Prologue Part 1: One Night in the Woods

"Hey Renji, wait up!" The sound of a young girl's voice shattered the silence that had enveloped the forest, causing a young boy with long, spiky hair to stop in his tracks and turn his head towards the direction of the voice. His bright, crimson hair seemed to stand out like a beacon in the night and his brown eyes twinkled somewhat as a small, raven-haired girl burst through some of the foliage that surrounded him.

"I can't believe you would just leave me like that after I tripped on that root you jerk," scolded the girl before playfully punching the red-haired boy's arm. Recoiling in mock pain, Renji stuck out his tongue before saying.

"Well maybe if you weren't so clumsy you could keep up, Rukia," he mocked before dodging a kick from his petite companion. The girl let out a fierce battle cry before leaping onto the boy, causing them both to fall to the ground. A tangle of purple and brown clothing rolled across the grassy floor of the woods as the two youngsters wrestled for several seconds before Rukia finally pinned her friend to the ground underneath her.

"So much for all that big talk huh, Renji," Rukia belittled as she grabbed the collar of the boy's brown tunic and shook her friend roughly. "Looks like you were beaten by a girl once again!"

"Whatever, I let you win so you wouldn't feel so bad about being such a klutz," retorted Renji as he stared up into his friend's piercing, blue eyes. They were luminous orbs in the night that never dimmed and they had captivated Renji since the day that he had ran into this girl a few years ago. In the slums of the Rukon District, it was extremely rare to find something so bright and exuberant and the crimson haired boy hadn't been able to keep his own eyes off of them since. Despite her eyes' sparkling appearance, Renji had always been able to see past that and see the underlying sadness that lay within Rukia. Since the day they had first met, Renji had sworn to himself that one day he would make that sadness in her disappear so that the beauty would become untarnished and pure.

"What are you gawking at like a fool?" asked Rukia jokingly before lightly kicking the boy in the ribs as she stood up and offered Renji her hand.

"Nothing," he muttered as his hand grasped hold of Ruika's allowing him to lift himself to his feet. "Now enough joking around, we're almost there now!"

Renji heard his friend sigh behind him as they once again began to journey through the forest. "Why are we out here, Renji? You still haven't told me what we're looking for."

"Fine, I guess since we're almost there I can go ahead and tell you," said Renji as he climbed over an overgrown root of a tree. "Earlier today, while I was scavenging around here, I found a real-life Zanpakutō!"

"You're kidding!" shouted Rukia, stunned by her friend's revelation. "There's no way you actually found one! If you had, I know you would have snagged it up and kept it for yourself!"

"There's no way I would do that!" exclaimed Renji. "You know how much trouble I would get in if the Soul Reaper who owned that Zanpakutō ever found out I had taken it! No way am I risking feeling the wrath of a Shinigami! Besides, one day I'll have my own Zanpakutō so why would I need to have someone else's?"

"Ha-ha, you still think that you've got what it takes to be a Soul Reaper," jeered Rukia before running ahead of Renji and walking backwards while the crimson-haired boy continued to walk forward, refusing to look his friend in the face. "Well, if you're going to be a Soul Reaper than I'm definitely going to be one! I'm already better than you at forming my spiritual pressure than you."

"There's more to being a Soul Reaper than that, Rukia," mumbled Renji, embarrassed by how Rukia had shown him up in front of the others a few weeks ago when they had been practicing manipulating their spiritual energy. Everyone had been so impressed when he had managed to form a small orb of it, but then Rukia immediately made an orb of her own nearly twice the size of his. Sometimes he hated the fact that Rukia was also capable of using her spiritual pressure, but he was also glad. It meant that they would become Soul Reapers together and never have to be apart from one another. They would be able to stay a family forever.

"I'm just kidding around, Renji," said Rukia when she noticed the solemn expression on the boy's face. "I know that you'll be able to get into the Academy and we'll both be able to leave Hanging Dog once and for all! I mean, just look how much nicer it is here in Fugai than it is there in Hanging Dog. Just imagine how nice the Seireitei must be!"

"I know, that's why I come all the way out here to look for things to sell. It is a lot more peaceful out here than in Hanging Dog, that's for sure," responded Renji before turning through a bend in the trees. "Alright, the clearing will be right up ahead. That's where I found the Zanpakutō earlier."

"Great, now we can see if…"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG GGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The pair of children were frozen in place as a howl of agony suddenly swept over them like a tidal wave. The entire forest seemed to shake from the ferociousness of this cry of torment and the two suddenly felt their skin crawling as an eerie silence seemed to smother them after the howl ended. Renji felt a bead of sweat streak across his face as he felt himself gulp before continuing forward to see what could have possible made such a terrible scream.

