He was asleep again, or at least his body was. Ulquiorra's spirit was drifting through a hole in dimensions. After about three seconds-worth of travel, his soul burst out into the freakishly white halls of Hueco Mundo. Aizen was sitting on his "throne", staring straight at him. For a moment, Ulquiorra felt a current of fear run through him, a relatively new emotion, then he realized Aizen couldn't see him at all. He was looking through Ulquiorra, at someone standing below.

Aizen spoke. "Grimmjow. I believe you expressed a wish to invade the human world during the deceased Fourth's report?" Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes at Aizen's deliberate not-using of his name. I have already ceased to exist in his eyes, he thought bitterly. I, who served him so faithfully, am nothing in the eyes of the "master". Completely oblivious to the irate spirit drifting in front of him, Aizen kept talking. "Permission is granted, Grimmjow. Take whomever you wish. I have no doubts that the Soul Society has sent reinforcements, but they are probably cannon fodder. Get rid of them, and the humans Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime. You are dismissed. I expect you to return with a report in no more than two day's time."

Grimmjow, who had been kneeling at the foot of the throne (unwillingly showing respect), rose and gestured to a group of arrancar skulking nearby. "You idiots, get over here. You're coming with me." All five of the 'idiots' stood and walked over, smirking. Grimmjow opened a Gargantua and the group stepped through.

Ulquiorra felt consciousness tugging at his spirit again and fought it, straining to hear more. He was not disappointed.

"Ya sure ya know what yer doin', Aizen?" Gin asked, his usual smirk glued to his face. Ulquiorra didn't even need to look to see who it was. Gin's trademark accent was all he needed to identify his least favorite member of Aizen's army. "That Ichigo's stronger than ya give him credit for…"

Aizen smiled coldly. "Tell me, Gin, don't you have better things to do than criticize me? If you insist on knowing my plans, I am getting rid of one of two loose cannons, possibly both if Luck decides to side with me. Kurosaki is too much of a threat, despite what Ulquiorra might have said, and Grimmjow was getting too restless, to the point of picking fights with half the arrancar in the army. With the weakening of the Hougyoku, we can't handle too many casualties. The sphere has had enough stress on it with reviving the Espada that Ulquiorra killed."

"Ya, Ulquiorra… that was a surprise, hmm, Aizen? Guess even his loyalty had its limits. That wasn't too nice of ya, sic-in' the nineteen strongest on him. Still, I didn't think that he'd be strong enough t' do that, even being one of those—" "That's quite enough, Gin," Aizen cut him off, his spiritual pressure fluctuating with barely concealed annoyance at the loose-lipped fox-face.

The room faded out as Ulquiorra's body woke, his mind practically burning with curiosity. What did Gin mean, 'one of those'? He shook the thought away. There were more important things to do, involving the invasion that Grimmjow was bringing to Karakura town.

"That answers how he revived those I defeated…" Ulquiorra said, opening his eyes and pushing himself into a sitting position. He looked around, instinctively checking for enemies and Ichigo's reiatsu. Negative on both, but there was another reiatsu outside his door… one that he recognized.

"You may come in, onna," he said quietly. Orihime, who had been standing outside his door, jumped, then found the knob and opened the door, stepping inside. She stood silently, fidgeting, feeling nervous. Ulquiorra noticed this, but said nothing. After a minute of silence, Orihime spoke up. "Ulquiorra-san, I've been wondering…when we first brought you here, you were unconscious… and you spoke in your sleep, about Aizen reviving some people. Where did you learn Spanish, Ulquiorra-san?"

Ulquiorra blinked. He had not expected this question, nor had he realized he was the sleep-talking type. At first glance, he'd assumed Orihime to be just an air-headed girl with some strange abilities, nothing special. Obviously, he'd been wrong about the air-headed part. "All arrancar know it. It was required. Our home, Las Noches, 'Night', was named in that language." "Oh… ok…" Orihime said. I wonder if all arrancar have such a beautiful accent when they use that language… aack! No, I can't like him! Think Kurosaki-kun… think Kurosaki-kun… she shook her head vigorously to clear her thoughts.

