Legends of the Hollow

by Empirialtank

The world can change in a single choice or if we wait a single moment. What if Ichigo had hesitated when claiming his Shinigami Powers as his body transformed into a Hollow? Will Rukai still be Rescued? Will Aizen be stopped? Will Ichigo ever be the same? Pretty much dead now, might maybe someday will continue. Don't hold your breath.

9. Chapter 9: Salvation 1: Escalation

Note: Everyone give a big round of applause to Foonator. He's my new beta and hopefully should be raising the overall quality of these updates. Everyone who reads this story should also go out and read his story Two Tortured Souls. A solid Naruto fic.

Chapter 9: Salvation

Round One: Escalation

The hollow had to admit, this was getting pretty annoying. That shouldn't even be possible, yet it was happening to him. He was getting bored of killing Death Gods. How the hell could that ever happen? He was a hollow he had two roles in life, to eat humans and kill Death Gods, how could the latter of two ever get old? The instincts weren't to certain; personally he blamed it on the mindless repetition of the fights. Take a few leaps forward, tackle some Death God, get back up, and slice his friend's throat open while driving his tail through the body of the one he had just knocked over. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was getting rather old.

Well it didn't help that all these Death Gods were fairly determined to die. All of them, and there were a lot of them, came charging right at him with swords raised above their heads exposing all the soft gooey bits of their bodies. It was almost too easy. That was probably the main problem. The hollows first fight again that Death Gods, what was his name again? Ikkaku? He had been sublime. It had been extremely hard, fast paced, he had nearly died, exactly what the hollow needed to really get his blood boiling. And all of these fights afterwards had been utter garbage compared to that one.

Still, he was making good progress. He had left the gate miles behind him and was getting closer and closer to the giant white tower that dominated Soul Society's skyline. The memories he had stolen from Ikkaku told him that any significant prisoner should be kept up in that tower while awaiting execution. The hollow was certain that the black haired girl fit into that category; after all, the hollow was interested in her. So he made his way towards that high tower in the distance. All he would have to do was reach it, steal the girl and make it back to Hueco Mundo. As to what would be done after that, he wasn't quite certain.

He knew he had to rescue that black haired girl. The first voice was very adamant about that. None of the other voice liked this thought that much they all wanted to run away from here and never look back. But they were broken shadows of their former selves, and they weren't too good to begin with. They were all weaker than the first voice, not nearly as interesting. The first voice had lost some points with the instincts for their stupid idea about creating all those demi-hollow to give them a chance to escape, though after the mindless grind the hollow had been through now, he was rethinking how helpful that plan must've been.

So the hollow was still willing to put up with the first voice and bring about its crazed desire to rescue the black haired girl. Though what they will do after that was a mystery. Not even the first voice knew what it wanted to do with her. The instincts agreed with Grimmjow that they would probably end up killing the black haired girl the moment they met and she attacked them. She was a Death God after all and wouldn't take kindly to seeing a hollow even if it had come to rescue her. He didn't mention this fact to the first voice though, it probably wouldn't end well.

Still, this was still enjoyable enough. As boring and repetitious as the fights might get, this one fact remained true and constant: a Death God's blood was a wondrous thing. The beauty of it flying through the air. The amazing sounds it made as it flew through the air. The intricate designs it painted on the ground. The warm and wonderful feel of it as it rained down on its body. The rich, dense smell. And above everything else, the taste. The delicious taste. It blew his mind to experience the incredible taste of such delectable blood. Even though the fight itself was a grind the hollow always looked forward to the next chance to see, to feel, to taste that marvelous blood.

As the hollow stood above a set of freshly made corpses and considering all this, it heard a strange noise. It leapt up on to a nearby wall and looked towards the source. Far in the distance, it saw the great wall of Soul Society open up at one point. Opening that wall on his own had been difficult but nearly as hard as he would have thought, all it required was enough brute strength. And now someone else was opening. The hollow glared in the direction of the wall and immediately felt the stare returned to him along with an unbelievable killing intent.

So that Death God had made it here as well? Not too surprising, he had left him a nice trail of bodies to follow. The memories with him told him the name of that Death God, Kenpachi Zaraki. He was a man of madness to be certain; as insane as Grimmjow, if not more so. The hollow doubted that this insane man would be willing to train him up to his level as the arrancar had. It would be wisest to avoid him for now.

