Menos Grande were divided into three levels, while Ragged Hollows could be divided into at least five.
The first level consisted of the weakest small Hollow beasts, which lived in Hueco Mundo year-round. There, they could survive simply by breathing the Reishi in the air and did not need to eat. Perhaps they were formed from the transformed souls of animals such as puppies and kittens after death.
The second level consisted of Hollows that arose in the World of the Living. These Hollows were former humans, most of whom had been prevented from ascending because of lingering attachments or various other reasons, causing them to fall and become Hollows.
They were very weak in combat, and the vast majority had neither special abilities nor reason. They did nothing but devour souls to fill the holes that appeared in their bodies.
Third-level Hollows might possess a little reason. They evolved from the second level, though a few unusual ones were born at this level. They were somewhat stronger in combat and considerably larger than second-level Hollows.
Fourth-level Hollows were much bigger, usually around ten meters tall. Some had evolved abilities of their own, and their combat strength was considerably greater than that of many third-level Hollows.
Fifth-level Hollows could no longer be called ragged; Giant Hollow was a more suitable name. They were generally over ten meters tall, with some reaching fifty-odd meters. Most possessed self-awareness, and neither their strength nor their speed was lacking.
Only by evolving further could a Giant Hollow become a Gillian-class Menos Grande. The process was extremely dangerous and could cause a Giant Hollow to lose its self-awareness, becoming a Gillian that acted on instinct or under an Adjuchas's command.
If a Giant Hollow evolved into a Gillian, retained its self-awareness, and avoided being killed, it was certain to evolve from a Gillian into an Adjuchas...
Yanis, an Adjuchas-class Menos Grande, was a born powerhouse. He had already possessed reason back when he was a third-level Ragged Hollow, and he had even evolved an ability of his own, Body Possession.
He had gradually possessed his way from a Ragged Hollow to a Giant Hollow, then evolved from a Giant Hollow into a self-aware Gillian before finally becoming an Adjuchas.
Yanis used his tail stinger to inject Reishi carrying his consciousness into an enemy. The Reishi would instantly hide within the target's body, then erase the target's consciousness and change the possessed body's Reishi structure into Yanis's own.
He usually used his tail stinger to pierce his opponent's head, instantly erasing their consciousness and replacing it with his own...
But Yanis's use of Body Possession this time was different from many previous occasions. Before, he had pretended to be defeated and launched a sneak attack when his opponent tried to devour him. He had also struck the back of the head or the temple in a single attempt, making it easy to erase his opponent's consciousness.
This time, however, he had used it on a powerful soul possessing the powers of a Soul Reaper. His opponent not only had a consciousness of his own, but also the consciousness of a Zanpakuto. The two had joined forces against him...
Rei had already entered his inner world to fight Yanis alongside Kurenai. They needed to restrain him first; everything else could wait.
With both Rei and Kurenai rejecting him, Yanis was already hard-pressed. His core was in Rei's left palm, exactly where the Reishi tail stinger had pierced him.
His Reishi had forcibly invaded a large area of the arm, including the shoulder, and sent his consciousness into Rei's mind—his inner world—to seize his body. It felt somewhat like an attack launched from a great distance.
After another exchange of blows, Yanis's consciousness was forced into a corner of the inner world. Rei and Kurenai stood to either side, sharing a single Blood Drink.
Rei wielded the main blade, while Kurenai swung its constantly lengthening chain, lashing out at Yanis without warning.
Now close to the edge of the inner world, Yanis retreated no farther. If he left this inner world, he would probably be instantly suppressed back into the palm, and then Rei would only need to draw his sword and cut the hand off.
"Oh? You've backed up against the boundary wall, but you don't want to go out. Let me guess what you're afraid of... Are you afraid you won't be able to get back in once you leave?"
Rei seemed to have seen through Yanis's thoughts. Seeing the expression on the Black version of himself twitch, Rei knew his guess was almost certainly right.
"You can't restore the flesh I've already invaded. You can only cut it away. But I've invaded half your brain. Can you still live without it?"
Yanis sounded confident, but his expression and the look in his eyes were somewhat incongruous. Perhaps he had worn a mask for so many years that he had forgotten he no longer had one to hide his expression.
Perhaps he simply didn't know he had no mask, or that his face was exactly the same as Rei's.
"Hahahahaha! Then why don't you dare leave the world of consciousness? Enough talk. Kurenai, let's tie him up and throw him out."
"How many times have I told you? Don't call me Kurenai!"
Rei laughed excitedly. Blood Drink protested the nickname somewhat, but the two of them seized the chain and lunged forward.
"Bastards... Bala, Cero!"
Yanis roared, firing Bala and Cero in an unbroken barrage, but after fighting for so long, his Reiryoku could no longer keep up.
That was the situation now. Yanis seized a chance to hit Rei with a Bala, but all that appeared was a little red lightning. No Bala emerged at all. He had exhausted his Reiryoku.
"Damn it..."
"Haha, you don't even have the strength to use that little move anymore? You'll be forced out next, won't you?"
Yanis's embarrassed expression made Rei laugh. Kurenai's lips also curled into a devilish smile. The Hollow had made a complete mess of his Zanpakuto World... unforgivable.
