Triumph

Chapter 5: Gambit


Ulquiorra felt a cool wind brush against his face as consciousness returned to him sluggishly and he exhaled slowly. He decided against opening his eyes, however, out of concern that full awareness would bring the weight of his injuries crashing down upon him as well.

"Looks like he's finally coming to, boss," a deep, gruff voice spoke out from above him.

"Well done," a cool, calm voice that cut with the purpose of a sword's blade replied. "You may leave us, Kizura."

The hard thud of large feet trudging away faded gradually into the distance, and Ulquiorra waited a few more moments before opening his eyes.

"Welcome to the Menos Forest, Schiffer," the calm voice spoke out again, and when Ulquiorra's green eyes locked gazes with a pair of equally intense violet ones he finally recognized the speaker as Wonderwice Margera. The former Espada's face had aged some over the years since they'd last met, a hardness coming into his features that finally matched the capacity for ruthlessness that lurked in his eyes.

"What's going on?" Ulquiorra asked as he forced himself up onto his elbows before shifting into a sitting position and rising, fighting to keep from swaying as he stood.

"You got pulled down here after you killed Barragan, and one of my Hollows brought you to me."

Before Wonderwice could continue, though, a powerful shockwave of reiatsu emanated from above the ceiling of the Forest that shook the mammoth trees to their roots.

"Looks like it's started," he mused, turning his calculating gaze up to the earthen roof. "I wonder how long the Arrancar will be able to hold out."

"You still haven't answered my question, Margera," Ulquiorra said stonily, his temper returning with the strength that seeped back into his limbs.

"It appears as though the Shinigami have finally decided to break the truce they made with us at the end of the War, Ulquiorra," Wonderwice answered. "There's been a change of leadership at the top of the Gotei; Byakuya Kuchiki has taken over the seat of power, and the Arrancar have entered the twilight of their existence."

"And you're not going to their aid?"

"Of course not," Wonderwice parried. "I'm not going to step onto those killing fields and get slaughtered for no reason; I was never part of the pact Eris, Stark and Saika made with the Shinigami, and their fates are none of my concern whatsoever."

"You do realize that this isn't going to be the only attack, correct?" Ulquiorra pressed sharply as the explosions of reiatsu continued to reverberate above them. "They'll come again and again, and eventually they'll ferret you out and butcher you like a dog. That's why you bothered to revive me, isn't it? You're looking for allies."

Wonderwice smiled with cold amusement at the perceptive analysis, his eyes ceding the point to Uquiorra.

"It seems as though your years of wandering have done nothing to dull the sharpness of your mind, Schiffer," he said. "Clearly, your reputation was well-deserved.

"I wanted to make sure that you would still be able to act as a competent soldier in the battle to come before I shared what I know with you, but you've dispelled my doubts."

"What are you blabbering about, Margera? You yourself just said the other Espada were finished; what possible battle could just the two of us fight alone?"

"I have it on very good authority that Kuchiki isn't aiming to eradicate the other Arrancar outright," Wonderwice explained. "He's going to execute them publicly instead, as a move to solidify his power and reputation in Soul Society.

"You know what that means, don't you, Ulquiorra?"

A grim smile spread over the other Arrancar's face and he nodded.

"One question, Wonderwice."

"Hmm?"

"Whose 'good authority' are you acting on?"

The other Arrancar revealed the name of his source, and Ulquiorra's smile widened as his last reservations melted away.

"So for now," Ulquiorra spoke as he sat down on a nearby rock, "we wait?"

Wonderwice turned his eyes up to the battle raging aboveground that he could not see and sighed.

"Now we wait."


The sun hung at its zenith in the sky as the Captains of the Gotei gathered for another summit, the members of the expedition fresh from the field of battle and still bearing their war wounds. Byakuya was surprised by the swift victory of his soldiers, but there would be time for celebrating later.

"Report."

"We managed to capture Eris, Saika and Grimmjow," Yumichika spoke for the group. "Stark fought to the bitter end and refused to be captured, most likely because he had nothing to lose. Barragan was nowhere to be found, but judging by the fact that we found his fraccion Ggio Vega wandering the sands alone before we killed him, I believe we can safely assume that Luisenbarn is dead."

"And what of Margera and Schiffer?" Byakuya pressed, and Hisagi stepped in for his fellow Captain.

