Life Before Death

Chapter II

What had happened when they returned, when the mission was a, success, of sorts, Ichigo had been gone for doing much more than just rescuing her. Even some of them had fallen into the hands of their enemies, and needed rescuing.

Uquiorra was on the other side. He still didn't understand why he was here. The last thing he could remember, before fading away into the dusty air,

"I reject." She said as she saved him.

The cave had been a curious vision to awake to, and what had followed in the cave was even more so curious.

His mask was damaged. Like Nel, his strength practically cut in half, he was no longer a threat to them it seemed. The weight on him was lighter without it though. What was left was the bottom most shell with no horn protruding from the left side of his head, it had broken clean off, the part of the mask that was a sheath down the side of his head was jagged and mostly gone. He wondered if she'd done it deliberately.

They had spent the last three days in the cave, recovering and waiting for others to return from the battle. Mostly, they slept, Ichigo and him, until finally they were all back, gathered, and heading back through the great rift, into the living world.

Orihime smiled to him when they stepped through, an encouraging smile, welcoming him to his new home. The two exiled shinigami, Kisuke Urahara and Shihouin Yoruichi, who met them didn't seem surprised in the least. Perhaps a glance at each other, followed by grins and overfriendly pats on the back.

Perhaps the blonde haired man hadn't quite the curiosity to match the new head of Science back in Sereitei, but his appetite seemed somewhat larger to the others when he had a chance to pull Ulquiorra into the shop. The man had him sitting in a chair, looking at his mask, holding small, what looked like makeshift, devices up to it. He poked and prodded and read the Arrancar's reiatsu, what was left of it anyway, Ulquiorra gave him a clear reading, no use in hiding it anymore.

He was somewhat thankful with the outcome of his new lodgings when he found out where they'd sent Grimmjow. *Although Ishida showed his strong disapproval of animal testing in Mayuri's lab.

"Kurosaki Kuuun, why don't you stay for the fes-ti-vi-ties," The blonde haired man spoke with an odd tone and enunciation added on to the word "festivities."

The teen rubbed the back of his head timidly, not looking the blonde man in the eyes. "Well actually, Urahara, I-I will stay, I don't... feel like going home just yet," He admitted. This seemed to please Urahara even more so.

The lot of them gathered into the small shop, tossing stories and jokes about and gocking over food that the tiniest girl there, Ururu, had whipped up for them all. Alcohol was passed around among the adults, some of it pushed into the hands of the lively underage heroes.

Ulquiorra had taken to sitting cross legged on a small pillow out of the way, watching them all interact, it had been so long since he'd been around, anything human. The hollow watched the tall redhead as he was cheered on into the bottom of a ceramic bottle of sake. The taller Sado was looking, confused, into the palm of his hand, down at some curious items that the pink haired pixie, Yachiru, had just set there.

Ulquiorra stiffened when he spotted her rushing over to him. She pointed with big open eyes and a giant gaping mouth. "Baaatto!" She announced clearly over them all. Most of them laughed, her tall captain waved a hand at her to leave Ulquiorra alone, before he himself gave the Arrancar a sneering wink, but not after she'd shoved a bowl of sweets into his lap as an offering of peace. "It's too bad your horn is gone!" She chimed back to him, "Ken chan would have loved to play with you!" She was ushered out the door and he felt them both leave, their reiatsu returning home.

Ulquiorra was looking down into that bowl, confused, and then he felt a brush of hair against his arm. Orihime sat down beside him, smiling at him, having recovered from laughing over Yachiru's exclamations. "She means well, I promise." She reassured him.

"Don't they all?" He asked her curiously, but she didn't seem to take it as a question, she only smiled more sweetly, plucking a piece of candy out of his bowl and unwrapping it, popping it in her mouth. Ulquiorra follow suit, picking a piece out and unwrapping it, awkwardly, finally popping it into his mouth. His eyes shut tight, it was tangy and sour. He couldn't say much for the culinary specialties of any members of Hueco Mundo, but this burst of flavor was almost too much for him and something deep inside his jaw twinged painfully. He clapped his hand to the right side of his jaw and began nursing it.

Orihime laughed, standing for a moment and reaching an arms length to a table that had short glasses of water with mishappened cubes in them. She handed him a glass and he immediately washed down the assault of flavor on his mouth.

Ichigo sat down beside Orihime, a slight blush in his cheeks, Ulquiorra thought for a moment that the modest teenager was still antsy about what had taken place in the cave, but a cup with fruity colored juice and a chemical aroma wafting out of the top taught him otherwise.

"Kurosa-Ichigo!" Orihime gasped, trying to grab the glass from him.

"No! Inoue come on! This is special!, In fact, you're the one we went there for, you especially should be drinking!" He encouraged her, offering his glass.

She puffed her cheeks out and shook her head. "No! That's disgusting! It tastes so awful, I can't see how you can stand it!" She stood from between the two of them and stormed off.

