Coming back to the world of the living was a painful thing in itself. She couldn't remember her reason for wanting to come back here, just for the fact she had these flashes of a girl, hollows, and surrounding buildings. Sakura walked down the street, her midnight blue, near black hood covering the long snow white hair on her head and the back of her body with the exception of her feet and it hid the light gray clothing underneath, but not entirely. She walked down the street, being fully able to see, ear, and smell most of the things in this world, but not one thing could see her.

As she turned a corner, tired of hearing the senseless chatter, she happened upon a closed down building and it looked better than any to hide out for a while, but at the same time, if a soul reaper happened upon her, she wouldn't want to fight them, or at all for the time being. Her walk around the city was mostly for personal gain, not a search for a fight. If she wanted to fight, she would have just started devouring souls or killing humans then devouring their fresh souls.

Looking around the view of where she stood, she began having slight flashbacks, and a sudden feel of a burning sensation all over her body. She could feel the hollows still biting into her skin, no matter how hard she made her hierro, she could still feel the biting through her skin. It made her tense, more irritated than she wanted to be. The feeling wouldn't even go away, it just kept going and going, though she didn't know this was just a psychological feeling, Sakura just pulled the cape around her body more, trying to shield it from any bit of light. She leaned against the wall, clutching on the cloth more, just waiting for the burning to stop so she could keep on a peaceful walk.

Curiosity got the best of him as he was going on a patrol of his own for hollows. His usual route consisted of walking through the many festivities of Yamato City and then he'd take a train to Karakua Town to finish his patrol and head home. As he just got off the train to finish off his patrol, Marxus noticed a spike of spiritual pressure that was too big for any one human can have. It had a the same sensation of a hollow, but more intense. Something that he should look into.

Marxus quickened his pace of walking through the town. Making sharp turns around corners and jogging straight when the road ahead had no turns what so ever. He had passed an abandoned building and noticed the spiritual pressure was more fresh, he was getting close. Usually when he was this close to a hollow, Marxus guessed that there would be a trail of dead victims along the road. But strange enough the roads were cleaned and not a single life was taken. What was this hollow doing?

Marxus held his medallion close to him and continued his tracking of the mysterious trace of spiritual energy. When he was getting really close, Marxus knew that the owned of the energy might be able to see him so he ran up a building using Bringers' Light and decided to finish off his hunt by rooftop. Then minutes after jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Marxus stopped to see that whom he was tailing was a woman with beautiful white hair and was wearing a very dark hood close to her body.

A woman? Marxus thought. But he knew better she was a hollow, a very powerful hollow that made the occasional arracnar he's fought before look like children. But what did she want. Marxus had to admit, she was definitely beautiful hell just looking at her he felt his resolve of tracking her in the shadows slightly shake. Finally he found the courage he needed to act.

Marxus jumped on a telephone pole that the woman had just passed so he was closer to the mysterious hollow. Crouching low, Marxus smirked. "Aren't you a bit too far from home hollow?"

Sakura stood against the wall, her eyes now clenched shut, feeling the pain deepening and worsening with every second. The horridly rapid growth of the pain seemed to grow in duration every second. Her mind was making her body suffer with the memories it was starting to lose. However a name was forever branded into her mind and she just couldn't stand having it any longer. The over bearing sense of disgust in her body grew with it. Why did she have to live with such pain? Why was the name 'Lily' so badly brought upon her mind?

"Shit. Why won't it go away already? Why can't it just stop hurting so much.. even after all this time?" She wondered to herself. Her eyes shot open all of the sudden to a voice. Her blue orbs looked around, not seeing anything around her, and then she looked up and saw a kid hanging on the telephone pole and Sakura pulled the cape around her body more. The boy had a spiritual pressure on him similar in strength to something she would consider to be a vasto lorde at best, though she hadn't fought any in so long she could very well remember.

She took a step back and with one hand, took hold of both sides of the cape and pulled her hood over her eyes, enough to were the tip was to her nose. She didn't like people looking at the ugly figure she was. She couldn't stand the sight of herself, and letting someone else see it would just make them sick of her as well. "Go away. I don't want trouble." She said, turning around and walking in the opposite direction of the boy.

Marxus pursed his lips out trying to wrap his head around this. So what he was supposed to believe was that he met a hollow who wasn't interested in causing trouble in the human world? Simply deciding that she's lying would be foolish. He had been following her all the way to here and she went through other regular humans numerous times. If she really wanted to cause trouble, she could easily do it then; and Marxus had been following her for about 10 minutes now. So yeah it was quite strange.

