Bullying Hollow

A few months had passed since the defeat of Ginjo and his followers and it was currently nighttime in Karakura Town. Suddenly, a few dozen meters above the city, a Japanese-style gate opened in midair, allowing a young man and a young woman to pass through it.

While the man was frantically looking around, clearly nervous, the woman wore a confident expression. She briefly glanced at the man, and seeing him shaking in his boots, she could only scoff in disdain.

"Are you afraid, Yuki?"

The young man, Yuki, heard his partner's question and nodded his head.

"Of course, I'm afraid. We'll have to fight real Hollow soon; how can I not be afraid, Shino?"

"We are Shinigami, Yuki. Fighting Hollow is literally the reason for our existence."

Ignoring the still-shaking Yuki, Shino looked in a random direction before she started moving.

"Oh well, let's patrol. I'll be going this way."

"W-Wait a moment, we are splitting up!?"

"Obviously. Like that, we can cover twice as much ground."

Yuki wanted to complain that their job would also be twice as dangerous, but before he could do so, Shino had already left him.

'N-No worries, Yuki. You can do this! You have trained for this!'

Turning around, Yuki whispered words of encouragement to himself while moving in the opposite direction of Shino.

Meanwhile, back with Shino, she couldn't help but curse internally, as she had already heard a Hollow's scream not too far away from her.

'Damn, how unlucky. I have just arrived here, and I already have to put effort into it.'

Unlike Yuki, Shino was confident in defeating Hollow, but even if she was confident, that didn't mean she wanted to do it. Frankly, she hoped her first patrol would have been leisurely. 

As she was moving quickly toward the source of the noise, she rounded a corner, and what she saw not too far away from her caused her eyes to widen.

Around 50 meters away from her, a young black-haired woman wearing a school uniform was leisurely walking while a massive six-legged Hollow was towering over her, ready to eat its victim.

'Damn, I won't make it in time!'

Despite Shino not believing that she could save the human that was about to be eaten, she still gave her best to reach the Hollow as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, when she had only crossed half the distance, the Hollow attacked, undoubtedly killing the human in one strike.

Or rather, that was what Shino expected to happen.

"*Sigh* Can't these small fry leave me alone?"

The moment Shino heard the woman's words, the woman vanished and reappeared next to the Hollow's head with her arm already reeled back.

Before Shino could understand what was going on, the fist smashed through the Hollow's mask and into its head, killing it instantly.

'She killed it with her bare hand!?'

Obviously, Shino had received intel that there were some quite powerful humans within Karakura Town. However, she had not expected to witness something like this. After all, there was not even a sliver of Spiritual Power in the attack that killed the Hollow.

'That was pure physical strength. What the hell? Is she a gorilla?'

A frown appeared on the woman's face after killing the Hollow. She looked around for a few moments and quickly spotted Shino standing a few dozen meters away from her.

'Mhh, I felt like someone just had some bad thoughts, but whatever.'

"Yo, the name's Tatsuki. You must be the new Shinigami responsible for this area."

Although Shino was still a bit dazed due to what she had just witnessed, hearing Tatsuki introducing herself, she quickly snapped out of her daze.

"Shino of the 13th Division. I heard that there were quite a few strong humans here, but that was a really impressive strike."

Tatsuki simply waved away Shino's praise while her eyes scanned her surroundings.

"Nice to meet you, but we have a few more things to do before we can start chatting leisurely."

"Mhh? What do y..."

"""""ROAR"""""

Suddenly, multiple Hollow roars echoed over the duo from all directions, causing Shino to pale in fright.

"W-W-What the hell is with this amount!?"

Out of nowhere, around a dozen Hollows started crawling at the duo from pretty much every direction, causing Tatsuki to frown.

"Did that idiot Ishida activate a Hollow bait again? Nah, there is no way he would do that a second time. Pretty sure Yuna would break his kneecaps if he did."

"H-How are you so calm!?"

While Shino was seriously panicking, as even fighting two Hollow at once was not something she thought she could do, Tatsuki was still rather relaxed. Seeing Tatsuki's leisurely mood, how could Shino not question what was going on?

"Mah, it's just a bunch of low-ranking Hollow. No bid deal~"

"HOW ARE THESE LOW-RANKING!?"

Hearing Shino yell, Tatsuki tilted her head in confusion and gave the Hollow surrounding her another look. Moments later, she understood what Shino meant.

'I see; although all the Hollow are of the lowest rank, they all have quite a high level within that lowest rank. From what I see, one or two of them might actually evolve into a Menos in a few months.

Oh well, after fighting an Espada, normal Hollow honestly don't look like a threat to me anymore. Even if they are close to becoming a Menos or even if they already were a Menos, I honestly wouldn't feel threatened.'

"Well, don't worry about the details and stand back. I'll deal with these small fries."

The moment Tatsuki stopped speaking, she smashed her fists together, resulting in her whole body, except for her head, getting covered in lava.

Before Shino could say anything else, Tatsuki had already vanished and reappeared in front of the closest Hollow.

The following minute, Shino watched Tatsuki in fascination as she mowed down Hollow like a tiger being unleashed upon a flock of sheep. 

