Chapter Nine: Survival

*Hueco Mundo, Halibel & Tres Bestias Home*

Eight months, eight incredibly long months since the day Yoshiro had been taken away by the soul reapers. Emilou had immediately ran to hueco mundo, in order to inform lady Halibel and the others of what had happened. When she burst into the home out of breath and worried out her mind. Halibel, Mila and Sung-sun knew something terrible had happened. Only until they heard what Emilou had to say did fully realize the full magnitude of the situation.

Emilou recounted what she had happened, the weird feelings of the hollow energy that she had felt emanating directly from Yoshiro. The presence of the soul reaper captain. Running out to see the ice walls, Yoshiro cuffed and being held at sword point. The complete shock of seeing obvious hollow features on Yoshiro's face. The sense of hopelessness of being not able to do anything as the soul reapers took him.

When she had finished speaking, a mass sense of dread, sadness and anger spread throughout the whole room. Mila roared in anger and punched a wall, Sung-sun stared out into nothingness with a despairing glare while her sleeve covered her mouth. Lady Halibel stood there in stoic silence but balled her fist in a sense of cold tranquil fury over her only child having been taken prisoner by soul society. Emilou had a mix of grief, depression and anger. Anger and hate more at herself if anything for failing to do anything to stop the kidnapping from happening.

The one thing that caught everyone by surprise was Yoshiro's apparent hollow powers. None, of them could think of any reason as to why he would possess such a thing. They could deduce Yoshiro had probably only recently discovered he had such powers. The soul society somehow caught on to him having the hollow powers before he could have told them about it and captured him. All in all for the most part the whole situation had far too many questions and far too few answers. That angered everyone more than anything else.

The four women did what they could to comfort and help each other in the situation of it all. They all knew that had to keep hope though, hope that Yoshiro would return to them. They all refused to believe he had been lost to them forever. Until they had undeniable proof to the contrary, they continued to hope for his return.

Now, eight months had come and gone. While no one would say it out loud. There hope for his return, while still there. Had dwindled in the time since, with every passing day, that hope slowly dwindling away more and more. Emilou sat outside looking at the moonlit night sky of hueco mundo, softly crying to herself over the whole situation. Begging whatever higher powers in the universe existed would give her back the one thing she cared about more than anything else.

*Hueco Mundo, Yoshiro's location*

RAAAHHHH! Yoshiro yelled out as he attacked a hollow he had been hunting. He landed a decisive strike with his claws to its' throat, it fell dead where it had stood. He walked over to his freshly killed prey and began to feed, feeling his power grow as he did so.

In the eight months he had arrived in hueco mundo, much had changed for Yoshiro. He had to abandoned many of his past restraints in order to survive the harshness of the hollow world. While he had at first been hesitant about hunting, killing and feeding on other hollows. In time he had dropped these out of the sake of survival. For survival was what ultimately mattered in hueco mundo, and one survived however they needed too.

He now hunted and fed whenever he could as he searched for his loved ones in the realm. It was all there was too do in this place. He killed and fed he didn't know how many times a day but ultimately no longer thought to care. He needed to feed, he needed to grow his power. To him the need to do so wasn't so much just for himself but so he could also properly help his loved ones when they reunited.

When he looked back on everything as he wandered the endless sands and rock formation. He realized just how powerless he truly had been and how lucky he had been in everything. He was no fool, he knew his luck would only hold out for so long. He was determined to be strong enough to be handle things when the time came, no matter what the situation was.

Still while he knew what he was doing was needed. He still had his hang ups. Mainly being, as he grew his power, he could feel his hollow self and humanity blur and blend together more and more. His humanity steadily disappearing in the process as his hollow power grew stronger. It had also caused even more physical changes as well. They were never pleasant.

