Rukon District.
Once you get out into the districts with larger numbers, even the atmosphere itself seems to turn ominous.
The whole area feels wrapped in a tense, dangerous edge.
At the very least, it’s completely different from when I lived in Riosa.
There aren’t any houses nearby.
There isn’t even any sign of people.
On the way here, I passed ruined homes and people lying around listlessly, but there isn’t even that much in this place.
It’s almost as though everyone is deliberately avoiding this area.
“Even the insects and animals must sense it instinctively and stay away…”
I pulled several sheets of paper from inside my robes.
I’d already reread them over and over on the way here, but I went through them one last time to make sure.
“Honestly…
Captain always does things so suddenly.
Even when she trains me, she only ever tells me the day before…”
The papers contained information on a wanted Hollow.
“I’ll just think of this as another trial—a little tough love.”
To explain how I ended up in this situation, we need to go back about half a day.
“Ah, Yukawa.
Perfect timing.”
“Yes?”
It was around ten minutes before the start-of-work bell at the Coordinated Relief Station when Captain Unohana called out to me.
“Um…
did you need something?”
“Yes.
I have a special mission for you.”
“…What?”
A special…
mission…?
I’ve been assigned to the Fourth Division for more than ten years now, but nothing like this has ever happened before.
I don’t think any of my seniors or the seated officers ever mentioned getting one either…?
“Here.”
The captain handed me several sheets of paper.
I looked through them while asking,
“What are these?”
“Information on a Hollow.
I obtained it from another division.”
My eyes stopped moving across the page.
“…What?
Um…
could you say that again?”
“Information on a Hollow targeted for extermination.
Another division was handling the case, but I had them hand it over to me specially for this.”
Captain Unohana said it with a gentle smile that practically asked, Is there a problem?
“…They handed it over…?
This is Hollow extermination!
I’ve been in the Fourth Division for years and I’ve never once—”
“You’ll be fine.
You can handle it.
The location is a little far away, but even allowing for the journey there and back and the investigation, two days should be more than enough.”
“What about the normal duties I’m responsible for while I’m gone—”
“No problem.
The others will divide them up.”
Aah!
She’s not listening to me at all!!
“You’re suddenly sending someone with no Hollow-hunting experience to exterminate one—and I’m supposed to go alone, right!?”
“Naturally.”
“That’s impossible!!
Captain, do you secretly hate me or something!?”
After I pushed the complaint that far, Captain Unohana let out a small sigh.
“Listen carefully.
From the day you joined until now, I have been watching you.”
…It’s already been several decades since I joined and started receiving training from the captain, though.
Honestly, I really don’t grow very fast…
“Time is not the issue.
Your progress may indeed be slower than a turtle’s, but the fact that I have not abandoned you all this time should be proof enough of that.”
D-Did she read my mind!?
N-No.
Surely that was just a coincidence…
right?
“And I judged that, as you are now, you can complete this assignment without issue.
That is why I went out of my way to have another division give it to me.”
“Captain…
I see.
I’m sorry.”
“I’m glad you understand.
This is for your sake as well.
And I personally looked through the options and selected an opponent that even you should be able to defeat.
So there should be no problem even if this is your first Hollow extermination.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
I found myself bowing to her.
“I’ll explain the situation to everyone else.
Yukawa, head to the site immediately.”
“Yes!”
And that’s how I ended up all the way out here in Rukon District.
That’s how I got here, but…
“The information in these documents is awfully thin…”
There is information on the Hollow.
Technically.
But most of it is just a summary of the area where it’s been appearing, a rough predicted range based on that, and a possible location for its lair.
There is some information about the Hollow itself too.
But only things like its size and general appearance.
There’s nothing about what abilities it has.
Nothing about how strong it is.
In other words, none of the information I’d actually want before fighting it.
The place I’m standing in right now is one of the locations listed in the documents as, “It may be hiding somewhere around here,” but—
“This really does feel like the right place.”
Given how completely devoid of life the area was, I figured there was a good chance this was the real thing.
“If that’s the case, then somewhere around here—…!”
A savage sense of danger suddenly prickled across the back of my neck.
At the same time, I felt a powerful burst of killing intent.
“Blut!!”
Almost unconsciously, I activated Blut to raise my basic physical abilities and threw myself out of the way.
