Sorry for the delay, life's been hectic. Anyway, chapter 3!

Ulquiorra had once lifted boulders with ease, but he had finally met his match.

"Woman, I cannot continue much longer with this 'shopping'."

Orihime glanced over at Ulquiorra, now nearly consumed by the pile of bags and boxes. Some was for him, but there was much Orihime couldn't resist, not to mention they passed by a grocery store… "Eer, I may have gone a bit overboard… "

"Do you two need a hand?"

The two of them turned to face the baritone voice, familiar to one but not the other. "Chad, so great to see you."

The giant of a man nodded, then lazily pointed to the bags. "I think I should help him. Knees look like they're about to give out." Chad reached out, grabbing a large amount of boxes, revealing the face behind them. "…do I know you?"

Now able to properly see, Ulquiorra took a moment to examine the man's face. "…I believe I saw you in passing once. Sado, correct?"

"Yeah, though friends call me Chad."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Chad grunted out an agreement, falling silent for a moment. "I just remembered where I saw you." He gingerly set the boxes back on the pile.

"Well… I probably deserved that."

He grunted another agreement, turning to Orihime. "What's he doing here? Could've sworn his friend punched me across a field." Chad was perhaps the only person who could say that without sounding accusatory.

Regardless, Orihime shifted nervously. "Well, I told you the story about that one Arrancar we met?"

"Nel?"

"Ulquiorra."

"…The one who kidnapped you?"

Orihime blushed. "He got better."

Chad glanced back at Ulquiorra before shrugging. "Kay."

"That's it?" Orihime was surprised at how easy that was.

"I trust you Orihime. If you say he's alright, he's alright."

She smiled warmly at him. "Thanks Chad. I know it's pretty weird, but I think he has to potential to be really great. Like on TV, when some proud warrior guy is all evil and stuff, but he ends up helping the heroes defeat a space tyrant with really weird lipstick and they become friends and he goes and marries a girl with blue hair and-"

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the sound of boxes clattering to the floor. "Woman," deadpanned Ulquiorra from beneath the ruined pile, "I believe I will need a moment."

Grimmjow roared with laughter. "Oh man, Appache, get over here! You gotta see this shit!"

The ill-tempered Fracciones looked over the Espada's shoulder, promptly busting a gut herself. "Oh, man, please tell me you were recording that."

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a young woman with aqua hair was asking a passerby for directions.

"Ah, I see the problem miss. You appear to be… holding the map upside down."

She quickly corrected her mistake, took one look at it, and thanked the man as she hurried off.

"Stupid Tourists."

Ulqiorra collapsed on the couch, having finally put away all the various boxes. "It would seem this Gigai is rather limited. Let's not do that again."

Orihime pouted at the collapsed Arrancar. "Aw, come on; you had some fun, right?"

"Woman," he sighed, "this is more clothes than I have ever owned in my entire life. Why I would ever need more than eight outfits is beyond me."

Orihie tapped her chin in thought. "Yeah, I was wondering about that. Why eight?"

Ulqiorra looked at her like she had just asked why the sun rises. "Laundry should be done once a week. The eighth is in case of emergency."

"But what if you want to dress differently?"

"…why on earth would I do that?"

Orihime huffed. "That's it. From now on, I'm in charge of making sure you dress decently."

There it was again, that feeling of pure terror. Ulqiourra could tell this was not a request. "Understood."

The sun shone over the Kurosaki household, the early morning peaceful and silent.

"GOOD MOOOOOOORNING ICHIGO!"

Said silence lasted about as long as usual. Ichigo swatted at his side. "Shut up old man." He was very surprised when he hit nothing but empty air.

He was even more startled when the window behind him exploded in a spray of glass and he was tackled by some unseen aggressor. "Ichigo! I missed you!"

Ichigo quickly threw off his attacker. "Agh, get the hell off m- Nel!?"

Indeed, sitting on the floor was a very familiar aqua haired Arrancar sat before him, having quickly recovered. She had traded up from her previous rags for a simple blouse and jeans. "Heya Ichigo! Miss me?"

"Nel, what the hell are you doing here? How did you even get here? Won't the Soul Society notice an Arrancar running arou-" He came to an abrupt stop when he saw Nel looking completely heartbroken.

"You- you didn't miss me?" Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Oh for the love of… It's good to see you Nel. You just… surprised me."

Truly the goddess of mood swings, Nel was right back to her cheery self in an instant. "I knew it! I knew you'd never forget me." Nel shot forward in the blink of an eye, nearly bowling Ichigo over with a hug.

"Gah! Nel! Off!" Ichigo flailed wildly for a moment before she backed off. "You gotta stop doing that or I'm gonna break a rib or something. Anyway, my questions still stand."

Nel looked off in the distance for a moment. "Let me see… Diplomacy, a Garganta duh, and I got something to make sure that I don't show up." She tapped her hand on her head. "No mask, see? I mean, I'm still a hollow, but I don't look like one right now."

"Wait, diplomacy? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, Harribel was thinking."

Ichigo facepalmed. "Nel," groaned Ichigo.

"Yes?"

"Start from the beginning."

"Alright," sighed Ichigo, "let me see if I've got this. Harribel, the 3rd Espada, managed to survive that big battle, ran back to Hueco Mundo, and took over things now that she's the only Espada."

"Strongest. Gimmjow survived."

"Of course he did." Ichigo groaned. "Anyway, Harribel wants to make sure that the Soul Society doesn't go steamroll Las Noches, so she sent you out here because…"

"Because the Soul Society doesn't own Karakura town, so she figures it would be a nice neutral ground."

"And you're gonna contact them… how?"

Nel opened her mouth as if to speak, before promptly going quiet. "Hold please." She hopped to her feet, walking over to the window and pulling out what looked like a phone and dialing a number. "Hello?… Yeah, ran into a problem. How do we get their attention?… We don't do that anymore…" Nel blushed furiously. "Gross! This is serious!... Alright, that should work… alright, I'll check on him… alright, tell Apache I said hi." She flipped the phone shut. "Sorry, we're kind of low on people so Grimmjow's managing 'field work'."

"Remind me to break his nose."

"Roger that!" Nel said in a sing song voice. "Anyway, I should get going. Busy day ahead. But first, better go see Ulqiorra."

Ichigo grabbed Nel's hand to keep her from sprinting out the window. "Wait, would you repeat that last bit?"

Sorry it's not longer, but that seemed like a good stopping point, and the alternative was waiting even longer. I'll try and have delays be shorter in the future. You can do your part by leaving reviews, since those give me motivation to actually keep writing.