-Chapter 4-
Zezuri's heart pounded in her ears as she and Airi took slow and careful steps across the bare stone floor. Every swish and rustle made by her school uniform seemed as loud as a gunshot.
Their guard was sleeping soundly, slouched against the open doorway. His chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm.
Airi glanced over her shoulder to Zezuri and nodded once before she took large step over the snoozing Luppi. Pausing for a moment, she listened intently for any sound of stirring from the guard. Only her pounding heartbeat was audible. She let out a silent sigh and looked up and down the hallway; no one was coming so she signaled Zezuri to follow.
The brunette inched her way forward as silently as she could. "I'm going to mess this up, I'm going to trip," her panicked mind thought furiously.
Airi signaled again, a little more urgently.
Zezuri clenched her teeth and shut her eyes as she slowly took one big step over the guard. Her foot met solid ground on the other side of the guard. A hand reached out and helped steady her as she pulled her other foot over. Suddenly, she felt a little dizzy. Her balance wavered and she opened her eyes in time to see herself falling and taking her friend along with her.
A muffled thud resonated through the hallway and the girls froze in horror. Who knew what wrath was about to befall them when the irritable guard found them sneaking out.
Silence ensued.
The blonde open her eyes and looked at their captor who was still sound asleep. She nudged Zezuri, who carefully stood up.
"Which way?" her glance silently asked Airi.
After checking the halls again, the taller friend nodded in the direction opposite of the way they had come in.
They began to move slowly down the hallway, each step faster than the first. Soon they were walking at a brisk pace.
Zezuri felt they were safe to speak as they turned a corner, "Where are we going?"
"I don't know, anywhere. Maybe there's a phone around here we can use to get some help," doubt hung in her mind, but she hadn't given up hope yet.
Up and down hallways and stairways the two wandered without seeing any phones, let alone anything that resembled one.
"Just where are we?" she moaned.
"I can answer that."
The girls jumped as a voice spoke from behind them. A tall man with long brown hair and a beard who looked to be in his late thirties was staring at them with a bored expression.
Zezuri took a few steps backwards and pulled on Airi's shirt, "C'mon!" she shouted.
"What? I'm not about to turn you in," he said mildly amused.
Airi remained tense but Zezuri let go of her shirt. Neither spoke, but remained silently bursting with questions.
The tall man was dressed like everyone else, in a white garb with black accents. A jaw bone hung around his neck like a macabre necklace, "Seriously. Aizen's concerns are not mine," he looked at the girls, both were still petrified, "Look, this is Las Noches, the arrancar kingdom of Hueco Mundo."
"W-where is Hueco Mundo?" managed Airi.
A puzzled expression crossed the man's face as he tried to piece together an answer, "That's a hard one to explain... let's just say it's not in the world you came from."
"Whaaa?" Zezuri's shocked response.
"T-that's not... possible, is it?" Airi took a few steps back, her face as white as a sheet.
The man wondered if he should have lied to the girls, they looked completely hopeless.
Another step of footsteps was heard coming down the hall. Before the man had a chance to say anything more the two girls took off running.
Turning towards the direction of the new arrival, the man began to walk casually.
"Starrk?" called the voice from down the hall.
"Hello to you too, Gin," he muttered, "What can I help you with?"
The silver haired man walked towards the brown haired man, "Did I just hear you talking to someone?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," replied Starrk, trying to look surprised.
"Of course you don't, I must be hearing things," Gin chuckled eerily, "but you might want to be on your guard, Aizen would not be pleased if you were plotting something behind his back."
Starrk shrugged and continued on his way. Rebellion was not on his list of things to do today.
Zezuri was now in the lead, pulling a very winded Airi behind. Both ran onwards as if they could reach something that would get them out of this nightmarish situation.
A fork in the hall came up and for a quick moment the friends thought about splitting up before realizing that getting separated would be even worse than their current situation.
"We're going this way!" shouted Zezuri as she veered to the right pathway. Her choice lead them down yet another long, dull hallway. However, this one ended in a dead end, "What now?" shouted Zezuri.