Ichigo stared after her, befuddled for a moment. She'd always been so shy towards him, so kind hearted and careful not to upset him, or anyone for that matter. He'd never known her to be short. Ichigo leaned over to Ulquiorra. "You'll soon understand why I find her statement ironic."

The hollow only looked after her curiously. "You mean to say, in some way she's disgusting?" He tried to clarify what he thought Ichigo was saying.

"No." A deeper voice sat down beside Ulquiorra. Sado was also staring after her. "He means that... what that woman concocts on a stove with a seemingly endless array of ingredients at her fingertips, can be described as nothing less than disgusting." His voice was a foreboding drone, as though warning Ulquiorra of his time yet to come... again.

"You, don't appreciate her efforts?" He asked.

"Well... there's a limit, you have to understand what comes first, your friend's culinary prowess, or lack there of, or your life." He finished, taking a sip of his fruity beverage.

"I'm sure you'll be expected at school tomorrow, Ichigo, with the rest of us finally back and all." Sado reminded Ichigo as he tossed his last bit of sake back.

"You can tell them all that we went to the Americas and I caught a parasite." Ichigo giggled into his cup softly, setting it down noisily.

"To them you haven't gone anywhere, remember Kon?" Sado reminded him before returning to Ichigo's joke. "The urethra dwelling kind?" Sado teased the strawberry teen.

"Ourethra?" Ulquiorra questioned for a moment, quirking his head. "I understand the concept of language evolution over the millennia, but, does that still mean the same thing?" He asked the darker teen sitting beside him. Parasites of the ourethra, sounds far less than pleasant.

It took Sado a moment to understand what he'd just asked, but he finally nodded, smirking a little. "Yeah, it's a parasite that lives off of your body, and it gains entrance through there." He laughed as Ichigo threw him a scathing 'don't you dare' look.

"How is that spelled?" Another voice had joined them, the glare of Ishida's glasses catching the arrancar in the face for a moment.

Ishida pushed them up and diverted the light from Ulquiorra. "O, u, r, e, t, h, r, a." Ulquiorra watched him as the Quincy pieced it all together.

"That's... Greek. I mean I know some Greek words, but, your question just struck me as a little odd. Do you speak it fluently?" He asked, sitting down across from the three of them. This all seemed far too friendly for Ulquiorra, and he found himself shifting nervously in place to get more comfortable.

"Oh yeah!" A buzzed Ichigo chimed in, his eyes wide with excitement. "He's Greek!" Ishida looked unphased by the information, until Ichigo continued. "Like, not just by heritage, but time wise, he's from old ancient Greece!"

Finally the eyes behind coke bottle glasses widened, Ishida turned to Ulquiorra, no longer seeing him as a potential threat, but an exceptional interest. "Hellenistic?" he asked.

"Ex-cuse me?" Ulquiorra's response was only confused.

"Or Classical? Or Archaic?!" His voice grew louder as he drew further back in the Grecian timeline.

"I don't know what you're asking." The hollow stated flatly.

"The Archaic period was 9th to 6th, Classical was 5th to 4th, and I think Hellenistic was 3rd BCE to 6th century CE." The only look he got was one of further confusion. Ishida almost smacked his hand into his glassed, "Wait, I'm sorry, You don't know what I'm saying, do you..." He felt truly stupid. "Of course you wouldn't understand what any of those meant."

Ulquiorra only shook his head, as did Ichigo, and Renji, who had come by to offer Ichigo and them all another glass each.

"About two years before my death Alexander of Macedon died." He gave Ishida that bit of info to work with, if the great General had made it into history.

"Alexander... the Great?" Ishida's eyes widened. "That's... the 4th century... He died in 323 BCE."

The three teenage boys suddenly felt dwarfed, age wise, by this twenty three hundred year old man. It dawned on them all, of course, that many of their shinigami friends were ages old, but knowing the actual time of one of them was still, something uncanny.

"Well, what ever that means, he died in the year of Ciphisodorus." Ulquiorra enlightened them as to how they kept track of their year.

"What's that?" Ichigo piped up over the brim of his glass.

"That was the Archon in Athens at the time of Alexander's death. I can't remember... who ruled just before my time." Ulquiorra winced, straining to recall a name.

"You were alive to witness his campaign?" Ishida interrupted, teetering off of his heels and flat onto his rump, still staring dumbfounded at the Arrancar.

"Yes, I suppose. I wouldn't say I witnessed the prowess of it though, I suppose you get to witness your wars and battles via your technology, but we only heard of his journeys through news and rumors. It took myself about a week after his death to learn of it."

"That makes sense, but wow. That's... amazing, to say the least."

"Why?"

"Well, I can't say I've met a Greek as old as you, I can't say I know any of our time, even."

"Oh, I bet you do." Ulquiorra retorted, smiling softly. The gesture seemed to startle the entire room, the smile, that is. The volume dropped, eyes were watching, and the four surrounding him drew back somewhat. Even Ichigo, who'd seen it before but still seemed put off by it.