"We couldn't feel a trace of either of them," the Ninth's leader said. "We suspect they might be taking refuge in the underground of Hueco Mundo, but that Forest is complex and treacherous; sending in normal soldiers to ascertain their location first would be wiser than sending in Captains without knowing exactly where they are."

"Quite so," Byakuya agreed with a nod. "That operation will be undertaken in due time. For now, however, it is more important that we deal with the captives we were able to snare. Captain Orihime, please go down into the Maggot's Nest, pay our prisoners a visit and relieve them of their weapons; merely storing their zanpakuto in an armory, no matter how secure it might seem, is an unnecessary risk."

"Of course," Orihime acquiesced with a nod, before excusing herself from the meeting and walking out. Byakuya motioned that the Meeting was over, but as the other Captains filed out Shunsui stayed behind and waited until he was alone with Byakuya before speaking.

"I assume you mean to execute them all, Byakuya?"

"Of course."

"Even Retsu?"

The Captain Commander let the weight of the question hang pendulously in the air for a few moments before he answered, trying to discern the angle Shunsui was playing here.

"Especially Unohana," Byakuya replied evenly, his hard eyes unmoved by what he perceived as a plea to save the Shinigami's life. "She poses a threat to me as long as she breathes, and I'm not bound to her by the same sentimentality that tethers you. Do you mean to stand against me if I follow through with her sentence, Kyoraku?"

Shunsui chuckled, putting his hands up palms-out in a gesture of refutation.

"This isn't a declaration of war, Byakuya; I'm not that stupid. This is a piece of advice: do what you want with the Arrancar, but leave Unohana alive. Killing her now would do nothing but harm you."

"Oh?" Byakuya said, arching a curious eyebrow. "How so?"

"Despite the unrest in the Rukongai on the fringes and in the more violent Districts, there are still several that have grown and prospered thanks to Retsu's goodwill and dedication to creating a sense of equality between everyone in Soul Society. She is still loved by the people, and killing her, either privately or publicly, will still produce the same result: people will riot in great numbers, and cause a huge logistical headache at the worst possible time."

"And you're saying that even if it were to be done privately," Byakuya parried, "word would still spread to the common rabble?"

"News travels fast, Byakuya," Shunsui answered with an enigmatic smile before turning around and walking towards the door. "Just think about what I've said before you make a decision you might wind up regretting."

Byakuya bristled at the implied threat, but it was true that Shunsui's power was too great to alienate. That, and Unohana left powerless and captive in the Maggot's Nest was virtually the same as killing her anyway.

For now, the Captain Commander conceded, she would live.


Orihime despised traveling down into the Maggot's Nest; the stench of rot, neglect and decay offended her core sensibilities as a healer. And the fact that she was down here as Byakuya's errand dog stung deeply, but she shelved those feelings as she stepped into the room that housed the prisoners she'd been tasked with visiting.

"That bastard don't waste any time, does he?" Gin said with a snake's smoothness in his voice and an equally slippery smile on his face.

"No," Orihime agreed as she placed the armload of zanpakuto she'd been carrying on the floor, "he doesn't."

From Saika's spear to Gin's wakizashi, the zanpakuto of each of the captives were soon arrayed in a line on the floor, seething with resentment at being separated from their masters.

"I'm going to need each of you to try and remain as quiet as you can while I do this," the Captain said firmly as she began to summon her Soten Kisshun. "If I'm going to pull this off right, I need to be able to concentrate completely, without any distractions."

As Orihime began the rejection process and the zanpakuto before her began to dissolve under the golden glow of the light, each of the prisoners shut their eyes and their faces contorted in pain, but Orihime closed her eyes to the sight and kept working. She couldn't afford to mess this up…

As the dissipation continued, Grimmjow fought hard enough against the pain to open his eyes, and saw something that made shock supplant a majority of his agony: Orihime hadn't completely banished the zanpakuto, but had rather broken them down into their purest possible forms, as masses of raw reiatsu, and had begun to blend them all together into one incredibly dense sphere. It began to spin faster and faster as it shrunk more and more, the dome of the Soten Kisshun shrinking along with it, until the two bodies merged into a single orb before splitting apart and re-emerging as Orihime's twin hairpins.

"That should do it," she said through gasps as she got her second wind.

"What're you planning on doing with 'em, kid?" Grimmjow asked, still surprised that a stunt like that could even be pulled to begin with. But rather than answer, the Shinigami turned to face Eris and spoke, her gray eyes locking firmly with the Arrancar's bright jade ones.

"Is Ulquiorra still alive?"

