Forbidden Love

Chapter 14 - Nice Work

Shiro's POV

After the half-dressed, cocky blunette had left the room, I turned on the heel of my foot, facing the room and taking in my expanse surroundings. Stepping forward to face the bed, I ran my slender fingers over the exquisite bedspread before hoisting myself up onto the tall bed, the bed frame lashing backward and colliding against the long wall, making a loud hollow sound that echoed throughout my new room. As a result, my dirty clothes that I had placed on the edge, as ordered by Grimmjow, slid off the edge and onto the soft, carpeted floor. I shrugged it off and laid back, my head falling onto one of the many plump, soft pillows scattered neatly across the blanket. With a sigh, I rolled onto my back, placing my hands on my stomach, lacing them together tightly.

What was I going to do? My brother, lover, and best friend was left all alone back in Karakura and I had no way to get back to him. I knew he would be okay physically, but losing your brother would be harsh on him mentally. I knew how bad it had been when I left him three years, and what torment had been etched in his broken heart, so I had no idea how he would hold up now that we were lovers.

Subconsciously, I pulled a seem loose on my neutrally-colored jacket. I tugged it off before winding it around my fingers. I stared at it as the blood drained from the appendages before releasing it and tying it around my wrist in a loose, thin bracelet. As I fiddled with the string again, I rolled onto my side with a yawn and curled my knees up closer to my body warmth.

Another part of my current issues was how I was going to find Inoue. She seemed like a considerate, pleasant girl, and was close to not only Ichi, but also one of Ichi's best friends, Rukia, who Ichi often called the 'Girl Who Changed My Entire Life.' Whenever Rukia was mentioned, it made me realize how much Ichi's life had changed since I had been gone. It made my heart flare not only with jealousy, but also made me feel like my heart just cascaded into the pit of my stomach and got devoured by the noxious acid. I had been forgotten, and replaced by the only person who had ever meant, and will mean something to me. It was all because I had to leave him to fend for himself in such a cruel, heartless world. And now I was doing it again. What was wrong with me?

I felt sleep spread into my headache ridden mind, and I subconsciously drew my body into a tight ball, capturing body warmth. I yawned before closing my eyes. If I wasn't able to think straight, I might as well take a nap to clear my mind.

Several hours later, I heard a timid knock on my extravagant door. I had always been a light sleeper, and even the quietest, most subtle noises brought me out of my sleep. I sat up slowly, looking around for the origin of the noise. The noise appeared again at one of the large doors leading into my room and I slid off my bed, my feet hitting the floor with a soft thud. I walked slowly over to my door, opening it quietly as I rubbed my eyes.

Standing in my doorway was a meager, petite girl. She had large, blue eyes and her face was hidden by her dark hair that acted much like a curtain. She prodded her index fingers together nervously, her bottom lip being worried inside her mouth. The small girl wore an outfit nearly identical to the other hollow's Grimmjow and I had passed in the hallway earlier.

"Umm... Kurosaki-san?" I tilted my head in recognition. "We were sent here to lead you to Szayal-sama's lab." I leaned sideways and noticed two similar servants behind her, a tall female with a fairly curvaceous body and a large grin, and a short male with long blonde bangs that slid over his slender face. I opened my door a little more, allowing the three hollow inside. I noticed the small girl stepping forward to pick up my dirty clothes off the floor, but I beat her to it and knelt over, picking up the clothing. I gestured at her to take it and she blushed, nervously taking it out of my hand. "Y-you don't have to do that, it's my job!" I shook my head at her with a chuckle.

"Nah, it's okay. It's pretty rude of me ta just drop my clothes on th' floor, ne?" She murmured a thank you under her breath quickly, before blushing and turning away. She folded the clothes silently before handing them to the taller, smiling woman still in the doorway. The woman took them from her without a word and left the room. I vaguely saw her turn and walk away, down the voluminous hallway.

"This way please, sir." The slender male finally spoke up, quietly edging out of the room. I followed after him, the dark-haired girl falling in step closely behind me. Many more hollow passed by me and a few of them bowed, the others standing still and silent in confusion, as if they had no idea how to address me. Soon, I was being lead down a narrower, shorter hallway, and we passed by many doors. None of them were open, but I could hear voices and strange noises coming from behind each entryway. Suddenly, we reached the end of the hallway, where a large door valiantly stood. A young male stood beside the door, but once his eyes fell upon me, he opened the door and disappeared inside. By the time we had gotten to the door, he had reappeared and opened the door once again for us.

