At Death's Door

by Dracomancer

Entering into Hueco Mundo, the second battle with the Arrancars commences as Ichigo, Kein, Chad, Uryuu, Renji, and Rukia battle it out between new opponents and old ones. Will they get to Orihime and still make it out alive? Or will death ensnare them in the end? Will Kein escape Aizen's grasp or will Grimmjow rip her from it to gain his own means?

2. Nell Tu

Nell Tu

"So, does everyone have a cup of tea? Good, now listen carefully to what I have to say. Begin the presentation Kaname."

"Sir." Tousen shifted a lever that was stuck inside the wall behind Aizen's chair as a holographic type of imagery appeared from the middle of the meeting table. In the middle of the beam of light showed a type of broadcast outside of Los Noches as the Espadas could see who the intruders were.

"There are four intruders trying to break in; Uryuu Ishida, Yasutora Sado, Ichigo Kurosaki, and Kein Marasuna."

When the sound of Kein's name along with the mix of her image showed on the broadcast it caused Grimmjow to gasp as he stared more intently into the beam of light as images of his previous fights with Kein flashed through his mind. He wasn't one to dwell on any type of idea in particular as most of the time he could give a shit less, but the idea of fighting Kein one last time he couldn't help but let slip through his mind on occasion. Even though she was just some mere female Shinigami, she was an opponent that he had never before fought that understood the passion of battle. She understood the thrill of cutting an enemy down without mercy and ripping an enemy to shreds to be exhilarating.

Oh yes. If there was anyone that was going to get to fight her first it was going to be him. He wanted one last shot at her and to this time around force her to truly bring out her powers. He knew the last couple of times she was holding back. He could see it in her face and he could read it in her actions through battle. Oh yes…she held back either from distraction or from protection of her friends and it angered him and he was now determined to get a real fight out of her even if it meant killing her. He wasn't sure how the situation would present itself or how he was going to go about getting her to fight him seriously at 100%, but he was going to do whatever it took.

"You mean these are our enemies?" Aaroniero asked rhetorically.

"Ridiculous! When you said we were under attack I assumed it was some kind of army. These are just a bunch of kids and some Ex-Shinigami!" Barragan barked.

"I don't see what the fuss is all about," agreed Szayel.

"I wouldn't underestimate these so called kids. Others have made the same mistake. Aside from the exception of Kein Marasuna, they're Humans that were once labeled Ryoka. Some time ago four of them broke into the Soul Society and successfully took on the 13 court guard squads."

"So, that means one of them is missing. Where's the fourth warrior?" Zommari asked.

"That would be Orihime Inoue."

"Oh so they've come to save their friend have they? Why not let them try? They look weak as hell," Nnoitra scoffed mockingly.

"Have you been listening at all? Lord Aizen just told us not to underestimate them," Halibel interrupted.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were worried about these little brats. Are you scared?" He further asked in a grinning sneer at Halibel.

"What's that?" Halibel barked back.

Lightly slamming his hand upon the table, Grimmjow abruptly got up in interruption as he silently began to leave the chamber. "Where are you going Grimmjow?" Tousen asked in irritated politeness.

"I'm going to kill them. You have to exterminate pests as soon as they start infesting your home."

"Lord Aizen hasn't given such an order yet. Sit back down."

"Hey! It's perfectly clear what he wants done! I'm going to remove these intruders!"

Grimmjow wasn't foolish enough to out rightly disobey orders, but he had no problem stretching the truth in order to gain his own means. He wanted to take Kein on for a third time and the only way to do that was to make it seem like he was running an errand for Lord Aizen. It worked the last time even though it cost him an arm, but only at the behest of Tousen and not on a direct order by Aizen.

"Grimmjow…"

"…yes?"

"I appreciate your intentions and enthusiasm, but I'm not finished speaking yet. Could you return to your seat for now?"

Grimmjow stood in silence without answer as the jawbone masked Espada waited to see what Aizen would do, but as always Aizen was cool and collected.

"Well? I can't make out your answer, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez."

And then suddenly Aizen powered up just a portion of his reiatsu, nearly choking Grimmjow with it as the sixth Espada became overwhelmed within seconds of being touched by it. He was forced to his knees as he then bent over on all fours, Aizen letting up his power so that the Espada could get a breather.

