Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Kubo Tite does.

Second Edition (Nov2011)

Himitsu

By

Marie Darkholme

Chapter Ten: Dragon vs Spoonhead

A silver haired shinigami made his way back to the medical wing of Las Noches. The smile on his face had become such a part of who he was that sometimes it even managed to annoy him. As he watched the busted door widely open, he couldn't help but sigh. His pupil had once again managed to do everything she shouldn't have. Ignoring the fact he felt like to kill her at the moment, he did a quick search for her reiatsu to realize she wasn't even in Las Noches. As he broadened his research area, he spotted both her and the Quinto Espada reiatsu a few miles outside Las Noches. They seemed to be getting very fired up.

Turning back, Ichimaru Gin, ex-captain of the third squad, headed over to Aizen's usual place. It was necessary to warn him that something was about to happen. But then, it occurred him something else. Changing direction in the labyrinth-like corridors he walked over to the Sexta Espada's wing.

Tatsuki studied her opponent. She had seen him fight before. She knew some of his tricks but he should know none of hers. That granted her some sort of advantage,...she hoped. Nevertheless she was aware of the huge gap between their powers. Her speciality being close range hand-to-hand combat wasn't exactly helpful in that situation either, seeing as Nnoitra was a long range fighter. It would be difficult enough to block and avoid his arms, much more getting close enough to lay a decent kick or punch on the bastard's face.

She decided it would be smart to let him make the first move. From then on, she would have to improvise through dodging mostly until she found an opening. And then, she would have to make the best out of that opportunity, which meant getting him and getting him hard.

There was a slight breeze. She licked her lips. Thirst and hunger wasn't something she should be worrying about at that moment.

"Are you just going to stare or are you actually gonna fight me?" The Espada taunted her. Tatsuki ignored him.

"You're the one who wanted to fight so come and get me." She smiled back.

Getting fed up with the waiting game Nnoitra decided it was time to take action. Bringing two of his four scythes down he cut the air that had replaced Tatsuki when she flash-stepped away from the blades. She had to use shunpo again to avoid being hit by another one of the deathly moon shaped blades of the Espada, but no matter where she stopped he would just pinpoint the exact place and launch another attack without delay.

"I heard you were pretty fast using sonido. I guess you use shunpo just as well, seeing as that it's definitely not sonido." He stated. "Are you going to keep running, you little shit?"

Another attack made her flash-step away again, but this time, something different happened and Nnoitra released a powerful cero to the place he knew she would be through his mouth.

"Shit!" Tatsuki cursed seeing herself forced to bring out her zanpakutou to block out the cero that she moved to the side before flash-stepping into close range of the Espada. The movement caught him off-guard and she managed to place a powerful heel kick on his stomach before he used his head to knock her down.

Damn! His hierro is hard. Tatsuki rolled backwards to avoid his next attack and high blocked one of his descending scythe with the blade of her zanpakutou.

"I was wondering where that had gone to." Nnoitra laughed out as he pushed the blade deeper. The dragon reinforced the reiatsu in her blade. Then the Espada used another of his scythe to push her down. That left him with two more arms to spare that he used to attack her left flank. He was surprised when her left hand moved in to block them as well, holding a twin blade of her zanpakutou.

Unable to keep up with the Espada's strength, she allowed the upper two blades to come down deflecting them to the left so the four blades ended up together in a bundle, giving her time to attack Nnoitra, this time with a strong hook kick aimed at the Espada's jaw that made him slightly loose balance. This created the opportunity for Tatsuki to reach out her blue bladed zanpakutou and aim it at his chest in a left to right attack that Nnoitra tried to block out with one of his hands only to have it chopped off.

Before Tatsuki had time to even think about celebrating the successful hit, two other arms erupted from Nnoitra's torso. The girl flash-stepped to a safe distant crossing her twin blades in front of her.

"Nice moves, woman!" the Espada congratulated her as he regenerated his lost hand. "But it will take more than that to bring me down. Do your resurrection!" he ordered.

"I don't need it to defeat you!" she shouted back. Her zanpakutou disappeared and she charged forward making a number of flash-steps to try and confuse the Espada. Nnoitra didn't buy any of them and when she send a straight punch followed by a roundhouse kick, he blocked them both with his two free-hands and drove his blade horizontally in a clear attempt to divide her into two parts, torso and legs.

Tatsuki escaped the vicious attack by jumping and making a back handspring that left her in an attack position before she disappeared in a flash-step only to be intercepted by Nnoitra's scythe that cut through her left shoulder before she managed to get some distance between them.

