Currently, Ichimin Kumorigachi was standing behind Aizen's large chair and watching him brief the Espada. Gin was on Aizen's right, and Tosen was on his left. She herself was hesitant to get any nearer to their Lord's chair, mostly because she adored Aizen and was too respectful to intrude like that, but also because she was a bit hesitant to get near the man. They were good friends, always had been, but he was still terribly strong. And really, that was rather scary. She instead busied herself with listening, but that quickly became boring because it was all tactics and briefings on what was going on in the war. What would be going on, actually, if anything were happening at all.
Nobody was making a move, because neither had an advantage over the other. Ichigo Kurosaki was still rocked after the attempted rescue of Orihime Inoue, ending in failure. The woman had died in the rescue and the shinigami had retreated in defeat. However, as the current Cuarta Ulquiorra Cifer explained, Aizen had ordered him to slaughter her beforehand and leave her corpse to be discovered by the shinigami. Tragically, the shinigami had assumed it to be the notice of her demise and had left with their tails between their legs, as Orihime's soul remained alive and well within Hueco Mundo. She was still in her room, now apparently ever-the-closer to madness at the realization that now as they thought her dead, no more rescues would be attempted.
Ichimin was busy staring at Ulquiorra, seeing that his right eye was clouded over in blindness, as the scar of what appeared to be a blade started at his hairline and ended at his chin, traveling directly over the teal tear mark on his cheek. his left eye, however, swiveled over to stare directly at her when he was done briefing Aizen on Orihime's condition. Ichimin jumped at the action, but kept it so small as to be unnoticeable as she continued to stare over the Espada. Szayel was there, though his movements appeared to be delayed somewhat whenever he did move, and his hands were shaking slightly, near unnoticeably, in fact. Ichimin only saw it when he lifted his tea cup to his lips, and the glass quivered gently. What appeared to be Aaroniero sat at the end, though Ichimin only recognized the ruffled clothes and not the face. He wasn't wearing that mask, he was in what looked like a human body with an appearance looking near exactly like that of Ichigo Kurosaki, with black-tinted hair. He looked disinterested with the entire situation. Zommari Leroux was gone, his seat filled with a young-looking man with a boyish face, and overly-long sleeves. He looked very bored. Grimmjow was conspicuously absent, his seat filled by Nnoitra Jiruga. Nnoitra had a huge gash across the exposed portion of his chest, and Ichimin noticed that he never lifted his left arm above chest-level without the absolute need to do it. He was currently glaring at the green-haired woman in the seat that used to be his, a very beautiful woman with green hair, a reddish mark that looked like a tattoo across the bridge of her nose, and a bust to rival Matsumoto's. She looked pretty bored too, though she appeared to like the tea. Stark, Halibel and Barragan looked to be the same, though Barragan had what looked to be a large burn visible on the exposed portion of his neck. Stark was near asleep on his steepled fingers, though he made good to look like he was listening. Knowing him being the Primera, Stark probably caught every word.
As they finished up the meeting, Aizen dismissed them all and the three Officers (Gin, Tosen and herself) all scattered at the same time, Ichimaru fading off into the shadows and Tosen heading off to do something or other; the man had always been an enigma to Ichimin. She herself was called over by Aizen, following him obediently into a back room that Ichimin didn't recognize. Retrieving something in a sheathe, he handed it to her with a smile.
"Here you go, Ichimin. I kept it safe for you while you were out of comission, of course." He told her, as she unsheathed her Zanpakuto with a small smile. As she touched the blade, however, it was as if her Zanpakuto rejected her as the channeled reiatsu within it snapped and Ichimin jerked her hand back, seeing a long cut across her palm. Aizen frowned. So her Zanpakuto was rejecting her? He didn't suppress the memories well enough, thanks to Gin waking her up early through accidentally leaving a chair on her ventilator tube. If it was accidental at all.
"Damn it, Kyokkou??" She hissed in a confused tone at the blade, which didn't respond. Her injured hand was clutched tightly to her chest, carmine blood already seeping from between her clenched fingers. She watched as Kyokkou was pulled from her hands and sheathed, before being strapped to her side. And her face instantly turned the same shade as the blood in her palm as Aizen reached forward, taking her wounded hand in his. She immediately opened her hand for him to examine the wound, while her free hand fisted in her sleeve nervously.
"Well, this isn't good. It seems your Zanpakuto is still in the mindset you once were, before you fell into your coma. Probably holding feelings of resentment towards shinigami, or at least the ones that injured you. The hostility should fade soon enough, and your Kyokkou should accept you once more." Aizen told Ichimin gently, as she kept her eyes averted respectfully and nodded. After a moment of silence, he gently took hold of her chin and turned her head up so that her eyes met his.
"It's more polite to meet a friend's eyes when you talk to them, Ichimin." Aizen chided gently, keeping a warm smile on as he watched in quiet satisfaction as she nodded, not trusting herself to speak in anything but a high-pitched squeak. Her eyes, however, showed nervousness that bordered on sheer terror at such an action on his part. She was like Momo, though at the same time she was not. Momo hadn't had the slightest idea of Aizen's true power or capability of cruelty, so she wasn't nervous in the least around him. Ichimin was overly careful about overstepping her boundaries. If he would win Ichimin once more, he would need to change his tactics in such while remembering her false upbringing and her respectful distance from him.
