Then Orihime Inoue slowly turned over, inch by inch pulling herself off Muten Natsu's arm. With her back to him, she settled onto the pillow.
Muten Natsu: "..."
Sure enough, three people sleeping together really was a little different.
When it was just two people, it hadn't been nearly this interesting.
Muten Natsu waited a little longer before lifting both arms and stretching hard.
The movement made Rukia Kuchiki and Orihime Inoue "wake up."
The two girls turned over. Their eyes met briefly in midair before both of them shifted their gaze to Muten Natsu.
"Morning, ahhh..." Muten Natsu yawned as he got out of bed.
"Good morning~" Orihime Inoue rubbed her eyes. "I'll go make breakfast."
"I'll help too." Rukia Kuchiki smoothed back her hair and got out of bed after Orihime Inoue.
Watching the three of them walk out one after another, Rangiku Matsumoto and Ririn, who had been waiting in the living room for quite a while, exchanged a look.
They were rather disappointed.
They had been expecting something a lot more exciting.
That was it?
Orihime Inoue recommended a few pretty good shops to Rangiku Matsumoto. After breakfast, everyone tidied up a little, then headed off for their respective destinations.
When Muten Natsu arrived at the address, he discovered it was an abandoned factory.
Leading Rukia Kuchiki and Orihime Inoue through the rolling shutter door, he saw the inside of a four-story factory whose interior had already been blasted through.
Standing along the edges of the broken floors on the upper three levels were three women and five men, including Shinji Hirako and Hiyori Sarugaki. The morning sun streamed through the factory's shattered windows, lighting up all eight figures.
"Hm?" The man in the swallowtail coat with long blond hair looked them over curiously. "Wasn't there supposed to be only one Muten Natsu? Why did three people show up?"
The pink-haired, heavyset man in the light green suit, a giant of about two and a half meters, looked them over carefully. "One is human... and the other one's a Shinigami?"
"Hey, Shinji!" The man with short white hair and a black tank top turned and demanded, "What's going on here?"
"I didn't think he'd bring people with him either..." Shinji Hirako grumbled. "This isn't a place outsiders should be coming to."
"What a great figure..." The woman in the sailor uniform with braided hair locked her gaze on Orihime Inoue from behind her glasses. "I'd be very happy to have someone like that come."
That look from the woman in the sailor uniform reminded Orihime Inoue of Chizuru Honshō, so she hid behind Muten Natsu.
"So cute!" The short-haired green-haired girl in the white bodysuit leaned forward. "Hi there~"
"H-hi..." Orihime Inoue raised a hand in greeting.
The man with the afro crossed his arms. "A human is one thing, but a Shinigami..."
"Muten Natsu!" Hiyori Sarugaki shouted. "Who said you could bring people here?!"
"You did." Black bandages unraveled from Muten Natsu's body as his Reiatsu spilled out with them. "If meeting the strength requirement is enough to join the Visored, then if I exceed it... bringing two people along for a look around should be fine too, right?"
Shinji Hirako drew his Zanpakutō and dove down. "The question is... do you really pass?"
Muten Natsu raised his blade to block. The instant the swords collided, the burst of Reiatsu shattered even more of the already broken glass.
The pink-haired big man clapped his hands together, and a strange force spread out at once.
Orihime Inoue turned to look around. Something had enclosed this place and dissolved into the air, erasing the aftereffects of the clash between Shinji Hirako and Muten Natsu.
Shinji Hirako narrowed his eyes, forced Muten Natsu back with a burst of strength from his arm, then immediately rushed in again with another swing.
Reiatsu poured into the hilt, and sticky spiritual ink overflowed from Bokukō's blood groove. With Muten Natsu's swing, it separated from the blade itself and slashed toward Shinji Hirako in the shape of a blade.
Shinji Hirako twisted aside to dodge, then slashed straight through Muten Natsu's throat.
No.
It was an afterimage.
Muten Natsu slipped out from the ink blade and struck at Shinji Hirako's back.
"Nice move!" Shinji Hirako used Shunpo to appear behind Muten Natsu. "Take this!"
Muten Natsu swung Bokukō in a tight arc around his head, knocking aside Shinji Hirako's Zanpakutō, then followed through with a diagonal slash.
Shinji Hirako raised his sword to block, only to see the spiritual ink peel away from the blade, skim past his Zanpakutō, and fly toward his chest. "So it can be used like that too..."
He muttered as he dodged, then took the offensive himself, forcing Muten Natsu onto the defensive.
The two of them darted up and down through the abandoned factory, clashing again and again within the span of a single minute.
"To be able to fight Shinji on even terms." The blond man in tails smiled. "He's got some skill."
"Idiot! Look carefully!" the bespectacled woman in the sailor uniform snapped. "Shinji's obviously just playing around."
The pink-haired big man spoke up. "But Muten Natsu doesn't seem to be fighting all out either."
The man with the afro guessed, "Is he afraid the Hollow inside him will come out?"
"Hiyori," the green-haired girl in the white bodysuit asked, turning to her, "didn't you say he hadn't seen the Hollow inside his heart?"
The white-haired man in the tank top gave a cold snort. "Then what is this? Is he screwing around?"
"Ah..." Hiyori Sarugaki slowly let out a breath. "Hachi, put up five more barriers."
The pink-haired big man clapped his hands. "Got it."
He placed both hands on the ground and sat cross-legged with his round body. Spiritual energy surged from him, gathering in front of him into layer upon layer of nested cubes.
Shinji Hirako stood in midair. "Muten Natsu, I acknowledge your strength. Urgh!"
Before he could finish, Hiyori Sarugaki smacked him flying with a flip-flop. "Get the hell out of the way! What is this, some little game to you?!"
Without any mercy, she slapped Shinji Hirako straight out of the factory, then drew the Zanpakutō from her back. "Playtime's over. Hollowfy, Muten Natsu."
With her standing right in front of him, even though Muten Natsu's Reiatsu perception was fairly average, he could still roughly judge Hiyori Sarugaki's strength. "I don't think that's necessary."
"How many times do I have to say it before you understand..." Pale matter emerged from empty space and gathered over Hiyori Sarugaki's head, forming a Hollow mask with a sharp horn. "The choice is ours. I don't care what you think. What matters is what I think!"
"Hey... hey hey hey hey!" the man with the afro shouted.
"Wait!" the blond man cried out in alarm. "Hiyori!"
The green-haired girl looked worried too. "Hiyori!"
"If you think the Visored are a bunch you can fool around with however you like, then you've got another thing coming." Hiyori Sarugaki raised a hand and pulled the mask down over her face. The whites of her eyes were instantly swallowed by black mist, and her pupils turned an eerie dull yellow. "This isn't Soul Society!"
A violent burst of Reiatsu exploded outward, making the air tremble.
That power... Rukia Kuchiki's eyes shook.
There was no doubt about it. This was the power of a Hollow.