Disclaimer: Kubo Tite-sensei owns Bleach. Ohba Tsugumi-sensei owns Death Note. L and Aizen own me.
--
Suzuki Sakura stood before Aizen the next morning, eyes wide with fear, but still determined. She glanced nervously at the Hougyoku again.
"Sakura-chan." he said in a soothing voice. "Do you trust me?"
Staring back into his eyes, and who they reminded her of, she almost said, "No." But something stopped her. Maybe it was that she really didn't care about her life anymore. That she'd stopped caring a long time ago. Also, she was sure that if world domination or whatever was what Aizen really wanted, he'd try his best.
She sighed. "Yes." she whispered.
"This is going to hurt."
"I don't care."
"Alright." he said with a smirk, and took a step closer to her.
--
He wasn't lying when he said it would hurt, she thought a few minutes later, wrapping her arms around herself and allowing a small cry of pain to escape her lips.
"For a human, she's very strong." Tousen remarked.
"Indeed." Aizen said, smirking as her whimpers became all-out screams. Gin winced slightly.
"Ya dun think this was a bit much, Aizen-sama?" he asked quietly. Having grown up in Rukongai with Rangiku, he hated to see women in pain.
They were silent as her screams began ranging from high-pitched, teenage girl screams to the bone-chilling sound of a Hollow's howling within minutes.
"Would you look at that," Aizen muttered.
"What is it?" Tousen questioned.
"When I had done things similar to this on shinigami, the body would explode, then reform, and the mask would come last. With the Espada and the other Arrancar, it was the same." He stopped to stare on as the changes became more frequent and a white mask began to form over Sakura's face. "But, in this case, the mask is forming first, and she's taking on an almost-Hollow state wile still in a human body."
It was true. Her dark brown hair had faded to a light beige; her sunkissed skin was almost paler than Ulquiorra's, and her mask was forming slowly over the right side of her face. Her reiatsu was slowly changing, but not as it usually did. In fact, it...
It almost seemed like the transformation of a Vizard.
--
Akemi's eyes snapped open. Something inside- what she and Sakura liked to call "ESPN"- told her that her "baby sister" was in pain. She jumped out of bed and sprinted down the hall. She had no idea where she was running to, but it seemed like a reiatsu similar to Sakura's was right around...
She skidded to a stop when she heard the screams. One she recognized instantly as Sakura's cry of pain- but the other one was more terrifying, more absolutely terrfying, than anything she'd ever heard in her life.
The door flew open.
"What the hell?!"
Aizen, Tousen and Gin turned around to see Akemi's horrified figure in the doorway.
"What... what are you... where's Sakura?!"
Aizen smiled. Akemi instantly shrank back.
"Would you like to see her?" he asked, as scream that was most defiantely Sakura's rang through the room.
"Where is she?!"
"Why, you're just in time to see her in her... stronger form." Her lead the girl to where they had been watching.
And then, everything exploded. Black flames engulfed the figure that had been previously been curled up in pain; and then she rose.
It couldn't be anyone else but Sakura- no one here had that kind of body, aside from Halibel. Her dark hair now cascaded down her back; she wore the Arrancar uniform, but with a short skirt and combat boots. The top had the shoulders cut out and a diamond shape cutting across the front, beautifully hilighting the girl's curves; the sleeves, however, were long and insanely wide.
Akemi couldn't be sure it was her friend, however- a Hollow mask hid the girl's face.
"Sa... Sakura...?" she asked, timidly taking a step forward.
The girl unsheathed a delicate-looking sword from her side, slowly bringing it up over her head, and poised it like she would bring it down on herself.
"Sakura, don't do it!" Akemi cried out, starting to run forward; Aizen's strong hand grabbed her shoulder and held her back as the sword came down.
"No!"
The mask shattered, and the figure stepped towards them, a wicked smile illuminating the beautiful face.
--
Mizuki slowly, reculantly, opened her eyes, though common sense told her not to. In the recesses of her mind, it was warm; the cell in which she was being kept for now was dank and cold.
