Thank you to BANEHiwatari, the anonymous individual, and RonaldKnoxSebastianMichaelis for your reviews on Chapter 6!
To answer BANEHiwatari's question: Ulquiorra is not visible, but he is visible to Sayuri and her brother, Shin. Just keep in mind that some humans are capable of seeing hollows and spirits.
Please feel free to ask questions if you are confused about anything.
Enjoy this chapter of Let the Night Rise and Fall!
-O-
Chapter 7:
Awe
"So you're name is Ulquiorra?" the boyish voice asked, "That sounds so cool! My name
is pretty boring. Shin. Hundreds of boys have that name..."
"What about that white thing on your head? Is that real? What's it made of? Where are you from? How did you..."
Shin's incessant voice grew softer in Sayuri's ears as her focus on the conversation grew weaker.
It was expected. Her younger brother had been talking since he had barged in on them in the bathroom, and that was two hours ago. Rather than asking her as to why she was in a bathroom with a guy, the curious young boy simply stared in awe at the strange features of the ashen man.
As a result, he had been asking question after question - not that Ulquiorra answered any since before an answer could be given, Shin would ask another question.
No answers that would clarify the origins of the mysterious ashen man had been given, but numerous questions had surely been evoked by the teenage boy.
Sayuri sighed.
Ulquiorra looked, well, like Ulquiorra. If he was annoyed, he had a good face hiding it.
Finally, Sayuri had had enough of her brother's voice. She love him, yes, but this was too much.
She cleared her throat to interrupt her brother's upcoming question about the strange hole on Ulquiorra's chest.
"Shin, I feel tired," she tried to come up with an excuse, "Would you please go to your room so I can rest?"
Shin's bright face dulled, but agreed anyway.
Before he left his sister's rooms, he asked, "Will Ulquiorra still be here later?"
Sayuri really didn't know. She never asked or thought about when Ulquiorra would decide to leave. Unconsciously, her hands grasped her chest as she looked to the quiet man sitting on the bed for an answer to both their question.
"Hm," was the only answer they got. Ulquiorra was looking at the window and seemed to not even pay them any attention.
Shin and Sayuri smiled regardless, taking the sound as a yes.
"I'll talk to you later then Ulquiorra," the teenage boy said before closing the door behind him.
"He's more social than I am," Sayuri tried to explain her brother, "But he's... well, he's my brother."
She smiled. Now she knew that at least she was not the only one who was prone to seeing invisible people. This fact relaxed her a bit.
A knock came at the door. A woman with short curly hair and brown eyes entered and looked at Sayuri.
"Sai, would you mind going to the store to buy some rice?" the woman said.
Sayuri suddenly became worried. Worry came easily to her because she always feared that someone might see Ulquiorra, but then she remembered that her parents could not see him on the day she had brought him home.
Her tense body relaxed after that realization.
"Sure mom."
As Ulquiorra watched Sayuri exit the bedroom door, his lips settled themselves into a thin line and his brows furrowed to form a grimace that Sayuri was unable to see.
-O-
Carrying an umbrella to shelter her body and groceries from the pestering rain, Sayuri sauntered past the empty park.
For some strange reason, she felt a sudden urge to go to the very spot where Ulquiorra had first fallen on her -on her life.
Her blue eyes gazed endearingly at grass where Ulquiorra had laid. The blood that had stained it was long gone and the boy who owned the blood was now safe and healing in her room.
She looked at the sky. The sky was crying, which contrasted from her euphoric mood.
Her euphoria was ephemeral, however, as a sudden chill ran down her spine.
Something was wrong.
"Where is he?" an evil whisper arrived at her ears, and instantly, the ashen man's face etched into her mind. She unconsciously knew that the 'he' referred to by the quiet whisper was in fact Ulquiorra.
Sayuri gasped. She looked behind her only to see falling rain landing on the empty premises.
"Give him to me!" the whisper came again.
It was a deep, scratchy, and masculine voice, but the voice was so low and ephemeral that it could have simply been the singing wind.
"Who's there?" the trembling young woman called out.
Her eyes scanned the perimeter, but still nothing. Out of fear and instinct, Sayuri dropped the rice and her umbrella as her legs began to work at a sprint.
Still, the voice followed. "I need power."
The trees began to make incessant chatter that kept up with Sayuri's running pace.
"Give me the Espada!" it said, no longer a whisper but a shout - a demand.
