Here's the next chapter. What do you think? Please review, kay? Cuz I'm starting to wonder if my OC's a little mary-sue-ish. If she is, please tell me. Do you like her so far? Kay, enough of that.

Disclaimer: If I owned Bleach, I wouldn't name it such a weird name... Now,ON WITH THE STORY! XD

Chapter 10: Punishment or Freedom?

"A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip."

In the end, I never got around repainting Ichimaru's room, being the procrastinator that I was. I would spar with Grimmjow and Neliel or read in the library or paint some other room and even chat with Foxface but somehow, I ended up constantly avoiding the topic, as I had yet to find the right design for his room, and I had a feeling that he wouldn't be too pleased if his room was just white and silver. I didn't even know why I cared about what color scheme would be best for his room: I wasn't a perfectionist. I didnt even know why i cared about him at all! Maybe it was because of the riddles we exchange or the teasing or the games we often play together (such as chess or black jack). Maybe it was because i began to see him as much of a friend as Grimm. The triplets and I finished Neru-chan's room, the kitchen, every single science lab, every room in the east wing followed by the triplet's own room (gold, silver and black color scheme.) It was no mean feat and by the time we reached the central conference hall, another four weeks had past and it was my sixth week in Las Noche. Kitsune-taichou would pop in to see our progress daily and looked more and more amused each time.

Thankfully, Aizen was rarely around these days and just last week he left for Soul Society. I sometimes wonder if his silver-haired subordinate ever told him about the changes we were making to his previously all white 'sanctuary'. Ichimaru wasn't the only one watching us though; there was Grimmjow who laughed each time he saw the repainted walls, Neru-chan who occasionally gave us some ideas and suggestions, Uluquiorra who just stood in one corner watching us silently, and the occasional numeros who would give us weird looks whenever they passed by. Of course, there were some unlucky arrancars who got dirtied with paint when they tried to attack us (e.g. some unhappy fraccions.)

The hall walls were left white, though we painted swirls and dashes of other colors on the white. For example, there was a dash of sky blue behind Grimmjow's seat, a swirl of emerald green and black behind Uluquiorra's and a splash of gold-green behind Neru-chan's seat et cetera. I was in the midst of painting gay purple flowers on the wall behind Spoon-san's seat when he came back. No. Not only did he come back, he just had to enter the hall that we were painting in with Fox-face in tow. Funnily, not once did I doubt Ichimaru's innocence in this matter though. The shinigami had his usual grin on his face, but the smile seemed dismal? Upon closer observation, one would have sensed the unhappiness behind the smile.

"Is it just me or does Ichimaru-san seem a bit out of sorts today?" whispered Hinata from beside me as we watched the two shinigami enter the hall. Wow. Even she noticed the difference. I wonder if Aizen noticed it.

"So, you've been repainting Las Noche for me I see," said Aizen, his voice echoed frighteningly around the hall. I stood stunned, in cold sweat. Shit. Shit. Shit. I was caught. Red-handed. "But I preferred the white it used to be, you know." And with that sentence, we all went into mental depression. My outward expression betrayed no emotion though, except for a face twitch. I waited for him to pronounce our punishment and it was all the worse now that I had dragged three poor numeros into this mess as well.

"Feeling rebellious lately?" Aizen continued, smoothly, his polite smile still on his face. Damn him. "Perhaps you could do with a little punishment…" Silence.

"What about spending some time in the human world? I think that should do. You are hence forth banished from Hueco Mundo until I call you back. Is that understood?" I merely stared at the shinigami. To any normal arrancar, spending long periods of time in the human world would be pure torture (just ask Grimmjow and he'd gag,) but to me, it was nothing. However, I wouldn't have thought that Aizen would be so merciful. I thought I was dead for sure (literally.)

"Since your fraccions were merely under your orders, they will be spared exile… but the three of them will be allocated cleaning duties until your master returns to Las Noche." Oh. That's not too bad… I think. I glanced at the trio and saw relief in their eyes. Okay, so it went alright… but by the time I return, Las Noche will likely be all white again… I actually quite liked the new colors I added to it.

I didn't have anything to bring with me, so Ichimaru escorted me to the barren plains of Hueco Mundo. In uncomfortable silence. Then a big gaping hole opened up and sucked me into it. The last thing I saw was the shinigami. Without a smile on his face. I chuckled. That was rare. And surprisingly sad. I mean, if the one person who seemed to smile all the time failed to smile, then… sigh. I can't believe I'm actually gonna miss this guy.

"Bye bye~" I called out as I went, imitating Ichimaru's trademark goodbye. "Hasta la vista (A/N: this means 'See you' in Spanish)."

Then I was falling. Further and further until I found myself in midair. Before I could react, I had landed in the middle of the road. My first instinct was to quickly get up and get onto the pavement even though cars probably wouldn't be able to harm me anymore.

I looked around. I was standing in KarakuraTown. Home. Not anymore… I sighed. While I was still in Hueco Mundo, it was easy to belief that I was very much still alive, but now, when I see people take no notice of me and even walk right through me (which was not comfortable at all), it was evident that I was dead. I began to wander around the town gloomily, wondering how to pass time around here while waiting for my banishment to be lifted.

