Chapter 07 - Subtle Changes in Soul Society

"Lieutenant Sarugaki. Every single Hollow has been killed." A Shinigami bowed his head and reported to a girl that looked too much like a child, standing at a very short height of 4'4 – Lieutenant Hiyori Sarugaki of the 12th Division.

"That bastard of a smug Captain. Does he think he's the only one with a pile of research to attend to? Making me come out to the field to investigate, how dare he!?" She shouted angrily at her absent Captain while the other Shinigamis present smartly kept their mouths shut.

After finishing her rant, Hiyori took a few calming breaths and regarded the rest of her squad with a seriousness that looked almost foreign on her in respect to how she had looked like a petulant child just moments prior.

"Triple check. It's almost suspicious given how Hollows seem to be appearing and disappearing all over the Soul Society." She said, "Someone radio HQ for a last sweep before we leave this area for good."

'Different settlements of the Rukongai are being attacked by Hollows and there's also been reports of souls inexplicably disappearing without their clothes.'

"Lieutenant Sarugaki, message from the Captain." Someone called out to her and pointed at the black butterfly hovering near her - a Jigokucho, or Hell Butterfly.

"Yes? Make it quick, will ya?" While everyone else would have been extremely respectful to the Division Captains, Hiyori had no respect for hers.

"Lieutenant Sarugaki, I want you and your squad to make haste to the settlement south of your current location." A calm and collected voice laced with a serious undertone came out of the butterfly.

Hearing her Captain's serious voice, Hiyori held her tongue and rogered the order. "Order received. No one falls behind!" She shouted and promptly disappeared, her squad following right after.

"What are we looking at?" She asked the butterfly perched on her shoulder.

"Either of two things or both; more vanished souls or a destroyed settlement." Came the eerily calm reply before the call ended and the butterfly disappeared into motes of light.

Hiyori clicked her tongue with a gnawing annoyance at how nonchalant the bastard sounded throughout the entire thing. 'Would it kill you to show some fucking remorse?'

Despite how fast Hiyori hurried, even leaving her squad a good distance behind, by the time she got to the little settlement, all she found was the rubble remains of destroyed houses and faint traces of vanished souls.

"Damn it!" She kicked a rock in anger at the last remaining house and brought it down in a crumbling mess.

"Scan the surrounding area for any lingering Reiatsu or traces of Hollow movement." She barked out and after a clean sweep, they continued on forward after finding nothing.

'Hollow Reiatsu!' She felt the faint wave of the corrupt Reiatsu that Hollows were made up of and hurried towards that direction, her squad following her every move.

...

[General POV: Itachi]

It was two days after his recent relocation which he spent most of it walking because he had no specific place to be or a timeframe to keep so he considered walking instead of running.

With only three hours of sleep due to the news about rampaging Hollows he heard from Kanzaki, Itachi spent most of his waking moment just walking, until this day when he heard it.

To keep a watch out, he resorted to staying awake all night and took an hour or two in the morning to sleep, even if he didn't need it.

It had been in the midst of his nap time when he heard a loud unearthly roar and picked up the wave of nauseous energy that came along with it.

He crossed the distance between him and the Hollow in seconds and his first act of observation saw a somewhat large group that looked like a family getting devoured by Hollows, seven Hollows to be precise.

Had it been Shinigamis, Itachi wouldn't have cared or bothered with it and just stayed to observe how they fought, but the people below were just civilians.

Even back in the Elemental Nations, squabbles and wars between ninjas were mostly done in ninja-centric territories.

"Take the ones alive and run. You can cry later." His voice jolted the two adult men who had horrified looks on their faces as they looked at the Hollows.

"Y-y-yes… Than-t-t… Kima!"

Itachi's pitch black eyes calmly collected the positions of the Hollows and their state, while also keeping an open tab on all that he knew about Hollows and those he was about to see.

The Hollows were already fully aware of his presence and all of them currently had their focus on him as he slowly and silently unsheathed his sword.

His first target was the Hollow holding the child named Kima and in a split second before anybody could blink, Itachi's form quickly flickered in one spot and Kima was now held behind him taking all of them by surprise, that was before one of the Hollows screamed as his entire arm slipped off its joint.

"Leave now." Itachi repeated and this time none of them lagged behind.

They called those that were still alive and bundled together before running away with the older ones carrying the children on their backs.

"Shinigami! Kill! Kill! Kill!" The one who was hurt shouted hysterically and incited the others and Itachi watched as they charged balls of energy so he quickly shifted his location so it wouldn't affect the fleeing family.

"Die! Die! Die!" They shot the charged attacks at Itachi who swiftly disappeared and appeared behind the first one he attacked, with his sword in an attack lime that went straight through its pale ash bone mask, effectively killing it in one stroke.

'Some can talk while others have limited speech. An evolution trait perhaps, which would mean that there are ranks to these things.' He noted down all their mannerisms on his tab on Hollows.

'High speed, energy blasts, regeneration and possible physical traits given how different they all look.'

The way Itachi calmly stared down the six remaining Hollows with those dull black eyes of his that looked like it held them in disdain greatly infuriated the Hollows that they all rushed at him to devour him.