An almost tragic misunderstanding! And an interesting discovery!

(Side note, I'm going to tweak Nel's "child" form here. Yes, we are all aware that she's not actually a child, the regressed form of hers is a result of the injury to her mask and all that, and I don't intend to involve that form in any sexual matters anyway. Only her actual form will get such treatment. That said, I don't want to test the rules on this site, given the dirty things her canon self says even in the regressed form, lol. Plus, one of the rules even states that a characters's transformations shouldn't include somone looking underage. So yeah, her regressed form will still quite plausibly resemble an adult in this AU, just not with the generous curves, and the same short hair. Not like she'll be staying in it for long anyway. She's getting her real form back permanently before she starts building a relationship with Ichigo. Bottom line, both forms will be an adult one, the real one will just be much sexier, lol... I probably overexplained that, but you get the point.)

"Ahhh!!!" the figure screamed in a feminine voice as they continued to run, the three Hollows closing in... before the large one yelped as he was struck by Zangetsu, thankfully still wrapped in the bandages, as Ichigo had forgotten to remove them before attacking.

"Big brother!?" the skinny one with the beetle like mask asked in shock, looking at where his larger comrade had fallen, before shrieking and falling on his ass, barely avoiding Rukia and Lisa's blades, and raised his arms up in a panicked show of surrender.

"Buwah!?" the third Hollow, the one resembling a massive worm, protested as Yoruichi kicked it in the face.

"Alright, let's take these three out, and maybe let our Inner Hollows eat-" Ichigo was starting to say, when the one they had just come to help immediately piped up.

"Wait, what are you doing!? What are you attacking us for!?" she demanded, turning to face them. "We didn't do anything to you!" Her hood had fallen, revealing a cracked Hollow Mask and a scarred face and a messy mop of short green hair. She looked like a young woman, who didn't have much going for her in the T and A department, but Ichigo could already see Rukia was getting ideas. Not like she had much in that department either, though becoming a Genie had enhanced that somewhat.

"...wait, you know these three? And you're a Hollow?" Ichigo asked slowly.

.....

"We're so sorry!" the Hollows, aside from the big worm like one, who clearly couldn't talk, stated, though all four of them were bowing in apology.

"Nel didn't realize that our game of Eternal Tag was going to cause such a misunderstanding!" the girl, clearly Nel, albeit speaking in the third person, explained.

"...Eternal Tag?" Ichigo sweat dropped. "But you were screaming a lot, and you were tearing up..."

She laughed. "Nel's a masochist, so it's no fun for her unless she's chased to the point she's crying!" she explained.

Ichigo's eyebrows raised. "Huh, wouldn't have pegged you for one..."

Before long, the other two introduced themselves, the larger one being Dodonchacka, the beetle one Pesche, and the worm was their pet, Buwababa. Apparently, they were all like family, albeit of the adopted sort. The idea of eating them was discarded wordlessly between the three Visoreds there, Ichigo and Rukia including themselves in that category, if not the faction entirely, they clearly were not hostile, so harming them would be a dick move, to say the least. Eating the more animalistic ones was one thing, sentient Hollows was quite another. Of course, killing hostile ones was still on the table when they were sentient, but that didn't apply here. No reason to harm these four.

"...that's interesting," Rukia mused, taking an intense look at Nel's Hollow Mask. "...I initially thought the crack was due to an improper partial mask removal to become an Arrancar, but it's clearly more traumatic than that. The mask is leaking a great deal of Reishi," she told Ichigo. Dodonchacka and Pesche seemed to stiffen at that, while Nel just looked confused. Ichigo noticed their reactions, but shelved them.

"...how much Reishi are we talking here?" Ichigo inquired.

Rukia considered for a moment. "Remember that Grimmjow guy we fought? About as much as he coud have shed constantly..."

Ichigo paused. Did that mean that this Nel, this random Arrancar they had encountered, would be as powerful as an Espada if not for that injury? He had trouble seeing that.