Chapter VI
After this doubtfully pleasant visit she paid to her inmates, the first thing Sara did, was to take a hot bath. After her skin started turning red, exposed to hot water, she left this unusual sauna and changed into clean clothes. When she shortly summarised impressions from today's conversations with the other prisoners as a failure, she quickly went on to consider the next problem to solve.
Szayelaporro would not allow her to withdraw from this peculiar task. If she got an opportunity to step into his shoes, she would continue with this charade. Even if the story about the group of humans not suitable for experiments was not entirely true, he must have had a lot of fun watching her attempts to communicate with the representatives of other nationalities. He probably enjoyed as well her fraternising with a deranged Muslim who - instead of cooperating with anyone else in the team - wanted to start a total holy war in the name of the Quran.
The mere thought about Ahmad made her sick.
Therefore, she concluded that she needs to take on this task from a different perspective and before she would return to the prison cells, perhaps it would prove useful to clear her mind. For Sara, it essentially meant to involve herself in solving a more compelling mystery. She had quite a few of them to solve, starting with how to make proper use of the local technology, how to navigate the laboratory and finally, how to return home.
Entering her workspace, she breathed audibly when she saw the Espada casually seated on a low chair. She recorded in mind that he was always dressed in identical uniform, covering almost all of his whole body, except the face and hair. He even wore gloves on hands arranged in a clichéd, provocative pyramid.
"How's work, rebel queen?" he asked teasingly
"Why do you ask if you have everything recorded by the cameras? Oh, I see," she feinted sudden arrival of a brilliant thought "you want me to admit that I was beyond any hope."
"I suppose that's a correct assumption."
He placed his hands on the armrests of the chair and leaned slightly forward.
"That's why I would like to hear your version of how it went" he requested, his voice sounding more seriously than a few sentences ago. "I may have seen your performance, but for the sake of future experiments, I would prefer to determine whether it was pure improvisation or a part of the deliberately chosen strategy."
Using the remote, she materialised a second chair in the Espada's proximity and took a seat opposite him. Sitting down, she brushed her blond waves with her fingers and let them fall on the left shoulder. In different circumstances, this gesture could be considered as flirtatious, but Szayelaporro looked at her with a mixture of morbid curiosity and disapproval.
"Most likely, they are all suffering from major depressive disorder. This is a very serious disease in the human world, which requires long-term medical and psychological treatment. It may be caused by many different factors, but the main biological driver is the impaired operation of connections between neurons. The symptoms include various psychosomatic disorders, among other things, irrational pain when performing everyday tasks. Other symptoms include sleep disorders. This may also lead to developing phobias or, in general, most people suddenly start behaving extraordinarily, for example they refrain from eating or defecation."
He raised his eyebrows.
"For someone who doesn't have an in-depth medical knowledge and observed these specimens for a short period of time, you have summarised their condition quite appropriately," he said casually, but she heard praise lingering in his voice. "It sounds logical. This is most likely the reason why none of my drugs caused them any harm or improved their condition."
"I may investigate the ingredients of the most effective pharmaceutical treatments, and based on them, you can prepare the antidote" she suggested.
"A moment ago you mentioned that pharmacological treatment is long-term. How long does it ordinarily take?"
She thought for a moment.
"At least four weeks."
"Then I'm not buying it. I cannot afford to invest so much time in them, not to mention other undertakings you have just indicated. You'll need to find another way how to deal with this group. It has to be effective, but more flexible when it comes to timing. I'd like to have them ready for use within the next days."
"It's impossible" she shook her head. "I can't cure such a serious illness in the deadline you've given me."
"Remember what I said about worthless experiments and throwing them in the trash?" A change came over his voice. It became cold and almost acrid. "Do you really want to share their fate?"
This remark annoyed her so much that it made her raise voice.
"I'd like to kill you. You expect miracles from me and at the same time, you hide the vital information!" she cried out indignantly "Someday I'll kill you!"
She leaned forward and pointed her index finger in his direction. Pretending to commit murder, she lightly jabbed him in the place where his heart should be. To her surprise, Szayelaporro immediately backed away, leaning back in chair, as if her touch burned him.
