A few hours later, the shinigami had lost the track. Something had surely passed by around there, and it wasn’t a hollow. It was weaker than all the monsters he had faced se far, and that was the reason it was so hard to be tracked. Standing right over the point where a hollow had appeared on the previous day, the shinigami sensed that the presence blended with the monster’s reiatsu. It was impossible to know where did it go from there.
Suddenly, his phone rang again. Now it indicated the appearance of another creature, several blocs away from there. “Damn! Too far!” Without hesitating, he ran toward that direction, jumping between the buildings as the hollow’s howl became stronger. When he arrived, it had already caused lots of damages in a park, tearing down trees as the humans ran away, unknowing what threatened them. If they could see it, they would only be more frightened from the monster in the shape of a gorilla with a witch doctor’s mask over its face.
The shinigami tried to surprise it from behind, but the monster felt his reiatsu and turned back with a blow from both hands. He grunted in pain when the blow threw him away, but didn’t waste any time. When the enemy jumped onto him, he got himself on his feet again and dodged a powerful strike that cracked the ground. Before the hollow understood, his adversary was right in front of his face, and the great sword cut the mask in perfect halves.
As the monster faded away, the shingami moved his left arm to ensure it wasn’t broken. He was lucky; he had been negligent while attacking, too much worried with arriving in time, but he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
Then, he noticed; right ahead of him, there was the same dog from a few hours ago. It started to bark repeatedly, staring firmly at the shinigami. Would it be possible that it could see him? It was almost like it was trying to warn him of something. Suddenly, he felt a cold, dead wind blowing from behind, and a shadow stretched over him. Another hollow had opened its path from his dark world, only his torso into the real world, his hand ready to crush the shinigami, almost reaching him.
His eyes wide opened, he swung the sword and hit the monster’s arm in a quick reflex, making it scream in pain. The hollow returned through the black hole in the threads of reality, and the shinigami stepped back too. The dog stood by his side, growling as the dark portal disappeared. Then, when everything returned to normal, it sat down and looked at the shinigami, its tongue hanging from a mouth that appeared to be smiling.
“What’s going on here... you can see me?”
A friendly bark was the only answer.
