So, basically, I've been writing all day today. I have a camp next week, which means no internet connection. I'm trying my best to get these chapters out.
I was going to have just one more chapter but it passed 2000 words, hit 3000, then 4000, and I wasn't even close to done, so I'm breaking it up. This will now officially be a multi-chapter fic. Granted, probably only 4 or 5 chapters. But multi-chapter nonetheless. Let's hope I finish it.
Great big thank you to mika, Sheiri, talkstoangels77, soulspirit18, kimichi, summerrayah, and rimahikoandamutofan for their reviews! You guys make my day. ^_^ Have some double fudge cookies! -hands them out-
Ulquiorra, read the disclaimer please.
U:...
Me: Oh, come on, I said please. D:
U: 3R15UK0UM31 does not own Bleach, nor does she own any of the characters.
Me: Enjoy!
Trust
"Orihime-chan! What are you doing here?"
Orihime smiled brightly at the startled shinigami. "I-"
Before she had a chance to say anything, Rukia had grabbed her arm and was pulling her none too gently out of the middle of the busy street. "We can talk later. First we need to go somewhere quieter."
They slipped stealthily between the buildings, coming to a small backstreet that was completely devoid of life other than a few friendly stray cats. They rubbed their heads against Orihime's ankles and mewed quietly; Orihime smiled, stroking them behind their ears and enjoying the sound of their purring.
Rukia finally spoke. "You know you and your friends aren't supposed to be here." She seemed to notice for the first time. "Did anyone even come with you?"
Orihime shook her head. "I came alone this time. I have something I need to do."
Rukia sighed. "Sometimes, you really do remind me of Ichigo, just jumping into things like this-"
She was cut off as Orihime pulled her into a suffocating hug. "Kurosaki-kun told me to give you that!" she said cheerfully.
"Ack…Orihime…chan…not breathing…seriously…"
"Ah! *Gomen…" She backed up and let Rukia breathe. "We all really miss you a lot down in the World of the Living. I mean, it's not like many people remember you, but some of us do, and it's just not the same without you, you know? There was this one time…"
And she was off. "Orihime," Rukia cut in. "What did you come here to do, anyways?"
Orihime instantly sobered up. "Well, I-I've come to look for a…" she paused. What was he to her anyways? Even after two years, she hadn't managed to figure that out. "For a…friend of mine who died recently. I thought…maybe he might be here. I don't know where else he could've gone…" If he isn't here…NO! Don't think things like that.
Rukia looked up. Friend? Did Orihime have any friends who had died? "What did he look like? I could tell you if I've seen him around Rukongai or Sereitei."
Orihime hesitated, looking at her feet and trying to decide if she should tell Rukia. "Well…he's kinda short, just a little taller than me, and he's really pale with black hair…" She paused, knowing that if she said anything else, Rukia would immediately know who it was. In fact, the redhead was surprised that the shinigami hadn't already made the connection.
"Orihime, there are probably thousands of souls in Soul Society that have black hair. Can you tell me something else? Some defining characteristic?" Rukia was confused as to why Orihime seemed so reluctant to describe this mysterious friend anymore; couldn't she see that the black-haired shinigami was trying to help her?
"…He has these really really green eyes…" She continued, growing more nervous by the second.
If Orihime said anything else, Rukia hadn't heard it. Those few words stuck in her mind. This friend exactly matched the description of the Fourth Espada, Ulquiorra Schiffer.
Her face must have registered shock clearly. Orihime's eyes began to tear up. "I knew you'd think I was crazy once you figured it out…"
"Orihime, he's an Espada! Not just an Espada, he captured you! He-" The tears were beginning to trail down Orihime's face.
"I know he is, and I know I should hate him, after all the cruel things he did to Kurosaki-kun, but I just can't. He always looked so sad, and so so young, not that much older than us, and he was tossed into this stupid war the same way we were, just trying to survive through it, and he was never mean to me, really, and he didn't deserve to…to…" She struggled to wipe the tears off her face. "I just didn't think I would miss him this much…am I really horrible for missing someone who tried to kill Kurosaki-kun…?"
"Orihime, don't cry…" Of course. Only Orihime would feel this way, could feel this way, even in the shattered aftermath of a war. It was just such an…Orihime thing to do. "Did you tell anyone you were coming?"
She shook her head, still trying to wipe away her tears with her sleeve.
