Under the ground is usually where the world's most evil liked to lurk, away from the sun's light. How much evil then would be that which hid from the blank, dark sky of Hueco Mundo? Lilera didn't know. She didn't care. The pain in her head pounded, and her breathing was ragged. Sometimes she coughed up blood for no reason, her lungs burning with a pain that would never subside.

This was a consequence of her transformation. She felt no better than a corpse, poison oozing its was through her body. Some of her veins showed as a deep, pulsing purple, reminding her she no longer was a normal arrancar.

The trade off for this was immense power. The increase of her spiritual pressure was at least tenfold. She wasn't sure where or how this happened, but she wasn't one to complain. Hell, maybe she'd be able to fight Grimmjow or something now.

"Hes still alive?!"

Lilera heard Loly scream as she entered the room. She had made her way to the upper floor of the fourth espada's tower. This was Loly's preferred hub, as it was the closest to Halibel's as she could get to. "Not only that, one of our strongest battle ready arrancar were completely destroyed by just one of their captains?! Why didn't anyone tell me they assigned a captain to that stupid town?!"

Lilera winced at Loly's screaming. Ever since her…"transformation", her fear of Loly's wrath increased tenfold.

"Calm down, my lady, the strongest batch are nearly complete," came the voice of Lilera's nightmare-the ragged, chained creature that was responsible for the arrancar's horrendous transformations.

"That stupid Ulquiorra thinks he can just get away free with betraying our lord Aizen like that?" Loly continued ranting. "He has to pay for what he has done."

"My lady, please allow me to kill him," Lilera said, getting down on one knee.

"Even with your new form, you're no match for a captain," Loly scoffed. "No…I'm just going to have to concoct a new plan to put that traitor in his rightful place."


"…love?"

Ulquiorra murmured the word a few moments after Orihime's confession. When he had said the word in his accidental confession some moments prior, he had spoken without understanding its meaning. Yet…he could think of no other way to describe the intensity it brought him.

Orihime wrung her hands and could only stare at Ulquiorra's chest. Sweat poured down the back of his neck. The last time he felt an anxiety this intense it was moments before his first death.

"I…thought about it," Orihime finally continued. "I think what I…no, I know what I feel is love."

"I…know," was all Ulquiorra could manage.

"What do we do?" Orihime whispered.

"What do you mean by that question?" Ulquiorra asked. "You speak as if this is a problem."

"It's just that…" Orihime seemed to have an issue finding words. "I don't think Soul Society is going to be very happy about it."

"About what? They do not dictate my feelings the last time I checked," Ulquiorra scoffed.

"No, about a human having an espada for a boyfriend," Orihime said. The corners of her mouth turned into a smile. "Wow! My very own boyfriend!"

Ulquiorra was taken aback but Orihime's sudden mood change, and when he recovered from the shock he felt his face burn in embarrassment. "B-boyfriend?" Had he finally earned this coveted title?

"U-unless you don't want to be," Orihime blushed.

"Please! Allow me to…to…be your…boyfriend," Ulquiorra stammered.

Orihime suddenly hugged Ulquiorra. "Oh good! I was so worried you didn't feel that way about me! I just-"

The front door opened. Rangiku and Hitsugaya had returned from their outing. Orihime immediately let go of Ulquiorra and blushed, much to his disappointment.

"I hope we weren't interrupting something," Rangiku said with a wink.

"You're so crude," Hitsugaya groaned.

"No, and don't concern yourselves over it," Ulquiorra said, his voice cold. "You should get some sleep, Orihime. You have a busy day tomorrow."

"Y-yes!" Orihime agreed, and scampered off to her bedroom.


Ulquiorra couldn't push the events of last night from his mind. He couldn't sleep, which forced him to pace restlessly on the roof of the apartment complex. Hitsugaya was clearly bothered by this, and groggily appeared on the rooftop to give Ulquiorra a shouting. Under normal circumstances Ulquiorra would have pitched a fit, but this time he was in such a good mood he let it slide.

"Good morning, Orihime," Ulquiorra said the next morning, dressed and ready as Komori, as he stood in the kitchen preparing his own breakfast.

Orihime, her hair a disaster as per usual every time she woke up, looked through her tangled red mess and blinked. "You're smiling…"

Ulquiorra's face fell once he realized he had done so the moment he saw Orihime. "Sorry. I did not notice."

