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Early morning.
After changing the bandages for Himura and Nishijin Ori, Ishikawa Katori turned and went into the kitchen.
Before long, he came out with four bowls of noodles on a tray.
"You know how to cook, so why do you always make noodles?" Uzuki asked.
"Convenient."
"Tch."
Ishikawa Katori handed two bowls of noodles to Himura and Nishijin Ori, then asked curiously, "By the way, what do you guys eat in West 80th District?"
Ordinary souls only need water to sustain life, but those who can stay in the 80th District all possess Reishi and feel hunger. Even if these people like to chop others, they should still need to eat, right?
And Ishikawa Katori didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to open a restaurant in the West 80th District.
"Is eating so rare?"
Himura looked at Ishikawa Katori with a puzzled expression: "There isn't much else in the 80th District, but there are still a lot of people."
"..."
Ishikawa Katori was startled at first, then spat out the noodles in his mouth with a disgusted look.
"Hahaha, just kidding!" Himura burst out laughing when she saw his reaction: "There are still a lot of wild animals. The reason our Boss, who used to like to wander alone, took me in was because he wanted someone to help him hunt."
"Of course, there are also a small number of lunatics who like to eat people, but even among the residents of the West 80th District, such people are considered abnormal. And a small portion of those who eat people do so for convenience, because people are easy to preserve and don't rot until they turn into Reishi."
"...I suddenly regret talking to you guys."
Ishikawa Katori sighed and continued to eat the noodles in his bowl.
"However, speaking of eating people..."
"That's enough," Ishikawa Katori said irritably, "Please, let me finish this bowl of noodles."
"Uh, I was going to tell you a rumor about that guy in South 80 District."
That guy in South 80 District?
Ishikawa Katori's hand paused, and his expression immediately became more serious: "Tell me."
So far, he didn't know much about the person chasing Himura and the others, because even Himura and her companion rarely heard news about the other party. They only knew that this was a very low-key person. Although he had been a great villain in South 80 District for a long time, he was not very active within South 80 District.
It even made many people think that there was only one great villain in the entire South 80 District, who had now become his follower.
"It's just a rumor, I don't know if it's true or not," Himura said after organizing her thoughts: "Although he has always been very low-key and doesn't often fight with people, he originally had many followers, but a few years ago, his followers suddenly disappeared overnight."
"Some people say... he ate them all. The reason he is so strong now is because he ate his subordinates."
Ishikawa Katori: "..."
Are you telling me a ghost story here?
He thought it was some useful information, but it turned out to be just about him eating his own subordinates after all that talk. This rumor had no value whatsoever, at most it just let Ishikawa Katori know that the other party could eat a lot.
"You know, he never used to eat people before!" Himura also felt that this rumor was a bit far-fetched, and said somewhat apologetically: "There are really too few rumors about him. This rumor was told to me by my subordinates after they heard it from somewhere else."
"Rather than saying he ate his subordinates, it's more like he devoured them," Nishijin Ori, who rarely spoke, suddenly interjected.
"Hmm?"
Ishikawa Katori was startled and turned to look at Nishijin Ori.
"I sensed a very strange aura on him."
Strange aura?
Ishikawa Katori frowned. Himura had mentioned this before, but Ishikawa Katori hadn't paid too much attention to it at the time. After all, everyone's Reishi properties are slightly different, and this doesn't prove anything.
"The feeling that aura gave me was very similar to..."
As Nishijin Ori spoke, a hesitant expression appeared between his brows, and he finally said slowly, "A Hollow!"
Bang~~
The bowl in Ishikawa Katori's hand fell to the ground, the noodles spilling everywhere, and he stood up from his seat.
Seeing Ishikawa Katori's reaction, Nishijin Ori thought he didn't believe him, and shook his head: "Although they haven't appeared in nearly a hundred years, a hundred years ago, for some unknown reason, many Hollows appeared in Rukongai for a period of time. His Reishi felt very similar to those Hollows, but at that time, I only sensed it from a distance and wasn't very sure."
When mentioning things from a hundred years ago, Nishijin Ori uncharacteristically spoke at length, as if this matter had left a deep impression on him.
"Ah, I know about that too."
Himura's eyes lit up: "During that time, the Shinigami of Seireitei seemed to have suffered heavy losses. I heard that several Captains died in battle. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's quite gratifying anyway."
Ignoring Himura's schadenfreude, Ishikawa Katori stood still with an uncertain expression.
Suddenly started eating people, rapidly increasing in strength, having the aura of a Hollow...
If it were just eating people, it wouldn't make Ishikawa Katori think of anything else, but the presence of a Hollow's aura in his Reishi made Ishikawa Katori think of an existence similar to Shinigami, yet different from Shinigami.
Visored!
Or rather, Shinigami's Hollowfication.
Having been in Rukongai for five years, this was the first time Ishikawa Katori had heard the word 'Hollow' from someone else.
Although Hueco Mundo is located in the gap between the Human World and Soul Society and can freely travel between Soul Society and the Human World, they generally only go to the Human World and do not come to Soul Society; new residents of the past century are also very unfamiliar with Hollows, and many people don't even know of their existence.
Even those who have heard of them only treat them as a ghost story, although the residents of Soul Society are themselves ghosts...
In fact, after roughly understanding the era he was in, Ishikawa Katori also hadn't expected to hear about 'Hollows' in Soul Society, because from his memory, the experiments of the person lurking in the shadows had already ended, or rather, his experimental site had already moved from Soul Society to the more secretive Human World.
But now it seems...
His experiments may not have completely stopped.
In fact, deep down, Ishikawa Katori was more inclined to believe that Nishijin Ori had made a mistake in his perception.
Because, Visored are different from Arrancar.
Visored means a Shinigami's mild Hollowfication, gaining the power of a Hollow while retaining Shinigami abilities, allowing the soul to break through the inherent limits of a Shinigami.
And the most important part of this is the word 'mild'!
Once this 'degree' is crossed, they will become irrational monsters that act purely on instinct.
And according to Himura and Nishijin Ori, that person had not lost his sanity; instead, he seemed very normal, which didn't quite fit Ishikawa Katori's impression of a Visored who had just gained Hollow abilities.
Ishikawa Katori clearly remembered that those Captains who 'died in battle,' as Himura put it, only mastered this degree with the help of a certain mad scientist.
Could a person far inferior to a Gotei 13 Captain really achieve this?
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the research of the person behind him has progressed further.
But if that were really the case...
"Hey, hey..."
"Big Bro Ishikawa, hey... what are you spacing out about?" Himura waved her hand in front of Ishikawa Katori's eyes, interrupting his thoughts.
Ishikawa Katori looked at Himura strangely and muttered, "I've lost!"
"Huh?"
"Why didn't you tell me something so important earlier?"
Ishikawa Katori's face was faintly dark. To provoke a suspected experimental subject of that person for five million Kan, this deal was a complete loss no matter how he looked at it.
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