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"Oh, hell no. No, no, no. Absolutely not. It's bad enough I was forced into this abomination" here, a very agitated Ikkaku Madarame pointed at the white Captain's coat he now wore over his black hakama. "There is no way I am letting either of you come near me with makeup!"
He glared at the young man and woman standing before him.

The young woman, a short, curvy thing with long black hair and green eyes batted her long eyelashes at Ikkaku.

"Aw, come on", a giggle. "Captain Madarame. You'll look beautiful. And I have oils to make your head even shinier." She clutched her sides and doubled over in a fit of laughter.

"Ayumu's right, Ikkaku. And a little concealer would hide those dark circles under your eyes" the young man offered.

Ikkaku gaped at his best friend, Yumichika Ayasegawa, as if the man had spouted extra arms. Actually, he would have been less surprised to see Yumichika with extra arms. Maybe then he would do something somewhat useful. Like strangle who ever had had the brilliant idea of making him become a captain to begin with.

"Do you honestly think I care about dark circles under my eyes?", he demanded.

At that, the girl, Ayumu Hashiba, proceeded to laugh harder.

Ikkaku was stopped from getting really violent by the entry of another young woman, this one average height and very thin. Like Ayumu, she had long hair, but hers had more length and was red, and she had hazel eyes. She had a clueless expression on her face, as though she was not sure where she was, what she was doing there, or even who the strange people around her were.

Ikkaku pointed at her.

"And what is her problem. She has been walking around in a daze since she got reassigned here!"

"Maybe because she is still in shock-you are now the scariest captain in all of soul society, surpassing even Kenpachi and Captain Kurotsuchi", Ayumu said.

The redhead, Kaori Machida, smiled broadly at them.

"I'm not in a daze", she said. "I came here to tell Captain Madarame I have decided to call him Captain Baldy."

Yumichika and Ayumu fell over each other, hysterically laughing. Ikkaku walked over to the pair, the vein on his forehead throbbing. He grabbed Yumichika by the collar of his hakama and hoisted the considerably smaller man to his feet. Ikkaku smashed their heads together. Without so much as a groan, Yumichika's eyes slid shut and his weight slipped from Ikkaku's fingers. He crashed to the floor, unconscious, a bruise already forming on his temple.

Ayumu immediately stopped laughing. Kaori's eyes got wide.

"You killed the pretty boy!", Kaori cried.

"He's not dead", Ikkaku said, glaring at his best friend, who lay twitching on the ground. "However, you will be dead the next time you mention "Captain Baldy. Consider this your warning."

Kaori gulped and ducked behind Ayumu. She was sure she could see smoke coming from her new captain's ears.

"I want to go back to Captain Unohana now..." she muttered.

"I want to go back to Captain Kyouraku now..." Ayumu added.

"Quit whining", Ikkaku growled at them. "I want to go back to Kenpachi-you don't always get what you want."

Ikkaku left the women and his unconscious friend behind, ready to rip off his new coat and throw it into a fire. He'd gotten too into his fight back in the human world and had revealed the secret that, up until recently, only he, Yumichika, and Renji had known about. Revealing it had resulted in exactly the fate he'd feared-he was forced into a captain's position.

Under normal circumstances, a lieutenant would take over their captain's responsibilities if the captain was unable to do so. Kira and Hisagi had officially been promoted to captain status, at least temporarily, in their captains' absences. The problem was with the fifth squad. Aizen had deeply wounded his lieutenant, Hinamori, both physically and emotionally. While the physical wounds had healed, the emotional ones would not. Commander General Yamamoto had decided Hinamori was simply not ready to take over Squad Five duties-or even remain on the 5th squad. Instead, she'd been sent to act as lieutenant to Hisagi for Squad Nine, leaving 5th Division with no captain or lieutenant.

