Standing before Uryu was a small boy of 5 years old. His chalk-pale skin was a stark contrast to his ebony hair. His green eyes didn't hold the curious sparkle common in most children. Yet, despite his overall appearance of a human child, he had a reiatsu that matched what was at the scene of the accident exactly.

"Eh? A kid?!" Kon said, staring at the child in disbelief. "Look, kid, I don't know what you did bu-ARGH!" He covered his face and stepped back after being punched by the back of Uryu's fist.

Uryu kneeled on the ground so that he was eye level with the boy, hoping to figure out what was going on by talking to him. "Are you lost?"

The boy said nothing, instead slowly raising his finger, pointing at the three standing before him. A small, green light began forming at the tip of his finger. Uryu's eyes widened. That was...a Cero!

"Get out of the way!" He yelled to the two mod-souls, half-pushing them away just before the green Cero was fired. There was obviously no talking to...whatever this kid was. Uryu held his arm out, his Quincy bow forming in his hand. Good thing nobody was nearby. The child, however, didn't look intimidated in the least. Before Uryu had a chance to realize what was going on, the child vanished, suddenly behind the Quincy using a step very similar to Shunpo. Uryu fell forward as he was kicked in the back with a force equivalent to that of a strong adult.

Getting back to his feet, Uryu fired an arrow at the kid. The arrow hit the ground as the child once again stepped aside far too quickly. The kid was fast...and strong. How could a small body contain so much power?

"Pickin' on a kid? Why, that's terrible."

Uryu spun around, gasping in disbelief when he found the source of the voice. "You!"

Standing behind him was Ichimaru, former Captain of Squad 3.

"Hey. It's been a while." Ichimaru said with a small wave.

Uryu glared, pointing his bow in the Shinigami's direction. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing? It's more like what are you doing, tryin' ta fight with a little kid!"

"Don't give me that." Uryu growled. "Tell me what you and this...kid are doing here."

Ichimaru put his finger to his chin, as if thinking about whether or not he was going to say anything. "Hmmm...nah, I don't think you need ta know."

The Quincy finally gave up conversation and shot several arrows at Ichimaru. The Shinigami only smiled and dodged, appearing behind Uryu. Uryu spun around, ready to fire again, but Ichimaru grabbed his wrist.

"I should turn ya in for attempted murder. Tell 'em ya caused that explosion then tried ta kill a kid. They're panicked, so they won't bother ta ask questions."

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

"Accomplish? Hmmm...is world domination what ya wanna hear? Anyway, I have ta get goin'. No time to play." He released his grip on Ishida and walked over to Ulquiorra, who had been simply watching the entire time. Hoping to take advantage while Ichimaru's back was turned, Uryu released several arrows, once of which barely missed Ichimaru's head.

Ichimaru sighed. "Can't just make it easy, can ya? Oh well, your choice." He turned around, his sword drawn. "Shoot 'im dead, Shinso."

Ishida attempted to dodge the attack, but Ichimaru's sword still managed to impale his right shoulder, knocking him back and pinning him to a tree. When Shinso retracted, Ichimaru turned his attention back to the small Espada.

"C'mon, let's go. I wanna get back home. Aizen's waitin'" He picked up Ulquiorra, who didn't resist, and took off, leaving Ishida beside the tree, clutching his shoulder and wondering what was going on.


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"Ichigo!" Rukia called, signaling for him to come over.

"What is it, Rukia?"

"Can you feel it? A reiatsu similar to that from the explosion, it's nearby."

Ichigo stopped for a moment, trying to find the reiatsu Rukia was talking about. She was right. Not too far from where they were standing was an energy similar to that of a Hollow's, only more powerful. He nodded. "Yeah, I feel it."

The two searched the outskirts of the crowd for the source of the reiatsu. There were still a lot of people gathered around, so it was slightly difficult to pinpoint exactly who it was coming from. From among the crowd, a little boy with dark skin and a bald head turned to Rukia. At first, she figured he just happened to be looking in her direction, but he kept staring right at her. As he approached her, she realized he was the one they had been looking for.

"I'm looking for somebody." The little boy said, "Can you help me?"

Rukia opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't seem to find her voice. What was this child? He didn't seem to have any bad intentions, but if he was a normal human child, there was no way he should be able to se her, never mind his reiatsu level.

"Can you?" He repeated, breaking Rukia out of her thoughts.

"It's too crowded to talk here, could you follow us somewhere with less people?" Rukia asked, hoping the boy would agree. If people saw him talking to thin air, they would think something was wrong and probably take him away.

The boy nodded. Rukia called to Ichigo, and the three found an area behind a building where there were no people around. Rukia was surprised the boy followed them at all, but he didn't seem scared at all. Rukia kneeled down so she was at the boy's eye level while Ichigo remained standing, watching carefully.

