Part One: Rise of the Hollow King

Chapter One: Howling at the Hollow Moon

"Beyond the edge of the world there's a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop. And, hovering about, there are signs no one has ever read, chords no one has ever heard."
-Haruki Murakami

Night was the realm of predators. All dark things hunted when the sun vanished from her perch in the sky. It was nature's rule, that the deadly would come out to stalk the black.

Such laws applied to the undead as well.

Hollows, the most terrifying of monsters.

Known to few humans, but to all souls, the creatures of sorrow killed and consumed without remorse, for they had no heart left to feel guilt with.

That was what made hollows so utterly terrifying. Instead of a heart, the beasts of emptiness had a massive gaping hole where the organ should be. And adorning their faces, were grotesque masks that his the tortured expressions beneath.

Hollows couldn't help what they were. The creatures of suffering were forced into their existence by either refusing to let go of their past lives, or being turned by another hollow. Such was the never-ending cycle.

Hueco Mundo, the home of all hollows, was a desolate and dead world where only the strong survived. For a hollow to grow stronger, it must consume souls. Hueco Mundo was nay-unlivable for newborn hollows to survive in, so they began their hunts in the World of the Living.

As such, the mournful roar that echoed through the slumbering Kurikara Town was not unexpected. What was unexpected was the young boy running from the lumbering giant.

To a living soul, the bright strawberry blonde hair would have been the eye-catching oddity. But to a soul, the boy's unnaturally massive reiatsu was the jaw-dropper. A living being with so much spiritual energy was unheard of.

So it came as no wonder that a hollow would be desperately chasing such a soul. So much reiatsu could easily push any hollow into its next evolution.

"Ichigo!"

The cry pierced the night air like a serrated knife. The boy glanced behind him to see a small girl in the distance. The distraction cost him his life.

The black haired child watched in horror as the monster caught up with her big brother. Ichigo hadn't time even to scream before a fanged maw bit into him, killing the boy instantly. The little girl vomited at the horrific noises coming from the dinning monster. The was thick with blood and the only noise to be heard was the crunches and squishes of a corpse being eaten and the soft retches of the black haired girl.

Heavy footsteps pulled the girl's head from the ground and her to unfurl just the slightest from the fetal position in which she lay.

She was surprised to see the monster was not coming to eat her as well, but was instead twitching oddly and moaning under its breath.

The creature slashed a clawed hand through the air which seemed to tear a hole in reality itself. Without thought to the traumatized child lying on the road, the hollow lumbered through the black maw and into oblivion.

The girl's head fell to the cold concrete as she fainted.

I've been running from it all my lifetime
There's nothing wrong with you, I'm searching for my right mind
Oh, you should've seen it they were resting on the restless
This happened, literally - woke up I was headless
I woke up I was headless

Moments later, another black tear appeared, but this time it hovered over white sand rather than black pavement. The grotesque hollow stumbled out, its body bulging in odd places, twitching and withering, as if there were a second creature attempting to burst free from its living prison.

The hollow gave a pained howl as it fell onto its side, flesh boiling as it tore into bloody shreds.

This was no normal evolution.

The hollow's head fell back as it gave a death rattle, breath leaving it forever. The crystal forest seemed to hold its breath as it waited for something to happen. Seconds trickled by but all remained still.

The world was about to let out a sigh of relief when an aura like no other burst into existence. As it did, a form erupted from the hollow's corpse.

Blood and intestines were flung across the wooded expanse as the newborn monster broke from its organic prison. The beast screeched, its massive white body flailing around as it tumbled from the shredded carcass.

It landed with a 'thump', then lay still.

A pair of golden eyes slid open, their iris surrounded by a black sclera. Its horse-like nostrils flared as the new hollow took a deep breath. Its reptilian jaws parted in exhale, revealing wickedly sharp teeth and a blue tongue.

The creature was massive, somehow larger than the hollow it had been born from. Its body was long and serpentine, covered from nose to tail in white armor. It had four short legs that ended in avian like paws, yet with forelegs possessing possible thumbs.

It had a barrel chest and long neck, its head horse-like but with bull horns raising from its brow. A mane of thick orange hair started from between its horns and traveled down the length of its neck, over its back, and ended in a long tuft at the tip of its tail.

