The Interlude no-one expected but truly deserved, (Nel)

(FYI this is why Josh Groban is putting all his chips on Ulquiorra)

...

Seventeen hours after Gremmy screwed everything up.

...

Nel woke up from her nap and OH MY BARRAGAN! WHAT IS HAPPE-

...

Holy moly! Nel sat down in her- HER! She briefly shook her head at, what she now understood was not good etiquette, the internal scream. Room!

Right.

Nel had a room!

She laid down on her bed and barely contained the yell that threatened to come out because she was so smart now!

Holy moly... She thought once again, a far more sombre expression on her face as she stared at the ceiling.

She was so unbelievably smart!

She didn't know why... or how!

But whatever happened changed... everything.

She'd gone to sleep a child with blocked memories, a shadow of her former self, and woke up back in her unreleased state. Something she without a doubt didn't remember having... At least this complete.

And that was before the new set of memories started rushing in. Before she'd instinctively confirmed to herself that she had abilities she didn't recognise. For she'd immediately started containing the new set of memories in a soul container, locking it away in her inner realm.

As if she'd done it thousands of times!

She wasn't sure what had happened but she was certain of one thing.

She had changed.

She felt complete. As if everything, from the stars to her teeth, had finally aligned.

She could see so much more then before. Could understand the world in a way she had never thought possible...

She tensed her hand, her mind boggled at the sheer strength behind her grip. Her body automatically condensing reiatsu, the action as easy as breathing-

Her eyes widened further the moment she noticed just how much reiatsu she seemed to have! Her hand practically glowing, without her prompting. The sheer quantity of it seemed to expand further and further towards her. The ambient energy drawing from where, she wasn't sure.

She couldn't feel her reiatsu per say, the only inclination that she was even using it was the currently circling halo of reiatsu around her hand. The shape still growing in size, a second ring already forming beside it, further down her arm...

And yet she could feel no drain.

With a single thought, the reiatsu vanished, leaving Nel to take in the new... everything.

As if someone had shone down a light towards every secret regarding their world and more...

Yet... was it sad that she found herself wanting? That she found herself disappointed.

It was odd really.

Yesterday she'd dreamed of becoming one of the legendary Vasto Lordes. Today she found herself far past the level.

Found herself on the cusps of ascending! Of becoming a legend in her own right.

What a stupid dream... She'd instinctively found herself thinking, her mind wondering where it came from even as her expression grew sombre, her lips trembling the slightest.

She'd gotten her wish.

Both of her wishes even.

So why was she sad?

She'd learnt the very secrets of her world. Yet she couldn't answer such a simple question...

...

The first time she'd met Ulquiorra since waking up to the new world. She'd immediately glomped him.

"... You're certainly lively today," Ulquiorra stated in a deadpan voice.

"Sorry! I don't know what came over me!" She remarked, immediately standing back, her hands raised just in front of her.

Ulquiorra stopped on his feet and turned towards her, his eyes narrowed. "Did you hit your head somewhere?"

Nel blinked. Wow.

"Kind of?"

Ulquiorra blinked once, sighed, called her an idiot and wandered off.

Nel twitched.

"Jackass."

"I heard that!"

"I don't care!" She promptly turned on her heels, her mind screaming at her bodies automatic response, because she definitely hadn't intended to say that! And walked off from Huaco Mundo's WMD.

Because yes, she'd gotten an extensive lesson on the power gap between the mortal Hollows and her FREAKING BOY FRIEND.

Not literally of course. But yes.

It was her idea.

The poor hollow didn't have a clue on what it entailed. She'd evidently started calling him that ever since a visit, and by god she visited the realm a lot, to the Human World in the 80s-

Nel resumed her breathing exercises as the headache returned. She wasn't used to the level of information rapidly filtering through her mind.

-And he'd just took it for the literal meaning. Boy friend.

Thanks to Josh Groban, the Bat Espada had a twisted sense of reality.

In that he, quite literally, took everything at face value. Call him your friend? He won't kill you. Unless ordered. In which case everyone loses.

Frankly, she was a little surprised he hadn't tried to erase her existence for glomping him.

He'd certainly erased hollows for less.

And as far as Nel was concerned regarding Josh Groban...

She wasn't touching that with a hundred-foot pole.

...

Her fellow Espada were in their rooms a lot. She found herself thinking.

Well, not all of them. Grimjoww evidently disappeared. Nnoitra was generally been a bad-word to his own friends.

Just the ones her memories seemed to surround.

Particularly Harribel and Ulquiorra.

Grantz joined them every now and then though his interests generally got him evicted by the Shark Empress...

Still, the three spent an awful lot of time in their rooms... Which given they were the only ones who weren't likely to attack her for ridiculous reasons meant her social options were rather limited... And she was a social hollow if nothing else.

...

She stared, her jaw openly dropping, as Ulquiorra promptly started levitating, a serene look on his face.

She was staring at the globe of reiatsu before her.

"I can't believe you forgot how to enter your inner realm. What have you been doing for the past day?"

She rolled her eyes and promptly started copying him, her own globe, albeit smaller, forming just before her. Though for some reason it looked... A lot fuller? Compared to Ulquiorras. The Bat Espadas, while bigger in size, looked almost hollow inside.

"Copy me," Ulquiorra remarked, his eyes closing as his reiatsu started forming.

Nel blinked, waiting for Ulquiorra to explain further-

"Cover your eyes in reiatsu," He explained calmly.

She did as to- HOLY MOLY!

The slip returned in full as her gaze landed on the sea of colours before her. Her mind quickly seeing the patterns she needed to form, even as her eyes widened from the information processing through her mind, once again, automatically-

Nel went still, her concentration breaking as she stared at Ulquiorra, her widened eyes slowly retracting to normal size as a haze seemed to fill her mind.

She blinked once, twice, as her mouth dropped as she stared. The realisation dawning on her like a truck.

"It's you... Isn't it? You're showing-" She questioned, though Ulquiorra didn't seem to hear-

"Are you copying me or not?" He questioned, a tad irritated.

Nel sweatdropped as she did as asked, filing the question for later.

...

She stared wide-eyed at the new sight, her gaze swapping to a fro across the endless sea of sand. Her eyes locked onto the hollows that filled the expanse.

The thousends of hollows, going about their days across the sea of sand. All of them enjoying the peace her realm promised. Even if, from the few she could see from here, some looked bored-

"Why is everything so... Dull? Your hollows look bored. What happened to your realm?" Ulquiorra freaked her out as he appeared beside her.

She blinked as she stared at him.

"You... You're in my inner realm?" She questioned bemusedly, the information regarding the WMD somewhat vague-

Ulquiorra blinked as he turned towards her, a frown forming on his face.

"How much have you forgotten?"

"It's a fair questio-"

"It is not." He stated, absolutely serious.

She blinked at the sudden change in nature, Ulquiorra had gone from passive disinterest to genuinely affronted. A dangerous combination given the hollows supposed power.

"You of all people can hardly complain about me visiting your inner realm when of all the +Espada, you are but one of four who is allowed to manipulate mine,"

Nel blinked, again. "So all of the Espada are in your inner world? Not Hueco Mundo?" she questioned for further clari-

Ulquiorra's eye twitched as he stared at her.

"Nel... Huaco Mundo is my inner realm."

...

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