An hour and a half later of being wrangled through the dense underbrush and trees of the isle's interior under Nnoitra's hard grip on her shoulder Orihime found herself at the sandy shore of a small eastern inlet to the sea. Beyond the cove were other islands in the stretching channels of water that marked the beginning of the Hueco Mundo archipelago. Nnoitra halted them, his hand clutching vice-like as she tried to catch her breath from the quick pace he'd set since Loly and Menoly had left their company.

Abandoned her to her latest danger, Orihime knew.

She'd gotten a better look at her new captor in the rushed trip through the heavy vegetation. He was unlike any of the other pirates she'd seen, his untucked white shirt hanging tattered and loose over his black pants, the drawstrings at his collar open to expose a bony chest, his long fingers seeming more skeletal than actually human.

He had a scar lacing his face, diagonally crossing over one eye, but the eye itself undamaged. And then there was the smile, a lurking, cutting sneer that made her feel violated without the actual physical contact.

The brightness of the sunny beach left Orihime blinking after the canopy of trees, but her gaze fastened on the longboat pulled onto the sand, accompanied by six men as shabbily dressed as her captor.

"There she is, pet," Nnoitra said, grinning at her with a flourish to the ship that was anchored surprisingly close to the shoreline. "New home for a while, 'til we get to my personal spot o'land. Then we'll get you all set-in 'til Szayel can fetch you." He pushed her into motion. "Let's go."

Orihime stumbled in front of him to the boat, her fears rising as she got a closer look at the men there. They were more haggard looking than the pirates from any ship she'd yet seen, each seeming to be missing something, mostly parts of ears or fingers.

They gave her a collective chuckle as Nnoitra dragged her into the boat and shoved her to the second to the last bench seat.

"Shove off," he snapped at the men as they strained to push the boat farther into the cove's waters. He dropped down on the seat in front of Orihime to face her, grinning a lopsided smirk that showed his stained teeth.

She crossed her arms before her as a trembling took hold of her spine, glancing to the men that grunted and cursed as the small boat was pushed into the water. They clamored in as soon as the bottom left the sandy cove floor, sitting in the remaining seats behind Nnoitra with their backs to him. They pulled at the oars and propelled the boat to the waiting ship.

Nnoitra nodded at the new pale her face was taking. "Don't fool yourself into thinking Cap'n Ulquiorra will get you any time soon, pet. He's deeper than us, can't make the shoals like the Bleeding Sister can. She's one of the lightest ships on the coast. Not the best at maneuverability, but we can take the turns at a slow sail. Makes her bob like a cork in a storm, but she's fitting to ..."

He broke off speaking, most of what he'd said lost on Orihime as she tried to determine what he meant. His eyes narrowed on the ship behind her that the boat was fast approaching.

"Why're we so low in the water?" he demanded, eyes still on the ship as he broke off touting the vessel's advantages to riding high in the water. "Someone tell me that!"

"Repair in the lower forecastle's leaking," one of the men returned, pulling at the long oars as he spoke.

"How bad?"

Orihime turned to see the Bleeding Sister, urgency at a leaking ship surpassing the foul smelling man in front of her. The ship was well out of the water, not what she expected, half thinking she'd witness a shipwreck. The ship was taller than the Midori, with the master cabin topside of the decks in the aft, rising over the rear by a full deck. She didn't know anything about ships, but it appeared to her that the ship was safely riding above the water.

"...then add four more and get us bailed," Nnoitra was muttering to anyone who would listen, smile now crooked into a frown as they met the ship ten minutes later. "We need every bit of buoyancy if we're going to skim the shoals."

Orihime hugged her arms tighter over her chest as his attention leered on her again, his smirk returning.

The Bleeding Sister was accessed by a rope ladder hanging from the side. Orihime climbed this quickly, as Nnoitra was behind her, hurrying her progress with a cold hand that slipped up her calf whenever she came within reach. She frantically scaled the ladder, her hands and feet scrambling awkwardly in her desperation to outdistance him and the laughing men below her who were glimpsing her skirts.