The first time it happened was two months after he arrived, he had just finished eating a hollow when a sudden burst of pain and energy burst through him. He felt the mask on his face fully form, making the perfect visage of a fox mask, that left just enough room for him to use his mouth for feeding. His nails on his hands and feet painfully elongated and formed into sharp claws. He felt a searing pain on his back just above the waist as something seemingly burst out. When all the pain had subsided the transformation complete. He quickly felt himself to see all his changes. The most startling of which was he now had four large fluffy fox tails that looked just like his inner hollows.

To say that had freaked him out was an understatement. Sadly that would not be last time he changed. The next occurred three months later.

It was even more painful than last time, his whole body suddenly felt like lava from the inside out. He fell to his knees and elbows in agony. He felt his very muscles and skin burn as a bone white substance poured out of his pores like molten metal and formed itself on him. The pain in his lower back returned as well as even worst sensation from last time erupted from it. He didn't know how long it lasted only when it ended his body still shook and quaked involuntarily from the ordeal.

He checked himself to see how he had changed this time. His hands were still clawed but the bone like material had formed fingerless gauntlets of sorts that stopped down his arm four inches before his elbow. The same material had formed around his feet in the form of some sort of wrapping that only exposed his heels and toes and stopped a few inches above his ankles. The substance had formed into a kind of sleeveless crop top that formed four inch wide like straps around his shoulders and stretched down and stopped a few inches above his belly button. At his waist down stopping a few inches above his knees the material formed like tights of sorts. Along with cloth like flaps that hung across the front and back. With some space separating them at the sides of his waist and hung down to just below his knees. Finally, he now had a full set of nine tails just like his inner hollow.

He now was truly more hollow than human now he could no longer deny. With the only evidence of his humanity still existing was his lack of an actual hollow hole. The thing is he couldn't understand why any of these changes were happening. He conversed with his inner hollow on the subject, it only raised more questions. From what the kitsune hollow knew a living being in a mortal shell shouldn't be able to exhibit hollow features to such a degree. Sadly, she had no explanation as to why he was such an exception to the norm.

It only made Yoshiro wonder, was any of this reversable? Was he already destined to lose his humanity entirely? If he was, would his mortal shell simply disappear, and he would be a full-fledged hollow? Would he retain any memory of anything? Would he reach a point that his body as it is couldn't handle what was happening and simply implode in some way and destroy him in his entirety? Would something even worse than all those things happen? He did not know but hoped for the best as he continued on.

Despite the dangers it poised to himself, he could not stop. Not when he knew there were those waiting for him. Those he needed to be strong enough to help. Those he would sacrifice himself for if need be for their sake.

*Yoshiro's Inner World*

The hollow kitsune woman sat pleasantly amongst the forest of her kits inner world. She had spent her time the eight months helping guide and nurture her kit. She had to admit he had made impressive progress. He had learned much of his abilities. When he wasn't searching or hunting, he trained his powers. He could use cero, sonido, heirro and pesquisa as if they were second nature. His fast growth from just how much he fed and worked himself tirelessly. Whether he realized it or not he had gained a need to feed but not out of simple or hunger or to be the strongest around. His desire to feed came from his undying desire to simply have the strength to help those he cared about. He was quite hungry in his feeding because of it.

Not that she ever tried to stop him, being a full-fledged hollow herself she encouraged her kit to grow how he could. Some may find it odd, but she truly did care for the boy. Much like the boy's own mother she herself had a much more caring side too her than most hollows. She essentially acted like a second mother, not that the kit minded. He was glad to have someone to talk too in the desolate wastes of hueco mundo and so was she in all honesty.

She did share some his concerns though, mostly why he had such prominent hollow features appear on him despite being in a mortal shell and just where it could lead. If it eventually led to his mortal shell breaking away and him become a powerful full on hollow himself even at the cost of his remaining humanity. She had no issue with it. In fact she hoped for that to be the outcome, it would only mean the kit could be able to touch the full depths of the power they shared. Her concern that she truly shared is what else could happen should no….rather when his mortal shell gave away from everything. What would happen? Neither had any way of knowing for sure, it worried them both.