"Let's try a door!" shouted Airi, rushing to the nearest. With a click, the door slid into the wall. A cool breeze blew in, but rather than the night sky she expected, a bright blue sky with lazily drifting clouds hung above Airi's head. How long had they been running for, she wondered, the sky out their window had been pitch black.
"I-I don't like this place," Zezuri shuddered.
Airi nodded her agreement. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was clearly wrong here, but she shut the door behind them anyways.
Zezuri kept watching the sky. "That's what it is!" she exclaimed suddenly, "There's no sun!"
"How right you are," a new voice said behind them. The girls jumped, their hearts threatening to burst. Suddenly the owner of the voice appeared in front of them, revealing a snake-like an exceedingly tall man with straight black hair cut rather uneven at the ends. He had an eye patch over an eye but he looked at them intently with his other eye.
"A couple of fine looking ladies seem to have wandered off without permission. What to do?" he pondered. He seemed to be teasing them.
Airi looked around frantically, searching for a way past him.
Zezuri looked back to find the door that was behind them a moment ago but had disappeared. "Airi, the door!It's gone!" she exclaimed.
"I suppose this is all Luppi's fault for falling asleep on the job... Aizen-sama will not be pleased..." the tall man circled the two, "Maybe I'll have some fun with you!" A sudden blast of power emitted from the man.
Before either of the girls blinked he had thrust an enormous crescent shaped disk straight at Zezuri's throat stopping it mere centimeters from her skin.
The brunette fainted dead away.
"Ahahaha, too bad, I was hoping you'd at least put up a fight!" the man laughed and roughly nudged Zezuri's unconscious form with a curved shoe, "But, as I guessed, you're just a weak, pathetic little human soul with no power!"
Airi stood shaking in place, her fists clenched in rage. No longer did she care about her safety. How dare this creep treat Zezuri like that! Clenching her jaw, she charged recklessly at the tall man.
The blonde's charge was cut short when she collided with another body, "No one touches Nnoitora-sama" spoke a dusty-blonde male of average height. He too wore an eye patch. A jawbone spanned his forehead like an odd sweatband, but Airi really wasn't paying any attention to the newcomer.
Nnoitora looked up and over to see his henchman pinning down a desperately struggling girl, "Peh, that wasn't necessary of you, Telsa."
"Yes, Master," replied Telsa dejectedly. He released Airi who instantly sprang up and flung herself at her original target.
A well placed fist forced all of the air from Airi's lungs. She crumpled to the ground in pain, tears in her eyes.
"She should have stayed down," muttered the henchman.
Nnoitora raised an eyebrow and glanced at the shorter man.
"I-I mean, nice shot, Nnoitora-sama!"
"Now, just what the hell are we supposed to do with these two?" the tall man thrust his scythe into the sandy ground leaving the handle standing upright.
"Perhaps Aizen-sama is already aware of their escape," Telsa replied.
As soon as the words were out of Telsa's mouth, Luppi appeared along with two others. "There they are!" he said angrily.
"Well, there's the moron who fell asleep on the job! Wouldn't you think they would pull something like this if you fell asleep?" Nnitora smirked, "What an idiot!".
Luppi's face twitched with annoyance, "Aizen-sama shouldn't waste my talent on something that stupid!" he retorted as the two others that had come with him lifted the unconscious girls and opened the door from before.
"What a brilliant idea," said Aizen suddenly appearing. "It seems the task I set for you was too much, am I right, Luppi?" he asked.
The failed guard became suddenly embarrassed and stepped back. "Well they-!" but before he could finish, another figure entered the room.
"Damn, looks like I'm late..." Grimmjow said looking like he'd just woken up from a nap himself. He glanced over at Luppi, "Just how useless are you, Luppi?" he raised an eyebrow sarcastically as he spoke.
Luppi sneered at Grimmjow's comment.
"Why thank you for volunteering, Grimmjow." Aizen seemed to have found the new night shift.