She found herself on the main deck where two score of ragged men were watching her entrance. She barely stepped onto the deck than a slender man with an attempt at better kept attire met not her but Nnoitra with a grin.

"Captain, we're buckling her down now," Tesla said, predicting Nnoitra's first query. "We're heavy, but the water's contained, and --"

"We need to be light," Nnoitra said, his hand taking Orihime's arm. "Officer Tesla, we've got a new face here, and I'd like some time alone. You see to it we're not disturbed."

Orihime looked to him as her hopes dropped, oblivious to the men who boarded the ship behind her and another set of crewmen heaving the longboat out of the water with ropes.

"Uh, about that, Captain," Tesla said, giving Orihime a frown, "your cabin's occupied at the moment. She's locked herself in."

Nnoitra growled something, his voice turning whiny. "What's the problem now?"

Tesla sighed. "She's angry that you're sinking her ship."

"Damn it all to hell, it's only her ship when I'm not on it," Nnoitra grumbled, pushing Orihime before him to the cabin at the rear of the ship. "Tesla, find a dry cell for our pet."

"Yes, Captain."

"And get us under way. Gotta keep ahead of the Midori 'til she gets run aground."

"Yes, Captain."

Orihime kept on her feet as Nnoitra shoved her before him across the deck as Tesla called out orders, sending men into action around the rails. It was a fancier ship than the Midori had been, its former master a wealthy merchant who had fallen prey to the team of Halibel and Nel a few years prior. Nnoitra pounded on the cabin's thick door that had once been trimmed in gilt.

"Nel! Open up!" he called, gripping Orihime's arm tighter as she tried to flinch from him. "Hold on, pet. Your turn in a minute." He grinned and looked back to the door, twisting the locked latch. "Nel!"

"I'm not coming out until you put us up on the water!" a woman's girlish voice cried back. "You promised we weren't going down!"

Nnoitra mumbled something under his breath, giving Orihime a sly wink. "We're not going down, Nel, just a bit of water. Now open up. Be good and I'll tell you a surprise."

"No!"

Tesla joined them, looking from Orihime with indifference to his captain. "Boatswain wants to know if you want to lighten us, Captain. It'll compensate for the leak until we can bail the bilge above the damage."

Nnoitra nodded, pushing Orihime to the crewman. "Get her secured in the hold and get everything overboard we can manage, and I mean every damn thing. We get sanded and get caught with her onboard, we shoulda stayed in prison. Aizen ain't going to like it one bit." He pounded on the door, eyes still on Orihime. "Open up, Nel!"

Orihime was hurried to the stair to the hatch, Tesla's hand tight on her arm as she nearly tripped into the darkened stairwell. Her eyes had no time to adapt to the stuffy underbelly of the ship two staircases down, the only light coming from a lone hurricane lantern that swung from a ceiling beam at the juncture of the floors.

He pushed her ahead of him along the aisle way that opened between two rows of jail type cells lined with heavy metal bars. Far above her Orihime heard Nel's voice, this time hollering something about clothes and promises. It was joined shortly by the squealing of pigs.

Tesla stopped at the cell farthest from the stairs where another lantern hung, illuminating the small cells empty of anything but coir and a bucket each. He pushed her in and slammed the barred door. He pulled a thick chain through the door and cell wall bars and locked it with a ring of a dozen keys.

Orihime stood in the center of the small cell, the voices of Nnoitra and Nel in argument combining with calls from the men bailing farther into the ship, and the shrill crying of pigs.

"Where are we going?" she timidly asked Tesla as he turned to go back down the aisle.

"Captain will tell you if he wants you to know," he said, giving her a final glimpse as he stepped away from the cell.

She went to the bars and watched him leave, his form disappearing into the dark before she knew he could be out of sight. She sighed a trembling breath, half of relief not to be in the cabin above and half that being alone was much preferred to being in Captain Jiruga's company.