Nothing about the kits' situation had been seen before as far as she knew. So many unknowns, so many things that could happen and no real answers. Such a conundrum in all honesty. She had to do as her kit does and hope things will work out for the best.

*Hueco Mundo with Yoshiro*

he was traveling as usual searching for any signs of his companions or anything to hunt at the same time. He came a valley when he picked up something with his senses. He crouched on all fours and moved as swiftly as any fox could towards the location. As he approached moved to a slow crawl, he looked over the ledge into the valley keeping low as much as possible. He looked and surveyed his potential prey.

There were six in total, one looked like some giant worm, one looked like some weird skeleton with a long ponytail of sorts, another looked like some sort of bull, another some kind of weird gorilla, another was just some gillian. However it was the last one that looked to be the leader and interested him the most. He was the smallest and looked like some kind of cat, a panther of sorts he gathered. He reached out with pesquisa to get a sense of there power. He was able to gather everyone, but the panther would be easy enough to kill. The panther would be tougher he could tell but he knew he had the power to bring him down.

It watched them for a moment and thought if he should really kill them though. All the others he had killed were ones who always thought they could kill him or were simply to wild to know better. He could tell this group of hollows was different. They were actually organized and seemed to work together to some degree anyways, something he had only ever seen from his mother and the group that she led. Plus, he had to admit he was starting to get kind of desperate for company beyond his inner hollow. He decided to take a chance, he jumped from his positioning and landed about 50 yards in front of the group.

The group of hollows immediately focused on him. They seemed to be eyeing him warily trying to gauge him. Yoshiro was about to say something, when suddenly the large worm like hollow charged him with a roar. One of his companions, the skeleton looking one called out to him to stop but the worm didn't listen. Yoshiro just stood there and waited for him to make his strike. The worm threw itself forward right at him Yoshiro easily side stepped him. As the worm brought itself up to its' full height to look at its target. Yoshiro used sonido to quickly put himself in the air behind it, above its' head his tails facing towards its' head.

Before it could realize what was going on. Yoshiro focused his energy into his tails and brought them down like nine crushing hammers upon the worms' head. Its' head caved in immediately with gore, bone and blood spraying everywhere from the attack. The worm fell to the ground as dead as dead could be. Yoshiro merely strode without a care in the world in front of his kill, watching the rest waiting too see what they would do. The panther stepped forward and spoke.

"how interesting? If you're willing to talk, we'll listen but first have your meal." It spoke calmly.

"you're not angry with me for killing your pal?" Yoshiro replied not quite buying the panthers mellowness to the situation.

"Di Roy was an idiot who died of his own stupidity. He should've known better to attack you the moment he laid eyes on you. It's really not that huge of a deal, merely how things in hueco mundo work. So eat, we'll wait." It casually replied.

Yoshiro was honestly surprised by the panther's action. He could tell no lies in his speech and neither could his inner hollow. So he began to feed. Once finished, the panther calmly strode up to him.

"So, what brings you to us?" it spoke "aiming to make a meal of us too by chance?"

"At first I was yes." Yoshiro replied honestly "but after watching you for a bit I realized you were different from the others I've seen, well most of you anyways."

"so what is it that you want?" said the cat

"in all honesty, I wouldn't mind just joining up with you guys for traveling companions. I've been roaming this place so god damn long more or less by myself. I could really some to people to hang around with who don't try to eat me on the spot and can actually carry a halfway decent conversation." Spoke Yoshiro.

That seemed to catch the panther by surprise, he studied the fox in front of him for a moment before saying. "your completely serious, aren't you?" it said inquisitively. Yoshiro just nodded his head. The panther seemed to think for a moment then spoke."

"You aiming to take command of the group then?" he asked Yoshiro

"why would I want to do that?" the blond fox replied.

"because your far stronger than them." He said nodding towards the other hollows. "and you're even a fair bit stronger than me I can sense it." He finished.

"I have no interest in being any kind of leader. That sort of thing just isn't my thing. I'm perfectly fine with just being one of the group and nothing more." Replied the fox.

