PARALLEL MINDS

a Bleach fanfiction by idioglossia

Disclaimer: nothing in this fic (except for my wild theory on the Hollows' physiology and a few musings on nature of love stories) belongs to me. Obviously.

Pairing: none yet.

A/N: It's my first fic since... ages. I'd love to hear your opinions, suggestions and Obligatory Constructive Criticism.

PROLOGUE: A night in the desert

Every love story eventually leads to the proverbial more-or-less candlelight dinner, during which the protagonists drink a fair amount of expensive alcoholic beverages, blush a lot and have such a heartbreaking conversation about their feelings that it makes every person who understands the basic rules of grammar stare in disbelief and haul curses at the author.

Only a few stories begin with the aforementioned meal, though. And hardly ever it's one of the potential lovers that serves as a delicious main course.

The giant, boar-like Hollow of the Gillian class had no time to contemplate such trivial matters. He was well aware of the fact that someone was going to be eaten tonight – and, most likely, it was he. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to surrender to this undoubtedly tragic fate. Yes, he could've fought the opponent and meet his destiny with pride, but the escape seemed to be a much better option. At least it gave him a faint chance of surviving – so without further consideration he started to run through the romantic, moonlit desert of Hueco Mundo, his mind set on reaching the nearest place suitable for hiding. Not that he was completely delusional – the boar knew that the hostile Hollow would pursue him until death – either the prey's or the predator's. And the first one was so much likely to come!

The opponent must've been an Adjuchas – it was fairly small and thin, but its form still wasn't completely humanoid. The boar didn't quite catch to which exact animal it might have been similar to. Probably something very unpleasant, since the creature amused itself by addressing him as "Meal-san", however horrid it sounded.

"Be a good dish and stop running away." The hiss was suspiciously loud. Damn, the oppressor must've caught up with him. The boar instinctively started to run faster. Despite his huge weight and the bulkiness of his body, he was able to move at a pretty high speed when he was running on the four legs, at least when hunted by a hungry, most likely horrifyingly powerful Adjuchas.

Yes, such situations unleashed unimaginable amounts of physical strength and energy.

The pursuer made a short, harsh and unbelievably loud noise, something between a slurp and a snort. "How the hell is it even possible?"

"Why won't ye give up already? If you do, I might even decide to kill you fast." Another horrid sound. "Define fast." thought the chased Hollow, but didn't say his thoughts aloud. It would have been a sui... it would have been very unwise, to anger the enemy more – if it was even possible, to begin with. Judging from the tone of the predator's last words, it wasn't. The boar gulped. He had already lost his dignity, now he also gave up the will to escape.

And then, out of the blue, the possibility of a salvation appeared.

If it were a part of human world, Hueco Mundo would've probably become well-known and well-respected for its architectural variety – or rather the lack of it. Apart from the monumental building of unknown purpose – which was situated pretty close to our hero's current location – there were a few ruins scattered all over the place. It was rather unlikely that these crushed stumps of quartz columns were once a part of some kind of the building. They were just ruins, the very definition of the word "ruins" – they were never anything else.

Though for a certain, particularly stressed creature, they have just become a last chance to survive. He started to run towards them at his full speed; the Hollow equivalent of adrenaline pumping through his Hollow equivalents of vessels. From behind, the Adjuchas sneered very loudly:

"And y'think ye will hide there and I'll obediently turn away and look for another dinner as soon as ye reach these, eh?" he laughed "I ain't an idiot, Meal-san." he added, though the boar didn't assume it even for a briefest second. He was too busy running away, and the potential salvation was nearer and nearer, just a bunch of shattered buildings, but if by any chance he got there soon...

With a few long jumps he reached the promising refuge. It was – or at least it looked as if it was – a remnant of a small, peaceful village. A few white, windowless buildings with cracked walls surrounded the central square, which, in contrary to its name, had a vaguely circular shape. The Gillian ducked beneath one of the jagged layers of quartz bricks, made sure his form wasn't visible from the square – which, concerning his size, wasn't the easiest thing to do – and started to creep towards the nearest house which looked as if it might have a nice, dark cellar just perfect to curl up in it and wait in silence. Truly, it might've been not the most sophisticated plan to be ever created, but coming up with something more complicated in such a situation was practically impossible.

