Kindly Hollow

Authors notes: Sorry for taking so long to update but I have had a very serious case of laziness. Anyway...yeah.

Disclaimer: Hey! Guess what?

...

She guessed that she should have expected something like this to happen. She had been sitting on a roof opposite the Ono families dining room watching the evening proceed for the three people. First of all, she was surprised to see the change in Kasumi. She was older. At least thirty. She supposed that was to be expected. After all it has been thirteen years. Although, just because Kasumi was older it didn't mean that she had lost her youthful appearance and the same went for Dr Tofu. Watching the evening unfold, Ranma felt a little out of place. She would rather be off doing something entertaining, or at least be able to join in, but as far as she could tell only Ranko was able to see her.

She turned away from the dinner scene and decided to find a place to rest for the night. She would return to visit Ranko tomorrow. The little girl seemed to have taken a liking to her, and she had somehow gotten Ranma to agree to walk her to school the next day.

The red haired arrancar then turned back around to look at the family of three to see Kasumi taking Ranko up the stairs to get her ready for bed. She stared at the dining room as Dr Tofu left before looking up and using sonido to appear in front of a particular bedroom window. She looked through to see Kasumi tucking Ranko into her little blue bed. She smiled as she lay down of the ledge outside the little girls' room.

'This seems like the perfect spot...' she thought as her eyes drifted closed.

...

Ranma sighed, mostly out of boredom, as she walked with Ranko to her school. She had promised to do it and even though she didn't go to school she felt tired just remembering how boring it was. She looked down at the smiling girl walking next to her. She smiled fondly at her. Ranma didn't know why she felt so protective of the girl, but her main theory was that Rankos sudden attachment to her was contagious somehow. She had given her 'big sis' a merciless hug when she had woken up and found her outside her window.

...

After walking Ranko to her school, she decided to have a look around the town to see if she could find the dojo. She wanted to see what had become of the old place and, more importantly, find out how everyone had been doing since she had died.

Although to any passers by Ranma seemed relaxed (although probably none could) she was keeping her guard up. She had felt the spiritual pressure of a soul reaper since the night before. Albeit not a strong one, definitely not something that she was worried about. But if the soul reaper ended up calling for captain-class backup then she might be in a bit of trouble. One captain would be hard enough to take down. But if the reapers ended up sending more then she would be in a very bad position.

She decided to hop across the roofs for nostalgias sake also figuring that it would make her search for the dojo easier. Being away for thirteen years can make it hard to remember where some things were.

The Arrancars eyes suddenly widened as she sonidoed out of the way of a sword that was heading straight for her neck. She looked up from the roof where she landed and was shocked to see a small, female soul reaper standing on the opposite roof where she had just been. The girl wasn't too impressive and neither was her spiritual pressure. It was so small that she only noticed it just before the sword came down her neck. Of course, she didn't have to dodge. Her Hierro was more than enough to protect her from such a weak soul reaper, but it was a pride thing.

The girl had large brown eyes and was only a little shorter then Ranma herself. She had short black hair falling to just above her shoulders and she looked at the red haired arrancar with a determined face.

"Who... are you?" Ranma asked the girl.

...

Sennel couldn't be more nervous then she was the moment the disturbingly human looking (and powerful) hollow, noticed and dodged her attack. She had seen the hollow follow the young girl with high spiritual pressure to her human school, but she didn't attack her. That left Sennel in a state of confusion. She had expected the hollow to attempt to devour the girl's soul, but the hollow was just walking her to the school. Even more confusing was the fact that the girl had waved back. She was either oblivious to what the red haired hollow was or she... well, she couldn't really think of another reason.

She had then begun to follow the hollow (heheh, that rhymes) across the roof tops from a small distance. She was thinking of following the hollow to her destination when she suddenly screamed at herself, 'what are you doing! Don't let a hollow get to its destination!' She swiftly turned and readied her sword before using shunpo to appear right beside the hollow, which hadn't seemed to notice her yet. She brought the sword down and...

...

The two stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. One surprised and the other shaking. "Who are you?" Ranma asked again, calm but curious. She noticed the soul reapers shaking and felt a bit of respect for her unknown attacker. 'Attempting to fight me even though she terrified...' she thought as she eyed her opponent.

"S-sennel Hitachi..." she replied shakily. She was very confused. The hollow before her wasn't like any she had faced before. Her spiritual pressure was much larger than her own, but that wasn't all. The red head didn't even have the appearance of a normal hollow. She had a human looking body, except for the tell-tale hole in her stomach and the mask on the top of her head that looked a bit like a lizard. And the eyes... there was no malicious intent in them, even after she had attempted to behead the girl.

"Well, hi. I'm Ranma Saotome." The hollow greeted her with a wave and a playful smile, leaving Sennel even more confused, "you really don't have to attack me you know. I'm not here to hurt anyone."