Upon entering, I was met with the sight of a very large room. On one end, television screens and computers were scattered about, hollow of all shapes and sizes sitting in front of them and typing furiously upon the keyboards. Tables littered the floor, test tubes and microscopes placed randomly upon their surface. Many other hollow were testing, foreign liquids being poured and measured, some bubbling or foaming, and others retracting and creeping about the insides of the slender tubes. I looked around in wonder before someone calling out to me startled my thoughts.

"Kurosaki-san, this way please." A tall man with narrow glasses and flamboyant, rose hair signaled for me across the room. A few of the Hollow inclined their heads towards, looking at me with strange, expectant glances. Others turned to each other, murmuring under their breath and peeking at me through the corner of their narrowed, mocking eyes. I scowled before walking over to the pink-haired freak. He typed in a code and I heard a click and a loud ding before the door slid open. I followed him inside a small, dimly-lit room. I looked around, vaguely noticing Aizen smirking in the corner of my eye before I felt a sharp pain blossom harshly in my lower arm just above my wrist and my eyes fluttered shut as unconsciousness quickly crept in.

Sleep never fully set in, basically just a film of unconsciousness slid over my usual attentiveness. In the back of my mind, I screamed in agony at overwhelming pain prickling harshly at my skin and organs. The pain was real, but I wasn't sure if I was. The strange feeling of not having any ability to do, see, or hear anything was making my limp body tremble with fury, and I vowed to personally rip apart whomever's bright idea this was. I longed, desired to pull loose of my mental restraints, and as I slowly gained feeling, hearing, and vision, I practically cried with joy and happiness.

The first thing I felt was the raw feeling of thick leather bands chaffing against my wrists, ankles, and waist. I felt a slimmer band running around my neck loosely. The second thing I felt was the agonizing pain piercing my bones and the tingling and prickling of pain licking at my skin. The third, most important thing I felt was power. Raw power and energy etched into my very skeleton, burning with desire to just be let out. I felt the energy licking at every inch of my being, in my toes, my fingertips, the small, hollow place in the back of my neck and and even the shallow hole behind my ears. It was just... There, and I liked it.

Ever-so-slowly, I squinted my eyes open, blinking when intense light glared into my lidded eyes. Or at least, I think they were still gold. My eyes were pretty much the only part of my body that wasn't drenched in the acid I called pain. I arched my back slightly, the desire to move away and relieve myself of this torture everlasting and yearning in my half-asleep brain.

"Oh, are you awake?" A liquescent, sultry voice in my ear startled me and I winced at the pain that followed the strident noise. I groaned in my throat, the sound guttural and low. "Aizen-sama, he is awake."

"Oh, good, very good." I could hear sharp, precise footsteps edging ever closer to me and I braced myself for the worst possible. I tilted my head as much as I could to face the tall brunette, golden eyes narrowing sharply at his superior presence. A large hand reached out towards me and I yanked my head away, growling low. Aizen merely ignored that and sharply grabbed my chin, jerking me back his way. The brunette leaned over the examination table, eyes glaring into my furiously glowing orbs. The man blocked the light slightly, causing it to glow from the edges and his face darkened with aggressive shadows. It made the man only seem more menacing. "How are you feeling, Shiro-san?"

"Like shit, how abou' ya?" I spat out. Aizen just dismissed me and tilted my head either way before letting go and stepping away.

"Nice work, Szayel. How much longer should he stay here?" The pink-haired man replied but the two men had already begun to leave the room and I was unable to hear them. Elegant brows furrowed in confusion and anger. What was so much different about me? I knew the energy was there, I could feel it running through my veins like snake poison, only much much better, but... Besides the burning pain in my limp body, I felt no different.

How was I supposed to control this power? I knew no way to describe it besides the most amazing feeling I'd ever felt. Well, besides when I was screwing my little Ichi-berry, but that was a whole other thing. Different feelings deserve different settings on my 'Most Amazing Feelings' list. Ichi first, this most definitely second.

I lay there for what felt like forever, tirelessly tugging and pulling on my restraints in boredom, before the door finally swung open again. There was a swish as the pink-haired man, Szayel, stepped in and pulled at his gloves, the white latex pulling away from his pale skin only to fall back with a loud snap. I winced at the sharp, strident sound, noises still hurting my sensitive ears. The door shut behind him with a click.

"Ah, Shiro-san. I guess would be a good time to explain." I scoffed and sneered at him.

