Lost Souls

Hollow Settlement. Hueco Mundo. 1,020 years before Aizen Incident.

Several Hollow bodies littered the grounds of the village whose structure carried the damage of a recent attack. Five Soul Reapers roamed the area investing the cause. Their leader was a woman name Suki Haikawa. She had long pink hair and purple eye. She wore remnants of a pink haori over her uniform, and two sets of beads on top of her head and on her left side next to her Zanpakuto. She was crouch over one of the bodies examining the damage. Its body had been bitten into in multiple places and portions of flesh missing. Another Soul Reaper came behind her. He was bald with red tattoos lining the top of his head. Over his uniform he wore a black and red vest with a high collar. “Have you found Augus and the others Shin?” Suki asked.

“There’s no trace of the Vasto Lorde anywhere Lieutenant Haikawa,” Shin said. “Whoever attacked the village must have done so when he was away. As for the other Hollows I don’t know.” He looked over Suki to see the remains of the Hollow. “What could have done this?”

“I don’t know Shin,” Suki replied. “There are many Hollows out there that deserve death, but not like this.” She stood up and looked at the other bodies in the area. “If only we could figure out where everyone else is.” “Lieutenant,” a voice called. “I found a live one.” The two rushed into one of the buildings meeting up with two other Soul Reapers. They both looked similar with their mostly shaven heads and ponytails, but one had brown eyes with peplums on his uniform and the other had green eyes and a guard on his left shoulder. Crouching next to a Hollow with a mask shaped like a pig’s skull was a Soul reaper with long black hair and brown eyes. With is uniform he wore a guard on his right shoulder and leather bracers on each arm. “Yemon, is he talking?” Suki asked the long haired Soul Reaper.

“Not for much longer,” Yemon replied as he showed the others the lower half of the Hollow was missing.

“Who did this?” Suki asked the Hollow. “Where is Augus and the other Hollows?”

“There were two of them,” the Hollow said with a raspy voice. “They were dressed like you. One of them wore a mask and his eyes were like blood. He started biting the other. He ate them while they were still alive. The second one used his sword to kill the others.”

“Two Soul Reaper came,” Suki said. “One with a mask who ate the Hollows while the other one reaped the rest. That’s what happened?” The Hollow nodded. “And Augus?”

“He led them away from the village,” the Hollow said. “They have been gone for-” Before he finished his sentence a sudden increase of spirit pressure in the area caught everyone’s attention. “They’re back,” the Hollow said with a shudder then exhaled as its body turned into black particles and dispersed in all directions.

“Damn it!” Suki exclaimed. The pressure that was being exerted was immense. She could only think of a handful of individuals possessing such power. “Shin,” she called. “Identify.”

Shin nodded as he removed his Zanpakuto from his side and held it up to his face. “Open wide, Enshi,” he said and the blade turned into green light and took form over his face as a green visor. A line moved from the visor to the pummel which then morphed into a staff with a green magnifying lens at its end. “Found them,” Shin said as he moved to the doorway and ran outside. As the others were ready to follow him out the building he held out his hand stopping them. He stood motionless with his staff in the ground. “I sense three of them, Lieutenant,” Shin said. “One is a Soul Reaper, one is a Hollow, and the last one feels like a mixture of both.”

“An Arrancar?” Suki asked.

“No,” Shin replied. “Arrancar’s spirit energy is dominantly Hollow. This one’s spirit energy is dominantly Soul Reaper.”

“That shouldn’t be possible,” Suki said. With this unexpected turn of events she knew that they had to investigate further. She tuned to the brown eyed Soul Reaper with the ponytail. “Yasahiro, you and Tsuyoshi return to the Soul Society and report what happened here.”

“Lieutenant,” Yasahiro began. “It would be wiser for us to remain here with you.”

“No,” Suki said. “We need to let the Captain know about the two Soul Reapers immediately. The three of us will say here to see if we can ascertain their identity. Now get going. That’s an order.”

“Yes Lieutenant,” Yasashiro said. He turned to Tsuyoshi and the two ponytailed Soul Reapers Flash Stepped away.

“I think I can get them in the view of my Zanpakuto,” Shin said. He threw the staff out the doorway extending the line connected to the visor, and it landed in the path between the buildings. “I have a visual,” he said.

Suki and Yemon put their hands on Shin’s shoulders and they were then able to see what Shin saw through the staff. There was something five hundred yards outside of the village. They saw a young man with brown hair wearing a Soul Reaper uniform and a Zanpakuto down on his knees.