"Ho ho" he laughed, pointedly putting his hand on the hilt of his sword. "It sounds so seductive that I may even be tempted to follow-up on this. But, on our main topic, what exactly is your problem? You said before that you are not interested in medical details. Apart from these details, I told you everything I know. This is a group of people with supernatural abilities, whose current state is unacceptable to pursue my work further. I don't know anything more about them. Information such as their interests or their personal situation is just putting junk in your memory."
"Is the fact that only one of them speaks decent English not putting junk in your memory?" she replied brusquely "It actually smells a bit fishy, because I don't see how you can communicate with them. Most of them don't speak any western European languages."
"Have you ever heard about applications that translate speech in real time?"
It was not an inquiry. It was an irony, masked by questioning tone and accented with a smirk.
"Very funny" she snapped. "Certainly they wouldn't find it suspicious if the other prisoner is miraculously equipped with a simultaneous interpreter. No, they wouldn't think it is another one of your tricks. Maybe not all humans are those geniuses like you, but a really good portion of us is smarter than your fraccion. Do not underestimate my kind."
"In this manner, we'll now return to our burning issue, that is the strategy you undertook. Are you still convinced this is the most appropriate solution?"
"Of course!" she said without the slightest hesitation "I went through negotiations trainings and I know how to talk to people to achieve my goal. Now I can tell it will take me more time, but it was just one meeting so far. I needed it as a point of reference, as something that will help me establish rapport with the inmates. I admit that I haven't expected such difficulties at the beginning, especially with the language."
"So you have already drawn some conclusions, although you lacked complete data, and now you think it's my fault that you failed? That you suffered a crushing defeat because you expected the task to be ridiculously easy?"
"Who said anything about drawing premature conclusions? I've just started my research. Yes, I could do it better," she tried very hard not sounding like a subordinate apologizing to her boss "but it will require extraordinary preparation. I haven't fully understood the task when we were talking about it before, but now everything is clear to me and I don't see any reason why shouldn't I continue my negotiations."
"I'm really pleased that we were able to clarify this point. By the way, if you'd like to know a little more about my test subjects, I left you a very comprehensive file of my notes. It's the same one where you've found your personal data before" he added. "This application is not particularly user-friendly, which is why I switched to a newer version, and I no longer need the old one. You may use them in any possible means, but I feel obliged to warn you that deleting them will cause me no harm, and may deprive you of an important tool."
When she reached for the tablet, previously considered as useless, she initially stared at the device in disbelief, how much important information she missed because of the language barrier and lack of interest in this source. Now, as she was able to understand Spanish well enough to cope with the notes application, she proceeded to embrace the magnitude of the ideas it contained.
The text was displayed in one big, block paragraph and the word count indicated a number somewhere in the hundreds of thousands. She was convinced that Szayelaporro set her up for another pratfall, offering a key opening many doors, which was completely user unfriendly. However, technical matters were not a challenge for someone with Sara's skills. Before she started reading, she explored the available options. The first and foremost was the bookmarks bar as well as uncovering a table of contents that was previously hidden by the author. She also switched on a search engine, so that she wouldn't need to scroll through the whole passage, but she could focus on the data she was looking for.
She flicked through the majority of the items and usually after reading a few sentences, she moved on to the next page or to the next bookmark, stopping if a name of any of the prisoners was mentioned. She was additionally searching the notes using tags such as 'experimental facilities', 'test subjects' and so on.
While reading, she could not avoid thinking about the author of this compilation.
From his perspective, he paid the highest price for being blessed with a genius mind.
Her gaze wandered from the notes to the opposite wall, but she was far from admiring the architecture.
What does it mean to be a hollow? How is it like to be an empty shell, incapable of feeling anything more than instinct?
Sara knew that someday her life would come to an end and she would not be able to escape from death. However, hollows... or the way they were desperately clinging to life and their hunger to possess more power, disregarding the consequences... Was it a proof they were nothing more than warped humanoids? She replied 'yes' without the slightest hesitation.