She knew it was him, everything added up to it. Ulquiorra's description of him and the unclear events surrounding the Bleeding Sister and Grimmjow came to her mind, setting aside the stench of her captor's nearness and rabid smile. She shuddered and crossed her arms over her chest, fingers tightening on her sleeves. So Loly and Menoly had sold her out to Nnoitra, who, it seemed, had made some sort of arrangement with Szayel.

She sunk to her knees in the brown coir tangles, tears threatening to fall as she thought back over the few days she'd been at sea. Now she was truly lost. At least Captain Schiffer was supposed to keep her, she thought with little consolation. But this pirate, this Nnoitra, was not in Aizen's plans for her. Most of what he'd told her passed her understanding of ships, but a leaking ship was a leaking ship, and if she understood him correctly, the Midori would be unable to follow.

She sniffed as the lantern swung overhead in the gentle waves that surrounded the Bleeding Sister. "Oh, Tatsuki," she breathed, choking back her sobs, "I miss you. I hope you're all right." She pushed her hair back from her face, her tears nearly ready to fall as she restrained them. "Please be all right."

"No sense in trying to pray down here, pet," Nnoitra's voice grated against her ears as he came from the darkened aisle. "No one to hear you."

She stood and backed away as he approached, the ring of keys jangling in his hands. He grinned maniacally at her, the skin around his scarred eye not quite wrinkling in the right spots at the movement.

He looked her over better in the muted light as his fingers groped the keys, gaze resting on the fullness beneath her crossed arms at her chest. He fit one key after another into the lock. "We're bailing, and lifting her out of the water. No reason to be putting off our fun." He mumbled a curse and tried another key, the lock eluding his attempt at unlocking it. "We've got a night before we get to my spot o'home, so we'll get acquainted now."

She shook her head, pressing her back to the hull at the far end of the cell. "Captain Schiffer will follow you, Captain Jiruga."

"No doubt he will, no doubt he'll get sanded," he muttered, flicking through the keys and trying another in the lock. "You better keep quiet about your time with me, you understand that good enough?" He chuckled, sorting through the keys for another to try.

Orihime watched him insert another key in the lock, her heart threatening to stop if he found the right one. When he looked to her she could only manage a small nod.

"Thought so. You keep very quiet about Szayel's time with you, too." His tone took on a more serious nature despite the lazy lisp. "He's got ways of making you not talk for good, or make you stupid like Nel. Dammit," he growled, beginning again with the set of keys. "As for our time, you better act like you're a virgin again when Aizen gets around to you. Suppose we could blame any discrepancies on captain of the Midori." He grinned, giving her a wink that made Orihime want to scream. "He get with you? Ever try to? Naw, he'd not make a good whipping boy. Not like Jaegerjaquez." He laughed. "Now that turned out okay, you know?"

He'd been through the keys three times, each clink of the lock and chain making Orihime hold her breath until her chest ached.

"Dammit. Nel!"

She crossed her arms tighter over her chest, praying against hope that the keys wouldn't fit. He looked from her down the dimly lit aisle.

"Nel! Dammit, girl, to hell with your games!" Nnoitra turned a grin back on Orihime. "I'll be back later."

She exhaled a shaky breath as he left down the cells, bellowing for Nel.

Orihime sniffed back a sob, a shaking taking hold of her legs until she could barely stand. She leaned fully against the wooden hull, sealing her tears back into herself.

"Don't cry," a woman's voice said from a darkened corner beyond the first cells.

Orihime looked there quickly, afraid to move from the back of her barred room. She watched the inky darkness where the voice had come from, seeing no one. After a moment she wondered if she'd imagined the voice.

"He's gone."

She watched as a well-developed woman stepped from the shadows, her green hair in strands of knots around her smiling face, the rest falling long in waves on her back. Her seafoam green tunic topped a pair of black pants, belted at her shapely waist by a red sash, but her feet were bare, an anklet of small seashells around one.

"Hi." She smiled a childish smile at Orihime, looking furtively back to the staircase where Nnoitra had disappeared. "He can't get to you," she said, reaching the door to Orihime's cell. She held up a key on a leather cord, giggling. "I'm Nel. What's your name?"

