Black Night, White Butterfly-A Bleach Fanfiction

Passing Days, Chapter Eight.

I sat on my tower, busily drawing. Not sure why I bothered-it looked crappy today-but, it passed the time.

Day in, and day out, morning til dusk, I 'trained' with Anstell, or some random Arrancar that passed by.

For the first few weeks(well, I say weeks. I'm not exactly how long I'd been there...)they whaled on me and I'd be a little less than a crumpled heap, but as timed passed, I learned not to win by brawn, but by wit.

Anstell had said that it would take a lot more time and power before I could defeat them. With my current reitsu, I was easy prey.

But, after breaking almost every bone in my body-or at least it felt that way-and feeling like shit every day, I knew something had to change.

The next few weeks, I watched every opponent closely, learning their moves, strengths and weaknesses.

I learned to use all that against them.

I was pretty good at exploiting weakness, I could just about find a chink in everyone's armor, thus I began to win more often.

I was pretty darn happy about it, too, if I'm honest.

Sure, I had more bruises than hairs upon my head, but at least I was excelling.

After beating an Arrancar, Anstell proclaimed my Zanjutsu training over, for now.

After a good day of not getting totally beaten, I'd sit on one of the towers and draw.

'Draw' which really meant 'wallow in self pity and wish to go home so badly it hurt.'

But, hell, if my friends saw me acting so miserable, they'd be more than happy to whip me into shape. Even if I couldn't leave yet, I should try to do something.

So, I'd sit and listen to Anstell and Aizen(or whoever else that dare enter the Rapesloth's lair)on the roof like a ninja, learning more about these people.

Other days, I'd stalk the Espada, or listen to the meetings I wasn't summoned to, equally careful to hide my reitsu.

The people here were weird, but some seemed to be nice, like Anstell, Dordonii, Lilynette and Starrk. Gin, too, when he wasn't doing something devious, or around Aizen.

Anstell, to be honest, became the Grandpa I never had. He'd tell all sorts of stories-some about battles, some random funny story, others about the history of the spirit realms, and many about his daughter.

He'd always become sort of wistfully sad when he told the ones about her, but I didnt have the heart to ask why.

After training, we'd ditch Las Noches and explore Hueco Mundo-which turned out to be more diverse than just a barren desert wasteland-it was rather pretty, really.

As for the Big Three of Las Noches, this was certain; Aizen was creepy, Gin was shifty, and Tōsen was just blind. I mean that figuratively, and also literally.

He was Aizen's gofer without even realizing it-he also seemed to be Aizen's favorite toy, since he could easily have Tōsen carry out whatever foul errand Aizen should've done himself.

But, as Aizen's left-hand man, Tōsen had a sort of shield about him. Not that he really needed it-he was scary strong.

Gin turned out to be a surprise.

The more I saw, the less creepy he became.

He, at first, seemed to be a lot like Aizen-sneaky and stoick, but he turned out to be the trickster of the group.

Spiking the tea, graffiting the walls, putting plastic wrap on the toilets, stealing the women's bras and planting them in other guy's rooms-just a scant few of his favorite things to do.