Taking a leap from his telephone pole he was standing on, he jumped off of it with a great leap wo he soared through the air to be able to catch up with the retreating hollow. She pulled the hood over her so nobody would see her face. Seriously this was rather peculiar indeed. Landing about a foot away from the hollow face to face, he noticed that the spirtual pressure coming from her was pretty strong that it was challenging for him to maintain his focus."Well excuse me if I'm a bit skeptical of believing that considering that you're well you know a hollow in the living world" Marxus simply stated and walked towards the hollow so that he would be walking beside her. Smirking he folded his arms over the back of his head andet out a yawn. "So just to make sure you really don't want any trouble, I'll just go on your walk with you"

Indeed the situation was quite strange, but at the same time it was not completely unbelieveable. In fact for the third observer, it really only comfirmed alot of his personal and certianly unvoiced opinions on the differances bettewen the standard hollow, and these arrancar. Mostly it had to do with the devolpment of free will and a spin that put on his typical Shinigami ethics. Which for Ryou and anyone who knew his past... was saying quite a lot. Crouching on a nearby light pole that was a bit further away, Kurosawa decided to play the 'wait and see approch'. Especially when he noticed that there was another party who was intervening. At that point he move closer so that he would be able to hear what they were saying. He was sure though, that this would give away his presence, were he sat crouched on another light pole... yet this fact really didn't bother him at all.

In fact from his observation it seemed the best thing to do would be to make sure this did not boil over into any distructive conflict. Which from what he had seen so far... the human seemed to be a bit more of a variable were that was concerned. Especially when he heard the request of the hollow to be left alone. It seemed prefectly reasonable in his mind, as long as she didn't hurt anyone. All this creature seemed to want was some peace and quite, and the Captian wasn't sure what would happen if he didn't get it. He was gald for once that he had decided to dress out a little more, wearing a black version of his ususal Captian's hatori. The man jumped down and silently followed... no longer attempting to hide his own presence.

"Now now sssilly boy. The lady did asssk nicely for sssome time alone. I am sssure a nice young gentlemen like yourssself wouldn't mind obliging her desssire for space. Essspically sssince she isn't hurting anybody." Kurosawa was slightly on egde though. There was that part of his mind that wanted to shred her to pieces, because he saw them all as the embodiment of his sisters killers. Yet he knew that he couldn't do that. This one was a powerful hollow, and any attempt to put her down would cause more distruction than it would be worth to simply moniter her and make sure no harm was done. Then make a detailed report later... he always liked his maticulious record keeping. As the saying went... 'know thy enemy'.

What was wrong with this boy? He was so persistent in pursuing her, but why? Was it simply because she was an arrancar? If that was the case, was he a soul reaper? She looked over his clothing attire in a quick seconds glance and it wasn't suited for one at all, but she couldn't very well count it out. If he was so interested in her, why didn't he just approach her before when he was following her like a personal stalker. It was an upsetting and rather annoying situation. All she came here for was to jog what bits of her memory she had in her mind, and she was now all but handcuffed or shackled to this runt. "I told you I didn't want any trouble so why can't you leave me alone?" She asked, trying to cover her body up as much as possible. She wanted nothing more than to have some time of peace and serenity here to put the puzzle pieces together, but instead she was being forced to babysit this boy. "I'm not here to cause trouble or I would have devoured half of this city by now." She geared an eye at him, showing him she was serious about not wanting to cause any violence.

Though, it seemed Sakura wasn't going to shake the puppy from the fire hydrant, so to speak. As much as it pained her to admit this to herself, and to the fact she hated to talk to people, she could still make this kid speak the majority of the time, then leave when she felt it necessary. "If you aren't going to leave boy, at least give me a name." She said, starting to walk again. He didn't seem like the violent type from what she had seen and heard, it was more so he was observing her actions. She was no ordinary person when it came to being an Arrancar, but she could if she felt the need to. It was just always easier to produce a faction of nothing more then to avoid all contact as much as possible.

Though, things became harder when another person came. Sakura lowered her head to hide her face from him as he spoke. Either he was a man who had a major lisp, or he was a person who had the tongue of a snake. Still, he wasn't a welcomed person either. It was just bad enough with the boy, but having this man here too was only progressing things worse than they already were. When he spoke to the boy, he seemed to be defending the girl, which was something she would have not of expected from a soul reaper. He must have wanted to do the same thing the boy did; make sure she wasn't going to be attacking random people. "....Why are you here?" She bluntly asked the soul reaper, refusing to show her face to him or the boy at this point.

