I'm sorry.
Chapter 13: Hunting a Human
Grimmjow returned to the Kurosaki clinic in record time and landed on the concrete in front of the glass door. The lights were on and there was movement inside so he barged straight into the clinic. The father Kurosaki looked directly at him while his daughter looked at the door but then started glancing around, seemingly uncertain on where she should look. Grimmjow went directly to the smaller area in the back of the clinic where the bed that Yukiko was on was located. She wasn't there.
The Arrancar trudged straight to the doctor. "You can see me just fine right? Where'd Yukiko go?"
"Yuzu-chan, I'll finish cleaning. You should be getting to bed." Isshin said though he looked at Grimmjow, acknowledging that he was spoken to.
"Oh. Sure, thanks Dad!" She said weirdly cheerful for so late at night.
Ichigo rushed into the clinic now in his Shinigami form. "Dad, everything okay? Grimmjow! What do you think you're doing?"
"Ya gonna answer me or not?" Grimmjow was not a patient creator.
The scruffy man sighed and scratched his head. "Some cops came to take her. I assume she's at a police station now."
"What for?" He was at a loss when it came to human government. Nothing about made sense to him. If a Hollow overstepped themselves they would simply be killed or severely injured then left to die, even when they worked under Aizen. The concept of having a bunch of rules to follow with various intensities of punishments seemed unnecessarily complicated in his opinion.
"Why do I get the feeling that when I tell you, you're going to lose your temper?" He huffed out quietly before continuing. "She stabbed one of the officers in the shoulder for starters. She was also accused of attacking some guy who works for the government and that her injuries were from him protecting himself."
Grimmjow started trembling with a dark glare as a strange feeling formed inside of him. It felt like anger but not quiet the same. "That bastard… If he thought I was a problem as a cat he going to be in for a real slaughter."
"Grimmjow! He's just a human. Let humans deal with human problems, okay. If you go around attacking regular people the Soul Society will definitely make killing you a priority!"
Blue eyes glowed like fire as he snarled and showed the younger Kurosaki the masked half of his face, the Hollow half of his face. "Let them try. I'll ripe them apart too."
Feeling that they had nothing more to offer him in information, Grimmjow used Sonido again and went straight through the glass, his Hierro protecting him from the sharp fragments as he broke through now that he was in his real form again. If the two men he left behind had anything to say about his abrupt exit he was too far out of ear shot to hear.
"Now, what does a 'police station' look like?" He moved a bit slower this time so that he could glance around at the buildings he passed but he didn't quite know what he was looking for. He opened his Pesquisa to look for Rieryoku. Even if he wasn't familiar with Yukiko's, finding all the people who have an amount beyond needed to live would be a somewhat decent start.
Kurosaki was close behind him.
He stopped and allowed the Shinigami to catch up. When Kurosaki did he was yelling and red faced. "What the hell Grimmjow?! You can't be bothered to use the freakin door?!"
He ignored the angry question in preference of his own. "What does a police station look like?"
"Don't blow off the issue here!" He practically yelled in his ear.
Without a flinch of warning Grimmjow kicked him in the abdomen, not hard, just enough to send him off a dozen or so meters and out of his ear. "If you're not going to help me than leave me the fuck alone." He called out and resumed his search. There was a Rieryoku source that he did not recognized just a minute away.
Ichigo rushed back to him and followed along. "There's no way I can leave you to run around alone. Why the heck do you even want to find that woman so bad?"
That was a question Grimmjow had not considered. He also knew it was a question he could not just ignore and it'll go away. Can't he just want to find her, no reason attached? "No, that would be idiotic." He said the first thing he could think of that wasn't a ridiculous joke. "I owe her a lot. I don't like owing anyone anything."
It wasn't a lie that he decided that he would watch out for her because of that reason even if he hadn't thought about it as owing the woman anything in a long time. Bringing it up though seemed to bother the weird feeling that formed back at the clinic.
"Owing her, huh?" The Shinigami didn't seem to believe it anyways.
"Where's this 'police station' anyways?" He ignored the suspicion and reminded him of his dilemma.
Ichigo continued to give him a questioning stare. "What's going to happen when I take you there?"
