Aveleria: Previously...

Rukia: Hollows began to run rampant in Karakura town...

Ichigo: But lucky for us, they were a bunch of weaklings!

Aveleria: Suddenly, le wild Menos Grande appears! *makes fake explosion sounds*

Ichigo: Weaker… *smirks*

Aveleria: Not if there's more than one…

Ichigo: What?

Rukia: Shut up! It's starting…

Mine

Chapter 4:

Hollows and Arrancar

Aveleria stood in shock from her spot, deathly afraid to move. What she assumed was just one Menos Grande, more appeared from behind it. There were probably three or four in number. But what's worse, it seemed that they were not finished yet. The howls of the Gillian-class Hollows could be heard through the entire city, alerting those who had even the slightest spiritual pressure. This included some of their classmates that she felt a little while ago.

"What should I do...?" she asked herself as she squinted, focusing on the monsters that just appeared. She didn't want to use it here because it was too bothersome. But if things continue to worsen like this, she would have no choice. She unsheathed the top part of her sword, but stopped halfway when her thoughts caught up with her again.

'No…' she thought. 'I can do this. Just without…that…' She re-sheathed her sword and faced the giant monsters that just closed the Garganta. There were six, for as far as she could count, and above them, was a small dot that seemed to be another Hollow. It had one of its clawed hands covering its eyes from the glaring heat of the sun.

"Damn," it sighed. "The Human World looks much too colorful… It should just be the color red…" It smirked, exposing its large, pointed fangs. "The color of blood…"

Aveleria looked closer at the Hollow on top of the Menos, she could feel the superior spiritual pressure it had amongst the ones from the lower classes. She glared intently, trying to take its form from a distance. But since she couldn't see it, she jumped up and faced the pack of Hollows, risking getting attention from the group. Unfortunately, the Hollow noticed her almost immediately. It looked at her and grinned menacingly.

"Well, well, well…" it said. "It looks like we have our first victim…" It raised its other claw, pointing towards the girl, who twitched her eye when she figured what it was about to do. She needed to find out what was happening. She needed to find out why they were suddenly sending high-level Hollows out just recently after she arrived.

"Gillian," the Hollow commanded. "Fire a Cero at that Soul Reaper!" At that, the Menos focused on their target and started to charge red spiritual pressure. Moments later, the Gillian-class Hollows fired their Cero simultaneously at the blonde. The red energy came rushing towards her from different angles, and the Hollow thought she couldn't escape. Just before it hit her, Aveleria pulled her sword out, holding it lazily with her right hand. The Hollow laughed maniacally when the Cero hit its target, filling the area with smoke.

"That was easy!" the Hollow exclaimed. "If Soul Reapers were that easy to kill, then he'llbe very pleased…" It continued to laugh, looking at the smoked area. It was shocked however, when it felt a sudden spike of spiritual pressure from the area, and when it looked more closely, the smoke was swirling around a certain part, where the blonde used to stand. It got shocked even more when it saw that the Soul Reaper that it thought was finished was standing there, whirling her sword with her hand that produced a pinkish-golden glow. Aveleria stood there proudly with a smile on her face.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But who were so easy to kill…?" She gripped the sword hand tightly to stop it from spinning, the glow fading immediately after she stopped it. She smirked when she saw the shocked look on the Hollow's face. The Hollow, even from afar, saw her smirk and gritted its fangs.

"But how…?" it asked. "You were supposed to be dead!" Aveleria pouted like she was arguing with someone she was close to. It made the Hollow think that she was overconfident, and it didn't like that one bit.

"You can't kill me off so easily…" she answered. "Want me to prove it?" she asked, holding her sword out. "Fire at me again… I dare you…" The Hollow became infuriated by the taunt and pointed at her once again.

"Cero…!" It exclaimed, causing the Gillian to howl before charging for another attack. Aveleria observed the aggravated expression of the Hollow, causing her to giggle.

"I have to be honest with you," she said to the Hollow. "If you're getting angry because you couldn't kill someone as pathetic as me, you should see my mentor and Lieutenant!"

"Shut up!" the Hollow howled, and the Gillian finally finished charging, firing the red Cero towards the girl once again. Her smile turned into a flat line on her lips, and her eyes to become half-lidded. She began to rotate her sword again, the pinkish-golden aura returning to it once again. She saw that the Cero was zoning in on her fast, so she sped up the rotation of her sword.

