Since I took so long to update last time, I wanted to make it up to all of my dedicated readers out there by posting this new chapter quickly.

Enjoy!

-O-

Chapter 14:

Beginning of the End

"Am I sure about this?" she whispered to herself.

Slender arms lifted themselves to cover their owner's face, effectively shielding torn blue orbs from the sight of the world. If only it was that easy to escape from everything.

A slow sigh escape escaped her blushing lips.

"You're here again?"

Startled by the unexpected voice, Sayuri almost lost her balance on the protruding root of the large Sakura tree she laid lazily on.

Finally, when her surprise wore off, her gaze focused on a trimmed face, piercing brown eyes, and messy orange hair.

"I-Ichigo," she sputtered, "Did you get l-lost again?"

The young man scratched the back of his neck, and let out a light chuckle.

He said, "No, I was actually heading to Hitamura to meet a friend this time."

Sayuri gave him a rather odd expression at his explanation. "Why did you not take the train. It is a faster way to travel."

Letting his shoulders droop in nonchalance, Ichigo merely answered with a "I like to get exercise."

"Quite the athlete I see," she noted.

"Hn, you could say that," the orange-haired lad agreed, "Anyway, what are you doing here so late in the afternoon? Still trying to figure out your boy problems?"

Sayuri stood up from her position on the large root, and took her time dusting her skirt clean so as to give herself time to respond with a suitable answer.

Finally, she said, "I did tell you that I like coming to this place, so it should not be a surprised to find me here."

The young woman watched as Ichigo's eyes squinted slightly, as if sensing her lie. He eyed her form, and Sayuri had to resist the urge to squirm. She never did like lying.

"Then why were you muttering 'Am I sure about this?' or something like that earlier?" he lightly mocked.

Without her consent, Sayuri's cheeks began to form vibrant red tinges.

"You heard that!?" she exclaimed, her voice breaking towards the end as a result of her own mortification.

Again, Ichigo answered with a shrug.

She let out a deep sigh. "Just forget it," she muttered, her eyes glaring at the ground.

Turning around, she began walking towards the path that would undoubtedly lead her back to the city.

"Sorry, but I have to go now. I have school tomorrow," she called over with her back facing towards him, "See you around Ichigo."

Sayuri did not bother to listen for his response. Reagrdless, she heard him call out, "Hang in there Sayuri. It should all work out."

'I doubt it,' the young woman thought to herself.

She just wanted to have a place where she can be undisturbed. She wanted to be away from everyone.

Without thinking, she allowed her feet to carry her in whichever direction they felt like going. It was liberating not having to continuously decide on where to go; it allowed her to have her own private conversation with her thoughts.

She had been seeing less and less of Ulquiorra in the past couple of days. Today, when she had arrived from school, her bedroom had been empty. She had gone to the meadow simply because she did not want to be in that empty room of hers; it felt lonely.

Unfortunately, the more she thought, the more her heart and her mind clashed. Though she had believed that she had finally arrived at her decision, Sayuri found that she wavered whenever she began to approach Hiro to tell him of her choice.

She groaned. Her mind was frustratingly indecisive.

When she decided to finally pay attention to her surroundings once more, Sayuri realized that it was not very wise to allow her feet to choose the destination.

Buildings with graffiti galore surrounded her. She then noticed that except for a few bulky boys in ragged and strange cloaks, she was completely alone.

"Where am I?" she asked herself silently, confusion and fear lacing her tone.

She felt a hand land on her shoulder, and felt a hot breath that smelled distinctly of alcohol land near her ear, effectively causing goose bumps to dot her neck .

"Are you lost little girl?" the voice whispered in her ear. It sounded like static and monstrous.

Though her heart and mind felt like it was running a marathon, Sayuri could still feel the coarse hand tightening its grip on her shoulder.

A weak whimper ran its way up her throat. She began to feel sicker as she watched the other men begin to surround her.