"Erm, what did you do among your society?" Sado asked, trying to clear the thickness among them.

Ichigo made a coughing noise, one too obvious, Ulquiorra and the other three looked in his direction curiously and he immediately recoiled that attempt at diverting the question. "Should I not tell them?" Ulquiorra asked plainly, not realizing the difference in culture and time here.

"Well... I mean you don't have to... you know, embarrass yourself." He said quietly, his flushed cheeks bringing his swaying body almost too close to the Arrancar, who placed his hand on the boy's shoulder to steady him. Sado reach across Ulquiorra's lap and plucked the drink that Renji had brought, away and onto a table ledge out of the strawberry's reach.

"Is it not ok in this day and age?" He asked, confused.

Ishida piped up, trying to put himself in, what he understood as Ulquiorra's natural setting at least, through studies and what not. "What was it? Was it bad?" his voice sounded uneasy.

"Not at all. I was a *Hetaera." Ulquiorra straightened some, as though saying that word, once more, after so long, had restored some pride in him.

"A... what?"

Ichigo leaned in further, whispering far too loudly for it to be considered a true whisper, "a prostitute!"

The three teenagers in the circle immediately went red in the face, Renji knew what it meant, he was somewhat less affected, but his eyes did widen some.

"A... really?" Ishida was almost speechless, his mouth opening several times to say something, but closing once more, at a loss.

"As long as it feeds you, I suppose, then there's nothing wrong with it, right?" Sado chimed in, his gaze facing away from Ulquiorra.

"Well, I think their views of... that, were different from ours today." Ishida threw that little insight in to help put it into perspective.

"I was doing more than surviving." Ulquiorra began, trying to figure out how to make it sound less vulgar. "It started out as a means to get food, and at times, shelter, that much is true. But I became educated and eventually eating was of no concern anymore." This was the most any of them had ever really heard from him, and the subject had them all steaming out the tops of their heads.

"You were educated?" Ishida's blush softened, he seemed more interested now and not so shocked.

"Scholars were more than willing to share their knowledge with you in exchange for your body." With that the three underaged men all flared up again, having to look away. "What has the way of today done to make its men so modest?" Ulquiorra said with almost obvious disgust and frustration in his voice. "Sex was to be celebrated, is it not so any more?"

"Allllright." A loud voice caused the three teens to all jump, falling over and away from the tall blonde behind Ishida. Urahara had been listening intently, beyond interested in the story, although far too amused by their reactions to it. "I think we may be getting too rambunctious for this neighborhood, I don't tend to party every night, I'm afraid the residence around us will fear the worst and call the cops in." Urahara smiled sweetly at them all, unfurling his fan suddenly to add emphasis to his suggestion.

Ishida and Sado both got the picture, they stood, disposed of their drinks in the tiny kitchen and were on their way out the door. "You're still coming to school tomorrow, right Ichigo?" The pair of glasses asked him with a glare.

The strawberry boy waved at him obnoxiously, growling about something. Sado's hand urged Ishida to go and so they did. The substitute Shinigami jumped when a tall blonde shadow came to loom over him. "I'll set an alarm for you." Urahara smiled cruelly, and then turned from him and Ulquiorra both. "Let's hope your hangover isn't too awful in the morning."

Ichigo groaned, not wanting to think about it, he was having a good time, for the most part.

"A hangover?" Ulquiorra asked. "Those... sick spells after alcohol consumption?"

"And he's just a boy, it'll hit him hard, unless he's already an accomplished lush, at his age."

He and Ulquiorra helped Ichigo up, the boy was fine really, but Urahara wanted to get him off to bed at least, he felt like asking Ulquiorra a few questions.

"I just got back, come on old man!" Ichigo complained all the way down to the shop owner's spare room, Ulquiorra, it appeared, would be joining Ichigo in this room later. Oh well.

Urahara laughed at the boy, patting his head as he shut the door on him before any more complaints could be thrown out.


Author's notes:
* In case it's not clear, I made a funny. I said that... well since Grimmy's a kitty... Mayuri's using him for animal testing, OHHO HO HO HO!!!...
* Hetaera was the highest class of prostitutes, men and women alike, in Greece, They were educated and respected among the courts of men as equals, like Geishas.

Author's comments:
Tell me what you guys thought, PLEASE! I actually split a bigger chapter in half, so another will be coming shortly I hope, perhaps by next weekend at the latest,
I tried to answer as many questions here as I could, I hope it worked out alright. I'm still saving a few things for later though. I'll have to go over what happened with Super Hollow Ichigo (my name for him) later, but I do have that worked out as well. >:D I hope you guys enjoyed this.

So I can't tell if you guys like this or not. If you review I'll be compelled to continue it. ^w^

I PROMISE THERE WILL BE A LEMON IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!