The Gentle Art of Making Enemies

I hate this place.

Grimmjow thought that over and over again as he lay on Mayuri's operating table, awaiting the procedure he would undergo to allow the shinigami to control his reiatsu. While he wasn't thrilled about the idea, the captain that would oversee his control was the captain of the second division, Soi Fon. He figured with what he'd done for her last night, she'd owe him at least some leniency. Hell, if we're going by orgasm ratio, she owes me at least three freebies.

Mayuri entered the room, tittering to himself as always. "Good morning, good morning, Arrancar. How wonderful it is to see you."

Grimmjow glared at the scientist; it had only been three days since the captain of the twelfth division had ruthlessly paralyzed and vivisected him. He wasn't too keen on allowing little things like that to just hit the back burner. In fact,he thought as the insane captain prepared his instruments, if I ever get the chance, I'm going to turn this guy inside out.

"Allow me to give you some slight detail on this procedure, Grimmjow. I will inject you with a local anesthetic—" Grimmjow looked at Mayuri sharply. The scientist chuckled lightly as he continued. "Still a sore subject, Arrancar? Don't worry. This won't immobilize you or anything. I have strict orders from the Captain-commander to make sure this goes off…" he picked up a syringe filled with an amber-colored liquid, squeezing the air out of the chamber as he continued, "without a hitch."

As Mayuri plunged the needle into his hollow-hole, Grimmjow couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy trusting this man. But after a few seconds, when Grimmjow only felt a slight numbness in his stomach, he felt that he was safe for the moment.

"I am implanting a small device into your hollow-hole." Mayuri was bent over Grimmjow's stomach, talking as he worked, constantly reaching up for new tools and instruments. "When it is in place, I will turn it on and you should feel a slight draining of your spiritual power." Mayuri had no sooner said this when Grimmjow felt in incredible draining feeling in his gut. His eyes widened and he groaned slightly as it continued. He looked over at Mayuri, who had already turned to tinker with something else. He was about to call out when the feeling suddenly stopped and he was left on the table to catch his breath.

"Oh ho ho ho," the madman tittered as he turned and faced Grimmjow, a small remote in his hand. "Did I say 'a slight draining'? Well, I suppose that was light; that was a little warning signal of this device. I will be inserting a small remote into the wrist of the captains in charge of you. If they see any reason for immobilizing you, they'll have three levels of 'warnings' to issue you before they completely shut you down. The feeling which you just experienced was the first of those three levels." Grimmjow glared into Mayuri's golden eyes, the mad scientist looking back zealously. "I wouldn't recommend that you inspire them with the desire to use that particular feature, Arrancar."


Soi Fon fingered at the small remote in her wrist. There were three buttons on it; a red button, a green button, and a yellow button. She recalled Mayuri's instructions as she walked to the Captain-commander's office. "Yellow will lower the amount of reiatsu he can access, green will raise it. The red button will send him a warning signal; in the event that he gets out of control, pressing the red button four times will shut him down completely."

She wondered if that meant killing him.

She certainly hoped not. She had spent the entire afternoon yesterday doing paperwork and preparing for her mission. She had been stressed and overworked when she'd gone to see how Grimmjow was doing. She only took three steps into his room before he's picked her up and thrown her onto the bed, making her forget about her paperwork and the mission. She wouldn't want to kill him if he could cheer her up like that.

The past six hours had made her desire for his "stress relieving" even more. Before getting a remote control implanted in her wrist by a man she despised, she'd done nothing but exercise and train against Kira Izuru in preparation for the mission she didn't want to go on. It hadn't helped that Kira was very vocal to her about his disapproval in Grimmjow coming along.

"I just don't understand," he said, dodging the wooden sword she was wielding. "What would we need the assistance of an Espada for?"

"In the event that we encounter some strong opponents," she countered with words as he countered with his sword. "It would be advantageous for us to have him to fight for us."

"What's to insure that he won't turn on us?"

"Hopefully the device that Captain Kurotsuchi is putting in him right now."

"What if that doesn't work?"

She stopped sparring, and looked at Kira with serious eyes. "I have no guarantee for you, Lieutenant Kira. But I trust Captain Kurotsuchi, I trust the Arrancar, and I trust the Captain-commander's decision to add him onto or team."

Kira looked slightly taken aback by her sudden change of mood. "Of… Of course, Captain Soi Fon. I apologize for my lack of sympathy" He bowed his head.

"It's okay, Kira," she said, her voice softening slightly. She didn't mean to snap at him, but his words had struck a nerve with her. What iskeeping any of these Arrancar from gaining their captor's trust and then killing the only person capable of reining them in? What's to stop Grimmjow from killing her in her sleep?

She excused herself from the rest of practice to take a shower and prepare herself for surgery and the meeting with Yamamoto that followed. She tried not to think about Grimmjow for the rest of the afternoon, but her mind continued returning to the image of him standing over her as she slept, a red cero forming in his hand.


