[Rukongai; West District]

Currently, three Shinigami, two women, and one man were hiding in a cave while paying attention to their surroundings.

The team consisted of Rukia and two other Shinigami of the 13th division. 

“How should we proceed, squad leader?”

Rukia asked the second woman on the team. Even though that woman only had the 17th seat, she was still a seated officer and as such, took control of their little teams.

The woman, a slime blue-haired one, frowned as she pondered a little. 

She honestly did not wish to have Rukia Kuchiki in her team. She still couldn’t understand why they had accepted to let this newbie participate in such a dangerous mission.

Ignoring Rukia, she addressed the sole man in the team, a tall but rugged middle-aged man, “Muhei, I want you to stay beside Kuchiki and protect her at all cost. Kuchiki, please do not move far away from us. Understood?”

Rukia smiled bitterly before nodding, “Understood.”

She understood that the squad leader had nothing against her personally. Her identity was just too sensitive.

Even though she had awakened her Shikai and even though she had managed to settle a little in the 13th division, at the end of the day, in their eyes, she would always be a member of the Kuchiki family first before being a soldier like them.

Even so, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

“Then, since this is done. Let’s summarize the situation. Aside from 3rd seat Satoru Gojo and 3rd seat Miyako Shiba, There are actually 4 teams exploring the zone as well as different districts. We will sweep everything from here until the 80th. Our goal is not fighting. Should anything happen, Kuchiki, you will be the first one to flee. We will entrust you with our Hell butterflies.”

Rukia opened her eyes wide, clearly stunned. Ignoring her expression, the squad leader stood up and walked away.

On the side, Muhei also stood up and patted Rukia’s back. “Even though she is a little gruff, she doesn’t mean anything bad. Vice-captain Kaien assured us about your skills, but we still need to take care of the newbie, right?”

“Understood.”

This time, there was more strength in her words.

----

“Heh, this was a rather cute moment. But damn, those guys planted so many death flags. Hahaha.”

Sitting on the edge of a cliff, a few kilometers away from the previous team, Gojo could be seen chuckling lightly.

“Is it really alright?”

Standing beside him, Miyako murmured, worry clearly evident in her voice.

Initially, she should have moved with her own team and Rukia would have followed her, but at the last moment, Gojo had proposed that the two of them move in one team. 

‘Is he really able to observe everything from here?’

Even for her, sensing Reiatsu at such a great distance was complicated and she needed immense focus. This was even more so since all the teams were moving stealthily.

But it seemed that the man sitting beside her could not only feel their Reiatsu, he seemed to also see them.

‘Those eyes are really beautiful.’

She could more or less understand why, despite all the bad rumors about him, there were still women falling into his clutches

Gojo, meanwhile, chuckled and waved his hand disinterestedly, “Don’t mind it, don’t mind it. Simply see this as a little test. You guys can’t keep cuddling Rukia forever after all.”

Of course, this wasn’t all, he had already pinpointed the location of the variant hollow thanks to his eyes and he only had one word to describe what he saw.

‘Ugly.’

Then again, it was still less ugly than 80% of the curses in his old world.

Now then, what should I do?

The only reason he still didn’t act was that he was curious about what kind of skills that hollow had.

From the energy level, that thing was weaker than a vice-captain, but still a match for a normal 3rd seat.

‘How could such a strong hollow enter undetected in the Soul Society?’

After all, even though the Rukongai was plagued with regular hollow attacks, those hollows were always bottom feeders that even new recruits could deal with easily.

This proved that there was indeed someone pulling the strings in the soul society. 

One of the reasons he was still hesitating was because he was considering how much he should involve himself in this quagmire. 

This had absolutely nothing to do with him after all. 

He did not particularly care about the fact that there were traitors in the soul society. It wasn't as if he was particularly loyal either. 

As for the fact that the traitor or traitors had most likely caused the death of many shinigami and civilians–once again, what did it have to do with him? 

Gojo cared little for people not related to him. 

He would never fall so low as to intentionally harm people drastically weaker than him, but he would not go out of his way to save them either. 

Thinking idly about such topics, he hummed gently while observing the different Shinigami and the way they worked.

Since he was used to working with battle junkies like the members of the 11th division or cold assassins like those of the 2nd, he had to admit that he was rather disappointed.

Even though they did not lack discipline and experience, they were without a doubt vastly inferior to the other divisions on average.

This most likely stemmed from the fact that Jushiro Ukitake's disease was not a secret in the soul society. Because of this, few promising recruits would choose to join the 13th Division if they had another choice.

Gojo could understand that. At the end of the day, few shinigami really had a deep sense of justice. Most members of the Gotei 13 were from the Rukongai, and rather than justice, what they wished for was to be safe under a mighty and powerful being. 

Few hours went like this while he sometimes discussed with Miyako before his attention was attracted by the scene that was playing.

"It's such a pain, looking out for the weak."

"Pardon?" 

"Haha. Forget it. I will do as much as I am paid for."

Ignoring the confused Miyako, Gojo stood up.

"What is happening?" 

"Nah, I am just surprised at the power of the flags planted. It hasn't even been that long. Oh well."

Gojo joked around as he watched the team of Rukia advance slowly in the forest without knowing that they were being followed by the one they were supposed to hunt. 

Of course, Gojo had placed her team close to the hollow intentionally, but it shouldn't have happened so fast. 

'So not only is it stronger than average. Its senses are also at a higher level.'

He thought calmly.

Even though the distance between the hollows and his current position was quite far, he did not worry.

Not only could he move far faster than he could do five years ago.

But more than anything, he did not even need to move.

Even though he was tens of kilometers away, one attack was all he needed to erase that monster.

Though he would most likely erase the forest alongside it.

But this wouldn’t be fun.

He wished to see the skills of that hollow. Otherwise, this would have simply been a waste of time.

‘Now then, I really hope you will manage to entertain me enough.’