"No! No it's good!" Orihime insisted. "I like it when you smile. Sometimes you can't help it and that means I know you're truly happy at that moment."

Am I happy? Ulquiorra thought. Is this what happiness feels like? It was true that ever since last night, he felt like a huge burden had been lifted from his chest. He shook the thought and said, "you should get dressed and eat, you have a busy day today."

"You know I never…" Orihime began to say.

"Never what?" Ulquiorra asked, his attention completely on her words.

"…I don't think I would have imagined that you of all people would be my first boyfriend," Orihime said shyly. "I-I don't mean that in a bad way I just…it's funny how things work out!"

"Very," Ulquiorra sighed. What a strange girl, always saying obvious things like this. He…loved that about her.

School was uneventful, as neither "Komori" nor Orihime announced their relationship status (especially out of a wariness of Kurosaki). Uryu and Tatsuki seemed suspicious, but this was not unusual behavior for them, so they were easily brushed off. Kurosaki seemed more sulky than usual, probably due to Orihime's outburst at him, which was understandable.

Ulquiorra began to worry a bit about how quiet things had been lately. Hitsugaya had reported that there had been little to no disturbance to Karakura town outside of the normal hollows. Ulquiorra often ignored Grimmjow and Nel, and the last time he was with Urahara he was deathly ill, so he had next to no reports on the state of Hueco Mundo. Perhaps Grimmjow was actually doing his job? Ridiculous…

The pair headed home quickly after school, for Orihime to change into her new uniform, and Ulquiorra to evacuate his gigai. When he stopped to look at himself in the mirror after resuming his identity of an espada, he felt a twinge of disappointment. Did he…wish he was human? Useless thoughts… Ulquiorra brushed them aside. You had your time as a human, didn't you?

But did he really? Ulquiorra could never remember being human. Even after his mysterious rebirth, no memory of his past life ever returned to him. He used to not care, but now because of Orihime it bothered him from time to time.

"Ulquiorra? We're going to be late!" called Orihime.

"Oh! Right, my apologies," Ulquiorra replied, tearing himself away from the mirror.

Orihime saw Ulquiorra and smiled. "You're actually wearing clothes as an arrancar this time!"

This remark was true. Ulquiorra, right before being released from Urahara, requested some better clothing than a thin yukata for his Arrancar form. Ulquiorra had requested clothing he could fight in, but desired to neither wear Aizen's uniform for him or the black Soul Reaper clothing. Instead, Urahara managed to find a middle ground between the two, complete with white hakama and a more form-fitting top. "I suppose I developed a form of self respect," Ulquiorra remarked. "Rather than just wearing what I was told. Hm. It is nice having preferences."

Orihime beamed at him and walked out the door. "Let's go, my Knight!"

"Knight?" Ulquiorra asked.

"Hmm," Orihime replied. "A knight protects the Princess, right?"

Ulquiorra blushed. "I see."

Ulquiorra spent the walk to Orihime's work simply glancing at her whenever it seemed she wouldn't notice. While his feelings had been put recently to words, there still were unanswered questions that gave him anxiety in the pit of his stomach. Who was he, really? Why was he so different from the other arrancar? And the worst question of all…how the hell was he alive? He distracted himself by gazing at Orihime's beauty. Her long hair was pulled back in a bun, which was an unusual hairstyle for her, but it gave her a sense of maturity. She still wore her hairpins, but she looked much more like a woman than her usual girlish appearance. Ulquiorra had no idea how old he was in comparison to her, but only recently did he really feel alive.

Ulquiorra held back the urge to open the door for Orihime, realizing he was invisible to everyone else and a door opening by itself would only serve as an alarm to those around them. He muttered an apology to Orihime, mostly out of his own hurt pride, and followed her into the building. He stayed inside long enough to make sure she was settled, then he went outside to patrol.

Did he eat before he came? He wondered. His stomach growled from the delicious smell coming from the bakery ovens. No, he was too preoccupied with Orihime getting prepared out of the door he didn't even eat a snack when she did.

"Of course I forgot something so vital," he groaned to himself, taking a seat on the roof. He pulled his sheathed sword from his belt and looked at it. "Well, Mercialago, I don't blame you for leaving someone like me behind."

