Chapter 1: The Impending Arrival

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It was a seemingly ordinary day when she first met the man with the candy-floss hair.

Granz was his name, Szayelaporro Granz. From her research she knew he was some sort of scientist, as well as being the former octava Espada under Aizen.

This information should have been of no particular relevance to her (goodness knows she already had enough to keep track of, what with having a lazy fool of a man for a captain and all…), but it just so happened that this particular arrancar was to be temporarily under the supervision of the eighth squad while the leaders of Soul Society ironed out the last details of an agreement between them and the remaining espada.

The Winter War had ended not long before with Kurosaki Ichigo's defeat of Aizen. However, one of the other espada (she believed his name was Ulquiorra) had been instrumental in bringing about this defeat, and this fact coupled with other evidence gathered had made Soul Society reconsider its position on what was to be done about the erstwhile top servants of Aizen.

Initially, the thinking had been that it was too much of a risk to let them live, particularly with Soul Society being as vulnerable as it was following the injuries, losses, and damages sustained in the war. The trouble was, those same injuries and losses also meant it might be well-nigh impossible to carry out the extermination without further loss of life, and Soul Society could not afford to lose any more highly-ranked Soul Reapers.

In the end, it was Urahara Kisuke who helped create an acceptable solution. Based on his observations and data, he strongly felt that it should be possible to "rehabilitate" the most powerful arrancars without having to kill them. After all, they were very much like the Visoreds – they just came from the opposite side of the equation, so to speak! *cue deployment of that stupid fan for dramatic effect*.

The fact that one of the espada (again, Ulquiorra) seemed to have regained his heart supported the shopkeeper's assertions, so the leaders agreed it was worth trying - or at the very least decided that it was better to have these powerful beings in Soul Society under constant surveillance, rather than getting up to who-knows-what in Hueco Mundo.

So that was that, really, and whether or not she agreed with the leaders' decision it seemed that a majority of the espada were now here in their lives to stay.

All of which brought her to her present situation.

For the agreement to be made official it had been decided that all of the arrancars, shinigami, and other people involved in it must be present at the time it was read and ratified. This was to ensure that everyone knew what the rules and regulations were, and what the consequences would be for breaking them. It would also provide an opportunity for questions from both sides to be answered.

It was really quite sensible, but the upshot of this arrangement was that their former (and, she couldn't help but think, possibly current) enemies needed to be properly supervised in the interim. At least until their official…guardians?...were announced.

For now they had been distributed around the various squads on the basis of whoever would agree to take them. (There were some notable exceptions, of course. Kurotsuchi-taicho had been denied in his request to "look after" all…some?...one!...any!?...please!? of the arrancar.)

Her own captain had graciously volunteered to keep an eye on one of them, but of course it was really herself who would end up doing it. (Lazy, skirt-chasing, drunken, annoying…oh well, what was new.)

At least she knew she could count on him to step in and take care of it if this glorified hollow snapped and started trying to eat people or something. She would just have to survive the situation until her Taichou got there.

Come to think of it, she was rather puzzled as to why he had volunteered for this arrancar. Wouldn't he have preferred one (or all) of the females?

The question resolved itself as soon as it had been asked, however. Most likely her Taichou had requested one of the women, but had been promptly shot down by Yamamoto-sotaichou. (After all, if this experiment had even a prayer of working, a good start would be to keep the female arrancars strictly away from the esteemed captain of the eighth. Particularly that proud-looking blonde…)

Apparently Kyoraku-taichou had then gone with the next stupid idea to pop into his head, which word-for-word as related to her had been "Well, I don't know…he had the same number as our company so I thought it would be a fun idea to get to know him! You know…fellow eights and all? Wait, Nanao-chan! Hear me out! There's no call for the book again! Ow!"

She supposed it could have been worse, though. There was no way she could have dealt with that crude, blue-haired loudmouth, or even worse the tall, skinny, creepy guy whose only expressions seemed to be "ticked", "sullen", or "crazed". She pitied the division that got either of those two. Her preference (aside from none of them) would have been the solemn-looking Ulquiorra, but he apparently was staying with the sixth division since Inoue-san was friends with the Kuchikis.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, she glanced at the gate once again.

She was currently awaiting the arrival of her new charge (she might as well think of him that way, since that was reality, despite all Kyoraku-taicho's protestations to the contrary…).

Granz was scheduled to be dropped off at the barracks in about ten minutes, and she wanted to be sure she was present when he arrived. Honestly, she didn't quite know what to expect of him.

I mean, yes, she had seen him when the arrancar group first arrived in Seretei. She supposed even among that…unique…group of people a man with pink hair was bound to stand out at least a little. In terms of who he was as person, though, the only thing she really had to go on was the little bit she had heard from Abarai-fukutaicho, which frankly wasn't too promising. She had also heard a rumor that Granz and Urahara-san had hit it off quite well, which if it was true still might or might not be a good thing.

Oh well, she supposed she would be finding out what sort of person this Granz was soon enough.

.-.-.-.

Hey everyone, new author AvocetsInFlight here, and I have to say I NEVER thought that I would be one to write fanfiction. Ever.

I mean, sure, I've read some (and often cringed at the lack of…writing skill, shall we say?), but I never felt inspired to write my own.

Until now. This idea found me and Would. Not. Let. Go. until it had been written.

So here it is! I present to you…SzayNao! (Otherwise known as Szayel X Nanao.)

This is one of my crack pairings that I've never seen anyone else do before. Most likely very few people will agree with me on it, but that's okay. I just wanted to have fun writing a previously unwritten-for pairing. (At least, as far as I know...)

Updates will likely be rather slow, but I will do my level best to actually finish this story. However, reviews do tend to inspire me to get that next chapter done.

Finally, I do have a series of one-shots kicking around in my head, but as for any other stories like this one...we'll just have to wait and see.

If you've read this far, I sincerely thank you.