"Impossible!" The Shadow Hollow sounded genuinely shaken. "My shadow host can completely conceal even my own Reiatsu!"
"My perception is awful, so even if your Reiatsu wasn't hidden perfectly, I still wouldn't pick it up." Muten Natsu shifted slowly, adjusting his position. "But that's exactly why I rely less on Reiatsu sensing and more on what I can see."
"See…?"
"When you move inside a shadow, it ripples like water." Muten Natsu's gaze stayed steady. "And when you slip into the shadow of something inanimate, the outline of that shadow warps a little."
"Don't mess with me!" the Shadow Hollow snapped, incredulous. "Changes that tiny… and you noticed after seeing it three times?"
"Because it isn't your shadow host. It's my Shadow Stealth." Muten Natsu's black eyes deepened. "You were made with my research—Experiment J-32. The first time I ever saw you, you were still just a blueprint."
The Shadow Hollow's body jolted. It reflexively tried to back away, then forced itself to stop, overriding the instinctive fear. Its claws remained pressed to the little girl's throat.
"You… you're Muten Natsu? You're really still alive!"
"You know me?" Muten Natsu raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess what you're made from. Some poor bastard the Research Material Capture Division caught? A modified soul left behind by the Spearhead Project? A resident of Rukongai? Or… don't tell me you're made from a Shinigami's soul."
"Don't you move!" The Shadow Hollow's claw dug in, drawing a thin line of blood on the girl's neck. "Come any closer and I'll kill her!"
"I'm curious." Muten Natsu lifted his Zanpakutō. "If you recognize me, why do you still think I'd care whether a Soul lives or dies?"
The Shadow Hollow's eyes flickered with panic. "You…"
"What I'm even more curious about," Muten Natsu said, a faint curve to his mouth, "is that I'm waiting for spider silk. What are you waiting for?"
"Spider silk?"
"The proper name is…" Muten Natsu slashed down hard. "Entangling Silk Flash!"
At the instant his blade moved, the spider silk that had been secretly stuck to the little girl snapped taut, yanking her away from the Shadow Hollow.
Muten Natsu had never been interested in chatting.
Everything he'd just said served one purpose: to buy time and pull her clear with Entangling Silk Flash, the technique he'd gained after killing a Spider Hollow.
Fine strands of spider silk had already spread from his blade. Under Muten Natsu's control, they'd crept in silently, closing in on the girl.
And while they moved, Muten Natsu kept throwing out shocking lines, holding the Shadow Hollow's attention so it wouldn't notice.
Once he was sure the silk had latched on, he pressed with an outright threat. The moment the Shadow Hollow's focus wavered, Muten Natsu struck and tightened the webbing, ripping the girl out of its grasp.
He caught her and tossed her straight to Ichigo Kurosaki, charging the Shadow Hollow at the same time.
"Run! Get far away!"
Ichigo Kurosaki caught the girl and knew he'd only get in the way if he stayed. He bolted, a full-out sprint.
Still, he couldn't help looking back.
And he saw Muten Natsu blast past him—moving even faster.
Running backward, no less.
Seriously… that insane—wait, no.
Ichigo Kurosaki saw blood spraying from Muten Natsu's mouth.
Muten Natsu had been knocked flying.
"What are you staring at?" Muten Natsu adjusted his posture as he hit the ground, using his Zanpakutō to bleed off speed. "Run at my pace!"
Ichigo Kurosaki: "…" You call this running?
"You're waiting for spider silk," the Shadow Hollow said, lowering its body as it came charging in. "I'm waiting for the sun to set!"
The sinking, fire-red sunset stretched Muten Natsu's shadow long across the ground. The Shadow Hollow dove into it, using that extended shadow to cross a huge distance in an instant, reappearing right in front of Muten Natsu.
Muten Natsu was ready. He knocked aside the incoming claws with a swing of his blade, then followed through with a diagonal cut aimed at the Shadow Hollow's chest.
A sharp, ringing clash.
A thick arm had blocked the strike.
The slender Shadow Hollow vanished without a trace. In its place stood a hulking Menos, shaped like a gorilla, its massive arms covered in shield-like plates of pale bone.
"As I thought." The Menos's voice was low, dripping with open contempt. "Even if you didn't die, you've got almost nothing left. Back then, you swaggered out of Hueco Mundo with three Shinigami in tow. You looked untouchable. Never thought you'd end up like this, did you?"
A huge fist roared toward him, the wind it kicked up slamming into Muten Natsu's face, like it meant to mash him into paste.
That was the same blow that had sent Muten Natsu flying earlier. When the Menos tried it again, Muten Natsu shifted his footwork, twisting his body and driving his arms with the motion. He slipped the punch and, at the same time, swept his Zanpakutō across.
The Menos wavered, then vanished.
The Shadow Hollow snapped back into view, darting around the blade with impossible agility, and raked a claw across Muten Natsu's throat.
"So weak So weak" it purred, licking the blood from its claws. "It's been a long time. You've gotten weak to a pathetic level. How miserable."
Muten Natsu brushed a fingertip over the blood at his neck.
So that was why it called Shadow Stealth "shadow host." No wonder the traces when it slipped into shadows were so obvious.
It hadn't just been hiding. It had been raising another Hollow inside its own shadow.
The Shadow Hollow was fast, but its body was thin, its strength lacking, and its defense low.
The Menos was powerful and built like a tank. It was slower, but its defense was absurdly high.
The Shadow Hollow kept the Menos hidden within its shadow and switched between them mid-fight. One covered speed, the other covered durability—fast as hell, tough as hell.
No wonder they hunted people with high spiritual density. Ordinary Souls weren't enough for two of them. Better to use the weak ones as bait and hook something bigger.
"To be honest, I feel weak too right now." Muten Natsu tilted his head. "But if the two of you can't even take down someone this weak in a two-on-one, isn't that even more pathetic?"
The Shadow Hollow's eyes flared with vicious light. It lunged in, claws slashing. "Who the hell are you calling pathetic?!"
Muten Natsu had already returned his blade to the sheath. A crushing Reiatsu rolled off him, turning the air thick and heavy.
The instant the Shadow Hollow crossed into range, cold light burst from the mouth of the scabbard.
Clang!
It was ready. Its slender form sank into the shadow, and the Menos reappeared, raising the bone-plated armguard to block Muten Natsu's sweeping right arm…
Right arm?
Behind the Menos's mask, confused eyes reflected Muten Natsu's hand cutting through empty air.
There was no blade in it.
Where was the Zanpakutō?!
Muten Natsu's right hand snapped back to grip the scabbard. His left seized the hilt. From a low crouch, he straightened in one smooth motion, drawing with a vicious backhand pull.
The blade slipped past the Menos's armguard and carved upward from below, ripping open its chest.
Blood sprayed up, chasing the arc of the blade.
Muten Natsu released the scabbard with his right hand and shifted it to the hilt, stepped in, and brought the Zanpakutō down with both hands in a savage chop.
The descending blade-light cut through the rising blood, splitting the falling droplets as it came down.
Drawing Technique—Reverse Shadow Flash!