As his head poked out from the trees, Renji quickly surveyed the clearing before him. The once serene grassland, that he had explored only a few hours ago, was now strewn with red pools of blood and disfigured bodies. What shocked the boy most though was that these were no ordinary figures that lay limp on the ground. No, these were the bodies of the invincible Soul Reapers; some of them even wore the white haori that indicated that the individual was a Captain of the 13 Court Guard Squads.

Upon seeing the multiple white haori's that had now been reduced to mere rags, Renji let out a small gasp of fear and shock. The Soul Reaper Captains were the most powerful members of the Soul Society and if something had been able to defeat so many of them, the redheaded boy couldn't even imagine the power that sort of monster must possess. While Renji admitted that he was clueless about many things, he had no delusions about what would happen if he were ever to cross paths with something with that kind of power. He would be crushed like an ant without a second thought by the monster, as would Rukia, and there was no way Renji would let that happen.

"Ru…Rukia," he stammered as the boy tried to compose himself. "We need to leave, now."

"What's the matter?" asked Rukia as she came up behind her friend. Upon seeing the bloody landscape before her though, the black-haired girl let out a squeal of terror before clenching her hand around Renji's arm. The boy grimaced as he felt his friend's nails dig deep into his skin but he refused to acknowledge the pain or to tell Rukia to stop. If clawing his skin would make her feel more safe and secure, than she could tear all of it as far he cared.

Before Renji could grab hold of his companion and get away from the carnage, his eyes widened in shock as he suddenly heard a loud snapping sound further ahead. Slowly lifting his eyes away from the large grouping of bodies that he had seen so far, Renji was able to see that about a hundred yards away from the massacre was another group of Soul Reapers.

Unlike the group that the children were only a few feet away from, these Soul Reapers were all conscious and the majority of them all looked to be perfectly fine. There were four in total: three that wore the normal, standard black uniform of the Shinigami that stood above a kneeling, longhaired blonde that wore a Captain's Haori. The three normal Soul Reapers were an odd-looking trio in Renji's opinion as his eyes absorbed the god-sent sight of these alive protectors of the Soul Society.

One of the three was a small boy, seemingly not much older than himself or Rukia, with almost pure white hair. What struck Renji the most about this Soul Reaper though was the fact that even though he possessed a small stature, he still terrified the spiky-haired boy because of his creepy demeanor. The white-haired boy's eyes appeared to be squeezed shut and he wore a wide smile that sent chills down Renji's spine.

The Soul Reaper opposite of the creepy, child-like warrior seemed to be the exact opposite of his ally in nearly every way imaginable. Dark-skinned with purple dreads that were pulled upright and wearing a white, long-sleeved jacket over his uniform, this Shinigami was the epitome of the stoic, calm, warrior that many of the Soul Reapers strived for. This aspect was best represented by the fact that his eyes were shut, giving off the façade that he was meditating. Even based off of his appearance though, Renji couldn't help but feel that something was…off about this man. Though his outward gave off the illusion of being honorable and trustworthy, the redheaded adolescent couldn't help but feel that this one wasn't what he appeared to be; the crimson liquid dripping from his unsheathed sword being the major cause of this uneasiness.

In between the two opposites though was a tall man with disheveled brown hair with soft, brown eyes, which were shielded by thick-framed eyeglasses. Everything about this Soul Reaper screamed trustworthy to him, except for one, single visible trait: the eerie, confident, smirk that he wore across his face. Compared to the rest of his appearance, this cocky grin stood out like a sore thumb on an otherwise unblemished hand and it set off alarm bells in Renji's head that were developed from years of dealing with dishonest adults. Ever since he had come to the Soul Society, the boy had to watch out for people that seemed untrustworthy or dishonest and he had grown good at picking the dishonest ones out. That smile, belonged to a dishonest man.

"Oh thank God!" exclaimed Rukia, suddenly snapping Renji out of the trance of seeing the trio of Soul Reapers had put him into. "They should be able to help us! Come on, Renji!"

Before he knew what was happening, Renji felt his friend's hand slip away from his arm as the raven-haired girl began to run towards the group of Shinigami. Feeling as if his breathe had suddenly been stolen away from him by the absence of her touch; the spiky haired youth felt an ominous feeling of dread wash over him as his best friend innocently ran towards the Soul Reapers.

"Rukia, wait!" yelled Renji, but his words fell on death ears as the girl continued to run forward. Unwilling to leave Rukia's side, the boy quickly began running after her, trying to ignore the knot that was tightening in his stomach.

"STOP!"