The arrancar quickly glanced at her injured shoulder. Her hierro hadn't been able to protect her in the sliest. Sometimes I wonder if I have this fucking hierro for any reason. It doesn't do a damn thing. She complained inwardly. The blood gushed from the cut and dripped to the floor. It hadn't been disabling which didn't mean that it wouldn't make her movements harder.

The next attack by Nnoitra turned the fight into an acrobatic challenge to Tatsuki as she jumped, rolled and dived in any direction imaginable doing just about anything an Olympic gymnastic athlete would do on a floor exercise to be able to avoid the four blades that kept coming towards her. The velocity at which they were doing their deadly dance was the thing that was most extraordinary, though.

Grimmjow was lying around his training room doing some thinking. But thinking things through had never been a strong trait on him so he felt more like spanking something or someone. But seeing as he had just lost his sparring partner and couldn't exactly go rampage in search of a fight to the Menos forest, his anger was building up as he lied down on the ground of the large room.

Nnoitra's words were stuck in his head. He felt completely betrayed. How did that little bitch dare to make a fool out of me? He thought angry. Really, thinking I would never discover the fact that she's a shinigami. But worst of it, she's actually Kurosaki's friend.

However, he wasn't sure if that was the exact reason why he was so pissed off. It was not that he was so dumb that he couldn't have noticed Tatsuki had some sort of secret she kept from him. Sure, he hadn't thought it would be something like this, but still. Did he care that she was a shinigami? Like he had told Ichigo once, he didn't care who was an arrancar or who was a shinigami. So…was he really that pissed because she hadn't told him? Because it had been Nnoitra to tell him?

He was startled away from his thoughts when he felt a rise in spiritual energy in the vicinities. Using pesquisa, he quickly searched for the source, discovering that it had been not one but two arrancar. Their reiatsu was unmistakable as well. They were Tatsuki and Nnoitra. It felt like they were getting ready to fight not too far away from his wing.

How stupid can she be, messing around with Nnoitra? Does she actually think she can beat him? He sat straight, his hands resting over his knees, his eyes closed, as he continued to feel the other two. Suddenly Tatsuki's reiatsu changed from her usually flames under control to an unexpected raging fire.

His eyes widened. A single thought crossed his mind: is she going to release her zanpakutou?

In the medical wing of Las Noches, a bunch of arrancar worried themselves over the Décimo Espada. The giant had suffered severe injuries to his internal organs. They had him sedated and were working to repair his internal organs when a pale Espada approached the room. A short, thin female arrancar with a sick and weak appearance approached him. She was wearing a long white robe and her mask was a piece of white substance glued to the sides of her head over her ears that was part of the glasses she wore.

"Ulquiorra-sama!" she exclaimed as she approached the Espada, obviously flustered by his presence. His cold stare made her avoid eye contact when she spoke again. "Yammy-sama is still unconscious so you won't be able to talk with him." She informed quickly, her fingers playing with her white garment.

"Alright." The Espada replied without a hint of emotion. "When he is awake send someone for me immediately." He ordered as he turned around and prepared to leave. Then, something made him stop. The arrancar eyed him in fear, wondering if it had been something she had done.

"Is…is some-thing…wrong, Ulquiorra-sama?" she stuttered as she took a step back.

Without bothering to reply, the Espada continued, this time, his pace clearly more rushed than before.

"Hey, Stark!" a small dirty blond arrancar jumped over the sleeping form of the black haired Espada. "Hey! Hey!" she tried to get his attention. Seeing as she wasn't getting it, she poked him in the eyes. This made him react.

"What the hell Lilinette?" he whined in a sleepy voice as he supported himself on his elbows.

"Didn't you feel that?" the arrancar queried, pinching the Espada's cheek.

"Of course I did. So what?" Stark allowed himself to lie back down.

"Aren't you gonna do something?" the Viking masked arrancar inquired.

"Let the kids play." The Espada finally replied leaving the excited arrancar talking by herself.

"Aizen-sama!" the dark skinned shinigami entered the large throne room with his fateful arrancar following his steps swiftly. "Stay here, Wonderweiss." He ordered the small figure at his feet when they crossed the tall door.

"Gah!" the arrancar complied as he looked around absently.

"Aizen-sama, have you noticed?" the white dressed shinigami asked concerned. Aizen raised his chin from his hand and ran a hand through his slick brown hair.

"Nnoitra and Arisawa?" he asked. "Don't worry. Someone's already on the way."

"And what will you do?" Tousen asked as his hand rested in the hilt of his zanpakutou. "Such shameless disobedience must be fought against in order to keep the Espada under control."

"Nnoitra will face his rightful punishment. Meanwhile, let's just enjoy this."

