An arrancar-girl in Seireitei

Hiya! Thanks for all the reviews, guys! You make me feel loved! I didn't think I'd get so much for the first chapters.

TheShamanMaster + viper: I intend to – Yachiru and Nell WILL meet, probably in the next chapter. What will happen after that… I honestly don't know yet.

There are some definitions at the end of the document. In the text they are marked with numbers.

No matter how much I deny it, Bleach is still Kubo Tite's property.

Hide and Seek

„Here we are" Kurotsuchi announced. The meeting had been endless in his view, a few minutes more and he would have stormed out of the building, no matter what Yamamoto-soutaichou had done to him afterwards. Walking alongside him was the one-in-a-million-chance to find out what made the arrancar tick and these idiots had continued talking about Abarai-kuns and Kurosaki Ichigos fun trip to Hueco Mundo. These guys really needed to change the order of their priorities.

Nell blinked a few times and looked at the area in front of her. "That looks just like where we came from" she announced a little disappointed.

"Just wait until we're in" Kurotsuchi replied thinking of all the things he would need to study her. He looked around. "Where is she? Nemu!"

"Mayuri-sama?"

Nell swang around. A young woman suddenly had appeared behind her and otou-chan Kuro. She looked pretty, but not in the way Hime-nee looked like. Her hair was purple and she had braided it perfectly, not a single strand out of place. She wore something that looked like a very short Yukata that showed most of her trained legs, and a white obi (1) accented her slender waist. Her face was well-proportioned, like everything of her body it looked… kinda well-built. But she looked sad with her big, melancholic eyes.

"There you are" Kurotsuchi barked. "Why did it take you so long to show up? I informed you minutes ago that I'd come, you imbecile!"

"My apologies, Mayuri-sama" the girl said submissively. She didn't dare looking into otou-chan Kuros face. Nell was a little confused. Was she a servant?

Kurotsuchi snorted, then he turned back to Nell. He grinned again. "Nell, that's Nemu, my daughter. She'll show you your room and the rest of the division. I'll see you two later, I've got to… prepare some things." With that he vanished.

Nell looked at Nemu with big eyes. "You're otou-chan Kuros daughter?" she asked curiously. "He wasn't very nice to you."

"No, he wasn't" Nemu affirmed without any emotion. Nothing else. Nell cocked her head.

"Did you do something wrong?"

Nemu showed a sad smile. "Probably" she whispered.

Nell blinked. "Weeeell" she commented "back in Hueco Mundo I did many silly things too. Dondo Chakker and Pesshe always blistered me for such things." She laughed at that which caused Nemu to raise an eyebrow. "But we got along really well, so I guess I know how you feel."

"If you think so" Nemu answered sceptically.

"Damn right I do!" Nell happily confirmed. "Ichigo said I'd find a nice new family here, and otou-chan Kuro has been really kind. He said we'd have loads of fun together." She jumped forward and hugged astounded Nemus legs fiercely. "And you're so much like me, Nemu-nee! We'll be wonderful sisters!"

Nemu blinked several times. Nells exuberance of feeling had taken her completely by surprise. But then a shy smile crept over her face and she put a hand Nells head. "I'm sure we will be… imouto-chan" she agreed warmly. If we have enough time to get to know each other that is, she thought while thinking about her father and his plans. Her smile vanished and she broke away from Nells grip. "Come on, we should get going now, or you won't see your room before Mayuri-sama calls for us."

Nell nodded and took Nemus hand. The fukutaichou guided the arrancar toddler through the maze that was 12th division. The little girl was stunned by the giant machines and other technical things that were omnipresent in the rooms and the hallways they walked through. No wonder, Nemu thought, from what she had heard from Hueco Mundo it was a wasteland with no machines at all. She tried to answer any of the curious questions Nell fired at her, but she doubted the little girl understood most of her explanations. But just like a regular human child Nell wasn't fazed by that at all, she simply found another fascinating thing that she could ask Nemu about. Nemu caught herself thinking that she enjoyed talking with someone who was that eager to talk with her. She hardly conversed with Mayuri-sama cause it usually ended with him insulting her, and nearly every other dialog she had had in the last years had been business talk. Only some of the members of the Shinigami Women's Association had tried to make small talk with her, but most of them had given up rather fast cause of her terse and definite answers. Only Masumoto-san and Yachiru-san didn't seem to mind.

"This is your room, Nell-chan" she announced and opened a small door.

"Really? My own room?" Nell asked and looked into the small cell. And that it was – a cell. Since most of the laboratories and computer rooms in 12th division were underground, many of the bedrooms were too. They were small, barely furnished and obviously without sunlight, but Nell seemed to like it. "Yay!" she squealed and jumped onto the small bed.

