Ulquiorra sighed as he made his way to Szayel's lab. Aizen had told the fourth that Szayel needed to see Ulquiorra for a research project of some sort. Ulquiorra couldn't trust the scientist at all. Szayel seemed to have a brilliance that had crossed the line of insanity and while Ulquiorra acknowledged that Ichigo needed to get stronger if he was to fulfill Aizen's plan it seemed that Szayel was simply doing these experiments to show he could. The child was starting to get nightmares, crying in his sleep about metal tables and syringes filled with pain. It wasn't healthy. Ulquiorra shook his head. He could risk getting soft over a brat. One that called him that infuriating nickname of- "Mister Bat!" Ichigo shouted from down the hallway and started to run at him. Ulquiorra regarded him with cold eyes. Yesterday when Ichigo had called him that teasingly in their sparring session, Ulquiorra had backhanded him into a pilliar. Still, the child called him that. "What do you want?" he said. Ichigo smiled at him. "Szayel always wants me to come to his lab at this time." he said They walked in mostly silence, with Ichigo humming a small tune to himself. They were soon at the lab and walked in.
"There you are." Szayel said, addressing both of them. He held a syringe in one hand. "Ichigo, you can take the day off for experiments." The child's face lit up at this and he ran out while Ulquiorra stared at the scientist. "Please, sit down and roll your sleeve up." he asked. Ulquiorra complied. Szayel stuck the needle in his flesh and took a small blood sample. Ulquiorra was somewhat surprised when Szayel asked him to leave as he assumed the scientist wanted more. He left and began to walk around, deciding to take a walk outside to clear his head. He was walking for about fifteen minutes when he saw Grimmer staring down into a hole. He walked next to the sexta. "What are doing?" he asked. Grimmjow was surprised but frowned when he saw it was Ulquiorra. "Trying to find out what's in this hole." Ulquiorra resisted the urge to kick the fellow espada down the hole but restrained himself. "How are you doing that?" he asked. "I threw the kid down there." Grimmjow said simply. Ulquiorra really had to restrain himself this time from causing bodily harm to the idiot. He took a deep breath. "Why?" "Kid volunteered. I saw him running around here and he almost fell down this. We both wondered what was in it so he said he'd go down it if I gave him something sweet when he comes back up." Grimmjow explained to Ulquiorra before turning to the dark hole. "See anything kid?" he shouted down it. "There's a dead hollow!" Ichigo shouted back up. Ulquiorra was tempted to walk away from the child and child-like arrancar when a loud roar came from it, followed by a terrible scree noise. It was silent for a second before Ichigo shouted from the hole. "Turns out it was sleeping. Now its dead!"
Ulquiorra turned to Grimmjow. "Good. You found out what's in the hole. Now how do you plan on getting him out of there?" Grimmjow was about to reply when sand hit both of them in the back. They looked over their shoulder and were surprised to see Ichigo standing behind them covered in blood and sand. Ulquiorra was tempted to roll his eyes but simply pointed to the castle. "Ichigo, you are absolutely filthy. While Grimmjow may be okay with it I am the one in charge of you and I simply refuse to allow you to be that filthy." Grimmjow snickered at this, laughing more when Ichigo pouted as he made his way to the castle. Ichigo turned back and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Don't forget you owe me something sweet, Homicidal Kitty!" before going back to walking. Grimmjow sighed when he heard Ichigo's nickname for him and turned to Ulquiorra. "Does he ever call you an embarrassing nickname?"
Meanwhile, Szayel was pouring over a formula. The sample of Ulquiorra's blood was in a beaker next to a monitor. Szayel was trying to get the genetic coding for it so he could replicate it and bond it with one of his formula's so he could inject Ichigo with it, hoping to raise the boy's power. The problem was that since they were arrancars this process was made difficult. He gave a noise of joy when he finally cracked it. He scanned over the numbers and letters and his fingers danced over the keyboard so he could print over the formula. He ran over to the printer and snatched it up with glee. Szayel then went to a table with more beakers and tubes filled with various liquids. He began to mix some of them together with a frenzy until there was a black liquid with mint green flecks in. He panted and adjusted his glasses. He took a sample of Ichigo's blood and put it in a metal beaker before pouring some of the black liquid in it. At first the substance simply sat on top of it but when Szayel gave it a small electric shock to replicate the conditions of being with Ichigo's reitsu, the liquids mixed together to create a blackish red thick fluid. Szayel smiled at his success and recorded it in his scientific journal. He then brought out a clean syringe and plunged the needle into his own flesh. He winced slightly but this had to be done. He took a sufficient amount of his blood and pulled the needle out and repeated the process he did with Ulquiorra's blood of anazlying and decoding. His was significantly easier but still took time.
He printed the formula out and began to mix the liquids together. But instead of a black liquid, the fluid that replicated his energy was a almost disgusting pink color with clumps of red and yellow. Rather than be disturbed, he smiled and took this as a compliment. He put it in another metal beaker and put a sample of Ichigo's blood in. Ichigo's blood appeared to try to settle above it but the pink liquid started to mingle with it, causing pink vein like patterns to lace through the blood. Szayel gave the mixture a shock, the fluids mixed together to create a red color flecked with pink and yellow. Szayel watched with interest and recorded the information once more. He took out two syringes and loaded them the liquids, one for each mixture. He smiled widely as he set them down and began to clean up. If all went to plan, this could end wonderfully.