"Roar—!"
The hideous Hollow had barely torn itself free from the black fissure in the sky when it let out an unsettling howl.
After scanning its surroundings for a moment, the Hollow seemed to lock onto a direction and lunged forward.
A razor-sharp flash of cold light met it even faster, cleaving the Hollow cleanly in two.
Muten Natsu adjusted his posture midair, absorbing the Hollow's dissipating Reishi while searching for a place to land.
A light screen appeared before his eyes, and his expression relaxed slightly.
[Skywalk Activated]
Reishi gathered beneath his feet, allowing Muten Natsu to stand in the air as if on solid ground.
Although it could only be used in the relatively Reishi-scarce World of the Living, it was more than enough.
Clang!
Ink-like patterns spread through the air, blocking a Hollow's sneak attack.
Muten Natsu cut it down with a backhand slash. His footing gave way in midair as he dropped rapidly toward the ground, the inward curve of his blade severing the third Hollow's head in one clean stroke.
The Hell's Eye on his forehead spun erratically. On the light screen before him, Myōki quickly mapped out a route based on the Hollows' positions.
Muten Natsu narrowed his eyes and landed.
Skywalk could keep him steady in the air, but to fully unleash his strength, he needed solid ground beneath his feet.
"Huu—"
Drawing Myōki into his palm, Muten Natsu let out a long breath. Invisible ripples spread outward before abruptly fading into silence.
The next instant, a burst of blade light closed in on a Hollow. The strike shattered its mask, tore through its body, and completed the plunder of its Reishi in one motion.
Clang!
As the broken corpse drew near, Ink Fortress activated. Muten Natsu's speed surged again after briefly slowing, and he adjusted the angle of his blade, splitting the second Hollow in two.
Ink Fortress triggered once more. His rapidly moving figure made a sharp turn, cutting down the third Hollow as it tried to flee.
Then the fourth. The fifth. The sixth…
Amid spreading ink stains and ringing steel, fierce arcs of blade light stretched and twisted through the air with shrill gusts of wind, like thunder descending from the heavens, racing across the ground before surging skyward again to tear apart the diving Hollows.
Muten Natsu drew in a deep breath, visible white mist rising from his body.
It was the result of consecutive uses of Ink Fortress Flash. His stamina had dropped sharply, sweat pouring out as it evaporated and condensed across his skin.
Soul Essence Stealing activated, and a massive influx of Reishi surged into his body, quickly filling the emptiness left by the rapid bursts of exertion.
Muten Natsu rushed toward the next location, pulling out his vibrating phone.
"Rukia, what did Urahara say?"
"I asked him about the Quincy," Rukia Kuchiki said. She had just gotten off the phone with Kisuke Urahara. "He said…"
"I haven't heard that name in a very long time," Kisuke Urahara said on the other end, sounding like he was moving things around, the background noisy and chaotic. "At least two hundred years."
"Two hundred years?" With no injuries reported yet, Rukia Kuchiki finally had time to focus on gathering information. "What's really going on? What exactly are the Quincy?"
"The so-called Quincy were an exorcist clan that evolved specifically to combat Hollows. They were scattered all over the world," Kisuke Urahara explained, then paused. "However… they were wiped out more than two hundred years ago."
"Wiped out? Why?"
"Like Shinigami, they exist to eliminate Hollows. But unlike Shinigami, who purify Hollows with their Zanpakutō and send them to Soul Society, the Quincy completely annihilate them," Kisuke Urahara said in a low voice. "Rukia-san, you should have learned about this at the Shin'ō Academy. You know what the difference between these two methods means, and the consequences they bring."
Rukia Kuchiki understood all too well.
In Soul Society, those who possessed Shinigami power and rank were known as [Balancers].
The stability of the world was hard-won, yet extraordinarily fragile.
It was like a plate teetering on the tip of a needle, with the Dangai as the dividing line. On one side was the World of the Living, on the other, Soul Society.
Only by keeping the number of souls in both realms balanced could that plate remain steady.
Otherwise, the world would lose its balance and collapse entirely.
A Shinigami's job is to maintain that balance.
Souls released from Soul Society, with a Shinigami's help, take the form of living beings in the World of the Living. Meanwhile, souls that die in the World of the Living, along with Hollows—souls that have fallen into corruption—are sent back to Soul Society by Shinigami. The cycle repeats, sustaining the shifting balance between the two worlds.
But Quincy eradicate Hollows completely.
That means souls from the World of the Living can no longer return to Soul Society. Over time, the number of souls in Soul Society dwindles, while the number in the World of the Living keeps growing.
Once the gap reaches a critical threshold, the entire world begins to tip toward the World of the Living. Soul Society would then break through the Dangai's barrier and spill into the World of the Living, creating a chaotic state where life and death overlap.
That kind of chaos would tear the world apart.
"In the first few years after the Quincy were discovered, Soul Society kept proposing that all Hollow disposal be left to the Shinigami, but the Quincy refused outright," Kisuke Urahara said. The noise on his end grew even messier, as if he were hauling things around. "During that time, the Quincy continued to increase, the soul cycle got worse and worse, and it reached a point where the world's survival was at stake. So two hundred years ago, Soul Society issued an order to destroy the Quincy… to wipe them out."
"That's what Kisuke Urahara said," Rukia Kuchiki relayed after finishing her summary. "Muten, what do we do?"
"That's exactly why we know nothing about the Quincy," Muten Natsu said. He held his phone in one hand while cutting down a Hollow with the other. "Central 46 would never allow something like that to appear in the Shin'ō Academy textbooks."
"That's Central 46 for you," Rukia Kuchiki said, bitterly familiar with their ways.
After all, Central 46 had erased everything about Muten Natsu until not a trace remained.
"No injuries so far. You two go to Tatsuki first. She has Reiryoku, so she might be in danger," Muten Natsu said as the Hell's Eye on his forehead rotated. "Leave the rest to me."
"…Understood."
He put his phone away and casually cut down a few more Hollows.
The Hollow bait Uryū Ishida released had drawn in a lot of Hollows, but any Hollow with half a brain wouldn't be lured in by something that obvious.
So there were plenty of them, but none were particularly strong.
Muten Natsu slipped through streets and alleys, cutting them down one after another. His own power recovered far faster than before, and the fighting only got easier with each step.
He looked up at the vivid blue streaks of light that occasionally tore across the sky, his brow tightening.
These Hollows were easy enough to handle.
But if this dragged on too long, something much worse was bound to happen.