Chapter Three: Manifestation
The clang of multiple objects hitting the floor reached their ears before they had time to disengage themselves from one another. Upon turning to look, Ichigo saw that Ulquiorra was frozen at the doorway, his arms laden with any number of paper bags. Grimmjow, on the other hand, had dropped everything he was supposed to be carrying, so now objects which had no business lying disorderly on the floor were scattered at his feet. The sight scandalized Ichigo. Although he had never in his life had a profound sense of piety, the sight of bibles and rosaries on the floor left him a strange feeling of discomfiture.
"For the service I've rendered you this is what I get, Kurosaki?! Aargh. I've just been to a church, pretending to be holy and shit, for fuck's sake! And then I find you in bed, with this prick of all fucking assholes!"
Beginning to describe how beside himself Grimmjow was would be quite an impossibility. He wrung his hair, and his movements grew more coarse as one idea occurred to him after another. Conversely, Ulquiorra held himself erect. A closer look, however, would reveal how flustered he also was. Ichigo spoke in defense of Starrk and himself,
"Grimmjow, get a fucking hold of yourself. Your fellow Espada was distressed, extremely—"
"—and I'm not?! I can just quit breathing here and now, for your info!"
"Might I calm Coyote Starrk myself? I can make it so that he won't be bothering you ever...forever." Ulquiorra butted in. No one knew what good this question served, with of course the possible exception of himself.
By this time, Ichigo's tolerance for lack of logic was running low, but somehow he felt like he wasn't entitled to be severe. All the same, his priority as of the moment appeared to be to express himself without stuffing his knuckles in Grimmjow's or Ulquiorra's mouth. When it came down to it, none of this was his fault, hence he stood up, approached Sexta, and started gathering the religious articles on the floor. While at it, he found himself explaining things he wasn't required to,
"Primera was assaulted by a very potent demon in his room. I only meant to calm him down; nothing more."
Upon standing up, he faced Sexta at eye level. But Grimmjow's murderous glare at Starrk did not waver for half a second.
"That should better be the fucking case, Shinigami; else this dude is an assassination-in-progress." Sexta marched away at that in banging treads, leaving Ichigo delegating his attention to Ulquiorra.
"Ulquiorra, let me relieve you of those."
"I'll station them myself, thank you very much." Cuatro declined before going on to set the bags down with care, right on the bed where Starrk sat. In a low voice, Ulquiorra cautioned, "Just so you know, Primera, I have the ability to resuscitate people from near-death state, which means I can choke the life out of you, revive you, and then choke you again to death. Repeat the process and you get my drift."
"Look, can we all agree to be done with death threats?" Ichigo proposed in frustration, just in time to intercept whatever it was that Starrk was about to say.
"Certainly." With a parting nod, Ulquiorra glided out of the room.
Alone again with the man with whom he seemed to have formed a subtle but nevertheless enduring connection, Ichigo recommended,
"You better spend the night in another room. Don't forget to take Lilynette with you and to instruct her to wake you up if she ever hears you making funny sounds in your sleep. And, oh, take some of these."
Ichigo obtained from one of the bags a rosary, a wooden holy cross, a bible, and a vial of holy water. He peppered Starrk with instructions which basically amounted to keeping these objects as close to him as possible at all times. As for Starrk, he simply desired to stay a bit longer or to freeze time right this instant. But since Ichigo had made it clear neither of these was possible, he contented himself with a fleeting glance at the teen before wheeling around to finally disappear.
…
In the morning after in the meeting hall, Ichigo presumed it would be best to steer clear of Starrk to maybe blur what intimacy had transpired between them last night. Upon finding the teen sitting three chairs away from Primera, Grimmjow could not help the smirk crossing his face. To amplify his sense of triumph, he sat right next to the Shinigami, who proceeded,
"Each of you will take a set of these articles with you. You will station them in your rooms and secure a rosary in your pocket at all times."
The idea was to adapt the suggested remedy as prescribed by religious doctrines. There was no absolute guarantee that these mundane objects had the power to repel so insidious a force, especially when not one of these people could make out what these bizarre pieces represented. But this seemed to be the only arsenal they had in possession. While the Arrancars, aside from Starrk who had availed himself with the items in the night prior, examined the things with curiosity, Ichigo inspected Tercera Espada from afar. She was paler than he remembered her and detached rather than nonchalant. Indeed, her listlessness was perturbing. He was shaken off his musings when a series of impatient knocks shot through the room.
"Who the fuck might that be?" Quinto mumbled irritably.
"Must be some stray Adjuchas… wait, I'm reading zero reiatsu. How about you?" Szayel asked, his eyes shifting from one head after another.
"Same here."
"Not a damned thing."
"Nada."
"Negative." Ichigo said, grabbing the hilt of his Zanpakotou warily.
The questions forming in each and everyone's head came to be answered when the door opened with an eerie, slow creaking. At last the door opened. The spectacle revealed a maimed, utterly disfigured stuffed animal that looked like it had seen better days. Standing right beneath the door frame, unmoving, its fur stained with mysterious substances, it was as spine-chilling a sight like no other. It was a tiger, or something similar, whose plastic eyes had been gouged, leaving the one on the left hanging by a few strands of thread, the other one missing. There were lacerations in random places, as if the thing had been clawed in anger.
"Who the fuck thought this prank is funny?! Show yer fucking self!" Grimmjow exploded, rising to his feet. His fury was about to reach the point when he would dart at the thing at the door when Ichigo grabbed him by the wrist. But before the teen could speak, Lilynette spoke merrily,
"Cub-chan has come to join us. But who beat the crap out of him?"
