BETA: ZTOTHE9. Thank you so much ^^
CHAPTER 2
INTRODUCING THE CUARTA ESPADA
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That kindness and sadness mixed together annoyed him. She seemed so thankful to all of them without even considering that they would take her life in a second if it was commanded.
She should be full of anger, of hate. Not kindness.
That would've been the normal human emotion to feel in a situation like the one she was living. Instead, she was smiling all the time, trying to create bonds with everyone around her. Like they could actually generate something similar to the connections humans had with one another.
It's survival. She is trying to pretend she is comfortable simply so she can survive here.
At least she had some instinct. In that aspect, every single living creature was alike. Even them.
He walked down the hall, step after step echoing through the empty space around him. Everything seemed silent and he was thankful for that. Yammy could've been appointed to take care of that woman with him, and that peaceful environment would've been torn to hell. He wouldn't say he enjoyed Yammy's company, but at least he wasn't irritated by his presence. That wasn't the case with other members of the Espada.
He understood the reason behind his appointment to take care of her. Of all the Espada, he was the only one who couldn't be bribed by emotional nonsense.
Harribel was a woman and she had that weird relationship with those three insignificant fracciones. It was obvious their "guest" might be capable of garnering some sympathy from her and then whole tension scenario that Lord Aizen had created would have been wasted.
Starrk was too lazy to even be asked. Ulquiorra didn't doubt he was the kind of being that would've given that woman better company. However, Lord Aizen had arranged for her to feel in distress not safe and sound. Starrk would've given her a sense of false security that she did not need.
And Barrigan…well, he just couldn't be trusted with a job like that. In fact, Ulquiorra thought he couldn't be trusted at all. Both Starrk and Harribel had a sort of "debt" with Lord Aizen; Barragan on the other hand, didn't. Ulquiorra knew the situation surrounding his enlistment with the Espadas and was sure that eventually the King of Hueco Mundo would try to get his crown back, one way or another.
So that left him; the one who brought her to Hueco Mundo in the first place. Sometimes he also thought Lord Aizen wanted him to learn more about that woman and her odd, yet interesting abilities. He had been the first to notice that her powers weren't about healing others; it was about rejecting time and space. That god-like ability was something he needed to observe better, and because of that, he didn't mind taking care of that woman.
Other times he thought caretaking for her was just a job that needed to be done.
Either way, spending time with someone so different from him was not a situation that he looked forward to at all, especially when she watched him with those big grey eyes trying to figure him out.
Ulquiorra-kun. Hn.
He was still annoyed about that. She had called him in that vulgar way, as if he was one of her useless friends. He wasn't there to spoil and cater to her. He was merely in charge of overseeing her imprisonment until Lord Aizen's plan was completed. Besides, if he hadn't been around taking care of her, she would already be dead.
It wasn't an assumption; it was a fact.
He had sensed Menoly and Loly around that woman's room. That couldn't lead anywhere good. If they hadn't done anything yet to try and harm her again, it was merely because he was always around. That had been the reason he had fallen asleep on the couch; he just couldn't abandon that woman to her fate. If he was near her, then trash like Menoly and Loly wouldn't be. He had thought about just killing them, but then again, when you kill an ant, five more appear to take vengeance. That was their nature when they felt threatened. And honestly, he wasn't looking for a reason to start a fight pitting him against every single arrancar in Lord Aizen's new army.
Before the woman's arrival at Las Noches, both Loly and Menoly had been turned into arrancars. He had watched as Lord Aizen used the Hougyoku to break their hollow masks.
".. What are your names my dear Arrancars?"
"Loly…"
"Menoly"
"You are very dear and important to me. You are essential for my purposes. From this day on, you will learn how to take care of a human being…"
They thought Lord Aizen chose them to serve him because they were special. They thought they were his favorites because of how close they were to Gin, Tousen and Lord Aizen himself. But they had been wrong. Both of their faces had fallen in shame and humiliation the moment they heard all that training was for them to wait on Inoue Orihime, Aizen's new ally.
