Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.
"So, what's a Hollow?" Shin asked as he munched on a piece meat. The traveling merchants offered for Shin and Hoji to go with them for protection in exchange for a small portion of their food and shelter.
"That monster your friend defeated was a Hollow. They say they come from another world, made of the suffering and wickedness of a human when they die. That negative-ness twists itself into the form of a monster, and that's a Hollow." The head of the caravan explained calmly.
"Neat" Shin replied as he finished his meat. "So, these things are never really huge, right?" The man looked at him in wonderment, as if Shin had actually encountered giant Hollows.
"Well, not that we know of. I certainly hope not." The man replied.
If that's the case Shin thought, then what was that thing I fought with the nose? Hmm
"Where do you guys get all this information about Hollows?" Shin asked politely.
"From shinigami." The man replied. "The ones that usually guard us always talk about their fights and about Hollows, but they're just going off of what other shinigami have told them."
"So," Shin said in a low voice, "no one really knows the truth, eh?" The man looked curiously at Shin, who was taking a long drink of water from a pitcher.
Hoji was devouring food in the adjoining cart like it was going to vanish at any moment. The women in the cart gazed at him with amazed looks and longing stares. He was ignoring them in favor of all the food he had been given, yet he couldn't help but look up to see them still staring at him every now and then. A little recognition wasn't too bad.
"So, are you naturally bald or is it a hair style?" On girl daintily asked. Hoji spit out his food on the ground in anger and turned to the girls with twitching brow and snarling a scowl.
"Who's bald? I have hair! SEE!?" Hoji yelled, pulling his pigtail in display. The girls looked at it long enough to humor him with light laughter.
"Of course. We're sorry." The girls all said separately. Feeling spurned, Hoji gave them one last glare and turned his back to them to continue eating noisily. The cart hit a bump once, then again with the other wheel. Hoji stopped eating for a moment and perked up his head.
"Did you feel that?" Shin asked, peeking his head into the cart. Hoji turned and nodded, then grabbed his sword and followed after Shin who was rushing outside. They both met the ground moving quickly, trying to get to the head of the carts to confirm what they had both felt. Everyone else looked on at them in confusion.
"Stop the caravan!" Shin commanded once he pulled to the front. The men pulling the carts along, all of which were giants compared to Shin and Hoji, looked at each other curiously. Shin turned around from where he was standing with a serious face. "Now." He commanded plainly. As he gave that brief request, a giant hand stomped down on the ground from the other side of a canyon wall.
A giant Hollow with two massive arms and a snail-like tail slowly hobbled into full view before the two eager shinigami. Hoji grinned widely and placed a hand on his sheathed sword. Shin just stood glaring at the monster. The Hollow stomped its fists wide and bent down to see the two men up close. Hoji and Shin both measured up as the height of one of its exposed teeth. Shin's first observation was that this thing had slits for a nose, not a long protrusion.
"Ahhh! What have we here?" The monster roared. A wave of air rushed against the steadfast two shinigami and slammed into the giant men pulling the caravan. "A hearty meal for me? How very kind." Hoji became rhetorically angered at the monster.
"Hey! That meat in there is mine, buddy. I earned it after killing one of you freaks!" Hoji's joking speech was cut short by Shin, who threw up his hand in front of him. "I was just joking Shin, I know that the people..."
"Go." Shin said, cutting his partner off. "This one dies by my sword." Hoji was about to complain, but realized how futile arguing against a serious Shin would be. He jumped back and rested on top of the first car of the caravan.
"Tch. Showoff." Hoji spat as he sat down. Several heads were popped out of the fabric covering the carts to watch the fight. Most of the girls thought Hoji would be fighting instead.
"What's going on?" one man yelled.
"Hoji, why aren't you fighting?" a girl asked as she spotted him. Hoji shrugged.
"If Shin wants something," he started "then it's gone. No argument." The girls blinked at him then turned their heads back to the statue-esque man that was staring down the gigantic hollow.
"What's the matter, little shinigami?" The Hollow asked patronizingly. "Scared stiff?" Shin didn't move. He was barely breathing. Then, in a daring flash, he drew out his sword and stabbed the Hollow right between the eyes. Before the monster could even react to the pain, Shin sliced down. The path of his sword was traced first with a shining glare, then with the Hollow's spewing blood. The monster's scream shook the very walls of the canyon and broke apart rocks.
Shin was standing warily on the monster's back now, having dodged the blood stream that he created from the monster's face. He took this brief moment to study the monster from behind, mainly its face. It didn't seem real, in fact it looked like a giant mask from the angle Shin was staring at.
"Okay, ready?" one giant yelled to the others. "Ishihabe on three!" The giants lined themselves up against the oncoming rush of blood from the twitching monster.
"One, two, three!" All at once, the giants smashed their fists together and threw out their open palms as if to block the incoming rush. To Hoji's surprise, they did. Their spell had formed a large barrier of rocks that came jutting from the ground right in front of their hands. Hoji started clapping in approval of the three men, and the rest of the caravan soon joined in.
"Hey, now we can't see the battle!" someone complained. As if on cue, Shin appeared suddenly on top of the wall that the giants had made, and the ground started rumbling. The massive hollow was pushing itself up, groaning loudly at the gaping scar that Shin had left in it.
"Shinigami, what is your name?" the Hollow bellowed out with great anger and force.
"Shin Kenpachi, and you shouldn't be so sad that you've lost to me. After all," Shin said pointing his sword forward, "I'm the strongest swordsman in the world." The Hollow's narrow eyes shot wide open as Shin flew up with a wild grin and his sword drawn all the way behind him, ready to deliver the finishing blow to the scared stiff monster.
Ishihabe: Stone Wall