Taking careful steps, Marxus made sure that he was keeping pace with the brisk walk of the high leveled arrancar. The look she gave him actually made him a bit nervous about him following. But just hearing what he said confirmed his reason why he had to follow her. With that kind of power, there had to be a watch dog. "Don't give me that. With your power you can't just expect me, as a human, to allow you to walk around the world of the living with no one to watch you. Gotta make sure you don't do anything that'll lead to me killing you. The name is Marxus, Marxus Thomas. How about you tell me yours?" Marxus explained. But his voice got colder when he spoke the last part of his warning. As an added measure he flared his own spiritual pressure to assure her that he wasn't some kid. Marxus had to make sure that she got the message: do anything to humans, and I'll lop off your head.

Calming down his spiritual powers, Marxus sighed. "Besides someone has to do it, I can trust any damn shinigmai to do this job." Then he felt another spiritual pressure. Looking over to the telephone pole, he saw a man in a shinigami cloak. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Sorry if I'm not enthusiastic to listen to your words. I'm not going to leave the girl alone and risk a rampage. This laid back attitude is the reason why many innocent humans are killed by hollows in the first place."

Marxus glared at the shinigami in hot anger, completely different from the icy cold look he gave the hollow. "If you kill the hollow, then I won't stop. But I'll be damned if I allowed you to watch over this hollow, you soul reapers can't be trusted to watch over humans. It's time for the humans to watch over themselves. We don't need to be watched over by irresponsible babysitters like you, shinigami" Marxus proclaimed clenching his fists in anger as the memories of his loved ones being killed by hollows. On his journey for vengeance he had learned all about hollows, quincies and of course the shinigami. He learnt all he could from his travels and even watched the work of the shinigami and how humans were still killed by hollows even with them watching the humans. This angered Marxus deeply, it was now clear to Marxus that it was time for the humans to take control and watch over their own.

It didn't take the Captian long to realize exactlly who was the potential fuse that could turn this powder keg into an explosion of destructive preportions. Which only made things that much harder given that he was dealing with human, while trying to make sure the arrancar did't change it's mind about starting a rampage. Kurosawa recongized her posture all too well, as one he himself had always taken in the past. It spoke of a need to be alone, and the desire to hide, but it also spoke of the potential of feeling cornered. It was the last part which he worried about more than any other, was making the arrancar feel cornored. This was Ryou's problem with the human, because it was that the other male could not see or did not care about this fact. Ethier one was equally as dangerous, and so that was guided his careful actions.

Letting out a soft sigh as he shook his head with annoyance at the one track minded tone which the humans words held. Readjusting his tophat he began speaking, "Well that isss fine with me, since not everyone who hearsss my wordsss are enthusssiastic listeners. I can tell you I am usssed to it." He began to slowly walk towards them so that he could come face to face with Marxus as the Shinigami looked at the other with those cold emotionless black eyes since he had tucked back some of his hair making his face more visable. "Bessside... who ever sssaid to 'leave her alone'. I sssaid to give her some space. If your not ssstrong engough to keep wacth over her form a ressspectful dissstant. Do you really think can beat her?" It was a fair question, but Ryou even went so far as to add, "Oh... and she is an 'Arrancar' not a hollow. Their isss a differance ssso at leassst try to be ressspectful. Even if she isss your enemy."

Turning to look back at the Arrancar who seemed to be doing everything she could to stay hidden... Ryou hoped that she wasn't feeling even more cornored than before. In fact he wondered if there was anything he could do to be helpful in the situation. When she spoke to him though, he realized that maybe there was somthing, and so in a moment it seemed like his demenor changed to his normally playful nature, "Well really I have to admit I wasss just making sssure you were keeping out of trouble from a dissstant of course. As for what I am doing here well I wasss just inquiring into wethier or not thisss human was bothering you?" For a moment he seemed to pause as thought about somthing and then gently took his cloak off his back saying, "You can have this if you want... I am sure two would be better than one." His words were spoken with such innocence that it didn't sound like he was trying to pity her. It was simply an offer, she could take it or leave it.

As the young human seemed to grow angry though Ryou didn't even turn to aknowlegde him. This had more to do with his own safty when being around the Arrancar than anything else. He did reply to Marxus though, and his tone still held that playful nature to it, "Well by all meansss then, protect yourselfsss. I don't really sssee anything wrong with that. I mean we can't be everywhere at once, and frankly nethier can you. Ssso why don't you drop your sssilly pride and be gald your not on your own." He then turned and looked at Marxus sqaure in the eye with that large Cheshire grin on his face, "Besssides sssilly boy... I haven't exactlly ssseen any recent dropsss in hollow related deathsss... ssso you must not be doing sssomthing right, or maybe you need mroe help than you thought."

