A/N:
Woooo, this story is on DA ROLL! I seriously love you guys for supporting me and giving me the encouraging comments and reviews, even though I never once asked for them in any of the chapters. Didja notice? I'm one of the few people who don't say "Review please! I need reviews!" – BUT it's not like I don't like them – in fact they do lift my mood greatly, and it's all thanks to you guys.
… well aside the few of those who didn't help…
OKAY! Thanks you guys again! And onto dem Q's and A's! So here goes:
NoctaLightx – DUDE! I seriously love ya. Not in a gay way or anything, lawl. But reading your comments skyrockets my good mood. *happy smile* Anywho – Grimmjow does know how to rile Ulq up, hehe, and it's gonna be fun writing out their interactions. But… what kind of "peer pressure" are you talking about?
If you mean the comments/reviews where those guys ask me to do this or that, or tell me how to write MY fic… well I don't mind them much, unless there are reasons and good ones given as to why. Oh and since we are going into that direction…
EVA-Saiyajin – okay… not to sound rude or anything, but you trying to make your point across the way you do is useless. I find it rather funny how your comments start with the lines of small praise and then there are followed by the same words "… but there's no way…" without giving much explanation as to "why". Hmm… well to clear up your comment on chapter 2:
1st – sure there was awe when they saw Ulq cero the pool, but it's not like they were gonna faint or jizz their pants/panties over it. Besides Moka has seen stuff. She's a vampire…
2nd – Ulquiorra could beat Kurumu without his zanpakuto, sure. He did actually. He drew it to finish her off and she defended, and quite successfully. Yay for Kurumu.
As for the comment on the chapter 3:
1st – Gin is fast as Ulquiorra, no – FASTER during the full moon. There's one good reason for it… I made Ulquiorra weaker. Yep… there it is – I can already hear the people ranting, but I did. If I kept him at his level of power from the Bleach-verse… well… he could pwn everyone and everything without even breaking a sweat and with no need to release Murcielago. Not fun, so I toned his power down to R+V universe standards. He still kicks ass too.
2nd – about Moka and fights, hmm… I'm not too sure. I am going to follow the cannon for now. I think that each time Inner Moka is released is very important too, so making all the important fights without her would be wrong. It was due to this that Inner Moka became fond of Tsukune and somewhat familiar with the others in the group, so… yeah. However there will be fights without Moka.
I also find it weird that you say "keep up the good work" even though you state that so many points about my fic are wrong… this is just confusing me, seriously. I'm nothing but confused, so I wasn't being rude…
Kel'thuzad The Summoner – Oh yeah, shit is about to get REAL, as you said. And thanks for saying the word "epic" – cuz I've been to your profile and that means really high praise from you. Thank you!
Fate fan – Well, you see… I'm not too keen on making an Arrancar OC for Ulq. Where/how would she come from? Nop – this is strictly cannon, with only the addition of a few OC's to the R+V-verse. On the other point – Yukari DOES love Ulquiorra, or at least feels that way and there's no way around da loooove, lmao.
And finally – Grimmjow and Ulquiorra are NOT in the same class. Kurumu and Yukari are in separate classes from Tsukune, Moka and Ulquiorra. Grimmjow is in Kurumu's class – not in Ulq's.
Hypothetical Spiritual Entity – YES! You guessed the line right, but the other one is just before that. "Is that what you think? Foolish boy." Is a slightly changed line from DMC. When Lady finds Vergil and Dante fighting in the Lair of Judgment she attacks Vergil and says: "You forced him[Arkham] into this!" to which Vergil replies: "Is that what you think? Foolish girl." So yeah. There ya have it.
You are hereby awarded with a virtual cookie of awesome! Hope it tastes well…
GFS – You are hereby awarder with a completely virtual, imaginable, yet tastiest cookie of pure awesomeness ever created! You are da man! Hope ya enjoy da cookie.
S. Knightshade – Aw, you're too kind. To be honest I can't really tell if this or that situation is funny or awesome or cool most of the time, since I'm the one who's writing it, so I'm hoping (and relying) on you all guys to tell me if it's good or not.
On a side-note… this may be a bit disappointing, but I decided not to do that thing with Ulquiorra helping Tsukune that we talked about. I won't be able to incorporate it into the story well, trust me – I tried it a few ways in my head, but it just seems too "artificial" and wrong to me. Sorry.
Damn you college! I really can't wait till you update your story, my man. I'm not telling you to hurry up (like some annoying people can) but I do wait for it with great anticipation.
… and you get a cookie too.
Coreldecortavar – Heh, thanks for the praise! I'm really happy you don't find nothing wrong with the fic – it means a lot to me when you guys say that. And worry not – it didn't take (too) long for this chappy to come out. *grins*
Page-Mistress – Is Grimmjow gonna get a girlfriend, huh? Heh… heheheh… oh you'll see… GYEAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Once again – thanks to everyone else who reviewed and faved!
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"Hollow to Vampire – Chapter 4"
Ulquiorra Cifer watched the scene before his eyes, namely the beginning of their club activities. It had been a few months of attendance in the Youkai Academy already, and there seemed to be little improvement in the overall relationship of everyone in the small yet growing group of friends. Right now Ulquiorra was standing near his usual seat, Yukari Sendo attached to his waist as usual, cheering and telling him that she would make him love her as well, meaning that she wanted to make him feel the same way how she felt about him. Ulquiorra was his usual self. Not too far away from him – their club president – Ginei Morioka was telling Moka Akashiya that he loved her and wanted them to go out on a date or two. Kurumu Kurono was clinging to Tsukune Aono, telling him pretty much the same.
For better or for worse Yukari momentarily let go of Ulquiorra and made a few house appliances fall on the heads of Kurumu and Gin.
"I won't let you guys harass my friends like that! I'll fight you with my Magic!" she declared happily, not forgetting to mention that she 'wuvved Ulquiorra, of course.' It was evident that from the very start Yukari and Kurumu became something akin to rivals, mainly on the topic and understanding of personal physical beauty. Yukari was all for being flat-chested and Kurumu pointed out that having big and soft breasts was better. Ulquiorra actively tried to avoid being near the girls when such argument broke out, as they both tried to ask Ulquiorra's opinion, explaining that his logical thought would be the deciding factor… while the pale boy never gave them his opinion on such a thing… for a few reasons.
However while the others were consumed by communicating and bickering, with could be commonly and simply said as "hanging out", Ulquiorra on the other hand was rather troubled. He had no idea as to why, but he had a feeling of trouble coming his way… whatever it was, and while not shunning the feeling, he was highly distrusting of it. After all – he was a fan of logical thought and not some weird feeling that could be simple bad whether… if not for the fact that weather was cloudy here all the time.
