Wandering White Cat, Kari Matsuro [Hollow]

The Witch Hunts of the 1500s. A lethal time for some spiritual creatures, something of a godsend for others. A time of death and rebirth for this one. Caught at the wrong place and the wrong time, this cat was burned as a witch's familiar (alongside the 'witch' herself). Unfortunately, all was not as it seemed; the executioner himself was the one preforming the magic, an Iramasha in hiding, in need of a scapegoat. Condemning an old spinster and a wandering black cat in exchange for one's own life... it seems like a despicable choice, but when your life is on the line, it's not an especially hard one for some people. Still, the Iramasha wasn't completely heartless, and through his magic, attempted to grant the duo a less painful death and ease their passage into the afterlife.

So thus a cat and a woman met their ends... but for some, the end is just another beginning. Cats are considered to have a connection to the supernatural, and for good reason. Tainted with spiritual energies of the Iramasha, the cat became a bit more... aware. Aware enough to notice that it's impending doom was little more than random chance. Aware enough to resent it's fate, to use that resentment to nourish the soul. Aware enough to stick around as a spirit, rather than merely giving up like the so-called 'witch'. The years passed and eventually the village was attacked by a Hollow and destroyed, the Iramasha lethally wounded and left to die as "unappetizing". Paying little attention to the spectral cat, the Hollow was tricked into tripping over and yanking out the cat's Chain of Fate. Becoming a small Hollow itself, the cat slew the weakened Iramasha and consumed what Aether it could before the Iramasha dissipated. Slipping into the Hollow's Garganta as it fled the dispatched Shinigami, this cat simply hadn't been noticed at all.

Now, for most small Hollows the Reishi density of Hueco Mundo would be enough for their nourishment. Too weak to get stronger, too weak for other hollows to bother with, these minor Hollows typically live doing not much of anything. Needless to say, this wasn't enough for the cat. At the awkward position of being dissatisfied with just the ambient Reishi, but too weak to hunt humans even if it could get back... the plentiful minor Hollows became the cat's prey. Unlike most Hollows who feast on human souls before eventually progressing to their fellow Hollows, this cat started on the path to evolution quite early, getting stronger and stronger until she too was strong enough to begin hunting more 'normal' Hollows. Eventually, she figured out how to create her own Garganta, slipping back into the human realm to find much had changed. The witch hunts were over. Iron structures dot the unfamiliar coastline. No matter, Prey is still Prey.

With each successive soul, Human and Hollow, the cat became a bit more aware. Aware enough to consider various possibilities, to read them like a book. Aware enough to avoid getting caught in the wrong places at the wrong time. Aware enough to learn to communicate with the Prey, and to chose a name for herself in this newly learned language. Thus, the cat, henceforth known as [Kari Matsuro], began learning about modern society rather than merely preying on it, finding this strange land to be Japan.

First was language, second was war. When the Russo-Japanese War ended in 1905, Kari had fed quite nicely. This 'feeding' included both souls and knowledge; Kari's first contact with weapons, then-modern technology, a healthy dose of tactics, an expanded view of the world, and other wartime staples. On the spiritual side of things, it was also her first contact with the concept of 'vampires', although Kari dismissed it as largely unimportant to her at the time. A bit of peace and then... another war. With WWI starting in 1914, this was Kari's first opportunity to begin exploring the rest of the world. Slipping from country to country, she ended up in Russia just in time for the 1917 Revolution and Civil War a year later. Russia's climate wasn't the best for this cat, however, so between feedings she spent many of her nights back in Hueco Mundo. It was at this time that she found out about Aizen and the Espada... which she once more dismissed as fairly unimportant to her. After all, who'd pay attention to a small Hollow like Kari? Who'd assume a cat was even intelligent enough to follow orders, strong enough to become subordinate to one of the Espada? As such, Kari continued to sneak around the fringes of history, unnoticed, feeding on souls and knowledge alike.

Around 1933, Kari slipped into Germany, unknowingly just in time for Hitler's rise to power, and roughly six years later, the start of WWII. While this cat certainly never cared about the political side of things, the carnage of war makes for quite a feast for a Hollow. So, she followed the army around for a couple of years until the Holocaust began... it shouldn't be hard to figure out why. Eventually the end of the war drew near, and with easy food starting to run out, she slipped out of the concentration camps when the US Army began liberating them, hitching a ride to America, though as a result she missed the nuking of Japan and, over the next few decades, the trouble brewing in the middle east...

From here, Kari took interest in American culture, for a time anyways. She spent far less time in Hueco Mundo than she used to, staying on Earth for decades at a time. The only notable meals were during the Civil Rights movement, but that was fine. More time to explore, to wander around in America's cities and countrysides, more time to sneak into it's libraries and learn. Eventually, the 2000's rolled around. A time of great change for the spiritual world, perhaps, but Kari simply missed Aizen's preparations in Hueco Mundo, being too far from Las Noches to hear more than vague rumors and rumblings, still paying very little attention to anything but Earth. Missing Aizen's war against Soul Society, knowing nothing of the fighting in Japan... unaware of the Ender, and even the war against the Soul King... but that too, was fine. Better than getting caught in the crossfire, of being eliminated as small fry, not even a footnote in the pages of history, no? Of course, Kari only learned of these events after the fact, during the short era of relative peace following these major events.

That peace was not to last, however, and this time it was not trouble Kari could take advantage of. The massive uprising of Hollows, Arrancar, Demons, and by extension, the presence of forces dedicated to slaying these invaders made life quite difficult for Kari, in fact, forcing her to retreat not only to Hueco Mundo, but deep within the Forest of Menos, avoiding not only her foes, but even the Hollow's new leadership and eventually the introduction of the Dues Ex Engine as well. Only now is she returning to the world, shocked at the desolation, at the current state of... well, everything.