Occasionally, she even felt a little pity for some of the Hollow when Tatsuki straight-up German suplexed one of them and defeated another one by locking its head under her arm while vigorously rubbing her fist on its head.

"Phew, that was refreshing~"

Moments later, Tatsuki landed next to Shino after defeating all the Hollow and wiped the non-existent sweat from her forehead.

However, Shino didn't react to that at all and only looked at Tatsuki like she was an absolute weirdo.

Initially, Tatsuki had no clue why Shino was looking at her like that, but after realizing what she had just done... or rather, how she had done it, a pink flush appeared on her cheeks.

'Damn, I've gotten carried away. Shit, I've clearly been spending too much time with Yuna and Naruto! To think I would actually start bullying those Hollow.

"Shino, I can explain; I just..."

"No, it's fine. I guess everyone has their own preferences."

Seeing Shino's eyes, which looked a little dead, Tatsuki decided not to comment on what had just happened any further.

'Whatever, it's just a random Shinigami. Why should I care what she thinks about me?'

Before the conversation could continue, Shino's eyes widened in shock as she had just realized something else.

"Shit, Yuki is out there as well. If he had encountered the same amount of Hollow, he is dead for sure!"

As she came to that realization, his panicked gaze quickly landed on Tatsuki.

"Sorry, but could you help me look for my partner!? We came here as a team of two, and there is no way he would survive such an onslaught of Hollow."

Seeing the fear in Shino's eyes as she made that request, Tatsuki simply nodded her head, not minding helping someone she had just met.

"Sure, I already have a good guess where your partner is, and from what I can feel, he should be fine."

Although Tatsuki's words brought Shino some relief, she still urged her to get wherever Tatsuki assumed Yuki to be quick.

So, Tatsuki quickly started moving, controlling her own speed so she wouldn't leave Shino behind. Obviously, if she were worried that Yuki would die, Tatsuki would speed ahead, but considering the different presence she felt at Yuki's location, there was no reason to worry.

It took the duo around a minute to reach the relevant location, and when they got there, Tatsuki smiled wryly while Shino looked like someone had just hit her with a truck. After all, in front of her...

"Haha, this is my win, Yoruichi! There is no way my Tama would lose this one!"

"No way, my Pochi is clearly stronger! He will win this fight, and I'll get all the money!"

A cat-looking and a dog-looking Hollow were currently fighting each other, while a blonde young man and a busty brown-skinned woman stood by the side, happily waving wads of cash while cheering on one Hollow each.

In the background, there was a young woman with blue and red hair who was currently holding a Hollow in a Boston crab hold while the Hollow was frantically tapping the ground, hoping for the woman to let it go.

Additionally, there was a young woman with blue, almost water-like, hair that was currently mumbling an incarnation, while one of her hands rested on a small gash on a young man's arm. Shino instantly realized that said young man was her partner, Yuki.

Initially, Shino was relieved that Yuki seems to be mostly unharmed, but after seeing the foolish smile on his face while being healed by a big-breasted woman, a tick mark appears on her forehead.

The moment the blue-haired woman was done healing him, Shino came flying, feet-first and smashed into Yuki.

"Yuki, what the hell is going on here!?"

Yuki, who was sent flying away a few meters, quickly got up and regained his senses while looking at Shino with a pitiable facial expression.

"Why did you kick me? There was no reason to kick me."

Realizing that she might have overreacted a little, Shino was about to apologize, but after Yuki repeatedly stole glances at the blue-haired woman, clearly hoping for her to heal him again, she decided that another kick was necessary.

Anyway, after these matters were dealt with, and Tama, the cat-like Hollow Naruto was betting on, won the fight and was allowed to leave, Shino finally managed to ask Yuki the question that had been bothering her the moment she came here.

"What the hell happened here, Yuki?"

Hearing that question, Yuki awkwardly scratched his head, clearly not really understanding the situation either.

"Well, I'm honestly not sure. I was surrounded by like twenty Hollow and already saw my life flashing before my eyes, but suddenly, these people descended from the sky and started defeating... bullying these Hollow.

When around half of them were defeated, the remaining ones tried to run away, but they were quickly captured and forced to fight each other, with the winner being allowed to leave."

"That's... surprisingly f*cked up."

Hearing Shino's answer, Yuki only nodded his head. However, hearing the duo's conversation, casual laughter echoed over the recently cleared battlefield.

"Well, they were Hollow, after all. They come here to kill, so they honestly can't complain about getting killed. The name's Yuna, by the way."

After Yuna finished her brief introduction, Shino and Yuki could only smile wryly. Although Yuna's words weren't wrong, was it really necessary to bully those Hollows like that?

Although both had the same thoughts, neither of them decided to comment on Yuna's explanation. However, there was still something else that Shino was rather curious about, so moments later, she asked another question.

"What about the one you were dealing with? That one clearly wasn't fighting another Hollow, and you were just one-sidedly messing with it."

"Well, that couldn't be helped. That one tried to use the heat of battle with its fellow Hollow to attempt to escape. Obviously, such rebellious behavior needs to be punished, so the others don't get any weird ideas about running away."

Although Shino and Yuki both shuddered at Yuna'a ruthless words, in the end, they decided it would be safer not to comment on Yuna's methods any further.