"Fuck if I know. I'm not going to attack her though so what's the issue."
"Fine. The one closest to us is probably where she was taken. It's this way." He finally agreed to cooperate. With Kurosaki taking the lead they moved with a sense of direction, going away from the person that Grimmjow was headed to and instead towards the east. The Shinigami was moving too slow for him but the Arrancar contained his irritation as best he could. Yukiko was probably still scared about what happened and approaching her with a form that she had never seen with a hostile attitude would not be making things any easier. "Maybe once we get to the building I can knock Kurosaki into the ground a few times. That'll relax me well enough."
"Grimmjow, it's that one." The boy said, pointing to a blocky building that didn't look any different than the others except for the excess space it had between it and the surrounding buildings and some bars on a few windows. He opened his Pesquia and felt a single person with a slightly abnormal amount of Reiryuko. "There she is."
Grimmjow held out his fist and started charging a Bala rather than a Cero, not wanting to damage the building too much since she was still inside. Kurosaki gripped his wrist. "What are you doing?!"
The Arrancar looked at him, utterly serious. "I need to get in."
"Learn to use a door!"
"Are you going to bitch at me all night or can I go get my human?" He snapped back.
The orange haired boy got a smug smile on his face. "Your human, huh?"
Grimmjow mentally stuttered on his own words, aware that his face was probably turning a slight shade of red. Not thrilled with the idea of this guy seeing it he released his Reiatsu platform and let himself fall to the ground. "Where's the fucking door then?"
Kurosaki followed but continued with his taunts. "Maybe I should tell Urahara that his new gigai's make the wearer go soft."
Grimmjow used Sonido to give his punch to the boys face that little extra momentum but he missed as the Shinigami used his slightly faster Flash Step to get out of the way, leaving the force from the strike to explode though the air and throwing any object not either nailed down or a car to be thrown various meters away from their original position. Too pissed to allow him to get away that easily he followed him and jabbed his knee up into his chest. Kurosaki blocked it but it still threw him up into the air a mile or two before he could stop himself. Wanting to drive his point of 'leave me alone' into the boy's head he followed him all the way up and punched him back down into the concrete below. Perhaps the boy was getting rusty not having an enemy to fight that was stronger than a run-of-the-mill Hollow these past few months. He wasn't able to block or avoid this punch in the least and impacted into the stony ground with the full force that was intended. He stood back up though and the two fighters shot themselves at each other at full speed. The Shinigami had his oversized sword raised to cleave him but Grimmjow was not only far faster than he was in their last fight and he knew the way the boy battled so he thrusted his palm into the underside of the Kurosaki's elbow, throwing his whole arm back and the force made him reflexively open his palm and drop his sword, leaving his ribcage entirely open on that side. Not wanting to waste such a useful moment, the Hollow kicked him directly into the center of his ribs on his left. Ichigo was once again pushed back into something made of concrete, human towns were most certainly full of concrete. This one was a building.
The commotion of their fight drew out a crowd of people, mostly men, all of who were dressed in either a dark blue uniform or suits. Some were gathered inspecting the small crater in front of the building and while others pointed at the building. There was something upsetting down there though. The source of the Reiryuko was outside and it wasn't Yukiko.
He launched himself down to the man, a young officer, took hold of him and used Sonido to take him high in the air and out of sight of the other humans. The man was screaming in a panic and staring at Grimmjow like he was a monster. "Good."
"Pay attention or I'll throw you." He threatened.
The man stopped screaming, though he looked like he was forcing it and still whimpered slightly.
"A human girl was arrested about an hour or so ago. Ametsuchi Yukiko."
The officer went a shade paler and swallowed hard. He knew exactly who that was.
"Where is she?"
The man was trembling and whimpering pathetically.
Grimmjow dropped him. He screamed as he fell a few meters before the Arrancar sent himself below the officer and caught him again. The man was still screaming so Grimmjow yelled above him. "Where is she?"
"I don't know! While we were processing her arrest she was taken to a hospital!" The words came out quickly and were hardly coherent.
"Why would she be taken to a hospital? Her arm was already fixed."
