Sorry, sorry, SORRYYYYY!!!! This one took soo long to get out, it's been like over 5 weeks or somin ridonculous. There are reasons.
First I've been really ill recently so haven't been doing much except sleeping.
Second because of my illness I've missed tonnes of school which means I'm now swamped with catching up work, I've got coursework for several subjects, and practise essays and papers for all the others. Since this is my GCSE year it's kinda important that I know what I'm learning, so I've been busy with that. Art has really been a bitch trying to catch up.
Third I haven't really been in much of a writing mood lately. I dunno what it is, this story's just getting to me a bit.
Also, the last chapter was shit, I apologize. I may rewrite it at some point. Hopefully, this one is a bit better.
Chapter 9: Matters of parenthood
---
"As I told Silbido when I explained what she was to do, she is free to venture wherever she pleases for the duration of this task"
Aizen gazed out upon the white sands of Hueco Mundo intently. He wasn't watching for anything; he knew nothing would happen on the barren plain; and yet his eyes scanned the scene, as if searching for something important.
"And I do not recall placing any boundaries on your movements either..."
His stare remained on the vast white before him as the corner of his lips tugged upwards.
"...As of yet"
The clattering of footsteps against the cold flooring behind him sounded as his guest stepped forward from the shadows.
"Ya just like soundin' mysterious, don't'cha?"
"I believe it adds a certain atmosphere to events," Aizen replied casually. "Don't you agree, Gin?"
"I guess it's fun ta watch the arrancar squirm when wonderin' what yar thinkin'"
"Quite"
After a minute of silence Gin thought he might speak up again and remind Aizen of why he was here in the first place.
"Sooo," he said happily while rubbing the back of his head, "bout my question..."
Aizen's smirk grew wider.
"Of course," he spoke as his eyes landed on one particular sand dune that had caught his attention briefly. "Do you truly believe that following Silbido on her quest will aid our purpose?"
He turned his head slowly so that his gaze was shifted from the sand onto his subordinate.
"Or is it because it will assist you in reaching your other goal?"
"An' what goal would tha' be? Yar makin' it sound so shifty." Gin asked while shrugging his shoulders. He and Aizen both knew what goal they were talking about, but that didn't mean Gin couldn't toy around with the pretence that he didn't.
Aizen turned his back on Gin once more.
"Then I must be a fool, for I know doing that would only encourage you further"
"Yar too kind," the silver haired Shinigami said only sounding more encouraged on the matter. Then he paused. "Whatsamatta?"
Gin had noticed the sudden change in the stance of his leader and it vaguely concerned him. Aizen leaned further over the edge of the balcony and peered closer at what was in the middle of the desert. It was some distance away, and yet he recognised it immediately. For the first time in many years, he felt a slight unease.
He pointed out at the sands in answer to Gin's question. The man stepped forwards and searched for what was there.
He let out a small chuckle when he realised what it was.
"Why is he gliding a foot above the ground instead of walking?" Aizen asked genuinely confused on the matter. Gin only chuckled again.
"He aint got no legs ta walk with, remember?"
Aizen leaned backwards and the anxiousness left him.
"Ah yes," he said more to himself than Gin, "I had forgotten that Kaname was only a floating head with arms attached."
"How could ya? 'Twas one of the things tha' terrified the arrancar inta followin' ya in the first place."
Aizen didn't reply to that.
Admitting he had forgotten that Tousen had no body was one thing, but he certainly would not admit that he had also forgotten fourteen other things this week already. None had been significant, just little scraps of information. Well, except where he left the Hougyoku. He admitted that may have been somewhat of an error. But it had turned up in his sock drawer eventually anyway. So it was inconsequential.
He had not made a mistake.
At all.
Nope.
It was simply impossible.
Aizen didn't do mistakes.
"Gin," he suddenly spoke into the darkness as he turned and started towards his throne.
"Yep?"
