Chapter Thirty Nine:

If Only the Real World Worked Like the Inside of My Head

Kimi opened the door, surprised to see Seren there.

"Hey…" she said softly, noting the taller girl's red eyes, wet face, and bedraggled appearance.

"Hey. I just… I just need a place to stay for the night." Seren explained. Her voice was weak, hoarse.

"Of course!" Kimi opened the door wide, and gently pulled Seren inside, closing the door behind her.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Nonsense, you poor creature." Kimi took her into the bathroom, and took a washcloth, wet it, and washed Seren's face. "I swear, you leave with us thinking Aizen's going to fry you, now you come back alone crying?"

Seren just swayed softly under Kimi's firm wipes with the washcloth.

"And what are you doing in here-" A familiar loud voice announced, in turn announcing a large man in the doorway, with an equally familiar head of blue hair. "Whoa-" he stopped when he saw her. "Seren..?"

"Yeah, I know," Kimi retorted, probably trying to chase him away.

"No, it's okay. He has a right to know." Seren walked past Kimi to Grimmjow.

"Y- you weren't told by Aizen to falsely befriend me, were you?" She asked.

"Wh- what the hell?!" Grimmjow shouted. "Why would he do that?! What are you talking about?!"

"A-Aizen told Ulquiorra to do that, just so I would be loyal to him."

"Did it work?" He asked, none too polite, but he never was.

She nodded mutely. She explained about how she had regained her shinigami powers, and that he had decided to return her honesty with his. "I still can't believe it. What is wrong with me where this stuff just keeps happening to me?"

In that moment, Ulquiorra burst in the door and declared his love to Seren, carried her away from this awful place, killed Aizen, and took her back to Urahara, her true love- and oh yeah Kimi, Grimmjow, his fraccion, Mila Rose, Apache, and Sunsun came along.

Wouldn't that have been nice. If only the real world worked like the inside of her head!

Instead, Grimmjow picked Seren up, took her to the room- where ALL his fraccion saw her crying, to her humiliation- and put her to bed, in Kimi's room. Then she lay there miserably, re-explaining all the events of the past miserable hour to Kimi.

How lovely.

She was up for hours, unable to fall asleep, long after Kimi and the rest of the others were out.

She lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She watched happy scenes of her life as a shinigami flash across it, dancing in front of her eyes.

See, this is why I blocked your memories. You wouldn't have been able to hold yourself back in front of Aizen and you would have had to explain everything to him. He probably won't like you remembering your past life, Rabaeth explained.

Thanks. Seren replied, but she didn't really mean it. She was bittersweet, empty inside.

Seren's eyes opened- then she shut them. "Grr… I'm too tired… I can't face the day…" She put her face into her pillow.

Whoever said that things always seemed better in the morning, had lied.

If anything, revealed in the harsh light of day, things were worse.

She looked around, and found both Grimmjow and Kimi sleeping on the floor around her bed. She smiled, grateful for their kindness.

"Thanks guys," she said softly. She got up, kissed both Grimmjow and Kimi on the cheek, then walked out the door.

She wandered around loosely, knowing it was early in the morning, few were out, and whoever was, she avoided. It was easy, just sensing reiatsu and going the other way.

Yes, she was being antisocial, and no, she didn't care. She wasn't in the mood to face anyone. And yes, she was also out the door before she realized she was still in the nightgown Kimi had lent her.

Now she had two reasons to avoid people.

Or hollows, however you took it.

It took her a minute or two before she realized someone was following her- and she was pretty sure it was the same person who had followed her the first day. She tried going faster, sensing it was powerful. But it followed her stubbornly, just like Ulquiorra and Nnoitra when she was captured.

It followed her, and worse, it was gaining on her again.

She gritted her teeth. "So be it," she hissed. She sped up, even faster, then started taking erratic turns- she turned corners, stopped and ran the other way, then ran up and down stairs. At first her mysterious pursuer slowed- then it caught up and gained.

Finally, tired and pissed because it was morning and too early to be terrorized and defeated, she spun around.

"What?!" She cried when her follower came- and then it smashed right into her in a ball of fury.

They tumbled for two rolls, then Seren broke away. "Wha- wha?" She muttered rubbing her head.

She was never getting up early again.

The- boy, she guessed- looked up, and cooed at her.

Her jaw dropped. What?

The- thing- turned around and looked at her, then crawled over to her. He had oversized sleeves, long blonde hair, and wide, innocent purple eyes.

Seren couldn't believe her eyes- this was the monstrous reiatsu that had chased her down?

Well, she hadn't thought she was that weak!

"Wonderweiss!" A concerned voice called, then found them.

It was Tousen and Gin, who had apparently been chasing the boy, who had been chasing her.

They looked at her, just as shocked as she was.

"Well, I'll be, if it isn't little Miss Lampshade," Gin said, teasing her about the lamp incident.

The other guy, Tousen, didn't say anything. Well, he probably hadn't known who she was- he was, after all, blind.

"Well, I'll be, if it isn't Fox Eyes and Braid Boy," she replied evenly.

"Aha!" Gin clapped his hands delightedly. "Just as plucky as ever, I see!"

"Yeah," she deadpanned. "Here is… your… um… thing?"

"Don't refer to Wonderweiss as a thing!" Tousen replied, sounding scandalized and talking for the first time.

"I'm sorry," Seren replied. "I didn't know he had a name. He was just chasing me."

"See! I told you he was looking for something!" Gin laughed to Tousen.

Seren raised an eyebrow. "… Aaaanyways…" She looked at Wonderweiss, only to find he was holding on to her leg. "Um… Wonderweiss, is it? You kind of need to let go of me."

He only cooed again, like a bright baby who had just found a new toy.

"He likes ya, huh?" Gin smiled at her. "Ha!"

"Yeah. Well, I need to get back to my room on account of I'm in my nightgown, I'm tired, and it's too early in the morning to be ambushed." She really was getting cranky.

"You shouldn't talk to your superiors that way," Tousen lectured.

"Aww, nonsense. She just got up from her week long beauty sleep," Gin embellished.

Seren's heart lurched. "If you call that beauty sleep," she growled, "then you have no idea what a coma is, do you?"

Gin looked at her. If she had seen his eyes, she could have been sure they widened in surprise.

"I'm sorry. I'm in a bad mood. It doesn't help that the last time I was chased down I was raped," she replied bitterly.

"Aww, it's nothing." Gin smirked at her. He took Wonderweiss from off her leg, then turned away.

Then he turned back, and smiling even wider, "See ya, Seren-chan."

"Uuuuh," she replied.

Then Gin, Tousen, and Wonderweiss disappeared with a flash step.

It was moment before Seren realized that Ulquiorra apparently hadn't told them about her whole shinigami remembering past lives thing.

"Ul- UL-ULQUIORRA!" She yelled to the empty hall.