Disclaimer: As much I would like to own Bleach and its characters, I don't. And probably never will.
Hello again. Not much is going on. School starts in a couple of weeks. I will try to write as much as I can beforehand. I posted the first chapter of my other fic, for those of you who are interested. Oh, and my mother said something stupid a couple of days ago. This is it.
Mom: What are you looking at?
Me: Bleach manga.
Mom: Who's that?
Me: Ulquiorra.
Mom: Wow, she's cute.
Me: (stares, then slaps forehead) Mom, Ulquiorra is a guy.
Mom: …oh.
Me: I've told you this before.
Embarrassing as it is, yes this is not this first time we've had this conversation. Wouldn't it be weird if she had been right…?
Chapter 7
"I'll kill you!" Yami screamed. Urahara just smirked, which made Yami even angrier.
"Oh?" the king asked. "Did you want a demonstration then? Very well. Cry, Benihime." He swung his sword, and a red wave of power followed the direction of the swing, rushing towards Yami.
It never got a chance to hit the shocked Espada, for Ulquiorra batted it away with his hand. It dispersed almost immediately. Yami started to say something to him, but Ulquiorra cut him off by plunging his fist into Yami's midsection.
He withdrew his hand and gave him a condescending stare. "You idiot. Those two are the King and Queen: Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin. At your level of power, you would never be able to defeat them. No matter how much you try."
Ulquiorra turned, opening a portal. "Now is the time to retreat."
"Are you actually going to run away?" Yoruichi didn't seem too surprised, actually.
A taunting smirk was allowed to surface on Ulquiorra's face. "That is a rather pathetic attempt to get a reaction. If you two fight me while trying to protect the trash at the same time…I obviously would have the upper hand.
"In any case, my mission here is done. I have evaluated the boy…and have found him wanting. He is not even worthy of Lord Aizen's attention. He is just trash like the rest." Ulquiorra gave one last cold, hard stare before he and Yami vanished.
A couple days after he returned Ulquiorra was summoned, along with the rest of the Espada, to once again review the images recorded in his eye previously. The gaping hole where it had once sat in his head was no longer there, his emerald orb having already regenerated.
He walked into the room and sat down at his usual place. The others trailed in after him in no real order. Once the tea had been served to everyone (Ulquiorra couldn't figure out why Aizen did this, hollows do not need to eat and drink human food), Aizen gave them all a hard look.
"When I was reviewing the images that Ulquiorra brought me, I discovered something interesting that I had missed earlier," he started without any preamble. He gestured towards the middle of the table, where the shattered remains of Ulquiorra's eye were. The scene started playing itself, beginning with Yami attacking the princess. Aizen slowed it down when it came to the healing part. "Now my Espada, what is this?"
There was some mutterings among the elite. "Time spatial distortion, my lord," Ulquiorra finally said when no one else could figure it out.
Aizen beamed at his favorite. "Does anyone else know what that is?" No one except Zaerua-Pollo did, and he didn't really count. Aizen explained what it was to the others while Ulquiorra tuned him out and looked at the frozen image of the girl's face. Fear was clearly visible upon her features. He studied it intently, trying to see the beauty that Aizen had mentioned before.
Unknown to the Cuatra Espada, Grimmjaw was watching his face intently. He was intrigued by Ulquiorra's confusion towards the girl. He glanced to the eye on the table. She was a looker, all right. He suddenly realized that Ulquiorra was having problems because he had the least memories of his life before he became a hollow.
Grimmjaw grinned evilly. This was going to be fun, getting the opportunity to taunt his superior over this woman.
Aizen had finished up with his small speech by now. "I think that the princess' powers may be useful to the awakening of the hougyoku. Perhaps we can convince her to help us." The way he said it left no doubt as to what he meant. "But first, those pesky guardians of hers need to be done away with."
"Lord Aizen," Gin piped up from his chair. "Why don't we send some of the weaker arrancar out across the kingdom, to spread their forces thin? Then send in the Espada for the ones that won't leave, as well as to secure the castle and country for ourselves?"
The brown haired man brightened considerably. "Yes, Gin. That could work. Excellent thinking." He nursed a thought or two before voicing them aloud. "We will need to keep some humans around afterword, for food purposes. So after the castle has been taken over, we will replace the human servants with arrancar. The lesser arrancar quarters will remain down here, Espada will move to the castle. Yes, this may work…" he trailed off, waving a dismissal to the rest. He turned to confer with Gin and Tousen while they left.
Ulquiorra had a bad feeling as he walked to his room, hands in pockets. Grimmjaw was planning something, but he wasn't sure what. Deciding to deal with it whenever it happened, he pushed it to the back of his mind.
Orihime sighed; she was feeling slightly depressed over the events a couple of weeks ago. Those people, Arrancar, she corrected herself, had given everyone a bit of a shock. They had shown up at the worst time, with all of the people who could actually fight them too busy with other things.
Things had only gotten worse since that first attack. There were sightings of regular hollows and arrancar all over the kingdom. The fighting had escalated to the point where most of the Captains and their divisions were spread throughout the entire country.
Then there was that surprise attack yesterday. Five high ranked arrancar, plus one Espada, had struck the city that lay in the very shadow of the castle. They retreated, in the end. However, it had been an extremely bold move, even if what Ichigo had heard what Tousen had said correctly. That the fighting was against orders was a bit disturbing to the King and Queen.
Feeling it necessary, they had recalled a couple of the Captains. They should be here in a few days. Even using shunpo, the kingdom was large.
The princess had the ominous feeling that the reinforcements would be too late for whatever the rogue shinigami were planning.