Digging his heels into the ground, Renji was shocked to see that the Soul Reaper Captain had suddenly lifted his arm out and held his palm out to the duo from Hanging Dog. It seemed the blonde's command had gotten through to Rukia as well, since she came to a halt as well though she was only a few feet away from the man.

"Don't come any closer," ordered the longhaired man, before slowly turning to face the two children, causing them both to gape in horror at his face. Covering half of the Captain's face was a white, liquid-like, substance that seemed to be devouring his face as it jerked violently around his face. Renji could see that whatever this thing was, it was clearly agonizing for the man based off the grimace of intense pain that was display across his face.

"Now run!" he screamed before succumbing from the pain and slightly doubling over. "Get out of here, NOW!"

"I'm afraid it's too late for that Captain Hirako," said a smooth, calm voice. Looking up from the terrible sight of the blonde man's marred face, Renji was shocked to see that it was the Soul Reaper with the glasses that was now speaking so casually. "You see, simply by being near you, they have already been infected and since they are not under my protection, it should not take very long for them to be consumed by it. I would only give them a minute or two before they are eradicated entirely by the virus."

"Aizen you bastard!" shouted the Captain named Hirako. "They're just kids!"

"Why should that matter at all?" questioned the man with the glasses named Aizen. "It has nothing to do with their age, Captain Hirako. They simply do not possess high enough spiritual pressure to survive the process of Hollowification. It is as simple as that; it is not personal at all, just a simple fact. However, I guess you should go ahead and add these two to the list of people that are going to die because you weren't able to stop me, Captain Hirako."

Renji's heart skipped a beat as the emotionless man finished speaking. They were going to die. No matter how much he hated to admit it, Renji was scared to die. There was so much left for him to do in life. He and Rukia hadn't managed to escape from the living hell that was Hanging Dog yet and Renji couldn't stand for that. It was unfair that someone like Rukia was going to be forced to die without ever knowing the joy of having a better life then that of a slum kid. He himself probably didn't deserve any better, but Rukia was a different story. She deserved everything and more, and Renji wasn't going to let this prick take that away from her.

"You aren't going to kill us that easily!" Renji shouted as he suddenly charged at the calm, confidant Soul Reaper. He was stopped dead in his tracks though as two swords suddenly blinked into his vision directly in front of his face. Stunned, the redheaded boy turned his gaze upward to see that the dark-skinned Soul Reaper had attempted to cut him in half and Renji hadn't even noticed the man move until now when he had already come to a stop. The only thing that had prevented his premature death was that the blonde Captain had intercepted the blow with his own Zanpakutō before it could slice the boy into pieces.

"Renji!" screamed Rukia, causing the boy to turn his head towards her. She looked deathly pale now and beads of sweat were streaming down her face. Renji could feel the color draining out of his face as he realized that, already, his best friend appeared to be feeling the effects of whatever this "virus" was that they had been inflicted with.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, kid?" shouted Hirako as he pushed back the attacker's sword before glancing at the boy that stood behind him. "I told you to get out of here didn't I!?"

"Ri…right," stammered the now terrified Renji. All of the bravado he had mustered before had melted away when he saw that Zanpakutō a mere inch away from his face. He couldn't stop these Soul Reapers, so all he could hope for was that this Captain could somehow stall enough time for them to escape.

Turning away from the battling Shinigami as Hirako and the dark-skinned one began to duel, Renji began to head back towards Rukia, but as he attempted to walk towards his friend, a sharp pain in his abdomen caused him to fall to his knees. The boy's mouth opened involuntarily as he mouthed an unvoiced scream of agony as he doubled over from the pain.

"Renji!" Upon hearing Rukia scream his name, the crimson haired child forced himself to look up so that he could see his friend. He wanted to tell her to run away, to save herself, but Renji found that he couldn't muster the strength to even mutter a sound. Just as she was about to reach him though, the boy watched in horror as his best friend collapsed to the ground unconscious only a couple of feet away.

Renji grunted as he poured all of his strength into lifting his arm that had been hanging limply at his side. Reaching out, the boy attempted to grasp onto his friend's hand but his effort was in vain, as he found that she was still out of his reach. His arm fell to the ground with a soft thump as he suffered from another convulsion of pain. The boy's eyes shut tightly as his lungs finally let loose a howl of agony as a physical representation of his feelings of frustration and helplessness. There wasn't anything he could do to save Rukia and the pain he felt from this failure was far worse than anything that the virus that was consuming him could ever hope to inflict upon him could.

To add onto the terror that he felt, Renji watched with dismay as the same white substance that had covered the blonde haired Captain's face suddenly began to emerge on Rukia's face as well. It was a bizarre thing to watch, as this opaque liquid swarmed across his friend's face and obscured it from the spiky haired adolescent's sight.

