"What are you doing?"
Kisuke Urahara watched as Mayuri Kurotsuchi took out a spray bottle and began spraying an unknown liquid around the area.
"We spent two days searching to find this clue. We need to make some preparations so they don't get away."
After the liquid from Mayuri's spray bottle was released, it blended into the air.
"Is it for tracking..." Kisuke Urahara stared into the air for a moment. "You're really well-prepared!"
"I've found the Bounts' location," Sora said suddenly. "So they were hiding underground. No wonder we couldn't find any trace of them!"
After leaving the snack shop, Sora had been using his shadows to watch the clerk's movements.
Through his shadow vision, he saw the clerk summon the Bounts at her home.
These Bounts were hiding in a network of underground rivers. If the clerk didn't have a way to contact them, finding their hiding place wouldn't have been easy.
"As expected of the Captain. Those Bounts can't escape your grasp!" Kisuke Urahara covered the lower half of his face with his fan and smiled. "Looks like we'll have to take the initiative. Let's save Third Seat Mayuri's preparations for the next mission~"
"Hmph, no one will think you're mute if you talk less!"
Mayuri sneered and put the spray bottle back into the Reishi pocket in his sleeve.
By the time Sora brought Kisuke and Mayuri to the clerk's house, the Bounts in the courtyard had already extracted the clerk's soul.
This clerk was an obedient servant, but she had been in contact with that miko. Now that they were going to target the miko, the Shinigami might follow the trail back to them.
"An ordinary soul, so bland." The woman in the kimono swallowed the clerk's soul in one gulp and licked her lips, not quite satisfied. "Kariya Jin, I'm starting to regret letting you have that miko. A soul with Reishi potential... that's a true delicacy!"
If her strength wasn't inferior to Kariya Jin's, she wouldn't have been so kind as to help him hunt for souls with Reishi potential.
"Your Spiritual Pressure hasn't reached its bottleneck yet, so absorbing ordinary souls still provides noticeable growth," Kariya Jin said calmly with his arms crossed. "Don't be impatient. When you reach your bottleneck, I will also help you hunt souls with Reishi potential, and in the future... we can even hunt Shinigami!"
The Spiritual Pressure of a Shinigami's spirit body was far superior to that of these human souls. For the Bounts, a Shinigami's body was the best nourishment!
"Ohohohoho—"
A strange laugh from the courtyard wall startled both Kariya Jin and Izumi.
"Who's there?!"
The two looked up to see three humans on the wall.
The most eye-catching one, a man with a cone-shaped hat and his face painted white like lime, spoke:
"What a shocking statement. Even Shinigami have become your prey!"
Izumi sensed the strange man and realized he was just a human, and the alarm on her face quickly faded.
The strange people on the wall weren't Shinigami, so she didn't feel there was anything to worry about.
"Humans who know about Shinigami?" Izumi grinned. "You look even more delicious than that little miko..."
She assumed these people were humans with some spiritual abilities who had encountered Shinigami before.
"As expected, Third Seat Mayuri's appearance is more eye-catching. We've been completely ignored."
Kisuke Urahara took out a Soul Candy and swallowed it, immediately leaving his Gigai.
He wanted to capture a Bount before Mayuri could.
Although Mayuri already had a Bount captive, Kisuke didn't think he would pass up the chance to interfere again.
"You're a Shinigami?!"
Izumi looked at Kisuke in his Shinigami form in disbelief.
She had never seen a Shinigami use a Gigai before and had no idea that a body that felt no different from a human's could be hiding a Shinigami.
"It's a trap!"
Kariya Jin's expression darkened. It was no coincidence that the Shinigami had shown up now. The snack shop clerk must have exposed them.
A loud noise came from the well. Izumi drew the water out, and a water dragon rose into the air.
"Such water control is on par with some water-type Zanpakutō!" Kisuke Urahara drew his sword. "Awaken, Benihime."
He thrust his Zanpakutō forward, and a red halo of light spread out.
When Izumi's water dragon hit the red halo, it immediately stopped.
"What is this ability?!" Beads of sweat appeared on Izumi's smooth forehead as she struggled to control the water dragon, trying to push it forward.
But she felt a strange resistance, as if the water dragon was being perfectly canceled out by the red halo.
"This ability is really annoying..." Mayuri also took out a Soul Candy, swallowed it, and left his Gigai. "It analyzes the Spiritual Pressure structure of the opponent's technique and uses a technique with the same Spiritual Pressure properties to cancel it out..."
