Adjuchas? Are You All Dead Yet?

"Remember him! He's the one who shouldered everything for us!"

"If you survive, never forget that man!"

After the stationed Soul Reaper made that declaration, the other Soul Reaper trainees stopped insisting, though their gazes toward Kyōsuke Kuchiki now held a measure of admiration and fervor.

From this day forward, as long as Kyōsuke Kuchiki made it through this alive, they would offer him their loyalty and their lives without hesitation.

After several uses of Shunpo, the group withdrew into the distance.

Their position was not safe; the heart-pounding sensation of being locked onto by a primordial beast had not gone away.

Even so, they refused to retreat any farther.

Even if they could not fight alongside that lord, they would hold their ground.

A strange atmosphere had settled over the entire street, as if the end of the world had arrived. Not only were there no living people in sight, but even the snakes, insects, rats, and ants had vanished without a trace, as though they had encountered their natural enemy.

Such was the oppressive power of an Adjuchas-class Menos Grande. It made living creatures feel terror on an instinctive level.

Simply recalling that terror made their hands and feet go weak, leaving them shaken.

They could scarcely imagine how Kyōsuke Kuchiki felt, facing the Adjuchas head-on in battle. It had to be like being in hell.

Before long, however, they learned that the truth was just the opposite.

For at that very moment, the Adjuchas in the distance flew up into the air!

That was right, it flew up into the air!

Its body, countless times sturdier than an ordinary person's, was sent soaring like a weightless leaf!

Gin Ichimaru and the Soul Reaper trainees were dumbstruck at the sight, their thoughts thrown into disarray!

"Roar—!"

The Adjuchas roared, equally astonished.

As a Menos Grande-class spiritual being, it naturally had a way to remain airborne.

But it had not risen of its own accord. Someone had forcibly kicked it into the air.

"Soul Reaper, I'm going to tear your body to shreds, into tiny little pieces."

As the Adjuchas spoke, it looked down, only to see that its enemy had appeared in front of it at some unknown point.

It froze, and then its vision went dark. Its fearsome, muscular body was sent flying once more by a kick.

After that kick, Kyōsuke Kuchiki said calmly:

"Seireitei is too boring. Taking a Menos Grande and kicking it around like a ball isn't a bad way to have some fun."

This time, Kyōsuke Kuchiki could easily pummel the Adjuchas while keeping Space Erasure's active ability hidden, all thanks to his solid fundamentals.

Before, he had not put any effort into that area.

During this period, Kyōsuke Kuchiki had only focused a little more on Zankensōki, and that had brought him to his current level.

For Kidō, he had the Heaven Communicating Talisman Art. His talent was unrivaled, and he had practically mastered it.

Shunpo and Hakuda relied on a formidable body and powerful Reiatsu, so Kyōsuke Kuchiki, who possessed the Six Treasury Immortal Thief, could hardly be lacking in either.

Just now, he had completely suppressed the Adjuchas's offensive by using Shunpo repeatedly.

Even an ordinary Captain-level Soul Reaper might not have been able to beat an Adjuchas so effortlessly.

The Six Treasury Immortal Thief at the consummate realm and the Heaven Communicating Talisman Art at the great accomplishment realm gave Kyōsuke Kuchiki an enormous boost in strength.

Now, his Zankensōki was already no worse than those captains' in practice.

For that very reason, the longer Kyōsuke Kuchiki fought this life-and-death battle that should have been fraught with tension and excitement, the easier and more natural it became.

The battle was already over by the time he had just begun to sweat.

Bang!

The Adjuchas crashed down hard into a heap of collapsed buildings!

Countless bricks, tiles, and stones came crashing down again, raining onto its head and covering its body.

The sight shocked Gin Ichimaru and the Soul Reaper trainees once more.

Their mouths hung open, and they were utterly dumbfounded.

Wasn't it supposed to be Captain-level?

Was this Adjuchas going easy on him?!

Lord Kyōsuke hasn't even used his strongest Kidō. He's just been punching and kicking it, like he's beating up a child!

And now the Adjuchas has been slammed into the ground like a dog!

"This... this is it..."

Looking at the deep indentation the Adjuchas had made in the collapsed masonry, Gin Ichimaru suddenly trembled slightly, a strange trace of lingering fear rising in his heart.

I challenged young master Kuchiki like that during the seat competition, and I still have all my arms and legs. I was lucky!

Afterward, the stationed Soul Reaper, who had been trying to report the situation all along, contacted a technician at the Research and Development Institute through a Hell Butterfly.

Visibly agitated, he shouted:

"Hello, there's big trouble!"

"This is the sixth-year class A of Shin'ō Academy. We're conducting Konsō field training in Karakura Town."

"An Adjuchas has appeared!"

"I repeat, an Adjuchas has appeared!"

"..."

Chapter 23: Adjuchas? Are You All Dead Yet?

Meanwhile, at the Research and Development Institute in Seireitei.

"An Adjuchas?!"

How could a Hollow that powerful appear at the examination site by such a coincidence?!

