Reviews make me all giddy inside, so I wouldn't be opposed to reading all your thought's on this.

Also, I'm fairly sure what the main pairing with Kyouya is going to be, so do you want to know or should it be a surprise?

Chapter 2

In the world that was Hueco Mundo, a lone Hollow stood once more in a sea of corpses.

This was no unusual sight, as Hollows that hunted in groups often ganged up on lone Hollows, what was unusual on the other hand was the fact that it was this lone Hollow that had won and killed them instead. The corpses of a couple of strong adjuchas and scavengers that had gotten caught up in his killing spree surrounded Kyouya where he stood in the middle of it. His waist length black hair was drenched in blood as was his clothes. For a moment, he contemplated just leaving them behind and continuing on naked, but he supposed that the nights in Hueco Mundo were too cold for that. And loathed as he was to admit it, he had missed the Living World.

Kyouya didn't bother stepping away from the corpses he had already eaten his fill of as he stretched out his hand and with a slight twitch of it, opened his very first garganta. He had no destination beyond Japan as he attempted it for the first time.

Naturally, he succeeded on his first try.

Kyouya religiously followed the motto of 'if at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried'.

His body gave no reaction as he stepped through the portal that was for some reason called a garganta, knowledge all Hollows had dumped into their heads when they were turned or whatever, and although it had taken some time for him to find it, found it he had.

He stepped out on the other side, the smell of live humans surrounding as he left the cold air of Hueco Mundo behind him. Kyouya grimaced slightly behind his mask as he let the garganta close behind him and started making his way through the forest he evidently ended up in to civilization. From where the sun was in the sky (a sight he found that he had missed more than he thought, as Hueco Mundo was in an eternal state of night) he figured that it was probably somewhere around midday and he should be easily able to find an open store to steal some clothes from.

The idea of needing to steal anything disgusted him, as it was a blatant act of disturbing the peace, but until he found a way to get actual money without stealing that as well, it would have to do.

That didn't mean he liked it though.

Kyouya let out an inaudible sigh as he stalked through the trees, because he did nothing half-assed, and made his way to the closest direction of a collection of reiatsu. It startled him exactly how weak they felt, even weaker than the hollows he ate and gorged on when he felt the need and it almost made him want to go in another direction, disgusted by how much weakness he could feel even as far away as he was.

But he was a Hollow on a mission and his clothes really were in frankly horrible conditions.

So when he came upon a road, he followed it to the city he appeared to be near and then just walked along the crowds, as irritating as it was. He did not like crowding, but it was the fastest way to find a store when he couldn't ask anyone for directions and there were rarely signs pointing towards stores.

He followed along until he came to a suitable clothing shop, the door already open and seemingly just waiting for him to enter. He moved along the shelves silently, looking for anything that would work in an environment as unforgiving as Hueco Mundo. In the end, he settled for a short sleeved black shirt and a pair of black pants, slightly thicker than normally, hoping that the color would keep the blood that would undoubtedly stain it from being too obvious.

Once finished, he left the shop as if he were never there, disappearing with a handful of clothes that were just as invisible as him due to being in his grasp.

— —

Kyouya stared listlessly out at the endless amount of sand in front of him as he found himself contemplating his life. It wasn't generally something he usually did, much less when he was actually alive, but he had realized that if he didn't occupy his mind with something, he'd go insane from the boredom that perpetuated this place.

There was nothing to do.

He turned so he laid on his side and blinked slowly through his mask. The complete and utter lack of anything to do was starting to mess with his head. It had been some time ago that he had parted with Starrk and as much as he wanted to find him and alleviate the crushing boredom he was experiencing, somehow it would feel like defeat. Like he lost something if he did and so instead of searching him out, he had simply stopped moving. Even the Hollows stupid enough to come near him offered no break from the monotone afterlife he led.

His long hair dragged on the sand, no doubt becoming even more of a mess, but he just didn't care to fix it and braiding it would just remind him of Fon, the bastard carnivore he still wasn't entirely sure how he was related to. Not that it mattered, he was dead after all.

That's right, he was dead. Dead.

Totally and irrevocably dead.

Completely dead.

Dead.

A hiss of frustration escaped him as he sat up, by now used to the tail that had appeared with the mask. He climbed to his feet and started pacing as he tried to think of anything—anything at all—that he could do. As it was, he was going to go insane.