“…Ghh!”
I reacted a fraction too late.
Something grazed across my back.
Thanks to Blut boosting my defence as well, it only sliced through a thin layer of skin.
Little more than a scratch.
Without Blut, that would have been much deeper.
“Kihyah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!
So the Soul Reapers finally decided to come out here!!
Fine by me!
I was getting sick of the taste of the small fry around here anyway!!
It’s about time I got myself some bigger prey!!”
Maybe injuring a Soul Reaper, even slightly, had put it in a good mood.
The Hollow suddenly revealed itself from wherever it had been hiding.
A huge hole gaped in its chest, and an enormous mask covered its face.
It looked exactly like the Hollows I knew.
Its mouth was lined with fang-like teeth.
Its claws were as sharp as a predator’s.
With those thick, powerful arms, it practically screamed that close combat was its speciality.
“And you’re a woman too.
A bit on the tall side, but who cares…
Ahh, this is perfect!!
I’ll take my time.
Nice and slow.
I’ll carve wounds all over you, and no matter how much you scream and cry, nobody’s coming to save you…
Then, once you’ve had plenty of time to sink into despair, I’ll eat you!!”
“Go ahead and try!!”
This one clearly had…
issues.
I raised my Zanpakutō and shouted back, forcing myself not to get swallowed up by its momentum.
Still, wasn’t the standard Hollow-hunting strategy supposed to be “sneak up behind it and smash its head in with one blow”?
And my first ever Hollow extermination is a straight-up fight…?
“Kihyah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!
Then I’ll give you exactly what you asked for!!”
“…What!?
It vanished…!?”
The Hollow in front of me faded away as though it were blending directly into the scenery.
What is this…?
“Take this!!”
“…!
There!”
I couldn’t see it anymore.
But that was all.
It was certainly fast, and its attacks seemed powerful.
But I could still follow its movements with spiritual-pressure sensing.
I could hear its attacks cutting through the air.
And it wasn’t hiding its killing intent either.
At this level, I could deal with it as long as I stayed calm.
I only took that first hit because it caught me off guard, and because my first Hollow extermination had me more flustered than I realised.
Calm down, me…
Compared with Captain Unohana’s training, this is—
Ah.
Now I’m getting scared for a completely different reason.
“Oh?
Not bad for a lucky guess!
But how long do you think you can keep that up…?”
Maybe it thought I’d dodged by accident.
Or maybe it was so confident in its ability that it didn’t care even if I could avoid one or two attacks.
I could practically feel the mockery rolling off it.
“So this…
is your ability?”
“That’s right!!
I can blend into the scenery around me and hide myself!
That means you’ll never find me!
I don’t care what kind of Soul Reaper you are—can you fight properly with your eyes taken away!?
Of course you can’t!
I’m going to make you savour the terror of an enemy you can’t see!!”
“I see…”
…Maybe this is just one of those manga things, but why did it explain its own ability to me?
Wouldn’t telling your opponent how it works obviously put you at a disadvantage?
From the other person’s point of view, there should’ve been all kinds of possibilities.
Was it actually turning invisible?
Was it blending into the scenery?
Was it hiding somewhere and launching invisible attacks from a distance?
Did it have an accomplice somewhere?
That sort of thing.
Maybe this is what people mean by *osare*.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand it.
There was one more thing I’d figured out too.
Why this Hollow extermination had been passed to the Fourth Division.
Hollow extermination is Soul Reaper work.
It’s also something you get evaluated for.
Would another division really hand over that kind of achievement so easily?
If they were willing to give it away, then the target was probably something they wouldn’t mind losing credit for.
Like this one.
Something extremely time-consuming to find because it was good at hiding.
Something that kept running away and changing its lair.
Something annoying.
Something troublesome.
The kind of job where everyone thinks, I really don’t want to deal with this…
Let’s dump it on somebody else…
And that’s what got passed to us.
Oh.
So it’s just the same as every other Fourth Division job.
And—
This is only a guess, but I have a feeling Captain Unohana deliberately selected the single most annoying, troublesome target she could find and brought it to me.
She did specifically say, “I personally looked through the options,” after all.
Aha…
Ahahahaha…!!
Right.
This is all your fault.
“Cero.”
“Guaaagh!?!?”