The Primera seemed to intuit Orihime's thoughts and smiled.

"I can't say for certain," she answered, "but I can tell you that I haven't seen his corpse, and he wasn't involved in the battle against the Shinigami. If you aim to search for him, I would start in the Menos Forest, underneath the surface of Hueco Mundo."

Orihime nodded in gratitude and left without another word, and the air was still for several moments before Saika broke the silence.

"Why'd you tell her that?" he said with as much harshness as he could direct toward his lover. "Right now, Ulquiorra's probably our best shot at getting out of here alive!"

"That's exactly why she told her where he was," Gin spoke up from his prone position on his cot, before closing his eyes and saying no more.


"It's done, Inoue?"

"Yes, Captain Commander," Orihime lied through her teeth as she tried to keep her composure even in the face of Byakuya's searching gaze, "it's done. The prisoners' zanpakuto have been destroyed."

"Excellent. Well done, Captain; you may go."

"May I ask a favor of you, Captain Commander?" Fourth's Captain spoke up quickly, and Byakuya nodded shortly in permission for her to continue.

"I would like to journey to Hueco Mundo, to search for the Arrancar Ulquiorra Schiffer."

"None of the members of our strike force could find him, Orihime," Byakuya said over the rim of his sake cup before taking a sip, "what makes you think you will succeed where they failed?"

Orihime took in a breath before she answered, steeling her nerves one last time.

"During the War," she began, "Ulquiorra and I were close; I would say I was his best friend next to Neliel. I believe that, since I know him better than any of the other Captains, I stand the best chance of finding him."

"And once you do?" Byakuya prodded. "Do you think you would be able to overlook your past friendship and take his head?"

"I haven't heard from him since the day the truce was signed, Sir," Orihime answered evenly. "Any shred of companionship we may have shared once has long since withered away."

Byakuya gave a faint smile, draining his cup before placing it down lightly on the table before him.

"Very well," he said at last, "I give you my permission to go on this mission. However," he added, and Orihime had to fight back a shiver at the malice that slipped into Byakuya's voice in that moment, "take Shiro with you as an escort. I can't afford to lose the best healer in all of the Gotei in case this mission goes awry, now can I?"

"Of course not," she replied calmly, feeling an acidic tang in her mouth as she forced back down the bile that had risen in her throat.

"You may depart whenever you're ready, Captain," Byakuya said in closing, and Orihime bowed tersely before turning and leaving.


"So," Shiro's hard voice grated as the pair touched down in Hueco Mundo, "why're you really looking for Ulquiorra? 'Cause I know you aren't strong enough to kill him, that's for sure."

"Shut up," Orihime grit out, fighting the urge to stab her katana through her former lover's ribcage. "Just seal that garganta you opened and let's get going."

Shiro chuckled as he closed the rift behind him with a flick of his wrist, the whining sound flaring briefly before it ceased as the silence of the desert rushed back in to fill the void.

"I'm done," the Hollow said flippantly. "Waitin' on you."

Orihime said nothing, instead focusing and calling out her Koten Zanshun, using it to carve a large square in the sand. The ground fell with a soft rumble, giving way to the beckoning pitch-blackness of the Menos Forest. Retracting the cutting blade, she called out her Santen Kesshun shield in its place and turned it on its side, stepping onto it and waiting until Shiro had joined her before lowering it down onto the forest floor.

"How good are your senses down here, Orihime?"

"Why are you even asking me, Shiro?" she spat back. "You're the Hollow here, aren't you? This should be like a homecoming for you, right?"

"I didn't come from Hueco Mundo, you idiot," he shot back, "I was created inside that weakling Ichigo. This place has never been, and will never be my home. Just answer the damn question."

Orihime whirled around and brought her katana down in a sharp slash, but Shiro stopped it on the flat of his palm without even flinching.

"So touchy," he mused lightly, before the cold steel of Zangetsu rushed in out of nowhere and settled against the beating pulse of Orihime's neck.

"Try anything like that again," the Hollow hissed, "and orders or no orders, I'll cut your fucking throat open."

The mammoth cleaver pulled back from her flesh and Orihime took in a shaky breath, furious that she had been rendered helpless so effortlessly. If Shiro had really been serious, her head could have rolled right then and there…

"Oi, stop screwing around and start looking for Ulquiorra and that bastard Wonderwice!"

