But Does Heaven Know You're Here?
Several Hours Earlier...
Orihime left Ichigo's room as unnoticed, she thought, as she arrived. For a few moments, her heart was at peace, having finally been able to tell Ichigo her feelings for him, even if he didn't hear it.
Shortly though, her stomach churned with guilt at what she almost did, having nearly kissed him in his unconscious state, "If I ever see him again I should apologize," she told herself. The "if" she said then pulled her back into the reality of her situation and she repeated solemnly, "If."
The young girl stopped in her steps. Morning was not far, but the world looked darker than it ever had ever before. Fear and hopelessness threatened to rain upon her, "Will I ever see Kurosaki-kun again?"
Before despair could fully grasp her, Orihime reminded herself why she made her choice. "I am going with the Hollows to protect everyone," though that was said with more resignation rather than the resolve she meant.
She had been just wandering away from the Kurosaki home absentmindedly, but now she re-focused and headed for the rendezvous point the Arrancar Ulquiorra had instructed her meet him. It was a bridge near the park where she had first encountered him and the brutish Yammy. The almost bone-white being was waiting on a railing column, a terrifying silhouette in the waning night.
As Orihime approached, he vanished and then reappeared in front of her, using the high-speed maneuver similar to what she'd seen Shinigami use.
"Girl, you were nearly late," he said in the same emotionless, yet sinister tone he always spoke with.
"Ye, yes sir," Orihime replied also nearly monotone, aiming for a compliant obedience.
"You have done as instructed?" the Arrancar continued, "You have said goodbye to a single person while remaining undetected?"
"Yes, sir," she repeated.
Ulquiorra momentarily paused, possibly evaluating if he accepted her answer, but he was impossible to read like always. He then turned and opened the crack-like portal Hollows used to come to the world of the Living.
"Follow me closely on the path I make in the Garganta," he instructed, "Do not fall behind in the passageway or you shall be forever lost."
The interior of the Garganta was a void of greyish black. It was soundless, windless and neither hot or cool. Slightly ahead of Ulquiorra a trail formed of stray spiritual particles. The footpath he made was a dull white with slight green glow.
"Come along," he commanded.
The path continued to form as he moved forward. Ulquiorra went at a pace slightly faster than a normal walk, not quite running. It was not difficult to keep up. Orihime even managed to look around, but there was nothing to see.
After a brief time, they reached a second opening. Orihime copied Ulquiorra's movements and made a small leap out of the Garganta onto a sandy terrain.
Orihime didn't have an expectation in mind for what the world of Hollows would be like. It proved to an eerie desert of white sand under a starless night sky. A crescent moon hung in center. There were scattered groups of buildings that looked to be stone towers she could make out at various points in the distance. They were grey, black or white. Like the void she crossed to this place, there was no sound or heat or cold. The air was even thicker with spiritual particles than the passageway or the Soul Society. The young girl found the unrelenting monochrome disorienting.
Ulquiorra examined something in the distance at the center of the desert that the moon directed everything towards.
"Closer to the castle than I would prefer," it was difficult to pick up on, but there was possibly something like caution in his voice, "Girl, show me the bracelet I gave you earlier."
Orihime obeyed silently. Though she couldn't see any form of mechanism, Ulquiorra ran his fingers along it, and it made a faint hum, "I have disguised your human reiastu. While we travel past Las Noches, try to stay unnoticed by other Arrancars. Our escort will arrive shortly."
A few moments after he spoke, a strange Hollow nearly as tall as a house appeared before them. It looked to Orihime like some sort of giant spider crossed with a horse. It had mostly featureless mask with small eye slits and a mosquito-like needle where its mouth would be. On its back there was a small enclosed area for riders. The Hollow knelt down and a ladder extended.
"Climb abroad, girl," the pale Espada ordered.
On the back of the beast there was a circular row of seats along the enclosure and seat at the front , where the driver sat. He was a gaunt-looking Arrancar with half his face behind a mask that looked like a beetle of some type. He held reins for the Hollow that ran beneath a windshield. Ulquiorra threw Orihme a cloak of a similar white to his own clothes, but a bit ragged.
"Put this on and keep your head down as we approach the castle," he put on a similar one and gestured for Orihime to sit down on the backs seats as he did the same.
The beast took off at a high speed. It wasn't as fast as the movements Shinigami and Arranars used in battle, but it covered a greater distance. Orihime was able to make out the landscape around her, though there was again little to see. She did notice they left no tracks behind them.
After about roughly an hour passed Orihime estimated, Ulquiorra instructed the driver, "Pass Las Noches at a slower speed. Keep a wide berth, but not so much that we stand out."
"Yes, Ulquiorra-sama," the driver replied, his voice had a choppy, clicking quality, like some insects.
As they slowed, Orihime noticed similar Hollows around them carrying what, she presumed, were other Arrancars. She tried to keep the serious attitude of a prisoner, but she still had the curiosity to wonder how there could be multiple beasts like the one they rode. She was not about to ask either of her companions. She decided maybe she didn't need more information about how that could occur.
On their left she saw a great cluster of towers, much larger than others she'd seen before. Orihime didn't ask, but she guessed this was the castle Ulquiorra kept mentioning. There were bridges connecting several buildings. There more towers than she count at the speed they were going. In the front there was a massive Arrancar, almost big as their Hollow steed. He had arms that looked too long for his body and a bowl haircut. On each cheek he had a trio of connected upside down dark blue triangle markings. Across his chin was a mask segment with two screw-like protrusions. He watched them briefly with little interest.
