Chapter 11
"I…I killed you." Ichigo said, without any pride in his voice.
A head of thick black hair and pale white skin could be seen, green eyes of despair, looking into seemingly nothing. "It seems that even death is empty in its vain efforts to provide a means to an end." Said…Ulquiorra.
Next, a head of pink hair could be seen in a long, white espada uniform. "Little girl, we've come for you." Said a menacing Szayel Aporro Granz. Senna looked up in terror at Ichigo, who was frozen by his past.
Granz grabbed Senna by the hair and pulled out a container. Senna struggled and managed to pierce Granz with her sword. He bent over in pain and coughed up blood, visibly shaken.
"This was supposed to be quick and clean, Szayel. Don't overcomplicate things, you haven't the strength to." Said Ulquiorra, largely unexpressive.
There's something wrong here thought Ishida he shouldn't have been hurt from such a weak attack, he is much stronger than that.
Granz lunged at Senna and injected her with a syringe he had. She was instantly lost the ability to move all parts of her body except her face. "Don't move my dear," he said "this won't hurt a bit." He took out a container about a foot (30cm) long and put it on her chest right where her wound was. Ichigo just stood, paralyzed by the past experience he had with Ulquiorra. Everyone made a move for Senna except Ichigo. Ulquiorra used sonido to get in front of Granz and fired off a cero. Its power was respectable at best, but it gave Granz the time he needed. The container filled with a dark smoke so dense it seemed to be liquid. Ulquiorra was breathing heavily and his spiritual pressure was dropping fast. "Go!" he said to Granz who quickly entered the still open gate to hell. Senna fell to the ground and suddenly more of the thick black smoke poured out of her chest.
What is this? Thought Ichigo It's so…evil, so…daunting. Senna lay on the ground, her eyes open…she wasn't breathing. Ichigo looked at her then at Ulquiorra. "Getsuga Ten—!" Byakuya's hand was on Ichigo's sword. "Byakuya, what are you doing?" yelled Ichigo.
Byakuya stepped toward Ulquiorra, who drew his sword and tried to strike Byakuya. He stopped his blade with his hand, squeezed ever so lightly and broke Ulquiorra's sword. "You are not an espada. A member or former member of the espada would not be so weak."
Ulquiorra looked at Byakuya with his usual stare and said "I am Ulquiorra Cifer, 4th espada."
Byakuya stabbed him in the stomach effortlessly. "Why are you so weak?" he asked.
Ulquiorra coughed up blood and fell to the ground. "Anti-reiatsu…a—…anti—"he struggled to speak. He got up and began speaking again, "When the espada were defeated, we had the sins Aizen had committed pinned upon us. We were condemned to hell. Every last one of us. We were all very powerful, so to compensate, the Hell's Will took away most of our reiatsu, or rather anti-reiatsu so that we could not escape."
"What is anti reiatsu?" asked Byakuya.
Ulquiorra continued "Anti-reiatsu is like regular reiatsu, but it is much more powerful. It's not only more powerful, its power increases with the evils that are committed. And as you sensed from the girl, you don't sense it like regular reiatsu, it consumes your senses with feelings of sadness, hopelessness, fear, and mostly foreboding."
"What do you want with Senna?" asked Ichigo.
"The girl? Nothing, she is useless to us now. Although she probably won't live long, considering she has lost most of her spiritual pressure."
Ichigo grabbed Ulquiorra by the throat, choking him and asked through clenched teeth "What do you mean? What did you do to her?"
Ulquiorra struggled to speak, and replied with one eye closed "You can kill me now if you wish, it will make no difference, I'll just go back to hell, but you probably won't get all the answers you want." Ichigo put Ulquiorra down let go of his throat and put his sword to Ulquiorra's neck "Is that really necessary?" Ulquiorra asked with a scornful look on his face.
"Get talking." Ichigo said with his expression hardened.
"Well, as I said before, Hell's Will took away most of the espada's reiatsu and kept it locked away in a place known as La Caja de Pandora (Pandora's Box in Spanish). There, not only was our anti-reiatsu held but all the anti-reiatsu of any other evildoers condemned to hell as well. It has so much power held inside it that it leaks. It leaks evil into your world; it is responsible for all the evil of your world. So our leader made a plan to extract that anti-reiatsu and take it upon himself so that all may worship him for bringing peace to your world. But anti-reiatsu is so evil, he needed one of the purest souls he could find to absorb it and enable us to harness it. That's where she comes in." Ulquiorra said, indicating Senna "Her soul was pure enough to be able to take on all of the anti-reiatsu. So our leader snatched her soul the last time she was here, and he put all the anti-reiatsu into her. But before we could harness it, Hell's Will noticed her mistaken presence in the underworld, and sent her to your world. We just came to retrieve what is ours. But without the reiatsu she had, she will surely die."