"Ken Hyoji: Buririantosākuru!" she exclaimed, and the sudden spike of her spiritual pressure could be felt. The Cero that was about to hit her was blocked by her spinning sword and it got the Hollow to drop its jaw in astonishment.

"H-how…?" it asked again. Once the light smoke cleared, Aveleria brushed her sword to the side and pointed it towards the Hollow.

"Buririantosākuru...It's a technique of mine that's saved me many times…" Aveleria began. "By focusing my spiritual pressure on every part of the blade of my zanpakuto, I can instantly harden it that's suited to my needs. It can block any projectile thrown at me…" While the enemy was in a daze, Aveleria used her Flash Step to maneuver her way to the Hollow, surprising it from behind.

"The only drawback of that technique is that since I need all my energy for defense, I'm completely defenseless on every other side…" she muttered. "But that won't change the fact that you can't beat me!" she swung her sword at the surprised Hollow, but she herself was shocked when it didn't break the Hollow's flesh. It smirked as it took in Aveleria's surprised expression. The latter glared at it before jumping backwards.

"Why's your skin so hard…?" she asked. "I've only been on a few missions, but I'm pretty sure that your skin isn't that natural…" She glared intently at the Hollow, who was just amused that she looked so surprised before. She knew that there was something off about this Hollow, just judging from its spiritual pressure alone. She also knew that a normal Hollow's skin wasn't that hard. She had fought two earlier before this one, and they weren't as tough as this one, not nearly as tough.

"Is it…?" the Hollow asked. "I guess that proves you aren't experienced in fighting Adjhucas-class Hollows, huh?" At that, the girl's look changed from shock to morbid, causing the Hollow to laugh out loud.

"Why so surprised…?" The Hollow asked sarcastically, pointing another finger at her, silently ordering the Gillian to attack her again. "Where's that arrogance I saw earlier, huh?!" The Gillian's Cero fired without warning, causing the girl to snap out of her thoughts and barely dodged the attack. The Adjhucas laughed as it kept ordering the Gillian to send more Cero towards the blonde, not giving her enough time to gather energy for another shield.

She jumped up, narrowly escaping one of the Menos's attacks. She looked at the Hollows, and found that the distance was enough to focus on another technique. Rotating her sword once more, she managed to gather enough spiritual pressure on her blade before she was pushed back by the consecutive Cero being fired at her.

'It's not enough…' she thought to herself as she felt herself being pushed back still. The spiritual pressure she'd put on her sword wasn't enough to completely block off all of the attacks, and she was being pushed back more and more. The Hollow smirked, it was waiting for this. In a blink of an eye, it disappeared from view. Aveleria was too busy trying to maintain her energy in blocking the continuous array of Cero that she didn't notice that the Adjhucas was closing in on her.

The Menos suddenly ceased fire, confusing Aveleria as she looked at the Hollows. She didn't see the Adjhucas, which greatly worried her. She focused on her surroundings, her sword still spinning in case the Menos pull a surprise attack on her. She didn't see that the Adjhucas was behind her, and only noticed when a gust of wind blew by, causing her hair to touch the Hollow behind her. She whirled her sword as she faced backwards, but she was too late in trying to stop it from attacking. The Hollow used its claw to deflect Aveleria's sword and knock her off balance, then used its other hand to smack her, sending her plummeting to the ground and landing with a loud crash and smoke. When the smoke cleared once more, there was a large hole on the ground, and the blonde was lying there, barely even moving anymore. The Hollow couldn't help but laugh at her pitiful state.

"You're so weak!" it mocked. "Barely moving after just one attack? Worthless…" It disappeared and reappeared just outside the hole, looking down on the Soul Reaper before it. It raised its arm, bending his hand and pointing at her again.

"Too bad," it said. "You're pretty enough that my master might have turned you to one of his personal bitches… But you're arrogance costs your life! Gillian, Cero!" The Menos focused their fire once again on the hole, firing a large, combined attack of their Cero.

Aveleria couldn't move. Her spiritual pressure was greatly drained from fighting earlier and using different techniques and even maintaining them. It had caused a bad effect on her. She wasn't good at keeping her spiritual pressure in check, especially when under pressure like that. She was helpless now, and she could only watch in horror as the Cero of the Gillians fired and combined into a giant ball of red energy. The Hollow was laughing at her, at both her physical weakness and stupidity. If she had only waited for Ichigo or Rukia, she would still be standing behind them. They would have driven them off. Instead, she was the receiving end. She would die here before anyone could reach her.