When assessing Soul Reaper trainees, Seireitei would naturally not leave them entirely unsupervised.

First of all, each area had an invisible barrier, similar to Seireitei's Shakonmaku, which would repel all manner of Menos Grande.

In addition, Kisuke Urahara, the Twelfth Division captain, had been summoned from his laboratory by the Captain-Commander to oversee the Research and Development Institute in person.

Yet even with such thorough preparations, problems had occurred at the same time.

The monitoring equipment, communications devices, and barriers had all failed almost simultaneously.

It made no sense at all!

Kisuke Urahara frowned, his face full of disbelief.

Beside him stood Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the deputy director wearing a black-and-white clown mask, who was also the Twelfth Division's Third Seat.

At the mention of an Adjuchas, a trace of curiosity appeared in Mayuri's yellow eyes.

Even an Adjuchas has shown up...

Has this group of Soul Reaper trainees been cursed by something?

Even if Karakura Town was a Jūreichi that could attract Hollows, it was still rather strange for so many Menos Grande to appear all at once.

The reason was simple: an Adjuchas could only retain its sanity and continue growing stronger by devouring souls of its own class.

A place like the World of the Living should have held no attraction for that kind of Menos Grande.

Mayuri pondered quietly for a while before suddenly speaking:

"I hear there's a genius from the Kuchiki Clan among the examinees this time. The struggles between nobles really are ugly."

Believing he had found the answer, he spoke into the communications device with little interest:

"Has the Adjuchas left? Are you all dead yet?"

"If it hasn't left, a living Adjuchas would make a decent test subject."

Hearing this, the Soul Reaper stationed in Karakura Town froze and murmured, "You might not believe this, but none of us are dead. That Adjuchas is about to die. A Soul Reaper trainee is close to beating it to death."

He glanced at the Adjuchas, which was on the verge of actually becoming a ball.

Under Kyōsuke Kuchiki's relentless, storm-like beating, the Adjuchas could only curl up into a ball and struggle to hold on with High-Speed Regeneration.

Faced with a scene so utterly bizarre, the stationed Soul Reaper found himself at a loss for words.

He had no idea how to respond.

If he lied, that would be a dereliction of duty;

But if he told the truth, even he, who had seen it with his own eyes, could not believe it was real and suspected that something was wrong with his vision.

Never mind the captain on the other end.

And so, for a time, the stationed Soul Reaper fell silent.

Hearing no answer from the stationed Soul Reaper on the other end for a long while, Kisuke Urahara gave Mayuri Kurotsuchi a speechless look.

He thought his subordinate's poor choice of tone had angered or frightened the other man.

Mayuri was someone he had personally promoted from the Nest of Maggots.

His research abilities were outstanding, but he was just as capable of causing trouble.

The man seemed to have no idea that trouble came from the mouth, and dared to say anything.

Before, he had spoken of many hidden, dark secrets, and people from Central 46 had deemed his thinking too dangerous and locked him up.

Apparently, he had not been locked up long enough, and had learned nothing from it.

Even so, Kisuke Urahara agreed with Mayuri's assessment.

A group of Soul Reaper trainees who were not even ordinary Soul Reapers had run into a Captain-level Menos Grande. What was there to rescue?

Collecting the bodies would be more like it.

Besides, the stationed Soul Reaper had not called for help, so the only possibility was that the Adjuchas had killed its fill and left.

Still, Kisuke Urahara was far more reliable than Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and immediately gave an order:

"I'm Kisuke Urahara, captain of the Twelfth Division!"

"I'll contact the other division captains right away and send you support!"

"Do you hear me? Do not engage!"

The communicator in front of him immediately began to hiss with static, and normal communication became impossible.

"Damn it, is powerful Reiatsu interfering with it?!"

Looking at the abnormally chaotic, high-intensity Reiatsu currently registering over Karakura Town on the Reiatsu detector, Kisuke Urahara's expression twisted for a moment, and he immediately began contacting the other captains.

The one closest to the Senkaimon and currently available is...

He paused, apparently hesitating, but considering the urgency of the situation, he had no choice but to send a message at once.

A few seconds later, inside the Fifth Division Barracks.

"This is the Research and Development Institute!"

"There's been an incident during Konsō field training in Karakura Town!"

"Fifth Division lieutenant... Sōsuke Aizen, can you take a team to support them now?!"

The Fifth Division was responsible for supporting rescue operations in the first place.

To guard against accidents, whenever a Konsō test like this was held, the Fifth Division did indeed need to keep at least one mobile force on standby.

Today, the only one available happened to be Aizen, the lieutenant.

Hearing the voice, the man sitting at the desk turning the pages of a book raised his head.

He pushed up the glasses on his nose, a smile at the corners of his lips.

Unlike his usual gentle smile, this one was tinged with pleasure, seeming full of excitement and anticipation.

In the face of such urgent news, it seemed rather cruel.

As though he had not heard the message, he slowly finished reading the page before finally rising and responding to the call.