Just so that no one gets upset for the short chapter I just posted... you're getting this quicker than I intended. -Airumel
-Chapter 9-
Szayel had long lost track of time as he feverishly worked on his experiment. Everything had started off so well, but now, the girl wasn't responding to even the highest concentrations of serum he could make. Though her form was stable, the machines that monitored her power levels and vitals all suggested otherwise. For the last three or so hours, everything had been in a steady state of decline. The Eighth Espada feared he was failing.
Airi was still on the stony island in the sea of stars. The water around churned violently and the wind threatened to push her into the angry sea.
"Eeek!" A sudden gale succeeded in pushing the black-haired girl off balance.
The blonde dashed over and grabbed the arm of the other girl trying to stop her from falling into a wave that had suddenly swelled up behind her. Airi was thrown off balance as another wave buffed her from the side. Both girls were tossed in the sea.
Help! Thought Airi frantically. Someone! Anyone!
Someone entered the room causing the machines to swell in their various noises. The girl's vital signs suddenly returned to stable and her power stopped falling.
"Can I help you?" Szayel asked the newcomer, not looking up from a monitor as he scrambled to collect data.
"Stand back," the command was issued with force.
Szayel stepped back, "Hey! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"
A green blast shot from the Fourth Espada's outstretched hand and streamed towards the mask on the girl's face.
It wasn't a direct hit, but the mask cracked and shattered into a fine powder before vanishing. All that remained were a few feather-like fragments on the right side of her head and a blue-green wing-shaped mark along the left side of her face where the mask had been.
Szayel stood stunned. He hadn't factored in the application of power as a possible hypothesis. Yet here was the evidence. A complete transformation of hollow to arrancar en vitro. "I uh, well..." he sputtered.
Ulquiorra ignored the Eighth Espada and walked over to the girl. She was now sleeping peacefully. Wordlessly, he lifted her from the table and swept out of the room.
The pink-haired Espada scratched his head, scribbled some notes in his journal and headed for Aizen's domain to report.
Ulquiorra arrived with the sleeping Airi to find Zezuri also asleep in her bed and Grimmjow snoozing in the doorway. The 6th Espada quickly awoke to his comrades presence. As he stood to let Ulquiorra through, he noticed and was very shocked to see, the change Aizen had mentioned earlier.
"How is that even possible...?" Grimmjow said, slightly disturbed.
"When they awaken, they will start off with training first thing," the other Espada said avoiding the question and leaving, silent as the night.
A few hours later Zezuri stirred awake and noticed Airi safe in the bed next to her. She leapt up with excitement and rushed over to her friend's bedside. But as she went to shake her friend awake, she became horrified by what she saw.
"W-what?" she exclaimed upon looking closer. It was not the blonde's tattered appearance that shocked her.
Grimmjow remained quiet in the doorway, but watched with interest.
Airi had woken from Zezuri's shout and smiled but was confused as to why the brunette wore a disturbed expression.
"What's the matter?" she asked, but Zezuri just pointed at the feather shaped mask fragments that were stuck in Airi's hair.
Airi began to comb her hand through her long blonde hair, first on the left and then on the right side of her head. A panic-stricken look crossed her face as her hand made contact with something hard. "N-no way..." she said, her voice shaking. She attempted to pull the fragments, but realized they were stuck fast, "Don't tell me I also have..."
"R-right in the middle of your chest..." Zezuri finished for her.
Airi moved her shaking hand to her chest. When it met nothing, she looked down and gasped in horror. She too had hole, just like the Espadas and Arrancars. How had this happened? She began to tremble, the last thing she remembered was being in so much pain as white material gushed from her face. Was that how hollows were made? Looking back at Zezuri she was at a loss of what to say, "Well... I guess... I can't go home anymore..." the realization dawned on her.
Zezuri sat down on the bed next to Airi, "I can't either," she looked down at her hands folded in her lap.
"What?"
"While I was gone, I met a Shinigami," she choked back the tears that threatened to burst forth, "He called me a spirit... as in... dead..."
Airi's green eyes widened; she'd been dead the whole time? She felt nothing as all hope drained away in a single moment.
Neither girl spoke, but the silence was ended by the arrival of the green-eyed Espada, "Aizen-sama wishes to see you three."
"Do not think your rebellion will be overlooked, Grimmjow," spoke Aizen.
Airi, Zezuri, Grimmjow, and Ulquiorra all stood before the commander's throne. The brown haired man had gotten straight to the point and not even mentioned Airi's condition.
"However, if you wish to prove your loyalty, I have a request for you to undertake," Aizen continued.
Grimmjow winced, hopefully this wasn't going to be as dull as his last assignment.
"I need you to retrieve some items of high spiritual power from the living dimension. They will be small, and I am certain that the Sereitei is also aware of these and most-likely monitoring the area. You are to take your fraccion team and retrieve it. Understood?"
