Grimmjow entered his room to realize that Ichigo had been right. Ulquiorra was waiting for him. Nekkid on the bed, hesitantly stroking himself. The fact that his mate had been masturbating in his bed caught Grimmjow's remaining lust and pushed any thought of fucking Ichigo clear out of his mind.
"I've been… waiting here." Ulquiorra said, voice cracking slightly. "Where did you go?"
"I cheated. Sorry. I got angry that you and Stark…"
"What happened?"
"He said you probably missed me." Grimmjow knelt onto the bed, slipping out of his shirt.
"I did." Ulquiorra sat up, leaning against Grimmjow's chest. "I missed you terribly. I want… before the lust passes I want you to…take my breath away. Please." Ulquiorra's body pressing needily against his was all the begging Grimmjow needed from his lover. The sexta Espada stripped, showing his lover that he could indeed live up to the undertones implied by the title 'sexta.'
~ 3 Days later
The captains meeting had an unusual add on, the video phone connected to the living world and Urahara shop, where Urahara, Yoruichi, Isshin and Tessai on video conference.
Yamamoto looked around. "The only people privy to the story I am about to tell you are those in this room and those on the video phone." He said quietly. "Aizen has made an alliance with a tribe of Healer Arrancar known as the Neo Atheneans. A long time ago I met their leader.
"I was very young then compared with now. My body was barely as mature as your average lieutenant's. I had just gotten my shikai, and thought that I could take on anything as long as I had Ryuujin Jakka at my side.
"I was sent to slay the current Neo Athenean Leader and the Order's founder, Zephly Ophiucus Ascepilas, he usually drops the middle name when introducing himself. While /my/ body has aged and battered with time, Zephly is still young and vital, and old enough that he died by human sacrifice. He is older than I am, and the only reason he is not currently the 1st Espada is because it does not serve his purposes to be so.
"Zephly has a problem with his hormones, where the right alignment of stars and planets in the sky stricken him with uncontrollable lust. I was foolhardy enough to burst in on him resting in a cave in the Greek Countryside not far from the Oracle of Delphi's shrine during this alignment.
"he trapped me in that cave for three days, forcing me to be his plaything in all number of sexual acts. When his madness lifted, he left me there. The shinigami in those days were not as organized as they are now, and when we tried to find him, we got some basic intelligence on his tribe, and then we lost him.
"What your average officer is allowed to know of this story, is that when their commander general was young, he fought the Neo Athenean leader, and lost. That his age and his strength and the dark knowledge he possesses make him our number four priority after Aizen, Tousen, and Ichimaru."
"Yama-ji, this is one story you never told when we were in the academy." Shunsui said dolefully. "Surely you could have trusted Ukitake and myself? I understand how horribly hard it must have been but…" Shunsui was distressed by the thought that /his/ mentor, the person he considered a father, had been raped by an arrancar as a young officer.
"I am trusting the captains I trained, to do what they were trained to do, and get justice for those who cannot have the personal gratification of knowing they defeated their tormentor." Yamamoto said grimly. "If my rage at what occurred were set loose, half the Soul society would burn."
"You said dark knowledge, is he a scientist as well as a healer?" Mayuri asked, a small smile curling his face.
"He isn't a scientist, but his library does contain a large amount of scientific data. That is probably the only thing of his the scouts were able to get reliable intelligence on. He has collected it over his lifetime. That library is his most valued possession. Unfortunately because it is so valuable he fortified it to withstand most Reiatsu attacks. An invasion that could destroy Neo Athens, could not destroy the library within its walls." Yamamoto frowned. "It has a false spire, in the upper floors is a shrine to the 12 Olympian Gods and a light house with signal drums at the top. The knowledge within it is stored in the lower parts of the tower, which extends down into the Menos forest and is capable of withstanding multiple cero blasts from a menos grande, it was found to withstand Hado up into the nineties without so much as a shake."
Isshin whistled. "whew, that's some serious defenses. So there's no way to get to it below, and there's no way to get to it above. I'll bet Kurotsuchi-perve could get in though."
"I'm right here you know."
"I know Kurotsuchi-perv. And I'll call you that until you prove that you aren't as perverted as I think you are. Unless its to call you Mayuri-perv, but that has a totally different ring to it don't you think?"
"Whatever."
"Isshin darling, behave." Unohana had treated Isshin from the start as one would a disobedient child. He was, in his day, the Rebel of the 4th Division before he became a seated officer and then a captain. She was the only one able to curb his exuberance and his practical joking.
"Urahara, what have you to report about the condition of Deputy Kurosaki?"