"Ya think?" Like everyone else here, Szayel ignored what I said and began to rant off long, scientific terms that had my nearly dead mind reeling. I lay there with my eyes wide and my mouth gaped open in confusion. Szayel turned around, still talking before he noticed my expression.

"Oh, umm... Well, in shortened terms, only for your apathetic, inutile mind to understand," I snarled at him, an animalistic sound that tore from the depths of my sore, dry throat. Szayel spoke as if I couldn't comprehend a word he spoke, much like how a child would treat their younger sibling when they didn't understand trivial, frivolous matters that were, to the older child, a simple thing. It infuriated me to no end, and I cursed the the leather bindings holding me back from teaching Szayel a very important lesson on how to never piss off Ogichi Kurosaki."You are now an Arrancar. Probably an Espada, at your extreme, vast levels of power. These Arrancar are merely Hollow that have... You know what Hollow are right?" Szayel cut himself off suddenly, but didn't give me time to answer.

"We're going to go with you do for now, and if you don't, you'll, hopefully, understand later. Arrancar are the results of Hollow that have ripped off their 'masks.' Usually, this wouldn't do much to increase their power, even if they were Menos, but using Aizen's hogyoku, we can majorly improve power. Vasto Lorde, however, are the only Arrancar that can maintain humanoid shapes." Szayel continued to drone on about the different shapes of humanoid bodies and I allowed myself to a few moments of ignorance and quiet, the rambling voice only a hum in the background. Szayel suddenly changed the subject though, and the sudden change interested me.

"For you though, we merely killed you, brought you back as a Hollow and then changed you into an Arrancar. Long process, but fairly easily with the right knowledge. Are you understanding so far, Shiro-san?" Szayel turned to me finally, his fingertips pressed together and fingers spread apart as he looked at me in a questioning manor.

"So, basically, ya have low-level Hollow tha' 've ripped off the'r mask, an' a take this... 'hogyoku' thing an' turn them inta these ten times more powerful Arr'ncar. Then ya get some Menos, an even high'r level Hollow an' ya get more powerful minions. Once ya get Vasto Lorde yer left wit' an all-powerful being, which ya then slap a number on and call it an Espada." Szayel seemed impressed with my answer and nodded pleasantly. Somehow, the grin on his face sent cold tremors up my spine. I was a slight bit dubious that it was okay to trust the man. There was something strangely off when he smirked, like he wanted to dissect me or something. Thank God I'm not a test subject, or I would be screwed.

"So you noticed the numbers, Shiro-san? Good, very good. You have a lot of knowledge of your surroundings." I narrowed my eyes and murmured under my breath.

"Wish I didn', 'cause this looks pretty bad ta me." Szayel looked at me curiously.

"What was that, Shiro-san?" I gulped and shook my head. Szayel shrugged it off. "Well, anyway... Due to such a major change in pace for your body, you'll need a few days of rest before your coronation. A servant will lead you back to your rooms soon, once we finish our tests."

Oh God, more tests! I panicked, my heart racing in my chest. I violently tugged on my tricky restraints again, the leather chaffing my skin and rubbing it raw. My spine arched up from the cold, metal table and my stomach trembled with fear, scowled spread across my lips. Szayel chuckled at the reaction before holding up a large, thin needle.

"Oh, you needn't worry, dear Shiro-san. It will be pain-free... Mostly." With that the rose-haired male jabbed the needle into my upper arm, piercing the vein harshly. He squeezed the end of the needle before pulling it out carelessly. I felt a cold tremor run up my spine at the tingling and prickling at my skin from the strange, foreign liquid. I allowed my eyes to flutter shut and I cursed the man, a low moan spilling from my lips just before everything went black again. The last thing I saw was a pair of smirking amber orbs.

Regular POV

"Fuck ya..." Szayel watched with a smirk as his test subject's eyes flutter shut with a soft moan. As he prepared himself for the tests, he chuckled to himself, knowing that having such a vast knowledge would come in handy yet again. Being able to test on such a new, different being would surely be fun for the amber-eyed scientist. The Octava once again thanked his stars that Aizen allowed him to continue his scientific practices. But Szayel figured it was only because it benefited the brunette's plans, or else he wouldn't bother himself over trivial matters that wouldn't effect him. Oh well, whatever God that was out there that told Aizen it was a good idea was amazing in Szayel's eyes. With that last thought, Szayel got to work.

A/N: Terrible ending! DX

I finished this in one night :D But I have to spend another night editing, and probably another to finally put it up. So, it'll go up whenever I'm done.

Anyway, where do you think Shiro's Hollow Hole should be?

Love,

Sevvers~