After Ciara leaves with Ulquiorra for a year, she comes back stronger and more confident. When Grimmjow see's her again, his thoughts about her change and begins to see her as a woman, not the helpless girl she was when she first came to Hueco Mundo.
Chapter 4: The Past; Prove Your Worth
After Ciara helped Grimmjow get his promotion, he no longer trained her on a daily basis. He didn't want to admit it, but he kinda missed training Ciara. It actually gave him something to do, and he loved how much it bothered Ulquiorra every time Ciara thanked him. The fact that Ulquiorra's fraccion was thanking him and preferring him over her own espada really helped boost his ego. Nonetheless, that happened almost a year ago.
A month after Grimmjow became the sixth espada, Aizen sent Ciara and Ulquiorra on a mission to the human world and they haven't been back since. During this time, Grimmjow has been training both himself and his fraccion to become stronger. The first month after they left, he hardly cared, it was nice that the annoying woman was gone, but as half a year passed, he began to wonder if he was ever gonna see that woman again, not that it really mattered. Perhaps they both got killed on the mission, or Aizen changed his mind and decided she was the useless arrancar that she is.
One afternoon, while Grimmjow was bored in his room, there was a knock on his door. "What the fuck do you want?"
"Grimmjow-sama." Di Roy spoke. "Aizen-sama just came back to Hueco Mundo, and there will be a meeting starting promptly. All Espada are to attend. "
"Yeah yeah, I'll be there in five minutes." he replied, dismissing his fraccion.
Grimmjow lazily got out of bed and took his time heading over to the meeting/throne room. "Tch, I wonder what that bastard has to say today."
When he arrived all the espada were already present, other than the fourth espada that is.
"Greetings my Espada, I have called you all here so we can welcome our fellow Espada back home. Last year I sent them on a mission and they have finally returned home. Ulquiorra and Ciara, please come forward."
Ulquiorra and Ciara stepped out from the shadows, bowing down in front of Aizen.
"Thank you Aizen-sama for welcoming us back. It is an honour to be back home here in Hueco Mundo."
"From the reports I have received it seems like the mission went well, but I will discuss this in more detail with you privately after the meeting Ulquiorra."
"Yes Aizen-Sama."
"The Two of you may take a seat, as we have more things to discuss."
After Ulquiorra sat in his seat and Ciara stood behind, Aizen continued the meeting, discussing how he would expand the arrancar army even further.
As soon as Aizen said that Ciara was back, Grimmjow's attention went directly to her. From a quick glance he wouldn't have realized it was the woman, but taking a closer look you could definitely tell it was Ciara. She was still recognizable, but her hair had grown over the year and her body seemed more athletic compared to her chopstick arms and legs she use to have. Something else about her presence was different too, but he couldn't quite pin point it. The only thing he knew was exactly the same were her blood red eyes, the one thing that made her so recognizable.
Since Ulquiorra's seat was across from him at the meeting table, Grimmjow's eyes could only focus on the figure standing directly behind hm. During the meeting he paid no attention to the words that came out from Aizen's mouth, and never took his eyes off Ciara even once.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed that Ciara didn't make eye contact or even look in his direction during the meeting. She was just focused on her espada and Aizen the entire time. Then again, he should've known, how could he forget who she was? She's Aizen's little princess after all.
When the meeting finally ended, the woman said a few words to Aizen and Ulquiorra before exiting the room. Grimmjow was leaning against the wall outside the meeting room, waiting for the woman to walk out. When she did finally come out, she walked right past him without even a glance. Grimmjow growled at this, how could the woman not notice him there? He fuckin' trained her and shit and this was the respect he gets?
"Yo Woman!" he growled from behind.
She stopped walking as soon as she heard his voice and turned around. "Sorry, do I know you?" She asked, cocking her head sideways.
"Tch, you're kidding right? You'd better remember me especially since I saved your sorry ass twice."
"Nope, sorry, doesn't ring a bell." she said, turning her back to him and continued walking with a carefree attitude.
He fuckin' saved her ass from Nnoritra, trained her and saved her from being killed by gillians and she forgets who he is? She was only gone with Ulquiorra for a year, was she that much of a bitch that only remembers shit about herself.
"Fuckin' Bitch!" he exclaimed as he quickly sonido in front of her and pinned her into the wall. He pinned both her arms above her head with one hand while his other hand jerked her chin up and made her look him in the eye. There was a few seconds of silence as she stared into his eyes, but then she suddenly bursted out laughing.
Grimmjow growled "What's so fuckin' funny?"