The officer's words were still rushed and panicked. "Not that kind of hospital! She was registered as psychologically unfit for independent living and that's why she had someone assigned to monitor her! In cases like this we are required to release the suspect to a designated institution."
Once again Grimmjow was barraged with concepts that held no meaning to a Hollow like him. What he could take away from it was that people thought Yukiko was crazy and the attack on her made her dangerously crazy so she needed to be treated. He did say hospital, right? "Where is this hospital?"
"I don't know! Somewhere in Shikoku Region!"
"Where the fuck is that? How do I find the hospital when I get there?"
The officer seemed to be calming down, he probably felt that once he answers all of the Hollow's questions he'll be safe. "It's southwest of here. I don't know the hospital's name though and I don't have access to the file."
Grimmjow growled slightly, the weird feeling grew a bit. "Tch. You're useless then."
He released the man, this time with no intention of catching him again. Instead he thought about what he now knew of the situation. "How do I find her now? He said southwest but southwest was where Kameoka was and that was in Kinki. It's past there then? Then there's no way she made it to the hospital yet. But how do I find her before she gets there? Buses, subways, trains… Human's have too many transportations for me to check everything headed south. Hm…"
He used Sonido again and caught the falling man. "How long is she supposed to stay in the hospital?"
"If it's a few days I'd probably be better off letting them get her there so I can just track her down while she isn't going anywhere." He considered begrudgingly.
Naturally the officer's answer offered no insight. "They didn't say."
Grimmjow groaned slightly at how useless this man is. A dark thought came over him "Or maybe he won't be…"
"How did you know who Yukiko is? There are a lot of you. Do you know every arrest made?"
He stuttered and seemed to unwilling to answer. The Hollow let his grip slip just enough for the dangling man to feel himself fall a little.
"I WAS ONE OF THE OFFICERS WHO ARRESTED HER!" He finally admitted, certain he was going to be killed now.
But he wasn't. Grimmjow instead pulled him close to his face. "Where is Shimata?" He said quietly with an ice in his tone that almost made him shiver himself.
The officer was perfectly white now. "How do you know his name?"
Grimmjow smiled sadistically. "I was the little cat who fucked him up. Now that I'm back someone needs to die tonight for what happened."
It took a while, but the officer finally seemed to find his spine. "I will not help you take an innocent life."
"Ain't nothing innocent about that rapist bastard." He snarled.
The man got a shocked look on his face but said nothing. After giving him a moment to give him the information he wanted only to receive nothing, Grimmjow let him go a final time. He could hear the man screaming as he fell to his death but didn't stick around to watch the impact. He would get his satisfaction in the pain and death of a different man tonight.
"He was bleeding pretty good by the time he escaped from the apartment. He had to have gone to the hospital closest to us then." He reasoned as he planned his next move. Lucky for him too, hospitals were pretty obvious. Tall buildings that were also wide and had a big red cross on them were always easy to find. After a few minutes of running around through the air, glancing at all the tall, fat buildings he found one that had the glowing symbol he was looking for.
He was faced with a new challenge now though. Finding a specific man in this giant building. "Human's seem to love systems and regulations… There's probably a record of him somewhere with his location."
Grimmjow actually made an effort to use the front door this time since blasting a hole in the building would definitely cause a panic and make finding his target even more difficult. When he walked through the woman at the front desk looked at the opening door but couldn't see the Hollow passing through it. She got up from her chair and approached the entrance curious while Grimmjow walked around her and went to her previous spot. He started rummaging through the papers looking for the human's name or even a mention of someone with a damaged face, remembering very clearly the satisfying feeling of tearing through his eye.
The papers didn't have anything of interest for him and he looked over at the glowing screen in the center of the desk. He wasn't even sure what it was. It looked like a TV but wasn't playing any shows. It seemed like something that he saw the one time he was curious enough to look into Szayelaporro's room back in his Espada days, which told Grimmjow that it wasn't something he should mess with.
The receptionist returned to her chair with a man following behind her and the Hollow moved on from the desk area and stopped at the hall to read the signs directing to certain areas in the building. He wasn't certain how he should find Shimata but he knew if he just wandered around it would take all night to search the building. "Well, it's not like I have any other ideas."