"An attack-canceling technique..." Izumi saw the other strange man also turn into a Shinigami and lost all hope. She abandoned Kariya Jin and jumped towards the well.
At the same time.
Kariya Jin raised his hand, and the device on it shot out hurricane wind blades, slashing towards Kisuke Urahara.
"Explaining my intel like that is helping the enemy!" Kisuke swung his blade, and a crescent-shaped red blade slashed towards the wind blades in the air.
The Reishi of the hurricane wind blades were moving too violently and quickly for Kisuke to analyze them in a short time.
"Sorry, but I'll take this target!" Mayuri used Shunpo to appear behind Izumi and struck down with his palm.
A ball of Spiritual Pressure, like an air cannon, pressed against Izumi's back and instantly exploded.
Boom—
The Spiritual Pressure blast instantly shattered Izumi into countless pieces.
"Oh?"
Mayuri raised an eyebrow. The technique he used shouldn't have been that powerful.
Izumi's body shattered all over the ground, but it wasn't bloody at all. Her body had turned into puddles of water.
"I see, so her body is fused with that doll?" Mayuri's spirits lifted. "This must be a rather unique case among the Bounts!"
Mayuri had Akon send him the Bount files, allowing him to learn more about them.
Bounts separate a part of their soul and fuse it with an object to gain special abilities.
These objects fused with souls, much like Zanpakutō, also possess consciousness.
The Bounts call these objects "Dolls."
The water puddles that Izumi had split into quickly flew towards the well.
Countless water droplets gathered into a stream and poured into the well.
"As long as I get into the water, no one can stop me!!!"
"Not even a Shinigami!"
However—
Izumi found that she couldn't reach the bottom of the well.
A red light barrier had appeared in the well at some point. This barrier made her hopes of escape sink to rock bottom.
"Naive!" Mayuri grinned. "How could the cunning and despicable Lieutenant Urahara not have anticipated that you might try to escape through the well?"
Kisuke Urahara had sealed the well entrance long ago.
Sealing the well not only cut off their escape route but also prevented Izumi from drawing more water, weakening the environmental advantage she had.
"Third Seat Mayuri's praise is a bit harsh!"
Kisuke Urahara was busy dodging the continuous wind blades from Kariya Jin.
It would take some time to break the red barrier, so Izumi had no choice but to give up.
The stream of water scattered into several strands, spreading out in all directions.
These water streams were what her body was made of. If a part was missing, she would be missing limbs when she returned to her human form.
But Izumi's ability gave her incredible survivability. As long as she could replenish water and Spiritual Pressure, she could restore her damaged body.
The next moment, the streams of water froze in mid-air.
Izumi found that the water streams, which were her body, had been imprisoned by an invisible force.
Even a nearly transparent stream of water still has a shadow.
The water was bound by shadows.
"What is this?!"
A wave of despair rose in Izumi's heart.
"Not many people can break free from the Captain's shadow binding. Clearly, you are not one of them." Mayuri smiled as he took out a jar from his sleeve and collected the streams of water.
Mayuri looked at the sloshing water in the jar and shook his head. "Don't waste your energy. The containers I use for my materials aren't so easy to escape from."
After a short while, the sloshing water calmed down.
The jar contained a powerful anesthetic. Even as a stream of water, Izumi couldn't resist the potent anesthetic that acted directly on her spirit particles.
Mayuri glanced at the situation in the courtyard. The other Bount was quite strong, and Kisuke Urahara wouldn't be able to take him down anytime soon.
He brought the jar over to Sora.
"Captain, this Bount's ability is very interesting. She can merge herself with water. It's given me a lot of inspiration. How about we send her to my lab for research?"
Mayuri found Izumi's ability to turn into water very interesting and wanted to study its secrets.
"You should focus on repairing 'Seiren' first," Sora shook his head gently. "We'll put this Bount in the public lab. You can have her when you've finished repairing 'Seiren'."
The Technology Development Bureau's public laboratory had rooms that could serve as temporary prisons.
Mayuri's lab already had two Bount captives. To avoid delaying the repair work on 'Seiren', Sora thought it was best not to give him any new research projects.
"Then I'll have to speed things up a bit."
Mayuri felt that Kisuke Urahara would compete with him for this material.
Meanwhile, Kariya Jin noticed that Izumi, who excelled at escaping, was being toyed with by these three Shinigami, and he no longer wanted to fight.
These three Shinigami were powerful, and continuing to fight would offer little chance of victory.
Kariya Jin's ability was to control the wind. He wanted to use the wind to create chaos and make an opportunity to escape.
