New chapter, have fun or something.
Chapter 26
Grimmjow knew the day would come very soon, but he didn't expect it to happen at that very moment. Stark has told him over and over again that he was going to inherit the clan if anything happened to him making Grimmjow his right-hand man. He was supposed to join meetings like this if they ever occurred and with his father's inactivity he's barely seen any, but he didn't expect a meeting to occur right now in the middle of the night and with a bunch of people he would rather not deal with. It's hard to have that expectation when there were a bunch of people that he would rather not share his moment with sitting around him around a meeting table discussing how to deal with a person he wished just disappeared already. He would rather spend his first night back home with Ichigo sleeping in his arms.
Wasn't the moment he found love meant to be the happiest he's supposed to feel in his entire life? He was actually proud that he managed to make Ichigo love him without having to force himself on him. Nnoitra can tease him all he wanted that Grimmjow is too modern for his old age and he should have resorted to taking Ichigo the old fashion way just like he did with Shinji. Nnoitra may not have said it yet since he didn't have the chance to yet, but he can definitely see him saying that. Vampires take what they want and there is no better example than that then Aizen.
He didn't expect to see most of the faces sitting around him again for a very long time, but here they are at his home casually sipping tea looking to discuss which actions should be taken. There was that Toshiro Hitsugaya guy that was the head of the Hitsugaya clan despite his young age along with that blond chick with the huge chest that was also in the clan. That's fine. He expected to see them if they were planning to go to war with Aizen, but he didn't expect to see the guy with a stick shoved up his ass. Uryu sat at the table looking completely out of place, nursing his tea with his eyes closed and looking mega irritated as if he couldn't stand being surrounded by vampires.
"Why am I here exactly?" Uryu asked, sounding just as annoyed as he looked. Great, it looks like he doesn't have any idea either, just like the rest of them. "Urahara just warped me here somehow and told me that I needed to stay without giving me anymore details. Are you guys seriously planning on going to war with Aizen?"
Toshiro looked bothered, but he was probably the most qualified person at the table to be leading the meeting. Grimmjow loved his father and he was definitely the strongest person at the table, but he tended to be a bit disinterested and tended to stay far away from vampire politics since it was such a bother. Aizen never outwardly tried to attack him because he knew that in a frontal confrontation his whole clan would be destroyed in a matter of minutes, but now that Aizen was attacking his family he had no choice but to attend the meetings even if they weren't as interesting as he would have liked. Knowing his father he was probably trying to stop himself from nodding off.
"We're going to need you to give word to the Hunters' Association that there is going to be a large battle. We need to clear out some space and work some magic to make it so that no bystander will see anything suspicious." Toshiro explained as if it were obvious. "Hunters are so anal about what we can and can't do." So this guy did have some idea what this meeting was about. He knew more than he did and was probably going to be a bigger part of this than him, but he still needed to sit in. Heck he kind of wanted to sit in just to find out how they were going to take down the one getting in the way of his life.
Shinji raised his hand lightly. "I can take care of that. I can make a protective space so no human will be able to see what is going on and if anyone gets injured I can pull them out and create an illusion to hide them from humans so they won't cause a scene. When it comes to hiding stuff I'm your guy."
Uryu groaned. "If you guys have that settled then why am I here?"
Shinji shrugged. "Probably to warn the hunters of the oncoming bloodshed and because we are going to need some help cleaning up. You can also help with first aid if we need it."
Uryu sighed. "It's just like you vampires to leave all the dirty work for the hunters. What do you see us as anyway?"
Nnoitra, who shouldn't have been there to begin with, answered almost immediately while retaining the bored expression that was set when he walked in, "Our bitches."
Shinji elbowed him in stomach and displeasure was read all over his face. Having Nnoitra around nonstop seemed to make him have to force himself to adjust even if he has only been stuck with him for a day. Shinji seems to have gained more patience for Nnoitra in that short amount of time then Grimmjow has gained over years.