"Good, I see you understand. Members of the Espada, as I've pointed out to you we have four enemies. It's unwise to underestimate them, but there is no need to become overwrought either. All of you are to return to your quarters and be as if everything were normal. Don't be impatient. Just sit and wait for the enemy to come to us. And don't be concerned. Regardless of the situation, as long as you remain calm and stay with me they are no match for us. We are unstoppable."

-On the Sands-

Needing to take a breather, Ichigo and the others collapsed upon the sandy ground.

"Damnit! It seems like we've been running across this desert for hours! And no matter what we're not any closer to that structure," Ichigo whined legitimately.

Chad looked again at the palace in the distance as he stated yet another well observed observation, "It's all perspective. The crystal trees in front of it look as small as needles; for the trees to look that small from this distance and the palace itself to look so big in contrast we have to assume that it's unbelievably huge."

"Are you sure it's not a mirage?" Ichigo asked as Kein busted out a loud laugh, "HA, HA, HA! A mirage, puwhahaha!"

"And what the hell are you laughing at?/i"

"There's no way we'd be able to see a mirage here. Shall I explain the concept of a mirage to you Ichigo?" Ishida asked in rhetorical sarcastic irritancy.

"Don't start with me!" Ichigo barked before his attention was directed towards a very small lizard like creature that crawled up a few feet from him. It was a brown type of lizard that had a hole through its midriff while its entire head and face was covered in a white type of mask, its eyes completely black with red pupils. It soon crawled away and dug into the sand.

"You know when we first got here I thought that we discovered that this was a world where nothing was able to live, but surprisingly there's some little animals here even though they're all Hollows. Now wait, don't Hollows have to constantly eat Human souls to survive? I wonder what these little guys end up eating to stay alive."

"Even in the Human world there are desert like terrains that normally a Human could not survive in and yet they contain small insects and creatures. Hueco Mundo isn't as sad and desolate as one may see it. Sure it may not have shopping malls or grand waterfalls or anything, but it's a home here to the Hollows just as much as Soul Society is to the Shinigamis and just as much as the Living World is to the Humans. Each place has its own advantages and disadvantages. Hollows really aren't as monstrous as the Shinigami's make them out to be. They just simply feed off of different things than we do to survive. They don't do it out of choice, it's because it's in their nature and they have to if they want to live." Kein explained in sympathy, not at all hating Hollows as most of the other Shinigami's did.

Ishida further stated, "In Hueco Mundo reishi is highly concentrated throughout the air; that's good for the smaller Hollows. I imagine that they can absorb enough energy by simply breathing."

"There's reishi in the air? Come on, how could you even know that?" Ichigo barked out in question.

"Oh my GOD! Are you seriously asking that Ichigo? And you've been a Shinigami Representative for how long?"

"Hey, shut up you damn blueberry! Just because I was made a representative, doesn't mean I suddenly have all the knowledge you do about Shinigamis and Soul Society."

"Yeah, whatever carrot top."

"Quincy's make use of the ambient reishi when they fight. Heh, the higher density the reishi, the stronger we are. Once I get the hang of it I should be able to fight better than in the world of the living or even in the Soul Society."

Ichigo merely grinned snidely as he replied, "Oh well that's interesting. You say you function better when there's a lot of reishi around. Sure sounds like a Hollow to me."

"Excuse me! Shinigamis are practically the same!" Ishida retorted, standing in irritation.

"Well I'm not. I'm different."

"Yeah right, just you. Rukia had to go back to the Soul Society for a while before she could regain her powers."

"Rukia's just weird like that," Ichigo jested back as the two continued to banter at each other.

"Keep this in mind; the higher amount of reishi benefits the Arrancars as well as me. I don't know how many Hollows Aizen has turned into Arrancars. More to the point, it's hard to say how well he's able to control them. As far as the Arrancars are concerned, we're not only the enemy…we're also food. Even if we should come across a normal looking Hollow we're going to have to be extra vigilant. The way I figure, the additional reishi in Hueco Mundo's air will make it a lot stronger then it ever would be if we encountered it in the world of the living. Therefore we need to—"

"—you talk too much Uryuu. Let's roll."

"Hey! Stop interrupting me, this is important!"

"You're such a pain in the ass, but feel free to keep talking. Let's go Chad, Kein."

Before Ichigo and Chad could resume walking however, Kein stepped in front of Ichigo with a stern gaze.

"Hm? Hey, what's with that look on your face?"

"You really are dense you know what?"

"Stop getting on my case already!"

"How long can you hold your Vizard mask?"

"Huh?"

"How long can you hold your mask?" Kein insisted on getting an answer.

