14 Aizen's Black

" Is it ready, Lord Aizen?" Kaname asked. 

" Yes, Kaname. It's time to put it to the test. Our very first creation. I believe we should give it a name. What do you think, Gin?" Aizen asked the young man.

Gin was one of the newest graduates from the Soul Reaper Academy. A genius who personally sought out Aizen to join him and did so by killing the third seat of his squad. 

" Oh, I know Lord Aizen... The blackest of creatures. That which fills souls with dread and despair. A Hollow made from other Hollows. Let's call it Black."

" A Hollow made by combining Hollows of various classes into one. Black. I like it Gin." Aizen said to the boy. " Now then, we need to give Black a proper combat test."

" Would you like me to send it to the human world, Lord Aizen?" Kaname asked the man.

" No. I have a better idea, Kaname." Aizen told the man. He looked at his subject and smiled... " It's been how long? Eleven years or so? Time sure does fly fast. Let's see if you were worth sparing or not...." Aizen muttered.

..............

Bikou was traveling through the never-ending sands of Hueco Mundo, eating a another Hollows leg as he simply took in the peaceful sight. 

He had spent years, travelling the sands. 

That was one thing about Hueco Mundo that made it such a dangerous place for Soul Reapers. 

The movement of time.

Hollows are nigh-ageless spirits. Meaning without exerting their spiritual pressure, they could theoretically live forever, such is the case with the self-proclaimed ruler of Hueco Mundo. Barragan. A man who has sat on the throne, since the very creation of Hueco Mundo. 

That meant that those unaccustomed to the land would very quickly find themselves victims to time itself. 

For Hollows, however, a year could by in what felt like the blink of an eye. 

Hunting, eating, fighting, preying. All of it consumed their lives to the point that, time simply slipped by them. 

" I wonder, how Starrk's doing. It's been a couple years at least since I last saw him and that little runt of his. I wonder if they're, okay?" Bikou muttered. " I've definitely gotten stronger. It feels like there's something on the edge. Like I'm just waiting to be pushed over. And then these guys, they keep getting sent after me." Bikou muttered. " Part of me wants to go see what this guy's about... But I think it'd be better if we avoided each other... For now, at least." 

 *Whoom!

Suddenly a crack opened in front of Bikou and a moment later a Hollow emerged from the hole. 

The Hollow was white entirely, from head to toe. It had two long horns pointing backwards. It had two long blades in the place of arms and a Hollow hole right in the center of its chest.

The moment it took a step into Hueco Mundo, Bikou felt his throat turn dry. He eyed the Hollow up and down, all the while clenching his staff.

" Can I help you pal? You don't seem to-"

Before he could finish his thought, The Hollow attacked Bikou, forcefully pushing him back a great distance. 

" Okay then." Bikou muttered. He jumped into the air above the Hollow and made a gesture with his fingers. Closing his fist together with the exception of his middle and pointing fingers, Bikou began emitting fire from his fingertips. " Blazing Storm!" Bikou swiped his fingers across the air, pointing directly towards the Hollow, and very quickly giant walls of blue flame erupted from the ground engulfing the Hollow, and turning the very sands of Hueco Mundo into glass. 

" Did that do it?" Bikou wondered. He gripped his staff tight and paid close attention to the burning fumes below.

*Bzzt!"

The Hollow suddenly appeared behind Bikou. 

Bikou seeing the attack coming swung his staff at the Hollow and parried his long forearm away before striking the Hollow right on its collarbone with his staff.

Bikou could hear the sickening crunch of the Hollow's bone the moment his staff, lands, but the Hollow hardly shows any sign of pain, and instead simply slashes back with its other arm. 

Bikou was forced to retreat from the Hollow or else be pierce by its sharp blades.

Meanwhile, Aizen and his cohorts watched from a distance as Bikou moved to reengage his creation. 

" That's right, Bikou. Show it to me." 

Bikou spun his staff rapidly in a circle in his hand, and covered it in fire, creating a sharp rotating ball of fire at the tip of his staff. He then thrusted his staff forward and launched a javelin of fire at the Hollows head.

The Hollow moved its head out of the way as the Javelin of fire soared past and exploded on the sand. 

" Damn, you dodged that. I was kinda hoping to end it right there." Bikou muttered. " You sure are vexing." Bikou told the creature. 

The creature didn't respond, or at least Bikou believed it didn't. All it really did was growl under its mask over and over.

" Do you even understand what I'm saying?" Bikou asked. " Or are you just a mindless beast?" 

" RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

[Bleach- Vasto Lorde]

The Hollow screamed out loud, making Bikou grin as he realized that the Hollow indeed was mindless and just operating off pure instinct alone. 

The Hollow pointed two of its fingers at Bikou, making his eyes widen.

Sensing the attack coming, Bikou raised his own fingers at the Hollow, and fired a Cero just as it had.