Luckily before he could get started he heard the name he was looking for from behind him. "Excuse me. What room is Shimata Yu residing in. I'm here to take his statement." It was an old-ish looking man in a police uniform with some blood stains at a tear in his shirt at the shoulder.
"Must be the guy Yukiko stabbed." Grimmjow thought out loud.
The woman spoke. "Of course." She clicked away at a pad attached to the weird screen before continuing. "He's in room 7257. Would you like a nurse to escort you?"
The Arrancar didn't stick around to hear the mundane conversation that was sure to follow, full of human pleasantries that could easily make him sick. Going off the instruction from the sign he was previously reading that room would be up higher in the building so what he needed was stairs. Conveniently enough, hospitals are littered with directional signs and he followed them to a square stairwell where he simply jumped up through the center, between the actual flights, preferring to climb in that manner. On his second jump he found the seventh floor and entered into its hallway. People in a variety of plain looking clothes and white jackets glanced up to look at the opening door but no one looked at him, none of them saw him. There were plenty of plus souls in the hallway that did though and they reacted in fear, just as they should to a Hollow. "Okay… 7257… Where is that?"
There were fewer signs that pointed to numbers up here so he was left to do a thorough search from here. He didn't want to risk missing the room so he didn't use his Sonido but he wasn't a patient man so he did insist on running a bit through the halls, dodging and skirting and the people for the most part. There were a few he may or may not have run through and knocked to the floor, he wasn't paying those humans enough attention to be sure.
When he saw the room numbers descending down, closer to the one he wanted his blood began to burn with a sadistic excitement. He couldn't wait to find the man who dared to attack his human. He was starting to smile a bit, but not very wide just yet.
He found room 7257.
The Arrancar broke the door down with his foot, feeling a comfortable sense of calm excitement in the pleasant familiarity of what was about to come. Everyone in the hallway yelped and looked towards the door in a panic but all Grimmjow saw was his victim.
Shimata Yu was sitting in a white bed with plastic railings and an incline for the upper half of his body. He looked towards his door in terror with his one visible eye, the other was completely bandaged over, assuming it was still there at all. "Who's there?!"
Grimmjow didn't answer, why bother he can't be heard after all. Yet that is.
Human are terribly fragile things… Just hitting them hard enough will be enough to kill them. "Like this."
The Hollow punched the man in the bed with about a quarter of his full strength. He felt his jaw and cheek bones shatter beneath his knuckles as well as some teeth and his open eye get ejected from his face from the force of the impact. Shimata's head was turned an unnatural degree and blood slowly started to drip from the body's nose and mouth but Grimmjow was no longer looking at the body, instead he was staring at the perfectly unharmed plus soul that was thrown to the wall from the punch as well. It saw its body. "What happened?! Why am I over there? My face! You! What did you do to me?!" He was obnoxiously loud.
"I killed you. That way you get to see the face of the man who's going to rip you apart." He said with an easy smile on his face.
"Wh-who are you?" The soul stammered out.
Grimmjow chuckled slightly, reveling in the fear of the man. "You don't recognize me? I figured you wouldn't, so let me give you a hint!"
Taking a quick step towards Shimata, Grimmjow morphed his right hand into his claws and slashed through the soul's face and destroyed his left eye with the swipe. The soul screamed in pain.
Grimmjow allowed him to scream and cry for the doctors and nurses who were swarming around his empty body to help him but they never responded to him. After giving him the time to whither like a bitch the Arrancar lifted the man up by the neck, not choking him just showing him with no uncertainty that he could and will kill him at his leisure. "Most humans can't see the dead, dumbass." He taunted.
He was crying out of his other eye now. "Please! Cat- No, Grimmshaw, right? Please don't kill me! I'll be a better man! Please!"
"I don't give a shit about character. You touched my human." Grimmjow looked at the man's hand, the one he used to injure hers as well as grope her chest.
He smiled as psychotically as ever. "First things first."
