Chapter 39

"First..."

"Let's start by lifting that black curtain of yours!"

"Flash!!"

Haruto swung his right arm with force, and a light as bright as day instantly illuminated the entire clearing:

"Hadō #20: Shōtenkyū!"

"Bakudō #37: Tsuriboshi!"

The light from Shōtenkyū spread along the web of ropes woven by Tsuriboshi, instantly covering the sky above the well like a dome.

Before the fight even began, the Hollow concealed in the darkness of the night was revealed to Haruto:

Its nearly five-meter-tall body was completely shrouded in a pitch-black curtain, giving it something of the appearance of a "bodybuilder" Gillian. Its square, deathly pale ghost mask had a lifelike expression that made it look even more eerie.

"A Giant Hollow..."

Beings that ranked below Gillian-class Menos Grande but were far stronger than ordinary Hollows were referred to in Shin'ō Academy textbooks as "Giant Hollows," "Huge Hollows," or "Giant-Sized Hollows."

"It's much smaller than the Giant Hollows described in the textbooks."

"But no matter how I look at it, it seems more dangerous than an ordinary Giant Hollow."

Haruto wasn't about to underestimate his opponent because of its size.

The evolution of Hollows was quite similar to a Soul Reaper's Bankai. Before becoming an Adjuchas, they generally kept growing bigger, though there could also be exceptions like Ichigo's "Bankai," which went in a more compact direction.

Both the unusual and the unknown amounted to danger.

"Hum!"

Haruto hadn't yet had time to analyze the Giant Hollow's strength any further.

"!?"

The Giant Hollow, which had shown no reaction when the night sky was illuminated, had suddenly vanished from where it had been!

The Giant Hollow had an exceptionally keen sense for combat and a first-rate ability to seize an opportunity.

Attacking a moment earlier or later would have alerted Haruto in advance. Only an attack launched in the interval between tension and relaxation was hardest to guard against.

And...

"So fast!"

By the time Haruto caught sight of the Giant Hollow, it was already directly behind him, in a blind spot completely outside his field of vision!

"Slash!"

A flash of dull silver, concealed within the light, vanished in an instant. It was the Giant Hollow's sharp claws, hidden beneath its black robe.

"Whoosh!"

"Splat!"

The sound of Shunpo being used overlapped completely with the sound of blood spurting out.

The fight had only just begun, and one of Haruto's arms had already been cut open with a wound half a meter

long. Though it wasn't deep enough to expose the bone, the tough, tightly packed muscles and sinews that had protected it were all laid bare by a single strike.

And that was after Haruto had dodged. If he had been a moment slower, the Giant Hollow would have gutted him.

"Drip."

Down Haruto's middle finger, and down the Giant Hollow's claws.

The sound of blood hitting the ground rang out simultaneously from two distant points facing each other.

"Impressive."

Haruto checked the condition of his arm.

Fortunately, the Giant Hollow had no poison-related abilities—a small mercy amid misfortune. Though Haruto was exceptionally talented, he hadn't also studied Kaidō-type Kidō.

"In terms of speed, I'm no match for you."

"But..."

Haruto raised his arm, blood pouring from it.

"Closing in recklessly on an unfamiliar opponent is a major mistake in battle."

Even that former twelfth seat of the Seventh Division had known to probe his opponent with Kidō first, rather than rush straight into close combat with his Zanpakuto.

The Giant Hollow was indeed powerful, but it probably didn't have much combat experience.

"Keh?"

The Giant Hollow tilted its head and let out a sharp cry full of confusion.

But it soon realized what was wrong:

The moment its attack struck Haruto, the Kidō he had held back in his right hand was driven into the Giant Hollow's body.

"Hadō #11: Tsuzuri Raiden."

The Haruto of the past certainly couldn't have pulled off such a precise maneuver.

But now that his physical abilities had reached their current level, using his own arm as a conduit to release Tsuzuri Raiden didn't seem particularly difficult.

And...

The Kidō Haruto had prepared before the battle wasn't limited to Shōtenkyū and Tsuriboshi!

"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"

"Bakudō #26: Kyokkō!"

Tsuzuri Raiden's paralyzing effect wouldn't last long against an opponent of the Giant Hollow's level, especially since the two had only been in contact for a short time.

The true purpose of the move was to use the lightning's paralysis to make the Giant Hollow overlook the Hainawa, hidden by Kyokkō, as it wrapped tightly around its body!

"Whoosh!"

Hainawa spun with a sharp rush of air, and the Giant Hollow, so smug just a moment ago, had its movements completely bound by the Reishi rope.

"Hadō #4."