The meeting felt a bit rocky, but doable until Nel burst into the room with her eyes wide like saucers. "Grimmjow we have a situation."
Nel was a fun loving girl who would make jokes even in situations that were difficult and never took anything seriously, but something bad must have happened to get her this panicked and their father noticed. He immediately woke from his boredom and tried to think of ways to calm down his adopted daughter. It was the most expression he had throughout the entire meeting.
Grimmjow stood up knocking the chair over. Nel's lips trembled and she just grabbed him by the hand and pulled him out of the room so she could lead him upstairs to his room. Rukia and Renji looked at each other and got up from their seats to and followed the two vampires. They knew it was rude to get up during the meeting, but the meeting wasn't exactly treated that formally despite its appearance. If Grimmjow's sister pulled him out of the room then something must be wrong and it most likely involved their best friend. They didn't care which figures they upset in that room. Their best friend came first.
On the way up Grimmjow could tell something was off. He threw the doors open to his room or at least it was supposed to be his room. The room looked like it had its own private hurricane. Everything was knocked over, the things that were on top of his furniture now littered the floor, and the room was flooded at some point while he was gone. Grimmjow couldn't form a reason in his head why Ichigo would do something like this or how he would be capable so it was clear that something happened.
He ran inside and ran over to the bed. He threw around the heavy, sopping wet bed sheets and covers to find no one there. Grimmjow's heart dropped. Ichigo wasn't there, but the entire room smelled like shinigami. Grimmjow took another whiff of the air. Yup, it was shinigami alright, but it definitely wasn't Ichigo.
"He's gone." Nel said just in case Grimmjow didn't figure that out yet. Grimmjow whipped his head around angrily and glared at her. "Yeah, I know. It looks like he was taken by a shinigami right under our noses." He growled. Rukia and Renji immediately started to inspect the room, trying to figure out what exactly happened as they came to the same conclusion as Grimmjow.
He beat himself up for not realizing another presence until now, but Shinigami tended to have a reputation of not really having a presence. Usually Grimmjow 'senses another presence' by the smell of their blood or the sound of their heartbeat and breathing. Shinigami knew how to hide that, but if it was hidden then why did the entire room smell like shinigami?
Something was wrong and he needed to find out where Ichigo was before losing him again. He didn't think his heart could take another kidnapping and Ichigo was probably sick of it too. He tried to sense Ichigo from the mark he put on him, but even though he kept on marking him it progressively became weaker so finding him that way wasn't going to be the most effective way to track him. He examined the room and noticed a window that has been shattered. He stuck his head out to see water dripping down the side of the manor and some destroyed bushes. However Ichigo was taken he wasn't taken through that heaven's door thing. Ichigo was still alive and he was still in this world. What motivation would a shinigami have to kidnap him and keep him in this world and how did they find him so quickly? What would be the motivation to drag him out without a proper fight even though every shinigami they faced seemed to insist on fighting? The meeting would have to wait; right now he needed to get to Ichigo.
Ichigo thought it before and he'll be annoyed with it again. This was officially the last time he was getting kidnapped. Three times is way too much, way too much. At this point it was just a weak plot point. There it is again, the habit Ichigo thought he got rid of, comparing everything to a book or story again. He thought for sure he was going to manage to sneak away this time and face Aizen by himself under Grimmjow's nose. He was a lot stronger than he was in the past and he only needed a little more time to unlock his true power, but here he was getting treated like nothing has changed.
Every time he was kidnapped he was taken a different way whether he was put under a spell, taken by force while he almost escaped, and then there was this one that took the cake. Who knew trying to drown him would be a method of kidnapping? Seriously the creativity of this one was amazing despite it being completely unwelcomed.
