章 19: Demi-hollow training

Once the explanation was over they then moved to an abandoned building.

As they were walking Shiba Aiko started speaking,

"Now, as members of class 1 you will now take part in a dummy hollow training programme. The other classes will return to Soul Society while you guys will stay here and take care of hollows. Don't worry they aren't too strong. I'd recommend you guys search in groups. We sixth years will see how you take care of them and grade you at the end. Scatter."

She shunpoed away right when she finished. The members of class 1 were taken aback but quickly came to their senses and started forming groups. They were elites for a reason.

Once everyone formed their group they realised that they were missing a person.

"Where's Itsuki-san" a random girl called out,

"He's probably gone off on his own, that stuck up" a male classmate called out of spite,

"Maybe you can do the same, if you had his talents" the same girl defended.

This shut them up as what she said was true. No matter what class it was, Itsuki always came first. They even found out that the head teacher of class 1 Gengoro Onabara himself sparred against him with swords. When they thought about this it dulled there spirits.

Oblivious to his classmates talking, Itsuki was quite excited about this times training. He can finally put all he learnt in active battle, although they were only dummy hollows, not proper ones. Looking around he came across a building. It wasn't an old building and looked fairly new, however, it was burned all over.

He could see a spirit chained to the building, realising it was an earthbound spirit he came close to try and perform konso on it. Although he hadn't awakened his zanpakuto, he was still able to perform it. Coming close, he finally could see the spirit. It was a middle aged man dressed in an expensive looking yukata. It was screaming around nonsense,

"This business is mine!"

"The girls at the red light district all mine!"

However as soon as Itsuki came close, the chain connected to the spirit suddenly corroded instantly and cracks started to show on the man's face.

"Aaaaaggggghhhhh"

A hollow like scream poured out of his mouth as his reiatsu just spiked up. A white mask slowly appeared on his face as his clothes fell off. His whole body grew as it turned blue as he lost all his human features. Wisp like eyes appeared as the hollow's natural instinct to devour souls took over. All rationality gone, it lunged towards Itsuki as he was the nearest soul.

Without panic, Itsuki quickly bought his hands up and started drawing symbols in the air while red energy appeared around him as he shouted

"Bakudo #9 Geki"

The hollow suddenly stopped in its track and fell down causing a crater to appear. Luckily, this was an abandoned place in town so there were no humans in the vicinity. As the dust cleared up, the Hollow could be seen engulfed in the same red energy with its whole body paralysed. Isuki slowly walked towards it and activated his eyes. He wanted to see how the lines of death looked on a hollow. He knew this wasn't a dummy hollow but a genuine one due to the amount of reiatsu released from it.

What Itsuki saw genuinely shocked him. He saw the standard lines of death on the hollow and knew that if he cut through them he would purify it. But he also saw one dot right in the middle of its forehead. Itsuki was immediately captivated by it. Staring at it Itsuki just got an urge to stab it however he restrained himself. He knew that if he stabbed that dot, it would wipe out the existence of that hollow.

He didn't want that. Last thing he needed was the whole of soul society to chase him for his ability to completely wipe out hollows. Hollows should be purified, not wiped out as it would disturb the balance of the realms, one of the reasons the Quincy were wiped out.

Drawing his sword, Itsuki just slashed at the Hollow's mask as he carried on his journey.

Shiba Aiko could be seen looking at Itsuki's back as her peer came to her.

"What do you think Shiba-dono"

"He is a talent, that's for sure" Aiko turned to her peer

"Tell me Horisada Segoro, why was a genuine hollow here"

Horisada Segoro started sweating at the girl's question as he also didn't know. There were supposed to be only dummy hollows yet a real one slipped through the net. In the end, it was low fry like him that took the blame. Cursing in his mind he replied,

"Ill look into it, Shiba-dono"

Shiba Aiko gave a nod of consent before turning her back and looked towards Itsuki. Knowing he shouldn't be here Horisada Segoro left, looking to somehow vent his pent up grievances.

Returning to his guard post he realised it was too quiet.

"Shuzuki. Hotoko. Hiroyashi-san. Where are you guys"

As he continued searching he came across a horrifying sight. Limbs were strewn about while the heads of his fellow student could be seen lying around, immense shock and disbelieving expressions on their face. Gasping in shock, Segoro walked forward as tears started to pour out of his eyes. Looking around the room he realised that everyone stationed at this guard post was here. Reeling in his sadness, he quickly tried to sent out a distress signal but before he could, he lost all sensation on his right arm. Looking in that direction he noticed blood gushing out of his arm as a feeling of immense pain took over his mind.

"Aaaaggggghhhhh!!!!!!"

Segoro collapsed to his knees as he held his wound. Screaming in pain he heard crunching noises behind him causing him to look back.

"Aaaggghhh!!!!"

Another scream left his mouth, but this time not of pain but of pure fear. He could see a grotesque humanoid creature feasting on his now missing arm. This, however, was not the end of his suffering. Three claws suddenly pierced through his chest, avoiding his vitals and lifted him up as the creature slowly bit into him. Faint screams could be heard as they slowly died out.

The sound of something being eaten could be heard outside the designated guard post.

Shiba Aiko could still be seen looking towards Itsuki, not as a lovestruck girl, but with a hint of fear. Not knowing why, when Itsuki confronted that hollow she felt as if she was looking at a blade of death. A cold feeling appeared in her heart for a short moment before it left, leaving no trace.

As she was occupied by her thoughts she failed to notice a few of her peers missing, and one masked reiatsu entering the chosen training area.