Bitter Tears

After finally moving everything in to their new bedrooms Nelliel pulled him out of the bedroom with an infectious smile on her face. "Come on, let's explore," she said excitedly.

When leaving the bedroom they ran in to Harribel who had picked the bedroom right across from them. She had blushed a little when she did. Hisashi had decided to not say anything about it for now. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with the situation regarding Harribel. When Nelliel had been in her child form they had been growing much closer while they took care of her together. However now that Nelliel had returned to her adult form and advanced their relationship into the romantic realm things had become rather awkward for all three involved. Though Nelliel wasn't that affected the other two were.

"What are you two up to?" she asked curiously.

Nelliel smiled. "We were going to explore the palace. Why don't you join us?" she asked.

Harribel nodded. "Ok. I didn't have any plans anyway," she said.

Hisashi was pleased to find the hallways were less monotone than those in the main Las Noches structure even if it was still predominantly white surfaces, but there were at least some decorative elements as one would expect in a palace even if they were white to distract from the monotony. He wondered if Aizen had mysophobia for him to make everything pristine and white as if they were in a hospital ward rather than a place to live.

"You bastard where do you think you're going without us?" he heard Apacci yell.

The Tres Bestias came running after them from a different hallway.

Sung-Sun crossed her arms under her chest with a smirk playing on her lips. "You weren't thinking of having fun without us were you?" she teased.

Hisashi smiled. "I wouldn't dream of it," he retorted causing her smirk to widen.

"Can we just get moving?" Mila Rose grumbled.

Harribel smiled watching everyone get along. She had never expected it to be possible for things to be this way. At least not before they had met Hisashi. She had always felt melancholy ever since re-awakening her consciousness as a Hollow. Meeting the Tres Bestias had helped, after many years without change finally their little family was growing once again though.

They all ended up exploring together. The new place was large enough that it required quite a few hours to explore the many rooms and courtyards. Truthfully the place was far too large for their number of members, but this seemed to be the norm in Las Noches. Many of the Espada despite having similarly sized palaces that could hold thousands of members only actually had a handful of members in their Fracción with a few exceptions.

Near the end of their tour they ran into Pesche and Dondochakka who were walking around aimlessly and listlessly.

Upon seeing the others they hugged each other. "Nel-sama has forgotten about us," Pesche cried out.

Dondochakka had tears streaming down his face while hugging Pesche in return.

Hisashi shook his head.

Nelliel tilted her head cutely. "Oh right. I forgot," she said casually not realising she was making things worse.

The two original members of her Fracción cried even harder.

Hisashi sighed. "Alright guys. It's time to get registered as Nelliel's Fracción," he told them.

They had spent enough time exploring and being registered should prevent some issues with other members of Las Noches. There was a big difference between being part of an Espada's Fracción and being an unaffiliated member of Las Noches.

That seemed to calm the two drama queens down some. It had been quite a while since they had officially been part of Nelliel's Fracción and they were eager to do so once again.

This time it was Nelliel's turn to lead them as she was most familiar with the layout of Las Noches.

Thankfully registering only took a little time.

The one managing their registration was a rather plain looking female Arrancar he didn't recognise. She was so plain she actually made Loly and Menoly stand out in comparison. Then again from his experience the majority of Arrancar and Hollows in Las Noches never appeared in the original manga nor anime. Only those high ranking or unusual enough seemed to be worth appearing. The majority of forces in Las Noches were either there to support the Espada and Fracción or be failed attempts at creating powerful Arrancar.

"Now that you've been registered as part of an Espada's Fracción the range of missions you are eligible to take have been expanded. Would you like to take a look?" she asked.

He looked around at the others some seemed unsure, some uncaring, and a few seemed raring to go. "Sure," he finally said.

She pulled up the missions available with their new authorisation.

Upon closer inspection there wasn't a huge change in the type of missions available. Just that a higher level of danger was present for them. The expectation was that members of a Fracción would be working together to solve such situations or possibly even worked together with the Espada leading them.

Out of all of them he was probably the only one that had such interest in completing missions. Unlike him the others barely experienced growth anymore. Least of all with the kinds of targets most missions pertained to. Unlike him and his ability to absorb spirit power more efficiently and double up on the rewards with the experience the system granted it was still worth it hunting down and consuming lower ranked Hollow. For them though the only thing they would see a reasonable return for would be consuming a Hollow on their own level or above.

Those were exceedingly rare outside of Las Noches. Meanwhile those within Las Noches were off limits, at least if they weren't attacked first. Though clashes were still expected within the walls of Las Noches, anyone causing too much trouble would still be reprimanded.

Since he had nothing better to do he headed out to complete some missions and hopefully gain some experience and spirit power.

-X-X-X-

If you enjoyed the chapter leave a power stone.

If you're looking for more content check out my patreon/subscribestar(15+ chapters ahead):

https://www.pÃtreon.com/Prognastat

https://www.subscribestÃr.com/Prognastat

Replace "â" with "a" and you should arrive at my page.

Writing Soundtrack: Gorillaz - Various Tracks