"Do not let her know that you are following her." Gin's grin broadened threefold at the instruction. It was a permission to go. "At least,"
Aizen sat on the chair and rested his chin in his hand. His trusty smirk was back in full use.
"Not at first"
---
The neat, black writing lay stark against the white background as the scribbling of pens against paper resounded throughout the small, dark room.
Amaya added the last stroke to the title at the right of the sheet and set the biro back onto the desk in front of her. Several of the old wooden things were arranged in this room in strict lines, all facing the same direction, all of them occupied.
Amaya lifted her head and glanced once again at the white board at the front of the class. She read the elegant words once more purely out of boredom.
A Rough Guide to the Human World
as taught by Ulquiorra
At first Aizen had been reluctant to grant Amaya's request to venture into the unknown and possibly dangerous territory of the humans in order to complete the task she had been set, but quite suddenly he had changed his mind. The reasons for this shift was mysterious to Amaya, but she guessed it had something to do with this idea he had sprung up with. It was, after all, the perfect opportunity to educate the arrancar in the key features of the other world that they would sometime be ordered to invade.
Yammy had suggested Ulquiorra to teach the class, knowing just how good a teacher he could be, and Aizen had agreed immediately. So now she was sat at the front of a short row, Yammy to her right and Nnoitra to her left. She was just glad Grimmjow was on the other side of the room. She was in enough danger as it was already.
It amazed her that she had actually agreed to sit this class, but the more she thought about it, the more obvious it was that it was necessary. She couldn't just wander aimlessly through a land which she knew virtually nothing about, could she?
"Have you finished writing down the title, class?"
Ulquiorra's only reply was a gentle snoring coming from the back of the room. Amaya glanced around and saw Stark with his head on his desk, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.
"Ulquiorra!" Yammy announced loudly as he raised his hand into the air and started waving.
"What?" the fourth Espada sounded bored already. Yammy lowered his arm and asked the question that had been burning oh so brightly in his mind.
"Can I write in green?"
Ulquiorra sighed.
"Yes Yammy, you may write in green." Ulquiorra answered before turning to another one of his 'students'. He could already tell this was going to be a problem class. "Grimmjow, get your feet off the desk"
"Don't wanna." Grimmjow muttered disheartened as his feet remained firmly on the desk in front of him.
"Your insolence is only second in precedence to your stupidity."
"Shut it, Szayel!" Grimmjow shouted at the scientist beside him. Szayel readjusted the beanie hat on his head so that it hid the blonde from prying eyes and shook his head slowly as if ashamed of Grimmjow's words.
"Grimmjow, just get your feet off the desk." Ulquiorra intervened before a major fight broke out amongst his students.
Grimmjow huffed and did as told. The sooner Ulquiorra started this damn lesson, the sooner it would be over with.
Amaya slumped in her chair as despair washed over her. She just wanted to learn important details about the human world so she could get this task over and done with. Unfortunately, that prospect now appeared unlikely to happen any time soon. If only Aizen had given her a book or something simple like that; it would have been so much easier than trapping the Espada in this cage of a classroom, each ready to disembowel the others at the slightest opportunity.
"Good." Ulquiorra continued, "Now we can continue with learning what we are supposed to. I believe the first thing on the list is politics-"
"I like the dark"
"We know, Aaroniero, we all know." Halibel pointed out as she sat with her arms crossed across her chest - not that that helped much with concealing what her jacket failed to do so.
"Now many countries in the human world are what they call a democracy," Ulquiorra continued ignoring the mindless interruptions, "which means the leader is chosen by an election or vote-"
"Not by a fight?" Nnoitra shouted unable to hide his shock.
"No"
Nnoitra gasped.
"Madness, I tell you! Humans're all mad!" he continued yelling into the air about the monstrous idea that a leader was not chosen on physical strength. "If it's done like that, what's ta stop a woman reaching power?"
Nnoitra winced when the large book halted its journey through the air and landed forcefully on top of his head. Halibel sat with a smug glimmer in her eyes.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you to respect ladies?" she asked venomously. Nnoitra glared at her.
