Title: The Rain that Binds
Pairings: UlquiHime with a bit of IchiRuki and some one-sided IchiHime and IshiHime. Other pairings may be added later.
Rating: T
Spoilers: Up to chapter 282 of the manga
Word count: 3,199
Thanks so much for all the reviews, everyone! I really appreciate them! glomps
Here is chapter 8 for your reading pleasure. Chapter 9 should be posted on Saturday, for those who wish to know. Enjoy!
EDIT Hopefully clarified the 'what Aizen wants Orihime to do with the hougykou' issue.
Orihime sat across from him, eating whatever weird concoction she had thrown together. He was consuming the reiatsu that Soul Society had given him, a hard stare on his face. Ulquiorra was starting to become annoyed with that smile already. He wasn't sure why, but seeing her smile in such a fake way unnerved him.
' It reminds me too much of a certain snake-faced shinigami who is currently residing in Hueco Mundo…it's so unnatural,' he thought.
He saw her stand up from the table and wash her dish, leaving it out to dry. She then walked back and sat down across from him, opening her mouth to speak.
" Hey, Ulquiorra." Orihime paused, apparently waiting for him to respond. When he didn't, she continued, " I've been thinking. When I was in Hueco Mundo, I remember hearing something about the top Arrancar and how they were called and numbered differently than everyone else. There were other things that I was dwelling on at the time, so I didn't really get to ask anyone, but…what exactly does that all mean?"
Ulquiorra regarded her for a moment, considering whether he should answer her question or not. Before he knew what he was doing, he could feel his mouth begin to move of its own accord.
" There are different Arrancar ranks under Aizen's control. There is a rank of Arrancar, for example, that are part of the division that is responsible for the execution of intruders. They are known as the Exequias, although I have only heard of their existence. I am not certain what numbers they are assigned. The next rank of Arrancar is the Privaron. These Arrancar were former members of the Espada who have lost their rank. They are assigned a three-digit number. Unlike the current Espada, the Privaron are 'naturally created' Arrancar."
Orihime looked at him, confused. Tilting her head to the side, she asked, " 'Naturally created' Arrancar? What do you mean?"
He sighed. " A good percentage of the Arrancar residing in Hueco Mundo are 'artificial created' Arrancar. Essentially, they were created using the powers of the hougyoku."
" I see. Sorry for interrupting. Please, continue," she said.
Ulquiorra glared at her when he heard her apology but continued, " The next rank is the Numeros. They are numbered from 11 to 99 and are the combat specialists. The 11th is the oldest numero while the 99th numero is the youngest. A subsection of the Numeros is the Fraccion, who serve under the Espada. The number of Numeros under an Espada varies. Most Espada only have a few Fraccion under their control, although a couple have more."
He paused, expecting her to interrupt him. Seeing that she didn't, he went on.
" The final rank of Arrancar is the Espada, the most powerful Arrancar in Aizen's army. They are numbered from one to ten, which is tattooed somewhere on their body," he finished, glancing to see if she understood all that he had told her.
Surprisingly, she did not appear to be confused. She looked at him.
" So, you were an Espada," Orihime stated.
"…Yes."
" So, that means that you had a Fraccion under your control?" she asked.
" Yes, although…. I never saw him very often."
She glanced up at him expectantly. When he didn't continue, she started again.
" What…what rank were you?" She looked down at her hands, waiting for his reply apprehensively.
Ulquiorra considered her for a few seconds before he sighed, causing her to look at him. Instead of telling her, he decided that it would be best to show her. He started to unbutton his shirt, noticing her eyes widen and a blush spreading across her face. Ignoring her reaction, he finished unbuttoning and opened his shirt up to reveal the 4 tattoo that was imprinted on his left breast, along with the device that Urahara had given him.
" Ulquiorra Schiffer," he replied mechanically, " …former cuatra Espada."
She stared at the mark for a few seconds before she brought her gaze back to his face. Orihime looked like she was going to ask another question, but, to his surprise, she didn't; instead, she smiled at him. He was confused.
" Thank you, Ulquiorra, for clearing that up. I'll be right back, ok?"
And with that, she got up from the table and made her way to the bedroom, leaving Ulquiorra at the table. Re-buttoning his shirt, he looked in the direction that she had headed towards.
' I get the feeling that this is going to be a long week,' he thought wearily.
It was about two hours before Orihime would wake, exclaim that she was late, and run off to, hopefully, make it to school on time. Ulquiorra was sitting on the couch reading the book that she had bought him yesterday. Surprisingly, he had not finished it over the course of the night, mostly because he was having difficulty understanding what the authors were talking about.
' Even if this is mathematical and analytical, this book is analyzing a concept that is very difficult to grasp. Why is it so important to quantify happiness in the first place?' he pondered.
" Good morning, Ulquiorra," Orihime replied cheerfully.
Ulquiorra looked up from the book he was reading to find Orihime standing in front of him, smiling brightly. His book dropped to the floor and a bewildered look spread across his face. Upon seeing it, she let out a little laugh.
