Man, I meant to drop this chapter on Valentines Day.
Wondering why? Hehehe, well read and find out! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters associated with it. All rights belong to the creator Tite Kubo. This is an AU story with some OOC.
Chapter 21: Appearances Aren't the Only Thing That Change
-X-
The scene was like a Mexican standoff. Ichigo and Lily hover in the air with the latter slowly reaching for her sword while the former still directed his glare towards the silver-haired boy.
Tōshirō slowly reached for his Zanpakutō, glare still present. "Any sudden moments and we rush in." He whispered to his two teammates.
Renji nodded, a hand already on his sword.
'Oh shit, what is it with this tension I'm sensing between these guys.' Iba felt like he was out of the loop. There was definitely some business that both Renji and Tōshirō wanted to finish with the Arrancar Captain, and he wasn't the only one who noticed.
Lily felt it too.
"Neh, Ichigo, you do remember what we're supposed to do, right?" She felt as her words seemed to loosen up the tension a bit. "We're here to take the Hollow back with no unnecessary fighting. Okay?" He nodded once without looking at her and that started making her feel worried. "Ichigo," she spoke his name softly and wrapped her pinkie with his. "our promise." That simple act got Ichigo to look at her.
"Right." Ichigo smiled and nodded with much vigor.
Feeling her friend going back to normal, Lily smiled back too. "Good," she pulled out from Ichigo's hand and turned to taunt the group of Shinigami with a simple akanbē gesture. "Sorry you can't play with me boys, but don't worry, my captain will keep you busy."
Watching the girl rush towards the Hollow's direction, Tōshirō called out Renji to go after her when Ichigo stopped the redhead by firing a Bala near his feet.
"I wouldn't do that if I was you." Lowering down his arm, Ichigo smirked and said. "I'm not the same as I was two years ago. You're going to need all the help that you can get to stop me." For demonstration, Ichigo let free his Reiatsu.
The Arrancar's Reiatsu appeared in multi-colors of red, white, blue and black; leaving Renji and Iba stunned, not just because of the power behind it, but how stupidly beautiful Ichigo's Reiatsu look; but not to Tōshirō. No, the boy was scared because the only time he saw those colors before was when Ichigo would transform into his demonic-form. 'This is bad!' He looks towards the other two Shinigami and softly scoffed, he understands the look on their faces, he won't deny it that the first time he saw the Arrancar's Reiatsu it made him feel like a kid looking at fireworks, but as he now knows of the Hollow's powers; this meant something bad for them. 'Two years, just like me, Ichigo has been training too and possibly he learned how to control his Resurrección.'
"Renji, Iba, this is bad news for us."
Hearing Lieutenant Hitsugaya, Renji gathered his thoughts back together. "How bad is it?"
"Bad enough that we'll probably end up like Lieutenant Ōmaeda."
The fact he could talk about Ōmaeda's death with little to no woe for the fallen man, Renji thought it was cold for Tōshirō to act like that or if the situation was truly that bad for them. "What's the plan then?"
Tōshirō didn't rush or encourage a battle. Two years ago he would have taken less time to think about his choice and gone straight into action, but things were different now; he was different. So while he was desperate to find and kill Zangetsu, his mind wasn't driving through a tunnel view. Besides defeating Zangetsu, he needed to be sure that the situation was controllable.
So as he looked around the city, he realized that these weren't any proper circumstances for a battle to break off. A barrier was definitely up, no doubt the 12th Divisions were just as ready and expecting a battle but with chaos running down the streets because the Hollow had caused a scene by chasing after the girl, this would be a horrible time for them to fight.
If they battle, hundreds of humans may either die or may get spiritual influence; both of them are bad cases and although he was fine by letting one human die—the girl the Hollow was chasing after—but having hundreds die when the situation was avoidable, it wasn't something he was allowing to happen again.
The silver-haired boy took another minute to think before finally making a choice. "Are you here to take the Hollow back to Hueco Mundo?" He questions Ichigo.
Ichigo was more than a little surprised that Captain Hitsugaya didn't start things off with a battle. "Maybe," he crossed his arms over his chest. "But does that matter to you? You're supposed to purify us Hollows, Captain Hitsugaya." The two men flanking Tōshirō's side look like they wanted to cut things first and then ask questions later. "I mean, those two look like they want to do just that."
Tōshirō looked at both adults, Renji and Iba seemed to be ready to jump at the Arrancar at any cue. "Don't misunderstand the situation, Arrancar, slaying you is still our top priority, but," He looked down at the streets and then back to Ichigo. "I won't take any unnecessary casualties by trying to do so."
Ichigo looked down too and noticed the commotion; too many people were running around the place, looking confused and scared with what was happening. He searches for Lily and senses her close to the Hollow. 'Sheesh, what is she waiting for?' Before anything could be said, Yoruichi appeared right next to his left side, returning to her human form. He scowls at the werecat as she appears in her birthday suit before him. "Are you a nudist or something, Yoruichi-san?" A second later and his senses picked up Rudbornn's Reiatsu appearing out of the blue. 'Finally helped?' Another second pass and he senses as the Shinigami Captain appeared next to their lieutenants. "Well, isn't this just great?"