From above its shoulder blades grew two glorious wings.

In its purest definition of the term, the newborn hollow was a Japanese dragon.

Motherfucker I'll be back from the dead soon
I'll be watching from the center of the hollow moon
Oh, oh my God I think I might've made a mistake
Waiting patiently was waiting taking up space
We are waiting taking up space

My eyes blink open for the first time. Sluggish, heavy lids. So tired.

But to be tired is to die.

I raise my head. It goes much higher than I expect it to, which some corner of my mind finds odd. No matter.

I look around.

I'm in a forest. I don't know how I know what a forest is, since I've never seen one before as far as I know, but somehow I know.

Instinct?

Beneath me is cool sand. Around me are massive trees. They look odd though, which is once again unusual. Since when do I know what a tree is supposed to look like?

I crane my neck upward. Above me is darkness. Not the black of a night sky, but the shadow of a roof. Something is above the forest.

What is this place?'

I sigh through my nose. Where isn't as important as 'what will I do now?'

Survive. I will survive, I decide.

I push myself to my feet.

All four of them.

Wait… four?

I look down at myself. My skin is scaled alabaster white armor. My long neck connects to a thick barrel chest. From the chest are two short but strong legs, tipped with claws. My head swings around to look at the rest of me. My body is long and just as white as my neck and chest. A similar pair of legs extend from my narrow hips. A long tail stretches out behind me, the tip waving back and forth without conscious thought.

There is a weight on my back. Growing from behind my shoulder blades are a pair of massive black wings, each longer than my body. They're a bit tattered, but amazingly powerful.

I give an experimental beat. A storm of sand and wind howls around me, so great are my wing-beats.

For some reason, my appearance surprises me.

Just another mystery for me to ponder at a later date.

So absorbed I was in studying my new form, it took me several minutes to notice the hunger. But once it made itself known, there was no way for me to ignore it.

I collapse, the crippling emptiness rendering me a quivering lump on the sand. My jaws part as I gasp for breath. The pain in my chest, it's unbearable.

Agony overcomes me, and my vision goes red…

…

…

…feed…

…need to feed…

…so hungry…

*sniff*

…food…

Food.

FOOD!

…slaughter…

The earth below is above my feet when the clock is laughing at me
When copy cats and the lazy brats are the last thing I want to see
No, my enemy is a friend of mine in a friendly place to be seen
Hey, you know I'll run away for a couple years just to prove I've never been free

That was the last the dragon was himself.

After the hunger took him, he became just as rabid a beast as the other hollows.

The only difference…

He was stronger.

Much stronger.

The 'newborns' were almost not worth killing, so pathetic they were. The massive lumbering creatures weren't much better. With their baggy cloth-like skin and ugly white masks, they were just as hideous as they were stupid. But still, they contained a lot of power, and were at least a small challenge to take down.

But the hollows he longed for were the ones like him. The strongest.

In his beastial mind, the dragon found that the insatiable drive to fight was second only to the hunger in his chest.

Every moment of his existence, all he longed to do was find the strongest hollow and slaughter it. Bath in its blood, dance in its gore, and consume its life.

The Menos Forest was his playground, the hollows his toys.

They stood no chance.

But the sudden drop in hollows did not go unnoticed.

Word spread of they terrifying dragon hollow that killed without remorse. He was soon bestowed a name.

'La Muerte Blanca'.

The White Death.

The dragon felt no ties to the name. While La Muerte Blanca was certainly formidable, it wasn't something he wished to go by. It was a title, not a name.

And so the dragon continued forward, endlessly searching for more power, but also, searching for a name and a purpose.

They will never find me here
Yeah
Ima make a deal with the bad wolf so the bad wolf don't bite no more

In the ends, it was a ram that brought the dragon from his madness and granted him a purpose…

...

The dragon was tired of the forest beneath the sand, as he'd since eaten all the powerful hollows. What remained was little more than scraps for him.

In the weeks that he'd haunted the forest, the dragon's mind had slowly began to clear. With each hollow he consumed, the dragon was pushed closer to his evolution, and thus the return of his sanity.

