"Did I ever say you weren't allowed to speak?!"
"No... But my lord, the scent on your body is simply too obvious. I reckon Hollows can smell it from a thousand meters away."
"..."
Kōe massaged his temples, suppressing the urge to smash Seth to a pulp. He'd just assume the Hollow's long neck made his reaction time a bit slow.
"What about now? Is there still a scent?" Kōe asked the Hollow beneath him, covering his body with a thin layer of Reiryoku.
It wasn't like he came here to wipe out Hueco Mundo. Even though these ordinary Hollows posed no threat, killing one only to attract ten more would annoy him to death.
But right now, it wasn't just a matter of poking a hornet's nest. Kōe was like a flower, automatically attracting bees of all sizes. If he didn't solve this problem, his only option would be to fight his way through the entire realm.
"The scent is even stronger, my lord..."
Seth's words made Kōe feel a wave of depression. *Did my pores open up, or was I doused in sauce to make me smell even more appetizing? What kind of scent can't even be suppressed by Reiryoku? What is going on?!*
"My lord, do you wish to get rid of your scent?"
"Don't tell me you know how to do that?" Kōe said, gritting his teeth and enunciating every word.
"I don't know, but I figure if we burrow underground, they won't be able to smell it," Seth said with a goofy smile. "Once, a really powerful guy wanted to eat me. I hid underground back then and wasn't discovered, hehe."
"..."
Kōe swore his hand had just gripped his Zanpakutō. In the very end, he managed to hold back. *He's just a bit slow in the head. It's not a crime worthy of death. Not a crime worthy of death.*
After making Seth stop, Kōe leaped down to the ground. He hovered a single hand over the earth. "[Bakudō #15・Deep Trapping Swamp] [Original Kidō]!"
The ground beneath the man and the Hollow suddenly began to surge. The hard rock seemed to turn into a bottomless swamp, slowly swallowing them whole.
After warning Seth not to panic, Kōe used his Reiryoku to form a spherical shield, enveloping both himself and the Hollow. It wasn't until they completely disappeared that the ground returned to solid rock once more.
Sensing that the Hollows rushing toward their location on the surface had returned to an aimless state, Kōe finally breathed a sigh of relief. This feeling of being marked and fitted with a tracker was truly unpleasant.
As for why this was happening, Kōe speculated that it might be because a Shinigami's spiritual body was inherently superior to a normal person's. Furthermore, his own spiritual body was far more resilient than that of other Shinigami. In the eyes of a Hollow, he was probably just a much more succulent piece of meat.
Staying underground was like covering himself in mud, or like a living person in the World of the Living whose soul was hidden within their physical body—it wouldn't draw any special attention from Hollows.
It was just a bit strange. Unlike souls, which were composed of Reishi, physical bodies in the World of the Living were made of Kishi. Everything in Hueco Mundo, however, was ultimately composed of Reishi. Logically speaking, it shouldn't possess the properties of Kishi.
Kōe vaguely felt that something was off, but he didn't plan to delve into it. Figuring out how to stay hidden in Hueco Mundo was merely a temporary problem he had encountered; it wasn't his purpose for coming here.
He fashioned a simple suit of armor out of Hueco Mundo's rocks and wore it over his body. Although there was still a slight scent, Seth claimed it was no longer as obvious. Unless a Hollow stood within a hundred meters of Kōe, they wouldn't be able to smell him at all.
"This is the underground of Hueco Mundo, and we're still in the outer perimeter, right?" Kōe asked Seth about the layout of Hueco Mundo while stretching his limbs to ensure the armor wouldn't hinder his movements.
According to the Seireitei's records, Hueco Mundo was divided horizontally into inner and outer perimeters. Vertically, it was split into three regions: the surface, the sand layer, and the underground.
Seth nodded, his mouth stretched wide. Kōe was highly amused by his expression—a face that looked like it was smiling through tears—and almost couldn't hold back a laugh.
Leaping up to stand on top of Seth's head, Kōe tapped the large skull beneath his feet and said, "Take me to the inner perimeter."
"The i-inner perimeter..." Seth tapped his right front foot, looking as if he couldn't take a single step forward. "It's very dangerous there. A lot of the Hollows there don't just eat humans; they won't even spare other Hollows, my lord."
"With me here, do you really think I'd let you get eaten by other Hollows?" Kōe certainly didn't think Seth was worried about his safety; the guy was just terrified of losing his own life.
Kōe's words did nothing to put Seth at ease. As he continued to unconsciously dig at the ground, he said, "But after I drop you off there, I won't be able to make it back! On my own, I wouldn't even be able to reach the border of the inner perimeter."
Seth looked so pitiful that he might as well have had the word "miserable" written in bold across his face. In truth, now that he knew the direction of the inner perimeter, Kōe could easily leave Seth here and head there alone.
Seth was a Hollow with self-awareness, which already made him top-tier among ordinary Hollows.
Even if a normal Hollow possessed self-awareness, their bodily instincts would still make their personality far more aggressive. With just a little effort, who knew if such a Hollow could become a Menos, but they certainly wouldn't end up in such a pathetic state.
Yes, in Kōe's eyes, Seth was absolutely the most docile Hollow he had ever encountered—as tame as a little puppy. At the same time, he was also the most pathetic Hollow. He had drawn a circle for himself, convinced that stepping outside of it would mean certain death, and didn't dare move an inch.
This made Kōe somewhat curious about how a Hollow could drive itself to such a state. "How did you become a Hollow?"
"I don't know. I was just like this when I woke up." Seth shook his head. He could no longer recall his memories from when he was human. This was normal; the vast majority of Hollows forgot their human selves the moment they transformed, akin to a kind of rebirth.
"Then how long has it been since you became a Hollow?" Kōe continued to ask.
Seth shook his head again and replied, "Every time I just entered the World of the Living, I immediately saw a Shinigami. If I hadn't run fast, I wouldn't have made it back. How would I know how much time has passed?"
Unlike the alternating days and nights in Soul Society and the World of the Living, Hueco Mundo seemed trapped in an eternal polar night, forever illuminated by a high-hanging crescent moon. Furthermore, Seth lived underground, so losing his sense of time was perfectly normal.
"You got caught red-handed by a Shinigami every single time?" Kōe chuckled. Although his stance as a Shinigami made it a bit inappropriate, he still felt that this guy was incredibly unlucky.
With the Gotei 13 having a total of just over three thousand Shinigami, even if they all mobilized at once, they couldn't achieve such timely interceptions. Running into a stationed Shinigami the moment one exited a Garganta was already a low-probability event, let alone having it happen every single time until the Hollow was beaten into losing all its confidence.
Seth had truly used his personal experience to teach Kōe that a low-probability event did not equal an impossible event. If this kind of luck were reversed, whatever he did would undoubtedly be smooth sailing.
"And then you couldn't beat your own kind either? You couldn't beat any of them?" Kōe asked teasingly.
"Because I was hungry... My strength wasn't great to begin with. Once, I really couldn't hold back and attacked a Hollow named Neliel. Such a tiny little Hollow, yet she actually sent me flying with a single headbutt." Seth lowered his head, gesturing with his two front feet. "After that time, I never encountered a Hollow smaller than her again, so I never dared to attack my own kind anymore."
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