Ch 14
She looked greedily at the assortment of donuts laid out on the table.
"Chocolate…vanilla…cream filled…cinnamon…" she named, trying to decide what she wanted to try. Others behind her in line gave her annoyed expressions, but she didn't seem to notice.
"I choose…sprinkles!" she announced, placing a donut on her plate and striding off happily. She hadn't been able to sleep, so she decided to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. Even though she was extremely tired, somehow something as simple as a donut had brightened her spirits considerably.
She moved away from the breakfast buffet but looked around when she heard someone call her name.
"Orihime-san…"
She froze. Tesra was coming her way. She had not seen him since the day by the elevators. For a moment she wanted to turn around and go the other way. She wished she had taken the time to consider what she would do or say when she saw him again. He might not have considered anything about her, but she had honestly thought him a comrade.
Now she had no time to decide; he was all too near. She looked to the floor. "Hi…"
"Orihime-san," he repeated while standing in front of her. "I'm sorry, I should have realized earlier…"
She stared down at her donut as if it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. Inwardly, she felt her heart jumping to her throat, and she willed herself not to cry. Not even a sprinkled donut could distract her sudden surge of emotions.
"What you heard about your friend was not true. Nnoitra-sama did not kill him."
At those words, her head snapped up so fast she thought she heard a crack. "W-what?"
He nodded reassuringly. "Your friend was not killed. I couldn't allow it…after what you did for me. That is the truth."
Immediately her eyes misted over and she felt light headed. Was it possible?
"H-how do you know? I…you mean it?"
"Yes. I…I'm sorry you have been through such grief." And he truly did look sorry. The tears fell down her cheeks, one by one, but this time she was smiling.
"Oh!" she cried, and without thinking, she had wrapped her free arm around him in a grateful embrace. "Thank you, Tesra-kun! Thank you!"
At first he didn't move, but then patted her back awkwardly until she finally let go. He looked thoroughly embarrassed, but his lips were quirked in a slight smile. "I need to get going… but I'm glad you are alright." He touched her cheek lightly, and said, "Take care, Orihime-san."
She beamed at him in reply, and he left her. An extreme heaviness was gone, lifted away, and she took a huge bite from her donut, unable to stop smiling.
Sado-kun is ok! He's alright!
She kept repeating the thought in her head, not wanting to let go of the happy moment. Even if she was stuck, hidden away forever, she thought she could go on with just that knowledge. Her donut had been completely devoured by the time she left the cafeteria. She passed through the halls without paying attention to her surroundings, for her thoughts ran wildly. Because of this, she did not notice the other occupants of the hall until she felt arms grab her from behind.
She gasped, but a hand clamped against her mouth, and she was dragged into an empty conference room nearby. The door shut loudly behind her, but she didn't have to look up to know who had grabbed her.
"Good to see you, Hime-chan," Loly told her, but Orihime refused to look up at her.
"I don't think she heard you," Menoly said, clicking her tongue, and a moment later Orihime found her cheek being forced against the cold surface of the table. Weight was pressed relentlessly against her back, crushing her head against the hard surface. She whimpered faintly, but squeezed her eyes shut.
One of them grabbed her arm and held it behind her back, bending it at a painful angle. "Ah!" she cried in pain, but the pressure only continued to mount as it was pushed tighter and tighter against her back.
"What is it?" one of them hissed. "Does this hurt?"
Orihime kept her mouth shut, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of her agreeing. They pressed harder, and she thought her arm was about to break when there seemed to be a sudden explosion at the door and a second later the pressure was gone.
"What the fuck is going on?" a rough voice demanded, and there was a scraping sound of skin on wood and a sudden thump, as if something was thrown.
Orihime looked up in time to see Loly crushed against the wall nearby by a strong arm.
"Grimmjow!" Loly grimaced, having trouble breathing against his crushing hold on her neck. He picked her up and threw her across the table where she fell and landed on top of her sister.
"S-stop!" Orihime cried, getting his attention. He met her frantic brown eyes with wild pale blue. When he made no further movements, she rushed to the other side of the table, a hand at her tech.
"What the hell are you doing?" Grimmjow barked, but she had already begun healing them.
When she finished, she shakily stood, feeling her jaw. It was painful, but didn't seem to be broken. Her arm too she flexed, wincing at first when she stretched it. Grimmjow watched her with a critical eye.
"I...want to get out of here…" she didn't look at him, but felt him move to let her through before following her out into the hall.