Ulquiorra stood, subconsciously straightening his sleeves and ignoring Orihime's strange actions, and said "I need to speak to Kisuke Urahara."

"Speak away. I'm right here Ulquiorra-san." Urahara said, smiling as Orihime squeaked and jumped like a doused cat and Ulquiorra twitched slightly. Concealing his surprise, Ulquiorra said, "Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, one of the Espada, is leading a group of five arrancar to the human world. He just left Hueco Mundo and will arrive here…" he looked out the window to assess the time (midday) "after dark, if my calculations are correct."

Urahara didn't even bother to hide his surprise. "And how do you know this, Ulquiorra-san? Did some dream tell you this?" Ulquiorra looked momentarily surprised, then decided Urahara was only being sarcastic. "Yes, one did. Aizen has used the Hougyoku to revive the Espada I killed and has sent six arrancar, one of them ranked sixth of the Espada, to destroy the soul reaper reinforcements as well as Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime."

Orihime paled visibly at this. "But… what are we going to do? We couldn't even fight off that big Espada who was with you in the park… how will we handle five arrancar and an even stronger Espada?"

Ulquiorra smirked. "When Yammy and I came, I fought against you. I am strong enough to handle Grimmjow alone. Your Kurosaki can handle a lower-rank arrancar or two if he tries hard enough, and, Urahara-san, I believe you can handle yourself in a fight. Onna, your weapon was destroyed, was it not?" Orihime nodded, and said, "I can't heal him… something keeps getting in my way." The arrancar decided not to ask what she meant by 'him'.

"Inoue-san can stay here. Yoruichi will look after her," Urahara said. Ulquiorra looked blankly at the shop keeper. "Yoruichi?" he asked. A black cat bumped into his leg, getting fur on the white cloth. "Yes," Urahara said, smiling as he pointed at the cat. "Yoruichi is quite capable." Ulquiorra was tempted to ask how much sake Urahara had drank in the past few hours, but decided he valued his dignity and settled for another blank look at the cat.

Ulquiorra stood outside the shop now, savoring the cool evening breeze. On previous trips to the human world, he'd been on a mission or was hunted down by trash shinigami and had never had time to really enjoy the world. The spirit particles in the air were few and far between, but Urahara had found a way around that with compressed particles from Soul Society that he stored in a small thermos.

What Ulquiorra was most fascinated by was the sunset. He had never seen so many colors in one place before. Hueco Mundo was always white, black, and grey. This sky changed so many times per day, from midnight black to midmorning blue, from afternoon cerulean to the fiery rainbow of sunset. Having spent his whole life...or afterlife in a colorless world, the human world was endlessly amazing to him.

Passerby paused to look at the strange, pale young man standing outside Urahara Shouten. It wasn't exactly common to see "ordinary" people outside the strange shop. For a minute or two, Ulquiorra stared fixedly at the sunset, then noticed the humans sneaking passing glances at him. For another minute, he wondered how they all could see him, then he remembered his conversation with Urahara earlier that morning.

"Thank you for the warning, Ulquiorra-san. Now, about room-and-board…" Urahara said as Orihime left the room (followed by the strange cat). "I think you know how to sweep and move various boxes, don't you, Ulquiorra-san?" Urahara asked, a suspiciously large grin on his face.

The arrancar looked at Urahara questioningly. "I am to work in the shop?" he asked. Urahara nodded cheerfully. "With so many shinigami reinforcements, we've been needing a bit of help, ne? They just come in and go out again, so there's no need to worry about one noticing someone new," the shopkeeper replied.

"I believe you have forgotten something, Urahara," Ulquiorra stated, his voice never varying from the usual monotone.

"Hm? And what might that be?" Urahara asked, feigning genuine curiosity with incredible skill. Ulquiorra tapped the hole at the base of his neck, lightly traced the tear markings on his face, and moved one finger along the one horn on his mask. "Ah. That. I know exactly how to fix that little inconvenience."

