Chapter 9
Hospitals were my least favourite place. The only reasons you go there are because you're in a great deal of pain, someone you know is in a great deal of pain, or your about to be in a great deal of pain. And they're so clean too- I wonder if that does more harm than good really... Plus the sterile smell.
My sense of smell came back to me first, although I wished it hadn't. The air was thick with some sort of antibacterial sterile smell, and the thick, rusty smell of blood. It almost clogged my nose, and I spluttered and coughed for a few moments.
My hearing was next. I couldn't make out much, slight clicking noises- the clicking slowed every now and then and turned into a whirring. I could hear footsteps, and light breathing. The rustle of clothes as someone leaned over me...
I wondered, if at first, I was still in Las Noches. I didn't remember there really being a hospital- hollows could regenerate themselves so it was really unneeded.
If I wasn't there... where was I?
There were a few options. One, Aizen had returned me to my human body and I was in a human hospital. I didn't think that was possible- there was no beeping of the heart monitor, and no other sounds of patients. No other nothing really...
Two, I was in soul society. Perhaps I had 'died' and my soul had gone there, not in a very good way and I needed healing. I didn't think that was that possible either. Shinigami couldn't heal quite like hollows, and there were a lot of shinigami too; so it would only make sense for a hospital there to be... busy.
The third option, was that I was somewhere else completely. I had died, and I was in some sort of crazy limbo while they, whoever they were, healed my 'soul' up to go to the afterlife.
That made sense, perhaps slightly more feasible than the previous options but... Still ultimately unbelievable. The only way to know for sure was to open my eyes, and I wasn't positive I wanted to do that.
I suppose I had nothing to lose. I already went through hell, whether I had made it out of the other end or not...
I gulped, and my throat burned. It was parched and quite dry, and weak from not being used. I wondered how long I had been 'asleep'. I took a few deep breaths- my throat just burned more and more each time, but my lungs sure enjoyed being used.
The room I was in was not particularly bright, nor was it very dark. It was white, and I seemed to be on a bed in the middle of an otherwise empty room. There was a machine beside me that I seemed to be hooked up on, and a single seat beside the bed.
There were windows on either side of the room, completely covering the walls. There was no need for lights or shutters. The windows on one side of the room let in the brilliant light from the glorious sunshine outside, the opposite windows let in the darkness from outside too. Really it was quite beautiful, if a little confusing too.
It felt like some sort of miracle I was alive.
I replayed the last series of events I remembered- Grimmjow, the window... then Ulquiorra. Vaguely after that I heard voices, some shouting... I couldn't really focus on any of that and I sighed softly. I hoped for some key about what happened after that but...
Was Grimmjow still alive? In one piece? I felt angry at the thought he may be walking around, quite smug and happy with himself. What I'd give to be able to wipe that smirk off his face and-
"P-please don't get riled up!"
I almost jumped at the sudden, quite timid voice. Pain shot through my body when I moved, so I decided it was best to try and be still. I wanted to raise my head up and see who had spoken to me, but... well...
Apparently sensing my need, the small hollow came closer. She was cute; short blue hair, wild pink eyes... pale, with a few freckles lining her nose. She was short like me, but she was quite curvy. She pretty much hid behind her clipboard when she noticed my appraisal, and I smiled weakly.
It was strange to me- how calm I suddenly felt. I didn't care if I offended someone, if they killed me. Yes, death surely would be kinder. The pain was almost unbearable; pain killers probably were available if I were in the human world, which I most definitely wasn't.
"I-I'm sorry," she smiled weakly, slowly removing her clipboard. I noticed quite a large bruise on her cheek. She moved to push her hair over it when she noticed my gaze. "The machine doesn't like the reishi," she whispered, motioning to the clicking, whirring thing beside me. "It was hard getting it from the human world then having to reprogram it for soul use- and then on top of all that... it can't handle reishi..." she sighed lightly.
It seemed a lot of fuss to go through, just for me.
"Aizen-sama will be down shortly," she added weakly. "I tried to numb down the pain but I'm not sure if it worked; can you talk?"
I wasn't sure, I hadn't tried but...
sighing weakly, I pushed myself up so I was sitting. The horrible, jagged pain I felt as I did it assured me that her efforts hadn't really worked- though they died down quickly once I was still again.
"This room is rather depressing."
It shocked me- how weak my voice was. It wasn't very loud anyway from how shy I was, but... Oh how Grimmjow and Nnoitra were probably enjoying this.
The hollow smiled meekly, and slowly backed away. It took a few seconds to understand why, but slowly I could hear them. His footsteps were slow and calm, but large in stride. It was hard to tell anything from them- they seemed relaxed, and yet hurried.
The immense amount of reiatsu, that even I could feel like this, coming this way informed me that Aizen had arrived. What would he say? Berate me for getting into this mess? Lecture me?
"Leave."
He sure sounded angry, and the hollow rushed out of the room as he sat at the seat beside me. I never paid much attention to him before, I always caught myself before I started staring. I had wondered if it would attract bad attention from him.
Yet again I found myself not really caring what attention I got.