" You realize that you are awake two hours before you normally are, correct?" he asked, his eyes still wide from shock.
Making her way to the kitchen, she let out a little laugh. After she fixed her breakfast, she made her way to the table. She looked at him and waved her hand, indicating that he should come and sit down. Making his way to the table, he sat across from her. She remained silent for a few minutes before she spoke up.
" Hey, Ulquiorra. Who are the other Espada? I mean, I know that Noitora is the quinta Espada and that Grimmjow and Luppi were the sexta Espada…and you showed me yesterday that you were the cuatra Espada." At this, her face turned a little red but Orihime continued, " But what about the others? Who are the other espada?"
He looked at her.
' So, this is why she is awake so early.'
He explained to her that the older looking Arrancar and the darker-skinned one were the septima and tercer Espada respectfully. Seeing her nod in affirmation, Ulquiorra continued.
" Yammi, the large Arrancar, is the decima Espada. Szayel Aporro, the arrancar with pink hair, is the octava Espada. Halibel is the segunda Espada and the female of the group. Finally, Stark is the primara Espada, even though he is the least…motivated," he recited, glancing at her to see what kind of a reaction he would receive.
Standing up, she took her plate to the sink and washed it off. Orihime went back to the table, got her bag, and walked over to the foyer. Putting on her shoes, she opened the door and turned around to look at him.
" Thanks, Ulquiorra! Well, I'm off! Have a good day, ok?" she called back, leaving him staring at the place she had once been sitting.
' She does realize that school does not begin for another hour, according to what she has said previously, correct?'
When she had arrived home, slightly irked that Ulquiorra had not told her that she had left for school so early, he was expecting more of her questioning, only to be greeted with none. He then considered that, perhaps, Orihime would wake up early again in order to interrogate him. Not to his surprise, she was up at her regular late time, running around the apartment frantically.
It was almost the end of the day and Ulquiorra decided that, perhaps, she had decided to stop asking him questions. It was after dinner and she was working on her homework, while he, of course, was pointing out her mistakes.
" Ulquiorra…" Orihime started.
He let out an exasperated sigh.
' It was wrong for me to assume that she would stop asking these questions, although…I am not obligated to answer them.'
" Yes, Inoue," he replied.
" Why do the Arrancar serve Aizen? I mean, I don't understand. There are so many and there's only one of him. Well, there's also the other two shinigami with him, of course, but…. I mean…there are thousands of Arrancar! You could easily overpower the three of them if you worked together," she pointed out, catching her breath after her long-winded explanation.
" The Arrancar serve Aizen out of fear," he started, looking at her oddly. " Their motivation for serving Aizen is that he promises them a life without that fear, whether it is the fear of death, the fear of boredom, and so on. However, once they are under his command, he uses that fear to keep them in line and loyal to him."
Orihime looked at him unhappily.
" Concerning your other point. Why do the Arrancar not rebel against Aizen when their numbers are vast? The reason is simple. Although he may be an enemy because he is a shinigami, we are enemies against ourselves. It would be highly unlike that the Arrancar would form alliances between one another."
She sat there, her eyes focusing on some spot on the wall in front of her, taking in all she had heard for a few minutes while Ulquiorra waited for her response. Standing up and walking to her bedroom, she glanced back at him.
" That's sad."
Orihime then continued walking to her bedroom and shut the door, leaving her homework on the table completely forgotten. Picking it up and staring it over, the green eyed Arrancar sighed.
' It is,' he agreed.
She was starting to unnerve him, with her oscillating between being extremely talkative and unnaturally quiet. Ulquiorra already figured out what she had been doing after the first time Orihime had started asking him questions, but he had answered her questions that time, thinking that once he gave an answer, she would be satisfied. This did not turn out to be the case. It wasn't until yesterday, when she asked him yet another question, that he decided that this question and answer session was going to be a daily occurrence.
The thing that unnerved him most, however, was that he never knew when to expect her questions. Lying in the warm water of the tub, Ulquiorra tried to discern a pattern in her asking schedule.
' The first day she questioned me after dinner,' he recounted. ' The day after that, she woke up two hours early in order to ask her question before she had to leave for school. Yesterday…it was when she was working on her homework.'
He frowned. From what he could tell, there was no discernable pattern. He closed his eyes, thinking why he had even considered that a pattern existed in the first place.
' She is unpredictable…not only that, this woman is causing me to do things that I would not do under normal circumstances.'
He stared at his hand in front of him.
' Inoue Orihime. She's changing me…and yet…this thought does not bother me as much as I realize it should…' he considered.
Ulquiorra heard scuffling outside of the door and then silence. He stared at the door for a few seconds before he began to turn his head to stare at the tiles ahead of him when all of a sudden…
" ULQUIORRA!"
He groaned slightly.
' No. I know she is not trying to hold a conversation with me while I am taking a bath. No sane being would even consider doing such a thing,' he thought, feeling his eye twitch ever so slightly.
" ULQUIORRA! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" she yelled, even louder than before.