Seriously, it was the middle of the night and he was asleep like a normal person just like when Yammy tried to get him. Then the window shattered open and he was surrounded by water before he even had time to sit up from bed. It acted like the freaking ocean in Moana it looked like it bended in unnatural ways like it was being controlled like it bended to the will of a waterbender or something. Obviously the water was being controlled the ocean wouldn't randomly decide to jump through a window to get to the second floor of a building inland. It obviously had the intention of sweeping him away. He was wiped out and even though he wasn't expecting a late night swim he tried to keep his head above the water and try to swim out of the wave, but the water kept on catching him and tangling him up in its unforgiving tide, trying to pull him under. The water was salty and it was completely unnatural as if it really was sea water. Ichigo sensed a shinigami's power from it, but it felt wrong, almost unnatural as if it wasn't meant to exist.
Ichigo tried to fight it off, but his unrelenting force didn't do much damage to the shifting water and no matter how much he tried he couldn't unlock any more of his powers. How could he unlock more power if he doesn't even know what his powers were? Every theory he had about his powers were disproven so he didn't know what to expect. He had no other option but to run. His attempts were futile. The water chased after him and grabbed hold of him before he was even able to grab a hold of the door knob so that he could escape further into the house and get help. The tide pulled him from across the room and out the window.
He fell two stories onto bushes. He got a few small scrapes from the branches, but the water cushioned his fall so the damage wasn't devastating. He was swept down the street, he had no idea how a shinigami could control water so well, but he obviously had time to learn how to use his power. He must have been seriously well trained and if that was the case then Ichigo was in for one hell of a fight and he wasn't going to make it. He doesn't like to admit it, but he needed help, so much for staying hidden. It seemed that the water knew exactly where to take him and for some reason no one was seeing the whole street get flooded. Was no one awake at two in the morning? This may not have been college anymore, but someone had to have heard the water running. He wasn't expecting everyone's phones to go off announcing a flash flood warning, but it would be nice if some insomniac or someone spending too much time on their computer late at night looked out of the window at moment, not that they can do anything.
From what Ichigo saw as he was fighting the wave that dragged him by his ankles he was by some body of water and dragged through some kind of sewer pipe. Ichigo expected to be submerged in water mixed with the unthinkable, but instead he was in some kind of underground tunnel. It looked like an abandoned subway system rather than a sewer. Was it some kind of underground network or tunnels? The water didn't stop there though. It just kept on pulling him until he was in a large room the size of a gymnasium that was well lit. He had no idea why he was pulled here by a shinigami when they could have easily taken him through heaven's door. He couldn't fight off the water that engulfed him so all the shinigami needed to do was drag him through the door. Seriously, even Shiro didn't know what to do in that situation. He was just as lost as Ichigo and he was turning up a storm in his head with anxiety and frustration.
The water let Ichigo go, panting. He immediately scrambled to his feet so that he was ready to face the shinigami that challenged him or any other threats that came his way. He may not win without help, but he was going to put up a fight. Ichigo looked around and recognized a bunch of familiar faces and his stomach dropped. He was surrounded by those vampires, but there were significantly fewer than last time. There was that pink haired vampire, Szayelaporro or whatever that shot him with a dart that put him through the first stage of vampirism which nearly turned him into a ghoul. There was that short blond vampire, Harribel, who nearly killed Izuru and was probably the token female character of their group. Then there was that fox looking silver haired vampire with the strange smile that made his hair stand on end and right beside him was the creep, who led them all, Aizen.
Of course Ichigo wouldn't get a break. Of course traveling to Germany would cause problems. Anything that he does causes problems. Dammit, they should have just stayed in Japan. He could have fought off some more shinigami or something…Okay probably not, but he wouldn't be in an underground tunnel if he stayed there. He thought for sure that Aizen and the rest of his clan would be back in Japan since that was where they originally came from. That was where Ichigo met Aizen even though he never really caused problems for him there. The only thing Ichigo traveled to Germany for was to hide from shinigami, but how did Aizen know that he could find him there. Why stay in Japan when he could get kidnapped on his first day of being in a country he's never been in. Glad he didn't waste his time or anything.
