Once more I do so truly apologize for this taking more then three months to do, I hate doing that to you my readers. I hope this makes up for it and hopefully it won't take nearly as long to get the next one done.
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"Hey Clair what's Halloween?" Grimmjow asked as they walked through the store. He was looking at all the isles with candy and costumes.
"Oh well originally it was a day that people believed spirits would come back to seek vengeance and such so they would wear masks to hide their identity and stay safe among other stuff. Now though it's just dress up as something and go door to door getting candy." she shrugged as she looked at something.
"Do you do it?" he asked curiously.
"It mainly for kids and I don't have any so not really, but sometimes I'll dress up and sit on the porch to hand out candy. It depends on work really." she put a big bag of candy in the cart as he asked if she was going to this year, "Might that's why I'm getting candy in case. If I don't it means we can eat it." She grinned at the thought of all the candy she'd have to herself.
"Huh who's calling... Hey Ichigo what's up? (Hi Grimmjow!) Uh...who is this? (Oh sorry it's Inoue! I stole Kurosaki's phone, -no I wont hold on! Anyway would you and Smistin-chan like to come to a Halloween party? I called you since I didn't know if she was working!) Uh...I'm going to give the phone to her." he handed it to Clair and Orihime repeated her question.
"When is it? (This weekend Kurosaki-kun was supposed to ask you but kept forgetting. Sorry for the short notice.) Hmm...costumes? (Definitely!) I don't see why not I'm not working, what time and where? (We'll be meeting at my place around three! See you guys there!)" Clair handed the phone back "Guess we have to find you a costume." she chuckled as she pulled out her own phone to text Phoenix to let him know so he could find one too. "Let's see who can you be..." she thought as se started walking down the isle. He followed not sure what was happening. "How about this?" she chuckled pulling one off the rack.
"You are joking right?" he asked with a blank face looking at the picture of a grown man dressed as Happy from Fairytail. "I am not wearing that."
"Awwwww~ but it's cute!"
"I am not cute!" he growled. She laughed saying he was weather he wanted to be or not but put it back regardless. He looked at what was there frowning at most of it. "This stuff is all lame..."
"That's cause they're all cheap. Maybe I'll be able to throw something together for you at home." she laughed at him as she walked. "What will I be..." they finished shopping and headed back home. Once getting there she found Phoenix going through her costumes looking for things. "Oi...what are you doing?"
"Looooookking~ ah-ha!" he pulled a long black coat out "Thanks!" he ran off to his room.
"That was weird." Grimmjow commented as he watch Clair start digging through the stuff that phoenix had just been looking at. "What are you looking fo- what's this?" he pulled the article of clothing off his face, "Is this leather?" he held it up "Leather pants... Um ah!" he caught the next thing she threw "Vest? What the heck are you dressing me up as?"
"Found them! Here go try them on!" she handed him some other stuff. She shooed him out to his room. "Now for me..."
"What'cu think?" Phoenix came back he spun for her to see. "I'm Mihawk."
"Not bad... Help me figure something out." She said going back to her drawers.
"What the heck am I supposed to be?" Grimmjow came into the doorway. Looking very confused as to what he was and why he even bothered to try it on. The leather pants not necessarily skin tight but not loose either. The vest sat open much like his espada jacket the wings lamely clipped onto the back while the tail was attached to the belt loop of the pants.
"Incubus." Clair said not actually looking up yet.
"Oh we'll if that what he is then how about Aphrodite." Phoenix suggested with a grin. Clair stared at him while Grimmjow remained confused. "Come on you'd be the goddess of love and he could be like your little corrupted follower or something."
"What's an Incubus?" Grimmjow asked still trying to understand what was happening.
"Sex demon." the siblings said at the same time as Clair started looking through her stuff once more not sparing him a glance. 'If I look I won't be able to stop looking I'm sure.' She thought. Grimmjow sputtered and blushed a bit, "Just go with it's not that bad. I can't wait to see what the others dress up as though. What about this?" Clair held up a white one shoulder dress, "I could fix it up. Make it more greekish."
"Works for me. Hey won't this be Grimmjow's first time seeing you in a dress?" Phoenix pointed out Clair tilted her head thinking then nodded chuckling as she sat down to start working on adjusting the dress. "You can probably change back now." he told Grimmjow.
"Do I really have to wear this?" Grimmjow whined, he was all for being a sexy guy but… 'But you're secretly very shy, how cute~' 'Shut the hell up Pantera!'
"How strange is it that he doesn't like it in real life but in pretty much any fanfic he'd be all over this idea for a costume." Clair laughed making him grumble and blush as he went back to his room. "What are you going to do with you hair and for a hat?" she asked Phoenix.