Shiro's jagged voice shattered her thoughts and the Shinigami pulled herself together, closing her eyes and extending her reiatsu out in threads like feelers as far as they could go. Just as she was about to give up and retract them, another reiatsu that was foreign but at the same time achingly familiar latched onto one of the threads, following it swiftly back to the source.

Come, Orihime.

There was no mistaking the strength of the tone as the words resonated in her mind: it was Ulquiorra.

"I found him," she spoke to Shiro, her voice trembling slightly from a combination of fear and excitement. "Follow me."

"Is he alone?" the Hollow asked as the pair of them raced along the ground, Orihime only pausing to wonder at the absence of any wild Hollow before replying.

"Yes, I think so," she answered, and Shiro chuckled.

"What a moron; I'll kill him easily. You sure you wanna be around to watch?"

Orihime said nothing, only curving the corners of her mouth up into a smirk that Shiro, running behind her, could not see. The fatigue of breaking down so many zanpakuto was finally beginning to weigh down on the Shinigami when she and Shiro were suddenly fixed to the spot by an immense amount of reiatsu, their strides frozen in place as the power pressed down on them, driving the breath from their lungs. Orihime fought to stay upright as long as she could, but the strength of the reiatsu proved to be too much and she collapsed, driven to the brink of consciousness.

Shiro set his feet and let out a counter-surge of reiatsu, a manic grin splitting his face as he felt the pressure give ground. Pouring more and more strength into his own burst of energy, the Hollow was finally rewarded for his efforts as he felt the oppressive reiatsu weaken suddenly and all but vanish.

Just as he finished throwing off the yoke of the foreign weight, though, Shiro gasped and coughed reflexively as pain shot through his stomach. Looking down, he saw that the blade of a long-sword had pierced his lung, blood dripping from the point of the weapon.

"Thank you for dropping your guard long enough for me to get behind you," a cold, calculating voice cut through his pain. "Even if it was enjoyable watching you struggle against the reiatsu Ulquiorra and I were emanating, this is much more gratifying."

Shiro's eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the voice.

"Wonderwice," he hissed, "you underhanded little shit… you haven't changed at all since the day I forced you to retreat from our duel."

"I've been waiting 25 years to pay you back for those scars, you feral garbage," the Arrancar said as he twisted the blade of his zanpakuto, causing Shiro to go rigid with pain. "I'm going to enjoy this."

Wonderwice disappeared in a powerful buzz of sonido, taking the Hollow with him and leaving Orihime behind, lying on the ground and breathing shallowly. Ulquiorra walked slowly towards her, the crippling weight of reiatsu that he had helped generate evaporating completely. It had pained him to force her to crumble like that, but there had been no way to ensnare Shiro and keep her from being caught as well. Dropping down into a squat, Ulquiorra reached out with a pair of fingers and placed them against Orihime's neck, allowing himself to relax slightly when he felt her normal pulse beneath the skin.

"Orihime," he said softly, not wanting to shock her when she came to, "wake up."

The Shinigami opened her eyes lethargically at the sound of his voice, and Ulquiorra was surprised to see that the strain of being a Captain in the Gotei all of these years had nothing to diminish her beauty.

"I knew that was your voice back there, Ulquiorra," she said, her strength beginning to return as her Shun Shun Rikka spirits boosted her weakened reiatsu. Orihime took in the face of her close friend and former teacher carefully, drinking in every detail and surprised at how noticeable each small change to his features was, from the hard lines his cheekbones had gained to the hollow look in his eyes.

"Are you all right?" she asked concernedly. "You look terrible."

Ulquiorra chuckled to himself at the solicitous question. Asking after his wellbeing when she was the one lying exhausted on the ground; some things never changed after all.

"I'm fine," he answered, but he knew as soon as a familiar frown furrowed Orihime's eyebrows that his lie had been seen through with ease.

"You expect me to believe that crap, Ulquiorra?" she said sternly, eyes narrowing in a way that was supposed to be threatening but that the Arrancar had always found oddly precious. "You're obviously lying to me, and—and why are you smiling!? This isn't funny, you—"

Orihime's words froze on her tongue as she realized that Ulquiorra was genuinely smiling… not the look of detached satisfaction he had displayed whenever she had mastered a sword-fighting concept, or the slightly melancholy smirk he had shown whenever he was feeling particularly introspective, but a real smile, one of happiness.

"It's good to see you again, Orihime."

