Sora and Mayuri had followed the clues from Otani Village.
They hadn't found the Quincy, but instead, they had found two 'Bounts'.
"Captain, these humans should have had their souls extracted by them."
Mayuri ignored the two Bounts' hostility and went forward to examine the corpses on the ground.
"Bounts feed on souls. In order to become stronger, they once hunted human souls in large numbers in the human world, which led to their extermination by the Shinigami. These two should be the ones who escaped," Sora explained.
The two Bounts were very hostile towards Sora and Mayuri, but they felt the terrifying spiritual pressure coming from Sora and didn't dare to move.
"Bounts can feed on souls?"
Mayuri's eyes lit up, and his interest in Bounts suddenly increased.
The spiritual pressure fluctuations of Shinigami, Quincy, and Hollows were all distinctly different. Without concealing their spiritual pressure, even an ordinary Shinigami squad member could tell them apart.
Mayuri felt that the Bounts' spiritual pressure was somewhat close to that of a Shinigami.
And the characteristic of devouring souls to enhance one's spiritual pressure was that of a Hollow.
"This project at the Seireitei Research Institute was aimed at researching how to make spiritual bodies immortal," Sora said. "These Bounts were originally human. Their bodies absorbed the special reishi that spread into the human world after the lab explosion, turning them into half-human, half-spiritual beings."
"Researching immortality... a cliché topic. But in that case..." Mayuri let out a strange laugh. "Although the experiment had an accident, judging from the results, it was partially successful. At least, ordinary humans can't live for so long. By devouring souls to increase their spiritual pressure, their lifespan naturally increases as well."
The two Bounts looked young, but hundreds of years had passed since that experiment.
"You go take them down. Since we ran into them, we can't let them stay here devouring human souls," Sora also wanted to capture these two and study the secrets of the Bounts.
"Then Captain, don't scare them. I want to see their strength," Mayuri nodded lightly.
Sora nodded slightly and released his spiritual pressure suppression.
The man in work clothes and the woman with purple hair and blue hair immediately felt the pressure on their bodies lighten. The feeling of being crushed by a mountain disappeared.
Without the suppression, the two immediately fled in opposite directions, with no intention of fighting.
"Trying to escape? I don't think so..."
Mayuri grinned, took out a small white ball from his sleeve, and threw it into the air.
Bang—
The white ball suddenly exploded in a cloud of white mist, and countless lightning ropes shot out from it.
The lightning ropes covered the entire courtyard, blocking the two Bounts' escape routes.
The man in work clothes ignored the ropes and tried to crash through them.
"Aaaargh!"
He failed to break through and was instead entangled even more tightly. He was soon in agony from the electric current.
Seeing this, the woman with purple hair and blue hair didn't dare to force her way through either.
She swung her longsword, and a dozen sharp blades shot towards Mayuri.
"Oh~ just like a Shinigami who has mastered Shikai, you have a special ability!"
Mayuri calmly dodged the blades.
After passing him, the blades circled around and shot towards him again.
Mayuri took out a ball of slime-like substance from his sleeve and threw it at the blades.
After sticking to the blades, the slime rapidly expanded, enveloping all of them.
All the blades were stuck together, unable to break free, and soon they gradually decomposed into reishi.
The woman with purple hair and blue hair waved the fan in her left hand, and a small hurricane quickly formed.
With a wave of the fan, the hurricane shot towards Mayuri.
After releasing the hurricane, she didn't continue to fight. She swung her sword and cut the electric net.
After cutting the lightning ropes, she didn't bother with her companion on the other side and fled the courtyard without a moment's hesitation.
"No intention of fighting, huh? Very rational. However, time's up..." Mayuri saw her cut the ropes but was unconcerned.
He held up three fingers and began to count. "3... 2... 1..."
As soon as he finished, the fleeing woman fell to the ground.
"You despicable Shinigami!"
The woman lay on the ground, her face pale, her whole body powerless.
This was a symptom of poisoning, but she didn't understand when she had been poisoned.
"Could it be... that white mist?"
She thought of the white mist that had spread out when the small white ball exploded.
She had thought it was just to obscure vision, but she never expected it to be poisonous!
"Heh, I'm not a combatant. Why would I fight you in close combat?"
