(Back at Urahara's shop, later that same day)
"Tessai, did you make the preparations for our new friend?" smirked the mad hatter as he watched all three of the teens from the door way, walking towards his shop at the end of the empty lot.
"Yes but we don't even know if he even wants to go through with it," said the dark skinned man as he placed a small object in his hand.
"I have a feeling he's about to be persuaded to go through with the procedure and then some…" grinning in a mildly sinister fashion as he tucked the object under the folds of his robes. He had something else in store for the has-been-hollow.
"All he needs is a little push…"
Ulquiorra walked just behind Ichigo and Orihime, trying to put some distance between them. They had met up by chance just as he came back from the direction of the girl's apartment that he entered with the use of the duplicate key she had made him. He went back only to shower and cook himself something to eat, he had quickly learned how to whip up some fried eggs and toast through the cooking channel while Orihime was in school the other day. And for the remainder of the day he spent it in the crater at the park where he had been found trying to detect any of his reitsu, but nothing came. Only remembering the darkness from those (or what seemed to be) few moments of death he experienced and then soon after warmth and light.
She hadn't said a word to him since they met up, her face was an open book to him. He could see she was sorry and embarrassed for yesterday's episode clutching to the silver bracelet she wore on her left wrist. The bracelet he gave her the day he took her to Hueco Mundo. "Why would she have kept it?" he thought as he recalling noticing since he awoke in this life.
Her face was pale, her eyes slightly puffy and red from crying, and every so often from the corner of his eye he could see her looking at him with an apologetic expression for a brief second and then realizing herself doing this she'd bring herself to attention. He had been feeling the rise and fall of his heart rate throughout the day since that morning. He could feel she had been trying to sustain a regular heart rate all morning, but so far nothing worth suffocating over. He felt inferior to her now. He was now under her command…she held his heart in her hands [or hers as it were].
In truth, he wanted to go on with whatever it was that Kisuke Urahara had in mind; to separate the bond but he felt unexpectedly indebted to her. He felt she had the right to take away his newly given life, to be commanded…just as she was in his not too long ago. But he would never admit to such a loathsome feeling.
As they approached the front door of the small shabby looking shop Ichigo sighed in confusion, "Hey, Kisuke! So what did you want to talk about that I had to be here?" huffed the Soul Reaper in frustration with having to take time out of his day to come here. "I thought you were going to separate these two already?"
From the shadows of the door he stepped out into the light with his hands to his back and stopped just as the stood a few meters away from him. "Well as it so happens Mr. Schiffer says for Orihime to decide what to be done with him," murmuring coyly as to provoke a reaction from either one of them or all. Orihime was the first to surface with a reaction that seemed to entice the shop owner.
She turned to face Ulquiorra fury swept across her face "What do you mean, 'what to do with you'? Do you believe that I would want to dispose of you? Do you believe that I see you as a nuisance?" she bellowed in anger and felt hurt all at once, that he believed her to be that sort of person.
Ulquiorra sighed to this and looked down into her eyes and he could see she was getting the wrong impression, "It is not as you make it to be. I believe since you are the one who gave me this life, I believe it is within your right to do with it what you may," he calmly proclaimed, side stepping trying to counterbalance the reaction of his heart he was receiving on her part. "True I may be in an unfortunately uncomfortable disposition," Orihime gasped in realization that she let her emotions get the better of her once again and tried to regain some composure, "but I believe in a situation such as this I'm merely at your disposal."
"I don't need a servant. I don't need a slave. I don't need anything from you! I gave you this life for your own pleasure; you do with it what you may but don't you dare waste it!" Ulquiorra side glanced towards her but her gaze was far from comprehension and reason. His words meant nothing to her if he did not correspond to what she wanted to hear him say; "I live for myself."
But to him that was easier said than done. When an animal that is taken out of it's element and placed into a new one, they need to be caged because they can no longer survive on their own; in short Ulquiorra wanted, no, needed a master to serve.
"Adapt."
"….?" Ulquiorra looked to Urahara questioningly waiting for what else he had to say.
"Since your Arrancar life you served a master. You no longer know how to live for yourself. You believe you need a master, and that is the true reason you don't want to go on with the plan because you don't want to relinquish that 'master, servant' bond because you don't know how to live any other way, am I right?" his arms still to his back only thing visible is his cane swinging from between his legs. He smiled as he analyzed Ulquiorra's face that never seemed to falter.
"Perhaps that could be," he said solemnly.