"We can help you you know," she heard one say, though she could not really find it in herself to locate the voice in the sea of hostile strangers.

"What's your name?" another called out in a rather biting voice.

'I have to run,' her mind repeated over and over again, but to her dismay, her body did not listen.

She watched as the hand on her shoulder boldly made its way towards her neck. In painful slow motion, the invading appendage began to trail its way lower and lower towards her chest.

'Run!' her mind yelled in frustration. Finally, Sayuri felt her control over her body return as adrenaline began to course to her legs.

She managed to break free from the hand holding her captive, feeling the sting of his grab as he tried to maintain his hold on her.

"You little bitch!" the man who had spoken in her ear yelled out.

Wild sapphire eyes scanned the desolate road before her. She realized that she was in the ghettos of Hitamura, and she had no idea how to get out. It was a place for drunks, addicts, and criminals. She simply found it amazing that she had not been raped as soon as she had stepped into the area, whenever that may have been.

Sayuri noticed that hard footsteps continued to trail her at every turn. She did not want to look behind her and see those darkened expressions of the crazed men; instead, she continued looking forwards -searching for any signs of city life.

After a sharp turn to the left of some random brick building, she saw streets where business men and young children with their parents casually strolled. Her heart pounded quickly at the relief. She just needed to run a little more.

However, she just as the hope inflated within here, it was crushed just as quickly. Sayuri felt something incredibly heavy collide her back. Before she could even scream, her face met the harsh concrete as she felt legs begin to straddle her from behind. Her wrists were then gathered behind her into a single, large calloused hand.

"Finally caught you bitch," the hot breath whispered in her ear from behind.

Her heart beat faster. She was going to be raped.

The pressure on her back from where he sat was lifted as he shifted her so that she was now facing him. The man had inhumanly crazy eyes as he pinned her hands above her head with just one of his. Sayuri watched as other men with the same haunting orbs kneeled down beside him. The most apparent thing she noticed about them, however, were the unique white masks that covered each of their faces.

"We're gonna have fun with you," a man slurred, as though in a drunken stupor.

When she felt a hand trail up her thigh, she began to thrash as much as she could under the massive weight of the older male straddling her.

"Let me go!" she screamed.

Still, the hand continued its path up her leg uninterrupted. Other hands then began to lift her shirt to expose her milky stomach.

"You have such a beautiful body," one man giggled in pure joy.

"You look so good!" a random voice groaned as though in pleasure.

Sayuri closed her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks. She continued to struggle against the hold on her body, but she knew she could not escape with so many men surrounding her.

She kicked him in his groin but he did not flinch. Instead, he acted as though her kick was merely an annoying mosquito in his way.

"Don't worry," the man who sat on her said in a creepily soothing voice, "We will make sure you never forget this."

At his promise, a sob broke through Sayuri's lips. She felt the hand on her thigh reach the edge of school skirt. The next sob that left her throat became louder, as she realized that very soon, she was going to lose herself.

With one last attempt, she gathered all her strength to squirm roughly under him so that his grip may loosen. Still, it was useless.

As the hand began its slow journey under her skirt, Sayuri felt a heavy weight pressing on her body; it was something much heavier than the man keeping her imprisoned under him.

Before she knew it, the hands invading her form were no longer there. Opening her eyes, she watched as familiar jade eyes glared at the man who had caught her. Strong white arms lifted the human body easily from the ground, and with a squeeze, broke his neck. The stranger let out an inhuman roar as his body disappeared into nothingness. Her eyes widened.

She felt her strength, however, gradually fade as a sudden and invisible force pressed against her at Ulquiorra's arrival.

'He was not human,' she noted, 'But his physical appearance looked exactly like that of a human man.'

As she weakly looked around, she realized that the rest of the men had disappeared as well.

'Were they all not human?' she asked herself.

"Do you always have to attract so much trouble woman?" Ulquiorra's harsh voice suddenly sounded in her ear.

