Here's your Wednesday update! Enjoy!

"Kurosaki!" Uryū ran up to Ichigo on the campus of the school and grabbed his shoulder.

Ichigo whirled around and looked at Uryū curiously. His head was bandaged and his clothes were disheveled. "What happened to you? You look terrible. Did... did something happen to Inoue?"

Uryū gasped for breath and nodded slowly. "She's gone."

"What!?" Ichigo gripped Uryū's shirt and shook him lightly. "What happened? I thought you were there with her!"

Uryū looked away from Ichigo sadly. "She asked me to release the straps. She said she was starting to panic and she seemed genuine so I released her. That's when she threw me to the floor."

"She threw you? Is Inoue even strong enough to do that?" Ichigo released his grip on Uryū. "What happened next?"

"I'm not sure. It's all just a blur. All I know is that the nurses found me this morning on the hospital floor. Her window was wide open but there was no evidence that she had jumped out. That is to say, there was no blood or body found." Uryū looked at Ichigo with concern. "I tried to call you but you didn't answer your cell. Everyone is searching for her now but-"

"Good morning, Ishida-kun. Good morning, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime said with a sly smile as she approached the two boys standing near the gate of the school. "Ishida-kun, those bandages are new. Did you manage to hurt yourself again?"

"Inoue!" Ichigo started toward her until he felt Uryū throw up an arm to stop him. "Ishida?"

"That's not Inoue-san." Uryū narrowed his eyes on Orihime. "No matter how good he has become at pretending to be her, I'm starting to see the slight differences. The real Inoue-san would be concerned to see me hurt. She wouldn't be so casual about any injury, especially one caused with the use of her own body."

"He?" Ichigo blinked at Uryū before turning to look at Orihime.

"Oh Ishida-kun, sometimes you're too smart for your own good." Orihime said as she stepped closer to the two. "But that doesn't matter anymore. I have full control now and I have no reason to relinquish it just yet."

"Why are you doing this?" Uryū looked at Orihime calmly. "If you are who I believe you to be, this doesn't seem like something you would do. You have no reason to hurt Inoue-san."

"You have no idea what my reasoning is." Orihime glared at Uryū dangerously. "Just stay out of my way."

"You listen to me, you bastard!" Ichigo grabbed Orihime's shoulders and pulled her close. "We are going to find out a way to stop you. We're going to defeat you and we're going to get Inoue back."

"Get her back? Kurosaki, you haven't had her for a long, long time." Orihime smirked deviously and pulled away from Ichigo. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to class."

Ichigo watched as Orihime sauntered off without so much as a glance backward. He grit his teeth angrily and turned to Uryū. "He's toying with us. He knows we can't do anything so he's just laughing in our faces!"

"There's something I'm not understanding." Uryū said as he put his hand to his chin in thought. "This is clearly the work of someone that is inside Inoue-san. I had considered brainwashing initially but it just didn't correspond with the vocabulary she was using. But now, I'm even starting to second guess my original conclusion."

Ichigo looked to Uryū curiously. "What do you mean?"

"In considering all the possible causes for Inoue-san's change in behavior, I was quickly able to eliminate a few theories almost immediately. This couldn't be brainwashing. If it was she wouldn't be referring to herself in the third person. That just isn't a characteristic of someone who has been brainwashed. That of course removed the possibility that this was an adverse effect of Tsukishima's Book of the End as well. We know how it worked and her behavior thus far has not been indicative of any lasting effects it might have had." Uryū followed Orihime's still retreating form with his eyes. "That left only one possibility with two options."

Ichigo turned his eyes to watch Orihime as well. "And that would be..."

"There is someone within Inoue-san that has taken over control of her body. There were two possibilities I had considered. The first was that this was someone we had dealt with before. The second was that this was a new enemy and he had chosen who he perceived to be our weakest ally to target first. The dialogue he used did not support this theory, however. He's spoken in matters of the past, saying that I helped Inoue-san to forget. That implies that whoever we are dealing with is someone we've already dealt with before." Uryū's gaze shot from Orihime to Ichigo. "This only left a select few and in the end. The conclusion I came to was-"

"Ulquiorra." Ichigo clenched his fists and started after Orihime. "I came to the same conclusion without so much thought. Why are you second guessing it?"

Uryū followed after Ichigo quickly. "Well, every time Inoue-san talked to me about him-"

"She talked to you about him?" Ichigo stopped in his tracks and turned to face Uryū. "When?"

"Every once in a while she would mention it. She felt really guilty, as though she hadn't done enough. She always made it sound as though she truly believed he was just a lost soul under Aizen's spell. She didn't believe he would really hurt her and she felt she could have done more to save him, as well as some of the others." Uryū adjusted his glasses nervously. "Personally, I didn't like hearing her talk like that. She made it seem as though it could have all been avoided if only she had done enough. I told her to forget it all. It wasn't good to dwell on the past and these things just couldn't be changed. It's just that... the way she spoke about him makes it hard for me to believe that he would have any interest in harming her. I know that he would be quite capable and I don't personally believe he would hesitate given a good reason. But there is no reason. Nothing has changed."