"What if the girl releases her zanpakutou?" Tousen inquired, a glint of fear in his voice.

"She won't."

Tatsuki tried to stopin order to catch her breath but it was useless. Nnoitra kept coming at her leaving her no place to rest. Her body had never fully recovered from her fight with Ichigo and she had suffered several hits since the beginning of the fight.

Blood was dripping from a cut in her forehead over her left eye which blinded her from time to time. She wiped it once again to her bandaged wrist and jumped backwards to avoid the Espada's attack. She winced as her feet touched the ground obliging her leg's anterior muscles to contract and therefore causing a deep cut on her thigh to stretch.

There was also another cut on her cheek from an attack directed to her neck and a slash crossed her back from shoulder plate down across her spine to the other side. Almost a twin injury of the one over her torso that had, meanwhile, started to bleed once more.

"You look just about to fall down, bitch." Nnoitra smirked as he approached. But he wasn't exactly on top shape either. The female hybrid had managed to inflict a number of injuries to the Espada as well. There was a cut over the left side of his face that had cut through his eye patch leaving both his hole and hollow mask remnants showing. Another large cut had been inflicted over his torso in an X pattern when Tatsuki slashed both her blades over him.

"You don't seem that good either, dipshit." She replied in a confident voice. But deep down, she knew she was done for. She had known it before the beginning of the fight. And now that she was getting weaker, her hollow was making itself heard more strongly. Let me fight him! It cried.

Nnoitra raised his right leg and swung his foot at Tatsuki's face. She blocked it only to be hit by a straight punch. Falling down on the blood stained sand she managed to roll back to a fighting stance before receiving an axe kick just over her injured shoulder.

She fell down again, this time not being able to stand back up. The two blade in her hands disappeared when she turned around and tried to get on her feet, her hands and knees forcing her body up. She was taken back down by another downwards kick. Coughing, Tatsuki spit blood onto the sand, some of it getting caught up in her mouth when Nnoitra stepped over her head and forced it down on the sand.

"You're pitful, Arisawa!" he shouted before kicking her side so she turned around, her face looking up. Inversing the position of one of his scythe, he impaled her wrist with one of the tips of the blade. "Release your zanpakutou!" he ordered as he twisted the blade. The girl cried out in pain.

"No!" stubbornly she reached his blade with her other hand, but before she could touch it, he grabbed her arm and with a quick movement, removed the blade from her wrist and pulled her body up so that her back was against his chest, her feet not touching the ground, one of his hands holding her arm, the other pressing her throat and a third one around her waist.

"That attitude is going to get you killed." Nnoitra smirked. He forced her head to tilt to her left and licked the blood dripping from her right cheek. "You're scared, Arisawa. I can taste the fear running through you." Holding her in front of him by her throat, he glared at her battered figure. "Release your zanpakutou!"

"Hadou…" she was unable to finish the kidou spell as Nnoitra threw her body back to the sand.

"RELEASE IT!" he shouted furious.

Tatsuki rose up, her knees shaking with the strength required to do so. Her hand rested over her left black eye. "…" she found herself unable to speak. Spirit particles started gathering over her face. No! No! No! Yes! Yes! Yes!

An evil smirk crossed her features, half of her right eye already black as well. She stretched her hand and dark red energy started gathering there.

"NO!" the scream was followed by a wave of reiatsu and the dragon cranium in her head cracked before she fell down on the floor, barely conscious.

Nnoitra approached her. "Tsh! If you're not going to play along, there's no point in keeping you alive." His scythe was brought down over Tatsuki's motionless form to finish her off.

Tatsuki felt something warm and wondered if that was her own blood flowing out of her body and involving her like a warm blanket. If this was dying, for a second time, it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. In fact, it was rather pleasant. She didn't open her eyes, but a vague memory filled her before she fell down in shadows. The memory of sunset in the river

…banks; a warm hand caressing her cheek, tugging a lock of hair behind her ear. "You really went all out on them this time." "Nobody messes with my friends." "Well you could be more careful." The same warm hand touched the cut on her cheek. "I don't think you'll need stitches. But it's a deep cut. You should come to my house and let my dad take a look at it."

The girl laughed. "No way, your old man is crazy. Besides…" She looked away, a slight blush creeping to her cheeks. "I don't want him making funny comments again."

The boy chuckled. "Am I that ugly?"

"Idiot!" she smacked him the head.

And then fell into nothingness.

"Tsh!" Nnoitra complained as his scythe impaled the bloody sad where his victim had been just seconds before. "You really had to barge in just now?"

"Are you backing up, or do I have to beat you up?"

