Chapter 38

After gathering his spoils, Haruto called out to an empty spot.

"...Big Brother Haruto."

At the edge of the deep crater blasted out by Raikōhō, Inukai, who had just escaped, approached with a complicated expression.

"Tell me why."

Haruto spoke without looking back.

"You're not the kind of guy who'd be corrupted by a little wealth and power."

Haruto hadn't cared about Inukai's clothes earlier because he believed he knew his former underling fairly well.

"That Soul Reaper..."

Inukai fidgeted like a shy young woman.

"I'm listening."

Haruto gestured for him to continue.

"...He was willing to teach me Kidō."

"..."

Haruto could understand what he had done.

For Inukai, who admired the strong and was determined to grow stronger, the reason couldn't have been more compelling.

If someone had offered to teach Haruto magic before he transmigrated, he too would have been willing to pay a sufficient price.

"What did you learn?"

"...Shō."

"Is that why you ate until you got fat?"

"Yes."

Inukai nodded bitterly.

Even the most basic Hadō was impossible for someone without a Soul Reaper's talent to use, no matter what they did.

The only possibility Haruto could think of...

Inukai actually had a little talent, but not enough to get into Shin'ō Academy.

With that bit of talent, he used the simplest method of accumulating Reiatsu—eating, something ordinary souls had no need to do—to sustain the cost, so he didn't have to expend his "own existence" to cast Kidō.

Then...

"Use it. Let me see."

"O-okay."

The conversation between Haruto and Inukai ended.

As the chant for Hadō #1 neared its end, Shō sent the scorched dust mixed with ashes in the crater scattering.

"That's no worse than a first-year student at Shin'ō Academy."

"Th-thank you, Big Brother Haruto."

Haruto's praise brought a genuine smile to Inukai's face.

"While we're at it..."

Haruto turned around to face Inukai, the corners of his mouth curving up as he spoke with a hint of a sigh.

"Let me show you what real Kidō looks like—"

"Hadō #1."

When Haruto used to discipline Inukai for being young and foolish, he would give him an unforgettable flick on the forehead, just like this.

"Shō!"

Bang!!

A mixture of red and white liquid splattered over its owner's fallen body.

Volume one: 025, Hollow

Haruto left the battlefield without looking back.

He didn't look for the male Soul Reaper's Zanpakuto, which had been blasted away. Although the man's identity had essentially been confirmed, and bringing back the Zanpakuto would certainly have earned him a bounty,

Haruto had little interest in the matter.

He didn't care whether, after obtaining the Zanpakuto, the Gotei 13 would find a place to gather and

bury them, or wait until they had collected enough and send them to the Zero Division for Ōetsu to reforge—the materials needed to forge Zanpakuto were themselves made from the souls of numerous Soul Reapers, so reforging them would naturally save many steps.

None of that concerned Haruto.

The main reason was...

For a little money, he would have to go back and write several reports, and might even expose his strength. No matter how he looked at it, it wasn't worth it.

Besides, judging by the man's way of doing things and the meager possessions he had left behind, the dead former Seated Officer of the Seventh Division was most likely a pauper.

A pauper with little strength? It would have been a miracle if his bounty were high.

The interruption was over.

Now Haruto naturally had to get back on track and pay a visit to the Hollow occupying the well. Inukai had indeed deceived him, but to make others believe a lie, the lies had to be far fewer than the truths.

As for the information about the Hollow, Haruto only had to walk around the village a little to see if something was wrong. Inukai wouldn't have dared deceive him about something so obvious.

Whoosh!

Haruto's figure quickly vanished.

When he stopped again, he was less than fifty meters from the well. At the edge of the overgrown clearing, quite a few words were still faintly visible on a dilapidated, rotting wooden fence.

They were presumably warnings telling people to stay away.

Bang!

Haruto pushed open the vine-covered gate in the fence's only opening. After declaring at its climax, "I can't take it anymore," it crashed to the ground.

His feet stepped on damp, soft weeds.

Perhaps because no souls were competing with them for water, the lush green plants grew even more thickly than their counterparts at the edge of the forest.

"..."

Haruto took every step carefully. He was completely unfamiliar with the Hollow's Reiatsu and could only rely on his five senses to locate it.