Which shouldn't be too difficult, as the same memories that yielded the captain's name also testified that he had no sense of direction at all. And in a place like Soul Society that would be a problem. This place was designed to treat invaders more like minor annoyances than serious threats. It was painfully difficult to get anywhere except dead ends. Every corridor ended in a dead end, open court yard leading nowhere or right back where it had started. It was designed like one of the bad mazes on the back of a kid's placemat. As if Soul Society expected its invaders to get bored and go home after a few hours of that torment. The hollow simply knocked down or jumped over the walls in his way, he wondered if the Captain would do the same.

This time of introspection was interrupted by yet more Death Gods arriving to commit suicide at the hollow's hands. This group kept their swords down with their thick skulls exposed. The hollow was on top of them before the two in front even knew that it had noticed them. He grabbed their heads and yanked them forward so that he could rush past them and drive the claws of his foot into the warrior behind them. Once he had pulled a foot full of intestines from that victim he kicked off of his chest and flipped up into the air, pulling off the heads of his first two victims as he went. That wondrous blood filled the air and stunned the last two Death Gods just long enough for the hollow to make a wide slash through their bodies and finish that skirmish. He cleaned the blood from his claws and took off with a sonido towards that tower in the distance.

The moment he was gone a group of Fourth Squad members leapt into action. They had been trailing the hollow for some time now, leaving behind members to help the injured and comfort the dying. It was surprisingly safe to be behind the hollow so long as it was moving forward. There was nothing they could do for three of the Eleventh Squad members but the other two could still be saved. They drugged the first one who had been taken down to ease his passing and got to work. At this rate there wouldn't be much of a Eleventh Squad tomorrow, but that had to do what they could.

Skip

Seventh Squad Fourth Seat Jirobo and a handful of other seventh squad members rounded and corner and accelerated up the next corridor. "Are you sure this is the right way sir?" One of them called to the Fourth Seat as they advanced

"Of course I'm sure, that great light that broke through the shield landed somewhere around here. All those intruders must be close. If we capture them all, we'll be well rewarded." Jirobo replied, inwardly noting that his reward should be higher than any of theirs.

As they rounded another corner they spotted a figure in the distance. It was a tall Mexican looking man who was facing the other direction. The Death Gods smiled to themselves and charged as silently as possible intent on ending the fight in an instant. Just as the swung their swords at the tall man, a sweet female voice rang out.

"Santen Kesshun (Three Link Sacred Shield.)" as the voice faded a golden triangular shield appeared before the man and stopped all three of the swords coming towards him.

"What the hell?" Jirobo exclaimed from behind his companions, just as the Mexican man noticed them. As he looked his right arm was suddenly covered by red and black armor, and what looked like a large arrow head at the top of his arm opened and revealed a blue flame burning brightly.

"Ah, I didn't see them, thanks Inoue." The tall man responded and swung a punch at the startled warriors before him. Just before he did the golden shield disappeared. Then the world turned bright white, and when the light faded the Death Gods were nowhere to be seen and a deep trench had been dug into the ground.

"You really should pay closer attention Chad." A tall thin man commented.

"Of course, Ishida. I will be more careful in the future."

"YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL NOW!" A short large man dressed in green yelled at him from behind. "What if someone else heard that huge explosion? We could be under attack at any time now!"

"Don't worry, Ganju," Inoue assured him. "If anyone else attacks I'm sure we can handle it."

"That's a rather foolish thing to say," Jirobo announced as he made his way out from his hiding place, "considering your powers are no match for mine! Flap aboutTsunzakigarasu (Splitting crow). Look upon these many flying blades, no matter your power or how strong your shields you can't do anything against this kind of attack!..." He went on for a while.

"Inoue?"

"Yes, Ishida?"

"If I create an opening for you do you think you could take this guy down?"

"Sure, but if you can get past that attack why don't you take him down?"

"If I have to seriously fight a loser like this I'll end up doing things I can't be proud of," replied the Quincy as he formed a shining blue bow in his right hand.

"All right."

