Angry at the World

Gifte


Grimmjow sauntered casually out of his room, but didn’t walk far. After a few feet he rested his back against the wall, and promptly did nothing at all.

Long minutes passed. Two scowling female Arrancar walked down the hall eventually; they moved to the other side of the hall after seeing him and gave him dirty looks as they passed. Grimmjow leered, but remained silent.

More long minutes, and an uncomfortable looking male Arrancar walked by, trying to do nothing but glance at the violently blue man. The Sexta Espada watched with a relaxed smirk and carefully lidded eyes, but still said nothing.

~

She waited for Uryuu in the Shoten basement. There had to be a reckoning, and it had to be tragically quick. The others filtered past her eyes unseen to where the gate to Hueco Mundo would open, until Quincy and Vaizard were alone.

“What are you?” Ishida asked without faltering. Her smile disappeared.

“Is that all you were worried about Ishida-san? Well I could have told you the answers!” Urahara answered brightly, arms suddenly around their shoulders, drawing them uncomfortably close together. “She can handle herself just fine, she—“ Danna slapped her hand over the shopkeeper’s mouth with irritation.

“This is a private conversation and I will be the one to tell that story,” she said forcefully. “Why do you have to come out of nowhere like that!?” Kisuke’s eyes sparkled dangerously before he gently removed her hand.

“I’m afraid there’s no time; I’ll need you both over at the gate immediately if you plan on attending,” he said sweetly. He pushed them both in the right direction until they began walking on their own. Urahara took quick hop steps ahead of them, and Danna shook her head.

“I don’t think I should trust that man,” Danna muttered with arms crossed as she watched him go.

“I can’t believe you ever did,” Ishida told her, one eyebrow raised.

“What? He’s a nice man…” She trailed off.

“He is the least trustworthy person I know,” Uryuu said in a flat tone.

The pair silently joined the waiting rescue party.

“…Danna?” Rukia took a step towards her just as the ground began to vibrate and a high-pitched whine filled the air. Small rocks began to dance and skitter. “That sound… is making me sick,” Rukia paled and put her hands over her mouth after feeling her stomach lurch. Renji reached out quickly to steady her.

The cacophony and violent movement increased until with one palpable boom the black gate to Hueco Mundo ripped into existence in front of them. Danna could feel the spirit power of another world brush against her face. Ichigo didn’t hesitate, and stepped in.

“Wait!” It was Urahara shouting. “WAIT!” But…don’t trust him. Right. Danna ran after her fellow Vaizard onto the spirit road, and it closed behind them.


~

“Why isn’t Soul Society involved in this!?” Ishida demanded.

“I thought that their absence was the condition of your involvement, Ishida-san--”

“Don’t patronize me! Are they even in Hueco Mundo!?”

“Yes,” Kisuke replied calmly.

“Why?” The Quincy persisted.

“It was a trap.”

“A trap. That you didn’t check for, didn’t sense until it was too late?” He hissed. “What plot is this?”

“The gate was screened for a certain kind of reiatsu” Ishida’s jaw clenched. His right hand toyed with the charm that would activate his bow. “I did detect it, however too late…” You—you foul strategist. You disgust me.

“What the hell does that mean?! What could Kurosaki and Danna possibly have in common?” It was a terrible feeling, being irrational. He felt it, acknowledged it, and was completely unable to change it. The worst part was that everyone else knew what was running through his head, and was responding accordingly. Distantly. Scared just because Ishida Uryuu was acting a bit different. He spun away from their gazes, Rukia, Renji, Urahara, Chad. Stop staring. You’re all just as worried. Why don’t you do something instead of looking at me?

~

The same male Arrancar backtracked down the hall some twenty, maybe thirty minutes later, Grimm wasn’t sure. He flashed the Espada a self-effacing grin and continued walking quickly by, but Grimmjow wasn’t about to let the opening slide.

“Lost?” He asked easily. The underling started.

“Ah, just by one hall, Grimmjow-sama,” he answered politely, and kept walking with purpose.

~

Ichigo and Danna landed in a haphazard pile in the middle of a dim, circular room.

“Ohh, my head,” the girl whispered and clutched at it. Ichigo carefully maneuvered off of his back, mindful of Zangetsu. He scanned the room quickly— one door, one staircase, old furniture, dust.

“Where is this? And where the hell is everyone else?” He demanded while readjusting his clothes. “I’m going to kill Urahara,” the strawberry said with teeth on edge.

“Something obviously went wrong…” Danna sighed and got to her feet, gathering herself. “This place seems old, though. Maybe we’re in luck...”

