Summary: Ulquiorra hates it when someone interrupts his daily routine.

Today's going to be a great day, Orihime thought as she left her apartment for school. The weather was just beginning to cool, but it wasn't too chilly yet and the day was bright and sunny. She was looking forward to her classes and seeing her friends and most importantly, giving a certain someone something special. She checked her bag for the umpteenth time to make sure she hadn't forgotten it. She needn't have worried. The manga Kurosaki-kun wanted to borrow was still there. She knew it probably wouldn't lead to anything, but she couldn't help fantasizing as she walked to school.

"Orihime-chan," He drawled as he leaned over her, his handsome face sparkling. "That manga you loaned me was fantastic. Do you want to come back to my house and talk about it? It will be just the two of us, in my room, all alone. If that's OK with you?"

She put both hands over her burning face. She was so naughty to think of things like that! Suddenly, she saw something that drew her out of her reverie. Further down the sidewalk, a gray striped alley cat had caught a bird and was wrestling it into submission. The poor thing struggled mightily, beating its wings as it trilled and shrieked in terror!

"Hey, stop that!" Orihime yelled as she ran towards the cat. "Let that bird go!"

Startled, the cat dropped its prey and ran off down an alley. Orihime let it go and ran up to the bird. The injured creature fluttered on the ground, badly wounded.

"You poor little thing." Orihime cooed as she picked it up stroking its feathers. It probably didn't have long to live. She couldn't blame the cat for following its instincts. Still, at least she could do something for the bird.

"Sōten Kisshun" She whispered. "I reject."

A tiny triangular shield formed over the bird in her hand. With such a small creature, her immense power healed it in a matter of seconds. When she dissolved her healing field, it was like the bird had never been harmed. It stood up on her palm, tilted its head this way and that to get a good look at its benefactor, then flew away into the heavens. Orhime laughed and clapped her hands as she watched it go. This was definitely an omen. Today was going to be a great day.

And so Orihime walked her way to school in a great mood, completely oblivious to the fact that she was being watched.

"So that's her?" Takume Kiyoshi asked.

"Yeah, that's her aniki." Inagawa Masura replied from the driver's seat. "Inoue Orihime. What do you think?"

The two men watched from inside a vintage powder blue 1959 Cadillac Eldorado as they drove slowly down the street following the girl from behind. Kiyoshi had to agree, she was a real looker all right. Even from the back, her hourglass shape was mesmerizing, her wide hips swaying with every step making her school girl miniskirt switch back and forth hypnotically. The glimpses he'd caught of her front were even better.

"Oh yeah, she'll do. She'll do just fine. You're sure she has nobody who'll miss her?" He pressed his colleague.

"Nobody." Masura insisted. "She lives all by herself. I found out an aunt of her pays her rent and stuff as long as she keeps her grades up. She has no ties to her parents and the rest of her family wants nothing to do with her. She's been all by herself since her brother died."

"How sad." Kiyoshi observed. "Lucky for her, we're going to give her a whole new family."

Both men chuckled cruelly at his joke. The yakuza would find her a home all right. Their brothels and hostess clubs always needed fresh blood. A busty beauty like this one would be a good money maker while she lasted. He even had an idea where he'd place her. She'd make for a top notch attraction at one of the soaplands he owned in a different prefecture.

"So how are we going to pick her up?"

Masura was a small time shatei, a "little brother" in the organization. He was just getting his start working his way up the family ladder. Karakura was his district, so it was up to him to show his kyodai, his big brother, around his turf.

"There's a place she walks past every morning." He explained. "It's a block with pachinko parlors and arcades. They're all closed this early. There's not a lot of residential buildings nearby either. We can grab her there."

"Somebody could still see us." Kiyoshi pointed out.

"I already thought of that." Masura replied. "We lure her into an alley out of sight from the main street, like ask her for directions or something. Once we got her out of the way, I use this."

He pulled something out of his jacket pocket and held it up for Kiyoshi to see. It was a capped syringe filled with a clear fluid.

"In a few seconds, she won't be in any condition to resist. We can throw her in the car with no fuss and take her to the club."

Kiyoshi nodded in approval. Once they got her into the back room of their hangout, she would never leave their clutches again.

"So you've already picked out the spot?"

Masura nodded. "Yeah, aniki. It's wide enough to park the car and completely out of sight. We'll be there in a few minutes."

They sped up as Masura hit the gas on their way to their ambush site, the old, lovingly maintained eight cylinder engine chugging smoothly. Kiyoshi lowered his sunglasses and watched her in the rearview mirror as they passed. She looked happy and carefree and innocent. He almost felt bad he was going to take all that away.