"…Now, the time for despair is over! Prepare to taste my most powerful atta-" Suddenly, there was a large flash as hundreds of blue beams of light obliterated each of the numerous blades in the air.

"Oh, I'm sorry were you not done yet?" Ishida asked with a slight smirk.

"Koten Zanshun! (Single Sacred Cutting Shield.) I Reject!" Inoue cried and fired a blast of golden light at the stunned Jirobo, catching him under the chin and knocking him out.

"Nice shot." Chad commented and the group walked on. Ganju lingered over the body of the Death Gods. He wasn't bleeding anywhere so the cutting shield hadn't actually cut him. Ganju shook his head, to have that kind of power without any killing intent.

"What kind of freaks am I traveling with?" Ganju asked himself.

"Thankfully, rather self-controlled ones." Yoruichi the cat commented to the wandering soul.

"What do you mean?"

"They are choosing their battles very carefully, making good progress and, aside from Chad, not making too much disturbance. We've been quite lucky not to attract too much attention so far."

"I've been wondering about that personally. Normally, at least one Death God will pop out of nowhere and chase if you break any rule in the outer courts. And after a flashy entrance like the one my sister made for us, I would've imagined we would be swarming with Death Gods the moment we landed. It's almost like they've got something better to be do right now."

"It almost sounds to me like you wish we were being attacked more often, Ganju." Ishida called back. "Maybe we should let you take on the next few to satisfy this thirst of yours for battle."

"I ain't complaining. It's just weird that's all. I keep expecting some huge army of soldiers to be waiting for us around every corner."

"Don't worry." Chad said, "Ichigo must be causing a few distractions to cover for us."

"Ah yes, this mystery fifth member you all keep talking about. I should've guessed." Ganju said in a skeptical tone.

"Don't worry; I can feel him from here." Chad said reassuringly. "He's raising some kind of hell to the south west of us." The others nodded at this statement, even Ganju could feel the power coming from that direction. This didn't reassure him though, so he slowly dropped back till only Yoruichi was in earshot.

"What is this Ichigo anyway?"

"He's a friend and ally from earth who came over first." The Black Cat answered.

"I didn't ask who, and asked what he is. Because whatever is 'raising some kind of hell' out there isn't a Death God, and it sure as hell isn't human."

Skip

"Captain Kenpachi has returned with the advanced guard of his Eleventh Squad, but he has yet to catch up with the hollow." First Squad LieutenantChojiro explained to all the other lieutenants gathered in the meeting room. "The Rest of the Eleventh Squad is trying to slow the hollow down long enough for the captain to engage him. They are failing. Almost seventy percent of the Eleventh Squad has been wiped out by the hollow. The death count is estimated in the upper thousands.

"This high casualty rate has not been helped by several teams of the Eleventh Squad engaging and being defeated by the intruders in the east district. For the most part, however, the hollow is responsible for the casualties. The Captain Commander fears that if this continues, the Eleventh Squad could be completely lost. He has therefore ordered that a force of reinforcements be sent to hold the line.

"Third Squad Lieutenant Kira, Fifth Squad Lieutenant Hinamori, and Sixth Squad Lieutenant Renji you all are hereby ordered to gather a force from your squads and engage and eliminate the hollow."

"Figures," Renji said with a smirk, "Sixth Squad gets all the dirty jobs these days."

"You all volunteered to capture the fugitive earlier in the month," Kira reminded his friend, "So there is no ground to complain about having to deal with this hollow as well."

"This will be just like our old days in the academy or when we were all in the Fifth Squad together." Hinamori remarked hopefully.

"Hey what's being done about those intruders anyway?" Renji continued largely ignoring his comrades.

"Captain Shunsui has volunteered to deal with them. Lieutenant Nanoa is accompanying him." Chojiro explained. "You all should get going."

"Don't worry about us. We'll be back in a few hours or so. This shouldn't take too long." Renji boasted.

"I wouldn't be so quick to declare victory," Kira commented as he left the room with the other two lieutenants. "This hollow has defeated almost half of the Eleventh Squad on its own. We'll need all the help we can get to coral it and subdue it."

"You're the one underestimating it Kira." Renji retorted.

"What do you mean?"