This was quite the controversial grouping; an Arrancar, a human, and a Shinigami. Why of all times would there have to be something like this to happen? Couldn't she have just been able to spend one day by herself without having to deal with single soul that could see her presence? If she wasn't causing harm to anyone like she and they had already pointed out, why in the world would they have the need to confront her now? It was such an annoyance to have people pester her about things like her name and why she kept her hood over her head and the cape wrapped around her body. She hugged onto her body tighter, making the grip on the cape tighter as well, as well as restricting light there as the human and the Shinigami bickered.

In truth, she sought herself as an ugly being. These hollows that had devoured her soul had eaten what self confidence in her appearance she had and made her an ugly being, divergent of any contact other than other Arrancar's. In her eyes, the hollows had done the same to her as they had done to them, and only they had overcome that appearance that she hadn't. She could feel her life being threatened, and it was annoying her. For reason unknown, the Shinigami seemed to have more of a softer side than the human did, but that had to be because she was a female. There was no other way, and she knew had she of been a guy, they would have struck her down here she stood and not have said another word.

Sakura slowly reached for her sword at the words of 'kill the hollow'. Unsure of whether he meant her or not, she was surely not one of those lesser, vile creatures. Once the Shinigami began to defend her, she stopped her reach and began to pull away from it as he continued his short speech. "I'm Sakura." She said to the human in a short, blunt, but full answer. He was rather abrasive in his words, making threats in a casual manner, not caring whether his opponent was stronger than he, or if he was just simply cocky and wanting to kill something. Maybe he had a vendetta against hollows and she was just a simple and effective target. Either way she kept her hand near the hilt of her katana, ready to defend herself if need be.

From the way her sight was, she could only see the ends of the robes the Shinigami had on him held out for her to take. It was a generous offer, one that almost made her crack a smile in his kindness. She gently shook her head, not meaning to be rude to him for his generosity, but she didn't need it or want it. She was happy with her cape, and didn't very much bother her either. The Shinigami then went at the boy with insults. Sakura couldn't very well take the mess of a fight breaking out over morale grounds, all she wanted was peace and quiet. Why would something like that be so hard to get? "Stop it... both of you. Do not bicker over morales, it' tedious and unworthy of mentioning." She said, trying to seem like the neutral party despite being treated like the criminal.

The fact that the soul reaper was lecturing him about how his passion was stupid was like a smack in the face. How dare he insult him like that? After the soul reapers' incompetence led to the deaths of his loved ones and he was being insulted by one. Then he heard the words of Sakura telling them both to stop. Looking down, he noticed that he was shaking with anger. His body discharging spiritual energy from his body. He had to control his emotions of else he'd be a homing beacon to every hollow here. Taking the things he had learned from his training he closed his eyes and began to try and control his emotions before it was too late.

Layering down a sheet of self awareness around his out of control emotions, he felt his anger subside. The flames of anger evaporate from his body and he was once again back. Then memories of his mother being killed before his very eyes by his mother reappeared, that memory was repressed to the back of his mind at the moment along with the heart warming and treasuring memories that he created with his first lover Whitney. Also he was pretty stressed out from his patrols he had back to back, so he was still a bit on overdrive. Taking a deep breath he looked at Sakura and the soul reaper. Upon this calming of his mind, Marxus began to really think about the words he had said and looked down on the ground in guilt.

He really did sound like quite the idiot looking back. The soul reaper was right, although she was a possible enemy she still should be treated with respect until proven otherwise. It was what his mother had taught him as a kid so very long ago. And his mother would have told him to say he's sorry. So he followed the teachings of his mother and looked towards Sakura "Um h-Sakura I mean. I'm sorry, I was too harsh with you." Marxus apologized bowing his head to the arrancar like his mother would make him do whenever he offended someone.

Getting back up he looked at the shinigami a grunted. This shinigami was annoying. It wasn't his ecstatic and unorthodox attitude that pissed Marxus off the most, but what he said was true. No matter how he thought about it Marxus couldn't think of anything to poke logic of the shinigami. He was right, and that's what pissed him off. "I guess I'm sorry to you too. I guess. So mind telling us your name soul reaper?" Marxus grunted as he shoved his hands in his pockets. He found a chocolate bar that was still solid. He was going to eat it on the train ride to Karakua Town but he completely forgot about it.

Marxus looked at Sakura again and took out the chocolate bar from his pocket and offered it to the girl "Here, have this. It's the finest chocolate you can get in Japan. You'll love it" Marxus offered gently and smiling. From Sakura's short and angry answers to Marxus' question, he knew that he offended her and hoped this chocolate would get her on his good side. All human girls loved chocolate so wouldn't arrancar girls like chocolate too; they were once human girls at a time too.