It was then that she looked up at him. "Thank you…but…you didn't have to do that…"
He snorted. "You weren't doing anything to protect yourself. Those bitches deserved it anyways."
"They…they said they might hurt my friends, but I don't think they could," she admitted, looking towards the door. "I didn't want to give them a reason to try."
"I could have killed them," he told her, as if it were nothing.
Orihime shook her head. "I…I don't want that. Not for my sake. They just don't know what they are doing."
"Why'd you heal them then?" he asked, obviously confused.
She shrugged. "I…don't like seeing anyone hurt."
"I think your tech is dangerous," he told her suddenly, and she blinked, surprised. "I have been saying it since you came here. I wanted to kill you from the start."
Orihime raised her gaze upwards, her expression somber as she looked at the man.
"But Ulquiorra, he always defended you. Said you were not an enemy. Eventually the others agreed with him, but I always felt he was wrong. Even so, I knew I couldn't do anything to you. He'd never allow you to be killed."
Her eyebrows rose at his direct words and her heart seemed to still. "That's not…" she faltered, unsure.
Grimmjow seemed to sense her doubt. "You think he would let you die?"
She looked at him silently, eyes wide, finding she could not speak in opposition.
"He has been doing a lot of abnormal things lately. That whole mission was created extremely carefully, wasn't it? He sent Tesra with that idiot Nnoitra to keep him in check. He immediately left to make sure I didn't do anything, even though I wanted to fight more than anything. That's not the Ulquiorra I knew. It's like he has been quietly making things as easy for you as possible."
Orihime found she couldn't breathe. It was too much, this knowledge that everything might have been done for her well-being. But even as she wondered at it, she found that everything seemed to fit. His anger with her made sense. And then, to make things worse, he found out that his careful plan might not have worked and Sado had died after all. He would have felt doubly upset. And even more - she hadn't even known all he had done for her.
Immediately she felt tears spring to her eyes. "I… I was so wrong."
It was all she could say. This quiet admittance said with her entire heart to the wrong person. She had felt so betrayed when he spoke about how her feelings were so useless. It had been easy to accept his statement when she was suddenly so lost in her own grief. She knew how he perceived emotions, yet it had not stopped him from supporting her, standing up for her, and making sure she was safe and well.
The night she healed him, it had been his hand holding her to him. It was his own decision based on his own wants, not just a command by some all-knowing leader. When he looked at her by the window, his eyes had looked more open than she had ever seen because he was with her. She had always looked for these qualities so acutely with Ichigo, because it had always been what she desired from him. But now, from another person, she had missed the signs. Ulquiorra was different. And she too was different now.
He believed emotions should be discarded due to the danger they posed, but he had allowed her presence in his life to be more than just a jailor and his ward. He had placed her, in his eyes, in the position of comrade, one that he had almost watched die. The frantic feelings she had experienced the night he was injured must have been similar to his own. But he kept things so carefully hidden. It would not occur to him to show anything other than his anger towards her. Anger would make sense; it was something easily identified, and it made the most impact.
But why… why hadn't he tried to talk to her since then?
In her mind's eye, she saw his back turned away, walking into an elevator. She had looked back, briefly. It was the last she had seen of him since. He had not stood straight, as his shoulders had sagged. His lonely figure was all she could see now.
Ulquiorra had once said that becoming nothing was what he thought of as true happiness. But would he not be happy now? Being alone in his empty apartment with the sliver of a moon and nothingness?
She squeezed her eyes shut briefly, understanding all too well that loneliness. It would not make him happy. He had never been able to correctly identify what made himself happy. As Tokio, he had thought ceasing to exist would be happiness. As Ulquiorra, he had attempted a new start at life but seemed to be stuck in that same cycle of having no purpose.
"What… what are you going to do with me?" she asked Grimmjow suddenly, looking up at him, her brown eyes containing no fear. "You said you wanted to kill me."
His lip jerked in a half-sneer at her question. He didn't appreciate her lack of fear or the way she stared at him, almost daringly.
"I should kill you," bringing his hand up to place around her neck. His fingers, though, did not tighten. "You are the enemy, and your tech is dangerous. Ulquiorra isn't here to protect you."
She stared up at him without blinking. Still, she showed no fear. "I'm not your enemy, Grimmjow-kun." Her voice was soft, but he had heard her given the way his eyes widened. She felt his fingers twitch against her neck.
He was looking down at his hand now, the one she had brought back from nothing. It would not have existed without her, and she knew that he was thinking the same thing when he looked back at her.
