Just how big was the Forest of Menos? Nobody knew. Jun thought it was who knew how many times bigger than all of Soul Society.
As a member of the Tenth Division, Jun had patrolled the borders of Soul Society before. Once, he had tested how long it took to run all the way around them, and it had taken about a day.
Jun and the rest of the Expedition had now survived in Hueco Mundo for a month. In that time, they had killed a total of forty-seven Gillians, 219 Evil Spirit-class Hollows, and 433 of the lowest-class Hollows. Four members of their own side had died.
Their method of hunting Menos Grande had been no different from before. The four deaths had occurred because, after one Gillian was killed, it had sent out a death signal. Countless Hollows had then rushed toward its corpse, and the Expedition had retreated.
Another Gillian had appeared along their escape route. Naturally, the First Division Bigwigs had proved more than up to the task and gone straight in for the kill. But after two Gillians died in succession and two death signals went out, it had felt as though the entire Forest of Menos had erupted into chaos.
The entire Expedition had fled for their lives. They had no choice. Gillians had appeared within sight no fewer than ten times, and the ordinary and Evil Spirit-class Hollows had been beyond counting. There was no telling where they had all come from, as though the whole Forest of Menos had been packed with Hollows beneath the ground.
Fortunately, the Expedition had been strong enough, and the group had managed to escape in the end. But when they counted heads, they found four people missing. The members of the Kidō Corps in the two main forces, the Third and Fifth Divisions, had disappeared. As for the two teams from the 11th Division, one had encountered a horde of Hollows during the retreat, and two people had ultimately decided to cover the rear.
In a situation like that, there was virtually no chance of survival. There was no need to list them as missing; they could simply be recorded as dead. Of course, it would be even better if someone managed to come back alive. That would be worth celebrating.
Those deaths did not mark the end of the Expedition. It was to last six months, serving both to reduce the number of Hollows and to observe Hueco Mundo. In particular, under certain circumstances, spotting an Adjuchas or a Vasto Lorde would make the trip worthwhile.
Soul Society had many records of observations of Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde. The Twelfth Division had always been capable of monitoring Hueco Mundo, especially the desert, the so-called Upper Hueco Mundo, where Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde frequently appeared.
If the Twelfth Division located an Adjuchas or Vasto Lorde listed in its observation records while monitoring the area, an Elite Extermination Squad would be assembled. It consisted entirely of First Division members and captains from other divisions, who would join forces to kill the Menos Grande under surveillance. This mission also had essentially the highest probability of a captain dying.
According to Soul Society's recorded comparisons of strength, an Adjuchas could take a captain down with it. Against a Vasto Lorde, a moment's carelessness could wipe out the entire Elite Extermination Squad, and that would be no surprise.
Under those circumstances, whether the Expedition lived or died really wasn't such a major concern, and a six-month mission wasn't long either.
How could one tell an ordinary Hollow from an Adjuchas or a Vasto Lorde?
It seemed to have been mentioned before: look at the position of its Hollow Hole.
Ordinary Hollows, including Gillians among the Menos Grande, all had their Hollow Holes in their chests. Gillians had a big hole there too.
The Hollow Holes of Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde generally weren't in their chests. Of course, quite a few still had them there. But if the Hollow Hole wasn't in its chest, it was definitely an Adjuchas or a Vasto Lorde! A Hollow with a hole in its chest could still be one of those two monster classes, but since there was generally no way to tell, it was treated as though it wasn't.
Those Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde with Hollow Holes in their chests, which generally couldn't be identified, were precisely the Hollows the Expedition most needed to record. Since those monsters couldn't be distinguished by the position of their Hollow Holes, they could only be identified by the shape of their masks.
In the original story, all of Hueco Mundo's Espada were Adjuchas or Vasto Lorde, except for Old Nine, the special Gillian that had swallowed Kaien Shiba. Let's look at where their Hollow Holes were.
First Espada: Coyote Starrk, a naturally occurring Arrancar and a monster stronger than a Vasto Lorde. This unlucky kid's Hollow Hole was right in his chest, and it had been there at both the Adjuchas stage and the Vasto Lorde stage too. Frustrating, wasn't it?
Second Espada: Baraggan Louisenbairn, a Vasto Lorde. His Hollow Hole was his entire body. All his flesh was Hollow Hole, leaving only bones. Unless you were blind, you could tell at a glance that something was wrong with him. But supposedly he had only become that way as a Vasto Lorde; what he had been like at the Adjuchas stage was unknown.
Third Espada: two of them, Tier Harribel and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck. Both were Vasto Lorde.
Of the two girls, Shark Sister Tier Harribel had her Hollow Hole down there, a vertical opening into her abdomen. As a Vasto Lorde, it was beneath her tail, a very conspicuous black hole.
Our little Nel had her Hollow Hole in her head, which was also why she was a bit brain-damaged (actually, it was because number five had smashed her head). Big breasts and no brains, fair enough. But her mask happened to cover her Hollow Hole; the positions of the two eyes on the mask were where the Hollow Hole was.
Fourth Espada: Ulquiorra Cifer, a Vasto Lorde and the last Vasto Lorde among the Espada. This unlucky kid's Hollow Hole was in his chest too, making him the kind that was impossible to identify as a Vasto Lorde or Adjuchas no matter how hard you looked. His Vasto Lorde form was easy to recognize, though, because he was essentially humanoid and had pitch-black wings of Spiritual Power.
Fifth Espada: Nnoitra Gilga, an Adjuchas. This guy's Hollow Hole was his right eye. Simple and clear.
Sixth Espada: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, an Adjuchas. His Hollow Hole was in his lower abdomen, also visible at a glance.
