Ulquiorra and Toushiro stood several yards away from each other as they all lingered around Orihime's living room. Both males stared at each other as Orihime and Momo sat between them, glancing at them as green eyes stared at bright blue. Kiyone looked hesitantly at the cup of tea Orihime prepared her, unsure if it was just her nerves or the tea that was making her ill. She glanced up and wondered if the captain or the Espada were going to say something first. Luckily, to break the tension, Orihime cleared her throat and stood up.
"Anyone hungry!? I-I have leftovers from three nights ago! Mashed potatoes with noodles, broccoli, and peanuts!"
Momo looked up at her with a strange look, thinking if she should try it or not. Matsumoto had told her that Orihime's cooking was the best; but the weird combination of different food mixed together sounded….disgusting. The silence continued but the awkwardness increased as Ulquiorra looked at her for a few seconds before staring back at the captain. Pouting, Orihime sat back down and Momo patted her hand.
"I'll try some of it later," she whispered, and the orange-haired girl smiled, and then looked at the males. "And are you two done staring at each other? We are losing time doing nothing."
Toushiro blinked and looked at her, scowling at himself for wasting time rather than discussing plans on getting Soul Society back.
"What else do you know about these Berserkers? Where do they come from?"
"I don't know where they come from. After Aizen came to Hueco Munco and gathered the Arrancars, he wanted to expand. Before attacking Karakura Town and then going after Soul Society, he wanted to take over somewhere else and create a bigger army – but he stopped as soon as he inadvertently stumbled upon those things. Along with Grimmjow and Gin Ichimaru, they weighed the possibility of taking out the leader and take control, but knew that it wouldn't be simple and these creatures aren't...rational. Therefore, he decided not to involve them in anything since he knew that they would somehow betray him…"
"Stumbled upon?"
"Hm," Ulquiorra gave a slight nod, "Aizen was in the process of traveling between worlds, finding an alternative in case Hueco Mundo fell, and found them in an unknown world. He saw how they fought and knew that no amount of persuasion would cause these things to side along him. He did do some research and found out what they were called, but it was hard finding out where they came from since they travel from one destination to another, never staying in one place."
"If they travel from one place to another, then they'll eventually leave Soul Society, right?" Kiyone asked. The thought of fighting these things after seeing how much destruction they caused scared her, and to make matters worse, they didn't have an army of shinigami to help take them down.
Ulquiorra closed his eyes, placing his hands deep inside his pockets. "Maybe…Maybe not; like I said before, I don't know much about them to know whether they will leave Soul Society or not. From what you have told me so far," he continued, opening his eyes and meeting Toushiro's stare, "it sounds like they are wiping you out of existing. These things use tactics completely different from what we use – they have no reiatsu is one thing to take into account; and because they do not, they are more difficult to detect."
"So you're saying that the only way to bring them down is to have an army – a large army – of shinigami?" Toushiro said, knowing that that would be very difficult to do.
There were only thirteen captains and thirteen vice-captains, but not all of them were together at the moment. Not only that, but the rest of the shinigamis weren't around either since most of them were wiped out.
"Is there a way we can take them down without the use of an army? Maybe by taking out the leader or the ones on top, we can work our way down to defeating the rest?" Momo suggested.
"It'll be hard getting around the leaders with their army around them."
"But they have some sort of unidentified flying object hovering over Soul Society." Toushiro added in, "It's pretty obvious now, by what Ulquiorra has told us, that that object is what they use to travel from one world to another. If we start at the top, we can do it by disabling their only way of traveling between worlds."
"Yet that leaves the fact that they still outnumber you."
The Espada had a point, Toushiro thought, and wondered how else they could defeat the army with just too few of them. "They must have a weakness…" he muttered and suddenly an idea struck him. "Captain Kenpachi managed to take part of their suit. What if we made a replica of their weapon and use it against them?"
"How if we can't trace their components?" Momo reminded him, "Ichigo and Uryuu couldn't get anything out of it…"
"But he might be able to," Toushiro nodded towards the Espada, "if he has some knowledge of what those things are, then maybe he can see what that thing is made of and from there we can create a suit like theirs and something that can weaken it."
