Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to the wonderful Tite Kubo-sensei, while my OC… well, naturally belongs to me. This is my first Bleach Story, and as usual this is going to be slightly different from the Bleach canon. Just wanted you all to know that.

Thoughts

Speaking

Hollow Speaking

Zanpakutou Speaking

An Arrancar's Tale

Prologue

Emptiness… that was what Toshi felt after some time. Was this what death feels like? He did not know… though he had expected to be sent to heaven or something. He was an avid follower of the Shinto religion, and he half expected some messengers from heaven to show up and bring him to wherever he was supposed to go after death.

After a while, he opened his eyes and blinked at what he discovered for himself. He was standing in a ruined temple, the place where he and his team were sent for an important archeological dig in South America. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? He did not know what was going on… but the clinking of chains alerted him to something. He looked down and saw some kind of hexagonal plug over where his heart should be, with a chain that is severed, and he could see that the other half of the broken chain was located below a pile of rubble, and to his shock, he could see a hand, smeared with blood sticking out of an exposed part of the rubble.

He then remembered… what transpired during the expedition. There was a small tremor off the coast of Peru which shook the foundation of the ruins that they were exploring. Most of the archeological team got out… but unfortunately, he did not, for he risked his life to save the leader of the expedition from a falling ceiling piece that was shaken loose by the tremor.

Though he supposed it is rather… ironic and fitting that he died in a ruin. It's a bit morbid, now that he thought about it, but… he supposed that there was nothing he could do about it.

After all, he was the son of Hana and Benkei Kitano… two rather up and coming archeologists from Japan. Being the only child meant that he always got his fair share of attention, though he really hated the time he spent at university. Some of his peers, almost regarded him snidely, sometimes saying that he only got in because of his parents and he had an unfair advantage over them all.

He really got upset over those remarks, but he forced himself to ignore those remarks, and proved them wrong by graduating with honors with his own effort. Shortly after, his parents sent him along with a friend of theirs to Peru to uncover the mystery of the Macchu Pichu… and that is where he was now, up till his death.

Wondering why he was still here, he started wandering through the ruins, and figuring out that he was a spirit, or ghost right now, he started exploring the site once more. It was a thrill of course, since being able to pass through walls, he is able to explore deeper into the ruins, and who knows…. He could probably see most of the world's ruins easily! But then he sighed, since he knew, even if he could do that, or found some ruins that were still undiscovered, he won't be able to be acknowledged as its finder.

He then shook his head at such thoughts. After all, he wasn't a person that was after fame or fortune of that sort… though it would be nice if he did. Shaking his head to clear himself of such thoughts, he began to venture deeper into the ruins… unaware that something was watching him from the shadows.

The figure in the shadows had a sinister gleam in its eyes, its face grinning as it had found some food. This newly formed ghost… seemed to have some reiatsu in it… making it even sweeter. It soon slithered slowly out of the shadows and started stalking after Toshi, eager to make him its meal.

As he wandered deeper into the ruins, Toshi stopped every now and then, to study the parts of the ruins that he and his team did not get a chance to study, due to the events that had caused his early demise. After some time, something niggled at the back of his mind, and he had a feeling that he was being watched by something… or someone.

He started to look around, as the feeling of nervousness increased, and he got the feeling that something… something evil was stalking him. He did not know why he felt this way, but he knew that if he did not quickly get out of here, he would be in deep trouble.

At that moment, he decided that his current safety is definitely more important than his curiosity… and he quickly turned and ran towards the entrance…. just in time to evade something striking the spot that he once occupied. He quickly put some distance between whatever had just struck the spot that he was a few moments earlier and turned to get a look at his assailant… and froze in front of the abomination that was facing him now.

It looked like a serpentine like monster, with body patterns that resembled the venomous pit vipers found everywhere in the world. What makes it different than any normal snake is that it is as large as those movie snake monsters. Secondly it has two hands on its sides, ending in sharp claws and its fingertips look like they were dripping with some kind of liquid.

There was also a small circular hole located on its chest, something that looked strange, and yet so… fitting for a monster to have. Finally, its face was covered with a skull white bony mask, oddly with even teeth, but what was chilling was the twin unblinking yellow eyes that was sinisterly sizing him up, and Toshi had a sinking feeling that this being… whatever it is… was out to get him.

"Hssss… how interesssting… I actually misssssed…." The snake like creature hissed in amusement. "Not bad for a newly deceasssssed ssssoul… but don't be to happy, mortal… that wassss your only freebie…. Nexxxt time I won't missss."

Toshi slowly backed away from the monstrosity as it hissed, and was shocked to hear words come out from its mouth. "Y…you can s… speak? W… who… what are you? Don't come closer! I'm warning you!" He said as his voice trembled, a mixture of false bravado and fear was rising up from deep inside his heart.

The monster sniffed the air for a moment, and then hissed in pleasure. "Ahh, you are afraid of me…. Good… and yes, I can ssspeak, foolisssh mortal. All of my kind can… well, perharpssss not all of ussss… but ssssome of ussss…."