He sighed at his foolishness. He should have known Yamamoto would be looking for new captains and lieutenants and revealing he could achieve bankai would attract attention. And he'd gotten Yumichika dragged into the mess by refusing to work with someone he didn't know. He'd been hoping to make Yamamoto rethink his decision and pick someone else for captain by being difficult. Instead, he'd been forced into the loathed position anyway and doomed his friend to be condemned with him-he wasn't fooled for one second by Yumichika's false smiles and assurances it was alright. They'd been friends far too long for that. His friend was no happier with the arrangement than he was.

However, Yamamoto had not been content with ruining just their lives, oh, no. He decided it was time for some people to switch squads. This left him stuck with not just Aizen's former bunch, but new additions as well, none of whom seemed to like him except for the two girls he'd just left behind. Kaori, who had been transfered over from the fourth division, hadn't really been with them long enough to hate him, though Ikkaku had his suspicions that Kaori was not capable of hating anyone. Ayumu, who had been transfered over from Squad Eight, had taken an immediate liking to them, especially after Yumichika had washed her hair with his special shampoo and then pointed out to her how shiny Ikkaku's head was. He recalled the pair staring at his head in awe until he'd threatened to shave their own heads while they slept.

“Captain Madarame!”

Ikkaku looked up at the sound of his name to see one of Yamamoto's messengers-he'd never bothered to learn their names-coming towards him.

“Urgent news from Commander General Yamamoto, Sir”, the messenger said, handing the sealed document to Ikkaku.

Ikkaku nodded. Maybe this time Yamamoto was going to require he wear a wig because drunken squad members (and Captain Kyouraku) kept mistaking his hairless head for the moon. Why not? He'd already single-handedly ruined his life that week. Why not humiliate him, too?

Ikkaku opened the message and read it. He sighed again.

Yamamoto was not requesting him to wear a wig, but his request was almost as bizarre. He was requesting Ikkaku choose two of his own squad members to don disguises and sneak into Hueco Mundo to spy on Aizen, Tousen, and Gin. He crumpled the note in his fist and wondered if he would have been better off if he'd let Kenpachi kill him during their first encounter.

“AHHHH! WHAT DID YOU DO TO US!?”, Ayumu's scream resounded through the halls of Mayuri Kurotsuchi's lab. “IT'S HIDEOUS!”
The short young woman lunged at the creepy 12th division captain only to be intercepted by Captain Kurotsuchi's lieutenant and daughter, Nemu.

“Miss Hashiba, please, sit down and remain calm. You are going to rip your shoulder.”

Nemu guided Ayumu back into the small room she and Kaori were supposed to be recovering in and helped her settle comfortably in her bed. She pushed her braid over her shoulder and exited the room, leaving the two girls to themselves.

Ayumu glanced over at Kaori. The younger girl kept pulling her left sleeve off her shoulder, staring at her wound. She wore a look of disgust on her face as she kept slipping a finger into her new hole and quickly jerking it out.

“At least it doesn't hurt”, she told Ayumu. “Disgusting, yes. But it doesn't hurt.”

Ayumu glanced at her own wound-hers was on her right shoulder, slightly higher up than Kaori's and noticeably larger. She had to give Mayuri credit-he was through in both his research and his work. The large tubes that held their holes open were hardly visible unless one stared directly into the wound the way she was doing now. It was kind of fascinating to be able to look at her shoulder and see clear through to the other side of the recovery room. She sighed and leaned back in bed, already bored. She hated sitting still for any period of time.

“Hey, what's this?”, Ayumu asked, reaching over and picking up a book off the table between her and Kaori's beds.

“Oh. Lieutenant Ayasegawa said the Arrancar have Spanish-sounding names. I was looking for a code name, but I don't know what to pick.”

“Hmmm...”, Ayumu thumbed through the book. “I think” she said slowly. “the best thing to do is pick a word that means the same thing as our first names and string it with a word of random meaning.”

“Random how?”, Kaori asked. “Because my names mean fragrant and I don't want to be a fragrant house or something weird like that.”

“How about flower?”, Ayumu asked. “Fragrant Flower.” She looked up the words. “Fraganica Flor...Ohh. That's pretty!”

“Fraganica Flor”, Kaori repeated the “name.” “That works.”

