"Ding! Gojo Satoru fusion progress +2%..."
As the notification echoed in his mind, Kaito's smile grew even brighter.
That Gillian was indeed worth the trouble; simply eliminating it had pushed his progress up by another 2%! At this rate, if the opportunity arose, he definitely needed to hunt down a few more powerful Hollows.
An intriguing idea suddenly occurred to him. If killing a strong Hollow could boost his fusion progress, would defeating Shinigami or Quincy—who were also major powers in this world—yield the same results?
Although Kaito was currently registered as a Shinigami, he didn't feel any real sense of loyalty or belonging to the Soul Society. If things became truly serious down the line, he wouldn't mind lending the Shinigami a hand against the Hollows, Quincies, Visoreds, or Arrancars to keep the world from falling apart. But right now, his priority was fully integrating Gojo Satoru's template as quickly as possible.
Only by ensuring his own strength reached an invincible level could he truly enjoy life to the fullest. Just thinking about it made him a little excited. After all, who could resist becoming as handsome and powerful as Gojo Satoru?
However, he quickly cooled his excitement and analyzed the situation rationally.
Hollows were easy targets. For the most part, they acted independently, completely lacking organization and discipline. It was only under Aizen's later rule that they formed any kind of basic order. When hunting Hollows, the only real variable was whether he was strong enough to crush them.
Shinigami and Quincies, however, were a completely different story. If he handled an encounter with them poorly, it could easily draw a massive crowd of enemies down on him. While Kaito was already exceptionally strong, he still preferred to avoid a situation where a coordinated group of Captain-level Shinigami attacked him all at once.
Furthermore, the Shinigami existed to maintain the balance of souls and the flow of spiritual energy across the worlds. Therefore, even if hunting them down could increase his fusion level, it was a line he shouldn't cross. Unless someone launched a direct attack on him first, there was no reason to disrupt the balance. If the entire world collapsed, what would be the point of everything he had worked for? He would just be left holding the ashes.
"Sigh... I'm kind of letting Gojo Satoru down here," Kaito muttered with a chuckle. "No, I have to save face for him. So today, let's challenge all five at once. Hehehe, Kabukicho, here I come!"
Kabukicho had recently launched a promotional event called "Group Beer." It was a challenge where a group had to drink together, and if the challenger succeeded, their entire tab for the day was completely free.
The challenge required a minimum of five participants and capped out at twenty. To win, the group had to complete the drinking game in the shortest possible time, within ten attempts. Kaito wasn't the least bit worried about drinking against five people at once.
Kaito stopped dwelling on it, ran a hand through his silver-white hair, and vanished from sight.
"After the white-haired youth effortlessly destroyed the Gillian, he left his name and vanished into thin air."
"Oh? Is that so? What was the boy's name?"
"He said his name is Shiba Kaito... and he was incredibly handsome."
Soi Fon listened to her subordinate's starstruck description, softly murmuring the name to herself. "Shiba Kaito..."
Her curiosity about this man grew. It was highly unusual for a Soul Reaper with that kind of power to hide away in such a minor, unremarkable station. The massive numbers of souls purified in this district lately were almost certainly the work of this seemingly unreliable squad member. It was definitely time to meet him in person.
Meanwhile, Kaito was completely unaware that he had caught the attention of the Captain of the Second Division. He was simply making his way toward his favorite district.
However, the sight that met his eyes made him stop dead in his tracks.
Kabukicho had been completely flattened, reduced to nothing but smoking ruins!
Police cars were parked along the perimeter of the destroyed district. The human officers were sweating profusely, hiding behind their vehicles with guns drawn, aiming blindly into the wreckage. To the human eye, some unseen, terrible monster was tearing the place apart.
But to Kaito's eyes, the reality was clear. Standing amidst the ruins was an Adjuchas that stood tens of meters tall, resembling a massive, armored bear. Right beside it stood a figure wearing the white haori of a Shinigami Captain. Unfortunately, the figure was too far away for Kaito to make out his face clearly.
