Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25093611-20160418185713/@comment-27565137-20160507153451

Kaestal wrote: That is an interesting thing I have wondered about... if a Shinigami kills a hollow with Kido or Hakuda are they destroyed or purified?

Maybe it is a Shinigami's reiatsu that purifies them upon death whereas a Quincy's will destroy them.

Yes. It makes more sense that is the shinigami reiatsu that really cleanses the souls of Hollows and Plus. After all what are zanpakutous if not a extention of the shinigami himself. And the cleansing has its limits as we've already been shown. A soul that was too sinful in life doesn't get sent to soul society but rather to hell.

So in a way we can think of Hueco Mundo as being a kind of purgatory.