Reiatsu continuously gathered at his fingertip, flowing along the wound through bone, blood, sinew, and muscle.

After absorbing a large amount of Reiatsu and being stained by fresh blood, the maximally enhanced Byakurai turned a strangely alluring shade of crimson.

"Byakurai!"

"Crackle!!"

A wild, unrestrained beam of red light pierced the sky.

From the wound in the black curtain on the Giant Hollow's left side, comparable in size to its Hollow Hole, thin wisps of black smoke rose with a scorched stench.

"..."

"It failed."

Haruto muttered to himself with some regret.

"Without enough brute force to overwhelm it, using the same methods against a Hollow that I'd use against a Soul Reaper really does fall short."

As a single-digit Bakudō with the same number as Byakurai, Hainawa was a technique Haruto had mastered to perfection. A target bound by it would not only be unable to move, but the flow of its Reiatsu would also be rapidly sealed.

Without that effect, there would naturally be no question of binding anything.

However.

The way Reiatsu flowed within a Hollow's body was, after all, different from that of a Soul Reaper.

Although Hainawa had successfully hit the Giant Hollow, it hadn't sealed off its Reiatsu. It had even struggled to suppress it:

Though the Giant Hollow couldn't control its limbs or torso, it could release Reiatsu beneath its feet, allowing it to make a small leap into the air.

That slight leap, as though it had risen onto its toes, immediately brought all of Haruto's efforts to nothing.

A Giant Hollow's weak point was its mask. Whether it was cut apart or smashed, only a hit to the mask had a chance of destroying it completely.

All of that was in the textbooks, and Haruto, an excellent student, couldn't possibly have forgotten it.

Byakurai had originally been aimed at the mask, but because the Giant Hollow had jumped, it had only ended up punching a hole through the side of its chest.

At the same time.

The powerful blast of Byakurai had also severed the Hainawa binding the Giant Hollow... though it wouldn't have held it for much longer anyway.

The only result of that combination of moves was that Haruto had seen the Giant Hollow's Hollow Hole, hidden beneath the black curtain between its chest and abdomen.

"Squelch."

His clenched fist was a little slippery, but it didn't hinder Haruto in the slightest.

"Again!"

Whatever abilities the Giant Hollow had, the fact that it knew to protect its mask meant its weakness matched the textbook description.

Haruto considered exchanging an injured arm for information confirming his opponent's weakness a bargain that hadn't cost him anything.

And—

"Hadō #57: Daichi Ten'yō!"

Previous volume: 026, Give Him an Especially Brutal Kidō

The Giant Hollow couldn't use Sonído.

But its method of moving at high speed was definitely a rudimentary form of Sonído. It could be called half-step peak great perfection, more than a notch above Haruto's half-step lesser perfection Shunpo.

Of course.

There were still many steps before it could achieve a complete Sonído. The Giant Hollow was nowhere near capable of using Reiatsu to teleport through space, instead moving at extreme speed by something like jetting Reiatsu from beneath its feet.

In that case, as long as he seized the opportunity to disrupt and shift its balance at the moment it jetted out Reiatsu to leap, he could make the Giant Hollow's Sonído "teleport" it wherever he wanted. With both distance and speed determined, Haruto, who had recently been training hard in Shunpo, wouldn't misjudge the position.

"Thud!"

Haruto dropped to one knee and slammed his blood-soaked fist into the ground.

The Reiatsu driven underground sped toward the Giant Hollow through the soil and rock, instantly creating an intense vibration in a tiny area beneath its feet. A solid, protruding layer of rock tilted up beneath the Giant Hollow like a seesaw—

Haruto had already observed the Giant Hollow move twice, and his timing in releasing Daichi Ten'yō was superb.

"Hum!"

The Giant Hollow released its Reiatsu, and there was no longer any possibility of canceling its high-speed movement.

And so.

"Snap!"

The fist pressed against the ground suddenly extended its index finger, just as the Giant Hollow's figure appeared with a whoosh, eleven point two meters to Haruto's left—

"Bakudō #9: Hōrin!"

Two spinning Reishi ropes shot out of the ground in front of the Giant Hollow, swiftly winding toward its body!

"Keh!!"

An angry roar came from the Giant Hollow's mouth.

An arm hidden beneath the black curtain suddenly shot out, and a flash of dark silver light split the ropes formed by Hōrin in two.

But!

"That was bait."

Haruto calmly watched the Giant Hollow in midair.

"Bakudō #63."

The fist pressed against the sand opened fully. The Reiatsu pouring from his palm had long since traveled behind the Giant Hollow through the "tunnel" opened by Daichi Ten'yō.

"Sajō Sabaku!"

"Clatter!"