Tite Kubo owns Bleach

Hollow King Chapter six

Turn it up to eleven

Gondra stood there, not sure what to say. Luckily, the seated officer that Isane was talking to got the hint and left the two alone after flashing a smile and giving the thumbs up sign. Isane turned her attention to Gondra, her cloudy dark grey eyes scanning his form. When their eyes met, they both froze for a few seconds both shinigami blushing. When her gaze reached his forehead, she held back a gasp and had a look of genuine concern on her angelic face.

"You're injured."

Gondra placed a hand on his forehead where it was throbbing. He looked at his palm to see that he was bleeding. Isane stepped forward raising a hand to Gondra's forehead, immediately he felt the soothing blue light of reiatsu. The throbbing in his head went away and even his hang over started to subside. Gondra wiped the blood from his forehead on his sleeve, not caring if it stained the fabric.

"Thank you, lieutenant." Gondra said with a grin causing Isane to blush as she retracted her hand.

"The reason I'm here is well…. as thanks for saving me earlier how about I treat you to some tea?" He stated while scratching the back of his head nervously. Isane thought about his offer for a minute thanking back to Unohana saying that she should seek out friendship.

"Well…..all right."

"Great! I know I nice place."

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Gondra and Isane sat on a bench outside the teahouse, watching the sunset quietly and drinking their cups of tea. The silence rattled his nerves so he decided to attempt a conversation.

"Nice sunset huh?"

Isane nodded, glancing at him. As he lifted his cup to his mouth, she noticed his jet black nail polish.

"I like it here. It's nice." he smiled and said.

"Oh, that's right you haven't been here that long."

"To tell you the truth, I haven't even been dead that long." Gondra stated with a chuckle. Isane decided to change the subject to something less macabre.

"I like your nails." she said admiringly. Gondra looked down at his fingers still trying to get used to them.

"Thanks, it was Yachiru and Nemu's doing. That reminds me...do you know why she refers to Yachiru as president?"

"She's the head of the Shinigami Women's Association Nemu and I are also members."

"That's cool. Is there a men's association?"

"Well, not for long if Nanao has anything to do with it."

"Yeah, she doesn't seem to like guys very much." Isane giggled as Gondra studied her, thinking to himself, God, she's cute.

"I like your braids." he stated, his comment making her blush.

Just then as they both reached down to the plate of dango sitting between them, their hands touched causing them both to blush and look at each other noticing their faces were an inch apart. Just when Gondra was about to pull away and apologize, they both heard a familiar and annoying voice off in the distance.

"Hey, new guy! Baldy and Flamingo Head are going to the living world so your gonna have to play with me!" Yachiru shouted as she came out of the blue. She sailed through the air, drop kicking Gondra in the back of the head and causing his mouth to abruptly connect with Isane's.

They sat there for what seemed like an eternity frozen with their eyes wide open as Yachiru danced around them, completely oblivious to the situation while cheering,

"Ten points!"

Isane pulled away to catch her breath with a mad blush on her face, not taking her eyes off Gondra and noticing that he was just as surprised is she was. She couldn't lie to herself any longer. She had been yearning for a relationship, for the touch of a man. Embarrassed as hell, she leaned in with her eyes closed and placed her hands on his broad shoulders, gently kissing him on the lips. Gondra tensed up, momentarily taken aback by the timid girl's unexpected action. As he started to relax, he placed a hand on her waist deepening the kiss. He couldn't remember the last time he kissed a girl, let alone had one kiss him back. Isane let out a soft moan as Gondra slipped his tongue into her mouth. She tasted the musty flavor of tobacco, which strangely calmed her, as they explored each other's mouths. Gondra pulled Isane onto his lap not breaking the kiss as he ran his free hand through her silvery, lavender hair. They both felt completely at peace in each other's arms that is until they heard a scream from off in the distance. Gondra broke the kiss and looked up to see a short girl with equally short yellow hair, and what looked to be some kind of white collared shirt underneath her shihakusho, run up to them with her mouth hanging open. On closer inspection, Gondra noticed that she had similar eyes to Isane.