"I'll figure it out." he waved off walking out of the room. The siblings spent the rest of the day figuring out their costumes while Grimmjow tried to make dinner by himself. "What'cu makin'?" Phoenix asked coming out to the kitchen in normal clothing.
"That." he pointed at a cookbook he had found that was placed on the island. "Looked good so I figured I'd try it." He shrugged as he turned the meat over. "It's not like I had much else to do and I was hungry."
"Well it smells good for sure want help to finish up?"
"Sure." They finished up and he called for Clair who came out after a few moments. Grimmjow stared at her "uh..." she was wearing the rough draft for her costume, the right arm had been removed and some extra material was pinned onto the left shoulder hanging down behind her back to about her butt. The skirt had been roughly split, to be fixed later, at about mid thigh and trailed behind her a bit.
"It's obviously not done yet but yeah what do you think?" she asked spinning for them. After snapping out of his shock grimmjow grinned getting a naughty idea.
"So what kind of privileges comes with being the love goddess' follower exactly?" he asked slyly as Phoenix choked on a laugh before sinking to the floor unable to hold back at his sister's blush.
"I'm going to change now..." she abruptly turned to hide her beet red face and went back to her room.
"Too much?" he turned and asked Phoenix who was only just pulling himself off the floor. He just shook his head still laughing before looking at him suddenly serious. Making Grimmjow uneasy just as suddenly.
"Though if you hurt her I will make good on that threat I made when we first met." he said in a deadly tone which had the blood draining from grimmjows face. This therein caused Phoenix to bust out laughing again. "Oh my gosh your face! Sooooo funnny! But seriously though as long as you don't hurt her I don't much care. " he waved off chuckling still as he put the food on the table. Grimmjow grumbled about him being an ass as he helped. "Her reaction was priceless though, it takes a bit to catch her off guard to that degree. Normally she would have retorted sarcastically and turned it around on you, but that wow." Clair came back out in her clothes from earlier, "it's coming along good, what are you going to do on the shoulder some kind of pin?"
"Yeah I'll make something up quick. Right now I'm hungry. For a sash what do you think about gold silk with some kind of pattern?"
"I'd do clouds."
"Why clouds?" Grimmjow asked not understanding much about the mythology of the person.
"It has to do with the different things that symbolize her." Clair waved off as she started to eat. If she let Phoenix start talking about it he'd keep going till midnight on different mythology from different parts of the world. "Clouds it is then. What should I do with my hair? Oh and I might be able to get you a hat." She added as an after thought.
"Hair...slight waves into ringlets?" Phoenix suggested, she thought about it before nodding agreeing.
"Do you think we should get extensions for Grimm?" she asked absentmindedly.
"Huh? Why?" Grimmjow asked confused.
"Because you sexy with longer hair." She grinned and he blushed, "Just add a few inches like when you pull your mask on. Maybe a little longer. I'll have to find some the right color." She said playing with the hair on the back of his head, he was trying very hard to keep his cool and not start purring like Pantera was teasing him about him doing.
After dinner Clair went back to her room to finish her costume while the boys watched tv. "I wonder if we… Haha we get American channels!" Phoenix changed it to Hell's Kitchen.
"What is this?" Grimmjow asked watching the angry chief yelled at the cooks.
"One of the only cooking shows I'll watch." after watching it for awhile grimmjow decided he liked it too. After it ended they decided to head to bed as Phoenix had practice and Grimmjow was going to tag along since he had nothing else to do.
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Saturday came and they were getting ready "Oi Phoenix come help me with my hair!" Clair called from her bathroom.
"I'm busy have grimmjow help!" he called from the other bathroom.
"What the heck are you busy with?!"
"My own hair!"
"Good grief stop yelling we all need help with our hair geez!" Grimmjow yelled at them both as he came into Clair's room "What do you need me to do?" he huffed as he walked in seeing her standing in front of a body length mirror. Her costume was now complete, the split mended to look smooth and had a slight wave to the fabric, there was an underskirt of a see through material that was also split but at a slightly different place so it could be seen. The dress had also been lengthened to drag on the ground but about a foot. The sash was simple gold silk with the outline of light silver clouds. The pin on her left shoulder was gold with some strange design that Grimmjow couldn't place.
"Stand there and look sexy." she said looking at him in his costume for the first time making him blush slightly before he smirked and leaned down next to her ear.
"Isn't that what I always do?" he asked slyly causing her to blush in return. "Back to what it is you need for your hair?" she explained what he need to do. "Alright. ... Done, now how do these things go in?" she helped him put the extensions in. then decided last minute to give him a fake panther tattoo over the six on his back.
"Alright so we already now?" Phoenix asked when they met up in the living room as he leaned in his black sword replica. He nodded in approval of Clair's finished costume as she spun to show him, "Looks great."
"Nice sword." Grimmjow commented but before Phoenix could reply his phone rang.