"Thanks to the samples Unohana took, I've been able to tell /exactly/ what the drug is, every gruesome step in its dance of disruption. I must say that its incredibly complex. The drug is actually a virus." Urahara said with a smirk on his face. "Its self perpetuating through one generation. Meaning that while Ichigo was exposed from Grimmjow, he can't spread it to anybody else.
"That could be a problem." Unohana sighed. "I was originally going to keep the incident in confidence, please forgive me all of you."
"What happened?"
"Lieutenant Abarai found Grimmjow carrying Ichigo off and chased him down to the ware house district. Grimmjow caught him spying on him and Ichigo and hauled him into his little love nest. Ichigo asked Abarai not to tell anybody what happened until it was all over. I think he didn't want to be alone with what was happening, and I think he holds some amount of feelings for Abarai-fukutaichou. Ichigo asked Abarai to join him for a half hour or so. I asked Ichigo why he didn't want Abarai to tell anyone what was happening until it was over, was that he didn't want a squad of officers being sent to rescue him and getting hurt because Grimmjow decided to kill them for interfering. Remember that Arrancar have both human and animal mating instincts and can be quite aggressive to anyone unfortunate enough to interrupt them."
The different captain's reactions were mixed. Yamamoto's expression was pitying. Kyouraku and Ukitake looked at each other. Kurotsuchi mused. "So the invicible substitute can be frightened after all."
"Yes, that is the tactical assumption I would make." Soifon said quietly. "But considering the situation its understandable that he wanted company. I would certainly want Yoruichi-sama there if I were being held prisoner and… used…"
"No warrior can fight all the time." Kyouraku pointed out. "If that's true that Ichigo is insecure about what happened, then its our turn to do right by him. What did you find Urahara?"
"It took me awhile to sequence the virus' DNA, but it wasn't hard. So I point out that if Renji was exposed we will get the first symptoms in about five minutes from now. Most arrancar would not feel the changes happening, but their bodies are stronger than ours. A shinigami or human would feel it very quickly.
"The virus begins about three or four days after exposure by destroying any non reproductive organ that a human can survive without that's below the waist. That leaves space in the male body for female reproductive organs to form, which do by the time the week is out. After that happens, the virus migrates to various glands that produce sex hormones, wait, and then destroy themselves enmass when the reformed sex organs send a hormonal trigger to the required organs, causing the person to go into an uncontrollable lust for a period of three to five days. During that time the body scrubs out any waste tissues or materials the virus may have created while it does that damage. So whoever is infected, we'll know relatively quickly."
Unohana's expression turned grim. "I see. Yamamoto should I go to the world of the living to help?"
"Yes, go. The deputy shinigami's and Abarai-fukutaichou's safety is important. Make sure he's alright."
Unohana hurried out of the meeting, and took off at top shunpo. Using her cellphone, she ordered Ikemura to have her gigai brought to the senkaimon gates. She would be in the world of the living in a maximum of twenty minutes.
In the meantime, a scream echoed through the Urahara shop and reached the captain's through the video phone.
"Told you." Urahara replied.
Yoruichi flashstepped off screen, Isshin ran after her.
Renji was trembling, but he wasn't the one screaming.
Ichigo was. Ichigo writhed in Renji's arms, screaming in pain. The Lieutenant buried his face in Ichigo's hair, trying to comfort the screaming deputy.
Yamamoto closed his eyes, and waited. Urahara moved off screen and came back a few moments later. "Abarai Renji hasn't been infected, unfortunately Ichigo has.
Ichigo had spent the last three days more or less either sleeping or having sex with Renji. He didn't want to go to school after what happened. He felt… dirty…
Somehow, sleeping with Grimmjow had made him not care about being promiscuous. And Renji was both there and had a libido willing enough to provide relief.
And he hadn't been at home either. He'd curled up in a ball in the guest suite of Urahara's shop and just laid there. Urahara had only bothered him to come in with food and run the occasional test. He hadn't stirred, and Renji hadn't left his side.
Ichigo had had sex with renji maybe an hour before, he'd curled up in his temporary lover's arms and he'd been asleep.
Pain, serious pain, woke him. "Ichi?" Renji asked groggily.
"My body…" Ichigo said softly. "My body hurts."
"Huh?"
"My stomach." Ichigo mumbled.
Then the wave of pain hit in earnest, and Ichigo doubled over, screaming and shaking in pain. Renji paled in fright, cradling Ichigo in his arms.
In an instant Yoruichi was there. "Ichigo… I'm sorry." She said quietly. She quickly stuck a needle in his shoulder with a sedative. Ichigo's eyes fluttered closed, still trembling in Renji's arms.