"Hmm, well darn, I thought I had you all figured out," he smirked cunningly. "But the thing about humans is that they learn, in due time, to adapt to their new surroundings and life styles."
"CUT THE CRAP ALREADY!" Ichigo shouted as he ran towards Urahara and gripped him by his robe. "Are you gonna do this or not? Because the minute he's separated I'm going to—"
"Ichigo! Stop this, everyone!" screeched the woman as tear welled up in her stormy grey eyes. "Ulquiorra," she looked up towards him, into his wildly green eyes "I want you to live for you. If you want a reason to live for well then go out there and find it," she said sobbingly as she continued "I don't need a servant but I could always use another friend!"
Orihime continued to stare full-heartedly into Ulquiorra's eyes, and although he could feel how she poured her heart out to him that made her heart sprint, this felt somewhat different. It felt warm, a sort of warmth he felt somewhere before, in that darkness perhaps? His stomach felt knotted and fluttery all at the same time. It was a surprisingly…pleasant feeling to him.
Ulquiorra never retreated his attention from her or this feeling but looked towards Urahara and murmured "Let's just get this over with."
He smiled in response and in a blink of an eye he had flash-stepped to Ulquiorra, taking him a back as he softly gasped in surprise.
"Well I finally got a reaction from you, my friend," he laughed as he pulled something out his pocket and shoved it into Ulquiorra's mouth in a flash, swallowing it from shock.
Only a few seconds passed and he fell cringing and grasped his stomach "What did you give me?" Urahara said nothing. His heart-rate raced furiously and as if on response to this Orihime also fell to her knees clutching at her chest, panting heavily.
"Orihime!" Ichigo called out as he went to her side. "What did you do? I thought you knew the situation of these two clearly. You can't hurt one while hurting the other!"
Orihime had never felt the reaction of the bond from Ulquiorra's part because it was always her who ignited the reactions. It was suffocating and beyond "uncomfortable" as Ulquiorra had put it. That wasn't even beginning to describe how she felt at that moment. "This horrible feeling...I feel as though my heart is being forced against my will. I hate it. Ulquiorra, is this how you've been feeling? Like a puppet being pulled by the strings I controlled?" she thought as she experienced what he had been experiencing all this time. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea it was this horrible for you to endure. I never meant for it to be like this for you!"
Ulquiorra looked up to Urahara and strained himself to ask "Why?" The hatted man said nothing only looking down on him as he watched Ulquiorra's breathing beginning to accelerate higher and higher to unhealthy lengths. He was beginning to hyperventilate as he did the day before but it felt worse. Yesterday it felt like his heart was being forced to beat but now it feels as though it was being ripped out of his chest. He opened his eyes to look for Orihime who was just a foot or two away from him. Her face was flushed her breathing was quickening as his was. His eyes never left her chest as he watched it rise and fall in an almost unnatural way. And just as the beating began to decline slowly he saw her breathing was evening out, slowly as his was. Was the pain over? He felt relieved that it was slowing down and continued to watch her parted lips as the air slowly went in and her breathing deepened. He continued to lay there as his heart-rate regulated and tore his eyes away from his counterpart and looked up to Urahara who stood their silently watching Orihime.
"Well it looks like she's in the safe zone," he said solely as he crutched down to Ulquiorra's side and looked into his heavy green eyes, "But I can't say the same for you." And the second he spoke, it started.
Ulquiorra gasped deeply, as though all the air in his lungs had vanished. He rolled his eyes to look for Orihime who looked to be dead? She wasn't moving, but as he strained himself to look closely he could see the deep even breathes she was taking; she wasn't mirroring his reactions anymore. They were no longer linked. And for that brief moment he was relieved she was safe but he also felt empty. He could no longer feel that warmth he felt comforting anymore.
And just as he came to acknowledge this he felt something like a Snip-like sound in his chest. The gasping seized, the beating in his chest slowly began to take longer pauses in between each beat.
Am I to die again? To return to that dark abyss. Alone? He tried to recall that feeling he had felt comforting but could not reach into his memory how it felt. The beating was fading sounding further and further away.
He felt his eyes beginning to slowly flutter to a close. And as he slowly opened them once more he saw Orihime struggle against Ichigo trying to free herself from his arms. Reaching towards Ulquiorra's arm that stretched out limply on the ground in her direction. Tears ran profusely down her cheeks and dripped to his outstretched hand. The tears, felt as warm as they fell and touch his cold skin and as they did questions stormed in his mind.
