Chapter Twenty Two

"So," I began, taking a half step away from the wall, head still looking down the hall where Aizen had vanished. "Um. Which way?"

Upon receiving no answer, I turned my head to look at the man Aizen had left me with, who was still grinning. It was more of a smirk now that I thought about it, though it stretched nearly all across his face. Had I not lived through everything I had seen in the past few days, I likely would have found the look on his face rather perturbing.

Instead, I took it as normal and just rolled with it.

"I'm Kaori, if you, uh, didn't know. But I think you did. I mean, you were with Aizen, and he kept calling me Kaori, so, yeah." I was fumbling for words, unsure of how to handle myself in this situation—I was far from used to dealing with people smiling at me nonstop.

Didn't his cheeks hurt?

"And you would be?" Something in his grin shifted when I asked the question. It was unclear whether it was a good shift or a bad shift, and I didn't think I would ever find out.

"Ichimaru Gin." I nearly sighed in relief—no one I had met thus far had actually told me their name when I had asked for it. Was it because they had a complaint department I could file a report with? Did they not want a mark against their record? Is that why no one would tell me their names and I had to figure it out for myself?

If there really was a complaint department, I would need to find it immediately and fill out a large number of forms in great detail.

"Okay. Now that that's out of the way; which way do we go?"

He appeared to be looking at me, long and hard, though his eyes seemed to be closed, so I wasn't entirely sure how that worked out.

"Would you like some tea, Kaori-chan?" he asked. I blinked at him, opened my mouth a little; had he been watching me so closely because he was trying to figure out if I was thirsty?

"Er. Uh. Yes please? And Kaori works out just fine, thanks." My hands had tightened around the strap of my messenger bag; I could feel my fingers continue to tremble as the medication continued to try and work itself out of my system after years of use.

"All right, Kaori-chan." One of the muscles in my jaw twitched, and I hoped it wasn't the noticeable, jumpy kind of twitch that was highly noticeable.

Before I could reiterate the fact that just Kaori would work out, Gin had a grip on my shoulder. I could feel myself opening my mouth, to question what was going on, what was he doing, I felt my stomach twist; felt my body feel like it was being forced somewhere else way, way too fast.

The world spun by me in a blur, and I thought for a quick moment about the tense few seconds on the day I had been abducted, the few seconds I had stood in the middle of the rain soaked road and then I had been gone.

Whatever Gin had done had felt much like that, and it wasn't a feeling I was entirely fond of, let alone a thing I liked to remember having had happened.

I stumbled away from him when he let go of me, shoulder bumping into a wall. The ground still felt like it was moving beneath me; my knees were practically knocking together as I fought to hold myself upright, wondering what the hell had just occurred.

Of course, my surroundings were just a mite weird considering everything that had happened to me-

We were standing in a kitchen. An actual, honest kitchen, complete with counters and a stove and cupboards.

It was so normal looking that it almost made me break down in tears from the banality. Sure, it had the same color scheme as everything else I had seen since my abduction, but it was still a normal looking kitchen.

Thank goodness for small comforts, I thought. My body felt almost lighter as I took in the beautiful sight of the clean counter tops and closed cupboards.

By the time I realized how ridiculous it was that I was getting teary eyed over the fact that there was an actual kitchen, Gin was holding a cup of tea out to me.

I jumped, bumping my shoulders back into the wall—had I really been out of it for that long?

Well duh Ka-chan. What does it look like?

I tried my best to shove the voice back down, to stuff him into a make believe can and kick him out of a window, to drown him, anything so I wouldn't have to hear him anymore. Of course none of it worked out, but it was always worth a shot.

"Uhm. Thank you," I said quickly, carefully extracting the gleaming white tea cup from Gin's long fingers and cupping it in my own hands. The heat radiated through the cup and into my hands, making them comfortably warm. I cautiously took a sip, surprised to find that it was exactly the same as Usagi had typically brought to me in my first few days in confinement.

I don't think it's poisoned; you should be good. I nearly gagged on the second sip I had been working on taking when the voice had popped up again, taking me by surprise.

Why the hell would it be poisoned?

"Let's go, Kaori-chan."

Frowning, I looked up at Gin just as he grabbed my shoulder again. Fleetingly, I had a thought about arguing about using that method of transportation, simply because I was certain that that was exactly what he was going to do—wouldn't it spill my tea everywhere?

Even the thought of it made my stomach turn.

Said organ practically flipped when the world flashed by again, all whites and grays and blacks and noiselessness.

