The sun had barely risen when Grimmjow found Loly and Menoly on the fringe of town that morning, both hovering over a white-robed shinigami who was slumped against a wall as Menoly stood triumphant.
His eyes narrowed at them, crouching unseen at the edge of the four story building two streets from the alley they were in. The morning was still wet on the streets and the once-lower ranked Arrancar were all but crowing about their accomplishment.
"Pathetic and cowardly," he sneered, watching the blonde girl glimpse around at their surroundings. It was nearly comical to him, their efforts at out-powering him, and he would have laughed if it weren't so true. Actually, they were a few rungs up on the power ladder than him.
Well, one rung, at least.
Being able to fully revive after killed was a real plus, and one that he couldn't duplicate. They lacked his speed and strength, but they had other physical abilities he didn't. They'd demonstrated the ease at which they obtained a victim's spiritual powers -- complete spiritual powers -- collecting every drop of reiryoku that left the victim sapped and dead.
He was unsure how they did it, and he didn't much care. Pulling the vital vertebrae from a victim held more satisfaction for Grimmjow; reminiscent of old, better times, which he was beginning to recall with more clarity.
He stood up and turned away from the building's edge and made his way to the opposite side. He wasn't ready yet to confront them now. Not quite.
Thoughts of a compromise with one, or perhaps both, had entered his mind, and while he wasn't the plotting type some of his former now dead colleagues were, he did have a plan.
He remembered enough about his last fight to know he wanted a certain orange-haired shinigami at sword point. A collection of power like that would move him far ahead of either Loly or Menoly, but facing an opponent like Kurosaki was beyond him at present.
"Kurosaki." Grimmjow stopped walking across the rooftop, the name ringing true in his memory.
A cruel smile crossed his lips as he continued on to the roof's opposite side. Now if only he could remember the other name.
Remembering her name wasn't as important as finding her. With the right girl he'd be unstoppable, surpassing those clowns in the alley who'd just slain the shinigami from Twelfth.
He knew it was Twelfth Division, because he'd come to recognize the number on the back by now.
As he recalled, she scared easy enough, but as he also recalled, a sense of loyalty overwhelmed her fear. He'd seen that demonstrated at his fight with Kurosaki. He required her assistance, and if she wouldn't willingly hand it over to him, he'd find other ways of coercing her. If she wasn't afraid for herself, maybe she would be for someone else.
Grimmjow looked down at the four story drop into the next alley, smiled at his newfound capability, and sprung expertly to the ground below.
Renji waited in the storage room serving as an office of Urahara's shop, arms crossed as he bided his time, frowning at the shelves jammed with jars of questionable contents with no labels. Tessai had called for the shopkeeper who had summoned him half an hour ago, and Urahara had yet to show his face.
He tried to take the wait patiently, but sometimes he got the feeling Urahara liked to lounge around in his basement workshop while people waited for him. After the War, there had been a shift in allies and united fronts, and the lines drawn between the Vizards, the occupants of Urahara's shop, and a few prisoners of war were hazy, at best.
Everyone had gotten what they wanted to an extent with Aizen's defeat. Soul Society stopped the destruction of Karakura Town and disabled Aizen's immediate plans. The Vizards and residents of Urahara's shop were on amicable terms, in most matters.
Kaname Tousen had perished under his own former lieutenant's sense of justice, which made for good conversation among the barracks of every Division in Soul Society. Gin Ichimaru had been taken prisoner and had been seen only a few times, but Renji knew information was eking out of the former captain about Aizen and the new Realm.
He didn't know if the information came out willingly or by other indelicate means, but it was there. He figured it was the former, as he and everyone else had noticed a certain auburn haired female shinigami with a regular visitation schedule to the high security cell of Ichimaru.
"Five more minutes," Renji muttered, irritation rising as he looked around the dimly lit room, letting his thoughts turn to more inviting matters of the evening before.
He'd never had raspberries with tomatoes before, and he wasn't sure it was good, but it hadn't been bad, either. The evening hadn't gone as he expected it would. He hadn't planned to kiss Orihime, had barely planned anything beyond getting the ice cream to her apartment before it melted.
He couldn't blame it on anything out of the ordinary, not the usual things he thought to blame it on. The music had been those silly poppish tunes, she wasn't dressed much differently than he'd always seen her in street clothes, and she hadn't said anything leading or done anything to entice him closer.
He scowled, but didn't mean it as he realized kissing her had been something he'd been wanting to do for a while. Not hanging out in the front of his mind getting in the way of business, but lurking somewhere in the back he didn't usually visit.
"That's not true," he said aloud, then turned to look at the doorway as Urahara stepped in. "That's damn stupid."
"Ah, making judgments on me before I even say anything, Renji?" the shopkeeper asked with a grin.
Renji frowned at him. "Yes."
"Hmm, wait until I say something stupid before you tell me, will you?" Urahara scratched his head beneath the striped hat, looking around at the shelves as if he were new to the room. "I need you to bring Miss Inoue by after she gets out of school today, okay?"
Defensiveness slipped over Renji. "Why? Are you scheduling some healing needing to be done?"
