Gin stepped back and hopped up on the table, sitting on the blood-stained surface as though it didn't bother him at all which, Rangiku had to admit, it probably didn't. Who knew how many pointless slaughters of shinigami he'd been a part of, even before the massacre at Central 46. He was probably used to blood splattered everywhere, and this was centuries old blood. It wouldn't even stain his white robe. She, on the other hand, couldn't look at the table without cringing.

"So Bella's obviously the strongest one here, Someone else would have already killed her otherwise. You killed off a few of her best friends, but I'm pretty sure they weren't her strongest lieutenants--Eldon for one. He has a bit of a beard/mane thing going on. We passed him at the end of the passage out of the Forest, did you notice him?"

"Yeah?"

"He'll be staying somewhere around there. Wouldn't want anyone uninvited wandering in from the Forest. Too bad they let all the Otros in--they're always such a pain to keep in line. I was hoping when they had that big show out there...but it was probably for the Adjucas and such--it's nice Bella figured out a way to keep them from eating each other, but I still don't think we'll keep them around."

Oh--Rangiku realized abruptly that Gin thought someone might be listening in. It was a good assumption, although it didn't make a whole lot of sense to her that he'd want to be overheard plotting to get rid of a large number of his subjects. But why Gin ever did anything had always been beyond her.

"Of course the Otros aren't particularly strong, just annoying and not much use for anything--except, it looks like, taking out vulnerable shinigami--the useful ones will be the ones like Bella and Eldon--and did you notice that little red-headed pixie-looking girl with the dragonfly wings who Bella waved off right before we got here? That's Carmen-something or other. She's got a bit of a water thing going, nothing like Halibel but she flies ridiculously fast.

"You ought to go make friends with them when I'm busy on something boring--gotta start running this place or they'll get the idea they don't need us around. And I have no intention of leaving. It's mine now. This fortress, these Arrancar, all of Hueco Mundo more or less, we spent a century shaping it into what it is now--what do you think of my kingdom of hollows? It was nice of Aizen to leave it to me, don't you think?"

Rangiku looked around the cold, stone chamber. She was glad she didn't have to pretend to like it. The whole place was heavy with despair, like the pain of the hollows had soaked into the stone over the long centuries. The heartless hollow, she'd never thought much about hollows before except as dangerous enemies, but they had all once been human--humans whose negative emotions had held them to the World of the Living until they lost their hearts--and then they made their way here.

Every one of these hollows, even the Arrancar, had long ago been devoured by their own pain, whether it was grief, anger, hate, despair, whatever it was, it had been so strong it had destroyed the hope, the love, the joy, the entire heart of the person it once had been. Death, for them, was mercy. No wonder Gin was so quick to kill them. She had thought it cold of him to kill the sand hollow so casually, and then the Adjucas who'd gotten too close to her, but although the hollows feared death, death was their only escape from their cursed existence.

It was a nightmarish place, but if she and Gin had had to flee from the Gotei, she would have been willing to follow him here--if it was the only escape. "As long as it's safe."

"Of course it's not safe. Bella's probably plotting to destroy us as we speak. She'll get as many of the strongest on her side as she can before she tries anything. She'll need at least twenty before she can take us on with any confidence of getting out alive so that should take her a few days at least."

"Then why are we leaving her alive?" Rangiku didn't see the point either as the part they were playing or as they really were of keeping the fraccion around. If she was strongest, wouldn't their lives be easier if she was dead?

"She keeps the Otros in line. That's worth putting up with a little plotting. We'll take her fellow conspirators out one at a time. We're better at sneaky than they are. We win."

Rangiku shook her head. "And saying all this when you know someone is probably listening in?"

"Call it fair warning--you hear that, Bella?" he said loudly, raising his head and looking up at the high ceiling. "You plot against me, I'll kill all your little friends. Don't think I won't know it's coming. I'm a lot sneakier than you can even dream of being."

His eyes dropped abruptly to Rangiku. "You think she'll listen? I wish I had Aizen's charisma. They weren't just afraid of him. They loved him. They wanted to follow him."

"Guess you'll just have to rule through fear." Rangiku smiled. "That's how you ran the Third, isn't it? They were all terrified of you--other than Kira."

"I don't see why. I wasn't like Kenpachi, beating his entire squad half to death whenever he gets bored."

"No, you just gave them impossible assignments and laughed at them. I don't know a single shinigami who'd rather be laughed at than beaten half to death--have you tried laughing at them here? Maybe then they'd fear you enough not to try anything."

"Course I have. Why do you think they hate me?"

Rangiku shook her head. "That's my Gin--hated by everyone in three different worlds."

"Took me a lot of work to get a reputation like that. Aren't you impressed?"

"I'll be more impressed if you ever manage to make a friend."

"I've got you. I don't need friends."

"Still--I'll be impressed. More than that, I'll be happy. I'll be really, really happy when my Gin lets himself get close enough to anyone to care about them and lets them see who he really is."

"You have nice dreams, Ran-chan."

"My last one came true. Maybe this one will too."