Sorry for the wait! I've had a rough past couple of weeks. However, now everything is better. On with the show!
Search for a Heart Ch. 6 – Branching Paths
"Wake the hell up!" Grimmjow shouted through my door. "The Caretaker wants to talk to all of us!"
With a sigh, I got out of bed. Half a minute later saw me in my uniform and answering the door. This uniform resembled my original Espada uniform, only it was colored silver and lined with black. Opening the door, I said, "There. Now can we go see the Caretaker before I have to listen to any more of your yelling?"
Grimmjow started to reach for his sword, but he caught himself. Instead, he grunted and said, "About time you got up. I thought I would have to knock down the door and use a Cero to wake you up."
"What makes you think that you could have knocked down the door?" I asked.
Grimmjow started smiling with more than a bit of pride. "Follow me," he replied.
Turning around, Grimmjow started walking down the hallway. This isn't the way to the main room. Where's he taking me?
We eventually came upon a room that had its door blown off its hinges. Literally – the hinges were still attached to the doorframe, while the door itself was a pile of splinters on the opposite wall.
"I left my keys in my room," Grimmjow explained. "So I had to use one hell of a Cero in order to get in."
My jaw was hanging open in astonishment. "You… you…"
"Impressive, huh? I heard this thing housed a couple hundred Heartless no problem. Guess I still –"
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" I screamed.
I spun on Grimmjow, who was definitely surprised by my outburst. "Do you have any idea what you've done?! I almost had a fight with the Caretaker just for saying something that made her upset! What do you think she's going to do when she sees that you've destroyed one of her rooms?!"
"I didn't destroy the room!" Grimmjow snapped. "I only destroyed the door!"
"You're missing the point! She's going to kill you when she sees what you've done!"
"When who sees what who's done?" A feminine voice asked.
One look at Grimmjow and I knew we were thinking the same thing – Oh, crap. Slowly turning to see the source of the voice, we saw the Caretaker leaning against the wall a few feet away from us. She was smiling like nothing was wrong. It wasn't forced, either – she looked to be in a genuinely good mood.
"I was looking for you two," the Caretaker told us. "Starrk and Lillynette were fighting, so I had to come fetch you two myself. Now come. We have a very distressing matter ahead of us."
As we followed the Caretaker towards the main room, she added, "Oh, and Grimmjow? You'll pay for the door you destroyed by making one yourself."
Grimmjow was grumbling the whole way to the main room. Once we got there, we saw Starrk was sitting on the ground, nursing several bruises and a black eye. Lillynette was several yards away with barely a scratch on her. The smile on her face told us the whole story.
"So who won?" the Caretaker asked.
"Who do you think?" Lillynette puffed up her chest in pride. "I beat him with one arm behind my back!"
As the Caretaker and Lillynette struck up a conversation, Grimmjow and I huddled around Starrk. "Why did you let her beat you?" I whispered.
"I wasn't in the mood," Starrk replied, wincing in pain as he tried to open his black eye.
"You loser!" Grimmjow hissed. "You let her win because you 'weren't in the mood'?"
"Cut me some slack, guys," Starrk held his hands up, gesturing for space. "The Caretaker woke us up before I could get my full amount of sleep."
"And how much do you need?" I asked.
"Fifteen hours, give or take two hours."
Everyone heard that. We were also gaping at him in astonishment. Well, I merely widened my eyes in disbelief, but still.
Shaking her head, the Caretaker clapped twice to get our attention. "The reason I have called you all here," she said, "is that things are becoming more serious."
"In the time that we slept, the Hogyoku has already visited three worlds. Thankfully, the changes made there were minor seeing as it didn't have any true masters on those worlds. However, that isn't what's concerning. Organization XIII has sent one member to each world in order to track down the Hogyoku."
"Therefore, I'm sending each of you to a different world. Starrk and Lillynette, you shall be going to the Hawaiin Islands. Grimmjow, you're going to China. Ulquiorra, you're going to La Cite des Cloches."
"Any questions?"
None of us said anything. Finally, Grimmjow spoke up. "What do we do if we find the Hogyoku?"
"Destroy it. By any means necessary."
Hoh boy! I can't wait to write the next few chapters. Until next time, viva Templar!