5 First Battle.

Hearing Zakuro's arrogant words, the Shinigami responded with a condescending smile, "Just try it, hollow!"

The shinigami held his sword with both hands in front of him and focused on every move Zakuro made, no matter how small. But, contrary to his confident outward exterior, the shinigami was completely unnerved internally.

'Dammit! I'm calling this thing a hollow because that's the only reasonable explanation. His reiatsu feels completely different from one. In my sixty years of being a shinigami, I've never felt a reiatsu so evil and alien. It's a good thing I alerted my squad about my whereabouts before I engaged. Hopefully, some backup arrives soon. Preferably Lieutenant Matsumoto...'

Because he was a curse, Zakuro immediately noticed the small bit of fear and uncertainty emanating off of the shinigami. Since this was his first time having access to people's emotions on such a personal level, he had to admit, it felt empowering. It would enable him to easily access the mental weaknesses of his opponents.

But, currently, he didn't have the time to experiment with that. This shinigami had to be defeated quickly and subtly. Zakuro didn't want to risk taking too long as the shinigami reinforcement would be arriving soon. He needed a battle plan, one that would enable him to take down the shinigami completely in one fell swoop.

'Let's see, I'm not much for sensing reiatsu yet but judging from the pressure emanating off of him, he's not much stronger than me. That's saying a lot about the level of the basic shinigami's. Hmm, my main offensive skills are idle transfiguration and rupture. I would prefer not to kill him as he's going to be my first experiment in the cursed spirit manipulation technique. I'll just use the rupture to cut him down to an inch of his life. If that doesn't work then...'

Zakuro quickly grabbed onto the chain of fate wrapped around him and pulled the soul of the drunkard closer.

"Die!"

The shinigami immediately shunpo'd to the side of Zakuro and swung his blade at his neck with intent to decapitate him with one move. He thought that this would be the perfect time to attack since Zakuro was distracted and he had a clear advantage in speed.

'He's fast!'

Seeing the blade coming towards him, Zakuro used all of his strength to block the attack with the soul of the drunkard, using him as a type of human shield.

'He fell into my trap!'

The shinigami quickly stopped mid-attack and changed the trajectory of his blade to Zakuro's unguarded side, causing the latter to open his eyes in surprise.

SHWINGGG!

With one clean cut, the shinigami decapitated Zakuro, causing his head to fly into the air.

"Whew...I managed to kill it by myself."

It was that one split second.

That one second when the shinigami let his guard down that Zakuro used the flesh from his neck to form two long chains and wrapped it around the shinigami's body with blinding speed. The man was ensnared before he even knew what happened.

But, his experience immediately started to show as he started breaking his way out of the trap with brute force. Once again though, this distraction is what Zakuro needed.

Zakuro controlled his headless body and used two fingers to form four transparent grid-like lines in the air, two horizontal, two vertical.

'Dismantle.'

The attack arrived almost immediately as Zakuro loosened his grip on the shinigami to avoid being hit by his own technique.

"Agh! Damn hollow!"

The shinigami immediately tried to shunpo away but for some reason, it was easy for Zakuro to follow him with his eyes this time around. It was like some polygonal shapes in the form of the shinigami would appear at the spot before he does. Zakuro didn't know what caused it but something within him was saying that it was his innate cursed technique.

As he was close to victory though, Zakuro didn't stop attacking. He would figure out the specifics of that technique later.

'Dismantle.'

Zakuro kept using dismantle to cut the shinigami over and over every time he moved. No matter where he tried to go, Zakuro could predict his movements with incredible ease. He wanted to use cleave, but he wasn't sure if the Shinigami would survive that attack even if it only hit him once.

After several seconds of getting battered by incredibly sharp cuts, the shinigami fell to his knees as a large amount of blood flowed out of his wounds.

"Damn- argghh!"

The shinigami spit out a large amount of blood as he tried to threaten Zakuro, worsening his wounds. The latter formed two wings with the bottom of his neck and flew back onto his body, immediately healing his wounds. Although it would take about an hour or so to fully heal, Zakuro could still fight at full strength.

He then slowly walked up to the shinigami and formed a black ball within his palm.

"What is...?"

The shinigami didn't even have time to ponder before he was sucked into the black ball. Not even his blood, which was just reishi, was left. The only thing remaining was his sword.

Zakuro swallowed the black ball as he bent down to pick up the sword. He immediately felt his spiritual power increase by at least double but the taste of the ball took precedence over that fact at the moment.

'Fuck! This ball tastes like vomit! Urghhh...is this what I have to go through every time I use this technique? Whatever, I can manage. Now, about this sword. It doesn't appear to be a fully realized zanpakuto so that means I can probably imprint my own power onto it. If that doesn't work, I can make it into a quasi-cursed tool instead...'

Zakuro picked up the sword and looked at the soul of the drunkard he had thrown to the wayside during the battle. Grabbing it by its chain once again, Zakuro pulled it towards him.

'If this one's head wasn't leaking his brains, he would probably be screaming in agony right now...Heh, I wonder how a scream sounds without a mouth?'

Zakuro then held the chain closest to where it started from in the soul's chest and yanked it out with all his strength.

He was planning to force a hollow transformation so that the shinigami who would arrive here later would assume that their comrade had been eaten by said hollow. It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it was enough for them to get off his trail for the time being.

Reiatsu immediately started pouring out from all directions as a white liquid substance started forming over the face of the soul. Zakuro changed his humanoid legs into the feet of a horse and used the extra speed to run away from the area.

Now that a hollow had been released, it wouldn't take long for the shinigami to find the spot. Zakuro even hoped that maybe the shinigami weren't coming so that the hollow could attack the civilians and generate more cursed energy from the panic that would ensue.

All in all, it was a win-win situation for him.

[About 10 minutes later]

Three shinigami appeared on the scene. Two of them stood behind a tall, beautiful buxom woman with long orange hair and a pink sash around her neck. If Zakuro was still there, he would immediately recognize who the person was.

One of the shinigami said curiously, "Lieutenant Rangiku, that weird reiatsu we sensed earlier is gone but there's a hollow here instead. Could it have just been the hollow the whole time?"

Rangiku's hair flowed freely across her face in the wind as she looked around the site. She then said in a serious tone, "They are clear signs of battle here. The cuts on the ground, the lingering reiatsu of Takiyomi and whoever his opponent was, plus that hollow. I'm thinking that whoever Takiyomi was fighting had a hollow throw us off his trail but it could be the hollow itself using some strange ability. You never know these days. Takezoe, Nagakiso, purify that hollow and try to locate Takiyomi. If we're unable to find him, then, unfortunately, he's probably dead."

The two shinigami immediately shunpo'd away in pursuit of the hollow, leaving Rangiku by herself. She raised her head and looked up at the full moon in the night sky as she thought about what could've happened. Especially, if the perpetrator was indeed that hollow.

"I can't help but think that we're being played with here. That hollow is probably the soul that Takiyomi was trying to bury. Didn't he state that it had an especially long chain of fate? That means we should've arrived on site and had plenty of time to bury it. I should probably let the captain know. Hm, a thorough investigation is in order...."

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