Ichigo hesitated slightly as he answered, "11 seconds."

"Now, apply what Ishida has been saying and imagine holding that mask for 60 seconds or more."

Ichigo gasped at the thought as he slowly began to realize that maybe all of Ishida's jibber jabber wasn't as pointless after all.

"Listen Ichigo, I know it's a lot to take in for you, but everything that Ishida has stated is a monstrous advantage to us. This is more of a suicide mission then you can even imagine Ichigo. Of course at this point there's no turning back, but it's very likely we could all die here. So if you're going to plunge yourself into oblivion the least you could do is understand the basics of how your powers are affected in the different worlds. Your mask and my mask are based on Hollow powers and we are now in the world of the Hollows. The powers our Hollow mask provides will be more powerful here than in any other place. You need to understand that and take advantage of it if you have any hopes of making it out of this alive let alone if we're going to get Orihime."

A silence broke between the two as he reflected upon her words. "Well nice to know that someone finally agrees with me," Ishida stated as Kein smiled back at him. "I don't know about for these two, but it's refreshing to hear you talk about it. Gives me a nice summary of the things I've learned for so many years. It's amazing how I can forget some of even the basic knowledge of these worlds."

However, amongst all the chit chat it wasn't long before they were quickly interrupted by a shocking disruption. They stopped and turned around at the sound of what appeared to be screaming and yelling. And out from the ground came a giant worm like purple creature that had a bullhorn like mask atop its head.

Beside it were two other strange creatures both of which that had humanistic bodies with two arms and two legs, one was purple skinned with a horn like mask that covered its entire head with a skinny body while the other was rather fat in a yellow type of jumpsuit that had a creepy type of full headed mask with a giant mouth and large yellow eyes, but out of all these strange appearances, there was yet a fourth being that stood out the most from the other three; a small human like child that was running away from them, completely covered in a green hooded robe with teal short hair and reddish elongated circular oval shaped markings that stretched from one cheek bone to the other.

"A Human?" Ichigo barked.

"No way, there can't be another Human living here. That's impossible!"

"We'll deal with that later! We've got to save her!" Fearing that the child was in danger, Ichigo took his wrapped sword and swung it into the fat yellow Hollow like creature as it was thrown backwards. The much skinnier purple like Hollow yelled out in worry, "My brother!" Ishida and Chad went after the other two creatures as they were all ready to attack, but they stopped the second they heard the child cry out, "Stop that! Leave them alone! What did we do to you? Stop picking on us will yah? Why don't cha just leave us alone?"

The child continued to cry out as she unveiled her head from out under the hood of her small robe revealing a mask that looked like a flat fat type of skull bone that covered her entire head. It had a crack that stretched from the back of it and towards the front left side with teeth only on the right side of it. The crack followed in the same direction into a scar that went down her forehead and stopped at her nose. Ishida, Chad, and Ichigo immediately stopped attacking the three strange Hollow creatures as they looked over at the child. Kein slowly approached as she knelt down and stared at the girl.

"A mask? Then are you a…a Hollow?"

With the confusion died down, the girl and the group of creatures bowed down before Ichigo and the others as she profusely apologized. "Please leave us alone! We're reaaaaaally sorry! We never thought our game of eternal tag would cause such a misunderstanding. It'll never happen again."

The four were rather dumbfounded as Ishida questioned, "You mean you play a game called eternal tag?"

"Unfortunately there's nothing else to do here in Hueco Mundo to pass the time."

"Eternal tag? But you were crying while running away from them."

"Sure! Nell is a masochist and it's no fun for Nell unless Nell is chased to the point that Nell starts to cry," she answered happily as Ichigo hit the big yellow creature upside the head in anger, "Why the hell are you teaching this kid words like masochist?"

"Wait I'm confused. Nell is your name right?" Ishida asked the child as she answered happily, "That's right! Nell is an Arrancar and Nell's full name is Nell Tu."

"An Arrancar?" Ichigo blinked in question.

"Nell sure is! All these are Nell's brothers," as she lifted her hand towards the skinny purple Arrancar as he answered, "I'm Nell's older brother Pesche." As she then lifted her hand towards the big yellow and black dotted Arrancar he answered, "I'm the oldest brother, Dondechaka!"

"Brother?" Chad questioned rather puzzled as Nell finally lifted her hand towards the big worm creature, "And this guy right hear is our pet…" as it smiled brightly "…his name is Bawabawa!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait—"

"—you have a question?"