Ryou could see in the young man an anger he recongized all too well. It was that anger that burned with a desire for revenage, and ate away at ones very soul. In fact it still ate away at Ryou somtimes, and in truth it was only because Sakura was an Arrancar that he had spared her. To him hollows and Arrancar would always be two differnt things. A form of evolution to put it in more human terms. Though the spiritual energy that was discharging from the human almost made Ryou turn to face him completely, and he even thought of going so far as to macthing the human... to show that he needed to calm down. Yet Kurosawa found that this one was even more mature than he had at first thought, which was certianly a pleasent surpise to say the least. It was not often that people surpised him in that manner, but this was one of those time he was realived by it.

The Arrancar was right though, all this bickering was completely pointless, and getting them no were. Putting his cloak back over his shoulders after it's gentle refusal, the Captian was at least relieved that he had been able to help bring down the tension in the situation... somewhat. Not only that though, but it seemed like even the human was now acting civil towards the Arrancar, which was all he could ask for really. Kurosawa obviously didn't plan to rub the other's face in the fact that he been the one to apoligize, because frankly it took quite alot to admit when you were wrong in his book. Which was why he had to admire the kid for that, "It is alright Marxusss, there was no harm done. I forgive you." His words were spoken in a way that let the subject drop so that no more blows to anyones pride was taken... at least he hoped. Which was why he was gald when the topic was changed.

"Oh me... Well you can just call me Ryou Kurosawa." Then with a little overly flourished bow he took his top hat off his head and held it to his chest while saying, "Captian of the Seventh Division... at your ssservice." Straighting back up he slipped the hat back on his head before turning and looking in the direction of the Arrancar, with a curious eye. She was completely covered up and so he figured that he wouldn't be able to answer his question by site alone, "Now I am curiousss Sakura-sssama. Which one are you? By that I mean what is your number." For a moment Ryou wondered if was really ok to even ask her that question, because he didn't exactlly want to be rude. Even his voice spoke of the child like curiousity from which the question sprung, as he was mostly instersted in getting the Arrancar to do more than utter three words.

Why were these two people suddenly turning chummy with her? It made no sense, but rather it be they be friendly rather than hostile. Sakura would prefer that any day of week. She wasn't much of a fighting person, but if she were to stop, she wouldn't stop until she, or the enemy would run away. Though their souls would probably be very tasty if she were to eat them, just from the large amount of power from the Shinigami, and the nearing amount from the human, it would probably be something she could enjoy, but not if it meant gaining enemies and attracting attention to herself that she didn't want.

With the two making up for their arguments, it almost made the white haired espada smile. Bickering never got anyone anywhere, so why should this have been any different now. It was good to know even divisions in hatred among another race could be overcome so easily, just by someones input of when there was a time to fight and a time to talk, and as long as Sakura stood where she was, cornered like a mouse in a snake pit, she would rather have an actual discussion than a petty brawl over superiority. It didn't matter if her race was known to kill, slaughter, devour, and do as it pleased, she wasn't like that a lot, and she preferred it that way.

When Sakura was offered chocolate, there was an odd sensation that made her want to take the offer of the chocolate. Her hand slowly reached towards the box as her sapphire pupils looked at the box. As her hand reached a chocolate, she stopped moving her hand and withdrew it back under her cape. "I can't accept it." She said, turning away from it a bit. Even in her human life she was never one for sweets, and no matter her urge, she didn't want to have any of it anyway.

When Ryou told the two of his rank, she looked to him, showing one eye to the Shinigami. He was a captain of the Soul Society? It would explain his superior intellect and respect for his enemy, even if they could have attacked him at any time. She had some respect for him, he hadn't been abrasive, interrogating her motives on being here relentlessly, hell he even stuck up for her, so why shouldn't she have respect for him. When he asked about her number, she looked at him with a full face. How could she have known she was an espada? Maybe it was due to the lack of effort to suppress her spiritual energy? Instead of answering him, she simply moved the left side of her cape to the side to show her number '9'. Sakura then looked away, not so much out of the disappointment to bare the number, shit she was proud to wear it, she earned it putting her life on the line to simply put an end to the previous Novena espada. It was actually because of the fact she had shown her full face to someone, showing her full repulsive self to someones sight.

Watching Sakura reach for his chocolate, Marxus couldn't help but smile. So even arrancars were vulnerable to the tantalizing taste of chocolate. But then he noticed how she retracted her hand from the chocolate bar he was holding for Sakura. Pity, he was sure that she'd get some of the chocolate but he shrugged it off and put it in his pockets. So this soul reaper was a captain and his name was Ryou Kurosawa. For some reason that name sounded familiar, he probably heard it when he was following soul reapers on patrol. He had respect for the captain although his dialect was annoying him. The captain really did know his stuff.