There was an air of grace about him. Confidence- maybe too much, oozed from him, and his eyes and facial expressions were not the warm one's he'd greeted me with. They were rather quite cold, and I had to stop myself from shivering.
"You got yourself into quite the mess, Shiori-kun."
I smiled weakly at him; I didn't know what to say, and I couldn't tell if he was angry or amused.
"It took a great deal of work to save you, we have no need for any medicinal equipment here, and the stuff we got had to be altered for use on you, and for use here," he sighed. "Szyael was happy he had something to do but..."
It was small talk; I wondered if he was trying to make me feel at ease, but he was a hard man to predict.
"You seem quiet."
I blinked lightly, frowning to myself. "I'm not sure what to say..." I winced at my voice and sighed again.
He paused, a curious glint in his eye as he chuckled. "How do you feel, Shiori-kun, apart from the obvious pain?"
Confusion, was the first thing. His question could have meant a lot of things, and I could answer to in many different context's. But, how did I feel?
Anger seemed most prominent, and I thought back to my previous feelings. The machine beside me whirred and sprung to life with a loud squeal, before winding down as if it's batteries had died.
"I would give anything to be able to wrap my hands around his throat and..." I sighed lightly, clenching my fists.
All this came down to the fact, if I was stronger, I could have gotten away with smaller injuries; I may have even been able to fight back, or slap him once or twice.
"So it seems as if you found your will to fight," his voice echoed the smirk mirrored on his lips. He seemed gleeful, but not overly so. "If you were strong, Shiori-kun, what would you do?"
What would I do?
"I don't..." I frowned softly. "I know what I would do first... I would humiliate that stupid cat... He has more experience, even with my power he would probably still beat me," I paused. "But I could humiliate him, I would enjoy that."
His eyes showed the amusement he otherwise hid; he would enjoy that too. He leant closer to me, smirking more all the while. "You would give... anything?"
I gulped lightly, I felt a little unsure of how he was acting... how he'd phrased it. "Yes... I would."
Aizen chuckled deeply and sat back in his chair. "I can give you power," he mused. "You're neither shinigami nor hollow to begin with, so I have no idea if it would work. There's a chance you wouldn't even survive..."
It sounded ominous but...
"I don't care."
"You won't be able to return to your human body at all," he raised an eyebrow. "It would probably sever the chain tying you back to it."
So in a technicality, I would die. My human life would, I would belong to this world and...
"That's not so bad," I frowned. "Not really..." Not if it was a means to an end anyway.
Ignoring my pain- or rather, not caring about it, Aizen swooped me up into his arms and began walking. It was a brisker pace than before, his strides were still long.
We didn't walk for long- we seemed to be back in his quarters again. I wondered if that was for 'safe keeping', none of the other hollows could come here without his permission and none of them dared trying. To me, it was probably the safest person in the fortress.
He set me down in the middle of the floor- it took a lot of energy, and it sure hurt a lot too, to keep myself stood up. I had been dressed in a plain white dress, and I could feel the tight bandages underneath. Despite that, I still felt the blood running down my back... down the backs of my legs...
I shuddered at the tickling sensation. The movement had reopened some of the wounds on my back, and using so much energy probably didn't help much.
Because I hadn't been paying much attention to Aizen, the sudden warmness that overtook my body shocked me. It was a nice sensation, it tickled at me, lessened my pain and made me a little heady.
The heat rose- it almost felt like I'd been burned and not yet felt the pain, but it was nice and relaxing. Pins and needles ran over my body, and the warmth grew more.
It grew uncomfortable. I felt like I was too close to a naked fire, that the flames were just touching my skin. I felt like gasping for my hair, but was alarmed when I couldn't. I couldn't do anything.
No screaming, no moving... no breathing.
My eyes widened in panic, and I tried to find some way to get out of this; it didn't feel as bad as what Grimmjow had inflicted upon me, but this was uncomfortable. There was nothing numb about it.
The burning stopped instantly, yet I was unable to regain control of anything.
Aizen's eyes upon me were curious. He seemed like he was watching something he'd seen many times before, but this time was paying attention to all the little details he'd missed previous times.
An ear splitting scream ripped from my throat before I could stop it, and the pain overwhelmed me, commanding me to drop down to my knees. It felt like it was controlling my body.
When I tried to do something, I couldn't...
A few more screams, and I fell down onto my side. The burning seemed more inside now, and I felt more than a little panicked. A contained fire was safer, but this seemed far, far worse than before.
It was like it was burning away everything inside of me.
The inferno stopped abruptly, and I lay there; a light sheen of sweat covering my body, panting softly.
I was bracing myself for another wave of pain, like there had been before; but not a thing came. Aizen remained silent, and I slowly pushed myself up to my knees.
All the pain from my wounds had gone, and I found I had far greater control over my limbs than before. They responded much quicker, and I found myself on my feet before I'd really thought about it.
Everything was a crazy, blur of a mess. I could feel things- everything. All the reishi in the room, in the whole building... I could feel how it moved, when it moved; how large it was... I could feel the differences in each pattern, but couldn't put them to their owners yet.