A few hours later when their club was over and everyone went about their business, Ulquiorra headed towards the boys side of the dorm along with Tsukune. He walked by the human boy's right side, his usual style of attire on him and his hand in the pocket of his pants, while the other held his school bag over his shoulder. It was one of those rare moments he would speak first.
"Tsukune-san, if I remember correctly your birthday is but six days away." He looked at the boy. "Is that right?"
"Yeah…" Tsukune answered. "… and I haven't invited everyone I wanted to. I still got to invite Moka-san."
"Hmm, perhaps you should do so today. You should wait for her here and invite her. I shall go on to my apartment." Ulquiorra proposed in his usual serious yet impassive voice, however his eyes hinted at importance.
Tsukune nodded surely in response, telling Ulquiorra to take care of himself. The arrancar showed a shadow of a smile and headed for his destination, leaving Tsukune alone, waiting on the main road for the girl he was almost obsessed with. He even looked back after walking away a bit, noticing that Moka didn't take long to follow and that the two teenagers were conversing.
… and still that unknown unpleasant feeling was nagging him in the back of his head.
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The next day Kurumu was sitting at her own desk in class, waiting for their lessons to end and the club to begin. She had a few plates of cookies made for Tsukune, and with them she would surely win the boy's attention. The only thing that made her break away from her thoughts about Tsukune was the new boy – Grimmjow Jaggerjack. He was sitting in the row to her right, two seats behind, so the girl had no trouble taking a few sneak glances at him.
It had been a few weeks since the blue-haired boy joined their class and she had a grasp on his personality already. The boy was rather rude, in class – using no honorifics or showing no mind to authority until he had no other choice, often coercing the teachers into rough measures about his persona. Out of class he was almost a jackass – he had no problem swearing and quite profusely at that, badmouthing anyone and anything he didn't like. He also got into a few fights already and rumor had it he nearly killed a few other delinquents… since he was a delinquent in the eyes of other by now.
However he was not without good points, surprisingly enough, as Kurumu recalled a week back. It was just after classes and the girl was heading off to her club…
xFlashbackx
Kurumu was merrily on her way, thinking up a new scheme of her daily plans to capture Tsukune's attention. She saw a person before her, or rather his broad back, which made her snap out of her thoughts, before she could hit it. By the peculiar hair-color the succubus could identify that it was Grimmjow – her classmate. He was walking in his usual manner with his backpack over his right shoulder and his hands in the pockets of his pants, while slouching forward a bit. A permanent scowl on his face, or a simple expression of bored indifference in its place. At first glance he was a laid-back kind of guy, but upon closer inspection he turned out to be quite easy to agitate into rash actions.
Anyway – it was then she had noticed a group of two boys heading her way, mostly due to the fact that when she stopped and Grimmjow kept going further, one of the guys bumped shoulders with the blue-haired monster. Was it on purpose or not was unknown, but while the two paid no attention to it, Grimmjow did alright, turning around with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
The duo, who had the mediocre visage of delinquents, stopped near Kurumu who was not too far away and initiated a conversation of sorts.
"Hey babe, how about you and me go and have some fun?" one of them said… or it was something along those lines anyway, since Kurumu forgot what exactly they had said not too long afterwards.
Her weak protests, however, were quickly stopped when one of the guys grabbed her hand, trying to get his point across. Something along the lines of "Come along or we'll hurt ya bad." or the like were next. However the group heard a voice coming from behind the guy's backs.
"Oi, shithead – ya bumped into my shoulder."
The guys looked back, while Kurumu simply looked over their shoulders. What they saw a scowling face of Grimmjow, his backpack on the floor near him and his hands still, or once again, in the pockets of his black pants. Only his eyes had a silent warning in them that promised nothing good for the pair. One of them had the mistake of saying...
"Yeah-yeah, whatever – can't ya see we're having a moment here?"
At this Grimmjow only raised his head a bit, assuming an expression that clearly said he was looking down at them, his scowl deepening.
"Oh you're about to have a moment all right, f**ker!" he said, his scowl instantly turning into a grin.
And in a matter of a second he moved. With a single and fast movement Grimmjow was between the two guys, his fist flying upwards straight into the middle of the elbow of the hand that held Kurumu. With a loud snap and a howl of pain the boy's hand bent upwards, broken and bleeding, skin tearing where the broken, sharp edges of the elbow bone split the skin, slicing through it, causing additional pain.
The other guy threw a punch of his own, only to be blocked by Grimmjow's other hand, as he did so seemingly not even looking in the direction of the guy who tried to punch him. Then the arrancar proceeded to twist the hand he held in his own, making the second ruffian scream and delivered a powerful kick right in the back of the guy's head, not turning around.
Both boys were on the floor, one out cold and the other screaming in pain so loud that it was almost unbearable. The shocked Kurumu could only watch the blue-haired boy dusk off his pants, as if nothing had happened. His features were back to a dissatisfied scowl. She finally found the strength to speak.
"T-th- Thank you." She managed to get out.
He looked at her. "Tch… don't be mistaken here. I didn't do it for ya – they bumped into my shoulder and didn't apologize – is all." He almost sneered at her, surprising the girl. "Don't get any weird ideas, jugs." was all he added before the teachers had arrived and took him away, along with his bag he had almost forgotten, leaving the fuming and embarrassed girl alone in the hallway.
xFlashbackx
Back then she thought that he indeed did it because they bumped into him, but the more she thought about it – the more she convinced herself that it wasn't the case. Why would he injure them so much for a simple body collision? It didn't make sense to her, so she decided it was his way to maintain his… style… or something.
Although she had no actual way to determine if it was really the way she thought it was. The only way to confirm her suspicions was to confront him directly, and that would mean that she would have to talk to him about it, or talk to him at all.
When the class was over she saw the boy exit the class, taking one of the routes towards the cafeteria, seeing as it was time for lunch. The blue-haired girl followed him maintaining distance and keeping behind something so not to alarm her target of her presence.
In the cafeteria itself she grabbed her usual lunch that she preferred and looked around, trying to find Grimmjow. She found him soon enough, sitting outside all alone and munching on his food while seemingly deep in thought and bored. He always looked like he was bored and uninterested, but indeed, as she noted before there was something else under that guise – something brutal and feral. Overall he also gave off a peculiar vibe… dare she call it a "bad boy" vibe?
So without wasting much time she sat down opposite of Grimmjow, somewhat surprising him when she plopped down in her seat. He stopped chewing the piece of bread he had in his mouth and regarded her with a half-surprised, half-annoyed look on his face. She only smiled sweetly at him. A few moments passed in utter silence and the boy finally gulped down his bread.