"Good bye, Soul Reaper…" the Hollow smirked. The Cero was closing in on her, and it wouldn't be long she gets vaporized by the red ball of energy. The blonde glared at the Adjhucas one last time, before closing her eyes and waiting for the impact.

The Hollow laughed maniacally once the Cero hit the ground and created a large cloud of smoke in front of it. It was sure that it was a direct hit, and that the woman was dead. But when the smoke was starting to clear, its eyes widened in pure shock. A Soul Reaper with bright orange hair stood in front of its victim, holding a giant sword that must've deflected the attack. His hazel-brown eyes were filled with determination that promised vengeance for his student.

Aveleria was confused. The Cero had hit, she felt the ground shake from it. But she wasn't dead. Wanting to satisfy her curiosity, she peeked an eye out, only to see a figure standing in front of her. She struggled to raise her head enough to see who it was, and she was filled with relief when she saw the familiar orange hair of her mentor.

"K-Kurosaki…sensei…" she muttered. The orange-haired teen didn't look at her, but nodded once to let her know he heard.

"Yeah," he said. "Sorry we're late." He smirked and pointed his sword at the Hollow. "Now, let us take care of this one…"

'Us…?' the blonde repeated in her head. She was sure he was talking about her Lieutenant, but she wasn't there, or so she thought. But the following spike of spirit energy caused her to cease her thinking.

"Some no Mai, Tsukishiro!" the petite raven-hair's voice echoed. The Adjhucas realized the sudden up in spirit energy and dodged quickly as Rukia appeared.

"Damn it…" Rukia muttered as she leapt back to Ichigo's side. "It's fast…"

"Yeah," Ichigo said as he swung Zangetsu on his shoulder. "But we're faster…"

In a flash, the substitute Soul Reaper disappeared and reappeared in front of the surprised Adjhucas, a smirk evident on his face. With an upward swing, he managed to slash the Hollow in its left arm, causing it to scream in pain before kicking him back down. Ichigo quickly regained his footing and landed safely on the ground, frowning as the Adjhucas tries to run away.

"Don't think you can run away from me, bastard!" Ichigo shouted as he jumped towards the speeding creature. He held Zangetsu down as he gathered enough energy to obliterate the Adjhucas in one blow.

"Getsuga Tensho!" The blast followed his upward swing, and it was headed for the Adjhucas. Unfortunately, the Hollow was still fast enough to avoid certain death, and the attack missed him completely. Instead, two Gillians suffered Ichigo's attack and vanished. The others howled at the loss and cowered when Ichigo was charging for another attack. Overcome with fear, the Gillian opened a Garganta on their accord and started to flee back to Hueco Mundo, the land of Hollows.

"H-Hey!" the Adjhucas exclaimed. "What the hell do you think you're doing? I didn't order a retreat!" It was panicking at the sight of its subordinates disobeying it, and even more so when Ichigo was closing in on it.

"D-damn you Soul Reaper!" it cursed as it opened a Garganta. "I swear I'll make your lives a living hell! And once my master takes rule, you will all die!" By that time, Ichigo had already reached the Adjhucas and was about to strike, but the Garganta closed on him, making him curse before diving back down to where Rukia and Aveleria were.

Rukia tended to her subordinate with some low-level healing Kido. Her injuries were only minor, but her spiritual pressure had greatly decreased. She must've fought all-out if she was this tired. Though she is just a newbie, Rukia wouldn't have expected her to take on a herd of Gillians led by a strong Adjhucas.

"What were you thinking…?" she said to the blonde. "You could've died if we didn't get here in time…"

Weakly, Aveleria coughed a little and nodded her head. She could barely move now, but her bodily functions were doing fine.

"I wanted to at least drive them away…" she said, sitting up a little. "It would've been nice to impress Kurosaki-sensei by landing a hit on one of those Menos…"

"But that doesn't mean you should risk your life for that!" Rukia exclaimed. The blonde blinked at the raven-haired Lieutenant for a moment, before sighing and closing her eyes.

"Always live to what your heart desires," Aveleria said. "I followed that one rule of mine, and I never regretted any of my decisions. It's nice to live without regrets…"

"It'd be nicer to actually survive…" Ichigo muttered as he approached the two. "You okay?"

"Yes," the blonde answered. "I'll be fine. Just used a lot of energy the last fight, so I guess I can't train today. I'm very sorry…"

"No," Ichigo said, shaking his head. "You should just rest. We can pick up our training tomorrow, okay?"