Acid Skill: Many Hollow's have been known to display abilities that seem to cause acid-like damage to opponents. For example, When a Hollow grabs a Human with their hands, the spot where the person was grabbed is shown to get burned as if acid were poured onto it. Thus, as the years seemed to have progressed, this Acidic Touch has been advanced to the point where it effects all beings and gets stronger with each level. More advanced Acid Users will even be able to create varying effects for their acid such as with Custom Cero's.

Garganta: Garganta IS how Hollows and Arrancar move to and from Hueco Mundo. Though, due to recent discoveries by Zin Yuudeshi, it has been advanced to where it can even be used for speed-like purposes. For example, some advanced Hollow are now able to use this trait to form Garganta's for combat uses such as trapping attack's in them, unleashing hidden attacks or modifying the path that leads to Hueco Mundo to different realms. Therefore, as you increase your Garganta skill, these skills will come to your Hollow. Along with that, for each higher skill level, you will eventually be able to summon them much more quickly to use them for combat or defense.

Cero/Bala: Cero's are highly explosive energy-based attacks that can be shot off from almost any part of an Arrancar or Hollow's body. This is something the Arrancar and Hollow are known and feared for as some cero's have been displayed to wipe entire villages or town's clean off the map. To a lesser extent, however, Bala's to be weaker, but faster versions of the cero because they took too much time to generate and were must quicker. Therefore, the higher you are in this field, the more powerful, precise and quicker your cero's or bala's become. Along with that, those with higher skills in Cero can charge their blasts faster and begin to learn varying custom Cero's. (I.E. learning how to make an ice based cero or fire based cero; one of the most common variants.)

Regeneration: This is the ability that allows a Hollow to heal most injuries very quickly, with the exception of the destruction of the head or vital organs. With that said, the higher your level is with regeneration, the more quickly and efficiently your hollow will heal. Eventually, if you reach a high enough level, you will discover new ways to enhance this such as regeneration limbs, some fatal blows and things of this nature.

"Another day in this accursed stone forest... When will I be able to leave, i wonder?"
...Not soon, Kari reckoned. Too often was there motion above the canopy, too many Arrancar intruding upon the forest, seeking followers and new troops. Forests... Kari was quite familiar with forests, having lived in a few over the years... Lush green forests, Snow-capped white ones... But now wasn't a good time for a trip down memory lane. She was being hunted, as she herself had hunted many Hollows in her time. What would her opponent do next... Kari hadn't known many patient Hollows, and this one seemed particularly self centered. He probably wasn't driving her into an ambush, because this type of Hollow wouldn't seek out allies... Cero, perhaps, aimed to directly disable her? As Kari ran, her fur rose at the thought... yes, quite likely. Her foe seemed to be a rash one, focused on her and her alone, not the type to try knocking down the many stone trees around them, to try blocking her path. At that moment... movement above her? Another foe? An Arrancar patrolling the surface? ...No more time to consider, Kari's instincts told her. She jumped with a twist, opening a Garganta just in time to absorb the very Cero she had expected, a crimson blaze with enough power to erase any trace of her had it actually hit. Her foe was... probably Adjuchas rank, and strong, even by their standards. Surprising that a Hollow of that rank would attack with such reckless abandon when trying to merely subdue prey, rather than annihilate a hated foe. How had a Hollow of such low intelligence made it that far...? An explosion above the canopy sent loose stone tumbling down around her as she landed, and not a moment later a Cero shot back out of the Garganta she had used to redirect her impending doom, this one a deep black. Seems the unknown Hollow above the canopy had mistaken her foe for some upstart, and thought her own Garganta was a bad attempt at a sneak attack by said upstart. That was fine by Kari. While they fought over that perceived slight, she could slip away quietly, ever deeper into the Forest of Menos...

"My travels, you ask? Ah, I suppose I can spare enough time for a story before my next hunt..." -Kari Matsuro, Witch of Fate
"It wasn't a large town, not by any stretch of the imagination. If you compared it to the village of my first rebirth, perhaps, but that was in the distant past. Nothing too impressive ever happened here, not like that distant land of Germany, with it's concentration camps, and the plethora of souls to devour... No, nothing especially important about this town in the grand scheme of things. Still, it was peaceful, that much was certain. For awhile I found lodging with an old man, surprisingly aware enough to see me. I was still a cat Hollow, back then. The old man carried the stench of death about him, but I was used to that. He was kind, but more importantly, he seemed to attract Hollows like myself. An easy source of meals, rare in those days I spent in America, and he seemed to understand that I was protecting him from the perils of the supernatural, even if he never caught a glimpse of my prey. Seemed to understand that his friend, that strange masked cat, was the very same as the creatures she protected him from, but that her hunger -my hunger- wasn't as mindless as the Hollows I dined on. That I was more than just a strange, monstrous white kitty cat nobody else could see, and that I thirsted for knowledge with a passion that matched his own. He would often allow me to roam his personal library, though not having opposable thumbs at the time made handling the books there a bit of a nuisance. Eventually his body failed him, and he died, with one final question in his mind: What was it like to be eaten by a Hollow, he had wondered. I allowed him to experience the answer personally, and that was that. Hmm? What's that you say? You expected a different ending, for the story to last a bit longer? This isn't a fairy tail, y'know. Life isn't always as dramatic as we might want it to be; take the time to appreciate peace, and the conveniences in life. One dramatic event may be enough to strip that all away, as the invasion of Demons and Hollows so long ago had, and you may find yourself regretting that wish for drama. Was I part of that invasion? No, but that's a story for another time..."