"Your fault kid." Yoruichi crossed her arms in front of her bust. "I had them distracted and far away from here before you released some of your Reiatsu and they did an entire 180." She turned to the Shinigami party; Renji is without doubt distracted by what he was seeing but the rest seemed to be on a more serious attitude although she could see Captain Ukitake and Iba slightly blushing. 'Which reminds me.' She looks over at Ichigo to see the boy not reacting one bit. "Are you feeling okay, Ichigo?"
"Huh?" the redhead cock an eyebrow. "I'm feeling fine, why?"
Yoruichi unfolded her arms and posed for Ichigo with her chest sticking out a bit more than usual, an arm covering both her nipples and her other hand slowly running down her stomach with her right leg up a bit to hide her womanhood from Ichigo's eyes. The simple, seductive pose would have gotten a reaction out of Starrk, she did it plenty of times to the King of Hueco Mundo but Ichigo didn't seem so easily flustered. In fact, he looks a bit annoyed. "What the hell kid!" She tried another pose, but the results were still the same. "No reaction?! Really!" She put her hands on her hips with her chest bare for Ichigo to see, but the teen had been keeping eye contact the whole time.
"Are you done? 'Cause, we're in a serious problem right now." Ichigo's left brow started twitching as Yoruichi pointed a finger at him.
"This is more serious! Why are you looking at my eyes when you should look at my body right now!"
Another twitch and Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed. "Kami, why did my first mission turn out like this?" Looking back at the Shinigami, he almost felt like he should apologize to them. "Is no one going to attack us? We're wide open, you know."
"Don't change the subject because I bet if Lily did something like that you would ogle her!" That got a reaction. She could see as Ichigo picture a mental image of Lily doing the same pose as her before his face went crimson. "Oh, come on!"
While those two were having an useless argument, Suì-Fēng leaned closer to her 2nd seat. "Lieutenant Hitsugaya, what's the situation?"
"We were trying to get some questions answered from Zangetsu before Yoruichi and all of you appeared." The boy answers.
"Well, we sense Zangetsu's Reiatsu and rush back." Captain Ukitake said. "Truthfully, we were expecting a battle already breaking out."
Tōshirō won't lie to himself that he was deeply hoping for something like that. "Thankfully, the situation didn't rise to something like that or else Captain-commander Yamamoto wouldn't be too happy with what may happen to these humans."
The 13th Division Captain smiled at the boy. "Good call, Lieutenant Hitsugaya."
"The question remains about what we should do now." Captain Komamura said before following up. "I'll agree with Lieutenant Hitsugaya's manner that a fight in the middle of busy hours here in the Human World may end badly." Sensing another Hollow, the 7th Division Captain looked down towards the chaos to see a giant Hollow that resembles a tree sprout from the ground before using its branch-like arms to restrain the far smaller Hollow. The green-haired Arrancar seems to be happy to see the other Hollow too. 'What should we do?'
Captain Ukitake couldn't help but look at the scene with so... so... so much hope! This felt as though the question that slept at the back of his mind got answered. He looked towards the redhead Arrancar, "Zangetsu-san. Are you taking the Hollow back to Hueco Mundo?" He kindly asked. Zangetsu at first looked at him with narrowed down eyes; inspecting if there was a trick question behind his question.
"My job is to take back any Hollows that appeared in the Human World back to where they belong."
"Will he become another one of your soldiers for your army?"
Both of Ichigo's eyebrows jump to his hairline. Was it possible that Shinigami learned of the current conflict inside Hueco Mundo? He didn't see how he should answer the man's question, but this man felt different. He wasn't asking questions to get the answers that Soul Society seemed to want to know, but he also seemed to ask questions for a personal reason and his eyes seemed to gleam with some... hope. Hope for something, but for what? When Lieutenant Hitsugaya asked the same question as this man, he shrugged it off and ignored his question and he could have done the same to this man too, so why didn't he? He uncrosses his arms and answers back. "We don't have any soldiers or an army. We have citizens and a government."
His mind was racing against the excited tempo of his heartbeat. A government? These Arrancar have created a government for what he must assume were the Hollows of Hueco Mundo. "How do you run your government? Do the Hollows still try to eat each other even though there might be a rule against it? Are there possibly more Arrancar that are keeping control of Hueco Mundo?" This was it. This was the moment Ukitake was waiting for. Years ago he spoke to his best friend about the possibility of forming some sort of treaty between them and the Arrancar. A way to have peace between both races. A second later he realized that his colleagues were looking at him with a scowl on their faces. Probably had to do with the excited look on his face and the tone of his voice.
At first, Ichigo said nothing. He wouldn't have minded telling the man more but seeing as though they're enemies, and although he wishes that at least one Shinigami could see what sort of people they are, the situation could turn ugly fast. He leaps back and taps the air to open a Garganta, his action finally getting the Shinigami to react but things were already too late for them. Down below he could already sense Lily opening a gate towards Hueco Mundo and was already walking inside it with Rudbornn following behind her with the smaller Hollow wrapped by his tree-like arms. Yoruichi had already jumped into the portal and was heading towards the other end of the tunnel. He steps in and turns his head to see every Shinigami, except for Captain Ukitake, rushing towards him with their weapons raised. "We're only trying to live a normal life, Shinigami-san."