"Chizuki?" called a timid voice. That name. I swear I've heard it before. Of course. The name was mine. My original name. The name I forgot. And that voice. I turned around and saw another ghost. She was a ten-year old girl called Mira and I used to chat with her when I was still alive. She was naturally shy, but became more open when she got used to me. Now, she looked downright frightened. Then I saw her staring at the hole in my chest at the base of my collarbone. Oh.

"Umm… Mira?" The girl looked up sharply, eyes wide opened. Then she whispered, "you're dead."

Yes, thank you very much for pointing that out. But I didn't say that aloud. "Uh… yes? So…?"

"I thought… " Ah. Then I realized my reiatsu level was really high and I had forgotten to suppress it further. I immediately did so.

"Better now?" The girl nodded. Hell. What was I supposed to tell her? That I was an arrancar? And that most of my 'species' would love to snack on her? Or that in the eyes of a ghost, I was a bad guy now? Urgh. Then I noticed her tugging at my sleeve so I followed her as she dragged me around, pace increasing.

"I didn't believe it at first…" said Mira as she broke into a run. "But now… you must follow me." And I did. She led me to a queer shop in some deserted place. No, the shop looked ordinary enough. It was the vibes it gave me that was weird.

"Your body is in there," said Mira pointing in the direction of the shop. Whaaat? She must have seen my expression and quickly explained.

"Umm… your body, I don't know why it's not rotting yet or anything, but the shop owner has kept it in there. I thought maybe, you might want it back. I mean, you're… a spirit now, but you seem kinda different. Kinda like, you're not dead enough. Urahara, the shop keeper, found it lying outside your apartment block. He doesn't really know what to make of it, but said something about gigai. I think that's a faux body for souls. And since the body's yours, I thought maybe you can umm…."

"Wait a minute. Who's this Urahara guy? And how—"

"He's shinigami." Two words and a full-stop. Okay. That explains… a lot. But what was a shinigami doing in the human world shop-keeping? Then again, I guess if shinigami could lead arrancars in Hueco Mundo, why not?

"Then if he's shinigami, why're you still here?"

"He was going to send me to soul society, but I told him to wait for another month and that I still had something to do here. I was going to go today if you hadn't arrive in time. I won't ask what happened. I guess it doesn't matter. I'll be going soul society once you get your body back. They've gone out for awhile, so the shop's empty now. Don't know when they'll be back though."

Oh. Wow. That was sweet of her. Leaving her waiting outside, I crept into the shop. Good. She was right, there was no one around. I searched the strange shop, went through lots of strange items (some of which seems to be shinigami stuff) before finally finding my body. It was really weird, seeing it just lying there amongst some other stuff I knew not the use of.

"Ah! Urahara-san. You're back." Oh shit. That voice was Mira's, probably warning me to hurry up. After all, I was stealing my body back. And I highly doubt that shinigami would welcome me in his shop. So I did the only sensible thing: I grabbed the body and ran for it.

Moving around as an arrancar was easy. Moving around without being spotted while lugging a human body was harder than I expected (imagine ordinary humans seeing a body flying across the air with no visible support whatsoever.) I made it back to my apartment block safely and ascended to the fifth floor where my apartment was. Unsurprisingly, there were a ton of stuff outside my door, sent by Akirai and Hanaha, my two best (human) friends. A note on the door demanded to know where the hell I've been to.

I dug through the pockets of my body's jeans and to my relief, the house keys were still there. I quickly opened the door and dumped everything (body, stuff, note and all) into the apartment before going in myself and closing the door. Then I stared at all the things littered on the floor. My apartment was a mess. The debris left behind by the hollows that came one month ago were still there. Plus, what was I gonna do with my body? I decided to try cleaning up the mess first.

One hour later, I had cleaned up the kitchen and living area. However, the kitchen would probably need major repairs and I didn't know if I could afford it. Besides, I was a ghost now. Thinking about all my problems, I forgot to look at where I was going and tripped over some of the stuff my friends had given me and fell onto my body (yes, I know that sounded weird.) When I got up, my body hurt all over. Wait. My body? I was now wearing a black shirt and jeans that were stained with dried blood. Eh? The doorbell rang. Dazed, I went to answer it.

An orange haired girl stood outside. Oh. A classmate of mine. She stared at the state of my clothes. "Ano… I didn't actually expect you to be home. Haven't seen you the entire holidays. What…?"

"Sorry Ino-chan, but my apartment's a mess right now, think you could wait outside for a few minutes while I tidy it up a bit? As for the clothes, they were dirtied long time ago. I was just wearing them so that I won't dirty my cleaner clothes while spring cleaning," I hastily explained (or lied, whatever.) I shut the door at her quizzical expression and quickly put the stuff that were lying on the floor away.

When I finally did invite her in, she stared at my kitchen. I told her I didn't know how it happened and that it had happened while I was away, plus nothing was robbed. I mean, I was I to explain to her some monsters came in and turned me into one of them? At least I was kinda normal now (definition of 'normal' needs to be checked on much? Perhaps.)

Inoue excepted my lie and followed me to my room where she wanted to discuss some homework before leaving. I almost collapsed on the floor out of …relief? Exhaustion? Confusion?...after she left. I dragged myself to bed after that. Hoping that when I woke up, things would start to make more sense. What a day it had been. Little did I know there won't be enough time to make sense of all of this the next day.

That's all for now. Is the plot moving to fast? Reviews are welcomed. Next chapter coming up in... two weeks maybe?