This murky Reiatsu…
Even with his rather unremarkable perception, Muten Natsu could clearly sense that something was wrong with the Strong Hollow's Reiatsu.
Was it because it had devoured a companion?
No.
There seemed to be another reason.
But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
Muten Natsu shifted his body slightly, smoothly building momentum for a draw slash.
"A draw technique, huh…" The Strong Hollow looked at him with disdain. "Szayelaporro-sama once taught me that a simple long-range attack is enough to break your draw slash with ease."
A grotesquely twisted figure surfaced in Muten Natsu's mind. Szayelaporro Granz.
"But—" the Strong Hollow charged forward like a runaway truck, swinging a fist straight at Muten Natsu's face, "there's absolutely no need for that!"
A sharp, chilling gleam burst forth from Muten Natsu's waist. The flowing arc of the blade slipped past the Strong Hollow's attack and struck cleanly at its throat.
Then it stopped.
"Just as I said," the Strong Hollow glanced sideways at the blade, which its skin had effortlessly blocked. "There was no need at all."
A clenched fist smashed down on Muten Natsu's right arm. The sounds of shattering bone and tearing flesh rang out in succession. The mangled arm sprayed fresh blood as pale fragments of bone pierced through the skin, exposed to the air.
The Zanpakutō slipped from his grasp. Before it could even hit the ground, the Strong Hollow's fist had already landed on Muten Natsu's chest.
Boom!
The terrifying force bent Muten Natsu's body forward before hurling him backward. His lean frame, so much thinner than the Strong Hollow's, was sent flying uncontrollably.
The Strong Hollow appeared behind him even faster. The sharp arm blades on its armored forearms tore into Muten Natsu's back, ripping open a horrifying wound as flesh rolled apart.
"Too weak!" The Strong Hollow slammed Muten Natsu into the ground with a single punch. "So weak it's laughable! Pathetically weak!"
Punch after punch crashed down onto Muten Natsu's chest. The immense power traveled through his body and into the ground, blasting out a crater that grew deeper with every strike.
Blood poured from the wounds on his back, staining the hollow red, like a filthy flower blooming against the earth.
"Looks like you're the only Shinigami in this city!" The Strong Hollow grinned savagely. "Once I kill you, I'll eat whatever I want, however I want!"
Blow after blow hammered into his chest. Before Muten Natsu's eyes, one translucent light screen after another appeared, warning him of the severity of his injuries.
When the overlapping screens reached a critical point, black cracks began to form, slowly spreading across them.
"Muten Natsu?" The Strong Hollow grabbed him by the head and lifted him up in front of its face. "From today onward, that name will be nothing more than a pitiful, miserable joke."
Twisted black veins spread from his chest to his collarbone, crawling up his blood-soaked neck, spreading across his cheeks, inching toward his forehead.
"You just said…" Muten Natsu closed his eyes. "Whose name was pitiful and miserable?"
As the warped black veins reached his forehead, a thin horizontal crack appeared.
Then it opened.
An eyeball with pitch-black sclera and a blood-red pupil rolled wildly within, before snapping into focus on the Strong Hollow, staring straight at it.
In that instant, an indescribable chill surged up from the Strong Hollow's heart, like an icy serpent coiling around its limbs and bones.
It immediately wanted to let go and retreat, putting as much distance between itself and Muten Natsu as possible.
But…
Where was its hand?
Only after it had already stumbled back several steps did the Strong Hollow realize, a beat too late, that it hadn't let go at all.
"You're…" Muten Natsu floated in midair, Reishi gathering beneath his feet to support him. "Looking for this?"
In his left hand, he was holding a severed arm, slick with blood.
"W-what…?" Only then did the Strong Hollow feel the agony tearing through the stump at its shoulder. "When did you—?!"
"When?" Muten Natsu's soft black hair, which had been hanging down, lifted as if caught by an invisible wind, billowing like flames. "Do I need to pick a moment to kill you?"
His fingers curled, and icy black fire burst from his palm, swallowing the Strong Hollow's severed arm.
The black flames climbed over Muten Natsu's body. It wasn't just the Strong Hollow's arm. The already-damaged parts of Muten Natsu himself were also burned away and devoured by that fire.
The roiling black flames gradually condensed, shaping themselves into translucent flesh and bone, filling in the broken places and piecing his body back into its original form.
The upper half of his Shihakushō dissolved within the black fire, revealing Muten Natsu's chest laced with crawling black veins.
At the source of those veins was a circular hole, its edges warped by the vessels, as though a perfect chunk of flesh had been carved out of his chest, leaving a window behind.
Inside it, a black heart struggled to beat, forcing black flames into the black veins. They filled Muten Natsu's body, spilled out, and burned with a cold, relentless glow.
Even to the Strong Hollow, which had a Hollow Hole of its own, the sight was horrifying.
"What is this…?" The Strong Hollow clutched its wound and staggered back. "What kind of power is that?!"
"Nothing wrong with telling you." The single eye on Muten Natsu's forehead looked down at the Strong Hollow. "This is the Hellfire of karma. It releases tremendous power by destroying the stable structure of Reishi."
A hand wrapped in black flames appeared abruptly before the Strong Hollow, violently filling its entire field of view.
Muten Natsu grabbed the Strong Hollow by the head with one hand, hoisted it into the air, then smashed it down into the ground.
"As you can see, my own body is within the area being destroyed." His fingers tightened. The lone eye on his forehead glowed a blood-red crimson. "But before I'm burned to nothing, I can kill you as many times as it takes!"
Staring death in the face, even fear was something it could ignore. The Strong Hollow swung its remaining arm, driving a crushing blow toward Muten Natsu's head.
"Not a bad arm," Muten Natsu whispered. "I'll borrow it."
He caught the fist with one hand, planted a foot on the Strong Hollow's shoulder, and tore that thick arm off by force.
Flesh collapsed in the karmic fire. Bone melted in the black flames.
Wrapped in Hell's karmic blaze, the Strong Hollow's arm twisted into a new shape, becoming a pale, kite-shaped skeletal shield. Its edges were sharp as blades, and its point was aimed straight at the Strong Hollow's head.
"N-no… don't…" The Strong Hollow's voice trembled. "Spare me… I know I was wrong! It was my fault! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!"
"It's fine." Muten Natsu raised the bone shield, gripping it hard. Reflected in the single eye was the shield's tip as it slowly ground into the Strong Hollow's skull, crushing and deforming it little by little. "Be more careful in your next life."
The raging flames seemed to have a life of their own. They pounced onto the Strong Hollow's body and burned it to ash.
After devouring the corpse, the karmic fire grew even more violent. It surged over Muten Natsu, gnawing at his flesh.
"Quiet…" Muten Natsu reached into the hole in his chest, grabbed the pulsing black heart, and squeezed hard.
The single eye on his forehead trembled, then slowly closed.
The black veins that had crept up his cheeks receded, and the black flames around Muten Natsu drew back with them.
"Muten!"