Finally escaping the pursuit of these Hollows, Yamabuki chased after Chōjirō Sasakibe at the fastest possible speed.
Not long after running, he saw Chōjirō Sasakibe and others surrounded by four Giant Hollows. With the strength of Chōjirō Sasakibe and Feng Yuan, dealing with four Giant Hollows at once was already very difficult.
This was thanks to Yamabuki transforming into a mobile turret and holding back the Hollow tide for such a long time.
If those Hollows had been allowed to pursue them, these two subordinates would have been gnawed down to bones long ago!
"Bakudō Number Sixty-Two, Hyappo Rankan!"
A pillar of light appeared in Yamabuki's hand and he threw it towards the four Hollows. The pillar of light instantly transformed into dozens of pillars, firmly pinning the four Giant Hollows to the ground.
"Brother Yamabuki! You're alright!" Chōjirō Sasakibe said happily.
"What could happen to me?" Yamabuki said smugly, instantly returning to the top of Lizard Maru's head. I knew having a mount was good; without Lizard Maru, how could I have run this far on two legs?
However, the crisis was not over. The reishi of Shinigami and Hollows are different. In this vast desert, the three Shinigami were like bright lamps in the darkness; these Hollows would eventually find them!
"Quickly contact the Soul Society and tell them to open the Senkaimon at a specific location so we can return quickly. We've killed so many Hollows, it should be enough to report." Yamabuki said.
Before he finished speaking, their whereabouts were already exposed, and more and more Hollows appeared around them.
"Found you! Hahaha!"
"Find your head!" Yamabuki activated Flash Flower, instantly piercing the Hollow's mask and twisting out its brains!
"If we keep running like this, we'll be caught sooner or later! We need to find a safe place! And we need to eliminate our reishi. Yamabuki missed Mayuri at this moment; if it were that pervert, he would definitely be able to create a device to erase reishi traces."
"Then let's use the simplest method!" Yamabuki slaughtered all the approaching Hollows as easily as slicing vegetables, then peeled the Hollows' masks from their faces and put them on his own.
"Do you think these Hollows' intelligence will allow them to see through our disguise?" Yamabuki asked.
Chōjirō Sasakibe and Feng Yuan's eyebrows twitched. They were just stupid, not idiots! How could they not see through it?
However…
"Brother Yamabuki, after you put on the Hollow mask, your reishi did change! It might be somewhat useful!" Chōjirō Sasakibe also found a suitable mask among the Hollow corpses and put it on, finding it quite interesting.
Just as these three had finished disguising themselves, the Adjuchas that had been searching for their traces had already found them.
"Kid, you run pretty fast! Our fight isn't over yet! Continue!" The four-armed Adjuchas said.
Yamabuki cleared his throat, then pretended to speak in a very hoarse voice: "You've got the wrong person, I'm also a Hollow, look at the mask on my face!"
The four-armed Adjuchas' eyebrows twitched wildly beneath his mask. Are you taking me for an idiot? How could I not recognize you just because you're wearing a mask? And your reishi…
Hmm? Why has this kid's reishi changed?
Before, it was very pure Shinigami reishi.
Now, the reishi has become very…turbid.
It's like a mixed dish.
"I really am a Hollow. If you don't believe me, I'll show you a Cero. You stand there and don't move, I'll send you a Cero right now! Raikōhō!"
To hell with your Cero!
The four-armed Adjuchas cursed, and a golden-blue beam of light directly blasted into the Hollow group, blowing up a large number of Hollows.
"What are you two still standing there watching for? Hurry up and run! Our disguise has been exposed!" Yamabuki shouted at Chōjirō Sasakibe and Feng Yuan.
Chōjirō Sasakibe was frantically complaining in his mind, "Your disguise never even worked! How low would someone's intelligence have to be to be fooled by such a disguise? Use your wisdom as Chief of Staff!"
Since the mask on his face was useless anyway, Chōjirō Sasakibe casually took it off and threw it away, and Feng Yuan did the same.
Yamabuki sighed. He had wanted to play a game of infiltrating the enemy, but it seemed to have failed now. He reached out to take off the mask, but it wouldn't come off!
Hmm?
Did I put the mask on too hard?
He pulled harder, but it still wouldn't come off!
A chill ran through Yamabuki's heart.
What's going on?
He grabbed the mask and desperately tried to tear it off, but it seemed to have fused with his face. No matter how hard he pulled, the mask wouldn't budge, unless he tore off his entire face!
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!
Don't tell me something's going wrong now!
"Brother Yamabuki, why are you still wearing that mask?" Chōjirō Sasakibe asked.
Yamabuki nervously said: "I thought it looked pretty cool so I kept it on for now, it's fine, you don't need to worry about me, I'll deal with the pursuers behind us!"
Then he tried again, no matter how hard he pulled, this white mask wouldn't come off. If he returned to Soul Society with this thing on, he'd be cut down instantly.
Awakening the ability to control reishi unintentionally was already troublesome, requiring constant vigilance to avoid being discovered.
Now, the Hollow mask was stuck to his face and wouldn't come off, leaving him truly speechless.
It's well known that Hollows have been the enemies of Shinigami since ancient times. When Aizen conducted his Hollowfication experiments, he used eight Captains and Vice Captains as test subjects, turning them into semi-Hollowfied Shinigami. This was almost one-third of Soul Society's core strength, yet Soul Society abandoned them without hesitation!
Judging by Hirako Shinji's attitude towards Yamamoto during the fight with Aizen, Yamamoto tacitly approved Central 46's judgment.
After the Aizen arc, although the Visored returned to the Gotei 13, in the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, they never used Hollowfication, even when defeated and killed. It's highly probable that they reached some agreement with the higher-ups, never to use Hollowfication abilities again for the rest of their lives.
Otherwise, these Masked Captains wouldn't have been so passive in the Thousand-Year Blood War.
"Damn it, if worst comes to worst, I'll just cut off my face, I can heal it with Kaidō anyway." Yamabuki thought fiercely, using the tip of his sword to pry at the gap between the mask and his flesh, intending to peel off his entire face!
But just then, he discovered that the real problem wasn't that the mask wouldn't come off, but that the Hollow mask was fusing with his body, slowly integrating into his body!
In less than a minute, the Hollow mask completely disappeared, fusing into his body. Yamabuki vigorously touched his face, confirming it was flesh, not a mask, but this made him even more uneasy. What exactly was happening to his body?
"Hmm? Brother Yamabuki, did you throw away that mask? You just said it looked cool!" Chōjirō Sasakibe leaned over and said with a smile.
....
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