"I hate that guy," he said, "and I hate being wrong." His fingers released and he withdrew his hand. "But, I guess he was right." He looked away quickly, as if he was disgusted by his own admittance.
But then he turned back to fix her with a piercing gaze. "And you? What are you going to do?"
Orihime bit her lip. "I… I don't know." She needed time.
There were still doubts, but they had lessened. For now, she wanted to mull things over. Because Orihime understood that if she went back, things would be different. If she went back for him, she could not allow him to hold himself separate any longer. Their relationship would change. That was something she felt assured about. If she went back, they would both have to admit what they meant to one another. That would be a point of no return for them both.
"You don't have much time," Grimmjow told her darkly. "Not with the way things operate here."
She nodded, knowing that he spoke the truth.
.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.
Ulquiorra checked his phone, but found no new messages. Earlier, he had been texted 'meeting' and nothing more. He knew it meant an Espada meeting, but he had not received any further information. It was not all that unusual, but he still felt anxious about it. Somehow Aizen felt closer, as if he was one step away from destroying him altogether.
He sighed, the puff of hair blowing the bangs at his nose. Things were so quiet. Before, he had not noticed it because he had not expected it to be any other way. But once Orihime had become part of his life, he felt himself wishing for his solitude again. Especially at first. The moment she had moved in, he was thinking of the moment she would be gone. Now the silence was unnerving, unnatural.
Green eyes glanced at the stairs, and his face pulled in a frown. It had been so long since anyone had sat at the top, looking over everything like they belonged completely. She had liked to sit there, though he was not sure why. His head tilted to the side as he thought, moving slowly towards the stairs. When he reached them he stood at the bottom, looking up, wondering what exactly he was doing. He climbed one foot at a time. He had not gone up to the second floor since she left. Soon he stood outside of her door.
His, his mind corrected. It was his room, his home. She had simply borrowed it.
Pale fingers enclosed around the doorknob, and he turned it, pushing the door open. The first thing he noticed was that the scent that hit his nose was unmistakably hers. It was slightly floral, somehow, even though he did not know her to use any sort of perfumes. His hand found the light switch and the room was illuminated.
Things were much as he remembered. There were a few personal items that he had given her. These were displayed proudly in the open to add various splotches of color to the otherwise white room. The sheets were strewn about; she hadn't remembered to make her bed that morning because she had been nervous. On the desk sat a pink book and pen.
His attention turned to this, and he walked over to look it over. It was a journal of some sort, with blue flowers drawn on the cover. He touched it gently, feeling the smooth surface. His fingers slipped below the lip and he opened the book to find her bubbly scrawl.
'This is the diary of Orihime Inoue' was written across the top of the first page. And below it said, 'The story of my adventures underground!'
He flipped through the pages slowly. Many entries were fairly short. Sometimes she wrote of being bored or hungry, and sometimes she wondered what her friends were doing. In some cases she wrote of a dream she had had, or a thought that had popped into her mind.
On one page she had scribbled a picture of the eye-cam that followed her.
'I named it Shadow, since it is always following me around. At first I considered 'Droopy', but that seemed a bit cruel. I'm not sure what it is, but I suspect Ulquiorra can create an eye army…'
He glanced at pieces of other entries.
'I wish I were as brave as Kurosaki-kun. He always knows exactly what to do… I feel like a flower blowing by the wind. I don't ever know exactly what to do or where to go. Somehow I just wind up in odd places. But Kurosaki-kun… he has such a steadiness to him. Actually, Ulquiorra does too. He seems to know exactly what het does and does not want. Nothing ever fazes him. I wish I could be like that…'
'Today Ulquiorra complimented me. I was so surprised, I didn't know quite what to say. But it made me feel happy, somehow.'
'I've started Operation: Get to Know Ulquiorra. So far I don't know anything about him, but I'm hoping to change that. I know it will be difficult, but I'm confident! I know deep down he must not be too bad… He just seems so unreachable sometimes, and it makes me sad.'
'Tonight I don't feel well. I miss my friends a lot suddenly, and I'm lonely. Loneliness is the worst feeling…well, I suppose being a burden would be worse. Right now though, I feel so far away. Does anyone think of me? I know it's selfish to complain, especially after all they have to deal with. These words will never reach them anyways.'