"Don't be conceived. You're no match for me." Nnoitra snickered. "Still, I'm surprised. I thought for sure you were going to kill her. Liked the punch by the way. Very dramatic!" he laughed.

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques tightened his grip over the small frame in his arms. Tatsuki's bankai had started dissolving the moment he took her and her long haori had just disappeared into a myriad of soul particles. He had to get her out of there as soon as possible. As he looked down on her peaceful however battered features, the answer he had been searching moments earlier hit him.

"I changed my mind." He replied. "So, how's it going to be? You're going to retrieve, or you're going to fight?" the panther asked once more.

Nnoitra smirked before starting to laugh hysterically. "I can't believe this…I really can't..." he said between strident laughs. "You're going to try to protect that little shit, aren't you?"

The Sexta Espada gritted his teeth. He had hoped that Nnoitra would just back up. After all, other than getting on Aizen's bad side, what else would he gain out of killing Tatsuki?

Even if the black haired arrancar was injured, he was, nevertheless, the Quinto Espada, which placed him a step above Grimmjow. Not that he had ever been bothered by that. He had gladly stood against Ulquiorra when the Espada had tried to interrupt his fight with Ichigo. But at that time, he had no one to worry about.

And that's when he suddenly understood. He smiled bitterly. Tsh! So, in the end, there was just about this one small detail separating me from that bastard Ichigo. Things get complicated really easy when you're trying to protect someone. Ironic that I ended up protecting one of his own. He shook his head. That was wrong. He wasn't protecting Ichigo's friend. He couldn't care less about the shinigami's friends. He was protecting Tatsuki. She was neither human nor shinigami. At the best, she was part arrancar and that made her part of his group. But above anything else, she was his friend.

"Looks like I'm going to have to beat you up." Grimmjow smiled. "Alright, this is going to be fun." Putting Tatsuki's body gently down on the sand a couple of yards away, he reached for his zanpakutou.

"KISHIRE, PANTERA!"

From a safe distance, three friends had been observing the development of the events, feeling strangely attracted to the unfolding battle. Now that it had become a fight between two Espada it was even more intriguing and therefore more interesting. Why in Hueco Mundo were the Espada fighting each other? What exactly was happening in Las Noches?

"We should get out of here before either of them sees us!" the tallest replied, but was quickly shushed by the smaller member of the group.

"No!" she whined. "I want to thee that Ethpada fight. I want to know what ith happening."

The rain had finally stopped. But the night was still filled with the sounds of the wind brushing through the trees. A small whirlwind caught on some fallen leaves from the floor and twirled them up into the sky. The buzzing of the police and firemen cars had faded after a couple of hours. At that moment, there were few police cars monitoring the zones that had been hit by something. Something meant the police wasn't really sure what had happened and were trying to avoid panic by saying that it had been a terrorist attack, which many people thought regardless.

A man with spiked black hair hid himself in the shadows when a police car crossed his path, cursing himself twice after he had done so. First, because he was in soul form so there was no chance that the policeman would see him. Second, because even if he could see him he had nothing to hide. He was just a regular citizen going out a little too late in the night. Nothing weird about that, though.

As he flash-stepped away, he kept his senses alert. It would be a pain in the ass if a certain orange haired vizard were to spot him; trouble uncalled for. Ichigo had been absent since that morning, although the shinigami knew exactly where his son had been, a bonus of having back his shinigami powers. Right now, though, his reiatsu had almost disappeared, which simply meant he was in another training session with the vizard.

Reaching his destination, he quickly slid a window open and entered.

"You could use the door, Isshin-san!" Urahara scolded as he took his hat off to scratch the top of his head.

"What are you doing here? You're seriously aiming for Ichigo to find out, aren't you?" Yoruichi promptly smacked the shinigami in the head.

"Hey, watch the hair!" Isshin complained. "It's not like I have any other way to meet up with you too!"

The three sat around a table, a dim light coming from a single candle lighten between them. In a second, all three had changed from their usual mocking and funny features to serious faces, portraying just how important the issue about to be discussed was.

"What have you told the kids?" Isshin was straight to point.

"Depends on the kids you're talking about." Urahara replied with a sigh. It had been difficult to comply with Tatsuki's plead. Because he couldn't simply shun the orange haired girl away while he talked with the rest of the group, he had had to keep the ignorant members in ignorance.

"Only Ichigo, Renji, Asano and Kojima found out. The rest thought there was something strange but are for the most part unaware of what really happened." Yoruichi explained.

"And what really happened?"

Urahara gave another sigh as he put on his hat which obscured his eyes. "Apparently, our suspicions were correct. Arisawa-san was turned into an arrancar."

