DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bleach and I am not receiving any financial composition for this work. This is solely for amusement purposes.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am presuming that the Beach Festival episode actually follows after the Winter War, although this episode serves as filler for the Anime.

WHAT IS TOO CLOSE?

The sun had been setting on the beach near Karakura town and the first harbingers of the evening were beginning to appear in the darkening sky. On the isolated section of the beach, the excitement from the previous hour's activities had died down. All the watermelon hollows had been smashed and all of the shinigami, with a couple of their human counterparts, were settling in for the peace of evening stargazing. Up at the shop, the remaining two humans, Uryuu and Sado, were finishing their duties and were about to rejoin the rest of the group.

"Dishes are done," Sado announced as he set a stack of plates on the back counter.

"Very well," Uryuu replied as he toweled off a glass and set it up in a cabinet. "I'll put those away if you want to rejoin the others on the beach."

Sado nodded slightly in response before giving Uryuu his signature "thumbs up" sign and walking out.

Now Uryuu was completely alone, but he could completely understand why. Orihime, being the manager, had delegated the responsibilities of cleaning up to Sado and Uryuu in order to spend more time with Ichigo. Uryuu hoped that Ichigo would soon catch on to some of the fairly blatant acts of affection that Orihime directed towards the orange-haired teen. Likewise, Sado seemed to be somewhat taken with a certain tall, silver-haired female fukutaicho of the Fourth Squad. That selfsame shinigami who had been quite self-conscious of her appearance in her rather revealing swimsuit earlier in the day, now seemed to be more confident after noticing some lingering glances from the taller Mestizo. Even Toushiro chose to join the group on the beach once the temperatures had dropped to what he deemed a more reasonable level. It was no matter to Uryuu since he would be able to rejoin them momentarily as well.

As Uryuu set the last of the plates on a shelf under the counter, he felt a familiar reiatsu approaching from behind him. It was the same reiatsu he had first felt in the Soul Society, then again in the Real World, and most recently in Hueco Mundo. Now it had approached the shop and had stopped just inside the entrance. Turning slowly around, Uryuu saw the shinigami who he knew carried this particular reiatsu: Nemu Kurotsuchi.

The black-haired fukutaicho of the Twelfth Gotai Division stood, as expected by Uryuu, about half a meter inside the entrance of the shop. She was still in her swimsuit that resembled a female high school swimming uniform, her black hair was braided back, and her brilliant green eyes were emotionless and unreadable. This left Uryuu with only one option.

"Why have you come?" the quincy asked evenly of the shinigami.

"I have come to ask you to view the stars with me," Nemu replied with similar evenness.

"It was not necessary for you to ask," Uryuu countered. "I was preparing to rejoin everyone momentarily."

"There is a location that offers a special view of the night sky," Nemu explained. "If you come with me, I will show it to you."

The offer struck Uryuu as odd, for the most part. He knew that the view of the night sky does not change much over the few kilometers that the beach stretched along the coast, and he did not expect Nemu Kurotsuchi's clinical mind to account for the aesthetics of certain location to affect one's perception. There was also the fact that whenever Uryuu had encountered her, whatever her stated motive, there usually was some duplicitous meaning to it. Surprisingly, it was the curiosity about Nemu's possible duplicitous intentions that was drawing him to actually comply with her request.

Pushing up his glasses thoughtfully, Uryuu said, "I will go with you."

Uryuu and Nemu left the shop and Nemu silently led the quincy down the beach away from rest of the shinigami and humans. As they walked, Uryuu did his best to surreptitiously study Nemu hoping to notice any physical tic that might unknowingly shed light on her motives. Unfortunately for Uryuu, this led to a semi-unintended silent appraisal of Nemu in her swimsuit. Despite not being the most revealing swimsuit on the beach that day, the cut and skin-tight nature of her outfit managed to reasonably show off her well-toned legs, her curvy and well-shaped hips and rump, her hourglass mid-riff, and, lastly, her more than ample bosom.