Tōshirō reached the portal just a second after closing, and out of anger, he slashed the air. "Damn it." He cursed quietly under his breath and turned to look at the older, white-haired man. 'Why asked such questions for Captain Ukitake?'
Lily sighed a breath of relief as the Garganta closed behind her. "And we're safe." She looks towards Rudbornn to see him wrap his branches around the Hollow tighter. "You made my job a lot easier back there." She walked closer to see that the Nāga-like Hollow's mask had broken from his top right corner. She could see half the face of a man with brown hair and eyes. "What's this?" Leaning closer, Lily saw the way his Hollow mask repaired itself by gathering the Reishi from the platform that they were standing on.
"Well, isn't he an interesting Hollow?" She told Rudbornn, the Hollow adding more strength to his grip.
"The more the mask seems to complete, the stronger he's getting."
Before the mask would fully be repaired back, Lily reached inside a pocket on her vest and pulled out a single yellow ArrancarFP. "Can you keep his mouth open?"
Smaller branches started spreading from the Adjuchas' appendages before they slipped into the man's mouth and kept it open.
She thanked him and slipped one of the yellow pills inside the man's mouth. The effects happen in an instant. The Hollow stopped resisting and calmed down before ending up limp in Rudbornn's arms. "Well, he'll be out for some time now. I have no idea what sort of effects they could have on a normal Hollow. So hopefully nothing too bad will happen to him." Taking a better look at the man's face, she could see how the mask had stopped repairing. "Now we need to head back home."
As Rudbornn nodded back, she started walking while asking the Hollow a question. "Hey, what were you doing in the Human World already?"
"Captain Kurosaki had asked me to be the only one to watch Karakura Town; I can hide my presence underneath the city and control my Reiatsu to where Shinigami may mistake me for a spiritually aware human. Also, thanks to my ability, I can create my drones and have them go back to La Estrella to update Captain Kurosaki about any changes." He now realized that it was only him, her and the Hollow. "Seems like Captain Ichigo took a different route to La Estrella."
She almost missed that fact. "I almost forgot about that. I was a bit worried that the Shinigami had tried to attack us instead." She kept walking towards the other end of the tunnel with a smile on her face. 'I'll see him in a second, besides, just because he's not here with me doesn't mean I won't see him when we reach the other side of the Garganta.' Then her smile dropped. 'Unless he goes to Menos Park to find out about the Gillian that have been attacking our farms recently... but he wouldn't do that alone. He promised that we'll go to Menos Park together... He promised me, right?' As she tried to think back to that scene, Lily remembered that Ichigo never promised that they would go together. He said that they will go but still it wasn't a promise. Ichigo could go to Menos Park with Yoruichi and handle the Hollow together.
"You look troubled, Lieutenant Gingerbuck." Rudbornn asked the moment he spotted the worry look on the young woman's face, and honestly this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about the relationship between his Captain and Lieutenant. "Is the thought of Captain Kurosaki being away from you troubling?"
Lily's cheeks reddened, and she couldn't control her voice as she stuttered. "Hu-huh?! Ichigo! What makes you think I was thinking about Ichigo." She presses her lips together and looks away from the Hollow, hiding what's for sure her entire blushing face.
Exiting the Garganta, both Hollows found themselves at the center of the Plaza, the street ironically buzzing with so much life. "Where to now, Lieutenant?"
The lime-haired girl was already walking towards the Science Division so that Szayel or Urahara could check-in on the Hollow's health. She was walking silently but the thought that Rudbornn figured out her troubles started nagging the back of her mind and the voice inside her head wasn't helping one bit.
'Is because you filled your mind with Ichigo this, Ichigo that, Ichigo when. Ichigo, Ichigo, Ichigo! That's how they know what you're thinking! There's nothing special about that boy! So stop thinking about him because guess what; he's not thinking about you!'
She never had tried talking back to the voice, the words she always heard made her believe she was having a mental conflict with herself. The negative thoughts she had about Ichigo started feeling like she was trying to find a self-reason to why she couldn't imagine herself with Ichigo in the form of a relationship she's desperately hoping for. Something that goes deeper than their friendship and more into the zone of romance. 'Shut up...' And if she's hoping to reach that level, she needs to silence the voice in her head that filled her mind with uncertainty and her heart with cowardice, because if she can't how will she ever have the courage to tell Ichigo about how she feels towards him. 'Shut up! You know nothing! If Ichigo never thinks about me, then he wouldn't need to listen to me, look at me or talk to me!' She clenched her hands into fists. 'The way he looked at me during his ceremony is the same way I look at him!... Filled with so much warmth, caring... and love...'
Love...
The High School feeling that she felt towards Ichigo wasn't a crush, what she feels towards him went deeper and it was love.
She loves Ichigo.
"You make me feel so, so happy. From the first day we met, you have always been there to make me smile and laugh. Not once, after my death, did I feel like I was dead. Not when you were there to always make me feel alive."