“INTRUDERS!” Came an alarming cry. “You’re in my house! Get out! Get out get out-”

“Pox rot it, it’s a little girl!” Ichigo whirled around to see a shrieking, green-haired girl with a cute broken skull hat on her head shuffling from the stairwell “I hate little girls,” Danna muttered viciously, and Ichigo didn’t have time to give her more than a questioning look.

“GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!” The child stomped on the floor after every “out.”

“We’re just passing through! Nothing to worry about!” The redhead tried to reassure her. He wished he could put the girl in a sleeper hold without being a monster.

“OUT OUT OUT!” Stomp stomp stomp. Giving in to aggravation, Danna covered her ears and looked pleadingly at Ichigo.

“You’re the one with little sisters! Fix this!” She begged.

“You can’t fix a temper tantrum!” He hollered back. Well, you could. If you had a soundproof room and a lot of time.

“OUT OUT--” Stomp stomp CRACK. They all froze and the little girl’s eyes became impossibly wide. “Nel didn’t mean to…” Ichigo’s eyes slid down to the floor and watched the crack begin to spread and branch through the stone.

“Oh fuck.” The floor shuddered and broke apart, and the trio fell screaming.

Scream, fall, crash, crunch--they hit another floor and broke through-- scream, fall, crash, crunch, scream fall—fall—Shit, I’ve been falling too long. If the floor were much further away, he’d have a helluva a landing, and he couldn’t see anything past the rubble that was falling with him. With a flourish he pulled Zangetsu from his back and slashed apart chunks falling around him. Then he stabbed his reliable sword into the side of the curiously carved hole and came to jolting stop.

The irritable Kurosaki pulled himself to stand upon the hilt of his sword and wait for the remaining debris to pass him by. Another scowl. When he looked above, the air seemed misty and below him it was definitely thicker. Ichigo covered his nose with the back of his hand with disgust. And it smells.

“Ichigo!” He heard Danna call. “I’ve got the little girl! Are you alright!?”

“Yeah, I’m fine!” He shouted back. “I’ll be up in a sec!” He adjusted his weight and looked around him. It was time to jump out. Ichigo pulled Zangetsu from the rock and made his first leap, the second, and the third. He was breathing harder than he should have been. With a quick glance he saw the mist below him gathering and growing denser. Oh shit. It’s gonna be impossible to see through. He jumped faster, but not fast enough. When he breathed in, it almost felt warm, soft.

He slowed his leaps, but it didn’t take long for caution to make him stop in a rocky groove. Now up and down the mist obscured even two feet away from his spot.

Suddenly the tendrils were roiling and thickening, pressing close against his skin. He didn’t like it. Then his foot slipped and his grip was lost. Can’t move… what is this? Ichigo’s hands dropped from Zangetsu and he was tumbling through the mist and into unconsciousness.

~

Rocks pummeled Danna’s back, but she held onto her sword—firmly stuck into the wall—with a grim will. Nel was falling, screaming, until the female Vaizard’s hand reached out and snatched her as she passed by the thin sack she was clothed in. Nel answered with a snot-muted wail.

Danna clutched the girl close to her chest, shaking and waiting for safety. When it grew quiet, Danna raised her lightly dusted head and coughed. The coast looks clear.

“Ichigo!” She called down the hole. She couldn’t see if he was safe—the hole was deep. “I’ve got the little girl! Are you alright!?”

“Yeah I’m fine!” Kurosaki’s answer echoed from the dark. “I’ll be up in a sec!” Danna breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn’t going to be in charge of rescuing yet another person. Nel buried herself against her rescuer, now fighting hard to keep her tears at bay. Danna was thankful.

She hitched the girl up to her shoulder, tugged her sword from the rock and leapt to the other side. Three short leaps and the two were on the outer, still solid ring of stone floor at the base of the tower.

“I-I’m sorry…” Nel whispered against Danna’s neck and started rubbing her tears away vigorously. Danna smiled weakly before peering over into the hole.

“You couldn’t have known that would happen…” She murmured. “Though no more screaming,” she added sharply. Nel nodded. “Nel? I’m Danna,” she offered cautiously.

“Danna?” Little Nel contorted her face. “I don’t like it.”

“What?” Danna snapped angrily, and then looked abruptly shamefaced. “…Then how about you call me Ruby,” she offered grudgingly. Nel puckered her lips together, thinking.

“Okay,” the little girl agreed, and sniffed.

They waited, and Danna began to tap her foot lightly against the edge. “Ichigo?” She called more quietly than before. She was getting a bad feeling. Another peer over the edge, and her alarm increased significantly. Something like steam was rising fast, something that stung her nostrils sharply.

