[Human world]

Oooooooooo!

A terrifying roar resonated in the sky.

Under the light of the moon, a large white monster with a hole at the center of its chest and a mask covering its face was happily munching on a bag of flesh and blood. (E/N: The author intentionally put bag of flesh. Makes me think that the hollow is touring France with a bag of flesh. Eating a leg. Smoking a finger.)

*Crunch* *Crunch*

The disgusting sound of bones slowly being crushed and flesh being bitten apart could be heard.

Next to it, watching this scene with terror while his whole body shivered, was a shinigami.

He knew that he wouldn't get out of this alive. He knew that soon, he would end up like his friend, in the maw of the monsters they swore to destroy.

"At least, I-I need to warn them."

Even though he knew that he would die, he had long since been prepared for this. All that mattered now was for their deaths to not simply be a waste.

'Those hollows are abnormals'

Their completely white colors aside, the fact that they could completely hide their reiatsu made them great threats for normal shinigami such as them.

But this threat would vanish as long as the headquarter was in the know.

Transmitting all he knew to his hell butterfly, he watched it slowly go away with a content expression.

"At least, I-"

"Shoot to kill! Shinso."

He wasn't even able to finish his sentence before his butterfly, then he himself was pierced by a ray of light so fast that he barely understood what was happening.

The last thing he said as he died in regret was, "Vice-captain Ichimaru... Why?"

Then he was immediately divided in three by the same ray of light before his body pieces were swallowed by the hollow, thereby erasing all traces of his existence.

----

Standing about one kilometer away from the scene of the death of those two shinigami was a silver-haired man wearing the smile of a jester.

"Well, it seems like the captain's little experiment nearly got discovered ahead of time."

In his hand was his zanpakuto, in its normal form, a short sword that looked more like a slightly longer knife than a true sword.

What he had just used was his Shikai, the special ability of his zanpakuto's Shikai allowed him to extend his sword up to 1.5Km with a speed at 50 times the speed of sound.

No normal shinigami could react to such an attack.

"Sigh, I really wonder if I should claim some raise for overtime work."

Even though he had personally killed a shinigami who was under his order in the fifth division and watched another get devoured alive, he showed no particular remorse at this sight.

After all, it hadn't been the first time he did such things.

"Well, I think this is enough. I should go back now and erase those two from the books."

Each time a shinigami went on missions in the world of the living, they had to give a report to their respective captain who would then show it to the Central 46.

Of course, in this case, he hadn't followed the procedure at all, and soon, those two shinigami would just be buried in the sea of hundreds of shinigami who vanish each year.

Giving one last glance to the city, he let out a low chuckle before turning around and going through the gate that had appeared.

Behind him, the hollow gave a satisfied burp as it digested its meal, before completely vanishing.

[Shin'o academy]

In the office of the academy, two people were facing each other.

One of them was a slightly round bald man, while the other was a tall and well-built black-haired young man with the number 69 tattooed on his left cheek.

"Shuhei Hisagi, how are you?"

"I am perfectly alright, teacher. If you excuse me, why was I called at this hour of the night?"

"Hahaha! As straightforward as always. Well, I won't take much of your time. You should know that the students for the second session will enter tomorrow right?"

"Indeed."

"Well, after they have some time to acclimatize themselves, it will be time for the special course of Soul burial in the human world. It's a tradition for the best three 6th years to lead the first-year students from class 1, and... You, Kanisawa, and Oka had been chosen as the representatives. What's more, it was decided that you would be the main leader. So, are you willing?"

Hisagi's eyes widened in surprise. Leading the first-year students for their first soul burial might seem like a thankless task, but in reality, it was proof that the teaching staff believed in your abilities.

As such, this honor was fought fiercely by all 6th-year students and most of the time, the ones chosen were members of the nobility rather than people originating from the Rukongai like him.

Once he completed this task, in the future, if he wished to become a seated officer in any division aside from the 11th, those credentials would be incredibly useful.

As such, how could he be unwilling?

"I accept!"

"Of course, you have to be careful. Being the leader means that most of the responsibility in case of problems will fall on you. But, I believe in your abilities."

"Thank you very much for the praise, teacher. I will endeavor to not disappoint you."

He bowed to express his gratitude and barely controlled his expression to not let his obvious happiness show.

No matter what, this was a great chance for him. What's more, Soul burial was just a simple job with basically no risks.

What was the worst that could happen?

---