Onna

Chapter 4

The quietness that had settled upon Los Noches was broken by a heavy sigh. Orihime rolled over in the bed and rubbed her eyes. She wondered if anyone else was awake as she untangled her legs from the cream colored sheets. Letting out a soft "hmph" noise, she stood and stretched. After she'd decided that every muscle in her body was relaxed and ready for the day ahead, Orihime went to the dresser and gathered her clothes she was to wear.

Once ready and fully dressed, she stepped out of her room and paused at the door. Orihime realized that she had absolutely no idea how to get back to the meeting room they had all gone to yesterday. "Ah! Orihime," Rukia smiled, exiting her own room, "Morning." Orihime returned the smile, "Good morning, Rukia." The raven haired girl covered a yawn with one hand and placed the other on her hip, "Do you have any clue how to get to the meeting place? All of the guys seemed to have left without us…" Orihime put a finger to her chin, "Well… I'm not exactly positive about where it is either, but I'm sure the both of us could find it if we try hard enough." Rukia didn't like the thought of wondering the halls of Los Noches, but the optimism in the other girl's voice was hard to challenge, "Alright then, if you say so…"

They had been walking for a few minutes, talking about 'this' and 'that', when different voices suddenly filled the halls. A harsh male's voice and a softer one of child's carried through the corridor.

Grimmjow and Ulquiorra.

"I seriously don't get you. I got less sleep then you, and you still act like you were awake the whole night!" Grimmjow scoffed. Ulquiorra sighed softly. The last thing he wanted was to argue with the Ex-Espada about the needs and such of children that differed from adults.

Orihime and Rukia finally rounded the corner meeting the two face to face. They paused to turn and look at them, before Grimmjow muttered an obscenity under his breath and continued on. Ulquiorra silently trailed behind him, even if he wanted nothing more then to walk in step with the onna. "H-hey! Can't you wait up a sec?" Rukia hollered after them. "What do ya want, midget Soul Reaper?" The blue haired man grunted. Rukia ignored the comment, "Orihime and I need to get to the meeting room, but we aren't familiar with the lay out of this place." Grimmjow rolled his eyes and continued on. "It's not far from here, just a few hallways down." Ulquiorra said pointing a small finger down the hall.

Grimmjow shot the boy a glare, but he ignored it. "Well… Would you two be willing to show us the way…?" Rukia trailed off, knowing that she was asking in vain. Grimmjow was about to tell the female Soul reaper off when a new thought formed. "Sure," he smirked, "I guess that wouldn't be too much trouble, right Green-tears?" Ulquiorra said nothing.

The Ex-Espada never willingly helped others, so why start now… and help the human invaders of all people?

Orihime continued to find her eyes falling back onto the arrancar-child as they followed the pair. Questions revolving around Ulquiorra kept circling her head. Did he resemble Ulquiorra's personality traits completely? Was he a totally different person? Why did he call out for her when he first woke? Why not someone else? She finally settled the fixation by keeping her gaze at his heels.

Ulquiorra suddenly realized what Grimmjow was planning as he began to recognize the familiar markers. "You are going the wrong direction." He stated, keeping his voice low enough that only the man at his side would hear. "Heh, not if you're taking the long way there." He smirked, glancing back at the women behind them. The child knew which way he was leading them.

There was more then one way to their destination. One way sent you through several passages before reaching the room. The other did the same, but led through several halls located in the other side of Los Noches.

The arrancar half.

"If we're supposed to have an alliance with the Soul Reapers, then what good would it do to lead them to trouble?" Ulquiorra asked, keeping his voice low. "Not my fault that they're too stupid to know that they're being led to our half." The other arrancar shrugged, "I warned 'em last night about going over to the other side."

He shouldn't care really. Ulquiorra's view on them should be the same as Grimmjow's. Their ignorance was not his fault… and yet knowing that he was taking part in leading the two women to what would most likely be their death's was not pleasing. The image from his nightmare of the onna drenched in her own blood, sprawled out dead, flickered briefly in his mind.

'That will be her fate if she takes one step over that border.'

For once, the boy did not try to silence the voice humming in his head. Ulquiorra inwardly grimaced, knowing it was the truth.

Just as Grimmjow was about to take the first step over the invisible line separating the two sides of Los Noches, the child made a quick turn. "This way…" he stated quietly. Orihime and Rukia glanced back and forth between the two. The blue haired man was cursing and glaring daggers at Ulquiorra, while the boy simple looked at the girls, waiting for them to follow. "Um… Okay?" Orihime said, leading both Rukia and herself in the direction of Ulquiorra.

"Brat!" Grimmjow snarled after them. The boy ignored him. Again. Fuming, the Ex-Espada turned on his heels, continuing on his own. "Good reddens!" He muttered. If the child wanted to babysit the humans so much he had no reason to stop him.

Relief. When Rukia and Orihime began to follow him Ulquiorra let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. He didn't exactly think he would be able to handle seeing harm come to the onna.

'No, probably not…'

He couldn't tell whether the thought was his own, or that of the voice insisting that it must add input to everything he did and thought.

With the direction he was leading them it would take the three much longer to get to the meeting room then if they'd followed Grimmjow. The child sighed. He'd much rather be late then lead the two humans to their death.

Truthfully, Ichigo was starting to worry slightly. Renji and him had been the first people to wake, so they had went ahead and found they're way back to the meeting room. Uryu and Chad woke sometime later and did the same. All of them had decided that they would let the two girls sleep longer. Now it had been at least an hour or so, and Orihime and Rukia should have woken and came down to the meeting place. Shouldn't of they?