The last of Nemu's physical attributes was definitely something that Uryuu wanted to keep his mind off of. With an unknowing blush, the young quincy all too clearly recalled his last encounter with the young shinigami and that part of her anatomy. Yes, he was in pain and Mayuri Kurotsuchi's promises to "fix" him were none too reassuring, so of course he struggled against Nemu fruitlessly with all of his might. When she finally pinned his shoulders to the ground, Uryuu could have sworn there was a mischievous twinkle in Nemu's eyes when the quincy protested that her breasts were too close. She may have even smirked when she rebuffed his protest, saying, "What is?", and then proceeded to smother him with those very ample breasts. Of course, many of those suppositions could be the product of an over-active imagination and the stress of the situation. It was entirely possible that his recollection of that moment was faulty. Uncharacteristically, however, a very small part of Uryuu hoped that it wasn't.

"You are quiet," Nemu stated, snapping Uryuu out of his reverie. He realized that she had been monitoring him as well. Hoping to not arouse her suspicions, Uryuu decided to engage Nemu in small talk.

"I was just wondering when you were able to find this location," Uryuu said.

"I found it while I was creating the watermelon-hollows," Nemu replied. "It is a small area on the other side of the promontory."

Uryuu paused briefly as he thought of a way to continue the small talk. Then he commented, "That was interesting use of your reiatsu, creating artificial hollows that could not be destroyed using direct attacks of spirit particles."

"It was an interesting use of your powers to destroy one of them," Nemu countered. "I didn't know you could cause the spirit particles to explode short of their target."

"It is an advanced quincy technique that I learned while training with my father," Uryuu explained. "In the Real World, matter tends to absorb some of the spirit energy. Sometimes in battle it is advantageous to remove obstacles between us and our enemy, so we cause the spirit particles to explode and the concussion damages matter more effectively."

"It was fortunate you still were able to participate. Unohana would have been disappointed if not everyone could have enjoyed the festivities."

"I'm not sure that Ichigo, Renji, and Ikkaku enjoyed the festivities as much as everyone else."

"They were all able to destroy one of the hollows each with Ikkaku's bokuto."

"Yes, but Yachiru single-handedly destroyed the next three after that."

"That's to be expected since she is Eleventh Division's fukutaicho and given her time with Kenpachi."

"I suspect that it's both her size and childish exuberance that make many forget about those facts."

"It is not wise to do so."

The small talk came to an end once the two rounded the rock promontory. Before them lay a small, secluded stretch of beach that was nearly surrounded on three sides by the rocky cliffs, and on the fourth by the ocean. Trees were perched up on the edges of the cliffs and were swaying lightly in the gentle breeze. Lastly, the moon was just beginning to rise up over the water.

Looking around, Uryuu asked, "This is the location?"

"Yes," Nemu replied.

Looking directly upwards, Uryuu commented, "I fail to see what is so special about this location."

"You will need to get down on the ground to see it," Nemu said.

Questioningly, Uryuu did as Nemu suggested and sat on the still warm beach sand. Nemu followed and kneeled behind him. After a few moments of gazing skyward, Uryuu again commented, "I still fail to see what is special about this location."

"You will need to lie back," Nemu said, but before Uryuu could respond, the female shinigami's hands were on his shoulders and she forcefully pulled him back into a lying position on the beach. She was now kneeling over him with her breasts only centimeters from his face. Uryuu gave a brief struggle until Nemu commanded him to lie still.

"No harm will come to you," she assured.

Staring up at her, Uryuu stammered, "B-But i-i-it's too close! Too close!"

"What is?" Nemu smirked quite blatantly.

Finally, Uryuu's mind caught up with him, and he understood the view that Nemu had intended to show him.

AUTHOR'S NOTE #2: A bokuto is a Japanese wooden sword, and although I'm not sure if Ikkaku actually carried one in this episode, he has in previous ones due to his penchant for preferring to have one near. I just presumed he would have had it here as well, and that he would have used it once Ichigo and Renji made him come to.

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