Then Orihime felt the most terrifying reiastu she ever could imagine. She had gotten slightly better at enduring massive ones like Kenpachi's, or even at times, Ichigo's own. They could be draining to be in the presence of them too long, but she seemed to manage them more easily every time she was near one. Even the denser spiritual energy of her captor, Ulquiorra, she was slowly getting accustomed too.
The spiritual energy she now sensed was somewhere in the grouping of towers they rode by. It was more than simply large, but also vile and malignant. She dared not breath it in. If she did, even though spiritual power actually had no smell or taste she, was sure she would to start to choke and cough. Spiritual energies had no sound either, but she was was sure she heard a deathly rattling. She could feel what felt like sharp, bony fingers tracing and slithering along her spine. She could tell whatever being emitted this disgusting aura was not focused on her. It was not even aware of her. If it did become so, she would likely try to claw her insides out to stop it entering her.
"I told you to keep your head down, girl," came Ulquiorra's voice. It had a subtle, almost impossible to notice overtone of anger, possibly even fear in it. Orihime guessed this must have been why the Arrancar wanted to avoid the castle. She looked away and tried as hard as could to forget what she had just felt and what she imagined may be within the towers.
In a few minutes, Las Noches was behind them.
"Ulquiorra-sama, look, ahead of us," the driver commented.
There was what appeared to a grey wolf, but its eyes were a blank white. Its tail was a plume of also white energy that looked like a flame.
"Our guide," Ulquiorra replied, "Follow it to the current entrance."
The wolf took off at a speed similar to what they'd gone at before Las Noches. The Hollow matched its pace and the two continued in an eastern direction for another half hour until they reached a stone platform. Simply following Ulquiorra's actions, Orihime discarded the cloak and climbed off the Hollow. The creature took off again for some other destination.
On the platform waited two Arrancars. There was tall, thin male one with dark brown hair just above shoulder length and an a small stubble goatee. At the base of his neck was a lower jaw as the remains of his Hollow mask and below that was his Hollow hole in the middle of his chest. His white clothes resembled a loosely worn coat and a black sash served as a belt.
There was also a female one with him that looked like she may be perhaps twelve or thirteen, although Orihime knew spiritual beings that had a youthful appearance could be deceiving. She wore a vest that barely covered her chest and what looked like white bikini briefs, along with leggings and boots. Her hair was a light green. She had a mask-like helmet, with one complete horn and a sheared off one. It had a segment that extended and covered her left eye with a flame emblem above it.
They were both petting the wolf that guided Orihime's group. She noticed the male one had a massive reiastu. He did not appear to be actively expressing it, simply casually extruding it. It didn't have the heaviness of Ulquiorra's, but she could tell it surpassed his own considerable aura. Its feeling wasn't precisely kind, but it didn't seem anywhere nearly as malicious as some beings Orihime had met.
"Starrk-sama," Ulquiorra spoke, addressing the male Arrancar. "we received your wolf to guide us."
"That's good, Ulquiorra," the dark-haired Arrancar replied, "He has been sighted near the area recently. I thought you'd want a clear path to the outpost."
Ulquiorra responded with a simple "Hmm," and continued, "It would also have been easier if the Garganta had not opened so near Las Noches."
"Ah, well, not much we can do," the Arrancar called Starrk said dismissively, "Aizen-sama and Szayel are doing their experiments. It makes travel harder to control. At least you were not detected."
Ulquiorra again responded with only an indifferent sounding "Hmm."
The brown-haired Arrancar continued to ask about Ulquiorra's mission. The pale Espada just stared stone-faced, barely offering much acknowledgment. Watching them, Orihime starting to feel oddly sad. It looked from her perspective like this Starrk person was trying very hard to just be friendly to Ulquiorra, without much success.
Orihime didn't get much time to wonder about this, as she then noticed the small, child-like Arrancar had approached her.
"This the human you were sent for Ulquy?" she said getting extremely close to Orihime. "She's awfully pretty."
In the eye-hole of her mask, a sphere of red-yellow illuminated. Though the glow of it was tiny, it was as if Orihime was stripped naked wherever its light touched her.
"Seems like a mostly ordinary human," the female Arrancar continued, "Ah, I see, her soul has a special power. It channels through those tiny hairpins," she sounded fascinated, "It's a weird one, too. Never seen any quite like it. It's sort of like those Touched people that were around Hueco Mundo a couple decades ago, but the light from her is a bit different, softer."
"Lilynette, it's rude to look at people's souls like that," chided Starrk.
"Oh fine," the small Arrancar replied with a pout, ceasing her examination.
"I should take her before Aizen-sama now," Ulquirra spoke up. He moved towards the center of the platform. Orihme noticed it was actually a stairway leading below. The ghostly white Arrancar no longer bothered with obvious commends, not even telling the teenage girl to follow him.
Behind her, she heard Lilynette say, "Don't know why you always try Starrk. Ulquiorra will never change."
Orihime wondered if her guess about the interaction between the two Arrancar could be correct.
Starrk only sighed, "Yeah, yeah, c'mon Lil, let's follow 'em."