A/N I was planning to release this story on Wednesday (July 8, 2015), but since it is the celebration of the founding of our country, I though that it would be fun to post this chapter earlier. For this chapter, I feel that I could have done this chapter better; I revised it (twice) and edited it, but I feel that it can be improved. Anyways, enjoy!

Ch. 2 Explicación

The upward motion of the elevator stopped suddenly, and the elevator doors opened on the 20th floor, presenting a long, well-lit hallway with some shadow spot where the lights couldn't reach. The hallway had a red carpeting on the floor, and the walls had redwood planks coated with plastic to give off a shine when light hits upon it. It did look as if Easter is a successful business to Ulquiorra to have such decorations on the floors and walls. Tsukumo took a step out of the elevator and Ulquiorra was not far behind. The hallway was a considerable size; it was not Las Noches big, but big enough that they can hear their own footsteps echo off the walls. There was no conversation between the two of them because Tsukumo felt uneasy around Ulquiorra. He gave off some bad vibe that he did not like, and it stopped from making any small conversation. Plus, Ulquiorra does not look like the type of person who enjoys small talk. Tsukumo finally stopped at the location of interest. He stopped in front of a big, oak double door with intricate designs on them. Beside the doors, there was a sign that read "Director's office." Tsukumo took a deep breath and told Ulquiorra to stay where he was until he gave him the okay to enter. He carefully cracked the doors open to make sure that he didn't disturb the director if he was doing something important, but it was a waste of time because the doors made a horrible screeching sound. Apparently, one is suppose to open these types of doors at a moderate speed or else he will create a screeching sound the slower the door opens. Tsukumo can not catch a break.

"Director," Tsukumo stated quietly. "I have brought the person you wanted to see."

"Very good, Tsukumo. Have him come in and leave us be." the director replied.

Tsukumo walked out of the room and stepped aside, and extended his right arm in a downward diagonal direction, showing him to enter. Ulquiorra entered, the door closed shut, and Tsukumo headed back to his lab with Manta and Chichimura to prepare for the director's wrath for letting an X-egg escape.

The director's office had at the very other end of the room a wall-sized window that allowed moonlight to traverse it, providing enough light to see. The room still had a shadow cast upon it, so only half the room was showered with moonlight. On the dark side, only Ulquiorra was there. On the other side, a desk and three chairs persisted. Two on the front side of the desk, and a big, revolving, comfy chair on the opposite before to the window wall. The desk itself only had a computer with a keyboard, a desk lamp, and a cup full of pens. The revolving chair had its back toward Ulquiorra, signifying that the person on it is staring out the window, having a view of a foggy city with bright lights shining through the mist. These lights almost acted like they were beacons when camouflaged by the fog.

The chair slowly revolved around and revealed the figure hiding behind the chair.

This person looked like he was in his mid 40's from his skin starting to wrinkle up. This showed that he has worked for a very long time and intends to continue working until probably his death. He wore a professional business suit, and from the looks of it, it may be a from something only people with opulence can obtain. This tiny detail may mean nothing to anybody, but to Ulquiorra, it showed that he is willing to do what it takes to ensure that business has been done-a hard worker. The expression on his face was one of a critical thinker, and had a frown. Ulquiorra could see that this man was analyzing him, studying him as to find anything that might be helpful to him, or harmful to Ulquiorra. He could tell this because he, too , was studying the person in front of him. This man controlled scientist and had business with things that Ulquiorra considers helpful because it dealt with the supernatural.

The director was intrigued by the person in front of him. He wore some of the strangest clothing he has ever seen. This told the director that he may be some kind of cosplayer, but no cosplayer can catch an egg with his bare hands at a moment's notice. Also, it reminded him of the Guardians, and how they go into strange outfits to gain power when they perform their character transformations. Nevertheless, there was something to him that kept gnawing at the director, something that kept on telling him that he was not normal. The director placed his elbows on the table and placed his fingers in between the opening in the other hand to cover his mouth.

"Welcome to Easter." he said. "I am Easter's director, Kazuomi Hoshina, and I would like to thank you for cleaning up my subordinates' mess earlier by capturing that X-egg for them. I swear, they can be idiots most of the time and barely useful." he grunted.

Ulquiorra walked out of the shadows, entering the moonlit side of the office. He was unfazed by the director's welcome, so he stood silent to be polite so he can let out his frustration. They waited there for ten seconds until Ulquiorra voiced in his thoughts.