"Wake up." a cold voice instructed.
"What?!" she said darkly.
"Sakura-san requests your presence." Ulquiorra stated.
"Sakura-chan?!" Mizuki sat up so fast Ulquiorra barely saw her move.
"Yes. Get yourself dressed." He turned and took his leave. "I will be waiting for you outside. Do not take long."
Soon, they had entered Aizen's dining hall/meeting room. Mizuki almost instantly recognized the girl standing next to Aizen. It took a minute, but the way she recoiled when Aizen put his large hand between her shoulder blades gave her identity away instantly.
"Sakura-chan!" she cried out, overjoyed to see her friend.
"Taiyou-chan." Sakura said, smiling. Something was different; she wore the Arrancar uniform, she had a slender blue-sheathed sword at her side, her hair was longer, and her eyes were no longer amber, but a beautiful shade of emerald green. Her voice had also sounded... different. More... melodic, almost.
The rest of the Espada filed in and took their seats. Akemi moved to stand with Mizuki.
"Sakura-chan, Akemi-san, Mizuki-san, why don't you ladies go outside for a bit? Sakura-chan, I'd like to see you when we've finished our meeting." Aizen smiled at down at her, causing her to supress the urge to squeal.
Sakura bowed politely. "Hai, Aizen-sama." she said as she led the other two out.
"When did you learn to be so obedient?" Akemi asked once Sakura had closed the door.
"If I want to become stronger, it'd be smartest to do as Aizen-sama says." she replied. Mizuki had been right; the girl's voice was now... well, not like it had been. Very different.
"So..."
"So what?"
Mizuki looked slightly distressed. "Is it really you, Sakura-chan? Are you still you after that? Even though now you've got a Hollow inside you?"
Sakura smiled sadly at her friend. "Yes, Taiyou-chan, I'm still me. And you'll always be you." She patted her friend's shoulder; though Sakura knew that Mizuki hated any kind of contact, Sakura was naturally an affectionate person. That much could never change about her.
"Oh!" Akemi clapped her hands together. "I just remembered! I brought you something! It's in my room!" She dashed off, with the other two following behind after only a few seconds' delay. They were at Akemi's room in almost a minute.
"Here!" she cried after digging in the backpack for a bit. "I found it!" She lifted out Sakura's plushie. She took it, cradling it against her chest, like she had since she first got it.
They knew right from that second she'd always be herself, no matter what she became.
"Uhm, Sakura...?"
"What is it, Taiyou-chan?" she asked, smilingly warmly while still holding her plushie.
"Sakura, d'you remember everything... about Sayuri-chan, and... about Takahashi-sensei?"
The mental image of his face unlocked her rage. However, she quickly recovered her calm; that was something she was noticing, the longer she was an Arrancar. Her emotions were slightly easier to control than they were before. There was only one thing she could not ignore.
The howling.
In the darkest pits of her mind, her inner Hollow lusted for blood, for souls. It wanted to lock on to her rage, get her to unleash it; Sakura steadied herself and finally spoke.
"Do not. Mention. That man. Around me. Again." she said slowly. Then she lifted her head, brightening her expression. "Why don't we put this in my room, and then go wait for the Espada meeting to end?"
Her friends nodded in agreement. Once in her room, she placed the little plushie on the bed, plopped down gracefully- if that was even possible- and sighed.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" Mizuki closed the door, while Akemi sat down next to her friend and put a hand on her shoulder.
"... I remember. I remember everything."
"You sound like you're angry about that." Mizuki stated apathetically.
"But this was my chance!"
"For what?"
"... I could've forgotten that it ever happened... or how mad it makes me... my nightmares... it could've all been behind me, for real this time, but it's not! I could've made it stop!" Her now green eyes were steady filling up with tears as her voice cracked.
"But, Sakura, if you had forgotten that, you may not know who we are." Akemi said sadly. "And if that happened, were would we be? Aizen's probably not gonna let us leave, and if you didn't know us, then what would be the point of us coming here?"
