"Hey you! Wait a sec!"

Ulquiorra sighed and paused briefly, turning to face the annoying redhead trailing behind him.

"What do you want, trash?"

"Do hollows go out and buy ramen often?"

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow.

"Hollows have no need for ramen."

"That's what I thought... But look over there."

Ulquiorra eyes drifted to where Ichigo was pointing. Sure enough, there stood a rather large hollow, trying in vain to capture the storeowner's attention. Ulquiorra was immediately overcome with an intense desire to know what the hell was going on. 'It must be that silly human's influence' he mused. He had never felt curious about anything before. The strange urge disturbed him. Making up his mind, he made his way to the side of the hollow.

"What are you doing?"

The hollow glanced down at the voice next to him. The owner of the voice looked strange, almost hollow like... 'Ah!' Thought the hollow. 'This must be one of those people from Las Noches.'

"I have a roommate."

"That does not explain what you are doing."

"He was hungry."

Ichigo scowled at the two conversing hollow things. He wanted to barge in and tell them to get on with it, but he was in his human body, and talking to people that no one else could see was only going to get him odd looks.

"Why are you trying to get ramen?"

"He said he wanted some."

Ulquiorra tilted his head slightly to get a better look at the hollow. He knew hollows had no interest in ramen. Only humans ate ramen. And how many humans could there possibly be inhabiting Hueco Mundo desert?

"Describe your roommate."

The hollow considered this request.

"Well... He's sort of short and human. He has hair the colour of the dirt out here and the first thing he did when he woke up was scream. Something about not being eaten."

Ulquiorra decided this sounded very much like his Keigo, and was about to ask if the hollow had a name when it started rambling again.

"He also said that he'd come from Las Noches, something about using a 'Nnoitra' to escape."

Ulquiorra gestured to the impatiently waiting Ichigo.

"I have found Keigo." He declared. "You will buy ramen, and then you," he pointed at the hollow, "you will take us to see your roommate."

Keigo sighed. The strange hollow had been gone a long time, and his stomach was still complaining very loudly. He wanted to go to sleep but, for the first time in a long time, sleep just would not come to him. He puffed out his cheeks and then un-puffed them repeating this action several times as a form of amusement. The amusement was short lived, prompting yet another visit to the entrance of the cave. To his delight, a figure could be discerned coming towards him. He narrowed his eyes. Not one... three. His heart skipped in his chest. Could Ulqui have found the hollow friend? But then who was the third figure? His heart sunk. If that wasn't the hollow and Ulquiorra then it could be anyone. It could even be some of those crazy people who were trying to capture him. Nerves constricting his breathing, he slunk to the back of the cave and curled into a tight ball. His eyes scrunched tight as he wished for some food for his belly.

"So how'd ya find him last time?"

Grimmjow scowled. "I have no idea! I was looking for Ulquiorra and then... I just sort of came across him trying to hug some poor rabbit or something."

"Did he hug it?" Nnoitra found Grimmjow's strange story rather intriguing for no reason in particular.

"Nah, I blew its head up."

Nnoitra sighed. "That wasn't very nice."

Grimmjow huffed. "Yeah? Well guess what! Your face isn't very nice!"

"What did you just say?" Nnoitra glared down at the cocky bluenette strutting alongside him.

"I said you face is like some sorta terrorist device or something. Cos it certainly ain't a nice sight."

Nnoitra growled, launching himself at his companion. His significant height gave him a nice head start and he had Grimmjow's face buried in the sand before he started to fight back. Furious, Grimmjow unleashed his resurrection, long claws lashing out and digging into Nnoitra's side. Nnoitra swore, stood up and kicked his opponent away from him. Quickly, Nnoitra checked his side for damage. Fortunately, his hierro negated most of the potential damage.

"You are going to PAY for that!" He hollered. He levelled his zanpakuto so one tip was only inches away from Grimmjow's face.

"Pray, Santa Teresa."

"Aren't they supposed to be finding the human?"

Szayel glanced lazily over at the newly dubbed 'bubble-head'. He and Zommari had decided it was quite a fitting thing for Aaroneiro to be called.

"Those to a quite clearly in love!" He declared.

Zommari and Aaroneiro looked at him incredulously.

"They're trying to kill each other!"

"Yeah! They hate each other's guts!"

"Au contraire! That is just what they want us to think. Really they adore each other." Szayel was revelling in his newfound discovery. Oh, the amusement he would have taunting them over this!

"They're fighting in released form!"

"So? They are only trying to keep up appearances."

"Szayel... They do not know that everyone else was sent out. As far as they know, they're the only ones out here."

Szayel frowned at the sudden flaw in his theory.

"Foreplay, perhaps..."

Zommari shook his head.

"Just give it up Szayel. They hate each other, and their distraction is giving us the perfect opportunity to get them locked out of Las Noches for the rest of their pathetic lives."

Szayel had to admit that Zommari was correct. Of course, he would never let the ever-so-slightly superior espada know that. Instead, he huffed and started walking away. The other two turned and followed him. A particularly harsh gust of wind blew sand into all sorts of uncomfortable places. It appeared a storm was picking up. Szayel pointed towards a small cave tucked away in the distance.

"Let's crash there while the storm's on." He suggested, not waiting for a reply, he began to make his way to the promise of shelter.

"HEY!"

"WHAT ARE YOU YELLING ABOUT DUMB CAT!"

The two opponents stared each other down, until Grimmjow pointed over Nnoitra's shoulder.

"Isn't that those three weirdo goons over there?"

Nnoitra scoffed.
"Not only do I have no idea what you're talking about, I am NOT going to fall for that trick."

Grimmjow shook his head.

"Nah, man. I'm serious! It's Szayel, Tube-head and that guy who's always on drugs! They're over there."

Nnoitra found this hard to believe, but when Grimmjow deactivated his resurrection he felt that it was worth a look. He could hardly believe his eyes.

"What the hell are they doing here?"

Grimmjow shrugged.

"Let's follow them!"

Nnoitra grinned. This idea pleased him. Stalking people had always been a particular interest of his, one that he rarely had opportunity to explore. Sheathing their swords the two followed their oblivious prey stealthily, felling very proud of their efforts to remain undetected in the midst of a brewing sand storm.

"Where do you think that lot are going?"

From a high hilltop the final members of the espada where watching the three lowliest members be stalked. Barrigan for some reason was finding this highly amusing, the other three not really having any sort of opinion on the matter. Hallibel's eyes roamed the horizon to try and find any indication of what was going on. Suddenly she picked up a very familiar reitsu.

"H-Hallibel? Where are you going?"

Hallibel felt tempted to ignore the stuttering Primera.

"Ulquiorra is down there."

The other three immediately scanned the area and confirmed her suspicions. The very faint and expertly concealed reitsu of their cuatro was down amongst the mix of bodies making their way through the Hueco Mundo barrens.

"Brilliant!" Barrigan exclaimed. "Our quarry has come to us!"

The four high level espada set off at a jog. They had to catch the rebellious espada before he moved again.

AN: Okay... so it's a short chapter this time. Sorryyy, but I think this story is almost done now :D how exciting. There's probably only one or two chapters left, though that depends. Hope you like it so far :)