"Yes, Aizen-sama," Grimmjow looked the leader in the eyes as a grin broke out on his face, this quest was much more suited to his abilities.
"Zezuri, you will stay here and train with Gin. I understand your kido abilities have rapidly developed."
She nodded, fearful that she would end up like Airi.
"You are all dismissed."
The four bowed and exited the room.
"Airi," spoke Ulquiorra, "Go with Grimmjow's group, you will learn more from real experiences than around here."
Wordlessly, she nodded and made to follow the blue-haired Espada on his way to grab his fraccion.
Gin began to lead Zezuri down the halls to the training room Airi had been in before. Zezuri could only think of her friend's safety at the moment. She would have to tell her all about it when she returned, after all it seemed as if an eternity since she had seen their world.
The training room was covered in marks from weapons and hollows that had battled and died here previously.
"Now..." Gin began "Here are some simple targets for you to play with. Just demonstrate the extent of your abilities for now." he finished as several stone slabs in shapes as human figures, rose from the ground.
Zezuri shifted into position as Ashido had taught her. "Ashido...," she said quietly, her thoughts turning to him. "Please give me strength..."
With a deep sigh she continued to manifest her energy into a single shot that cleared a row of targets in seconds. Gin watched with amusement as she proceed to take out her respective marks.
A tear in the air opened into a black portal as Grimmjow stepped back to allow his fraccion through.
Airi stared in wonder; wasn't this the same way she'd been transported here? He could have summoned one the whole time? Hold up, Airi thought, it's not like he would have opened one for you and Zezuri even if you'd asked nicely. Then a grim thought crossed her mind as she realized at some point they'd died.
"C'mon!" Grimmjow growled impatiently waiting on Airi, "I'll leave you behind if you slow us down!" he strode off into the blackness of the portal, the girl following close behind.
When the darkness receded, Airi gasped in wonder. A cityscape twinkled below her. Then she realized what that meant, "I'm standing? In thin air? How is that possible?"
Grimmjow grunted in frustration. Perhaps this was why Ulquiorra had suggested she go with him; the Fourth Espada wouldn't have the patience for this. Then again, he wasn't sure who would.
"Does this mean gravity doesn't affect us?" she asked one of the fraccion.
Grimmjow sighed, this was going to be a long night... At least she wasn't leaking spiritual pressure. "Okay, listen up!" he jumped into his commanding role, "We're all going to split up and look for a small object that emits really strong spiritual energy. It should be hidden, but not guarded."
His fraccion team nodded.
"Keep your presence hidden and move fast, unless you encounter a Shinigami, and in which case, go ahead and kill them!"
The group flashed off in different directions leaving Airi, wondering how she could move that fast, behind. She was beginning to get frustrated with the lack of information when she felt something tug at the corner of her mind. Curious, she sped off without much thought in the direction of that which beckoned her.
Urahara sat on the roof of his shop, seemingly enjoying the night breeze. He'd seen Grimmjow and his gang arrive and split up to find what he had hidden. Something bothered him about the one arrancar that had been a little slow. He was too far away to be sure, but he felt like she was familiar. "Oh well," he sighed to himself, the arrival of the arrancar informed him that his plan was indeed working.
Airi landed in a dark alleyway. An old street lamp hummed with electricity, but the lightbulb inside was broken. It would have been completely unremarkable, save for the odd sensation she was getting from it. It felt... familiar somehow. Carefully, she lifted the lid off of the light and reached inside careful to avoid touching anything. She wasn't about to find out if being electrocuted still hurt. Her hand suddenly brushed something smooth that sent vibrations up her arm. That had to be it! Airi grabbed the shard and pulled it out.
The shard glistened in the faint light of the nearest street lamp.
Suddenly, she felt someone watching her. Whirling around, she saw no one, "Uh... Grimmjow?"
"What?" the voice came suddenly from above, not where she thought someone had been watching from.
Airi held up the shard, pushing the thoughts of someone watching out of her mind, "I found it."
Grimmjow nodded, taking the shard from the blonde girl. Suddenly, the rest of the group appeared. Wordlessly, the Sixth Espada opened the portal back to Las Noches.
"That is bizzare," remarked a strange looking man watching a monitor over the shoulders of a few men dressed in black. "Arrancar, in Karakura? And not attacking humans or even Kurosaki?" He straightened up and adjusted his long white overcoat before turning to the young woman standing beside him, "Nemu!" he shouted at her.
"Yes, Mayuri-sama?"
"Stay here and make sure no one slacks off! I must go report this to the First Division! I expect a full report upon my return!"
Zezuri stood, exhausted, finished with destroying targets, which really only took a couple minutes, but new ones had kept appearing after she had wiped all of them out.