Such an oddity, for him to go mad like that. He was an adjuchas level, yet he had lost himself much like a newborn.

Then again, nothing about the dragon was normal.

Consumed with boredom, he decided to see what existed beyond the forest. So with a terrific roar, he unfurled his massive wings and took to the sky. Even as the canopy of sand neared him, the dragon continued to fly. Instinct told him to continue, that to escape the woodland prison, he would have to go through its ceiling.

Without hesitation, the dragon opened his mouth wide and unleashed a bright red flash of energy.

The cero cut cleanly through the sand, leaving a wide tunnel to the surface in its wake. The dragon flew through the hole he had made, and found himself for the first time in his short life on the surface.

It wasn't what he expected, but at the same time, it was.

The world around him was an endless white desert. The sky was black, the only light being the crescent moon that hung proud above the empty world.

The dragon could see nothing in every direction he faced, simply a never-ending expanse of nothing.

Huffing, the dragon stretched out his wings once more, and with a powerful thrust, become air-born.

While the desert was a bare and lonely sight, it did have its own sort of beauty to it, especially flying above it. From his aerial view, the white sands looked like glistening snow, the tips of the underground forest like branches made from diamonds.

The dragon had no idea for how long he flew. If could have been hours, it could have been weeks. In a place that was eternal night, it was impossible to tell.

The dragon was contemplating landing for a bit of rest when he felt it.

Power.

The breathing power of a hollow.

But this was far stronger than any of the hollows he had faced within the forest. Curiosity and hunger got the better of him, and the dragon folded in his wings to spiral down toward the source of the power.

He landed with a great crash in the white sands. The tiny grains swirled up around him in a massive cloud, blocking his view of the hollow.

When the sand finally settled, the last haze of madness finally left him…

...

….my eyes blink rapidly, forcing the red haze away.

How long had I been out of control? What had happened? I feel wobbly on my feet, my head spinning with dizziness.

But at the same time, I feel so much stronger than before.

My thoughts are cut off when I finally notice the heavy presence around me. I look up, and my jaw goes slack.

Before me stands the strangest hollow I have ever seen. It is a color I've never seen, yet know to be green.

It stands on four legs, like me, but that's about where the similarities between us end.

Its legs are long and hoofed. From its neck spills a thick mane, the same brown as the tail swishing behind it. The hollow's mask is shaped like a horse (yet another thing I don't know how I know), but a pair of ram horns curl from its head.

The hollow stares at me without fear, its green on black eyes bright with intelligence.

"Who are you, adjuchas?" Demands the ram hollow in a clearly feminine voice.

My head tilts to the side in my curiosity. "You're a girl?"

The ram snorts through her wide nostrils. "I am. Now answer my question."

"I don't know my name." I admit. "I'm not even sure if I have one." I pause, thinking back to her earlier words. "You called me an adjuchas. What is that?"

The ram's brow almost seems to rise in surprise. "You don't know what you are?" I remain silent. "How old are you?"

I ponder for a moment. I can't remember much through the red haze, but I have a vague idea to how long I'd been hunting in the forest. "I'm not really sure. Several months, I think."

"Months?!" Gasps the female. "Yet you are already this powerful?!"

I shrug, as best I can anyway. "So what is an adjuchas?" I repeat.

Her narrowing eyes don't go unnoticed by me. She suddenly feels uneasy around me. But I want answers, and so far she's the only way I seem to be able to get them. I can't have her run off on me because she thinks I'm a threat.

"I'm not going to hurt you." I tell her truthfully. "We're about evenly matched in strength. Fighting you would do more damage than what it'd be worth. Besides, you're the only one I've met who can answer my questions."

The ram nods slowly in understanding. To help ease her even more, I lay down on my belly with my forelegs crossed comfortably over each other.

It works and the ram also relaxes.

"Alright, an adjuchas is the level of hollow you are at now, same as me." She explains. "We are the second in the menos evolution."

"Menos? Evolution?"

"You really do know nothing, do you?"

"Hey!" I snap. The growl rumbling in my chest is an only half conscious action. "I haven't really been around that long, and up till now I haven't exactly spoken with anyone."