"Since when do Arrancars have siblings and pets?" Ichigo asked.

"Whadaya mean? Arrancars have always had those!"

"When I met Nell I thought she was so cute that I decided to become a big brother you know what I'm talkin about?"

"Yep, same here."

Ichigo sighed, "but that doesn't mean you're really siblings at all." The four Arrancars gasped as Nell cried out, "But if these aren't my siblings then what are they then?"

"Not her brother, what are you talkin about?"

"NO WAAAAAY!"

Kein was laughing on the inside as Ichigo tried to take back his words, "Uh, I mean, what am I talking about? Sure! You guys could definitely be siblings!"

A moment of silence passed before Ichigo further questioned, "This is all bizarre. Are you sure you guys really are Arrancars?"

"Hey, what are you trying to say? Can't you see this here?" As she pointed at her head, "A beautifully cracked Arrancar mask!"

"It's just that…you seem…different from the Arrancars that invaded the world of the living."

"Oh! But of course we do! The Arrancars that went to the world of the living are called Numeros."

"Numeros? Wait, what are they?"

"Numeros are the guys that are even stronger than the Menos Grande that is before they turned into Arrancars. All the Numeros can be identified by two digit numbers and serve directly under the Espada!"

"They sure have it good!" Pesche agreed. "You're telling me! It just ain't right."

"Numeros are combat experts. They're an elite fighting force! There's no comparison to them and garbage bugs like us," Nell further explained.

"Garbage bugs?" Ichigo wondered. "

"You have some nerve telling us we don't look like Arrancars when you look less like Arrancars than we do! You don't even have a mask and you wear a black Kimono. You're dressed more like uhhh—"

"—a Shinigami you know what I mean?"

"Yeah like a Shinigami."

It was then the strange group of Arrancars suddenly paused in thought as they realized what they just said. "Wh-What are you guys anyway?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Shinigami."

"Kein Marasuna…um…retired Shinigami."

"Uryuu Ishida, I am a Quincy."

"Yasutora Sado, I'm a Human."

"TWO SHINIGAMIS?"

"A QUINCY AND A HUMAN?"

"What are we going to do? You know what this means? You're the bad guys!"

"You mean…you didn't have any idea who we really were?" Ichigo asked a bit dumbfounded.

"That's right because you didn't say who you were!"

"You should have told us from the start!"

"Bad guys I can't believe it!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Kein yelled out loud as she got in front of the others and approached Nell who was overtaken by Kein's tone of voice, but not wanting to scare the child Kein knelt down on one knee and looked Nell up and down like a test subject. Something didn't place right. The look on her face spelled out concern as a squirming bad feeling hit the middle of her chest.

"Uryuu, what was it you said before…about Arrancars taking on a Human form?"

"Huh? Oh…" as he adjusted his glasses "…when a Menos Grande becomes an Arrancar it doesn't always take on a Human form. Only the most powerful class, the Vasto Lordes, take on a Human shape…" as he paused in thought realizing what Kein was asking "…100% of the time."

"Even if they do become Arrancars many of them won't take on a Humanoid form. Also the lower their intelligence the more they resemble an ordinary Hollow…right? Isn't that what you said?"

The group was in silence as Nell looked up at Kein in curious question. "Wait a minute just what are you trying to insinuate? Are you saying this child might be a Vasto Lorde? How could that be?"

"You said so yourself. The most powerful take on a Human shape 100% of the time. This girl, aside from what we can't see from under her robe, has a completely Human shaped body with only but a mask and a scar upon her forehead. Despite her speech impediments…she's the most Human of the group. She could very likely be an Espada."

The group then gasped as Nell protested out at Kein, "What? Nell an Espada? But that's not right! Nell is just an Arrancar!"

Kein just merely smiled at the girl. She couldn't help but feel her heart melt at the innocent cuteness in comparison to the harsh landscape of Hueco Mundo. She felt no deception or malignance from the girl and so for now she would take the girl at her word. Matched with a gentle smile, she placed a warm hand upon the girl's forehead as Nell at first winced, but then she looked up and saw the tenderness in Kein's eyes almost with a motherly feel to them.

"You know you kind of remind me of Yachiru from Squad 11. She's small like you only with pink hair and black Shinigami attire. Her looks are deceiving though as she's very powerful for just being a child. I'm glad you have some friends to be by your side otherwise I couldn't imagine how lonely it would be here for a girl at your age. I guess it doesn't matter at this point and we've wasted enough time. I don't feel she's a threat of any kind so we should probably be on our way," she stated informatively as she stood up, rejoining the group and heading on their way.

