One week ago.
"Tōsen, we are now Shinigami."
Sōya Azashiro stood on the watchtower of Naruki's outer city, looking out over the entire district.
The walls built by the nobles in the inner city were even taller than the watchtower.
From his angle, Sōya could not see the inner city.
However, while the high walls could block human commoners, they could not stop a Shinigami.
Sōya had been to the inner city before. The atmosphere was similar to the noble district in the Seireitei, nothing special.
"Is that so?"
Kaname Tōsen, lying on the roof, said slowly. "But I think a mature Shinigami would definitely not be late for duty."
"Sorry! I misread the duty roster..." Sōya scratched his face in embarrassment. "I thought we were supposed to patrol the outer suburbs first today. I was waiting for you over there..."
Sōya had already passed the assessment of the Kidō Corps examiner. They just needed Isshin Shiba to give them a score to complete their graduation assessment.
For today's patrol mission, there was no official Shinigami guide; they had to complete it independently.
However, the patrol mission was not difficult. They just had to follow the procedure and do what needed to be done.
"Let's start the patrol!" Sōya was in high spirits, as this was a rare trip to the human world for him.
"The little shrine maiden is coming," Tōsen slowly sat up.
The young maiden from the mountain shrine, who lived as a neighbor to the Shinigami, often wandered the outer city.
The Shinigami frequently saw her during their patrols, and Sōya and Tōsen had become quite familiar with her.
"Your spiritual sense is really sharp. I didn't even notice her yet!"
Sōya exclaimed.
The little shrine maiden had the ability to see spiritual bodies, but her spiritual pressure fluctuation was negligible. Sōya would have to stand right in front of her and concentrate to sense it.
"Honorable gods!"
The little shrine maiden came running over.
"Miss Yakumo, did you find anything today?"
Sōya asked in a friendly manner.
The little shrine maiden had practically become an informant for the Shinigami, often providing them with information on souls that needed to be guided.
After learning about her wide network of contacts in Naruki, Sōya had asked for her help in investigating a matter.
"Honorable god, I have a lead on the matter you asked me to investigate!" she said quickly.
"You had her investigate the missing souls?" Tōsen frowned. "She's just a little girl. Why would you have her investigate information about Hollows? It's too dangerous."
"I certainly wouldn't let her get directly involved," Sōya shook his head. "I just asked her to inquire with the well-informed residents here to see which other families have had similar things happen."
Recently, several strange incidents had occurred in the Naruki area.
Generally, after a human dies, their soul will remain at the place of their death or wander to places they frequented in life.
But the little shrine maiden said she had encountered several special cases recently where the souls of the recently deceased could not be found.
Sōya felt that these cases were likely related.
He was afraid that a Hollow, not yet discovered by the Shinigami, was hunting human souls in the city.
"Honorable god, I've found a total of twenty-one places where similar things have happened. In all these places, souls have disappeared," the little shrine maiden took out a roll of parchment from her pouch.
"Miss Yakumo, you are very popular. You've gathered so much information in just a day or two," Sōya praised.
"It is Yakumo's honor to be of help to the honorable gods!"
Receiving praise from a Shinigami, the little shrine maiden was so happy she almost jumped for joy.
Sōya spread out the parchment to look at it. She had drawn a simple map on it, and the twenty-one locations were all marked.
"Tōsen, let's search all these places today and see if we can find any clues."
Sōya looked at Tōsen.
"We have to patrol anyway. It's fine to follow this route."
Tōsen had no objection.
"Thank you, Miss Yakumo. There might be a 'yokai' that devours souls hiding in the city. You should go back to the shrine soon," Sōya said with a smile.
Humans didn't understand Hollows and thought they were the monsters from legends. So, when talking to humans, Sōya used 'yokai' to refer to them.
...
Sōya and Tōsen followed the simple map provided by the little shrine maiden and conducted a thorough search of the city.
"This is not right... how come I can't sense any Hollow's spiritual pressure at all," Sōya looked troubled. "But souls don't just disappear for no reason..."