He took the human's offending hand in his own by the wrist and in a single, easy movement twisted and tore the entire arm off from the elbow. He enjoyed the beautiful sight of skin, muscles, tendons and blood vessels being exposed and ripped one after another but also all at once.
Shimata screamed in ear-splitting agony, tears flooded down his face. He was obviously no longer capable of words so Grimmjow just listened to the music of torment and it encouraged he next decision. He released his hold on the soul and before gravity had a chance to drop it down even a millimeter he drove his fist directly into its chest, the force pushing him into the wall until it crumbled behind him.
When all of the power flowed out of his fist he swiftly shot out his other fist, pushing them out into the open air above the street. This time he threw his fist up into the man's chin and sending him straight up. The Arrancar used his Sonido to move past him and slammed him back down against the momentum. He continued on like this, dancing around the soul as he punched him in whatever direction he felt, his face twisting into a more demented smile with every strike. The feeling of the soul's flesh ripping beneath his fists was the most enjoyable sensations he's experienced in a long time. It easily beats out the feeling of Yukiko's breast against his face. Maybe even her lips on his muzzle. "Yeah… This is better than the kiss." He thought after some internal debating.
Shimata was no longer screaming or crying in pain so Grimmjow caught him rather than hitting him again. He held the blood-caked human soul before him. He still seemed alive, for a soul, but was no longer conscious. Grimmjow wasn't going to wait for him to wake up.
He held his free hand up and it glowed with an orb of Reiatsu as he charged up a Cero. He was going to blow this fucker's head to ashes. Just as he released it a hand appeared and pushed his straight up, causing the blast to fire off into the air then dissipate.
Grimmjow looked beside him to glare savagely at the Shinigami who was glaring at him just as fiercely.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing Kurosaki?" He said darkly.
"Me? I knew that you're reckless about bystanders but nearly destroying a hospital goes beyond that!" Ichigo yelled back.
The Arrancar didn't notice that he was facing the center of the hospital but he also didn't care. Those humans didn't mean shit to him.
He looked back at the interloper and smiled. "Fine."
Grimmjow threw Shimata down to the ground and before the little hero could rush down to save him the Arrancar shot a Bala that exploded when it touched the soul. It didn't incinerate him like he would have preferred but it did blast his chest and face open. Assuming the orange haired woman wasn't anywhere close, this human soul was beyond saving, and he felt the strange anger quell in his chest.
The Hollow turned to the man, who was staring in shock, with a smile that showed just how perfectly twisted he really was. "It's finally your turn… Kurosaki!"
He morphed his hand into claws again and thrusted it in a stabbing motion to Ichigo's heart. The Shinigami was quick to block with his massive Zanpakto but was still pushed back nonetheless. Grimmjow rushed him and rained down a barrage of punches to the boy only to grow frustrated when none of them made contact with flesh so he changed it up, launching a left hook for his jaw that was easily blocked to expose Kurosaki's abdomen and rammed a knee up into is stomach. Ichigo gasped out all the air in his body as he flew back. He was quick to regain his composure though and launched an attack of his own. "Getsuga Tensho!"
It was intercepted with the firing of a Cero.
The panther was starting to feel giddy, he had wanted this fight for a long time.
He drew out his sword and held it before him. "COME ON KUROSAKI! LET'S NOT PLAY AROUND!"
He could see the look of surprise in Ichigo's face but didn't care. He was far out of control already. He needed to run wild.
Grimmjow's muscles tightened in anticipation as he scrapped his nails down the length of his sword. "GRIND, PANTERA!"
The wave of power that flowed through his body was impossible to contain and he roared in a mixture of pleasure and pride at the feeling that came with the release of his Resurreccion. Another grumbled in his throat as he crouched slightly in his now felinesque body, coiling his leg muscles in restraint as he waited.
Kurosaki realized that this wasn't a fight that was going to build up until they were ready to perform at their best in a bid for survival. Grimmjow was going to go all not now and if he didn't he'll die. The Shinigami held his sword straight, the bandage wrapped around his arm. "Bankai!"
The form was different from the last time Grimmjow had seen it. Now the Tensa Zangetsu blade had three raised points on the back of the blade and Kurosaki's cloak had Xs running up the front of it.
