How Hollows get stronger!

"So, any other advice for us?" Hiyori grumbled sarcastically at Rukia. "And could you take that mask off already!? At this point, you're just gloating!"

"... guilty as charged," Rukia replied, pulling the mask off. "And actually, I do have an idea on what else we could do. A means of growing a lot stronger fairly quickly. Same way Hollows do."

"...what do you mean, exactly?" Ichigo asked slowly.

"Basically by eating each other," Shinji replied with a grimace. "Lots of mindless Gillians in Hueco Mundo, all eating each other until they grow to Adjuchas, and still continuing to consume other Hollows and souls until they reach Vasto Lorde status."

"Wait, so your idea is to go to Hueco Mundo, and train by fighting Hollows, and then... Eating them? That's a bit much, isn't it?" Lisa asked, approaching. "Also, wouldn't increasing the power of our Inner Hollows pose a risk? If they grew more powerful than us..."

"That's right. Believe it or not, I had considered the idea before, but decided against it due to the risks involved," Shinji noted.

"Impossible. Don't forget, Inner Hollows reflect our own strength. They get stronger as we do," Rukia replied. "It goes both ways. They grow stronger, so do we."

That... Actually made sense. "Still, what about the souls we consume? Doesn't that keep them from moving onto Soul Society?" Ichigo asked, remembering what Rukia said before about Hollows.

"Only until the **** of said Hollows," Rukia replied. "Then they all get returned to the cycle. Once our own times come, every soul we consumed will be restored. Not only that, but until that point, they're hibernating, with only the dominant soul, the one who did the consuming, conscious. So they won't be any worse off by the end of it. At worst, we'd be delaying their return to the cycle. So long as we don't overdo it and drastically reduce the souls in Hueco Mundo enough to upset the balance of souls in the worlds, it should be good. The only question at this point is if we have the stomachs for it. Personally, given how strong Aizen is, and how many Arrancars he has at his disposal, I am against being too picky in methods of preparing for him."

"...if we did do this, we could probably afford a few thousand souls each if we didn't want to cause so much as blip in the balance of souls," Shinji mused. "Probably more, but for the sake of argument, we should play that much safe. Honestly, letting our Hollows have control and just do their instinctive thing for a bit in Hueco Mundo would probably be the best means of avoiding the whole squick factor."

"How about a test run?" Rukia suggested. "Ichigo and I could probably go with one of you, say, Lisa, to Hueco Mundo, and see if doing it within those limits is worth it?" As she asked this, she mentally planned on telling Ichigo about Lisa's little fetish, and seeing what they could do during their little excursion.