Ayumu continued to look through the book.

“Aha! I found mine!”

“And what might that be?”, Kaori asked.

“Caminar Honrado.”

Ayumu practically sparkled.

Kaori picked up the dictionary Ayumu had just put down and looked up Honrado. She already knew Ayumu's first name meant walk.

“To walk righteous?”, she questioned. “Are you TRYING to attract Tousen's attention?”

“Better this than Ichimaru's”, Ayumu chirped brightly as she lifted her arms over her head and stretched them. Her face suddenly contorted in pain and her eyes filled with tears. “Ow...”

Kaori sighed and got out of bed. She pulled Ayumu's sleeve down and put her hands over the older girl's wound.

“Didn't Lieutenant Kurotsuchi warn you to take it easy?”

“I forgot.”

“Has anyone ever told you you are weird?”, Kaori asked.

Ayumu smiled.

“Yes...but I am sure you'll be singing a different song when we get there...”

“Do you know something I should?”, Kaori asked. She carefully pulled Ayumu's sleeve back onto her shoulder.

“Well”, Ayumu looked at her hands. “Captain Madarame came to visit me while you were having surgery and I was waiting for mine. He encountered a few Arrancar and told me about them-there was a guy who turned pieces of his anatomy into spikes...and he said there was this giant of a man who had the IQ of a vat of ice cream...Oh, and some blond kid Lieutenant Matsumoto didn't even want to fight. Supposedly all he did was groan and drool on himself.”

Kaori blinked.

“Remind me to hurt you later for volunteering me for this suicide mission.”

Ayumu opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again as Mayuri and Nemu returned. Both of them carried a white cloth bundle in their arms. In addition to the cloth, Mayuri was carrying what looked like an Egyptian headdress, except it was made out of bone. Teeth dangled where beads should have been. Nemu carried with her a tiara, smaller and more delicate than the headdress, but no less grotesque. Kaori lifted her good arm to her face to mask her look of disgust.

Ayumu jumped off her bed.

“What are those? They look kind of cool.”

Mayuri gave her a rare smile. Finally someone who appreciated his science!

“These are your hollow masks-all Arrancar have remnants of their masks on their heads or faces in some fashion...”

Ayumu wasn't paying him any mind. She'd taken the headdress from him and was dancing around the room in such a way that Kaori was sure she would rip her shoulder again.

“Look at me. I'm an Egyptian goddess.”

Mayuri glared at the girl. She stopped dancing.

“Sorry”, she murmured, trying to pull the headdress off. She was astonished when it refused to come off her head-she might as well have yanked on her own hair. Her eyes widened. “What is wrong with this thing!?”

“As I was saying before you interrupted me, you stupid girl, the Arrancar have remnants of their hollow masks on them in some form. These do not come off. So naturally, I had to find some way to make your “masks” stay on.”

Panic shot in Ayumu's eyes.

“I'm going to be stuck like this forever!?”

Mayuri snorted.

“As amusing as that would be, and as much as I would enjoy that, I have to find a way to remove it or the Commander General will cut my research funds. Sadly when you get back, I will have a way to remove the masks.”

Ayumu breathed a sigh of relief.

Nemu handed the tiara to Kaori, who reluctantly put it on her head.

“I feel ridiculous”, the redhead moaned.

“Aw. You look beautiful. Like a Gothic princess”, Ayumu teased.

Kaori shot her partner a look.

"At least I don't look like the Egyptian Queen of Death," she taunted back with a grin.

The smile faded when she looked into a mirror and poked at her new accessory.

"Not being able to take this off is going to be a pain."

Now it was going to be even more painful if she happened to bump her head on something. Good thing she wasn't very clumsy.

"Well, my job is done." Mayuri said with a huff.

He was clearly upset at the two girls' reactions to his hard work.

"You'd think they would be more grateful!”, he muttered to himself as he walked out the door.

Nemu made her way to the doorway, following her Captain, but stopped and turned to the two girls.