A distant roar what was finally gave him an idea. He could evolve. He was currently an adjuchas, but if he evolved he would surely have stronger prey. The problem was that becoming a Vasto Lorde was an incredibly time consuming process that not every Hollow was capable of. He had no wish to waste his time. On the other, he was so bored that wasting time sounded like a wonderful idea. But trying to find prey in the desert would take too long with what he wanted.

Which meant he would have to go underground.

A bloodthirsty grin twisted his delicate features into something right out of a horror movie and a high-pitched cackle emerged from the white, elegant mask, the sound enough to make a Hollow feel terror into their very bones.

He opened his mouth and charged up a purple Cero, charging it with his Cloud Flames as well to make it as strong as he could. Once it was about the size of his palm, he angled his head down and with his eyes glowing purple through the mask, he let it go.

The resulting flash of white hot flame was enough to blind a human. It travelled down at inhumane speeds, pierced the sand covered floor and with a great groan, continued on through the ceiling to the forest underground. Kyouya fell through the floor with a smile on his face as he enjoyed the ride. The flame was so hot that the sand around the newly made hole was turned to glass, even as more sand flowed on top of it.

With the grace of a feline, Kyouya landed on the hard ground on all four.

He rose up straight and observed his new surroundings. The area around him was as dead as the surface, but the few quartz like trees that dotted the main landscape were everywhere around him, large and imposing, some reaching all the way up to the roof. This was undoubtedly a forest.

A forest filled with prey.

It took everything in him not to immediately start laughing insanely out of pure joy, because this could fix all his problems. He would evolve and destroy his boredom at the same time.

It was perfect.

He loosened his shoulders, let his tonfa fall into his hands and started walking into the darkness of the Forest of Menos.

If anyone could see him, they would be running in the other direction out of pure animalistic fear.

Too bad he had arrived in non-populated area.

Truly, it was a shame.

Kyouya searched through the forest, his eyes cold as steel and his mind utterly focused on his task. He'd spread out his cloud flames around him for kilometers around and had picked up several life-signs. While he completely ignored the Gillians, as he had absolutely no interest in them, he instead concentrated on following an adjuchas whose trace he had picked up. He was sure it knew it was being followed, as it travelled in several different directions, changing its way on random and going both up and down, presumably jumping between trees. Instead of following up into the branches, Kyouya stayed on the ground as he stalked his prey.

He was very much aware that he was walking right into a trap.

He could sense the adjuchas the one he was following was leading him too and if he had been in any way like a normal person (or Hollow for that matter) he would have turned tailed and fled the moment he realized it, as they were all of fairly impressive strength and well hidden, but to him it just increased the fun of it.

Coming to this forest was already proving worth it.

In the end, he walked into the trap. It was just more fun that way.

The clearing he arrived in was well hidden with towering trees surrounding it that provided ample places to hide. When Kyouya entered it, he was already aware of the many Hollows hiding in them—at least over a dozen—but made no move to show his understanding. Instead, he decided to take the opportunity to play with his food, something Fon always nagged at him about. Apparently it wasn't sanitary or something like that.

He stopped walking in the middle of the clearing, looked around obviously for the Hollow he had been chasing (not that he needed to, it was in the tree to his left approximately two meters high up) and made a sound as if he was confused. The Hollows were completely fooled.

As one, they dropped from the trees and he had to give them credit, it looked seamless enough that they had probably done this many times before. Unfortunately, they had never met him before either. Kyouya grinned, bloodlust shining in his eyes, giving them a glint of madness and stood in a relaxed position with his tonfas in his hands. He pulled his flames back, as that would make this more of a challenge and there was thus a greater chance that he would be successfully ambushed, something that was always amusing. The Hollow in front of him, a big blue colored thing with a wide mask that climbed down its shoulders and a pair of ugly looking claws on its hands, gave him a smug look. Kyouya bristled in annoyance.

"Didn't think it was a trap, did you? Don't worry, you're not the first one to fall for it and you wan't be the last." so said, the Hollow grinned and gave a sharp whistle. Immediately, all the ones surrounding it shifted to ready positions and let out loud roars.

It was probably supposed to be terrifying. Probably.

And then the carnage started.

Kyouya had never been afraid to go overkill even when he was alive, only the knowledge that he didn't want to scare the fluffy animals had him constraining himself, but there were no fluffy animals in Hueco Mundo. No reason to stop himself from doing as his instincts said.