Then Ryou talked to Sakura about something about her number. A number? Wait this was something that Marxus actually knew about. During the rare opprotunities that an arrancar showed up, Marxus noticed they mentioned something about ranking up and getting numbers. So it was a rank system and he assumed that it was based on the lower the number, the stronger the espada. So when Sakura turned away so she can show Ryou her numbe, Marxus noticed the number '9' tattooed on it.

So Sakura was the 9th strongest arrancar in Hueco Mundo huh? "Kind of a boring tattoo you got there Sakura. I'm not too familiar with the whole arrancar customs but I fought a couple of them before and they always talked about getting ranks" Marxus said as he looked at Sakura's number. Marxus had to admit, she had an amazingly sexy body; she had curves exactly where they need to be. That was just a small detail that he noticed, but definitely kept in his head for later. "And from what I was able to gather on my own, that number means you're ranked 9 so that makes you the 9th strongest arrancar then?"

There was that moment when Sakura was reaching for the bar of chocolate that Ryou actually hoped that she might take it and eat it. Though he knew better, considering he was quite sure that Arrancar's didn't eat human food... he could have been wrong, and frankly it would have been nice to see another reason that his opinion on them was right. Still he didn't stop Marxus from offering, because of the olive branch bettewen the human and Arrancar that the sweet treat represented was all to improtant anyway. Looking at the Espada Ryou wasn't at all that suprised about her reaction to his rank, given the way that he was treating her was quite atypical for Shinigami... at least from what he knew. Somtimes he could only hope his more forgiving opinions were shared by others, at the same time they were things better left unsaid.

His dark blacks stared back into her blue one that looked at him as a more softer version of his usual grin spread over his face. The Shingami didn't say anything as he waited for her to give him an answer in anyway she choose, or to even deny him an answer if that was her wish. Still he couldn't help but speak when she turn her full face towards him were he could see it, "Well my my, it isss nice to sssee such a pretty face brighten the world. You ssshould certianly think about hidding it less often Sakura-sssama." The way Ryou spoke... there was just not a single hint of flirting in his tone. No... instead it was all spoken with a certian child like innocence that came form someone like Ryou who typical prefered to speak nothing, but his mind.

It was at the moment though when she turned around and showed him her number that Ryou's eyes went wide, in fact the look of supirse almost didn't fit the Captian's face. Which was soon covered over in a look of nestolgia, "Ssso your number nine now... It ssseems like so long ago... face to face in jungle. Now that wasss a worthy adversary. " Talking again though in that more friendly childlike tone as his head came out of the clouds he looked over to Marxus, "I wouldn't call it a boring tattoo really. It is a sssign of her being an Essspada, which in my book means ssshe gambled her life, which is way more than I did for my posssition. Ssso I certian congratulate you on that victory Sakura-sssama. Wasssn't he... a worthry adversssary." He also had a feeling that Sakura, wasn't much of a talker, and so he tried to help her out a bit by giving her a bit more opinions in commuication, "Actually I believe number nine would make her the 10th strongest... since I think there might be a zero am I right about that Sakura? Plus that is not even counting the current king I beleive. Just let me know if I get anything wrong." Ryou was just as much into training his mind as he was his body, and 'know thy enemy' was a good maxiam, which he tried to follow. So he kept himself pretty up to date with what was known about Hollows by Soul Socity.

(sorry about the late reply. RL issues and being stumped on how to post was a bitch lol.)

She couldn't beleive she had shown her full face to someone else. He must have been blind to not have seen how disgustingly hidious she was. Why would he even lie to her? Sure they weren't being hostile towards one another, but lying wwasn't the way she wanted to go either. It angered her to hear how he couod so easily lie to her, but at the same time, she felt a bit of comfort knowing someone outside of the espada, and her growing fraccion that had said anything positive to her appearance. It didn't matter to her anyway. She would prefer he not mention it to the boy, but having already said it out loud, there was no way in hell he would let him go unanswered. "You're lying." She said, still looking away from the shinigami.

Then the fact of her number came to be. It drove away from her appearance, so she would just rather it be brought about and let it ride out to further away from something she would rather not speak of. "Yes, Marxus." She simply noted. She hated talking in long durations to strangers, hell she barely had any better communication to the other arrancar, so he shouldn't feel too differented from this. Still, he brought upon another thing, one even Sakura hadn't know if it were true. An espada with the rank 0? That was something very odd in thought about how she wouldn't even know for sure, but she was familiar with the rumors that had gone around. They were a popular belief among the arrancar's as well, even the stronger hollows. Though even she hadn't wouldn't very well know how to explain things to have them understand that she had no clue whether it was true or not. "I.. I don't know. It's just a wildfire rumor." She said, still tryin to diverge attention from herself.