"I can understand your frustrations about your subordinates, but that is not the reason why I agreed to come. I came here to understand the situation at hand and receive answers about this world."

The tone of his voice somewhat offended the director. He could not believe someone-dressed like a cosplayer-was speaking to him in that tone, but he let it go because he was quite interested in this person. The clothing, the demeanor, they both appealed to the director.

"All right, but first, what is your name?" he asked. "I prefer to talk to people with a name."

"Ulquiorra Cifer." he responded.

"Ulquiorra Cifer. All right. I want to discuss something you said earlier. 'Receive answers about this world.' Do you mind elaborating what you meant?" The director leaned back in his chair and waited patiently for Ulquiorra to respond.

That response did answer some of the questions Ulquiorra had. Just by the director's questioning of his origins, it told him that he and probably everybody else were unaware of the other realms that existed. He studied him some more, and his analysis revealed that there was a possibility that he was in a different human realm; one that is not connected to the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. If this human realm was connected, then both the Soul Society's Research and Development and Szayelaporro Granz, the eighth Espada and researcher for Aizen, would have records of these X-eggs, and Ulquiorra would have read up on them. Ulquiorra's witz was quite superior if he was able to understand that there was a chance that he was in a different human realm.

"I am not from this world. I reside in a world called Hueco Mundo." Ulquiorra stated.

"Hueco Mundo. What is that? I have never heard of it." The director couldn't help but believe that this world he's from was somehow related to Spain or Mexico because the name of this place did sound like it utilized the Spanish language.

Ulquiorra took a deep breath, and let his breath escape slowly. He pulled his right hand from his pocket and slowly raised it to his right eye. His fingers plunged into his socket, causing the director to gasp and stand up straight more in his chair at the gruesome scene he had to witness. It was made even more horrendous when the squishy sounds of a hands digging into an eye socket attacked the director's ears.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted, believing that this person was insane if he was going to rip his own eye from his socket.

A large "pluck" emanated when Ulquiorra ripped out his own eye, holding it in front of the director, with his eyes wide. The director flinched when he saw Ulquiorra's hand clench hard and fast, causing the eyeball to explode. Instead of blood and gore dripping from his hand as one might expect, sparkly dust instead scattered into the air. The director looked about the room, seeing the sparkling dust expand to the entire volume of the semi-dark office.

An image of a desert landscape filled with white sand and lifeless sticks for trees with a crescent-shape moon and a black background for the sky formed in the director's head.

"This is Hueco Mundo; the land of the hollows. It consist of white, endless sand as far as the eye can see. It also has a moon that never sets or rises, causing it to always be night time there." The director amazed at this image in his head that magically generated when the sparkling dust came in contact with him. First, there was another world, but what came to be more of a surprise was the fact that a lifeless wasteland had the potential to harbor life.

"Land of the Hollows. You say that as if I know what a hollow is. Tell me, what is a hollow?" interjected the director.

A picture of a fox-shaped monster with a white mask appeared in the director's mind. This monster had razor-sharp claws protruding from its paws. It had a long, slender tail with a spiked ball at the end. Its fangs were black with streaks of red scattered around. Its entire body was covered in a black fur. But the most-intriguing aspect of this monster was the hole located right in the middle of its chest.

"This is a hollow; a fallen human soul who could not find salvation from this world, thus turning into this fox-like monster before you. One can recognize a hollow by its white mask and hole located in the center of its chest." The image then faded into a human-shaped silhouetted figure, but a white hole persisted right in the middle of the chest.

"The hole in a hollow's chest is a representation that the heart has been removed and only raw instinct is left. It is a hollow's curse to roam around between Hueco Mundo and the human realm in search of other souls to devour to satisfy its insatiable hunger. In other words, it must feed in order to fill the bottomless void created when becoming a hollow." Soon, the image in the directors minds faded and nothing else appeared, signifying that Ulquiorra was finished with his explanation; however, the director felt that the information shared with him was only a fraction of the knowledge, meaning that there was other vital information that Ulquiorra was withholding from him. Nevertheless, that was a lot and new information learned by the director, so he took a minute to process all of it. Anyone else would have thought that this man before him was crazy, but since the director had the privilege to learn from Ulquiorra's memories by extracting his own eye from his socket and crushing it into a dust to make the director see his memories, it would make him insane not to believe in these monsters. The sparkling dust began to fade from the room. The next thing was a surprise to the director. He saw the reformation of Ulquiorra's destroyed eye begin. Soon, his lost eye was restored, showing that he had regenerative abilities to the director. The director's eyes met with Ulquiorra's.

