CHAPTER 2


When Ulquiorra arrived at the laboratory, he laid the woman to the ground before starting to remove her clothes that had been previously shredded by Loly.

Orihime opened her eyes.

She was breathing hard, had a horrible pain and felt the cold crawl on her skin. Everything was blurry, but she could distinct a shadow above her. Neither the strength nor the idea to struggle, she focused on this form to better distinguish it.

"A shadow...? A person...?"

As her eyesight was improving slowly, she stretched her hand to the shadow before to feel the shape of a face and lose consciousness.

While untying the belt of her hakama, he felt her hand landing on his face. She was looking at him without really seeing him.
Was she blind? Or maybe delirious?
He left her underwear on and put her an oxygen mask before to dive her into a vertical pond.

Now, she looked like an experiment subject, one more guinea pig. Her legs and long hair were floating in that strange greenish liquid and bubbles, which indicated that she still breathed, were slowly rising to the surface.

Ulquiorra suddenly wondered why he had just saved the life of the woman who, in the end, was determined to not be one of his allies... And to begin with, was even an enemy, especially for repeatedly acting against him...

Also, he got back to the top of the dome where Ichigo was still waiting, in order to put an end to his life.


* Slice *
She saw him pierce her abdomen. She saw his face... It was clear since his mask had changed shape… She could barely recognize him but it was definitely him... She understood by looking at his eyes. A gaze both sad and completely stoic at the same time... And those green tears... They were bigger, but they were his own for sure.

She opened her eyes.

She felt light and quickly realized that it was because she was completely submerged. A mask allowed her to breathe underwater.

"Water? It is more dense and green than water" she thought.

She searched in this limited space a way to escape, but this oppressing feeling kept growing inside of her.

Too weakened to use her powers against the hard prison of glass where her fists knocked in vain, she panicked. Her sight soon became cloudy and her heart seemed to beat to explode.

*Ba-dump*


-You bastard! What did you do of Inoue?!

Ulquiorra didn't answer the question of the Shinigami. He didn't have to do so.
Because of his weakness and his stupid stubbornness in wanting to fight, this woman had to sacrifice herself a second time. Nevertheless, Ulquiorra was still responsible for watching over her and hadn't been ordered to kill nor to let her die...

His patience had more than ever come to its limit. He felt a desire, if not a need to kill him, to make him clearly understand that nothing he could do or think would help him to compete, and even less to surpass the power of the cuatro.

He was now holding him, suspended like a vulgar insect that is about to be tortured. He felt under his claw the tender and fragile bloodstained epidermal of this young human.

*Ba-dump*

Suddenly, he felt an incredible disturbance into the young woman's reiatsu. Almost as if it was someone else's...

"Impossible!"

Worried, he compelled himself to restrain his deadly aura. Now more than ever, he wished to draw the real despair on that insolent face, but... the woman, she, mustn't die.
Also... It wasn't like his prey could flee somewhere to hide itself. He dropped the now inert body to the ground and plunged again into the endless darkness.

While the woman was lying unconscious on the floor, he checked that she was still breathing and put his hand on her abdomen. Her injury had completely healed as if it had never existed. Ulquiorra thought that Szayel Aporro was still a useful "scientist", like this secret laboratory that he discovered by orders from Aizen.

He observed the pond that had burst in pieces. The walls initially ironclad-made, seemed to have surrendered to an enormous inner power, like a bomb that had exploded inside.
However, glass breakage aside, nothing seemed to show any possible system's failure... Everything was perfectly intact, if not the thick layer of glass.

Concerned for a moment, he finally convinced himself to not pursue his fight with Ichigo, preferring to bring the young woman in a safer place... Also, wishing to go unnoticed as possible, Ulquiorra resumed his original form and used his sonido to quietly go back to his apartment, under the dome of Las Noches.

Orihime, in her syncope, was caught by slight shivers indicating that her body still soaked was cold. Ulquiorra wrapped her in a big towel. Although her feminine attributes were important, she remained slender, almost weak. He could easily break her as she was frail.

"Why did she voluntarily thrown herself into this fight? How could she even think to protect something by being so vulnerable? Does she have a never-falling bravery? Or maybe she's also completely irresponsible?"