Isshin scratched his chin absently. "However, the reiatsu I felt held a strange mix to it. It didn't feel like an usual arrancar." He thought out loud.

"And you're right, Isshin-san. This demonstrates that even after twenty years of absence, your abilities are still as sharp as before." The blond allowed himself a small smile that he hid behind his fan.

"Ichigo said that she performed bankai in front of him." Once again, it was up to the Goddess of Flash to do the explaining. Anticipating the black haired shinigami's question, she continued. "But she's not a vizard. Apparently she can also release her zanpakutou through resurrection."

This was enough to make the recently returned shinigami confused. Damn Aizen! Of all the things to do, he just had to make some crazy experiments on one of Ichigo's friends. And Tatsuki of all. But then again, that was probably the only positive thing out of the entire situation. Had it been Keigo or Mizuiro and I don't think they would have survived it. He does know who to pick.

"Does she remember anything?" he asked.

Yoruichi nodded. "She took a direct hit to protect Asano and Kojima. That's how the two of them and Renji found out about her. Also, that appears to have caused her some troubles. She was going to fight their attacker when the Espada named Ulquiorra took her out and the group was retrieved via Negácion."

"Shit! That complicates things." Isshin cursed, resting his elbows over the table, his hands intertwined. "Have you tested the Garganta?"

"Isshin, you're not thinking of going there, are you?" the purple haired woman inquired surprise splattered on her face.

"I'm not that stupid." He defended himself, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at her. "But we must do something. We have to help Tatsuki-chan. How did Ichigo react?"

Urahara chuckled. "Worse than you."

"Well, he was pretty angry that we didn't open the Garganta. But he was also aware of the reason why he couldn't just barge in there without a plan."

"And what is the plan?" Isshin asked hurriedly. The other two shinigami exchanged looks and he rolled his eyes. "You don't have a plan." He stated.

Urahara closed his fan and tucked it inside his gi. He was silent for a moment, thinking carefully of his words before he spoke in a very calm yet distressed tone. "The fact is that, right now, I don't have the sliest idea of what Aizen is planning to do." He paused again before continuing. "If his goal remains the creation of the King's Key, I don't see the necessity of taking Arisawa-san. Unless he has done it merely to irritate Ichigo-san, which I highly doubt. It's just not like him to do things for amusement.

My idea had always been that he had taken Orihime-san not only because of her reversing powers but also to attract Ichigo, a major obstacle, taking him away from Karakura. Because of Ichigo's great potential, which Aizen clearly recognizes, he knew that Seireitei would eventually send some captain level officers to aid in Orihime's rescue and destruction of the Hougyoku. This way, our forces would be diminished when he attacked Karakura.

However, against all expectations, Ichigo-san and his friends managed to return before Seireitei put in action our plan. I was utterly suspicious of this. Judging by the timing, while he allowed your son and the others to escape from Hueco Mundo, he kidnapped Arisawa-san, which makes me think that perhaps he blackmailed her into following him. For what purpose did he experiment on her, I have no idea. Maybe he was intrigued with Ichigo's hollow powers and tried replicating them. I'm not sure. Still, I do not believe he would take her if he didn't have a role for her in his plans.

Finally, this last attack appears to have been only to expose Arisawa-san's new nature, even though he tried to cover his tracks by simulating an accident."

"But he did leave some clues." Yoruichi interrupted. "We were the ones not paying attention. But that was just because we never expected him to take someone without powers."

"Yes, but he tried nevertheless to cover his tracks. Nevertheless, there was something strange about this attack. The kids reported the appearance of five arrancar, four Espada and Arisawa-san. However, they only battled four of them: Zommari, Nnoitra, Yammy and Arisawa-san. Meanwhile, Ulquiorra disappeared. I believe that he went to investigate our defensive measures."

"You think Aizen knows about the four pillars?" Just the thought of it sounded outrageous to Isshin. After the nut job that it had been to convince Soul Society to construct a replica of Karakura, suddenly telling them that it was all for nothing because Aizen might have foreseen it would certainly demolish some resolutions.

"I'm afraid he does." Urahara replied. "I just don't know what he plans to do about it."

"So, that's it?" Isshin more stated than inquired as he sighed heavily.

"Basically, we're completely lost as what step to take next."

I hope everyone had enjoyed this chapter. I'm sorry for the delay. It took me a while to get the fighting scene figured out. Hopefully I won't take as much time with the next chapter.

Thank you to all reviewers and readers.

Also, the title of this chapter was inspired by xSTALKERx.

Hope you keep reading and liking it. And let me know what you think, good or bad.

Ja ne...