Rukia smiled and held a hand out to Orihime, attempting to console her. "Come on. We can go to the 13th division and have some hot tea. You can tell me all about it, and maybe Ukitake-taicho can come up with some way to help you look for him. Ok?" Ukitake understood that there were situations that had to be solved by oneself; the petite shinigami knew her captain wouldn't mention Orihime's presence to the Soutaicho. "I'll even let you hold my favorite Chappy."
Orihime's eyes brightened a little. She sniffled. "Really…?"
Rukia nodded. Orihime slipped her hand in Rukia's, and the two set off, chatting animatedly about everything that had happened while they were away.
...
Of course, both girls were teary by the end of Orihime's story. Ukitake had listened quietly throughout the whole thing before he finally spoke up, his expression serious as usual. "The best place to look would be Rukongai. Unfortunately, I can't be much more specific than that."
Here, Rukia pulled out her sketchbook, while Ukitake continued to speak. "You see Orihime," Rukia flipped to the first page, which showed a crudely drawn diagram of Soul Society. Rukongai was divided in four, and color coded. "There are four sections of Rukongai: North, South, East, and West. Each of these sections has 80 districts, District 1 having the best quality of living and District 80 having the worst. That's 320 districts that you would have to thoroughly search through, one by one."
Now Rukia flipped to a new page, this one showing a row of small bears with numbers and either an S, W, N, or E over their heads. "When new souls enter the Soul Society, they are randomly assigned a District number and section to go to. There is no pattern at all to how the districts are assigned. In essence, Schiffer-san could be basically anywhere in Rukongai."
Orihime's face fell. It would take days just to search a few districts. Trying to do all of Rukongai would be nearly impossible. She only had a week off of school anyways.
Rukia had closed her sketchbook. Ukitake, however, kept speaking. "We do keep records of what districts souls are being assigned to on any given day in the Great Archives. It isn't completely specific since it doesn't list the names of the souls, or the exact districts each one went to. But if you can remember the day that Schiffer-san was purified, I can go back through the records and see which districts souls were being sent to on that day. There's a good chance you could find him that way."
Orihime's eyes brightened at the thought that she might actually find him. "Would you really do that for me…?"
Ukitake nodded, smiling. "However," he said, his face growing solemn. "I have to ask that you stay here until I get back. Yama-jii most likely won't welcome you with open arms. We should probably keep your stay here a secret."
Orihime nodded, determination once again shining in her eyes. "Thank you for your help, Ukitake-taicho."
"Any time," he said, and slid the door shut behind him.
Once outside the door, he smiled. Things might not work out perfectly for Orihime, but with that kind of determination, it was hard for them to go wrong.
...
Orihime had decided to search the South section first. Ukitake suggested bringing Rukia along, since the area they were searching was Districts 69-71. It wasn't the worst it could get, but it definitely wasn't safe for an unarmed girl to walk through alone, especially an unarmed girl with…assets like Orihime's.
After eating a heavy lunch to get them through the day, they set off. Rukia had been a huge help. She had been searching for any higher-than-normal reiatsu levels, as it was almost certain that Ulquiorra would retain fragments of his power. There were several in District 69, but none of them were who she was looking for, nor had they ever seen Ulquiorra in the vicinity.
Orihime couldn't help but marvel at how large each district was. They were like little self-contained states. And there were 320 of them!
"Wow, Rukongai is so much bigger than I thought!" Orihime said, her eyes glowing as she took in their surroundings.
"Well, it has to be," Rukia stated matter-of-factly. "We get souls from all over the world here. And even with 320 districts, Rukongai is still overcrowded, as you can see." They proceeded to push their way through a small mob of people watching a group of street performers.
After a few hours of pushing through the crowded, dirty streets, they came to the border of District 70. There wasn't any immediate change in the landscape; a small sign that stated they had crossed the border was the only indication that they had entered a new district. But as they neared the border of District 71, the houses got smaller and shabbier, the streets were in worse shape, and more homeless huddled in the alleys, playing with crudely carved dice to slowly pass the 60 years that were required before they could be reborn into a better place. They had only stopped at two houses (if you could call them that) so far in this district, even though they were almost out of it.
Rukia stopped. "There's one in this house," she said, pointing to a rickety tenement. "It's on the bottom floor."
Orihime gave the building a long look. It's a good thing it's on the bottom floor, she thought. The last thing I'd want to do is climb those stairs…
Rukia went up to the door, Orihime close behind her. They could hear loud arguing from inside. Rukia knocked twice, sharply.