It paused for a moment, before speaking once more. "I and my kind are known assss Hollowssss to ssssome… but that issss not important now… what isss more important…. IS TO HAVE YOU FOR DINNER!"

The snake like Hollow shrieked and lunged towards Toshi once more, and he quickly dodged, not wanting to become food for this… Hollow or whatever it called itself. He managed to dodge to the side, but one of the Hollow's fingers managed to catch him on his side, tearing a gash on his shirt, and the liquid burned against his skin.

He winced as he gripped his side, and he was caught up in his pain, that he did not notice that the chain that hung from his chest was starting to corrode, small mouths slowly eating up sections of it, until they disappeared. Ironically, the serpent like Hollow had just started a reaction that sped up the corrosion of the Chain of Fate… which would spell its own doom.

After dodging for some time, the snake like Hollow somehow managed to catch up, and gripped his leg, causing him to fall down flat on his back, hissing in pain as its touch, and the liquid, which he suspected to be some kind of acid.

The Hollow hissed in amusement as it peered down on its soon to be dinner, its acid like venom dripping from its mouth, unknowingly landing on Toshi's Chain of Fate, further corroding it, which Toshi did not know, but felt a burning pain against his chest.

"Nowhere to run now, little morsssseel… now… why don't you jusssst accept your fate and let me eat you." The Hollow hissed triumphantly as it was quite fond in playing these kind of mind games with its potential prey.

In these dire moments, Toshi's mind began to spring to his action. So… this is the end of me… I have so many dreams to pursue… so many things I want to do… but now… I am dead…. And even in death, I cannot even wander this world in peace or pass on to a better place…"

His mind traveled also towards his parents… no doubt that they would have heard about his death by now… he could imagine they would be devastated over his death. After all, they were pretty close as a family. His mother would be in tears right now… something that he hated to see.

And there is Miyuki…. his girlfriend and future fiancée… their families have been close, and they were planning to at least take a look at some wedding dresses, and all that for the wedding next summer… but now, all that is going to be dashed…. Thanks to this…. THING! A wave of depression and anger flowed through him, further corroding away his Chain of Fate.

He then glared at his captor, anger building up deep inside of him, further weakening the chain that he had on his chest. "You…. Monster. You have done this many times, haven't you? Not letting people die in peace…. Or pass on to the next life because they deserve it… because of your selfish desires! Am I right to say this, Hollow?"

The Hollow once again hissed in amusement, sending acid like venom to further spray against Toshi's body, making him wince again in pain. "My…. Sssuch sssspirit even when you are at the edge of being devoured…. But I sssupossse telling you would be a consssolation for you to accept your fate assss my food. Yess indeed…. Mortal, you are abssssollutely right. Assss you humansss say, guilty asss charged."

"I see…." Toshi said calmly as he closed his eyes, as if the Hollow's answer had made him accept his fate… but suddenly he opened his eyes, full of burning hate towards the monster that was about to devour him, taking the Hollow aback for a moment. "You are despicable, Hollow-san…. For your admission of your crimes…. I won't forgive you… I WON'T FORGIVE YOU YOU UNDERSTSAND… EVEN IF I DO END UP AS YOUR FOOD, I WILL NEVER, EVER, FORGIVE YOU!"

The last part was said with such hatred and venom that the Chains of Fate that was on Toshi's chain quickly shattered, and the heart plug was destroyed, leaving a neat hole where his heart would be. With a scream of anguish directed at the snake Hollow, Toshi's body quickly broke apart into spirit particles… only to reform a few paces away from his previous spot.

White liquid suddenly gushed out from his mouth and enveloped his face, alarming the snake like hollow, who didn't anticipate this in his carefully laid plan. To its horror, once the mask had enveloped the young man's face, his body began to change. Now the form of a large raccoon dog, slightly larger than it stared at it, its yellow eyes burning with a deep hate for it.

"Such power…." The newly hollowfied Toshi spoke for the first time. "And such hunger…. Now I understand why you Hollows need to consume souls…. But my stance from earlier has not changed….. I must thank you for making me into one of you somehow…. Since it gives me a chance to pay you back for all those innocent lives you took!"

The hollowfied Toshi bellowed out its last few words, as it fixed its eyes on its new prey and started to run towards it, eager to slay it, to ease his newly acquired hunger, and to gain revenge for the souls that this particular Hollow had doomed to become nothing more than food to satisfy its hunger.

End of Prologue

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing a Bleach fanfic, so do bear with me if I make any mistakes. Like so many of my fics, I seldom follow the canon storyline since I like to do my own version and twists to the storyline. Though I might stick to canon in certain phases of this fanfic as I go along, so those who expect a canon storyline should consider not reading this. Now that I made myself clear… please do read and review this story, and I do need some beta readers for this story as well. For those who are interested, do drop me a PM as well as your e-mail inside your PMs so that I can contact you when I have a chapter ready to be beta read and edited. Thanks.