The Musical Arrancar

“Don’t fuckin’ apologize,” he grunts. “Just stop it.” A large part of him was incredibly amused at his own reputation – he liked being known as strong, as powerful, as frightening. As someone to fear and respect. But part of him was annoyed; all the cowering and anxiousness and apologies just plain got on his nerves. Couldn’t have one without the other, he supposed.

Shuuhei’s hand mirrored hers, and rested lightly on Kazeshini, as his eyes bored into hers. He could tell what she was immediately, but something about her was…off. She carried a weapon, but her body language and her movements told the shinigami that she was wasn’t particularly skilled with it. It was an odd looking sword too. He’d seen something similar in books, but he couldn’t quite remember the name. From that alone, he knew that he could best her easily, but her release could potentially give him trouble. 

His dark grey eyes scanned the area quickly. There was a small gathering of humans roughly 50 yards away, so any confrontation could involve them, if he wasn’t very careful. The poppy shaped limiter on his chest burned beneath his shihakusho. He only hoped he wouldn’t have to remove it. He could practically hear Kazeshini snort and retreat further into the recesses of his mind. The demon didn’t see her as worth his time. He’d get her talking. The longer he was gone the more likely that Renji or Kurosaki would come looking for him.

She watched as he slowly circled her, like a predator. Though she was scared, borderline terrified, she forced herself to hide it, to keep her emotions in control. Despite this it was still very easy to see just how scared she was. Her body was trembling slightly and her eyes showed nothing but the dread that was residing in her body.

“I’m Arrancar number 45, Lilium Drassill, and I’m here to look for music.” That was the only reason she came to the human world, to either listen to music or find music sheets, or write down the notes she heard when listening to the music she heard. It was so fascinating how things had changed, and she was always trying to expand her musical library to see if she was able to create new abilities for herself to use.

Brows lifted slightly in response to that.

That was odd. She knew damn well the woman didn’t give a shit about Brilla, bt she was pretending to? Almost immediately there was a crackle as Emilou appeared just outside the woman’s personal space, her head tilting as she resisted the urge to lean in and peer at the strange woman.

“The hell’re you doin?” She murmured, suddenly suspicious. This was not right. It wasn’t usual. Usually people stronger than her were assholes. Hell people who THOUGHT they were stronger than her were assholes. Arrancar who knew they were weaker than her? Still assholes. Then there was a sharp transition from assholes who hated her for being stronger and those too broken and subservient to do anything but utter a ‘yes or no’ ma’am/sama/whatever.

Nobody asked questions. Questions belied interest. Which drew attention to you. Which meant this woman either was interested on getting in Emilou’s good graces, or just didn’t fit Emi’s experience with arrancar so far.

Boredom, really, was probably one of the worst things ever invented. Not that there was much else to compare it against, but definitely one of the worst. And since his Fracciones weren’t around at the moment to fuck around with, the next best thing was to go and bother some of the other lower Arrancar. Most of them weren’t worth much in a real fight, but at the very least they could provide a bit of entertainment. (And hey, if they ended up dead, it wasn’t his fault. They just couldn’t handle it – and if he needed an excuse, he could easily just say they weren’t strong enough or something.) He stops by the sidelines of the makeshift training area and glances around, trying to figure out at a glance who the strongest were, and pauses.

She froze as he spoke, then she slowly relaxed, but just a little. Looking up at the other she tried to figure out why he was here. Was he looking for a fight, or just roaming around? She had never been the best at reading people so all she could do was make assumptions.

An arrancar? Well that wasn’t too much of a surprise. That being said she was a bit perplexed at the…lack of aggression. Not that she expected to be attacked, simply put she had heard that arrancar were rather brash and unfriendly, but this woman didn’t seem like that. They had’t even talked to her. Not only that but they didn’t seem to be pumping out too much spiritual energy. She might not have even noticed them if she had actually been hunting for hollows nearby. 

That being said, she did wonder. If arrancar were going to start settling into the world of the living, it would probably be in the soul society’s best interest to find a way to suppress their reiatsu. Would a gigai even work for them? She doubted an arrancar would volunteer for a seal. even so..

Pouring over the the screens of roaming lights and blinking numbers, it must look as though he were deep in study wouldn’t it? If he were to be honest, though volunteered explanation of his personal doings given to a lowly worm such as this was almost laughable, all that the scientist’s time had been occupying since her journey through his halls was just that. It was not for worry of course. How this measly little thing would procure something like that from his depths may as well be listed along with questions such as how does one change the visible color of sound. The delivery had been expected.