There was a warmth and sincerity to his words that Orihime hadn't heard from anyone in ages, least of all Shiro. Feeling her heartbeat accelerate, she moved on instinct and moved one of her hands behind Ulquiorra's head, twining her fingers through his hair and pulling his face towards hers. The kiss began warmly as Orihime let her years of pent-up frustration at Shiro's neglect of her transform into happiness at seeing Ulquiorra again after so long apart, but as she felt no move on his part to reciprocate her feelings quickly turned into shame and she broke away from him.

What was she doing? Ulquiorra had spent all of these years mourning the loss of his first and only loved one, a trauma he probably still hadn't gotten over, and the first thing she'd done had been to kiss him? Stupid, stupid, stu—

Orihime's self-chastisement came to an abrupt halt as her lips were suddenly captured by Ulquiorra's, their earlier unresponsiveness gone completely and replaced by a disarming combination of tenderness, desire and need. Now it was her turn to be shocked, but Orihime came to her senses quickly and pushed back. Ulquiorra was surprised by her strength and found himself on the ground, his old student pinning him there with her body and continuing her assault on his senses with her kiss. As he ceded some ground and let his mouth open, allowing her tongue to claim dominance over his own, Ulquiorra tried a different tack and moved one of his hands from her waist to rest at the base of her neck. Focusing a miniscule amount of reiatsu at his fingertips, he traced a line directly down Orihime's spine, cutting her haori and underlying kimono in half while causing the skin beneath them to grow warm, pushing the multitude of nerves along Orihime's spine into overdrive.

Her moan at the sensation echoed in Ulquiorra's own mouth, and he smirked to himself as he claimed the small victory. He was unprepared for her counterattack, though, and was caught totally off-guard as Orihime manipulated her own reiatsu along her body and shaped it, using it like needles to strike his pressure points. His body relaxed completely, unable to move but still able to feel.

"Don't think you're the only one with tricks up your sleeve, sensei," she whispered into his ear, the teasing tone of her final word sending a shudder through him that he was powerless to stop. Orihime mercilessly kept up her attack, taking time to learn what made the Arrancar beneath her tick.

Ulquiorra felt himself slipping further and further into blissful incoherence, but forced himself to stay vigilant for the moment that she slipped up and he could make Orihime pay for this. There was a passion and fire to her that he'd never felt with Neliel, and Ulquiorra could only hope that Wonderwice was making Shiro pay for being an utter fool driving away such a woman. He had managed to root out most of her needles after a couple of minutes of her exquisite torture, but remained motionless in order to keep Orihime ignorant of the change. When she grazed the scar on his pectoral that had once held his '4' tattoo with a series of light kisses, though, Ulquiorra's vaunted self-control snapped and he returned both of his hands to her waist, flipping their positions with a swift turn.

Giving rare free reign to his instincts, Ulquiorra passed up on the chance to make his former student feel just how agonizing it was to be treated the way he had been just now. Instead, he simply tore away what was left of her uniform and focused on pushing her to the edge as fast as he possibly could. Right as he felt her tense up from his ministrations, he entered her in one smooth movement and sent her beyond the limit of her own self-control.

"Ulquiorra!"

Hearing his name spoken that way again after so long, with care and affection anchored by something deeper, more akin to reverence, had the unexpected effect on the Arrancar of totally upending his own restraint. The two of them came in unison before the strength fled completely from Ulquiorra's limbs and he sunk down on top of the Shinigami, laying there for a moment before rolling slowly over and laying beside her, exhausted.

"Orihime," he said after a moment, his voice as unguarded as she had heard it on the night she'd re-forged his zanpakuto, "could you heal this scar for me?" he finished, gesturing to the white tissue on his pectoral. "It's a burden I carried as a reminder of my weakness, but I think I've borne it long enough."

Orihime smiled gently and nodded, calling out her Soten Kisshun and restoring the flesh to Ulquiorra's chest. When she had finished she put her hand to her forehead and winced, as if the simple action had caused her enormous strain.

"Are you all right?" Ulquiorra asked with a note of worry in his voice, and Orihime nodded despite her expression.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "It's just that using my Soten Kisshun is a pain with the energy from all of the zanpakuto I've been carrying around stored in my Shun Shun Rikka spirits."

"Zanpakuto? What are you talking about?"

The Shinigami didn't say anything more, instead calling out all of her spirits at once and arranging them in a hexagonal formation on the ground that began to glow. A sphere of incredibly concentrated reiatsu appeared in the middle of the field and began to grow, its rotation slowing down more and more as it grew until it became so big that it finally split apart, separating into seven distinct shapes. A few moments later those shapes had solidified themselves into zanpakuto and the Shun Shun Rikka spirits vanished altogether, leaving the weapons behind on the ground in their wake.