The panther was in thought for a few moments, then looked towards the other hollows trying to judge their reactions to this idea. After a few more moments it looked back to Yoshiro and spoke.

"what's your name by chance?"

"Yoshiro Abe but just call me Yoshiro."

"Yoshiro eh? Well I'm Grimmjow, welcome to the crew. Let me introduce you the others."

Yoshiro nodded and followed Grimmjow to the others.

After introductions they all started traveling together, they began chatting with each other. Yoshiro almost couldn't believe how great it felt to have a real conversation with someone after so long. The group talked about how they were working on trying to become vasto lords. Then the one he knew as Shawlong spoke to him.

"it seems though you have already achieved vasto lord Yoshiro?" he said

"what makes you think that?" the fox replied

This seem to catch everyone off guard a bit. Shawlong continued.

"well, you have the humanoid appearance and have traces of your previous adjucah state like vasto lords are known to have. Plus, your energy levels feel just as high as one Yoshiro."

"for real I actually never noticed the power level bit, but my appearance isn't from being an adjucah. Seeing as how I was never an adjucah to begin with, technically despite my appearance I'm not even a full on hollow, I am mostly one at this rate I will admit." Yoshiro chose to speak honestly with them, he didn't see any point in lying to them. The whole group stopped in their tracks.

"what do you mean?" questioned Grimmjow.

"tell you what. I'll tell you my whole story if you promise me to wait until I finish before saying or doing anything?" Yoshiro said. He felt like being completely honest was the best way to go. Plus, he was just that desperate to talk to others in depth for the first time in a long time. 'I wonder if this's how Emilou felt when she found me that night, we met I wonder?' he thought to himself.

Grimmjow and the others looked at each other in silence for a moment. Then Grimmjow simply nodded his head in approval towards Yoshiro. So Yoshiro started.

He told them of his parentage, his parent's deaths, his growing up in Karakura. He told them about the night he first met Emilou, her birthday with the hollow attack, the soul reapers, the candy shop and the surprise birthday celebration he did for her. The day at the beach when they confessed to each other. how they were confronted by Mila and Sung-sun. Coming to hueco mundo for the first time and meeting his mother who had died giving birth to him. How he and Emilou shared a night of passion with one another. He told about how Emilou, Mila and Sung-sun told of their past and deaths. How he awoke his hollow powers and how he was captured and taken prisoner by soul reapers, and how he eventually escaped. Then he told of his coming to hueco mundo and everything that happened before meeting them.

When his finished his tale, the whole group looked to be in complete shock trying to process his tale. This silence kept up for a while until eventually Shawlong spoke up.

"normally, I would call such tale nothing but fantasy. However, seeing you standing before me and detecting no deceit in your tale. I have to believe you, no doubts about it." He said with some awe in his voice. The rest of the group started to agree eventually Grimmjow was the last to speak.

"gotta admit Yoshiro you're easily the most interesting person I've ever met." He spoke casually.

"have to admit I was a little worried you guys might come at me once you learned the truth." Yoshiro replied.

"nah, don't worry." Said Grimmjow "As far as I can tell you're a hollow like the rest of us, hole or no hole." The rest of the group nodded in agreement to the statement.

"wow, thanks' I think. For some reason that statement is hitting me harder than I imagined I would" the fox stated with surprise.

"maybe your just starting figure out that maybe hueco mundo is the place you truly belong in?" Grimmjow piped up

Yoshiro thought about that statement for a few moments. "Maybe your right about that Grimmjow?" Yoshiro spoke softly.

"So, considering you have a vasto girlfriend and mother who both run in the same crew with two other vasto's. once you manage to find them, you'll have to be going back to them I imagine?" chirped the panther hollow.

"yeah pretty much, hope you don't mind. I'm happy to keep running with you guys and help with what your doing until then. Whenever that is anyways." Replied the human-hollow fox.

"that'll just work fine for us I think, let's get going." Spoke Grimmjow.