"That's enough for now," said Gin, "You may return to your room."
She had been around long enough, that she knew her way back, but the white halls were very creepy at this time of day. She nodded and left the training room and Gin behind.
Walking past the meeting hall, she noticed Grimmjow and Airi had returned. She smiled with relief that they were okay, and rushed up to them. Airi chuckled as she watched her friend almost trip as she came toward them.
"I'm glad you're alright..." Zezuri said. "What did you find?" she asked.
"This..." Grimmjow showed her. It was a bright piece of what looked like crystal.
Zezuri felt some sort of resonation with the crystal, but thought nothing of it as Grimmjow put it back into his pocket. "I gotta report back," he said, and left the two girls behind.
"So, uh... what are they teaching you?" asked Airi, slightly worried that Zezuri would meet her same fate. Even though neither had any hope of going home, the blonde wished she could at least have remained human.
"Just kido, magic," she clarified at Airi's confused look, "How is being... well, you know?"
Airi flinched, but quickly covered up her discomfort of the topic with a smile, "I'm fine. It's... different. I feel empowered, yet at the same time, even more trapped and helpless," subconsciously she covered the gaping hole in her chest with her hand, "Magic, huh? Like what can you do?" she suddenly changed the topic.
Zezuri caught the hint that Airi didn't really want to talk about her condition, "Here! Let me show you!" despite being dead-tired from practicing for hours, the brunette produced a small fireball but held onto it and diminished it slowly.
"Wow! That's so cool!" exclaimed her friend, "How did you figure out you could do that?"
The other girl shrugged, "I just did... when I was thrown out. It sort of just came to me."
"An arrancar in awe of mere shinigami parlor tricks? Pathetic," a voice dripping with irritation came from down the hall. Ulquiorra emerged from the shadows, "tomorrow, meet me in my domain, I'll teach you how a real arrancar fights," His green eyes met with Airi's who glared back, she still hadn't forgiven him for knocking her out.
Watching the back of the Fourth Espada as he swept down the hallway, Zezuri remarked, "He's certainly taken an interest in you lately."
Airi grimaced, "Do you think it's because of this?" she touched the mask fragments in her hair.
Zezuri thought about it, "I don't know."
The next morning, Airi awoke before Zezuri and crept silently for the doorway, trying not to wake up Zezuri who was resting peacefully.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Luppi, sneering.
"Ulquiorra told me I was to train with him today," Airi replied staring intently out the door.
The guard gave her a quizzical look, but then relaxed as a look of amusement crossed his face, "Okay, you can go."
The blonde proceeded out the door and moved with an unknown urgency. She wasn't sure why she was so eager to see the man she despised so much.
Zezuri continued to sit in silence after Airi had left the room, and wondered how long she would remain alone for. She was also uncomfortable with Luppi as the guard, no matter how much he ignored her.
"U-uhm I just remembered, Gin asked me to train again today..." she tried to persuade the peeved arrancar, "I-I should be on my way."
"Huh? You guys can go where you please by yourself now? Why am I even here!" he threw his hands up in frustration, "Do whatever you want," he said leaving his post.
Zezuri wasn't attempting to escape, she just wanted time to herself, but not sitting in the room all over again.
"I wonder what life will be like for Airi and I now that we are dead... Does this mean we stay immortal like this forever?" a dreamy expression came across her face as she hoped she would never have to age, "Although... I wish I looked a little more womanly before I died..." she said, this idea becoming her downside."I wish Airi wasn't so upset... It feels like there is nothing I can do to cheer her up... I could never do anything to save her in the first place..."
Her thoughts were interrupted by two passing arrancar who looked at her with confusion.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" the one on the left asked.
"Aizen's little pet I believe," the other cackled.
Zezuri could sense the unfriendliness in their voices and backed away.
"Where do you think you are going? We just wanna have some fun," the one on the right, with pointy fragments on the right side of his head, grabbed Zezuri's arm.
"P-please... let me go. I don't want any trouble," she pleaded, pulling away.
"You think you can tell us what to do?" the one on the left, with half a mask, covering his left eye became angry.
"N-no..." she continued to struggle as the two male arrancar closed in on her.
"We will make sure we don't leave anything for you to go telling on us about," the one with mask over his eye gave Zezuri a sudden blow to the gut.
Zezuri fell to her knees in pain, but before she could do anything else, they lifted her up by her hair.
"You think you're somthin' special just because you have Shinigami powers? Well I'd love nothing more than to teach you a lesson on how we deal with Shinigami," the one with the mask put both of his hands around her neck and began to squeeze.
"H-hey we aren't supposed to kill her, lighten up!" the one with pointy shards noticed his buddy was losing control.