"Yes, Aizen-sama." She finally breathed, though it was shaky at best. Aizen nodded, gesturing towards the door. "Dismissed."
He watched her practically stagger away, pulling out of his touch and taking her warmth with her. Alone now, Aizen sighed a bit and put a hand to cover his eyes. "This may be just a bit more difficult than I had expected. But, I've done it before. This new Ichimin is still lively, still hopeful and still has light in her eyes." He thought on it a moment, before absentmindedly noting that her blood was on his other hand and currently dripping to the floor. It was only a small amount, but the effect of her bright red blood marring the blank white flooring was near staggering.
"She's a vain and self-centered woman, whether she remembers it or not. All Ichimin really wants is attention, and someone to act as her knight in shining armor. Easy enough; if that's all she wants, then I'll give it to her in spades."
Wiping his hand clean with a handkerchief, Aizen then set to begin conferring with Gin as to what movements should be put upon Soul Society in aid of victory. Ichimin wasn't the first thing on his mind, never had been. More a distraction than anything. And things would work themselves out anyway, so why fret over such a trivial matter as to her heart? It would be his soon enough no matter what route he chose.
Ichimin's hand still stung, though a visit to the medical area had mostly been the cause of that. Nurse dumped peroxide in her hand and then wrapped it up after it was done bubbling. Right now, the woman was wandering the halls of Las Noches aimlessly. She didn't really have any duties of her own, to tell the truth. You'd think that she was just a fourth wheel for Aizen's war machine.
Her shoes silenced on the white floors as she heard someone coming up ahead of her, their reiatsu filled with hostile intent and bearing the warning of impending violence. Ichimin began walking again smoothly, ignoring it as best she could. Whomever it was would most likely ignore her anyway. She continued down the hallway with a more straight step, stiffer and hinting at her own strength as she went about her way. As she caught sight of who was in such a foul mood, Ichimin recognized Grimmjow Jeagerjaquez heading her way with a very hostile look about him. His bright blue eyes immediately snapped to her a moment before straying straight ahead of him again, and Ichimin's stance relaxed because of his apparent inattentiveness to her existence.
"Hey bitch."
Fuck.
Ichimin stopped as Grimmjow did, when they were right beside each other and in the middle of passing one another. She happened to glance over, meeting his gaze. It was intense, striking. And Ichimin noted that he was eying her like a predator about to rip something apart, probably in slow motion. She crossed her arms lazily, leaning against the wall to her right and staring in a rather bored fashion.
"Yeah?" Ichimin queried, her tone becoming just as uncaring as his was. Grimmjow eyed her a moment longer, watching her quietly. She didn't move, only waited for him.
"You ever been a whore?" He asked the most random of questions, and Ichimin scoffed in indignation.
"Of course not; I grew up with morals, for one." She told him tersely, and for a moment, saw him grin.
"Really now? Well, that's damn interesting. You have fun being Aizen's bitch, Ichimin." He kept walking, a knowing smirk on his lips as he waved back over his shoulder a bit. She did spot where the six tattoo for an Espada should be, instead seeing a one and a zero before it. One hundred and six; he was a Privaron. So Jeagerjaquez lost his position as an Espada for some reason, and Jiruga lost an Espada rank to that green-haired woman and took Grimmjow's position as Sexta.
Wait. How did Grimmjow even know her name? She never remembered even talking to Jeagerjaquez, much less telling him her name. She watched him slink off down the hallway, leaving her there horribly confused.
"I'm not Aizen's bitch!" She called to his back, though he gave her no interest after the initial meeting. Or was it their first meeting at all? She didn't know, couldn't tell. Still terribly confused, Ichimin slunk off to her own room and dropped onto her bed, sighing deeply. Something on her bed brushed her hand and Ichimin glanced at it with confusion, lifting her head and sitting up while picking up the object; a lone rose.
"Hm?" She mumbled, picking up the flower with care to avoid the thorns and turning it over in her hand, examining it closely. The ruby color was so intense though, that she gave up in trying to figure out why it was there and only found solace in a bit of bright color within the bland coloring of Las Noches. Roses were signs of love. All she could guess was that someone had an affection towards her, though who could've obtained a rose within Hueco Mundo was a mystery to her.
That was quickly cleared up when she touched the head of the rose and found it to be rock hard. The color seemed to fade from the rose until it was pure, unsettling white, and Ichimin realized with a sinking heart that it was probably some odd flower of Hueco Mundo. All the plants were crystalline here, and this seemed to be one of them as it had no pleasant scent and no more lovely red coloring. But she knew it was most likely a rarity here, in this near-lifeless world, and so set it with care on her vanity, before kicking off her shoes and deciding to take a nap. She didn't have anything to do in Las Noches at that moment, so a nap couldn't hurt her, could it?
Getting under the stiff and cold sheets of her bed, Ichimin thought back to Kyokkou as she laid it against the wall. He wasn't talking to her, and it was unnerving. Though Aizen was probably right. She just needed to give it time.
After all, it was Hueco Mundo. She had all the time in the world.
