Chapter 7: In which the crappiness continues.
Location: Somewhere in Las Noches, Hueco Mundo, Bleach.
Copyright: Tite Kubobobo
Suzume. They're going use Suzume as a hostage.
"Do you understand now? There never was an option for refusing in the first place."
Never an option… I felt like a wave hit me from behind and washed me over. My legs gave out. If Ulquiorra hadn't been holding my hair, I would've just fallen down to the ground and never stood up again. Now I just winced in pain again as some of my precious yellowish hair fluttered down in overly dramatic slow-motion. But I still stood. Somehow.
"I think that is enough for now, so I will just test your abilities and then leave you for a bit."
I stared at the ground again. Abilities…
"Please answer honestly and detailed. Will my next move be successful?"
I was in too much of a crisis to react. Ulquiorra yanked my hair. "Answer."
"You mean, kidnapping Inoue Orihime?" I finally answered, looking up into Aizen's eyes again. Uilquiorra and Ichimaru both seemed to be surprised for a second, but the big boss nodded as if I had stated that water is wet.
"Indeed. Gin, you better get used to the fact she knows what will happen from now on."
At that, foxy-face suddenly looked directly at me, and his eyelids parted a few inches to give me a direct glare. Rukia once talked about how she had felt when she first met Ichimaru, and I have to say, she wasn't exaggerating. It did feel as if the air around me tried to smother me. My hands started to tremble even more than they were already doing, my mouth became even drier. And now that he looked at me with those creepy eyes above that creepy smile, I was once again glad someone else was in charge of keeping me on my legs. And then, at last, I understood why he was glaring at me.
He knows that I know. He knows that I know that he wants to betray Aizen. I am a danger to his plans. I started to tremble unconsciously. Throughout the whole story, Ichimaru had gotten rid of people standing in his way like they were nothing. Discarded his almost too loyal lieutenant like nothing. Nearly killed Hinamori like it was nothing. Nearly killed Rukia like it was nothing. Nearly killed that Hiyori girl like it was nothing. Certainly he can kill me like it is nothing.
"For the second time, will my plan succeed?" Another yank at my hair brought me back to the technically-not-so-real-and-yet-so-painfully-real world.
I remembered how Urahara had warned me. Even the slightest mistake on my side would completely screw all chances of Ichigo kicking Aizen's ass. Yet, that was my second priority. My first was, obviously, myself. If Aizen knew too much, if he grew too strong… There was a 100% chance nobody would be able to reach this godforsaken hellhole in time to get me out.
If I tell him, I might die later.
If I don't tell him, Suzume might die.
If I tell him, we both won't die directly.
If I don't tell him, they're going to torture me.
I am scared of pain. I am scared of death.
"Yes" I mumbled.
"Pardon me, I didn't get that." The mock in Aizen's voice was noticeable, even for me. And that hit another of my already oversensitive nerves.
"I. Said. YES!" I screamed, trembling from all the stress.
"Yes. YES! It will all go smooth! She'll just happily tag along! No problems! Spotless! Happy now? NOW?"
I broke down, my legs really giving in. Ulquiorra made a disgusted sound and let go of my hair, and I fell flat on the floor. I didn't even have the strength to curl my self up into my usual ball; I just lied there flat out, shaking from toe to top, wailing, all fear and stress pouring out of me through my eyes.
"Ain't it just heartbreakin', eh?" I heard Gin say, more curious than amused or actually caring.
"This will obviously take longer than I thought" Aizen sighed. "Ulquiorra, you know what to do. Gin, please escort her back to her room."
"Roger!" I instinctively cringed as I heard footsteps come closer. My head hurt from all the crying out loud, and together with all my intense emotions, my energy had flowed out of me in my last fit.
"Sorry if yeh don' like it, but yeh gotta come with me, m'lady." I felt completely blank, and it was as if every little thing went through some sort of fog before I sensed it. I was already upside-down when I had processed someone had picked me up and held me under an arm as if I was some laundry. Like I care.
Like I care.
*Naruto: Pagebreak no Jutsu!*
Again, Ichimaru crossed a lot of corridors with me uncomfortablywatching everything upside down while my hair was swept over the ground.
Then suddenly, within less than a second, we stood in some sort of painfully white room. I was put down rather roughly, and saw two feet step in front of me. I looked up, right into that nerve-killing, sly grin of Mr. Foxy-face.
"Aizen won' be able ta hear us here."
It took me a couple of moments to process that. But he's Big Brother Aizen.
Then, another thought shyly revealed itself to me, growing bigger and more panicking as I realized what this could only mean.
"You…" I didn't know how to say it without triggering a possibly fatal response.