Why is she crying? Is she worried for me? Will she feel sorrow, if I were to leave this world once again? It doesn't matter. But…Her hand, her warmth is very comforting and pleasant. He thought as he lost consciousness and the faint beating halted altogether as his eyes slowly closed.
"Don't you dare die on me! ULQUIORRA!" Orihime screamed in agony as she cradled his face in her hands and watched as his eyes closed for the last time. "DON'T LEAVE! ULQUIORRA!" her tears rained down from her stormy eyes and splashed onto his face and ran down his neck. She laid his head on the ground as she was preparing to call forth her power but Urahara called to her before she could.
"It's not going to work. His dead, Orihime," Orihime looked to him in agony as she was trying to figure out why he did such a thing. "Why?" she mumbled behind the tears that never seized. "Why did you kill him? I thought you were going to help him…"
"I said I would help separate the link but I never said there wasn't going to be complications," he said in a tone that felt as emotionless as it sounded.
"That's right you didn't!" Ichigo yelled out from behind where Orihime sat.
"I knew it wasn't going to kill Orihime but I wasn't so sure about him, being as he had no heart in the first place."
Ichigo looked confused "What do you mean? What does that have to do with anything?"
"I mean just that." From the folds of his robe he conjured something like a pill and flashed it in their direction. "The moment I fed him this reitsu pill, it severed the link between the two without harming the donor. You see, the link they had was all benefactor to one another, not only was Ulquiorra able to live by Orihime's heart, he was also feeding off small doses of her spiritual pressure as well. And when I fed him the reitsu pill it gave him his own reitsu as well as severing the link. But his body rejected both changes."
Ichigo looked at him confused and frustrated, his patience was wearing thin, "In short?"
Urahara sighed "In short, the same heart needs the same reitsu. Different reitsu means no more ties to the host's heart, and begins to beat on its own along with the different reitsu. But since Ulquiorra never had a heart as a hollow his body didn't know how to sustain one the moment the link was cut off. Get it now?"
Silence fell between the three; the only sounds were the sound of the soft sobs of Orihime and the thunder clouds rolling in and showered over them, being all too fitting for Ulquiorra's death.
…..
Darkness loomed over Ulquiorra as he laid on the cold ground of whatever place it was that he was in. Drops of water came from the never ending dark ceiling landing right on his cheeks and forehead, falling cold and creepily down to his neck forcing him to sit up. "Is this where I'll be spending eternity?" he said into the darkness as he explored it with his eyes. There was nothing to that place but darkness and the water dripping heavily from above. After a few more seconds of looking over the place, his hand shot up to chest feeling for abnormalities. He thought for sure his hollow hole would be there but his hand only felt his bare skin and no heartbeat. As he further looked over his body with his hands he came to realize he now stood naked in the darkness.
He ignored those facts despite his uneasy composure and looked around him once more and felt oddly alone. This wouldn't have fazed him before but now he felt exposed and lonesome. Ulquiorra stiffened as he came to realize that what he was feeling was emotion. Even without a beating heart he was feeling this way, he felt something. He didn't need a heart to have a "heart," the heart that woman spoke fondly about. An attachment to something is forming a heart. "But what is my attachment?" he thought. "What do I want to protect?"
He could think of nothing as he tried to recollect something to jump start his memory, but nothing came. He pushed the question to a side for the moment and thought to explore the realm in which he now resides. There were no walls or objects to stand in his way, nothing he could see anyway. He could see nothing.
"Nothing?" a voice echoed around Ulquiorra as he jumped back in a defensive stance.
"Who is there?" commanded Ulquiorra. It sounded vaguely familiar but with the echoes resonance around him he couldn't make it out or even what direction it came from.
"I've been here the entire time," echoed the voice coldly. "But you only see with your eyes. You ignore your other senses completely or I should say you didn't have any before now that is," he chuckled as if recalling a memory of some sort, but there was another sound…
[Clank-Clink].
"A chain. A weapon?" Ulquiorra thought and remembered he no longer had his sword or power. The rattling of the chain echoed loudly around him. His defensive stance never faltered as he took the chain into account. The rattling simmered down but the voice loomed over him once again "You still don't have a clue of who I might be? You abandoned me here, after your curiosity got the best of you!" the voice hissed angrily. "But I never left you; you only forgot how to call to me. And not only that, but you now no longer care for power!"
"What do you mean? Reveal yourself," Ulquiorra said in a commanding voice.