Her ears twitch. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend. I was merely stating a fact." She apologizes. "Anyway, we hollows consume souls to evolve. We all start out as humans, then become 'bases', the infant form of a hollow. After either consuming a great deal of souls, or if there is a massive congregation of bases, a Gillian will be formed. Gillian are the combined souls of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hollows. They take the shape of tall humanoid beings with white masks and pointed noses."

My head nods in understanding. "Yeah, I've seen lots of those in the forest." I flick my tail and add, "I ate most of them."

The ram hollow seems surprised by my comment, but doesn't say anything. "By 'the forest' I'm assuming you mean the Menos Forest located beneath the sand?"

I nod again.

"That's where most Gillian live, along with bases and weaker adjuchas. Like I said, we are both adjuchas evolutions, the stage after Gillian. When a single soul takes control of a Gillian, it becomes an adjuchas."

I gesture for her to continue. "The next and final evolution is that of the Vasto Lorde, the complete hollow. It is what we all aspire to become."

I think for a moment. I can feel that my power was nearing a tipping point. Does that mean I'm close to becoming a Vasto Lorde? If so, how much farther do I have to go before then? Is there any way to speed up my evolution? I might know almost nothing about myself, but I do know patience is not my strong suit.

"What is your name?" I find myself asking.

The ram is silent, studying me with calculating green eyes. Finally, she answers. "My name is Nelliel, though I suppose you can call me Nel."

"It's a please to meet you Nel." I grin.

Nel nods, a sparkle of mirth in her eyes. "To you as well. Though I do think you need a name yourself."

I sigh. "I told you, I don't remember what my name was, if I ever had one."

Nel laughs, a large grin somehow spread on her equine face. "Then we'll just have to come up with one for you!"

I eye her curiously. "What do you suggest?"

Nel ponders for a moment. "How about... Eleuterio?"

"Eleuterio?"

She nods. "Yes, Elliot for short."

I consider both names, rolling them around in my head. They aren't bad. I have no idea what they meant, but all in all, they aren't bad.

"Sure. I like it." With a wide grin, I give a low bow. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Nelliel. My name is Eleuterio."

Nel laughs, giving a bow of her own. "The pleasure is all mine."

And thus, a friendship was forged within the heartless Land of Hollows…

"Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."
-C.S. Lewis

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, the quotes, or the song.

Song: 'Hollow Moon' by AWOLNATION

A.N.

Hello guyses! I'm baaaaack! And in the Bleach fandom too!

So I've had this idea for a while, and finally got around to writing it. Yay! I'm really enjoying it so far, and I hope you will too.

For any of those wondering, I have NOT abandoned Still-Born or What the Mirror Saw. In fact, I am working on them right now! As rewrites actually. Now please don't get mad at me! I know rewrites can suck, but I promise these will be good. I'm making it a personal goal to at least double all the chapters, and add a lot more plot and new scenes.

Still-Born's going to remain mostly the same, but I'm planning some pretty big changes with Mirror.

I wanted to create more angst and conflict, with a villain other than Aizen to start out with. And what better villain is there than one in your very soul?

That's right, 'Old Man Zangetsu' is going to be one of my baddies. Sorry if any of you like him. I just think it'll be an interesting twist.

*Spoiler-ish* Instead of the 'Old Man' being Ichigo's Quincy powers, he's gonna be a part of Yhwach's consciousness, which has stolen Zangetsu's power and tricked Ichigo into thinking he is his zanpakuto. Why? That remains to be seen!

Whelp, back to this story; this is gonna be a pretty big AU. Ichigo's dead and a hollow, his adjuchas form looks nothing like what we've seen, and Nel's not even a Vasto Lorde yet!

I love stories with Ichigo as an arrancar. I love even more when he becomes the 'King of Hueco Mundo'. That's why White is one of my all-time favorite Bleach fics.

So naturally Ichigo's gonna wind up being a badass O.P. king of hollows!

I'm thinking of this winding up as an Ichigo/Nel story, but I haven't decided yet. Let me know what you guys would like. I want him to be paired with an arrancar, and an Espada level, (which really only leaves Nel, Tia, and an oc)

Let me know what you think! Follow, favorite, review, all that good shit!

Edited/Revised 2/7/16