Curiosity


Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Alice in Wonderland, but I enjoy both of them.


Ulquiorra entered the human woman's cell to find her frowning at the wall in confusion. This was abnormal, but he had to admit that little was quite "normal" with her. The Fraccion with him set the meal on the little table and left.

"Woman," Ulquiorra ordered. "Eat."

Orihime looked up at him and tilted her head, staring at him curiously. Before Ulquiorra could frown at her impudence however, she rose, came to her table, and began to eat without argument, her brow still creased in a little frown. Her quiet obedience surprised him somewhat, but he declined to comment on it. Such a thing would be beneath him. Instead, he chose to stare at the wall in a bored fashion, waiting impatiently for her to finish.

"Ulquiorra," the woman's voice interrupted him.

A cold stare moved to fix on her, but she didn't flinch.

"Do cats eat bats?" she asked.

Ulquiorra blinked. "What?" he asked.

Springing from her seat, the woman snatched up the book that Gin had been so imprudent as to give her earlier that day. Quickly she flipped through the pages.

"I was just wondering like Alice," she explained. "The story doesn't give an answer, so I don't really know. Here it is!"

With that, the woman began reading aloud, completely ignoring the fact that her small audience couldn't care less about some foolish human book.

"This is from when Alice fell down the rabbit hole: 'Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again. 'Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) 'I hope they'll remember her saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way, 'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, 'Do bats eat cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it didn't much matter which way she put it.'"

Looking up again with wide eyes, Orihime asked, "Do cats eat bats?"

Again, Ulquiorra could do nothing but stare. What absolute nonsense was the woman reading? And why would anyone care to find the answer to such a foolish question?

"Eat," he ordered simply, turning to leave the room. "I will return in one hour."

He heard the woman sigh in frustration as he left, but he paid it no mind. Continuing down the halls now, he struggled to make sense of what she had read to him. Was there any sense to be found? Were all human books so ... nonsensical?

"Yo," he heard ahead of himself.

Lifting his eyes, he met the cerulean gaze of the Sexta Espada.

"You look like Aizen just told you that you're ugly," sneered the other.

Ulquiorra's mildly confused expression didn't change. He stared at his fellow Espada, feeling now not only confusion but also a weird sense of unease.

"What?" growled the other, clearly getting annoyed with the silent stare.

"Grimmjow," said Ulquiorra hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"... do cats ... eat bats?"