There was one more face Ichigo didn't recognize, well he recognized it somehow, but it put Ichigo incredibly on edge. The last guy looked exactly like him, well almost. He looked like what Ichigo would look like in his late twenties or thirties if he died his hair black. The resemblance was mortifying and it confused him. His mind seemed to think he was familiar like he was some kind of long lost older brother, but every instinct in him told him to get away rather than sit down with him and chat over coffee. Even Shiro seemed tense and Shiro never broadcasted his emotions like that. He could feel Shiro build anxiety at the pit of his stomach making it ache. He told him to stay on guard and get ready to fight with everything he has. Ichigo could tell just from looking at him that he wasn't a vampire. He felt like a shinigami, but there was something off about him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it just felt incredibly wrong. He shouldn't exist in any plane of existence and he couldn't get this uneasy feeling in the wildest parts of his imagination, it was exclusive to that guy.
"Sorry for being rough with you this time, Ichigo." Aizen spoke first. His smooth voice made chills run up Ichigo's spine and made the hairs on his arms stand up. "But we needed some help luring them out."
Ichigo was about to curse up a storm, but the shinigami that resembled him looked at him with a blank, dead stare and all the fire in him seemed to have been washed away making Ichigo resort to mumbling under his breath about how Aizen never showed any fear of roughing him up in the first place.
"I thought he looked kind of familiar." Szayelaporro said in a singsong voice. "He looks just like Aaroniero here and he even seems more powerful. Shinigami are so interesting maybe you'll let me keep him this time."
Aizen shrugged and wore a smug impression on his face. "After this I don't care what happens to him. You can do whatever you'd like."
A wide grin stretched across Szayelaporro's face. "I can't wait to pull him apart to make Aaroniero stronger. There is nothing I love more than forming a stronger chimera. The more shinigami power he has the better."
Chimera? If Ichigo learned anything from reading Fullmetal Alchemist then he would have learned that making a chimera was not good news. Well it wasn't the only thing he learned he also learned the law of equivalent exchange, but that wasn't the point. He didn't know what that guy was made of because he looked almost human. If he was just walking along the street then no one would notice his dead eyes and blank expression. The only thing he could figure out that was in him was shinigami and it must have been the base of what he was.
As if Szayelaporro read Ichigo's mind he explained it to him. "Aaroniero here is part human and part shinigami, just like you. The difference is that you were born that way, he was engineered. It all started when I first found a shinigami. They are rare so I knew that I had to have him. He put up a great fight and I couldn't beat him so I retreated. A few months later I found his daughter and threatened to take her instead. He submitted easily after that."
Harribel looked annoyed like she has heard that story a million times already. She looked bored as if she was wondering why she was even there in the first place. Aizen and that other vampire, Gin stayed silent as they waited for what Ichigo assumed reinforcements. Aaroniero stared off ahead like he didn't have a soul or purpose besides following his master's orders.
"Little did he know his daughter didn't inherit any shinigami powers. She would have been useless to me. He still caved at the threat though and it cost him his life. I was able to rise him from the dead eventually by combining him with living humans and feeding him blood."
Ichigo's skin was crawling throughout the entire story. It upset him to hear that people actually think like this, that this vampire didn't mind using this guy's daughter to get what he wanted and how this man sacrificed his life to save her even though the threat was empty. Heck the threat probably wasn't empty, he would have killed her. Ichigo didn't know what possessed him to ask, but he could feel a gut instinct that he needed to have confirmed.
"Did you know the shinigami's name?" Ichigo asked in a low voice, giving in to the need for knowledge.
Szayelaporro gave him a quizzical look. "Of course, I was hunting this target for months and he was a difficult one. The least I could do was learn his name. You are looking at a chimera formed from the shinigami known as Kaien Shiba."
