Hollow

Biodata

Power Progression

Characteristics

Hollows vary considerably in shape and size. The group Jun first encountered included blue- and gray-bodied creatures, not all humanoid, with masks covering their faces and fist-sized holes in their bodies 19.

• Mask: The mask is described as a Hollow’s true body. When it breaks and turns into Reishi, the Hollow dies and its corpse vanishes 41.
• Hollow Hole: Ordinary Hollows and Gillians have holes in their chests. A hole elsewhere identifies an Adjuchas or Vasto Lorde, but a chest hole does not rule out either class 41.
• Intelligence: Ordinary Hollows act on instinct, while Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde can make complex decisions. Some exceptional Hollows differ from the usual pattern: many of Karakura Town’s mutated Hollows retain humanity temporarily and can speak before reaching Gillian level 43 133.
• Territorial aura: Hollows naturally give off an instinctive fluctuation that warns others of the same level away from their territory 181.

Abilities and Behavior

Feeding and Spiritual Power

Hollows can sense and devour Reishi, and they consume other beings, including Hollows, as food. Spiritual Power can attract them: Jun drew Hollows toward him with threads of power, while Ichigo’s power transfers drew Hollows from surrounding areas 19 135.

• Ordinary Hollows may eventually wear down and kill humans who cannot fight back, even when they cannot immediately overcome a person’s defenses 227.
• A Gillian’s death signal drew a mass of Hollows to its corpse during an expedition, forcing the Soul Reapers to retreat 41.
• Hollows can travel from Hueco Mundo to the World of the Living through a Garganta 135 182.

Innate Abilities

Hollows develop individual defining abilities at the Adjuchas stage 45 87.

• Starrk’s Reiatsu circle was a passive Hollow ability powerful enough to kill Gillians that came near him 43 45.
• The rhinoceros beetle Hollow possessed a special ability to sense sound 45.
• Grimmjow’s Vanishing Reiatsu lets him conceal himself, or part of his Spiritual Power, from Reiatsu sensing 199.

Cero

Gillian-level Hollows can use Cero, an attack Isuzu had to avoid while fighting them. Arrancar also use Ceros; during the Wandenreich’s incursion into Hueco Mundo, a barrage wiped out the first wave of enemy soldiers 67 247.

Hollowfication and Arrancar Transformation

• Hollowfication: Soul Reapers can acquire Hollow power and use masks. Ashido Kanō completed the process with Kuruyashiki’s help, but Jun considered earlier methods dangerous because participants had to survive the transformation themselves 101 107.
• Living-human Hollowfication: Kūgo Ginjō began transforming while alive after killing people and consuming their souls. Hollows arrived through a Garganta and fought him and his corrupted Dead Souls 135.
• Arrancar catalysis: Jun used the Hōgyoku on captured Adjuchas, learning to synchronize his Spiritual Power with theirs to achieve successful transformations. He also used it to transform a Vasto Lorde whose body received Isuzu’s humanity 121.
• Jun’s theory: Jun argued that Hollows begin with instinct and gain humanity through their development, while Soul Reapers begin with humanity and seek instinct through Hollowfication. He considered Resurrección and subsequent development part of the Arrancar path 97 218.

Habitat and History

Hueco Mundo contains vast Hollow populations across regions including the Forest of Menos, Silent Sand Sea and Endless Sea. Hollows also invade Soul Society and appear in the World of the Living; Rukia estimated that the known population numbered in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million 82 134.

According to the ancient Arrancar Arturo, Hueco Mundo was once the world of the dead. Hollows frequently devoured the weaker dead; as Hollows evolved into Adjuchas, Vasto Lorde and Arrancar, the Arrancar formed tribes. Conflict escalated into war after the Son of Heaven united factions of the dead and established a way to bring the dead directly into their territory 235.

In the later war against Baraggan’s Hollow army, Soul Reapers launched a surprise attack in Hueco Mundo. Captains fought Vasto Lorde while other fighters struggled against the remaining Adjuchas and the much larger Hollow force 66. A subsequent Soul Society victory devastated the Baraggan Empire, after which it concentrated on recruiting stronger Hollows rather than ordinary ones 88.

Relations with Soul Reapers

Soul Society patrols and expeditions routinely hunt Hollows. Before Jun’s first encounter with them, Nana Onibe reported killing thirteen alone and another thirty-one with others over fifty-one years as a Soul Reaper 19.

Jun challenged the idea that intelligent Hollows and Soul Reapers were natural enemies. He formed an alliance with Arrancar in the Endless Sea and later argued that neither group had an inherent reason to hate the other 95 180.