Kiyone and Momo looked hopeful at the idea, but Orihime worried. She wasn't sure that Ulquiorra even wanted to help them. Although she spent more time with him than anyone else, the Espada himself was still a big mystery to her. She knew that he could probably figure something out with the stuff Kenpachi had ripped off but the question remained was whether he would do it. Just because he didn't follow Aizen anymore didn't mean that he was on good terms with any of her friends and shinigami. In addition, having Ulquiorra to help would mean that Ichigo and the rest of them would suddenly learn that she had befriended the Espada. She knew that Uryuu, Chad, and (possibly) Rukia wouldn't be too mad at her – but she was afraid of what Ichigo would do. He had been almost killed – twice – by Ulquiorra. As if sensing her discomfort, Orihime looked down and saw that Momo had her hand over hers and gave her a warm smile.
"Aiding you won't be a problem, but convincing Kurosaki Ichigo that I'm not a threat will be."
"As long as you stick to your words, I'll take care of him."
Momo's heart started to beat harder as she suddenly became worried with what Ichigo would do once he saw a former enemy arriving at Urahara's with them. She took a deep breath as she felt his reiatsu getting closer and closer until he stood a few yards away from them with Uryuu, Chad, Rukia, Renji, and Captain Kuchiki trailing behind.
"Ul-Ulquiorra?!" the substitute shinigami muttered, his eyes taking in the former Espada.
"He's here to help us," Toushiro announced before any of them drew their zanpakutos.
"Like hell he is! He's our enemy! And how did he get here?! Last time I checked, he was turning into ashes in Hueco Mundo!"
"We'll discuss those details later but in the meantime, we need his help since we can't open a gate to Soul Society!"
"And how can we trust him when he worked for Aizen-"
A firm hand was placed on Ichigo's shoulder, causing the boy to stop and turn around, watching as Kenpachi stood behind him but made eye contact with Captain Hitsugaya.
"We are losing time arguing over this," the spiky-haired captain pointed out, "let the Espada help us. We've been here for days and we haven't been able to open some sort of communication to the other side. I'm sure he has some trick up his sleeve that these things probably don't know since he isn't a shinigami and worked for Aizen, who probably has an idea of what those things are. So, instead of arguing over him, let's give him a chance and see what he can do. After that, you can go round three on him!"
Ichigo shrugged his shoulder away from Kenpachi's firm grip and took a step forward; however Toushiro suddenly stood in front of him.
"My home is going to become dust the more we stand around here arguing – so either accept the fact that he's here, or get out."
Ichigo looked surprised at the young captain's demand and his gaze fell on the Espada once again, eyes narrowing as he noticed Orihime standing very close to him.
Oh, please don't tell me….
"Fine," Ichigo sighed, "But if he pulls something on us, I'll rip his arms off."
Toushiro handed the object Kenpachi had gathered to the Espada, watching him closely as he looked past the Espada for a second and meeting Momo's gaze as she looked at the Espada and the thing in his hand. He knew that she wanted Ulquiorra to figure out what the thing was, help them create some weapon to defeat these beings, and head back to Soul Society. He hated seeing her worried but he couldn't lie to her and tell her that everything was going to be OK. They've been stuck in Karakura Town for a week without any information, and even though he didn't like the fact of having one of Aizen's former Arrancars helping them, he had no choice but to get whichever help he could.
"Berserkers, eh?" Kenpachi said out loud, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "and they like to hunt for fun and pleasure?"
The group thought about what the Espada said, shocked that this new enemy would suddenly appear and attack their home just for the hunt. Realizing how much information the Espada had (it wasn't much but the fact that it was something) made them understand Toushiro's point on having a former enemy help.
"What can you tell us about that?" Toushiro asked him.
"I cannot make out the components, but I am certain that this is part of their biology."
"What do you mean?"
