Hueco Mundo offered no fanfare for conquest.
No sounds of chatter. No thunder. Just silence, broken by the hiss of the wind dragging sand across shattered bone and sand.
Kira Ankoku stood atop a jagged ridge of ivory-colored stone. Below her, a shallow valley stretched wide with a depression carved by erosion and long-dead battles. Now, it would be hers.
Her territory.
For now, it was just a scar in the desert.
Soon, it would be a symbol of fear for those hollows who wished to challenge or enslave her.
The Pale Court, as she would name it, had no walls, no gates, no civilization. It had only her will and the broken bodies of those who had tried to defy it.
A group of hollows clustered near the basin's base, low-level scavengers with fragmentary masks and desperate movements. Most weren't even Menos just wandering predators drawn to her spiritual pressure, sniffing around her edges like dogs unsure whether to bark or bow.
She watched them.
"Lorisveil," she called.
A rustle of sound. Then the thin, gangling form of her scout Hollow appeared beside her in a flicker of motion, wings stretched awkwardly like a torn cloth in the wind.
"Eight new ones since morning," Lorisveil rasped. "Three fought over a corpse. Two tried to sneak into our territory. One called you 'the blue-eyed bitch queen.' I devoured his throat."
Kira did not turn. "Feed the remains to the lesser hollows. Scatter their broken masks around the edge of our territory so those fools know where they can and cannot enter."
Lorisveil nodded and vanished.
Behind her, the hulking, scar-shelled form of Turtlemourne rumbled forward — slow, deliberate, armored like a walking fortress. He carried the mangled body of a hollow under one arm like a sack of rice.
"Resisted recruitment," the beast grunted.
Kira raised a brow. "How far did he get before you intervened?"
"Three steps. He was loud."
"Leave him. Mount him on a stake."
She turned then, descending the slope slowly, her worn waraji or straw sandals crunching sand into glass. The moment her foot touched the lower basin, dozens of eyes turned to her.
They felt it. Her spiritual pressure. It wasn't overwhelming like a captain's. It didn't crush or paralyze.
It persuaded.
Her zanpakutō, Hōtei no Kōi, hung at her side not drawn, but present. Whispering. It didn't need to shout. It reached inside them, curling fingers into their instinct and twisting them gently.
"This one is not prey."
"This one gives order."
"Obey her. And be spared."
Kira's gaze moved over the hollow pack. One stepped forward a tall, wiry creature with scorpion-like legs and a skeletal crown that wrapped around its forehead.
"You are strong," it hissed. "But strength feeds strength. What can you give us? What right do you have to rule?"
Kira paused. Looked down at her hand. She flexed her fingers.
Then, quietly, she drew her sword.
"Shinrai," she said, activating her Shikai.
The release was subtle — no blinding light, no explosion. Just a hum that settled into the bones. The air bent slightly, reality tilted two degrees to the left before returning to normal, and suddenly… the hollows looked at her differently.
Not as an enemy or food.
But as a thing they already believed in.
Kira stepped forward and placed a hand on the challenger's mask. The creature didn't resist.
"You asked what I give. I give you the opportunity to serve my purpose. I give you the chance to become a Menos class hollow."
She turned her palm downward.
"I give you fear should you fail me. I give you pain and death should you refuse to obey."
Her blade moved. One slash. Not to kill just to wound and get her point across. Just enough for blood to spill, and for pain to register.
The Hollow screamed.
Then stopped.
Kira crouched, locking eyes with him.
"Now… serve."
Its eyes behind the mask flickered. The hollow's body shivered as it stared into Kira's eyes. It dropped to one knee.
And the rest followed.
Dozens, all kneeling in a ripple of silent submission. Making the strongest knell always caused the lesser ones to follow suit. No matter the creature this was the law of nature.
She had seen this once before not just from the hollows, but from nobles and the souls of Rukongai in the Soul Society. This became more evident during the brief moment of her family's rise in the political courts. She herself to this day was taught to never look her parents in the eye as she was beneath them and had to behave as such.
Kira remembered thinking then that legacy was about being at the top.
She now knew better.
Legacy was about staying at the top and never letting your rule falter. After all, it is the winners who tell history as they please.
She sheathed her blade.
By day's end, a crude boundary had been established not with stone or spells, but with the mask of the defeated. The impaled remains of those who defied her now formed a circle of silent guardians at the basin's edge. Smoke curled from two pyres at opposite ends. The hollows patrolled in pairs, enforced by Lorisveil's scouts.
She watched from a raised stone platform where her makeshift seat had been carved. It had become more of an altar than a throne. Turtlemourne stood beside her like a hulking shadow, unmoving.
"Why do they follow?" she asked aloud, more to herself than anyone.
Turtlemourne grunted. "Because you can do what they could not."
"No. That's not enough. If a stronger foe appears then they will abandon me."
She looked down at the blade in her hands again. The ability of her Shikai would fade eventually, and when it did these soldiers would serve out of fear. Unlike the Menos she controlled they were not valuable enough for her to constantly spend her Reiryoku to keep them.
She had given these creatures something more than fear to cement her rule after the suggestion faded.
She had to show them proof of concept. She had to show she could turn a hollow into a Gillian while keeping its personality and then allow it to become an Adjuchas. The problem however was that she didn't have enough Reiryoku to control another Adjuchas. She could control another Gillian but not an Adjuchas.
She looked at Turtlemourne and thought of the scouting Lorisveil who was not here. They were the oldest of her followers. If she wanted complete control of other Adjuchas she would need to release them. Could she trust them to still obey after that or would she be forced to make them submit just again?
She needed lieutenants who chose to follow her out of loyalty soon.