She continued to laugh, and somehow he ended up letting go of her hands so she could cover her mouth to contain her laughter.
"That's it!" he yanked her up from the ground and pinned her shoulders against the wall. She had this huge grin on her face while Grimmjow was glaring at her. "Woman, tell me what's do damn funny?"
"You!" She answered easily.
"I ain't funny!" he fumed.
"I can't believe you actually got angry with me when I said I didn't remember you!"
"So you were fucking pretending!"
"Of course I was! But I didn't think you'd make a big deal out of it! So you do remember about your comrades."
"Tch, I never said I didn't remember people, I said we arrancar don't give a shit if another one of us dies."
"Well it obvious you would cause I can already tell that you missed me, that's why you got mad when you thought I forgot about you huh?"
Grimmjow stared at her wide eyed. Did she just assume that he missed her? What the fuck. "I didn't fuckin' miss you! I wanted to spar with you to see if you're the same useless bitch you were when you left!"
"Whatever you say, Grimmjow." She said in a sing song tone.
Grimmjow growled and raised his hand to punch her in the face. He wanted to let her know he was serious, but when she saw his fists coming, for some reason she didn't close her eyes in fear, instead the corner of her lip turned into a smile. If anything she was still the same disrespectful bitch.
Before his fists could collide with her face, a hand stopped him and pushed him backwards. "Ulquiorra!" he growled.
"My fraccion and I arrive back her in Hueco Mundo for less than an hour and you're already all worked up, you're still the same piece of trash as last year." Ulquiorra mused.
"Shut the fuck up Ulquiorra! This is between me and Ciara."
Ulquiorra took a step forward, but Ciara restrained him. "It's alright Ulquiorra, I can handle Grimmjow from here." He made eye contact with Ciara before looking in Grimmjow's direction then back at her before nodding and flashing away.
"What is it that you want from me, huh Grimmjow? From what I remember, you helped me train and then I helped you get a promotion, it's a done deal."
"You never repaid me for saving you from Nnoritra."
"Really Grimmjow?"
"Really woman. What? Is sparing with me that much of difficult task?"
"No, but why would you want to spar with me? I thought I was too weak and wouldn't be any fun."
"You're the one who said you'd get fuckin' stronger. But yer right, if you're still just as weak, then I'm gonna kick your ass within seconds."
"Fine then, starting tomorrow I'll spar with you."
"Tch, alright then, I'll see you tomorrow princess..." he said and flashed away.
When Ciara came back with Ulquiorra, she didn't expect Grimmjow's attention to be directed towards her. During the entire meeting she kept her eyes on Aizen and her espada, but every second she could feel Grimmjow's eyes on her. She didn't dare look in his direction. However, when she walked out of the meeting room, long and behold Grimmjow was waiting outside. She pretended to not notice him and walked right past, but he called out to her, angry that she was ignoring his presence.
She couldn't help but be amused by this, so she decided to play dumb. Why was he so uptight that she was ignoring him? Last time she checked he considered her to be the annoying one. That's when he finally lost it and tried to strike her, only to have Ulquiorra stop him. She wasn't scarred cause she knew he wouldn't hurt her too badly, but her face pulled into a smirk because from the corner of her eye she saw her espada exit the throne room.
For some reason he wanted to spar with Ciara. It didn't make sense to her though, he had always called her week, so what fun would it be for him to spar with an opponent as week as herself? Even if he thought she owned him for helping her, she thought he would've had a different request. Nonetheless, she agreed to spar with him so he would at least calm down and leave her alone until the next day.
Over the past year, Ciara and Ulquiorra had been on several missions and at the same time training. They went to other parts of Hueco Mundo, the human world, and even into soul society a few times. Since Ciara use to live in seireitei her and Ulquiorra, and with Aizen's help, were able to mask their reiatsu and gather important information while going unnoticed. She was happy to be back, and happy to see that Grimmjow still remembered her even though he said he didn't care about others. Part of the reason she agreed to spar with him is because she wanted to show him how much stronger she had gotten.
~The next day~
Perhaps today was finally the day Grimmjow would give Ciara some respect. She was tired of him calling her 'princess' because he thought she got everything handed to her from Aizen. If she could prove that she was stronger now through this sparring match then he would consider her a worthy opponent/ warrior.
When she arrived at the training room, she was surprised to see Grimmjow already waiting there for her, along with his fraccions.
"Why did you bring your fraccions?" she questioned.
"What you're not happy to see them? They were so excited to hear that you're back."
"Seriously, Grimmjow." Ciara rolled her eyes, she knew that was a total lie.