"Rukia," he managed to mumble before the boy felt a sudden upheaval in stomach. With a violent jerk of his entire body, Renji felt as if his stomach and face were exploding as his body expelled a large amount of the pale liquid that was now gnawing on Rukia. Another scream of pain erupted from the boy, feeling as if his face was being devouring by thousands of tiny gnats that were clawing and biting through his skin.

"This is an unexpected, albeit interesting, development." Renji felt a scowl suddenly form across his half-covered face as he glanced upward to see the one called Aizen and his white-haired subordinate hovering over him and Rukia. "With all the other test subjects that possessed weak spiritual energy such as these two, they had all already disintegrated from the Hollowification process. Yet somehow, these two have managed to survive the first stage and their bodies have even managed to manifest Reishi to complete the process. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating."

A high-pitched growl, unlike anything Renji had ever heard before, escaped from the boy's lips as his anger grew from the fact that this man simply viewed him and Rukia as mere lab rats.

"This one seems to even now possess vocalization similar to a Hollow," commented Aizen in his same, monotonous voice. "This experiment was already a great success before but now with the added bonus of these two, this sort of breakthrough is beyond even my greatest expectations."

"It is an interesting twist," conceded the white-haired youth. "I wonder what exactly caused these two to be different from those other, unfortunate, fellows."

"What indeed, Gin," commented Aizen. "This will require further examination so we can fully understand the extent of what is occurring with these two, unique specimens. Gin, grab the unconscious one. We will take her with us for further study."

"What about the boy, Lieutenant Aizen?" asked the one called Gin. "What do you want to do with him?"

Renji felt the cold, callous eyes of Aizen piercing into his own as he the glasses-wearing Soul Reaper decided what the boy's fate would be. While the redheaded child poured every ounce of hatred and malice he could muster into his stare, the boy could not see one hint of emotion pass through the man's eyes before turning his back on him as he said.

"Leave him; we shall dispose him along with the rest of them. Taking him would be more trouble than he's worth and we only require the girl."

"As you wish, Lieutenant Aizen," said Gin with a slight bow of his head before bending down to scoop the unconscious form of Rukia into his arms.

"N..no," murmured Renji as he shakily forced his arm to lift off of the ground in an attempt to grab onto his friend, to somehow to prevent her from being ripped away from him. It wasn't fair. In his bleak, heart-wrenching, miserable life, Rukia had been the one bright spot amongst all of it that gave him hope. Hope for a better life, a better life where he and her escaped from their meager lives as mere street kids to go on to become respected members of the Soul Society in the Seireitei as Shinigami. It was supposed to be a fairy tale ending for them, and now members of the very organization they had aspired to become a part of were shattering that storybook ending.

The spiky haired kid's hand missed Rukia's by a mere fingertip as her body was lifted off the ground and then carried away by the pale-haired Soul Reaper. After moving back to his superior's side, Gin and Aizen both turned to leave the crimson haired boy to die on the ground, alone. However, Renji wasn't going to allow them to simply dismiss him. Not even the mighty Soul Reapers were going to be able to ignore him, he was going to make sure of that.

Gnashing his teeth together, Renji put all of his remaining strength into one last lunge. His valiant effort was rewarded as he felt his hand latch around the one called Aizen's ankle and the youth squeezed tightly as he refused to allow the Shinigami take another step. A small bit of satisfaction filled Renji as he saw visible displeasure on the man's face as he slowly turned his head to glance down at him.

"I…won't…let you…TAKE HER!" growled Renji as he attempted to fight off his growing fatigue as an encroaching blackness began to darken his vision. Now, it was taking all of his willpower to fight off unconsciousness, but he was willing to endure the suffering in order to make one last attempt to save Rukia.

A scowl formed across the boy's face as he saw a small smile emerge across the glasses wearing Soul Reaper's face.

"How amusing," he commented as he effortlessly freed his leg from Renji's grip. "You've actually deluded yourself into thinking that you could stop me. While I commend you for your effort, just know that there was nothing you could do to prevent me from taking her. You simply weren't strong enough."

As the man and his comrade turned away from him, Renji managed to emit another howl of rage and frustration and before slipping fully into unconsciousness, the redheaded boy managed to muster all of his remaining energy into one final scream of agony.

"RUKIA!"

Thanks for reading the first chapter of Hollow Inside! This is my first attempt at writing a Bleach story, I've been solely focused on Dragon Ball Z for my time here on the site, and it's really nice to finally branch out into another fandom and explore the characters and possibilities for that series! I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it and I hope to see what you thought of this Prologue or any questions you have about the story in a review and I hope you'll continue to read in the future! Until next time guys!