The members of the mission to Karakura town stood before Captain-commander Yamamoto. Grimmjow was still awestruck that he was elected to go on a mission to the material world, but he wasn't about to protest it—he still wasn't positive that one word of dissention from him would warrant a swift trip to the guillotine. He'd arrived to Yamamoto's office early to receive a quick briefing on the mission and gain information on the shinigami he'd be travelling with. As Yamamoto explained to the group what he and Grimmjow had already covered, Grimmjow let his eyes wander over the faces in the room.

His gaze first landed on an effeminate looking shinigami with straight black hair and a pair of red and yellow feathers sticking out from the corner of his right eye. Ayasegawa Yumichika, Grimmjow thought as the words of Yamamoto swirled through his mind. Next to him was a lieutenant with blonde hair and an extremely melancholy look on his face. Lieutenant Kira Izuru.

The next shinigami in line garnered a glare from Grimmjow. Hisagi Shuuhei. Something about the lieutenant made Grimmjow feel extremely competitive. The background information Yamamoto had given on the young shinigami was more than enough to get Grimmjow in a competing mood; Hisagi was considered a prodigy, graduated the shinigami academy early, and was rewarded a an officer's seat immediately upon graduation. Add in the fact that the kid was a student of Tousen Kaname, a man he vehemently despised, and Grimmjow Jaggerjaques had himself a rival.

And something about the way he interacted with Soi Fon made Grimmjow feel a tinge protective and a load competitive. He didn't care about the shinigami captainess on an emotional level, but his pride made him consider her, at least for the moment, his woman. As long as he was still fucking her, he didn't want any man getting too close. And he would relish any opportunity to "protect" her.

The final two in the group were Captains Soi Fon and Hitsugaya Toshirou. The white-haired Hitsugaya was considered even more of a prodigy than Hisagi. But the youngest captain in the history of soul society avoided the rivalry with Grimmjow for one basic reason—Grimmjow was not about to fuck with a man who held a reiatsu draining remote. Grimmjow's gaze slid over to Soi Fon standing next to Hitsugaya. He imagined slipping the white haori off her back, kissing and biting her exposed shoulders as he slid his one hand into the slit on the side of her uniform, and the other into the slit in her hakama.

"Furthermore," Yamamoto said, snapping Grimmjow out of his day-dream. "I have Contacted Urahara Kisuke. He has prepared gigai for the six of you and is awaiting your arrival in the real world. Seeing as though all arrangements have been taken care of in Karakura, this group will leave within an hour." Grimmjow chuckled at the surprised looks on his teammate's faces. Grimmjow had suggested earlier that the party leave as soon as possible, and the Captain-commander had quickly agreed.

"An hour," Yumichika questioned. "Why aren't we leaving tomorrow as planned?"

"Because, dimwit," Grimmjow spoke up from the back of the room, roughly restating what he'd told Yamamoto earlier. "If Aizen plans on re-trying for Karakura town, he's going to do it sooner rather than later."

The shinigami's usual beautiful features curled into a snarl, causing Grimmjow to smirk. "I don't recall addressing you, Arrancar," Yumichika said, moving his hand to the hilt of his zanpakuto.

"Well," Grimmjow responded, his own hand ready to pull his newly regained Pantera from its sheath. "Seeing as though it was my idea to leave today, I figured I would answer the question."

Hisagi spoke up then, addressing the Captain-commander while pointing an outraged finger at Grimmjow. "So what? We're allowing the Espada to make our decisions for us now? Why don't we hand ourselves over to Aizen right now?" He turned and took a step toward Grimmjow, unlocking his sword from the scabbard as he walked.

"Lieutenant Hisagi, stand down!" Soi Fon called out to him as he approached the Arrancar.

"Fuck that, Soi." Hisagi said as he whirled on her, facing her angrily. "This guy is not one of us. I can't stand idly by as he—"

The sound of a sonido ripped through the air and Hisagi Shuuhei found himself with an Espada's sword positioned at his throat. Grimmjow was behind him, Pantera pulled tight against his neck. "You shouldn't ever turn away from your opponent, lieutenant." Grimmjow hissed venomously into Hisagi's ear, sarcasm dripping from the last word. "Otherwise, you might find yourself—"

The words were caught in Grimmjow's throat as he felt a wave of his spiritual energy being pulled from his body. He released the shinigami and fell to his knees. What the hell? he thought, looking at Soi Fon as he grasped his hollow-hole.

But she was looking back at him, just as confused.

Yamamoto stood, allowing his voice to boom out over the room. "I have made the decision to have the defense party leave in one hour. That is the end of discussion. Lieutenant Hisagi, the Arrancar is now an equal member of your team; his opinion will be as valued as your own, if not more. He is far more familiar with the way Aizen works than you." Yamamoto turned his glare over to Grimmjow, holding up a small remote. "And let this be a reminder to you, Grimmjow Jaggerjaques. Do not underestimate the abilities and the ruthlessness of the shinigami."