A look of dismay crossed Grimmjow's face as the information sank in, "You've gotta be kiddin' me!" he shouted, but there was no arguing with Aizen.
Nnoitora chuckled "You're a fool, Number 6," he cackled.
Aizen smiled coolly, enjoying his control over everything in Las Nochas. Normally a higher ranked arrancar would not have to deal grunt work, but Aizen liked to hold Grimmjow's arrogance against him.
Grimmjow dejectedly followed the arrancar back to the girls room, trying to think of other things he could be doing with his time, which really wasn't a lot.
Zezuri suddenly awoke and found her and Airi were back in their room. Airi was sleeping soundly, she noticed as she looked around the dark room. She observed there was someone new sitting outside the doorway that was much larger than Luppi. Wait, was that hole in his middle? she wondered, how had she missed that? Leaning over from her bed to get a better look at him, she suddenly found herself tumbling to the floor. Zezuri stopped breathing from the sudden surprise that broke the silence.
Grimmjow looked over his shoulder to see the brunette on the floor looking like a deer in headlights. He only glanced at her without caring too much, and turned away to stare at the hallway before him.
Zezuri got up and rushed to the bathroom. She shut the door quietly and went over to the sink. Splashing water onto her face, she looked into the mirror above it, and tried to figure out what time it was or what day. She thought about how much school they were missing and how they would fail high school or if they would even be able to go back. All these thoughts started to depress her and a few tears ran down her face. She wiped them away with her hand as she sniffled silently, then returned back into the other room.
Airi was awake now and sitting cross-legged on her bed, "Oh hey, you're alright!" She said with relief in her voice.
Zezuri smiled weakly back.
Airi noticed the redness on Zezuri's face, "Hey, is everything okay?"
"Y-yeah," Zezuri held back a few more tears, "I... I just wanna go home!" she shouted.
Airi looked at the floor, struggling with her own emotions, seeing her friend upset made her want to cry too, but she wouldn't allow it. Not yet, "We'll think of something," she said without too much enthusiasm. The words of the brown-haired man they'd run into during their escape echoed in her memory, "A different dimension, huh?" she began to comb her hand through her hair while wondering what he had meant by it. Although a huge fan of fantasy, the blonde just didn't know how to act when fantasy became reality.
Zezuri wandered miserably over to the window and gazed out across the endless night sands of what they now knew to be Hueco Mundo. Searching the horizon, she saw nothing but endless blackness. Did this mean there really wasn't anything out there? Gazing down she suddenly became very dizzy. The ground seemed impossibly far away. So much for escaping out the window. She looked to Airi and then to the doorway.
The blonde raised an eyebrow catching her friend's glance, but she shook her head. Escaping twice in the same day wasn't going to work.
Zezuri sighed, frustrated, even though she knew it wouldn't work. It'd be better than doing nothing, wouldn't it? A yawn suddenly issued from her mouth and she realized how exhausted she was from their prior attempt. "Oh well," the brunette thought inside her head, "maybe tomorrow," She laid back down on her bed and was soon soundly asleep.
The same dream entered Zezuri's mind again. The white figures were pushed back by the warm and welcoming darkness. Just as before, she walked towards it, but try as she might, she couldn't reach it. She started running, yet it remained just out of her reach. "Help me," she yelled at it. As the words left her mouth, she wondered why she was asking it for help. After all, wasn't darkness symbolic of all things evil?
Airi didn't sleep. Too many thoughts cluttered her mind. She had been mostly conscious after she had run into Nnoitora's fist and had heard the majority of the discussion that had ensued, though much of it hadn't made too much sense. Thoughts of home, too, were circling, but she pushed them back, trying to focus on the events of earlier. Just who were these people and what did they want her and Zezuri for? What did the snake-like man mean when he'd called Zezuri a 'human spirit'. Why did some of them have holes in their bodies? And what was with all the bone-like matter on the faces of some of the people and not Aizen and Gin?
Her thoughts were interrupted by footsteps in the hall.
"Grimmjow, I see you are already doing a much better job than Luppi," Aizen's voice drifted into the room.
