When you can no longer keep up a lie, the only option is to tell the truth. Rukia turned slightly to avoid Ichigo's urgent gaze. In reality, whether she answered or not didn't matter; he already had the answer in his heart.
"The truth is, all Hollows were originally the souls of ordinary humans."
This was one of the reasons she had told Ichigo to try and finish them off in a single strike. As a human, accepting such a reality wouldn't be easy for him.
Sure enough, Ichigo looked as if he wanted to say something but stopped. He marched up to Rukia, grabbed her by the collar, and angrily demanded, "Ordinary humans? But you never told me that! Aren't they monsters? Aren't they supposed to be destroyed?"
"That is correct, but they are monsters now!"
"But I clearly saw that its face was human!"
"Would a human do something like this? Do not be so easily deceived by appearances!" Rukia slapped away the hand Ichigo had on her collar. "If you still don't believe me, go see for yourself."
"See? See what?"
"If that guy from earlier really is Inoue's older brother, then he should be at her house right now, which means that girl is in danger." As Rukia spoke, she leaped onto Ichigo's back and pointed toward the window, ordering, "Go to Inoue's house right now. Hurry!"
"Inoue is in danger? You aren't lying to me, are you?!"
"If you waste another second talking, you can just attend her memorial service!"
If what this girl was saying was true—no, regardless of whether Rukia was telling the truth or not, Ichigo thought about it and realized he really had to do as she said.
"Explain this whole Hollow thing to me clearly on the way!"
There was quite a distance between Ichigo's house and Orihime Inoue's residence. However, in the World of the Living, Shinigami could run on the air. Since a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, this somewhat lengthy trip would only take about five or six minutes.
Rukia didn't hide anything anymore, giving Ichigo a brief explanation of a Hollow's true nature. Simply put, Hollows were fallen souls. If they weren't guided to Soul Society by a Shinigami in time, were defeated, or couldn't withstand being surrounded by other Hollows, these former humans could fall into depravity, lose their hearts, and ultimately transform into monsters known as Hollows.
Their devouring of souls wasn't born from simple hunger; it was an instinctual behavior driven by the urge to fill the void of their lost hearts, which manifested in the form of feeding.
And even when feeding, they had preferred prey. Souls with high concentrations of Reiryoku and the souls of their living relatives were a Hollow's favorites. Therefore, it was common in the World of the Living for a husband to pass away just a few years after his wife's death. This was very likely caused by a Hollow devouring the soul of its own family member.
"But if the essence of a Hollow is a human soul, isn't there some other way..." Before Ichigo could finish his sentence, Rukia interrupted him from his back.
"Stop dreaming. Hollows have absolutely no control over their own actions, and a vast majority of them can't even speak. You're being overly sentimental!"
Ichigo wanted to say something else, but Inoue's house was already just up ahead. At the same time, a low roar echoed from that direction. It was the Hollow that had just appeared in his house—Inoue's older brother.
"Did you hear that?!"
"I know!" Ichigo said, dropping Rukia off on a nearby roof. "You stay here. I'll go handle this right now."
Ichigo had pretty much believed Rukia's words by now. An older brother wouldn't make such a terrifying sound at his younger sister, right? Or perhaps, to a Hollow, that was just a friendly lecture? But no matter how he listened to it, it didn't sound like one.
Ichigo crossed the distance of nearly a hundred meters in less than five seconds. Through the window, he could see the Hollow that had attacked him earlier, as well as Inoue, who had been backed into a corner by it. Rukia really hadn't lied to him. No matter what they originally were, once they became Hollows, they were monsters!
The creature's raised hand was about to touch Inoue. In the nick of time, Ichigo finally arrived. Rukia was absolutely right; if he had wasted any more time talking back at his house, he really would have been preparing to attend Inoue's memorial service.
In his haste, he could only raise his blade horizontally to block the incoming claw. The Hollow, which had only revealed half of its body back at his house, was finally fully visible. With a human torso and a snake's tail, it truly was a monster.
However, the creature seemed to freeze and didn't launch another attack. This gave Ichigo time to assess the situation inside the room. Someone seemed to be lying on the floor to the right. With a quick glance, Ichigo confirmed it was his childhood classmate, Arisawa Tatsuki. She must have come over to hang out at Inoue's house.
She shouldn't be in any mortal danger, right? He wasn't entirely sure. If the target of the Hollow in front of him was Inoue, then Tatsuki should be just like his sisters—merely injured and knocked unconscious from the attack.
There was another person lying behind Tatsuki. Who was it? Ichigo remembered that Inoue didn't have many friends. He glanced in that direction again, and to his shock, the person lying on the floor was... Inoue!
How could this be! Ichigo whipped his head around. Hadn't he just shielded Inoue behind him in time? Why was there another Inoue?
"Hey, hey! It really is you, Kurosaki!"
Inoue was indeed behind him, but she seemed to be able to see him. Ichigo recalled Rukia's words: Shinigami were spiritual bodies. Aside from humans with extremely high spiritual aptitude like him, only other spiritual bodies could see Shinigami.
"W-Why can you see me..."
Perhaps Inoue had always been able to see souls. Although he had never heard her mention it before, it wasn't like Inoue shared everything with others, right?
"Isn't it obvious? It's because she's a spiritual body now too." A slightly hoarse voice suddenly rang out from behind him. Ichigo spun around. It was Inoue's older brother, who had already turned into a Hollow! The Hollow could speak!
"Orihime is already dead!"
Before the words even faded, the creature's thick snake tail whipped toward his face. Ichigo hastily swung his sword to parry, but his blade was nearly deflected. Were the scales on this guy's tail really that hard?!
*Couldn't this guy have put me down somewhere a little lower?*
Rukia grumbled inwardly as she arrived at the ground floor of Inoue's house. It had taken her quite a bit of effort to climb down from the roof where she had just been dropped off.
But before she could make her way up to the second floor where the Hollow was, the upstairs window shattered abruptly. A figure flew backward out of the house—it was Ichigo, who had arrived a step ahead of her.
"Die, Kurosaki Ichigo!"
The Hollow leaned its body out of the broken wall and spat a glob of pale red liquid from its mouth. Rukia wanted to warn Ichigo to dodge, but she realized she was too late. The liquid had already splattered onto Ichigo's right hand.
It could speak human language; this wasn't some simple grunt that only knew how to swing its claws. If that liquid was highly toxic, the situation would be dire.
Ichigo wasn't a complete meathead. The moment the liquid touched his skin, he promptly shook off whatever the hell that stuff was.
But it seemed he was a little too late. His hand felt as if it had been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, and the intense pain caused him to subconsciously release his grip on the sword hilt.
At the same time, that long snake tail lashed against his back once more. Playing baseball during the day, and acting as the baseball at night—Ichigo was beginning to re-examine the violent aesthetics of baseball from an entirely new perspective.
*What a beautifully infuriating home run...*