"You've been staring at me this whole time. And you still don't see me," the voice spat.
Ulquiorra narrowed his eyes as if to regain focus on his vision but he could still see only darkness and the rattling still came from all directions.
"Your eyes can only do so much alone, and it is because of that habit that you could not see what that woman was speaking of," Ulquiorra stiffened at the mention of Orihime, his mind was now full of images of her and the feeling of that warm, that feeling she had given him…comforting, remembering that warmth compelled him to breathe her name.
"Orihime."
Bum-bum… Bum-bum
A light from behind him brought little light to where he stood but enough to make out a silhouette of a winged figure. "So you've attached yourself to someone? How unlike you," the voice was clearer, he now remembered it vividly.
"That voice, you're…" croaked Ulquiorra as his chest weighed heavy on him as the beating quickened.
The voice laughed and coyly he said before Ulquiorra lost consciousness "You've changed, Master."
….
Orihime, Ichigo, and Urahara all sat around the table drinking tea. Orihime only stared blankly into her untouched cup as a tear escaped her puffy red eyes and landed in her tea. Ichigo looked in her direction not knowing who to cheer her up he could only try to console her, "Orihime, please don't cry anymore. It probably just wasn't meant to …." he had begun to say when a heavy semi-dark familiar spiritual pressure erupted from behind the doors where Ulquiorra was laid presumed dead. Orihime shot up from the table and ran past Ichigo and Urahara who stood only after Orihime did.
She forcefully slid open the doors to see Ulquiorra laid out on the futon coughing and gasping for air.
"Shouten—"
"No, Orihime. He has to learn to do it on his own," Urahara said after stopping Orihime who was trying to help him to breathe. Urahara smiled mildly to Orihime who looked at him with fear that she might lose Ulquiorra for a third time bringing fresh tears to her eyes, "Have faith that he could do this himself. He came back because he realized what he attached himself to." Urahara continued to smile but Orihime didn't understand but looked to Ulquiorra and knelt on his bedside grabbing hold of the hand that lay twitching with every cough.
"Ulquiorra, focus on my voice," trying to guide him through it. Urahara didn't say she couldn't do that. "Control your breathing; breathe in and out slowly," she called out as she clutched supportively to his hand.
Ulquiorra's lungs were on fire, yearning to take in some oxygen to fill them up. "You can do it, Ulquiorra. Don't fight against it, let it flow," he heard Orihime coaching him. He slowly parted his lips and opened up his wind pipe and let the air flow in as he inhaled deeply.
"That's it, now exhale slowly," coaching him from the side lines. He followed her coaching for the past half hour, or for what it seemed like. Inhale and exhale through the mouth and shortly after inhale through the nose exhale through pursed lips. Until he was able to breathe through the nose alone.
Orihime no longer needed to coach him but stayed beside him and watched him sleep for what seemed to be hours, forgetting all about time as she gazed down on his sleeping face watching the rise and fall of his chest. Listening to the sound of his low deep breathing and every so often she'd rest her hand on his chest to feel for sure that he was alive. She'd brush the hair out of face and gazed silently taking note that she had never realized his eyelashes were so long. And when push came to shove she slipped into his futon and fell asleep on his chest listening to the soft rhythm of his heart. And latched herself like a leech to him to make sure he wouldn't disappear by morning. But Ulquiorra didn't wake up the following morning. He spent for four whole days.
"Mr. Urahara?" Orihime called out as she entered the shop after returning from her part-time job at the nearby bakery, just as she has been for the past week.
"Yes, Orihime come on back," called out the shop keeper from beyond the shop doors. "I'm in his room!"
She made her way as she kicked off her shoes and stepped onto the wooden floors and ran to the room with the open doors she had been visiting daily since that day. Finding Ulquiorra still lying on the futon he had been on all week only lately he's been hooked up to medical machines; IV's, heart-rate monitors, and even an oxygen mask to strengthen his heart. "How is he?" she asked hopeful that he'd report any changes.
He sighed "No nothing. But its strange…"
"What is? Is he alright?"
"Yes, yes his fine. But I was wondering why that day he emanated strong spiritual pressure, and now there isn't a trace of it," he said thoughtfully as he looked into his face.
"The day I found him, it was just the same," she began "A large amount of spirit energy showed up and when I went to check it was gone. Not a trace of it was left…Do you think its possible that he…?"
"Yes he possibly still has power deep within him, dormant," he said looking far away trying to piece together the mystery.
