"What a rotten fucking luck!"
Kazuma cursed under his breath while wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead.
He'd barely escaped a situation that could genuinely have killed him, yet instead of feeling relieved, he was already drowning in regret.
Opening that spatial passage had consumed almost everything he had left.
At the moment, his strength had fallen to less than a tenth of what it had been at his peak.
And that created a very serious problem.
If he happened to run into his former partner Aizen in this condition, there was every chance the bastard would draw his sword without a second thought and try to kill him on the spot.
Their cooperation had always existed because their interests happened to align.
When enough profit was on the table, something as flimsy as a partnership meant absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, Aizen wasn't even Kazuma's greatest concern.
There was still another far more dangerous old schemer hiding beneath the shadows of the Seireitei.
Yhwach.
That bastard was even more terrifying than Aizen.
Who knew whether he might suddenly appear like a ghost and take advantage of Kazuma's weakened state to land a fatal blow?
Kazuma sighed heavily, his face full of frustration.
After carefully estimating his current strength, he still believed he had roughly a ninety-percent chance of dealing with Yhwach.
But that was only ninety percent!
What difference was there between that and walking straight into his own funeral?
Kazuma had always preferred certainty. Unless he had complete confidence in the outcome, he generally had no interest in gambling with his life.
One mistake and everything would be over.
Besides, he had a wife and children to support!
...
Wait.
No, he didn't have children yet.
Still, who could predict the future?
Maybe Batsu'unsai would get pregnant one of these days.
The more Kazuma thought about it, the worse his mood became. It felt as though an invisible hand had tightened around his chest.
In a world where strength determined everything, losing the power to protect yourself meant that everything else you possessed could disappear just as easily.
"God, this is unbearable."
Kazuma rubbed his temples.
"Forget it. I need to get back to the Human World first. Hell's miasma is driving me insane."
He immediately released his spiritual perception.
The powerful sense spread across the Fifth Layer of Hell like a surging flood, sweeping over the surrounding landscape.
It didn't take long for Kazuma to pinpoint Shuren's location.
Why Shuren?
Simple.
Kazuma couldn't open a Gate of Hell from this side.
Which meant he needed someone else to do it for him.
And among the inhabitants of Hell, the only people he could even remotely claim to know were Shuren and his remaining subordinates.
"SHUREN!"
Kazuma's voice thundered through the desert.
"GET YOUR FUCKING ASS UP! STOP SLEEPING!"
He planted his hands on his hips and stood there glaring into the sand.
If anyone had seen Rukia shouting for Shuren earlier, they would have immediately noticed the resemblance.
The student was supposed to learn from the teacher.
Somehow the teacher had ended up looking exactly like the student.
"WHICH GODDAMN BASTARD IS INTERRUPTING MY SLEEP AGAIN?!"
An enraged voice erupted from beneath the sand.
"CAN'T A MAN GET SOME FUCKING REST AROUND HERE?! I'LL KILL YOU!"
Shuren was furious.
He'd only recently managed to send Rukia and the others away.
He'd thought that, at long last, he and his subordinates could relax and get some proper sleep.
They'd barely drifted off before someone woke them up again.
Shuren was angry.
Very angry.
Extremely fucking angry!
His head reluctantly emerged from beneath the sand as he continued cursing.
Then he finally saw who was standing outside.
His fury vanished instantly.
Shuren's face went completely pale, his expression twisting into pure horror as though he'd just come face-to-face with the worst monster in Hell.
A moment later, he shot out of the desert like an eel escaping a net.
"L-Lord Kazuma!"
His voice nearly cracked.
"S-So it was you!"
"This lowly one deserves death! I had no idea Your Lordship had arrived! Please forgive my disrespect just now! I beg you, be magnanimous and spare me this once!"
Just before reaching Kazuma, Shuren's legs suddenly gave out.
Thud!
He dropped straight to his knees.
His entire body trembled while his voice became so ingratiating that it was almost painful to listen to.
Kazuma raised an eyebrow.
"Well, well."
"It hasn't even been that long since we last met, and you've gotten pretty brave."
A teasing smile appeared on his face.
"You were just saying you wanted to kill me, weren't you?"
Kazuma lightly patted the side of his neck.
"Go ahead, then."
"Come on."
"Right here."
"Take your best shot."
Whether Kazuma would actually stand still and let him do it was another matter entirely.
Shuren forced an even more flattering smile onto his face.
"How could this lowly one possibly dare?"
"If I had known it was Your Lordship coming today, I would have crawled out ahead of time and waited on my knees to welcome you!"
Internally, however, Shuren was furious enough to start seeing red.
He desperately wanted to draw his weapon and chop the smug bastard in front of him into pieces.
Unfortunately, reason remained stronger than anger.
Fighting Kazuma with his current strength would be no different from smashing an egg against a mountain.
He had absolutely no chance.
So Shuren swallowed his hatred and continued smiling.
Kazuma took one look at his face and immediately knew exactly what was going through his head.
"You know, little brother…"
He sighed theatrically.
"I gave you the opportunity, and you still couldn't make anything of it."
Then he moved.
His body flashed forward.
Before Shuren could react, Kazuma drove a vicious kick directly into him.
BAM!
Shuren hadn't been prepared for the attack at all.
The kick landed cleanly and launched him backward like a kite with its string cut, sending him flying across the desert before he finally crashed down in the distance.
Despite how dramatic it looked, Kazuma had barely used any real strength.
He only wanted to teach Shuren a small lesson and make sure the bastard remembered who he was talking to.
Shuren, however, had no way of knowing that at first.
The instant the kick hit him, terror flooded his mind.
'That's it! I'm fucking dead!'
But as he flew through the air, he gradually realized something strange.
There hadn't been much power behind the blow.
Once he finally stabilized himself and scrambled back to his feet, Shuren immediately rushed back toward Kazuma.
His smile was somehow even more flattering than before.
That one kick had actually reassured him.
Kazuma hadn't come here to kill him.
He genuinely needed something.
Until now, Shuren had secretly been terrified that Kazuma had returned specifically because of what happened with Rukia.
After all, he really had considered killing her earlier.
He simply hadn't followed through for various reasons.
Fortunately, Shuren had possessed enough sense not to mention that tiny detail.
Because with Kazuma's absurdly protective personality, if he learned that Shuren had ever seriously considered killing his student…
Shuren would discover several entirely new definitions of the phrase worse than death.
And this time, there probably wouldn't be enough left of him to revive.