• A man, whom looked to be about in his thirties, sat in shadow on a white throne, a crooked grin on his face. “Finally,” he said, “I have waited so long for this day.” From within his throat sounded a chuckle, which grew into triumphant laughter, echoing off the ancient walls of his headquarters…

    “The Hollow should be just over there!” exclaimed Rukia, pointing forward. She, Ichigo, Orihime, and Uryu had just left school to exterminate a Hollow that had appeared. They soon arrived at a park, and just ahead of them was a Hollow. Ichigo took a few steps forward, ready to kill the creature, when suddenly, a hole formed in the sky and the stench of rotting flesh washed over them. A pair of massive hands and a gigantic head slowly appeared from within the hole. On the ground below, the Hollow turned to run from the beast, but a forked tongue, dripping with green saliva, snaked its way forward from the newcomer’s horrendous maw, wrapping around the Hollow’s torso.

    Ichigo and his friends stared, shocked, at what was occurring before them. As the monster pulled the Hollow into its gaping mouth and sank its two rows of razor-sharp teeth into its prey, Ichigo dashed forward, leapt, and plunged his Zanpakuto right into the top of the creature’s snout. It let out a chilling screech, dropping the Hollow and flailing its head side to side. Eventually, the blade of Ichigo’s Zanpakuto came loose from the creature’s snout, and he was sent flying. Blood and a few chunks of rotting skin fell to the ground, and the monster retreated into the hole from which it came, said hole shrinking and sealing shut.

    “What in the world…” said Uryu, his eyes wide. A shout was heard from Ichigo, and a moment later, the substitute soul reaper landed on the ground with a loud thud, having fallen from the tree he landed in. “What the hell was that thing?!” he exclaimed, hopping to his feet…

    -----

    “Hey!” shouted Ichigo, barging into Urahara’s shop, “Mister Hat-N-Clogs!”

    “What’s up, Ichigo?” replied Urahara, a cup of tea in hand.
    “Do you know of any kind of creature other than a Hollow or a Bount?”
    “I might.”

    “We saw this big monster, earlier,” said Orihime, “It was really big and kind of ugly, and when Ichigo stabbed it, it made a screeching noise that hurt my ears, and there were parts of its skin missing, so you could see its muscles in places, and boy did it stink!”

    “That sounds sorta familiar,” answered Urahara, “but I’m still not sure.”

    “Its tongue was kinda split, and it had green spit! Oh! That rhymes! Anyway, it suddenly came out and grabbed this Hollow with its tongue and tried to eat the Hollow!”

    “Oh, now I remember!” said Urahara. Suddenly, his expression became rather grave. “Uh oh.” he continued.

    “‘Uh oh’?” replied Ichigo, “What do you mean ‘uh oh’?!”

    “I believe that what you saw was a creature called a Shinkuu,” explained Urahara, his usual immaturity gone without a trace, “Over five thousand years ago, all the Shinkuu were sealed away by the soul reapers and the Quincies. Also sealed away were a handful of rogue soul reapers.”

    “Rogue soul reapers?” asked Ichigo.

    “They had decided to join the Shinkuu and start their own organization,” answered Urahara.

    “Urahara, why haven’t I heard of Shinkuu before?” inquired Rukia.

    “I haven’t heard of them, either,” Uryu put in.

    “Very few people know about ‘em. No one thought the Shinkuu would ever escape,” came the answer, “It seems sealing them away won’t do the job. I just wonder how they survived all this time.”