The blue haired man grunted and scooted out of the way as Aizen entered followed by another that Airi had not seen before. He had bubble-gum pink hair and wore a white pair of glasses that reminded Airi of the bone-like material of the others.
Zezuri stirred in the other bed and suddenly sat up. She glanced nervously at Aizen and his companion, deciding instantly that there was something very wrong about him. She pushed herself back against the wall as far away from him as she could get.
With a gentle tone to match his current friendly expression, Aizen spoke, "I see you have not accepted the clothing I gave you," he looked from one girl to the other, "I must say, I am a little displeased."
Airi shuddered as his brown eyes full of displeasure peered into her own. Yet the smile never left his face.
Aizen continued, "How can I be a good host if my guests proceed to be so unruly?" he turned his gaze to Zezuri, who wished she could melt into the wall behind her. "You reject my gifts and treat my comrades with disrespect."
"S-sorry," the brunette stammered.
"Just don't let it happen again," he admonished gently, all traces of malice disappearing from his eyes.
Zezuri nodded quickly.
The leader turned back to the blonde, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" he asked.
Green eyes glared back defiantly. Why was he trying to sound like a concerned parent. He'd kidnapped them for crying out loud!
Aizen released a small amount of his power. The air in the room became almost too thick to breathe.
Airi struggled to keep her glare aimed at her target, but soon gave out and slumped to the white sheets of her bed in defeat. Tears streamed down her face from frustration.
The pink haired man looked to his leader who gave a slight nod and he quickly scribbled something in a notebook he had brought with him.
"It's nothing to be upset over," Aizen's aura turned back to normal. He sat down next to the blonde, "It's normal for you to want power," he commented, putting a gentle hand on her back.
Tears streamed down Airi's face at an accelerated rate. She hated being comforted and she certainly didn't want this creep's pity!
A few moment passed before anyone spoke.
"W-what do you want from us?" Airi spoke through her tears.
She was answered with a mysterious smile and a chuckle, "Oh, you'll see. All in good time." Aizen rose to his feet and made to exit the room, he stopped in the doorway in thought, "Szayel, why don't you come back later, I'd like to discuss some things with you."
The pink haired man bowed elegantly, "Of course, Aizen-sama."
The two men left the room without a further word.
Airi collapsed into more sobbing and Zezuri slouched from her tense position.
"Peh, stop your crying! It's not going to make it any better for any of us!" shouted the guard.
Zezuri glared at the blue-haired man, "How can you be so mean!" she yelled back.
The blonde pulled her legs up on the bed so that her chin rested on her knees. She knew Grimmjow was right; crying wouldn't solve anything. She needed to become stronger. But... Aizen's words left her with a really bad feeling of things to come. And none of her questions had been answered!
While Airi struggled to pull herself together, Zezuri picked up the clothes she had pushed to the side of her bed and entered the bathroom. She wasn't too happy with how quickly she'd given in to Aizen, but what choice did she have? She sighed and began to change out of her uniform and into the white outfit. Once she had put on the outfit, she realized how Middle Eastern it looked. She twirled around and was a little uncomfortable with the long cape in the back. The shoes that came with it were different from the sandals the others wore, and were just a simple pair of flats. Zezuri felt a little embarrassed coming out of the bathroom, as the top showed off quite a bit of her midriff.
When she emerged from the bathroom, Zezuri noticed that Airi had mostly composed herself. Aside from the red splotches on her face, she showed no signs of being upset.
"Uh... your turn," Zezuri was clearly uncomfortable in her new outfit.
Airi began to collect her outfit from the floor where she'd abandoned it previously and entered the bathroom. "Another skirt..." she groaned, unfolding the white outfit. With much reluctance, she donned the new outfit; her top had only one sleeve on the right and it came with white leggings and some kind of half skirt. All complete with a pair of fingerless black gloves and knee-high boots.
When Airi exited the bathroom, she found that the pink haired man had returned, this time carrying a tray of food.
"Oh, there you are," he said, offering Airi the tray.
