"Vampiro?"

Ryuken looked sideways. Uryu had started his nap and he'd muttered at his chair.

"Vampire? Why would you mention that...?" He gasped.

'I'm not really human. My real name is Resplandor Solar del Vampiro, Quincey. I chose a name that I thought was beautiful.' She'd smiled at that point and pointed at the sun. 'But I can't live without the sun. It gives me hope and warmth that I can still survive.'

"Machi...."

Uryu stirred and then sat up-right rather quickly. "MACHI!"

Ryuken looked away. His son would've been perfect. He and Machi would've had a good time together, as partners. He wasn't sure how far "partners" refers to them. He touched Uryu's old books on the shelves. "What about her?"

Uryu seemed to be trying to figure that out and he finally spoke up. "Dad, did you meet Machi? Cifer Ummamachi? She's a very kind girl. Do you know her?"

"What if I said yes?"

Uryu didn't look at his father, he looked down at the open book in his lap. "Because I want to see her again. I want to know what it is that makes me so drawn to her." He threw the book on the table. "Dang. If only I knew why!" He threw himself back onto the back of the sofa. "I saw her, in my dream. She wasn't human anymore. She was too perfect to be human. She was too fast, too perfect, too strong to be human."

Ryuken looked out at the darkening sky. Machi had said she'd love to talk to Ryuken again. That she'd never met such a nice friend. Was she lying all this time? Had she pulled his leg to see if he'd let her bite?

---Machi---

She growled menacingly at the Hallow and killed it with one swipe. She saw some of them escaping to the human world and she lunged after them. Her spiritual pressure exploded and she saw none of the humans react to it. Was it because they didn't know? She didn't care. She had to kill as many of them as she could. Kiba's body had been marred by them and now he was running back to the Soul Society. It was impossible to know what they meant, what business they had.

She saw a Jillian heading for Ryuken's hospital. She took off after it.

"NO!" she roared, her voice reverberating with such a fury that it scared the Jillian into stopping and turning around. She reached out and, with an all-mighty pull, she tore the mask off the Jillian and it vanished. Covered in blood, Machi started breathing heavily. "Don't you DARE come this way!" She lunged back, her pressure exploding again. She knew what Aizen had done now, after this fight had been brought here.

He'd tricked them all.

Aizen had made Machi believe she was really fighting him, but all she had been doing this whole time was fighting Jillian-class Hallows. Fury drove her and she was tearing through the Jillian like they were clouds or mist. Her all-mighty roar vibrated the air and shook dust off nearby buildings. One of which she got a Quincy shot from.

Reeling back and wiping around, Machi's green eyes met his cold eyes. She knew why he was angry. The Jillian was causing her frustration.

She slowly glided towards him and he raised his bow, aiming quite a ways away from her and fired. She landed behind him and crouched down. This was how she'd been before her human form came along. Furious at everything and unable to control any of it. Calming herself as much as she could, Machi looked up and around.

The Jillian closest to them ate another Jillian and became a makeshift Arrancar. She came bolting down, right for Machi.

Again, anger consumed her and Machi roared. Her deafening roar shook the building she stood on and she took off, leaving a small ditch in the roof. She clashed with the new Arrancar, her hands growing it's nails. She slashed and kicked at the Arrancar, tearing it apart with her bare hands. The fury didn't stop when she knew the Arrancar was dead, she kept going and it scared the other Jillian back to their forest. She was about to chase them when a sharp, immeasurable pain shot though her shoulder and she saw the arrow split right through her shoulder and fly harmlessly into the sky.

As she fell, Machi saw the moon and a figure flashed in front of it. It was Ulquiorra and she reached out to him, her body unrecognizable as Machi. She had completely reverted back and it would take time for her to return to her human state. Closing her eyes she fell back to earth, back to him.

---Uryu---

He pushed the doors open.

The underground training facility his father had built was quite the place to be when you wanted some peace and quiet. He spotted her. Just like his father had said.

"So, he brings you here after he shoots you?"

Machi certainly didn't look like Machi. Her face was consumed by a Hallow's mask that was stern and had no eyes. It had a mouth composed of two rows of flat teeth and two, larger-than-life canine teeth. Her body was stretched. She looked like she was made of toothpicks and her back bore six, large, pure white bat wings. She was immensely graceful, for a Hallow, but her face wouldn't look in Uryu's direction.

"Hey! Are you alive?"

She moved her hand and pointed to her shoulder. It was broken alright. When she spoke, there was the Hallow's reverberating echo. "Can you help me? I was hoping your father would ask you to help me. I can see I was wrong."

Uryu knelt beside her. He was half her size in height, but he could still clearly see the bits and pieces of her human self. He was still reeling from knowing he was still in one piece, that it had all been a dream of sorts. But to see Machi all broken and unable to be human, he thought she was perfect just the way she was. She was perfectly imperfect compared to many of the Shinigami he'd met.

"Uryu, right?"

"Mm." He started to peel back the bandages.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything except if I can put these back on." He was disgusted by just how nasty the bandages were. They were sopping with blood and it dripped through his fingers and onto the floor as well as all over his arm. "What is it?"

"You ever feel like someone completes you? Makes you believe in a higher price for your life, Uryu-san?"

He stopped and looked at her. Never before had someone asked him that. "No, can't say I have. There have been times when I've thought that may be true." He took the finally bandage away and his eyes widened.

There was broken skin under her white exterior.