Are You Serious?

All of the creatures I've met so far have had little value besides nutritional, and I've been dying for a conversation partner. As I brazenly walk up, the two dog-like creatures turn around in shock.

"A soul reaper? No, that's not a soul reaper. "

'Hello My name is Tom. What's your name?'

As the two creatures pause in shock and confusion, the third attempts to use this opportunity to escape. The hollows curse and resume their hunt, clearly not interested in something as small and unintimidating as myself. Before the deerlike creature can even react, I appear in front of it and attempt to continue the conversation.

'It's quite impolite to just ignore someone like that.'

Before I can finish, I am rudely interrupted by the two hollows launching themselves forwards and latching onto the poor hollow, shredding it to pieces with their jaws. It struggles for a moment, and as I look into its eyes, I can see that it is intelligent enough to feel fear.

-As I wonder to myself if I too am intelligent enough to feel fear, my thoughts are interrupted by a

"Hey."

"Just because you helped us catch this guy doesn't mean you can ask us for a piece of it."

'I wasn't going to-'

"Then why are you drooling?"

I wipe the drool off of my lips as I frown and consider whether or not I should just eat these disrespectful cretins.

-My gut says yes, but I listen to my heart and sit down with my arms crossed.

'Are you going to answer my previous question?'

For a moment, they look me up and down, as if sizing me up, and then they snort and proceed to laugh at me.

"A puny creature like you wants to know our names?"

"Let me tell you what, why don't you go over there to one of those trees and hit it until it falls over. If you can do that, I might just decide to tell you."

'Are you serious?'

"Either do that or scram, you wouldn't even fill the gaps between my teeth."

Annoyed at this blatant disrespect, I appear in front of one of the nearby trees and pull out my Zanpakotu. At full strength, I slash forwards.

*Clang*

My sword slides off of the surface and cleaves into the ground at my feet, but the impact causes the tree to ring like a bell. Sand falls from the ceiling as the tree shakes, and I adjust my angle as I prepare to strike again.

*Clang*

*Clang*

*CLANG*

The tree shakes harder and harder, and the hollows, previously looking at me strangely, begin to look up towards the ceiling with fear. In frustration, I begin to pull on the world around me, and the sand turns into fine particles that concentrate on my sword. An orange shine begins to gather around the blade, and when the light reaches its zenith, I slash out a final time.

'Ana no rīchi!'

*shing*

The light extends out from my Zanpakotu and proceeds to slash through the pillar in one smooth motion. For a brief moment, the shaking of the tree stops and the sky above me begins to fall. The next moment, the tree lands flawlessly on its stump, around a centimeter shorter than it had been. I push with my entirely unimpressive bodyweight against the tree to try and get it to slide and fall over, but the only reward for my efforts is a massive pile of sand that falls on my head. As I dig myself out I can see the hollows have approached me and, to my surprise, I hear.

"It's Joseph Película, and Camila Asesino."

I spit sand out of my mouth and appear in front of the two now more respectful creatures.

"In order to survive in this world, we need power, and you have power. Can we travel with you as we hunt for hollows?"

'Sure, but aren't you going to ask me what I am, I'm clearly not just your average run-of-the-mill hollow'

"Could you be.....

The legendary Vasto Lorde?"

'I'm not entirely sure what that is, but that name doesn't seem to quite fit me. If I had to give a name for myself other than me or Tom, I'd say something along the lines of Arrancar.'

"Arrancar? Wait, you couldn't be...

A cracked mask soldier? "

'A what?'

"There have been rumors of unnatural hollow soldiers under the order of the king with cracks in their masks and immense power."

'There's a kin-'

"It's time to move."

The two hollows begin to urge me forwards.

Wait, where are we going?

"It's time to hunt."

'Do you really need to hunt?'

"if an Adjuchas stops eating, then they revert back to a Gillian. Every Adjuchas should know this. Were you not an Adjuchas? "

I stand there awkwardly as I stop to think for a moment, but no matter how hard I think, the terms Adjuchas or Gillian simply don't parse.

Looking for a distraction I sniff the air and I smell something interesting on the surface. It's not just one or two hollows, but hundreds.

'There's something on the surface that smells good. If you really do have to eat all of the time, how about we head up there?'

"The surface? Are you sure you're strong enough for tha-"

Before Joseph can even finish his sentence, I'm already clawing my way up the crystal pillar. They curse but rush after me as the ground grows further and further below me. It's relatively slow going, but eventually we manage to make our way up to the ceiling, and for a moment I frown and ponder what to do next. Then I smile as I pull on the world around me and the sand above begins to dissipate into particles that flow into me. I try to stop myself from absorbing the particles from the tree and my friends, but my instincts tell me to devour everything. For a brief moment, my friends cry in pain, but the next moment the sand is gone and I release my pull. The particles that threatened to leave their bodies have returned to normalcy, and I swear that they look even more respectful of me than they did before.

As I pull myself up onto the surface bathed in moonlight, I stare at the endless sands and spot a large rock outcropping thick with the scent of hollow.