'I used to want to be like the rain. It can connect what is always separated, the earth and sky. If I was like that, couldn't I connect with anyone? But it seems so silly now. He doesn't even like the rain…'
He blinked at the entry, wondering what she meant. There was obvious longing in her words, but for what, he was not sure. Ulquiorra skipped ahead.
'I decided to play a prank on Ulquiorra today, and I flipped the couch cushions. It was really hard keeping a straight face, so I pretended to throw the eye around from the top of the stairs. When he came out, he looked around like he usually did, watched me for a minute, and went into the living room. At first I thought he might not notice because he seemed to glance at the couch and away. But then his head snapped back so fast and he stared at it for a full minute, I think! I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. I've never seen him so perplexed before!'
Ulquiorra felt his eye twitch in annoyance, discovering that it had been her. She had duplicated the trick a few times since then, and while he always suspected her, he had never caught her in the act.
'His name was Tokio. He told me a lot about himself, though he didn't seem to care at all. Now I wonder, even though I know these things about him, am I any closer? Does simply knowing facts about a person make you connect to them? I don't think it is that easy. I can list several things about him now. I can easily list his physical traits, I can define what it means for him to make certain gestures, and I now know his name and his past. But what do these things really mean? Between us there is so much division. Further than the earth and the sky. To the moon even.
Everything divides us.'
He stared at the last line, feeling dismayed at the truthful words. Certainly, she had been right. She could never connect with one who wanted nothing to do with such things. With low spirits, he found a new passage.
'Today I cooked for Ulquiorra. I made sure to make something simple, so he wouldn't tell me never to do it again. It felt so good cooking again, like things are back to normal. He ate everything and even told me it was good! I was so happy he liked it. It seems he enjoyed the sweet taste, so maybe I can bake him something sometime…'
'All today, Ulquiorra was being very quiet. Actually, he was gone for a good part of the day, but when he was around, he did not say much, or even look in my direction. It's unusual for him to not check on me, or ask me how my work is. His lips were pursed too, so I think he was worried about the mission Aizen gave him. I don't know what it is, but it makes me nervous that he is nervous. Hopefully, Shadow will look out for him…'
There was a gap in entries after this. She seemed to have gone a few days without writing.
'I've been busy lately…mostly with my thoughts. I didn't know exactly how to write them, so I decided to wait. I think Ulquiorra was nearly killed, though he won't admit that. I also think he discovered something upsetting, but he won't admit that either.
I've thought about it, the scenario. Ulquiorra would have died alone with no one to help him. Other Espada seem to at least have others looking out for them, thinking of them. He has no one… but me. And what could I do anyways? He chooses to be alone, doesn't he?
No…I am not looking close enough. That night… the 'everything' seemed less. Like, instead of just standing on the earth, I was standing on a tower. There were no clouds, just clear sky, darkness, and the moon. That's what it was like, and I just couldn't stop reaching.'
He moved ahead again, feeling anxious, wanting to know what her words might mean. It was like he was missing an important clue in deciphering this alien language of hers. A short entry caught his eye.
'We stood side by side and looked at the moon. I'm no longer just on a tower. I'm in an airplane flying closer and closer… And the question plagues me… will the moon be gone right when I'm about to reach it? And even more importantly, what will I do with it if I do?'
And then suddenly, he had flipped to the last page available. It was a longer entry, and his fingers pressed against the words as if he could reach her through them.
'I'm going on a mission in order to protect my friends. I'm worried, not for my own safety, but regarding my ability to do what I need to do.
I've been thinking about what it means to connect. Yes, I think about this a lot… but it is one of the biggest struggles in this place, I think. Ulquiorra does not believe in connecting with someone, or so he says. He does not believe in 'the heart'. Love and friendship are meaningless to him. I gave up my life for these feelings, yet it would seem I have gained nothing in return but misfortune. In a way he might be right. I have been made to look a traitor. I have been lonely and afraid more than once. So what is the point? Thing is… perhaps the most important part… I would not have been able to stand such things without the knowledge that others were thinking of me and worrying for me too. I know they are worrying just the same as I am. We are fighting, in our own way, to return to one another. I know this as sure as I know the heart in my chest beats to keep me alive. Because of the heart I am connected to them, and they to me. Our hearts are one, no matter how far away we are from one another. And this makes all the difference. Tatsuki-chan, Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, Ishida-kun, Sado-kun…and so many others… are with me all the time. I'll never be alone, not really. Even if I die tomorrow, I won't be alone.
