"Because Hollows are all souls of formally normal humans," Rukia explained to us.

"Wh... What do you mean?!" Ichigo shouted at her as I stared at her in silence in shock. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her to him. "You never told us this!"

"We thought they were monsters," I mumbled. "Aren't they supposed to be defeated to protect people?"

"Yes!" She shouted at us. "They are monsters! They must be defeated!"

"But you just said they were normal human souls!" I shouted at her. "You've been having us kill human souls all this time?!"

"We have no time for this discussion," Rukia said calmly. "If we don't hurry, that girl will die."


"Hollows attack their families?!" Ichigo asked as we jumped over rooftops to get to Inoue's apartment. Ichigo was carrying Rukia on his back since she couldn't have kept up with us without her powers.

"Yes!"

"Why is that?! Don't Hollows eat souls when they're hungry?! Aren't they indiscriminate?!"

"The Hollows that indiscriminately attack humans and other spirits have already killed their families," Rukia told us.

"Why...?"

"And one more thing, Hollows don't eat souls because they are hungry," Rukia told us. "They eat souls to ease their pain and suffering. A Hollow is a fallen soul. Souls that weren't brought to Soul Society by a Shinigami. Souls that escaped. Souls that weren't protected from Hollows. The soul degenerates, loses its heart, and becomes a Hollow, and a soul that becomes a Hollow, to fill its empty heart, seeks out those it loved most in its past life. You often hear stories about a husband dying then the wife dying a few years afterward, right? That's because the husband became a Hollow and ate the wife's soul." I thought about what she'd said and all the stories we'd heard before. "Today, when we saw Inoue, she had a large mark on her leg, right? That mark was a Hollow bite mark. That's why I asked you if she'd had any family and you answered that she'd had a much older brother. If you're right that this much older brother is her only family then there's no doubt, Inoue will be the one who is attacked!"


We arrived at Inoue's home just in time for Ichigo to draw his blade and block the Hollow's hand from hurting Inoue.

"Kurosaki-kun...?"

"You interfere?" the Hollow asked.

"Sorry, but that's our job. If you want to kill Inoue you better kill me first!"