The Arrancar looked at it in confusion for less than half a second before deciding it was irrelevant and released his muscles, surging forward with his impressive speed. He hooked his arm up and caught the sword in the blades growing out of his forearm. Just as the Shinigami stabilized his stance against the force Grimmjow retreated his arm and spun, slashing with a blade on his calf. He saw a bit of panic flash in Kurosaki's eyes as he readjusted his positioning with a flash step to block again. It was clear his attack wasn't going to make contact so Grimmjow formed a Reiatsu platform beneath his feet, allowing him to change the direction of his momentum and spin, whipping his tail across Kurosaki's face, pushing him down slightly. Grimmjow took a few fractions of a second to evaluate their new positions then rushed in to attack with a blood thirst that he hadn't felt in what seemed like a long time. He needed to run wild. He needed to kill.
Kurosaki knew he was going to strike immediately though so he rushed forward as well and slashed at the Hollow with his sword leaking the black and red power that its wielder had poured into it. Grimmjow easily slipped past the weapon with his smaller, more nimble feet. As he flew up and over Kurosaki he released a full set of Garra de la Panter into his back at the same time as the Shinigami throwing the Reiatsu around himself to strike his opponent. The force of the attacks separated them by a great distance.
Ichigo was slow to get back to his feet while Grimmjow ignored any alerts of pain as well as the way blood poured out of the wound that was nearly exposing his internal organs. He pushed himself to his hand and feet then used Sonido with the strength of all four extremities. He appeared directly in front of his opponent and with Reiatsu glowing claws began mindlessly striking with punches and slashes unfazed as to whether they landed or were blocked. He needed to run wild. He needed to kill. He needed to show the world that he was still strong, that he was still a King.
The blade in Grimmjow's left arm was caught by the black Zanpakuto and with a roar of power Ichigo released an explosion of energy and sliced through his arm leaving the Arrancar stunned still. The Shinigami took a half step back as he charged his attack then slashed, releasing all of his built up power. "Getsuga Tensho!"
…
Grimmjow woke up on a futon in an unfamiliar room but the residual traces of his Reiatsu told him he had recently used his power here, probably meaning it was Urahara's shop. He sat up expecting to feel an intense pain from his wounds but there was no such feeling, only the dull yet engulfing and weird sensation that he had been trying to get rid of. Resting his returned left arm on his knee, he started rubbing his face with his right hand, eventually resting it over his eyes. "Fuck." He grumbled to himself. Faintly, he heard footsteps coming towards him and he turned his attention to the only door in the room, tensing his muscles slightly and readied to react. However the person who opened the door was Orihime. "She's still around then? That would explain my wounds being healed."
Not more than a half-step behind her was an unharmed Ichigo, watching Grimmjow closely. At the sight of the Arrancar awake, he protectively took a step around and in front of the woman. "What the hell got into you?"
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" The Arrancar replied spitefully.
"You were fighting and acting like a mindless animal all night! It was no wonder I cut through your Resurreccion!" Kurosaki replied in an agitated tone.
Grimmjow's eyes scanned the room but they found no sign of his missing Zanpakuto. "Where's my Pantera?" He demanded.
"Oh! Now he wants his sword back?" a different voice said in an upbeat and playful tone that sounded entirely mocking to the man.
"Yeah! I want my Pantera back so I can leave this shitty place!" Grimmjow practically yelled back to Urahara, who he was sure was hiding a faked smile behind his fan.
"Alright, come this way." He said easily, which did not sit well with Ichigo.
"You can't be serious?! After the way he killed that guy and nearly destroyed an entire hospital?!"
"But all things considered it turned out better than expected. After you saved Officer Hatsu he said that he needed to look into the legitimacy of that man's claim about being attacked plus you stopped Grimmjow before he could hurt anyone innocent. And both of you are all healed up so there's no reason to still be mad." Orihime spoke up for the first time.
"I still can't tell if this woman is too stupid or too kind. Either way, it's a miracle that she's still alive after all that's happened." The Arrancar thought to himself, remembering the small amount of time that she was in Las Noches and how she actually participated in the war against the Quincies.