*Hueco Mundo Two Months Later*

It had been two months since Yoshiro had started to run with Grimmjow, Shawlong and the others. It was actually a pretty good time too for Yoshiro. They would travel and hunt or they would chill around and joke around a bit. Yoshiro and Grimmjow got into a habit of training against each other. Yoshiro's power continued to grow more and more. Plus, sometimes Grimmjow and Yoshiro would play games with their prey to make things a little more exciting.

They called the game 'Catch the Rabbit'. It was simple they would find some prey make it start running for its' life. After giving it a decent head start Grimmjow and Yoshiro would chase after it. Whoever caught the prey first won. If the prey somehow escaped it was a draw. No prey ever managed to make an escape from either of them. It was a game Yoshiro and Grimmjow only played together, since the rest of the group was too slow for it. Today they were playing the game with raven looking hollow.

"come on Grimmjow! don't get beat some birdy!" Yoshiro cheekily said.

"shut up Yoshiro! no damn bird is going to outmaneuver me!" retorted the panther hollow.

"yeah, yeah I heard you say that sort of thing befo-." Yoshiro suddenly stopped as he felt a presence, he thought he recognized. Grimmjow saw this and stopped as well approaching Yoshiro.

"what is it? What do you sense?" he asked wondering

Yoshiro was focusing on the presence trying to figure it out, then his eyes went wide as it finally hit him. He spoke quietly.

"that's it." Yoshiro spoke.

Grimmjow knew exactly what he meant and just said "go"

Yoshiro turned to Grimmjow and the panther continued.

"you've been searching for them for a little over 10 months in this place. So go, we'll be fine don't worry. Plus I think we'll see each other again at some point anyways. So just hurry up and get back to your pack." He chimed.

Yoshiro just looked at Grimmjow and replied. "thanks for everything Grimmjow and good luck to you."

The panther hollow simply replied with a head nod and Yoshiro took off. Yoshiro went as fast as his legs could take him his excitement building as he neared.

"I almost can't believe it, dammit I wish I could move faster!" he said mentally to his inner hollow.

"I'm excited at this to kit but I advise caution they probably won't recognize you at first." The kitsune woman replied.

He kept moving his anticipation building more and more. He rounded around a corner of a boulder and suddenly stopped. The energy he felt had suddenly cut out. He slowly with caution moved forward towards where he had last felt the energy. He got a little farther when suddenly the sand around him exploded into air as four figures suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He looked around it was them. Mila, Sung-sun, his mother and Emilou.

Emilou looked over this fox like vasto lord hollow that wandered into there territory rather un-caringly. A fox like hollow mask with black wave like swirls, that kept enough space around the mouth for feeding. Nine long white and black fox tails. Bone like, feet wear, gloves and chest piece, clawed hands and toes. Then there was the skin and hair. His skin was mocha and wild blond hair just like….no. Emilou pushed the thought out of her mind. There's no way it could be him.

"who are you and what do you want?" Emilou spoke out demandingly.

"I came here to fond you four and you should already know quite well who I am." It spoke in voice that sounded far too familiar.

"how do you know us?" the deer like vasto asked.

"you know me because, one of you died giving birth to me, one of you once held me by my throat in my own living room, the other acted as the voice of reason in that situation and one of you met me on old warehouse rooftop. As I played my guitar and sang some songs." He calmly replied.

The four female Vasto's froze in place and gasp at what they heard. There was only person who could have known all of that. Emilou strode up to the fox like looking hollow and spoke with her emotions starting to take over.

"Yo…Yoshiro is…..is…is that really you?" she said softly.

The fox merely turned and said the type of words she wanted to hear for so, so long.

"yes Emilou it's me, I finally made it back to you all."

A/N:

Yoshiro: well damn, talk about all sorts of stuff happening.

Author: I think this one turned out pretty well overall.

DI Roy: Why do I always have to die?

Author: Because you have and always will be a character who's only purpose will be to die to more important people.

Grimmjow & Crew: Yep.

Di Roy: *cries*

Yoshiro: Oh for kami's sake, please review.