So, great. Under the guise of a more or less considerate human being, the best I could say was, I just did the unthinkable. To my credit, however, I wasn't scared. I was a little apprehensive, if not altogether wary, but the feeling I was having was a lot different from the one I had back then when he unleashed his second Espada Resurrection. Setting my personal interests aside and to give way to a more significant thought, I began to wonder; was he going to be the very same Ulquiorra Scheiffer whom we had known as Cuatro Espada, my least favorite among Aizen's henchmen, and also the bastard who, in some respects, took my girlfriend from me? If not, then, what was he to be? I could detect the progress of his materialization, and maybe also little hints of his current mindset to be sure there was something different-for a huge number of reasons.
"He's really…" Inoue was, as she couldn't miss the signals she was getting, lost for words.
"Yeah, he's back. Shall we?" I asked.
I wouldn't normally walk into a trap or drop into a pit full of spikes but now, depending on the danger level of what I could feel at the moment, I should be hosting a welcoming party for the Espada bastard.
"It's dangerous. He's weak now, but who knows what he'll be capable of when we get to where he is?"
Good point.
I might have been very unaware of the specific possibilities we had just invited, because it was true that our actions might as well have doomed our future and we went on ahead with it anyway. Nevertheless, we quickly discharged ourselves to the scene, never realizing what awaited us. All we were hoping for the moment was for this to be kept a secret from the inhabitants of Soul Society.
How wrong we were for hoping that big never would have made it to our considerations if they didn't come shooting down on us as though it was raining bastards.
One by one, high-ranking officers of the Shinigami force pierced through the dimension gateway with so great a speed that I couldn't determine how many of them had landed.
"Looks like we've got company." I informed my companion, who merely nodded.
I was pretty amazed with her composure and resoluteness, which were exactly the set of things I needed. However, the coolness didn't last long, of course, because the Shinigami people clearly had sped long ahead of us toward where Ulquiorra was. Sure enough, we were intercepted in no time.
It was a relief that it was Hisagi Shuuhei who went to greet us and not any other soul less friendly. Had things been otherwise, like if it were some uptight prick like Byakuya, the situation for Inoue and I would have consisted of difficulties of great measure.
"I am not surprised you guys are here. But, believe it or not, we have things under control." He announced, before holding out his had for me to shake.
Before I could explain the complexity of our reason for being there, Inoue, who sometimes couldn't really control her emotions, or her goddamn mouth for that matter, shot out in what seemed like panic,
"Can we see him, Hisagi-san? We're not going to get in the way, we promise." She pleaded, in a manner which said there could be no other things to be done but to grant us access to the resurrected Espada. As for me, I was fighting the urge to push her aside and shoot past the vice-captain rather than negotiate in a professional way.
Hisagi stared at her, not sternly but rather condescendingly.
I zoomed past him before he changed his mind. I bet the ex-girlfriend did the same.
And there he was. Ulquiorra Scheiffer. Surrounded by dozens of powerful warriors, he was in a situation where he could as much tell which actions to choose best as he could smile a real smile. In all assurances, there was nowhere for him to run, and the most sensible thing he could do at the moment was to capitulate. If anything, his compromising position, rendered more strange by his utter lack of clothing, made this Shinigami operation extremely easy, and therefore predictable. He was weak, and everyone could feel it.
"Espada, speak your purpose for re-emerging and tell us the name of the individual who summoned you." Someone spoke in a cold voice.
It was captain Soi Fon of the second division. Aside from her, there were three other captains within the perimeter. Things, apparently, weren't going so smoothly for Inoue and I. At any rate, Ulquiorra blinked at the second division captain, having determined her address was directed to him. He didn't answer; rather he could not. Cautiously, and with effort, he stood up, looked around the people around him, to ultimately abandon his nakedness to its own course. Had circumstances been less severe, I would have scoffed with indignity.
I heard Orihime gasp beside me.
"What the hell is wrong with this bastard?" I whispered to her ear.
As though everyone had been deprived of the ability to answer questions they ought to answer, Inoue ignored me. To my surprise and vexation, she flitted across the sand in a speed I didn't know she possessed. Before I and every bastard knew it, she was wrapping her coat around the Espada, like some philanthropist in service of a beggar.
"Ryoka, get away from him!" Soi Fon was almost screaming.