Orihime found her voice, stunned at the woman who appeared older than her but somehow childish at the same time. "Orihime."

Nel smiled, rolling her eyes. "I'm not stupid, but he tells me I am." She wiggled the key. "I can't let you out, O-ri-hi-me," she said deliberately. "But he can't get in."


Grimmjow didn't have to near the Midori when it was spotted at the outlying isle of the cluster of islands marking Hueco Mundo to know something was amiss. He could hear the calling almost as soon as the ship came into sight.

Cat stood at the rail at mid ship with him, both watching through scopes at the flurry of activity surrounding the water of the ship. Two boats were beached and another in the water. Crewmen swarmed the beach, among them Ulquiorra in an unmistakably desperate and cautionary mode. Grimmjow watched the fellow captain's movements, seeing what he could only perceive as a man who was doing more than escorting a girl in search of medicinal herbs. It appeared to him that Ulquiorra was conducting a search for something else. Or someone.

He trained the glass along the waters of the inlet and then the surrounding channels that opened from the isle to the other islands beyond where they eventually linked to the one serving as Aizen's headquarters, Los Noches, and then on to the largest, Hueco Mundo. It took a week to navigate the whole chain, and that was once one knew where they were going. Not every ship could make it, either, none with a deep hull low in the water, like the Midori, and not without an astute navigator. Even then a deeper ship required dozens of eyes to watch for the shoals that could ground a ship until high tide, or permanently.

"Doesn't look like the Bleeding Sister is here," Cat said, eyes moving over the beach as The Pantera neared the island's south side and moved to the east where the channels opened. "Or been here and gone."

Grimmjow nodded. "That's likely. Seeing as something's missing, I'd say Schiffer's done lost her."

Cat shook his head. "What's this about, Captain? You're turning down ripe pickings in Blue Towers for what? Or who?" He chuckled, putting the scope to his eye again. "It's not like you."

"If she's valuable to Aizen she's an option to barter my way out of our deal with him." He squinted through the scope at the waters between his ship and the island. "The sooner we're out from that bastard's articles, the better."

"That's it? That's all? You were awfully impressed with that sewing job she done on you. Or something else?"

Grimmjow knew the hinting curiosity in Cat's tone. "It's enough."

Cat now saw what his captain was looking at in the cobalt waters. "I didn't get a good look at her, busy watching your dangling arm spout blood and all. She pretty?"

Grimmjow grinned. "Does it matter?"

Cat shrugged, lowering the scope. "Depends on what you got in mind."

Grimmjow spared him a curt look. "Very pretty." He pointed to where a barrel was bobbing half out of the water a hundred yards away. "Someone's dumping and it doesn't look like it's coming from the Midori."

Cat nodded, and then they both looked to the opposite side of the ship as a crewman gave a cry, and then a laugh.

Grimmjow and Cat looked to where a crowd of men had gathered at the other rail, one pulling at something with a hook pole. He brought it over the side as Grimmjow and the first mate joined them.

He held up a soaked dress, grinning at the maroon material. "Got a lady somewhere without her dress," he said with a grin.

Grimmjow studied the item of clothing as more men offered remarks on the find, most crude in nature, until another man hauled up a second dress with the pole.

"Maybe two ladies," the portly crewman said with laugh.

Cat looked to Grimmjow, who was searching the waters for signs of another ship, any ship.

"Captain!" a crewman shouted from a shroud overhead, his bare feet expertly gripping the rope webbing. "Jetsam portside! Lots of it! Looks like water barrels!"

Over the next ten minutes more assorted items floated by The Pantera, some caught up by the crew, and Grimmjow began putting together the less obvious scenario than merely the naked women the crew was envisioning.

"Someone's lightening their hull," Cat said, thoughts running along Grimmjow's mind as the crew hauled up a reed hamper of clothing. "The heavy stuff would've sunk already."

Grimmjow nodded, this time his study of the channel The Pantera was approaching with more determination. He focused beyond the wooden bowsprit at the ship's front. "He's heading for home. Nnoitra's going home."

