"Naraku, what do you think?"
Aizen calmly gazed out over the empty, silent village, trying to find some tiny clue in the details.
On the surface, this place looked no different from any other village in the Sabitsura district.
Except there wasn't a single soul in sight.
Traces of daily life remained, as if everyone had just stepped out urgently for something.
"From where I'm standing."
Naraku gave his friend a look usually reserved for idiots. "You're not seriously expecting me to find clues to the culprit, are you?"
Aizen: "…"
Sure enough, he'd already been contaminated by Hirako Shinji—he'd actually pinned his hopes on Naraku Sora.
Ever since he'd been forcibly dragged into Fifth Division, Captain Hirako seemed to have had a screw loose, constantly throwing tasks his way.
And always the kind of jobs no one else could handle and that were extremely troublesome.
Just like Naraku had said earlier: that guy was clearly targeting him on purpose.
Even now,
Aizen still had no idea how he'd offended Hirako.
Maybe the guy just didn't like his face?
Aizen tried thinking about it using Naraku's way of reasoning.
Impossible. Shinji didn't seem like a brainless idiot—he wouldn't target one of his subordinates for something that trivial.
Aizen shook his head and refocused on the surroundings.
He quietly released a portion of his Reiatsu, which spread across the entire village in an instant.
While he was busy with that, Naraku—armed with keen instincts and the courage that came from "Aizen is backing me up"—walked straight in.
Fine control of Reiatsu sensing wasn't really his thing, but he could at least try using his eyes.
Maybe he'd get lucky and spot something.
He followed the dirt path deeper in. The doors of the houses on both sides stood wide open. There weren't just no souls—there weren't even any breathing creatures.
He searched three houses in a row and came up empty.
Just as he was about to give up, a faint smell—strange yet somehow familiar—suddenly hit his nose.
"What's that?"
Naraku frowned, trying to break down what he'd just smelled.
He was sure he'd never encountered it before, yet it gave him a weird sense of déjà vu.
He followed the direction the smell was coming from.
Soon, he stopped in front of a house at the very edge of the village.
He carefully pushed the door open and went in.
On the other side—
Aizen had also entered the village, frowning as he took everything in.
"It's too quiet. That's… off."
"Normally, even if everyone in a village gets wiped out, it wouldn't be this silent."
"Unless there's some other hidden danger still lurking…"
The interior of the house was extremely bare—almost no decent furniture at all.
But for District 64 in Sabitsura, that wasn't surprising. Unless you lived in one of the lower-numbered districts, the living environment was always harsh.
Inside the dim house, Naraku finally found something out of place.
In the corner, a viscous liquid had spread across the floor, giving off a strange odor that clashed with everything around it.
Zanpakutō in hand, Naraku walked up to the puddle. Just as he was about to poke it with his scabbard to see how deep it was, a chill ran down the back of his neck.
In that instant, he jerked his head up.
A twisted face stared back at him, a pair of blood-red eyeballs embedded in it. Without eyelids to cover them, they jutted out grotesquely, making the sight even more horrifying.
A warped, deformed creature was hunched in the narrow space between the ceiling and the wall, greedily watching him.
Like it'd just laid eyes on the finest delicacy in the world.
Its jaw unhinged, drool dripping down and landing right in the puddle.
Case closed.
Naraku looked up at the monstrosity dangling from the ceiling with open disgust. He'd never seen anything this ugly.
Even those two Adjuchas looked better than this thing.
Its hunched form was vaguely humanoid, but there were three arms on the left, seven thick legs on the right, and long black hair grew all over its body.
Human-shaped nightmare, basically.
"I don't know what the hell you are," Naraku said with a vicious grin as he drew his blade, "but it really doesn't matter to me, because—"
"All evil will be dragged to justice!"
The moment he finished speaking, the monster launched itself off the ceiling, pouncing down with a gust of reeking, bloody wind.
During his time in the Central Prison, Naraku had learned one thing:
If you want vicious animals to behave, you have to be more vicious than they are.
Claw-like hands sharp as blades crashed against his sword, and the impact rang out like clashing metal.
It looked like flesh, but it felt like steel skin.
Faced with an opponent like this, Naraku didn't feel the slightest fear. Instead, a grin tugged at his lips as violent Reiatsu surged around him.
"Tasty… delicious… you smell so good…"
The monster was right in his face now, blood-red eyes bulging as it stared at Naraku. A long tongue snaked out of its gaping maw, trying to lick the "delicacy" in front of it.
"If you like it that much, then eat your fill!"
With one hand holding back the monster's claws, Naraku unleashed Hadō #11: Tsuzuri Raiden.
Golden lightning exploded along his Zanpakutō, surging forward and engulfing the twisted body in an instant, sparks flying everywhere.
The powerful current ran through the creature, freezing it in place with a brief paralysis.
In that instant, his Reiatsu thickened like blood, wrapping tightly around the silver-white blade.
A horizontal slash!
Crimson sprayed in all directions.
The monster flew backward, its chest splitting open, flesh tearing to reveal cleanly cut bones and organs. The stench of blood and rot spread out.
One stroke, two pieces.
Even with its body cleaved in half, the monster still didn't die. Flesh writhed at the severed ends, sprouting tendrils that tried to reconnect its halves.
Naraku didn't hesitate for a moment. He swung again, a brutal slash that took off the creature's skull. The bulging eyeballs burst in an instant, exploding into a mist of blood.
By the time Aizen arrived, all that was left was carnage.
A familiar figure stood amid the bloodstains, flashing him a grin. Those white teeth were especially striking against all that red.
For a moment, Aizen almost thought his Reiatsu sensing had broken.
If he hadn't felt the fight erupt, he wouldn't have sensed the monster's Reiatsu at all.
Everything that had happened today was just a bit too uncanny.
Aizen quickly walked over to Naraku. Once he confirmed all the blood on this guy belonged to someone else, he didn't press further.
"How did you find it?"
"Instinct," Naraku said, totally straight-faced.
He couldn't exactly say he sniffed the thing out and followed the stink, right?
He was a dignified Tenth Seat Jailer now—he had an image to maintain.
Aizen glanced at him with a blank expression. His instincts told him Naraku was definitely lying.