Main Characters: Nnoitra, Halibel, mentions of Nel

Genre: Drama

Setting: Las Noches, after Aizen leaves Soul Society

Word Count: 1,198

Nnoitra smirked as he walked to the Espada meeting room, his tongue still tingling from the new taste of Quinto. It was certainly better than Octava, the seat Szayel now occupied, but still too far from his goal of Primera.

Aizen-sama had called for a meeting of the Espada today, to introduce the newest Arrancar into their ranks, and to bring the count up to ten again.

Nnoitra idly wondered what the new Tres would be, and gave thought to challenging him to fight for the position. He'd have to refrain from killing the new guy; Aizen-sama would not be too happy about losing another Espada.

The Quinto knew the only reason he got away scot-free with Nelliel's disposal was because Aizen had not been present in Las Noches at the time. Even though there was no proof that Nnoitra had been the one to kick Nelliel out, the way Aizen-sama had looked at the tall Espada when he expressed his displeasure told Nnoitra that one more such "incident," and he would be disposed of in a similar fashion. Good Espada were hard to come by, after all.

His idle thoughts banished, Nnoitra entered the meeting room, seeing that the other Espada were already there.

"You are late," noted Ulquiorra.

"Aizen-sama ain't here yet, so that means I ain't late," retorted Nnoitra.

"I am now."

All the Espada present immediately quieted down. Their Lord Aizen and his two closest servants Ichimaru and Tousen had entered the room, the latter two taking their usual positions by the door.

"As you all know," began their leader as he took his seat at the table, "The position of Three has been absent for some time now."

Nnoitra swore everyone was shooting him a knowing look, even that dimwit Yammy.

"Fortunately, I have come across a Menos fit to fill that position," continued Aizen, "A Vasto Lorde."

Well, that tanked any thoughts on duels, Nnoitra thought grimly. At least, for now it did.

"Let me introduce Halibel Tier, the new Tres Espada."

With that statement, one blond, very female Arrancar walked into the room.

Nnoitra's eye twitched. To the Quinto's increasing ire, half of the other Espada seemed to take varying levels of amusement at the situation and Nnoitra's reaction to it. Even Szayel, the little traitor.

"Now that we have all become acquainted," said Aizen, taking advantage of the silence, "Let's have tea."

Tesra raised an eyebrow as his master barged into his room, screaming obscenities and incoherent curses.

"What's wrong, Nnoitra-sama?"

"I just got rid of one woman, and Aizen replaces her with another one!" roared the tall Arrancar, "I swear he did it on purpose to punish me!"

Tesra waited in silence patiently, letting the Espada rant on.

"I don't care how strong she felt in that meeting room! I don't care what Aizen does to me! I'm going to kill her right now!"

Before the Fraccion could offer a word of caution, Nnoitra had stormed out in the same mood he had rolled in.

Tesra sighed and decided to follow, to make sure someone was there to pick up the pieces after the new Tres was done with him. As much as he idolized his master, Tesra knew that if Nnoitra could not beat the previous Tres Espada without aide, there was no way he could take the new one while in a fit of rage.

One thorough thrashing later, Nnoitra was back in his room, with Tesra bandaging up his wounds. To Tesra's surprise, however, the Quinto was not fuming over his defeat. Instead, he looked rather pensive.

"I did not realize that Aizen-sama let animals into the Espada ranks."

That had been the first thing she had said to him after Nnoitra had issued his challenge. It reminded him of how Nelliel used to describe him, and he hated it. He had immediately attacked in rage, and paid steeply for his mistake.

"The only reason I do not kill you now is because Aizen-sama does not want to lose any more Espada to infighting."

So this one had guts after all. Nelliel spared him because she felt sorry for him. Halibel spared him only because of Aizen's orders. That meant that the new woman had more respect for him than Nelliel did.

Wait a minute. She said "any more Espada." Hadn't she been here only one day? Did one of the other Arrancar tell her about what happened to her predecessor? Oh, well, it didn't really matter that much. Point was she was more ruthless than Nelliel ever could be.

Nnoitra grinned, despite his injuries. Looked like things might be better with this new girl.

One week later, Nnoitra felt differently.

As soon as he recovered from his injuries, he had challenged Halibel again to a duel. She had flatly refused without as much as a glance in his direction. After attempting to attack her from behind, she gave him a thrashing just as thorough as the first one.

"I have better use of my time than to satiate the meaningless hunger of beasts."

Once again, Tesra bandaged his wounds, while the patient pondered over his situation.

Nnoitra had thought that nothing would change; after all, Halibel was just another woman holding the rank of Tres; she couldn't be that different from Nelliel, right? Yet something was different. Nnoitra couldn't put his finger on it, but there was a difference between the two women, and it was not just the level of ruthlessness.

Once again, after Nnoitra had healed his wounds, he again challenged Halibel to the position of Tres. And once again, he was thoroughly thrashed.

"If you try to attack me once more, I will remove a certain piece of your anatomy that will not hinder your combat ability."

That was certainly different from when Nelliel was here. Whenever Nelliel fought him, she would only do so in self-defense, and even then, she would only use the bare minimum amount of force to subdue him. Halibel only held back just enough to refrain from killing him. At first, Nnoitra preferred the new Tres' attitude towards fighting; until he realized that being laid up in bed all the time was boring.

There was another major difference between the two women that Nnoitra only realized after his third fight with Halibel. The new Tres looked upon him not with respect, as he thought at first, but scorn. The shark-like woman barely tolerated the Quinto's existence, only spoke to him when she had to.

Nelliel rarely tried to avoid Nnoitra, and never gave him the silent treatment. She always had something to say to him, be it idle conversation during a rare moment of tranquility, or a moral lecture during and after the many times she had defeated him.

Nnoitra stopped trying to fight Halibel, and stopped trying to talk with her. She didn't seem to care. He still made snide remarks her way, but as long as he was not violent, neither was she. It actually became relatively boring, compared to the time he spent with Nelliel.

Of course, there was no way he would ever admit that he regretted kicking the infuriating green-haired woman out.

Author's Note: The… complex relationship between Nnoitra and Nel had always fascinated me. On first glance (and second, and third, and fourth… and one hundred and ninety-seventh glance), it appears that Nnoitra hates Nel. However, the way he always goes after Nel, the way we never see him antagonize Halibel like he did Nel shows he definitely was obsessed with her for a deeper reason than simple misogyny. And the thing about obsession is that it is a trait shared by both love and hate. The title of this chapter comes from my philosophy on hate: it is not the opposite of love, but its dark reflection.

Yes, I know that the official spelling is "Harribel," but according to Bleach Wiki, "Halibel" is also acceptable (and in my opinion, much more sensible).