"Like a biosuit?" Uryuu asked, "Their suit may contain some of their biological makeup. I have been thinking about it for a while."
Ulquiorra nodded and Renji spoke up.
"But how can they create such things?"
"They're technologically advanced," Uryuu said, "They rely on technology to live and fight."
"So without it," Kenpachi put in, "They're worthless."
Toushiro nodded and looked at Momo again, noticing how she had something else to say. The others continued speaking, bringing up the information Ulquiorra had given them, as he walked over to her. He crouched next to her and grabbed her hand.
"Is something wrong?"
"I was just thinking that maybe, if the suits are created using their own DNA, then maybe Orihime can heal the objects and recreate the suit." Momo whispered to him, though not realizing that everybody in the room had heard it. Suddenly, batches of eyes (including Orihime's) were on her and she felt like a specimen underneath a microscope. Embarrassed, she scooted closer to Toushiro.
"That's a great idea!" clapped Captain Ukitake as he grabbed the object and placed it in front of the orange-haired girl. "Can you do it?"
It sounded less of a question and more of a command, but Orihime paid no head as she grabbed the object from his hands and placed it in front of her. The rest stayed quiet as she summoned her fairies and began to reject what had occurred.
Nonetheless, nobody was ready for what next occurred as suddenly one of the beings (inside biosuit) became the result of what Orihime had healed. For a split second, the being looked around, as if confused but then he stood up and aimed his weapon. However, a wall of ice suddenly appeared, circling the being and imprisoning him in order to give the shinigamis some time to kill it. As soon as the white light hit the wall of ice, Toushiro appeared in front of it and attacked it, the Berserker's weapon ripping out of the suit and collapsing to the floor. A loud, angry growl came out as it as it suddenly started speaking. The shinigamis stood around confusingly, not sure what it was saying.
The Berserker quickly took off its helmet and threw it on the floor, meeting everybody's eyes as it pounded its massive chest like a wild animal. It looked around, unaware to everybody's shocked stares that it was looking around for a weakness. Though the Berserker knew that they couldn't understand him, it continued speaking, watching as they looked at each other. It used this slight distraction of them figuring out what to do next as it did a quick sweep of the room. It noticed that the being with the single horn and green eyes was standing in front of the female that had brought him back and the one that had attacked him was in front of a smaller female with large brown eyes. The rest of them looked on guard with their weapons drawn, but one…
Kenpachi screamed as the Berserker shifted away from his attack and went towards Kiyone, who stood by a corner. The Berserker grabbed the young shinigami and pulled her in front of him. Kiyone groaned as she grabbed its wrist, trying to loosen the hold it suddenly had around her neck. Kenpachi appeared next to it yet before he could have stabbed it, the Berserker grabbed his zanpaluto, ignoring the sudden pain that erupted in its hand, and kicked the shinigami back.
As soon as Kenpachi landed back, Toushiro and Ichigo appeared beside it. The Berserker moved back, pulling Kiyone between him and Ichigo but growled as it felt his feet suddenly become cold and still. Looking down, it saw ice suddenly crawl up its body and a horrible pain shot through its body as he suddenly he couldn't feel his right arm.
Kiyone fell on the floor and crawled away from the Berserker as a green Cero quickly appeared and hit the Berserker square on the chest, sending its body flying through the wall and onto the ground outside. Black goo, which they all presumed to be its blood, oozed out of the hole where his arm used to be and from the hole the Cero had made on its chest. Toushiro walked over, Hyorinmaru gripped tightly in his hands, as he stared down at the semi-conscious being. The Berserker looked at the shinigami's face, speaking in its strange language again. However, before it could have finished saying whatever it was saying, Toushiro brought Hyorinmaru up and back down on the Berserker's neck, ending what was left of the thing's life.
Silently, the shinigami turned around as the rest stood by the Berserker's lifeless body.
"Together, they're unstable; but alone, they're weak." Kenpachi stated, glaring down at the being.
"The suit they wear is linked to their bodies," muttered Uryuu, "When Orihime healed part of the suit, it healed the Berserker as well."
