Exposed!

Exposed

Chapter XII

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Ichigo stared at Aizen as Ulquiorra roughly grabbed him round the collar of his already tattered gi and shoved him painfully against the wall. Chains retracted from the wall and Ulquiorra attached them to Ichigo’s wrists and ankles, making his body into some sort of living ‘x.’ Ichigo didn’t bother struggling against him because he had no strength left to struggle with. His eyes blazed with fury though as he stared the ex-Shinigami down.

“What are you going to do to me?” Ichigo asked lowly, so Tatsuki wouldn’t hear. His eyes shifted toward Tatsuki and back quickly, but Aizen caught the motion and laughed at him openly.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt your friend here. As for what I’ll do to you… Like I said before, I know how you tick, Kurosaki. Szayel-Aporro has been watching you. This is an embarrassing predicament you’re in, isn’t it? Showing weakness, being defeated,” Aizen spat out. “Having your little friend here is embarrassing for you, too, isn’t it? Having to rely on someone for a change must be tough, kid.”

Ichigo snarled at Aizen’s sarcasm and avoided looking anyone in the eye. What he had said was true. It was embarrassing for him to rely on someone else and to be seen when he was this weak. It was the arrogant hero in him that recoiled from needing or asking for help. Aizen saw this and grinned, knowing he was right.

“You’ve annoyed us enough, brat. I think it’s time you pay for it, and your friend here is going to watch.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened and he turned to look at Tatuski’s worried face, realizing she hadn’t heard a word Aizen had said. The latter chuckled at what was about to transpire and turned to face her as well.

“My dear Tatsuki, you are about to witness a momentous occasion for our side. After two years of being a pain in our asses, this brat has finally been captured. Ulquiorra is going to have a small celebration right here with Ichigo and you’re going to be allowed to attend.” Aizen said, smirking as she tried to work through what he had just said. Without giving her a chance to figure it out, he turned to his waiting Cuarto Espada and giving the green-eyed enemy a nod.

A white blur spread across her vision and before her mind could register what she had seen, Ichigo was gasping in pain. Ulquiorra, who had been standing next to her, was now next to Ichigo with his sword drawn as the latter writhed slightly. His gi was now falling off; it had been torn to shreds before because he needed to keep redressing his wound in order to avoid infection. With his gi off, she could see the makeshift bandages he’d used and the blood soaking through. A new red line appeared on his chest from Ulquiorra’s attack.

Tatsuki tried to look away as Ulquiorra began to punch Ichigo, hating that he was helpless to defend himself, but Stark was standing behind her and forced her to keep watching her friend being beaten. She wanted to cry as she watched the green-eyed Espada punch her friend over and over, watching as Ichigo’s lip busted open and his nose broke and his jaw became bruised and sore, but she couldn’t allow herself that weakness. So she watched Ulquiorra as he turned from punching Ichigo’s face to hitting other parts of him, to drawing patterns in the strawberry’s skin with his sword. She forced herself to listen to Ichigo’s cries of pain and not wimp out on him. He would need her help after this, if there even was an after. Tatsuki shuddered at the thought.

As she watched Ulquiorra rip off the blood-caked bandage around Ichigo’s middle and poked around in the wound, she sincerely hoped that someone from Soul Society would come soon. She had no idea how long they’d been there or how long they would be here in this chamber, but she wasn’t sure she could stand being in this miserable place any longer.

Ichigo groaned in front of her and she was slightly surprised to realize that Ulquiorra was now standing next to Aizen, looking as emotionless as ever. The latter nodded at him, looking calm as always as he stared up at Ichigo, whose brown eyes were trained on him and blazing with anger and determination.

“Not done yet, Kurosaki?” Aizen asked, his eyes flashing as he walked slowly up to the boy chained to his wall.

Ichigo snorted. “I’m not giving you an inch. You say you know my type; then you should know that already.”

Aizen smiled dangerously and clapped his hands together. “Ulquiorra, Stark, come,” he said as he turned and walked out of the chamber, sliding the locks into place as silence settled over Ichigo and Tatsuki. She caught his eye and walked over to where he was chained.

“Ichigo, are you okay?” She asked, taking hold of his face and turning it this way and that to observe the damage done. “Of course you’re not okay.”

Her fingers ran over the bruises forming slowly on his defined cheekbones, ignoring as he tried to flinch away from her touch.

‘It probably hurts just to be touched,’ she thought, slightly amused as she lightly poked his nose, which appeared to be broken. Ichigo grunted then and she quickly offered an apology. Tatsuki backed away from him and sat down on the floor next to him, sighing.

“Think someone will come?”

“I don’t know, but even if they don’t we’ll find a way out,” he said, the determination spilling from his hardened voice giving Tatsuki new confidence. She smiled and nodded, leaning back against the wall to try her hand at sleep.

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Grimmjow groaned; he was soooo frustrated with the Shinigami. Immediately after Aizen and his gang had left, Yamamoto had called a meeting with all the captains and vice-captains, and to everyone’s surprise, Grimmjow had been allowed to be there as well. The meeting had consisted of a discussion of why it was that Ichigo, of all the other people in Seireitei, had been the one to be traded and what to do about it. Grimmjow was able to tell them that Ichigo’s Vaizard abilities was what Aizen had been after; the man wanted to have a Vaizard experiment on for a while now but the only one he or his men could keep in regular contact with was Ichigo since he worked with the Shinigami instead of against them, like the other Vaizards. On finding this out, the captains and vice-captains talked over how best to rescue Ichigo from Aizen’s clutches.