"'Ello? (Heeeeey~) I don't like when you start off like that Yue. What is going on? (Weeeeeeellll~ it looks like the party is moving. We got asked to replace another band at the city's Halloween party in the park. So we are all going to meet there.) Oh that one out near the forest? (Yep!) Alright we'll be there." he sighed putting his phone away and explained what was happening. "So shall we head to the park then?" Clair nodded grabbing her keys.
"If your stupidly long sword messes up my car I'll hurt you." Clair warned as Phoenix put his sword in the backseat. He waved her off getting in next to his sword. They got there in a few minutes seeing a bunch of people in the process of setting up the rest of the stage and adjusting things since the band had changed. "Not a bad set up didn't even know this was happening." she commented getting out of the car finding Yue and Ryu talking with the staff. Ryu was dressed up as pre-time skip Zoro, and Yue as Vivi from one piece. "Hey."
"Hello! Wooooow~ pretty~" Yue skipped around her looking over her costume. "And Grimmjow man lookin' goooood~" she winked and he rolled his eyes at her. "Mihawk! Awesome! I wonder what the other two will come as..."
"They're over there, they look like Sanji and Nami pre-time skip." Phoenix pointed.
"Oh wow and we didn't even coordinate!" Yue chirped running over to them.
"I hope she called the others..."
"She didn't Ryu did. Heya guys." Tora called coming up to them. "Nice costumes, what do you think?" she spun then bowed taking off her top hat. She was in a tailed suit, complete with black tie and shiny shoes.
"Ring master?" Clair asked and Tora nodded and grinned, "Where's your clown?"
"No clown but I do has a lion!" she turned then frowned "Ichi get your ass out of the car!" Clair started to laugh when she called for Ichigo and then had to lean on Grimmjow as to not fall over when he yelled back that he'd as soon as die then come out.
"Technically you have died already so you know, invalided argument!" Phoenix called which was answered by a groan and the door opening. His costume was like a mix of Rum Tum Tugger from the musical Cats and a Kon outfit.
"Wow I don't know how that works but it does, it's like the sexiness of Rum Tum and the silliness of Kon and it works, so weird." Clair laughed as he grumbled coming up to them. "hey don't feel bad I'm sure there were a lot of worse things she could have forced you to be."
"Whatever so who are you and Grimmjow?"
"Aphrodite and an incubus." he rose an eyebrow before looking at Grimmjow who just pointed at Clair. He chuckled a bit before looking around for the others. He spotted them coming their way. Rukia was dressed up like Chappy 'big surprise there.' he thought. Renji was... "Is he a flying monkey?" Clair asked giggling.
"I think so." Orihime was dressed as post time-skip Nami, Uryuu was looking rather annoyed dressed up as what Phoenix guessed was robin hood. Chad was all green with purple pants making him out to be the hulk. Keigo was dressed up as... "It looks like the power rangers rip off outfit that he had in that one episode doesn't it?"
"Oh my good he looks so dorky!" Tora laughed. Miziro was the main character from World only god knows, and there was a Shiek walking next to him that she guessed might be Tatsuki.
"Hey guys, nice costumes! You look so pretty in that dress Smistin-San! And Kusosaki-kun you look very cute too!" Orihime said bounding over to them.
"Aren't you cold?" Phoenix asked in reference to the fact that she was just wearing a bikini top.
"Huh? Oh a little but it's ok! Once the fun starts I'll warm right up!" she answered cheerfully. "What do you think of all our costumes?"
"They're nice. Though why does Glasses look annoyed?" Clair asked pointing at Uryuu.
"I didn't want to be this character..."
"So why are y-"
"Oh come on Uryuu-kun you make a great robin hood! You are both really amazing archers!" Orihime piped up enthusiastically making the boy blush as she got really close to him.
"I see~" Clair smirked winking at the bow wielding boy making a vain pop on his head as she gave him a teasing 'I know what happened now' look. "Then there's Hulk, and Shiek, and whatever Asono is and dating sim boy. Cool." she looked at Phoenix, "Shouldn't you be helping them rather then standing here doing nothing?" he shrugged and headed lazily over. "Shall we mill about till everything starts?" she asked already walking away. It was only a few more minutes before large groups of people started to show up and tables with food and drink were set up as well. At some point Yoruichi joined them dressed up as Blair from soul eater. She of course was teasing ichigo near relentlessly till Phoenix finally dragged her off she seeming more then happy to cling to him instead. After about an hour of talking and silly games the band got up on stage calling out a greeting and apologizing if they were a bit off since it was short notice that they'd be playing tonight. They did a set of three songs before taking a break.
"Um...why is there a dude dressed as Aizen up on the stage?" Grimmjow asked. Everyone turned and sure enough there stood an 'Aizen'.
"Wait...isn't that?" Ichigo started to ask squinting at the man.