Kyouya positively tore through the Hollows, going for the most painful places possible rather than the most lethal and using blunt force trauma rather than actual skill. He smashed his way through skulls and masks, broke bones like they were paper and even tore out a throat or two with his teeth. His mind was completely focused on the battle and as more Hollows got pulled into the massacre, he raised his reiatsu output and crushed them with the pressure of his spirit energy alone.

At some point, he lost his tonfa and instead made do with his bare claws, tearing anything he could reach and even when he was ganged up on, they never managed to pin him down for more then a second. Eventually, there was no-one left.

Kyouya sat in a pool of blood, looking up at the dark roof of the forest. His hands were stained with blood, as was his mask and his mouth still had the taste of flesh left in it.

Surrounding him were the corpses, and soon to be corpses, of the Hollows that had tried to eat him (because he wasn't about to delude himself, they had wanted to eat him, not just kill him) with limbs laying uselessly to the side. Kyouya sighed into the darkness of the eternal night and brought the torn off leg up to his mouth to take another bite. He bit through the mess of flesh, muscles and bones and swallowed down the reishi that came with it, increasing his own. If he kept going at this pace, it would probably still be a few months until he became a Vasto Lorde, but he figured it would be worth it in the end.

At the very least, while he powered up, he would get to hunt down his food and play with it. From his recent experience he could confirm that it was much more fun when the food could fight back.

Once he'd eaten his fill of the monsters laying around him, he yawned, laid down in the blood that he still hadn't left, curled in on his side and fell asleep. It was the first time he had felt at home enough to take a proper nap since he'd died. And it was glorious.

— —

The Forest of Menos, below the sandy desert that was Hueco Mundo, was far larger then it first appeared. The trees were all tall towering things, with the darkness that perpetuated everything in this place making them appear far more imposing then they probably were. Walking amongst them were the gigantic figures of Gillians, mindless beasts that could only follow the orders of higher evolved Hollows. Naturally, Kyouya had avoided them for as long as he could, as he had no use of them.

Among the trees and rocks that decorated the landscape, Hollows of different strength hid and schemed, plotting how to kill other Hollows so they themselves could evolve. So far, Kyouya had yet to find a single fluffy being.

It was possibly the worst part of being dead.

Currently speaking, Kyouya was lazing about on a branch of one of those trees. Despite the hard material they were made of, they were surprisingly comfortable to sleep on. It helped that his body had gotten more resistant since he became a Hollow.

Kyouya dropped from the tree when he felt the presence that had entered his flame output that was keeping track of anyone around him. However, the presence was not that of a Hollow.

It was close and felt somewhat similar in the way two people of opposing flame types felt similar, but it was undoubtedly not of Hollow nature. It felt powerful though and Kyouya had been on his personal crusade of evolving for a few weeks now and he was starting to get bored again and as he didn't know where the exist back to the desert was, he couldn't even go find Starrk and bother him.

So he waited for the presence to come closer and then he used a burst of speed to intercept the being in its path.

The being, a man covered in a fur coat with the masks of Hollows on it and a sword at his waist with a green hilt, tensed the second he came into sight. He brought his hands up and even with the mask covering his face that looked like a gazille's (it was not his mask though, rather it was a spoil of war) he seemed serious. Kyouya inspected the way he looked like he hadn't had a bath in ages, the way his human feet were bare but not torn up and the way his reiatsu rose as he prepared to fight him. He wasn't a Hollow and he wasn't human, yet he was in the cursed place that was Hueco Mundo.

A pleased smile shifted his face behind his mask into something that could give a child nightmares as he realized that this must be a Shinigami. A natural enemy.

A new toy to play with.

He cleared his throat, as it had been some time since he last spoke, and asked, "What is a Shinigami doing here?"

The Shinigami didn't waste any time as it answered. "Its duty."

Kyouya blinked, having expected more swearing and accusations, but kept talking. "But this is not your territory." he stated.

The Shinigami started to relax a little when he didn't immediately attack it. "I have lived here for centuries. This is my territory."

"Hn," Kyouya began, "you are fairly strong. Fight me." he demanded.

The Shinigami put its hand on its swords hilt and turned its body slightly. "Gladly."

For seconds, they stared at each other. When the strange equilibrium was finally destroyed, it was without a sound. Suddenly, they were in front of each other. Kyouya grinned and let his spirit energy loose, he let it curl around the the other being in front of him. This was the most fluffy thing he had seen since he had come here and he supposed that it would just have to do. The trick was getting it to accept his authority without damaging it beyond repair. He wouldn't want to break it before he had a chance to play with it.