Ulquiorra looked at him sharply. "If it involves manipulating in any way remaining piece of my mask…" he warned, death-glare at the ready. Urahara laughed nervously, "No, no, nothing of the sort! What it does involve is using a gigai, specially modified by yours truly. It will hide your spiritual pressure, make you visible to the humans, and I changed the appearance enough so that your hollow hole, markings, and er… horn, won't be noticed. Other than that, it looks exactly like you!" Urahara had a slightly annoying 'aren't I a genius?' look on; Ulquiorra decided to refrain from comment in case the ex-shinigami decided to turn the gigai female. That would be utterly mortifying…

And so, about half an hour later, Ulquiorra was standing outside the shop, broom in his left hand, watching the light-show of the evening sky.

Ulquiorra repressed the urge to fidget with the black scarf around his neck. He was currently dressed in black jeans, a dark green long-sleeved shirt, had a black scarf wound around his neck, and on his feet were, of all things, sneakers. Watching the arrancar from the window, Urahara was secretly glad that Ulquiorra's power hadn't regenerated enough for him to go off on his own yet, as Ulquiorra had informed the shopkeeper he would do the instant he was strong enough. Still, he hoped Ulquiorra would forgive him for the little indulgence with the clothes. Not many people got to dress an Espada as a Goth, let alone see the emotionless, cold, silent Ulquiorra wearing Sketchers and holding a broom. Urahara repressed a snicker.

There were a few people wandering the street near Urahara's shop. Ulquiorra watched them out of the corners of his eyes as they passed; his battle-instinct ready for action if the need arose. But the only thing mildly threatening in the area came in the form of a small group of teenage girls, who stood across the street staring at him. As he turned to look at them, the group dissolved into giggles and most of the girls blushed furiously. Ulquiorra saw no reason for this reaction, and was feeling puzzled by the humans' strange behavior when Jinta said, "They like you, dolt. Try waving."

Ulquiorra, seeing no reason not to wave, did as he was told, thinking, humans have so many forms of greeting. I do not see the purpose of this. Why would your hand pass off as greeting someone?

Upon seeing Ulquiorra wave at them, the girls shrieked in unison, blushed more furiously, whispered and giggled to themselves, and left quickly, still blushing and giggling. Nonplussed, Ulquiorra examined his hand as if it had done something to the girls without his knowledge. He wondered again why humans acted so strangely. Come to think of it, several of the lower-class female arrancar around Las Noches had acted similarly when he walked by, what seemed like ages ago. He'd seen no point to it then, and so had ignored it… was this some strange female ritual or custom? If so, then why did Halibel-sama never seem to act even remotely like that? Shaking his head, Ulquiorra pushed such thoughts out of his mind. He would only confuse himself further.

As the sun finally vanished, taking the colors with it, Ulquiorra turned toward the pile of dirt he'd swept up before the evening sky had distracted him. Leaning his broom against the shop's front door, he reached into his right pocket and pulled out a small canister that Urahara had lent him.

"Using a cero or bala blast would be like turning on a neon sign above your head and screaming 'I'm right here, Aizen, come kill me!'. Of course, using an energy ball was always how I got rid of dust after sweeping, so I don't have a dustbin. I do have this however. Inside this can is a bit of compressed energy. Just press the nozzle… don't aim it at me! Anyway, you can use this to get rid of any junk you find sweeping." "…the instant my power returns…"

With a sigh, Ulquiorra made sure no humans were watching and vaporized the dust pile with a strangely vanilla-scented purple stream of whatever the crazy shopkeeper had put into the can. Then he stopped and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

Urahara came over and opened the door. "Done alre—ouch?!" He took a step back as the broom Ulquiorra had set against the door fell inside and whacked him in the forehead, knocking his hat off. Only a barely visible smirk told Urahara that the arrancar had done that on purpose. "Ok, you've had your revenge. Nicely done, I must say. Are you finished, then?" Urahara asked, retrieving his hat and dusting it off. Ulquiorra nodded, still smirking slightly.

