Chapter 8

a little later

"We have returned safely, Aizen sama." said Ulquiorra as he and Yammy bowed respectfully.

"Welcome home, Ulquiorra, Yammy." said Aizen as he sat in his throne like chair. All the arrancar, espada and numero alike, stood around him, while Grimmjow and Hara sat with the lemon helmeted one in the back. Aizen took note of where Hara sat, but didn't give any notion that he suspected anything. He turned back to Ulquiorra, "Now, come and relate the fruits of your expedition to your twenty brothers…And Miss Ayumi." Ulquiorra nodded and stepped forward, "Enlighten us, Ulquiorra…In the material world…everything you saw…everything you felt." continued Aizen, "Spare us not the single detail." Ulquiorra put a hand to his right eye, he pulled it out,

"Yes, sir." he said. Hara gasped as she watched him pull his eye right out. Grimmjow and the arrancar who she learned to be named D. Roy gave a small laugh at her reaction. Hara ignored them as Ulquiorra extended his arm in front of him, his fist still clasped around his eye. Without any expression, he crushed it into dust, dust that began to expand across the room. "Now be my guest." he said, "Use me to your heart's content."

The dust moved through the room like gas, and Hara began to hold her breath, but Grimmjow shook his head at her and took a deep breath of it. She followed his example and did as all the other arrancar and Aizen were doing.

Suddenly, in her mind's eye, Hara could see everything that had happened when Ulquiorra went to the material world. It was as if she were watching a movie. Hara watched as Yammy ripped the arm off of the male human with strange powers and moved to take out the girl who had used her own strange 'shun shun rikka' powers to try and stop him. Suddenly the orange haired soul reaper appeared and protected her, using his bankai and slicing of Yammy's arm in return for the fallen human. But suddenly the orange haired soul reaper started acting strange, Yammy attacked him and almost killed him, but strange people, a man in a pin striped hat, and a dark skinned woman shielded him and began to fight. Ulquiorra and Yammy left quickly afterwards, and thus ended the vision.

Everyone turned to look at Aizen. He rested his head in his hand,

"I see." he said, "Then, that means…The reason you chose not to dispose of him was because you felt he was worthless?" Ulquiorra nodded. Beside Hara, Grimmjow stirred, his blue eyes glaring down at Ulquiorra.

"Yes. Since there was no possible way he could have stood between us and our goals, I felt it pointless to waste further time with him. In addition to that-"

"Don't give me that crap!" cried Grimmjow. Everyone turned to stare at him, Hara most surprised, "If I ran into such a weak bastard as that…I simply would have eradicated him with a single blast."

"Grimmjow…" said Ulquiorra. Grimmjow didn't let him finish,

"No matter what kind of junk stands in your way…the word 'kill' was in your orders, wasn't it? Then you should have killed simply without any hesitation, right?!" Hara was silent as she stared at Grimmjow, as were the others. Suddenly a voice rang out from behind them,

"My sentiments exactly." said an arrancar with the top of his head and his right eye covered by his hollow mask. "This applies to any enemy. Let's say they are not worth killing, if that is so, then isn't it worthless to let them live as well?" Grimmjow got to his feet,

"More importantly… Yammy! How dare you try to lie straight to my face like that!! "He wasn't worth killing?!" What you mean to say is "I failed to kill him," right?" The large arrancar glared at him,

"Hey Grimmjow…Don't go talking trash when you have no idea what's going on. I was too busy taking care of the sandal dude and the dark woman. The kid was outta my hands." Grimmjow leaned towards him, his face angry and taunting.

"Are you even listening to me dumbass? Like I said before…I would have gotten them both down in a single cero blast!" Yammy got to his feet,

"What was that?!" he yelled, ready to fight.

"Stop it." said Ulquiorra as he placed a hand on Yammy's shoulder. He looked up at Grimmjow, "Grimmjow, do you understand that when I saw that boy as he is now…he was no threat to us?"

"Huh?" said Grimmjow as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"The warning Aizen-sama placed on him has nothing to do with his powers at all. What is truly frightening is his growth rate. Without a doubt it is in his 'potential' that his true power lies. There is an imbalance within his spiritual pressure that should not be there. And just as there is a high possibility that 

his power may grow…there is also a possibility that we could bring him to our side someday. That…is why we did not kill him." said Ulquiorra with the same even, emotionless voice. Grimmjow seemed even more enraged,

"Don't lie to me bastard! Let me guess the truth is…that kid's power was higher than you expected and you got scared. Even if we did bring him over to our side, in that situation, what the hell would you do?" Ulquiorra stared at him with his remaining eye,

"When that time comes, I will deal with him." Grimmjow remained silent.

"You cannot possibly have any complaints, am I right?" asked Aizen, amused with the argument.

"Of course not." said Ulquiorra.

"There is not a doubt in my mind. That's why I am content to let you handle this problem, Ulquiorra." Aizen replied, smiling.

"Thank you very much, sir." was Ulquiorra's reply as he bowed in respect. Grimmjow glared, and Hara could feel the anger radiating off of him.

Afterwards, everyone was excused. Hara followed behind Grimmjow silently, wanting to get out of the room and away from Aizen, who she knew was watching her.

Grimmjow didn't say a word the whole way back to the room. Hara was a bit worried, but didn't press him for answers. She had a bad feeling about the soul reaper incident…and just a bad feeling that something was going to happen, but she didn't know what.

Grimmjow's room

Grimmjow went to the window, leaving Hara watching him at the door. He clenched the sill angrily, his eyes flashing. Hara slowly approached him,

"Grimmjow?" He didn't move. She reached out and touched his shoulder; he was tense and very hot to the touch. "Grimmjow…" she lightly pulled on him to make him turn around. He stared at her, his eyes wild and dangerous.

"I have an idea." he said, his face breaking into a bloodthirsty grin, "Let's go and take care of that soul reaper ourselves."