"Wha' yeh did back there was pretty neat, m'lady. It makes one wonder how much yeh actually know, eh?" He had opened his eyes a few inches again, with his eerie eyes piercing into mine.
There was no escaping it now. I know your real motives.
He sighed. "'Kay, let's skip th' whole questioning then, hmm?" For my sake don't ask…
"What does th' lil' lady know 'bout little old me?"
I swallowed. Sweat ran down my back, my heartbeat was going mad.
"Jus' make sure ya don't lie ta me. An' don't make me repeat myself. What do ya know?''
"M… More than A-A-A…" I couldn't get the word out of my mouth.
"More than Aizen does?" I didn't nod or anything, but my expression must've said it all.
He grabbed my arm and 'helped' me up, but didn't let go. He forced me to look him directly in the face.
"Say it." His grip tightened more and more as I tried to find a good way to say it. A way in which I wouldn't reveal the rather tragic outcome.
"You're gonna betray him" I finally whispered, wishing I could look away. Farewell, cruel world…
His eyes narrowed again, and his smirk widened. I didn't expect that reaction, and neither did I trust it. But it did allow me to avert my eyes, which I was longing for a lot.
"I thought so." Why is everyone here, Wonderweiss not included, a freaking genius?
"And ya know the outcome, don'tcha?"
I immediately looked down. Another spoiler extraordinaire.
"Ya can't say it, can ya?"
Nod.
"Better not say it anyway."
"You don't…" You don't wanna know if all your efforts will be worth it?
His grin grew a little smug. "Let's say this: If I know I'll fail, I'll never try. An' if I know I'll succeed, I'll get careless an' still fail. I ain't a fool like Aizen."
That's… Actually pretty damn logical.
And then, for the first time, I suddenly saw a bit of hope glowing in the form of an imaginary light bulb above my head. Idea.
"So, you don't want Aizen to know your plans, do you?" I tried to sound as confident as possible.
Ichimaru just had that grin on his face and didn't react.
"But… I know them."
You can do it. You gotta do it. Come on Myrthe, have some guts. Say the words.
"And… I could tell Aizen about them."
"You could?"
I swallowed.
"So maybe we can- maybe we can make…"
"Ah, you want a deal, am I right?"
I carefully nodded. "You protect me from that- that- from Aizen…"
"And you keep yer two cute lil lips zipped?"
"Y-yeah."
"An' what if I just kill you right here 'nd now?" The way he said it casually, with that sickening grin on his face, it made me want to take back all words. But I had found a little path out, and there was no way I'd let this chance slip.
"Then you might as well paint 'I'm suspicious' on your forehead and dance in front of Aizen."
He chuckled. "Wouldn't it be a huge 'spoiler' if ya told Aizen?"
He was right. It would be an incorrectable mistake as a Plot Guardian. But he had forgotten one thing.
"You honestly think I'm preferring the plot of this world, that isn't even mine, above my own hide?" I was speaking the truth. I didn't care enough for heroism, or for the world, or people that weren't me.
"You know damn well I'm not a hero like pretty much the entire cast here. I just want to survive. If that means making the wrong decisions, so be it. If that means snitching, so be it. If that means that others will die for my sake… I won't be proud of it, but so be it."
His grin grew wider. Oh God's now he's gonna kill me for sure.
"Yer damn manipulative fer a lil' human, m'lady. And on top of it damn right too. Seems like we're both checkmate, eh?"
Both? I'm the who can tell Aizen! You're the only one checkmate!
"Yer thinkin' that you've won, eh? But yer forgettin' one lil' thing."
What is he talking about?
"Shoot to kill…."
O fu-
"… Shinsou." A flash of light blinded me, and I felt a gust of wind hitting me as if a rollercoaster just passed me with only a few centimetres between. When I recovered from my one-second-black-out, Gin was smiling as if nothing had happened. I felt a sharp sting in my left arm.
There was a small scratch where something sharp had barely touched the skin after effortlessly cutting through my sleeve.
Holy fuck.
"I could still kill ya any moment I want to." He said, still playing with his small –oh the irony- sword.
"So, do we have a deal, m'lady?"
I know he is a jolly good fellow deep down inside, but I still think I'm about to make a deal with a devil.
"D-deal."
"A deal it is!" he cheered, and then quickly pulled me with him towards the door. "Now, let's keep it a hush-hush, 'kay? Jus' put yer sad lil' puppy-face up an' no one will see a thing."
I'm a lousy actor, you know.
*Naruto: Pagebreak no Jutsu!*
I was brought back to my room, and without a word my new accomplice (the thought still scared and amazed me) closed the door. I crawled in my bed, and despite the emotional mess in my head, I fell almost directly asleep.
If only I'd known what was waiting for me when I would wake up.