"When you are ready, head to the Squad 5 barracks. You'll be escorted and given instructions from there."

After a small bow, the girl headed out the door.

Ayumu was ready to head out.

"Alright, let's get going then!"

Kaori frowned.

"Are you sure? Don't you want to rest some more?"

"Nah, let's just get going."

"You aren't going to rip your shoulder again, are you? Because if you do, I'm not letting you leave this room until you can handle it."

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

With a shrug, Kaori followed Ayumu out of the room where they met up with two unranked Shinigami of their squad. They received many strange looks on their way to their barracks, some of them disgusted, others totally confused. If it wasn't for the fact they were being escorted by Shinigami, they most likely would have been attacked. At least they knew their disguises were good.

They were met at the barracks by their current and former Captains. Unohana, Kyouraku, Nanao, and Yumichika smiled at Kaori and Ayumu. Even Ikkaku had a slight grin on his face. He seemed proud that it was two members of his squad that were on the mission.

Though she was happy to see them, Kaori was confused as to why they were all gathered here.

"Why are you all here?"

Unohana gave her sweet smile.

"To see you off, of course."

Kyouraku clapped Ayumu on her good shoulder.

"I know you'll do well Ayumu!"

"Machida!"

Kaori looked around for the voice that called her. She had a feeling she knew who it was.

“Hana!"

Hanataro Yamada was running down the hall toward them. He didn't quite make it before he tripped and fell face down onto the floor. Kaori shook her head and chuckled.

Hanataro got back up, his cheeks slightly pink from falling in front of everybody.

"Are you really leaving to spy on Aizen?"

Kaori nodded. "Yep. Ayumu and I are going to gather as much information as we can."

The young male Shinigami looked worried.

"What if something happens?"

"Don't worry, we will be careful." Kaori said with a reassuring grin. Though, honestly, she wasn't sure if they would ever make it back to Soul Society.

"Make sure you come right back if you think are going to get caught!"

"We will." Kaori nodded and hugged her friend.

Back when she was in Squad 4, she and Hanataro had been close friends. Most of the other Shinigami enjoyed picking on Hanataro, though she couldn't see why. He was one of the kindest people Kaori had ever met. She wasn't very intimidating herself, but she'd managed to chase off some Shinigami picking on him before she was transferred over to Squad 5. She hated it when people took advantage of him. Hanataro deserved better.

"So, you guys all set now?" Ikkaku asked.

Ayumu and Kaori both nodded in response.

Nanao pushed up her glasses.

"I'm sure you will do well. You are an intelligent girl, Miss Hashiba, and I'm sure you're friend isn't lacking either."

Ayumu grinned.

"Thanks Lieutenant Ise."

Captain Unohana hugged both girls.

"Be careful."

"We're counting on you." Ikkaku said, looking from Ayumu to Kaori.

Yumichika leaned closer to Ayumu and whispered, "When you get back, we can put make-up on the Captain while he sleeps."

This made Ayumu giggle.

"I'll be looking forward to that."

The group watched as the two girls vanished through the large door that would lead them to the real world.

Ikkaku sighed: two of the very few members of his squad, if not the only two, who actually somewhat
liked him were gone from Soul Society. He could only hope they would return alive.

