In the long, heavy silence, Aizen stood at the edge of the crater, looking at the figure slumped on the ground with a complicated expression.
Naraku was breathing hard, and even his eyes carried a trace of exhaustion.
At this moment, Aizen finally understood where his friend's "not-quite-Shinigami" power was coming from.
On Naraku's forehead, a fragment of bone had lodged itself there, as if slowly spreading. Brutal Reiatsu churned around him.
Emptiness spread through his gaze. His pupils turned gold—
Gradually stealing away the light of reason from his eyes.
Hollowfication.
The erosion that made Shinigami blanch at the mere mention was spreading at a visible pace, dragging his friend into the abyss of instinct.
And yet Naraku looked almost indifferent, even though he was clearly already at his limit.
"You're too slow, Sōsuke."
Hearing footsteps approach, Naraku lifted his head and smiled as he always did.
"All you did was set up a Kidō barrier, and I already took care of the traitor Takeda Satoru."
"Honestly, fighting a Shinigami at that level is way more satisfying than trading blows with the old bald man. Next time something like this happens, remember to call me."
Aizen lowered his gaze. Sunlight glinted across his thin, plain lenses, hiding the look in his eyes. His face was calm—expressionless as a statue.
"Sora. Don't worry."
"My research on this has only just begun, but with my talent, it won't take long to develop a way to solve hollowfication."
"Until then… you'll have to endure a little."
Under Naraku's stunned stare, Aizen quietly chanted a Kidō incantation Naraku had never heard before. Brilliant Kidō light bloomed in his palm, condensing into a long sealing spear with savage spikes.
"This is a sealing Kidō I created. It won't cause you pain."
"As for Seireitei, I'll speak to Head-Captain Yamamoto personally."
"Anything else you want to say?"
"…?"
Staring at the spear inches away, Naraku's face went pale.
"I think I can still be saved, you know?!"
What the hell—why was he suddenly talking about hollowfication and sealing?
He was just injured and exhausted—this wasn't a 'put him down' situation.
If you really don't want to help, fine, let him heal naturally!
"Sora. At this stage, research on hollowfication is still preliminary."
Aizen let out a soft sigh. His gaze—complicated—settled deeply into the crater, onto that familiar figure.
"But what is certain is this: once hollowfication begins, a Shinigami's soul heads toward collapse. In the end, it only results in one outcome—spiritual suicide."
"Wait!"
Seeing Aizen wasn't joking, Naraku's brain spun at top speed. A flash of inspiration hit, and he threw out Bakudō #39—
Enkōsen.
The smooth circular shield reflected his current appearance.
Golden vertical pupils. Black sclera. A vicious aura that couldn't be hidden. A white bone fragment embedded in his forehead like an ornament.
When did this happen?!
Naraku was horrified.
Was it an automatic change triggered by Hollow Power reaching 20%?
He glanced at his personal status panel—only he could see it. Aside from his rapidly rising basic stats—
Hollow Power, through relentless grinding, had reached 20%.
The biggest contributor was the Adjuchas he'd killed at the Yokota estate: Lumina Griffith.
In fact, even during daily training he'd noticed—
When his Shinigami power fell behind, Hollow power would surface perfectly, complementing what remained.
His "Phase Two."
What he hadn't expected was that as Hollow power increased, its manifestation would also change.
Would that bone "ornament" eventually become a full Hollow mask?
As Naraku stared at his reflection in Enkōsen, his expression shifting rapidly, Aizen's patience finally snapped.
This was the best moment to seal it. Delay any longer, and the hollowfication would inflict irreversible damage on Naraku's soul.
Even if he later developed a cure, it might not work well.
But Naraku reacted faster.
Sensing danger from the side, he didn't bother explaining. He immediately canceled the hollowfication state.
In practice, it meant withdrawing his outwardly flaring Reiatsu.
A faint cracking sound rang out. The bone fragment that had grown from his forehead instantly turned to ash and dispersed.
The "irreversible" hollowfication vanished completely.
"..."
In the silence, Aizen's expression stiffened. His pupils shrank.
He couldn't believe what he'd just seen.
And at the same time, a different emotion—awkwardness—began to grow in the quiet air, threatening to drown him.
As a researcher, this was the first time he'd ever seen hollowfication be voluntarily controlled.
Because he'd never seen it, it sparked intense curiosity.
But the moment he remembered what he'd just said and done, he had an impulse to erase every witness.
As expected—whenever he acted with this guy, nothing good ever happened.
So Aizen's gaze at Naraku turned dangerously sharp.
"Let me explain!"
Naraku, scalp tingling under that stare, hurried to speak.
"My power isn't the same kind of hollowfication you're thinking of!"
Aizen's expression didn't change, as if he hadn't heard a word.
Standing at the edge of the scorched crater, he casually threw the Kidō spear down—
And it hit Takeda Satoru, who was still barely alive.
Kidō light seeped into his body through the cracks. Chains burst from the spear like parasites and instantly sealed him completely.
There were a few bumps along the way, but the result was correct.
After Ishikawa Sāsuke and Hijikata Mine, his lab had gained yet another major specimen.
And compared to the first two, this one was far more valuable.
As a captain-class Shinigami, Takeda's tolerance far exceeded ordinary Shinigami. Experiments normal Shinigami couldn't survive? Takeda could.
Most importantly, his body contained Hell's unique "gas."
Even other captains didn't have that.
But when Aizen thought about where these "specimens" had come from, his already-stabilized mindset almost cracked again.
When had this guy started inserting himself into everything?
Aizen found himself thinking without meaning to.
Completely drained, Naraku lay in the scorched crater, quietly waiting for his body to recover on its own.