Hueco Mundo is a world full of the worst atrocities. Vasto Lorde class hollows are created in the process of devouring not only the human souls, but also other hollows. They are not only murderers, but cannibals, who went through several abominable transformations.
During her cooperation with the shinigami, she managed to learn this simple definition by heart, but now, when she was in the centre of these worst atrocities, it couldn't clear her doubts. She was aware of specific cases when a young person died suddenly due to illness, which was diagnosed too late or someone, who was a car accident victim. Family and friends were mourning over this great loss... over someone who passed away far too early and had a whole life to live. Everyone would like to have them back... and they would embrace every opportunity to communicate with the dead. Or to send them a message with words that weren't said, but should have been.
Is that how events unfolded in Szayelaporro's life?
No one could deny his numerous talents, including the above-average intelligence and creativity. He reminded Sara of one of the shinigami captains, who was also the head of a research laboratory. The difference was just that Mayuri Kurotsuchi benefited from the experience of his predecessors and had been engaged in his own projects for at least one thousand years. Szayelaporro Granz created his realm of science within one fourth or even one fifth of this timeframe and he had been working on it from scratch. The possibilities of the development of his laboratory were limited only by the imagination of the Espada, which seemed to be racing at the speed of light.
These notes are very detailed. After my initial search, I was convinced he is the type to jump from one idea to another. He didn't seem to be able to focus on one concept and implement it thoroughly.
It wasn't unusual that Sara made such comments as part of her analyses. She considered psychological factors to be equally important as the information on military capability. Getting such data was tough, at least it would have been without the support of white hats, but it was surely worth the effort. The psychoanalysis based on the placement of the Espada number, a hollow hole, and a mask could be considered wild speculations. Even if the psychology was just a bunch of vague predictions from a crystal ball, why so many people still believed in horoscopes?
She quickly shook her head as if to chase away those thoughts.
Why do I even worry about the fate of a madman who didn't accept his own death, and under the pretext of continuing his 'work', he captures humans and non-humans, and is experimenting on them? This should not be my problem. The issue I should focus on is my return home. I have to run away from this sick world – as someone from my team put it once – as ASAP as practically possible.
She calmed herself a bit and went back to reading.
But if I go back home, will it definitely mean that humans can just sit tight when their world is being threatened by the invasion of hollows? Yes. I think I can contribute to this. If I tell the shinigami about Aizen's plans, they will have a chance to stop a wave of hollows, before they can poison the human existence.
This conclusion lifted her spirits. It was still not too late to get out of this prison and fix everything. And the tasks she was currently struggling with were not as pointless as they may have seemed. Their indirect effect would be gaining knowledge about her captor and the operation principles of the Las Noches base and Hueco Mundo as such. That is why she should do her best and fulfill all orders thoroughly... because each success would be like bringing another shovel to the Espada's burial.
Having said that, Sara should also add – not literally. She did not have the possibility to personally kill him, and his death currently wasn't in her best interest. Szayelaporro was right when he pointed out that Sara was kept alive only as a result of his hospitality. Naturally, if it weren't for him, she wouldn't have been captured in the first place, but in case somehow he disappeared, her situation would not improve. She could learn from him a lot. However, if she ended up without his 'support', in the laboratory full of fraccion... she wouldn't want to think about how cursed her fate would be.
Although she was not brave enough to admit she was no longer afraid of the arrancar scientist, she began to hope that his plan didn't equal to immediate - as he put it – 'throwing her in the trash'. Also, his threats recently lost their impact. There was no guarantee how accurately she was reading the Espada's personality, it seemed to her that Szayelaporro believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, and grabs the weapon as the last resort. His laboratory was the place where knowledge and understanding led to the innovative creations to be used by the military structures of Las Noches, but no actual fight was to take place here. Therefore, she could presume that the tests, about which she had heard several times, would not be tantamount to a duel with a random hollow. Otherwise, she should already accept her failure due to her non-existing fighting skills.
At the same time, even if the citizens of Hueco Mundo had no advantage over her, she was not sure whether she would be able to kill any of them cold blooded. The hollows she saw before were out of question, because at first glance it was obvious they are bloodthirsty creatures. But the arrancar created by Aizen adapted human form. They were acting on human instincts such as Szayelaporro with his hunger for knowledge, the desire for understanding more and more, as well as his thirst for extracting information from his test subjects, even if it meant torment and torture.