"You… what do you think you're doing?" he asked, somewhat threateningly.
"Me? Nothing much – just keeping you company for lunch." she replied with the same smile.
"Well nobody asked ya to keep me company." He spat back, digging around in his mashed potatoes with his spoon. "So you can scram."
"Hey – that's no way to talk to a girl!" she responded, a bit angered by his attitude.
"I talk any way I want to, jugs, and nobody's the boss of me." He raised his head in defiance.
"Okay." She tried a new approach, surprising the man a bit, seeing as an expression of confusion overtook his face.
"Huh? Okay? What the hell you mean?" he asked in a rude tone of voice.
"I'm not the boss of you, so I can't tell you how to talk to others, but what makes you think I'm worse than you, calling me that way?" she asked, crossing her arms below her impressive boobs.
Grimmjow took a few seconds to reply, watching her intently. "Tch – whatever, fine!" he leaned back on his chair, crossing his arms on his chest as well. "What should I call ya then?"
"Kurumu. Or Kurumu-chan." She smiled happily, out of the blue. Grimmjow was once again confused.
"How 'bout I call you 'woman'?" he sneered sarcastically.
"No way! I'll call you Grimmjow or Grimmjow-kun, so call me by my name too! It's only fair – no?" she asked him, assuming a serious demeanor.
"Jeez – fine. Kurumu." He concluded, deciding not to use any kind of suffixes, since he never used them before and never would start doing so.
The girl leaned forwards to the table and started eating her food, reminding Grimmjow that his own food would get cold by this action, so the both of them started eating, keeping silent. Kurumu, however, could feel and see that during all this time Grimmjow kept glaring at her but she was not sure if it was irritation or something else. He had one of those unreadable glares some people had on his face right now and she could only guess what he was thinking… probably something to do with her.
So after a few minutes when they were done with the food, silence ensued. Grimmjow once again leaned back on his chair, arms crossed. The Succubus decided to break the ice once again, as the boy seemed reluctant to converse… which was kind of cute in a way.
"So… don't you have any friends that you eat with during lunch?" she asked curiously.
"Pfft – I don't need nothing like that. I got no wish to sit around eating with some shitheads." He responded.
"So you're all alone up till now?"
"Wait-wait… is this the part when ya say you wanna be friends with me?" he leaned forward, placing one hand on the table, glaring at her harder. "I hate to break it to ya, but my answer is 'no'! And now that we had lunch you can scram."
The girl only looked at him, with uncertainty in her eyes. This agitated Grimmjow even further.
"Are you f**king looking down on me? Ya think I need some 'friends' to go around? Don't make me laugh – I don't need your f**king pity!" he raised his voice, attracting a bit of attention to their table. People already knew him and his reputation and seeing Kurumu by the same table made them think the guy was picking on the poor girl.
The blue-haired girl took a few seconds to think this through and finally answered, trying to use all her diplomatic skills to aid her.
"No – I'm not underestimating you, nothing of the sort. I just… thought you should be lonely like this, without any friends. Don't you want any at all?" she asked him.
"Tch… this talk is making me wanna hurl. Whatever." and without wasting any time the boy got up, picking up his stuff and walked away not giving Kurumu a chance to speak to him further.
She could only watch him go.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
Ulquiorra was sitting at his desk in class, paying attention to what the teacher was saying. It was the Art class right now. He had found the teacher to be somewhat eccentric, seeing as she was dressed very differently from the dress-code rules, however, some teachers were also that way. For example – Kotsubo-sensei who was wearing rather casual clothes all the time. Not that Ulquiorra had any problems with that – he just found it weird. Well – the Art teacher was definitely at the top of the most 'artistic' outfits he had seen in his time before, if you don't count a certain individual from Barragan's Fraccion. The arrancar slightly shuddered at the memory of the horrible monstrosity that called itself 'beautiful' of all things possible to be called.
The boy shook his head and shifted his attention back to class.
"…ctures continuing with last week's theme of 'what's important to you'." The teacher said, and although Ulquiorra heard only half of it or so, it wasn't too hard to understand, really. "And just what is important to you is the art in each and every one of your hearts." She continued, placing her hand to her heart. "Feel free to paint whatever you want."
The arrancar leaned back on his seat, wondering what he wanted to paint. 'It should be something I care for, something that is important to me.' He thought, looking around the classroom to see Tsukune and Moka. The human boy was looking at the pink-haired girl, while the latter was concentrated on painting something in her album. The raven-haired boy shook his head. 'No… I should not paint them. It has to be something else… something close to my… heart.' He concluded.
Missing the fact that some other girl had come to class to hang out with their sensei, Ulquiorra concentrated on the task at hand. He took the brush in his hand and pressed it to the clean sheet of paper, making shapes with it. There was no paint on the brush, so nothing could be painted this way, however it would help the boy to draw a shape in his mind. Not a minute had passed and Ulquiorra had decided what he wanted to paint. He used only two colors – black and green.
After their time was up Ishigami-sensei had asked if anyone was done, or should there be another lesson on this. Many said they were finished, and many said they were not, so the teacher just went and checked the completed works. When she came over to Ulquiorra the woman tilted her heard, watching the thing drawn on the album of her pupil. Both she and Ulquiorra locked their eyes on a rather big and crudely drawn bat – it was mostly black, with a faint green outline, a pair of green eyes and a green heart in the middle. Ishigami-sensei raised her brows, glancing at Ulquiorra, who had a shadow of a smile on his face, almost impossible to notice.
"Umm… good… and nice. I can definitely see inspiration here, but the painting could use some more work." The teacher said, giving her praise in an unsure voice. Ulquiorra only nodded, now serious.
He had decided that he would work on painting Murcielago until he would be perfect, even if he had to do it a thousand times over.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
Later on, the day before Tsukune's birthday, after another usual day, Ulquiorra and the others went separate ways, as the arrancar had heard that Moka was going to Ishigami-sensei's additional lessons. Tsukune was still trying to invite the girl or so it seemed. The raven-haired boy could only guess why he hasn't managed to do so during all this time.
He sat at his usual place in their Clubroom, watching Ginei Morioka, their club president, talk about another disappearance. As they had found out not too long before – girls started disappearing all over school with no trace to follow. Ulquiorra's pesquisa was useless in this endeavor and he could only do so much as the others could – investigate. So right now he was watching Yukari's divination, which he was performing with a crystal ball – just like in all those stories about the Witches. His and Yukari's desks were put together by the said girl and Kurumu was sitting at her own desk from to the other side of the witch girl and watched intently as well.
"That's weird…" finally said Yukari, keeping her hands around the crystal ball. "…there's a bad aura enveloping Moka-san and Tsukune-san!"