Chapter 4: Ichimaru's Fun and Szayel's Experiments

Being a spy in Hueco Mundo wasn't at all what Kaori had expected. She had been woken up nice and early in the morning to start cleaning Ichimaru's and the first five Espada's rooms while they had tea. Apparently, it was a daily ritual. The Espada, who were the top ten strongest Arrancar in Hueco Mundo, got together with Aizen, Tousen and Ichimaru for their tea and meetings. Kaori guessed it was Aizen's idea, he always did like his tea.Most of the cleaning was simple stuff. Having previously been in the 4th division, Kaori had a lot
of experience and could quickly and efficiently clean a room. It also helped that the Espada were out the first half of the morning having their tea and probably at a conference of some sort. One room in
particular, however, was a total disaster.The room belonged to an Espada named Stark. Not even Captain Kyoraku's room compared to it. The carpet had a large stain where it looked like a cup of tea fell and was never picked up. Dirty Espada robes were strewn across the room, making Kaori wonder how he wasn't prancing around naked. A pile of manga sat messily next to his bed. The blankets to his bed were a tangled mess, half hanging off the side of the mattress. She was surprised there weren't any Arrancar Cockroaches scurrying about.With a sigh, Kaori began cleaning the dirtiest room she'd ever stepped into. First, she gathered up the
laundry and piled it outside the door with the rest of the robes she had to wash afterwards. Stark's clothes alone easily made up half of what she had to wash so far. She doubted she would be able to get the tea stain out of the rug, but did what she could. Though you could still tell the carpet was stained, it didn't look quite as bad as before. The blankets were quite difficult to unravel, but halfway through Kaori gave up and threw them in the pile of laundry; they smelled pretty bad. She eventually found new ones in the mess she assumed was the closet, and made the bed. After the bed actually looked like a bed, Kaori arranged the manga neatly on the shelf they had originally belonged on. All in all it took a good hour just to tidy the place up. She was sure it wouldn't last long, but the Shinigami felt proud when she looked back at the now clean room on her way out the door.By the time she made it to Ulquiorra's room, he had returned from whatever it was the Espada had been
doing. He turned to face her when she walked in with his usual, emotionless expression.

"Here to clean?"Kaori nodded.

"If you want me to come back later, I can."

She didn't want to bother him if he was busy. She already learned to stay out of the Espada's way. "No, do it now."

The tone in his voice made it clear he though very little of her.

Ulquiorra waited in the doorway while Kaori did her job. Compared to Stark's room, Ulquiorra's was going to take no time at all. He was much more tidy, and appeared only to have what was absolutely necessary. There were only a couple robes to wash, and the bed wasn't a complete disaster. While she cleaned, Ulquiorra simply watched from the doorway. Kaori figured he was making sure she didn't touch anything she wasn't supposed to. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, if he wasn't constantly glaring with that same expressionless face. "I don't know what's worse, your constant glowering, or Ichimaru's constant grin." Kaori mumbled while she straightened the wrinkles out of the sheets. She knew she probably shouldn't have said that, but the two extremes really were annoying."Watch your tongue." Ulquiorra growled. "Just because you were assigned cleaning duties to the Espada does not make you are indispensable." Kaori wanted to snap back, but kept her mouth shut. For the sake of the mission, she had to put up with
it. The room was clean in no more than ten minutes, thanks to Ulquiorra's tidiness. Kaori bowed her head slightly as she made her way out the door.

"Excuse me, Ulquiorra." She grabbed the laundry basket and headed down the hall for her next destination. As she left the room,
she could feel Ulquiorra's gaze behind her back, making her shudder. The Espada seemed to be have been assessing her. Though he seemed like the type to do that to everyone, she couldn't help but feel he might be on to her. She'd have to watch her step around him especially if she didn't want to blow her cover. Ulquiorra's room had been the last one that needed cleaning, so Kaori made her way to the laundry room to wash all the dirty robes she had acquired from the six rooms she'd cleaned. She had made sure to clean Ichimaru's first, not really wanting to see him. Not only was she afraid he would discover she was really a Shinigami since he was once a Captain, but he just plain crept her out. Unfortunately, it seemed Ichimaru wouldn't have it that way. Before Kaori had even begun to wash the
laundry, the ex-Captain had caught up to her.

"Ah, Fraganica! Ya did a great job with the cleanin'!" "Thank you." Kaori answered politely, but keeping her eyes on the laundry she was washing. "Yer really good with it ya know. Don't think I've seen an Arrancar clean quite so quickly and
efficiently! Where'd ya learn that?"

Kaori shrugged. "Natural talent I guess. "

"Sousuke really does know how to pick 'em." Kaori had a bad feeling there was a double meaning to that. She didn't say anything in response, keeping focused on her cleaning. Something moving in the corner of her eye distracted her. She curiously looked over from one of Halibel's robes that she had been working on to see what it was.