"Ye are more stupid than I thought, Meal-san." the Adjuchas said almost sympathetically. It was probably standing right in the middle of the square, carefully probing the horizon with his eyes in search of the humongous Hollow which – as unreal as it sounded – literally seemed to have vanished behind cracked walls of the desert ruins "I still can hear ya." the boar held his breath "I can smell ya." The Gillian started to seriously regret his "little trip" to the surface. There was a moment of silence and after that short pause the pursuer continued in a very, very unpleasantly sounding voice "I can feel your presence, Meal-san." The boar felt an overwhelming need to look up.

The sky looked as usual – it was black, stained with a few white clouds. The crescent moon was nowhere in his sight. The Hollow suddenly became nervous. He slowly turned around, expecting to see his pursuer right behind him, snickering wickedly and ready to deliver a fatal strike.

The first thing he saw was the moon.

Apart from that, his forecast actually proved to be pretty accurate, mostly due to the fact that he saw the moon through the enormous hole in the Adjuchas' skull. This disturbing part of its anatomy was surrounded by a rather fancy mask decorated with the pair of long horns and a horrifying amount of jaws. And every single one of them was stretched in a wide, explicitly toothy smile. It must have been the most frightening sight in the whole Universe – or at least one of the top ten.

The enemy Hollow was sitting on the broken stump of the column. The Gillian had now a unique opportunity to observe it more closely. The Adjuchas was – as he had previously noticed – exceptionally lanky, but he hadn't paid any attention to such interesting details as the previously mentioned mask or the fact that the opponent had four arms. "So much for the animal resemblance." Besides, it somehow managed to look merciless, which wasn't the best prevision for the future.

"Hello, Meal-san," said the enemy Hollow in an almost friendly voice. Almost. "looks like I've finally found ya." The boar tried to back away, but it came out as futile, thanks to the strategically placed wall.

"Y' afraid." noted the Adjuchas, though the statement was pretty obvious. As obvious as the fact that someone was going to be eaten in that particular village, exactly in this moment, in the eternal night that surrounded Hueco Mundo "Pathetic." it continued, licking its awkward mask with a disturbingly long tongue "Do ya even deserve to be eaten by me?" With the measly remnants of his willpower the Gillian restrained himself from nodding vigorously. After a moment's silence the Adjuchas continued his soliloquy "Chasing ya today was pretty entertaining, though. If ya weren't such a coward, might've let ya live."

The cornered prey raised its head and looked at the dark sky of Hueco Mundo. The boar closed its eyes, expecting the end, getting prepared for the pain...

"Beg for it." The Gillian opened his eyes, visibly shocked "Tell me why the hell I should spare ya. Give me a good reason to let ya live." The Adjuchas said it in a surprisingly serious voice, as it even might have been considering letting go of his prey.

The offer was followed by a long period of silence. The lanky Hollow was slowly getting impatient, and finally broke the silence "So? What d'ya say? What would ya do if I set ya free?" The boar swallowed a bile in his throat "I'll follow you." he answered as calmly as he could. The Adjuchas remained silent for a moment, but then snapped.

"WHAT?" "As expected." thought the Gillian and continued in a very steady tone "I'll become your servant..." he began, but the other Hollow violently interrupted

"How d'ya see that? I ain't dragging any cowardly Gillians behind my back, unless as an emergency food supplies." he sneered "Wanna be my food supply, Gillian?" The four-armed creature was probably smiling behind its mask – and the sole realization of that fact made the boar shiver. That reckless answer might've cost him his life – or, more accurately, his afterlife. This Adjuchas was probably the most powerful creature he had ever met, and now he was at its mercy, waiting for its decision.

The creature's words seemed to flow from another dimension "Alright, Gillian, I'm in the good mood today." it paused and licked its mask impatiently "From this day on ya serve Nnoitra Jiruga, the most powerful Menos in Hueco Mundo. If ya fuck something up or disobey me, you are my next meal, understood?" The boar nodded in agreement. "Fine. Yer name, Gillian?"

"T... Tesla." replied the newest acquisition of Nnoitra Jiruga

"T-Tesla, sir." mocked the Adjuchas, clearly trying to imitate Tesla's nervous stuttering

"... yes, sir."

Nnoitra raised his head, looked at the horizon and for a moment he seemed as he was lost in thoughts. It looked rather romantic, despite the fact that the Adjuchas had a bit disturbing physiognomy. "Come then, emergency food supply, we're leaving."

Tesla didn't find courage to ask his master where they were heading; instead he just followed Nnoitra – or rather Nnoitra-sama, as he mentally corrected himself – into the Hollow equivalent of night.