Ulquiorra leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms on his chest, wondering if this was true, while Yukari continued to explain what she was doing to Kurumu and telling the girl that her divinations were always right. The pale boy wondered if this was the reason for this feeling of danger and dread he was getting all these days. It had started a while ago and only grew stronger and more restless, to the point where the boy had trouble sleeping – in fact he had to force himself to sleep the last two days, as he had felt the danger was very close.
And just then Tsukune entered, looking rather depressed and worn out, as if he was running all the way here. Gin-sempai had shown Tsukune the last and eighth disappearance and noted that the boy was late for club, while Moka had a good reason to skip it right now.
"Moka-san!" Tsukune exclaimed and immediately ran away, confusing everyone present. Kurumu and Yukari decided to run after him while Gin and Ulquiorra stayed in the clubroom. Gin looked a bit disappointed.
"Well – with the two of us there's no point in doing anything right now, so I guess we can postpone this till tomorrow or something." Gin sighed, adding a quiet. "All the cute girls always run away." making Ulquiorra sigh slightly.
And since the club activities were over, Ulquiorra decided to go for a walk around the academy grounds. He had chosen his favourite route near the woods, away from all the populated areas and simply walked, his hands in his pockets and his bag already in his room on the bed. It was then that the boy felt the familiar feeling of danger wash over him with so much force that he almost stopped breathing. A sound of ruffled leaves came from behind him as someone stopped not too far away from his current location.
"Yo, comrade!" came a voice from behind. It sounded strangely familiar, making Ulquiorra turn around.
His emerald eyes fell upon a broad and muscular form of a boy wearing the same school uniform he was, which was unsurprising. The boy wore his jacket open and his sleeves turned up and going down only to his elbows. The boy stood in the same manner as Ulquiorra with hands in the pockets of his pants, but the difference was that unlike the pale arrancar who kept his back straight – this guy was slouching. The next second the arrancar's gaze rose up to the unknown boy's face. His eyebrows quickly went high and his eyes grew wide with surprise he had never felt before to this degree. The light-blue eyes, the green marking below the eyes, the vicious, maniacal grin, the light-blue spiked hair and finally… that voice. There was no doubt about it – before him stood Grimmjow Jaggerjack, his fellow ex-Espada.
Grimmjow proceeded to chuckle, his shoulders going up and down with every sound coming out of his half-closed mouth. The man even closed his eyes with delight, savoring the moment of the ex-Cuatro's shock so evident on his face. Ulquiorra's mind only then caught on to the fact that Grimmjow, like him, looked like a teenager.
"He he he, dude – just look at ya! Dumbass, so surprised and shocked… ah… I guess it's to be expected." Grimmjow's grin turned into a pleased one. "Ya didn't think you'd meet me here, huh, Ulquiorra?"
"G… Grimm…-jow. How is this possible?" Ulquiorra even stuttered a bit out of pure shock.
Grimmjow only chuckled some more, pulling a hand out of the pocket of his pants and pointing it at his fellow arancar. "How? HOW? The same way you did idiot – I got a free ride on a bus. Or wait… are you talking about this school or this world?" He tilted his head in mock question while still keeping that grin on his face.
Ulquiorra, who had accepted the facts finally calmed down and reverted to his usual, albeit alarmed self. He kept a frown on his face now. "You know well what I mean – how did you get into this world?"
"Heh, well lemme tell you a story, Ulquiorra. There I was, f**king beaten by Kurosaki of all people, almost killed by that bastard Nnoitra… bleeding to death with no one around. I was goddamn abandoned on the battlefield. It coulda been faster if those f**king Exequias would just come and finish me off, but no – I died slowly, loosing blood and unable to move. That was definitely not cool." Grimmjow's grin turned into a scowl full of rage and anger. "… and then, after I died and everything went black, I was here. I didn't know how or why, but soon enough I got my answers and now – I'm here to have a little chat with an old friend of mine."
"So you're here to fight me?" Ulquiorra asked, finding too many loopholes in that story, or rather the fact that Grimmjow had left out quite a lot.
"Nah, I'm here to kill you." Grimmjow pulled out his other hand, taking a fighting stance, while grinning again.
Ulquiorra only frowned deeper. "Kill me? You never had the strength necessary to beat me, let alone kill me, Grimmjow. Where's the point in this?"
"The point? Well, shithead, there's no point – I just hate you, is all."
And Grimmjow jumped forwards, aiming a punch at Ulquiorra, who had caught it a second later with his own hand, now fully ready for battle. Grimmjow only scoffed and aimed another punch at him, only to be blocked again. And then Ulquiorra had to block or evade a while flurry of punches coming his way, flying so fast that a man of lesser ability would see multiple hands coming his way, while the pale arrancar was good enough to keep up with the blue-haired boy's attacks both with his eyes and body. But then Ulquiorra felt something slam into his stomach, making his slide back a bit – Grimmjow had executed a kick while punching his opponent.
Ulquiorra was about to say something but his enemy vanished, reappearing behind him with a sonido. Ulquiorra swung his hand back, blocking a punch from Grimmjow. It was then Ulquiorra had understood – unlike before these simple punches and kicks hurt and that meant that either his own Hierro was weaker somehow or Grimmjow had gotten stronger, which was a possibility. With an unexpected motion Grimmjow twisted his hand, taking a hold of Ulquiorra's wrist and stomped his foot into the ground, slamming his shoulder into the pale boy's side, making the opponent grunt with slight pain. Then without pause the blue-haired arrancar pulled on the arm he held with great force, pushing the opponent's body in the other direction and slightly upwards with his shoulder and in the end – threw his enemy over himself and into the ground, sending cracks through it as Ulquiorra's body made contact with it.
To say that Ulquiorra was surprised was to say nothing – Grimmjow never pulled moves like this before. Before Ulquiorra could do anything Grimmjow attacked once again, slamming his foot into the opponent's face, burying his head deeper into the ground instead of squishing it – Ulquiorra's hierro was stil a thing to be reckoned with.
"Heheh – I'm back, shithead. And now I'm gonna murder ya!" the violent monster declared before crying out in pain the next second, jumping away and holding his now bleeding leg, just below the knee. "Gah! Bastard!"
Ulquiorra stood up, dusting himself off – no longer frowning. "You simply caught me off-guard Grimmjow. This won't happen again… and to think that such a short and pathetic victory could make you happy."
Grimmjow bared his teeth. "F**ker… ya know… I hated the way Kurosaki was looking at me, like he had won already, but you – you piss me off as much, if not more! You and your damn eyes!" he spit every word in hate. "You think you're in control? You think you can look down on me? You think you're so cool? That's retarded – don't underestimate me! You have no idea what I'm capable of!"