Sayuri wanted to speak; she truly did. She wanted to say that he did not have to keep saving her. She did not want to be a burden to him. She did not want him to see her as merely some annoying thing that always needs saving. Unfortunately, she was unable to voice anything. The heavy weight pressing on her - as if gravity had suddenly gotten stronger - was making her lose consciousness.

Ulquiorra eyed Sayuri's frozen form lying on the ground and realized that he needed to lower his spiritual pressure. It was hurting her, and to make it worst, it probably attracted more hollows and more than likely, the attention of the Soul Society.

Closing his eyes, he released the young woman from the burden of trying to withstand his spiritual pressure. He made his way towards her, and in her eyes, she saw tears and the immense fear she had felt during her attack.

Human females are so weak and fragile that it was almost pitiful. Sayuri knew this well, and she was painfully aware that Ulquiorra did too.

Silently, he lifted her in his arms and took to the skies, so that they can speedily head towards home.

-O-

"Ichigo!" Rukia called to the man sprinting beside her as she closed her hollow detection device, "It appears that a Menos Grande has appeared in the ghettos of Hitamura."

"Was that the strong spiritual pressure that we felt earlier?" Ichigo asked.

"Most likely," the short Soul Reaper answered, "It should be of no surprise that such a strong hollow would appear in that city, considering all the strange activity occurring there recently."

"Let's go take care of it then."

"Right! However, it is more than likely that someone from the Soul Society has already arrived at the scene to deal with the threat."

-O-

He did not know why the woman in his arms refused to go home and instead asked him to take her to this strange place.

He landed silently under the shade of the sakura tree at the center of the meadow.

As he placed her gently down so that she may lean on the trunk of the tree, he noted that she was still shaking somewhat.

"You do not have to feel obligated to save me every time I run into trouble, which, unfortunately, appears to be every week recently, "she whispered thinly.

"Do not confuse my saving of you as protection. Those hollows were merely in my way. They are attracted to the residuals of my weakened spiritual energy that has managed to entwine with your own spiritual energy as a result of your continued presence around me," he monotonically clarified, "The hollows attacking you earlier were no exception."

Ignoring his venomous words, Sayuri felt her eyes widened. "Those were h-hollows?"

"Yes. It appears that my presence has even attracted these hollows that have evolved enough to have some sort of intellectual capacity. Those you recently encountered are these evolved class of hollows known as arrancars," his baritone voice coldly stated.

"So these hollows will keep attacking me then?"

"No. As I have previously implied, once I am completely healed and take my leave, the hollow population in this city should decrease drastically, and the remnants of my spiritual energy that has attached to you would eventually fade. They are merely drawn here because they have felt that I am in a weakened state and sought to take advantage of it."

"Why do they want to kill you?" she could barely ask the horrifying question.

Ulquiorra set his gaze directly towards her still glossy eyes. Without hesitation, he communicated the awful truth.

"Hollows can evolve only by eating other hollows. The stronger the other hollow that they have consumed is, the better. They are drawn to spiritual pressure, and since I had released a bit of my own earlier, I have no doubt that more formidable hollows will be entering this city quite soon. At the moment, I am the perfect target, and you are as well."

The young woman felt her eyes widened slightly. "That is...a sad life, having to continue living only for the sake of killing others of your kind."

"Hollows do not live in what you humans refer to as fairytales," came the biting reply.

"I-I know. I h-had expected that," Sayuri could not help but stutter. "Um, have you decided when you shall be leaving?" she could not help but ask.

"Yes," Ulquiorra answered blandly, "I shall take my leave tonight."

The cold winter wind blew in, causing the last remaining few cherry blossoms to cascade towards the ground as though the tree itself was crying. The sakura tree no longer held its spectacular and colorful mane of flowers; it had become barren as the cold season persisted to set in.

The decision was now made for her, but she cannot seem to find the relief that she sought. Sayuri felt like opposing the decision; she absolutely did not like it. However, what can she do?

Nothing. There is nothing she can do.

It is done.

-O-

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