"Now, who is it you are looking for?" She asked as calmly as she could.

"A man with brown hair and brown eyes. His name is Aizen."

The Shinigami both froze, staring at the boy. He blinked, looking back and forth between them as if trying to discern if he did something wrong.

"Rukia..." Ichigo muttered, not taking his eyes off the boy.

"I know, but what can we do? He doesn't seem to have any ill intentions..."

"You can give him to me."

Ichigo and Rukia tore their gaze away from the boy and to the man that had spoken.

"Tousen!" Ichigo yelled, grabbing the hilt of his sword, ready to fight.

The ex-Captain held up a hand. "I'm not here to fight, I just want the boy."

"What is he to you?" The substitute Shinigami asked, not taking his hand of his sword.

"That...is none of your concern. Zommari, come."

The boy nodded, turned his back to the Shinigami, and followed Tousen around the corner and out of sight.

"Wait!" Ichigo called after the two, jumping forward and meaning to go after them, but Rukia threw her arm out in front of him, stopping him. "What are you doing? We have to stop them-"

"Ichigo!" Rukia yelled, silencing the substitute Shinigami. "We can't just fight them here, in the middle of Kurakara. He wasn't here to fight us, so we will not give him one."

Ichigo gave a frustrated sigh. He hated to admit it, but Rukia was right. As much as he wanted to chase after Tousen and that kid, he couldn't start a fight here, it would panic the people even more and somebody could get hurt. "Alright, let's go find Ishida."


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Gasps and murmurs followed the two men walking down the street. Males looked disgusted, females looked horrified. All eyes turned to them, though usually not for very long. Some people seemed to have a hard time looking away, despite how scared they were. It was one of those sights that, for some reason, kept drawing one's gaze even though it hurt to look at.

"Ah, just listen to the gasps of amazement as they gaze upon my beauty!" One of the men said. His short-sleeved tight shirt just barely covered his chest, showing off all the muscles of his abdomen. His pants were worn about as low as was decent.

"No es exacto, Charlotte. I think they are scared, not amazed." The second man said. He was skinny and fully clothed, unlike the one beside him. In fact, he was almost normal looking, other than the fact his blond hair reached his waist and it looked as if he had purple eye-shadow around both eyes.

"Hah! What do you know about beauty, Findor?"

A young girl and her mother passed by, the former staring at Charlotte with a mixture of terror and confusion. The Arrancar winked and blew a kiss to her. The little girl burst into tears, clinging to her mother's skirt.

"Now you are making kids cry." Findor said. He sighed. "And we still haven't found His Majesty. We probably would have found him by now, if you hadn't insisted on going to that spa."

"But they made me so beautiful! My skin, it's so soft! You would have done well to come in too! See how soft my skin is, touch it!"

"I don't want to."

"Come now, touch it!"

"I'm not going to touch it."

"Touch it!" Charlotte yelled, grabbing his fellow fraccion's wrist. The smaller man resisted, trying to pull away. By now, all human activity had ceased as everyone nearby stared at the two gender-confused men, struggling with each other in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Excuse me, what are you two doing?!" A man's voice said, stepping out of a shop and in front of the two. "No wait, I don't want to know what you are doing, just remove yourselves from in front of my store."

Findor and Charlotte stopped, taking a step away from each other and turning to the man.

"Actually, we are looking for a child." The blond explained.

The man raised an eyebrow. "A child?"

"Exacta."

"Exacta? You two aren't from around here, are you?"

"Exacta!"

The man looked about ready to kick the two off the sidewalk and let them be run over. "Look, I haven't seen a stray kid, but if there's any child in the care of you two, I hope a protection agency has found him already, now get out of here or I'm calling the cops!"

"Let's go, Charlotte." Findor said, walking by the man. "I don't think His Majesty is here anyway."

Charlotte flipped his hair as he walked by, following Findor. He hoped they found Barragan soon. These humans just couldn't understand true beauty, and he was getting tired of being surrounded by ugly people.

---------------

"You there! I'm hungry! I want a snack! Hey! Don't walk away! Fine. You, with the ugly little dog, yes you, get me something to eat!"

Standing atop a statue near the entrance to the park, Barragan shouted orders at anybody passing by. Much to his dismay, however, nobody was listening.

"I am the King and you are my servants! You must listen to me! Obey me!"

"Did somebody call the police?" A woman asked, looking up at the 5-year-old boy demanding everyone's attention.

"I did." Another woman said, holding up her cell phone. "They should be here any minute."

Sure enough, a couple minutes later, a police car pulled up and two officers stepped out of their car.

"What seems to be the trouble here?"

