His vision blurred, the blood that dripped from his forehead traveled down his face. He could taste the coppery fluid in his mouth as he coughed up blood from cracked ribs. "Damnit!" he said through gritted teeth. Ichigo watched that monster devour the soul of a small girl. Her screams flooding his ears as the crunch of bone and sinew soon replaced it. "I'm not strong enough...I need to be stronger.." he winced, trying once more to stand. What was this thing? He had never seen anything like it, what did that girl say before? "A hollow?" he remembered what that girl had said, and she had called herself a "soul reaper" he had never heard of these things before, but he realized he could not beat this thing, this hollow. "Please....." he pleaded, though no one else was there. The girl...Rukia or something...had told him not to chase fter this thing, but he had been stupid and proud and had anyway.