"It must be a Hollow that is very good at hiding."
Tōsen also felt that a Hollow was hunting human souls.
"A Hollow wouldn't stay in one place," Sōya looked at the rough map, and his eyes suddenly lit up. "Tōsen, have you noticed that all these people died in water!"
"Hmm... you think the Hollow might be hiding in the water?" Tōsen asked.
"I think it's in the underground river! The humans here dig wells to get water from it. The wells in the city are connected to the underground river," Sōya's tone became more and more certain. "The souls of these people who died in water were hunted by a Hollow hiding in the underground river!"
"There's a certain possibility..." Tōsen nodded. "If that Hollow is hiding in the underground river, it's normal that we can't find it in the city."
"We need to find an entrance to the underground river first."
There were many wells in the city. Sōya and Tōsen found one and jumped in.
They followed the water source and, just as they thought, the well water was connected to a subterranean dark river.
Underground, it was pitch black.
Sōya condensed a Kidō light in his hand.
"There's such a wide dark river under the ground!"
Sōya and Tōsen followed the water source and arrived in a wide, dark river.
"If the Hollow is really hiding here, your Kidō will turn us into a target."
Tōsen warned.
"That's true..."
Sōya thought Tōsen had a point and quickly extinguished the Kidō in his hand, using his spiritual sense to carefully perceive the surrounding movements.
However, he was a step too late. The light that had suddenly appeared in the dark river had already attracted the attention of whatever was hidden deep within.
"It's a Hollow!"
Tōsen and Sōya both sensed the approaching spiritual pressure fluctuation. It was a Hollow's.
Hiss—
A water snake several meters long lunged at the two of them.
Tōsen immediately drew his sword, and a stream of light slashed towards the snake.
Swoosh—
The water snake was extremely agile in the water. With a twist of its body, it dodged Tōsen's slash.
"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"
Sōya also acted. A bolt of lightning shot towards the water snake.
Zzzzz—
The water snake actually met the 'Byakurai' head-on, and the lightning instantly struck its body.
The lightning Sōya had released coiled around the water snake's body but did not cause it any harm.
The snake, now wreathed in lightning, was a notch faster and lunged to bite Tōsen.
"Tōsen! It absorbed the lightning I released!"
Sōya warned.
The lightning-infused snake was extremely fast, but Tōsen's sharp perception allowed him to prepare in advance, holding his Zanpakutō in front of him.
Thud—
Tōsen was slammed into the rock wall by the water snake.
While the snake was attacking Tōsen, Sōya did not waste the opportunity.
"Hadō #58: Tenran!"
The whirlwind that erupted from Sōya's palm rapidly expanded.
The terrifying air current soon churned up the entire dark river.
The water snake was like it was inside a washing machine, tumbling with the rotation of the current.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—
The water snake screamed in pain. Its body was soon torn into several pieces by the air current.
After the water snake fell silent, Sōya suddenly remembered that Tōsen was also in that direction and quickly stopped the Kidō.
The turbulence gradually subsided. Sōya found Tōsen hiding in an alcove in the rock wall.
"Tōsen! Are you alright?"
Sōya asked with concern.
"I am not," Tōsen pulled himself out of the rock wall. "Next time, can you not use a move that involves your allies!"
If he hadn't been slammed into the rock wall by the snake just now, he probably would have been tumbling in the water along with it.
"I was in a hurry to get you out of trouble..."
Sōya scratched his face.
"It was just an ordinary Hollow. Even with the ability to control water and lightning, it couldn't have been that strong," Tōsen said softly.
"I'll be careful next time. This snake Hollow should be the one responsible for the twenty-one missing souls. Now that this trouble is solved, let's go," Sōya didn't want to stay here any longer. "It's too dark here, I can't see anything."
"For me, there's no difference between here and above," Tōsen said calmly.
Tōsen walked over to the snake's remains and confirmed that it was dead.
The remains were slowly decomposing into reishi and dissipating.
The two found the way they came and left the underground river.
