Shiba Kaien, Third Seat of the Thirteenth Division, did not look pleased.
His gaze swept over the two Onmyoji corpses on the ground, then shifted to the tainted Reishi left behind after the Hollow disappeared.
He noticed that the souls of the two men had not emerged as they normally would after death.
Clearly, the Hollow had completely devoured them just moments ago, leaving them no chance to enter the cycle.
He made no direct comment or accusation about the humans' deaths being caused by Yan Si's "arriving too late."
He simply looked away from the corpses and turned his attention to Yan Si.
"Fifth Seat Yan Si," Shiba Kaien said, his tone serious.
"When we Shinigami descend upon the Human World, our duty is not limited to performing 'Soul Burial' on the souls of the dead.
When Hollows appear and threaten living humans, doing our utmost to protect them is also part of our responsibility."
He paused and looked at Yan Si, as if making sure:
"That's a principle they repeatedly emphasized in the basic courses at the Central Spirit Arts Academy, isn't it?"
Yan Si's expression did not change. He replied calmly:
"I just barely passed my theory classes. I wasn't an outstanding student, so I might not remember all the details that clearly."
It was impossible to tell whether his tone was self-deprecating or simply factual.
Shiba Kaien looked at him intently, as if trying to read something in his face, but in the end, he merely nodded.
"Sorry for the trouble, but please pay closer attention to the battlefield during the rest of the operation.
We have neither the authority nor the reason to interfere in wars and killings between humans.
But the moment a Hollow targets living humans, that falls within the domain we Shinigami are obligated to manage."
With that, he did not linger. He deftly turned and rushed back toward the main battlefield, where souls and Hollows were mixed together, to continue directing and participating in the Soul Burial work.
Yan Si stood where he was, calmly watching Shiba Kaien's retreating figure.
Shiba Kaien was a direct heir of the Shiba family, one of the Five Noble Houses.
In terms of both status and the sense of responsibility and initiative he had shown, he stood out among the younger generation of Shinigami.
His identity and background also meant he might have access to information and secrets beyond the reach of ordinary Shinigami.
Could the Shiba family be secretly interfering with the forces in the Human World? Were they using Onmyoji to create "Oni Warriors"?
The thought flashed through Yan Si's mind, but he quickly shook his head.
Now was not the time to investigate the tangled secrets of the noble houses or their interference in the Human World. The battlefield before him was already chaotic enough.
He pushed the thought aside and moved into the battlefield himself.
Unlike the Eleventh Division, which focused on chasing down and cutting up Hollows, he moved along the battlefield's edge and through the gaps between the Thirteenth Division's patrols.
At times, he used the hilt of his Zanpakuto to perform Soul Burial on a soul.
At others, he raised a finger and, without even looking, fired a blast of "White Ray" in some direction, shattering a Hollow trying to pounce on a soul or an isolated Shinigami.
His movements were efficient and precise, without any unnecessary flourishes.
As time passed, however, the changing battlefield caught his attention.
The sounds of human soldiers fighting and the number of fallen soldiers were both visibly diminishing.
That meant the number of newly formed souls was also dropping sharply. In theory, the Shinigami should have had less work to do.
But the opposite was true.
The Shinigami of the Thirteenth Division were still running themselves ragged, and the Eleventh Division's battle cries as they cut down their foes showed no sign of stopping.
Because the number of Hollows seemed not to have decreased at all!
The Hollows crawling out of the black rifts in the sky continued to pour forth, as if they would never end.
"White Ray!"
Yan Si furrowed his brows and pointed three times in quick succession. Three silver-white bolts of lightning shot out almost simultaneously, blasting apart three Hollows in midair. They had just squeezed half their bodies through different rifts and were already eager to pounce on the dense cluster of spiritual beings below.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Yan Si suddenly looked up and swept his gaze across the sky above the battlefield.
There hung more than a dozen black, crescent-shaped spatial rifts of various sizes, their edges twisting and writhing without pause.
These rifts were passages that Hollows had forcibly torn open while crossing the boundary between worlds.
Since when had it become so easy for Hollows to "cross worlds"?
Even though Hollows naturally possessed some ability to break through the boundary between worlds, such breaches should have been random and unstable.
The rifts' locations and timing were hard to predict, and they usually lasted only a short time.
But these rifts...
Yan Si's heart sank.
Ever since the battle began, the black crescents in the sky had seemed vaguely out of place to him. Now, as he thought back and examined them more closely, one fact became clear.
A considerable amount of time had passed since they arrived at the battlefield, yet the dozen or so black rifts in the sky had never truly disappeared!
Even when one or two of them seemed close to closing, new Hollows would soon force them open again, or they would stabilize on their own, remaining in that eerie state of being neither open nor closed.
They were like a dozen wounds that would never heal, stubbornly embedded in the sky of the Human World and constantly spewing out monsters.
Something was wrong! This was absolutely not normal!
Yan Si immediately stopped the Soul Burial he was performing. After a few quick flashes, he reached Ashido, who was nearby.
"Vice-Captain Ashido," he said bluntly, speaking a little faster than usual. "I've noticed something abnormal."
Ashido had just flicked a Hollow's mask away with the tip of his sword. At Yan Si's words, his hand stilled, and he turned to look at him.
Yan Si pointed toward the sky. "Those rifts haven't truly closed since we arrived.
"The frequency and number of Hollows appearing are far beyond what the gathering of souls could normally attract.
"There are hardly any new souls forming now, but the Hollows are still pouring out without slowing down. This isn't normal."
Ashido followed his finger and looked up at the dozen or so black crescents hanging high above.
His brows gradually drew together, and a glimmer of recollection and comparison flashed through his eyes.
As the Eleventh Division's seasoned vice-captain, who had fought Hollows for years, he knew their habits and patterns of appearance better than most.
He had simply been too busy fighting and giving orders to pay particular attention to the "backdrop" of the sky.
Now that Yan Si had pointed it out, he immediately understood the problem.
"You're right," Ashido said, his voice lower than usual, unmistakably grave.
"Normally, temporary rifts in the boundary opened by Hollows quickly seal up after the Hollows pass through, thanks to the world's own restorative power. They don't last long.
"I've never seen a group of rifts stay open and stable for this long, and I've never read about anything like it in any records."
His gaze swept quickly across the battlefield before settling on the position of his captain.
Kurayashiki Kenpachi was fighting with gusto on the other side of the battlefield. The Hollows he had felled had already formed a small ring around him.
Ashido's eyes turned cold. He didn't rush over to alert Kurayashiki Kenpachi while his captain was immersed in the thrill of battle. That might disrupt his rhythm, and there might not be time.
He decisively pulled a finely crafted metal box from inside his robes.
Crouching down, he placed it on a relatively flat patch of ground and quickly pressed several raised spots on its lid.
"Click... whirr..."
A faint mechanical sound and the hum of activated Reishi rang out.
The lid slid open automatically to either side, and the internal components unfolded like flower petals, forming a miniature communications device on the ground in the blink of an eye.
Ashido knelt beside the device and pressed his fingers against the input node at the center of the array. He infused it with his Reiatsu and intent, then began reporting in a clear, urgent voice:
"This is Eleventh Division Vice-Captain Ashido, calling from the battlefield in the eastern district of the Human World! Reporting an abnormal situation:
"We have observed a stable cluster of irregular spatial rifts. The frequency and number of Hollows emerging are severely abnormal, exceeding all reasonable expectations. Unknown interference or a summoning mechanism may be affecting the battlefield.
"Requesting technical analysis support. We also recommend preparing reinforcements immediately, ready to intervene at any time!
"Repeating: requesting technical and combat support!"
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