She was bordered with a soft warmth and surrounded by a comforting perfume... A very light fragrance that seemed familiar, although she couldn't remember where it came from...

She woke up.

She was lying in a large canopy bed.

Then, she understood why she felt so good. This bed was of such a mellow... She thought to be on a cloud! The warm and soft sheets that she felt on her skin were impregnated with the very same scent.

She took a glance around and understood in the lack of decoration that she had to be in a Las Noches's room... But whose room? And what was she doing in a bed, sleeping peacefully?

She sat up and recognized Ulquiorra who was sitting on the floor, half hidden behind the bed. His body had taken support on his Zanpakuto like an old man on a cane. It was hard to believe that someone like him could have been resting in such a way in front of her eyes.

"...! But it must be his room then... But what am I..."

Some brief scenes went back in her memory... A monster... that had pierced her... a shadow... who had 'locked' her in an aquarium... and that aquarium... how did she get out of it?

Worried, she laid her hand on her belly... nothing! Had this green thing healed her?!... And this monster... Now she clearly remembered, it was Ulquiorra! He had literally killed her and now, she was standing as if nothing had happened!
Plus, his appearance got back just the way she was used to see him.

She sat in front of him and observed him in silence. While still asleep, she found that he had a certain charm and wanted to touch him.

She hesitated.

She knew he was dangerous –she even tasted it- but yet, she couldn't resign herself to be wary of him, to fear him.

She barely touched his cheek that he pinned her down. She didn't have the time to see him come as he was fast. In an instant he was on top of her, holding firmly her wrists with his left hand and threatening her with his blade on the right one.
-Sorry! She said a little shocked.
-What were you doing?

She could feel her face changing color as she was embarrassed...
She noticed that his jacket, which was open, heralded a 4 tattooed on his chest.

He sheathed back his katana and gently stroked her belly. She shivered and felt her cheeks burning. She thought they had never been so close to each other. His eyes were of a bewitching green and he emerged a perfume so...

"This scent! That's it! It's the one I smelled into the-! What an idiot... of course since it is HIS bed... "

-What am I doing… here... and dressed like this...? She asked awkwardly.

At this sentence, he got up and helped her to do so.
-Because of your recklessness, you placed yourself between him and me... and I pierced you with my hand. He said before putting his hand on her once again, as if he was trying to wake up the fear inside her.
-But because Aizen-sama didn't order me to kill you, I would have gone against my mission if I'd let you die. I have unclothed you before plunging you into a regenerating bath.

"So it really was him, this shadow within the blur?"

-That is why you are half naked. You're here in my room, where no one will get you...
-So this... this monster up there... It was...
-Me.
-And Kurosaki-kun…?
-I still have plenty of time to make him fall into despair

Afraid only by reviewing the picture in her head, she felt tears flowing down her cheeks and her legs refused to move.

Was it the backlash of what she had witnessed? Was she… afraid of him now? Was she going to break, here, in front of him? Her and her delicate body…
- ... I'm sorry... I don't know why...

He knew it. Since he had seen her that night into the shinigami's room, he had understood. However, he remained puzzled. He couldn't get the reason why she loved him nor why that thought alone started to annoy him.
-I don't understand how humans can so blindly love... They are so stupid!

His voice had become much stronger, much angrier... As if she had made a mistake and he wanted to make her reflect on it.
-This fool will probably never understand why you sacrificed yourself! How can you still believe in him after all this?

As if his words had awakened her, she stood up, steady in front of him.
-Only a being with a heart can have feelings! How could you understand anything when you're not capable?

Ulquiorra wasn't really surprised to see her suddenly going against him. The human girl always objected his point of view.
But, overwhelmed by a feeling of frustration and without knowing how to respond to the arguments of the young woman, he grabbed her throat.

As his fingers slowly tightened on her neck so fragile, Orihime launched him a brazen look. Whatever he could do or say, never, she would let herself give in when her friends were involved.

The cuatro might well kill her, he wouldn't be satisfied for all that. He had long realized that her character counterbalanced her weakness in combat. Bored, He unclenched his fist to wipe her tears and stroked her lips with his thumb. This movement, which she didn't expect at all, left her speechless. He looked at her eyes one last time before to step back and leave the room.

"What… does that mean?!..." she wondered, puzzled.