"These are the zanpakuto of those Byakuya is holding captive back in Soul Society," Orihime explained. "He believes that I destroyed them, but I was just holding onto them in a different form with my powers until I could entrust them to you."

"And you assume I have a plan for thwarting their executions, Orihime?" Ulquiorra parried confusedly. "Even with you on our side, storming the Seireitei wouldn't be easy—"

"I'm not staying here, Ulquiorra," the Shinigami said, her voice laced with regret. "I hate to leave now, after finally seeing you again for so long, and after what we just shared, but… but there're people counting on me in Soul Society, and I have to be there to help them."

"Byakuya will kill you if he finds out what you've done, Orihime," Ulquiorra replied gravely, but she just smiled.

"Maybe," she acquiesced, "but that's a risk I have to take. Besides," Orihime continued, her tone becoming light again, "I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to convince the others that we fought, considering the shape you left my clothes in."

Ulquiorra flashed a small smile at the joke, but his eyes still shone strongly with apprehension at her decision.

"Are the two of you finished?"

Both pairs of eyes snapped over to behold Wonderwice, who was leaning against the trunk of an ancient tree and wearing the slashed-up haori of the Fifth Division over his shoulders, an inscrutable smirk on his face as he looked off into the distance. Orihime felt a blush flare up on her cheeks and quickly used reiatsu to stitch together her tattered clothing, leaving only as many cuts on it as would be necessary to convince Byakuya that she'd actually fought Ulquiorra. The Arrancar next to her had been fortunate enough to have his garments survive intact, so he did nothing more than fix his ally with a searching gaze.

"What happened with Shiro, Wonderwice?"

"I chopped his body up into pieces and fed it to Fuura," the other Arrancar replied casually. "Now that big guy should be more than ready to help us with our plan."

"'Our' plan?" Ulquiorra repeated with mild incredulity. "I fail to see how that phrasing is appropriate, considering that I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about foiling the Shinigami's execution of their prisoners, Ulquiorra," Wonderwice elaborated. "With Fuura's power, summoning multiple negacion beams in an instant will be no problem at all."

"And I take it that this is 'his' idea as well?" Ulquiorra pressed, and Wonderwice nodded.

"Of course. Captain Orihime," he continued, shifting his cold violet eyes to the Shinigami who was now standing upright, "I believe you have somewhere to be, no?"

Wonderwice opened up a garganta with a gesture, but Ulquiorra grabbed Orihime's wrist to stop her as she went to enter it.

"Don't you think it would be more than a little suspicious if you showed up without a scratch on you?" he explained as she gave him a questioning gaze, before forming a knife-like edge of energy and readying it in his hand.

"Don't worry," he assured her, stepping in closer until only a fraction of an inch separated them, "you won't feel a thing."

Any pain that might have sprung up from the swift cuts etched into her skin by Ulquiorra's impromptu knife was blotted out by the sensation that Orihime experienced as he gently kissed her. After a few moments he backed away, the blade dissipating into the air.

"Those should look grievous enough, but they'll mend quickly," the Arrancar said with subtle concern in his voice, and Orihime flashed him one last smile before turning and walking through the rift of the garganta. When they were alone again, Wonderwice gave a breathy chuckle.

"If she'd really asked you to attack the Seireitei, you would have, wouldn't you?"

Ulquiorra said nothing and vanished in a burst of sonido, leaving Wonderwice to marvel at the power that woman held over someone as strong as Ulquiorra without even realizing it.


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A/N: Just one more chapter to go, ladies and gents! Hope this one was fun to read, and as always, please review! Big ups once more to JasoTheArtisan for being an expert beta; go read his ish, and then tell him how awesome it is by reviewing it.

As far as Wonderwice goes in this chapter, I left one of the abilities I imagined for him a little vague, so I thought I'd elaborate here. I see him as a sort of 'Hollow Whisperer' in a sense, someone who can influence, manipulate and, if need be, outright control the actions of lesser Hollows through his weird, semi-autistic form of communication. Language is a powerful thing, after all, and Wonderwice is fluent in the language of the Hollows.

Also, because I forgot to stick this in the Author's Note for the previous chapter, Chapter 4's title comes from the song by the band Mastodon called "The Czar", which is all kinds of awesome.