Airi eyed the food suspiciously, but took it regardless.
Zezuri was sitting on her bed, slowly picking at the food on an identical tray to the one Szayel had handed Airi.
"Well, go on, sit down and eat," he smiled as the moonlight bounced off his glasses in a sinister way.
Both of the girls shivered. Something was clearly off about this man.
Airi began to eat the food, finding she was hungrier than she'd expected. However, she stopped when she reached for the drink. the same sinister light green colored liquid sloshed inside it. Her last nightmare came flooding back to her.
"Something wrong?" asked Szayel leaning over to examine what Airi was looking at.
"It's nothing," Airi set the cup back on the tray, ignoring the parched feeling in her mouth.
Zezuri, after watching her friend's reaction to the drink, decided that she wasn't going to touch hers either.
"Hmmm..." wondered the pink-haired man. He scribbled into a notebook hurriedly and quickly replaced it in his pocket. "I'll be back tomorrow," he announced.
As soon as he left, Airi rushed to the bathroom with the cup and dumped it down the drain. She returned and grabbed Zezuri's without a word and dumped it out as well.
Szayel headed straight for Aizen's domain after he left the girls' room. "The blonde one suspects something. She is refusing to drink the tonic," he stated.
"Do not concern yourself too much, you have my permission to use other means to release their true potential," Aizen said calmly.
Szayel adjusted his glasses and grinned along with his leader, "Yes of course, my Lord," he gave another sweeping bow.
Back at the captives' room, Airi and Zezuri were bored out of their minds. Grimmjow had left for the day and Luppi returned to his position. He continued to ignore the two girls and sat silently in the hall.
"Is there anything else to do around here?" Zezuri wondered aloud, staring at the ceiling. She wished there was at least paper she could doodle on or something. "I'm so bored I could die!"
"Yes, I suppose you'd be better off dead," Luppi commented curtly.
The girls shrugged the rude comment off since they were too bored to care. Neither really felt like talking though. Zezuri hadn't asked why Airi had dumped out the drink, but was not too upset by the lack of explanation. Both were scared about what was to be their fate.
What seemed like countless hours later, dinner was delivered to their room. A masked grunt brought it to them with Grimmjow following behind for his night shift. After delivering the trays to the girls, the grunt left.
Upon examining the contents of her cup, Airi was relieved that the nasty green liquid was not on tonight's menu. It seemed to be just plain water.
Zezuri downed her drink in an instant, enjoying the refreshing taste of regular water. She looked up to see Airi observing her carefully, "It's just water," she assured her friend.
Airi looked into the cup, "I guess so," she took a sip and felt it was safe enough to drink the whole thing.
The two ate in silence, which persisted long after the meal until Zezuri couldn't take it anymore.
"I'm sooooo bored," she moaned.
Airi sighed. She was just as bored, but didn't really know what could be done about it. Setting the empty tray of food on the floor, she began to fidget with the hem of her skirt wordlessly.
Grimmjow continued to sulk in the doorway, clearly not enjoying his job.
Zezuri flopped on her bed for a moment. An idea popped into her mind as her head hit the pillow. She smirked, sat up, and flung the pillow at Airi.
"What the-" the soft impact of the pillow striking the other girl in the head was accompanied by giggling coming from the attacker.
The giggling turned into full out laughter as Airi's expression went from pensive to baffled.
A smirk crossed the blonde's face as she returned the pillow.
Zezuri ducked and the projectile flew over her head hitting the wall behind her. She stuck her tongue out at Airi who started to shake silently with laughter.
The guard was becoming annoyed with the commotion behind him. It was bad enough that one of a high rank such as himself should have to endure this madness. He tried his best to ignore the ruckus, but when a poorly aimed pillow suddenly struck him in the head, Grimmjow decided he'd had it.
"ENOUGH!" he yelled, aura erupting.
The two girls became very silent.
Grimmjow was standing now, holding the pillow in his hand looking quite menacing as he glared at the two girls.