Urahara felt in his pocket for his fan, but it was missing, so he smiled in what he'd been told was a charming manner. "Now that you mention it, I'm thinking about it. Have Miss Yoruichi scare up an injured cat for us, for a demo, you know."
Renji put his hands on his hips, frowning. "You mean you're going to injure a cat so Orihime can heal it."
Urahara shrugged and sighed, stepping back to the doorway as a bell rung over the front door of the shop. "Can you do that for me? Bring her by?"
Renji followed him into the hall, tempted to demand more of an answer out of the man walking in front of him. "I'll ask her."
"We had a member from Twelfth brought in early this morning," Urahara said, stopping abruptly and turning to Renji, the lilt absent from his voice now. "Robbed of all reiryoku, white as snow. Funny part is, there were three distinct types of reiatsu hanging off him. Same with the school girl from the other day. An anomaly I'd like to study more in-depth."
"What's that got to do with Orihime?"
"Oh, I was just making conversation."
Renji shook his head. "No, you weren't."
Urahara shrugged and turned back down the hall as Tessai's voice came from the shop front ahead. "Will you bring her by?"
Renji followed more thoughtfully, unsure the shopkeeper was actually hiding something or simply being the self-imposed enigma he liked to be. He muttered a curse, hating to appear uninformed. "What were the ... compositions?"
"Signatures?"
Renji growled down a curse. "Yes. Signatures, or whatever the hell you call them."
"The victims' and Arrancar, definitely."
Renji waited for the third, but Urahara paused at the curtains dividing the hall from the front of the shop. "And?"
Urahara shrugged. "Funny thing about the Living. Their reiatsu and reiryoku tend to mix well with other --"
"The girl was Living. How many Living types were in her signature?" Renji asked pointedly.
Urahara's face remained unreadable. "Funny thing, Living signatures, Renji."
Renji glared at him for a moment, hating the smugness in the shopkeeper's tone. "Straight answer, Urahara."
The other man shrugged again. "Two."
"Meaning?"
"Two Living and one Arrancar strains were represented. That's all, Abarai."
Renji nodded slowly, and then turned back down the hall to the shop's rear exit.
"You'll tell her to come by?" Urahara called after him.
Renji reached the back screen door and shoved through it, jarring the hinges as he scowled at a stray cat slinking around the back stoop. "You better scram," he told it brusquely before calling back into the shop, "I'll see what I can do!"
Orihime was oblivious to the conversation at Urahara's shop earlier that morning as she broke from the pack of classmates after school that sunny afternoon. The day was crisply cooler than the last few, putting a skip in her step despite the heavy load of school books in her bag at her back. She smiled, hurrying on.
Not all the skip was due to the weather, and she knew why.
In fact, she'd spent a good deal of the school day trying not to think of why.
"Hey, Orihime!" Kon greeted her with an enthusiastic wave as his bouncy gait caught up with her, wearing Ichigo's goofiest smile.
She tried not to cringe. "Hi. Did you get all the homework?"
He smiled wider and nodded, long strides matching her shorter ones. "Ichigo spends too much time studying. He should be enjoying these wonderful teen years."
She gave him a tepid smile. "Kurosaki-kun is a good student and he works hard. You should try it."
Kon threw off a wave, eyes going to across the street where Tatsuki had already dashed for her karate practice earlier. He looked around at the sidewalk of students and people, and then up at the street signs. "Aren't you going the wrong way?"
She'd been hoping he wouldn't notice. "Oh, I wanted to find a shortcut. That's all."
He stuck his hands in his pockets, jaunty gait making the loose change in Ichigo's pants pockets jangle. "I don't think this is shorter."
"Oh, it is, up ahead." Orihime didn't feel like telling him she preferred to take alternate routes to and from school the last few days. She didn't know if it would help any, but she felt a little safer not taking the same ways every day. Just in case Grimmjow was patrolling. She had only seen him on the market streets, and she wanted to keep it that way. She pointed down a secondary street they come up to at an intersection. "I think that way will take you to the Kurosaki Clinic."
He looked down the sidewalk as they came up to the street adjoining. "Yeah? Okay. Thanks, Orihime."
She smiled in relief that he'd taken the hint. "See you tomorrow."
"Okay!" He split off down the sidewalk before thinking her dismissal through. "Bye!"
She sighed as he left, blowing a strand of auburn hair out of her eyes. Sometimes Kon wasn't so easy to get rid of, and she didn't feel like fighting off his persistent invitations to dinner.
She'd rather think about her last dinner guest. A blush rose over her cheeks when she thought back on the preceding day. She crossed the street with the other students and followed the next sidewalk. Her fingers edged up one book bag strap as she looked to the rooftops of the buildings around her.
Most days she caught a glimpse of Renji at some time during her walk home, but there was no sign of him today, and her smile dimmed at his absence. Before her mind could make up plausible as well as outlandish explanations as to why, a chill met her spine.
Her steps slowed, eyes going to the opposite side of the street where the sidewalk ran parallel. No one else seemed to feel the distinct change in the weather, all still on their respective ways, no one giving her a second look.