Otherwise ignoring the two humans, Grimmjow stood and followed as the shady Shinigami led them into a different room of what he was now able to confirm as the shop, where Pantera was waiting along with what looked like a body but it lacked any detail to its form though it did have a man's clothes on. Grimmjow looked suspiciously at Urahara as he slid Pantera back into its place on his belt.
"It's a blank gigai, just for you. If you're going to be hanging around in the World of the Living the Soul Society would feel a lot more comfortable and a lot less suspicious of you if you were using one. You could use the extra show of good faith, especially after your spectacular display of your old Espada behavior. This one is specifically for you, complete with a lock that gives me full control over when you can leave it."
He eyed the white mass with disgust. He just spent months trapped in a cat gigai, he absolutely didn't want to go into a new one, even if it was a human body this time. Especially not if he was to rely on Urahara to leave it.
Seeing clear unhappiness in Grimmjow's face, Urahara spoke up again, this time in his dark and serious voice. "Let me clarify for you. Stay in this town freely and wear the gigai, stay in this town with a constant escort from the Soul Society or return to Hueco Mundo. Those are the three options you had been given by the Captain Commander."
He wasn't ready to go back to Hueco Mundo just yet and being under a constant watch was both irritating and insulting. "Fine. How do I put this thing on?" He asked begrudgingly.
The body was confining and uncomfortable but not nearly as much as the cat one was. The moment he was in the gigai he left the shop and the people in it. Making his way to the nearest subway station he could find, jumping the ticket machine since he doesn't have any money and rode it a few stops just to get some distance in.
Grimmjow found himself once again walking aimlessly down the streets, only this time he was doing his best to get away from Urahara. The feeling that had been bothering him had changed slightly since killing the human shit that caused Yukiko's arrest. It was still there, but different. The sense of rage that had been a part of it was gone leaving him feeling something that he understood even less than before.
It wasn't until the sensation started feeling like it was quivering did he look at where he was. He stood not more than two blocks away from Yukiko's apartment. Not knowing what else to do he decided to make his way there. Out of habit, his first impulse was to go to the side of the building where her once open, now broken, window is. "Right. I'm in a human gigai now, not a cat." He walked around to enter the building through its front door. "She kept a spare key in the light next to her door." He remembered.
Walking down the hall he kept reading the door numbers until he found the door he was looking for. It was blocked off with plastic yellow strips that read "Do not enter". He tore it down uncaring and reached for the key from its place. When his eyes landed on the sign at her door the sensation turned into an intense pain that made him clutch his chest, where his heart would be if he had one. He read the sign beside the door over and over, certain he was seeing things. "What the hell is this?"
His eyes started losing focus and he started panting. Feeling too exposed in ways he never has before, Grimmjow rushed into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. He didn't go far into the room though, leaning back against the door, his breathing labored even more and the feeling grew even more painful. He could no longer see anything and used the hand that wasn't tightly gripping his chest to rub his eyes and clear his vision. When he pulled his hand away it was wet. "Why?" His breath caught in his throat.
"Why, Yukiko?" In this moment, he hated her.
He slid to the floor, slamming a fist against the wall when he sat. "Why couldn't you have just left me in that alley?" He remembered the first time she found him, injured and uncertain of what happened. He hated that she took him in.
There were so many points in their time together when it didn't make any sense to Grimmjow why she was going out of her way for him. And the memory of each one intensified the pain in his chest and each time he was certain it couldn't hurt any more. He hated that she was so good to him.
His mind settled on multiple memories of her returning to the apartment and when she would see him already there she would always say the same thing. He looked up and felt a wetness trail down the corner of his face from his eye. "I'm home."
There was a sign that sat on the wall next to the door in the hallway... A sign that read: Unit 15, Ametsuchi Yukiko, and under that Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow. He hated her for giving him a real home with her, only for her to disappear from his side.
()
Yukiko sat as far as she could into the corner of her bed as she ran her finger uncomfortably through her cut hair. It was all gone and she was left with what looked like a poorly done pixie cut.
