Chapter One: Lonely Heart

It was a boring day, like any other in the life of Hinami Yamazaki. She sat upon her bed, silver laptop resting on her lap, as she typed away with her long slender digits. Her paper wasn't due until the end of the week, but for lack of anything better to do, she'd ended up working on it sooner rather than later.

She supposed that most other kids would have killed to spend the day at home instead of school, but Hinami couldn't help but be jealous of them. As far as she was concerned, home school sucked.

But that alone wasn't the reason she was so, well… alone.

No, it was her father's job that she blamed, after all it was what caused them to move so often, and had caused the decision to stop bothering with something as tedious as enrolling her somewhere new every time they moved to another town. The two things combined had left her friendless, minus the few people she talked to online, to say she felt lonely would have been a drastic understatement.

After an hour or so, Hinami closed the laptop with a heavy sigh escaping her lips. It was no good, she wasn't making much headway on the paper, what with all of the depressing thought's swirling around in her head.

Like usual her father was at work, and since her parents had separated years ago the house was empty, save for her. She hated how quiet it was, it only made the sad thought's come more easily, so she almost angrily turned on the t.v. once she'd reached the living-room.

Lounging on the couch, she flipped through channels with a slight scowl, eventually settling somewhat curiously on the news. The anchor went on about the strange occurrences around town as of late, but what interested her were the strange people in the pictures that nobody else seemed to see.

Not that it was unusual, considering she often saw things which were invisible to others, though she'd long since given up on telling people about them- even her father had thought her mad when she did.

Though… she had to admit that this had been the first time she'd ever been attracted to one of these 'things', but the one with the black hair and weird half helmet was rather… hot.

Not that it mattered, she surely would never meet him anyway.

Still though, that image was from the park nearby so she could go check out the crater, even if she couldn't check him out.

She stood there, in front of the crater, wondering why exactly she had thought this had been a good idea? There was probably some small part of her hoping that the strange man would have showed up, perhaps due to some odd fondness for the park, but even if he had it wasn't as though he would see her and suddenly profess his love!

She felt like a child waiting for her prince to come, and couldn't help but think that this stuff was the very reason that her classmates at her last school had called her 'sheltered'.

She sighed at her own stupidity, then turned to leave only to gasp instead.

The dark haired being from the news stood a good twenty feet away, and off by the trees, his pretty green eyes fixed emotionlessly upon her. His cold expression didn't waver as he slowly moved closer, until finally he stood so close that if he'd wanted to he could have reached out and touched her. She found herself hoping that he would, which had her thanking the lump in her throat for stopping her from thoughtlessly voicing her desire.

"You can see me." He stated, rather than asked, as he stared her dead in the eye.

She gulp. "Y, yes."

"What are you?" Came his next question, along with a scanning glance.

Hinami stared up at him in awe and confusion, unsure both of what exactly he was asking and how she was supposed to answer. "A high schooler?" In the end that was the best she could come up with.

There was silence then, the wind blowing gently over them as they stood there, it seemed like something from a romance manga and that thought had her heart pounding in her chest.

"You are not human, or at least not merely." He suddenly stated, causing her to blink.

"Um, yes I am." She told him, hoping to clear away the confusion, his empty expression leaving her unnerved and begging the question. "What about you?"

"…An Espada, the cuatro espada." He answered, though it only left Hinami with more questions about the man before her.

So she asked another. "And that is?"

"Not something you need to know." He told her, then took her by surprise by reaching out to take hold of her chin, his hand was oddly cool- or perhaps it was just that her flesh had grown too hot.

She didn't dare speak as he calmly tugged her closer, his emerald eyes peering into her honey colored ones as though he were searching for something within their depths. After what seemed like forever to Hinami, he finally released her, the corner of his lips dipping slightly.

Was he… disappointed in her for some reason?

"I will find out." He told her, then he was gone.

She wasn't sure how long she'd stood there after that, but she didn't leave until her heart calmed and that, she was sure, had taken quite a while.

Upon his return to Heuco Mundo, Ulquiorra headed straight for the throne room, bowing deeply to the man upon it when he entered.

"What is it, Ulquiorra?" Aizen asked with a smile which anyone outside of their group would have found troubling at best, but for the cuatro espada it was simply the norm. "Have you found what I asked?"

"I am not sure." He answered, his face a mask of calm despite the fact that having so little to offer trouble him, perhaps more than it did the master of Heuco Mundo himself. "I found a woman, she could see me, however I am unsure if she is what you seek."

"So, why didn't you bring her to me than?" Aizen questioned, his smile unwavering, though the darkening of his eyes did not go unnoticed.

"I thought I would observe her first." Ulquiorra calmly told him, then added. "But I can retrieve her now, if you would prefer?"

Aizen stood up, peering down at the espada as he spoke. "If you chose to observe her, why are you here?"

There was a pause before Ulquiorra bowed once more. "I will return to the human world now than." With that the dark haired espada turned to leave.

"Take Grimmjow with you." Aizen ordered and though Ulquiorra questioned it inwardly, he dared not voice it.

"As you wish."