The words he spoke to her about how she made him feel. The way she wanted him to express the strange feeling he couldn't quite figure out was the same feeling she had felt towards him. Since the first day he got introduced into her life, Ichigo had slowly become her reason for being alive, for even existing now. He was her happiness. Her life only had meaning before because she's meant to only fill Starrk's lonely life, but as time passed by and Starrk's loneliness started getting filled up by the companionship of other different people, she thought her existence didn't matter any more.
But Ichigo had said otherwise.
"If I had lost you, I think I wouldn't know how to keep going. I know it sounds stupid to say that when I still would have had Starrk and Szayel with me but you, you gave me an emotion I probably wouldn't have ever felt."
If she would have died, then the love that Ichigo felt for her would have died. He would lose the foreign emotion forever, but what's important was that Ichigo loves her too.
She bloomed the warm feeling in his heart and if something was to happen to him, then the warmth he left in her heart would forever vanish too. If she ever lost that warmth, then she would never have another reason to be alive.
'That idiot loves me.' Her body went straight to a trip to cloud nine after realizing that Ichigo felt the same way towards her. It wasn't a simple one-way mutual feeling. Both of them felt the same towards the other, only that Ichigo hadn't figured out what the feeling was.
"Do you think Hollows could love each other?"
The question caught Rudbornn off-guard. He almost skipped a step and tripped over. Whether she noticed, Lily kept on walking. 'Could it be?' He hurried back but walked a bit faster to be by her side and looked at the young woman from the corner of his eyes to see the small smile on Lily's face; she was even ignoring his gaze. He turned his head to look at her now, trying to make her aware of his presence but realize that she was expecting an answer from him. "Well," but he won't answer her question with the obvious answer she wanted to hear, he still needs her to confess the feelings herself. "I like to believe we can. We all love Starrk as our King, the rest of the captains and lieutenants. Even the Shinigami and Visoreds in fact's spite that some of us still don't trust or like them."
Lily smiled. "That's not what I meant by love. What I'm trying to say is if we deepen our bond, could we love each other?"
Rudbornn waited a few seconds to see if the lieutenant would have tried to rephrase her wordings by not making it obvious that she had grown feelings for Ichigo. "Something tells me that you two have already deepened that bond."
"Yeah, we have."
'Surely she must have realized that she openly admitted her feelings for Ichigo.' Again he waited, but Lily didn't seem to care any more about it. The smile on her face she held hasn't changed to anything else. "So, Captain Kurosaki, huh?" For the first time, he heard her giggle.
"Things were that obvious?"
"Both of you have been obvious lately. During the ceremony, everyone saw the way Ichigo looked and held you. Even today at the Human World I saw the way you calmed him done with the simple action of a pinky hold." He held his stare the whole time he was talking to Lily, but she only softly laughed. "You were right, Lilynette-sama."
Hearing the honorific, Lily looked up to the Adjuchas with a tiny frown. "You can drop the honorific, we're friends."
"But—!" Rudbornn stopped as Lily playfully slapped his branch-leg.
"It's fine, trust me. Besides, hearing that sort of title in my name makes me feel like I'm important when I'm really not. I'm just another Hollow like all of you." She saw the Hollow nod and said, "You said I was right. Right about what?"
"About how Captain Kurosaki only listens to you. If our roles were reversed, I wouldn't have been able to convince Captain Kurosaki from not fighting the Shinigami." Now that Lily openly admitted her feelings for Ichigo, he's curious about a couple of things. "Lily, can I ask you a few questions?"
The limenette smiled softly, happy that Rudbornn dropped the honorific. "Is it about me and Ichigo?"
"That's right." He saw her shrugged her shoulders and that signaled him to ask the questions. "For how long have you and Captain Kurosaki been together for?" Rudbornn stops at his tracks when Lily starts laughing a little sheepishly. "Are you two not together like that?" She nervously started rubbing the back of her head, not looking at him in the eyes. "But the rumors always spoke about the secret love-affair that you and Captain Kurosaki hide from Starrk-sama." He wasn't and didn't want to bring up the rumors but since Lily had now confessed to having feelings for Ichigo, he thought it was possible that they first started off as simple friends with benefits before things finally got serious between the two of them. "Does Starrk-sama know about you two?"
Hearing about Starrk, Lily wonders what her brother/father figure would think of it. Would Starrk approve of their relationship? Now that their souls are no longer one, would Starrk let her have a well deserved self-life with her own made choices? Well, it's not like Starrk controlled her life before Ichigo came crashing down on them. In fact, they both never lived a life because even after their original form split into two souls, Starrk was still too powerful for any regular Hollow, and those who could have possibly lived among them avoided them because of their power. So neither she nor Starrk could live any sort of normal lives and the only thing they had was each other.
From the start, their relationship was mostly that of a symbiotic bond in which Starrk wouldn't have been able to survive his solitude without her. Even then that wasn't enough for them; it was still only them two. Time went by as they lived alone but it wasn't like they wasted their time, they tried figuring out the limits their bodies had and that's when she learned that Starrk was more powerful than her by mile-stones. Cero, Sonido, Hierro; Starrk knew how to do all of that naturally while she only could use a weak Cero that was just as strong as a Gillian's. It was during that realization that Starrk knew that he had to protect her, because if something happened to her, he would go back to living alone and because of that, she never mentally grew out from the thought that her only reason for being alive was to be Starrk's only company.