The door to her room opened and a female doctor walked in with a file and a pad of blank paper and pen which she placed on the nightstand beside the bed. The woman offered Yukiko a friendly and reassuring smile. "Good morning Ametsuchi-chan. I hope you slept well, I understand it was a bit of a trip to get here."
Yukiko didn't make any move to reach for the paper that was clearly for her to use to speak with. She just continued to fuss with her hair.
"I'm sorry about that. It's policy that all of our patients have their hair cut upon admission." She took a deep breath before attempting to speak again. "I understand something bad happened last night. Do you want to talk about it?"
Yukiko looked at the woman and her eyes trailed down to the file. It wasn't well covered and she could read some of the symptoms on it: muteness, violent outbursts, fainting, compulsive behavior… If there were more listed she couldn't see them. They surely thought her "symptoms" were a result of some childhood trauma. Most of them were related to her power, but how could she explain that? If she started talking about visions they would add delusional to her symptoms and there's no way the testimony of person with a "history of mental problems" would stand against someone who "worked for the sake of the disabled." Everything about this place and her situation made her sick.
"Grimmjow…" She thought of her friend longingly and wondered what he was doing since he certainly gotten his body back.
The other woman in the room sighed. "I can see you aren't ready to talk about it yet. I'll come back again though."
"In other words, I'm not going anywhere." Yukiko understood the unspoken part of her words.
As she passed the far corner of the bed she glanced at the plate on untouched toast and eggs. "Be sure to eat though. I'm sure you don't have an appetite but it will still help you feel better."
Yukiko watched in sadness as the metal door that locks from the outside closed her in the room. She was tempted to reach for her food but couldn't just yet. Her internal warning came and her head dropped back against the wall. Her irises closed themselves revealing an image of hornets swarming over a graveyard.
When Yukiko's eyes opened she reached out, not for the food, for the pen and paper that was left with her. She preferred painting but this will have to do; if one picture is not good enough she can just make more, it's not like she had something else to do.
She began to ink out what she had seen with a dead calm. "Rin…You're finally making you move."
So… I'm sorry again. No reunion just yet. I promise this separation will not last long at all. I'm not trying to be a tease I just need a few things to happen and they won't happen with our pair together :(
I hadn't really made it obvious before but this is not meant to be a short story. There is a lot of stuff that happens even after they get together. So I know it's taking a while to get there but Grimmjow and Yukiko will be together for the majority of the story; that is a guarantee.
Next chapter won't be coming so quickly, I just had a lot of time off because my school was closed a couple of days due to a big storm and flooding and I was kind of on a writing high after the last chapter.
Yay Comments! (´｡• ω •｡`) :
lauren,souliere: I know that's a period in you name not a comma but the website is being a sassy sac of deletes about it right now. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter.
Savage Kill: It sort of continued downhill but it will go back to a nicer feeling in a bit. In the meantime Grimmjow goes full feral as well as gets on the receiving end of some teases though I think he handled it well. I want my characters to be happy but I also like darker tones so it's going to go a bit back and forth.
Midnight-Knightmare: I hope you enjoyed the new chapter :)
XD-kaycee: You liked my dark stuff? Yay! I'm really honored to hear (read) that you consider this story to be one of your favorites, I just hope you can bear with it for the little bit left before they are together. Grimmjow doesn't realize it but he tipped off the police about what really happened while he was interrogating the officer so her freedom is already in the works in story. I hope you enjoyed our boy's lapse in sanity in his torture of Shimata.
Guest: You read all the chapters in one go? You deserve a cookie for that! No reunion for our couple to be but Grimmjow did finally get his fight with Ichigo so I kind of hopes it makes up for it.
Mrs. Swordslover: Soooo… I updated soon but no fluff stuff. Sorry again :( I do hope Grimmjow's treatment of Shimata was everything you hoped for though.
AnnaSkydrac: Thank you for calling my story unique, it really means a lot. I also really do appreciate that you liked the pace the building of the relationship beforehand. Even though it was important I thought it was pretty boring, and I'm the one writing it ^^' I hope you enjoyed Grimmjow's reaction to not being able to get to Yukiko.
Silent Songstress Sorceress: Shimata is no more! :)
Darkangelynn5: Surprisingly I was able to update very soon