When Ulquiorra saw their behavior he immediately knew that Inoue Orihime would never be safe around them. Lord Aizen did too, otherwise he wouldn't have entrusted him with the task of personally taking care of her. Still, he never anticipated things to go so wrong, so fast.
It had happened just after that woman healed Grimmjow's arm. He escorted her to her new room followed by Menoly and Loly, giving them both instructions to feed and bathe the woman. He had left after that, not guessing (a mistake that distressed him often, his failure to have anticipated the outcome) that Inoue Orihime would refuse to eat. That was the last straw for Menoly and Loly.
"The only job you two pieces of trash have is making sure that woman is alive when I return later to check on her. Fail at it, and Lord Aizen will have you turned to dust." He had said as he left the room with his usual indifference.
When he came back, he had seen Loly and Menoly spying through the door's key hole, trying to see what the woman was doing.
"Did she eat?" He asked, coming to stand behind them. He must have frightened them because they both jumped away from the peek hole.
"Yes." Answered Menoly. "We forced her to."
"Hmm…" Then he understood. "But you insured that she was fed?"
"Yes."
"I must have fallen while sleeping…" Inoue Orihime had answered with a nervous smile, turning so Ulquiorra couldn't see her face. He had known she was lying. She was covered in blankets, just waking up, and she had tried to shield her body from him so Menoly and Loly wouldn't get in trouble.
Strange woman…
"Don't worry, please. It's nothing. I must be more careful next time. I'm not used to this big bed and I must have rolled over and fell… "
He couldn't care less about the injuries. He would have done the same in Menoly's and Loly's position. Their task was to feed her, not beg her to eat. Still, that woman was Lord Aizen's, and without explicit instructions to beat her, no one could touch her. That had been made very clear to all of them.
As soon as he had closed the door leaving Inoue Orihime behind him with her bruises and sorrow, he had dismissed Menoly and Loly for good, making their existence in Hueco Mundo pointless. They were forbidden to ever enter that room again. Now the door never opened unless he was the one entering. No one was allowed to see her, not even the other Espada. Inoue Orihime never knew that Ulquiorra was there so often for her safety (not that he cared or even liked being there), commanded by Lord Aizen to take care of her.
Still, it was hard for Ulquiorra to figure out how the mind and body of a human worked. He didn't need to eat, or sleep, or bathe. He didn't age. He didn't feel as humans did. He didn't believe in anything that wasn't reflected in his eyes. He used his time walking, waiting…years had come and gone without anything interesting occuring except surviving Hueco Mundo and its constant struggle for supremacy.
But the woman needed to eat and sleep; needed to bathe and use the bathroom. She had the need for water (which was rare in Hueco Mundo, almost impossible to get). And there was also that part he didn't care about… her sorrow. She was good at hiding it, but she couldn't hide the tears that ran down her cheeks in the middle of the night. Ulquiorra couldn't feel nor understand sadness, but his eyes could reflect tears. He could see them even if, for him, tears had no meaning. Sadness was the only human feeling he could clearly see without mistaking it.
His thoughts came to a sudden end as he reached the big white doors he was looking for. Lord Aizen's chambers were right behind them. After every three meals, Ulquiorra would go to him and report on Inoue Orihime's condition. He had given five reports so far.
"Ulquiorra, please enter." He said with his usual polite tone. He was sitting on a throne in the highest spot of the room.
"Aizen-sama."He said bowing. "She has again completed her three feedings, once every eight hours. Since the third meal has been consumed, she will now sleep for the next eight hours before eating again."
"I feel you are excluding something. Are you?" He asked while bringing a cup of tea to his lips and sipping slowly.
"She also wanted me to thank you for your kindness."
"Is that so? I see." He stood up. "So everything is going the way I thought it would."
"It is, sir."