Silence.
"Whoever you are, fuck off," came the rough, angry voice from inside.
"Open this door before I break it down," Rukia answered, using the angry voice she only reserved for really serious situations. This was followed by muttered cursing, and the sound of something smashing.
"Fine," the voice answered. The door was soon opened by a tall, very familiar man. With spiky blue hair. Rukia's breath caught.
Grimmjow grinned ferally, his eyes sparkling with the beginnings of bloodlust. "Well well, if it isn't the pipsqueak. How are ya, pipsqueak? Crawled back to finish our fight, have ya?" He caught sight of Orihime. His eyes widened a bit and the grin disappeared completely, only to come back full force. "And the Princess! Hey, Nnoitra, the Princess's here!" He leaned closer, savage blue eyes locking with hers. "What a nice surprise."
Grimmjow looked about the same, with the same hair and eyes and fangs and weird eye markings. Heck, his grin was even the same. Admittedly he did look a little strange dressed in the peasant clothes he was wearing, and his face was a little less intimidating without the broken mask he had once sported. Still, Orihime backed away from his stare.
She caught sight of Nnoitra, still partially hidden in the shadows. She saw the light glint in his single eye as he leered at her in a way that was too familiar. He was just as frightening, if not more, without the giant spoon behind his head. At least the spoon had given her a little something to laugh at whenever she saw him.
He grinned. "Welcome back, Pet-sama."
Rukia snapped out of it quickly. She moved in front of Orihime, shielding her from the men's leers. "We're not here to talk, or to fight. We just want to know if you've seen Ulquiorra in this area."
Nnoitra suppressed what sounded like a snort. Grimmjow just frowned. "That green-eyed bastard? Haven't seen him. It's a good thing too. If he was here, I would've ripped him to pieces by now. Why are ya looking for him anyways?" He grinned, already knowing the answer.
"That's none of your business." Rukia said, her eyes hard.
Grimmjow mocked offense. "Don't tell me you're still holding a grudge against me. You lived right? That's all that really matters." He shrugged. "If there's nothing else here you're interested in, then do us both a favor and fuck off."
At that moment, a Hell Butterfly landed on Rukia's finger. After it had whispered its message, it flew away. Rukia turned to Orihime. "I need to go. There's a mission I'm heading in the World of the Living. Do you think you can go the rest of the way yourself?"
Orihime was about to nod, when Grimmjow interjected, frowning. "Ya know, not everyone here is as…honorable as me." He paused, letting the full meaning of his words sink in, and gathering his strength for what he was about to say. Turning away from the pair, he sighed heavily, trying to sound irritated. "I'll take the Princess the rest of the way she needs to go."
Orihime smiled at him. "Thanks, Grimmjow-san," she said cheerfully.
Rukia gave him an even colder look than before. "No way. She isn't going with you. She'd be safer walking by herself than with you."
"No, it's fine! I don't mind walking with Grimmjow-san," Orihime said. "After all, you have a really important mission, so don't worry about me, I'll be fine!" She smiled as brightly as she could, trying to convince Rukia that she really would be.
Grimmjow just grinned. "Ya don't need to worry about the Princess. I'll beat the shit out of anyone who comes near her. After all, I still owe her one."
"He won't hurt me if he owes me a favor, really, he saved me once because I healed his arm," Orihime added.
Finally, Rukia agreed reluctantly that it was probably better for Orihime to travel with someone, even if that someone was Grimmjow Jagarjacques. She started back towards Sereitei after giving Orihime a map of Rukongai, leaving her alone with Grimmjow and Nnoitra.
Nnoitra snickered. "Getting a little soft, are we?"
Grimmjow elbowed him in the stomach, a dark look on his face. "Shut the fuck up, Eyepatch."
He started off down the road. Orihime hesitated, still standing by the door of the apartment.
"Are you coming or what?" Grimmjow snarled back to her, still walking towards the border.
She promptly ran after him.
This is NOT a GrimmHime fic. Don't get that impression.
*Gomen means sorry in Japanese.
No cliffhanger this time.
If nothing else, this has earned its T rating for Grimmjow's and Nnoitra's potty mouths.
If anybody is OOC even a little bit, tell me.
R&R please. People who review make my day. Not only that, they get chibi Ulquiorra plushies. And who wouldn't want a chibi Ulquiorra plushy? He's just so cute. ^^ Plus a sheet of bubble wrap absolutely free. XD