"As you wish," Aveleria answered. They stayed there for a couple more minutes, Ichigo staring out into open space while Aveleria was treated by Rukia. Once they were done, the raven-haired woman ordered her subordinate to return to her home, leaving her faux body to attend classes for her. Once the blonde was safely away from them, Rukia had turned from concerned to serious.

"What did you find out…?" Rukia asked, her back facing Ichigo's own. They had both been facing away from each other, gathering every bit of information they could from their memories.

"Nothin' much…" Ichigo muttered. "The Adjhucas said something about a master, but it never mentioned a name."

"So this was planned…" Rukia concluded. "This is a little troublesome." She faced the orangette, who had faced sideways from his original direction as he spared a glance at Rukia.

"What should we do?" he asked her. "They're going to attack again, aren't they?" Rukia cupped her chin as she gazed at the ground, thinking of every possible solution that rushed through her head. A few moments later, she sighed in distress and looked at Ichigo again.

"I'm going to have to report back to Soul Society," she said. "They may figure out why the Hollows are suddenly planning their attacks instead of random outbursts. It wouldn't hurt to do a little background check on Las Noches as well to see who this master they speak of is."

"Okay," Ichigo said while nodding. "I'll go inform hat-and-clogs about this. Maybe he knows something, too." With a single nod, the two Soul Reapers split up, going to different directions to investigate about this rather odd occurrence.

Aveleria rested her head on her soft pillow as she let the comfy sofa take her off to dreamland. It had been a few hours since Aveleria reached her apartment, now in Human form and taking in the peace and quiet that was happening here and now.

'It's so quiet…' she thought to herself. She snuggled deeper to the pillow's embrace, and the gentle, fluffy pillows began to drop her to sleep. But, as soon as she felt slumber a few mere seconds away, her eyes darted open and sat up abruptly, causing the pillow to be thrown across the living room. The temperature of the room dropped immensely, and she started to feel the hair on the back of her neck and on her arms standing up stiff as a stick.

What she saw deep in her subconscious scared her out of sleep. A few tense moments of silence passed, and Aveleria just stared blankly at the walls, frames, and shelves. Another moment passed, and she finally let herself relax with an awkward chuckle.

"T-that's right…" she said to herself. "I'm not used to quiet… Even with my family…" She started to chuckle to herself again, until it became full-blown laughter. She laughed so hard, she stumbled backwards back down to the sofa. But her laughter was just hiding her fear, and she's doing one hell of a job hiding it. As her laughter downed a bit, turning to what seemed to be gasps for air, the room was suddenly tense again. And out of the blue, the blonde started to sob, her body shaking as she cried with her pain-filled chest.

That place. She just couldn't get her head to get out of that place. All she needed to do was clear her thoughts from there, but it kept coming back. No matter how much she tried to hide it, it just kept coming back.

"D-darn it…" she sobbed quietly as she curled herself into a ball, wiping some of her tears and not minding the slight stings that she felt when her wounds compress. It took her mind off that so it should be fine. She concentrated, telling herself only happy memories with her family, her friends from the Academy, Rukia and Ichigo training her. All of it, she was sure it would take her mind off things.

But it didn't. It showed again, her being chained up, only wearing a ragged white dress. She could hear the pumping of the machines and the turning of the gears, noises that she was far too familiar with. Each rusted churning noise made her want to throw up, possibly from what she knew they were using the machines for. It didn't help that she had a photographic memory; everything was just as fresh in her mind as seeing Ichigo or Rukia's faces for the first time.

The experience, the sheer terror that she felt from just getting a glance at those memories, she wanted to cry all over again.

She shook her head, shakily sitting up. One of her hands covering her eyes, she looked around to calm herself down.

'I'm not in there…' she repeated in her mind. 'I'm not trapped there anymore… It's just a memory…' Slowly, she rubbed her eyes clean from any tears, getting off the couch and going to the kitchen sink. She washed her face with the cool water to let herself calm down some more. Afterwards, she grabbed a paper towel from the counter and wiped her face dry.

"I need a walk…" she told herself. Walking lazily back to the living room, she took the pillow and placed it back on the sofa. Rubbing the wound she had on her arm, she sighed and went to her room. That walk would have to wait later, because right now she needed to rest and relax, even if it was for a day.

