The Rainy Day

Nelia closed her eyes, concentrating on her Cero construction. She'd seen one of the lower arrancar split his cero in two and was wondering if she could split it many more times. She'd told him to perform it then analysed it with El Ojo. Now that she thought on it, she could make pins with that measure so what would he be doing making a double cero? He could have made a spray of needles as easily as Nelia thought she could. What Nelia did not take into account was sheer power difference between herself and this Numeros Arrancar.

Nelia thought she should try making a double cero first. She laid her arm straight out in front of her, her hair lying flat in her face.

"Cero Lluvia." She said in a monotone, two beams of energy shooting from the tips of her two fingers. Nelia's normally melancholic face split into the semblance of happiness. Now she just had to repeat the process of halving over and over again until she got a spray of needles.

However, it was around her Cero's 36th incarnation that she realised this was tough. She'd got a reasonable spray of needles but her strength was waning every time she did it. At this rate she'd have to sleep it off then get back to it. But Nelia was not the type to do this. She would master this Cero THEN sleep. And not a moment sooner.

Nelia brought her two hands together, her reiatsu showing up as a purple glowing aura that singed and sizzled as rain hit it. Nelia roared as the power of Cero Lluvia knocked her over, sending the Cero skywards. This time it truly was the most powerful level of Cero Lluvia. One hundred thousand million darts of reishi that would strip flesh from bone...Nelia laughed at the thought of it.

Nelia rolled onto all fours then got up, panting from the effort of controlling that amount of reiatsu. Nelia put her hands together and charged Cero Lluvia but this time, instead of firing it, pulled her hand away. This left the charge in one hand for about a second before it exploded into needles, shredding Nelia's cloths and sending her backwards.

Startled, she got back to her feet and released. No cero would control her power! She would annihilate this Cero and subjugate it to her will. If anything she would utterly and totally annihilate this portion of Brazil. Cero Lluvia was not, after all, a destructive Cero but a corroding one. One pin alone would not do much damage while the swarm could kill even fellow arrancar. A Sandstorm...yes, that was it.

Nelia wrapped her hands around a charge for Cero Lluvia then let it go. This time it did not explode as her previous one had. In fact, it just fizzled out when Nelia stopped supplying it reiatsu. So that was how to do it...

Nelia then raised one hand and fired Cero Lluvia. But this time it only had fifty thousand million darts for Nelia had worked out that half strength would require less control. And so, Nelia built up the amount of pins each time. She used only one hand and built it up gradually. If she didn't, she couldn't get the feel of each of Cero Lluvia's levels. If she fired too many the charge would break and spray her with needles. If it worked the Cero would fire all its needles into the rainforest. Nelia felt a pang of guilt that she might be hurting animals but flattened it. This was important.

Nelia then fired triumphantly in the air as she hit 100 thousand million pins....3 weeks later. Nelia had not slept for 3 days and as such, was in no fit state to demonise herself by destroying some stuff. Incidentally she was in the same town that she'd died in. Nobody knew that the ghost of dear little Nelia Belaqua was amongst their midst. People told stories of Nelia, about how they could see her ghost sitting in her room and weeping. As such, they'd kept her house intact to "appease the spirits that rest there."

Nelia was curious and walked into the slightly dusty house and smiled slightly as she saw that it truly was intact. It was full of the nick-nacks her parents had collected from all over the world. She'd been born here...the only pale girl ever to go to that school. And they teased her for it. Relentlessly they teased her. In fact, Nelia had bitten the girls that made fun of her. If she'd told them she was gay...they would have called her a monster. An unnatural monster sent by Satan to tempt them. How silly...how very very silly...Hopefully the world had advanced while she was busy devouring those of her own kind. Maybe she'd eaten some of those girls that had hurt her. Oh what a thought that would be.

Nelia proceeded up the stairs of her house and opened the door to her room with a squeak. She smiled as she saw her bed, completely unfazed. Of all the rooms kept in good condition, Nelia's was the most well-kept. Nelia leant over her bed and picked up Beary, her teddy from when she was young. Even at the age of 16 she was cuddling this. She was attached to Beary as her companion, her only friend. She'd been labouring under the impression that nobody loved her. Oh how true she'd found that to be. Her parents threw everything at her but she never cheered up. They never spent time with her, always bustling about and loading her off onto the young Brazillian girl's care. Nelia was only slightly younger than this house keeper...how love was a many-splendoured thing...

Dios nos proteja! El diablo! A voice interrupted. Nelia whirled around and bared her fangs at the young caretaker. The girl shook with fear as the boy caretaker came running to assist the girl. Nelia growled and advanced on them, her tail swishing threateningly. "Commo Nelia?" The girl asked Nelia tentatively. Nelia started then grinned.

