Chapter 33

His phone rang while he sat on a bench inside the train station. He didn't recognize the number. He answered it anyway. "Hello?" he asked, knowing his voice sounded rough.

"Ulquiorra, you sound terrible."

"You bitch-"

"Ah, do not insult the woman who gave birth to your child. Eriko's fine. She's sitting here with me, eating some onigiri. She says that she's having fun, but I need to lay things out for you," Yuko said.

"What?"

"I need twenty million yen."

The ridiculousness of that statement made Ulquiorra burst with laughter. There was nothing funny about it, but the fact that this woman thought that he had that much money was insane. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Twenty million yen, and I'll give you Eriko back. If not, she can be put to good use."

The seriousness of the threat hit him and left him breathless. "You wouldn't. That's your child!"

Yuko scoffed. "I owe someone a lot of money. I need the money by tomorrow."

"Who is it? Yakuza? Are you into drugs? Gambling?"

"Let's just say that I had a couple of business ventures that failed. My partner swindled me. I had to make up costs," Yuko said.

Ulquiorra felt a burning sensation in his stomach as he tried to compile this information into something usable. "Where are you? Let me speak to Eriko."

"Nah, she looks so grown up now, though. I bought her a bra. I gave her a haircut-"

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, she looked infantile with all that hair. I gave her a much more grown-up style," Yuko commented. "I put makeup on her. She looks like she could serve drinks at a bar."

Ulquiorra had to resist the urge to scream. "Where are you Yuko? I want my daughter. I went to court to be declared her sole legal custodian. You have no right to her."

"I'm her mother, and if you want her, I want my twenty-million yen."

The line went dead and Ulquiorra's hand tightened around the device with anger. He had to keep a level head. He had to use logic. What would the Espada version of him do? That tripped him up for a moment.

What would the Espada do?

Think of this situation objectively. He had used Pesquisa to locate Orihime when Grimmjow took her. He could not use that trick for this abduction. He had used his Resurreccion and fought Kurosaki when he found out the shinigami was going to take Orihime from him. It was a battle he ultimately lost. He could not do that this time. The redhead had practically begged him not to take lives this time. She said it wouldn't be productive.

Orihime had said that Ishida was the best person to detect spiritual pressure, but he doubted the man would help. Could he go to Urahara? No. He should tell Orihime what had transpired.

- Yuko called. She's basically holding Eriko for ransom.

Orihime asked Kazui to read the message as she drove toward Kanagawa. She had spent the drive so far explaining the situation. The boy had taken the news about as well as could be expected. Orihime asked Kazui to call Ulquiorra and put him on speaker.

Ulquiorra was walking back to the house when he answered. He sounded exhausted. "Hello?"

"Ulquiorra!" Kazui's voice burst through before Orihime shushed him.

"Tell me, how much?" Orihime asked. If she could afford it, she would put up the money herself.

"Twenty million. I only have twelve in my bank account."

Orihime's mouth fell open. Why would that woman want or need that much money? "Ulquiorra, that's outrageous. I… I could sell the shop, but that takes time! I can move some money around, but I don't have it easily available and it's a Sunday. The banks are closed. What the fuck is she thinking? Sorry Kazui, never use that word."

A sigh left him. "She owes someone money. A lot of money. She needs it by tomorrow. Yuko… She..." Ulquiorra huffed. He couldn't get the words out of his mouth without feeling sick.

"Do you have her number?" Orihime asked. She knew her boyfriend was operating beyond his limits. Maybe Orihime could talk some sense into this bitch; make a deal with her. "Maybe I can broker a deal with her. I just want Eri home. Today."

"I want the same damn thing! I wanted her home last night. No, I had to be a dumb ass and show her I wasn't that bad of a father," he snapped. He knew his anger was misplaced. Orihime didn't deserve it. "Sorry. I'm just… frustrated."

Orihime had to take a few breaths to calm herself before she responded, "I know. Just text me her number and I'll see what I can do."

Ulquiorra did that and said goodbye.

"What the hell is her number, Eriko?"

The girl trembled with fear. She was standing in just her underwear in Yuko's dirty bathroom. Her birth mother had smeared stuff on her face, telling her how pretty she was, but Eriko didn't think so. She looked hideous. Her hair looked horrible and uneven. It was lopsided. It looked like Yuko hacked at it with a knife.

"I don't know! It's in my phone!"

"Where's your phone?"

"I already told you! I left it at my dad's because I got in trouble!" she sobbed, covering herself with her arms.

