Bleached: Ep. 28

Disclaimer: We don't own Bleach, just Airi and Zezuri.

Note: Prepare for the most random of plot twists! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile; I was at school, kind of. -Airi


"Can you describe your attacker?" Hitsugaya asked Soi-Fon as some members of fourth division carried her on a stretcher to their headquarters.

"He was tall, black hair, dragon-like horn on his mask, very pale, green lines down his face, and green eyes," Soi-Fon acted like her pain was nothing, the only reason she'd allowed herself to be on the stretcher was so she could focus on answering Toshiro's questions.

"That one?" the tenth taicho asked, "I fought him when we took Zezuri into custody. It took Ichigo, Ukitake, Matsumoto, and my combined strength just to pull away from him," The short snowy-haired captain stared at Soi-Fon in amazement. "He must have been in a rush… but why?" He stopped mid-step as the realization hit him. "Matsumoto!"

"You called, Taicho?" she asked.

"I have reason to believe there were multiple targets."

"Who else?"

"Airi."

Matsumoto's eyes went wide.

--

Ulquiorra had taken Airi and Grimmjow to the human world. He hadn't gone back to Hueco Mundo since his failure. Even now that he had retrieved the girl he had been ordered to protect, he couldn't tolerate returning in failure and disgrace. It had taken him all of four days to make up his mind as to what to do, and it hadn't been without help.

-Flashback-

The shinigami were about to over power him, but they didn't seem to know that as they attacked again. The blow made him stagger backwards a few steps. In the few seconds he was recovering, the shinigami disappeared back into the soul society's gates. The fourth espada found himself unable to swallow his pride and return to Hueco Mundo in dishonor. Instead he wandered aimlessly around the town, concealing his aura.

It was late evening of the second day when, "Hey there! What's an espada doing away from Las Noches so long?" a man standing in the air asked him from behind.

Ulquiorra whirled around, prepared to attack.

"Well…?" The man was almost as tall as Ulquiorra, not counting the espada's mask. He had blond hair cut at a constant level just above his shoulders.

The fourth espada glared at the intruder on his thoughts.

"You failed your mission and can't bear going back, is that it?" Shinji Hirako knew he was right; he and the other Vizards had been keeping close watch on the action lately and knew exactly what was going on. In fact, only a few hours ago had they decided it was worth a shot to recruit the nomadic arrancar. "You do realize that if you don't save the other two, soul society will kill them," the Vizard leader pointed out.

Of course Ulquiorra knew that, after all an arrancar was just a more powerful version of a hollow, which their job was to destroy.

"We can get you there, but you'll have to go alone. In return all I ask is that you join us; the Vizards. We're not all that different after all. Half shinigami, half hollow. We just became that way in a different order."

Ulquiorra remained unresponsive.

"Well, I'll let you mull it over, just remember there's' not much time, large things are happening and you need to decide who's side you are on." With that Shinji left the fourth espada to his thoughts.

A few days later, Ulquiorra had shown up at the Vizard's hideout, leaving them all stunned that the fourth espada would even have considered joining them. And so he'd gone and rescued the two arrancar.

-End Flashback-

--

Matsumoto and the others, except Unohana and Isane, showed up to investigate.

"What happened!?" Zezuri rushed over to them and asked.

"They're gone, another espada came and got him. Is Airi here?" Toshiro asked.

Zezuri shook her head no. "T-they… left… right?" she asked.

"Yes, their presence is long gone."

Zezuri was stunned as to why they would leave her behind. She knew that she would just be a burden, but it didn't seem fair. Would they come back for her?

--

"Ulquiorra, what the hell is going on and where are we going?" Grimmjow burst out suddenly after ten minutes of walking the streets in silence. "Don't tell me you haven't been back to Las Noches."

The dark-haired arrancar remained silent, at a loss as to how to phrase how Aizen's most loyal espada was the first one to betray him.

Airi was also wondering were they were going, but didn't say anything. Ulquiorra was carrying her still; he knew she hadn't been allowed to get out of bed for four straight days. Airi would need some time to recover from that as well. They turned a corner and stopped in front of a large warehouse.

"What the heck is this place?" asked Grimmjow, noting the barrier surrounding it.

"The base of the Vizards," the fourth espada stated.

"WHAT? Are you telling me you've gone traitor?"

"In a manner of speaking."

Grimmjow looked as if the apocalypse was imminent.

"Do you have a problem with this?"

"No, I always thought if anyone would jump ship it would have been me."

"Does that matter?"

"Not really."

"Yo, Ulquiorra-san! Are you coming in?" Shinji stepped out of the barrier, as Ulquiorra flinched at the nickname. Shinji walked over to the trio of arrancar.

"Welcome to the Vizards!" he said with a dorky grin.

"Wait, I never agreed to this," protested Grimmjow.

"You really don't have a choice."

Grimmjow scowled, realizing the Vizard was right.

"And what about you?" Shinji asked Airi.

"I-I'm fine with it."

"Great!" The four entered the old warehouse.