"This hollow has wiped out most of the Eleventh Squad the most trigger happy squadron of lunatics in the 13 court guard. They are also some of our best fighters out there. If they couldn't stop this damn thing, then asking other Death Gods to help us out is just begging to get them all killed. The only way we can take this thing down with adding to list of the dead is if we fight it ourselves."

"We don't know where it is though. , so we'll need help finding it."

"Any unranked Death God who fights that thing is going to die."

"So let's not let anyone fight it." Hinamori suggested.

"How?"

"We'll use Kido (Demon Magic) on it. That way we can control its movements from a distance and coral the hollow to a place where the three of us can move in for the kill. All the Eleventh Squad members who fought the hollow were injured by close quarter's weapons: its claws and teeth. If we have our subordinates attack it from far away they should be safe."

"Good idea, Hinamori, we'll need lots of warriors who are good at Demon Magic though." Kira congratulated.

"We'll also need a good plan and an easy way to coordinate all our movements." Renji noted.

"I'm sure if we put our heads together we can have everything we need to pull this off in no time." Hinamori said hopefully.

Skip

The first shot took the hollow by surprise. It was a simple binding art that pinned his feet and arms to a nearby wall. If he had been alert, he could've easily dodged it. The Death God who fired it immediately rushed in trying to finish the job. It was against his orders, but the hollow didn't know that. What he did know was that he had a tail and it was pointy at one end.

The Death God fell to the ground with a new hole in its side as the hollow smashed the building behind him and made his way away from there. There were two other Death Gods still in his way and they were mumbling to themselves. A moment later there was red and white fire gathering around their hands. The hollow searched his memory for any information on this. Ikkaku told him that this was call Demonic Arts magic that Ikkaku knew very little about and looked down on. But the first voice called up one of the hollow's earliest memories about Urahara firing a spell of some sort at him. The hollow sided with its own experience and dodged to the right.

Then the hollow sonidoed forward and caught the two Death Gods in the side with his claws and sent them down in a pool of blood. Before he had a chance to revel in the kill a few more leapt up onto a nearby wall and fired more of these Demonic Arts at him. The hollow was forced to retreat down one of the long corridors and quickly round a corner as another round hit.

"This could be problematic." The instincts admitted. "If we're going to have to chase down all of these bastards as they hammer at us from a distance this will take forever and these fights are annoying enough as they are."

"What do we do?" The first voice asked.

"I have an idea."

"What?"

"Nothing you have to worry about. Just take over here for a little while."

"WHAT! You want me in charge?"

"Just for a little while. Don't worry; we know what we're doing. Just get him close enough and muscles will do the rest." And with that the instincts stepped into the first voice and vanished.

'Well this was an interesting feeling.' The first voice noted as a mass of sensations bombarded him as he took control. 'And this is also interesting, I'm thinking about how I'm feeling.' The hollow thought. 'This is a good feeling,' they both agreed.

Then they were hit by a fire ball.

'This is now a bad feeling!' They moved quickly, leaping over a few walls and diving into some nearby shadows. As the Death Gods chasing them mounted the wall to get a good look at where they had gone the hollow pounced on them and removed their heads from their shoulders.

'Yeah! Take that!' the first voice thought as the blood flew through the air. And then he noted that there several dozen other Death Gods coming at him from the same direction with a wide variety of spells charged and ready. The hollow took off to the north. Fire and lighting rained down around him, but the hollow dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged through the barrage. Occasionally he turned down random corners and double backed, catching a few Death Gods by surprise, but he wasn't able to kill many of them. He was still making good progress to the north; so long as he eventually reached that tall white tower, little else mattered.

Skip

"Target is moving north through sector b7 and is showing no signs of turning." A Death God reported by a Hell Butterfly to all the others around him.

"Kira here, I'm hot on the targets trail, five minutes out and closing."

"This is Hinamori, I've got three teams in place and I'm moving to intercept. Hold on. I see him now. Damn he's fast. He got past me, but I'm in hot pursuit. Where are you Renji?"

"I'm at the main steps to access the central citadel," came the reply.

"Why are you there?" she queried.

"Guys I think the hollow is heading straight here. I can feel it; this thing is coming this way. If I hold here, he's going to come to me."