"Destroy the suit, and they're done," Ichigo murmured.
Toushiro turned around and walked back the shop, watching Momo as she and Rukia tended Kiyone. The short-haired shinigami looked frightened and flinched whenever one of the girls touched her. Toushiro turned and walked over to the weapon the Berserker had dropped and gently picked it up, not wanting to accidentally set it off and hit someone. There were no buttons or any other type of indication that showed how to fire the thing, so he put it back down on the floor and walked back towards Momo.
Captain Ukitake carried Kiyone, who was close to having a panic attack, elsewhere with Rukia falling behind and Urahara sadly stared at the large hole made on his wall. Tessai, Urahara's employee, appeared with wood and nails and swiftly began to repair the damage as much as possible.
Yachiru knew that it was risky, but she knew that it was either try to escape the now-ruined Soul Society or stay and continue hiding. She was currently under ground with two other shinigami. They had stumbled upon what resembled and underground tunnel and were glad that the creatures hadn't figured out where she was hiding yet, but knew that soon, they will discover the tunnel too.
Along with the two shinigami, Yachiru walked around the tunnel figuring out where she could dig out and escape towards Rukongai. She knew that the creatures hadn't touched Rukongai at all, but why? Was there something in Seireitei that they wanted?
She stopped and looked up, climbing on towards the ceiling and swiftly digging through the old concrete and wood. It took hours for her to see what looked like sunshine. She made a small hole and looked, smiling as she saw the white wall that separated Rukongai from Seireitei. Finally, she was getting away. Nonetheless, she suddenly frowned as she saw Captain Yamamoto's decapitated head firmly placed on a stick upon the wall, showing Rukongai what has been accomplished.
They sat around the gun, their attention refocused on entering Soul Society. Despite the fact that Orihime had (inadvertently) brought back one of those beings, it didn't help them figure out how to open a gate or form some type of communication. Renji, Ikkaku, and Hisagi had unclothed the Berserker and thrown the empty body (with its severed head) inside what looked like a cell in Urahara's basement. Afterwards, they had placed the biosuit next to the gun for Urahara and Uryuu to perform further research.
Kenpachi walked around the room with his hands twitching. Seeing the Berserker suddenly brought back to life had made him feel guiltier at the fact that Yachiru was still in Soul Society, but he refused to believe that she was dead. She was smart and knew when to escape and hide.
"All this time," Momo said, yet only grabbing Toushiro's and Matsumoto's attention, "we've been trying to open a gate from here but were never able to."
"Well, from where else could we open a gate to enter Soul Society?" questioned Ichigo.
"Hueco Mundo," she responded, and everyone suddenly had her attention, "Ulquiorra is here. He's been traveling from here to Hueco Mundo like nothing and I know he can open a garganta to Soul Society from Hueco Mundo." Momo looked at him, feeling nervous as his emotionless gaze met her. "He was the closest to Aizen, and I know he has some way of entering Soul Society from Hueco Mundo. These Berserkers probably aren't blocking anything coming from Hueco Mundo since they probably don't know what Hueco Mundo is."
"She's right," Byakuya said, eyes still closed, "when the Espada attacked, the Berserker looked a bit surprised, yet it seemed familiar with our attacks. Since they hunt by taking over a world, temporarily or not, they must have studied us at some point to have knowledge of zanpakutos and bankais. However, if it didn't see Ulquiorra's Cero coming, then that he means he had no knowledge that Ulquiorra isn't a shinigami."
"Can you do it?" asked Toushiro to the quiet Espada, "can you open a garganta from Hueco Mundo to Soul Society?"
"I had never tried, but Aizen has taught me how to." The Espada responded.
Kenpachi stopped walking around and sat down by Ikkaku. "So we go to Hueco Mundo, and from there to Soul Society? Do we just fight as soon as we get out or we going to have to hide and find some weak point?"
