Healing His Solitude - Aizen Sousuke Love Story

Chapter 7 - What are they?

Shiori pov:

I sighed softly as I put my medical box away. I had just finished treating Ichigo's and Orihime's injuries. Sado was pretty much healed by Orihime but he was unconscious. From his pulse and breathing, I figured he'd be out of commission for a few days.

I caressed Ichigo's head gently, moving his hair off his forehead. His eyes were closed lightly, and he was sweating from the pain. I had managed to get his shoulder back to its original position but his entire shoulder was swollen. He had multiple injuries which I had wrapped up; I was sure he was going to have a hard time explaining what happened to his other friends. Because even though he had suffered injuries in his shinigami form, his real body suffered the same.

I got up slowly, picked up my bag and limped my way out of the room while shutting the door as silently as possible. My ankle was pretty bad; the tendon was torn and damaged and the spray was just a temporary relief to the pain. I felt horrible right now, but pushed the thoughts of the pain away for the moment. I limped to the main dining room where Yoroichi san was sitting and eating like she's never eaten before. There were bowls stacked all over the place and she was still stuffing her mouth with food. Kisuke san, Tessai san, Jinta and Ururu were watching her.

She finally slammed the bowl in her hands on the table heaving. "Feeling better, Yoroichi san?" Kisuke san asked smiling and she nodded.

"Yeah." The room fell silent.

I took a deep breath, taking the chance to interrupt the silence. "Who were they?" Everyone's gaze landed on me as I stared at Kisuke san. "They were hollows, weren't they? How come they looked sort of human? They were so powerful too....I could feel their reiatsus."

"Why don't you sit down, Shiori chan? Your ankle must be hurting.....and this will take some time to explain." The four people there sat down along with me around the circular table. It was silent for a few moments before Kisuke san glanced at Yoroichi san and they nodded to each other. He looked back at me, covering half his face with his fan. His eyes were serious giving me a tight feeling in my gut.

"What you saw today....they are hollows." Kisuke san started making me clench my jaw tightly. "However, they are not regular hollows that you see being defeated every day. I suppose you could say that they have evolved to reach a level of great power."

"Evolved?" I asked warily.

"That's correct. As hollows defeat and feed on their own kind, their power increases. There are different levels of hollows, just as you see in this book here." He pushed an open book towards me. I reached across to read the book and saw illustrations on the stages of hollows.

There were Gillian, the most common type that I remember seeing quite often and which was usually taken care of easily by shinigami. The second was the Menos; they were bigger but slow. The third was the Adjucas having similar appearance as Gillian but much more powerful and agile. The fourth was Vasto Lorde with a very close appearance to humans. The last was Arrancar. But there was no illustration for that.

I looked back at Kisuke san. "Which category do these hollows fall under?" I was nervous to hear the answer. Judging from what I had seen in the book, I was guessing they were Vasto Lorde....that wasn't good news at all. After all, seeing how much damage they had caused.....no, I doubt they were using their full power to begin with. Perhaps they wouldn't find it a problem to even destroy this whole town alone!

"Unfortunately, these are Arrancar." I tensed. "They have gone past the level of Vasto Lorde since they have been able to gain shinigami powers. Once they remove their mask or are powered by the Hougyoku, they are able to reach a level that even shinigami Captains find hard to fight against."