When Ryou brought up the old espada she had kileld to gain his spot, he had mentioned his fighting to be considered "worthy". There was nothing to be worthy about in her eyes. He was able to knock a couple hits into her, but it all ended with one blow, and that's all she had to prove. "He was hardly that. He died the second I used my release state." She said, looking up to Ryou with a smirk, one thart shouldn't be confused with a smile. Though she hated some things, once you started talking about fighting she had done, she would like to at least see some form of fear into anyone with her.

(Can't fight since abiltiies are still in the process of being reviewed, but i'll join for soicalness}

A loud thunder crashed in the sky. followed by lightning and a few drops of rain. Not that rare for this part of japan, but out of the blue. That is what made if slightly obvious it was something out of the ordinary. Black Cracks started to slowly form in the sky; Splitting it in half even. It slowly started to Open, showing a large figure with his hands folded up in front of his broad chest, Bone fragments making headphones branched off his ears and down his spine, his massive figure of 8'2" slowly walked out of the Garganta, looking around the area. "Damn. No beach.. No movies.. This place is so-" Cross stopped, turning his head to the right slightly, showing his number '7' Tattoo on his left side of his neck. The red eyes of his pierced through the city, looking at the group that started to form.

"Well-ellll I'll be a grasshopper on a tree. Looks like some fun... An arrancar.. Human.. and a shinigami..Interesting, I must say." the massive figure that Cross held was nothing like his personality. The playful arrancar was kind hearted, especially towards humans. Random at most times, Cross would run in place, or dance; Mainly something to keep his mind busy. Slowly, his body turned where his head was looking; rolling his shoudlers, he took one step and started to sonido ontop of the buildings, getting closer and closer to the group.

Once reaching the group, Cross jumped off the building and landed on a car, crushing it underneath his massive size. Blinking slightly, he stepped off the car slowly, rubbing his neck as he looked back at it. "Oh.. well.. erhm.. Yeah. I-I over did it a little.." His blonde hair was pushed back slightly, as he brushed off his spaulders on his shoulders. his massive axe remained strapped to his shoudlers as it barely moved from hsi body walking towards the group. Looking back at the car again, Cross just laughed slightly as he neared the group.

"Don't go like, all cray and stuff ok? I didn't mean to literally Crash your party. I was actually going to creep around, but yeah. You got my attenion." Cross's size was apparently the factor here, he was much taller than the beings here.

"Oh. yeah. Introductions.." Cross, turned his head slightly, pointing towards the 7 tattoo on his neck. "Cross Setsuzoku, Spetima Espada at your service and other things. I can buy you pizza. I've taken a love to that, since the humans eat it all the time. Or candy, candy is good too, espeically this brown stuff and.." He looked down to the woman. "You're arrancar?"

It was just a legend? So wait that would mean the the arrancar ranked number 1 wouldn't be the strongest and instead the strongest would be this arrancar who is ranked 0. Strange, Marxus really did need to take some time to pay attention to the ways of the arrancar. There was a saying that he heard from while reading a book: "Keep thy comrades close, and they enemies closer" If Marxus was to fight high leveled arrancars then he at least needed to be familiar with the way things works with them; it might actually turn out to his benefit. The smirk that he got from Sakura actually made Marxus smile, so there was some fight in Sakura. He didn't know from looking at Sakura that she was a fighter but the confidence from her smile was enough to confirm that she earned her place as the 9th strongest arrancar.

Before Marxus could comment, he felt the spiritual pressure of someone approaching. From the pure mass of the essence, Marxus was sure that the rest of them sensed the incoming presence. The presence was coming in fast and it made Marxus anxious, his spiritual pressure was whipping around his body cautiously. Then the presence stopped and was heading downwards towards a car. Marxus' eyes popped opened in surprise; he was sure that there was someone alive in the car. If he didn't do something, the human in the car could die.

Moving quickly, Marxus grabbed on to the doornob and focused on the soul of the car door to will it open. When it happened, Marxus was easily able to have the car door ripped open. Swiftly, Marxus pulled out the woman that was barely conscious in the car. She looked as though she was about his age and the fumes of marijuana was strong in the vehicle. The presence was coming closer and Marxus took the woman away and jumped away from the car before it exploded by the presence's weight. Marxus looked at who caused this destruction to see a large arrancar that had a rather large ax on his back. On his neck was the number 7. "Whoa that's a big guy" Marxus remarked to himself.