The blasts collided with each other in the sky, causing an explosion that extended all the way to the ground.

*BZZT!

Bikou moved away from the explosion and looked up in the air at where the Hollow reappeared moments later.

" Troublesome, bastard!" Bikou began charging another Cero in his finger, as did the Hollow.

Once again, the two fired their Cero at one another creating another lazing cloud of fire at the point of impact.

Bikou, raced through the sandy mounds of Hueco Mundo, running straight through the fire, still emanating from their last collision, and then jumped into the air. He twirled his staff in the air multiple times, before jumping into the sky and clashing with the Hollow. 

Shockwaves radiated out from the point of their collision.

Bikou slammed his staff down on the Hollow's blades before trying to cut him. But the moment he swung his staff again, the Hollow teleported. Bikou quickly turned around and blocked the Hollow's strike with his staff, before firing a Cero point black at the Hollow's chest. 

The Hollow, jumped over Bikou's body before the cero hit and slashed him across the chest, with his arm blade.

Bikou spun off of the blade, despite being slashed, and used the momentum to slam his staff into the side of the Hollow's torso. " Blast away!" 

Bikou's staff exploded at the moment of impact and sent the Hollow barreling across the sky of Hueco Mundo. 

Aizen watched as the two Hollows battled each other, feeding off of their collisions and growing stronger every moment. It was like a gold mine of information for the soul reaper. 

" Lord Aizen, can you feel that?" Kaname asked.

" Yes, Kaname it is fascinating."

" It feels like they're both getting stronger as they battle. Is this what you had in mind, Lord Aizen?" Gin asked. 

" Of course, Gin. The natural course for Hollows, is to evolve. That is what we're after, Gin. By forcing Black to combat a Hollow of equal strength and ability, it will force Black to evolve beyond its current capabilities." Aizen explained.

" But then, wouldn't that make the other Hollow evolve as well?" Gin asked.

" Correct. That is the point, Gin." Aizen stated. " The higher they evolve the more information we can collect to better improve our results."

" But then... Isn't it possible Black is killed?" 

" Yes. But then again, if Black does get killed, then it was incomplete. If it is incomplete, Gin, then we start over again and apply what we know to a new project. That is science. Improving on what we know, to make something even grander." Aizen explained to the young boy.

However, Aizen noticed something. Bikou was beginning to crack. 

Bikou began charging a Cero in the palm of his hand.

" Been a while since I've done this. Haven't really had a chance to do it. But this one's dangerous. This isn't a Hollow simply seeking to get stronger. This thing just wants to destroy. And that's bad for all of us." Bikou muttered. To himself. He was looking over the battlefield, for the Hollow. 

His eyes searched all over.

*Bzzzt!

The Hollow finally reappeared behind Bikou, with its arm raised and ready to strike. 

" Damn!" Bikou cursed.

Bikou quickly turned around and shoved the charging ball of energy right into the Hollow's body, before it had a chance to completely charge, causing it to explode prematurely. 

" Oh, that was impressive." Gin muttered.

" Quite." Aizen spoke in agreement. 

The explosion that engulfed the two Hollows, shook Hueco Mundo to its core. Their battle radiated across the sands to almost every corner of the realm. 

The smoke covered the area completely. Leaving Bikou searching through the deep fog with his pesquisa to try and locate his enemy before another sneak attack could be made. 

" This is ridiculous. It feels like I'm smashing myself against a wall." Bikou exclaimed. He swung his staff to the back, blocking an oncoming strike, before the Hollow disappeared once more into the thick smoke, like a predator stalking its prey. 

" That's enough hiding." Bikou placed his hand on the ground and blue flame began building around him. " Fire Pillar!" A blazing wall of fire erupted from all around Bikou's body, acting like a shield of flame, while also expanding outwards, clearing the smoke away and burning anything that might have been on the outside. 

" Now let's turn up the heat a bit more." Bikou spun his staff around rapidly, allowing it to gather flames at a massive rate before slamming it into the ground. " Gran Vortice De fuego!" A giant vortex of blue fire erupted from Bikou's staff, picking it back up, Bikou twirled the staff around in the air, sending out the blue vortex like a never-ending tornado of fire before slamming the tip of the staff on the ground, the vortex spread out from the staff, breaking off into five different tornado-like flame twisters. 

The flame twisters surrounded the Hollow, caging it within a ring of continuous fire. 

" Uh-oh, that doesn't look so good, Lord Aizen. What do we do?" Gin asked.

" Hm... Kaname, if you would." Aizen spoke.

" Of course."

*Shift!

' There, I've got him caged. No way out of that. Now-' 

The Hollow suddenly placed its hands on the ground and fired a large Cero on itself causing the tornadoes to explode prematurely. 

" What the hell?! It just blew itself up!" Bikou jumped into the fire to see what his opponent was doing. Being the one to create the flames, Bikou was immune to the fire itself. 

Bikou reached the blast zone to discover the Hollow gone.

