The Central Great Underground Prison of Shinō is located not far from the First Division barracks and is one of the most important institutions in Seireitei.
The Shinigami stationed here answer directly to the Central 46 and stand on equal footing with the Gotei 13.
Most of the time, personnel are transferred in from other branches:
Things like the Onmitsukidō, the Kidō Corps, or the Gotei 13.
It's very rare for someone like Naraku Sora to become a jailer straight out of graduation.
So much so that when the boy saw the person in charge of the underground prison, he froze on the spot.
A beautiful woman with delicate features and pale skin sat calmly in the room. Her straight black mid-length hair hung smoothly down, decorated with an ornate golden hairpiece.
Her peculiar aura stood in stark contrast to the grim environment of the prison.
The plain-faced Shinigami bowed respectfully. "Warden, ma'am, the new recruit has arrived."
"Name?"
"Naraku Sora."
"Graduation result?"
"Excellent."
"Excellent?"
The woman lifted her head, her slender brows arching slightly as a pair of flawless black eyes swept up and down over the boy in front of her.
"The Central Prison is not like other places. If you want to stay here, you have to prove your worth. As it happens, a few new criminals have just been sentenced today."
"You'll be in charge of escorting them to their assigned cells."
Before Naraku could even open his mouth, the guard beside him had already grabbed him and dragged him out of the room, leading him into a deep, shadowy passage.
"The person you just met is the Warden of the Central Prison. Her position is equal to that of a Gotei 13 captain. Before becoming Warden, she was the captain of the Twelfth Division."
"Lady Shutara Senjumaru."
"It's said she can see straight through a person's fate, so whatever you do, don't go against her orders."
Naraku blinked, then suddenly looked enlightened.
No wonder she looked familiar—she was one of the big shots of the future Royal Guard. He hadn't expected her to still be in Seireitei at this point, let alone serving as the head of the Central Prison.
Not that any of that had much to do with him. What really mattered was the job in front of him.
Hopefully his earlier guess wasn't wrong.
Soon, led by the Shinigami Nishikawa, Naraku saw his assigned "targets."
Two massive figures, tightly bound in heavy black chains. Savage bone masks were fused to their faces, mouths split nearly to the ears, drool dripping down as scarlet eyes burned with cruelty and greed.
They weren't Shinigami.
Naraku's eyes widened. Pointing stiffly at the "criminals" on the open ground ahead, he asked, his expression frozen:
"Senpai… these are under the jurisdiction of the Central Prison too?"
Nishikawa nodded helplessly. "If they were ordinary Hollows, they would've just been purified on the spot. But these aren't ordinary Hollows…"
"They're Adjuchas, kid."
Naraku frowned, rubbing his chin, thinking hard for a long moment.
Then he nodded and said:
"Is it still too late to withdraw from the Central Prison?"
Nishikawa: "?"
Did this brat lose his mind somewhere along the way? Did he really think a Central Court post was like the academy cafeteria, where you can come and go as you please?
"Too late."
Nishikawa shook his head and pointed at the two Adjuchas in the distance. "If you fail to carry out the Warden's orders, what happens to you will be worse than death."
After wrestling with himself for a bit, Naraku still decided to grit his teeth and go for it.
Even if his current level wasn't enough to actually deal with Adjuchas in a straight fight, just escorting them to their assigned cells shouldn't be impossible.
He had spent a few years studying at the academy, after all.
So, under Nishikawa's dumbfounded gaze, Naraku began to move his lips, muttering an incantation as he walked toward the chained Adjuchas.
If you got closer, you could just barely make out a few lines of a very recognizable Kidō chant.
The nearer he drew, the more terrifying the pressure from the Adjuchas became. The black chains only restricted their movement and part of their spiritual pressure.
Hollows had always harbored intense malice toward Shinigami. Whenever a Shinigami approached, these two monsters would unleash their Reiatsu without restraint.
The very air seemed to turn viscous. Naraku's breathing grew more and more labored.
It felt like a heavy stone was lodged in his chest.
Every step was a struggle.
Forced to the limit, Naraku ground his teeth so hard the sound made one's gums ache. Spiritual pressure surged inside his body, rapidly gathering—
And erupted.
The clash of powerful pressure instantly shaved off more than half of the suffocating weight, and his steps grew much lighter.
Seeing this, even the Adjuchas couldn't help showing a flicker of surprise in their eyes.
Plenty of Shinigami had come by over the past few days, but aside from that pretty woman who'd almost slapped them both to death in a single blow, all the others had been trash.
Forget a Reiatsu standoff—just accidentally meeting their eyes was enough to scare those Shinigami into not daring to come any closer.
Since when did the Central Prison have a brat with this much guts?
Was he one of the Shinigami who'd gone out on a mission and just come back?
While the Adjuchas were still reeling, the boy had already stopped right in front of them.
Reiatsu pulsing thickly in the air, Naraku laid a hand on the black chains and, facing the savage bone mask, bared his own teeth in a grin of gleaming white.
"Hadō #11: Tsuzuri Raiden!"
As the final words of the Kidō chant fell, brilliant golden lightning exploded from his palm, racing along the chains and surging into the Adjuchas' bodies.
An instant later, agonized roars filled the air, loud enough to shake one's eardrums.
The chains binding the Hollows clattered violently. Blood-red eyes glared daggers at the boy in front of them, as if trying to vent all their fury through that stare alone.
After "responding" to them a little, Naraku turned his head and shouted back:
"Senpai, what level of Hell are these two supposed to be locked in?"
Nishikawa had been completely stunned by Naraku's whole sequence of actions. He knew the kid had graduated as a top student from the academy and that he was at least at seated-officer level.
But wasn't he the same?
Even so, when facing these two vicious Adjuchas, despite his experience as a battle-hardened prison guard, Nishikawa still couldn't help feeling a chill in his heart.
Yet this kid acted like he didn't even know what fear was. He didn't just push through their Reiatsu head-on—once he got close, he even threw a Hadō at them for suppression.
"Ahem… first level, the Reviving Hell," Nishikawa hurriedly answered, finally snapping out of it.
The moment the words left his mouth, Naraku grabbed the chains, let the raging Hollow Reiatsu crash and swirl around him, and started marching steadily toward the depths of the underground prison.
What followed was simple enough: they went down along a wide corridor, then searched the Reviving Hell for an empty cell.
Open the cell door, stuff the Hollows inside, close the cell door.
As soon as he finished all of this, a voice suddenly rang in Naraku's ears. The air rippled like disturbed water, and a black light screen unfolded in front of him.
[Successfully suppressed criminal Hollow (Adjuchas). Sin value: 777. Contribution: 5%!]
[Your spiritual pressure has increased. Current Reiatsu grade: Level 12!]
[Your Hakuda has improved.]
[You have obtained Hollow Power!]
Naraku, who'd just been happily basking in his power-up, suddenly snapped his eyes wide open, his expression freezing over in an instant.
…Hold up.
The power of what, exactly?