I look at Grimmjow, who was determined at all cost not to look my way. Beside him, Inoue was tearfully reciting to Ulquiorra some unwanted, long-drawn farewell, which sounded very much like a eulogy from where I stood.

She really did love him and couldn't have cared less if Ulquiorra didn't reciprocate her feelings or had no notion that he was driving a dagger in her heart and twisting it with every detached word he had for a response. It was truly a pity they weren't given the same chance which was so seldom awarded to star-crossed lovers.

"Well, Sexta Espada, I guess this is good bye." I told Grimmjow amicably, trying to make the best of the inevitable parting of ways.

Finally, he turned to me, looked at me with hesitating eyes which spoke of many things quite impossible to translate to words. It wasn't subtle, but it was very much called for. I begin to discern the appreciation with which he was regarding our whole expedition, therefore he indeed acknowledged my and Inoue's efforts, only that under no circumstances should he express his gratitude to our faces. Nevertheless, he spoke.

"I'll return. Wait for me, shinigami. Await the time when I shall come to repay you."

"I'll wait expecting nothing."

"I'll come back for you only, if not for any other reason."

His eyes were kinder than I remembered them, or I was imagining it, but apart from this he was painful to look at. Standing there, watching him struggle for words, I was left to guess if I could be disappointed more than I had been already after having been denied a proper conciliation, to which I had a right as much as everybody else.

"No need. Go on and live, Sexta, gather the pieces of your life. Forget Soul Society and the Espada and everything." I said, my words running counter against my real feelings and, worse, we both knew it.

"Wait for me." he repeated.

These were the last words he spoke to me. His voice, his face, all of him remained frozen in my mind, to leave so many questions and no hope at all.

…

So here my tale ends, to close a bygone volume of my colorful life. When I think about it, I've had more arguments with myself about his return than any other thoughts ever. Over the years, there were times when I'd look back on all those opportunities I had missed, wondering if those things left undone and unsaid could have produced a long-lasting happiness to keep me in check for the years ahead. Perhaps they could really have given me something to look forward to. I am, after all, still very young at 21. It's been six years since we parted, and not in any time within that span has he shown himself. Those years were, I have to admit, hard and for the most part painful. The sort of wait I was made to perform wasn't like the ones that should be held with expectations or anticipation. The reality was, I had to endure it with disappointment; a disappointment which I once thought was fatal to me.

But, as life has always been good enough in asserting itself, it went on, miraculously. The world turned much like the way it does now, prompting half of my mind to busy itself with objects that anchor me to life. I figured if I wanted to get on with this world and be truly alive, I had to assume its conventions, to accept and to eventually forget. The last I could not do, as expected. That said, for the first time in six long years I am almost sure I can get serious things done without thinking of Grimmjow Jaggerjack. Only that, I can never, ever forget.

Of course the constant surge of the Reiatsu of my new neighbors time and again brings me to long reminiscences of a past I loved with fervor. And so it appears that hollow activity in Karakura town never bothered to change when Soul Society triumphed against the very last evil it was pitted up against. And, because I duly resigned my Substitute Shinigami post right after the day Ulqiorra and his brother went poof, Commander was left with no choice but to hire someone else. He hired two, for that matter. My new neighbors, residing in a bungalow a street from my place, are perhaps two of the most notable substitute shinigami ever hired. They are twins of different appearances and of otherworldly skill and strength. Without a question, this nature of them simply serves to remind me of the other two fraternal twin brothers I got the pleasure of knowing. And this, of course, brings back the old days. This, as I am being constantly reminded of the other life I used to live, or still living, is a proof I was never decreed to live a normal life right from the beginning.

Oftentimes I imagine what it would have been like if we, Grimmjow and I, had not met in the strangest of premises, if we had been like humans who were decreed by fate to cross paths the way everyone else does with another person. He probably would still hate me. But it would probably be easier for me to accept being treated with as much hostility as he actually did because there wouldn't be this additional weight of dark possibilities which came with being associated to Soul Society or Hueco Mundo.

In another place in time, we could have been two youths given the chance to fall in love with one another, the possibility of being sentenced to death or chasing Hollows never crossing our minds. After all, we didn't need to be heroes and villains, but only plain, ordinary human beings. It's just a dream, I know, and I have longed for it to come true, whether here or elsewhere and in another lifetime only God can tell.

But now I am again reading an impressive spiritual surge piercing through the very human territory of Karakura. In no time flat, the substitute shinigami twins issue forth from their humble abode toward the source of the disturbance. In like manner, I am tempted to equip my Zanpakotou and assist them, besides feeling obliged to do so just because I still have my shinigami powers. And perhaps I should because I can vaguely determine the presence of a Menos Grande… which is just odd.

Hollows of higher classes have long ceased to stray into Karakura and the last time a Menos Grande showed up around here Aizen was behind everything. That was seven years ago. Therefore, this, I guess, must be brought to Soul Society's attention. I am about to go into my spiritual form but a presence of something very strong and vaguely familiar assails me. This looks like a multiple attack on Karakura, with the Menos Grande acting as a diversion to give way to a more complicated assault against someone here. Me, perhaps. At any rate, I strain my senses to place the origin of this new Reiatsu and determine it is indeed coming from the East, much apart from where the two shinigami are combating the Menos.

Two seconds later, the individual who has just arrived is right outside my window, impressing me with his inhuman speed. I threw my panels open and look down.

"Shinigami."

And so the bastard can keep a promise after all.

I smile at him, and he smiles his handsome smile. Maybe, just maybe, we are finally given the same chance which fate denied us some six years ago.

END