"Well I have to say that worked out just as well as I planned." It was Urahara and he was making fun of Aizen the whole group lost it laughing hysterically. " And you there how dare you laugh at my plans, they are undeniably well thought out and perfectly executed. I originally was going to have them play but decided to trick everyone and make them think someone else was going to be playing." he said pointing at Clair and the others only serving to make them laugh more. "Disregarding the lowly humans over here who could never possibly comprehend the enormity of the impact that my well laid out plans have we shall move on to the costume contest, and while none of you could ever compare to my perfect outfit we will have prizes for those of you who can come even marginally close. There are four categories, realistic, scary, silly, and cute. If you think you are one of these things do go to one of the assigned areas to be judged. Until then I leave you measly humans to your strange fun." he left the stage with a flourish.
"Oh my god that was hilarious! I can't beli- no I totally can believe that he just did that! Oh I would've loved to see Aizen's face watching that!" Ichigo said from the ground where he was still holding his stomach laughing. "Anyway are we going to do the contest thing?" he asked wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Sure why not." they headed to the areas they thought they fit. Everyone got a picture taken and told they could continue to socialize while they judged the costumes. "They said it would take like an hour or something. I'm going to go grab food come on Grimm."
"Wouldn't Grimmjow just have to whisk you away to a privet place to fill his tummy?" Tora asked mischievously making Clair blush and walk away quicker. "Oops I made her mad." Tora chuckled.
"Pissing off the goddess of love isn't very smart, now your relationships will forever be doomed to fail." Phoenix laughed. "I feel bad for Ichigo now...wait no I don't."
"Jerkjerkjerkjerkjerk!" Tora yelled hitting Phoenix in the arm while everyone else laughed at her expense. "I hate you." she pouted puffing out her cheeks.
"Now don't be like that, hate is a strong word after all. I might cry if you say it?" Phoenix said with a somewhat innocent and sad face.
"Ha~te~ you~" she drawled. He started to fake cry.
"I –I can't believe you would say such a- Ooo! Marshmallows!" he 'perked up' and ran over to a table of treats making everyone laugh. Tora gave a dramatic and defeated sigh before following to get some food too. After a half hour the band played a few more songs. Then when the hour of judging was up they played a few more before Urahara got on stage again.
None of the group won any of the prizes but they didn't care cause they were too busy laughing at Urahara's 'Aizen'. The band once more took the stage before the party started to wrap up. "That was fun!" Yue cheered as they headed to the cars. "And Urahara was just great don't you think? That totally made my day!"
"Yeah that was amazing. I haven't laughed that much in awhile." Ryu agreed.
"Grimm what's wrong?" Clair asked seeing he had stopped walking.
"There's a garganta over there. I can't figure out who it is though the signature is too weak. But it's familiar." he said looking off to the side before gasping slightly and running off the others barely sparing a glance at each other before following. "Apachi!" he caught her she fell.
"G-Grimm-j-jow... Nnoi...tora ...Nelliel... Help..." she passed out. She was covered in blood and her uniform was ripped.
"Nnoitora? That's not possible he's dead... I watched Kenpachi kill him." Ichigo said as Phoenix looked her over healing what wounds he could Orihime working on the rest.
"What I don't get is why she didn't - there! The others are calling now!" Phoenix said referring to the brackets he had given Hallibel to give them. "it is possible though...for him to be here..." Grimmjow and Ichigo stared and hoped he wouldn't say what they were thinking. "If they intervened even at the last second they could have shielded him just enough that he didn't quite die so that they could use him as a puppet."
"But he's... He's a hollow right? Hollows don't have hearts..." Renji said staring blankly at the female arrancar.
"I'm going now I have to try and do something." Phoenix said Clair nodded and he vanished.
"Are you forgetting that he was an espada? That he's an arrancar? He may have still been a complete ass but by gaining a bit of a shinigami unknowingly he would have gained a bit of his heart back." Clair said responding to Renji while staring at Apachi. "We can't just sit here if they made a move that far back on the hollow world then we have to make our way there as well. Who knows what else they've done."
"Or who they managed to keep alive." Ryu added. "We take her to Urahara's then head for huecho mundo immediately."
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I'm sorry for the cliff especially after having to wait so long for this chapter but it had to be done. Yes I brought Nnoi back please don't get fussy with me about it (I know there are people out there who get all up in arms when characters are brought back from the dead that's why I'm saying don't get fussy cause I don't want to hear your rants.)
So do you think it's only Nnoi that's back? Is it even really Nnoi? What will happen next do you think? How awesome would it be to see Grimmjow dressed up as an incubus?
So please tell me what you think, reviews really do truly help and when I only get one or two it's like… does anybody really care? I mean is it really so hard to take a minute and say 'Hey I liked the chapter' or even 'I spotted such and such you may want to check that'?