Yoruichi looked up. "OYE! Isshin, he's asleep now you don't have to worry about being seen."
Renji got the shock of his life when Ichigo's supposedly very strange father walked in, calm and collected and looking very grim, and wearing a tattered captain's haori hanging around his waist.
"Renji, meet Ichigo's father, Isshin Kurosaki."
"M… ma…. Ma'am? K… Kurosaki-tttt… Taichou."
"I don't have the title captain anymore Renji. But as long as you're sleeping with my son you have to call me sir. And if you tell him you saw me like this before I'm ready to show him, you'll be in deep trouble." Isshin warned him.
Renji gulped and nodded. "Its not serious anyway, he just needs some comfort and the chance to process what happened to him I think." Ichigo was pale in his arms. "I don't understand, what's happening to him?"
"The drug that Aizen gave Grimmjow, its based on some kind or retro virus that rewrites anatomy." Yoruichi explained.
"HOW?" Renji demanded.
"Well Renji, let me ask you. What's the only logical reason to have an arrancar fall into a fit of uncontrollable lust and not be able to decide if they want to have sex with someone or not?"
"I have no /idea./" Renji replied.
"To /breed/ them. Aizen is breeding his arrancar."
Renji sort of, headtilted for a moment. "To breed for… wait why? He'd have to wait at least twenty years for those bred arrancar to fight."
"He can wait. Remember, we are shinigami, we can wait for decades more."
"But if the arrancar are his target, why make it affect Ichigo?"
"Probably because his inner hollow makes him vulnerable to it."
"Inner hollow?"
"Has Ichigo told you anything about that mask of his?"
"no, he hasn't."
"There's a reason for that. Ichigo has an inner hollow, a part of his mind that broke off from his own mind. He's a vaizard." Yoruichi looked up, but Isshin had left.
"A what?" Renji was confused.
"A vaizard is a shinigami with hollow powers. About a hundred years ago, Aizen used the Hogyoku on some of the shinigami who were captains and lieutenants at the time. The result were the Vaizard. Then he covered his tracks and made Urahara look like the guilty party. In truth, Urahara was trying to save them. He, Tessai and I were exiled, and the Vaizard would have been put to death. But I broke in, rescued all of them, and then we escaped to the world of the living and hid until the time was right to prove our innocence."
"But how did Ichigo…"
"Remember how Byakuya slashed his soul chain and soul sleep? Well the only way to recover his powers was to make Ichigo a vaizard. Urahara didn't tell him what he would be doing to himself because Ichigo was still new to the ways of the soul society. He knew Ichigo would have trouble presenting himself directly as a vaizard, substitute shinigami was easier to get the captains to accept. They've all seen Ichigo in mask or heard about it, but very few of them actually know what that mask means."
"does Yamamoto-sama know?"
"Yes, he does. Urahara explained to him when he asked."
"So this inner hollow is why Ichigo is vulnerable?"
"We're not sure. Urahara thinks that the virus was meant for both arrancar, vaizard and shinigami alike. I think its just dumb luck you didn't get it from that one time with Grimmjow. Sometimes in an individual a virus engineered for these kinds of purposes just doesn't take. You're a very dominant personality. Perhaps it simply affects the uke?"
Yoruichi frowned, not quite sure what other conclusion to draw. Why /didn't/ it take effect in Renji? Did he have some kind of immunity or was it dumb luck?
For protection, Zangetsu pulled Ichigo into his inner world the instant the sedative hit. Ichigo fell to his knees, caught mid fall by the Zanpakuto spirit. "Old man… I feel like crap."
"No kidding." Zangetsu said with an amused snort.
An instant later Ogichi flopped into Zangetsu's grip as well. "Itaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiii!" the hollow was crying.
Ichigo couldn't blame him. "I'm trying to numb the pain Ichigo, but trust me, your body is hurting a lot right now."
Ichigo was trembling. "What happened?" He had this really dull sensation in his midsection. Like his brain had been cut off from the pain that should be debilitating.
"Yoruichi gave you a sedative and anesthetic." Zangetsu replied. "Unfortunately Ogichi doesn't have the same amount of luck that you did."
Ogichi was whining and writhing in Zangetsu's grip. Ichigo sighed, snuggling against his zanpakuto spirit before pulling Ogichi gently into his arms. "Come on you."
"If anybody asks, this didn't happen." Ogichi grumbled, curling up in Ichigo's arms.
Ichigo chuckled, leaning down to kiss Ogichi gently on the forehead. "You'll be alright. We both will. Just stick close to Zangetsu until the pain goes away okay?"