"If there are monsters like that roaming around, then what does that make you? You may look human, but clearly you are not human if you can take your eyeball out and regenerate it at a surprising speed?" the director pointed out.

Ulquiorra took his left hand and unzipped his coat. There lied a perfect circular hole right in the middle of his upper chest. The director gasped. He has a hole in his chest, making him a hollow, but he does not look like the fox-monster I saw earlier.

"I will explain the hole and why I do not look like the hollows seen some other time. I have shared with you what I am, and now, it is your turn to answer my questions, and it starts with what an X-egg is." Ulquiorra retorted.

Silence remained in the room because the director wanted to know more, but it would be unfair for only him to explain what he is. The director sighed.

"Very well, but first let me explain to you what a heart's egg is." Ulquiorra remained motionless. "Inside the hearts of children and adults, there lies an egg. This egg is fueled by the hopes and dreams of the child. Normal people cannot see this egg, and children also cannot see them; however, there are those that give birth to their heart's egg, then the egg will hatch, allowing for the child to see other heart's eggs. Only children will give birth to a heart's egg; adults cannot." He saw that Ulquiorra's expression has not changed; he must not find it interesting or important, but in actuality, Ulquiorra found some some interest in theses eggs mostly because he believes that it is this heart's egg that is allowing for regular people to possibly see him.

"What resides inside a heart's egg?" questioned Ulquiorra.

"A child's would-be self."

"What is that?" he demanded.

"Their would-be self is the person the child actually wants to be. If the child has enough desire, the egg will hatch into a guardian angel, and it will guide the child to their dreams, in this case, the person they want to be when they grow up. Once their dream has been achieved, then the guardian angel will disappear, but the child will still be able to see heart's eggs for the rest of their life."

A manifestation of their true personality is what Ulquiorra was able to puzzle together. He understands that these eggs help the people who are in distress, or in other words, those people who are weak, that they need a push in order to chase their lofty desire-he was not made the fourth espada just for his strength; he was cunning, knowledgeable, and can piece clues together. But all this revolved around a concept that was unknown to him… heart. He can't comprehend what this heart is. This concept of heart and dreams reverted Ulquiorra back to his memories of his talk with that woman, Orihime Inoue.

"My Heart is with them."

Ridiculous...

A heart is nothing more than an organ that pumps blood throughout the body, but humans have changed this meaning to fit these 'instances' where the concept of heart is reassuring to humans. There is nothing special about the heart. It is just a sorry excuse to cope with the harsh realities a person comes in contact with.

Then he remembered his philosophy of life...

If I cannot see it, then it does not exist. I have seen these eggs from the heart, but I yet to see an actual heart itself. Where is it? Orihime Inoue, were you actually scared, or did you use the concept of heart to handle the reality that you and all your friends were going to die? After this brief moment of self reflecting, Ulquiorra returned to the topic at hand.

"And what about these X-egg?" added in Ulquiorra.

"When a person begins to encounter doubt in their heart, or feeling the futility with his dreams, a big X will mark the egg, signifying that the bearer has given up and is faced with the reality that their dream is impossible. Usually, these people who have an X-egg look like they always have tired expression in their faces, and just wander around, and their eyes only express emptiness." The director took a deep breath to show that he was done talking. Ulquiorra has not moved from his position ever since self reflection about the concept of heart, but he was listening carefully to the director's explanation, and decided to add in his own opinions about the X-eggs.

"These X-eggs are nothing short of miraculous. Judging from the power I felt from the one I caught, It is safe to say that these eggs are worthless. The negative energy exhibited is no where near a hundredth of my power. However, I can draw similarities between the X-egg energy of that to a hollow, but there are more differences than similarities. I deduce that anyone whose egg is branded with an X must have a weak will; they are not strong enough to keep their ideals from being compromised; therefore, they is trash."