Paying no attention to the wound on his leg the blue-haired arrancar disappeared in a flash of sonido once again, this time appearing above Ulquiorra, delivering a hammer-kick onto his head. Ulquiorra lifted up a single hand and blocked the attack, catching the man's leg and throwing it away. When Grimmjow landed he wasted no time and jumped at Ulquiorra, ready to strike but instead of attacking he found a hand pierce his side, making him jerk backwards, pulling the hand out of the wound. Another curse escaped his lips as the man raised his hand.
"Die, damn you!" and a blood-red cero gathered itself in his hand. In response Ulquiorra pointed a finger at Grimmjow, gathering his own Cero.
"You know my Cero is stronger than yours. Stop while you still can." The stoic man uttered.
"Never… NEVER!"
And the two Cero's fired, meeting each other almost at point-blank range. An explosion forced both to fly away backwards, fire and smoke covering their possible damage. As both of them waited for the dust to clear out they were presented with a most peculiar sight – both fighters were seemingly unharmed. Ulquiorra only raised a brow in surprise, while Grimmjow grinned again.
"More powerful my ass! Hah – you've clearly become weaker, Ulquiorra." The man sneered. "These idiots around you, these friend of yours – they made ya soft and weak… they made you more human." The last word was spoken with pure disgust.
"They are not humans – they're monsters." Ulquiorra replied.
"You get the meaning, Professor Dumbass. The way you are now… you're weak."
"Is that so? This coming from a man who's bleeding quite a lot, while I have no injuries aside from scratches." Ulquiorra replied, somewhat smugly.
Instead of being surprised or pissed Grimmjow suddenly burst out laughing as hard as he did when he had regained his power and killed a certain Luppi. The blue-haired man wiped a tear from the corner of his eye when he was done.
"This? You call this a wound?" he smirked. "Or maybe… you didn't realize how shallow your stab was, huh?"
"What?" was all Ulquiorra could say before Grimmjow raised his hand, creating a blood-red ball that covered his hand – but instead of a Cero it had been a Bala. The next second it hit Ulquiorra straight in the stomach, sending the man sliding away a few feet.
"Idiot." answered a voice behind him as a leg slammed into Ulquiorra's side and sent him into the nearby tree, destroying it upon impact with the body of the green-eyed arrancar. In the meantime Grimmjow raised his arms to his chest level, gesturing in a way one might think he was defenseless. "You didn't really think I'd stay on the same level for long, didja? Think about it, Ulquiorra – Ichigo had a hard time defeating me even with all the crap with his mask and bankai. He woulda died if that annoying woman wouldn't start shouting something about him 'living'. He was able to overpower me through sheer force of will… no matter how f**ked up that sounds."
Ulquiorra had already stood up by the time Grimmjow was finished talking and took a battle stance. "I never thought you were the type to make these observations, Grimmjow."
"Huh? Oh – ya think cuz I'm decisive, strong and violent – I'm stupid? That's bullshit." The muscular arrancar sneered again.
Ulquiorra had to think carefully about this, but before he could he felt a sudden spike of youki not too far away. It was Moka's youki and it was rising drastically, which only meant one thing – her Rosario had been removed. The raven-haired monster noticed that Grimmjow glanced sideways for a second too.
"Well-well, your friend are having some fun too, huh? Guess we better wrap up this party… one way or the other."
"So it would seem." The bat demon answered, vanishing from sight the next instant.
Grimmjow just stood there, looking into the direction his opponent had escaped, no doubt to help his friends in their troubles. However weird, the arrancar did not make an attempt to pursue his enemy and instead turned away, putting his hands into his pockets and walking away. As he did a small trail of youki of the same color as smoke emitted from his wounds, closing them up in mere fifteen seconds. Grimmjow only frowned at this, cracking his neck as he headed towards the dorms.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
Later that day Ulquiorra found out that Tsukune and Moka got into trouble with Ishigami-sensei, who turned out to be the cause of all the disappearances of the 8th girls. With her defeat everyone turned into stone were turned back and safe. Tsukune himself was in the infirmary, while the others were worried about him elsewhere. Moka's condition was a bit better and she was able to move around.
All in all – Ulquiorra wasn't scared for the human's condition, as he knew now that the boy could go through a lot of things and come out victorious. The only doubt nagging the arrancar's mind was 'what if there was neither Ulquiorra nor Moka there to help him?' but he pushed it far away for now.
The next day he and the others had barged in during an important moment, as much as the arrancar's observant eyes could see. They all gave the boy their presents – cookies from Kurumu, a Warawara-kun doll from Yukari and a book of poetry that Ulquiorra hand-picked himself. Little did he know at the moment that the things he had considered poetic and beautiful would make some of Tsukune's evening quite depressive and filled with suicidal thoughts… but he didn't know that, yet.
The merry group all cheered, wishing the human boy a happy birthday and Ulquiorra, who stood a bit further from the rest of them allowed a small smile to land on his face.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
Ulquiorra was standing still, his impassive gaze fell down onto the crowd of students not too far away and the table before him on which lay all the copies of the latest issue of the newspaper their club had done. His emerald eyes shifted on the group of four other people beside him on this side of the table, all holding the newspapers and cheering, shouting that people should take the newspapers they just made.
Not a lot of things happened, aside from the incident with the Slug-monster that tried to blackmail Kurumu a week back. While everyone started doubting Kurumu Ulquiorra and Tsukune remained firm in their belief that something was wrong. It turned out to be right and the crazy fanboy monster was dealt. What was most surprising was the fact that Kurumu had managed to access abilities far beyond her reach in the spur of the moment, impressing everyone in the group, including Ulquiorra, who, naturally, kept quiet about it.
During all this time Ulquiorra had seen Grimmjow in hallways, in the cafeteria or someplace else – but the man did not make any attempts to attack and kill the dark-haired arrancar and that was most disturbing. As far as Ulquiorra knew – Grimmjow was one to do things rashly, attacking, destroying and whatnot, so he was plenty surprised to find him not doing anything of the sort and keeping a low profile. It was very suspicious. And the man had to agree in his mind that Grimmjow had shown to be not the rage-fueled machine of destruction he had thought the man to be by providing a rather accurate analysis of Kurosaki's victory over himself – once again a thing not common to Grimmjow. However…
What did Ulquiorra really know about his fellow ex-Espada besides facing him in battle and watching him do battle? He had a hunch before that even though the Sexta was brutal; he did not lack a certain feral cunning that he had displayed once before. Perhaps there was simply more to him that had met the eye? And the most interesting fact was that Grimmjow also had become a monster, as he lacked the mask fragment and the hollow hole, which meant that he and Ulquiorra had a few things in common and for one – they were no longer tied to their death aspect like they used to be.
