Chapter 1 - Questions
Another white night of Hueco Mundo had risen over the land of the hollows.
Orihime was tired, but not yet tired enough to go to bed. Also, worries did keep her awake. Worries about her friends.
,Ichigo… Uryu… Chad… Rukia… Renji… How are you, everyone? Please, be alright…'
The sound of the door opening ripped her out of her thoughts. As she turned, Ulquiorra, the Quarta Espada, stepped in.
„You again?"
„Why so unfriendly?", the Arrancar asked. „I came because I am preoccupied about you. Shouldn't that make you feel glad?"
„I only will be feeling glad when I know my friends are alright."
„I that case my news will make you happy. Your friends already had some fights, but everyone is still alive."
„Thank goodness…" Orihime let out a sigh of relief. Then, she frowned. „Why do you tell me this? I believe you, but why…"
„Sit down, woman."
The command came so aprupt, Orihime obeyed without hesitation. Ulquiorra stood to the window and looked out. After a brief moment of silence, he spoke.
„You mentioned that thing you humans got", he said. „That thing you called heart."
„I… did, yes." Orihime was not sure where this was going.
„Tell me more about it."
The red-haired girl was now utterly puzzled. ,What the…'
„Well, the heart… if one looks at it in terms of anatomy, it is the thing that enables us to breath. Without it, our blood wouldn't run through our body, providing it with oxygen, and we would suffocate. But there is something else about it…"
„What?"
„Once, humans believed it was the seat of our feelings. The heart starts to race if we're excited about something, be it good or bad, and it aches when we get hurt. That's what we call a broken heart. And it really does feel as if it was broken…"
„Hearts do ache?" The Espada turned to the girl. „How strange. I'm trying to imagine it, but i can't."
Orihime suddenly felt easy. She tried to resist, but despite her efforts, she gave a quick glance towards his chest, where the hole was.
,They don't have hearts… Arrancar have no hearts…'
No, Arrancar had no hearts. This was one thing Orihime had learned. When a hollow transformed into an Arrancar, their hearts got ripped out and they carried a hole somewhere on their bodies.
„I really wonder how having a heart feels like", Ulquiorra continued. „It seems… interesting. Yes, I actually wonder if it is the heart which lets you humans and Shinigami perform tasks almost impossible. Is it their hearts which brought your friends this far into Hueco Mundo?"
The girl listened with bewilderment to the Espada's words. What was with this guy? He almost sounded… human.
„In our world", she said to break the heavy silence, „they would call you a philosophist."
„A philosophist?" Ulquiorra repeated the word as if he tasted a dish he had never had before. „What is that?"
„Someone who asks questions. Questions about life, questions about the world, questions about humans. They ask why things are how they are, and try to find answers to them by thinking."
„So they only think, nothing else?", the Espada asked, a slight tone of bewilderment in his voice. „But in that case I am not one."
„Not all do just think", Orihime hurriedly added, fearing she would anger the Arrancar. „Some did other things too. There is Bruce Lee. He was a martial artist. But he also asked questions about life and the nature of things. Others were authors, like …."
„I see. A philosophist I am, then." Ulquiorra turned back to the window. He was silent for a second. Then he said: „ I really wonder what having a heart feels like."
Without any further word, he turned and left her cell.