Yuko scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Stand up. You need to be a big girl and smile for me."

"I hate you. He was right. You're nothing but a manipulating-"

SMACK.

This made more tears pour out of Eriko's eyes. She had never been hit in her entire life. "You're a liar."

"Suck it up, buttercup. The world sucks."

Orihime stopped at a highway wayside just outside of Kanagawa and called the number Ulquiorra had texted to her. She had thought a lot about how to handle this over the past fifteen minutes, and she sent out a silent prayer that this would work.

The phone rang. It rang twice more before an automated voice answered, saying that the number was not accepting calls at this time, and hung up.

"Shit!" Orihime hissed, but then her phone buzzed in her hand. She had a message from an unknown number. She opened it and nearly vomited.

What was this woman? Orihime was horrified at the images on her phone. Eriko looked terrified. She was dolled up like a sex trafficking victim. There was a welt on her face.

Ulquiorra was right. Yuko needed to die.

Orihime's spiritual pressure alarmed Kazui, who got out of the car and took a few steps toward his mother.

"KAZUI! NO! Stay in the car," she barked at him in a rough voice. There was no way in hell that her son, or her boyfriend, or anyone else in the world, for that matter, would ever see these images.

She stared down her son until he closed the door of the car and then she tried the number again, this time her hands shaking.

"I see you're a persistent one, aren't you Kurosaki?"

"I am. I have your money. Ulquiorra spent his. Where do you want to meet?"

"Mmmm, can't meet right now. Eriko and I are on our way to work," Yuko said. It was true. She was on her way to work, dragging the girl behind her. She kept stumbling and dragging her feet as most reluctant kids did. "I can try to meet you tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow is too late. This is your chance, Yuko. I'm in town. Where do you work?"

Yuko laughed. "I'm sorry. This isn't my chance. I'm not going to make this easy for you. You'll agree to my terms or it's bye-bye little princess. Tomorrow morning."

Those words. Those words sparked a memory of Las Noches. A memory of whorish, jealous arrancar tearing her clothing and beating her senseless. Orihime had been benevolent then.

She was not feeling so generous today.

"Have it your way, Yuko. You fucked with the wrong princess," Orihime growled and hung up. If Yuko had an ounce of sense, she would call back with details.

Orihime had no money, but she had the means to get her way, even if she had to reject the woman's very existence.

Ulquiorra was trying to drink another cup of coffee when his phone rang. It was that unknown number. Yuko. He snatched his phone from the kitchen island and answered it. "What do you want now? How the fuck do you want to ruin my life, Yuko?"

"Now, I called to offer an olive branch. Your bitch says that you're broke. I'm calling to confirm this. If you are, then I'll let you talk to Eriko one last time before I ship her off," Yuko said. It was noisy in the background.

"What? No! I have some money," he stated. "It's very hard to gather what I need when the banks are closed. I have no way to get your money."

"That whore that's attached to you says that she has my money and I need to give up my location. It's not going to happen. This will happen on my terms or it won't happen at all. Do you understand that? If it doesn't happen, you will never see Eriko again."

A long, heavy sigh left Ulquiorra. His face contorted into one of rage. How he hated this woman. It was hard to believe that at one point in time he was enamored with her. He couldn't believe he let himself be manipulated by her. "Is Eriko doing okay?"

"Mmmm, yeah, except she's mouthy. She's at work with me and wants to learn the ropes."

"I swear to God-"

His threat fell on a dead line. Yuko had hung up.

He had to call Orihime.

"Hello?" Orihime sounded cold when she picked it up after seeing Kazui off on a train back to Naruki from Kanagawa.

"Yuko called me," Ulquiorra said. "Where are you? "

"I'm at the train station in Kanagawa. I just sent Kazui home. He can't be here for this."

Of course she was there. She was more functional than he was at the moment. "Yuko offered to let me speak to Eriko if I was broke before she shipped her off. Why would you tell her I was broke? I'm trying to come up with the other eight million yen."

"I told her I had all of it. She didn't care. She is going to milk us dry and then sell Eriko to the highest bidder. At least she would, if she had the chance. This ends today."

There was the sound of glass shattering. Ulquiorra had launched the coffee cup in his hand through the window over the sink. Hearing those words made this whole situation more terrifying for him. He sat there shaking. "I need to get out of this Gigai. No one can see me. I can take care of Yuko."

"No!" Orihime said, her voice sharp. "No. You will destroy us all, Urahara says. Go to him. Maybe he can advise you. In the meantime… What the hell?" Orihime's phone was buzzing. "Riruka?"