"Ki…..Ki…..Kiyone! What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you! I didn't think I'd find you making out with some guy though! And you how dare you take advantage of my sister!"

"It was her fault!" Gondra shouted, pointing over to Yachiru who was sitting on a nearby bench happily munching on dango.

"Come on, Isane! We need to talk!" Kiyone shouted as she dragged a mesmerized Isane off Gondra's lap and out of view. Gondra sat there for a few moments trying to wrap his brain around the current situation before deciding to get the hell out of there.

Kiyone looked up at her older sister grinning.

"So…who was he?"

"His name's Gondra Durden of division eleven." Isane mumbled not making eye contact with her little sister, still in a daze with a severe blush on her face.

"Eleven!? You actually wound up with a guy from that crazy cut throat company!?"

"He's not like the others. He's different." Isane stated, defending him.

xxxxxxx

Gondra spent the next few weeks training with his captain Through brutal sparing sessions, he learned to master his zanpakuto in its sealed state and even learned to shoot blades of reiatsu from it like Kenpachi. Through his rugged training, he realized Sunaryu's sealed ability was that every time he attacked or parried an attack, it would hit his opponent with a firearm like recoil.

Gondra also took the opportunity to work on his image. Along with his tattered and torn shihakusho, he now wore black leather wrist bands and a silver neck chain with a bullet as a pendant. He replaced his standard issue sandals with heavy combat boots, and his obi sash with a pyramid studded leather belt with wallet chain. His new look, along with the black eye liner and nail polish, earned him a new nickname from Yachiru.

Gondra sat on the squad eleven roof admiring his tachi style zanpakuto when what he thought was a hell butterfly landed on his shoulder. When Gondra looked at it he realized it was a mechanical butterfly with a camera lens for a head.

"Gondra, are you there? Come in!"

Gondra recognized the shrill sinister voice right away.

"Captain Kurotsuchi? That you?"

"Of course, it's me!" the pseudo hell butterfly stated as it focused its violet lens on Gondra's face. "I have a new research task for you; go meet Nemu at Sokyoku Hill. She will explain the details to you when you arrive."

As Gondra arrived at Sokyoku Hill, he spotted Nemu waiting for him by a door on a nearby ledge. As soon as she saw him approaching, her expression softened into a faint smile.

"Hello Gondra. It's good to see you again." Nemu commented in her somewhat melancholy tone. Gondra grinned at the strange girl as he said.

"Same here Nemu. So what's Kurotsuchi got planned for me?"

"You are to utilize your hollow powers to defeat a modified dummy hollow that Mayuri-sama has prepared for you." Gondra thought back to his academy days and how he would easily send those things to the scrap heap, but knowing Kurotsuchi this wasn't going to be a walk in the park.

"So, where is it?"

"It's waiting for you through here." Nemu stated gesturing to the large door.

Gondra threw the door open and stepped inside to find a gigantic training ground complete with a desert floor and artificial sky.

"Wow, not bad." Gondra scanned his surroundings to find a gigantic jet black mecha with red eyes lumbering up to him. It reared back, scanning Gondra with its metal eyes.

"What is this, tomb raider!? Hey Tyler, wake up we got company!" "Huh? Holy shit, Jack. Did I miss something here!?"

"Captain Freak show wants us to take it out. You up to the job?" "Hell yeah! Let's send that over grown entertainment center back to the drawing board!"

"Ready when you are." Gondra blinked and drew his sword as his mask started to form. One of his eyes turned from it's sky blue to a black and amber dragon eye.

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Okay that's chapter six. Took me a little longer to write it then planned. Hope you all enjoyed it. I'm also in the market for a beta reader if anyone's interested let me know.

-Sandragon out.