Solitude.
Finally he was able to get some peace and quiet. After dealing with the idiotic Szayel and the ever-jovial Orihime, isolation was just what Ulquiorra Schiffer needed. He needed to seclude himself in a soundless room to gather his thoughts and read.
His green eyes darted across his simplistic room as leaned his back against the concrete wall. His room mirrored his personality—dull and unexciting. It had a desk in one corner and a king size bed in the other. The walls were solid white, matching his skin tone to perfection. The cement floor was cold and hard as his soul while dark green curtains blew faintly from the draft that was being let in.
Once he thought about it, the color scheme of the room matched him in the most peculiar of ways as well. As for Orihime Inoue, hers was just the opposite of her. The uncharismatic atmosphere of the room contradicted the girl's bubbly and optimistic persona. Her fiery red hair clashed with the pastel shades of her prison cell.
Orihime was the one colorful flower blossoming in a field of stones.
With a heavy sigh, the Espada trudged over to his bed, flopping down on it rather ungracefully. He stared blankly at the ceiling above him as he pondered on the girl's predicament.
The woman didn't' belong in Las Noches. For once in his life, he actually could feel a twang of regret. It was his fault that the princess was taken captive to this monochrome world in the first place. Nevertheless, her presence in Las Noches was beneficial to Aizen-sama and to all the inhabitants of Hueco Mundo. Her healing powers were superb; even transcendental. There was no way they would have found a better healer for the upcoming war…
And yet, keeping such a treasure locked up was almost daunting.
Ulquiorra groaned at himself for finding the girl to be a treasure. She was just a human, after all. Nothing more than a piece of useless trash…
On the contrary, there was no way a useless piece of trash could have made him smile like he did.
Before today, when was the last time he smiled? He couldn't remember. Did it honestly matter? His heart was shattered long before he even became an Arrancar. He bared no memories of his life prior to his Arrancar reincarnation. If it wasn't for Aizen-sama's use of the Hogyoku, Ulquiorra would have simply continued on ceasing to exist. He owed the man his life—his very soul.
"Woman," the young male grumbled to himself, "what are you doing to me? Why are you forcing me to feel again?"
With another groan, he pushed himself off the bed and headed towards his desk where the book laid waiting for him. He stared at it skeptically before picking up the heavy hardback, eyeing it carefully. He wasn't sure what answers lied within it or if it would even help him at all. It was his last hope of finding out what was wrong with his body or if what Szayel said was the truth.
Without further ado, Ulquiorra sat down at his wooden desk and flipped open the book to the first page. Just as he suspected, there was a neither title page nor a table of contents—just a few blank pages. He flipped through them hurriedly before he got to the first page.
"Sex is the ultimate act of love. When a man and a woman find their soul mate, sex is the natural process that follows love immediately," Ulquiorra read aloud to himself, staring at the meaningless words on the page.
What was Szayel trying to get at by making him read this? That he loves Orihime Inoue and that they need to engage in sexual activity?
He resisted the urge to slam the book shut and tossing it out the window, the only thing stopping him was curiosity.
"How does one know when he or she is in love? It's all in the groins. If a man's genitals throb for a woman then that means he is in love. When a woman feels a tingling sensation between her legs, that also means she is in love," the Espada continued to read.
This baffled the Espada to no extent. He had never experienced love himself but he was nearly certain that the groins were not the organs for responsible for love. Orihime had talked about it before—the heart. The heart was where love remained. If that was the case, then why did this book say otherwise?
"Many humans bare common misconceptions about love. Many humans believe that love is the rapid beating of the heart or the constant need to burst into song when around that special someone. However, those are all myths. Love is solely based on the animalistic instinct to mate and reproduce," Ulquiorra continued. His eyes hurriedly scanned over the rest of the page, eager to read more. Surely this book was fiction. If love was simply based upon sexual desires, then why did humans take it so seriously?
Orihime was probably unaware that Ulquiorra would often stand outside her room, listening to her converse with herself. The girl enjoyed talking aloud to herself as much as she enjoyed talking to Ulquiorra himself, it seemed. She did it often was no one was around…He silently wondered if the girl ever realized it?
"I love Kurosaki-kun…but I was never able to confess that to him. Oh, if only I did when I had the chance! Then maybe I would be in his arms right now instead of here in this lonely place… Oh, Kurosaki-kun…I love you so much! Please realize my feelings and rescue me as soon as you can!"
Her words played over in his mind like a sound recorder. The girl seemed so naive, so innocent. There was absolutely no chance that her words held nothing but purity in them. She wasn't in love with this Kurosaki-kun just because she wanted to mate with him. The thought was absurd.
