bChapter 11
An Angry Quincy, Pt. 1/b
i"So there you are, Espada," a voice hissed from above, interrupting Kisuke. As a blue arrow shot down from the opening "door" to the underground room, Ulquiorra barely stepped out of the way in time to avoid getting hit by an especially strong arrow of spirit particles…
/i
The Cuatro Espada shot a nasty glare at Inside Uryuu. "What do you want, Quincy?"
"Stay away from Inoue-san!" He growled. A split second later he jumped down from the top of the ladder using his Hirenkyaku and simultaneously fired a cloud of arrows in the direction of Ulquiorra, who dodged them easily.
"Ishida-san… Ulquiorra-san, please don't fight!" Ulquiorra shot a glare at the shop owner, who was obviously trying to half heatedly stop the enraged Quincy from attacking him. Urahara Kisuke hadn't moved an inch, and was just standing near the ladder with his fan covering most of his face.
The Cuatro Espada was finding it difficult to avoid the arrows and outrun the Quincy in his gigai. He began remembering the conversation Urahara had had with him about the gigai, trying to think of what the sandal-hat man has said about it…
i""This gigai won't slowly eat away your reiatsu and, with a little practice, you will be able to leave it whenever you want to…"/i
Ulquiorra concentrated on escaping the limiting gigai. It took the Espada only two tries before he was completely out of the gigai and free of the slimy feeling of it on every inch of his body. The gigai dropped lifelessly to the ground behind Ulquiorra, surprising the Quincy, giving the Espada enough time Sonido to Urahara.
"Ah, Cuatro Espada-saaan~" Ulquiorra glared at the man, making him cover more of his face with his fan.
Ulquiorra flared his reiatsu when he felt another cloud of Quincy arrows heading his way, causing the arrows to disintegrate in midair. Ishida's eyes widened and Urahara stopped fanning himself.
"It seems the gigai didn't eat away at your reiatsu, correct, Ulquiorra-san?" Ulquiorra nodded, regretting the fact that he had agreed to let the mad scientist of a shopkeeper to "check on" Ulquiorra every week.
Uryuu didn't give up, firing another, denser cloud at the Espada, who had Sonidoed away from Kisuke.
"Do you honestly expect those weak arrows to ever reach me, human?" Ulquiorra nonchalantly said, flaring his reiatsu again.
Ishida Uryuu knew that he couldn't defeat the Cuatro Espada, but he couldn't stop the rage inside of him from continuing to motivate him to repeatedly shoot arrows at him. He couldn't let the filthy hollow touch Inoue-san. Uryuu had not the slightly inkling as to what the orange-haired girl saw in the Espada that made her act so friendly towards him. He had kidnapped her and most likely threatened her numerous times, yet she still found the ability and the want to be nice to him, to even let him stay in her apartment.
Ishida's thoughts only further fueled the hatred (and jealousy) burning inside of him.
Suddenly Ulquiorra raised his reiatsu to an immense level, bringing Uryuu to his knees, eyes wide with shock. The Espada had had enough of playing tag with the Quincy, whom he obviously outmatched in every way. Even so, why was the young man determined to fight him? Ulquiorra knew that the Quincy understood that if the Espada began taking things seriously, this little game of tag would turn into a suicide mission for Ishida.
Urahara ceased the movement of his fan and widened his eyes slightly, "Impressive reiatsu, Ulquiorra-san."
Ulquiorra glared at the shopkeeper for what seemed the millionth time that day. He wasn't surprised that the man was still standing; after all, he had been a Captain of Soul Society at one point in time.
The Cuatro Espada turned his attention back to the Quincy, who was no desperately trying to find the strength to stand up under the pressure of Ulquiorra's reiatsu.
"Orihime-san?" Sensei called Orihime Inoue out of her day dream. "Are you okay? You're unusually quiet and withdrawn today. Everyone else is already at lunch."
Orihime looked around and realized that sensei was right; she and sensei were the only two people left in the classroom.
"Oh!" Orihime stood up and smiled embarrassedly, "Gomenasai, sensei!"
The orange-haired girl quickly hurried out the door to find Tatsuki-chan.
"There you are, Inoue-san!" Tatsuki Arisawa called out, breathing a sigh of relief that her friend had snapped out of whatever daze she had been in all morning.
"Sorry, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime placed a hand on the back of her neck, trying to think of a way to explain to her best friend why she was so distant today. Should she tell her everything that had happened? Why Orihime had mysteriously disappeared from school for weeks on end?
"So where were you the past month or so, anyways, Orihime-san?" Tatsuki ask, causing Orihime's heart to race. Should couldn't lie to her best friend, yet how could she tell her the truth?
"Umm…" Orihime thought of the first thing that came to mind, "I was with my great uncle in Alaska!"
Tatsuki gave her friend a probing stare. It was obvious Inoue was lying. Orihime laughed nervously.
"Is it the same reason that Kurosaki-san has been absent?" Orihime caught her breath.
"Sort of… not really," she thought of a way to try to explain it to Tatsuki. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."
Tatsuki gave Orihime a try-me-look. Glancing around, making sure that no one else was within hearing range Orihime took a deep breath to explain to her best friend why she had been gone…
Ishida was panting heavily, nearly collapsing from exhaustion. He had been chasing the Cuatro Espada for what seemed like hours now, but no matter how fast the Quincy moved, Ulquiorra moved that much faster.
"Ishida-san~" Urahara sang, "I think you should stop now… You're exhausted and Ulquiorra-san is rather annoyed with you."