"Yeah. And you wouldn't love that stupid plushie so much." Mizuki smiled as Sakura slowly pulled it close to her overly large chest.
"It's not stupid, Taiyou-chan." she grinned. Mizuki patted her shoulder.
"You see? No matter what happens to any of us, we'll always be friends." the blonde said soothingly as her glasses slid down her nose.
"Too lazy to put your contacts in?" Sakura asked, sliding them back up with her slender index finger.
"See? You're still you." Mizuki gave her shoulder another pat. Sometimes all she needed was a push, and then she was okay.
Sakura rose. "I better be there when Aizen-sama ends that stupid meeting." she said, opening the door and grabbing two hairties. Akemi and Mizuki followed her out.
Once outside the door to the meeting hall, Mizuki slid down the wall and sat on the floor; Akemi plopped down beside her, crossing her legs and placing her hands on the floor in front of her. Sakura leaned nonchalantly against the opposite wall. She quickly pulled her long hair into two low pigtails, then crossed her arms beneath her chest and closed her eyes.
After a while, Akemi broke the silence. "Y'know, Sakura, I gotta say, your figure is hilighted really well in that outfit."
Sakura's eyes popped open, and she blushed slightly. "Wha-what figure?" she muttered, turning away.
"The one that makes you look closer to twenty than fifteen." Akemi said simply.
"Yeah, really." Mizuki added. "If you ask me, that's the reason Aizen picked you out from the crowd, rather than your reiatsu."
"What the hell is with you today, Taiyou-chan?!" Sakura cried out, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I'm just stating the facts." the blonde girl said, fiddling with the edge of her school skirt.
Just then, the door creaked open. The Espada filed out, followed by Gin and Tousen.
"Sakura-chan." Gin said, his never-ending smirk slightly ominous to her, "Aizen-sama'd like to see you now."
Sakura unfolded her arms, then walked slowly into the meeting hall. Gin shut the the door behind her, then turned to the other two.
"So. How're you ladies today?"
--
"Aizen-sama?" Sakura announced her presence, her right hand on the sword at her curvy hip, then gazed at the figure in the chair at the end of the table.
"Sakura-chan," he said, wearing that infamous 'come hither' look, "why don't you sit down, my dear...?"
Surpressing a slight fangirl reaction, she sat down in the nearest chair. "You said you wanted to speak to me...?"
He smiled, sending chill down her spine. "Sakura-chan, how are you feeling?" he asked.
"Uhm, fine, sir." she said, placing her hands in her lap and staring at the tabletop.
"How much do you remember of your life before?"
"... I remember everything, Aizen-sama." she said quietly.
"Ah." he said, that smirk still on his face. "And the inner Hollow...?"
"It's annoying." she said quickly, grateful for the changing of the subject. "I don't like the screaming. But it seems to make my emotions a bit easier to control, which I like."
"Hm?"
"I've never had a good poker face," she explained, "and somtimes I'm so hot-headed and strong-willed that I don't relate to others well. In fact, I'm kind of surprised that Taiyou-chan and Akemi like me so much."
His smile broadened; he had been right about this one from the very smart. She was perfect, in body and mind, for what he needed.
--
"Ichimaru-sama?"
Gin glanced at Akemi, who had finally spoken up. "What is it, Akemi-chan?"
"I... I just wanted to know..." she looked up, her face full of conviction. "Why is your face like that?"
He chuckled. "Dunno." he said simply. "A smile makes me seem likeable, ne?" He cocked his head slightly.
She smiled back. "Yeah, it kinda does." she said.
--
"Come here, woman."
Mizuki met Ulquiorra's stare, her grey eyes cold behind her glasses. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall behind her.
"I said, come here, woman."
"...Make me." she finally said.
"I don't take orders from you, woman." the pale Espada said.
"And I don't believe I take orders from you, either." the blonde said sharply, closing her eyes.
Ulquiorra sighed. Why were some women so difficult to control?