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.
Shin and his comrades, accompanied now by the madman Lulao, walked in tandem down a stark and barren forest path. It wasn't even so much a path as a uniform spacing between the thicket of trees that they were able to navigate through. Lulao guided them all forward, noting on specific trees and other natural formations in his own wayfinding style while the three others walked behind him, with Shin near the front.
"So, Lu" Shin started.
"Oi" Lulao groaned, "are you skimping out on my name?"
"How long have you lived around here?" Shin finally asked.
"I've never lived around here" Lulao answered. "I don't live anywhere! I just happen to pass through here from time to time when I decide to go."
"So you do live around here?" Hoji prodded.
"Nah" Lulao answered again. "I'm a wanderer, a Manzenryuu. I have no home and no family, just myself and my sword. Those are the only ones I trust."
"So you don't trust us?" Shin asked.
"How can I?" Lulao asked. "A maniac, a murderer and a professional assassin? And above that, they're all lined up behind me. It feels like my back's on fire with anticipation."
"Hey, Shin" Hoji whispered. "Am I the maniac or the murderer?" Shin shrugged.
"I'll tell you, though" Lulao started, "I love this life. Just walking for days and days on end with no cares about the world at all. Food is everywhere, water is plentiful in the forest, and it's always fun to make a Hollow's head explode."
"There are Hollows out here?" Suichi asked.
"Moron" Lulao replied. "There are Hollows everywhere. I've seen how they get here, too."
"Really?" Hoji asked, suddenly interested enough to push Shin to get next to Lulao. "How?"
"They have this ability" Lulao explained, "to open up the air and step through a huge, gaping portal into our world from theirs."
"What's in their world?" Hoji asked.
"I'm not sure" Lulao answered. "I've never really wanted to find out, and the Hollows never have enough time to tell me when I'm killing them! Hahahaha!" Hoji snickered as Lulao laughed at his own joke. Shin and Suichi converged on each other with a concerned air.
"I don't trust this guy" Suichi whispered to Shin.
"I suppose you don't have to" Shin said. "We only need to trust him until we get to where we're going..."
"But suppose this is a trap?" Suichi figured. "What if he's leading us down a dead-end path, or into a pit or something?"
"Unlikely" Shin said. "He has the capacity to kill us right now."
"But couldn't you kill him first?" Suichi asked, steeping his faith far into his comrade.
"I could" Shin said, "but then how'd we get out of here?"
"Okay, here it is!" Lulao announced.
"Finally!" Hoji growled.
"Let's take a rest first" Suichi suggested, panting. Lulao shrugged and found a rock to sit on. Expanding before the four was a wide canyon path, full of small caves and caverns. The craggy, twisting spires of rock nearly blocked out the darkening sky, and the sun had long ago been forgotten by Shin and his friends. They had been exploring a darker world of green and progressive brown for the last few hours to get this far, and according to their guide, they were nearly back to the world with an infinite sky overhead again.
"I'll stay" Lulao said, drawing out his sword. "Sound out the beat from the Earth to the Sky, Chikyuu no Uta!" His sword became his huge drum in a bright flash. He sat the drum down in front of him, twirled his sticks, and prepared to lay the beat down in the enclosed canyon walls. Hoji noticed him a moment late, as his sword only came near his neck when he started playing. Instead of thunderous booms that broke rocks and bones, he just played the drum normally. The pace was fast but steady, and he varied where he hit to make it more melodic than just a monotone symphony. "Relax, dude. It's not always a weapon..." Hoji looked down shamefully and sheathed his sword.
"Sorry" Hoji apologized. Lulao shrugged.
"You guys should sit and listen a minute" Lulao offered. "I'm a pretty solid player, if I may be so brash."
"You may" Shin joked. He decided to stand and listen to his gracious guide, taking the offer to hear the non-fatal music as a gift he didn't want to decline. "Let's rest for a sec." Hoji nodded and sat back down. Suichi was gathering his breath through meditative pose and mantra. Shin, with his sheathe off his belt and his hand on the grip, sat against the rock wall while Lulao played.
Stealthily, and silently, off in the nearby woodland brush, a group of Hollows watched and listened in to the shinigami playing. A whole group of bloody, wide-mouthed stalkers waited in the bushes for their observant comrade to report.
"Well?" one impatiently asked.
"I don't think it's safe" it reported. "He has others with him this time!"
"So do we" one Hollow pointed out. "Our bigger brothers are here to help us!"
"Where?" the scout asked. The other Hollows, looked around, not seeing anyone else that they wanted to find. "They're gone!"
"Crap!" one harshly whispered, holding his head with his hands. "What do we do now!?"
"Hey, look!" the scout called. The small Hollows rushed over and peered with their yellow eyes through the bush and saw a tall, slim figure marching down the beaten path towards the shinigami. The little Hollows all shivered and whimpered as they saw their big brother, as it were, approaching the four killers alone. Lulao was bobbing and rocking along to the beat he elegantly made. The other shinigami wagged their fingers and nodded along, enthralled with the song and neglectful of their newest intruder.