It was all extremely puzzling, but worst of all – Ulquiorra had found out that Kurumu had been hanging out with him from time to time. This was disturbing, and more-so added to the fact that Grimmjow knew who Ulquiorra's friends were. He had mentioned them and the fact he had been watching them. The only relief was that Kurumu was unharmed and she spoke of Grimmjow being special, but not bad. She didn't know the half of it… however Ulquiorra used to be as bad as Grimmjow was, if not worse in some aspects.
The raven-haired boy turned his attention to the world outside him, noticing that many boys and girls were attracted to their newspaper stand due to the fact Moka, Kurumu and Ulquiorra were handing out the said newspapers. While the boys hungrily assaulted Moka and Kurumu, who were the academy's number 1 and number 2 beauties respectively, the girl part of the crowd were almost fainting as Ulquiorra gave them their share of the papers. Perhaps it was due to the fact that his fingers brushed against theirs from time to time as he proceeded to give out their newspaper? He did not know, but the "Ulquiorra Fan Club" was here and a few of the girls had worked up the nerve to "accidentally" grab his hand while taking the objects.
One of them did faint, fuming at the mouth. 'Quite… disturbing…' was all Ulquiorra had thought of the event.
He also noticed that quite a few people were giving much attention to Yukari, who in the end got a bit scared and used Ulquiorra as a human shield, hiding behind him and hugging him all at once. It was no secret to the "Ulquiorra Fan Club" that Yukari was their rival of sorts, as she openly declared that she was going to make Ulquiorra fall madly in love with her and proceeded to go into her own perverted fantasy world, describing the things they would do while alone… until the said subject of her affection stopped her every time.
'One time she even suggested a… sandwich… with Moka and me…' Ulquiorra could not help but shake the horrible thoughts off, cursing himself mentally that he had once again gone off into his own world.
The arrancar's head shot straight up when he felt a familiar presence nearby.
Grimmjow was standing right before the newspaper club, only a table between them. The light-blue eyes were looking straight into the emerald-green ones, and after a moment of intent staring the two broke off, Ulquiorra making a step aside and Grimmjow moving to stand in front of Kurumu.
"Hello Grimmjow! Glad you could make it!" the succubus almost sang a happy tune, smiling at the arrancar.
"Yeah-yeah… I told ya I'd come, so here I am. Gimme that friggin newspaper." the boy, seemingly oblivious of the shock he had caused the crowd behind him and those of the newspaper club who had not met him before, snatched the piece of paper from Kurumu's hands, holding back a bit as only Ulquiorra noticed.
The Panther Youkai proceeded to skim through the contents of the newspaper, paying no attention to the crowd around him, until Kurumu dragged him a few feet away, to which he only grumbled a few curses and settled on that. To say Ulquiorra was surprised was to say nothing – as much as the man had tried to accustom himself to shocks and surprises – one thing just beat another, surprising him even more and more. The Grimmjow he knew would at least throw the girl away, telling her not to touch him, but this… was weird beyond words.
Just then Ginei came over, looking rather happy.
"How's it goin' guys? Are you giving out lots of copies?" he asked, waving at them.
Moka was the first to react. "Oh, Gin-sempai!"
"Oh, looks like it's a pretty big hit this time, eh?" the man looked inside one of the half-empty boxes after glancing at Kurumu, Yukari and Ulquiorra handing out papers, while Moka and Tsukune joined him. "We're gonna need to charge for these." he joked, sounding almost serious.
Moka only showed her bright smile in response. "We've already passed out half of them – it really makes me happy." She giggled a bit, earning a kind half-smile from Gin.
"By the way…" Tsukune turned to Gin. "Why don't you help us out passing the paper?" Oh the naïve little boy.
"Yeah, right – don't'cha know boring work like that is the job for underlings?" Gin said, smiling at Tsukune with his own special smile and waving a hand at the boy. "As if I'd ever do that… heh."
"WHAT?" Tsukune could only shout at him in irritation. "You've got no interest in the club, Leader!"
Ulquiorra could only sigh, looking at the club president out of the corner of his eye. Yukari, who happened to overhear everything chimed in.
"That's cuz the only thing he's interested in is his H stuff!" she said, and added. "Just like a stray dog during the mating season."
And then a small argument broke out, making Ulquiorra think that both were perverts. It ended shortly with a large basin falling on the head of the werewolf, who had been alarmed or distracted by something to dodge in time. Then the pale arrancar saw it too – a group of people advancing through the crowd in a manner which was far from careful, shoving people out of their way. The group all wore black attires and had white armbands on one hand.
"What's going on?" asked Tsukune.
"Crap… it's the black suits." Gin told them. "It's the Youkai Academy guardians – the Academy Public Safety Comission."
An earrie silence ensued, broke only by the rufling of paper a few feet away. 'Grimmjow.' Thought Ulquiorra. The bat demon studied the faces before him, carefully remembering them and trying to understand what they came here for. The lot were not giving off a good vibe anyway.
A tall male with long blond hair and weird black eyebrows was the first to speak.
"Salutations – I am Kuyou, the Head of the Public Safety Commission." the man introduced himself politely. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Moka seemed a bit scared as she spoke. "Public Safety… so you're the ones maintaining the peace of the Academy? What can we do for you?" she asked, but much to everyone's surprise Gin suddenly slipped in between her and Kuyou, who had picked up one of the newspapers.
"Hm, so you're the Newspaper Club." he glanced over the articles with a critical eyes. "Well – your work is quite good, if I do say so myself. However…" the man closed his eyes and opened them, giving the group a rather cold glare. "… who gave you the permission to hand out a newspaper with these contents? We don't recall having inspected this." And then the man raised his leg, slamming it down onto the table and breaking it in two, making the newspapers fly everywhere. "Do you understand that it can cause problems for us?" he continued in a much higher tone of voice. "… when a gang like you selfishly does whatever it wants and disturbs the peace and order of this academy!"
And then the man proceeded to explain his actions, while in truth Gin and Ulquiorra knew that his reasons were nothing more than excuses. Ginei had known from experience with the group of men in black, while Ulquiorra could easily read the Kuyou guy. He had experience with trash like this one, but before he could say anything Kurmu had tried to defend herself and the newspapers, saying that it was no big deal. The girl who stood adjacent Kuyou spit something at the girl, binding her arm with sticky white substance.
"I see the Newspaper Club is filled with lowlifes just like always." Said the girl with dark-purple hair, after which she remarked that they were trouble just like last year and proceeded to stomp on one of the newspapers, but then a new voice cut her off.
"Oi, Keito… you better step off that piece of paper if you don't want me to bash your skull in."