“Wait I know him,” Yemon said. “That’s the trouble child from the Soul Academy seven years ago. Akio Tachibana I think was his name.”

“What’s he doing out here?” Suki asked.

“Two more are coming,” Shin said they came into view. A man with shaggy black hair, a white mask, and a Soul Reaper uniform with Zanpakuto walked toward Akio dragging a Vasto Lorde behind him by its blue spikey hair. Its arms and legs had been severed and its body was covered in bruises. Its mask, which resembled an ogre with the single curved horn on its forehead, was chipped in multiple places and blood was dripping from its mouth. “Oh hell.”

“It’s Augus,” Yemon said. “Those bastards!” They continued watching as the masked Soul Reaper tossed Augus in front of Akio. Then, through Shin’s Zanpakuto they heard the masked Soul Reaper speak.

“It’s time Akio,” the masked Soul Reaper said with a raspy voice. “Time to take next step. Eat his mask. By eating his mask you eat his heart, and by eating his heart you gain his power. I know at least one of you wants that.”

Akio’s eyes closed and his head twitched. When he open them a wide smile formed on his face. “Of course I do,” he said in a haunting voice. He crawled toward the Vasto Lorde grabbing hold of its head. He brought it toward his face and then bit into it.

“He’s eating him,” Suki said in shock. She hear Yemon move away from her and Shin as he moved to the corner of the room and vomited.

Akio’s face was covered with the blood of the Hollow. Eventually, the Vasto Lorde’s body dissolved into black particles. Moments passed and Akio began to feel a hard pounding in his chest. It kept on pounding harder and harder until it was replaced by a pain in his head. Akio held it and started to scream. The scream slowly turned into maniac laughter as his sclera turned black and his brown irises became a dark blue. He gave the masked Soul Reaper a wide grin as a gooey white substance began to drip out of his mouth and eyes. He started to vomit the substance, and it started to pool around him. Akio fell back into the substance and is spread across his body as he continued to laugh.

The three watched in horror as Akio stood up looking like Augus, but having the same brown hair as the Soul Reaper rather than the blue rigid hair of the Vasto Lorde. He removed his Zanpakuto which then turned into an iron bangle on his right arm. Akio looked in the direction of the staff planted in the ground. From the three’s perspective he was looking right at them.

“We need to leave now!” Suki said.

Shin nodded in agreement and disconnected his staff from his visor. When the three’s sight return to normal the first thing they saw was Akio standing in front of them. The shock of his sudden appearance caused them to jump back.

Akio charged Yemon with his mouth open and bit into his shoulder. Blood sprayed as the two fell to the ground. Then, a rectangular barrier formed around Akio as Yemon crawled away. The Hollowfied Soul Reaper started to bang is fist and head against the barrier trying to get at the others. “I think you’ve had enough excitement,” a voice said. Then, the masked Soul Reaper entered the building. The mask he wore had a v-shaped crest on the forehead with horns that pointed towards the back of his head. His eyes glowed a violent red through the holes of the mask. It was an actual Hollow mask.

“As for you three,” the masked Soul Reaper said. “I can’t allow you to return to the Seireitei. You’ve seen too much and you know too little.”

“I don’t think so,” Suki said defiantly as she drew her Zanpakuto. “Burn, Hi Kusari.” The blade of the Zanpakuto grew slack and became coated in flames. She swung her Zanpakuto toward the masked Soul Reaper and who raised his right arm to block it. The burning blade wrapped around his forearm and began to scorch his skin. “Got you.”

The masked Soul Reaper growled from behind his mask. His right forearm began to glow and the flames on the Zanpakuto were extinguished. Then, ice started to spread across the blade and with a twist of his arm the Zanpakuto shattered causing Suki to stare in disbelief. “That’s what I never understood about your squad Lieutenant,” the masked Soul Reaper said holding his burnt arm in front of him. “You’re smart enough to put Kidos on objects, but you never consider putting them on your body.”

Suki, still in shock from her Zanpakuto breaking, watch as his arm healed and revealed the intricate scars that covered his forearm. “Netsukoukani,” she said. “A kido carved into the skin that converts heat into spirit energy for the user. Only one Soul Reaper uses it. Instructor Ranma Shihoin of the Soul Academy.”

The masked Soul Reaper lifted his mask revealing his face. He was a man in his twenties with blood red irises and black sclera. Three scars ran down over his right eye from the bottom of his forehead to the top of his upper lip. “Well done, Lieutenant,” Ranma said with a grin. “More the reason why you won’t be leaving this world. Hueco Mundo will be you’re new home.”