The director's eyes again met with Ulquiorra's piercing eyes. This man is very callous, and yet, he is very observant. Just from what I told him, he was able to deduce much information about heart's eggs and X-eggs. But also, he compared the X-eggs power to himself, and says that they are no where near his power. Does this person actually have immense amount of power? If so, just how much power does this person have? I will have to tell Gozen about this, but first…

Kazuomi Hoshina was genuinely intrigued by the man before him. He is cunning, observant, callous, and feels that he has something to offer if Easter were to gets its hands on him. The one feature that stood out to Kazuomi Hoshina is Ulquiorra's demeanor. So unmoved, so blunt, so emotionless. It is almost as if the person discarded his emotions, and probably his heart because he felt that they were useless and unneeded, like they were a liability. The director got all of that just by the conversation he is having with Ulquiorra. The next question out of Ulquiorra's mouth made the director even more intrigued.

"Tell me, why do you collect X-eggs. Now that I felt the energy of an X-egg, I can feel a collection of X-eggs being stored at the very bottom of this building. They serve no purpose; they provide hardly any power, and yet, you are collecting them for a particular reason. Why?" Ulquiorra knew he hit something because the director swiveled his seat so that the back of the chair was facing Ulquiorra-he wanted to hide his surprisement because he knew they were storing X-eggs and he can tell from the top floor.

"We, Easter, are searching of a very special heart's egg called the Embryo." He paused, trying to add effect. "The Embryo has the ability to grant wishes." He said this as he was turning back his chair to face Ulquiorra again. Again, he showed no sign of surprise, or any facial expression; that same frown was still there.

"Grant wishes, you say?" he questioned

"Yes. We are hunting for the Embryo, and it lies within the heart of a child. So we go around and extract the egg from the child. If the child does not have the Embryo, then it is considered worthless, so we clean up our mess by destroying the X-egg. But we have found that we can use the X-eggs to our advantage and use their power for our purposes. Think of it as an unlimited power source that we can tap into at anytime." The director grinned as he thought about the 'purposes' for X-eggs.

The night began to take its toll on the director, so it was time for him to ask Ulquiorra the question.

"After the recent exchanges of dialogue, I feel that you still need more answers about this world, so I'll be blunt, would you like to work for Easter. I feel that with your help, we can obtain the Embryo much faster? Also, you can learn more about this world as you help us achieve our goals"

Ulquiorra was not expecting this kind of offer. He did not know how he ended up in this world, so technically he was still loyal to Lord Aizen. However, seeing that he doesn't have the luxury of returning to Hueco Mundo, Ulquiorra felt that it would be beneficial for him to join Easter, but first, he had to learn about the benefits of joining. Remember that Ulquiorra is very cunning, so it would be unwise for him to join Easter if he did not know what he was getting himself into.

"What are my advantages of joining Easter?"

"I usually don't offer this, but you will have the chance to become powerful in this world; Easter can assure you of that." the director was essentially lying to him because the purpose of finding the Embryo was for Gozen, but for now, he thought that an empty promise will be enough to make Ulquiorra join.

Ulquiorra had no intention of obtaining more power. The offer the director gave him was nothing short of unappealing, but since he has no way of returning, he felt that joining would be the most logical thing for him to do. With Easter, he can find out more answers about this human world and see how it works. It was his choice, and he was going to take it.

"I have no interest in gaining any more power, but I understand that in my current situation, it would be most logical for me to join Easter's ranks and learn more about this world I am trapped in." Ulquiorra explained, knowing full well that Easter will be relying on him for their work, but he didn't care; it would just mean more learning for him about this world.

"Wonderful. I will inform my higher up about your hiring. I know that with your help, we will retrieve the Embryo much faster. I would like you to come back here in the afternoon. There, you will meet the others who are also trying to find the Embryo. I will introduce you to all of them, and then we can talk about strategy." The director stood up from his chair, and offered his hand to Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra knew that it was a custom for people to shake hands once a deal has been struck. He would oblige with that rule, so he pulled out his right hand from his pocket, and extended it to shake the director's hand.

"I will return to this building in the afternoon."

Ulquiorra turned around and proceed to the door. He opened it and left. The director sat back in his chair and swiveled his chair back in the previous position he had it when Ulquiorra first entered the room. He looked at the straight into the thick fog, seeing only the faded lights shining through. Then he muttered something under his breath, something ominous that would foreshadow much distress in the near future.

"The Guardians won't be able to stand against Easter for much longer. With the new hired employee, we will crush them under our might, and they will never be a thorn to Easter ever again."