So their symbiotic bond later evolve into a brother/sister sort of relationship but then that took a new dynamic after they both became separates souls living their own lives, but that didn't stop Starrk from evolving their bond into that of a father/daughter relationship; the change was barely noticeable for her since Starrk got only overprotective.
But, if she gets to get together with Ichigo, would Starrk interfere?
What would he do?
Her smile and shoulders dropped with a bit of her enthusiasm. "I don't know... I'm sure work has kept him busy lately, and I have been spending most of my time around with Ichigo and here at the Plaza. So I haven't even talked to him about it. Then there's me and Ichigo. We're not even that close at a relationship yet. I just figured out my emotions while Ichigo hasn't even figured out the feeling yet."
"Are you saying that Ichigo doesn't feel the same towards you?"
"That's not it, we're both feeling the same way towards each other but it's just that Ichigo hasn't figured out that what he's feeling towards me is love." Lily looks up to see the start of the staircases that lead towards Escudos. "It's been 6 years now since Starrk and I met Ichigo." She turned to look at Rudbornn, "Do you think that's a long enough time for him to grow feelings towards me? What if I'm reading things all wrong and he only cares about me like some sort of sister?"
Lily stopped midway up the stairs to think again.
6 years. Was that long enough time for feelings to grow between them? What if the feeling that Ichigo felt for her was different? What if she was right… What if Ichigo only saw her as a sister?
"Ugh where am I?"
The new voice caught her attention, and she turned around to see the warp Hollow in Rudbornn's arms lift its head. "Umm, eh, are you okay?"
The Hollow reached for his head with his arm before stopping and looked at his hand. "What is this?" The disoriented voice mixed in with his normal one, which until now, the Hollow finally realized. "What's wrong with my voice?" He looks at his monstrous looking arms. "What happened to me?"
"You're a Hollow now." Lily watched Rudbornn put down the Hollow before it lost its balance and fell down.
"Where are my legs?"
Lily saw a scared and confused look in the Hollow's human eye. "You're a Hollow now." Her words seem to confuse and scare the Hollow even more.
"What the hell is a Hollow? Where am I?" He tried standing back up by lifting his upper body before he dropped back down. "I don't understand, the last thing I remember was…" Then he stopped trying. "I was hurting her... I'm sorry, Orihime."
The limenette looked at Rudbornn and he looked back at her with no clue what to do so she walked up to the Hollow and patted his giant arms gently. "Is Orihime a girl with orange hair?" He nodded, and she kindly smiled. "You were chasing after her in the streets of Karakura Town before we stopped you. Don't worry, she's okay. Do you remember your name?"
"Inoue Sora."
They stayed there for a while until Sora figured out how to move. Using his giant arms, Sora lifted his upper body and walked up the stairs behind Rudbornn and Lily, the girl once in a while turning around to see how he was doing. A few minutes later, they were at the 2nd level of La Estrella. Until now the Hollow hadn't asked about where he was but up till this point he was finally curious to ask.
"You're now in Hueco Mundo where thousands or perhaps millions of Hollows live. You're inside the city of La Estrella that's inside a mountain." Rudbornn turned around to look at Sora. "For a bit of detail, we're at the second floor of La Estrella where it holds our military power and government; Escudos. Down below us is the first floor and a local spot for any regular or abnormal Hollows; the Plaza. And Above us is the third floor where the Arrancar, Visoreds and Shinigami live."
Sora looked at the gigantic church-like structure in awed. "Does Hueco Mundo have more places like this?"
"Sadly as things are now, you won't find any other place like this and until the war with Baraggan is over, La Estrella won't expand." Expecting for the man to ask about who's Baraggan, Rudbornn added, "As for who is Baraggan, he used to be the old King of Hueco Mundo before Starrk-sama came and although he defeated Baraggan, he didn't kill him."
"So Starrk did all of this?" Sora looks at Lily pushing a giant white wooden door with a moon sculpture in it.
"Starrk didn't do everything himself. Someone already built this place. Not by us, I can tell you that much. Also, we have people who had the experience to design how our military work while I and Yoruichi-san are building up our government's fundamentals." Lily found herself in a hallway with 5 different pathways. There were images of each Division's section up above them. From left to right there was a pink feather; the Science Division. A black shield with a white hourglass in the middle; the Police Force and the Information Center. A gray star; Starrk's Division. A green bat; the Communication Division and finally the last one was a silver moon. She was curious and wanted to see if their Division got finished but decided how that little moment needed to be shared between her and Ichigo.
Sora follows behind his escorts as they head into the hallway with a pink feather. "Starrk must be an amazing person."
"Haha, no, Starrk's still a lazy ass. The only reason he's doing his job is because of people like Ulquiorra and I keep bossing him around, but sometimes he works without us telling him what to do." She turns around with a smile and puts her arms behind her back. "That's right, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? The big guy there is Rudbornn and I'm Lilynette Gingerbuck." She turned back around and walked around the next corner to see some members of Szayel's Divisions checking on some of their equipment. As soon as they saw her, they stopped to bow before going back to work.
Sora watched as every Hollow who saw them stopped working and bowed to the girl.
Rudbornn saw and explained it to Sora. "They're just showing their respect to the princess."