Time passed. Ulquiorra wished he was wearing a watch when in his arrancar form so he could at least tell what time it was. It had to have been hours. He ended up going through several training rounds just out of sheer boredom. He could sometimes watch Orihime through the window, but he didn't want to overwhelm her, so he tried not to watch her like she was some animal in a cage. He already kept her locked away once. He wasn't going to do it again, nor ever make her feel that way.

"Not even a hollow?" Ulquiorra said to his sword. He didn't think it would help, but speaking to his sword like it was a person gave him a bit of hope they were bonding at least to some degree.

It was strange. Due to the strong amounts of spirit energy in Karakura town, there usually always was hollows or at least wholes around. Yet, there was nothing but silence. This made Ulquiorra uneasy. The arrancar wouldn't have just quit. Perhaps they pulled back because they were planning something big. That wasn't an ideal situation in Ulquiorra's mind, and he decided that after work he would like to stop in with Urahara and the other Arrancar to speak with them.

"Whew! What a long day!" Orihime said at long last. She had a large basket of bread in her arms as she walked out the door.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" Ulquiorra asked, floating down from the roof. He looked at the basket of bread hungrily; it was nearly nine o'clock at night, and he hadn't eaten since lunch. "As much as one can enjoy work, anyways."

Orihime handed a roll of bread to Ulquiorra. "Here! I remembered you didn't eat a snack before we came but I just was so busy I couldn't bring you anything! I'm really sorry I-"

Ulquiorra pecked her forehead, silencing the girl. "It's fine. What is this? And why do you have so much bread?" He examined the bread roll he was handed.

"Oh thats seaweed bread!" Orihime explained. "These are all leftover unsold bread. They'd otherwise get thrown away but they're perfectly good so I am taking them home!"

Ulquiorra began eating the bread, the taste unusual but not unpleasant to his taste buds. In fact he rather liked it. Perhaps jam would have been good, but he'd have to try condiment combinations on the other bread later.

"No hollows today," Ulquiorra reported casually. "And…if you don't mind could we stop by Urahara's?"

Orihime agreed. "We can bring them bread!" She said with enthusiasm.

Grimmjow was sweeping the store, and Nel was counting the money in the register. Urahara was sitting on the floor in front of a magazine rack flipping through them. He was so engrossed in a perfume add he didn't notice Ulquiorra come in.

"Ah! Oh, it's you," Urahara smiled sleepily. "We had a slow day today…" he yawned. "Makes ya sleepy."

"I need to speak with you and the other arrancar," Ulquiorra said.

Urahara sighed and stood up, stretching his arms as his bones cracked from him being sedentary. "All right, arrancar crew follow me. Ah…Orihime…" Urahara continued, noticing the girl holding the basket of bread. "Go find Tessai will you? I'm sure he'll get you some tea or something."

Ulquiorra felt some anxiety letting Orihime from his sight, but his discussion with the others was important. "There were no arrancar attacks, nor even hollows. I've noticed a significant lack of them. I don't even sense their presence. I believe the arrancar are planning-"

"Yeah we know," said Grimmjow. "That's what Halibel keeps sayin'. You're always gettin' worked up lately."

"They're probably planning an attack on the living world in a larger scale," Nel said. "But we can't figure out why. It has something to do with Aizen."

"So…in all the work you've done in Hueco Mundo neither of you have learned anything?" Ulquiorra said, trying to suppress the rage inside him. He was furious with the situation. How much longer must they be kept in the dark on how to ensure Orihime's safety?

"Now wait just a minute you-" Grimmjow began to say. Nel pushed him back and prevented him from attacking Ulquiorra.

"Ulquiorra we're aware of the situation and sre doing everything in our power to help it, you know this. We just have to be patient," Urahara said. "Now…I am glad you are here. There's something I wanted to talk to you about. Alone."

Nel took the hint and dragged Grimmjow away.

Urahara looked uneasy, an expression Ulquiorra didn't seem to ever recall having seen on him before. It startled the arrancar, making his chest pound with more anxiety.

"I uh…man where do I start?" Urahara said as he rifled through some drawers in his desk. He pulled out a black cardboard box made for holding paperwork and placed it on the top of his desk. "So I went to the Soul Society and to the place they found you…and I found some things."

Ulquiorra looked at the box like it was going to leap up and attack him. "…what things?" He asked.

Urahara opened the box and pulled out a file. He placed the file in front of Ulquiorra and gestured to it.

Ulquiorra looked at the picture on the front page of the file and felt a lump form in the back of his throat.

"It's about you."