--

The next day rolled around after everything was fixed from the breakout. Zezuri awoke and her thoughts streamed through her head again. Thinking that she would get to visit Airi or Grimmjow reminded her of last night, which led her to doubting they'd be back if they'd left her here. Was she to remain in the Seireitei forever? She felt bad doubting the two people she loved most. Zezuri hoped that they would be back for her, but how they would was near impossible.Seeing that she was already awake, he entered.

There was a knock on her door and Renji slid it open to see if she was up.

"Renji… good morning…" Zezuri greeted the lieutenant.

"What's wrong?" he asked noticing the sadness in her voice.

"Am I going to be stuck here forever?"

Renji was slightly taken aback by this question. "Well… I know we're keeping you here to protect you from Aizen, but we don't know what he wants from you… so it could be awhile.

"Yeah…" she let out a big sigh.She must have developed a severe case of Stockholm syndrome; he concluded and decided to change the subject.

"D-do you want to go back?" Renji hadn't seen her this depressed since she'd come here.

"Well… it's not that I want to go back… it's just… I had friends there too…"

"But, don't you like it here? We're your friends!" Renji protested.

"I have some important meetings to go to today, so Captain Kuchiki has arranged for you to spend the day at thirteenth division.

"Huh? Why?"

"He's confident in his sister's ability to be able to guard you, but he'll never admit that."

--

"I don't care ya aren't happy 'bout it! You're part of our group so ya gotta act like it!"

"I don't care! I didn't want to be part of this in the first place."

"Deal wit' it!"

Airi woke up in time to see a short, blonde Vizard whack Grimmjow across the face with her sandal.

Grimmjow growled at the short Vizard.

"What's this? The kitty wants ta fight me?"

"You little brat!" Grimmjow and the girl drew their swords.

"What's all this racket for so early in the morning?" Shinji entered the large part of the warehouse from a smaller room. "Hiyori, Grimmjow, if you're going to fight, at least put a barrier up so our base doesn't get totaled," He walked over to the couch where Airi was now attempting to sit up on. "Ah, so the third one is awake now, good morning!"

Airi was still a bit groggy, but quite intent on getting herself up.

"Need help?" the Vizard leader asked.

"No," Airi attempted again, inwardly cursing herself, "…Maybe…"

Shinji quickly pulled Airi up.

"Thanks…"

"No problem," He gave her his trademark grin. Airi subconsciously put a hand to her neck to fidget with the collar.

"Here, let me remove that," Shinji put his hand up to the red collar. It broke apart at his touch. "Must have been rough, the prisoner of soul society and an arrancar."

Already Airi trusted the Vizard even thought she had just met him, so she told her story from the start to the present as Hiyori and Grimmjow fought each other in front of them.

The other Vizards and Ulquiorra were watching from the balcony. "My money's on Hiyori!" declared one with a black almost-afro hairstyle.

"What? No way, Love! You can't change you bet halfway through the fight," protested the green haired, female Vizard, Mashiro. "Who do you think will win, Ulquiorra?" she asked. Ulquiorra watched but did not say a word.

--

"Captain Kuchiki has a sister?" asked Zezuri as they walked to the 13th division.

"Yeah, I grew up with her in the districts. We went to the academy together, then… the Kuchiki family took her in," Renji explained.

"Oh."

They finally arrived at the 13th division building.

"CAPTAIN! THEY'RE HERE!" a girl with white gloves shouted so loud that Renji and Zezuri's ears rung.

"Hey! I was going to tell the captain!" another soul reaper argued.

"Well, too bad! I already did! So get in line!" The two shouted back and fourth.

"Kiyone, Sentaro, please stop shouting, it's shaking the walls…" Ukitake appeared in the doorway.

The two soul reapers straightened themselves as their captain spoke.

"Hey, Captain, Ukitake, where's-" Renji was interrupted by a voice behind him.

"You're late Renji," Rukia stated.

"Rukia!" Renji whirled around.

"Why so late? Didn't want to leave her, did you?" Rukia teased.

"Shut up! She needed to eat first!"

"Staling?" Rukia asked.

"Yes, I mean NO!" frustration twisted Renji's words and confused him.

"Is this how people get along here?" Zezuri thought, then giggled slightly.

"What?" Rukia and Renji turned their attention to her.

"Grimmjow did that a lot…"

"Who?" asked Rukia.

"Oh, no one…" Zezuri said. I have a feeling it's what he's doing right now, she continued in thought.

--

Shinji eventually broke up the fight and Grimmjow went to pout in a corner with a large red mark on his face from the sandal. His hand brushed against his picket as he sat down. "Huh?" he reached his hand in and pulled out Zezuri's hair clip. He gazed at it for a long time.

"Hey, what's he doing?" the green haired Vizard, Mashiro, whispered to Airi. The group was all surrounding the large couch now, save for Grimmjow.

"I don't know. What is he holding?"

"Something green and plastic."

"A hairclip?"

"Possibly?"

"It's Zezuri's, but how he got it, I don't know."

"Who's Zezuri?"

Airi found herself retelling her story for the second time that day. During this round, Shinji pulled Hiyori aside and held a separate conversation. Airi didn't notice their occasional glances at her.

"Aw, he's thinking about her!" Mashiro squealed. Grimmjow only gave them a sad glare and shoved the clip back in his pocket.


Thanks for reading! Questions? Comments?