Chapter Thirteen:
I Just Remembered! Thirteen is My Unlucky Number!
Seren stumbled into Halibel's quarters, panting, her heart still pounding furiously. She blushed just thinking about that.
One thing was for sure: she wasn't letting anyone make her pants any tighter or shorter. Not with stuff like that happening.
"Oh yeah, Seren, Ulquiorra stopped by looking for you. Aizen wants to see you again," drawled Apache from her room. "He said that you should find him immediately." She turned the page of her book nonchalantly.
"Oooh no!" Seren hit herself in the forehead. Dealing with Ulquiorra or Aizen was the last thing she wanted to deal with right now.
So she'd been singing that funeral dirge for a reason. She just hadn't died today yet.
She sonido'd as fast as she could to Ulquiorra's room. He was probably pissed he'd had to wait. When she'd asked Apache how long ago he'd come, she only vaguely replied that it had been a while.
Damn. Damn dammit damn!
She found his door and knocked on it, still panting.
A moment later, the door opened. Ulquiorra only blinked when he saw her there.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm late, but I had to go do something," rushed Seren. She raised her hands in defense.
"I'm not going to stab you," Ulquiorra replied dryly. He walked past her. "Let's go."
Seren turned around and followed.
It took even less time than usual to get to Aizen's, partly because Seren's sonido had improved and were faster. The other part was because Ulquiorra went faster than normal. He was probably worried about Aizen too.
"We're here." The usual announcement, and they went in.
This time, not just Aizen was there, but also Szayel and the other two shinigami, Seren noted. Gin and Tousen.
"Ah, you're here Seren-chan." Aizen smiled. "It's good to see you."
Seren was really getting sick of his formalities. She wasn't naïve enough to be fooled by his façade more than once. "Yes. It's also good to see you too."
"Can you remember anything now?"
Seren searched. To her fear, she realized that there was still nothing. What? Why? She had been released. Was there still a seal over her memories?
"No. I'm sorry." She hung her head, ready for more punishment.
Aizen stood up, and she heard his footsteps approach her. Her pulse pounded in her throat. She kept her eyes on the ground.
Then he lifted her face up on his finger to face him. Seren wanted to close her eyes. Why couldn't he leave her alone? When she found who had deleted her memory or screwed with her or whatnot, she was going to slaughter them.
"Why are you so scared, Seren-chan? I'm not going to hurt you." He smiled at her. "So relax. We're just trying to solve this problem. Just try again."
Szayel fixed his glasses again. Seren noted that it was a very nerdy thing to do, and he kept doing it. That made Szayel a nerd. "Her memories might actually have been deleted, not blocked. That device I made was hardwired to unleash blocks. If there is one, it would have been destroyed."
"Try again, Seren." Aizen's eyes were hard and pitiless. His smile was deceptively kind. Seren found herself hating him the more she saw of him; he pretended he was good. At least Ulquiorra or Grimmjow didn't even pretend to be good.
She closed her eyes, focusing. She had to find something. She had to. She searched the environs of her mind, but there was nothing. It was as if everything had been burned. Not even the ashes were left.
Instead, all she could think about was how close Aizen was. She didn't like it. She could feel his cruel reiatsu simmering inches away from her, waiting to hurt her; she could even feel his body heat. And she wished he would let go of her face. It made her uncomfortably aware of how easily he could break it.
Then- something. She caught it.
She remembered being a shinigami. It only came in flashes incomplete; but it was there. She had been a vice captain, from a long time ago. She had been the only shinigami with her ability- to warp time and space. As a result, she flew through school to become accomplished, but she was kept on the backlines because she was weak at attacks, and too valuable to lose. Like an old film, she remembered faces that recalled emotions that had long since healed over. She remembered being attacked by a hollow; the despair that destroyed her as she was, instead of being reborn as a human, a hollow. Then, she had been… attacked again, and changed to an Arrancar, what she is now.
Seren now could only feel how hollow she felt, because she had forgotten what it meant to be whole.
"I was… a hollow…" And then she had been attacked by that someone. Searing pain, and darkness. When she woke up, she found that she was, in fact, an Arrancar, half shinigami. "Somebody attacked me and I transformed into an Arrancar-"
"Who?"
"I.. I don't know, I can't see their face." She kept her eyes closed tightly, trying to see better. "And then I attacked them, and ran away to Hueco Mundo…" She kept searching.
There was nothing else.
"And then that's where the false memories started. I was abandoned in Hueco Mundo with my power and memories sealed." She opened her eyes.
"Ah. I see." Aizen let go of her chin and walked away. Seren almost collapsed with relief. She could start breathing again.
"I wonder who it was, though. There are two people with the knowledge of how to turn a hollow or a shinigami into the other." He held up two fingers. "One, is myself. The other is Urahara Kisuke. Perhaps he was testing on you…?"
"Undoubtedly, she wasn't supposed to live through the test, then," deduced Szayel. "So Urahara decided that he need to dispose of her."
"But why would he leave her alive?" Tousen spoke for the first time.
"Maybe she was just too cute to kill." Gin grinned.
It was unnerving that Seren couldn't see his eyes through his bangs.
"Hmm… I'll have to think about this. And," he turned and looked at Ulquiorra. "Until I say so, I want you to keep Seren under you. Watch her."
Seren's heart skipped a beat. What? More importantly, why? She'd told him everything…
Except one. She wouldn't tell him how she could remember her life before being a hollow. She didn't want him to know that.
It would probably lead to testing and experiments. Seren shuddered thinking about it.
Ulquiorra's eyes widened just for a second, then he nodded. "As you wish, Aizen-sama." He looked at Seren, and then strode out the door.
Seren looked at Aizen, back to Ulquiorra, and then turned and ran after Ulquiorra.