Grimmjow glared back at the Captain-commander, gasping for air. Yamamoto sat back at his desk before he continued. "Make any preparations needed. I will meet you all at the gate in one hour. Dismissed."

The shinigami bowed their heads as Grimmjow stood, recovering from the stunning loss of reiatsu. None of the shinigami would make eye contact with him as the passed, including Soi Fon. He opened his mouth to speak to her, but she walked past him, her shoulder forcefully clipping his as she went.

Fucking wonderful, he thought as he rolled his eyes.


What the hell was that? Soi Fon thought as she hurried back to her office. We haven't even begun the mission and people are trying to kill each other. I don't need that, especially from those two.

She was infuriated with Grimmjow, but he had also scared her. Her conversation with Kira earlier had planted a small seed of fear in her brain, and the actions Grimmjow had taken did nothing but water that seed. She had no idea what Grimmjow was capable of, both physically and mentally; if he could fuck her one minute and rip her throat out the next, she wasn't entirely sure she should be sharing her bed with him.

So when the Arrancar entered her office a few minutes after she did, her guard was definitely up.

"What the hell was that, Grimmjow?" she demanded of him, her eyes boring into his menacingly.

"What do you want me to say, Soi?" he replied, his eyes just as ferocious as his. "What am I supposed to do when shit like that happens, back down? Fuck that. I'm already enemy number one on this mission. The last thing I want is to have them bossing me around from the get go."

"It doesn't matter what you want," she said, shaking her head in irritation. "You are enemy number one on this mission for a good reason, Grimmjow. Up until yesterday, you wereenemy number one. Those emotions aren't going to simply fade away." She turned toward her desk, finalizing some last minute reports as she spoke. "You need to keep your head down and play their game for a while. Putting a sword to the throat of a comrade isn't going to garner you many sympathies."

"I don't need their sympathy," he said shortly, his head turning away from her.

"Then I do not know what you need, Grimmjow," she said, once more walking past him. "I'll see you in an hour."

She left her office then, leaving him behind her. She had no desire to talk with him. She had no desire to talk to anyone at the moment. Rounding a curve and leaving her division, she reasoned she might kill the next person she encountered.

It did not bode well for Hisagi Shuuhei that he'd decided to confront her then.

"Soi," he called out from behind her. "Can I talk to you?"

She stopped, growling silently as she turned to him. "I've asked you repeatedly to address me as 'Captain Soi Fon', Lieutenant Shuuhei," she said, irritated that he'd obviously been waiting for her.

"Come on, Soi…" he began, but her icy stare made him stop mid-sentence. "Captain Soi Fon, may I speak with you for a moment?" She looked at him dismissively, but gestured for him to continue. "I do not think it is wise to bring that Arrancar along with us," he said, his tone of voice confrontational. "The aggression he's already shown toward the members of the group leaves me with little faith in his ability to be trusted."

It was obvious that he wanted to start a fight with her. She was happy to oblige.

"Are you sure that's what it is, Shuuhei?" she questioned, disregarding her own policy of formality. "Or is it because he might be stronger than you? Or the fact that his opinions might be considered over yours?" She saw Hisagi's face turn up as she accosted his pride. She almost felt bad for her former lover, but today was simply the wrong day to try and fuck with her. She decided to go for blood.

"Or is it that you are scared of him after he so easily put his blade against your throat, lieutenant?" she asked, imitating the sarcasm Grimmjow had used earlier. Hisagi opened his mouth to speak, but closed it after he couldn't seem to find the words he was searching for. Soi Fon turned and began walking to the Senkai Gate, hoping no one else would bother her.

Because I swear I will kill the next one.

She arrived at the gate early, and stood silently with her eyes closed as she waited for the others to arrive. She didn't speak even as the three officers approached. She didn't acknowledge Toshirou when he arrived and stood next to her. And she completely ignored Grimmjow as she waited for the gates to open.

I just want to get this stupid fucking mission over with,she thought as she stepped through the gate.


author's note

ok, bit of a short chapter this time. this was actually just the first half of this chapter, but i'm gonna be so busy with work and school this weekend that i wouldn't have ben able to finish it all until tuesday. and i couldn't do that to you guys. why? 'cause i loves youse guys.

next chapter will have some soi-yoruichi drama, i swear. as well as more grimmjow scuffles with the other guys. maybe ichigo will make an appearance? who knows? i also can't wait to start writing for urahara; it'll be like writing for mayuri, except funnier. the next chapter will also be the first of a seven-part chapter, so get ready for that. i'm seeing some cool stuff gettin ready to pop off up in here.

review review review. i love it when ya do.

jta.

the gentle art of making enemies - faith no more