Luppi Antenor, who replaced Grimmjow for a while, had his Hollow Holes in his hands. At the Adjuchas stage, he was a humanoid spider: the spider's main body was a person with eight legs, and his humanoid form had no hands. Normally, his Hollow Holes couldn't be seen, much like the Second Espada, Baraggan.
Seventh Espada: Zommari Rureaux, an Adjuchas. This idiot's Hollow Hole was on the right side of his chest, so it wasn't very easy to spot. But at the Adjuchas stage, he was a ball with a ring of Hollow Holes, making him relatively easy to observe in his original form.
Eighth Espada: Szayelaporro Granz, an Adjuchas. This pervert's Hollow Hole was in his lower body.
Ninth Espada: Aaroniero Arruruerie. This guy was a Gillian, and although he was a variant, the position of his Hollow Hole hadn't changed.
Tenth Espada: Yammy Llargo, an Adjuchas. This unlucky kid also had his Hollow Hole in his chest, making him impossible to identify.
Look at that: twelve—eleven in all who were Adjuchas or above, and four had Hollow Holes in their chests. Frustrating, wasn't it? Miss it at a glance and you'd take one for an ordinary Hollow. And what happened when one was mistaken for an ordinary Hollow? Of course you'd go up and cut it down. You, an ordinary Soul Reaper, going after an Adjuchas with a sword!? Going after a Vasto Lorde!!? Even if you were tired of living, that was no way to throw your life away!
That was why the Expedition parties that had suffered so badly over the years had mostly run into Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde with Hollow Holes in their chests. Some might even have encountered Ulquiorra.
The Expedition in which Aizen's mother had died in battle had encountered a Vasto Lorde with a Hollow Hole in its chest. Jun now had clearance to read those files. It was a Vasto Lorde with a helmet bearing a bighorn sheep's horns, one that had never appeared in the original story.
Jun didn't know whether he would be lucky this time either, but one day, two months into the Expedition, the team discovered a Special Menos Grande.
Once inside the Forest of Menos, they had to watch and listen in every direction. They especially had to avoid using Kidō there. Soul Reapers were best off not using any Spiritual Power at all in Hueco Mundo.
The light from signals did little to stimulate Hollows. Hollows were different from Soul Reapers: their senses actually relied entirely on perceiving Reishi, and they barely responded to other stimuli.
Of course, that applied to ordinary Hollows. Some Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde had senses no different from those of Soul Reapers. Gillians fell somewhere in between; after all, they had at least some brains, and their eyes weren't just for show.
Jun's team was out in front as usual. Jun didn't have much faith in the other teams' strength, but he was confident in his own. He believed that even if they encountered a Gillian, he could deal with it. Letting someone else take the lead would only make an emergency more troublesome.
This time, however, three rest signals had passed without a single Hollow appearing. Jun felt something was wrong.
"Send the emergency signal and call everyone together."
The Expedition quickly assembled, and Jun asked, "Has any team recorded a kill so far during this operation?"
Everyone shook their heads. Jun said cautiously, "I think we've seen this situation before."
"You mean a Menos Grande died?" Kensei Muguruma rubbed his chin.
"I think so."
"If that's the case, then that Menos Grande should have been dead for a while."
Jun nodded. "I think so too, but isn't it too quiet? Every time we killed a Gillian before, the area would be in an uproar for quite a while, with countless Hollows fighting over its corpse. But this time, there must be some special circumstance."
"You mean something above a Gillian?"
"It's possible."
Everyone swallowed. This was no joke. Even the three powerhouses from the First Division tightened their grips on their swords.
Kensei Muguruma considered it for a long time before finally saying, "We keep moving. Our Expedition's mission is to discover special Menos Grande. But thanks to Jun's warning and these unusual circumstances, we've already gained something. Everyone! Stay on maximum alert!"
"Understood!" The group kept their voices low, but their resolve was firm. They had to stay on maximum alert! Knowing there might be an Adjuchas nearby was probably bad enough, but if it turned out to be a Vasto Lorde, oh mama~
"Close up the distance between teams. Move out~"
When they set off again, the teams closed the gaps between them. This time, everyone watched in every direction, above and below; not even a mosquito would escape their notice. Before long, the leader from the Seventh Division activated an emergency signal.
Everyone assembled at once. They saw the Seventh Division leader pointing in one direction and looked that way. Many of them couldn't see anything, but anyone standing beside the leader could.
Far in the distance, two great trees blocked the view from every other angle, leaving only a narrow gap through which they could see the other side. There was a black mist there, the corpse of a Gillian, along with the corpses of many, many more ordinary Hollows.
"What do we do?"
The pressure on Kensei Muguruma mounted now. Who knew what sort of thing was over there? Kensei swallowed. "Move toward it, slowly. Above all, be careful."
"Understood!"
Their formation was even tighter this time. The group essentially stopped to regroup after every Shunpo, edging closer bit by bit. They passed the first great tree blocking their view, then the second. By then, they could see Hollow corpses covering the ground.
Hollows were different from Soul Reapers. Their corpses remained for a long time after death. Once a Hollow's true body, its mask, turned into Reishi, its corpse would vanish instantly. That was why, when fighting a Hollow, one struck the mask. Once the mask broke, the Hollow was dead.
So many Hollow corpses really were a strange sight. Most of the black mist was concealed behind another tree root. The group circled around and finally saw what they had come to see.
It was a huge beetle-shaped Hollow, somewhat resembling a rhinoceros beetle, with an enormous spear-like horn jutting from its front. There was a conspicuous Hollow Hole on the shaft of the horn. The giant beetle was eating the Gillian's corpse as well as the corpses of the other Hollows, refusing nothing and happily devouring everything.
The group's breathing grew sluggish. They simply watched the thing eat and eat, not daring to make a single move.