CHAPTER THREE: The Heart 2
The walls of a deep pit rose high all around...
What...is going on? Did I...end up in Hell...after all?
...only to be replaced by the broken towers of his most recent nightmare.
No...this looks like Las Noches...but... It's not possible...it can't be...
Ulquiorra's fingers moved a little more, and his hand fell onto her shoulder, forcing Orihime to lurch up in surprise.
I can feel her heart pounding... Am I alive? Did she...?
It was only then that he realized it.
"Ulquiorra?" Orihime whispered, "Say something..."
He raised his eyes to look into hers, and he could see her concern. The look on her face was unmistakable.
"...Why did you...?"
Orihime's tears fell past her cheeks, and she tried to dry her eyes as she lunged at him and threw her arms over his shoulders, "You're alive! You're alive...thank goodness, I thought I was too late...!"
"I'm...alive..." He repeated, staring blankly ahead. Ulquiorra dared to lift one hand, even as Orihime continued to cry against his shoulder, and looked at is as though to confirm it was really there. There was a brief moment where he formed a Lanza del Ralampago, and the light startled Orihime into pulling herself off of him.
Ichigo almost jumped out of his skin, but Ishida held him back.
"INOUE!" Ichigo shouted, "I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN."
"KUROSAKI!"
"...There's just...no way..." Ulquiorra said to himself, letting the weapon dissolve away, "This is impossible..." His hand moved toward the ground, "...What could have compelled you to revive me...? I'm the enemy...I brought you here, kept you here... You should hate me."
"Don't say things like that." Orihime begged him, his forwardness literally forcing her to back up a little...though she tried to put her hand on his face to calm him.
"Don't touch me." Ulquiorra grumbled, pulling away from her to stand up. She didn't watch him as he moved away from her, simply staring ahead, stunned at his words. Ulquiorra settled his eyes on Ichigo, "You look like you still want a fight."
"It'll never be settled who won otherwise, right? Those were your words."
"You denied me a proper death." He started, raising his hand and pointing a clawed finger at him, "And you further insult me by not claiming victory, rendering my death virtually meaningless!"
Ichigo looked rather nervous, "...I can't say I won...it wasn't me fighting...!"
"...Stop all of this...both of you...!" Orihime suddenly said, getting up and stepping between them, "Haven't you both done enough?"
The two fighters looked at her, and then at each other, neither willing to answer her. Frustrated, the girl glared at the Espada, "Ulquiorra...you don't have to keep fighting...I didn't bring you back for that."
He just returned the glare, but then turned on his heel and took off into the sky. In a kneejerk reaction, Ichigo hollered after the Hollow and went after him.
"Ichigo!" Ishida yelled, "That idiot...!"
"Kurosaki!" Orihime called, wasting no time to chase after the pair. She could hear Ishida calling back after her, but Souten Kisshun rose up again and prevented him from following. The Quincy could only yell out in protest that the girl come back.
Kurosaki! What are you trying to prove! You don't have to beat him half to death with your own two hands to prove that you won! Orihime told herself, running as fast as she could, seeing green streaks of light flying across the sky, "It doesn't have to be like this!"
Tensa Zangetsu met the edge of Lanza del Ralampago, each deflecting the other as they spun through the air.
"You're so predictable." Ulquiorra said quickly before moving off again, "You really are just a brute that swings a sword around." He tossed his head back and then brought it down again, right on the teenager's nose, breaking it immediately.
Ichigo backed off quickly, blood gushing from his wound, "Our fight hasn't been sorted out yet, why are you running away!" He asked bitterly, holding his fingers tenderly over the shattered cartilage.
"You think I'm fleeing from you?" Ulquiorra goaded him, holding his ground for a moment, "The battle is over, Kurosaki...I'm merely taking my leave. Remember when you arrived in the 5th Tower and started this fight, I told you that if you wanted to do anything else, you'd have to kill me first. As far as I'm concerned, that condition has been met. Take your prize and get out of Hueco Mundo."
"Her NAME is Inoue ORIHIME." Ichigo argued, continuing to fight, "And I'm not taking credit for a death my Hollow caused!" He raised Zangetsu over his head, black and red energy swirling around it.
"Is that it?" Ulquiorra practically snarled at him, then disappeared from the sky, only to once again grab Ichigo by the skull and throw him down into the sands far below. As the dust cleared, Ulquiorra glared at him, putting his foot on Ichigo's chest and forming another Lanza in his hand; a crude mockery of what Ichigo's Hollow had done to him earlier. The green weapon was warm against Ichigo's skin, near enough that he could feel it burning, "You and your Hollow are one and the same...your powers are ubiquitous."
"My Hollow has a personality all its own," Ichigo said from beneath the Espada's clawed foot, "I can't accept victory for what it did, even if it used my body to do it."
"How many times must I call you a fool before you believe it?" Ulquiorra said, his eyes slightly narrowed, "If you do not accept your victory, if you cannot accept that your Hollow is part of you...then tell me now and I'll end it right here. I'll let you savor the bitter taste of defeat...and this time, there won't be enough of you left for your Hollow to take control of a second time."
"STOP!"
Ulquiorra lifted his eyes slightly to see Orihime appearing on the edge of the palace complex, using her Santen Kesshun to make her travel speedy. He turned his eyes back to Ichigo, "Do you really want to make her to watching you die again?"
Ichigo grit his teeth.
"Well? I'm not going to wait all day for you to mull it over."
"Just tell me..." Ichigo started, "Tell me what happened...Ishida said it was only because of you that I snapped out of my Hollowfied state..."
"I broke your mask again. That's all."
"But if you had the chance to do that, why did you stop there? Why didn't you kill me?"
Ulquiorra's eyes rose back up to Orihime again, and the look on her face unsettled him. To her shock, and Ichigo's, the Espada let the weapon dissipate and he dropped his hand back to his side.
Orihime watched in silence.
The Arrancar stepped away and rose his wings, turning his head only slightly to make one last remark, "Don't follow me again. I won't be so charitable if you do."
Ichigo sat up and watched him go, but was careful to heed his warning. Instead, he hauled himself back out of the sand pit he'd been dropped into and stood on its edge. He looked high up into the night and yelled at the top of his lungs, "We'll settle this one day, Ulquiorra! Count on it!"