"Women often are the ones who bare the misconceptions on love. They gain many of these ridiculous idealizations about romance from romance novels and chick-flicks," Ulquiorra read, eye brows furrowing lightly. Who in Hell wrote this book? And what was a chick-flick? The book was not printed like many regular published books. It was all handwritten in sloppy Japanese—there were more hiragana characters than kanji. It almost looked as if a five-year old wrote it…
Ulquiorra began to skip a few paragraphs, trying to see what else the book was trying to inform him of.
"…Women generally need to have men make the first move. Indecent gestures and perverse comments usually turn women away. Because of their foolish idealizations of love, women prefer to have men sweep them off their feet using compliments and little sweet nothings."
Sweet nothings? Sweet nothing whats? None of this made any sense.
"…Women want sex. There is no doubt about that. Once a love confession is made, they want to engage in sexual activity right away! The best thing to do is to pin the girl down to a bed to keep her from escaping. If she cries out "no", then it means to do it anyway. If she cries out "yes", that means to do it even harder."
Do what even harder? This book was frustrating him to no end, and yet, he couldn't seem to pull his eyes away.
"…If you want a girl to fall in love with you, you must follow these four easy steps: 1) bring her flowers 2)take her out on a date 3)compliment her 4)buy her pretty things 5)spend time with her 6)hold her hand 7)try to kiss her 8)and if she kisses back, you've successfully made the woman fall in love with you. Now why are you sitting around and still reading this, Ulquiorra? Start screwing her right away—"
That was all it took for him to slam the book. He didn't care if there was anything else. This book was a scam in order to trick him into believing lies. Was the writer of this book foolish enough to believe he would actually take its advice?
He wasn't sure who wrote it but somebody in Las Noches desperately wanted he and Orihime to fall in love, or engage in sexual activity as the book claimed.
The handwriting didn't look like it belonged to Szayel. If the eighth Espada indeed wrote a book, it probably would have been more scientific and used larger, befuddling words. It couldn't possibly be Grimmjow since the man didn't even know how to write. He wouldn't put it past Nnoitra but he figured the man would rather claim Orihime as his own then to try to convince Ulquiorra to sweep her off her feet.
It was most definitely not Aizen-sama. Who else would do such a thing?
In a second, a thought flashed through his mind as a light bulb when off in his head.
Who was the one man who enjoyed mingling in the lives of others? Aizen-sama's most trusted right-hand man…
In a flash, Ulquiorra was pacing down the hallway swiftly, his movements as graceful and elegant as ever. He waltzed past the door to Aizen's chambers, zooming towards the door directly next to it.
His fist pounded rather roughly on the door and he tapped his foot on the solid ground impatiently, a feat he rarely did.
"Yea'? Who is it?" called out a recognizable voice from the inside of the room.
"Ulquiorra. Open the door now," the raven haired Espada ordered, trying to conceal the aggravated tone in his voice.
The door opened to reveal a silver haired male with a fox-like grin plastered upon his face. He was a little taller than Ulquiorra and appeared to be a little older as well. His stance was rather tense as the man beamed at Ulquiorra with eyes sealed tightly, "Well, s'not very often Ulquiorra-san gets a temper, eh?"
"Ichimaru," Ulquiorra glowered at the man as he gritted his teeth. He shoved the book into the other male's hands as he clenched his fist tightly. "What is the meaning of this?"
Gin Ichimaru stared at the book that as thrust in his hands. His eyes remained cold tightly as he smiled innocently at the Espada before him. Ichimaru was one of the only members in Las Noches that did not wear an Arrancar uniform most of the time. The black robes of a shinigami hung loosely over his slender form as his light grey hair swayed lightly with his movements.
"I'm sorry, Schiffer-san, but I have no idea what you're talking about," replied the male as he ran his fingers over the book's cover.
"Do not take me for a fool. I know it was you," Ulquiorra nearly growled, his eyes glaring daggers at his comrade.
"Eh heh heh heh," snickered out Ichimaru, a taunting smile playing on his lips, "Well, no use beatin' around the bush then. Come inside—let's talk, shall we?" The silver haired man turned his back to Ulquiorra as he walked deeper into his room. Ichimaru's room was a lot fancier than Ulquiorra's with traditional Japanese tatami mats on the floor and a small, round table in the middle of the room. Sticks of incense decorated a small, wooden shelf in the corner as a white linen curtain draped neatly over the exposed window.
"What did you hope to accomplish by writing that, Ichimaru? Why do you want me to mate with the woman so badly? And what was that talk about love? I may be incapable feeling but I assure you that I am not so much of a fool to believe that what the book said is true," the fourth Espada inquired, shoving his hands back into his pockets.
"Well, it's not me that wants you to mate with Orihime-chan. Although, I think you two would make the cutest couple," Gin teased with a smirk.