"Maybe nothing we've seen on the surface." Ichigo turned away from Uryū and continued to walk toward their class. "But maybe something changed within Inoue to give him a reason to want her dead. Do you think he's been inside her all this time?"

"It makes sense. She's seemed a bit different ever since Hueco Mundo." Uryū followed Ichigo quietly. They made their way to their classroom and stood in the doorway, watching as Orihime sat in her seat and avoided contact with everyone else. "We're going to get to the bottom of this. We're going to save her."

...

She sat in darkness, curled up as tightly as she could be. She tried hard not to cry but she couldn't fight the tears away from her face. She had no sense of time. No sense of anything. All she knew was that she felt alone and scared.

"There's no point in crying." His voice came, soft and yet stern. "It's foolish to cry."

Her gaze snapped up and she saw him almost immediately before her. He appeared normal again, nothing demonic about him. "What are you doing here? Is my body asleep right now?"

"Asleep?" His brow crinkled a moment before his head shook. "No. Your body is at school going about your daily routine."

She looked up at him in confusion and wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. "Why are you here?"

"I've been watching you for some time." He replied plainly.

She shook her head slowly and stood. "No, I mean... how are you here if you're controlling my body?"

"I'm not." He looked her over calmly. "He is."

Her heart skipped a beat in that moment and her eyes widened. "He? Wh-what do you mean?"

"Surely you've noticed." He stepped closer to her and stared down at her expectantly. "You... haven't been able to tell any difference, have you?" He watched her eyes for a moment before turning away in disgust. "You disappoint me further. You really aren't the woman I once thought you were. He was right."

"Who was right? What are you talking about?" She reached out and grabbed a hold of his arm only for his gaze to turn back to her coldly.

"You used to know me so well. So well in fact, it felt as though..." He trailed off and pulled his arm from her. "I see you still have not learned to fear me."

"You're not the same. You keep changing from the Ulquiorra I knew into someone else entirely." She stared up at him bravely. "There's someone else here, isn't there? The 'he' you were talking about; he's controlling you like he's controlling me, isn't he?"

"He is a part of me." He stared down at her quietly. "Don't pretend as though you've noticed a difference."

"I have!" She reached out and grabbed his arm again. "I've seen the difference! I can feel it. I can tell the times when he's had control over your body. He's said things, done things... things I know aren't like you at all. I fear him and I know he intends to do me harm. But I can tell that he has you convinced that I need to be harmed because even when you were yourself, you've said some strange things. Ulquiorra, I don't fear you. But I fear him. Please tell me, who is he?"

"He is a part of me. He has been since the day I became part of you. Murciélago." He looked down at her in interest. "Have you really noticed a difference in us? Outside of our appearance?"

She nodded slowly. "He's cruel and devious. He isn't like you at all. He laughs at me and he likes to play mind games. When I'm in his presence I feel sick and it's as though I'm suffocating. And when he touches me it's like being touched by a corpse." She reached down slowly and touched her hand to his. "But there's still some warmth left in you."

He withdrew his hand from her reach and stared down at her in thought. "He said that you couldn't tell us apart. He said that you believed he was me."

"Appearances can be deceiving but I think that deep down I knew he wasn't the real you. He scares me. You don't." She looked up at him sadly. "You never have."

"You should fear me. Nothing has changed." He turned away from her. "You've still forgotten me. Forgotten everything."

"I haven't forgotten! I could never forget!" She looked at him and clenched her fists. "I will always remember. But honestly, what good will dwelling on the past get anyone? You're still dead. I can't fix that. Maybe I could have changed it then if I had taken different actions but I didn't and I can't go back now. I thought about it every day and suffered. Do you truthfully want me to suffer for something I can't fix?"

"All I wanted... truthfully?" He turned to face her and stared down at her seriously. "All I wanted was not to be forgotten. The very thing that keeps me living is your memories of me. Your memories have shown me more than I could have ever hoped to gain in a life time. But when you stop remembering I begin to disappear. I was enjoying those memories. I was enjoying you. I was alive again in the most lenient sense."

"And I will never forget again. Ulquiorra, I will keep those memories every day if you'll just give me another chance. I know I let you down. I know I disappointed you and I'm sorry. I never realized there was so much at stake." She reached out to him hesitantly. "Please let me prove this to you."

"I have no reason to believe that you would keep your word." His gaze narrowed down on her. "I've already given you so many chances."

"Ulquiorra, I promise you!" She grabbed his hands in her own and held them tightly. They were warm and to her surprise she detected a slight tremble. "I will think of you every day and if I ever forget to... you can do with me as you wish. Just give me a chance to prove to you that I will help you continue with your life."

"At times you truly astound me. Perhaps you are the person I believed you to be after all." He pulled his hands from hers and stepped away from her. "This is all a lot easier said than done, woman."

"Ulquiorra, believe me." She looked up at him sadly, his eyes returning almost the same amount of sorrow.

He stared down at her before raising his hand slowly and bringing it to her cheek. "I do. But I'm not the one you need to worry about."

She watched as his eyes turned upward and she followed his gaze with her own. She stood with him staring up into the blackness above their heads.

"There's still him."