Pale Palace

Those were concerns for the future though. Right now he couldn't easily leave for Earth. Who knows how closely he was being watched since he joined Las Noches. Multiple members of Las Noches and Aizen had rather nasty hobbies and being one of them didn't protect him completely from them either.

If he received some kind of mission to go to Earth it would be another matter, but now that he had joined up if he went to Earth without reason that would get him attention he did not need at this time. As for the missions requiring Las Noches members to go outside of Hueco Mundo those tended to be reserved for Espada most of the time. He doubted he would even get the chance as long as he was a Vasto Lorde.

He wondered how Reina was doing. Was she safe? Was work going alright? Even if she now had more power than any regular human and plenty of members amongst the supernatural he would always worry about how she was doing. That's what big brothers do after all.

And did Masaki's reunion with her family go well? How much did the timeline change now that she is back and involved in Ichigo's life again? Since due to the time dilation between the worlds it had only been a couple days at best since he returned not too much should have changed yet. He was struggling with a lack of information though.

Aizen was here so it seemed that the plot had mostly gone the way it had originally or else he would still be in Soul Society most of the time. Since he put all his effort in minimising his influence on Ichigo's life he really hoped they had all made it through alive like originally or he would feel bad about leading to someone's death even if indirectly.

He wasn't too worried about his parents. They were retired and the only contact they had with anything supernatural was Reina who no longer lived with them. Unless something seriously went wrong they would probably be the safest out of everyone he knew. That didn't prevent freak accidents though. Hollow attacks were not common, but they did happen. He just hoped if that was the case Reina could protect them or at least hold on for back up from Masaki.

Loly and Menoly showed up shortly after they finished packing to guide them towards their new home. They seemed more respectful than before now that Nelliel had become an Espada again even if the respect was barely skin deep. He could almost feel the resentment simmering under Loly's skin, but she had to put on a fake polite smile while grinning it and bearing it. She was weak after all. The Espada palaces were all under the dome of Las Noches rather than inside the outer walls so they needed to trek through the desert-like terrain, though at least the faux sky was a change of scenery from what they were used to after living in Hueco Mundo all this time.

Finally they came upon a huge structure that seemed to be a mix between a western and middle-eastern castle or palace. It had tall thick white walls with plenty of towers topped with bulbous domes ending in pointy tips. It was quite ornate despite being completely white. At least it was by Las Noches standards where everything tended to just be unadorned white flat surfaces. Lots of flat white surfaces.

Hisashi whistled looking up at the massive structure. Despite his rather long life at least between his first two human lives and his third as a Hollow he hadn't seen too many impressive structures. In his first life he had thought he wouldn't die for a long time and wasted a way a lot of time. Then his second he had been far too busy trying to get ahead to enjoy things. Finally as a Hollow his life was just spent trying to survive and work towards surviving the future.

The only impressive piece of architecture or even nature he had seen so far was when they finally came upon Las Noches and even that was mostly just due to it's sheer size. The architecture itself wasn't all that impressive beside said size. Aizen seemed to be far more concerned about function rather than form. Aesthetics weren't his main concern even if he looked kind of fire after betraying Soul Society. Pulled a real Clark Kent. 

Finally they were lead into some kind of throne room where a serious looking Nelliel was sitting on a throne. A distant look in her eyes as she stared into the distance. She looked rather majestic, like a queen. That only lasted for a second though. The moment she noticed Hisashi she jumped off the throne and hugged him with no concern for the impression she gave. Gone was the majesty and left just the cute exuberant Nelliel that they had come to know.

"You're finally here!" she shouted excitedly before burying her face in his chest.

Hisashi smiled. "Of course we are. You'd think we were separated for years with how you're behaving," he teased.

She just tightened her hug though.

"How about we get moved in?" he asked.

Loly and Menoly ended up giving everyone a tour of the place. Although Nelliel got there a little before them she was almost as unfamiliar with the place as they were. It hadn't been her palace when she was the Numero Tres Espada and she hadn't socialised a lot with any of the other Espada back then either. Really the only Hollows she had any real relationship with was her Fracción. The rest could barely even be considered acquaintances.

The place was as large inside as it had appeared outside with a large inner yard and lots of rooms. The towers had a great view. At least facing the decorative inner yard. The long stretch of sandy dunes and white walls in the distance didn't make for a great view for the outward facing windows.

Nelliel insisted that they kept sharing a bedroom even after the move and Hisashi was smart enough not to argue that. Moving took just as little time as moving out had. Hisashi hoped now that they were a faction under an Espada they might be able to get authorisation to get some more non-essential supplies to use for their fancy new palace.

-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: The Neighbourhood - Various Tracks