Sayuri attempted to scream for help, but her voice failed her. She ran faster, but she felt the weight of her drenched coat dragging her down.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp tug and her body plummeted to the ground. Her body shivered, not from the snow cold rain but from the claws she felt touching the skin above her ankle. Sayuri forced herself to attempt to stand, but the grip only strengthened to the point that her ankle became smothered in pain. She crumbled to the ground once more.
Finally, due to the unbearable pain, the scream she had been attempting to force out filled the air but was muffled by the loud chatter of the rain. She doubted anyone would hear her.
She decided that before she died, she would at least be strong enough to look at the eyes of her killer and be proud of herself for protecting Ulquiorra from whomever this monster was.
Vibrant blue eyes filled with gathered courage looked up from their gaze at the ground and looked behind them to see the person who was soon going to close them forever.
Pink lips quivered at the site of the monstrosity whose claws pierced the skin above her ankle and crushed the bone connecting the appendage.
He...It was black. Huge. Evil.
The thing had claws only on its left hand and abnormally large hands on the other.
He had a white, bone-like mask, from which red, mindless eyes glared from, covering his face entirely.
Sayuri knew she would die the moment her blue eyes battled with the beast's ravenous ones.
After letting out a deafening roar, the thing lifted the black claws that had effectively rendered her left leg useless and aimed the sharp knives at her head.
"Power! Give me power! Give him to me!" the supernaturally raspy voice yelled.
"No," was all Sayuri replied.
At this, the claws drove forward, and Sayuri closed her eyes, fully prepared to die protecting the man she had saved.
Rather feeling her head sever from her body and the coldness of death, the black-haired teen merely heard flesh being torn, the loud thud of a massive object hitting the concrete pathway, and the deafening shriek of the monstrosity.
Sayuri, after another moment of waiting for her end to come, heard voices -human voices -before her.
"Hurry and finish it off already. There's a human here," a feminine but strong voice stated. She sounded as though she was right above them.
"All right. I am," another person said in a rather irritated voice -only this time, it was the sound of a male. His voice sounded from the direction of where the beast had stood towering above her helpless form.
From these comforting voices of people, Sayuri peeled her lids open just in time to witness a male in a black kimono and hakama swing a massive sword straight down the dark monstrosity's body.
As the thing shattered into nothing, Sayuri inspected her savior's face. He had a clean cut face with striking orange hair.
"We have to go now Ichigo," the same girlish voice said.
Sayuri looked around to find the source of the sound. She saw no female behind, next, or in front of her.
"Is there another one nearby?" the boy called Ichigo said all the while looking up at the sky.
While still on the ground, Sayuri followed the stranger's gaze to a spot above the premises. There stood, on nothing but air, the female she had been searching for.
This short female stranger had shoulder-length black hair with a long lone bang stretching down her face. She wore the same black kimono as the male.
From their friendly interaction with each other, Sayuri assumed they were comrades.
"Yea, it's about half a mile west," the floating girl informed the man.
Leaping up to the same height as the young woman, the guy stated, "Why are there so many here? Normally, most hollows are attracted to Karakura and ignore the nearby towns."
The injured blue-eyed teen could only watch in awe as the two floating figures in black conversed with each other.
The short female nodded, "Yes, there are no Soul Reapers assigned to this place because there's usually hardly any activity in this small town. It's a good thing that this place is only ten minutes away from Karakura. We made it just in time here before that hollow can kill that girl."
The two turned their gaze towards Sayuri as though they had finally acknowledged her presence.
Their eyes, however, seemed somewhat shocked as they met the blue ones staring back at them.
All of a sudden, the heads of the two strangers snapped towards the west and after blinking once, Sayuri saw that they had vanished.
"Did that girl see us?" the orange-haired guy asked the girl sprinting by his side.
"It looked like it, but humans are unable to see souls," the tiny female answered, "For all we know, she could have simply been looking at the falling rain wondering what had happened to her."
The man did not pursue the matter further even though doubt completely dominated his mind.
-O-
The rain had found its way into her eyes, stinging her means of vision, but still, sapphire pools persistently gazed up at the spot in the sky where the two surreal creatures who resembled humans had stood.
Her mouth hung ajar in shock, pain, and weariness.
Unbeknownst to her, a figure stood hiding in the comfort of a nearby tree's shadow. His jade eyes absorbed the sight of the fallen girl.
He had arrived too late.
-O-
This completes Chapter 7!