Mayuri slowly walked forward and took out a syringe filled with an unknown liquid from his sleeve.
The woman's face showed fear. She desperately tried to crawl forward, but her whole body was limp, and she had no strength.
"Don't worry. You are a very rare specimen. You won't die so easily."
Mayuri plunged the syringe into the woman's neck, and a powerful anesthetic was quickly injected into her artery.
The anesthetic took effect, and the woman's vision went black. She passed out.
Mayuri carried the unconscious woman to the center of the courtyard.
Boom—
While Mayuri was dealing with the woman, a loud noise came from the courtyard.
In the courtyard—
The man in work clothes had endured the lightning attack and activated his ability.
His wrist guards rapidly expanded, turning into a frost giant.
The frost giant tore off the electric ropes from his body.
"This frost puppet... seems to be a part of his soul that he separated?"
Sora was observing the Bount's ability. "If that's the case, it's very similar to a Shinigami's Zanpakutō. It's a power that comes from one's own soul."
Through his spiritual sense, he could feel that the connection between the frost puppet and the man was very close, and their spiritual pressure fluctuations were highly similar.
The frost giant picked up the man and ran outside.
Swoosh—
Sora blocked the frost giant's path.
"Get out of the way!"
The man waved his hand, and the frost giant also threw a punch.
He knew that his strength was far inferior to this Shinigami's. He put most of his spiritual pressure into this one blow, hoping to delay him for a while.
An ice fist more than a meter in diameter smashed towards Sora, and the extreme cold froze a layer of frost on the ground.
"BAM—!"
The huge ice fist landed on Sora's chest.
Sora's body didn't move an inch.
The man's eyes widened in horror.
He had used this attack to shatter many Hollows in the past, but now it couldn't even make this Shinigami take a single step back.
Crack, crackle—
The huge ice fist shattered into ice shards.
"Blut Vene's defense is pretty good."
Sora thought to himself.
He hadn't used any spiritual pressure to block the attack.
He had relied solely on the defense of his Blut Vene.
This ice fist attack was no weaker than a Kidō spell cast by a seated officer, yet it had failed to break through his defense.
Sora raised his hand, and a reishi blade formed between his two fingers, slashing across the frost giant.
Crack, crackle, crack—
The frost giant shattered into a pile of ice blocks on the ground.
The man who fell to the ground could no longer struggle. The poison in his body had also taken effect.
"I've been poisoned..."
The man stared fiercely at Sora. "You despicable Shinigami, kill me!"
"With lines like that, you make us sound like the villains,"
Sora said helplessly.
"Hoh, aren't we?"
Mayuri returned, carrying the blue-haired woman, and said nonchalantly.
He did his research to satisfy his own curiosity; his moral bottom line was very low.
"These two Bounts' spiritual pressure has reached the level of a lower-seated officer, but they don't know how to use it very well. Their techniques are too few. In a real fight, they're definitely not as good as a seated officer."
Sora picked up the woman's longsword and fan. "But their abilities are a bit interesting. They separate a part of their soul and attach it to these objects to gain special abilities. Isn't that essentially the same as a Zanpakutō?"
"It is very similar. No wonder their spiritual pressure feels closer to a Shinigami's,"
Mayuri nodded and walked over to the man in work clothes.
"This guy's clothes are a bit like those Quincy. Could he be a remnant of the Lichtreich?"
Mayuri pinched the man's chin and lifted his face. "This face doesn't look like it's from Karakura Town."
"You said earlier that you took care of the Quincy in Karakura Town?" Sora asked. "But with your strength, you shouldn't have been able to take them on!"
Those Quincy had obtained the spiritual tools Mayuri had hidden, so their strength should have been no less than that of a Shinigami seated officer.
The strength of these two Bounts was clearly not enough to defeat them. They must have had other companions.
The man's expression changed slightly, but he remained silent, seemingly unwilling to betray his comrades.
"Heh, it seems you need a little persuasion to talk."
Mayuri grinned and reached into the reishi-space pocket in his sleeve.
...
A moment later.
"Naruki City... that seems to be a high-reishi area no less than Karakura Town."
Sora stroked his chin and remembered something else. "Isshin, Sōya, and Tōsen are on a mission there, right?"