I could taste it too, in the air. Each different pattern had a unique taste. I assumed the one most predominately in the room was Aizen's. It was bitter and far too strong for my liking- like black coffee or something.
My skin had not changed; it seemed slightly tougher, more durable than before, but it remained the same colour. My hair had grown longer, to the middle of my back and it had seemed to go curly half way down.
I was taller, but not by much- and still overall, ultimately small. I wasn't perhaps as scrawny, my arms had some muscle to them like my legs.
How interesting.
My eyes shot up, and I stared at Aizen. He stared at me back, but his mind remained blank. I wondered if maybe I hadn't gotten the hang of that yet- that I would still need to work on that power.
An image suddenly shot into my mind, and I moved to the side, just a little, to narrowly miss his zanpakuto. So my speed had increased, and it seemed my power worked correctly.
I felt more confident too. More sure of myself. I felt like maybe I could fight with him, and.. and win! The logical side of my thinking assured me that, however much I felt it, that would not be the case.
Aizen relaxed, and chuckled deeply.
"You seem to have a very good control of reishi, you've been manipulating it in the room." He seemed more to be talking to himself. "You'll need to work on that, and controlling it, just like with your other power but..." he smirked.
So I was not a hollow, not a shinigami. I felt rather confused to what I was.
"The previous souls I tried this on ripped to shreds in the process."
"So why didn't it with me?"
My voice shocked me again. It was not ultimately different than it had been before, maybe a little deeper and smother but... How strong and confident it was. It didn't sound like me at all.
Picking up on that change, Aizen's smirk grew. "I'm not sure why," he mused. He went to pick at a curl of my hair which rested on my shoulder, but I grabbed his wrist before he could reach it. "You're not fast or strong, not by yourself. You probably can't even tell what you're doing."
Well he was right with that, but I wish he would get to the point.
"You're pulling the reiatsu around you, supporting it into your body. You're even using mine," he chuckled. "It's not even rejecting you, you're just... using it to strengthen your limbs."
She has quite a bit of reishi too, she could be quite... dangerous, if taught properly. Included with her power-
His thoughts cut off, and he stared intently at me, almost marvelling. He seemed... almost as though I was not supposed to hear his thoughts, yet he could see that I could hear them.
I dropped his wrist when I saw his want to leave, and followed after him.
He tried to keep his thoughts to a minimum, and he seemed troubled whenever he did think something.
"Neliel has been replaced," he said simply as he opened too large double doors. A few of the Espada sat in there; Starrk was lounging up one end, Ulquiorra sat quite impassively in the middle with his arms folded and eyes closed- though he seemed one of the most alert in the room.
Nnoitra sat on the chair closest to me, though I paid him no glance when we entered, I could feel his greedy eyes on me.
Grimmjow also sat in the room, and it took almost all of my willpower to not attack him. I didn't look at him either, but I took in his reishi. I tasted it, and kept it close to me; I would use it later, hunt him down and-
"This is Halibel." Aizen raised an eyebrow at my lack of attention. I gave him a bored stare- I didn't really feel so interested in Nel's replacement... He let out an annoyed sigh. "Halibel take care of her for a few days, make sure she's clothed, sleeps, eats and doesn't get into trouble." He gave me a hard stare this time.
So until he said, I couldn't get my revenge. I felt a little cheated- it almost seemed he was giving me these powers to get Grimmjow back for what he'd done, and now he seemed to be denying me that.
I felt angry too, but my glare was wasted as he left the room. His thoughts weren't angry, he didn't even seem to notice how annoyed I was. I longed to know what he was anxious about- maybe to blackmail him, perhaps... If I had that maybe I'd get my revenge sooner.
I turned to glare at Grimmjow once I was sure Aizen was far enough away. Perhaps I could do it now- if it was my end then...
Halibel let out an annoyed sigh and stood up. She was tall- and another one like Rangiku, Inoue and Nel. Before I would have felt quite inferior but now... well...
Perhaps it was cocky of me to think, but I felt like I could do anything. It confused me- how could something like almost dying.. and a small bit of power give someone such a huge personality shift?
Halibel took my wrist, and led me out of the room. It stayed silent even after we left, but I felt Grimmjow's reishi move. He was fidgeting, and he was anxious.
I smirked hugely; was he worried? It seemed stupid for him to worry when I was so... inexperienced compared to him, but...
I also found myself wanting to return to the human world. To get my revenge on the Shinigami there too. I shuddered in delight thinking about it; Grimmjow first, he would be most satisfying... most delightful.
"You may indeed be able to protect yourself, and maybe even fight with him without dying now, but I out rank him, my strength is not even close to what his is." Halibel's voice was cold to me, though her thoughts of her fraccion were mostly kind, she did not want me causing a fight, because it would be her who got into trouble. Apparently she thought quite highly of Aizen.
I suddenly wasn't so sure of the company I had chosen. It made me suddenly eager to hunt the 'king' of the realm down and squeeze all the answers out of him but...
Halibel closed the door as she left, and I sat idly on the bed. I was tired, but anxious, and a little excited; and after sleeping for, however long it had been, bed was the last place I desired to be. Regardless, I laid down and started to think.
Plans were needed, if things were going to work in my way.