With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
"There's the burro," Adela remarked, crossing her arms. "A burro is an ass."
Celia was about to give Adela what for when Darui popped out of the sand. For once, she was right.
"Hey, look at this. The hell are you doing here?" Darui said, regarding Celia and her companions.
"It's prudent to ask that question when you're late," Celia said sternly, glancing up at Darui. She stopped walking, giving her fraccion and Alexei time to interact.
"Fresh meat, or something? Finally. I'm not stuck with women anymore," Darui said, leering at Alexei. "Can he fight? We don't need a sack of potatoes around here."
"That hasn't seemed to stop you, Darui."
"Need someone to test that for ya?"
Celia raised a brow. "Darui...I never tested you. Perhaps that should change?"
Adela snickered into her hand. Darui was pretty strong, but Celia was stronger. And if they actually fought, Adela was pretty sure that Celia would win.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
"Fresh meat, or something? Finally. I'm not stuck with women anymore."
Alexei looked at this new friend with a small smile on his face. Maybe this was Darui who he had heard about before. Either way, it seemed that he knew Adela-sama, Neva-sama, and Celia-sama. That meant that he was a friend of some sort. After all, everyone who knew Celia-sama was her friend; she was just so nice. The Russian offered a small bow before straightening up and extending his hand to shake.
"Alexei Romanov, nice to meet you sir."
"Can he fight? We don't need a sack of potatoes around here."
At this, the Vizard frowned a bit. Was he expected to be fighting all the time? He knew that he would have to at one point or another but he didn't think that it would be everything he would do. If that was the case, he needed to train harder. One hundred push-ups was not nearly enough for a morning warm-up in that case. He would need to increases his efforts greatly.
"I'm sorry, I need to train more if I'm going to have to fight often." The worst thing was that Alexei actually meant that he would need to constantly train in order to fight. He wasn't strong enough in his own eyes. He had people now that he might need to assist in battle. He didn't want to be a waste of space in that case.
"Need someone to test that for ya?"
Alexei placed his left hand on his hilt before turning back to Celia-sama. "Do I need to be tested, Celia-sama?" He would have no problem sparring with Darui-sama if he needed to. The Vizard was loyal, if nothing else.
"Darui...I never tested you. Perhaps that should change?"
"Yes you did! You left me with those two and we had to fight those shitty hollows outside Las Noches! Or some shit like that!"
He rubbed his chin slightly in contemplation. What would happen if he fought Celia. Yeah, she was an Espada so she had to be strong, and he served her so she had to be stronger than him too...
...yeah, fuck that. He wasn't going to get his ass kicked by his own damn Espada.
"Alexei Romanov, nice to meet you sir."
Darui shifted his attention back to the new guy. Alexei, eh? Weird-ass name, to be honest. And what's with the gesture? A hand? The fuck was he supposed to do with a hand? Shake it? What motherfucker does that anyway?
...then again, if he didn't do something, there was a good chance Celia was going to call him out on it. Or the Wonder Twins. Well, he didn't really care about what the Wonder Twins thought. But damn if he was gonna get dragged into a fight with his Espada if he didn't shake the motherfucking hand.
Yeah, he loved fighting, and he was pretty damn good at it, if he did say so himself. But Celia was his Espada for a reason, and there was no way he was going to lose (which he probably was going to) in front of Wonder Twins and the new Alexei guy.
"Darui." he said in a flat voice, bumping his fist on the outstretched hand. He said he was going to do something about it...he never said he was actually going to shake it.
"I still don't know why we're all here. We gonna go for a picnic or something?"
"Oh, that? That was so that you wouldn't be at each other's throats. It had nothing to do with testing your strength," Celia explained, smiling to her fraccion.
Neva had assumed as much, and Adela sighed as though relieved. Maybe it soothed her to know that her master didn't think that little of her.
"Do not worry, Alexei, we won't be 'testing' anyone for some time," Celia said. "You'll find I care less about power than some of my...colleagues."
All Celia really cared about was wisdom, and oddity. Her fraccionnes consisted almost entirely of the latter. Neva and Adela were an unusual case, and Darui always appeared very ill, though was never actually impaired. Alexei was a vizard, not to mention a person who was far too chipper to actually be happy.
Celia was convinced he had repressed some childhood memories. Or perhaps his entire experience with Szayel.
"I still don't know why we're all here. We gonna go for a picnic or something?"
"Not exactly," Celia admitted, continuing to walk. She would have to break the news to Adela and Neva at some point. Securing Alexei's relative freedom had come with a price. "You see, I...barterred...with Szayel. He'll not be doing anything extensive."
Adela pursed her lips. She had no idea what Celia was talking about. As usual.
Neva was different.
"You traded us for Alexei."
"No. The most Szayel will do is moniter you two. If he attempts any invasive tests, I'll step in and stop him myself." She glanced at her fraccionnes, not seeking approval but seeking...perhaps complacency?
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
Instead of shaking his hand, Darui-sama did some kind of awkward bumping thing with his fist. At first Alexei didn't understand what it meant. As he thought about it, he figured it was some kind of Arrancar greeting. It was a good thing Darui had shown him this so that he didn't have to worry about it causing trouble in the future. He should thank Darui-sama sometime for teaching him this.
"Do not worry, Alexei, we won't be 'testing' anyone for some time. You'll find I care less about power than some of my...colleagues.
At this, the young Vizard nodded with a small smile. He needed to train more to keep up with his new friends. It was one thing to be his strength in the Soul Society but here he needed to be stronger than he was currently. He sighed to himself as he knew what that would involve. He would have to train with Sabyla Tigra to increase the time that he could wear his mask. That was when he was strongest but he could only stay like that for a few seconds right now. That was something he needed to fix.