Zezuri choked on another giggle. Something about the pillow in the hand of the strange man just looked ridiculous. Perhaps she'd lost it, the possibility crossed her mind as she let out a burst of laughter again.
A growl issued from Grimmjow's throat as a red light engulfed the pillow, suddenly reducing it to ashes.
Airi had already backed up to the wall behind her, but Zezuri was now rolling with laughter.
"I-I'm s-sorry," she squeaked in between laughs, "It just-it just-you look odd with a pillow in your hand!" she managed, calming down. She wiped a tear from her eye, "You just looked... cuddly?"
Grimmjow's temper was at a boil. "Cuddly...? I LOOK CUDDLY?" he demanded.
"Y-yes! I m-mean n-no!" Zezuri shouted back frantically, "I-I'm sorry! Really!"
The guard took a deep breath, why was he losing his cool over something like this? He was better than that! After all, these human girls were no threat to him at all! He collected his aura and calmed his thoughts. "Tch, whatever. You two won't be here much longer anyways," he muttered under his breath, turning his back on them.
Airi had caught every word, "What does that mean?" she asked demandingly.
"What does what mean?" Grimmjow stopped and looked at the blonde, daring her to speak again with a slight rise in aura.
Her green eyes shone with fear driven determination, "That we wouldn't be around much longer! You must know why we're here!" she shouted.
"Sorry to say it, blondie, but no, I don't," annoyance shone clearly in his voice.
"But-"
"I just tell myself that, because that's usually what happens."
"Usually, what?"
"I don't know! I'm not the one who gets stuck babysitting! Since when does an Espada have to waste time babysitting?" he sighed knowing more questions were coming.
"Espada?" Airi repeated the word, "what's that?"
"You don't need to know."
"Why not?" Zezuri entered the conversation.
Great, now he'd done it, "Why don't you ask that idiot when it's his turn to guard?" he tried to shake them off.
"I don't think he's too intelligent," smirked Airi knowing she'd hit a weak spot.
"Heh, got that right, but still. Every idiot around here knows what an Espada is!"
"Then why don't you tell us?" asked Zezuri patiently.
Grimmjow looked at the brunette human, she looked up at him expectantly. He let out another sigh and figured that the quickest way out of this that didn't involve obliterating the two girls was to answer the question, "An Espada is what those of us who are high-ranked arrancar are called. We have numbers on our bodies representing our rank. I'm the sixth, so you better just watch yourselves!"
To his dismay, another question came, "What is an a-arrancar?" Airi tested the word.
"Hell's teeth! How do you not know this stuff?" the blue haired man exclaimed.
"No one really tells us anything, they just expect us to be willing to go along with everything."
"Not my problem!" Grimmjow tried to head for the door again.
"Please? Couldn't you just tell us a little bit?" Zezuri begged, desperate for the conversation not to end here. They were finally getting some answers.
"Alright, alright! Just promise me you'll shut up and leave me alone after this!" Grimmjow couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth.
The girls nodded eagerly and their guard sat cross legged in the middle of the floor just inside the room, "We arrancar are hollows that have shinigami swords and powers by being really strong."
"What's a hollow?" interrupted Zezuri earning her a glare.
"Just shut up and listen!" Grimmjow growled, "Hollows are lost human souls. They eat other souls, even other hollows. Most don't retain a consciousness and are extremely violent. Eating other souls makes them more powerful and some very powerful ones become arrancar. Like me."
"Shinigami? You mean god of death?" Zezuri translated.
The Espada glared at the brunette.
"Sorry..." she muttered, looking away.
"Sure, that's what they call themselves," he rolled his eyes. "Human spirits who have developed powers and carry swords, they exist to destroy hollows," a grin crossed his face, "But they're no match for me!"
The two girls remained silent, processing the information.
Grimmjow stood up slowly, praying they wouldn't start asking more. When they didn't, he resumed his spot in the hallway, now wondering himself what Aizen wanted the two girls for.
No one tells the poor 6th Espada anything. EVER. Mwahahahahaha! A lot of explanations this chapter, I must say I love the pillow fight scene... -Airumel
