The small Hollow has made up its mind on its next course of action. Fighting is the best option here, but it chooses something a bit different. It will fight while it flees. If it can get out from the way that it came in, then it'll be able to get away safely. Everyone in this room is more powerful than itself. The chaos will make damaging and potentially landing a fatal blow easier.

Dashing into the conflict, the small Hollow hears the Gorilla Hollows speaking to one another. "Good! Good, Gorba! Good!" The one that'd come in through the wall and grabbed Mae is speaking to the one currently fighting with an unarmed Kuroda. In its chest is a sword, one undoubtedly damaging it internally the more that it moves.

"Gorbo, quiet! Quiet!" Gorba complains, making various attempts to send their fist crashing into Kuroda, who gracefully leaps away from the ground-shattering punches.

"Huh?" Before Gorba can bring their fist from the ground, the small creature from before — the one that'd taken the Shinigami's eyes — jumps onto their arm. Sprinting up their arm, the small Hollow readies its lance, locking on to its target. 

Once it grew close enough, it thrusts its lance at the head of Gorba, who is too taken aback to react properly. 

The lance reaches its target, crashing into the mask of the massive Gorilla Hollow. The lance only manages to puncture enough of the mask to forge a crack in it. The small Hollow had never properly landed a blow on a Hollow's mask before, so it had no way of knowing just how durable they were. It'd be better off aiming for the body, which carries much less defense.

"Ugh! Move, dumb flea!" With surprising speed, Gorba's free hand moves to swat the small Hollow off of their body. 

During this assault, Gorba hadn't expected Kuroda to land on their chest, a tight hand gripping the sword plunged into their abdomen. With practiced precision, Kuroda draws his weapon from within Gorba as the small Hollow leaps over them, landing on the ground behind the Gorilla Hollow to continue its retreat.

"Three hollows in one place, this is going to be a fine report!" Mae has begun to engage in a brutal fight against Gorbo on his end. Each time the gorilla punches at him, he uses his sword to parry the punch aside, chipping at the bone-like gloves around the Hollow's knuckles. The bones subsequently damage the Shinigami's weapon altogether. Slowly, it is becoming chipped away at by the punches. If it continues this way, Mae will know death.

Death finds its way to the Shinigami unceremoniously, however. Time stops for all involved, except for the minute Hollow responsible.

Plunging through Mae's skull, popping out of the same socket that he'd narrowly avoided being stabbed through earlier, is a lance. Chunks of grotesque meat; brain matter, covered the sharp bone. "G-Grr-ghh...?" A disturbing noise of confusion comes from Mae's lips as he loses strength in his body. Collapsing to the floor like a puppet cut from its strings, Mae lands face-first on the ground.

When his head connects with the ground, blood splatters messily throughout the area. A pool of red liquid coats the white-haired man's corpse.

Opposite from their position, Kuroda watches in disbelief. Mae, his faithful partner, had been stabbed in the back of the head by the small Hollow that they were hunting. Mae was undoubtedly stronger than the creature, but to be caught off guard like that was nothing but disappointing. "Mae... You idiot...!" The disbelief he felt quickly turned into disappointment, but that disappointment further developed into rage.

The further Kuroda's anger develops, the more that the aura in the air becomes dense. "Gorba!" Gorbo yells out to Gorba, the one nearest to the enraged Shinigami. "Jump!" Gorbo gave a warning that Gorba was not able to heed.

"Appear, Eightfold Midnight!" The weapon in the man's hands expands unnaturally. The blade stretches out and twists, opening in a strange manner. The blade he holds turns itself into a massive fan: a tessen. At his feet, where he stands, the ground begins to warp, changing in quality and properties.

Gorbo feels the looming danger, but the small Hollow feels it even more than the gorilla. Without a word, the small Hollow is the first to make its exit from the scene, leaping from the opening in the wall that it came in through.

Mercilessly, Kuroda grips the fan with two hands as Gorba, who's grown frightened by the newfound power in the Shinigami, throws another punch at the man. Carelessly shifting its weight proves to have unanticipated consequences for Gorba.

The floor beneath the gorilla warps itself, throwing the creature's balance off track. Gorbo, who was further away, was in a similar predicament as Gorba. The Hollows find themselves unable to move as they sink into the ground. It's like the world around them is melting as the ceiling starts to drip over their heads. "W-What is happening?!" Gorbo yells, fighting against the suction of the floor.

Fighting only made things worse for the Hollows. The more they fought, the further they sunk into the floor. They didn't get to experience the suffocation that'd follow from being wrapped in the environment. Like a profound act of mercy, their deaths would be in the form of being atomized.

One swipe of the fan is all it took for the building's entire structure to uplift. Fragments of the structure ravage the bodies of the Hollows who are enraptured by the melting establishment. Weaponizing the structure itself, like an artillery barrage, sharp chunks of the building are sent flying into the air, far out of sight.

Gorba and Gorbo, in the middle of this disaster, had no chance of survival whatsoever. The collateral damage unleashed by the attack should be enough to cause thousands of dollars in damages if that were even a concern for the dead. As a soul, Kuroda carries no care for the consequences that humans will have to face because of the damage he's done. Property damage versus the value of human life is inarguable in his eyes.

As the shards rain down to the ground, fading away before they can cause any damage to the surrounding buildings, filled with human life, unlike the empty one they'd been fighting in, Kuroda scans around the collapsing floor for the miniature Hollow they'd been hunting. Mae's killer is nowhere to be found. In the moment of hesitation he'd shown, he didn't track the movements of Mae's killer because of his literal blindness from rage.

Taking Mae's body into his arms, Kuroda leaps from the collapsing building — at least what remained of it — and softly lands on the ground outside. The rain pouring down washes away much of the blood pouring to the streets from the upper floors. Mae's blood had spread out throughout the area, but there was no one who could see it but him.

No one could see them, thus, no one would know of the one who died fighting while trying to keep innocents safe. A hero in the strangest form. Mae was too relaxed, resulting in his death because of his own carelessness. 

"That tricky pest got away. It must've gone through a Garganta." Unable to feel the presence of the remaining Hollow, Kuroda lets out a long sigh, gaping up at the night sky. The droplets kissing his face helped calm him, even if it was only by a slight margin.

Kuroda cannot doubt that Mae brought it upon himself. He let his guard down, openly spoke about experimenting on the small creature, and paid the consequences for his actions. A masosadist like him was bound to meet a fate similar to this one way or another.

Nevertheless, Mae was Kuroda's friend. He was a Soul Reaper, someone who hunted Hollows to make sure that no innocent lives were lost. Someone who fought to maintain the balance of the world—an unseen savior. 

Onlookers wouldn't be able to tell if the streams of water rushing down Kuroda's face were rain droplets or tears. Not until the redness in his eyes started setting in. A silent sob in honor of his dearest ally. This is the reality of the world that they were born into. When taking the risk of going out on patrol, they'd face the dangers of the unknown. 

The puny Hollow that escaped wasn't an immediate threat. Its escape to Hueco Mundo meant that it wasn't a threat to anyone here. Its failure to consume the bodies of the Hollows or even Mae's body for that matter prevented it from growing more powerful.

This notion affirmed Kuroda's decision. He may not hunt for the lance-wielding Hollow, but he will be sure to land a killing blow the next time that he sees it. "Ransā, that is the nickname I'll give the Hollow who felled you, Mae. Just wait patiently, and we'll see how long it survives." Even if Kuroda doesn't land the killing blow, he will ensure that someone does. He'll use everything in his power to.

A set of doors appears before the Shinigami. "I'll get you home, friend." Carrying both a broken tone and his fallen comrade, Kuroda returns to the Soul Society.