"It was nice meeting you Nell. Hopefully in time this place will be wiped of Aizen's influence and you can be free to roam wherever you please."

As she began to walk away from the girl, Nell suddenly yelled out "Hey, are you running away?" Taken by the yelled question Kein sharply turned around with a blatant "HUH?"

"You're just going to run away after what you did to us?"

"W-Whaaa?" Nell then put on the puppy eyed dog look on the brink of tears as Kein sighed. Ichigo too felt a little bad that they had to leave the girl behind, but it was too much of a danger to take her with.

"I wish I could stay and play Nell, but we're on a mission to save a friend of ours from inside the palace. I don't know how long it'll take, but when our mission is done and over with I promise I'll come back for you."

Despite the encouragement in Kein's voice, Nell broke into tears as she cried out "That's so mean! You were just toying with Nell's feelings when you should have just killed Nell instead! It would have been much less painful for Nell that way! Waaaaaaaah!"

Kein let out a very heavy sigh as Ichigo commented, "You just had to put on the motherly act didn't you?"

"WHAT?" Kein retorted in question. "What the hell do you mean motherly act? I'm not even in a relationship with anyone let alone a mom! How the hell was I supposed to know she'd react like this? She found us first not the other way arou—"

"—since you asked for death I shall grant you your wish."

The deep menacing voice came from underground as suddenly a giant Arrancar appeared from beneath the sand. "What the hell? That's huge!" Ichigo commented as Kein instinctively went over to Nell and quickly took up the girl in her arms.

"It's Runaganga, the guardian of the white sand!"

"Hey quit your squirming!"

The guardian looked down upon the much smaller beings below him that seemed like ants in comparison as he spoke aloud, "I was just informed only moments ago by Los Noches that we had intruders. I never would have guessed they had you measly garbage bugs acting as spies. Unforgiveable! I'm going to turn you all into desert sand!"

"Hey shut up before I turn you into an ash tray!" Kein yelled out nonchalantly, not in the least bit alarmed by the Arrancar.

"This guy doesn't look like he wants to play around," Ichigo stated as he stood in front of Kein and Nell in a protective stance. "Alright lets go monster! Getsuga Tenshou!" He yelled in a fiery tone as his attack blazed through the Arrancar's head, splitting it in two.

"Now he's toast."

"You're such a freaking amateur."

"Who the hell are you calling amatu—" Ichigo tried to bark back before Kein interrupted him and tossed Nell into his chest as Ichigo quickly grabbed her "—hey what are you doing?"

"Hey, why are you tossing Nell around!" The girl yelled as well as Kein further explained in irritation, "If you hadn't noticed, the guy is made of sand. That's not going to take care of the job carrot top," she lectured as within seconds the monster's head formed right back together.

"What the hell?"

"So you think you can take me on do you? Well then I hope you're prepared for an eternal sleep!"

Lifting his fist, the Arrancar then swung with all his might as he pounded it into the ground, trying to crush Kein, Nell, and Ichigo, but they easily dodged out of the way.

"How ill-mannered you are!"

With another swing of his other fist, the wind began to pick up quick enough to form a sandy tornado as it came towards the group's way. Ichigo held Nell close to his chest as she clasped onto him, trembling a little in fear, but the warmth from his chest was soothing to her as this was the first time someone had protected her so closely. She got a similar vibe from Kein when she was held in her arms who was now standing in front of everyone ready to set out her attack.

"How persistent you are. I'm going to finish you off all at once!"

Lifting his fist for a third time he then swung it outwards as three more sandy tornados were formed. Ichigo tried swinging another Getsuga Tenshou as it split the monster's head in half once more only for it to form back once again.

"Stop wasting your energy damn it!"

"Then shut up and do something!" The carrot top and blueberry argued a bit as the group dodged out of the way from the tornados.

"Fools! Did you think you could defeat me with such a weak attack?"

"Man this is ridiculous," Ichigo commented to himself.

"Ichigo, Kein, lets combine attacks!" Ishida yelled out the idea, Chad agreeing "We'll wipe this guy out without a trace!"

"Right!" Gently putting Nell down beside himself, Ichigo as well as the others prepared their attacks as they chanted out loud "GOUKYUU JIGEN…GETSUGA TENSHOU…GINREI KOTAKU...EL DIRECTO!"