FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!
Grand Fisher fled in sheer panic toward the edge of the city.
The man behind him was an absolute monster. If anyone ever told him again that someone lacking spiritual pressure was weak, he would rip them apart himself! Right now, his only priority was survival.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A cold voice rang out directly to Grand Fisher's left.
When the Hollow turned his head, he was met with a devastating kick from Kaito.
Boom!
The sheer force of the impact produced a double sonic boom, sending Grand Fisher crashing off his escape route.
"You dared to lay a hand on my cute disciple? You must have a death wish."
At this point, Kaito didn't hold back at all. He activated Blue, generating a powerful gravitational pull that dragged Grand Fisher right back to him. Catching the Hollow by the arm, he prepared to repeat the exact same trick.
"Itto Kaso!"
Rip!
The moment Kaito spoke the words, Grand Fisher ruthlessly tore his own arm off again, throwing himself backward. Simultaneously, another massive, blade-shaped pillar of crimson fire erupted into the sky.
'This guy is completely insane!' Grand Fisher thought frantically. He had devoured many Soul Reapers in his time, and from their stolen memories, he knew that this particular sacrificial Kido required giving up a part of the caster's own body as a catalyst. Yet, this man had unleashed it twice in a row just to kill him.
Grand Fisher cursed Kaito bitterly in his heart, but he didn't dare slow down. Thanks to his High-Speed Regeneration, his severed arms quickly grew back to their original state.
"Itto Kaso!"
"Argh!"
"Itto Kaso!"
"Damn it!"
Kaito repeated the cycle relentlessly. He would use Blue to drag Grand Fisher back into close quarters, grab ahold of him, and cast the sacrificial Kido, forcing Grand Fisher to sever his own limbs to survive, only to rely on his High-Speed Regeneration to fix them.
After undergoing this grueling process over a dozen times, Grand Fisher felt completely drained. His face twisted with absolute exhaustion.
'No, no... I can't keep this up.'
His reserves were completely tapped; he didn't have a single drop of spiritual energy left to fuel his regeneration.
Realizing he couldn't run anymore, Grand Fisher ground to a halt. After a dozen rounds of torment, he finally understood that Kaito was merely toying with him. Since escape was impossible, his only choice was to fight to the death.
With that desperate thought, Grand Fisher funneled every last ounce of his remaining spiritual pressure. The white, ape-like bone mask on his face split open, expanding rapidly to reveal a black-patterned head underneath. His entire body swelled as if injected with stimulants, ballooning until he reached a towering height of nearly five stories.
His grayish-green skin shifted into a massive cloak, beneath which lay muscles as rigid as steel bars. On either side of his neck, two enormous ivory-like bone structures protruded.
He was actually a highly concealed Arrancar!
This was the first time Kaito had ever faced an Arrancar. It was no wonder the ordinary Soul Reapers sent to patrol this area had met their ends one after another. Even a Captain could be caught off guard and lose their life when facing a Hollow of this caliber, let alone Vanguard members who didn't even possess Captain-level strength.
Looking at Grand Fisher in his fully released state, Kaito sneered. "So, you've finally stopped running."
Grand Fisher roared furiously, "You arrogant bastard! If you want to die so badly, don't blame me!"
With a deafening crack, Grand Fisher's fifteen-meter-tall frame vanished instantly from Kaito's line of sight—he had used Sonido. It was a high-speed movement technique akin to a Soul Reaper's Shunpo or a Quincy's Hirenkyaku. However, while Shunpo could be perceived as linear movement, Sonido operated on a spatial level that allowed the user to slip past standard tracking methods. This was precisely why even high-level combatants struggled to detect its trajectory, making the technique incredibly dangerous.
Boom!
An instant later, Grand Fisher materialized directly on Kaito's left flank, swinging a massive blade shaped like a Zanpakuto straight down toward him. The surrounding air distorted violently under the weight of his spiritual pressure.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
Feeling the solid impact of his first strike, Grand Fisher was ecstatic. The sheer humiliation of being hunted like an animal fueled his rage, prompting him to repeatedly hack down with his blade four or five times before finally stopping. Each cataclysmic swing kicked up a dense cloud of murky dust.
"Hmph! You're finally dead!"
Grand Fisher sheathed his sword. He searched the area with his senses, and upon detecting no spiritual pressure or signs of movement, he slowly turned to leave.
"So you weren't invincible after all. I was just scaring myself. It turns out your spiritual pressure couldn't even compare to mine. Your death only proves my superiority. What an ironic end."
However, before Grand Fisher could take more than a few steps, a chilling voice echoed through the clearing.
"Hey, do you have any idea how much trash you're making? You're ruining the city environment."
"What!"
'That's impossible!'
Grand Fisher spun around, trembling as he stared into the settling dust in absolute disbelief. Why isn't he dead?!
"I'm done playing around with you. Cursed Technique: Blue!"
Suddenly, Kaito materialized right behind Grand Fisher. As his words fell, a localized gravitational singularity with immense density manifested beside the Hollow.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
Grand Fisher frantically tried to rally his spiritual pressure to escape, but he had nothing left to give. During his frantic retreat, almost all of his reserves had been consumed by his High-Speed Regeneration.
The singularity's gravitational pull intensified rapidly. Grand Fisher watched in horror as his massive body was dragged backward, step by step, toward the void behind him.
"No! I don't want to die! I'm supposed to feast for another five hundred years!"
But all his struggles were entirely futile. Grand Fisher was inexorably swallowed by Blue, leaving behind not even a single trace of residual spiritual pressure.
"Ding! Fusion level increased by 10%!"
Kaito's eyes gleamed. The fusion rate of his character template had actually jumped by a full ten percent from that single encounter!
'Wow, did I hear that right?'
He immediately pulled up his status display.
[Host: Kaito Shiba
Template: Satoru Gojo
Fusion Progress: 55%
Spiritual Points: 15,789
Daily Check-in Quest: Updating...
Abilities:
Limitless: Infinity (Passive) – Unlocked
Limitless Lapse: Blue – Unlocked
Limitless Reversal: Red – Unlocked
Hollow Technique: Purple – Unlocking (Progress: 75%)
Domain Expansion: Infinite Void – Sealed]
Kaito's eyes lit up with satisfaction. His progress sat at fifty-five percent. With just five percent more, he would unlock the Hollow Technique and completely master his Domain Expansion. It was well within his reach.
Closing the interface, Kaito vanished from the spot. Now that the threat had been neutralized, he needed to head back and save Masaki. Urahara should be wrapping things up on his end by now.
Twenty minutes after Kaito's departure, at the exact location where Grand Fisher had been obliterated by Blue.
The fabric of space rippled, peeling away like a hanging curtain, and two figures stepped out from the hidden dimension.
One wore black-rimmed glasses, sporting a standard Soul Reaper uniform beneath a flowing white captain's haori. The other possessed short, light silver hair and a perpetual squint, giving anyone who looked at him the distinct impression of being sized up by a venomous serpent.
"To completely dismantle an Arrancar without relying on the power of a Zanpakuto... that truly is a fascinating ability," the man with the glasses said with a mild smile, staring in the direction Kaito had left.
"Kaito Shiba, a member of the Shiba Clan. He didn't stand out in the least during his time at the Shinigami Academy," the silver-haired man countered smoothly.
"Gin, keep a close eye on him. People like him are just like us."
The Captain with the black-rimmed glasses turned to leave, the calm smile never leaving his face.
"They are the type who simply refuse to stay in their place."