"What does that twit want? She's not supposed to contact you! That was in the contract she signed."

"It's a text. She says to contact her and that it's urgent."

Yukio watched as Yuko dragged an even shorter girl into the club with her. He rolled his eyes as he stood in the DJ booth, headphones blocking out the noise from these people who were cleaning up the floor from the previous night. The club wouldn't open yet for a few hours. Did that aging hooker have his money?

He watched as Yuko dragged the younger woman to a back room. Those were private, VIP rooms. Nobody said "Club's closed, come back later" to the people who came in and out of those rooms. Maybe Yuko was working extra hard today to get the funds to him. It wasn't his business how she went about doing it.

A few moments later, the DJ felt a tug on his right ear as someone pulled at his headphones.

"Yukio, why the hell is Cifer's kid here?" Riruka asked.

The younger man wrinkled his nose at the pigtailed woman in disgust. There was not much to like about her, if you asked him. "Who the hell is Cifer? And how would I know?" he snapped back, pulling his head away.

Riruka didn't bother to hide her scoff or put up a pretense of being nice. "Ulquiorra Cifer? Bought out my half of that stupid cafe Orihime was running? Why did Yuko just drag his kid through here? She's like, nine or something."

Yukio's head snapped in the woman's direction. "Are you fucking serious?"

Riruka nodded. She had met Eriko time and time again at Halcyon. The kid was kind of awesome, but her dad was a complete dick. "You don't remember what Grimmjow and Nel said about him, do you?"

"Can't say that I listen to idiots, but go on."

"But you listen to yourself talk every day," she retorted. Riruka rolled her eyes. "He was an Espada; the fourth. Do you really want a fucking Espada breathing down our necks? Not to mention, Orihime Inoue is practically her stepmother."

Yukio's experience with Espada had been less than impressive. He assumed them all to be hot-headed, battle obsessed hollows, without a purpose other than to sate their bloodlust. That didn't bother him much; he knew how to hide from hollows.

What did send a shiver down his spine was the mention of the other Fullbringer. Not only were her powers completely insane, but if memory served, she had the ear of the elite of Soul Society. He did not need this right now. He did not need that ever. He liked this little life he had carved out for himself here. He didn't need some dumb hooker bringing the the wrath of Soul Society down on him. He was supposed to be dead, anyway.

"Fuck," he said. "I'm gonna go make sure Yuko doesn't do anything else stupid. What do you think we should do? Call Inoue and tell her to come pick up her kid? And be discreet about it?"

"We could put Yuko in the Dollhouse. I bet she hasn't paid you anyway. It might be entertaining to watch her try to fight," Riruka said. The pink-haired woman sighed and tapped a manicured fingernail against her lip. "That's not Orihime's kid. Yuko is Eriko's mom, from what I gathered while snooping. But that kid looks really messed up. I'll call Orihime. You stop stupid."

Yukio's face blanched at the idea that it was her own daughter that Yuko was planning to exploit. "You might find her in the dollhouse entertaining, but unless your teddy bears have deep wallets and enjoy paying for over-ripe hookers, I am not getting paid if she's in there." The young man sighed. "Whatever. You do your thing I'll make sure the girl is safe. That's fucking sick, anyway."

Riruka felt like she could see her brain with how far she was able to roll her eyes this time. One of these days they would pop out of her head. "I told you not to lend any money to the bitch. You set yourself up for disappointment satisfying her gambling addiction."

"Thanks for reminding me why I gave up drinking, bitch," Yukio grumbled with a wave as he walked back to the VIP room.

"At least I have taste when it comes to one night stands," she fired back before pulling out her phone and tapping out a text. When it was sent, all they could do was wait.

As soon as Orihime exited the train station, she called her former business partner. She didn't wait for the other woman to speak after the line was picked up, muttering, "This had better be important, Riruka, I'm in the middle of a crisis right now."

"Um, is there a reason why Eriko would be with Yuko?" Riruka asked in a snotty tone.

Orihime's heart felt like it stopped. The hard edge that had carried her this far wavered, and when she answered Riruka, her fear made her voice reedy and thin. "How do you know that, Riruka? Have you seen them? Please, tell me anything you know."

The woman sighed, barely able to handle a conversation with the other woman. "Yuko works at the club that I have a hand in. She brought Eriko in. I know it's Eriko, though she looks like some painted whore. Her hair is a lot shorter. That's a dreadful haircut, by the way. Anyway, Yuko took Eriko into the back of the house. I don't know if they're in a VIP room or dressing area-"

Orihime's eyelids pressed shut as she listened, drinking in the information until it became clear that Riruka was rambling. She cut her off with a terse, "Where is this club, Riruka? I am coming to get Eriko and bring her home. Yuko kidnapped her."