It was a bizarre, unnatural sight to see a Soul Reaper and a high-level Hollow standing together in such perfect harmony.
The corners of Kaito's mouth curled into a slight smile. An instant later, he blurred forward to close the distance. Even though he already had a rough idea of who that Captain might be, he was genuinely curious as to why they were showing their hand this early in the timeline.
However, the mysterious Captain clearly had no intention of getting tangled up with Kaito. Turning away immediately, a transparent cloak of spiritual energy rose up around him, masking his presence entirely as he vanished from sight.
The Adjuchas let out a deafening roar, and in the blink of an eye, it closed the distance, appearing right beside Kaito! An enormous, heavy claw swung down, aiming to obliterate Kaito in a single strike.
Boom!
Suddenly, half of the Adjuchas's massive body collapsed under an unseen, crushing weight. Kaito, who had been standing directly in front of the beast a millisecond prior, was now floating casually right above its head.
If he destroyed the mask on its head, the purification would be complete.
However, as an Adjuchas-class Menos Grande—the second-highest rank of Hollow evolution—the beast's instincts were incredibly sharp. It reacted in the span of a heartbeat, using Sonido to flash away and escape the lethal follow-up.
Kaito didn't pursue it through the air. Instead, he quietly observed the Adjuchas from a short distance away. A Hollow of this caliber was far beyond the capabilities of ordinary seated officers. Only Captain-level Shinigami could handle them with ease.
If I can take this thing down without breaking a sweat, does that mean my combat power is already on par with an average Captain? Kaito mused.
He certainly had immense confidence in his mastery of "Blue."
The technique "Blue"—or rather, how it operated in this world—functioned similarly to a high-level Hado, but it was entirely driven by Gojo Satoru's Limitless. It manifested as a localized point of absolute attraction. At maximum output, it could create a vacuum approaching negative infinity, acting like a miniature black hole. Furthermore, "Blue" had various sub-applications, granting him the ability to perform instantaneous teleportation and high-speed movement.
Although Kaito's current pool of spiritual pressure wasn't overwhelmingly massive yet, his combination of the Six Eyes and the Limitless technique meant that his energy consumption when executing these techniques was practically zero. In other words, even though using these ability-based Kidō variants drained spiritual energy, the amount consumed was so infinitesimal that it instantly regenerated. He could fight indefinitely.
Before he could analyze his power any further, the crushed section of the Adjuchas's body began to warp and knit back together at a visible rate.
Kaito blinked, mildly impressed. "Oh? High-Speed Regeneration. Nice."
At the same time, a dense concentration of spiritual energy began to pool rapidly above the Hollow's head.
A Cero?
Anticipating the blast, Kaito moved to intercept, using "Blue" to instantaneously close the gap.
As the dark, volatile energy gathered above the Adjuchas, a condensed, spherical ball of light suddenly shot toward Kaito. It didn't possess the massive, destructive spread of a standard Cero, but it traveled at more than twenty times the speed.
It was a feint—!
Kaito calmly extended his hand, crossing his index finger over his ring finger. Instantly discarding the incantation, he invoked a defensive spell.
"Bakudō #81. Dankū !"
Boom!
The high-speed Bala slammed violently into the translucent wall of spiritual energy. The two opposing forces collided, erupting with a deafening, thunderous roar. The Bala shattered upon impact, dissolving into a chaotic torrent of reishi that swept outward like a raging storm, tearing through the air around Kaito.
Behind the absolute defense of his barrier, Kaito remained completely untouched. The only consequence of the blast was a strong gust of wind that blew past his face, slightly messing up his silver hair.
"I see. As expected of an intelligent Hollow," Kaito murmured softly, his hands already beginning to gather a pristine, condensed spark of energy. "It actually knew how to vary its tactics to deal with me on the fly."