This War's Not Over: Chapter 7
There Is No Escape
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Hope you liked the previous cliffhanger and enjoy this next chapter!
Rukia and Renji were flash stepping across the desert. Beads of sweat had now formed on Renji's brow.
"Why is Ichigo in Las Noches?" Rukia asked her companion with alarm.
Renji shook his head uncomprehendingly, but he seemed to be hiding something.
"Rukia," he began in a low voice. "I need to tell you something."
"Let him go."
The arrancars immediately released Ichigo, who flopped off the bed he had been previously laying on and onto his hands and knees.
Ichigo gasped. He was so weak with hunger. His angry yellow eyes burned into Aizen's, his teeth bared.
Aizen seemed to be unaffected by Ichigo's display of hostility. In fact, he seemed rather elated.
"Wonderful," Aizen smiled unpleasantly. "You never cease to amaze me."
"Don't give me that crap," Ichigo snarled. "So this is all part of your plan too, isn't it?"
Aizen said nothing except to nod at one of the arrancars. The arrancar immediately slipped out of the room.
Ichigo's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I haven't lost that much of my memory to forget that you're my enemy."
Aizen smiled. "So you know that too."
Ichigo's eyes nervously searched for his zanpakuto, but it had mysteriously disappeared from his cloth belt. Shit.
"There is something you don't seem to understand, Ichigo. You cannot escape from here. After all, in your state of hunger, you aren't capable of moving, are you?" Aizen said.
Ichigo's eyes narrowed. Aizen knew everything.
"I'm not hungry," Ichigo spat.
Aizen's eyes lit up with pleasure. He turned to the arrancar he had dismissed moments before. It seemed that the arrancar had made its appearance again. The subordinate dropped something into Aizen's hand, before bowing respectfully to his leader.
Then Aizen turned to Ichigo, and showed the object right in front of the teen's nose.
Ichigo stared.
He had never seen anything like it.
It was small, as small as his palm. It was fat and round and it glowed a light hue of blue in an otherworldly way. Ichigo recognized it as a soul. Ichigo had never seen one before. Usually, its spiritual body always surrounded it, but to see just the soul was something Ichigo had never really had the curiosity to wonder about.
But then there was the hunger. Ichigo's eyes widened as his yellow eyes glowed. He clutched his stomach in a desperate effort to try and calm his hollow impulses. Aizen only smiled.
Ichigo tried to stare furiously at Aizen for doing this to him, but the truth of the matter was that Ichigo couldn't take his eyes off the soul.
Ichigo held himself back. He wasn't going to give Aizen what he wanted. I'm not going to eat this soul!
But the smell made Ichigo sympathize with the hollows. No wonder they risked their lives trying to eat these. They smelt so good.
Risk their lives. Ichigo blinked. Because of—the people who want to stop them from eating souls.
Ichigo's jaws parted, his eyes locked onto the soul. Aizen was watching him, a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. But Ichigo froze.
"Your mother's soul was eaten by hollow."
Ichigo was caught off guard. His inner hollow's voice was hesitant, as if he too was tempted to eat this delicacy he had never had the opportunity to taste as well. And yet—his hollow seemed to be tense.
"You are not a hollow, King."
Ichigo blinked. I'm a soul reaper.
And a part of his memory flooded back into him. All his duties as a soul reaper: how Rukia had first given him his powers as a soul reaper, and how he had accepted it by protecting the souls of those he loved.
Finally out of his trance, fury rose within Ichigo. How dare Aizen try to make him eat a soul?
Ichigo knocked the soul out of Aizen's hands, sending it flying against the wall. The soul burst open, then disintegrated. The arrancars gasped in shock at Ichigo's resistance.
Aizen tried to hide the surprise in his eyes, blinking it away.
"I'm not hungry," Ichigo hissed proudly.
Aizen smirked. "Very well then. But you know sooner or later, Ichigo, you will no longer be able to resist your hunger. And you will no longer be able to tell who are your enemies and who are your friends. You shall be confined in a room until then."
Renji and Rukia were exhausted. They were lying flat on the desert sand, huffing and gasping for a breather.
"This is the times when I wish Bawabawa was here," Rukia sighed.
Renji grunted in agreement.
"So tell me," Rukia said, her expression tense. "Why is Soul Society after Ichigo now?"
She felt Renji stiffen at her side. "Aizen broke into the Head Captain Yamamoto's office."
Rukia gasped. "What?"
"Yeah," Renji shrugged. "But that isn't the worst part. He told Captain Yamamoto that Ichigo had joined the Espada."