In fact,

even Soul Reapers from the same division who often fought side by side had difficulty detecting Reiatsu and distinguishing whom it belonged to when they weren't engaged in fierce combat.

The reason Haruto's perception was so acute was the only intermediate Kidō he could be said to have mastered, which he always activated upon entering unfamiliar territory:

"Bakudō #58: Kakushitsuijaku."

Kakushitsuijaku was a specialized Bakudō with sensing and tracking abilities. When cultivated to its utmost, it could even lock onto multiple targets simultaneously over an extreme distance.

Haruto hadn't developed Kakushitsuijaku to such an outrageous degree, but he had devoted particular effort to refining its sensory aspect: even unfamiliar Reiatsu and presences would immediately have nowhere to hide once they entered his sensing range.

Its area of effect was a circle with a fifty-meter radius, and its maximum duration was two hours. This was the key to Haruto's ability to discover opponents ahead of time again and again.

However,

Kakushitsuijaku had difficulty functioning against Hollows:

Haruto had only seen one ordinary Hollow, whose Reiatsu had been completely suppressed, during a fifth-year class. Because Hollows were so distinctive, he couldn't identify them the way he did Soul Reapers by "recording" the traits their Zanpakuto shared.

Moreover, time had been too tight back then, and the Hollow's Reiatsu had all been suppressed within its body. Haruto also hadn't yet trained Kakushitsuijaku to its current level.

So...

Haruto's hitherto unfailing perception had finally met its match.

"Not coming out?"

The Hollow Inukai had described as exceptionally bloodthirsty at night hadn't immediately attacked as the information suggested it would.

"Not here?"

Haruto carefully gripped his sword's hilt, the Reiatsu condensed for Zanka no Tachi circulating back and forth within it.

"No..."

"I can faintly sense a presence completely different from a Soul Reaper's or a Plus's."

Light surged in his other palm as he continuously wove a Kidō trap.

"It's here..."

"At least, it was wandering nearby not long ago."

Intuition born of a creature's instincts was usually not reliable enough to serve as evidence. But Haruto, who rarely acted on intuition, was still quite willing to trust that instinct whenever he had such a feeling.

"Has it been so long since a soul intruded that you want to play with me?"

The warning signs had been there for quite some time.

A Hollow couldn't stay in one place for long without feeding. No matter how intelligent it was, it couldn't suppress its instinct to feed for an extended period.

Since it had developed a special sense of territory rather than wandering everywhere like an ordinary Hollow, it most likely wouldn't stray too far from its territory.

"Or..."

"Can this thing sense danger from me, so it's watching from somewhere nearby instead of charging straight in?"

"..."

"Forget it."

"Since you won't show yourself—"

Haruto had chosen to step into this trap despite knowing full well that a Hollow occupied the well. Of course, he wasn't going to keep waiting around.

Rustle.

Haruto took out the "Hollow Bait" he had swiped from Onizuka. He had learned the item's name from Rikujō Kyōya; reportedly, it was spoils taken from a dead Quincy by the 11th Division, which had been responsible for spearheading the assault during a battle to exterminate the Quincy in the human world.

Haruto applied a little pressure, crushing the white tablet into powder that dispersed into the air.

"..."

"!!"

The current master of this place didn't keep Haruto waiting long.

Fierce and chaotic—

An exceptionally powerful Reiatsu, carrying an unprecedented sense of pressure, suddenly appeared less than twenty meters in front of Haruto as if it had teleported there.

"Strong..."

The Hollow was right in front of him.

But its figure was incredibly blurry. Only a mask that flickered in and out of sight was barely visible in the dark.

"No wonder that guy didn't even fight it. This isn't an opponent a lower-ranked Seated Officer can handle at all... No, even a higher-ranked Seated Officer might not manage. Judging by its Reiatsu, at least, sending a lieutenant would be the best choice."

Hollows weren't classified by Reii.

But comparing their levels, the pressure this one displayed was roughly equivalent to Sixth-Class Spiritual Pressure.

It was only somewhat stronger than him.

Or, to put it another way...

"Just right."

For Haruto, whose strength had been growing steadily of late, having an opponent of the same level to practice against was a rare opportunity.

Haruto preferred an evenly matched fight to one where he trounced the weak.

"Your timing couldn't be better, so don't blame me for not holding back!"