The woman weakly looked at Marxus "Whoa don't tell me you're a cop man" she said weakly, no doubt she's on drugs. Marxus looked at her and sighed softly. He chopped the back of her neck to knock her unconscious. This was too dangerous for a human who can't fight back. Marxus carried her to the rooftop of a house and jumped back down to meet the arrancar. Glaring at the arrancar he felt his spiritual pressure increase "Before I take your head clean off for almost killing a human, you're going to tell me exactly what the hell you're doing here" Marxus growled between his teeth, his eyes behind his glasses glowing blue from fury. This arrancar didn't seem to be considerate of humans at all, and as such a human would have died if Marxus didn't intervene.

Technique Used:

Ryou s studied the Espada with a raised eyebrow, when she accused him of lying. A look of curiosity mixed with confusion was scrawled all over his features. "What would be my motivation for doing that Sakura-sssama?” He paused only long enough to give a moment to ponder his words, “There would be nothing for me to gain by doing ssso. Bessside an opinion on beauty is all based on a perssson’s perspective, and in my opinion I think your pretty. Ssso actually I am not lying to, but really just giving you my view on how you look. Asss for withier or not you believe it… well Sakura-sssama… that is up to you.” Ryou’s more innocent and kind, child-like tone that he had spoken those words with originally was lace into every syllable. This time though, there was also a hint of someone much older and wiser than Ryou usually made himself out to be. With those words though, Kurosawa let the subject drop if that was what the Arrancar wanted to happen. Maybe it was a conversation to be had at another time…

Ryou rubbed his chin as he thought over a moment Sakura’s revelation. Well that was certainly a piece of intelligence to remember for later. At the same time the Captain knew that Sakura’s information would have to be taken with a grain of salt, since the Espada wasn’t as closely organized as the Gotei. So whoever was the 0 might not tell anyone, or maybe whoever the current king was considered them self that. “Well that isss fine, I wasss mostly curiousss is all. Such detailsss are hard to come by.” Most of what Ryou knew was just old backlogs from chance encounters in the archives and various histories. Know your enemy like you know yourself and you shall win 100 victories. Certainly was always a good piece of advice to follow in his opinion. His expression didn’t change though, at least not in the way one would expect when he heard Sakura talking about the old 9th’s defeat. Instead that grin on his face just grew to show his amusement, “Ssso after all those yearsss the idiot never got ssstronger. I told him to or he wouldn’t sssurvive. Too much pride that one…” Ryou wasn’t implying that it was that Sakura was weak, but really making sure that it was understood his opinion was based on a battle fought a while ago.

It was about that time that the Captain felt the presence of the new arrival heading in their direction. Kurosawa, though wasn’t really bothered by the sudden appearance of another being with such high spiritual pressure in their misted. Sakura was already considered ‘friendly’ or at least a non-hostile in his mind, and the same went for the human. Like before though, Ryou would prefer that no fighting or destruction took place which was why he didn’t react at first. At least not until the Arrancar landed on the car in what was an obvious disregard for the destruction it caused. The sight made him rest his hand on the pommel of his blade lightly, but he decided to see what happened first. For him to have the beliefs that he did about Arrancars, that also meant giving them the benefit of the doubt towards what could have just been a mistake.

Things changed of course when he realized that there had been a human in the car. Marxus was already on it before Ryou could move in that direction, so he considered that to mean that finding out what this guy was up to was his job. Yet the Shinigami found that he didn’t even need to ask, because this one was quite happy to talk, and it seemed that his original theory had been correct after all… and this whole thing was indeed an accident. Plus noticing out of the corner of his eye that Marxus had saved the human, Ryou decided that it was no harm done. The Shinigami didn’t want there to be a fight which could cost multiple human lives, over an accident which had been corrected. Which was why he looked over at the human when the other started to raise his tone, “Calm yourself Marxusss, there wasss no harm done. I am asssuming the human is safe and it would be bessst to not ssstart anything over an accident.”

Returning the greeting in his usually playful tone he said, “Kurosawa Ryou 7th Division Captain...” It was then that Ryou reacted strangely, or at least more on reflex really, when the large Espada spoke to Sakura. The Captain looked up at the other male with a dark and serious look as he had taken a half step over as almost if to place himself between Sakura and the other Espada. His words came out so suddenly it had almost the crack of a whip, but there was maniacal nature to it, “Why do you want to know who the Missstresss isss?” The tone was very protective and had left his mouth before he realized he had said, but he could hear Ningy chiding him, ‘Oh… you in trouble now… you picked up another one silly willy walnut head.’ Here laughter ringing through corner of his brain.