"How can you be sure? Why would a hollow want to go to the citadel? Doesn't it know what kind of people live there? It's practically suicide."

"Nothing this hollow has done makes any sense at all, Hinamori, but this is where it's headed. If you call off your squads and come alone, you and I can take this thing down without putting anyone else at risk."

"Alright then. Kira, get over here and give us a hand. We're going to stop this thing once and for all."

"I'm right behind you, Hinamori."

Skip

The hollow made its way to the base of the citadel very quickly. Once the Death Gods stopped firing at him and attacking him, he started making great time. The fact that they had all stopped attacking him at once made him slightly suspicious, but he was getting so close to actually rescuing the black haired girl that any negative thoughts in his mind were ignored. He rounded the corner to the final open area before the citadel itself and saw one warrior standing comfortably on the steps to the fortress. There was no way around him, so the hollow charged him with a quick sonido.

He was stopped. The Death God caught his lunge with his sword and stopped his claws mere inches from vital parts of his chest. The hollow was taken aback and stopped for a moment to consider the Death God before him. He was slightly shorter than the hollow with spiky red hair and intricate tattoos over his eyes. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses on his head. He was smiling at the sight of an attack that had almost killed him. There was something very familiar about him, but the hollow wasn't quite sure what.

"Yo!" The Death God greeted. "You sure are eager to get started. I haven't even introduced myself and you're already attacking me. I'm Renji Abarai Lieutenant of the Sixth Squad. That means I'm the second strongest man in the Sixth Squad. I'm also a good friend of a man you killed so I am going to really enjoy killing you."

"Name it." The hollow growled as it heard all of this. Renji's name conjured up memories stolen from Ikkaku, he was strong. This should be a good fight.

"I just did," Renji replied.

"Name your sword."

"Why?" Renji said with a raised eyebrow.

"I will crush all you Death Gods when you are at your strongest. So name your sword and I will break it and you."

"You are one nasty little bastard, you know that?" Renji asked as he flipped his blade outward and knocked the hollow backwards. He then covered his sword's base with his hand and ran it up the sword as he spoke. "Howl Zabimaru! (Snake Tail.)"

As he did the sword glowed red and changed. It grew thicker and longer. The black blunt side of the sword grew very wide and the sharpened end segments into six parts each one defined by a long fang like edge coming out of it. The front of the sword was blunt. He swung forward and as he did his sword elongated and launched at the hollow. Each segment seemed to be held together by set of steal wires and cables. The sword extended far and hit the hollow easily driving him over a hundred feet back into a nearby building.

"Is that all you've got?" Renji called into the new pile of rubble. In side of it the hollow sniffed at his new wound before it closed up. He recognized that smell. The hollow may not have recognized the warrior but he knew the smell and he knew that blade. This was one of the two warriors who had stolen the black haired girl from. This was one of the people responsible for stealing everything from him. This was a man who had to die.

Renji was calmly advancing on the hollow when it burst from the house. He had never seen a hollow move like that and he partially caught by surprise. He just barely managed to raise his blade to block the oncoming kick aimed at his head. The force of the blow was staggering, but it knocked him back far enough to give him the distance he needed. The swung down and let his blade extend. The hollow leapt to the side to dodge. He moved forward slightly, but then Renji brought his sword back around from the side. The hollow ducked the strike and then leapt backwards as a third attack came down at his head. As Renji retracted the blade, the hollow jumped at him with claws bared. Renji leapt to the left and avoided a fatal blow. He swung at the hollow with an unextended sword. It rolled away from the strike unharmed.

Renji followed up on the attack, letting Zabimaru fly at the hollow, this time his foe clawed at the tip and knocked it to the ground. The hollow jumped on the blade, pinning it in place, and ran up the extended steel at Renji. In a moment he was at the hilt ready to lash at Renji's head. Hinamori chose that moment to take the stage.

"Snap Tobiume! (Flying Plum Tree)" She ordered and as she did her sword change in mid swing. It lost the curve of a katana and gained several tuning fork like prongs extending from the sides of the sword. As she swung the blade erupted in red fire and let lose a large blast of flame at the hollow. The hollow jumped back at the last moment to avoid being incinerated. As he did Renji retrieved his sword and joined the attack.