Ulquiorra Cifer hated the chiding, parental tone Urahara Kisuke spoke with. Sonidoing over to the area he had rid himself of his gigai, he sighed. The Espada had no wish of returning to the slimy confines of the gigai, but also knew that he had no choice.
"Why don't we go upstairs and have some tea?"
"WHAT?" Tatsuki interrupted. Orihime flinched. She had been glad that her friend had kept her mouth closed while Orihime talked about Hueco Mundo. But when she got to the part about how the miraculously resurrected Cuatro Espada was living in her apartment, Arisawa snapped.
"You're letting a iguy/i live in your apartment? Even worse: an ienemy/i guy!"
"He's not an enemy!" Orihime defended her Espada, frowning slightly at her friend.
The sudden ringing of the bell announced the end of the lunch break, saving Orihime from having to explain anything else to Tatsuki-chan. She hurried back to class, ignoring the slightly furious and extremely frustrated look she was getting from her friend.
"So Ulquiorra-san, how do you like the gigai?" Urahara-san interrupted the awkward silence between the Quincy, Cuatro Espada, and ex-Shinigami Captain.
"It is suitable," was the green-eyed hollow's reply. Kisuke nodded.
Ishida look like he'd rather be eating nails than having tea with one of his enemies.
The (attempted) fight with Ulquiorra made the Quincy realize something: he was jealous of him. Uryuu knew that Orihime felt something for the arrancar, though he couldn't fathom a single reason as to why she would do such a thing.
The truth be told, Ishida Uryuu had been secretly crushing on Orihime for years, though he disguised his feelings extremely well. He knew that Inoue didn't share his feelings; he knew that her heart had belonged to Kurosaki. Perhaps that was one reason that the Quincy hadn't been able to stand the Substitute Shinigami before their shared adventures.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Ishida stood up, "I really need to get going."
Without an explanation, the Quincy was gone.
Orihime watched the clock above the door of the classroom anxiously.
i3… 2… 1…/i the bell rang, signaling the end of another school day. The girl jumped up and was out the door before anyone else had even finished packing up, being sure to avoid the eyes of her best friend, Tatsuki Arisawa.
Orihime ran home, making it to her apartment door in less than three minutes, pleasantly surprised to see a certain Espada open the door.
"Hi, Ulquiorra-san!" Orihime chimed as she skipped in the door, throwing her backpack in its usual corner and flopping down on the couch. She sighed, placing the back of her hand on her forehead.
Feeling the couch shifting beside her, Orihime looked at Ulquiorra and smiled warmly, glad to see him.
Ulquiorra Cifer couldn't find an explanation as to why he found his Onna's smile so entrancing. He was pleased when she smiled.
After several minutes of silence, Orihime broke it, "So what did you do today, Ulquiorra-san?"
"I was at the Urahara Shop," Ulquiorra decided not to tell his Onna about the encounters with her friend, the Quincy. If she were to ask about details from his day, he would simply tell her that he had tea with Urahara Kisuke and started paying off the gigai.
"The Urahara Shop? What were you doing there?" Orihime was genuinely interested, leaning forward.
"I had tea with Urahara Kisuke and inquired about a new gigai. I also started to pay off my debt on the gigai."
"You should have told me that you owe Urahara-san for the gigai! I would have given you some money to-"
"Onna," Ulquiorra interrupted, "it is my debt to pay off, not yours. Also, Urahara Kisuke does not want money from me as payment."
Orihime nodded; she should have known that the sandal-hat man would want something other than money from the Espada. After all, he had never observed an Espada before.
Then Inoue remembered that she needed to go Kurosaki-san's house and get her Shun Shun Rikka.
"I'll be back soon," she said, jumping up off of the couch, "I need to get my Shun Shun Rikka from Kurosaki-san's house."
Without waiting for a reply, Orihime skipped to the door (which she opened with her foot).
Ulquiorra walked to the door and shut it, trying to suppress the feeling that had grown in his chest as soon as his Onna had said he was going to Kurosaki Ichigo's house. It was foolish to believe that Orihime was going to see her friend, since he was in a coma-like state at the time, but he couldn't rid himself of the feeling crawling through him, almost as slimy as the gigai.
Orihime skipped down the road to Kurosaki Ichigo's house, humming a random tune as she went. When she reached the front door or Ichigo's house, she rang the doorbell with her nose, as she had planned to do yesterday, and waiting patiently.
"Ah, Orihime-chan!" Kurosaki's father chimed.
"Hi, Mr. Kurosaki," Orihime smiled at the comical sight before her. Kurosaki Isshin was covered in flour from head to toe, except for part of his face (which was smeared with chocolate) and his hands (which were chocolate covered).
"Forgive me appearance, I'm trying to bake a cake," Isshin let the girl inside.
"Oh…" Orihime took one look in the kitchen before coming to the decision that compared to Kurosaki-san's father she was the world's most organized cook.
"I was wondering…" Orihime began. "Have you seen my blue hairclips?"
"Hmm?" Isshin tapped his chin with his finger, thinking (and leaving behind brown spots of chocolate). "Oh yes! They're laying on the table in the front room."
"Thank you, Mr. Kurosaki!"
"You're most welcome, Orihime-chaaan~" he sang.
"If you don't mind, I really have to get back home," Isshin looked up from a ruined cookbook.
"Of course, my dear!" Orihime ignored the sudden shot of pain in her wrist as she flexed her sprained hand to grab her Shun Shun Rikka and put them in her hair.
"Bye for now!" And with that she was out the door and skipping home.