No matter how the battle in the inner world went, Rei's body outside showed no sign of going berserk. His own consciousness, aided by his Zanpakuto, completely suppressed Yanis.
And Yanis was not a Hollow modified by Aizen. Yanis possessed self-awareness, while those modified Hollows had little more than a desire to destroy...
"Will you get out or not? Will you get out or not? Get the hell out!"
"Aaah! If you kill my consciousness, the part of your body I've invaded will explode too. Go on, then... Aaah!"
The scene shifted. Yanis was bound in Blood Drink's extended dark-red chain and hung from a tree. Rei was whipping him with all his might, and Yanis howled without cease.
When Rei and Kurenai had caught Yanis earlier, they had tried to throw him out of this world by force, but failed. All they could do was keep whipping him and force him to leave on his own.
Yanis's consciousness had shrunk to about 1.2 meters tall from the beating. If it continued, his consciousness would dissipate.
"Then hurry up and set it off! I can hardly waiiit!"
"Yah! Ah! Oh! Bastard!"
The whip in Rei's hand never stopped. Yanis howled with every stroke, the two of them keeping a steady rhythm.
"Kurenai, your turn. I'm tired from whipping him, so I'm going out to rest for a bit. Keep him tied up like this. I need to think of a way to deal with him..."
"Yes!"
Kurenai took the whip, an ill-intentioned smile on his face... Ignoring Yanis's screams behind him, Rei turned and vanished from his inner world, returning to the outside world...
"Whew, whew, that was close!"
When Rei opened his eyes, he suddenly felt exhausted, and his Reiatsu had dropped very, very low. The fluctuations of Reiatsu coming from his left hand had almost disappeared as well.
The sky was already bright, and the bleeding from his hand had stopped. His left arm hung limply, completely devoid of strength. Rei had spent the entire night in his inner world, and the two different Reiatsu had continued clashing for the entire night.
"I've suppressed him for now, but the markings have spread all the way to my temple..."
Rei looked in the mirror. The six black markings indicated the area Yanis had invaded, and they did indeed extend from his left palm to his left temple.
From chatting with the man with the little mustache at home before, Rei had learned that Soul Reapers not only killed Hollows but also captured them alive. They used Kidō to restrain Hollows, but Rei had no idea how to use Kidō.
After turning it over in his mind, Rei came up with a way to gamble with his life: capture people and bleed them to fill Blood Drink's blood reservoir, allowing it to heal him at any time. Then he would enter his inner world and kill the consciousness of Yanis, the previously green-skinned, now black-skinned Hollow.
If the invaded part really exploded, it would depend on whether Blood Drink could heal him... That was the best plan Rei could think of. He picked up his Zanpakuto, threw on his cloak, and headed outside...
Not long after leaving the inn, Rei ran into Hirako's friend. After exchanging names, he learned that the man was called Tokisuke. When Rei asked, he learned that only three people from their group, including Hirako, had survived.
Tokisuke was now packing his things and preparing to become a Soul Reaper with Hirako so they could take revenge on the Hollows.
"By the way, do you know of any particularly vicious gangs around here?"
Rei called out to Tokisuke as he was about to leave and asked him about the area. There was still time, so he had not gone mad enough to seize random people and bleed them.
During the earlier battle, he had slashed and bled Hollows and humans indiscriminately because Yanis was chasing him and he had been forced to do so. Besides, Yanis was the one who had killed those people and Hollows with Bala. It had nothing to do with Rei himself, and his conscience was clear.
Tokisuke said in shock, "Huh? Why are you asking?"
Rei answered calmly, "My hands are itching. I want to kill a few people..."
"Uh... there's a small town twenty kilometers north of here. There's a really vicious group there. Quite a few Pluses couldn't stand their bullying and fled to our town to live. We fought them several times before, and after we defeated them repeatedly, they stopped coming..."
"Thanks!"
Tokisuke, still shaken, was somewhat frightened. He hurriedly told Rei everything he knew and directed him toward his group's longtime opponents...
Half a day later, Rei arrived at another small town in East Rukongai District 21. It was much as Tokisuke had described. Its area was at most half that of Hirako's town, and its population was certainly smaller as well.
Rei walked slowly into town. Before he could ask a Plus by the roadside for directions, angry curses rang out from a small shop ahead, and several disheveled drunks carrying swords emerged.
According to Tokisuke, someone from the Kira House, the town's only family, was a Soul Reaper. The family supported the twenty-odd members of this armed group, who often bullied the weak and feared the strong...
Rei followed the drunks and found the Kira House without the slightest effort. Four thug guards stood smoking at the entrance. The drunks greeted them and went inside.
Rei greeted them too, but was stopped...
"Hey, hold it! Who are you?"
"Take off your cloak, bastard!"
The thug guards shouted and hollered, and even the drunks turned around and came back out. Rei had no choice but to stop.
"Calling someone a bastard the first time you meet them... You're a bunch of bastards who deserve to die!"
Rei removed his cloak, revealing a devilish smile, and continued walking slowly through the gates of the Kira House...