"Alright, thank you Celia-sama."
"You see, I...barterred...with Szayel. He'll not be doing anything extensive."
"You traded us for Alexei."
Wait...what? Alexei looked back and forth between Adela-sama and Neva-sama and then Celia-sama. Had she really offered up her two subordinates to get him under her command? Was he really that special or interesting? No, there was no way that he was in any way worth that kind of sacrifice. He needed to ask Celia-sama about that...it just didn't sound right.
"Celia-sama, did you really do that? I mean, Szayel-sama does a lot of tests on his subjects. Some of them hurt a little." Alexei thought back to all the scars he had gotten during his time staying with Szayel-sama. If he were to unzip his jacket, his companions would see that they encompassed his torso. It was just something that he lived with though. Alexei wouldn't let some injuries get him down.
Darui really was only half-paying attention to the conversation now that it was no longer being directed at him. Some mumbo-jumbo about not caring for power, yeah yeah, he'd heard that befo-
...hold the fuck up.
"You see, I...barterred...with Szayel. He'll not be doing anything extensive."
"You traded us for Alexei."
"That better not include me, too." he said, crossing his arms, "I don't want anything to do with that fucking fruitcake!"
I mean, it wasn't like Szayel would be interested in him anyway. He wasn't weird, or strange, or some sort of scientific oddity or whatever. He was just a normal fucking arrancar, for fuck's sake! Yeah, he looked like he was going to keel over and die at any moment, but that shit wasn't interesting!
He glanced at the new guy and narrowed his visible eye. So. This motherfucker was with Szayel, eh? An experiment? Darui didn't know whether to punch the shit out of him, or to actually (gasp) pity him. Everyone in Las Noches knew that Szayel was fucking insane, and anyone who has ever had the misfortune of being inside his lab...usually never came out the same. Or, so he heard.
There was no way he was going to test that out for himself.
"I swear,", he said, muttering towards Alexei, "If I find a tentacle in my bed tonight, I'm going to rip your arm off and beat you down with it."
Celia stood, and listened to her fraccionnes' complaints. They were reasonable concerns. "Make no mistake," she said, "I won't be leaving you alone in there with that maniac. I'm letting him use surveillance equipment on you two. And it should be mutually beneficial, unless you two have come to terms with your condition."
Adela wanted to scream, but she had a point. If Senior Crazy could help them split up, they should take whatever help they could get.
"You're very quiet," Neva observed wryly. "That's quite unusual."
"That's it then?" Celia asked, looking between her fraccionnes. "No more objections? Darui, stop being stupid, there aren't any tentacles and if there are they're attached to someone."
By someone, Celia meant her. Her resurreccion did have vines...that she supposed were similar to tentacles. A little.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.
"That better not include me, too. I don't want anything to do with that fucking fruitcake!"
Alexei looked over at Darui-sama as he spoke. He wondered why he was so mean concerning Szayel-sama? Had he been experimented on by him before? Actually, what he had gone through hadn't been so bad. He had some scars to show for it but they weren't too deep and didn't make him unable to move fully. His time with Szayel-sama hadn't been bad at all, but he decided just to keep quiet in front of the others. They might not want to hear it right now.
"I won't be leaving you alone in there with that maniac. I'm letting him use surveillance equipment on you two. And it should be mutually beneficial, unless you two have come to terms with your condition."
"If I find a tentacle in my bed tonight, I'm going to rip your arm off and beat you down with it."
A small frown crossed the Vizard's face as he looked around between his companions. He didn't know why Darui-sama was getting so upset over what was going to be nothing. Szayel-sama wouldn't hurt anyone too much and he was pretty polite about getting you to do what he needed. After all, he had been very patient with Alexei when he was with him. So, the Vizard could not understand the hostility coming from Darui and why it was directed at him.
"Why are you so worried Darui-sama? Szayel-sama's experiments aren't that bad. And they don't even really hurt that much."
"You're very quiet. That's quite unusual."
"Yes Adela-sama, what's wrong?" He offerred a reassuring smile to her as he said this. He hoped she wasn't worried about Szayel-sama; there was really no reason to be.
Darui scoffed and turned his head away, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Why are you so worried Darui-sama? Szayel-sama's experiments aren't that bad. And they don't even really hurt that much."
"Szayel's an insane nutjob. I don't want him near me. Fucking hell, I don't want to wake up with some random appendage or shit sticking out of my chest or...something. Fuck."
He then turned to Celia, "That shit's even worse then!! He'll be in my room, with his fucking edible fraccion just...watching..."
The blonde shivered, "That shit's creepy."
[[Sorry, short post. Kinda going through stuff. Skip me next time if I don't show up.]]
"You don't sleep in the same room as Adela and Neva," Celia remarked blandly. "Szayel wouldn't be able to monitor you."
That was a lie. Celia figured that if he wanted to install monitoring equipment inside of Neva and Adela, then he had already installed monitoring equipment inside of Alexei, and he would be sharing a room with Darui. But Darui didn't need to know that, paranoid as he already was.
"Come along, we're almost there." Celia continued to walk, with Neva closely in tow. But, when she checked back over her shoulder, Adela was not following. Darui did not have to follow, he could continue on his merry way, but she needed Adela to come along. She had promised Szayel both twins.
"You didn't ask us, you know," Adela finally said, refusing to follow. She crossed her arms and glared at Celia. She clearly felt betrayed, even though Neva followed obediently, and loyally. "If you asked, we'd say yes. Neva just does whatever you ask...and you're a smart lady, but..." She paused. Most likely, she didn't want to explode in front of Darui. In front of Alexei. Pride was funny like that.
Character List "Let's eat, Grandma!" "Let's eat Grandma!" Commas save lives.