The first hit of his tonfa smashed the mask the Shinigami was wearing to pieces.

The pale face that stared back at him was undoubtedly male, if a very pretty one. The shaggy hair framed its face. Kyouya didn't spare more than a moment to exam its looks before he continued with his attacks.

The Shinigami was fast. It twirled around his tonfa and attacks without getting hit, dodging instead of blocking. From time to time, it let lightening run from its fingers and at first Kyouya thought he had a lightening flame, but no, it was just spells. Incantations. A specific twist to its reiatsu controlled by the words and gestures used. Kyouya was fairly sure that if he had enough practice, he could copy it, even if he couldn't do the exact same thing due to the difference in energies.

It was fascinating, the things this dead world offered him.

Kyouya doubled his speed and let the chains on his tonfas fly.

— —

Once again, there was silence.

The subjective peace of the forest had been restored as the beast made of reiatsu that haunted it was occupied with its newest pet. In the crown of a tree, Kyouya stared dubiously at the torn body of the Shinigami, slowly healing as he used his cloud flames to restore its reishi.

The Shinigami was strong and could be made stronger and he hadn't tried to talk to him. It stared at him with suspicious eyes, but it didn't make any unnecessary noises or tried to get him to reveal his nefarious plans. Something that many had tried to do when he was alive. For some reason they kept telling him that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't actually rule the world, which made no sense, because Kyouya had no such aspirations. The paperwork alone was enough to get him to give up that idea.

So the Shinigami managing not to mindlessly babble in his presence was already a point in their favor.

He had now captured another soul to relieve his occasional need to talk and bask in the fear of others. After some thought on the matter, he decided it would be easier to call the Shinigami by name, as eventually he would need to track down more to judge their strength. The one he had fought was fairly impressive and its speed was far above what he usually saw from Hollows, but that could be a singular occurrence resulting from living in Hueco Mundo. He would need to find out more later.

So he lazily opened his mouth and stated, in a monotone voice, "Your name."

The Shinigami startled, it glanced up at him from the ground where it laid. "Ashido. Ashido Kanou."

"Hmm. Acceptable."

— —

The silence was oppressive. Ashido looked at the Hollow sleeping next to him, wondering what he was still doing here. Why he hadn't left the second it went to sleep. On the other hand, during the several days (he thought it was days, it was hard to tell) he had witnessed him awaking just from him taking a step and subsequently gotten into fights with him. Fights he never won, although he'd gotten closer lately.

But if he really tried, he could leave, he knew that.

Maybe it was the loneliness.

Ashido had lived in Hueco Mundo for centuries, with only the graves of his dead comrades and friends to speak to. Hollows only ever wanted to taunt him, they never tried to hold a proper conversation with him and while this Hollow hadn't either, it answered his questions and had so far made no move to actually eat him. For the last few days, they had been tracking other Hollows and from what he understood during their limited amount of speaking, the Hollow intended to kill and eat them, not necessarily in that order.

Being a… companion with this Hollow wouldn't stop him from performing his duty.

(He would still kill it, if he ever got the chance.)

There was something he had been wondering about for a while now and he had finally gathered enough courage to ask it. "Hollow. When you were alive, what did you do? You seem to thrive in this environment in a way that even many Hollows rarely do."

The Hollow didn't move and he didn't expect it to, he was now well familiar with its habit to take naps. "I killed people for a living and ruled a town. It was fun."

"Ah," he found himself unsurprised by the answer. "I see."

The Hollow didn't say anything more than that and he found himself stunned that he wanted to know more. Well, he wanted to learn more in that morbid curiosity that you wanted to know if a fire would burn you. It was for this reason alone that he asked the next question (he wasn't getting attached).

"You name?"

The Hollow made an annoyed sound and answered, "Kyouya. Hibari Kyouya. Now shut up."

He wasn't getting attached at all.

(He sucked at lying to himself. He had missed the silence between conversations, the way things came naturally when you had someone to talk to. Someone that could answer back.

Loneliness.

It had to be because he had been alone for so long.

That's all it was.)

A/N: I suck at writing fighting scenes, if you missed that. Any advice on how to improve them would be very much appreciated.

Thank you to everyone that has read and reviewed, I am delighted by the good response to this story!

I hope you continue to enjoy it.

-FantasyDeath