"I thought about what you said yesterday, about being no match for me and how it wouldn't be any fun. Then when I told my fraccion that I was gonna spar with you they offered to beat you up instead, so what do you say? I want to see you battle my fraccion, and maybe if you can beat them all I 'll want to waste some time with you."
"Five against one? That seems hardly fair."
"You would go one on one against my fraccion, starting with Di Roy. You would also be allowed to heal after every battle."
"One on one...hmmm...I dunno..."
"Come on! What? Are you afraid?" he taunted.
Ciara rolled her eyes. "No, Honestly what don't you just go and annoy someone else?"
"Tch, what? Maybe you're fun to annoy."
"Is that so, Grimmjow?" A voice suddenly said from behind. The two of them turned their heads to see Uqlui steeping into view.
"Ulquiorra-sama, what are you doing here?" Ciara asked slightly startled with her espada's presence. Grimmjow, on the other hand, growled in annoyance.
"I see that the piece of trash still enjoys bothering you." He said while facing Ciara, but then he turned to face the sexta. "My fraccion will not be looked down in such a way. She is not something to be used as your amusement, Grimmjow."
"Tch, Really? How about this, if Ciara can beat my fraccion, I will never annoy her again."
"She accepts."
Ciara looked at her espada wide-eyed. "Ulquiorra, are you sure about this...?" she asked, shocked that her espada would agree to Grimmjow's deal so easily.
Ulquiorra nodded and put a hand on her shoulder, "I've been training you over the past year, Ciara, I want you to show this piece of trash and his fraccions your new power." He knew what Ciara was capable of, she could take Grimmjow's fraccion on and win.
She nodded with pride. "I understand, I won't disappoint you, Ulquiorra-sama!"
"Are you two done you're chit chatting? Di Roy's already ready to kick your ass, so hurry the fuck up."
Taking on Di Roy was a breeze due to his arrogant personality. However, she couldn't let her guard down, she had gone in knowing he was the weakest of Grimmjow's fraccion. Edrad, Nakeem, and Yylfordt were more of a challenge. Erad was a skilled tactician, Nakeem was serious and calm, and Yylfordt was sarcastic, effeminate. Nonetheless, Uqlui had trained Ciara well, so she was prepared to deal with all types of opponents and thus successfully defeated the four of them.
Ciara drew a big smirk as she was finally face to face with her final opponent, Shawlong. Out of all Grimmjow's fraccion, she hated him the most. She still remembered when she first met him and how he almost tried to cut her head off. She'd been waiting to release her stored energy on him, all she needed was one more win.
"I have to say Ciara, I'm surprised that you were able to win all four of those battles."
"Why thank you Shawlong, I have to say I'm surprise I'm receiving a compliment from you."
"Unfortunately, your winning streak will stop here, I will not let you defeat me Ciara."
"Oh, and you think I'll let you beat me so Grimmjow can boss me around?"
"You still have no respect for Grimmjow-sama."
"No, I don't. Grimmjow doesn't respect me, so I will never respect him."
"You know you're just making it worse for yourself, the more we talk the more you fuel my temper. This win is not for me, but for my espada."
"Touche."
During Ciara's battle with Nakeem, Grimmjow watched in amazement when she landed another punch. She was gonna win this battle too, he could tell. The woman had gotten better, much better over the year. Her movements were quick and her body flexible. When she battled she no longer looked scarred, instead she looked determined and fierce. You could tell she was trying hard, a couple drops of sweat slid down her forehead as her eyes were focused on her opponent. Exactly what kind of training did she go through for her to improve this much? Grimmjow was really curious to know now.
"Grimmjow-sama," Shawlong interrupted his thoughts. "What are we gonna do about her?"
Grimmjow raised a brow. "What do ya mean, huh Shawlong? Don't tell me you think you're actually going to lose to her."
"Of course not, Grimmjow-sama, but her strength has clearly changed over the past year."
"It has, hasn't it?" He said with a grin, it almost seemed like he was proud of her. "Watch closely as she kicks Nakeem. Do you see how she usually uses her left foot and the way she bends her right knee? That's her week spot. It's not totally obvious but if you attack her there she won't be able to move as fast or kick as hard."
Shawlong looked at his espada with admiration. "How were you able to tell Grimmjow-sama?"
The sexta's face drew into a grin, they had the advantage. "That was her weak spot when I trained her last year, and it still is."
After countless numbers of kicks and punches, both of them had taken several blows off each other. They were both bleeding in one spot or another and their energy was running low.
Shawlong was definitely the most difficult of the five; she wouldn't say he was the strongest physically, but he was an analyst. He knew what to do to counteract her movements, he also had an advantage because he'd been watching her battle the other four fraccion.
