LIGHTNOVELONLINE 93 – Settling In
= Back in Hueco Mundo =
Quite a few weeks had passed already since they joined Las Noches.
Although more had happened than in most of his time in Hueco Mundo that consisted of almost endlessly hunting other Hollow to grow his power with the only distractions being the girls, but surprisingly the headquarters of genius super villain Aizen filled with the most powerful beings in Hueco Mundo wasn't actually that much more eventful than he had grown used to.
It seemed the Arrancar weren't much better than the Shinigami. They were all centuries old just like many Shinigami and they lived at a slower pace, compared to regular humans, just like the Shinigami did. Their long lives lead them to view months the way the humans might view days. Just like how when you are young waiting for your next birthday feels like an eternity, but by the time you are getting old a year flies by in what seems to be the blink of an eye before you even notice it.
Hisashi could feel his own perception slowly changing as he lived longer, but across all three of his lives he had still only experienced 59 years of life which still left him with quite a human perception of time. Getting older and being around other Hollow was causing it to skew more than it had during his time on Earth had even as a Hollow though.
All of this meant life in Las Noches though more eventful than simply hunting in Hueco Mundo was still quite slow paced. He hadn't seen most of the high ranking Arrancar all that much yet.
Cirucci had still been visiting them quite regularly trying to win over Harribel and the Tres Bestias without success though she seemed to be losing some steam as she realised she wasn't making any progress at it despite her continued efforts. Apacci made it quite strained at times because she didn't give her the respect she really was expecting.
Cirucci had grown less scared of Nelliel as she spent more time with them and saw a completely different side of her as she acted almost like a spoiled teenage girl around Hisashi rather than the stoic Espada she had been used to before Nelliel's original exile by Nnoitra. She still kept her distance knowing Nelliel could kill her with just a little effort. She was convinced it wouldn't take long for Nelliel to take back her spot in the Espada and she would do anything for the spot Nelliel would take to not be her own.
Surprisingly the ones he had been expecting most to cause trouble, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and Nnoitra Gilga, had been surprisingly quiet. He knew that could only last so long though as both weren't the type to just give up. Chances are Grimmjow was trying to ensure he had either grown stronger or improved his abilities as an Arrancar before giving it another try. As for Nnoitra though, he knew that Nnoitra despite how he acted aggressively like Grimmjow did, deep down he was a coward. When he found out he couldn't beat Nelliel in a fair fight he didn't train, instead he schemed to take advantage of her weaknesses and stabbed her in the back when the chance presented itself.
The only other Arrancar they had had some contact with were Loly and Menoly as they tended to be Aizen's little messengers and errand girls that were used when he needed some stuff done that didn't require the most powerful Arrancar to take action. It made sense since outside of their lack of power they were some of his most fervent followers in Las Noches. Probably the only person that had been as dedicated to him was the Shinigami girl, Hinamori Momo, who was his subordinate when he was still a captain in Soul Society.
The other Espada hadn't really reached out in any way, but this hadn't been unexpected by him. Most of the others were rather neutral towards them and to put it in a human perspective, it has been just a couple of days since they last met when they joined Las Noches.
Unlike the other girls Nelliel had effectively moved into his bedroom permanently, not even choosing her own bedroom. They had decorated their temporary home, but only to a limited degree since they had already discussed things and knew they wouldn't be staying there too long if things went as planned.
Nelliel hadn't taken her spot amongst the Espada yet. Though Las Noches was quite lawless compared to Soul Society or Earth there were still a few rules and one of them was that you needed to beat a current Espada to become one. Even if she had been one prior now that she had lost her position she would actually need to beat a current Espada to take their numero.
Originally he thought about having Nelliel defeat Nnoitra for his spot, but he was surprised to find she didn't actually have much of a drive to exact revenge on Nnoitra and was far more interested in him and their new found family instead. He wasn't as good of a person and knowing what Nnoitra had done to his sweet Nelliel filled him with a desire to make Nnoitra suffer. Due to this he had changed his mind which would likely allow Nnoitra to stay amongst the Espada a little longer as long as he didn't step out of line so he could take appropriate revenge on Nelliel's behalf.
Instead he would probably have Nelliel battle one of the lower ranked Espada for their Numero so she could reform her Fracción with them under her at least for the time being.
Dondochakka and Pesche were somewhat the odd members out as despite them originally being the closest members of her little family they had already been overtaken by Hisashi and Harribel. Meanwhile the Tres Bestias weren't far behind making them nervous as they already couldn't keep up power-wise due to Nnoitra forcefully destroying their masks.