And… even if he would disagree, I also keep Ulquiorra in my heart. I don't want him to be alone anymore, I've decided. I don't care if I have to drag the moon down myself. We're together in this now. Nothing will divide us anymore. With all of these hearts connected to mine, there's no way I can fail tomorrow!'
His phone buzzed, but he did not heed it. He wanted to read those words, over and over, until they were memorized. What he had wondered at, struggled to understand, was explained right here. Her writing seemed careful, yet completely sincere, the way she described her thoughts and what she had decided upon.
She was not denying that the heart caused pain in ones life. In fact, she was all too aware of that fact. He knew that with any emotion came a negative side. Pride, greed, envy, wrath, things that were felt when acknowledging and following one's emotions. By doing away with all emotion, all feeling, he would remove it all so that he could not be influenced by it. There was nothing in this world worth the emotions attached to it. Emptiness could be the only happiness and peace.
When she came, he slowly began to change his behavior. At first, he hadn't even noticed it. Sometimes he would record her expressions to reevaluate later. Or things she said. It had been for the sake of knowledge, he rationalized. To better serve Aizen, or for furthering his own life. His change had gone further than that, though. He eventually did things that he knew to be risks. For her. For her own preservation. Suddenly he did not like the idea of her disappearing from his life.
What was that feeling? Wanting someone to stay alive, to stay near, to be safe. Why would he desire it?
Nothing will divide us.
The fear he had felt when she was trapped and the anger that soon followed were both because of the change in him. Yes, it was a change inside. It was the tightness in his chest. Because of her, he felt those things. They were painful. So was the jealousy he felt when she spoke of Ichigo.
However…his appreciation for her smile, her gentleness, her radiance, and her odd behaviors, these were all things also born from these feelings. They were things created because of his acceptance of her presence. No, even further, things he enjoyed seeing. If she had been killed, so would some part of himself. But he would not have given that up. There was no better reason for him to release all of his fears than to be with her.
He took up the pen and wrote in his careful handwriting right below her last words. And then he left her room and out of his apartment. He felt lighter in a way he hadn't felt in a long time. No, it was possible he had never felt such a feeling before in his life. Not as Tokio, and definitely not as Ulquiorra.
Grimmjow was waiting for him nearby, leaning casually against a wall. "We can't meet tonight, something came up with Szayel. Apparently there is some big news."
He nodded, looking around. It was strange that Grimmjow would want to talk to him about something like this; usually he would just leave a text. "Do you know more about this?" he asked, showing his confusion.
Grimmjow shook his head. "We'll find out tomorrow. I think early. But that's not why I'm here."
Ulquiorra's eyebrows shot up and his attention focused solely on the other man. "Then, why?"
"To warn you. Things aren't going very well for her."
His insides froze. Immediately he knew what her had meant. "What do you mean?"
"I mean she is getting the shit beaten out of her!" he said vehemently, "Those sisters, in Harribels section, they've been after her since she got there, I think. I found them in the act, tried to do the girl a favor, but she just healed them up."
With every ounce of calm façade he could muster, Ulquiorra let out a slow, deathly quiet, "I see." But inside, it was like a volcano had erupted. His hands wished to tear, to destroy, and he had the fight the urge to walk away just then and do it.
"You…tried to help?" he found himself asking, looking at Grimmjow. He must have seen the barely contained rage within for he nodded with a somewhat impressed expression.
"Yeah, she was being tossed around. I dunno why, I just acted." His blue eyes shifted away. "I suppose I felt I owed her that." He clenched his fist a moment, before looking back. "But she didn't want it. She said she…understood."
Ulquoirra tried to calm himself with slow breaths though his heart thundered rapidly. "Yes, she would say that."
"Why?" Grimmjow asked, rounding on him. "It's not like I've given her a reason to trust me or anything. She should be terrified! I even told her I wanted to kill her. But there was no fear in her eyes. How is she like that?"
Ulquiorra stared down at Grimmjow's hand, and then inspected his own. "Because…because of her heart. That's why," he said quietly, yet sincerely.
Grimmjow continued to look unsure. "Does she really…understand? How could a girl like her understand us?"
Ulquiorra's lip twitched faintly. Somehow he found it ironic, even humorous, that Grimmjow was wondering the very same thing he had been perplexed by this entire time. Now it was he who was explaining.
"Even if she does not behave as we do, it does not mean she cannot understand us. It is her willingness to try that is the difference. That woman has spent this entire time here trying to understand me. In the end, she knew me quite well, while I could not grasp her. No two people will ever be exactly the same, but that does not mean you cannot share yourself with them. It is a truth so simple, yet so profound…and I had not been able to see it."