A moment later, in an unremarkable spot in the dark river, the water flow showed a slight disharmony.
The water parted like a curtain being drawn open from both sides.
Two figures, previously hidden by the water curtain, swam to the spot where Tōsen and Sōya had just been.
"Those two Shinigami's spiritual bodies are much more tempting than ordinary humans. If I could absorb them, I would definitely become stronger!"
A woman in a colorful kimono said.
"That would attract the attention of the Shinigami. The loss would outweigh the gain,"
the silver-haired man beside her said. "Your actions have been too frequent. You've already drawn their attention."
"I've lured some souls into becoming Hollows. That way, the Shinigami will think it was the Hollows who devoured those souls."
The kimono-clad woman was somewhat dismissive of the man's words.
She had made thorough preparations; the Shinigami would not discover her actions.
By using extreme emotions to induce souls, she could accelerate their Hollowfication.
Through this method, she created Hollows to distract the Shinigami while taking the opportunity to hunt human souls.
"You're just walking a tightrope by doing this,"
the silver-haired man, Jin Kariya, shook his head. "I've only assigned one or two companions to each 'hunting ground' because we need to absorb a large number of souls to become stronger. This needs to be done slowly over a long period of time to avoid being noticed by the Shinigami."
Jin Kariya was the leader of the Bounts.
The woman beside him, Izumi, was the companion he had come to Naruki to recruit.
However, this new companion had always been a lone wolf and was somewhat reckless.
Wherever she went, she would frequently absorb human souls in a short period of time.
Although she had taken some precautions, Kariya still felt that her methods were easy for the Shinigami to detect.
Ordinary human souls provided very little spiritual pressure. The evolution of a Bount required the absorption of a large number of souls.
Strengthening oneself was a matter of long-term planning. Izumi's actions were tantamount to killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, destroying the hunting ground's environment.
"There are humans everywhere. If I can't continue here, I'll just find another place. It's not like I can't find food, right?" Izumi chuckled lightly.
Her ability made her good at hiding, and she didn't think the Shinigami could catch her.
"Do as you please. I've given you my warning."
Kariya said no more and turned to leave.
He had his own business to attend to and didn't have that much time to watch over Izumi.
For Kariya to become the leader of the Bounts, his strength was naturally not weak.
However, his strength had hit a bottleneck.
Absorbing ordinary human souls had little effect on him anymore.
With the Shinigami watching the human world, the Bounts couldn't hunt human souls with impunity.
If he continued to hunt so inefficiently, Kariya probably wouldn't gain the power to counter-attack the Soul Society even in a thousand years.
However, if he absorbed the souls of humans with spiritual potential, the spiritual pressure gained would be hundreds or even thousands of times greater than that from ordinary souls.
His targets were those humans with spiritual potential. High-quality food could help him shorten his growth time significantly.
...
Sōya and Tōsen returned to the Shinigami station and submitted their mission report to Isshin.
"Impressive. You actually found a Hollow that the official Shinigami couldn't find," Isshin laughed heartily. "It seems you are now qualified Shinigami!"
"Hehe... Tōsen, you're benefiting from my glory!" Sōya patted Tōsen's shoulder proudly. "This time, it was thanks to my cleverness that we discovered the Hollow hiding in the underground river!"
Tōsen pouted and said nothing. It was true that the credit for finding the Hollow this time mainly belonged to Sōya.
"You both performed excellently. Tōsen's performance in the previous routine missions was also very good. I'll give you both full marks," Isshin took out the grading form and gave them full scores.
"Your assessment is now complete. However, my duty in Naruki will continue for some time, so you'll stay here with me a while longer," Isshin added. "If you continue to perform patrol duties here, you'll receive the same duty allowance as official Shinigami stationed in the human world."
Shinigami on duty in the human world could receive a much higher allowance than for missions in the Soul Society.
"No problem!"
Sōya nodded repeatedly. It was a rare trip to the human world, and he wanted to stay a little longer before going back.
Tōsen had no objection either. He was the poorest among them and was very happy to receive the duty allowance for a while longer.
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