And what amusing displays this lowly arrancar made! It was evident from the way she marched hurriedly through the halls, or the way her skin crawled with such intensity that her body shook, or the way her lips struggled to pull an even sentence. She may as well have been screaming. 

Amber flashed by artificial light through the thick rims of his glasses with a look that beckoned her forward. The tension in the room was nearly edible. He longed to taste it with his tongue,

Since you seek to dally and dither, why not  stay a while?

“Lilium, correct?” 

“Yes, that’s my name, Sir,” she confirmed, though she had no idea how he would know her name. Most didn’t even know she existed, so she never expected anyone to know what her name was, especially not one of the Espada. Why bother to remember such a useless piece of information?

     The wide grin that was spread across Nnoitra’s sharp features, with all his big, shining white teeth showing, was not presented to the female before him because he was amused. He was making this unpleasant face for the sole purpose of freaking her out. Oh, because he knew she was scared of him, and with good reason. If he wanted to, he could kill her right here and now. The thought was a tiny bit tempting, and just as a taunt, he let his bony fingers slide alongside the handle of Santa Teresa. It was just a joke though, despite the fact that his single eye showed no sign of amusement at all. The narrow, gray eye was cold - like a stormy winter day. It wasn’t until she spoke, that Nnoitra’s mouth opened, and he barked out a laugh. Again, there was no real humor in it. It sounded like he simply let it out to scare her, which was partly true, even if he did enjoy scaring her. 

And as Nnoitra had suspected, the wide smile did cause panic to rise within her, and the way his hand touched the large weapon just made it all worse. But she was able to not visibly freak out, yet, except for her body trembling and just how tense she was. Calm down, she had to calm down, one part of her said, the other was screaming at her to run, she had to get away, go somewhere safe, but there was no such thing as a safe place here.

She jumped when he barked out a laugh. It was obvious to her that Nnoitra was just toying with her, having fun and enjoying the fear that was radiating from the young female. Despite knowing this, she wasn’t any less scared of him, just even more ashamed of her own weaknesses.

【虚無】A reaction such as hers was none unfamiliar to the Espada – particularly when it came to Arrancar without any notable strength. Even when simply standing, the atmosphere surrounding him was alike to thick liquid. Looking over the female’s form briefly, Ulquiorra averted his gaze a moment later, apparently indifferent towards her statement. Whilst recalling having seen her occasionally, he wasn’t entirely certain about her occupation – whether she was part of an Espada’s fracción or merely one of the independent Los Números. 

”—–I see.” 

Being anywhere near him was causing such a uneasy feeling, something similar to dread, yet she did her best to stand straight and not cower in fear of the powerful being in front of him. Out of all the Espadas he had to be one of the most terrifying ones, simply because you knew nothing about him, he was like a black void.

         Lost in thought, Nelliel hardly took note of her surroundings visually, however; she did take note of the persons in her vicinity with her other senses. She stopped prior to her next step before the woman in front of her moved aside, curiously watching her for a moment. Being as seclusive as she was with the others, she hardly made light of her knowledge concerning them. She simply observed and made no assumptions, but she made sure to know names at the very least to keep from being rude. So when greeted, she gave a polite nod and returned the favour. “Lilium.”

She was honestly surprised that the other seemed to remember her name, or even know it. How? No one paid attention to her, the fewest seemed to know she even existed. And here we had one of the highest ranked Espadas remembering your name. It was close to unbelievable, and it took her a moment before she realized that she should probably answer the other and not just stand there and stare in shock.

Ah, her. Emi glanced over her shoulder for a moment as she eyed the arrancar.

Ah, it was that one. She relaxed slightly. Ma’am. It was certainly a nice change of pace from what she was usually called. But in any case she still welt….odd being called that.

“I was just getting Brilla. I don’t like it when he wanders too far from my room.” she stated casually, knowing the woman would probably have no idea who that was, especially since the hollow in question was currently camouflaging themselves, draped around her shoulders. Of all the little critters that hung around her abode, he was probably the most….adventurous.

“Oh, I see,” she replied, her shoulders lowering a bit as she got a bit more relaxed, though it was impossible for her to be completely relaxed with anyone nearby. Everyone was so unpredictable she didn’t dare to lower her guard.