The Artificial Sun Also Sets
Chapter 10: "Bright Tear Waterfall"
"Are you finished trying on the first dress, Orihime-sama?" asked a careful Ulquiorra, as he inched his way out of the bathroom of her quarters. He was trying not to intrude upon her in case she was still indecent. No word nor sound came from the girl, but he still entered the main area of the room, seeing, across the way and from the reflection of her full-length mirror, that she had indeed been completely fitted into the dress by the two tailors attending to her on either side.
As she heard the shuffle of his footsteps moving towards her from behind, she only half turned her head back in his direction. The distressed look on her face and the bright waterfall of tears flowing down her only visible cheek were signs enough to Ulquiorra that her emotional state was in turmoil. He made no obvious reaction upon seeing her sad face, but when she started to turn all the way around to face him completely, wearing the elegant pearl-white, long flowing wedding gown that made her look like an angel, even he couldn't help but gasp at the sight of her.
His gawking expression quickly turned into something more akin to concern when he realized something he felt was awry.
"You are indeed a vision of beauty, Orihime-sama, but do not allow Aizen-sama to see your face like that," he chided, as one of the tailors draped a long, sheer veil over her face. "You must learn to tuck away your emotions. Remember, feeling no emotions at all is better than being laden with negative ones."
She could only drop her gaze to the floor and gasp lightly to herself in defeat. The lecture simply didn't have the effect of allaying her fears and the turbulent thoughts rolling around in her mind and heart.
"There are quite a few more dresses where that came from, so if this particular dress is not to your liking, then Aizen-sama has provided you with many more to choose from. Perhaps an even prettier dress will cheer you up?"
"Ulquiorra," asked Orihime, softly, still standing at her dress-fitting station, "why are you treating me so much nicer now than you were before?"
"Because you are to be my queen," he stated after a short pause, closing his eyes and slightly bowing his head, "and, I must treat you with the respect due someone who is ascending to that position."
"Oh," she conceded, as her melancholy voice seemed to pull her chin towards the ground, again.
"You seem far too unhappy for someone as fortunate as you are," he observed, his hands placed calmly in his pockets.
"What do you mean?" asked Orihime, the confusion forcing her eyes to bulge open.
"You should feel honored that Aizen-sama has chosen you for such a calling," he explained. "He would never so casually take just any woman to wife. He will be giving you everything you've ever wanted in exchange for your loyalty. I would think that a young girl like yourself would feel she were living a dream to be so highly favored by a great man like Aizen-sama."
Again, she couldn't bring herself to respond to this lecture, but could only grimace at the idea that she should feel fortunate and honored to be chosen by Aizen. This point of view certainly never entered her thoughts at anytime since Ulquiorra first apprehended her in the Senkaimon of Soul Society. Rather, she felt cursed, seeing as how so many of her nakama had come to rescue her before the captains of the Gotei Thirteen caught up, and suffered extensive injuries all on account of her being so highly championed by Aizen. Not to mention having to give up on all of her youthful dreams to finish school, teach, pig-out on exotic foods, and with any real fortune, marry Ichigo one day. She felt very cursed, indeed.
"What about the hougyoku?" she suddenly asked, as she recalled its earlier supposed significance to her being there. "I thought it was really important to Aizen-san that I use my powers to force it to awaken. Why don't I ever hear anyone mention it anymore?"
"Aizen-sama has no true need of using you to awaken the hougyoku," he admitted, as she felt a surge of disappointment. "It will naturally awaken on its own in around a month's time. He wants your power to fit his glorious future, not simply to return a mere object to its awakened state."
The defeat spread across her face as she had to, once again, drop yet another dream along the roadside of this life-sucking path to "Aizen's glory."
"Besides," began Ulquiorra again, "he has no intention of allowing you to come into contact with it. He knows you will reject its existence if you have the chance."
She gasped loudly at this statement, which made his brow furrow a bit.
"I see...," observed Ulquiorra, "Your reaction to that accusation only confirms that Aizen-sama was correct in assuming your own objective with the orb."
"But, how could he have known that I was planning on rejecting it?" she asked sternly, tearing the wedding veil from off her head.
"Aizen-sama knows everything," he cooly stated, as if schooling her again.
It seemed no matter what avenues she chose to travel, she couldn't find a way out of her mental imprisonment. The only possibly good thing that could come from all of this, she thought, so long as Aizen actually succeeded in his atrocious and abominable plan, would be his promise to reunite her with her older brother, Sora. But, even so, she could see more clearly now, after some time and thought, that perhaps this gift would come with too many great sacrifices from so many people.
"Ulquiorra," she began again, "how is it that Aizen-san wants to marry me when we don't even know each other?"
They both stared silently at each other from across the room for a long moment.
"I don't love Aizen-san," she confessed, gently closing her eyes and bowing her head to the ground.
"Aizen-sama is certain you will grow to love him, in time, Orihime-sama." Shaking her head, she nearly chuckled at how easily she had been boxed in at every mental corner she attempted to turn by this all Aizen-informed man.
"You will be marrying Aizen-sama by the end of the week, so please finish up with choosing your dress," he ordered, turning towards the bathroom. "He's expecting you very soon in the library for your calligraphy lesson, so don't waste time."
As the morning turned into afternoon, as evidenced through her bedroom window, she glared up at the phony blue sky that resembled the real one she was familiar with viewing from her bedroom window back home. For the first time since entering Hueco Mundo, she felt that hole in the pit of her stomach widen with the desire to be able to reject all the events that ever led her to this awful situation. For once, she was truly worried for herself, despite still having her worries about everyone else who was running around, for her sake, all over Las Noches, and the dangers they could be facing...
(...to be continued...)