Rukia felt her blood freeze. Her hands gripped the white sand.
"What? But how is that possible? Ichigo was with us—"
"I know. Aizen lied. I realized that after I arrived to Karakura Town. But the reason why Yamamoto believed it, was because Aizen questioned Yamamoto's faith in Ichigo."
Rukia was becoming more and more confused. She was standing up now, her face showing nothing but her Kuchiki glare that only Ichigo seemed to be able to wash away. "What are you saying?"
"His substitute soul reaper pass," Renji shivered. "We used it to monitor him. But Ichigo forgave us. But Aizen questioned whether Ichigo had actually meant it. Yamamoto wasn't too sure himself, so Aizen made him doubt Ichigo. After Aizen disappeared, Yamamoto spread the news. He decided that it was safer to consider Ichigo as an enemy until they could get more information. Many captains weren't happy with being ordered to capture Ichigo."
"I still don't understand what this has to do with Ichigo becoming an Espada," Rukia said, stress showing clearly on her face.
"Well, maybe the reason why Aizen abducted Ichigo was to make him an Espada, and was counting on the fact that Ichigo hadn't completely forgiven us to con him into joining their side," Renji trailed off, seeing Rukia's angry expression.
She stomped her foot on the ground once more, her eyes wide with fury. "How could you say that? How could you doubt Ichigo? Ichigo would never! That stupid moron needs us!"
Renji was taken aback by the petite's outburst. He took a step back with his hands raised. "You're right."
Rukia huffed, turning around. "Let's go then."
It had been another whole day. Ichigo was starved.
But he was puzzled though. When he had been too weak to resist and got dragged away into his 'confinement', Ichigo had expected more—of a prison. But it wasn't like that at all. Despite the dull gray walls, there was a bed, a table, a chair, and it was all well kempt and neat.
Ichigo sat on the chair, boredom plastered all over his face. He closed his eyes and rested his head on the table.
He wanted to go back home. Wherever that was. He knew there were warm, reassuring people there at least.
But what made Ichigo even more confused was the fact that it was his hollow that had actually stopped him from eating the soul. Ichigo felt so ashamed. Sinking that low, huh?
And yet, the thought that his hollow had helped him—again—was simply….
Ichigo shifted to a more comfortable position. At least this would take his mind off his hunger.
"Why…Why're you helping me?" Ichigo thought.
"I hate owing people," he heard his hollow spit.
Ichigo frowned. "What do you owe me for?"
"The chains. You cut off the chains."
Ichigo blinked, almost falling off his chair with surprise. It took a moment before Ichigo managed to compose himself again, drawing in a breath.
"You're helping me because I caught off your chains?" Ichigo thought disbelievingly.
"You have no idea how humiliating that was for me," his hollow hissed, his voice stinging with resentment.
Ichigo withdrew from the conversation. It was getting too weird. His hollow was acting so strange. He wished Zangetsu would tell him why.
Ichigo lifted his head off the table, blinking at the image of himself in the mirror in front of him. He still couldn't get his head around the fact that he looked so much like…a hollow. The pristine white uniform made it worse. Ichigo's teeth gritted. At this rate I'll really…
He turned to the guard who was standing by the only exit to his room. Ichigo sized him up. The arrancar was definitely weaker than Ichigo—but right now, Ichigo was too weak and starving to put up a fight.
The arrancar's flat and detached expression reminded Ichigo vaguely of Ulquiorra. Ichigo sighed. He hadn't seen a single face he recognized among the Espada. Had they all been killed off?
Ichigo switched his state of mind for a bit of a conversation with the guard. Unfortunately, the arrancar wasn't very talkative. Instead, Ichigo took amusement in annoying the arrancar.
"Can I go outside?"
"No."
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
"No."
"Can I have a drink?"
"No."
Ichigo gave a huff, shaking his head irritably. Somehow, the arrancar never seemed to be bothered by Ichigo's questions, to Ichigo's own annoyance.
His stomach grumbled. Immediately, the arrancar's face lit up.
"Are you hungry?"
Ichigo imitated the arrancar's stone cold voice. "No."
Frustrated turquoise eyes peered from behind one of the sand dunes, glaring up at the tall white wall of Las Noches. "Shit! I can't believe it. Aizen got him!"
Another pair of yellow eyes joined his. "There's nothing to worry about. You should go fetch him."
The turquoise eyes turned on the yellow ones, gleaming in fury. "Don't order me around!"
The yellow eyes' voice came out authoritarian and flat. "It's not an order. It's advice and I suggest you follow it."