"Hello" Shin said. He noticed the Hollow creeping up before anyone else. Suichi and Hoji perked their heads up casually at first, but they both sprang to attention when they saw the Hollow. He was tall, taller than a normal one but not so tall that it was monstrous. He was oddly more humanly-built than the Hollows before him, with sinewy arms and legs. His mask was even different than any other. It looked like a bucket that was worn as a helmet and extended all around his apparent head. There were no definite eyes to see, but may slender slits in the mask where one could see through if they had eyes. He even wore a bleach-white, tattered robe with a sash around his waist.
"Well" Lulao noted, "that's unexpected." He continued to pound away on his drum anyway.
"Oh no, this is bad!" the tiny Hollow lookout screamed now that his cover was worthless. "He can't take on all four of them!"
"One of them even has a released sword!" another Hollow pointed out. "It's hopeless!!!"
"Everyone, quiet!" a deeper voice shouted. Leaning against the tree was a massively-built Hollow, muscular to an incredible degree, with a large mask that seemed to resemble a tower from his neck. "He can take care of himself well enough..."
"Ah! Baruk!" the Hollows cheered. "Please, why won't you go help him?"
"He doesn't need my help" Baruk, the Hollow, replied. "Besides, he wouldn't forgive me if I did help him."
"Please, little ones" a feminine voice now announced from above, "calm yourselves and observe." Up in the branches was a bird-like Hollow, large enough to fit on the sturdy branch of the tree it perched in without breaking it, having an appropriately falcon-like mask as well. "Take this as a learning opportunity. You brother can handle himself well enough on his own without our intrusion."
"But, Lady Liera" a Hollow pleaded, "what if he can't?"
"Then Baruk and I will assist once he's dead" Liera, the falcon Hollow, replied."
"Ha!" Baruk laughed. "I wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, why help that upstart anyway? He pisses me off."
"You only say that because he disrespected you back home" Liera pointed out. Baruk's glowing eyes furrowed with anger and he started to growl, as if he had a rebuttal to deliver with much belligerence.
"Oh no!" a little Hollow called out once more, interrupting Baruk preemptively. "They've drawn their swords!" In the clearing where the forest dissolves instantly into mountain land, the Hollow stood firm. A gust billowed the tattered ends of the robe around his legs. All three shinigami had swords drawn and ready, with Lulao on standby with his drum.
"Can we help you?" Shin asked. The Hollow just glared them down from his dark visor.
"Are you even a Hollow?" Hoji asked.
"He is" Lulao answered. "He isn't a normal one, but he's a Hollow."
"How do you mean 'normal'?" Suichi asked. Shin had a flashback moment, where he thought about the feeling he got from a Hollow and the feeling he got from the giant monster Hollow he long ago vanquished. This one felt like an in-between. It had the mind of a Hollow but the field, the pressure of the giant one.
"This thing is strong" Shin announced. Promptly, Hoji and Suichi tightened the grips on their swords. Suichi prepared to incant his release as soon as he could.
"My name is Danzig!" the Hollow shouted in a booming voice. "I am here to eradicate you overzealous shinigami!"
"Do what you want, bro" Lulao said. "Just know, we ain't shinigami. We are Manzenryuu Warriors!"
"Regardless' Danzig announced, "you carry swords stained with the blood of many Hollows. I will destroy you for the good of all my kind!"
"How are you a Hollow?" Shin asked. "You have no animalistic qualities that all Hollows seem to have. The only abnormality you possess seems to be your peculiar mask."
"Yeah!" Hoji added, trying to fit himself into the conversation.
"I am a higher form of Hollow" Danzig explained. He took a step forward with his bare, human foot, which shook the surrounding canyon walls. "I am an 'Adjuchas' Class Hollow! I have gained great power that many Hollows before me couldn't beat, and thusly I devoured them to increase my own power!"
"So" Shin began in speculation, "Hollows don't train to gain power, they eat."
"That's not completely true" Danzig said, continuing forward with great weight. "It takes great personal strength and training to kill many of those that I have already killed. Eating them is more of a bonus..." He now stood in front of Shin, keeping his head forward. Shin was a full head shorter than the beastly monster. Hoji prepared his own advance while Shin kept a hand tightly gripping his own drawn sword. Then, Danzig's arm shot up. Shin reacted by shooting open his eyes and positioning his sword over his head. Danzig smashed into Shin's guard, pushing his feet into the ground and forcing Shin to clench his teeth in pain.
"Shin!" Hoji shouted. A static crackle was heard. The monster had its leg up behind Hoji and kicked him into the grounded and shaken Shin. They collided and tumbled away together, Hoji having knocked Shin free from the ground. Suichi jumped away and prepared to release his sword as Lulao continued to sit with sticks at the ready.
This is unreal! Suichi thought with deadly sternness. Even with Shin and Hoji fighting as seriously as they could, and with me and Lulao fighting with our powers...I doubt we can defeat this thing! Dazig, the monster that stood above them all, glared them all down with invisible eyes as Shin and Hoji got back up and prepared themselves for a war!