Everyone looked towards the source of the words, noticing one almost pissed off Grimmjow Jaggerjack, still holding a newspaper in his hands.
"Well-well, if it isn't our frequent customer, Grimmjow!" the girl – Keito – mused, smirking at him. But she stepped off the paper nonetheless.
"Damn right. And you f**king lot are keeping me from reading the damn newspaper. You don't want that – do you?" Grimmjow then put the newspaper away into his pocket and came up to the girl, grinning at her face almost point-blank.
It was then Kuyou spoke.
"Grimmjow Jaggerjack – you would go so far as to actually threaten a member of the Public Safety Commision? How bold and foolish of you." The blonde gave the blue-haired arrancar a cold stare to which the latter only chuckled. "After the last time you were in detention I'd think you've learned your lesson."
"Heheh, old habits die hard, ya know? I'm a bad boy through and through. It's about time you lot learned this." Grimmjow put his hands in the pockets of his pants and nearly hissed at Keito. "Now scram, while I'm in a good mood."
"One more word out of you Grimmjow…" the head of the PSC warned ominously and turned towards the newspaper club. "And you – keep in mind that if you ever do anything without our permission again – we're not going to let you off so easily." Kuyou warned, turning around and leaving along with the rest of his crew.
Ulquiorra only watched them go, then turning to see how the others took the news. Their faces were full of sadness and a bit of fear… aside from Grimmjow who just spat at the ground in defiance and disgust. Ulquiorra spoke out.
"Grimmjow – how exactly do you know them?"
Grimmjow scoffed, showing an expression of mock and disgust at the same time. "I've ran into the bastards a few times. I'm a troublemaker – whaddaya want from me? You expect me to sit and take in everything comin' at me like you do? Pfft."
"Figures." Responded the pale arrancar.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
The Newspaper Club and Grimmjow, who decided to tag along, were sitting at the cafeteria's outside table – the one they always ate at nowadays. Ginei had explained what the PSC was in truth and how corrupted they were and how bad they were, controlling the school and breaking anyone who got in their way.
After a small meal and a discussion a new question arose, one Kurumu voiced.
"So, Ulquiorra – you and Grimmjow know each other?" she asked curiously.
The two looked at each other and visibly frowned at the same time – Grimmjow in his overreacting manner and Ulquiorra ever-so-slightly.
"Indeed… you could say… we come from the same place, more or less." Ulquiorra explained without giving any details. Grimmjow only crossed his arms on his chest.
"You were something like neighbors?" Moka asked.
"Yes – something like that. We both lived in the desert… with our families." Ulquiorra half-lied, shooting a glance at his fellow arrancar who nodded in confirmation.
"There – we do know each other. Me and this dumbshit were comrades before."
Ulquiorra only lowered his brows, making everyone understand just what kind of camaraderie they had. Instantly the group at the table came to recognize the tense aura of barely hidden hostility that surrounded the two boys, who sat exactly opposite each other.
"Hey…" Kurumu was the one to change the flow of the conversation. "… if it comes to this – I'll just pass out the rest of the newspapers myself, or with Grimmjow – he's no coward, unlike Gin! We don't have to burn the papers like Sempai says!"
"Wait Krumu-chan – Gin-sempai probably has a good reason for this…" Moka protested weakly.
"No way. That guy's head is just overloaded with perverted thoughts!" answered Kurumu.
"Wait…. what does that have to do with anything?" Grimmjow arched his eyebrows in a funny way, perplexed.
"Come on Grimmjow – let's go!" Kurmu exclaimed, no longer wishing to talk about this, and grabbed the boy by the arm, dragging him away, while carrying a box of newspapers in her other hand. The others only watched as the two walked away, followed by a few loud and rude exclamations by Grimmjow, which in short meant something like 'Fire – I'll go, even though I don't want to.'
Ulquiorra wanted to follow the two, but then a certain small Witch decided it was a good idea to latch onto him, since she was a bit lost and wanted some comfort.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
Grimmjow and Kurmu were walking beside the school building, the girl walking ahead with the box and the boy following her in his usual manner of walking. Finally he broke the unpleasant silence.
"So… why are we doin' thin again?" he asked, still scowling.
"… these newspapers…" Kurumu started, sounding distant and on the verge of tears. "…they're like a treasure to me. I made these with Tsukune and everyone else. It's the first thing I've ever made by working together with other people." she stopped and paused. "And to have it trampled for no good reason! I can't back down like this! I can never forgive those Public Safety guys!"
Grimmjow watched her back as she lowered her head and almost broke into a scream while she spoke the last words. It was not something the man could really understand, but he could respect a little determination and willpower to stand up to people that try to push you around.
He came closer, standing side by side with the girl and punched her in her shoulder, unbelievably lightly, with no force behind it.
"Baaaka." was the only thing he said.
And the next moment a strand of white goo shot into the box and with a quick pull the box was launched into the hands of a girl standing on a branch made of the same goo-like substance. It was Keito – the girl from earlier.
"Heh, don't make me laugh. You really are stupid." the girl smirked in a way that could make quite a few serial killers feel ashamed. "It appears you guys have no interest in being good boys and girls and obeying us. Fools." The creepy girl pulled the box into her hands with the help of the said white substance that was unmistakably spider webbing. "As I thought – I should crush you once and for all right here and now!"
Then the girl lowered herself down on the ground and proceeded to explain how the previous members of the Newspaper Club were as much trouble as this year's members. Kurumu was shocked and surprised, but she was able to speak nonetheless.
"That doesn't mean you guys can do anything you like! Give that back!" she pointed at the box in Keito's hands.
"Yeah – listen to the girl. You don't want me to make you hand them over, right?" Grimmjow grinned menacingly. "I'm not part of the club, so I don't give a shit about kicking your creepy ass all the way to New Year."
This was the last straw for the creepy rapist-girl Keito (AN: Seriously – her glares/stares/smirks could put a killer-rapist to shame, or is it just me?) who threw the box containing the newspapers into the furnace behind her, making the box burn and turn to ash in a matter of 15 seconds.
"Watch your mouths! Who do you think you're talking to, you little brats?" the girl shouted in fiery rage and then quickly her rage turned to sadistic satisfaction. "Your newspaper burns rather nicely, doesn't it?"
Kurumu covered her mouth with her hands, while the corners of her eyes turned moist again – a weak "No" coming out of her mouth, only barely audible, so Grimmjow could barely hear it. He looked back, watching the succubus' horrified expression with an unreadable one on his own face.
It was because of this that he was caught off guard when the spider webbing hit him, wrapping around his torso and he found himself being thrown into the nearby grave. Naturally – it shattered upon impact. Kurmu on the other hand was 'glued' to a tree as the girl – Keito – revealed herself to be a spiderwoman monster.