"P-Princess!?" Sora gaped and turned to Rudbornn before going back to see Lily smiling, waving and talking with a few of the Hollows. "Is she the king's daughter?"
"Hmm, no, but with how I have seen them interact, they seemed a lot like a father and daughter but truthfully they're brother and sister."
Sora looked at the back of the head of the supposed princess. He and Orihime had a similar relationship like Starrk and Lily, while they were brother and sister, he took care of her as if she was a daughter to him. That sadly happens because of the environment they grew-up in. A drunken father and a prostitute mother who always argued raised them and beat them; he did his best to shield Orihime from their wrath. As things got worse in the household, he started fearing that their parents would kill Orihime, so when he turned 18, he ran away with Orihime and raised her from then on like a daughter. Then came the day when he died and instead of passing on he stood behind and watched over her, listening to her prayers but then things changed when she stopped coming. When she came, she talked about a friend she made but, while he's supposed to be happy for her, he started feeling hurt that Orihime would forget about him that easily. So he became lonely and resentful to the friend who took away his little sister from him... and that led to his transformation... 'I'm curious to learn how you two live your lives.'
Reaching the main room, Lily pushed the doors open to see that Szayel and Urahara were finally back. "You guys finally came to do your job?" She told them in a deadpan tone.
"It's so good to see you again, Lily-chan!" Urahara joyfully responded. "Szayel-kun and I have been working hard on our latest project and we're finally happy to announce that we're finished!"
"We already told Starrk-sama about it and he wants to see if it works." Szayel pushed up his glasses out of habit. "So we would like for you and Ichigo to come by tomorrow afternoon. It'll be quite the show." His smile rose an inch when he saw the Hollow behind Lily and made his way towards him. "Well, hello, what do we have here?" He tilts his head left and right and leans closer to see the Hollow's broken mask and human face better. "Isn't he interesting?"
Urahara couldn't help but agree too. "I'll say, it looks like you found yourself a very interesting friend here, Lily." Seeing the Hollow uncomfortable by having Szayel so close to him, he couldn't help but smile with a goofy look on his face. "His strength is nowhere near to an Adjuchas, or a Gillian."
Szayel knew where Urahara was heading towards and he couldn't hide his excitement. "So he's a regular Hollow that hasn't gone through a single stage of evolution. He's so docile too when he should try to feed on other Hollows to evolve." He looks at Lily and suspects what she had done. "Don't tell me you fed him one of the Arrancar's Pills to him?"
"Well, yeah." She raises an eyebrow. "They're supposed to be for Hollows to control their hunger, are they not?"
"On Adjuchas level Hollows, not at such low tiers." Urahara looked towards Sora with his signature fan covering half his face. "Are you hungry by any chance?"
Sora hasn't followed anything these people were talking about, but seeing normal looking people, he wonders if perhaps he'll end up human again. "I'm not. Is that good? Will I not be human again?"
"Won't be human, but you can look like one but there's only one way to find out," Szayel's smile turns wicked with some very wrong intentions in mind.
Lily noticed it right away, the look Szayel would get when a new 'prisoner' gets delivered to him. "Szayel, don't treat him like one of your special specimens. As of right now he's a citizen and you know of the rule that you are forced to obey." She gave the man a hard and stone look while Szayel looked at her with a far too cocky smirk.
A while back, she heard the stories of the sick experiments that Szayel would conduct with some of Baraggan's soldiers who they took as prisoners and although she wishes to get rid of those blood lust Hollows, she doesn't want them to die in such painful deaths. She doesn't understand what caused Szayel to turn like this, but he needed to understand that there were things that were off limits. When he didn't listen to her, she told Starrk but things didn't go as planned. While Starrk and the rest of the Captains weren't happy about it, most of them agreed that such things weren't unheard of and with the way Baraggan's army ruthlessly killed their soldiers and citizens, it was only fair they share somewhat the same or worse fate.
She didn't talk to Starrk for an entire week after that. That was their first ever real argument. At least Ichigo was there for her and agreed that what Szayel was doing was wrong.
Szayel was about to open his mouth and taunt her about what could she possibly do to stop him when he senses Ichigo. "Fine, I won't do such things towards him." He looks towards the doors as Ichigo walks into the room.
Everyone inside the room was quiet, Lily was glaring at Szayel and Ichigo wondered if it was because Szayel had mentioned his twisted experiments. "Is everything okay here?"
The young woman kept her stare on the Arrancar scientist a bit longer before looking at Ichigo. "Yeah, everything is fine here." She walked towards Ichigo to only put some distance between her and Szayel.
Ichigo looked at Lily to Szayel; the man had his back turned and was talking to a Hollow, the rest of the room going back to their normal activities. "Well, I'm beat. Yoruichi-san dragged me to report our mission to Starrk, so I couldn't come here any sooner. He also told me how our division will be finally ready by tomorrow." There was a sort of feeling at the back of his head that told him that Lily didn't want to be here anymore. "So we can head back to our apartment and well, wait till tomorrow." Lily walked up to him and put her forehead on his chest, looking at her feet. "Hey, are you okay?" he whispered to her, and he looked back around the room to see people either ignoring them or giving them some personal space. He felt as she shook her head. "Do you want to talk about it in our room?" A nod later and he left with a Sonido.