"That rat?" Cat shook his head. "He skipped out on the raid on Blue Towers because he wants to dock home?"

Grimmjow looked back to the crew as they sorted through the hamper, their laughter over the feminine items rising. "The Bleeding Sister is light enough to draft the shoals, one of her advantage points. If he's dumping cargo she's taking on water."

"Take a lot of clothes dumping to lighten a ship," Cat said, turning his back to the rail and crossing his arms. "We're heavier than the Bleeding Sister, Captain."

Grimmjow nodded. "We're shallower than the Midori. Ulquiorra doesn't have a chance in the shoals and Nnoitra knows it." He looked up at the crewman standing in the shroud. "Any sign of the Bleeding Sister?" he called.

The man took a long look at the waterway The Pantera was entering, skirting the island where Ulquiorra's men could be heard yelling for Loly and Menoly. He shook his head. "No sign, Captain! No sign of any other ship!"

Grimmjow turned to see the men at the rail heave over another object from the water, this time a dead pig, appearing freshly killed, fluids still dripping pink from its slit throat.

"Aye, we've got our dinner, men!" one of the crew said with a chuckle. "Tell cook we've got new pig."

Cat looked to Grimmjow. "If Nnoitra's tossing his food supplies he's hurt bad or got a ship fast leaking."

Grimmjow nodded and then waved a hand to the men still looking at the pig. "Take it below to the cook."

His attention went to the island they were swiftly passing, eyes scanning the heavily treed hills blocking most passably beaching points on the land mass. There was a reason Ulquiorra had set anchor where he had; the small island offered few places to dock, and even fewer to a ship as deep in draft as the Midori. He knew the only other easily accessible spot on the isle to dock was on the eastern end.

He also knew Nnoitra had claimed the island he wanted in light of Aizen's promise of ownership was nearly impossible to bring a deep ship to, which warded off the scantily populated spot from nearly everyone. The few fishing villages dotting the shallow coastline were just that, and the only real residence of any size was the abandoned estate Nnoitra had already began reconstructing.

Grimmjow had considered relaying that knowledge at his sentencing when he'd been framed for theft of the Kurosaki horses, but the Day of Mercy had compounded his punishment and no one wanted to hear it, and it was shortly after that that Aizen's forces had bribed his and his crew's way out of prison.

He looked to the waterway ahead of The Pantera as it wound its way between the islands, a chorus of warnings going up from the crewmen watching at both ship side rails as they encountered a sudden sandbar that the watchman from the crow's nest was calling out. Renegotiating his debt with Aizen wasn't entirely the reason he gave chase after the Bleeding Sister, but he hadn't felt the need to explain to Cat the memories that lingered from the soft touch of the auburn haired girl's fingers on his wounded arm, nor her hazel eyes that fringed the edge of his thoughts at night.

It wasn't only the miraculous healing of his arm, a wound that he knew should have been crippling, but something more in the appeal of her forced relinquishing of her free will to Aizen.

As so many of them had.

** ** **

Grimmjow wasn't aware of the sets of eyes that watched The Pantera from the topmost hill on the isle. Loly and Menoly were breathless and only barely out of sight from the pack of pirates that were hunting for them and Orihime.

Loly leaned against a tree, her eyes on the waterway down the hill past the sharp embankment that left an abrupt drop to the seaway. She panted noisily, her lungs raw from her run through the thick trees and undergrowth with Menoly.

"You didn't plan this out very well, idiot," Menoly said with she caught her breath. "You got rid of her but what are we going to tell Captain Schiffer?" Her face blanched bloodless suddenly beneath her flush of exertion. "What are you going to tell Captain Aizen, Loly?"

The black haired girl shook her head, swallowing difficultly. "Not the truth. Captain Jiruga would kill us. Officer Szayel would mess us up, too."

Menoly nodded, her attention snapping to the treed gulley down the slope of hill inland of the isle where men's voices were calling for them, and Orihime. "We can't keep eluding them. We have to go back, Loly."