"Who is it then? Szayel also attempted to poison my mind when I told him of the odd reactions my body produces when I am near the woman," Ulquiorra continued, ignoring the comment about how he and Orihime would make a cute couple.
"Well, I could be in biiiiiiiiiiiiiig trouble if I told you of Aizen's super secret plan," Ichimaru grinned, stressing his syllables.
"I had a feeling it was Aizen-sama," Ulquiorra sighed to himself, trying to control the urge to punch the wall.
"Buuuuuuut, I think it'd be fun to let you in on it. Besides, the first two stages of his plan failed," Ichimaru carried on as he sat down on a cushion at the table. "Please sit and I'll tell you all about his exciting plan!"
Ulquiorra did as he was told as he sat down elegantly on the opposite side of the table. He stared at Ichimaru, awaiting the man's information.
"Well, Aizen's plan is…hmm..How shall I put it?" Ichimaru began, tapping his chin lightly with his index finger. "Ah, yes! He wants you to screw Orihime-chan!"
How very bluntly put…Ulquiorra stared at Ichimaru in mystification. Was he serious? Or was he just as insane as Szayel? "Why?" the fourth Espada simply asked. There must be a good explanation for this. Aizen-sama doesn't just want his men to have sex with girls if it didn't profit him in some way.
"Well, that should be obvious," Ichimaru said with a mischievous grin as he reached for a cup of sake that was laid atop of the table.
"No, it is not obvious," Ulquiorra growled lightly, "Inform me."
"I'm surprised at you, Ulqui-san," Ichimaru pouted lightly, puckering out his lower lip before he took a small sip of the sake, "You've never shown this much emotion in your entire life! Why do you get so defensive?"
"Tell me, Ichimaru. Now." There was nothing harmless in Ulquiorra's tone. If needed, he wouldn't hesitate to draw his sword against the male, even if he knew he wasn't as strong as Ichimaru.
The silvery haired male sighed lightly as he set his cup of sake back down on the table, "Ulquiorra-san, Aizen-sama wants you to impregnate Orihime Inoue."
Ulquiorra's emerald eyes widened as far as they could, his mouth slowly dropping in astonishment.
"Orihime's powers are incredible—even if she is just a human. But that's part of the problem: she is just a human. And as we all know, humans die quickly and easily. They're not immortal like we are. If she dies, then her powers will die along with her. Aizen-sama doesn't want that happening…His plan is to get one of the Espada to sleep with her and then get her pregnant. If things work out the way we want em' to, then that means there will be an Arrancar baby with her extraordinary powers. Szayel even said he'd help out by injecting her with some kind of poison thing that will force the child to take on the traits of both parents equally," Ichimaru explained, all forms of humor in his voice disappearing with his every word.
Ulquiorra wanted to believe that Ichimaru was simply joking. This was too much, even for Sousuke Aizen. This couldn't possibly be true.
"I know what you're thinking, Ulquiorra-san. But I promise you that I'm not lying. It's not my decision—it's what Aizen-sama wants and what Aizen-sama wants is some weird, twisted hybrid kid living with us for awhile."
Ulquiorra's eyes turned away from Ichimaru as he stared at the matted floor. It all made sense now…Aizen wanted him to treat Orihime with kindness so she would fall in love with him. And then he wanted Szayel to convince him that he was sexually attracted to Orihime so he would be forced to engage in sexual activity. If that didn't work, then the book was a back-up plan to trick Ulquiorra into thinking that he could force love upon the girl.
And then she would produce a child.
The Espada rubbed his temples lightly, a small groan forming in his voice, "Why me? I'm the last person Aizen-sama should have asked...I am clueless when it comes to human females. Even the idiot Nnoitra would have been a better choice! Grimmjow would have been eager to do it, as well. Hell, even Szayel knows more about charming a lady than I do…I could care less about Orihime Inoue."
"That's why Aizen-sama picked you," the former captain of the third squad replied, "You can't fall in love with her. Any of the other Espada would have easily been swooned by the girl's adoring personality. If they were to fall in love with her, then they wouldn't have followed orders."
"Pardon my lack of knowledge on pathetic feelings such as love but what downside is there to creating a life form with some one that you love?" the clueless Espada asked as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The word 'love' left a bad taste in his mouth every time he said it.
"Hmmm…it's not that they wouldn't want to get her pregnant. It's what will happen during childbirth," Gin said as he sipped his sake slowly once more.
"What…will happen?" Ulquiorra asked, his gaze locked upon Ichimaru as he stared at him with such intensity.
"Death," Gin replied, slamming his cup down on the table to emphasize his dramatic point. And then the room fell silent…