Grimmjow watched him unblinkingly. "I was right about her. She is dangerous." But then he sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "But, she isn't the enemy. Guess I'd rather have her on our side than not."
Ulquiorra cocked an eyebrow at him, but agreed. "Yes, dangerous in a way Aizen is not. The ability to change another person's world is…quite impressive."
"Guess she is stronger than we thought." Grimmjow relented, turning away. He threw a glance over his shoulder and advised, "But don't push it too far. Those bitches don't know when to stop. Once they get over my little scare, they'll be back for vengeance."
Ulquiorra nodded, feeling, perhaps for the first time, grateful towards his ally. "Your warning won't be neglected."
A thought seemed to strike Grimmjow, for he paused in his turning away to look at Ulquiorra with a haunted expression. "Kurosaki…he's not normal either."
"Yes," he agreed softly, feeling a strange sensation. It was something between fear and curiosity. "He is…like us."
"Except, he can't control it. That makes him worse."
He understood what Grimmjow was getting at. The decision he had made so long ago, about Ichigo not being a threat, could possibly come back to haunt him. It was Grimmjow who had discovered what lay within, because Grimmjow could better identify with that desire to battle. While Ulquiorra also held that desire, it was not what fueled him and it was not part of his strength. Grimmjow's entire being focused around destruction. Only he could best identify that same quality in another. After witnessing how Ichigo had changed from their first meeting to the recent, it was apparent that he was undergoing some surprising changes in power.
"You may be right…" he said, causing even Grimmjow to look surprised. It may have been the first time he had conceded such a thing. "However, what stands him apart may very well be that he is fighting against it. If the moment ever came where Kurosaki accepted that darkness…" He let the possibility hang in the air, both understanding. It would be a power neither could defend against.
"But how?" Grimmjow asked next, his face set in a confused expression. "How is he like us?"
It had been a question that had plagued Ulquiorra as well. It made little sense; Aizen prided himself on his personally created enhancement technology. It was something that was being kept extremely secretive, enough so that their lives were being threatened to keep it under wraps. Yet here was an outsider exhibiting the same powers. This observation, coupled with Aizen's focus on information retrieval from the very company Ichigo worked for…it could not be a coincidence.
"I do not know," Ulquiorra said carefully, his thoughts reaching a conclusion that he would not have previously ever considered. "But we should bring this up. What Kurosaki holds within him is extremely dangerous."
"Looks like we've got a lot to talk about tomorrow," Grimmjow said finally. When Ulquiorra nodded, he made his way down the hall, leaving the other man alone to plan what to do. Ichigo Kurosaki and his strange power was pushed to the back of his mind as he recalled Orihime's harassment.
Tomorrow, he thought, he would talk to Harribel. And, even more assuring, Ulquiorra knew Harribel had returned from her recent assignment. He suspected, as cowardly as those two were, that they would not attack Orihime unless they knew for sure she was not being watched.
Tomorrow he would retrieve her. Tomorrow they would resolve their differences. He would be starting a new direction with his life.
A/N: I liked this chapter, especially writing the diary part. All of the canon additions that I enjoyed so much from the author simply had to be added. I felt this chapter had a lot of UlquiHime without them actually being around each other, hehe. So next chapter...another favorite of mine...for...reasons. That's all I'm sayin', so please go and review and I will try to hurry along with the next part ;)
Beta'd by an alarming chu~
Summerrayah: Thank you very much! I'm glad you are enjoying this story!
RAHbooks: Hehe, thanks for understanding, because that is true! And I do love the arrancar. It's been fun trying to write them in this setting!
Pardon the Insanity: Oh yes, Ulquiorra is very heart-sick over Orihime… I really wanted to portray how lost he is with the sudden silence, with her absence. The little things that she would do that still managed to impact him. And he feels guilty, which makes him think he deserves it.
But Ulquiorra is Ulquiorra and he still is trying to figure his other problems out (couldn't have him only moping around, right? Hehe) And no, I'm definitely not tech savvy either, so I try to make it understandable without it being too intense. Because, I simply can't do intense tech language to begin with, haha. And the password…I'm curious how many people will guess it right!
And soon-ish…hehe yes, soonish. As in, you are getting really warm…
Thank you so much for your thoughtful review!
Ulquihime7980: Not sure what you mean by secret? But thanks for reading!
-Miss Soupy