"Is that..."

She leaned closer to get a look. At first it just looked like a piece of a hollow mask that had broken off, if that was possible. It was an oval shape about the size of Kaori's palm, with jagged edges. She then realized six long, black legs were sticking out, three on either side.

"A hollow cockroach?!" She squealed and jumped back.Ichimaru leaned down and let the bug crawl onto her hand. "What's the matter? Afraid of this little guy? He's harmless." He turned to Kaori and his grin grew. "Ya'd think ya never seen one before."

"I wasn't expecting it." She hadn't thought about her reaction to seeing the bug. She had shown surprise as well as disgust, and an Arrancar shouldn't be surprised to see any hollow like creatures in Hueco
Mundo.

"I hate bugs." She frowned. It was the truth though, she hated most bugs. "Aww, he ain't that bad. Take a look, he's kinda cute!" Ichimaru took a step forward, holding out the
hand the bug was on.Kaori took a step back in response. "No thanks." "But he wants ya ta hold 'im! C'mon!" Before Kaori could react, Ichimaru was right in front of her, holding the bug up to her face. It'd deep red, fly-like eyes looking right into hers. With a yelp, she fell back, tripping over her own feet and landing on her butt. Ichimaru laughed and let the bug back down on the ground. It scurried away to some dark corner of the
room. "Sorry 'bout that, I couldn't resist." He held out a hand, offering to help her up.Kaori just glared at him and stood up herself. "You aren't sorry."

"You're right, I'm not." Ichimaru just smiled at Kaori's death glare. "Well, just wanted ta let ya
know ya did a good job on the cleanin'. Keep up the good work!" Ichimaru clapped Kaori on the shoulder and left. Kaori sighed. She had a feeling the remainder of her days as an Arrancar would be torture.

Ayumu wasn't having much better luck. Her arm was throbbing from where Grimmjow had grabbed her. Didn't he know it was impolite to handle a lady so harshly? There were ugly, purple finger-shaped marks on her light skin-she really hoped no one would notice the bruises and marveled that her arm hadn't been broken. On top of the pain, she was slightly deaf after listening to Yami, the gigantic brute known as the tenth Espada yell and squish some poor girl into the wall. Ayumu had never seen such a thing in her life and didn't want to know what the girl had done to deserve such treatment. She had spent the next hour cleaning blood off the wall until she was finally dismissed. The good news was, she now knew what a fraccion was. Though knowing these Arrancar-these “Espada”-had people who worked directly under them made her wonder why they needed maids to begin with, not to mention she wasn't sure how long she would live if all of them had tempers like the ones Grimmjow and Yami displayed. On top of everything, her wound burned and itched, but she figured that was a good thing as it meant the hole was healing.

She came to a stop at the next room she was to clean and found herself staring at a sign that read:

“All who enter here are volunteering to be research subjects. Consider this your warning. -Szayel Apporo Grantz”

Ayumu placed her hand over her itchy, painful hole and hesitated outside-she'd had enough of being a science experiment to satisfy her the rest of her days. Her fingers fell into the hole and she almost whimpered. What kind of experiments would this Szayel Apporo Grantz do to her? She took a deep breath and pride eclipsed her fear-she had to withstand it. She knocked on the door more bravely than she felt and waited. There was some rustling on the other side and the door swung open. A young man around her own age gazed at her curiously.

Ayumu pointed to the sign on the door.

“Does that apply to people sent here by Lord Aizen to clean?”

The young man's lips twitched into a smile.

“That applies to everyone except Lord Aizen and his commanding officers.”

His voice was soft, pleasant-sounding.

“Well, darn”, Ayumu replied, looking into the strange orange eyes of the man she could only assume was Szayel Apporo Grantz. “It's kinda hard to clean if you are missing limbs-or toting a few too many.”

“Limb transplants don't work”, Szayel replied as he ushered Ayumu ahead of him into his lab. “All the ones I have attempted ended with the host bodies rejecting the transplant.”

