Chapter Twenty-Four: Return

“L… Lord Shinigami…”
The luckless Hollow looked at Nagatoro with trembling fear, speaking pitifully, “Um… do I really have to open the black cavity?!”
“Enough with the nonsense! Do as I say!!”
Nagatoro withdrew the foot he had just used to kick the Hollow to the ground, voicing his displeasure in a loud tone.
“Ugh… Do you have to be so rough…”
The Hollow pitifully covered its face with its hands, muttering softly.
“Hey… um… Mei…”
Nagatoro opened his mouth, suddenly realizing he had forgotten the Hollow’s name, which he had asked earlier. He hadn’t heard it again since then; after all, it was just a bit part, so he could only stand there racking his brain.
“Meilifen…”
“It’s Meloetta, Meloetta! Lord Shinigami, isn’t it too rude to forget my name?! And just now, who was that with the weird name you called me?!”
“Enough! I get it, Meloetta!”
Unable to endure Meloetta’s thunderous voice, Nagatoro, at his wit’s end, kicked Meloetta to the ground once more.
“Hurry up and open the black cavity, I need to get back!”
“That’s just it! That’s exactly the problem, Lord Shinigami! Do you really have to open the black cavity?”
“Would you like to personally experience the answer to that question again?”
Nagatoro’s veins bulged on his forehead in rage. This hollow-minded Hollow left him utterly speechless. He couldn’t fathom why that humanoid Hollow wanted such a useless creature to join their crusade—probably just another disposable pawn.
“But… Lord Ries and the others will…”
Meloetta truly didn’t want to do it. They were supposed to be hunting Shinigami, and now he was helping one return to the Soul Society. If Lord Ries or any of the Adjuchas found out, he wouldn’t even have the right to be a snack between their teeth.
But the white-haired Shinigami before him possessed captain-level strength—far beyond anything he could handle. If this Shinigami got angry, he was done for.
Why was it so hard to live as a cowardly Hollow?
Meloetta sighed inwardly.
“Ries? Who is that?”
He’d never heard the name before.
“He’s the leader! The Adjuchas’ chief! Ries Shunoshtan!”
“The leader? Oh, that guy…”
Nagatoro fell silent. Indeed, the spiritual pressure of that Adjuchas leader was astonishing. Even if he went all out, his chances would be less than twenty percent. Still, there was no need for a direct confrontation.
“Just don’t leave with them. Take another direction out, and you’ll be fine.”
Nagatoro suggested. Not only would this avoid Ries, but it would also ensure Meloetta could safely return to Hueco Mundo.
“But… but…”
Meloetta’s voice grew softer, as if he were about to confess something unspeakable.

“I have no sense of direction…”
“Pfft!!!”
Nagatoro almost coughed up blood. This idiot! Such a good solution ruined by a single sentence!
“You useless fool! Is there anything you can do right?!”
“No, no! Please stop, Lord Shinigami!!”
“Fine then… open the black cavity, right now!”
Since Meloetta was hopeless with directions, time was of the essence. If Meloetta got him lost in the interstice, he’d be done for. Nagatoro had no confidence he could survive in the void for over a thousand years, waiting for the Department of Research and Development to rescue him.
“Yes…”
Meloetta answered gloomily. At this point, life and death were beyond his control—he could only resign himself to fate…
A low hum sounded as Meloetta tapped the air with a claw. Nagatoro felt a strange ripple in the spiritual particles around him. Then, as if Meloetta had torn open the air, a black portal appeared before Nagatoro’s eyes.
Now, it was time to return.
Nagatoro knew what awaited him, but he did not and could not feel fear.
The Hollow army couldn’t appear directly in the Seireitei. The place they would emerge would be nothing but a one-sided massacre…
………………………………………………
Soul Society, West Rukongai District 79—Kusajishi
“Stop right there!”
“Only an idiot would stop, moron!”
An adult soul chased after a child soul, both of them clad in ragged clothes. That was normal here—in District 79, such attire was everyday wear. In a place where survival depended on violence, even seeing living souls was a luxury.
A sudden cracking sound from above made the two freeze and look up at the sky.
Kusajishi in District 79 was a place of constant fighting and robbery, filled with insults, the clash of blades, screams, and the sickening sound of knives slicing through flesh.
But the sound of the sky shattering was something new.
Crash!
After the crack came the break!
A massive black portal appeared in the sky, golden eyes glittering within.
“What is that…”
Both the adult and the child were stunned, for they saw white, bone-like masks emerging from the black void.
“Aaaaahhh!”

Blood splattered everywhere.
A Gillian slowly steadied itself, blood from the devoured souls dripping from its mouth. Clearly, two ordinary souls were nowhere near enough to sate its hunger. It set off, lumbering deeper into the district.
Boom… boom…
One after another, more Gillians tore through the fabric of space, stepping out from the black void.
Then, higher up, another enormous portal opened, and a great horde of regular Hollows poured out—so many that the mind reeled.
Finally, at the highest point, a smaller opening appeared, from which a humanoid Hollow emerged.
“It’s been a long time since I felt this atmosphere, Soul Society.”
Ries raised his hand, slowly sweeping it before him like a king surveying his domain.
“Show no mercy…”
He clenched his fist so hard the veins stood out on the back of his hand.
“Ravage this place without restraint!”
A monstrous roar erupted.
A merciless slaughter unfolded.
Though the souls of District 79 were used to killing—indeed, for them, violence was routine—facing this endless tide of Hollows, with dozens replacing each one slain, the district was transformed into a living hell in an instant.
Thunder rumbled.
Just as District 79 was on the brink of annihilation, black clouds rolled across the sky, shrouding the sun in moments.
A lightning bolt crashed down, incinerating a Gillian and several nearby Hollows to cinders.
“Hmph… Their response is swift, I’ll give them that…”
Ries looked to the sky, where a blinding crack had somehow appeared.
With a sound as crisp as shattering glass, the crack burst open, and a white-haired man in a cloak shot out, a European sword crackling with lightning in his hand.
“Shinigami!!!”