Szayel looked back to the empty space and sighed. What happened to him? Why was he turning like this? Could it be his search for perfection has caused him to destroy the last remaining pieces of his humanity?
Within seconds they were outside of their room, Ichigo let go of Lily to open the door before she turned around first and went in. He watched her head towards their bedroom and he walked in, locked the door behind him and followed her into their dark room to see her already face-down on the bed with her legs hanging by the edge. "Did you and Szayel get into another argument?"
"Whatdoyouthink?"
Ichigo could barely understand her since she muttered into the bed sheets. He sat on the bed and looked over to the clock. The day was still new. They left to the Human World around 5 and they didn't waste any kind of time. Exactly 10 minutes like Hiyori said, and then he wasted 30 minutes with Starrk. "Hey," he looked over his shoulders to see Lily still face-down. "You wanna head over to Menos Park and talk to Rose about the Hollow?"
"Ifyouwannagothango."
He sighed and turned back around. Guess they won't go today, and he doesn't want to force her to come and won't go alone since he promised to bring her along with him.
Lily felt Ichigo get off and wonder if she finally annoyed him to where he would leave her alone. She heard the door to their room close. 'Guess he'll rather leave me alone.' No doubt the room was darker now with the shut door. She was planning on taking a nap when she felt an extra weight in the bed with her and she felt as he pulled her back into his chest. "What are you doing?" She turns around to look at him and she finally realizes that Ichigo had removed both his coat and shirt. The only reason she didn't feel his bare chest against her skin was because of her vest.
"You're going to sleep, aren't you? Might as well sleep too so that tomorrow we can wake up early and do a couple of things before we head over to the stupid thing Szayel and Urahara built." Ichigo nonchalantly replied. "Got a problem?"
Well, she did. But it wasn't because of his actions. "Well, yeah," she turned her body around before pointing at the other bed in the room. "I'm used to always going to you first. Feels weird when you do things first."
Even in this darkness, he could still see her smile. He rolled his eyes and walked towards the other bed. "Okay, fine." He hops into the bed and lies on his back with an arm behind his head and the other one over his eyes. His ears heard the creaking sound of Lily getting off the bed and the loud steps her boots were leaving behind before she stops. He was about to remove his arm and look at her when his ears heard her vest drop to the floor. He stops and moves back his arm when he hears the bandages wrap around her chest drop with her boots too. Another second later and he felt as Lily lay on top of him, but there was no contact of skin-to-skin.
Ichigo moved his arm and saw Lily wearing the shirt he took off while looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"I like the smell." She already took a guess at what he was about to ask so she said it first, but then she felt like her wordings came out sounding weird. "It smells like you… and living in the same room together for some time I just got used to the scent." Revealing something so weird to Ichigo, of all people, she couldn't stop herself from blushing and since she didn't want him to see her face, she hides it by pressing it against his chest. "It makes me feel safe too. Makes me feel as if you're right here with me. Protecting me. That's why… I like it, because I know it's you."
The confession at first was weird without a doubt to him but it felt like she was trying to confess about something else instead. "That's just weird." he felt as she pressed her head deeper into his chest to hide it. "But I can relate. I like it when you wrap your arms around me when we sleep since it was something my mom would do to make me fall asleep faster because it would make me feel safe."
She lifts her face to look at him, trying to see if he only said something like that to make the situation less awkward, but like her, Ichigo was looking away with a bit of crimson color on his cheeks. "Really?" She stood up and straddled his waist, the action not feeling weird to her. They sleep together in each other's arms, and they wake up in awkward positions. So why should straddling him feel any weirder.
Just like Lily, the action didn't make him nervous, but the way her eye solely focused on him did. "Yeah."
Lily smiled and lay back on top of him but rested her head near his shoulders. Then she felt as Ichigo wrapped his arms around her waist and she dug her face into his neck. "I like that about you."
"What do you mean? I see nothing that you would like in me."
This was the perfect time and opportunity to confess her feelings for Ichigo in a subtext manner. "I love who you are. You're not some Hollow who's pretending to still be human. You're still human, even after everything you have done. I know you still blame yourself for what you did two years ago, but that's good. If you feel nothing, then you'll be the monster that you're afraid of turning into. I love how you're standing up for the weak, always ready to protect them and that's just one of your many charms that I love about you." Just to get more things out of her chest, she said. "I also love the color of your hair. Makes me feel happy that I'm not the only one with wacky looking hair and your eyes, since the first day we met, I thought they were the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."
There was something in his chest building up, he could feel it. "Your hair is not wacky." 'Kami, why am I going to start things off with her appearance.' "And if it is, then I love it. Makes me feel like there's nothing wrong with my hair color. There's more that I love besides the color of your eye; I love the way it's filled with so much kindness and warmth." There was a feeling in his chest that started building up, the one he was talking to Lily about. "That's what I love about you. You're so kind to everyone you know. And you're so humbled about your status. Even though everyone knows who you are, how important you are, you don't bother showing it off. You're still you, still acting like yourself and I love that about you."
It was silent for a moment before Lily kept the conversation going. "I love the fact that you never kicked me off your bed when we first started doing this."