The girl struggled to breath as his grip tightened, but suddenly the arrancar grabbing her neck was blown away by a red cero blast. Zezuri fell to the ground again and almost lost consciousness.
"I don't know what the hell you think yer doin', but it ain't gonna happen on my watch!" a familiar gruff voice said.
The arrancar with pointed fragments back away in fear before running off, his comrade on the other hand disintegrated from the blast.
The owner of the voice, Grimmjow, lifted Zezuri to her feet.
She felt better now that she had air in her lungs again, "T-thanks, I thought they were going to kill me..." she said with relief.
"It would be best if you stayed out of my way from now on as well. I also don't like the presence of more Shinigami in my domain," he said coldly, turning his back to her.
Zezuri was taken aback by his words. It wasn't like she'd thought of him as a friend, but the remark felt like true betrayal. Yet, he was right; as arrancar, they should hate her with her shinigami-like powers. Would Airi ever see her that way?
Airi had arrived in Ulquiorra's domain on time without getting lost despite not even having directions on how to get there. She wondered about it briefly, but figured she'd been around Las Noches long enough to guess at where everything was. Maybe her navigational skills had improved enough, back home she'd gotten lost within a mile of her house before. Her thoughts turned towards her family she'd never see again and suddenly sadness overtook her. Sinking to her knees, she sat, trying to think about anything else. At least dying obviously hadn't been as bad as she'd feared, but everything she'd left behind, all the things she hadn't accomplished... Tears welled up in her eyes, no, she wouldn't let her sadness consume her. Even if she wasn't able to go back, she still had to find a way out of here! Yet at the same time, she felt bound to Las Noches by an invisible force. Well, she decided, I'll at least get Zezuri out before they turn her into a hollow too.
At last, her thoughts calmed and the blonde picked herself up and entered further into the Fourth Espada's domain, following a strange sense that she knew his exact location.
Ulquiorra was awaiting the new arrancar in the middle of a large round room. Devoid of furniture, every step she took seemed to reverberate around the room.
The Espada nodded as their eyes met for a brief moment. He looked unsurprised to see her. Just mildly satisfied, "Now I will teach you why arrancars need not be in awe of mere shinigami," a green light formed in his hand and a beam shot out near Airi's head. She winced as the beam passed her harmlessly.
"That was a cero," he began, "the most basic of our attacks."
Grimmjow lead Zezuri back to her room, as she followed silently behind. He knew that he had hurt her feelings, he also knew that the bonds of trust that were forming between them would ruin them both. She was on her way to being a Shinigami, and it would go against all of his instincts to trust a girl like her. If Aizen saw this he would use it against them, but he couldn't help but feel a sort of pain as he tried to push the girl away from his mind. He thought to himself, perhaps it was already too late?
The two were stopped suddenly in their tracks as Aizen appeared from the shadows. "Goodness, you two are very quiet this evening," he said playfully.
"I was taking her back to her room," Grimmjow said in a humdrum tone.
"Well since I have you here, there is another job for you to do Grimmjow, the same as the first. Airi is busy at the moment, so it will be you and your fraccion," Aizen turned to leave again "But do a better job of keeping yourselves hidden. The Shinigami have already noticed our presence in Karakura town."
"You can make it to your room from here," the Espada would not look at the girl directly and followed Aizen into the shadows.
Zezuri felt like an odd duck more than anything, she was the one disliked now for what she was, but these were the only people she knew. She returned to her room and flopped down on the bed, gazing at the ceiling in a gloomy mood.
A few hours crept by sluggishly before Airi returned. She gave Zezuri a faint smile which faded as she threw herself comically onto her bed. Her thoughts flashed through her lesson with Ulquiorra; he'd been quite pleased with her abilities; apparently, she was faster than the average arrancar, but lacked strength. Of course, she still couldn't hold a candle to the Fourth's power. That much had been very clear. Oddly though, Airi felt a sense of pride that the pale Espada had decided to teach her. But, why was that? the blonde wondered, shouldn't she still be mad at him for knocking her out?
"Airi...?" Zezuri asked after a few moments.
The blonde looked up at her friend, "What's up?" she attempted to sound cheerful.
"Do you hate me?"
"Whaaa? Of course I don't!" Airi was shocked by her friend's question, "Where'd that come from?"
Zezuri felt relieved, but still hurt about Grimmjow's remark, "Grimmjow told me earlier that he doesn't like Shinigami, and well... you're an arrancar... and Shinigami oppose them..."
Airi sighed, "Zezuri, just because I wound up this way doesn't make me see you any different. You're my best friend. So stop worrying, silly."
He knows! Luppi knows all! Mwahahahaaaaaaaa... Excuse me while I gloat with all the plot setups I added to this chapter... In the meantime, why don't you let us know what you think thus far? Many thanks for reading! See you next time! :D -Airumel