The woman who called spoke up, "Well, Officers, this child is standing on a statue demanding people do to things for him. I'm not sure how he got there or where his parents are, but something needs to be done."

The two men stepped up to the statue and looked up at Barragan, who pointed at them.

"You two! I am thirsty from yelling. Get me a drink."

"Boy, you need to come down from there."

"No, you need to get me a drink."

"No, you need to come down from there."

"I said get me a drink!"

"And I said come down from there!"

The officer's partner shook his head. Was a grown man seriously arguing with a five year old? "Alright, enough!" He yelled, silencing them both. "You, little boy, need to come down. Now."

Barragan crossed his arms and sat stubbornly. "No."

The officer sighed. "If you don't come down, we will get you. Please just make it easy and come down. We can catch you if you have to jump."

"No."

The man gave an aggravated sigh. Out of all the things he could be doing right now, he had to get a little kid from a statue? He was ready to climb up there himself to grab the child when a voice called out from behind him.

"Your Majesty, there you are!"

"Findor! Where have you been? These people have not been listening to a word I've said!"

The blond Arrancar bowed. "I'm sorry to hear you are displeased. If you would come with me now, we can get you whatever it is you need."

Barragan nodded. "Catch me!" He commanded, then jumped down into Findor's arms.

The police officers couldn't believe what they were seeing. The second one was the first to speak. "Are you in charge of this child?"

"Exacta." The blond replied as Barragan climbed onto his shoulders.

"First off, you need to keep better track of this kid. Secondly, why are you treating him like a king? No wonder the kid is so demanding!"

Findor sighed. "Sorry, I don't have time to talk, gotta go."

The first policeman grabbed Findor's arm. "Hey, wait up there, buddy. We can't just let you go like that."

Findor turned to Charlotte, who he had left behind in attempt to make the recovery go a bit more smoothly. Apparently, that didn't work. The good thing was, he had another solution to the problem. "Hey, Charlotte, why don't you show these good men you beauty?"

Charlotte looked up with a hopeful expression. "You mean...?"

"Exacta."

In an instant, Charlotte had his sword drawn. "Sparkle, Reina De Rosas!" he sang, spinning around in a circle like a ballet dancer. A bright flash of pink temporarily blinded everyone, giving Findor the moment he needed to start running. Once the light had subsided, a collective gasp rose from everyone close enough to see what was going on.

Charlotte was now standing in high heels, a pink mantle flowing at his shoulders with a matching skirt. His top had gotten smaller and he was no longer wearing pants, barely covered by an indescribable article of clothing. He spun in a circle again, stopping with his arms on his hips.

"Behold, true beauty!"

For a moment, all was silent. Charlotte was sure they were all taking in his beauty, bathing in its rays. That is, until everyone started screaming insults, covering their children's eyes and demanding the man be taken away.

"You are under arrest for indecency!" The second police officer yelled, doing his best to address Charlotte without looking much at him.

Charlotte's mouth dropped open. "What? Indecency? What blasphemy is this?! You ugly people clearly do not know true beauty when you see it!"

The people were in an uproar and nobody was listening. The two police officers looked torn between running away themselves and doing their jobs by walking up to Charlotte and arresting him, afraid to touch him.

"Let's go!" Findor called, already too far away for the police to do anything about him.

Charlotte took off after his fellow fraccion, crying about how nobody appreciated beauty. Findor ignored him.

"Are you okay, Your Majesty?"

"I am now."

"Good, we are going back home."

"And away from this place filled with ugly, ugly people!" Charlotte yelled. He wanted to leave and never come back.

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"Hey, Ulquiorra?" Ichimaru asked as he opened Garganta. "Why did ya cause that explosion anyway? Just curious."

"They were trash."

Trash, of course. He should have known better. Hopefully Aizen wouldn't be too angry over the destruction. Ichimaru was actually happy with it. The Quincy was so fun to tease since he was always so serious, it had made an otherwise horrible day a bit more interesting.

Sensing his fellow Shinigam nearby, Ichimaru turned around. "Ah, Tousen. Oh, you got Zommari!"

Tousen nodded. "And you have Ulquiorra. I believe Charlotte and Findor are on the way with Barragan as well."

Ichimaru gave a large sigh of relief. "Whew! That makes all of 'em! Good!" The sun was beginning to set now, it had taken them the entire day to find the Espada. Ichimaru concluded it was the longest day of his life- which technically wasn't even over yet. Though, at least now he wouldn't have to track down the brats. Maybe Aizen would let him tie them up. Then nobody would have to worry about them. Was there an Espada-proof rope? Maybe Szayel had something in his lab they could use.

Charlotte's voice could be heard as he approached, still ranting about how very ugly the town was. Good, that meant Barragan was back. With the final three Espada gathered, the Shinigami and fraccion walked through the portal and back home.