She frowned and veered closer to the buildings to her right, mostly store fronts with the occasional alley. Her spine felt as if it had been frozen, making moving almost painful, her hands beginning to shake with either fear or cold.
She looked to the sidewalk across the street, seeing no one but everyday people, and then turned slowly to check behind her. No one out of the ordinary. Her eyes went to the tops of the buildings around her, but this time they sought out a familiar Espada rather than Renji.
Out of panic she turned into the next alley she came to, relieved it was bright and cleaner than most alleys, a narrow street that opened at the other end into another block of buildings. She hurried down it, her heart thumping faster as her mind became numbly cold. She'd passed halfway down the alley when a breath of cold air frosted over her neck, making her halt. She whirled around, expecting to see no one, but there he was, just entering the alley from the sidewalk.
Grimmjow's eyes were locked on her as she remained immobile for a few seconds, and then his gait quickened.
Orihime broke into a run, her steps fleet on the alley pavement as she reached the end and turned into the next equally narrow street and darted down it, only to find it was a dead end. She looked up at the four story buildings around her, mostly residential housing, and then glanced to Grimmjow as he entered the alley behind her. For a few agonizing seconds he methodically watched her as she willed herself to move. She lunged for the lowest of the metal staircases that zigzagged up the four stories of the back of the building, and raced up them.
Her heart was fast against her ribs, aching as she climbed, her fears renewed when she heard footsteps reach the steps behind her and begin climbing. She hurried on, not chancing a glance behind her until she was at the top of the staircases, hearing the steps behind her stop, but when she turned he was nowhere to be seen. Her pulse raced on as her eyes searched the stairs below her, the cold in her back paralyzing.
"Your name," Grimmjow said suddenly from behind her.
Orihime spun around, shocked to see him so near. She backed up onto the rooftop, her shoes catching on the uneven shingles.
He stepped closer, his strides increasing as she backed away swiftly. "What's your name?"
She shook her head, her breath falling short of gasping, moving to the center of the rooftop. "What do you want?"
He stopped, a slow grin crossing his face at the sound of her words. "I know that voice."
She shook her head again more forcefully, feet inching back to the building's edge.
"What's your name?"
Orihime kept her eyes on his, the cold in her back seeming to spread across her shoulders, down her arms to her hands and fingers. She let her gaze shift to one side, whimpering as she saw the alley below, making her reverse advance halt.
She looked back quickly as Grimmjow's hand clutched her sweater and blouse at her tie, nearly lifting her from her feet. "Let me go!"
His eyes dropped to her hands as they grasped his wrist, and then rose to her face. "What's your name?"
She shook her head, holding his stare.
"Say it!"
She choked down her name, fingers prying on his steel-like hand.
"Do you really want me to let go?"
Her hands stilled on his as he shoved her back to the roof edge, her feet desperate to remain on the surface.
"Your name!"
She swallowed. "What do you want?"
He frowned at her, eyes searching hers. "You know who I am?"
Orihime wanted to shake her head, but she found herself nodding subtly. It was enough for him.
"Say my name."
She tried to take a breath in the choking hold as her vest and blouse cut off her breathing.
"Say it!"
She felt her feet leave the rooftop as he shoved her a few inches back, making her hands grasp his wrist, a cry escaping her. "Grimmjow."
Recollection crossed his face, a leering grin as he nodded. "Even better." He studied her for a moment, returning her loathsome expression for one of curiosity. "You're not afraid to die. Why not?"
"I am," she gasped, holding his stare.
He shook his head and then looked down for a few seconds before his attention returned to her. "Promise me anything I ask of you."
She frowned, a moment of clarity making her shake her head.
"Promise me!"
She shook her head, dreading the moment she'd be in the air and then on the alley pavement.
"You will next time. Remember, I can drop you at any time in the future, too," he said lowly, taking a step closer to the edge, her full body weight straining at the vest and blouse. He looked down past her dangling legs, eyes resting on something before going back to her. "Don't die on the way down." He grinned, laughing. "Orihime Inoue."
He enjoyed the look of terror that crossed her face as his hand relaxed.
Orihime's shriek died in her throat, panic strangling any sound she tried to make as she felt herself fall, thinking oddly that her skirt was now flying up, how heavy her book bag was, that she hadn't finished the beadwork, that Tatsuki didn't know she'd taken a different way home, that she'd never get to live any of her dreams.
Of Ichigo. Of Renji.
She didn't know if she'd closed her eyes or if she passed out before she reached the pavement, and it didn't matter as her body came to an abrupt stop in an encompassing embrace.
She wasn't aware of Renji catching her halfway down the ground floor of the building. He'd barely gotten out of his gigai and left the alley pavement when he'd seen Grimmjow drop her.
He looked down at her still form, and then knelt to one knee, moving a hand to her neck to find a skyrocketing pulse. He held her close, feeling her racing heartbeat against his chest, as he looked back up at the figure at the top of the fourth story.
Grimmjow stepped back out of sight. Renji's eyes narrowed on the Espada as he swallowed down thoughts of pursuit, pulling Orihime's unconscious form closer.
Author's Note: Thank you to all who took the time to review/favorite this story.