Harshly, they wrenched Inoue away from the resurrected bastard as one would extricate a rag doll from a little girl. Strangely enough, Ulquiorra wrapped himself with her coat and assumed an expression of earnest dismay for the harsh treatment the generous woman received.
"Who are you people and where am I?" Ulquiorra spoke, his huge eyes searching and confused. Altogether it gave him the appearance of a lost kitten.
Naturally, the first which came to mind was the idea that he was simply demented, if nothing else. Why, Inoue would at least have brought the slightest of recollection on him, if not a complete recognition, but all the same the bastard didn't even look at her twice to indicate any sort of familiarity.
As a result, a number of people scoffed at this and assumed the Espada was jesting, if he was capable of humor at all. As for me, I was seeing things quite differently. Did his death take away his memory? More importantly, was he now a creature reborn? I wouldn't know. Apparently, there were no observers, thoughtful or otherwise, holding the same suspicion as mine. By their wary faculties, they had no other action at their disposal save for one; that is, to arrest this reborn villain.
"We do not answer questions, foolish ones most especially. Surrender now or find yourself degenerating to dusts once more. Now which is it, Espada?" Soi Fon answered.
Whether it occurred to her to acknowledge my part in Ulquiorra's having once before 'degenerated to dusts' was anyone's guess. With that in mind, I figured there, of course, was no need for them to be informed of Inoue's and my part in the Espada's very recent 'regeneration from dusts'. Really, I would rather be spared the trouble.
"Where are papa and mama and Otouto?"
Really now, insane or not, this bastard was giving us everything we never would have expected. Why, it was hard enough to wrench anything out of him without his being absolutely off his rockers. So, having been so astonished with his perplexing behavior, it took me long enough to realize all this was happening to my advantage. No, they would have no way of discovering we were responsible for this turn of events.
But now I had to be insane at a very inconvenient time, because for some ungodly reason I just had to say,
"The fuck are you talking about? You have no parents, much less a whole family, git, unless of course you're desperate and determined enough to call Aizen your father and the Espada your brothers."
Kuchiki Byakuya, who was also present if I might mention, cast me a derisive glare, as if that would have revoked my explicitness.
"Did you hurt them? Where's my brother?"
This time, the worried, anxious look on the Espada's face drove me to assert its authenticity. He was distressed, as things were, but this discomfiture, it seemed, had nothing to do with being surrounded by all these formidable individuals. Among other things, the tone of his voice alone could've done the job.
As I look around me, it appeared these ignorant blokes couldn't help raising hostile thoughts and, worse, they were all set up to unsheathe their Zanpakotou, apparently for the immediate disposal of the naked, weapon-less, altogether defenseless and perhaps innocent former villain. For my part, as this was all my doing and, to my shame, blunder, I spoke,
"Do you not remember me, Cuatro?"
He turned his head to my direction, studied me from head to toe, all the while gathering anticipation from the crowd.
"I do not, nor do I know why you address me as such and why so much hostility is rallied here against me. I ask you again, why am I here?"
The answer to his question was as clear as fucking sunlight to me and Inoue but hardly obvious to anyone else. It was getting awkward, so much that most of my thoughts began to withdraw. In time, it was Byakuya who answered.
"We should ask you the same. We know not the purpose of your reintroduction to existence and the reason for this charade. However extreme your methods are to escape your fate, they remain futile. Submit, and the worst shall be avoided."
Apparently, the worst, as the high and mighty captain put it, went along the lines of struggling to cart the powerless Cuatro to the dungeons of Seretei. It became obvious to me that the survivors of the Hueco Mundo purge mattered very little to them. For all we knew, Tia Halibel, Tercera Espada, who was now the regnant Queen of the Underworld, was watching from somewhere.
"I have occasioned you nothing to merit this treatment. Let me roam free to seek my family. But I have the feeling that my brother is under your dispensation. Where is he?"
Just who was this brother he kept yapping about? In all manner of consideration, they should just let him off the hook, what with all the evidences pointing to the obvious fact. Clearly, he had lost his marbles. Jesus. These shinigami autocrats were getting too tyrannical for their own good. I could voice this out, to beg for reason, but someone beat me into speaking first,
"I'm here, Ulquiorra."
It was Grimmjow Jaggerjack.
TBC