Ogichi nodded, whimpering slightly.
Zangetsu was sure that this wasn't over. But he was just Ichigo's zanpakuto, what could he do? It wasn't like he could just appear and demand of Yoruichi and Urahara what was going on with his Ichigo?
~ Over the next couple of weeks
Over the next several weeks, Ichigo couldn't put his finger on the feeling of something being wrong. But he was also dealing with his feelings over his not entirely consensual fling with Grimmjow.
It was a disturbing feeling of being dirty, and an almost insatioable itch to try and reach the amount of sensation Grimmjow had exposed him to that he got rid of by being 'easy.' He slept with Renji, he slept with Shuhei, he even made moves on Hitsugaya and when the white haired captain said something rude, he ended up in the janitor's closet at school with Uryu.
"I don't get it Ichigo, are you addicted to being a fag or did somebody…" Keigo was hauled back by the collar by Mizuiro.
They were up on the rooftop eating lunch, just the guys. Sado was out sick with the flu. Uryu was running late because one of the girls from the arts and crafts club had run out of an out of circulation Noro Kureyon. So he was showing her how to bid for yarn on e-bay.
Which left Ichigo with Dumb and Dumber and a boy who ran a serious risk of getting multiple women convicted of statutory rape with his unusual interest in older females.
"Look, I just had a rough time with this guy from out of town and it wasn't entirely his fault either."
"How is it not his fault?"
"He was drugged by his boss."
"Man, that's like something out of a twisted yaoi fangirl's fantasy fic!" Keigo scowled. "I mean, drugging a man so he sleeps with some teenager? How twisted!"
Ichigo flushed. "Well, its not somebody that I don't entirely dislike. I'm just sorting things out okay?"
"Well if you're gay Ichigo, you aren't necessarily alone. My older cousin up in Shinjuku he's the head of his local gay rights league. Our school has one too, but its Club President is…" Mizuiro gulped, pointing down to the tree in the school grounds where Chizuru was hanging off of Orihime, little hearts in her eyes.
"you're kidding me."
"Yeah, she scares more gay guys away from that club than she attracts." Mizuiro shuddered.
Ichigo sighed in disgust. "And orihime is just letting her fondle them."
"Orihime is very tolerant." Mizuiro said cheerfully. "You know Ichigo, if you're having trouble picking one guy to stick with, unlike Keigo I totally understand. I see so many lovely ladies I can't just stay with one of them!"
"one day you're going to get an STD." Ichigo grumbled.
"So are you. You /are/ using a condom with all those guys right?"
"I /know/ them." Ichigo growled. "you hardly know all the women you seduce. And if you don't get an STD you're going to get somebody in trouble for sleeping with a sixteen year old boy who looks like he's three years younger."
"You really can't accuse me of anything. Did you see how Rukia's older brother looked at you when he dropped off that bunny pez dispenser thing she forgot to bring with her?" Rukia had forgotten Chappy. Byakuya had brought it over to her.
In Mizuiro's opinion, Byakuya had the hots for Ichigo. He'd been talking to Rukia, and watching Ichigo. And the jealous look on his face when Renji pounced Ichigo midway through the conversation and tugged him away for yet another oral tryst in the janitor's closet could have curdled milk!
"No, how was he looking at me?"
"Like he wanted to drag you away somewhere and jump you. HEY! You're not talking about him are you? He's not the one that got drugged?"
"NO." Ichigo glared. "It was… this guy from out of town."
For some reason, Ichigo was starting to feel hot, and flustered. Even the hyperactive Keigo was starting to look good right now. And the smug expression on Mizuiro's face was getting him angry right then.
"Huh, hey Ichigo, what's wrong with your face?" Keigo asked.
"/MY/ face, have you looked in a mirror lately you're such a sap."
"He's not joking Ichigo, your hair and skin are turning white!" Exclaimed Mizuiro, holding up a mirror he used to look at women behind his back in class.
Ichigo looked, and instantly he shrieked into his mind. OGICHI!!!!!!!!!
I'm all hot and bothered Ichi, go drag Renji into the closet again?
WHATS WRONG WITH YOU??????
I want sex, whats wrong with you? Ichigo was starting to get a hard on. But right then the patches of white spreading over his face, hair and body and the darkening in his eyes was scaring him much more than the erection burgeoning between his legs.
"Keigo, Mizuiro, get Renji and Rukia. Tell them its an emergency. RUN!" Ichigo growled.
And what crossed his mind right then as Keigo and Mizuiro split up to get Renji and Rukia, what Ichigo really wanted, was for Renji to be nailing him on one side, and Uryu to be sucking his dick on the other.