"Grimmjow!" the blue-haired girl screamed, hoping the boy was alright.
"No need to call for him – you better worry about yourself!" Keito was already upon her, unclear in her intentions for a mere moment before ripping away at the girl's uniform with a few of her spider legs while gluing the succubus' hands and legs to the tree. "I'm going to have some fun with you…"
To say Kurumu was scared was wrong – she was almost mortified. The spiderwoman's intentions were quite clear now and Kurumu wished to wake up from this nightmare at any minute, while unable to shift to her true form. However before the situation could escalate further a strange heavy aura hit the area where the two were, making both Keito and her soon-to-be victim to turn around to the source.
Both saw Grimmjow Jaggerjack, who was finished tearing away the webbing. He stood up, examining the location of his ally and enemy and without a single word leapt towards the spidergirl. She did not stand idle and in turn spit a strand of webbing at the man, who was currently in the air just above the ground and supposedly defenseless, while she finished assuming her true form. Much to her surprise, as soon as Grimmjow touched the ground with a single foot he vanished with a sonido, evading the webbing as a result. Kurumu could only gasp in surprise as she recognized the move Ulquiorra had used a few times, calling it "Sonido" once before when he fought Gin on the roof of the school. While she thought about that, Grimmjow had reappeared beside the enemy and delivered a powerful kick to her face, but before she could fly away the man grabbed one of her spider-legs and swung it like a club, slamming her into a tree, then the ground and then threw her towards the furnace.
Without giving Keito a moment of breather he was upon her, slamming both legs into her stomach… supposedly it was there. Spiders and their weird anatomy. His hand found her throat and closed itself around it.
"Now you've done it and pissed me off, bitch." Grimmjow hissed straight at her face and added, thinking the succubus could not hear. In fact he didn't think much at the time – just said what's on his mind. "Ya stomped on a newspaper, burned a whole box of it… but worst of all – ya tried to hurt Kurumu. And now – you're gonna learn not to get on my bad side."
… and with that Grimmjow picked the spiderwoman up and slammed her head into the half-opened door of the furnace, making her hair catch on fire, while he laughed like he did when his mood was most violent.
"How do ya like that, huh? HUH?" he then threw the spider monster away, watching as the girl flew above the trees until he heard her land somewhere in the forest. He only grinned at that. But then he remembered about Kurumu and jumped to her side, then proceeding to rip off the sticky white webbing.
"Umm, could you… turn around or something?" Kurumu asked, who was practically only in her bra and panties, seeing as her uniform was torn to shreds.
Grimmjow only looked at her with a expressionless, blunt face Ulquiorra mostly showed and before she could yell at him that he was practically staring at her while she was half-naked and it bothered her – she had to catch his jacket, which he had removed and threw in her arms. The girl hesitated only a second and then covered herself with his jacket.
As they walked in the direction of the academy dorm Kurumu looked at her new friend.
"Why did you do it?" she asked, watching him scoff, but before he could say anything she put her hand to his mouth, preventing him to speak. "And don't tell me she simply pissed you off and it had nothing to do with me or the newspapers. That lie won't work." she offered him a warm smile.
Grimmjow scratched his nose with his index finger, so uncharacteristically. "Well… I didn't see that whole thing as fair. Besides…" he looked at her, their eyes meeting. After about 10 seconds of gazing into each other's eyes Grimmjow continued, abruptly breaking away. "… besides you're just a baka – is all. I don't gotta explain myself to ya!"
He looked away, missing her mysterious smile.
xxxxxXXXXXxxxxx
The newspaper club gang was all together sitting in their clubroom, with an addition of one half-pissed panther demon. All the eyes were directed to Kurumu, who had asked everyone to gather around, seeing as she had an important announcement to make. Everyone were sitting in their seats, beside Kurumu Kurono, who was standing in front of everyone and Grimmjow, who was leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed.
"… and that's how it is. So – I realize I had made a mistake before, because I was too caught up in the situation and it was the first time someone was so kind to me. But now…" she sighed and smiled. "… I think I really chose my Destined One! It's Grimmjow!" she exclaed happily, shocking everyone present in the room at the time.
Grimmjow, surprisingly, was the first to react vocally. "Wait-what? What the hell does that mean?" he was just as lost as everyone else of Kurumu's friends.
The succubus herself placed her hands together before her and leaned in on Grimmjow. "Grimmjow is way cooler than Tsukune! And you're my destine one! It's destiny - are you happy?" she asked him, pushing his head in between her awesome breasts.
Within minutes the blue-haired arrancar was running down the hall, trying to escape Kurumu, who was running behind him without falling back.
"Wait! Won't you wait for me?" she yelled playfully while chasing him.
"Hell-no!" he yelled back.
Ulquiorra only sighed and shook his head, watching them through the window as they raced towards the dorms.
CHAPTER 4 END
A/N: And there's chapter 4.
Okay – if anyone has the feeling the thing between Kurumu and Grimmjow was rushed – tell me so! But before ya do, think about it for a second. Kurumu was fast enough to declare her love for Tsukune after a single encounter, and it's the same here, if you don't count a few omitted weeks or so of their normal interactions. Also – Grimmjow saved her from a horrible situation and showed some kindness in his own way, but she's a smart girl and can see that he's got a heart beneath that rough exterior of his – he always did. Now he's not a hollow, and the same concept of "heart" applies to him as well. Finally – he indeed is cooler than Tsukune and unlike him – a monster, not a human. They had a spark going on between them at one moment too… and there's the thing that Tsukune never acts towards Kurumu like he does towards Moka and the girl can see that, and then BAM – Grimmjow enters the scene. So yeah. I don't think it's rushed.
On that topic – I think Kurumu and Grimmjow are a very good couple. I just do. She's the most corageous, bold and strong-willed girl of the group. And as you can see this was only half (if not less) Ulquiorra POV, which was one of the few exceptions. I did say the story would be strictly Ulq's POV, but there are moments like these.
I'm bringing the sexy back, baby! *brick'd in the face*
On that note – I feel like I'm nearly crossing the line between T and M ratings. I dunno – just seems to me that way. I want YOUR opinion on it! Should this remain a T story or should I go on and include all the M stuff I wanna do so much! Seriously…. I have a hard time without adding excessive violence and half-adult themes. What do you guys think? *makes a serious face*
Besides – this will allow me to determine whether there will be lemons and detailed descriptions of ppl making out. This is very important too, so I need you guys to tell me what YOU want. Should I just mention these things and keep them innocent to a degree… or do I smack decency in the face and GET THIS PARTY STARTED! Wooooo! *Grimankin is quickly subdued and put in a straight-jacket while he laughs manically*