I guessed right. Captain Ukitake simply chose to disclose to me as little information as possible in fear of tarnishing his good name and his adherence to whatever principles Soul Society had been forcing on captains all those years. I, on the other hand, trusted him to such a degree as to tell him all that I knew; I attributed the emblem to Soul Society's two recent captives.
"But it can't be." He said more to himself than to anyone else in the room, who happened to be me.
"Well, as far as things are going, it can be or it already is."
He didn't seem to be listening, else he didn't hear me at all. And so he continued his monologue, which made me ask myself why I was even bothering myself to talk.
"The H(insert noble family's name here) Family had long since perished, and with them all traces of their existence. Orders were given…"
He was so much absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't realize I could very much draw forth pieces of the picture, that Grimmjow and Ulquiorra, besides being siblings from a formidable family, the H- family, were without a doubt former inhabitants of Soul Society, and following some event of remarked significance, a cataclysm of sorts, they were… what, exactly?
Apparently, it was going to take him quite a long while to notice that my ear was approximately one inch from his mouth, if only to catch every goddamn word he had the generosity to utter. At length, he paused, giving me the opportunity to say,
"Frankly, I didn't catch a word you said."
Again, there was no expecting he had heard my remark because, apparently, he was too wrapped up with the matter at hand to realize I was, in fact, the one who introduced him to the goddamn matter at hand and that I therefore deserved an answer and nothing less.
"I shall grant you access to the area of the library which possibly contains the documentations of the piece of Soul Society's history you seek."
"Now you're talking. Thank you."
"In return, you will turn over that emblem to me, for the preservation of history. In the meantime I am going to pay the prisoners a visit to see for myself what the evidences have so far suggested."
I was, of course, more than reluctant to hand it over because it wasn't mine to give to start with. Furthermore, I had by this time already gained too much of Grimmjow's irritation without having to give away what probably was his family's last heirloom. But as goodness would have it I conceded, conceiving in my mind some later plan of action with which to retrieve the object.
…
I was instructed with severity not to reveal my impending quest to the library, only to later on learn it was impossible for my nerves to sneak in there without a companion. And as if this petty crime really called for a cohort or two, the magical cloak Ukitake lent me fitted perfectly for a couple; me and Inoue.
In time, we managed to stuff ourselves in a small chamber where volume after volume of smelly parchments occupied most of the shelves. They were all in a very bad and fragile state that one misplaced breath would send the documents crumbling to oblivion. At any rate, we dug in.
Not very soon after we sat down to skim the delicate articles, Inoue managed to run her eyes over a fragment of what we were looking for. The article, The Nobles Through Centuries, thus titled, dated back from as far as one thousand years ago, with installments which came from around as recent as ten years ago. It was basically a collection of family trees, presented in lines and monstrously distorted penmanship you'd think they were never meant to be deciphered in the near future, with symbols next to names indicating the emblem of the house in which they belonged. With hard work, we distinguished the symbol of the H- House. From there we traced from the start the two Espada's generation. Their names, then spelled in an archaic fashion, appeared later along the line, which meant they were more or less born in Soul Society around five hundred years ago.
From this first article, we learned nothing much more than what we already knew or had guessed. Owing to thorough reading of the material, we distinguished the H- Family as one of those which had boasted of a very long line of formidable nobles. But what was really remarkable was that half of the listed families were declared exiled within the same decade, some four hundred years ago. From what I gathered, there must have been an insurgence sometime around that century which veritably resulted to the stripping down of many titles and properties so that very few noble families now remained. These remaining families included Shihouin, Kuchiki, Ukitake and some of the lesser nobles.
"They were executed." Inoue said, holding another old manuscript in her hand.
"Executed?"
"The H-Family didn't simply participate in a ploy which sought to overthrow the Royal Family; the head of the family, Lord U(insert first name here), the father of Grimmjow and Ulquiorra, was the head of the revolution body. Within a year of declaring civil war against the royals, commoners started to support Lord U-'s cause. But alas, being the face of the revolution itself, his circumstances compelled him to resort to unchecked movements, and eventually he was captured. Not long after that he was beheaded in a manner which caused his spirit to utterly cease to exist, along with his two right-hand men and his wife, the two's mother. When the party crumbled, the campaign ceased, leaving other insurgents to the open, leading to their exile or lynching."
"Beheaded? Ulquiorra told me they mean to seek their parents. How is it that neither of them doesn't seem to know their parents and their relatives are all dead as the dodo?"
"It so appears that Captain Ukitake have just availed us the opportunity to grace this section of the library which is forbidden to perhaps 99.9 percent of the population. What I have read here is perhaps unknown even to captains. You know, during the time following the fall of Aizen, I spent most of my time here in the library while waiting for the preparations to go back to Karakura to finish. I've read a great deal about the nobles and other historic families of Soul Society, and never once did I come across any such texts pertaining to a mass exile of nobles, much less a civil war or a rebellion. What we have here are generally unknown facts."
"That doesn't answer my question, Inoue."
She sighed, most likely trying to find answers to questions which she found completely insoluble. But she answered,
"I have been led to conclude Grimmjow-san and Ulquiorra-san didn't share the fate of their parents and relatives. There is no mention here of their execution as opposed to the fact that the accounts of their uncles' and cousins' executions are given their due documentation. Something doesn't sound right here. They were either smuggled, rescued more likely, leaving behind their parents without knowing what should become of them, or they were killed in secrecy, to leave no record whatsoever of what became of them. But all these beg the question, how and why did they become hollows, or Arrancar for that matter?"
"I'm inclined to think their misfortunes were deliberately brought upon them. And now almost everything falls to its rightful place. Three or four captains were ordered to be at the scene yesterday not because they recognized the sudden appearance of an aura believed to belong to a very powerful Espada, who was supposed to be dead. Had it been less urgent than that, Byakuya alone could've handled Ulquiorra and Grimmjow, without sweating one goddamn drop. What they recognized instead was an aura long thought to have perished, and for that four captains were dispatched instead of one."
"I agree the brothers are in a very difficult situation, but it is even more so difficult to consider they are trying to cook up another civil war. They should release them now. They're as innocent as infants."
"On that respect they are indeed innocent, but it would be long before everyone forgets all their misdeeds under Aizen's commands. Attacking Karakura and blowing up unsuspecting citizens; those are the very sort of things that could land you on the gallows, Inoue."
"That was Ulquiorra then. Would you sentence him now? He doesn't even know what exactly it is he is getting imprisoned for,"
"Look at the bigger picture, Inoue. Their fate most likely depends on the truth we are about to find out. Why are the higher-ups all of a fucking sudden so anxious to isolate these two when just before yesterday Grimmjow was as free as any citizen except for the fact that he was being monitored 24/7, and loosely at that? I'll tell you why; Ulquiorra's brotherly address to him gave their identities away. If you ask me, they are being held under lock and chains and spells, and are subject to elaborate interrogation, for reasons that escape many who would dare to ask."
"But they must be pardoned!" She hissed at me.
"No, that's not gonna happen. I assure you they're off to skirt the gallows as soon as the judicial body succeeds in wrenching out of them the information they need; especially now that they've got them both, they are rest-assuredly as good as two birds in one stone. Goddammit, I should've known."
"We have to save them, then."
"I would agree with you on that one."
…
To cut the long story short, I, together with Inoue, headed back to Ukitake's quarters for the remaining questions our history books failed to answer. In there, many things were revealed to us.
TBC