𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 | 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 [MINOR EDITING]

³⁸ sᴛᴜᴘɪᴅ ᴍᴀɴ

I'm vary wary of this strange man, for more than one reason. The first of which regards his ridiculous body mass. Here in the World of the Living, the only way to gain that kind of mass is through criminal acts of thievery, through belonging to a bloodline that produces Lords and Ladies, or by being in a Lord's favour. At this point, it's incredibly difficult for me to tell which means he falls into.

Walking beside him through this dank forest, with only silence around us to distract me, I'm able to get a deeper read on Kūgo and his impressive amount of spiritual pressure. He's not an ordinary human, that much was proved. That green light he produced before, it wasn't Kidõ. It may have been a kind of physically-manifested spiritual energy. Then his strength; he was able to fend off my advances when I'd tried to heal him, and even matched my Hakuda. Perhaps he could take care of himself against lesser Hollows. Against more experienced Soul Reapers or higher level Hollows like the Menos Grande or even Adjuchas-level, it's very unlikely he could stand against them at all.

Should I be reporting such a person to the Soul Society? I think, glancing up at Kūgo. He wears a dopey expression, hands tucked into the sleeves of his robe, arms resting on one of his multiple abdominals. I find myself scowling before turning straight. Maybe I'll ask Shinji what to do tonight. It should be almost noon back in the Soul Society.

"Oi," Kūgo says, nudging me from my thoughts of concern.

"What?"

"Is that what you were after?" And he gestures through the next clearing, where a small Hollow with a mask akin to swine stalks across from the edge of.

"That's the one," I say, nodding. I'm about to move forward, but Kūgo is already moving ahead. I hiss at him, and he glances back at me, his expression now lame. "Where the hell are you going?!"

"I'm getting rid of this Hollow so I can prove to you I can take care of myself," he says back.

"You don't need to prove shit to me, you stupid man," I growl. "I need to do this. You need to hide behind a tree and wait for me to clean up."

"Like hell," he says, resuming his endeavour at a quicker pace. "I'm not being babysat." And he runs into the clearing.

"You fool! You'll get us killed!!"

"With any luck, yes," he shouts back at me, finally gaining the attention of the Hollow. Suddenly, his hand begins to glow green, just like earlier. He begins hailing the Hollow down, waving at it with the same hand. Enraged by his taunting, the Hollow runs at him, its chubby black arms stretched out toward him.

Kūgo is smirking now. As the Hollow dives for him, he rolls between its legs and gets back onto his hand and knees. The Hollow turns and roars at him, and in that same moment, Kūgo jumps off from the ground, a small green light appearing at his heels, somehow managing to jump to the same height of the Hollow's head. Did he use that weird light to jump that high? I wonder, mouth hung open in awe as he launches his still-glowing fish straight into the face of the Hollow. Instantly, it shatters its mask all the way across.