"What were you and Lady Shutara talking about just now?"
On the way from the barracks back down toward the underground prison, Nishikawa looked at the kouhai beside him with open suspicion.
"Isn't it obvious?" Naraku shot back.
Nishikawa's face was full of confusion. He clearly had no idea.
Naraku said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "That woman's got the hots for me."
Nishikawa: "?"
He couldn't make any sense of that phrasing, but Naraku wasn't actually wrong.
You could tell just from Shutara Senjumaru telling him to report to the research lab tomorrow.
The Hollow Power he'd extracted from the Adjuchas had already fused perfectly with him.
As a scientist, there was no way Shutara would pass up a research subject this unique.
No wonder she wasn't willing to treat him as a Hollow and dispose of him.
If she did, where was she going to find another Shinigami who could perfectly control Hollow Power?
Nishikawa shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.
"Whether you're telling the truth or just don't want to say, it's fine."
"But with Lady Shutara here, those bigwigs shouldn't be able to use any dirty tricks on you."
"That alone will save you a lot of trouble."
The honest man's thinking was, as always, simple and straightforward.
Naraku nodded in agreement.
Judging from Shutara Senjumaru's attitude, he probably wasn't in any immediate danger.
But once that woman finished figuring out all of his secrets, who knew?
The prettier the woman, the better she was at lying, after all.
Who knew what she'd do to him once she'd drained him dry.
So while he had this rare window of safety, he might as well train hard and try to gain some real ability to protect himself.
His current level of strength didn't exactly make him feel secure.
"Nishikawa-senpai."
"Yeah?"
"Has the Central Prison had any jailbreaks recently, or missions to arrest criminals?"
"Huh?"
Nishikawa flared up in anger. "What do you think this place is? Do you take us for a bunch of useless wine sacks and rice bags?"
"A jailbreak isn't the kind of thing that just casually—"
Before he could finish, a piercing alarm suddenly rang through the entire prison barracks.
"Emergency alert!"
The urgent voice echoed through the halls.
"There's an intruder in the Intake Room, all units report to support!"
"Repeating, emergency alert!"
"The Intake Room…"
Nishikawa's eyes went wide, his face full of disbelief.
Did my damn mouth just jinx us? He hadn't even finished talking and a breakout incident already happened?!
"Naraku, you and I—"
By the time he snapped out of it and turned to call Naraku to go with him, the boy's figure was gone.
When he looked up again, that "someone" already had one hand on his hilt and was charging toward the Intake Room with an excited look on his face.
"Nishikawa-senpai, justice must never be late."
"I'll go on ahead."
His voice echoed down the empty street as Naraku's figure shot over the rooftops like a falling star, vanishing at the edge of Nishikawa's sight.
Nishikawa muttered a quiet curse and activated Shunpo to follow.
He had no idea how the intruders mentioned in the alarm had pulled this off, but the top priority now was to get to the Intake Room.
Arriving even a second late could mean casualties.
The Central Prison was short-staffed to begin with. If someone died, it'd be a huge loss.
...
...
Inside the Intake Room.
Several Shinigami lay unconscious, toppled and piled together without the slightest awareness.
Beside them, black chains were scattered all over the floor.
A figure wrapped tightly from head to toe, only a pair of eyes exposed, stood there, gaze cold as he surveyed the scene.
"Too late?"
"So they were sent down to the Hells already…? Under normal procedures, isn't there supposed to be an interrogation first?"
"Damn it, were those idiots really too weak to withstand even the basic punishments?"
The figure muttered to himself, eyes tangled with frustration.
"Breaking into the Intake Room is already pushing that woman to her limit. If I head down to the Hells as well, not even the Elders will be able to protect me. Forget it."
"Let's just hope they didn't spill too much."
He took a deep breath, ready to retreat from the Intake Room.
But before he could move, a savage Reiatsu surged outside, making his scalp prickle.
The next moment, under the intruder's stunned gaze, the intact front door was split apart by a single slash, exploding into countless shards that screamed through the air.
"Listen up in there—you're already surrounded!"
A wild, cocky voice rang out, followed by the entry of a sword-wielding figure.
"If you surrender early, I can at least try to get you a lighter sentence."
Naraku burst into the Intake Room and immediately saw the unconscious pile of Shinigami off to the side.
"I didn't expect my comrades to already have fallen victim to this scum. Looks like I am late."
"Don't worry, you guys. I'll avenge you."
Intruder: "?"
Is this kid brain-damaged?
They were just knocked out, okay? If your eyesight's that bad you can donate your eyes.
It wasn't like his guts were big enough to kill people at random in the Central Court's turf—especially not in a key facility like the Central Prison.
Silencing a few idiots was his limit. If he crossed that line, then even as a high-ranking noble, not even the Sages could save him.
"Kid, doing your job properly is more important than anything. If you mind your own business, you'll live longer—"
He was still trying to talk the boy down when a cold flash of steel came hacking toward him.
Clang!
As steel clashed with steel, a brutal Reiatsu slammed into him like a tidal wave, cutting off his words in an instant.
Naraku grinned viciously. "I don't care who you are—take a sword first, we'll talk after."
The intruder was shocked. The power coming through the Zanpakutō didn't feel like something a mere jailer should have.
Yet this guy wasn't any Head Jailer he knew.
Since when did the Central Prison have such a strong hothead?
"You're daydreaming in a fight to the death? Trying to die early?"
The smile on Naraku's face grew even more feral, a faint reddish aura swirling around him like a bloodthirsty beast breaking off its chain.
Just like his instructors at the academy had said.
He wasn't good at Aizen-style battlefield control. Instead of imitating others, he was better off fighting in his own way.
Blood-like Reiatsu wrapped around the silver-white blade, and like a charging dump truck, it smashed straight into the intruder's Zanpakutō head-on.
With a violent eruption of force, the man's body was lifted together with his sword and hurled backward, slammed hard into the wall!
There wasn't a hint of technique to it.
Just the pure beauty of raw stats.
The entire Intake Room shook as if hit by an earthquake, dust raining down as the intruder's body was driven into the stone, crushed by fragments.
"Gah…!"
He retched hard, feeling like something indescribable had rolled back and forth over his organs. Blood filled his mouth and teeth.
He struggled to wrench himself free from the shattered wall—but as the dust cleared, what greeted him was a bright red glow.
Naraku stood there with his sword in hand. He raised his other hand, extended a finger, and intoned:
"Hadō #31: Shakkahō!"