"By the way," snapping himself back to reality "did you get the transfer papers from your school that I requested?"
Orihime smiled happily and reached for her bags and pulled out a stack of paper "Yup!" she cheered as she handed the papers to him "I filled out the basic information as you asked me to, all you have to do is sign. And I just submitted the Family Registry to the City Hall. But are you sure it was alright to put you down as his legal guardian?"
"Hmm, what?" he said as he looked over the documents "Oh yes! I always wanted a son," he said joyfully chuckling like a doting father. "I always wanted to take a bath with my son, Shinji doesn't let me," pouting at the thought. "And you left his surname as is, correct?"
"Oh yes! Just like you told me."
"Good. I would expect he wouldn't want it any other way. Oh, right he is registered for residency with me, but would it be alright if he continues to stay with you? I'm afraid to many Soul Reapers frequent my shop and if they should find this guy" pointing to Ulquiorra "all hell is going to break loose."
Orihime blush at the thought but didn't hesitate but answered nervously "Of-of course. Rukia hasn't dropped by in a while…" briefly losing herself in her train of thought.
"Yes well, it's just a matter of time before they find out about this. Right now Yoruichi is informing me from Soul Society secretly on the situation, but so far they are still in the dark," he continued "But let me ask you something," he looked her in the eyes hard and serious "If they find out about him (and they will) sooner or later, will you defend him?"
Orihime stiffened as she pondered over his question but she then smiled and said earnestly "Of course, I will."
"Why?" his seriousness never wavering "Why risk so much for him? He once took away your freedom, your happiness."
Although this question came to her more often than not; back then and now, why. She could not respond because she couldn't give a good enough answer.
"I didn't bother to ask any questions when I heard of your predicament from Ichigo. And I don't intend to judge or to accuse you of anything, but I am risking a lot to help you out (even though it is fun to mess with Soul Society). But just answer my one question and I'll continue to help you and him…Why risk it?"
Her facial features screamed "I Don't Know," her brows scrunched on the bridge of her nose, her eyes searched for the answer, her lips quivered in fear of saying the wrong answer. "Why did I?" she asked herself. But as she was about to lose her barring, she remembered back in Hueco Mundo as he was dying after his epic battle with Ichigo. His hand that extended towards her in threat, as he asked "Do I frighten you, woman?"
She thought it over many of times but as she looked down to Ulquiorra before her she said "Because whether or not he knows it, in his final moments in Hueco Mundo he reached out to me and asked me if he frighten me," Urahara looked to her curiously as she continued. "I told him I wasn't afraid and still his hand didn't fall. And just as his body turned to ash I reached out to him, the moment our hands touched it disappeared from under me. As the rest of his body turned to ash for I split second he looked sad to leave this world. And I believe he reached out to me because he wanted to live. And I may be naïve to think that way but if someone is reaching for help I'm going to do what I can. And that's a good enough reason for me."
Urahara looked deep in her eyes analyzing her intensity, she stared back at him with all seriousness lasting for a few seconds more when smiled and said "Well that's good enough for me!" chuckling and walked out of the room. Orihime stared in confusion for short second when a hand grabbed her ankle. She jumped and squeaked in surprise before realizing it was Ulquiorra who had awakened at long last.
"Ulquiorra!" she called out happily, kneeing as she said it. "How are you feeling?"
Ulquiorra's eyes fluttered and squinted to the light above him but answered as he removed the oxygen mask and breathing tubes from his face. "My body feels heavy and stiff," he said as he sat himself up, Orihime holding out her arms as if ready to catch him if he should fall. "How long was I asleep?" He looked up at Orihime whose arms where still hanging there smiling tears filling her eyes as she stared into his eyes, relieved and happy that he finally a woken.
She whipped away most of the residing tears on her sleeve smiled and said "Too long," as she threw herself into his chest. He sighed allowing himself to be held by her, then stiffening as he recalled what happened in that dark place, "Why did I see her face?" then remembered the voice that came before that, and forgot about the rest.
Ulquiorra softly peeled the girl off him and looked around over the top of Orihime's head for the shop keeper but only to find themselves to be alone. He looked down to the girl before him, her face flushed and her eyes wide with happiness as she stared back into his eyes.
"I need to speak with Urahara. Where is he?" he declared bluntly. His green eyes with all seriousness had an urgent look about them that Orihime has never witnessed before. His emotionless façade, that she's known never to have faltered before now, was barely intact.