Everyone turned to look at Grimmjow, who was now looking daggers at Lilynette. Lilynette had lately gone into the habit of nosing into people's businesses, and in so being that she had come to discover that Grimmjow had this quirk of keeping plushies in his bedroom. One of his stuffed animals, his favorite one in fact, had been bestowed the name Cub-chan. It was Ulquiorra who first shot a guess,
"That's the Cub-chan you mentioned yesterday, Sexta?"
"Shut up."
"I never knew you had such an affinity toward childishness."
"I said, shut the hell up, Quinto."
"Well, that explains why you comport yourself like an irksome retard one hundred percent of the time." Octava observed.
"What is wrong with you, bastards? When I say 'shut yer trap' it most likely means you better quit annoying me shitless!"
"Grimmjow, sit down, please." Ichigo commanded finally. He had thought that tightening his grip around Sexta's wrist would do the trick but he only was half right. Having determined that Grimmjow would flatly refuse to budge an inch, Ichigo stood up, brought his face close to the Espada to get his attention. He continued, "Did you do that to him?"
"Her." Grimmjow corrected.
"Did you do that to her?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"She was annoying me shitless so I stuffed her in the trash." Grimmjow was smart enough to gauge that what he was saying was making him sound like he had had more than his fair share of crazies. Indeed, that notion made him spare a number of details, hence his brief replies.
"How?"
"How did she annoy me? I've caught her several times watching me in the shower and standing over me while I slept… damn, you all think I'm mental now, don't you?"
Grimmjow had just spoken the exact thought in everyone's mind. Really, the Arrancars around the table, rendered thus speechless, were staring at him blankly, instead of scornfully. However, out of all the perplexed gazes he was receiving, not the least unsettling was Ichigo's. To be sure, the next thing Sexta was to hear would stun him like a damn electric shock,
"Grimmjow, you've just about angered an evil entity in the worst possible way you could have. No one's pulling a prank here, as you might have figured out already…I can detect an entity acting behind Cub-chan."
"Well, shit. How in hell could I have improved my situation, when this creepy shit wouldn't stop terrorizing me? I knew on the onset that some other thing was taking over Cub-chan but I couldn't make it fuck off. So I threw her away, but not before mutilating her. And then this happened."
To Grimmjow's credit, the mere fact that the thing controlling Cub-chan was taking too much pleasure in wreaking terror made Ichigo want to scoop the oversized plushie, stick it on the wall and throw knives at it. But that would veritably make matters worse. Because he had no immediate desire to set hell loose, Ichigo bolted upright and turned to Octava,
"Szayel-san, can I use your computer room?"
"Sure. Right this way."
"I'll go with you." Sexta announced.
Grimmjow followed suit, the three of them brushing past Cub-chan, with Sexta taking special care to avoid his previously loved stuffed toy, which he now regarded with aversion. However, before reaching a considerable distance away from the meeting hall, Ichigo wheeled around, to head back to where Cub-chan was stationed. He then poked his head back to the room and requested,
"Starrk, or anyone of you guys except Halibel-san, can you secure Cub-chan in a safe room? Enclose her in chest or something, if possible."
…
In Szayel's laboratory, Ichigo, so absorbed with the webpage before his eyes, was boring Sexta and Octava out of their minds. In due time, Szayel excused himself and tucked himself on his bed next door.
"Grimmjow, I expect you know by now that Cub-chan is being manipulated by an inhuman spirit."
"Hell. For, like, donkey days now."
"Good, but there's one thing you have to also know. Cub-chan's not possessed because these things don't possess inanimate objects. She merely is a vessel"
"Vessel for what?"
"Whatever this being is, it's most likely using Cub-chan as a stepping stone, which goes to say its final goal, in all likelihood, is to possess…you." Ichigo's last word was emphasized with a stony gaze.
Sexta opened and closed his mouth in repetition, while a part of his mind busied itself with some frivolity which could potentially make his situation appear less terrible. He asked just then,
"Are you fucking sure? I mean, it ain't so surprising 'cos I'm guessing 99% of those who've laid eyes on me wish to swap bodies with me, but…" He faltered, upon deducing Ichigo was groping for answers as much as he was now.
Soon, the need to speak further vanished, whereas the teen had swiveled his head back to face the monitor. In that action was Grimmjow seized with an overwhelming desire. Truly, the back of Ichigo's neck was like an invitation to something carnal. Maybe this opportunity was presenting itself for a reason. Indeed, not in a millions years would he have passed on this chance. Sure enough, Sexta placed both his palms on the computer table on both sides of the teen, thereby caging the latter between his arms. His face descended toward one side of Ichigo's head, bringing about a feeling that was only a little less chilling than when Cub-chan had appeared before them. When Ichigo came to partially read what his companion was trying to pull, he reminded,
"Grimmjow, you're too near."
"Not as near as Starrk was to you last night."
"I thought I've made it clear I was only trying to placate him."
"Well, I maybe am in dire need of placating. Cub-chan creeps the hell out of me and I shit you not. I know nothing about this thing that's menacing me, and it would be a comfort to get some downtime once in a while. So comfort me just this fucking once, Shinigami." While saying this, Sexta's lips brushed against the tip of Ichigo's ear.
And when he turned his head slightly around toward Grimmjow's face, Ichigo found that he had to catch his breath at how handsome this dude was up close. From a distance, Sexta had always been entrancing, but now, in this proximity where he was at perfect liberty to scrutinize the face, he was being beset by an attraction against which he could not rebel. What better way to express this admiration than to allow himself to be captivated? That the Shinigami did by not resisting the lips which had started caressing the skin at the side of his neck.
In that momentous space in time, it struck Ichigo Kurosaki that he could resist anything, except this specific temptation which was being offered by Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez.
TBC