"Alright, come inside. It's time we prepared a welcome party for our late night visitors tonight."

Orihime arrived at Urahara's shop/house after school, and found Ulquiorra and Urahara talking together about someone named Grimmjow. She decided that it would be best if she just left them to their discussion and was about to leave when Ulquiorra looked at her and said, "I thought you lived on the other side of Karakura town, onna."

She jumped and gave a little squeak of surprise, then said, "Eh… my apartment is having problems with the plumbing, so I'm staying with Urahara-san until the sink stops spraying water everywhere…" Orihime smiled brightly, albeit a little nervously. Ulquiorra made her a little nervous, with his blank stare and monotonous voice.

Ulquiorra looked away, feeling strangely uncomfortable, when he noticed Orihime's nervousness. For some reason, making her nervous made him feel unhappy. He mentally filed those emotions under "pointless feelings" and closed his eyes, tracking the reiatsu around the city. Beyond several "hotspots" (no doubt the Shinigami allies), all was quiet.

He looked up to see both Urahara and Orihime still watching him. Orihime had a rather zoned-out expression, but Urahara was obviously waiting for something. Ulquiorra said, "No sign of anything yet. They will wait until after dark; Aizen will not want the humans getting involved quite yet. That will bring more Shinigami, and slow down his plans even further."

"What do you mean, 'even further'?" Urahara inquired. Ulquiorra's expression didn't change.

"When he began to plan the invasion, I was the one who was to lead an attack on Soul Society in order to lead the Shinigami away from Karakura Town. He does not yet have another Quatro Espada to take my place, and the hougyoku is weakened due to recent exertion."

Urahara nodded sagely, as if he had already known that. I'll say one thing for him, he's a good actor, Ulquiorra thought. Then he turned to look at Orihime, who was still looking spaced-out. "Onna, what are you looking for?" She started a bit, then her eyes refocused and she gave a fake smile. "Oh… nothing, Ulquiorra-san. I was just thinking about my homework. My teacher gave us a lot of work to do tonight…" her smile and voice wilted slightly under Ulquiorra's piercing stare.

"Do not lie to me until you learn to hide the truth better," he said quietly, and turned away from them to look up at the sky, gauging the time until sundown. "You have three hours, perhaps less, until Grimmjow arrives. Find some stronger allies; these will not last long against his fraccion, let alone Grimmjow himself."

Urahara frowned. "But we will have you fighting with us, Ulquiorra-san. You said you could defeat Grimmjow yourself." Ulquiorra turned back to face him. "Yes, I could, but I would have to rely on my release-state to defeat him, and it is not suited to long battles in confined areas. I may be stronger, but he is more vicious and the bloodlust of battle drives him wild."

Orihime's eyes lit up. "I think I could help with some of that, Ulquiorra-san. Hold still, please. Souten Kisshun, I reject," she said, and two little sparks of light flew from her hairclips and formed a golden shield-like light around Ulquiorra. In a matter of seconds, he was fully healed and staring at her with an expression of intense curiosity.

"That power of yours…What is it?" he asked. Orihime shook her head and shrugged, showing that she had no idea. He pressed on. "And if you can heal with such skill, why did you not do so sooner, onna?" he asked, obviously somewhat annoyed. Suddenly he froze, eyes narrowing and an expression of surprise on his face.

"Your answer can wait, onna. Get inside, now. No," he said, holding up a hand to stall her questions, "just go. He's here. Go." So soon…? Ulquiorra thought, as Urahara quickly got Orihime inside. Why is he here so soon?

A/N: For all of you who have stuck with me so far, I am so sorry and so grateful to all of you for sticking with me this long. I wish I had updated sooner… (feeling guilty) but I thought I'd already posted the first piece of this chapter or so. (That's why this one is so long.) Things will be getting rather messy soon, brace yourselves. I'll try to update much more regularly, or at least much sooner. Expect another chapter in the next month or so; until next time, and again, thank you!