Ichigo's gut was right. This guy was his long lost uncle who was thought to be dead. At least he should be dead; this was a fate worse than death. He didn't know what he was experiencing as a chimera nor if there was even a scrap of his uncle's humanity left inside of that monstrosity. If there was then he was probably suffering and he had to kill it out of mercy even though there was a part of him that did not want to kill anything much less his uncle. Even if he was killing out of kindness to stop his suffering he didn't know if he had it in him to end a life. He wanted to become a doctor and doctors save people. Ending his suffering is a form of saving, but he wasn't sure if he had it in him. He's going to need to put those feelings aside.
His blood was boiling. He was angry. Why was he angry? He thought he should be scared. He should be scared to face a monstrosity that was originally his long lost uncle. He should be scared that he may end up having to take lives and it was either him or them. He should be scared that a vampire wanted to kill him, take him apart, and use him to add to the chimera like he was just some spare parts that can be used as a booster. His head was throbbing and every muscle in his body tensed up. Wait, it was happening again. Ichigo called out in his head to try and calm Shiro down, but Shiro seemed to have his mind made up. Ichigo wasn't strong enough to kill them and he needed to take his place.
Szayelaporro's smile widened when he saw Ichigo's eyes change color. "Looks like you've gotten stronger, but you don't have control. That's not good Ichigo. You can't think rationally like that. This will be easier than I thought and the payout will be amazing."
Ichigo jumped at him screaming bloody murder. His giant sword appeared in his hand and he was about to take a huge slice out of Szayelaporro, but his sword clashed against metal. Ichigo's dark eyes flashed over to Aaroniero the chimera that blocked his sword effortlessly with his own weapon that appeared out of nowhere just like Ichigo's. Ichigo never fought against a weapon that looked like a mix between a trident and a yari. Then again he didn't have much experience fighting with a weapon at all and he wasn't exactly the one fighting.
Ichigo tried to yell at Shiro to calm his shit, but just having the body of his uncle protect the vampire scientist that did that to him only made him angrier. It was screwed up how the chimera didn't have a mind of its own and it was protecting the one causing him to suffer and it only helped Shiro get angrier. Ichigo took a breather as he was forced to ride in the backseat and took a mental trip to his inner world. In his inner world the wind was whipping around him like crazy, threatening to throw him off the building he was standing on. It's a good thing he couldn't feel pain in his inner world because knocking him off the building would have killed him.
Ichigo pushed forward and grabbed onto Shiro's shoulder. He didn't budge; the wind only spiraled around him. Ichigo kept on calling out to Shiro, but he wouldn't give him a response as if he was in a trance. For all Ichigo knew he was. He didn't know what effort he was going through to take over Ichigo's body, but all he wanted was for him to stop.
Down the hall footsteps could be heard running at top speed. Were they even footsteps? They were unnaturally fast and each step echoed making a noise that sounded like applause through a stadium. Ichigo suddenly found himself on his butt and looking up at the man's back who was now towering above him. He was thrown away from Aaroniero and pushed behind him so that they were standing at a great distance. Even from inside Ichigo's inner world he still had some awareness of what was going on around him. Part of him was relieved to see the familiar blue hair.
Grimmjow looked behind him with a concerned look as if he was nervous about Ichigo not having control again. At least with Grimmjow there it could buy him some time to try and get Shiro under control, but the whole point of them abducting Ichigo must have been meant to lure him out. Grimmjow was predictable when it came to Ichigo. If he was in trouble he would come running and it seemed that that was Aizen's plan. It was amazing that Grimmjow found him so fast, but if maybe if he hasn't come so fast he would have had more time to scope out the situation.
"Why do you keep bothering Ichigo?" Grimmjow growled. "If you want me then attack me, not him."
Aizen was not put off in the least by Grimmjow showing his teeth to him like a wild animal, he just tutted at him for his inappropriate behavior. "You are very unaware of my plan so I'd like you to refrain from making assumptions."
