Rain poured down heavily in the forest, a truly rare sight in Hueco Mundo.
Although Kōe's earlier slash ensured that this black rain wouldn't fall on them, he still felt a lingering unease in his heart. The unknown was always the most terrifying. This feeling of being calculated against step by step was truly a first for him.
Kōe speculated on various possibilities in his mind while slightly rotating his wrist. He tapped his fingers sequentially against the hilt of his sword, hoping this method would help him shake off the lingering sense of disharmony in his body as quickly as possible.
But it seemed Szayelaporro had no intention of giving him the chance to stall. The air in the forest suddenly distorted as five Gargantas tore open in jagged, crooked lines, spilling out thick, oppressive Reiatsu.
*Croak...*
Just as it stepped out of the Garganta, a completely cyan Adjuchas puffed up its cheeks. The massive, ear-piercing sound it produced didn't weaken in the slightest, even by the time it reached the clearing where Kōe stood.
Roca instinctively plugged her ears with her forelimbs, but it seemed utterly useless. The flesh and blood beneath her hardened skin felt as though it were being shattered by the sheer force of the noise.
Seth, who was merely a Gillian, was faring even worse, clutching his head and screaming wildly.
Ashido, standing to the side, was in an even more miserable state. Although he had promptly used Kidō to seal his hearing, a faint, metallic tang of blood still lingered in his nasal cavity. Had he not released his Reiatsu in time, he likely would have been coughing up blood right then and there.
Shinigami, who primarily relied on the Reiatsu covering their bodies as their first line of defense, were at a massive disadvantage compared to Adjuchas with their naturally armored skin.
Of course, this did not include Kōe. This attack pattern—sonic waves laced with Reiatsu—might affect him slightly, but if it were enough to actually injure him, he would have died in Hueco Mundo a long time ago.
*But the Reiatsu in this forest is way too chaotic, isn't it?*
Even though his current poor mental state was affecting his Reiryoku perception, it shouldn't have resulted in this phenomenon where completely erratic, fluctuating Reiatsu signatures were appearing from all directions simultaneously.
"Fugo Garcia. An Adjuchas whose other attributes were weakened to heavily enhance its sonic capabilities."
"A sensory-disruption type Adjuchas prepared specifically for you." Szayelaporro stared at the surveillance screen in front of him, resting his chin on his right hand and lightly tapping his cheek with his index finger. "Too afraid to come over now, aren't you? After all, for a Reiryoku-sensory type like you, it must feel as though an endless horde of Hollows is hiding within the forest right now."
Fugo alone couldn't achieve such a feat, of course. The black liquid scattered throughout the forest was the crux of the issue.
Once Reiatsu left the body, its dissipation was inevitable; this held true even for a Cero fired by a Menos. However, this liquid—specially formulated by Szayelaporro—could recycle that invisible, dissipating Reiatsu.
As long as it came into contact with a certain amount of Reiryoku at once, the liquid would absorb it and release it in waves. These waves would collide and interfere with one another. The more sensitive a person's perception was, the more pronounced their reaction to this phenomenon would be.
Szayelaporro could well imagine that, within Kōe's perception, the Forest of Menos currently resembled the surface of a lake during a rainstorm—chaotic ripples making it utterly impossible to make sense of anything.
The situation was mostly as Szayelaporro had envisioned, save for one detail. Kōe hadn't refrained from entering the forest out of fear, but rather...
"You think you can sneak up behind this old man just by throwing on a disguise? Ridiculous!"
Kōe, who had been keeping his eyes fixed on the forest, pushed his right thumb against his sword's tsuba. His left hand suddenly gripped the hilt, and without even turning his head, he unleashed a lightning-fast upward slash to his left.
Incredibly, the very air to his left was cleaved open by the strike. A pillar of blood shot into the sky as the silhouette of a hill-sized humanoid figure materialized in the empty space.
"Too shallow?"
"How is that possible?" Witnessing this scene, Szayelaporro was somewhat taken aback, his hand movements halting unconsciously.
The invisible Hollow on the screen was named Arman Zui. Through Szayelaporro's modifications, its ability to blend into the surrounding environment had reached a level indistinguishable to the naked eye. Coupled with Fugo's continuous sonic interference...
It was safe to say that this stealth-type Adjuchas, as classified by Szayelaporro, was practically untraceable. Was it that inexplicable sixth sense Shinigami possessed? Or was the opponent's perception even stronger than he had anticipated? Stronger than the noble Szayelaporro's?
*How truly fascinating.*
Kōe had no idea he had just earned Szayelaporro's praise. He was actually quite dissatisfied with himself for failing to kill the little rat that had sneaked up on him with a single strike.
Pivoting on his toes, he caught up to Arman, who was retreating while leaving a trail of blood. Under the Hollow's terrified gaze, Kōe unleashed another horizontal slash.
Arman's massive head spun through the air, landing squarely upon its own chest.
In its hollow eyes, the final image it saw was blood pouring from its own severed neck. Yet, the blood couldn't even touch the sword-wielding Shinigami—the Shinigami who had not only taken its life but was already moving on to claim even more.
*A mosquito might not be able to annoy someone to death, but listening to it for too long is still irritating!* With just a Shunpo or two, Kōe spotted Fugo, who was sprawled on the ground like a frog.
Just as he was about to draw his blade and finish off the noise-maker, a shadow suddenly darted down from the tree to Kōe's right, appearing behind him in the very next second.
"Say goodbye to your heart!" shrieked an Adjuchas with long, slender limbs and a body covered in black spots like a Dalmatian. Its long, awl-like tail viciously pierced straight into Kōe's heart.
But before it could even celebrate, the Kōe in front of it seemed to lose his color, his figure gradually fading away.
"What exactly are you saying goodbye to?!"
An aged voice rang out from behind it. A pristine white blade, gleaming with a cold light, plummeted from above. But what the Hollow couldn't see was that the look in Kōe's eyes, hidden behind his mask, was even colder than the flash of the blade.
This strike was completely unavoidable. To put it bluntly, even if Azashiro Sōya were in this position, his only option would be to block it head-on.
Despite that, something bizarre occurred. The upper half of the Adjuchas's body instantly deflated like a punctured balloon.
A sudden sonic boom erupted from its lower half, propelling its entire body in a rapid, horizontal slide to the right. As a result, Kōe's guaranteed killing blow only managed to sever an arm, which drifted down in a curling motion like a falling ribbon.
Kōe was just about to give chase and finish off the bizarre Adjuchas with another strike when six bubbles suddenly swelled on Fugo's back, causing its entire body to expand in size.
*Croak!!!!*
Originating from Fugo, a blast of breath rippled outward like water waves. The ground beneath Fugo was instantly covered in a dense web of cracks, and even the quartz-like trunks of the trees in the Forest of Menos were fractured by the shockwave.
Just as Kōe's stomach was churning violently from this sudden maneuver, a blinding, crimson light flared up from behind the massive tree at Fugo's back.
The pitch-black, silhouette-like trunk quickly melted into the red light. It was a technique unique to Menos—a Cero. And the next thing it was going to melt was Kōe.
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