"I love our pointless arguments even though they're so stupid sometimes."
"I love the way you looked at me when I wore the dress."
"I love the way you stuck close to me for the last 6 years."
"That's because I met no one that was like you."
It was right there when Ichigo finally recognized how important he was to Lily. He was one of the very first people that she ever met after the two hundred years that she lived alone with Starrk, something that she had admitted to him. And to him, she was the first reason he was happy with how his life turned out to be. "Lily, thank you for everything. For the first time, I'm happy with what happened to me because I got to meet you." He already found closure with his father, his mother and finally, with himself because if Lily could love the monster that he has become, then why couldn't he? But the happiness that he felt right now wasn't because he got to conquer his traumatic experience, it was because he finally understood the feeling. "Lily, I love you." This was finally his confession, and he wasn't expecting Lily to understand, and he wouldn't blame her for it if she didn't.
Her heart stopped as he spoke those words before it started racing again. "You mean as a sister, right?" She wanted to be sure. She didn't want any false hope.
"No." His voice was so quiet, and he felt broken. Was it possible that their relationship only came to her as a brother and sister only? 'It's okay. I won't blame her for it.' And if she denies his feelings, he'll be okay with it too. So he waited for a minute before he felt as she smiled against his neck.
"I love you too."
His heart stopped beating, and he turned to see Lily looking at with a soft smile. "As a brother?" He clarifies her words, trying to see if she forgot to add that last part.
She shook her head and leaned closer to his face to plant a kiss on the lips of his mask. "I love you."
That was finally it, the feelings in his chest had exploded with the kiss and as she moved her head back, Ichigo leaned back down to meet her lips to feel the rush of the emotion again. With the last kiss breaking off, Ichigo and Lily went to sleep together.
Ichigo's Inner World
The rain stopped but the only thing remaining were the thunderous clouds.
"The kid almost has it down." Zangetsu said, causing the representative of Ichigo's Quincy powers to frown.
"Does that mean Ichigo will finally hear it?" The Old Man asks.
Zangetsu shook his head. "There's one last thing that Ichigo needs to do, but for someone like him, it'll be hard to do it. After all, he's still scared of becoming a monster."
The other Zangetsu spirit frowns as he looks to the cloudy sky. "I hope he figures it out soon. I wish to see the sun at least once."
The scorching heat of the sun made her naked and malnourished body feel as if it was ablaze and her bare feet had finally adjusted to the hot sands. As much as she would love to take shelter inside the cave, she couldn't, not when the other person would throw her out. Her last punishment for disobeying her orders got her thrown out to the sun naked.
She licks her chapped lips. "Please..." she could hear how weak her voice sounded. "I can't take this anymore..." A strand of her once healthy light green hair blocked her eye before she grabbed and looked at it, her hair had lost most of its color and now it seems like the color had dried out. She could see the other person's silhouette move by only an inch. "At least give me something to wear..." She heard the woman inside the cave groan before she came out. Her pink-eyed stare into the other girl's pink-eyed and to her, that's where the similarities ended. She knew they were both the same person, but the older girl looked different, her skin was white and her eye had a black sclera with a pink pupil.
"Will you stop bitching?" The older-looking Lily told the smaller and fragile looking Lily.
She only nodded once and the older Lily ripped a piece of her cloth and tossed it at her feet. She wrapped herself with it and walked behind her other self towards the cave when she bumped into something and fell back on the sand. She looks up to see Hollow-Lily glare at her.
"You asked for clothes only." She smirked and said, "But seeing how pathetic you looked out there, I started feeling bad for you so I guess you can come in."
Again she nodded and followed the other girl inside the cave where she sat on one side while the Hollow-Lily took a seat on the other side of the cave. "Who are we?"
"Did I say you could talk?" She glared at the girl. "Talk and I'll throw you out again."
The little Lily zip her mouth and looked down at the ground. 'Who are we?' She dug her toes deep into the cold sand and relaxed as she felt the pain in her feet fade. 'If there's one person who could help us, it'll be him.'
'Fucking disgusting.' She glares at the weaker Lily and digs her nails into her skin. 'It's your fault that I'm still stuck in here, Kurosaki.'
Yo, what up, been awhile, eh? Well, not really, since I'm updating the other story and what not lol.
Anyway! It finally happened! :D We got the pairing going. Okay so like, let's talk a bit about this chapter.
At first this chapter was suppose to have a fight scene at the start but decided against since this chapter was suppose to show just how much everyone had mentally changed.
Yes, I wrote Sora (Orihime's brother) in this story than Orihime herself and I have two reasons for that.
1.) I felt as though if I put Orihime in this story, people would probably ask for Ichigo to get paired with Orihime instead of Lily or they would want a Harem instead. So I choose not to do so.
2.) Not alot of stories out there that mention Sora as a character and such. So I thought I should give it a shot.
This chapter also spoke about Szayel's habits of experimenting with Hollows.
Also, I shit you not about Sora's and Orihime's childhood. Apparently their fuck up family is cannon.
And what's this? Lily with an inner-Hollow and a weaker child-version of herself?
Okay, I think that was about it. Well...
Cya.
-Ten Out.