The Spiritual Pressure in his body surged, revealing a pressure no less than a lieutenant's before the three Shinigami.
"This Spiritual Pressure... how many souls must he have absorbed!" Kisuke Urahara frowned.
The Spiritual Pressure gathered in the device on Kariya Jin's right hand, rapidly brewing a terrifying storm.
"Play with fire, Benihime."
Kisuke Urahara turned his blade, and red and black lines and Reishi spheres shot towards Kariya Jin.
Kisuke's Zanpakutō had multiple release commands, each corresponding to a different ability.
He had many abilities, allowing him to adapt to various situations.
Bang bang bang bang—
The Reishi spheres exploded around Kariya Jin.
Kariya Jin chose to endure the explosive damage with his Spiritual Pressure and pushed the terrifying storm brewing in his hand forward.
The residents of Naruki City also noticed the change in the sky.
"Look over there, what is that?"
"A miracle?!"
"A disaster! It's a natural disaster sent by the gods!"
Even ordinary humans could feel the terrifying storm in the sky.
The miko, Yakumo, was also staring at the storm.
She had Reishi potential and could feel its terrifying nature more than other humans.
Her body trembled uncontrollably, like a small animal facing its natural predator.
"Lord God..." Yakumo prayed in her heart. "The Lord God will surely defeat the demons!"
"This Bount is getting desperate. Does he plan to destroy this place, harm the humans in the city, and escape in the chaos?"
Sora frowned and quickly drew his sword.
A dark sandstorm rapidly formed in the air, condensing into a sandstorm blade.
Countless grains of sand moved violently within it, giving it an extremely terrifying sharpness.
The sandstorm blade slashed through the terrifying storm, directly tearing the visible storm and cutting it in half.
As Sora sheathed his sword, the remnants of the storm in the sky were swept up by the fierce winds created by the sandstorm blade and gradually dissipated.
The inspiration for this move came from Sajin Komamura.
Over the years, Sora's disciples had also developed many techniques.
These techniques were based on the swordsmanship Sora taught them and were also very suitable for him.
The city residents saw the dark storm suddenly get sliced open by a gray blade.
"That wasn't a natural disaster! It was the Lord God vanquishing demons! The Lord God saved all of Naruki!"
Yakumo breathed a sigh of relief and explained the scene to the customers in the teahouse.
"This is truly a miracle!"
The customers prostrated themselves on the ground reverently, shouting in the direction from which the gray blade had struck.
"What terrifying power..."
A hint of astonishment appeared in Mayuri's eyes.
He hadn't known the Captain for long and hadn't seen him in action much.
He had only learned a few things about Katori Sora through others' conversations.
He knew the Captain was very strong.
But seeing firsthand a technique comparable to a full-power strike from a lieutenant-level Shinigami being so easily neutralized was still shocking.
Mayuri glanced at Kariya Jin, who was lying on the ground.
Kariya Jin had only been grazed by the edge of that sandstorm blade, yet he was knocked unconscious by the terrifying gale.
Before Captain Katori, the leader of the Bounts was utterly powerless.
"I thought I was going to die just now!" Kisuke Urahara landed, saying with relief, "Good thing the Captain wasn't aiming at me!"
Kisuke was standing some distance from Kariya Jin, but he was still caught by the gale from the sandstorm blade, thrown into the air for a moment before coming down.
"Captain, I've been injured on the job." Although there were no wounds on his body, Kisuke limped over to Sora. "My injury can only be healed by a Bount!"
"You..." Sora shook his head helplessly. "Fine, you can send this Bount to your lab."
"Eh?" Kisuke Urahara jumped up and down on the spot. "I'm healed! The Captain truly is the number one doctor in Soul Society! You healed my injuries in an instant!"
"Don't talk nonsense, Captain Unohana will have an opinion on that!"
--------------------
Unlock 400+ chapters across 7+ different novels on Patreon!
This novel alone already has over 100 chapters available, so if you want to support the project and enjoy even more exclusive content, I'll be waiting for you on Patreon!
We're also entering the final chapters of the Bleach project, so now is the perfect time to catch up and enjoy the climax 👀
And of course — many more projects are already in progress!
There's always something new to read.
If you ever spot a mistake or inconsistency, feel free to drop a comment — your feedback helps me improve the story and polish every chapter!
📌 Also, if you write a review or show support for the novel, it helps me a lot — and I'll keep uploading more chapters for those who do. Your support in any form truly motivates me to continue!