"Fine, fine. Just promise me you won't bring Soul Society down on us."

"If you protect Eriko until I get there, I will personally make sure that they think you are dead."

"Don't worry about that," she said in a flippant tone. "Yukio's making sure that the brat is okay. It's called Deep Azure. I'll text you the address."

"I'll be there in a matter of minutes," Orihime said before ending the call. It didn't matter if this club was on the coast. She'd ride her Shun Shun Rikka over there as fast as it would take her. In the meantime, she had to call Ulquiorra.

After the phone call with Orihime, Ulquiorra knew his hunch was right. He used Sonido to transport himself to Karakura Town. He walked into Halcyon and stared down Yamada, who was behind the counter. The woman squeaked out a greeting, but it wasn't going to fly with him.

While he had been cleaning up the glass in the kitchen, memories assaulted him of his days in college. Yuko always brought around a friend when they went out. Ai Ito hadn't been very pretty back then. Of course, the bitch hadn't been married back then, either. They had been at some karaoke place when a drunk Yuko pushed Ai through a glass table for flirting with Ulquiorra. The woman had cut her hand, and the next time he saw her she had stitches and bandages around her hand and arm.

It was funny that this Ai always wore long sleeves, and today was no different. She stood there in a long sleeved black t-shirt. All it took was Ulquiorra striding over to the woman and pulling the fabric up.

"Hey you can't-Help! Satomi! Endo-"

"Shut up," Ulquiorra sneered. "Should I address you as Yamada or as Ito?"

The struggling woman went white at those words. "You remember me?"

"Yes, there was something about you I couldn't put my finger on, but I've never liked you. I didn't like you back then, and I certainly do not like you now. You told Yuko. Where are they? Where is Yuko and where is my daughter?" Ulquiorra said, applying pressure to the same arm that had that jagged scar running down it. If he used enough force and power, he might be able to break it.

"They're at-"

Ding. Ding. Ding.

It was his phone. Ulquiorra dragged Ai into the office and leaned against the door after he flung the other inside. None of the other employees said a word to him. It was Orihime who was keeping him from finding his daughter. "Woman. I'm on the verge of finding where Eriko is."

"I already know. I'm almost there, now. Riruka is with her. She recognized her and called me," Orihime sounded both frantic and relieved at the same time.

"Oh," he breathed. Emotions swept through his body, and he wanted to break down, but he couldn't. He still had to deal with this snake. He spoke knowing his daughter would be safe with his girlfriend. "I had a memory hit me after I broke the window. There was a reason I do not like Ai Yamada."

"Tell me," Orihime said, her voice guarded. She was already planning on bringing the pain to one woman, she hoped she didn't need to add another to her list.

"You won't like this at all. Yuko used to have a friend… Ai Ito. Yuko was drunk one night and got angry that Ai flirted with me. It was just a simple laying her hand on my arm, but it drove Yuko to push Ai through this glass coffee table. Guess who has a scar that matches the injury I remember?"

Orihime's jaw clenched. "You were right," she spoke through gritted teeth. "I should never have hired her. I'm so sorry. I'm going to make this right, though."

A sigh came from Ulquiorra. "I just want my daughter safe. If you reject Yuko, there is nothing I can do or say. You know what I want done," he said.

"I love you, Ulquiorra. I'll call you as soon as I have Eriko in my arms. In the meantime, do whatever you want with Yamada. I promised you that Yuko will pay. I'll leave it at that."

When the call ended, Ulquiorra looked at Ai. "I want to kill you. I'm not going to, because your life is not worth trading my freedom. You're going to leave. You will never step foot around me or my family again. Do you understand that Ito-Yamada-whatever the fuck your name is?"

"You're not going to call the cops on me?"

"And give you the satisfaction of having a roof over your head? No."

Ai shivered at the cold tone that came out of the man. She nodded her head. "I'm sorry, Cifer-san. I didn't want to-Yuko, you see-"

"I DO NOT CARE. YOU ARE DISMISSED!" Ulquiorra's voice could be heard from the street. He opened the door and pointed out it. "Leave. You have exactly thirty seconds to vacate this business."

"Yes, sir. I apologize-"

The deadly look on his face shut her up.

A/N: Thanks for reading! What do you think Orihime's planning?