Si, me nombre es Nelia." She answered. She raised her arm and charged a cero. The girl ran while the boy looked about for the source of the terror. Nelia grabbed his head and threw him against a wall. Cero Lluvia exploded, mincing the boy's head down to a skull. Only the cartilage held the bones to the thrashing body.

No, no tenía que matarlo! The girl yelled, throwing herself down the stairs and running for the door.

"No tuve que matarte." Nelia giggled insanely, charging another Cero Lluvia The girl desperately tried to open the door, scraping her nails against the wood, screaming for mercy in Spanish. Nelia did not listen and fired her cero, pinning a skeleton to the door of the building. Nelia looked at her slightly smoking hand and appraised the progress. Yes, it would take a while longer to fully master this technique. Maybe she'd master it before they found the bodies...she was going to look around for a while longer.

She descended into the basement of the place where the wines and prisoners were kept. However, when she came to the base of the steps she found that her wine collection had been raided. Instead there was a desk with an extremely old man sat at the desk. He had an extremely long beard and was writing some extremely long document. Nelia walked over to the racks, ignoring the old man. However, those cataract cankered eyes followed Nelia's progress. She was looking for a particular vintage of wine. The one her father had made at the date of her birth.

"You won't find it there." The old man spoke. Nelia startled then shrugged it off, thinking that no man would see her down here even if they were spiritually gifted and sitting by a candle. But the man continued to stare eerily in her direction. Nelia attempted another Cero Lluvia but it spluttered out an instant or two later. She growled and tried again, only to fail again.

"Are you done yet? If you want the bottle I have it here. My family passed it down all the way from the 1300s." The old man grinned. Nelia growled and walked up to him, her face a few inches from his. "Idiot child! Speak English!" The man demanded. That shocked Nelia into speech.

"What the hell?! Not only can you see me you think you can shout at me?" Nelia growled in the man's face. The old man quite unabashedly pushed Nelia away. Nelia blinked in surprise. Nobody had treated her like this for 700 years. This truly was an extraordinary year. She'd discovered she wasn't asexual, that she loved another girl...and now she'd discovered someone who would talk back to her.

"Of course I can see you, arrancar. I'm a shinigami, it's what we do." The old man grinned, pulling off his robes to show shinigami robes. Nelia hissed in surprise, slashing downwards with her claws. The shinigami caught her hand and put a bottle in her hand. He also took a teddy bear and a letter out and put them into Nelia's hands.

"How...?" Nelia asked, taking the things into her possession. The shinigami smiled wryly and stroked his Moustache.

"My father gave it to me. And his father received it from his father. Yes Auntie Nelia, I'm your grand-nephew." The shinigami grinned. But Nelia's expression was far from happy or joyful. She looked utterly and totally murderous. Her eyes showed whites and her expression was one of complete and utter hatred.

"They...They had another child? The bastards..." Nelia growled. The shinigami started before turning to run. But no, it was too late: Nelia's tail bifurcated him and send him toppling to the ground. Nelia was upset at this betrayal. The betrayal of 700 years...Now they would die. This whole filthy stinking village. They would die for their insolence.

Suddenly, shouting in Spanish came from above. Nelia grinned with bloodthirsty delight. The first victims of her onslaught.

But when she came from the cellar, the police women who'd been called to the scene screamed something in Spanish that was beyond Nelia's decaying knowledge of the language. They both ran from the scene screaming about demons and devils within the walls of her house. Nelia sniffed as something got in her eye. She rubbed it slightly before opening a gargaanta. She wanted to read this letter in the safety of her own bathtub and with an entourage of servants who addressed her as "Nelia-sama".

As she entered her chambers, her attendants swarmed about her. They removed her tattered dress and massaged her shoulders for her. She closed her eyes and leant back in her reclining chair. One of her attendants attempted to take the bear from her and received a slap around the face for her troubles. She was one of the more fire and brimstone arrancar employed as a hand maiden and questioned Nelia for slapping her. When Nelia tensed all the girls in the room gulped.

"This is my Bear. If you take him from me I shall run you through. Is that understood?" Nelia asked pointedly. The girl realised she was lucky to have her life and gulped before muttering an apology and returning to her quarters. Nelia smiled approvingly and relaxed back into her chair. Another of her servants asked if she'd had a nice time in brazil, to which Nelia replied; "Oh yes, I enjoyed my roots considerably. Now I must take cautions to avoid firing my new Cero in Los Noches." Nelia smiled at that. Her servant laughed nervously as Nelia cracked a joke about many things returning to the Brazilian style.

Nelia however cuddled the Teddy bear with a rather innocent joy on her face. The wine bottle was next to her chair while the letter remained on her stomach. Nelia did not feel like reading it until she was private.