When she got to her room, she turned a small, rectangular radio and tuned in to a music channel. When she found one that was calming or soothing, she changed to her pyjamas and curled up on her bed. Leaving the radio on wouldn't be so bad, especially after going through such a horrible walk down memory lane.

The Adjhucas Hollow race walked across the large, white halls of Las Noches, previously owned by the notorious Soul Reaper with a god complex. The wound on its arm wasn't bleeding too heavily anymore, but it still hurt. Reporting to its master before attending to its needs would be its first and foremost priority right now.

Stopping at the large, white doors, he used his good hand to knock twice, before it automatically opened to reveal the large throne room. Inside, the whole place was completely white, save for the red vintage carpet that ran from the door up to the throne, which was at least ten feet high.

"M-master," it stuttered while walking and lightly limping from the loss of blood. "I-I've…"

"Shut the fuck up…" a masculine voice muttered, his voice echoing through the whole room and making the Adjhucas shiver in fear. At the throne, a tall, muscular man with lightly tanned skin sat, one hand cupping his face and his elbow resting on the throne as he glared at the lower-class Hollow.

"You left without permission…" he said, his voice threatening and his aura smelled of death. The lowly creature could do nothing but cringe as the man with spiky blue hair moved from his seat. It was expecting some sort of punishment, but not the wicked and insane laughter that reverberated from its master's chest.

"…And that was a fun show!" he exclaimed. "I've been so damn bored in this place already that even a little rebellion would get me to laugh!" He grinned menacingly, showing off his longer and sharper than normal canines, and making the green markings under his blue eyes even more prominent.

"I'd be careful if I were you," said a smooth voice from behind the Adjhucas. The blue-haired man stopped his chuckling and grinned at the newcomer with pink hair.

"Why if it isn't Szayel?" he said. "What freakin' experiment did you come up with this time?" The man known as Szayel tucked a strand of his shoulder-length pink hair and walked inside with arms crossed. He gave a look to the Adjhucas, silently suggesting it should leave before their master decides to kill it. It leaves without hesitation, rushing out and closing the doors behind him. Then, Szayel looked back up to the grinning maniac that was supposedly their King.

"Stop grinning like that, Grimmjow," Szayel sang. "You look like a panther ready to hunt its meal…"

"Can't help it," Grimmjow said. "You coming up here mean there's good news, right?"

"Right," Szayel said, smiling as well. "Harribel is doing a fine job at recovering. She should be fine in about a week." At this, Grimmjow's grin got wider, if possible.

"Means I can get out of this shit hole…" he muttered with slight excitement. "Tell her to hurry the fuck up if she doesn't want me to blow this place up!"

"You can't order me around," the pink-haired former Espada huffed. "The only reason you're King is because Harribel is recovering. Once she does, she'll take over again and you…"

"…Will be out of this shit hole…" the blue-haired former number six finished. "It's just as I said."

"Yes, yes…" Szayel waved his hand in disinterest. "Oh, and by the way, you're little rebel there found something interesting…"

"Oh?" Grimmjow asked, leaning down and resting his elbows on his legs as he smirked. Szayel nodded, and a smirk found its way to his face.

"Yes," he said. "Apparently, Kurosaki Ichigo is back in action…" At this, Grimmjow's smirk was wiped clean off his face. He glared hard at Szayel, who ignored it and continued his report.

"He's also mentoring a young Soul Reaper… One that would be, and I quote, 'pretty enough that my master might have turned you to one of his personal bitches'."

"Never imagined the kid to be the mentoring type," Grimmjow shrugged. "So what the hell was that Hollow talking about me taking a bitch for free?"

"I'll bring up the video later," Szayel answered. "I need to check back with Harribel. Grimmjow, just be sure to keep this place intact for the next week, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah…" he said, grinning again. "And if that girl's as bitchy as that Hollow said…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Szayel said this time. "I'll work on that." With that, Szayel left the throne room, leaving Grimmjow with curiosity and an animalistic grin on his face.

A/N: Hello there again~! ^_^ I'm so sorry I haven't updated for a long while. Busy busy~! XD Anyway, as for the questions that I know will be bound to rise in you, Grimmjow will NOT meet Aveleria for a long while. And about Aveleria, yeah, she has a photographic memory. And as for the strange reason she couldn't sleep in silence… Well, let's leave it at that… X)

Anyway, thanks for reading this guys~! R&R please! And support my other fiction like, "After School Fun", "Me and Fairy Tail," and many more~!

Ja Ne~