Danna whirled and her eyes locked on the first door she saw. She lurched through the frame and slammed the not so solid wood behind her. Nel, still pressed close, squeaked in surprise, and then shrieked as the mist began pouring in through the doors cracks.

“Oh, no.” Whatever the gas was, it was thick and her shoes pressed against the bottom didn’t do a thing to stop it. She felt her sense begin to leave her and her balance fade. She looked into her unlucky partners scared green eyes. “Help, Nel?” Ruby gasped, and toppled. Her head cracked on the floor and her arms went limp.

~

More and more waiting. But when all of instincts were ready and awakened, his pupils shrunken to slits, it was all just a part of catching the prey. The time was the trap. Just wait.

And when he saw a flash of white down at the hallway junction once more and caught that whiff of terror, he was rewarded for his patience. With a horrible grin, Grimmjow began to run. Spy. Shitty spy.

~

“A binding for every extremity helps contain reiatsu more effectively—nowhere to run, if you think about it. The one around his neck will be the securing piece, and will still operate even if the other parts are damaged. Not as well, of course,” the eighth Espada explained.

Ulquiorra’s eyes flicked from detail to detail, studying intensely, observing dispassionately while he listened to Szayel’s explanation. Ichigo still lay in the grip of the mist’s soporific effects, hazy and paralyzed.

This was an important prisoner. So important that that his cage had to be much finer made, much more intricate than anything they’d done in the past; a cage that would follow him everywhere. Ichigo’s fingertips twitched. Ulquiorra wouldn’t allow mistakes.

“He’s waking, Szayel” Ulquiorra announced flatly. The two Espada stood next to the unconscious boy, closing bone-smooth shackles around his ankles and wrists as the Shinigami’s eyes struggled open.

“Then I have excellent timing, it seems,” Szayel said smugly. “Allow me,” he offered, and leaned over towards their captive, holding a white stone collar that matched the shackles he already wore. Ichigo’s eyes burned at Szayel, an attempted warning that he wouldn’t be anyone’s pet.

The Espada simply smiled while his hands snaked across the Vaizard’s throat and snapped the collar shut.

“Easy,” Szayel told Ulquiorra. A terrible wail burst past Ichigo’s lips.

~

The shackles filled with power, and without waiting it stabbed down into his very core.

What have they done? Oh god, what have they done? He felt like something inside him was separating, splitting him apart and dropping the most important parts down into the abyss, piece by piece. Here in the darkened sideways world. Storming, stinging, wet, he pressed against a window. His hand reached under the opening, to the outside. He touched something. He wouldn’t, couldn’t let it go. But the pain hammered on his grip. No, it’s everything I am! Zangetsu! Zangetsu! The pain lessened before coming back with a vengeance. AIBO! He screamed for his last hope and felt his Hollow’s answering shriek in his body, empty rage at discovering a noose too late. NO, NO GODDAMMIT! It tightened and tightened for lengthy, torturous moments until Ichigo had nothing left to fight with. He let out another anguished scream.

His reiatsu was gone. He couldn’t touch it. There was the barest glimmer, enough to keep him alive. His body yearned for it; it was cold, weakened, used to a constant stream of power where now there was a trickle. He felt the phantom tug of power at his muscles, what they should have felt like, and it ached.

“…Take it off,” he whispered, so tired. Szayel snorted, pink eyes staring with intense and sickening interest. The pressure from two Espada was more than he could take and his bones felt more brittle every second. “Take it off…” Words formed in his mouth before he could think about them. “What do you want… what… fuck…” Ichigo felt sick, hearing himself opening that first door when they hadn’t even prompted him.

“These restraints are a precaution, Kurosaki Ichigo,” the green-eyed Espada told him without inflection. Ichigo wondered distantly if those empty eyes ever saw anything, or if they only looked. “For now, you need not do anything but enjoy your stay as a guest of Las Noches.” Do nothing?

The tenuous wire of power he had left called out, vibrating like a piano string. Ichigo knew it needed something, but the other two didn’t seem to hear. It pulled taught, becoming fragile, but the call only growing stronger. The resonating sound threatened to break the very air. He inhaled weakly.

“Szayel!” Ulquiorra called sharply, suddenly feeling that unearthly tug. Now he knew something was wrong. Ichigo smirked strangely; if I shatter they’ll all shatter.

“I don’t know!” Aporro Grantz admitted and licked his dry lips, staring at the Vaizard in alarm. The light in the room was intensifying. Then Ichigo’s view went dark, his eyes covered by Ulquiorra’s cool white hand. He felt a spell wrapping around him and the chaos, stilling the erratic sound within and soothing the pain of his loss. He could have fought it, or tried.

Instead, he let the Cuatro Espada lead him mercifully down the path to sleep.

~