Chapter 54: Chapter 54 - A Strong Hollow
Despite being surprised by encountering a familiar face, Jin raised a brow and asked, "You can see me?"
"Huh? What do you mean? You're right in front of me," Hiratsuka responded, forehead wrinkling a little. Then, her eyes that contained a mixture of fear and curiosity looked at the hollow as she also asked, "What is that thing? Are you fighting it?"
"Um… Well, nevermind that for now. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I've had worse."
"If you say so," Jin mumbled. Due to cracks spreading through the barrier, he sat Hiratsuka down on her feet and said, "Stay behind me."
"...Okay."
Returning his gaze to the hollow, Jin narrowed his eyes and thought, 'Prism Blast would probably cause too much collateral damage, so swords it is.'
Jin drew his Zanpakuto and twirled it in his hand before taking his stance. Behind him, Hiratsuka watched him without blinking. She looked like a quiet person who just found their favorite celebrity but was too afraid to say hello. Unfortunately, the ambient Reiatsu made it hard for her to stand. She eventually collapsed to her knees, yet continued to watch with an expectant gaze.
Just before the barrier broke, Jin dashed forward. The hollow's scythe-like appendages finally sliced through the barrier. Jin swung his sword at the hollow's mask, but it managed to raise one of its arms and block the attack. The power behind Jin's swing pushed the hollow back. Many of its front legs came off the ground, but it had plenty more to keep it standing.
The hollow retaliated by swinging its mantis arms wildly. Jin raised his brows, slightly caught off guard by the hollow's speed. He inwardly thanked Zoro for the training that gave him some experience in fending off multiple blades while wielding only one sword. He dodged or parried the attacks easily, but the creature gave him no opportunity to strike back.
Due to the stalemate, Jin cast a few barrier blades using freeform magic. Since they were less sturdy due to being made from freeform magic rather than actual Barrier Magic, he only used them as a distraction. The blades flew toward the hollow's mask.
An angry roar bellowed from behind the hollow's mask. Its body whipped upward onto the rear half of its spindly centipede legs. It tanked the barrier blades with its main body instead of its mask.
Due to the sudden distance the hollow created, Jin lost the opportunity to slice its mask. The result did not annoy him. He simply resumed the fight.
On the sidelines, Hiratsuka watched the battle with a strange gleam in her eyes. Rather, she tried to watch it. Most of it looked like a blur to her.
Jin attempted to cast more barrier blades to distract the hollow. Every attempt to strike its mask failed, but he got closer each time. Tired of the hollow's desperate struggle, Jin resorted to using his Geass in the hopes that he could trap the hollow in memories like he did to the Dark Guild member in the Fairy Tail world.
The next moment, Jin found himself in a dark space, not dissimilar to his own inner world. However, a conglomeration of screaming faces melded together into one large mass that squirmed around the dark space. It all looked eerily similar to the Geass World that Charles Vi Britannia tried to create.
All around the area, mixtures of memories from hundreds of individuals mixed together into a hodgepodge of chaos. Finally, the largest of the eerie faces, which looked like an older gentleman, stopped within the writhing mass and stared down at Jin with a feral expression.
"I'll just leave you here…" Jin quietly grumbled, feeling slightly nauseous due to the overflow of visual stimuli.
Jin blinked and found himself outside again. The hollow held still as though unconscious. Within this gap, he jumped and easily sliced through the mask that looked oddly similar to the face of General Grievous. Within its eye sockets, Jin saw that it barely regained consciousness before dissipating into spirit particles.
Jin landed on the ground and sighed. Then, he mused, 'That was the strongest hollow I've seen so far. Wouldn't be surprised if it was on the cusp of becoming a Menos.'
Finally, Jin looked at Hiratsuka who was safely guarded by one of his barriers. Her eyes twinkled while staring at him with a sense of hopeful expectation. Jin pinched the bridge of his nose and walked over to the woman.
"That was so cool! Are you a hero like in a manga or something?" Hiratsuka excitedly asked the moment the barrier surrounding her vanished.
"No. Now, I can tell this all excited you, but as I see it, you've got two options," Jin calmly spoke, holding up two fingers and doing his best to ignore her shredded white shirt. "I'm only providing a second option since you can see me so clearly right now."
"Can I get powers like you?!"
Ignoring the question, Jin continued saying, "One, I erase your memories of this incident. Two, you become my subordinate and never speak of these things to people not involved in it."
"The second one!"
Jin blinked at her immediate response. It didn't surprise him, but he sighed nonetheless. Then, he explained, "I am currently in a soul form, meaning a normal person should not be able to see me. The same could be said of the creature that attacked you, a hollow."
The young lady's eyes sparkled as she nodded with great interest.
"Were you always able to see such things?"
"I don't think so," Hiratsuka mumbled, brows furrowing into a serious pondering expression.
"Did you lose a family member relatively recently?"
"...My grandfather died a couple years ago."
"Ah, I see. And I assume you experienced some strange occurrences recently?"
"Yeah… my car got totaled last week despite not running into anything…" Hiratsuka grumbled. "Was it that creature?"
"Probably. Anyway, it seems like you recently came to gain spiritual awareness, which will likely attract more of those hollows to you. As such, I'll refrain from erasing your memories, but like I said, you'll need to become my subordinate. You'll need some awareness to keep yourself safe, and maybe some training."
"I don't mind…" Hiratsuka replied. However, her brows creased a moment later, and she mumbled, "Actually, isn't it kind of inappropriate for a teacher to come under their student?"
"You read a lot of manga, right?" Jin casually asked in retort.
"Maybe… Wait, how do you know?"
"Just a guess. Based on what you know from those, do you really think a teacher-student dynamic would still apply if the student is one more familiar with the supernatural?"
"You got me there… Then, what happens now?"
"I might have said subordinate, but I really just want to gather a group of people who can handle smaller issues for me since I'm rather busy. It won't be too restrictive or anything; more like a small squad of people under me. I'll also try to teach you how to tap into your Reiryoku. If you're interested in doing that, I won't erase your memories."
"Okay," Hiratsuka said with a small nod despite looking confused.
"I'll need to run this by somebody real quick, though, if you don't mind coming with me."
"Sure. Hehe. This is crazy. I can't believe this is real."
"Curb your excitement. This world is more dangerous than you can imagine."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TrashHeap
TrashHeap There was mixed reactions to Jin's previous statement about gathering some individuals in his homeworld. Essentially, if I didn't make it clear enough due to my lacking writing ability, he wants a group of people who can handle things in the Bleach world that he might not have time to deal with. It's like trying run a business on your own in contrast to hiring people to do the work for you, if that makes sense. Anyway, smell ya later.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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