"Maybe someone should go down and see if they're still asleep or somethin'." Renji said. "I don't think they would still be sleeping. Besides, it wouldn't do us any good if we got lost on our way back there." Uryu replied. "Chad and I barely found our way here." They all went quiet again. Ichigo opened his mouth to say something just as the door was kicked open. "Mornin' kiddies!" Grimmjow barked, coming in. He brushed off their aggravated glares as he took a seat a crossed from the orange haired boy. "Grimmjow, you're such an-" Ichigo held his tongue as both Captain Unohana and Captain Kurotsuchi walked into the room with their lieutenants.

"Good morning," Unohana smiled. "Yes," the other Captain added, scanning the group before him, "Morning to you all." Renji and Uryu visibly shrunk back in their seats. Mayuri rolled his eyes as he sat down, "Keep slouching, gentlemen, I can still see you." Once everyone was seated, Nemu stated the obvious, "Two of them are missing, sir." Her captain shrugged, "Maybe they got lost and wondered over to the arrancars' side." Ichigo stiffened, "Don't say that!" He sputtered. "Hmm, Jeagerjaques, I also see that your little 'tag-along' isn't present either." Grimmjow avoided the officer's eyes, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure the kid can take care of himself…" He knew that it was his responsibility to look after Ulquiorra, but still… it wasn't as if the boy made it easy on him, always ignoring what he said or doing the opposite of what Grimmjow asked of him. "I do hope you at least know where he is." The female Captain said. She didn't have to say what would happen if harm came to the child. Unohana had been given orders to protect and observe Ulquiorra, and Captain Kurotsuchi was eagerly waiting for the green light to run tests of all kinds on him.

If anything happened to the little boy, it would be on Grimmjow head.

Finally, the door opened to reveal the three absent members of the group. "Good, we were beginning to think that someone would have to be sent to look for you." Captain Unohana said, motioning for them to take a seat. Now that everyone was present, the two captains could explain what their duties were going to be.

"Now, let us start." Unohana said, "Everyone will have some sort of job or responsibility given by Captain Kurotsuchi or myself. For now, we'll address what needs to be done the most. I am organizing the books and catalogs we've found in the library. For those of you that are to be helping me, you will shelve and move different books and papers to different places in the library and around Los Noches." She nodded to the other officer, "Those who are going to be assisting me will be rebuilding and repairing the laboratory and domain of the late eighth Espada, Szayel Aporro Granz. I've found some use for the experiments and equipment he used, so I plan on using the building as what you could call a 'back-up' laboratory." Kurotsuchi paused, "I'll need some stronger people for the first part of the excavation. We'll be clearing out the rubble from the old building, and moving in materials for the new one." Well at least the jobs wouldn't be too difficult. "When will we start?" Chad asked. "Immediately." Both captains replied in unison.

They all were brought breakfast, and once they'd finished that, everyone split up into two groups. Orihime, Rukia, and Uryu made up those who were going to assist Captain Unohana, and Chad, Ichigo, Renji, and Grimmjow were to help Captain Mayuri. When everyone understood who was going where, the group split up to follow their assigned captain.

They had just begun the trip over to the old laboratory when Grimmjow finally noticed the small figure mixed in with the crowed. "Where the hell do ya think you're going?" He asked grabbing onto Ulquiorra's horn, forcing his head back in an uncomfortable looking fashion. "The same place as you." He replied jerking his head away. "Yeah, no. Get your ass back there and start pushing papers or somethin'. You'd just get in the way if you came with us." Grimmjow said throwing his thumb back at the people heading the opposite direction. Ulquiorra glared at him, and continued walking. "Tch, stubborn little…" The blue haired arrancar grabbed the boy around his waist and tucked him under his arm. "Wha! Let go of me!" Ulquiorra gasped wriggling in Grimmjow's firm hold. He ignored the child's pleas and began walking up to the other group. "Yo, Captain!" He called, cupping his free hand beside his mouth. Everyone turned at the call. "Release me, trash!" The little boy was a ball of flailing fists and legs in Grimmjow's arms. "Take him." He sighed angrily. With that he tossed the child down the hall in their direction. The horned boy landed on his back and skidded to a stop at the Captain's feet.

"Mr. Jeagerjaques, I must ask that you try to be a bit… gentler next time." Unohana said as she offered her hand to the stunned kid on the floor. "I'll do that…" Grimmjow said sarcastically, turning back to catch up with the rest of his group. Instead of taking the officer's hand, Ulquiorra angrily stood on his own. The captain suspected that much, "Are you injured, Ulquiorra."

He was fine. The impact hadn't even hurt. "No. I'm not as fragile as you humans." He replied flatly. "I see…" she said. They continued on in silence.

She didn't say anything about it, but just then Orihime had found an answer to one of her questions. He wasn't exactly like the adult Ulquiorra. As they walked down the corridor she saw the gapping difference between the two.

Right then, Grimmjow'd made Ulquiorra angry, furious even. And the boy-Espada hadn't even tried to stay composed.

This Ulquiorra showed his emotions.

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I procrastinated with this one...
I could have bee working on this one buuuuut I chose not to...

Well, not a whole lot happened in this chapter, but it's still just starting out. The first few chapters are probably going to be pretty uneventful. Just setting up the true plot.

R&R please :)

PS: if you see any typos or mistakes, please tell me so I can fix them and improve with the next chapter(s).