Ichigo saw Grimmjow's legs shaking in anxiousness like he was resisting the urge to lunge at Aizen's throat and tear it apart, but he held his ground in front of him. It didn't take a genius to realize that Ichigo wasn't exactly in his right mind at the moment. His eyes, posture, and voice was a telltale. Even the energy around him felt different. It was like an aura around him that emphasized just how much he wanted to kill. Grimmjow must have been standing in front of him so he could protect him. He was cautious about Shiro taking actions into his own hands and getting hurt in his body.
"I feel inclined to tell you exactly what my plan was from the beginning since this is where you will meet your end." Aizen said.
This was it, Ichigo thought to himself. This was the cliché villain tells the hero his plans at the final battle. Wait, was this the final battle? Oh shit, if it was then things were not looking good for him right now. He still wasn't ready to fight, he didn't unlock his full power yet, and he was being freaking possessed.
"My plan definitely did revolve around recruiting you at the very beginning. I was planning that while I was still in Japan. I met Ichigo and I knew from the scent of his blood that you would be unable to resist him. I slid a pamphlet under Abarai's door that suggested he come to the abroad program. He wasn't independent enough to go alone so I knew he would drag Ichigo along with him."
If Ichigo was the one in control he would need Shiro to hold him back. That seriously pissed him off. He didn't want his friends to be used as pawns to get to him. It made him feel even guiltier. If he wasn't born the way he was than none of them would be in this mess, but he knew that this wasn't fair to him either so he opted into being angry. Shiro definitely felt Ichigo's anger and it was influencing him just like how Shiro's anger influenced his, but Grimmjow was doing a pretty good job blocking Shiro from acting on that anger. It was a good thing Shiro knew better than to hurt Grimmjow just to get to Aizen.
"Once Ichigo agreed to go on the program with him I just had to pull some strings to make you and Ichigo roommates. You took a little too long to pull the trigger and come on to Ichigo so you needed a little help. I sent you a coupon for a blood hooker knowing that you wouldn't pass that up. She was ordered to only feed you enough to spike your appetite, but not enough to satisfy you. When Ichigo returned you were unable to resist him."
Damn, he thought that far ahead. That was way too dangerous. Aizen counted on Grimmjow being able to pull back fast enough as to not kill him. If vampire bites didn't heal so fast than he may have needed to go to the hospital for blood loss. He got so sick from that and forced himself to go to class the next day.
"After that Ichigo was a valid bargaining chip. I warned you the first time to join, but you refused. I took actions to try to turn Ichigo into a vampire so I could trade him over to you, but you seemed to get to him in time. The third time I was getting a little too frustrated so I gave you one last chance. I was ready to kill you and I still want to kill you right now."
Grimmjow decided to speak for the first time since Aizen started talking. His followers patiently waited for him to finish the story while he dragged on and on even though it was a pretty long plan with a lot of delicate steps. It seriously was the cliché final battle. "Why are you so determined to have me part of your clan if I am not a purebred?"
Aizen tutted again and shook his head in disappointment which only made Grimmjow even more frustrated. "I'm surprised you haven't figured that part out yourself yet. I don't need you sullying my clan. My goal was to weaken the Jaegerjaquez clan. Without you Stark would not be able to fight my clan alone. If you were in my clan then I could have easily killed you and the Jaegerjaquez would have been without a second in command. Stark would be filled with grief and easy to take down then your clan would have fallen apart."
Grimmjow's stomach soured at the thought of Aizen killing his father. No matter what happened Aizen was not planning on allowing him to live. Now more than ever only one of them was going to walk out alive. If you asked him a few months ago he wouldn't have minded the thought of dying too much. Now he had something to live for and it was right behind him and he was ready to shield him with his body.
He hated to admit it, but he needed help. He couldn't calm down Shiro with his back turned to a group of vampires that were ready to kill him. He needed some one on one time with him to make this work. It's a good thing he was buying some time so that his backup could appear in three…two…
A/N: Review and stuff or whatever. I don't know, see you next week if you decide to come back.