How does the hole in a Hollow's chest work?

Question

In Bleach, Hollows (and Espadas) have holes in their chest. However, the holes do not bleed and seem to have no harmful effects on the body. For human-shaped Hollows and Espada, do the organs rearrange themselves around the holes or just cease to exist where the holes are? Also, how do the holes not bleed? Does skin grow around inside the holes or are the cauterized?

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 22 '13 at 05:41

Hollows are not like normal living creatures. Don't forget that they are born from human souls, not from flesh and bones. In chapter 433 it is explained that

Hollows lose their hearts from the pain of not being saved by shinigami. That forms the hole. Their lost hearts form their masks. Also, the hollows' unique appearance and their unique traits and powers are formed from their lost hearts as well.

Also, don't forget what happens when they are killed. Their bodies simply vanish, leaving no corpse, no anything. So, taking that into account, we can say that

since they can live with their heart lost, their bodies (even if we forget that Hollows are spirit creatures) definitely don't work the same way as human (or shinigami) bodies do, so they somehow are able to live with it.

And I guess that since they are spirit creatures they don't care about such things anyway ;)

wow! My guessing on heart point was correct then eh? :) – Rookie Programmer Aravind Jan 22 '13 at 05:55 — Rookie Programmer Aravind, Jan 22 '13 at 05:55
@Sai, yup, that was a correct guess ;) – SingerOfTheFall Jan 22 '13 at 10:37 — SingerOfTheFall, Jan 22 '13 at 10:37

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 26 '14 at 03:29

They are actually souls... rather they are dark souls!

A soul has a something called a "chain of fate", the link to its physical body. It is the soul that couldn't make it to Soul Society yet. Because to make it to Soul Society, a soul-reaper needs to help. When a soul loses its chain of fate, there forms a hole in its chest.

This hole signifies the emptiness, the hunger to fulfill something which is endless. So it might be just a representation. I would like to list below some possibilities:

It might be just a representation.
If the chest has a heart which signifies something good, its absence signifies bad. So we can think that hollows don't have heart.
Why they don't bleed? It is the structure of their body.

I think the second point is right!

How does the hole in a Hollow's chest work?

2 Answers2