The Hollow had been carefully shifting position even while it talked.
But spiritual-pressure sensing had already told me exactly where it was.
I casually held out one hand towards it and immediately fired a flash of destruction.
It clearly hadn’t expected to be hit.
Being completely off guard made the damage even worse.
“W-Why do you know where I am…!?
No, forget that—what the hell was that!?
Why can a Soul Reaper use Cero!?”
“It’s only an imitation, but I’ve practised it…
And I can do this too.”
“GYAAAAAAAH!!”
Next came a barrage of Bala.
Each individual shot was weaker than Cero, but speed and rapid fire were the whole point.
So I hammered them across its entire body without leaving any part untouched.
Unable to maintain its camouflage under the uninterrupted barrage, the Hollow became visible again.
Cero and Bala are doing real damage against a Hollow of this level.
And Blut really did boost my defence properly.
Looks like refusing to give up and training them for more than a hundred years paid off.
Since I’ve got the opportunity, I may as well use this Hollow as a test subject for abilities I normally can’t use openly or experiment with freely.
“Stop!
S-Stop!!
Guh!!
Aren’t Soul Reapers supposed to use something called Kidō!?”
“Oh?
You wanted Kidō?
In that case…”
“Huh…?
N-No, that’s not what I—”
“Bakudō Number Thirty: Shitotsu Sansen!!”
Three enormous beaks appeared and drove into both of its arms and its waist.
Their momentum didn’t stop there, pinning the Hollow against a nearby tree.
“Gah!?
I-I can’t move…!?
At this rate…”
“Hadō Number Thirty-Three: Sōkatsui!!”
Blue flames erupted and blasted straight into an opponent that had now been reduced to a stationary target.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!
HOT!
HOT!
HOT!
HOT!
HOOOOOT!!”
It clearly wanted to roll across the ground and beat the flames out with its arms.
But with Shitotsu Sansen pinning it in place, it couldn’t move an inch.
“Now then.
This is the end.”
“N-No…
No, no, no!
I haven’t even—AAAAAAAGH!!”
I swung my Zanpakutō at the immobilised Hollow.
Maybe the boost from Blut helped, because the mask that should have been sturdy split apart with surprising ease.
The Hollow disappeared immediately afterwards.
The scorch mark left on the tree bark was the only proof that it had ever been there.
“For someone with tastes like yours, those last words were surprisingly dull.”
I haven’t endured the captain’s training—the kind that makes me prepare for death every single time—for nothing.
My sword is no longer that ill-fitting imitation of Master’s.
I slid my blade back into its sheath and started to turn away, considering the job done.
Then I remembered.
“…Oh.
Almost forgot.”
There was still a faint pain running across my back.
A wound I hadn’t completely avoided because of my own inexperience.
“Well, something this minor…”
I silently focused my mind for a moment.
That was all it took for the pain in my back to vanish completely.
Not even a scar remained.
The results of all that Kaidō training with Captain Unohana.
It’s my own body, after all.
An injury this minor can be healed in an instant now.
My level of skill is completely different from when I’d first joined.
And just like that, my first Hollow-extermination mission ended almost anticlimactically.
“Oh, Yukawa.
Perfect timing.”
“…Again, Captain…?”
Maybe she’d developed a taste for it after that first mission.
Ever since then, from time to time, Captain Unohana would appear holding another set of documents and assign me yet another special mission.
Every time I saw those papers in her hands, my shoulders slumped.
Author’s Notes
This is about how strong she is right now.
???
“You were caught by a surprise attack, so that’s a fail.
We’ll have to make the training even stricter.”
● The Hollow in This Chapter
It hides itself with a camouflage ability and has a hobby of covering other people in wounds.
It especially loves the sound of women screaming.
It enjoys slowly, thoroughly driving home the terror of being attacked by an enemy they cannot see until they fall into despair.
Given that personality, I imagine it was probably a perverted man before becoming a Hollow.
It had been killing residents of Rukon District, so the Soul Reapers were investigating it.
But because it could hide itself, they had a hard time finding it.
(Airi is a woman, so it took the bait and showed itself almost immediately.)
It may look as though Airi won easily, but it was actually a fairly dangerous opponent.
An average Soul Reaper had a good chance of being killed without ever seeing it.