilt with both hands, but found he couldn't push the blade any farther down.

He flipped himself upside down, gathered Reishi beneath his feet, and repeatedly stomped against the air.

Bang, bang, bang.

After three successive stomps, the powerful recoil drove him downward, and the blade slid down from where it had been lodged between the burly Hollow's brows.

When the blade passed the Hollow's chin, it suddenly met almost no resistance.

It sliced smoothly through the hulking Hollow's chest and abdomen, cleaving it in two.

Renji Abarai landed, gasping for breath.

He had held nothing back in that strike, putting everything he had into it—one could even say he had used 120 percent of his strength. He still hadn't recovered.

He looked up at Izuru Kira nearby, saw the golden rope wrapped around his hands, and said:

"Thanks, Kira. If you hadn't used Bakudō: Hainawa to stop that guy's fist, he probably would've punched me to death when my blade got stuck in his skull."

To hold back the hulking Hollow's fist, Kira had lowered his body like a boat hauler pulling a vessel. He was a little tired now, too.

As soon as he turned his head, he saw the manta ray in the sky diving toward Renji Abarai and hurriedly shouted:

"Look out!"

Momo Hinamori, who stood a short distance in front of him, had already raised an open palm and was rapidly chanting:

"Silver nail that tears through the sky, rejection in an instant, reach beyond!"

"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"

A bolt of silvery-white lightning shot from her palm and struck the diving manta ray with a crackling sound.

"Th-thanks, Momo." Renji Abarai hadn't had the strength to dodge the manta ray's attack from above.

The manta ray had grown larger and larger in his eyes, and in that instant, memories of his time in Rukongai had begun flashing through his mind.

Fortunately, with Momo Hinamori's support, he had come through all right.

Momo Hinamori suddenly said, "Something's wrong. The one hiding behind that big guy is gone."

"What?" Renji and Kira looked over at the same time.

Sure enough, the little Hollow that had been behind the big one moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

The three immediately turned to look at Tokoyo Misao behind them.

But they saw that the Hollow at the rear still hadn't attacked. It was merely facing off against Tokoyo Misao.

The next moment, a scream of agony came from where Shūhei Hisagi was fighting nearby.

"Bastard!"

Chapter 33: Shūhei Hisagi's Shock

When Renji Abarai charged at the Hollows, yelling at the top of his lungs,

Shūhei Hisagi also realized he couldn't keep fighting defensively, or they really might all be wiped out this time.

He reversed his Zanpakuto and plunged it into the ground, chanting rapidly:

"Vermilion smoke, cover the battlefield. Steal their sight, hide without a sound. When the smoke clears, leave no trace."

"Bakudō #21: Sekienton."

A cloud of thick black smoke erupted from the ground, completely concealing him.

Having suddenly lost sight of its target, the Hollow grew agitated. It howled at the sky, clenched both hands into fists, and slammed them down toward the black smoke.

With a thunderous bang, the ground cracked instantly, spiderweb-like fissures spreading in every direction.

Bang after bang rang out as the Hollow hammered the black smoke, punching again and again and sending broken stones flying everywhere.

It showed no sign of stopping.

While it was pounding away, Shūhei Hisagi had taken the opportunity to move behind it. This time, he chose not to attack with his Zanpakuto.

He chanted quietly, "O sovereign, mask of flesh and blood, all things spread their wings and soar. O thing crowned with the name of man, heat and strife, surging waves upon the sea, advance to the south."

At that point in the chant, he tapped his feet lightly against the ground several times, and his body vanished from the spot.

He used Shunpo to reach the back of the Hollow's neck, pressed his palm directly against it, and shouted:

"Hadō #31: Shakkahō!"

A ball of red Reishi about twenty centimeters in diameter formed in Shūhei Hisagi's palm. The instant he finished chanting, it exploded with a boom.

The enormous explosion created a shock wave that sent him flying.

The Menos Grande's neck was blasted apart, and its body dissolved into Reishi that scattered through the air.

Shūhei Hisagi tumbled through the air several times before landing lightly.

He looked up and saw that Renji Abarai had driven his blade into the Hollow's brow. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, then said coldly:

"You've been hiding back there for so long. Are you still not going to make a move?"

As he spoke, he turned to face the pitch-black street.

"So you noticed me."

The Hollow that had been behind the burly Hollow facing Abarai's squad had slipped over here unnoticed, ready to launch a surprise attack on Shūhei Hisagi.

The moment Shūhei Hisagi saw the Hollow appear, his eyes widened.

Seeing Shūhei Hisagi's wide-eyed shock, it chuckled:

"You realized I deliberately let you sense my presence just now, didn't you?"

"Don't worry. I'm not like the big guy. I'll finish you off quickly and cleanly."

"You... you..." Shūhei Hisagi was still so shocked that even the hand gripping his sword hilt trembled slightly.

Seeing him like that, the Hollow planted its hands on its hips and burst out laughing:

"If you're really that afraid of dying, you can beg for mercy. Hahahaha!"

"Why can you talk?"

Shūhei Hisagi spoke in a low voice.