His fight with Takeda looked like he'd held the advantage almost the whole time, but in truth, he'd nearly burned his Reiatsu dry.
That final Phase Two burst had practically squeezed out the last thread of Reiatsu, gambling everything on a perfect One Bone.
Sacrifice Reiatsu, buy absolute stats.
Aizen Shunpo'd to his side, crouched down, and while using healing Kidō, asked:
"Explain it. What was that hollowfication?"
"I remember you were a normal Shinigami back in the Academy."
Naraku lifted his eyelids and grinned weakly.
"It's related to the Central Prison. The first thing I ever imprisoned there was two Adjuchas."
"From then on, I gained a portion of Hollow power."
No one understood Aizen better than Naraku.
Trying to lie to him would be asking for pain—he'd see through it.
But telling the full truth was too shocking, so Naraku picked only what sounded plausible.
Aizen studied him silently. The subtle change in Naraku's face suggested he wasn't lying—
But Aizen's instincts told him Naraku wasn't telling everything, either.
Still, everyone had secrets. Naraku had already shown hollow power openly in front of him—what was there to argue about?
Naraku might not even understand his own "hollowfication" source.
Aizen focused on healing.
He'd never devoted much effort to learning full Kaidō systems—because to him, it wasn't necessary.
A Shinigami's vitality was tied to Reiatsu. As long as Reiatsu stabilized and could recover, the body would heal itself with strong regenerative power.
In some ways, that resembled a Menos' high-speed regeneration.
If you dug deeper, though, you'd get into differences in reishi composition.
At its core, Kaidō was really just a method of stimulating a Shinigami's natural recovery.
Inject Reiatsu into the wounded body, combine it with fixed healing patterns and surgical techniques, and even severe injuries had a chance.
So the key was always Reiatsu quantity and precision of control.
And in those two areas, Aizen was almost unfairly perfect.
He didn't need complex healing patterns—he only needed to pour in his overwhelming, perfectly controlled Reiatsu.
As Naraku's Reiatsu recovered, high-speed regeneration kicked in again.
Small fractures visibly sealed, and Naraku felt strength returning to his emptied body.
Soon, both of them jumped out of the crater.
Not fully restored, but close enough. Even another fight of the same level could be endured.
Aizen glanced toward the shadows in the ruins and nodded toward them.
"What about those nobles?"
Naraku looked over.
Sensing his gaze, dozens of nobles hiding behind layered defensive Kidō flinched and all took a step back.
They were genuinely terrified of the man who had defeated a Gotei 13 captain in direct combat. They didn't even dare meet his eyes.
They could only tremble in the corner of the ruined estate.
Naraku Shunpo'd to the edge of the small barrier and grinned at them.
Faces twisted. Eyes spasmed.
It reminded Naraku of the fear you felt as a student sneaking into the bathroom to skip exercise—only to see your homeroom teacher waiting inside.
Nostalgic.
"Don't be scared. I'm half a noble myself, aren't I? For Yoruichi's sake, I won't go too far."
He said it with a gentle smile, honest face, and words that sounded believable—
But after watching today's battle, no one could bring themselves to believe him.
So when his hand pressed against the barrier, they instinctively retreated again, like the thing in front of them wasn't a Shinigami, but a natural predator.
Crack.
The barrier shattered. The nobles' painstaking defenses vanished instantly.
And they saw it clearly—
The harmless face slowly shifting into a vicious smile.
"So I'll try to make it quick."
What followed was the nobles, fighting for their lives, launching a desperate resistance.
As Tsunayashiro-backed vassals, the Moriyama family actually had several seated-officer-level Shinigami, and their Kidō skill was superb.
Chantless casting, delayed incantation, even double incantation—used with ease.
A Kidō specialist like that was rare even in the Gotei 13.
And then Naraku kept his promise and cut him cleanly in half.
When blood-red Reiatsu filled the ruined courtyard again, every noble involved in the incident was dead.
Naraku's "Reiatsu experience bar" crept up a small amount.
He also extracted the delayed-incantation technique—though it was basically useless to him.
Now the only big value left was Takeda Satoru.
Aizen had warned him before they came: don't kill Takeda if possible. The lab lacked materials, and many experiments couldn't proceed.
And the secrets of Hell needed to be excavated from Takeda.
Alive, he was worth more than dead.
Not that he had to stay alive forever—once he'd been fully squeezed for value, the corpse could still support other experiments.
After dealing with the noisy nobles, Aizen cleaned up the remaining reishi traces and reinforced the estate-wide Kidō barrier, which had been shaken by the battle.
That barrier didn't just hide Reiatsu—it could also create a false appearance.
To ordinary residents, the Moriyama estate looked unchanged.
And since the location sat at the boundary between the town and the Outer District, by the time the Gotei 13 noticed anything strange, days would have passed.
As for Captain Takeda Satoru's disappearance—serious, yes—but he'd deliberately avoided other Shinigami when he left. No matter how the Gotei 13 investigated, it would never trace back to these two.
Koi-Fushi Mountain, the secret laboratory.
The setup hadn't changed much since the last time.
Aizen efficiently sealed Takeda into the huge container of green fluid. To be safe, he layered several additional seals on top.
But just as he finished, he noticed Naraku's expression was… strange.
Eyes wide, staring up at the ceiling as if something horrifying were there.
"What are you looking at?"
Naraku took a breath and looked at Aizen oddly.
"You can't see it?"
Aizen turned his head up in confusion.
The ceiling was blank and white. Nothing was happening.
But in Naraku's vision, a dark red vortex was spinning.
A gate silently emerged from within it.
Two snarling skulls were embedded in the door, delicate finger bones hooked into the crack—
Slowly pulling it open—
~~~
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