Fuck, why wouldn't Shawlong hurry up and lose? If she could just inflict another powerful kick on him, he would be basically done.
She ran directly at him, but at the last second she somersaulted over him and landed behind him. Quickly hocking both her arms to his with her back to him, she flipped herself and him over in the process, and let go so he hit the ground. This was her chance. She flashed up to him and got ready to send a powerhouse kick, but something hit her knee, causing her angel to change and miss. When she missed she created a big crater on the ground, but Shawlong took this advantage and grabbed a hold of her leg and swung her against the wall.
Shit, but how did he know? He had just hit her in her weak point, but she'd been trained on how to cover it up. He shouldn't have been able to notice it within these couple of battles. She should have focused on the battle but she couldn't stop herself from turning her head to find the sexta espada. Grimmjow. As soon as she made eye contact with him, the corner of his lips curved up into a smirk. That bastard. She should've known.
Shawlong had taken full advantage of Ciara's undivided attention, even if it was for just a second. As soon as he made his move, he knew she had reached her limit. So when Ciara felt him smash her against the wall and deliver the final blow, all she could think of was how she had disappointed her espada.
Grimmjow's howl of victory filled the room. "Hah! You see that Ulquiorra? Shawlong defeated Ciara!"
Ulquiorra didn't say a word, instead he just gave one look at Ciara, who lay bloody and broken on the ground, and began walking out of the training room.
"Ulquiorra," Ciara croaked. "Ulquiorra-sama I'm sorry, please wait!" she cried out, trying her best to chase after him. She collapsed down at his feet.
"Ciara, I thought you could prove your worth today, but instead you have disappointed me. You are nothing but trash." His last worlds hit her hard. She was left staring at his feet as he walked away.
Ciara was already in the pain from her battle with Shawlong, but she could stand the physical pain, but Ulquiorra's words mentally tore her apart.
Grimmjow and Shawlong had watched the scene unfold in front of them. At first he was smiling because for once Uqlui seemed defeated. But then when he called Ciara trash that seemed a little harsh. Grimmjow didn't expect Ulquiorra to be so bitter to the woman.
"Woman!" he called out several times. She just sat there looking and feeling broken. Finally he marched up and squatted down in front of her so he was eye level and lifted her chin up to look him in the eye. She stared into his pupils for a few moments before breaking out of her daze.
"Don't touch me!" she hissed, slapping his hand away from her. "This is all your fault! Why did you have to challenge me? Now I'm nothing but a piece of trash!" She yelled at him as tears started to fall from her eyes. Her body was in pain, but she tried her best to stand up and walk out of the room.
"Where the fuck are you going?" He asked in disbelief.
"To find Ulquiorra and apologize for being trash."
"Tch, are you stupid? You'd better get yourself healed first. In your state you're gonna collapse around the corner."
"I don't care! I need to find Ulquiorra, he trained and helped me so much over the year, and I finally got the chance to prove him my worth from all the investment of his time and I only end up bringing him shame. I don't want him to let me go as a fraccion...Just leave me alone Grimmjow, it's not like you'd ever understand. "
Grimmjow grabbed her arm and chin and made her look him in the eye. "Shut up would you! You are the most intriguing woman I've ever met. Who cares what he thinks. If that bastard thinks you're trash, I'll gladly take you in as my own!"
Ciara looked at Grimmjow with wide eyes, slightly shocked by his words. Did he actually mean it? No, there was no way he would want her. To him she was just a useless bitch. it was all a joke to him. Breaking out of his grasp she coldly responded "I don't need your pity Grimmjow."
Without another word she left the room to look for Ulquiorra, leaving Grimmjow in the training room along with his fraccions.
Grimmjow was furious. Did the woman really think that he said that because he pitied her? He's a fuckin' espada, he didn't pity anyone. Why did she care so much about Ulquiorra? How stupid could that woman be, she should know by now Ulquiorra calls everyone trash.
"Grimmjow-sama, are you alright?" one of his fraccions spoke. He didn't know who fuckin' spoke, but all he knew is he needed to take his anger out on them and the nearest wall.
End of Chapter 4.
A/N:
Aww, so Grimmjow kinda cheated. If Ciara battled Shawlong first then she would've beaten all of them.
beautiful-note2895: Thank you for finding my story! Haha yeah, it seems like two different stories right? I'm glad you see it that way, because that was my goal! I'm trying to write it so there is a different setting but similar situations/reactions, so in both their lives they fall for each other again.
Jenna: Thank you for your patience. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.