" Where the hell did it go?" He wondered. 

However, as he looked around, the world around him suddenly went dark. 

' What the hell?!' Bikou thought to himself. ' I can't see. I can't hear. I can't even feel my arms and legs. It's as if I wasn't here at all. But I know I am. Is this the power of that Hollow?' 

*Slash!

Suddenly a giant wound opens on Bikou's back and instinctively, he lashes at his attacker, just as the feeling of the blade reaches him. 

For just a moment, Bikou's senses return to him, and he feels his staff strike something before his senses are robbed once more. 

' Someone's playing games with me here. I don't know where you're hiding. But if you won't come out. I'll blast you out!'

" Cero Tormenta!" 

Bikou released a storm of Cero that completely covered the area. This was an attack that Bikou would normally push outwards away from himself, however, this time he used himself as ground zero for his cero.

The continuous explosions from the cero blew away the darkness that had robbed him of his senses but had also damaged him further.

" Damn it!" Bikou gasped. He dropped to one knee, breathing heavily on the ground. " What the hell was that?" He wondered. Part of his mask had broken off, from his last attack, revealing part of his face, under his left eye.

Under neath his mask, he appeared to be a young man, equivalent to a twenty-five-year-old normal human. 

*Bzzt!

The Hollow reappeared. Bikou raised his staff to block the attack, but the Hollow managed to cleave straight through the construct, splitting it into two halves before further striking Bikou himself and sending him flying across Hueco Mundo and crashing through one of the many Mountainous creations. 

" Gah! Damn it!" Bikou cursed. He weakly stood back up, clutching at the gash going across his stomach, as the Hollow reappeared in front of him, staring at him as if he were a weakened prey. " Damn, you... I hate having to reform that thing you, know. It's always a real pain in the ass, having to cram all that energy into one solid piece and to maintain it, without it blowing up in my face. It takes a lot of fine tuning and control. But now I'll have to do it all over." Bikou told the Hollow. " That is, after I kill you."

[ Fiesta De Guerra]

Suddenly, multiple Cero appeared, seemingly, from out of nowhere, surrounding the Hollow. 

" I've been setting this up, from the very moment you stepped foot in Hueco Mundo, and every single time we've created a smoke screen, I would place these in the sand and have them move with us. It's not a technique, I like to use, but one that's very effective. Out of all the Hollows that make up this land, I alone can control the shape, size, and density of a cero. Others see it as merely a weak tool to be used. I see it as one that contains great power. Especially when you have so many. Cero Tiro disperso." 

Bikou summoned his shattered staff, and the numerous amounts of Cero he'd summoned from the surrounding area, and brought his hands together, calling them all down upon the Hollow all at once.

The combined cero exploded all at once. 

The resulting blast completely engulfed the Hollow and Bikou in a raging inferno of fire, burning through them both. Unlike his fire, a Cero was pure explosive power, that meant he was subject to the damage as well. 

The continuous raining blasts of Cero ended after a solid minute of continuous exploding, leaving Bikou standing in front of a nearly destroyed Hollow. 

" Damn!" Bikou cursed, panting and gasping for air, he was surprised to see that even a piece of the Hollow had remained after his last attack. 

Thankfully, however, it seemed as though the beast was finally finished. 

" Damn. He destroyed it with those Cero." Kaname complained. " All that hard work, for nothing."

" Calm down, Kaname. This was worth the effort." Aizen told the man.

" What do you mean, lord Aizen? The Hollow failed. I even had to get involved, and I just barely got away with my life." Kaname told the man. He was still nursing burn wounds from almost being vaporized by Bikou's suicide bombing earlier. 

" Yes. And now we know, the limits of the Hollow. Now we'll try a different approach."

" Oh? And what's that lord Aizen?" Gin asked.

" Well, Gin... I was wondering on how Hollowfication would work on a soul reaper. Perhaps we begin testing what happens if we mix the two together." Aizen told the young man.

" I see. What about the creature's body, sir?" Gin asked.

Aizen turned his attention back to Bikou and black in the distance and watched as Bikou began devouring the Hollow.

As the last pieces of the hollow flowed down his throat, his mask cracked. A large split began spreading out from where his mask had been broken off by his cero but stopped just short of reaching the other side of his face. 

His power, surged even higher than before as a portion of the creature's power entered his body, healing his wounds almost instantaneously. 

" Fascinating. He's accumulated a large portion of Black's power." Aizen muttered. " I see. Yes, keeping you alive was better for my research." Aizen spoke. " Kaname, Gin, let's go." Aizen told the two men.

He opened up a small Garganta to the Soul Society and quickly departed Hueco Mundo with a new plan in mind, and more information to go on. 

Meanwhile, Bikou observed his newfound power, feeling it increase even more than before. So much so, it felt like his power was seeping out of him, unconsciously looking for an escape. 

Bikou found keeping it in check was harder than ever before.