I blinked and shook my head rapidly when the scenery stopped moving, unsurprised to find us in another hall, this time standing directly in front of a door, which looked like practically every other door in the place.

Really, someone needed to shoot the architect of this place or something—everything was so much the same as every other thing visible that it was monotonous and, well, boring.

Gin let go of my shoulder and opened the door we had stopped in front of, stepping inside. "Come on, Kaori-chan."

Be wary.

I bit the inside of my cheek, and glanced to either side of me; the hall was empty, just like they typically were. Eerily quiet, like everything was holding it's breath, waiting for something to come.

Yeah, yeah. Shut up.

Hesitantly, I followed Gin into the room, tea cup clutched firmly in my hands, heating them thoroughly. It was freezing inside of the room, which was incredibly dark around the edges but bright bright in other places—so bright I had to slam my eyes shut tightly and open them again slowly so they could adjust properly.

The action brought tears to my eyes, making my vision blurry as I heard the door shut behind me. Slowly, the cause of the bright light swam into view, while the rest of the room remained dark and shadowed. I could make out the faint shadow of chairs sitting before the light source, which appeared to be . . . monitors?

"What." I didn't mean to say anything out loud, but I couldn't help it—what the hell were these people doing with a massive bank of monitors sitting in a dark room? I could hardly see them having a reason to need so many screens.

Just how many different Sims games are they playing? The voice wondered in the back of my head. It was an amusing thought, but I squashed him down and hesitantly took a step forward, every nerve in my body aware of the fact that I was in a dark room and that anything could be hiding in the shadows.

Gin didn't say anything; he took a seat in one of the chairs that faced the large wall of monitors, waving at the one next to him. Gingerly I sat, cupping my warm cup of tea in my hands and taking a sip before actually looking at the screens.

All that I could see on the screens were hallways. Hallways upon hallways upon hallways, all of them variously lit, and all of them empty. Deserted; some of them looked abandoned. It took me a moment before I fully realized that the halls I was looking at were those that composed Las Noches.

"You know, when I said the walls have eyes and ears and what not, I didn't really mean it. This is just weird."

Beside me, Gin reached toward the control panel filled with buttons and pushed one.

The image on the screen in front of me changed to a different feed, with someone actually in the hall.

Okay, me in the hall.

Me, yelling at . . . a wall. Head titled upward, face a good half foot from the wall itself. I knew I was yelling at the voice in my head, and I also knew that others couldn't see him, but seeing me commit the act for myself was unsettling. Mainly because it actually made me look like I was missing a couple of screws.

Gin pushed a button, and I quickly flicked my attention back to the screen.

Me, walking backward, shoulder's hunched up and my hands wrapped around the strap of my messenger bag.

And then there was me, arguing with Grimmjow. Pushing him away. Him, kissing me.

That was the point Gin paused the feed, leaning forward a bit in his chair and letting out a low whistle. And then he pushed another button, setting the feed back into motion, but going forward instead of in reverse.

When he got to the point where I pushed Grimmjow away, he paused it again. And then played it back in reverse.

And then he repeated the process.

"Why are you making me relive that. That is not something I need to relive."

Instead of answering, he paused it once more. And then he hit another button, and I had to relive that nightmare once more, but this time in slow motion.

"This is the weirdest form of torture I have had to endure yet."

He rewound it once more, and hit the pause button once more, effectively stopping the video at the point where Grimmjow and I were firmly locking lips.

"Why did you push him away?"

"What?" I was confused. Very, very confused. Was he suggesting I should have just allowed him to continue kissing me when that was not what I wanted? "What do you mean?"

"Why didn't you just punch him like you did . . .here."

Another feed popped up on the screen next to the one that Gin had just paused. I watched as, in it, I lunged at Grimmjow, who just narrowly dodged my small fist by leaning out of the way with reflexes I hadn't realized he possessed.

Horror slowly crept in when I saw him pull back his own arm and deck me in the face, sending me flying. I didn't get up when I finally fell to the floor.

"I—I am really glad I don't remember that happening," I said, gingerly touching my nose. I remembered waking up in his room covered in blood once again and the weird half explanation he had offered up. Seeing it actually happen, seeing myself get decked in the face and start bleeding, was surreal.

Then again, the entirety of the situation was surreal.

But he had a point.

"I was being civil, I guess." Which was a lot more than I could say for anyone else I had met during my stay in Las Noches, Usagi aside. I had been kidnapped, locked up, forcibly stripped, been covered in blood more times than I had ever been before in my lifetime, let alone needed to be, forced off of my medication, and physically assaulted a handful of times.