Yachiru and her two companions were about to dig their way out of the tunnel and towards Rukongai but stopped as soon as a strange, yet familiar, noise was heard. One of the shinigamis walked further into the tunnel as he stood right in front of door. Yachiru followed him and heard the noise becoming louder as she placed her ear against the door. The voice behind the door sounded a lot like…
Captain Mayuri?
She heard something heavy being dragged around and wondered what was going on. She knew she could push down the door, but was afraid if one of those things were behind the door and not the weird captain.
"It's him," one of her companions said, "it sounds like him…."
"Captain Mayuri?" the other shinigami said and the ruckus behind the door stopped.
Suddenly, the door opened and Captain Mayuri appeared with black goo on his hands. He looked at the males then at Yachiru before turning to Nemu and Captain Unohana.
"Zaraki's kid lieutenant is alive!"
Yachiru entered the room and saw one of the creatures lying in the middle of the floor with needles pinned towards its body. The being was naked and it looked dead. She looked up at Mayuri and saw him smirk.
"A little dissection doesn't hurt. Besides, the venom I had created worked." The captain said proudly as he turned around and pointed at two more unconscious beings lying on the side of the room.
"How did you all escape?" one of the shinigamis asked and Mayuri shrugged. "The same way you did. Besides, it's about time we used this old tunnel to good use! Say, lieutenant, where's your loud-mouthed captain?"
Yachiru shrugged sadly, "He told me to run… He was fighting those things when I left him."
Mayuri nodded as he walked around the room, "He wouldn't be hiding; he's too stubborn for that. If he's not dead, then he's not in Soul Society."
"He could be in Karakura Town," Unohana said and Isane nodded next to her.
"Could be. I felt Ukitake's temporary gate towards Karakura Town open, but we can't go there."
"Why not?" Yachiru questioned the captain.
"Because they felt the gate open too," Mayuri replied, pointing a long finger up, "and they would follow us. Last thing we want is them destroying the second place we can go without seeing them. Therefore, we will go elsewhere as soon as more of the venom is finished!"
"And where would that be?"
"Hueco Mundo."
Toushiro and Momo decided to head back to Orihime's house and use her spare room as Matsumoto chose to stay with Kiyone and comfort her as much as possible at Urahara's shop. Momo placed her futon down on the floor as she caught her childhood friend standing in the middle of the room without his shirt on. He still had his pants on but they were hanging low from his hips and she couldn't help but notice some hair forming around his navel and traveling down…
What am I doing?
"I think Ururu is going to be upset that you're not sleeping at Urahara's," she joked, knowing that the only reason why she loved to tease him about the shy girl was to see how he would react.
Toushiro snorted as he turned his head towards her, "All of this planning has put nonsense into your head, Bed-Wetter."
Momo groaned and threw her pillow at him. "I do not wet the bed anymore!"
He grabbed the pillow with ease and threw it back at her, watching as she grabbed it and got up from her futon. She ran up to him and swung the pillow, but he dodged it, grabbed her waist, and tackled her down onto his futon. Momo squealed as she opened her eyes and found her once-short childhood friend staring down at her with a mischievous look on his face.
"I win."
"You cheated."
"How?"
"By tackling! That wasn't part of the rules."
"And since when were there rules to throwing pillows?"
Momo stayed quiet as her brain scrambled for an answer, but then her brain turned into mush as she felt pair of cold lips touch hers. It was quick and she felt disappointed when he pulled back, as if uncertain of himself.
"I had always wanted to do that," he admitted.
"Now that's cheating…"
"How?"
His eyes widened as she wrapped her legs around his waist and turned, pushing him down to the floor and straddling his waist.
"Because you never gave me time to get ready."
He was about to question her but her lips found his and he knew that he rather enjoy the kiss than question her silly antics. Lips still meeting hers, he sat up and wrapped his arms around her, pushing her down to the floor and placing a leg between hers. He had always imagined kissing her but never dared, afraid that she would break his heart and leave an awkwardness between them. But seeing how she kissed him back, and hell was she a kisser, he knew that his chance to take things further between them was here.
Tomorrow, they would put their plan together on getting their home back; but right now, he felt at home with her in his arms.
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