~On the other side of cosmos, a while back:
Suzume's POV.
Previously:
So we decided, in all our awesomeness, to go and find NARNIA! Which was quite a problem since I know her closet and it has shit in it. So we threw everything out and got in, it was tight first but as we walked further we realised: DUDE WE CAN WALK IN YOUR CLOSET? Before we could think about it we fell down. A lot (and I mean A LOT) of swear words and bad phrases further we landed, surprisingly soft. On the pavement, now I don't know Myrthe's closet so I didn't know if this was supposed to happen but according to her reaction it was not. And then she tripped over her own feet while standing still. How she can do that I have no idea, but it sure as hell is one heck of a talent!
Which yours truly also possesses.
So you know what happened next. Except for the fact that when the Hollow attacked Myrthe, Rukia had to grab my hair in order to prevent me from kicking that Hollow's ass.
But let's skip to the present.
After Myrthe had ran away I walked back to the tea-party. I didn't run after her because well one, I am lazy, and two, I know that people want to be alone when they're upset. Or at least I like to. Not that I am upset a lot, no. I'm a happy person! And I like to keep it that way, but here we are wandering of from the whole story line. So I walked back, and everyone stared at me of course. I sat down beside Renji and Ikkaku because those are my favourite characters and put my normal awkwardness around boys aside. I was convinced it was a dream, so why not make the best of it? I noticed that everyone was looking at me with a face that said: So what-the-hell-just-happened?
"She's a bit upset about the whole not-being-able-to-return-home-thing. She'll be fine, just give her some time and she'll come back."
Well I was wrong. Myrthe didn't return. We waited, talked, waited. And talked some more. But after about 30 minutes we started to worry.
"Why isn't the blonde girl returning?" The tenth squad captain asked serious.
"I dunno, Karakura town is a big place you know. Maybe she's lost." I said. Please let her be lost please please don't tell me she got attacked or anything.
We had been waiting an hour or so, and in that time I had been running through the Urahara shop trying to forget the fact that Myrthe was missing. Curious as I am, I wanted to know exactly what it actually looked like. And much to my disappointment it was smaller than I thought it was. Urahara was probably happy about the fact, because he had been running after me trying to prevent me from breaking anything. When we got back into the room we started in, it was empty.
Except for one thing, one paper lying on the small table in the middle of the room. At that moment my heart stopped beating, I knew this scene. I knew a scene like this. It was when Orihime was kidnapped to Hueco Mundo. I knew without reading that the same thing had happened to Myrthe.
'Shit.' Shit shit shit shit shit FUCK. I felt the panic coming up and the adrenaline rushing through my body when I finished reading the letter. Judging by the looks of the group, they had noticed something was wrong. Suppressing the intense feeling of panic I stood up: "ALRIGHT, Myrthe has been kidnapped by Aizen. WE, need to go to Hueco Mundo and rescue her. BUT FIRST, I will need some better clothes to fight in, like Xena's! Well no, that would not fit here, and I don't do well in skirts. And we don't want me to worry about my skirt instead of the enemy. And I don't think you've ever heard of Xena. WAIT, maybe I could have some awesome Plot Guardian outfit! I've always wanted to be a superhero! Or maybe a shinigami uniform! WITH my own Zanpakuto. Wow, it's like a dream coming true and…"
Before I had time to finish my rambling -which probably would have gone on and on forever- I was interrupted by Urahara.
"You, little miss, are not going anywhere. And you are certainly not fighting with us" he said, with a slightly irritated voice. The others nodded in agreement.
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I am not staying here just to miss all the excitement. What if I told you..." I turned to Ichigo "... that one of your friends here got kidnapped and you couldn't come to rescue him/her? I am not going to stay here like I can't do anything. You can't make me stay, I know things you don't, and I think it would be pretty helpful having me around. Just teach me how to use a weapon and I'm ready. Trust me, I can learn quickly."
Silence fell over the room and they all looked at each other, not knowing what to decide.
Would I join them? Or not?
Me: Sooo, Double Cliffhanger No Jutsu! Thanks and kudos and credits to Suzanne-chan for taking some of her precious time to write this.
And what do you lovely people think? I'm actually quite curious about your opinions on the characters of Fanfic!Myrthe and Suzume. More about Fanfic!Myrthe actually. She needs a bit *cough* of improvement. Less tears for starters, I think. Or does it make her more realistic/pitiable?
Fanfic!Myrthe: -_-; and this is why one day I will escape from your imagination and cut you up multiple times with Grell-san's chainsaw, toast you with Axel-sama's chakrams, tell Edward Elric that you said he is a midget and go all Accel Synchro on your non-existent ass.
Me: O_o On second thought, less sadism is of more priority. Back in character, you!