Mayuri had pried open the man's mouth and gotten the information he wanted.
Sora's guess was correct. Those Quincy who had taken Mayuri's hidden spiritual tools were not something these two Bounts could handle.
They had other companions.
However, the other Bounts were not in Karakura Town, but had gone to a high-reishi area called 'Naruki City'.
"What are your companions doing in Naruki?"
Sora asked the man.
"We are recruiting scattered Bount companions from all over the world... The leader and the others went to Naruki to recruit the Bounts there,"
the man answered truthfully.
"Then what are you doing here?"
"Although the leader is recruiting Bounts from various places, he hasn't let us gather in one place, because... to get stronger... we have to devour souls."
The man said timidly, "Our 'hunting grounds' are assigned to different places to prevent the number of souls in a certain area from decreasing too much in a short time and attracting the attention of the Shinigami."
The Bounts did not gather in one place to hunt human souls, but rather spread out their 'hunting grounds', with only one or two Bounts in each.
"Tsk, you're quite cautious. No wonder you haven't been discovered by the Shinigami. It's a shame you ran into the Captain,"
Mayuri chuckled lightly.
If Sora hadn't used his shadow ability to identify these two Bounts with spiritual pressure, their methods could have remained hidden for a long time.
"How do we find your leader?"
Mayuri asked.
"The members who stay behind in the 'hunting grounds'... are only contacted one-way by the leader," the man, fearing the Shinigami wouldn't believe him, quickly explained. "The leader is very cautious and won't reveal his whereabouts to us. We only know he went to Naruki because we were the ones who provided the intelligence about the Bounts there!"
"My disciples are on duty in Naruki. I'll ask them if they've found anything," Sora took out his Denreishinki and prepared to contact Isshin.
The device quickly responded, and Isshin's voice came through:
"Professor!"
"Isshin, are you still in Naruki?"
"I'm still on duty here. Did you miss me, Professor?"
Having not seen him for a while, Isshin had become bolder.
"I hear you've been slacking off in your training. Do you need me to 'guide' you personally?"
"I was wrong!"
Isshin admitted his mistake at lightning speed.
"How did Sōya's and Tōsen's assessment go?"
Sora asked about his disciples.
"It's already over! Their performance..." Isshin hesitated for a moment. "They both did very well! But my duty isn't over yet, so they're still here."
The Shinigami on duty in Naruki had not detected any trace of the Bounts.
"It seems there's nothing going on over there, but I've caught two soul-devouring Bounts here in Karakura Town. Their leader seems to have gone to Naruki," Sora said.
"Soul-devouring? Aren't those just Hollows?" Isshin was unfamiliar with the term 'Bount'.
The Bounts had been created a long time ago. If you weren't an insider, you wouldn't go out of your way to investigate them. Isshin didn't know what they were.
"Not Hollows. They feed on souls and have very strong concealment abilities. If they hide their spiritual pressure, it's very difficult to distinguish them from humans," Sora explained.
"They can devour human souls..." Isshin seemed to remember something. "During my time here in Naruki, a few strange things have happened. I thought it was the work of Hollows, but now it seems it might be related to Bounts?"
"It seems you have some clues over there. I'm on my way."
Sora decided to go to Naruki to deal with the Bounts.
The Bount leader was gathering his companions not just to survive, but with the intention of counter-attacking the Soul Society.
The Bounts had been exterminated by the Shinigami once and bore a grudge. The leader wanted to gather them to launch a counter-attack.
Although Sora thought their idea was naive, Bounts could indeed grow stronger by devouring souls.
This ability of theirs, like that of Hollows, would disrupt the balance of souls in the human world.
Given time, they would also cause some trouble for the Soul Society.
Sora turned his head. Mayuri and the man in work clothes were no longer in the courtyard.
They were inside the house.
Mayuri had not forgotten about his hidden Quincy spiritual tools.
The Quincy who had taken them had been eliminated by this group of Bounts, so the tools had fallen into their hands.
The man in work clothes was like an informant pointing out a crime scene, showing Mayuri where the stolen goods were hidden.
"Ohohoho—" Mayuri opened a box and let out a strange laugh. "The process was a bit roundabout, but I got them back."
Inside the box were some Quincy-related spiritual tools and books.
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