“Suppress their immune systems first”, Ayumu murmured to herself.

“What was that?”, Szayel demanded.

Ayumu's hands flew to her mouth as she realized what she'd done. Shinigami had immune systems- Juushirou Ukitake's tuberculosis was proof of that-but what if Arrancar did not? She swallowed hard and pushed on-what was done was done.

“An Arrancar's immune system is really strong, isn't it? So naturally, it would be strong enough to reject foreign matter-but if you suppress their immune system first, the body would be able to adjust to the new addition.”

Szayel's unusual eyes widened behind the remnants of his hollow mask-a pair of square-framed glasses. He pushed a stray lock of pink hair off his face and stared at Ayumu for a moment before rushing eagerly to his desk where he pulled through his many files.

Ayumu blinked, amazed by his enthusiasm. “Is there anything you would like me to clean for you?”

Szayel glanced up from his work.

“No. You'll distract me. Just go.”

“You're welcome”, Ayumu muttered, but she smiled as she walked out. Not only had she learned one of the Espada was a mad scientist, but she had actually been of some use to him. She knew she probably shouldn't have been happy about helping Szayel with his crazy experiments, but she was. His eyes had glowed like a child's when he'd realized her advice could be useful. Her smile fell at the sound of Grimmjow's cursing.

Ayumu decided she did not want to know why Grimmjow was so angry-though if she had to hazard a guess, she would sum it up in one word-Ulquiorra-and hurried down the hall before he could see her. Grimmjow already seemed to hate her simply because she “reminded him of Ulquiorra”, a claim she found ridiculous. While it was true they both had black hair and green eyes, that was where similarities- both in looks and in personality-ended. She sighed. Men. They were all the same, even if they were a different species of man.

“Aha! There ya are. Getting kinda lax, ain'tcha?”

Ayumu recognized the lazy manner of speaking and turned around to face Gin Ichimaru.

“Commander Ichimaru”, she said, dropping down in a humble bow. Ichimaru just laughed at her.

“Don't look so frightened. I'm not gonna hurt'cha. I regret to say Kaname ain't feelin' too good and would like some tea brought to his room.”

His tone suggested he was not the least bit sorry that Tousen was feeling ill.

Ayumu released the breath she wasn't aware she was holding and climbed to her feet. She'd been so busy trying to get familiarized with the Espada that she'd forgotten she had been assigned to wait on Tousen, too.

“I'll get that tea for him right away, Sir.”

“See to it that'cha do”, Ichimaru replied.

Ayumu hurried into the Espada dining hall where a kitchen servant already had the tea prepared and waiting to be brought to Tousen's room. She picked up the tray and carefully brought it to Tousen's room. The last thing she wanted was to spill tea on herself.

“Commander Tousen?”, she called softly. “It's Caminar, Sir. I brought the tea you requested.”

“Come in. The door is open.”

Balancing the tray a little clumsily, Ayumu pushed open the door and meekly entered Tousen's room. The man was seated at his desk, a blanket draped around his shoulders, lightly running his fingers over a book. He was reading braille, Ayumu realized as she got closer to him. She felt a touch of pity for him, even though he'd never called attention to his blindness in any way during his days as captain. Then her pity turned to fear-she was Shuuhei's friend. What if Tousen somehow recognized her? She forced a deep breath and closed the rest of the distance to his desk. Shuuhei usually had been the one to visit her and she hadn't spent much time in the Ninth division. She had no reason to think he'd recognize her.

Ayumu set the tray down on Tousen's desk and started to pour tea into a cup for him.

“That's not necessary”, Tousen said.

Ayumu obediently backed away and let him serve himself. That was when she noticed one of the beads on the bottom of his loose braids was slipping off. Without thinking, she reached over and lightly tugged the bead up. She gasped and pulled her hand away.

“I'm so sorry Sir!”, she yelped. Would he hack her arm off the way he'd hacked off Grimmjow's? What had Grimmjow done to make this man hack his arm off anyway? If she took her arm back to Soul Society, would Mayuri be able to reattach it for her?

