Chapter 9
"And here you are again, my little bell..." Ichigo tried to sit up but once again found herself secured down to the table.
"What do you want this time?" she snarled, glaring at him when she found him a moment later.
"Nothing much..." he said snidely, standing at a somewhat distant computer, fingers typing away.
"You obviously want something!" she growled, tinges of pain from the last encounter with him running up her spine.
"I merely wish to... Observe you..." Szayel reached for something just out of her field of view and she tensed, preparing for the pain to come once again. However, to her surprise, it was a tray of food. He placed it on the counter in front of him and pressed a button. To her surprise, once again, the counter became a conveyer belt and the straps across her chest and arms retracted back into the table.
"Eat." he commanded, turning back to his computer. Ichigo stared at the food for a long time.
`Guys?' she asked internally, `What do you think?'
`I would not trust the man, but...'
It smells funny!'Shiro interrupted. Ichigo took cues from both of her spirits and turned away from the plate.
"No," she said firmly.
Szayel looked at her and raised a single pink eyebrow as far as it would go. After a long moment, he sighed.
"I was hoping that we could do this... the easy way..." he murmured, reaching again for something out of Ichigo's sight, "After all... Aizen-sama does not like it when I hurt his..." He looked Ichigo up and down, searching for the right word, "...pet." He smiled as she growled at him once more. Ichigo tensed, but to her surprise, instead of the searing pain returning once more, a door slid open.
"Aizen-sama has decided to grace us with his presence to... convince you."
And then footsteps sounded in the room and in walked Aizen, once more dressed in white with long brown hair, pre butterfly-esque form once more. She couldn't help the response. Her pupils dilated in fear. This man… He was able to survive that power and still walk alone. Although it wasn't as it had been before, she could still feel his monstrous reatisu sweeping over her, decimating her in its path as though she were merely an afterthought.
"It is good to see you awake…" he murmured, smiling down at her with the expression that had been donned for most of his stint as a captain. She growled in answer, doing her best to not let her fear control her. "Does your… failure bother you this much?" Ichigo stiffened in response to his question and turned her head to the side, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of seeing the impact his words had on her.
'Beat him in, Kouhi!' her hollow hollered out, doing her best to distract the undisputed ruler of their soul, 'You can still headbutt him a new one!' Mentally, Ichigo shook her head. Unbeknownst to her, static thunder and lightning set her inner world rumbling, yet no rain fell.
"What do you want, Aizen?" she spat out, eyes still turned away from him.
"Does it come as a surprise that I wish to visit my champion?" he practically purred the question with how self-satisfied he seemed. She kept quiet, refusing to answer. If Tatsuki were here, Ichigo was sure that the raven haired girl would be wearing that damn half-smirk showing how proud she was of Ichigo's sass to this day. Another blow to her heart as Ichigo realized she had no idea if she would see her oldest friend, or really any of her friends, ever again.
Ichigo jumped as a cold hand caressed the side of her face. Instinctively, she reacted with as strong of a kick as she could muster, temporarily forgetting about the steel bindings that held her in place. She merely bruised her shin against the hard metals. "Let go of me!" she growled, determining that it was the pink haired freak that held her and not Aizen.
"I'm merely trying to get you the sustenance your body requires, girl." In response to Syzael's condescending answer, she spat at him. Her spit her his glasses and he jerked back as if the harmless fluid had been searing lava. "Brat!" he cried. He would've gone after her, but Aizen's presence held him back. It wouldn't do to disobey the man directly in front of him after all. Syzael would find a subtler way of getting his revenge. Aizen stepped forward, dismissing his thoughts as he came closer to the former shinigami-daiko.
"You would do well to show gratitude, Kurosaki Ichigo…" Aizen spoke, stepping closer yet. With each step closer, Ichigo could feel his reatisu growing heavier. Despite that, she remained defiant. She finally turned her gaze back onto him and glared as hard as she could.
"I owe you nothing!" she spat on him as she'd done to his underling moments ago. However, Aizen saw it coming this time and struck against her. Her head reeled and for a moment, Ichigo thanked her lucky stars that it was still attached to the rest of her.
"Do you know exactly how long it is that you've been here, hovering on the brink of eradication?" Aizen asked suddenly, staring straight at her, willing her to react in the way he was expecting. He wasn't disappointed. She stiffened in place and her eyes stayed far away from his.
"You most likely think you've been here for a few days, a week at most. Am I correct?" her silence was answer enough. He was dead on, like always. "You've been here for nearly a month."
The statement sent her reeling worse than the strike to her head a few moments ago. A month? She'd been here a month?! Her thoughts were sent scrambling, trying to recover any amount of information to either prove or disprove his words. Nothing she could think of was enough. She'd known for a long time now that the flow of time in her inner world was jarred to the rest of her world. She knew that it could be slowed down… But could it also be sped up? She didn't know and it was driving her crazy.
"No!" she screamed, finally expressing her dissatisfaction with the situation at hand. Her reatisu, what had been pumped into her at any rate, exploded around her. Its flimsy nature didn't dare to question her on this and she could feel the metal bindings begin to give way.
Before she could act on this information, Syzael was upon her once more with the dreaded needle. "NO!" she screamed louder and began thrashing against the bindings in hopes of finding her way out sooner. However, the needle found its purchase in her shoulder just as her legs broke free. She kicked as hard as she could and completely pulled her way off of the table.
She began attacking Syzael with all her might and it was all the espada could do to withstand her blows. Luckily for him, unluckily for her, she went down a few moments later; the sedative kicked in and she lost consciousness quickly.
"Let me know when she awakens again." Aizen turned and left the lab, leaving him to clean the room and re-restrain the girl before her conditions changed.
AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS
Hey guys... So... I'm not dead? That's a good thing. And Bleach finally ended... I'm a little dead inside. (In my defense, I was behind on the manga and was working full time over the summer while attending school. Obviously, I'm caught up now.)
So I'm working on the next chapter already and I want to try and have it out in the next two weeks. Please let me know what you think, I really love writing this story, but I'd like to hear some feedback! Thanks for reading!