'Civil' was not at the top of anyone's list of priorities here.

Gin nodded his head, then turned his attention back to the control panel before him. He hit another button, and the footage started to run again, showing me shoving Grimmjow away yet again, our argument and my departure for the kajillionth time.

I nearly growled in frustration when I thought the man was going to rewind it and play it for me again, but I stopped as I opened my mouth and watched as Grimmjow stared at me, slack jawed as I sashayed angrily down the hall. Instead of the footage I had seen earlier, the footage that followed me as I started to yell at the wall and was interrupted by Aizen and Gin, this feed stayed where it was.

Except, said feed didn't look like it was moving. It was the same image—Grimmjow, staring, hand on the back of his head for what seemed like an eternity.

"Is it-"

Just before I had formed the word frozen, Grimmjow disappeared from the feed entirely, a quick flicker of movement so fast I nearly missed it. He was just gone. There one second, and then completely gone, like he had never been there in the first place.

My thoughts immediately jumped to the word hallucination, but I shook it off quickly. None of that could have been a hallucination, not at that point.

"Where . . . did he . . . go?" I managed to get out, eyes focused on the screen yet, thinking the empty hallway would give me some sort of clue. It yielded nothing.

"I dunno. Maybe to cry in a corner."

I chose not to respond to that, taking a sip of my tea instead while keeping an eye on all of the monitors. It was a little unsettling to realize that there were cameras everywhere, and most who appeared on the screens seemed to think they weren't being watched at all.

Not that I saw many beings on the feeds, anyway. The hallways looked deserted, the only flicker of movement coming from the screens the quick flash of light as the feeds changed to different locations—other halls, whole rooms, more halls that looked quite identical to all of the others but darker, and-

"Wait. What the hell."

One screen had gone completely black; there was nothing to be seen anywhere, no movement, not even a small beam of light. It was simply void. On the screen next to it was another room, this one also white and a little dim-

But that was probably only because there were so many test tubes everywhere. And they were massive, some of them appearing to be taller than myself. Thankfully, the screen was too small and the camera that was recording the footage was too far away to see what was inside of said test tubes.

And then the feeds flickered again, changing the images back to empty hallways and rooms.

"I need to take you back now, Kaori-chan."

I jumped at the sound of Gin's voice, nearly spilling my tea all over my lap.

"Uh. Okay. Yeah." How much time had passed since I had stormed away from Grimmjow? Where even was he? Would I have to face him the second I got back to his rooms, or would he still be gone?

I hoped he would still be gone. Then, I would have some time to think about everything that had occurred in the past few hours, and maybe fall asleep before he got back so there would be no awkward confrontation or anything. If he was in his rooms when I got there, then I would just have to wing it and hope I didn't end up trembling on the floor again.

Standing, I turned and carefully followed Gin from the room, skirting the chairs and keeping a good grip of my lukewarm tea cup as we exited.

I blinked owlishly when I reached the door, unused to the sudden change in lighting. I hadn't considered the halls of Las Noches well lit before, but after sitting in a dark room staring at monitors for a bit, anything was better.

He grabbed my shoulder once I was clear of the doorway, long fingers enveloping the area almost entirely. My fingers immediately clenched tight around the teacup, and all I got in warning was an incremental widening of Gin's grin before I felt my stomach twisting, the sickening tug that made me feel like I had to toss my lunch back up.

The world blurred for a moment, all whites and grays and blacks, and then we were in front of a door that was beginning to look vaguely familiar to me. I half stumbled away from Gin when he let go of my shoulder, plucking the tea cup out of my hands as he did so.

"Have fun in there, Kaori-chan."

And then he was gone. Just like that—a few words, taking away my rather cold tea—he was gone, leaving me to fend for myself in what I hoped was the right room. It would have been incredibly easy to simply drop me off in front of any random door and leave me to whatever fate I might have found inside and leave me none the wiser until the door was opened.

"Crap," I muttered, placing my hands around the strap of my messenger bag again. All of that thinking got me nervous. "Do I open the door or not?"

That's entirely up to you, Ka-chan. But you really won't know anything until you do.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, but took a half step away from the door anyway, looking up and down the hall as I did so. As per usual, it was completely deserted—not that I would know who to ask if I had the right door, let alone how. I was far from the best at approaching people and, from what I had seen of those who occupied Las Noches, many of them did not appear to be easily approachable.

Sighing, I reached for the door.

Please, please, please tell me what you think? I kinda need the feedback right now, because my writing has changed somewhat in the past year? y'all are great, and the next one should be up . . . maybe wednesday? thursday? friday?