Kouta never rushed to meet the Yukihiro clan, not at first anyway. Their presence was initially impressive and he found little reason to aid them. Instead, he walked in the direction of the town in which the boy claimed to have lived, hoping to meet up with Hayate. He too this time to recuperate and regain much of his exhausted reiryoku levels.

With the early noon sun shining through the leave and creating a warming glow, Kouta felt a sense of comfort he'd yet to feel since stepping foot into the World of the Living. It'd been such a long time since the last time he'd been requested to travel to this foreign place, and he had little care to be there even now. He was missing out on training in his father's Dojo. 

What tugged at his mind was how quickly the Yukihiro clan arrived to the World of the Living in order to collect Yue. This was strange because the Houses usually acted independently of the Gotei, which meant the Gotei had yet to send in a rescue team for something that was, inherently, their responsibility. Perhaps Isao-sama had requested to take on the mission himself. Regardless, either scenario was unusual considering the relations between the House and the Gotei.

The tall grass itched at his skin and through the thick cloth of his shihakusho. He had the discipline not to scratch and, rather, endured the slight irritation. It wasn't unlike him to endure aggravation for the sake of endurance itself. It was all in the mind, and most knew his power over his own mind. Of course, this could be a fault just as much as an asset.

Hours passed before he reached the town. The humans couldn't see him, but he quickly felt uneasy. He couldn't feel Hayate's reiatsu. The man had a notable release of spiritual energy and Kouta grew wary and suspicious. There weren't many people in the town and none had any recognizable levels of reiatsu, which even the boy had, he knew. Neither were here. Hayate not having rescued the boy by this point was deeply concerning.

Newly revitalized, he sped back toward the forest, noting the mass of Yukihiro clanmen and noted its decrease in potency. Something wasn't right. No, this wasn't right at all. His complete lack of Shunpo prevented him from reaching the decreasing presence of the Yukihiro clan. 

A piercing pain went through his abdomen. When he stopped to examine the wound, there was nothing there. He looked around quickly, eyeing the tall grass all around him. It only swayed gently in the autumn breeze. He rushed off again, not having felt the pain until reaching the entrance of the forest. 

The collective presence continued to decrease and he eventually had to depend of his sense of direction of the last modicum of reiatsu he sensed. "Tsuki no Sutōkā Ōkami, Unari," he said and the air around him dropped in temperature significantly. He immediately noted three foreign reiatsu signatures, and ones that were familiar to him. How had they hid from him until now? Why had they hid from him?

One shot toward his direction and the blade of his shoto deflected the Katana of the large man who seemed to want him dead. He disappeared into the mist before Kouta could get a good look at him. "Shit," he said under his breath. They knew his abilities and its drawbacks. Regardless, it felt like Hayate, but why would he attack an ally?

A different target shot towards him and, again, Kouta deflected a lethal strike against him. This figure was significantly smaller but wielded a strength greater than the first. And a blade had not been used. What was going on?

The third entity raced toward him in a similar manner as the previous two, and again was deflected. But this deflection had consequences. A wail was heard throughout the mist and Kouta recognized this as the boy's screeching. What was going on? He ran toward the sound of the crying to see the boy, Seamus, kneeling on the ground without a right arm. He held the stump, but Kouta noticed something strange. The blood seemed unusually black. 

"Seamus," he said cautiously, believing this to be some kind of trap, possibly an illusion. The boy only continued to sob and the other entities had vanished. Kouta looked around before nearing the boy, hoping to figure out what he was doing here. "Didn't Hayate rescue you?"

"No!" The boy whined through tears. It sounded as if he would say more, but no words left his mouth. "What are you doing here?"

The boy settled into a whimpering gasping state. "To feed," he said.

"What?"

The boy leapt toward Kouta, his face distorted and disfigured. Or was it the true from of the monster that he was. Kouta slashed the creature in two, missing what could have been its mask, and the Hollow fell to the ground. The two sections of the body leaked fluids, black and shiny. They poured out unnaturally from the body, as if it was made of his substance. It began to move on its own. It became tendrils and lashed at Kouta. He leapt back to sense hundreds of entities in his fog.

"Shit," he said again.

Slashing at the tendrils did nothing, as he suspected. That was the least of his worries when the hordes of seemingly possessed Yukihiro clanmen quickly surrounded him, easily testing Kouta's self-defense skills. His body and his blade worked together to smash the bones and cut the tendons of the men so they would fall either paralyzed by pain or by death. He also noted that their collective reiatsu levels were severely diminished but the sense of the boy's, no, the Hollow's reiatsu seemed to be embedded in them, almost being a part of them. 

The Hollow was parasitic. Perhaps this was how all those Hollow managed to attack the Academy students and take out the Yukihiro clanmen. Luckily, when they fell, it seemed the grip the Hollow had on them dissipated and they cried in agony or continued to gargle on their own blood. 

Hayate was also an unfortunate victim. With the clanmen being utterly defeated by a singular Kouta, Hayate now stood in the way between himself and the Hollow which seemed to be the perpetrator of all the events which had occurred recently. "Snap out of it, Hayate!" he shouted, hoping speaking to him would turn him away from his apparently brain-washed state. "What happened to you?" he asked himself when Hayate responded with a lunge.

His katana moved swiftly and deftly toward Kouta. Anyone less capable than the Captain's son would have a difficult time staying alive. It was clear that even with being brainwashed, his skills were the same. The man's reflexes and maneuvers were brilliant and Kouta found himself on the defense, ironically a place he didn't much care to be. Their blades slammed against each other. If they weren't Zanpakuto, they would have dulled and even break by this point.

The Hollow was still no where to be sensed. He wanted to try and snap Hayate out of his hypnosis, or whatever it was, first.