It had been three days now since Ichigo had been taken and no verdict had been reached yet. Grimmjow’s hands clenched into fists just thinking about what hadn’t been done. No rescue missions, no new ideas. Sure, everyone seemed concerned enough. Ichigo was a well-liked kid all around. Grimmjow was a man of action; he was just itching to fight (his reason, of course, was purely the enjoyment of fighting and had nothing to do with Ichigo being there…or so he would say). However, no one really knew what to do; it had been a shock to see Aizen and his two lackeys standing there on their turf.

There was a knock on the door of the room he had been using the past week and he muttered a low ‘get your ass in.’ He looked up to see Rukia and Renji enter, looking upset. He snorted and motioned for them to sit on the futon that was in his room.

“What’s going on now?” He asked sarcastically, not bothering to even look at them, deeming them unworthy of his attention.

“We’re just concerned is all,” Rukia muttered. “Ichigo might be one of the toughest people I know, but I’m still worried.”

Grimmjow nodded and sighed, feeling slightly sorry for the two Shinigami in front of him. He was Ichigo’s lover, sure, but these two were his best friends and they both were upset about his absence as well. He understood what they were feeling (which was a strange notion for Grimmjow), so he said, “I think the three of us should do something about it then. It’s obvious Soul Society’s a bunch of fuckin’ shitfaced cowards who won’t do a thing about it, so it’s up to us.” He grinned slightly at the shocked look on their faces; perhaps they were surprised since he really hadn’t been himself for the past three days. Whatever the reason, he reveled in their alarm.

“Think about it. Aizen came to Soul Society for a reason, and that reason, knowing him, was probably to disorient you. Then he took away someone who was probably the basis of your morale and your strongest fighter. He had reasons other than the fact that Ichi was a Vaizard. He knew what he was doing. His goal was accomplished; Soul Society’s been runnin’ around like a fuckin’ chicken with its head cut off and stuck up its ass. Now do you fuckers understand why we gotta do somethin’ about this? No one else will!” Grimmjow said, leering.

“Yes. I understand,” Rukia said quietly, ignoring Renji’s incredulous stare at her agreement. “You know the way around Las Noches better than anyone. Besides, you’re an important person to Ichigo. We should learn to trust you.”

Grimmjow smirked, because he really couldn’t allow himself the weakness that would be a smile. He wouldn’t let them know how glad he was that they had agreed to help him get back the orange-haired kid that he had become so fond of; it would ruin his image. Instead, he sat up with them through the wee hours of the morning coming up with different rescue missions.

They had a stubborn, orange-haired, determined, heroic, sweet, asshole to save.

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Tatsuki had been put in charge of changing Ichigo’s bandages now that he couldn’t do it for himself; he was still chained to the wall. He had asked her a few hours ago not to bother with it and she could see why he would ask it. His wrists were becoming rubbed raw because most of his weight was on his wrists as his feet weren’t touching the ground. He had many other injuries to treat than just the original sword wound, so she understood why he asked her to just forget about it. However, being free to move around, she felt somewhat responsible for making sure he didn’t get infected. So every hour or so she would clean his wounds as best she could with what little cloth was left of his discarded gi. Every time she went to touch him, even in his half-conscious state, he would flinch away from her for the briefest second before leaning into her soft touch. She felt sorry for him even though she tried not to. He hated pity.

It was just about time for her to check him over again when the door opened, revealing a different Espada this time, someone she didn’t know the name of. Ichigo must have, though, because he glanced up (the sound of the door banging opened had caught his attention and brought him out of his half-awake state) and exclaimed, “Szayel-Aporro! What are you doing here?”

The strange Espada smiled evilly and replied, “I’m here because I know the human body better than other Espada. I suppose Aizen chose me to ‘take care of you’ because I can do it subtly. I guess you can say I’m the Kurotsuchi of the Espada.” This must’ve meant something to Ichigo because Tatsuki saw his eyes widen in surprise.

“Who are you?” Tatsuki asked, unable to keep the question to herself any longer. The weirdo with pink hair glanced over at her and opted to ignore her, choosing instead to move toward Ichigo. The orange-haired teen sensed what was about to happen and tensed for another round.

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Not three hours later, Grimmjow, Rukia and Renji had come up with a rescue plan… Well, it was more like they had discarded all other plans and decided to just go into Hueco Mundo and Las Noches blindly, hoping Grimmjow knew the way and wasn’t leading them false. They had decided to get some sleep before acting because Grimmjow had warned them that they may have to fight to get out, which they could’ve figured on their own.

Now the three friends were in Hueco Mundo, running toward the impossibly huge castle that held the one person all three of them had in common and his childhood friend. They had taken precautions beforehand that allowed Keigo and Mizuiro, as well as Inoue, Chad and Ishida, who were at Urahara’s being healed from the Espada attack, to stay in Soul Society for safety. So all five of Ichigo’s friends were waiting patiently for their friend to come back; there was no way that Rukia, Renji and Grimmjow could disappoint them by not coming back.


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