The men got out of the car, closing the doors, and adjusting their suit jackets.

"This is how we're going to do it." Kiyoshi directed. "I'll hang out here on the corner. When she walks past, I'll talk to her and lure her over to the car. You get behind her and hit her with the stuff. I'll cover her mouth so she doesn't scream. Once she's under, we put her in the back seat and off we go."

Masura nodded, ignoring the fact that it had been his plan in the first place.

"Sounds good, aniki." He agreed. "And when this is over, do you think I'll get something out of it? A little recognition maybe?"

Kiyoshi's mouth hardened into a line. Masura was being a little presumptuous. On the other hand, he was prompt with his payments and was showing good initiative. He had good reason to ask for a little reward. He nodded.

"Maybe. I'll be sure to mention this to the boss, I promise you."

Masura grinned. "Thanks, aniki. I won't forget this."

Kiyoshi grunted. "Don't mention it. We still have to pull this off first. Let's get ready."

Kiyoshi put his back against the wall right where he would be able to see the girl as she passed by. Masura stood behind him, lighting up a cigarette. He let his mind wander a little while they waited. Breaking in a new girl was always fun. It would take days to totally break them down, making them too afraid and ashamed to seek help, making them dependant on drugs, making them totally subservient to their new masters will. He could imagine his new toy crying and begging for mercy before him. He was going to enjoy every second of it.

Suddenly, something landed on his cheek. Something wet. He touched the spot on his face and brought his fingers before his eyes. They had been stained red by whatever it was.

"Masura, what the hell is…"

Turning his head, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Masura was unable to talk. Masura would soon be unable to do anything. He hung suspended in mid air with a hole in his throat! His mouth was opening and closing like a fish as he reflexively struggled to breathe. Bloody foam spewed from his mouth. He was clearly about to die. But what was killing him? What was keeping him off the ground?

Whatever it was, it flung Masura's body several meters through the air to land in a boneless heap on the pavement. Growling curses, Kiyoshi ripped his Glock 9 millimeter from his shoulder holster preparing to defend himself. But against what? He couldn't see anyone or anything. As far as he could tell, there was nothing in that alley but him and Masura's dead body. He turned around in circles again and again, beginning to panic, ready to fire at the merest hint of an attack.

He never got a single shot off. The pistol dropped from his nerveless fingers as his body rose into the air, suspended by something that had plunged into his throat, killing him just as easily at it did Masura. His last conscious thought was complete bafflement at what was happening.

And then he was aware again. He was lying on the ground looking up at his body dangling limp and lifeless in the air. Impossible. Impossible! If he was on the ground, how could he be seeing himself? As his mind struggled with these contradictory facts, he realized there was more to see than just his dangling body. He could see now who killed him. His body was impaled on the hand of a strange pale man all dressed in odd white clothing. He threw Kiyoshi's body against the wall with a sickening splat. He looked at his hand, dripping with blood and gore with a look of mild distaste.

"Trash." He murmured. Whipping his hand through the air faster than the eye could see, the blood flew from the man's hand, pulled away by centrifugal force to splash against Kiyoshi's pale corpse. When he was done, his hand was completely clean. There was no blood on his skin, no stain at all on his immaculate white sleeve to show he had just killed two men bare handed. He casually put his hand in his pocket.

"Aniki!" Masura yelled from behind him. "Aniki, what happened?"

Kiyoshi picked himself off the ground and ran to his comrade, relieved that he still had backup.

"Masura, you're all right?"

"I don't know, aniki." Masura replied, clearly about to lose it. "Look!"

He pointed to the ground to his own clearly dead body.

"And what is this?"

Reaching for his chest, he held up a length of broken chain. It was bolted right on his chest. He began pulling on it frantically.

"I can't get it off, aniki. I can't get it off!"

Looking down, Kiyoshi saw he had one as well. He pulled on it. It hurt. What the hell was going on?

"You!" He shouted as he pointed at the strange man. "You did this to us! Do you have any idea who we are? We're important men in this town. You're in a lot of trouble now, you bastard! What the hell did you do?"

"You're dead." The man calmly replied. "I killed you. It's that simple"

"You don't know who you're messing with." Kiyoshi warned. "We're Yoshiwara clan. There's nowhere you can go to escape our vengeance."

"Well you're certainly welcome to try." The man drily retorted.

"Who are you?" Masura cried. "What do you want from us?"

"I don't give out my name to trash." He answered. "As for what I want, I want you to leave the woman alone. I watch her walk to school in the mornings. I do not want her schedule disrupted. I think I have accomplished this goal. All that remains now is to dispose of what's left of you."