For a moment the hollow was on the ropes. He was forced to dance about back and forth, dodging fire and sword strikes alike. He couldn't get close enough to counter attack. If he had given ground and fallen back into the maze of fortress around him, he might be able to hide and catch one of them by surprise. But he doubted that they would fall for such a ploy and refused to give up when he was this close to the black haired girl.

"Hey, I'm back." The instincts suddenly announced; taking the first voice by such surprise that he almost got hit by that snake tail again.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Saving us," the instincts answered smugly.

"How?"

"By making this." The instincts said as they held up what looked like a hand guard made of pure light.

"What is it?"

"It was about thirty souls. Here try it on." The first voice wrapped the light around his arms.

"It feels good." He acknowledged.

"I know."

"How do we use it?"

"Like this, it's all in the wrists." The instincts said as it stood behind the first voice and grabbed his hands with his own.

Renji swung his snake tail once more at the hollow trying to knock it down so that Hinamori could fry it. But just before he hit his mark, the hollow caught the blade in its hand. He staggered backwards under the blow but he still held on to the head of the sword. Renji swore that he saw the hollow smile for just a moment as white light erupted from its arm and it pushed the sword forward. When it did, that white light around its arm exploded and a massive light grey liquid fired towards Renji. It was as large as he was; it had a mouth and teeth. It was flying right at him down the length of his sword. Before he could react, the mouth bit down on his arm. Bones and tendons snapped under its bight and Renji felt pain like he had never know before. For a moment his spirit was pulled from his body and joined with the hollow, but he refused to be consumed and pulled away from the bight. As he did the great mouth twisted to the side and ripped his arm off.

Hinamori screamed, which only served to alert the hollow to her presence. He snapped his hand out of the grey worm creature he had created and threw a punch at Hinamori, as he did another long grey mouth flew at her. She held her sword up and kept those large teeth from bighting down on her. Then the hollow appeared right next to her and the teeth were still bighting her sword. To block one would expose herself to the other. Before she could make a choice, the hollow kicked her and sent her flying.

"Raise your head! Wabisuke (Wretched one)" Kira called out as he too joined the fray. His sword curved its head around taking the form of a hangman's stand. The hollow side stepped his blow and turned to strike at him. Kira blocked the strike and lashed out at the hollow. They exchanged blows for five hits and then gave ground to each other. As they did the hollow bent to its knees.

"Surprised? Wabisuke has the power to double the weight of anything it hits. You now weigh sixty four times what you did when we first met. You will bow before me and pay for what you have done."

The hollow did nothing but glare at his foes. Then he summoned energy and light to his arms and shot two liquid mouths into the ground and launched himself up into the air. More than a few hundred feet above Kira he broke free from them and fell. As he fell he pushed of the air and sonidoed at his enemy. Kira was taken surprise by this move and could do nothing more than raise up his sword to resist the attack. As the two met, the earth around them shattered. A moment later they both fell. The hollow's attack had opened up a way into the sewers and supply routes that crisscrossed the court. Kira looked at his sword just to see broken into; he attempted to move only to discover that several of his bones were in a similar condition. He then looked about. The hollow's arms were cracked, pieces breaking off in several places. They began healing a moment later. It glared at him briefly before vanishing down a nearby tunnel.

A few moments later several Death Gods descended into the catacombs and surrounded him. They helped him up and asked him for orders. A few of them started looking down the tunnels where the hollow must have gone.

"Don't go after him!" Kira ordered startling the warriors carrying him out.

"Why not?" spoke one of the Death Gods. "It must be injured."

"This creature is well beyond any of your capabilities. Even if it is injured, it will kill if you're lucky, and devour if you're not," Kira replied grimly.

"Then what should we do? That thing will attack again once it's recovered."

"That thing is one of the greatest monsters to ever come out of Hueco Mundo. It's time that it met one the greatest monsters to come out of Soul Society. Go find Captain Kenpachi. Tell him that the hollow should try to climb these steps sometime tomorrow. If he waits at the top, he will find his prey."

End

Note: damn that was a long chapter. I hope it satisfied the lot of you, because it might be a while before I get the next one posted.