Sennel just stared at the hollow claiming peace. She even found it hard to doubt the red heads word as she felt no rise in spiritual pressure towards herself. "Y-you're not?" she asked timidly, lowering her sword a little. "Nah, I'm just here to visit some family. Besides, you seem nice enough. There's no reason to fight if we don't have to."

Sennel had now completely lowered her sword and was looking at the hollow... Ranma, she remembered, as she gave her a warm smile. Sennel couldn't help but give a small smile back. "So... you have family here? And you're... visiting them?" Sennel inquired curiously, "Does that mean they know about you?"

Ranma was about to answer when she felt a familiar tingle go through her body. A gargantua. Not the type that she herself was able to make, but the crude type that normal hollows use to travel between Hueco Mundo and the world of the living. 'But where is it...' Ranmas eyes widened as a large crack suddenly appeared on the space behind Sennel. "Look out!"

Sennel turned just as she felt the spike in spiritual energy. Just in time to see the jaws of a large hollow descend upon her. She couldn't even scream as it tore into her upper torso. She blacked out.

...

'It's warm... am I... dead.'

These thoughts were running through the head of Sennel as she slowly regained consciousness. 'No... not dead, I think. But where am I...' She slowly opened her eyes...

Only to come face to face with a pair of glasses and a moustache.

"EEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!" she screamed as the man they belonged to stood up and called out to someone. She was too busy trying to calm her heart down so it didn't explode. "Hey buddy! Do you make a habit out of waking people up like that, or what?" Sennel turned to see the hollow that she was speaking to earlier. She appeared to be slightly peeved at the unusually tall man until another man smacked her over the back of the head.

"Hello!" the man in the weird hat chirped, "It seems that you've recovered from that nasty wound"

"Wha-wh-where am I!?" she stuttered as she found that she was lying on a futon in the middle of what appeared to be a desert. "Hey, calm down." She turned to see the hollow from before with a worried look on her face. "You'll aggravate your injuries if you move around too much."

She looked up at the hollow before looking around and discovering that she wasn't in a desert but in what appeared to be a giant underground cave or something.

"Did... you bring me here?" she asked the arrancar in a timid voice. The red head just gave her a cocky grin and replied, "Yeah, I did. Of course, I took down the hollow first but that was a piece of cake." She stood there while pretending to casually curl her hands and check out her fingernails. "But... um, how long have I been unconscious?" she asked, and she then noticed Ranma flinch. "Aboutthreedays" she replied quickly and quietly.

Sennel just stared at the, now quite sheepish, hollow that had just told her that she had been out for THREE WHOLE DAYS! "WHAT!" she screamed, "Three days! But-but, I have to report in! This is just terrible! Why hasn't there been some sort of search party or something!"

"Oh! There was!" Kisuke suddenly chimed in, "But this place masks spiritual pressure, so they just passed right by." "THEY PROBABLY THINK I'M DEAD!" "So? Just tell them you fell asleep!" he replied before he was shoved (punched) out of the way by a mildly annoyed looking Ranma.

"Shut up, you freak" she said as he knelt over nursing his bruised cheek. "Look, don't worry. Just go back and explain that you were wounded by a hollow and you needed to hide in a gigai because you were too weak to return." Ranma nodded to herself with what she believed to be a foolproof plan. "But that won't be a good enough excuse for Captain Zaraki!" she shouted hysterically, already imagining the absolutely brutal training she would receive when she returned.

Ranma blinked at her before asking, "Who's Captain Zaraki?" "The Captain of the eleventh division" Sennel replied.

"Well, this is all very interesting, but I just thought you should know that in order to save you I had to take drastic measures", Kisuke suddenly butted in with a very serious look to him as he spoke with deadly calm, "In other words... you're a hollow now."

Ranmas eyes widened spectacularly while Sennel had gone as pale as a Twilight vampire. 'Oh god. Oh god. Oh god! Oh god!' Sennel screamed in her head as her world seemed to fall apart around her.

"Just Kidding!" chuckled Kisuke from behind his fan as he watched Sennel slump backwards with an expression between shock and relief on her face. His amusement was short-lived however, as he was then kicked in the face by a very pissed off arrancar. "Don't make stupid jokes like that, you Jackass!" Ranma screamed at the downed Kisuke who was once again nursing his poor face.

She then looked over to her new friend who seemed to have gone catatonic. 'I really dislike soul reapers' she sighed in her head as she tried to revive the poor girl.

...

Sorry for taking so long to update but school is a bitch. We'll find out more about Sennel in the next chapter. Also, someone was wondering if I could do a version of this during the arrancar arc and make Ranma an Espada. I might do alternate versions of this story in the future, but I don't know.

Thanks for reading, please review.