He began to walk towards them, green eyes focused on his prey like a hawks under his dark hair and strange, skull-like helmet. The two yakuza men felt fear tear into their guts. They wanted to run, but felt rooted to the ground. The man approaching them had made no overtly threatening gestures. He didn't seem to be preparing for an attack. He hadn't even taken his hands out of his pockets. But somehow, he was transformed. There was an aura around him that shifted and swirled. It suggested things, dark things, to the colorless shades that used to be gangsters. They could make out the billowing shadows of great leathery wings, the suggestions of sharp rending claws, the outlines of cruel pointed teeth. Then suddenly, it was gone. The man stopped. He tilted his head, as if hearing something from far away.

"Interesting." He said. "You must have been very bad men indeed. They are coming for you."

"Who?" Masura blubbered. "Who's coming for us?"

Behind them a mighty gust of wind nearly knocked them off their feet. Turning around, they saw a huge gateway appear suspended in the air. It seemed to be a tear in reality, ripping aside the fabric of the real world to assert its existence. On its dark, gnarled doors, two skeletons were embossed, positioned in such a way as to appear to be pulling the gate open. Slowly, the doors slid apart revealing a world of fire and smoke.

"What the hell is that?" Kiyoshi demanded.

He received no answer. Instead, a huge arm lashed out from the gate with a barbed spear, skewering Masura's gut and snatching him off the ground. He desperately tried to cling to Kiyoshi.

"Aniki!" He screamed. "Don't let them take me! Aniki!"

Kiyoshi shook him off and tried to back away. He stumbled and fell, staring in horror as Masura was dragged screaming through the gate.

"What is that?!" Kiyoshi bellowed at the man.

The stranger sighed. "If you must know, it is the gateway to hell."

Kiyoshi had never been a spiritual man. He'd always believed nothing was real unless you could put your hand on it. There was no soul, no afterlife and certainly no punishment for your sins. He wouldn't believe in any of that nonsense now except he was staring at the gateway to an infinity of torment. He had all eternity stretching before him to ponder spiritual matters while demons tore at his flesh.

"They're not going to get me." Kiyoshi asserted. "I'm not going to let them take me too!"

Rising to his feet, he ran as fast as he could. He almost made it to the street. An agonizing pain lashed up from his leg sending him face down on the ground. He saw a hook attached to a chain buried deep into his calf pulling him backwards.

"No!" He screamed. "No! NOOO!"

He scrambled and crawled as hard as he could to escape. More chains whipped out from the gate to rip into his body bringing excruciating pain and increasing the force pulling him towards the gate. He clawed at the ground even as he was being dragged backwards. He managed to wedge his ethereal fingers into a crack in the asphalt.

"Help me!" He pleaded. "Help me man! I don't want to go to hell!"

The man watched him struggle with a look of complete indifference, face unnaturally calm, hands still in his pockets. He could just as easily been waiting for the bus.

"Your fate was sealed the moment you targeted the woman." He said.

Kiyoshi was ripped from his meager handhold on the pavement and flung backward towards the gate. His scream was cut short by the spear plunging through his back. He disappeared behind the gates as the spear was pulled back. The thing holding the spear peered out at the real world. Its great eye eventually saw Ulquiorra. It stared at him, curious and confused. The arrancar stared back calmly, confidently. Eventually, the gates slammed shut.

That was odd, Orihime thought as she passed by the shuttered pachinko parlor. She'd passed this way every morning on her way to school for years now, but for some reason, she was getting a strange vibe from somewhere nearby. It was very faint. It was both strange and familiar in a way. It had a hint of the other worlds, including something she had never experienced before. Some of it reminded her of Hueco Mundo. Checking her hairpins, she reached outwards with her senses looking for a source. The feeling seemed to be coming from an alley to her right.

She entered with caution, ready to defend herself or flee if necessary. There was nothing she could see out of the ordinary. There were a few dumpsters and recycle bins. There was some loose trash and leaves blowing around on the ground. There was an old, classic Cadillac with huge tailfins covered in chrome. Didn't she see that car before? Yes, she remembered seeing the big blue behemoth passing her on the way to school earlier that morning. There had been two men wearing suits and sunglasses riding in it. The car was empty now. The driver and his passenger were not around. They'd probably left it there, then walked to a nearby diner for breakfast or something. There seemed to be nothing else unusual in the alley at all. Even the strange vibrations evaporated from the morning air. It was just a normal alley, like any other. Maybe she'd made a mistake? Maybe she was imagining things? Ah well, there was no harm in checking.

And so Orihime continued on her way to school, completely oblivious to the fact that she was being watched.