Summary: Her world destroyed and friends killed, she should've died. But by a cruel twist of fate, a demon pulls her back from the brink of death. The question now is whether she is saved or damned. AU.
This is my first fanfiction ever and English isn't my first language. I don't know if anyone will read this, but if you notice a mistake, please inform me of such so that I can improve my English. Thank you.
Alternative Universe: The arrancars are demons, superhuman beings. The shinigami are, ironically, humans. That's the gist of this world. The setting is in ancient Japanese times, I suppose.
Thank you for reading.
A thin, pale demon stretched his body out after being out of action for so long. His long fingers stroked through his hair in attempt to get the black locks out of his line of vision. Two long teal lines were drawn down from his face as if he were crying, but everyone who knew him, knew that he never showed any emotion. His green eyes were full of despair and a broken helmet composed of bone sat on the left side of his head, as if showing that he was a warrior.
"Ulquiorra", a brown-haired man called to him. It was Sosuke Aizen, the King of Demons, although he was no demon himself. The demons obeyed him because he had power that was beyond most humans.
"Yes, Aizen-sama?"
"Check down below."
"Yes, Aizen-sama."
Ulquiorra, the fourth strongest demon in ranking, flew down to the rubble below of what remained of the destroyed city. It had pleased Aizen-sama that his demons had destroyed his former hometown. They had completely obliterated the city yesterday, but there was a chance that some had survived. There were bodies strewn about with guts and blood splayed on the cracked pavement and splintered wood. The pale demon closed his eyes slowly, listening for a heartbeat anywhere. In a quick flash, he disappeared and reappeared in front of a dying purple-haired man.
"Are you still alive?" Ulquiorra looked down at the man with a level look.
"What are you?" The purple-haired man reached out towards the demon slowly. His hand was covered in his own blood and as he reached, his hand started to tremble.
"A demon", he replied as he twisted the man's head to the side roughly. The man lay still, never to rise again, his arm still outstretched. Ulquiorra closed his eyes again listening for any other heartbeats. The ruined city seemed to be devoid of life. But suddenly, he sensed a faint heartbeat far away at the edges of the city.
Two bursts of speed later, the pale demon found the barely alive person. It was a short and slender female who was unconscious. The demon began to reach down to kill her, but he suddenly stopped.
The scent of her blood was...different...from any blood he had split before. Was she a lesser demon? He flipped her onto her back examining her face. Ulquiorra took his long, pale hand and examined her equally pale hand. She didn't have the mark of a demon, so she was undoubtedly human.
Suddenly, the demon reached out with two long digits and dipped them into her blood. As he lifted the bloodstained fingers towards his face, he flicked out his tongue cautiously, just tasting the blood. It was metallic in taste, as blood always was, but it was different. He couldn't explain it.
"Ulquiorra?"
The pale demon turned around in surprise, no one had been able to sneak up on him before, especially not someone as large as Yammy. The giant demon, Yammy, repeated his name, "Ulquiorra?"
"What is it?"
"What's taking so long? Aizen is getting impatient."
"She's still alive", the pale demon said gesturing towards the girl on the ground.
Yammy yawned, "Kill her then."
He hesitated for a moment, not knowing why.
"Just kill her, Ulquiorra."
Ulquiorra leaned down and on an instinctive urge, he picked the barely breathing girl up and began to unfold his wings.
"What are you doing?" Yammy asked, his curiousity piqued as Ulquiorra did something he had never done before. The pale demon never showed emotion or attachment. This was new.
"Hey, are you listening to me?"
As he flew up towards Aizen-sama with the girl in his arms, the thin, pale demon answered, "No, I'm not."
The group of demons returned to their palace, Las Noches, with trails of blood showing the path that they took.
"Ulquiorra", Aizen spoke quietly. "Why have you brought this girl back with you?"
"I wish to keep her."
"And we all thought you were asexual", Nnoitra, a tall lanky demon, laughed crudely.
"Not like that", Ulquiorra said, "I just want to see her pain."
"You would get off on something like that", Nnoitra answered with a leering smile. Ulquiorra turned his head slowly towards Nnoitra with his impassive gaze. The look struck fear in the hearts of all those wise enough to fear pain and death. But Nnoitra simply smiled.
Aizen merely raised a hand to stop any fight that may have started, "That's fine, Ulquiorra, you can keep her. It doesn't really matter, she's only human."
"Thank you, Aizen-sama."
Three days later, the humans that worked in the Las Noches hospital informed Ulquiorra that the girl had awoken. The pale demon strode slowly to the hospital room where she was being kept. He didn't know what had possessed him to rescue her from the brink of death, but it probably had something to do with her blood.
"I see you're awake", Ulquiorra spoke quietly to the girl on the bed. He hadn't gotten a good look at her until now. She was skinnier than him, if that was at all possible, with pale skin and medium length dark hair. Bandages were wrapped around her head and shoulder. But what really surprised him was her sharp purple eyes.
"What are you?" Instinctively, the human girl drew away from him with a vague hint of fear in her eyes. Ulquiorra looked at her, wondering if he had had a moment of foolishness when he decided to keep her alive. There was still time to kill her now. A blink of an eye later and she could be dead.
"A demon", he replied, waiting for the signature reaction to that statement. The girl blinked once and her eyes widened with disgust, fear and hatred.
"Were you one of the demons that destroyed Sereitei?" Her sharp eyes turned on him with anguish and hate.
"I helped destroy it", Ulquiorra answered slowly, a little surprised to see that she was not entirely afraid of him.
The girl's hand clenched tightly into a fist, "Why am I still alive?"
"Because I brought you here", the demon answered stoically, reminding her of someone else.
"Why did you do that?" The girl's voice had lowered to a dangerous tone, but Ulquiorra knew that she was as powerless as the rest of the human race.
"Because I wanted to."
SLAP!
Ulquiorra's expression didn't change even as his head had been turned the other way. He could feel the warmth of the imprint her hand had left on his cheek.
"You demons play God in the matters of living and dying as if we were toys!" The girl was screaming at him now. "You all don't care!!!"
She reached out to slap again, but this time, he caught her arm in a painful grip. The girl cried out as he almost crushed her bones. With his other hand, he reached up and took out his left eyeball. Eyes widening, the girl started to scream in true panic. He crushed the eyeball in his hand showing the memories of the destruction of Sereitei.
The girl thrashed around trying to get away from the memories, but his grip on her arm was tight. She was forced to relive every scream, every death, every drop of blood that he remembered. Her purple eyes were contracting in fear now. She watched as her fellow humans and friends were killed brutally under his sword and claws. She screamed out her friend's and family's names. Finally it ended, with an image of her lying seemingly lifeless on the ground. The girl screamed and screamed even as he let go of her arm.
"We play God because we have the power too", Ulquiorra's voice rang out.
The girl shirked away from him looking at him now as if she were looking at a monster and she wasn't far off from the truth. The apathetic demon placed a hand on her bony shoulder, looked her straight in the eyes, and asked, "Do you understand?"
Then he left the room, leaving her shaking in fear behind.
A tall grey-haired nurse came bustling over to her with bandages and medicine.
"Oh poor thing", she whimpered to the thin girl lying on the bed. "Do you have a name?"
The girl quaked violently and whispered, "Kuchiki Rukia."
Again, thank you for reading. I plan on making this a multi-chapter story, but it is really to test my skills. If you find this interesting please leave a review.