Chapter 3: Fire
Ulquiorra stared at the odd assortment of food in front of him. He was faced with all kinds of human food. Some was wrapped in a clear shiny material that reacted to touch in a way similar to paper. Some were held in hard material, though it bent with even the slightest touch. Everything around him was presented in bright colors and labels, with different smells and forms to add in the mix.
He had never been more confused.
What was it he had been sent to do? Oh, yes, he had requested that he go to the world of the living to get her food this time, stating that he knew what she would eat without fit, and as such would keep her healthier.
What was it that Onna wished for? He asked himself. Wasabi?
He scanned the shelves for the food, trying to discern it from the rest. He vaguely registered that there were other things she had told him about. Bean paste, honey, mustard, and pepper where all things that would spice up and food in her opinion. None, of course, were as highly regarded in her mind as wasabi was.
He finally spotted it.
It was packaged in a tube with an opening screwed shut on one end. With narrowed, he reached forward and grasped it, bringing the tube up to inspect closer. It looked normal enough. Experimentally, he unscrewed the lid and applied pressure to the tube.
"Excuse me, sir, you can't-"
The human who had interrupted his testing of the substance so highly revered by Orihime Inoue promptly close his mouth upon receiving a cold, calculating look that screamed future violence if something did not change.
"G-gomen! P-please have a n-nice d-day, sir!" The pitiful human, whom may have been a lower member of the power that kept such a mass of food compiled in neat rows, scurried away with a hurried bow.
The disturbance over with, Ulquiorra once more squeezed the tube of wasabi, holding out his finger to capture the green substance it oozed. He brought the green covered finger up to his mouth, licking it clean.
His eyes immediately widened as his tongue went up in flames. If he hadn't been so controlled, he might have spat the substance out, gagging and coughing, tears streaming down his face. But- because he was so stoic and above the rest- he simply swallowed and continued to look greatly surprised.
That woman, He thought to himself as he tried to calm his tongue, Has tricked and made a fool of me. Either that or… He looked down at the tube of the fire-like substance in his hand. She really is defective.
And yet, for some reason, once the burning started to fade… he thought of consuming more of the wasabi. He found that he did not completely hate it, despite its horrendous effect on his taste buds.
It seems that she is affecting me more than I would care to admit. Her bad taste in substance must be some sort of virus I am now infected with. Though how it commutes from a human to an Espada, I'm not sure.
The last thing he thought before loading his arms with the food for the woman and opening back up a garganta was that he should expose a large amount of this wasabi to Grimmjow's mouth should the Sexta Espada do anything extremely irritating in the near future.