"We'll just say she escaped. Ran off." Loly closed her eyes, gritting her teeth.

"She escaped? That milquetoast weaver maid?" Menoly spat the excess saliva that had collected in her mouth. "No one would believe that."

"Then she got lost." Loly shrugged, wiping her damp brow. "We called her and she didn't answer. Maybe fell in a pit or something."

Menoly was looking to the waterway, eyes on the ship moving across the deep blue of the channel. She stood straighter, and then sunk back to a tree to help hide her from anyone onboard bothering to look her way. "There."

Loly frowned at the ship, eyes narrowing on the escutcheon she couldn't read. "Who is it? Captain Jiruga must be gone by now."

Menoly nodded, searching what she could see between the trees for anything resembling any of the ships she knew to be in Aizen's fleet. "I can't read her name from here." Her eyes rose to the masts. "No flag. Not even Captain Aizen's colors."

"Nothing?" Loly moved closer to Menoly.

"Nothing." Menoly smiled as realization set in. "Captain Jaegerjaquez. He never flies Captain Aizen's flag unless he has to."

"He's not supposed to be here." Loly frowned. "The Pantera went south to meet the Twin Sisters."

"Well, he's here." Menoly chuckled, raising an eyebrow at Loly. "He must have snagged her."

For a moment Loly just stared at her, comprehension failing. "We can't tell Captain Schiffer that," she finally said, thoughts aligning with Menoly's. "Captain Jaegerjaquez will kill us if he finds out."

Menoly grabbed her arm and dragged her with her down the brushy slope as the pirates' calls grew louder. "The way I see it, any number of captains are going to want to kill us, so right now he's as safe a bet as any of them. We won't say it. Just that we saw The Pantera shortly after that girl disappeared."

Loly shook her head.

"Yes. Why not? He hasn't had time to get to Blue Towers and he's not supposed to be here. That's all we need, Loly."

Loly didn't like it, and neither did Menoly, but it was as reasonable an excuse as either could think up.

"You tell Captain Schiffer," Loly said as they reached the bottom of the slope where the men's calls were loudest. Her heartbeat raced anew at their impending explanation. "He likes you better."

"Captain Schiffer doesn't like --"

"Where the hell have you been?" Yammy yelled suddenly, appearing from behind them. "Captain's been screaming his bloody head off for two hours!"

Loly and Menoly both shrunk from the enormous man as he closed a meaty fist on the latter's shoulder. Menoly shrieked, but her yelp stifled as Ulquiorra stepped from the trees behind the first mate.

"Captain Schiffer," Loly squeaked, genuine fear draining her face of color. "Captain, I, I --"

"Where is she?" he demanded, an unusual darkness claiming his expression. "What have you done with her?"

Loly shook her head, looking to Menoly for support. "Nothing, Captain. We've done nothing. We've been looking for her, but ..."

Ulquiorra drew his sword, advancing on her as she flinched and stepped back. "But what? Where is she?"

"She got lost, Captain," Menoly stammered, wincing as Yammy's hand closed tighter on her shoulder. "We think, maybe, maybe abducted."

A different causticity came to Ulquiorra's face. "Who? Why would you think something like that?"

Loly had lost her nerve, eyes on the blade Ulquiorra had drawn. She shook her head. "We didn't actually see anyone, Captain, but, but ..."

"The Pantera was off the shoreline," Menoly said.

Ulquiorra's attention shot to her. "The Pantera? Are you sure?"

"It had no flag," she added, the blood running cold in her mind when she had to actually voice the attempted accusation. "Not long ago. Couple of hours after she disappeared."

Ulquiorra looked to Yammy, nodding to him. The first mate released Menoly. She shrugged from him, rubbing her bruised shoulder.

"Which way was he heading?"

Loly didn't dare sigh the relief she felt at Ulquiorra's question. "East, sir. Into the channels."

"Damnation," he muttered, his glare settling on Menoly until she squirmed. "How long ago?"

She shook her head. "A quarter an hour, may a bit more, Captain."

He nodded and turned to Yammy. "Round up the men."