A/N: I'd advise rereading CH.1 as I added more to it. Enjoy.

Behind the mask chapter.2: Cracked Mask.

Arrancar.

I puzzled over the word; sure I'd heard it somewhere…but where? Kyo lightly blew on his nails, unsurprised to see me walk into his domain. "Kyooo—" I began, silencing when he waved me away.

"Sorry, doll. I don't know anything much either."

Shunten-Satsu's spirit form of a brilliant green Hummingbird, twittered angrily, "now, Kyo. You must know something! Sakuya's worried! So spill it!" An eyebrow rose, I'd never seen her feathers be so ruffled by Kyo's avoidance tactics before. Kyo shrugged, his suit rumpling a little along the narrow shoulders, his face changing to an upside down frown, which never meant good for me.

"Well…it has to something to do with a broken or cracked mask. Somehow the way you looked to them—I don't know!"

I ignored his whine, simply pulling out of my inner-world back to the desert of Hueco Mundo. I reached for my returned sack of belongings, the taut canvas rough beneath my palms, taking each thing out in turn until at the very bottom I found what I was looking for.

A square book bound in a black cloth.

"What's that?" Kyo questioned, his curiosity driving him to summon a gold-framed mirror to look out upon the world through my eyes. I sniffed; shutting my healed left defiantly, "none of your damned business."

"Well! Seems like someone rolled up on the wrong side of the sand today!"

"Shut up!"

"Whatever you say…Mistress."

"Hmph. Bastard." I peeled away the first layer of fabric to reveal a beaten leather cover embossed with a large hell butterfly insignia. Or was it just an insignia? I ran my fingers over the jet-black wings, recognizing the thrill of Kido energy flowing through my hand, a barrier seal. Also known as a Kyo-mon. Luckily it was easy for me to break with a flick of my wrist.

"That's a Soul society text book!!! Where did you get that from?!"

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're implying," I muttered a little testily. I began flipping through the pages documenting the history of the Hollows.

"From the Academy! You stole it!"

"I told you I didn't take it that way."

"Meaning you stole it."

He was so emphatic about my guilt that I just gave up; there would be no convincing him I wasn't a thief. Not exactly. "When I was still in the process of receiving my education," I said quietly, "Kosuke visited me, letting it slip about her interest in the Hollowfication of Soul reapers. I'd seen the book on the teacher's desk so I thought I'd take a look at it for her."

"Ah. Kosuke-nee chan wanted it," Kyo murmured to himself.

I didn't bother correcting his use of sister since she was mine, not his. But I continued still in low tones, "they never suspected it was me. I hadn't really expected to keep it but later on it was just too difficult to get back to where it belonged. I left it with my parents in the Rukongai when I was appointed as Captain Kyoraku's third seat. Then after…what happened, I went and retrieved it from them."

Kyo nodded, "they didn't suspect you because of what you are, a Shinketsu Soul reaper. A pure blood undiluted from the common Konpakus coming and going through there."

I supposed what he said was true to some extent. Then, looking down at the yellowed sheets of thick parchment, I caught the word Arrancar. Eagerly I read the passage: Many believe the Vasto Lordes to be the pinnacle of the Hollows stage of transformation, however, that is a falsehood in itself for there is one last height to reach. That which thins the veil between them and ourselves; the Arrancar, born of few and with human-like countenances; almost none truly exist. Their masks are broken, residing in pieces near their original placement, their strength is beyond all mortal comprehension, they are Gods among the most powerful.

They thought I was an Arrancar.

Kyo had been reading along with me, muttering to himself every once in a while, at my thoughts, he smiled unpleasantly. "I suppose you might have seemed almost unearthly to those hicks." He slashed his hand through the inner-darkness in my mind, creating an image of myself as I'd appeared to the group of Hollows. Red dripped in a solitary stream from beneath one eye, painting my cheek with tears of blood, a jagged edge of Kyo's mask reposed on my right side, creating the illusion I was smiling when my lips were compressed tightly in pain. If you included the fact that with Kyo inside me, my reiatsu was completely suppressed then there you'd have it.

That Adjucha and his group really did think a Goddess among their kind had stumbled into them. I touched my cheek, not feeling the mask there. Only soft unmarked skin so unlike the region of my back and upper arms as they were marred with old scars dealt out by angry sparring partners when they couldn't beat me the way they'd bragged about.

But then again, I realized with a flicker of amusement, my bag had been returned to me by a fast moving blur, too quick for me to make out, but I'd swear now that it had bowed.

~~~To be continued~~~

A/N: :( a little too short but eh it's getting done. Anyway hadn't somebody suggested there be a sort of triangle between Grimmjow, Sakuya and Ulquiorra? :) Cheers until next time! Oh and can I persuade you to hit that little pretty purple button down there?