"No!" he cried defiantly.
Yammy's hand shot back up into the air.
"Ulquiorra! Are you my mommy?"
Speaking up slightly as to be heard over the din that was now coming from an outraged Nnoitra, Ulquiorra stood in front of Yammy's desk and peered down at the tenth Espada soberly.
"No"
"Then who is? Is Grimmjow my mommy?" Yammy started shouting, confused about the matter of where he got half his chromosomes from.
Scraping could be heard as Grimmjow immediately pushed the chair back and jumped to his feet.
"Fuck no!"
"Yammy," Ulquiorra said, still ignoring Nnoitra's complaints about the injustice of having a woman of higher rank than he. Yammy was about to do some serious learning. "To be a mommy one has to be female, seeing as neither Grimmjow nor I fit that description-"
"That's right, emo boy there doesn't have a gender; he's neuter." Stark interjected, apparently having been woken by all the commotion.
Ulquiorra continued despite the insult.
"-neither of us can possibly be your mother."
"Then do I not have a mommy?" Yammy screamed as tears started welling up in his eyes. "That's not fair! Tousen is Wonderwice's mommy! Why can't I have one? Ulquiorra! I want a mommy! How can-"
Ulquiorra had just about had enough. He reached up and rubbed the temple that wasn't blocked by his mask with his thumb, trying to block out the traces of a migraine setting up shop in his brain.
"Fine, Yammy, I am your mommy. I was just trying to hide it from you before so that it would be a surprise when I told you."
"Really, Ulquiorra?" Yammy shouted as a new found hope dawned upon him.
Szayel went to flick his hair back when he realised that it was still firmly kept under the hat.
"Well, there's an insult to scientific research everywhere if I've ever seen one."
"Can Grimmjow be my daddy?"
"No! No! No!"
"Sure, Yammy, Grimmjow is your daddy."
"What the hell? No! I refuse!"
"You do realise that makes Yammy you and Grimmjow's illegitimate lovechild, don't you?"
"Yes, Szayel, that would be correct."
"I am not that thing's daddy! And there's no way in hell I could ever have a lovechild with that freak!"
"At least there isn't a woman involved!"
"Nnoitra, why are you so obsessed with women?"
"Because they suck! Ow! Halilbel! Stop throwing things! Stark! Do something!"
"Not my problem."
"Yay! Now I have a mommy and a daddy!"
"For the last time, I am not your daddy! No! Don't hug me!"
"I think one word that would describe this situation perfectly would be 'stupid'."
"Szayel! Don't just sit there analysing! Get this thing off of me!"
"I'd rather not."
"Halibel! This is why I don't like women; ya keep throwing things at me!"
Smack
Amaya groaned as she slammed her head down onto the desk in front of her repeatedly. No one even seemed to notice the Numero that could only be aiding the onslaught of brain damage that would surely come as a result of all these head injuries.
Why did this always happen?
Every single time they were in the same room for more than two minutes...
How did Aizen manage to remain alive after all this time? Those meetings he held so dear must be more dangerous than entering a fight with a livid mother rhinoceros after her child was threatened. Amaya didn't like to imagine it.
Amaya had almost lost all hope at ever getting out of this room in a better state than the mangled remains that once could have been a humanoid form when a voice rang through and shattered the air around them.
All fighting immediately stopped.
Even Stark seemed to wake up a bit.
Amaya gazed gratefully at the intruder.
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything."
---
Okies, there we are. Quite short I know, and not much happened, but at least I updated.
Oh yeah, and the thing about Tousen having no body is true. Just go look at that pic of Aizen and Gin where he's in the background for no reason whatsoever, its on the wiki page for each of those characters I think, and you'll see it. Where his legs should be is just a black abyss.
Now I should really go and at least start my history coursework which I was supposed to hand in last Wednesday. Ahhhhh!! So. Much. Work.
I'm dead.
Reviewy please?