Another day went by and eating was practically the only thing Ichigo could think of. He was sitting on his bed, chewing one corner of his pillow, while nervously trying to avoid the guard's watchful gaze.
He wished he had his zanpakuto with him. He could still remember he was a soul reaper. But as Aizen had predicted, he had no idea who were his friends. He had resulted to desperate measures, and had scratched onto the table: Aizen is bad.
He probably wouldn't have known otherwise.
The sentinel had changed, and this time, Ichigo was left with an arrancar whose eyes were filled with admiration.
"How do you resist for so long?" the arrancar asked Ichigo.
Ichigo laughed flatly. "Resolve."
But it wasn't only his hunger that kept Ichigo from escaping. It was the Hogyoku's aura that lingered with Aizen's reiatsu that made Ichigo ill every time he even approached the door. In his state, there was simply no way Ichigo was about to get sick again.
Ichigo's eyes flew open as his room's only window exploded inwards, rubble and dust filling the room.
Ichigo by reflex sprang off his bed as the wall came down on it. He gave another weak leap and crashed down onto the sandy floor outside, coughing and spluttering.
Alarm jarred in him as he felt someone's grip on his collar. He was about to turn around and snarl at the person who had recaptured him and come to deny his freedom, but when he saw the face, his heart almost leaped out of his mouth.
"You're coming with me," turquoise eyes flashed.
Ichigo was immediately lugged over the person's shoulders like a sack of potatoes, and the pair disappeared from the scene in a couple of flash steps.
Ichigo writhed and squirmed, hissing and spitting. He was sick and tired of being abducted from place to place.
"Let me go!" Ichigo yelled.
To his surprise, the familiar figure dropped him, and Ichigo's body convulsed as he wretched whatever emptiness he had left in his stomach.
"Do you have any idea—do you have any idea how sickening the Hogyoku is to me?" Ichigo screamed at the top of his lungs.
He turned furiously to his kidnapper and savior, his brows knitting tightly together. He knew that face.
When it came back to him, Ichigo was surprised to find himself grinning. "Grimmjow!"
Grimmjow, his old enemy, was alive. Ichigo had wondered what had happened to the Espada after Noitora had cut him down. Ichigo was surprised that his memory was returning to him so quickly.
Grimmjow flung what Ichigo recognized as Tensa Zangetsu down on the floor at his side. Ichigo took his zanpakuto gratefully, sliding it into his cloth belt.
"That's not all," Grimmjow grinned back, revealing his sharp teeth.
He pointed over Ichigo's shoulder, and Ichigo just turned around to see a green flash crash into him. Ichigo swore he had never felt so much pain in his life. Suffocating in what Ichigo believed were breasts, Ichigo was finally wrenched free from the female's grasp with Grimmjow's help.
Ichigo drew back; frowning at the wavy blue hair and the round, yellow eyes he was staring at.
He gasped as she drew him into another crushing hug. "Ichigooo!"
"Nel?" he asked hoarsely, struggling for air.
Grimmjow had to slowly pry her fingers off one by one in order to save Ichigo from her bone-crushing hug.
Afterwards, silence settled on the trio. Ichigo blinked at Grimmjow.
"Why are you helping me?"
Grimmjow turned his back on Ichigo with a proud spit. "It's common knowledge that hollow's hate owing people. It was only rational for me to come and help you after you helped me."
Ichigo blinked once more. That's almost exactly what his hollow had said.
He turned to Nel, who seemed to be permanently in her adult form now. He cast her a nervous glance, worried that she would squeeze him to death again.
"This is the second time you saved me," Ichigo spoke softly.
Nel smiled. "The first time was because you protected me, Ichigo."
Ichigo shook his head slowly. "But you've saved me again now, so we're no longer quits."
"It doesn't matter," Nel laughed quietly.
Ichigo smiled. Well, at least he and his hollow had one thing in common. Ichigo had learnt one more thing about himself today. We hate owing people, huh?
But Grimmjow and Nel's expression had switched from friendly to serious. Grimmjow advanced towards Ichigo, his teeth gritted. "Enough with the small talk, we need to move on towards more pressing matters."
Ichigo backed off as he saw Grimmjow draw his sword. "W-Wait Grimmjow!"
Ichigo barely had time to react as Grimmjow slashed at Ichigo's Espada uniform. To Ichigo's surprise, the sword didn't cut him. Instead, it left a rip in the left side of his uniform, revealing something Ichigo wished he'd never seen.
It was the number zero inked on his chest.
Finished!
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