To her surprise, Tousen gave a soft chuckle and when he lifted his head she saw almost an affectionate smile on his face. Her heartbeat returned to normal as she realized he was not going to hack off her arm.

Before he could say anything, the door opened again and a young boy with blond hair entered awkwardly, carrying a bowl of...something. It smelled awful. He brought it to Tousen.

Tousen's face glowed and he truly looked affectionate. Ayumu marveled at the strength of his stomach. She wasn't even sick and the smell of whatever was in the bowl made her want to throw up.

“Wonderwice”, Tousen said “Did you make this all by yourself?”

The boy made a gurgling noise in affirmation. He rubbed his head on Tousen's arm like a cat seeking attention. Tousen gently ruffled the boy's hair.

Wonderwice tugged Tousen's hand and pulled it over to the spoon.

“You want me to try it, huh?”

Ayumu resisted the urge to run over and grab the bowl away. She'd promised Shuuhei she would try to bring Tousen back unharmed-she couldn't let him be poisoned. She watched anxiously as the man brought the spoon to his mouth and swallowed some of the concoction in the bowl.

Tousen returned the spoon the spoon to the bowl.

“Thank you, Wonderwice. Why don't you go see if they need help cleaning up the hallways?”

The boy gurgled happily and bounded out the door.

“Commander?”, Ayumu asked, creeping closer to Tousen. The man's dark cheeks looked faintly green.

Tousen handed the bowl to Ayumu and Ayumu was very glad Tousen was blind at that moment. Had the man seen what he had just willingly swallowed he probably would have died. Her stomach clenched.

“Caminar, return that bowl to the kitchen and tell the servants that the contents are extremely toxic.”

“Should I tell them to destroy the bowl, Sir?”, Ayumu asked. She knew she would not want to eat out of the bowl no matter how many times it was washed.

“That would be wise”, Tousen replied. He took a few sips of his tea.

“Do you need anything else, Sir?”

“No, that is everything. Thank you.”

Ayumu held the bowl as far away from her body as possible and proceeded to leave. She was almost out the door when Tousen said “Wait, Caminar.”

Ayumu froze.

“Yes, Sir?”

Tousen shook his head.

“Never mind. Go ahead.”

Ayumu exited the room and went down the hall.

“Caminar! Caminar!”

Szayel was flying at her at top speed.

“Woah!”, Ayumu cried as he went crashing into her, knocking the bowl of Wonderwice's concoction from her hands and sending it spilling over both of them. Blood red liquid covered their white uniforms. Ayumu gagged.

Szayel's lips twitched into a frown.

“What is this stuff?”

“Some kind of soup Wonderwice made for Commander Tousen”, Ayumu replied. “We are now covered in extremely toxic material-I think we're radioactive.”

Szayel laughed.

“We can change out of the robes in my lab...come on, I want to show you something!”

Ayumu had no choice but to let the pink-haired man drag her away.

Once they were in Szayel's lab and they had changed out of their uniforms into fresh uniforms of Szayel's, the pink-haired man showed Ayumu his notes.

“It's brilliant!”, he gasped. “Suppress their immune systems!”

Ayumu gulped. She didn't like the gleam in his eyes.

“I whipped up just the stuff-It's a medicine that will make the immune system horribly weak. I want you to be the one to test it for me.”

“I'm flattered, really...but I can't accept such an honor...”, Ayumu stammered. She could feel the blood rushing out of her face. She'd already been exposed to Tousen's cold. If he succeeded in weakening her immune system, she could potentially die. This was more than just letting him attach extra arms to her.

“Of course you can. It was your idea, you should test it!”

Szayel's smile had grown to the point where he put Ichimaru to shame.

“Really, I am flattered, but you should let one of your fraccions have the privilege...”

“So that's what it's about! Very well, I will ask Lord Aizen to allow you to be one of my fraccions!”

“No! That's not what I...”, Ayumu trailed off as Szayel went rushing from the lab at top speed. She sighed. It looked like she was going to be a science project.