"Do you really like it?" Nemu asked unbelievingly.

"Of couse" Nell replied while bouncing around. "I never had a room to myself. Most of the time me and the guys slept in the open. Is your room like this one too, Nemu-nee?"

"Well, mine is a little… bigger" Nemu answered evasively. Not to say more homely, she thought.

"That's okay" Nell decided "since you're taller than me."

That caused Nemu to smile again. "True" she said. "Now shall we continue our tour?"

Nell sniffed. "Naah, that's boring" she declined. "Everywhere there are com-pu-ters and shelves and grey walls. I wanna play something now." She put her finger onto her lip and looked up to the ceiling, deep in thought. Then she grinned again. "I know! We'll play Hide and Seek!"

"But Nell-chan" Nemu objected "you don't know this place very well. What if you get lost?"

"Well, then you'll have to find me" Nell replied cheerfully. "You can start counting now. Sonido! (2)"

And with that she disappeared. Nemu blinked. Had the girl become invisible? Wait, no! Matsumoto-san had mentioned something like that. When she had fought against an arrancar he had used a technique similar to shunpo. And an arrancar toddler with seemingly no former training was able to use that? Interesting…

Then it hit her. Nell was somewhere in 12th division now and Nemu didn't have a clue where. And every second Mayuri-sama could call for them! She had to find the little girl, as fast as possible! Then she heard a voice in her head.

"Nemu! I just finished the preparations! Bring me the girl, immediately!"

Nemu groaned slightly. "Mayuri-sama, I've got to tell you something…"

"Whoa, where am I?"

Nell looked around curiously. She had run through various hallways and some rooms, but nowhere had she found a good hiding place. Then she had seen a door and had walked into the room and now she was here. It was some kind of storage room with many shelves and big boxes which contained technical gizmos. Nell grinned. A room with many possible hide-outs. Great!

Just when she wanted to look for some big box to hide inside, something gleamy caught her eye. She picked up a strange device which seemed to be a long staff with many coloured buttons. With that action she blew up some dust which tickled her nose.

"What's that? … Aaaah, no, not again …. Haaah, haaaaaaah, haaaaaaaaaaaaah …"

"If we don't find her in the next five minutes, I swear I'll personally strangle you, Nemu, you idiot!"

Kurotsuchi clamoured noisily while he and his daughter ran though empty hallways. It had been rather easy to follow Nells reiatsu while she was running at high speed, but now she had stopped, and filtering her reiatsu out of all the soul power in this building wasn't an easy task. She had to be somewhere near, but that was all the two shinigami knew right now.

Nemu didn't really listen. She had heard so many death threats in her life and yet she was still here. Mayuri-sama wouldn't kill her although he would certainly punish her. But she was used to that too. Right now she was more concerned about Nell. The little girl seemed to think of this building as a playground, but there were dangerous things hidden in 12th division… very dangerous things. She would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to her… imouto-chan.

"What's that?" they suddenly heard a muffled voice.

"She's here!" Kurotsuchi exclaimed in delight. "We found her!" He looked around and noticed a door to one of the many storage rooms in 12th division. He narrowed his eyes when he remembered what kinds of things were stored in this special room. He unsheathed his zanpakatou.

"Nemu" he barked. "You go first!"

The girl didn't hesitate. She knew that Mayuri-sama was simply using her as a human shield, but that didn't matter. She knew as well as her father what things were buried in this room. They had to get Nell out before the girl touched something. She was so worried about the little arrancar that she didn't hear the girl's breathing noises until she opened the door.

"Haaah, haaaaaaah…"

When she looked inside she couldn't believe her eyes first. Nell was standing in front of an open box and she had taken out some sort of weapon. Apparently she had inhaled the dust cause she was preparing to sneeze. The strange thing was that the little arrancar didn't only breathe in air, but also energy streams that were emitting from the boxes and floating towards her. Quincy artefacts, targets for shinigami kidou practise, Hollow masks… all reiatsu in the room was gathering around this girl!

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaah…"

"What the…"

Mayuri-sama didn't even have time to end this curse before Nell finally sneezed. Nemu couldn't retreat since her father blocked the way and she certainly didn't want to move forward. But she couldn't just jump behind a shelf cause Mayuri-sama would get seriously hurt by the shock wave. So Nemu stood perfectly still while watching everything go white.

Well, I guess that wasn't so bad even if I used Nells atomic sneeze again. But she IS our favourite little time bomb, isn't she?

(1) A Yukata is a light summer kimono and an obi is a belt like the ones Martial Artists are wearing

(2) "Sonido" is the Spanish word for "sound" – it's the arrancar equivalent of the shinigami's shunpo, probably referring to the speed of sound