Human Anatomy
AN: Random blurb: chapter -108? (Insert confusion). But 'tis good. I've been trying to write an Aizen/Urahara for ages.
IV. Jealousy
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"Ulquiorra-san."
He has never liked his name before but it always sounded better from her lips.
"What is it, woman?" Coincidentally, he never used hers.
She had her back to him again; he had learned to decipher that this meant she had something on her mind.
Orihime sighed heavily. "I'm jealous of you, Ulquiorra-san."
He blinked several times, balked by this unexpected revelation. "What makes you say such a thing?"
She glanced at the left side of his chest where the number 4 was tattooed onto his skin, over his heart.
"Nothing in particular," she said, and turned back to the window.
He didn't know if she wanted his power or if she wanted to lose her own emotions. Ulquiorra felt the flux of reiatsu that she must have been hanging onto and understood that either way, none of those feelings were directed at him.
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The invader he wanted wasn't hard to find. Easy prey, in fact.
When he plunged his hand into Kurosaki Ichigo, he vaguely had the thought of ripping out the heart that she wanted so badly to have and presenting it to her. Human ideals were terribly romantic lunacies; the heart was nothing more than a source of life, not emotion. Knowing this, he couldn't explain the insatiable urge he had to understand how emotions worked. He left the boy for dead but didn't bother to finish the job because it had somehow become distasteful to him. He dismisses the look he imagined would be on her face at news of this boy's death.
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She had asked him once, long ago, why he looked after her.
Ulquiorra had looked at her disapprovingly and she hastened to add, "I know Aizen-sama ordered you to, but you don't have to spend so much time here. I…I won't try to escape or anything." Her eyes were downcast. "I'm not powerful enough for that."
"It must be unpleasant for you if my presence is a source of annoyance," he had stated drily, "but it is for your own protection."
She had looked at him quizzically. "My protection?"
"There are many here who would do you harm."
"But why? I don't understand."
He raised his hand and began to form a Cero, pooling the destructive green light on the tip of his finger, pointing it straight at her. Orihime's eyes had widened a fraction more than usual. Ulquiorra released the blast.
When the smoke finally cleared, there was a hole the size of a small crater in the wall behind her directly over her right shoulder. She hadn't moved or tried to defend against his attack.
Ulquiorra had watched her the entire time, slightly perturbed. Her heartbeat hadn't quickened at all.
"Arrancar are born from fear. You, living in this world, do not live in fear like you should."
He hadn't known how to react when, upon leaving her room, he found that his right hand was shaking.
-o-