Ichigo looked panicked and ran over to her "Senna!" he yelled.
Soi Fon ran over to Ulquiorra and stabbed him in the stomach "Hmph!" he groaned
"Who is your leader?" asked Soi Fon
Ulquiorra spoke with blood dripping down his lips and mouth "He will crush anyone who stands in his way. He is a man of unimaginable power. He bows to no one, especially you, Yamamoto. He is known as, Don Lucifer." Ulquiorra took his last breath and his body disappeared taking another journey back to hell.
Meanwhile, Ichigo was kneeling beside Senna, eyes wide with panic "Orihime!" he yelled. She made her way over and began trying to heal Senna, but nothing happened.
"It's no use," she said "compared to other wounds I've healed this should be easy, but it's not working."
"That's because you cannot heal her with your powers," began Byakuya "but rather, she must be healed with reiatsu." He placed his hand on her chest and his reiatsu began to flow into Senna, but she still would not live Damn thought Uryuu she was filled with so much anti-reiatsu it will take nearly all the captains to bring her back to life.
"C'mon," started Uryuu "we'll need everyone's help." All the captains began to walk over,
"Stop!" Yamamoto ordered "No one will do any such thing to help her." All the captains looked awestruck at him
"But captain!" began Shinji "Your orders were to protect her!"
"My orders were to prevent those two from getting a hold of her. We have failed. Our responsibilities here are no more. Let's go." All the captains looked over to Ichigo and offered solemn apologies.
"Ichigo," Senna began "I'm sorry."
"No, it's my fault," Ichigo replied, with a tear streaming down his face "I was too weak to protect you. Please, save your strength."
"I feel it fading…" Senna replied
"NO!" everyone looked at Ishida, who was yelling "You killed my people because they were destroying souls. Yamamoto, your oath as a soul reaper is to protect all souls. Yet here you are, about to let one die. You are nothing but trash!" Soi Fon kicked him and sent him flying by Yamamoto.
"Serves you right." She said. But Uryuu ignored her and used Hirenkyaku to get over to Senna. He began pumping large amounts of reiatsu into Senna's body.
Ichigo looked up at him dazzled "Uryuu…"
"This isn't mine, so be ready to protect me when they catch on. When Soi Fon kicked me, I used my Steele Schneider to cut both Yamamoto and Soi Fon to extract their reiatsu."
In an instant Yamamoto had his sword out, in the middle of a strike, but was stopped by Ichigo. "Kurosaki, soul society owes you a debt of gratitude. I do not wish to have to kill you here today."
"You owe me nothing." Ichigo said "Whatever I did was by my own account and I did it to protect my friends. The fact that you cannot handle your own messes, Aizen, is not my problem." They remained with their swords up against each other and Yamamoto released a large amount of spiritual pressure to try to force Ichigo back, but Ichigo responded with his own spiritual pressure and they remained locked together.
"Uryuu, that's enough." Ichigo said "I can handle it from here."
Uryuu stepped back from Senna and Yamamoto stepped away.
"You have made a wise choice to spare your life here today, Kurosaki." Yamamoto said.
"Was it really my life that was spared?" asked Ichigo. He then put on his hollow mask and began to build up spiritual pressure. Everyone was surprised by how powerful it was, even Yamamoto opened one eye. Ichigo then concentrated it with much difficulty into his hand and slammed it into Senna's chest, who had stopped breathing again. Her face lit up and she took a breath in for just an instant, but faded away again. Ichigo repeated this process again countless times until he was exhausted.
"Ichigo, it's no use." Said Uryuu "She's gone."
"No!" Ichigo said "It's not her time!" he then began to create more and more reiatsu and concentrating it once more and created a mass in his hand so dense, it seemed that everything around it was being pulled in. Even Ichigo struggled to hold it up. He once again slammed it into Senna's chest and his vision began to fade. He passed out.
To be continued
Authors Note: Sorry about long time without a post, I've been really busy. If there is anything you particularly dislike, please let me know through PM or a review. Positive reviews are good, but they do not help me make any improvements. Thanks for all of your support—Andarthvader