He resisted the urge to bring his palm to meet his forehead, like he had seen her do on many occasions. Grabbing a towel and wrapping it around himself, he walked over to the door and opened it just enough to poke his head out, which was quite a bit because of his mask. In the end, the door was more than half way open. Looking down, he saw her sitting in front of the door. Her legs tucked underneath her and her face was a bright shade of red. He glared at her, hoping that she would back away from the door. She didn't. Instead, her eyes moved up and down of their own accord before she finally tore her gaze away from him.
" Inoue, thinking about this logically, does it seem like a good idea to try and start a conversation with someone when they are in the bath?" he questioned.
Still not looking at him, she opened her mouth to answer. No words came out. Orihime tried a few more times before she finally gave up and shook her head. He sighed.
" Can your question wait until I am finished?"
She nodded and made her way to the table, not even sparing a glance at him on her way there. Locking the door, Ulquiorra decided that there was no use in trying to continue. Draining the now lukewarm water, he dried himself off, put on some clothes, and walked over to where she was sitting. Noticing him sitting down, Orihime's gaze moved from the tabletop to him, her face still slightly red.
" What are Aizen's plans?" she asked without ceremony.
He was somewhat taken back by how she had phrased her question. He had expected another long-winded question and an explanation of why she was asking him to go along with it. So to hear Orihime get straight to the point was…unusual, to say the least.
" I do not believe that anyone knows the answer to that question other that Aizen himself," he responded.
" You don't have an idea what his plans might be?"
Ulquiorra thought for a minute.
" I am under the impression that he wanted you to use your powers to erase the hougyoku out of existence, although I am not sure why he would desire such a thing," he added, knowing that she would ask him to explain his answer further.
Orihime sat there staring at the tabletop, apparently trying to recall anything that might help her to figure out Aizen's plans.
" He told me that he wanted to reverse the hougyoku to a state before it was sealed…" she said, confused.
" I realize he did. However, if he told you that he desired you to destroy the orb, then it would have aroused your suspicions and you would not have done it, correct?"
She nodded lightly.
" The hougyoku is the thing that turns hollows into Arrancar in the first place, right? I don't understand why he would want to destroy it," she said, more to herself than to him.
Orihime looked at him, stood up from the table, and walked to her bedroom. Hearing the light click of the door, Ulquiorra closed his eyes.
" I'm home," she said as she took her shoes off at the foyer and walked into the room that he was currently in.
Over the past few days, he had noticed that every time Orihime returned from school, her greeting became less and less energetic. Today, she sounded almost less energetic than Ulquiorra looked. Almost.
She made her way across the room, dragging her feet in the process. Carelessly throwing her school bag on the table, she sat down next to him. He turned to face her and saw the tenseness that was clearly written in her body and her face. She looked as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
" Ulquiorra…" Orihime started.
He cut her off.
" I know what you are trying to do. What you have been doing for the last few days."
She looked down at her hands guiltily.
" That old shinigami told you to interrogate me, correct?" he asked, trying to get her to make eye contact with him.
Looking up at him, she shook her head slightly.
" That's not the reason I did it."
Ulquiorra blinked, confused. He was about to ask her what she meant when she began to talk.
" I knew if I didn't, then Yamamoto-san would have interrogated you, and whatever method he was going to use, I got the feeling that it wouldn't be pleasant. So, when he told me to do it instead, I decided to do it not because he told me to, but because…I wanted to spare you from whatever horrible thing he would have used to get information from you."
Orihime turned away from him to face the wall in front of them. Ulquiorra continued to stare at her, completely speechless.
" It was hard. I felt so guilty, like I was betraying you. It didn't really help that Yamamoto-san had to remind me that, ' The fate of the world rests on this war' and everything. It got so hard every day to question you, especially since I knew that everything you told me I would be relayed back to Soul Society."
" You should not feel guilty. As I have stated before, I was already aware that you were interrogating me in place of that old shinigami. I would not have said anything if I did not desire to."
She looked at him, confused and, perhaps, a little bit frustrated as well.
" Then why? Why didn't you answer when Rangiku-san and Hitsugaya-kun were asking you the same questions?" she insisted wearily.
' Because…I do not mind if it is you asking…' Ulquiorra thought.
Orhime walked down the street to the market that she had been at nearly a week ago with the green eyed Arrancar. Looking up at the sky, she noted that the clouds were dark gray. The orange haired girl took in a deep breath and could smell the scent of rain in the air. She sighed.
' I can't believe that I left my umbrella at school,' she thought. ' I hope that it doesn't rain until I can get back home.'
She continued to walk down the streets and noticed a trashcan at the corner of the sidewalk. Walking up to it, she pulled out the notebook that Yamamoto had given her from the bag at her side and stared at it. After a minute, she opened the book and tore up all the pages, throwing them and the outside of the notebook into the bin in front of her.
' I'm sure what information I gave should be enough to help them. There's nothing more I can ask him that would be useful,' Orihime decided, feeling the burden she had carried with her the whole week lifted from her shoulders.
She turned back to the direction of her apartment building and smiled.
' Ulquiorra…when was it that you became such an important person in my life?'
