Black flames crisscrossed the invisible barrier, and under Muten Natsu's frenzied assault, it shattered completely.
"This might… hurt a little," Retsu Unohana said softly. "Bakudō #99—Kin."
Black ropes appeared out of nowhere, wrenching Muten Natsu's twisted arms behind his back. Eight wooden stakes followed, pinning the ropes firmly into arms formed from condensed black flame.
"So the arm structure is still intact," Retsu Unohana noted. She swept her arm, and a broad length of white cloth unfurled from her sleeve. "Bakudō #99, Part 2. Bankin—Prologue - Halting Wraps."
The white cloth wrapped around Muten Natsu, tightening abruptly. Layer upon layer bound him completely.
"First, create barriers both inside and out. Then sever the flow of Reiryoku within," Retsu Unohana said as her fingertips tapped the air. "Refrain - Serial Hundred Bolts."
Muten Natsu let out a scream filled with rage and pain. Through the cloth, the horrifying outline of the skull mask on his face was faintly visible.
"Can you hear me?" Retsu Unohana tried to call back his consciousness. "Next, I'll partially release the Bakudō to vent the power inside you…"
She flicked a steel needle with her finger. As it shattered, a jet of black flame burst forth.
The instant the flames weakened, Retsu Unohana pinched the air, pulling out black bandages that wrapped around Muten Natsu's body, sealing the holes left by the needle.
"Black…" she murmured. Then she repeated the process again and again, carefully releasing the violent power within him while preventing any outside force from worsening the damage.
"Only the torso left," Retsu Unohana said as she reached toward Muten Natsu's chest. "If I can release the power from his head and chest, his condition should stabilize. Just hold on a little longer."
Before her fingers could touch the steel needles embedded in his chest, the black flames erupted violently. The terrifying surge tore away the white cloth covering his face and the black bandages around his chest.
Retsu Unohana turned aside to avoid the blast, her gaze fixing on the translucent hole piercing straight through Muten Natsu's chest.
"So it really isn't that simple…"
There was no doubt about it. This was a Hollow Hole.
Muten Natsu hadn't collapsed like an ordinary soul yet, but if the Hollow Hole continued to expand…
A soft green glow bloomed in Retsu Unohana's palm as she tried to slow their spread through healing.
But the strange black flames devoured the green light, burning even more fiercely. The collapse was accelerating.
Retsu Unohana pulled her hand back and looked at the bone-white skull mask on Muten Natsu's face. Even amid the black flames, it retained its original shape. Perhaps it could block their influence.
The situation was critical. There was no time to think further.
She reached out and grabbed the mask.
Black flames surged toward her. Heavy Reiatsu burst from Retsu Unohana's hand, forcing the flames back. She seized the skull mask and, with a sound like shattering bone, tore it free. In the same instant, she thrust it into the Hollow Hole in Muten Natsu's chest and activated Kaidō.
Light flowed.
The bone-white mask twisted into the shape of a heart, white, tentacle-like vessels extending from it and latching onto the edges of the hole in his chest, tugging them inward.
Sensing that this was working, Retsu Unohana finally looked at Muten Natsu's face.
"It's okay…" Muten Natsu murmured unconsciously. "As long as we keep trying together… everything will get better…"
Retsu Unohana pressed her lips together. Beneath the mask, the face she saw wasn't filled with savagery or madness, but with fragile, desperate hope.
Her gaze swept over the children's broken bodies nearby as she tightened her grip on Muten Natsu's white heart, doing everything she could to fill the emptiness in his chest.
"We'll build a really, really big house… there'll be so much water that we can… we'll keep getting better and better… once the house is finished, we… we…"
Muten Natsu's expression froze. The hole in his chest, which had just begun to shrink, suddenly started expanding again.
"…we'll all die."
"You saved two people!" Retsu Unohana immediately sensed something was wrong with him. "You did it. You drove the Hollow away…"
"Drove it away…?"
Muten Natsu's lifeless eyes shifted. He heard Retsu Unohana's voice, and the blood vessels in his eyes burst.
"It's still alive?!"
The Lizard Hollow was indeed still alive, thanks to its unique ability—limb substitution.
An advanced form of severing its tail to survive. Using only the arm it had enhanced, the Lizard Hollow could regenerate its entire body.
By now, the fully regenerated Lizard Hollow had already fled far away.
"It's still alive… how can it still be alive…"
Blood spilled from Muten Natsu's eyes as a savage growl rose again from deep in his throat.
"It has to die! It can't be allowed to live!"
Muten Natsu struggled violently, the berserk black flames scorching the bindings wrapped around him.
"Calm down! Your condition is extremely dangerous!"
Retsu Unohana saw several white vessels snap as he thrashed.
"It's already escaped! Calm yourself—at the state you're in now, you'll collapse before you even find it…"
"It won't escape!"
The left arm formed of black flames tore free from its restraints, crimson eyes locking onto a single direction.
Muten Natsu twisted his body and flung his left arm outward.
"It won't escape!"
Retsu Unohana kept a firm grip on the white heart embedded in the hole in Muten Natsu's chest. Even as he twisted violently, she didn't let go.
To keep the treatment going, she could only bend her arm with his movement, holding him in an awkward embrace to keep him from charging off in a moment of madness.
The extended black-flame left arm halted in midair once it reached its limit, unable to stretch any farther.
Muten Natsu clenched his teeth as the black flames coiling around his body surged toward his left arm.
Crackling sounds of snapping bones and tearing tendons rang out.
The black-flame arm gradually lost all resemblance to a limb, sacrificing its original shape to extend recklessly. It twisted into a thin black filament, driving the burning claw forward at terrifying speed toward the direction Muten Natsu sensed.
Retsu Unohana knew there was almost no reason left in him. Forcing him to stop now would only make things worse.
"What a willful child."
If that was the case…
"Then go do what you want to do."
Muten Natsu's body trembled slightly. The nearly severed strand of flame connecting his shoulder to the claw instantly solidified.
He could feel it. That damned Hollow had eaten his arm.
Muten Natsu could clearly sense the presence of his own arm inside the Hollow's body.
The burning claw tore through the air, piercing grass and trees, crossing a vast distance as it closed in on its target.
You won't escape.
A sudden, violent pain twisted through the Lizard Hollow's abdomen.
Its steps faltered as it bent over, clutching its stomach.
The burning claw swept past its head, carving deep claw marks into the tree trunk beside it.