Sara knew that there was no way to exorcise them and return them to their previous state, but only the cleansing by the shinigami could save them. This, however, also meant ending their post-mortem existence, once and for all.
It would be much easier to deal with my stupid remorse for the hollow if he didn't look like a human.
She sighed dreamily.
And if he was really a human, could we become good colleagues at work or even friends?
Suddenly her thoughts reminded her about his unusual proposal. During their discussion, she was absolutely astonished and this feeling was genuine to some degree. But being brutally honest to herself, she had to admit that she saw it coming. Her shock concerned rather the question itself, because she wouldn't have expected to be asked for consent. A hollow, who didn't seize what he wanted, but left the final decision up to the other party, should always be treated with a large dose of suspicion.
However, apart from his peculiar approach to the subject, she predicted it might happen. She knew the Espada needs her for some twisted purposes and the relation between them would, inter alia, involve sex. Some of his comments and the attention he was giving her made it very clear, at least for her. Another telltale factor was the contraceptive injection, which she received at the very beginning.
Apart from the fact that Sara could actually read Szayelaporro's intentions, she wasn't falsely modest enough to consider this course of events as a surprise. No one had to tell her that she was not a gorgeous beauty, but despite that, she had special charisma and personal charm. During her early years, she was regarded as an ugly duckling and when she became adult, the childhood experience gave her the courage to recognise herself not yet as the lovely swan from the fairy tale, but as an attractive woman. It was rather peculiar that her friends, who used to be the hottest girls at school, grew up with heavy luggage of insecurities. It seemed as if they were starting to understand that what they see in the mirror did not fully reflect the praise they had been hearing for many years from their parents. Not to mention that their dates from discos dramatically changed their taste.
Sara experienced exactly the opposite.
She was far from falling into self-admiration and still couldn't get over some of her insecurities, but time proved to her that smile, elegance, class and a sharp mind made people forget she was not perfect. The body and face carved with mathematical precision by the plastic surgeon looked great on the magazine covers, but were defeated during their daily clashes with the reality.
Again she thought about Mayuri Kurotsuchi, this time in the context of his 'daughter.' Nemu Kurotsuchi was not his biological child or not even a proper shinigami, but a masterpiece of state-of-the-art technology. She came into existence by combining a faux body and an artificial soul from 'Konpaku cells.' The effects of this merger were truly spectacular, because the 'test-tube shinigami' was lithe, fast and strong in battle, yet she looked like a beautiful, young woman with mysterious green eyes, a thick braid of dark hair and a slim, athletic silhouette.
Even though hailed as captain's masterpiece and his perfect invention, Nemu did not seem happy or even content. Whenever Sara had seen her, the woman never smiled and very rarely spoke. At first she thought that the shinigami lieutenant looks down on her, not wanting to talk to a human without any powers. Eventually, Sara realised that the reasons for her behaviour are quite different.
Nemu was not arrogant and proud, but shy and introverted. Her silent, melancholic demeanor was a kind of a side effect of the current cooperation with the captain. Kurotsuchi treated his subordinates as objects or tools and ordering them to be meat shields or cannon fodder was nothing peculiar in his modus operandi. His lieutenant dutifully complied with all of his orders, even with the most humiliating ones. But since she was not a fanatic, who blindly followed her leader, it was visible how tough it was to work for him.
Sara was also certain that Mayuri was sleeping with her. Besides her strong belief she had absolutely no proof and the Twelfth Division didn't use to gossip about their superiors, so she couldn't report his unethical behaviour to the head captain Yamamoto (although she was willing to do so). She was convinced it was true, because otherwise the captain would probably prefer a guy loaded with muscles to take care of all the dirty work. Or, possibly, a woman with a bodybuilder appearance, making the opponents run in fear.
In such case, Szayelaporro Granz didn't seem a bad option...
Enough of this nonsense.
She scolded herself.
He is dead. Irrevocably dead and nothing I do can bring him back to life.