Life Before Death

Chapter VII

The rage Ichigo felt when he had become full Hollow is indescribable. He couldn’t understand how Ulquiorra could remain so calm with all f that inside him, or any of the other Arrancar for that matter. He felt so hopelessly angry.

The ground beneath didn’t seem there at all, everything was moving around him and he felt like he was standing still, even if he at times moved as well.

His hand reached out for something, anything, but when he felt it, he gripped it hard, like it would escape him and he’d be left alone with this rage.

The Quatra Espada winced, and Ichigo took hold of his arm and swung him around, hearing his wings crack and break against the building structures that were left just barely intact.

He picked up the Espada and threw him into the ground, his hand around his neck this time. As the foundation crumbled beneath Ulquiorra and the new Hollow’s force, he coughed, gagging as he tried to breathe.

The hollow brought his face closer to Ulquiorra, those empty eyes glaring back at him as he screamed at the Espada.

This wasn’t enough, torturing Ulquiorra like this wasn’t enough for him, he wanted him more than dead. Ichigo wanted him to die a thousand deaths. He lifted Ulquiorra up and then forced him back into the ground, driving him deeper.

Finally the Espada seemed to lose consciousness. The New Hollow paused a moment, the world around him still crackling with his own reiatsu. He lifted the limp Arrancar up and threw him once more into another wall.

The blow had brought a sudden breath into Ulquiorra. He was still unconscious, but his body was working hard to bring him back.

As the Espada slumped limply against the wall, Ichigo came up behind him, his nails swiping quickly at Ulquiorra’s back, raining dark red blood down across the ground.

The Espada gasped sharply and his vision flashed as he felt harsh hands gripping at his upper arms. They pulled him up, his arms straining to lift, his hands weakly feeling out the wall in front of him.

He was placed against the wall, with a hard shove, and his head swooned as he finally gained any sense of direction. Ulquiorra’s fingers sought out cracks in the wall, gripping to them for support.

The new Hollow’s hot breath seared across the back of his neck. A hand with those sharp nails pulled his hair aside, cutting across the back of his neck, like the boy couldn’t control the razors he had on the tips of his fingers.

It seemed that the Hierro wasn’t enough against this new Hollow. One tiny touch sliced through it like butter. Ulquiorra gasped as a hand dragged down his back, down the small dip in the middle of it until he fell to the crevice between his cheeks.

The Espada shivered as another hand sought out his left side, starting at his hip and trailing up over his breast to his collarbone. The Hollow looped a sharp finger under Ulquiorra’s collar bone, yanking at it. The piece of bone was strong, it wouldn’t give but it did wrench and delectable gasp from the Espada, almost a cry. He held tightly to the collar bone as muscles from Ulquiorra’s neck pushed against his finger, a steady stream of blood running down to join the other tinier streams of blood. Ulquiorra was panting to keep from crying out. He leaned his head back and turned it slightly, seeing those empty eyes behind him. “End it.”

The Quatra Espada, seemingly the most complicated being Ichigo had ever met, definitely the hardest to figure out, had demanded the simplest thing. Finish him.

He roared in the Espada’s ear, hot breath burning the pale shell and his cheek. That hand that he dug under his collarbone then reached up to pull on one of his horns, yanking his head back and to the side.

The other hand was adjusting something behind the Espada, clothing, then it gripped at Ulquiorra’s hip and without warning a blunt object pressed up against him.

It dragged slickly down from the top of his butt crack to his sac and then up again. That hand dug into his hip and turned his rear upward more, arching the Espada’s back.

At the time the monster was too angry, it didn’t know what it wanted, it just wanted to feel and hear the Espada crying out. It had this need to hear that, and some how the need had turned into this. Once he felt the tiny give of the Espada’s anus, it took the opportunity and drove itself in deep, pushing Ulquiorra into the wall.

It wasn’t a smooth action, it was awkward and took several thrusts of his hip to get himself buried to the hilt. He paused, the new Hollow shuddering, enjoying the tight warmth, be it tender flesh or blood he didn’t care. Ulquiorra was between him and the wall, the same height usually, but he was slouching forward, shuddering but not breathing, he was holding his breath.

Ichigo’s hands gripped more tightly, pulling his head back once more to reveal the Espada’s creamy white neck. What a beautiful site, that neck, like a canvas. The hollow buried its head in Ulquiorra’s neck, against it he could feel the shallow breaths Ulquiorra was taking as a precaution. He was trying not to cry out, not to make a sound. He was as quiet as ever.

With a long slick tongue tracing over the warm pulsing skin, the Hollow found a tendon beneath it, he opened wide and bit onto it, at the same time pulling his hips away from Ulquiorra. The Espada gasped sharply, followed by a strangled groan, his entire body shuddering beneath Ichigo.

This thrust was steadier, having already created a path for himself. He drove back in, and as though the Espada anticipated this he kept quiet, he only shivered more.

This only enraged the beast more. It growled into the warm skin in his mouth, tasting of nickels, and drove in harder again.

He let go of Ulquiorra’s horn and found his collar bone again, gripping under it with two fingers this time as he drove in, earning, finally, a sudden cry from the Espada.

Ulquiorra’s head slumped forward against the wall, resting against it. His body stopped trembling, stopped trying to control itself when he felt the beast’s tongue graze over the hole in the back of his neck.

Finally, he let a groan out, one arm bending so that his head rested against it instead of the hard wall. His other hand gripped at Ichigo’s arm, the one hooked under his collar bone for support, to take the pressure off of it.

Ichigo let his tongue delve into the hollows hole, enjoying the moans he was getting from that alone. As though he suddenly sympathized for his enemy, the thrusts became smoother, better aimed, and that brought juicier moans out of Ulquiorra. Ichigo’s rage was dwindeling, and instead there was this building torrent inside of him, rushing from his gut to his loins.

The beast roared against Ulquiorra again, driving deeper and deeper, until a sudden flash filled his vision. Ichigo’s eyes opened and the flash seemed to subside.

Ulquiorra was gone, or, he wasn’t gone, but upon further inspection, he wasn’t beneath Ichigo, and Ichigo wasn’t buried balls deep in the Arrancar.

The boy’s sheets were soaked with sweat and God knows what else as he sat up. He was panting and hot. He looked beside him to see the Arrancar still laying out on his Tatami mat, watching Ichigo.

“At first I thought you were having a bad dream, but it appears I was wrong.” Ulquiorra said bemusedly.

Ichigo cursed at him, balling up the covers and hiding himself by shoving them in his lap.

The scream that he’d heard in his dream, though, was outside. Ichigo jumped suddenly as a Hollow’s cry broke through the silent night air just outside. He couldn’t tell if it was close, or just loud.

“A hollow?” He gasped, jumping up and rushing to the window. He didn’t care that his pajama bottoms were still damp. The air around them crackled. “Shit…” He cursed, stripping out of the bottoms.

“Is that necessary.” Ulquiorra questioned him, crawling out of his sheets and stretching.

“I don’t want them finding my body like this while I’m gone!” He pointed out. The teen rushed pantlessly out into the hallway and disposed of the bottoms. He then rushed back in and got under a new bundle of sheets, grabbed the Substitute Shinigami badge and pulled away from his seemingly unconscious human body. Ulquiorra watched all of this curiously.

As Ichigo was getting ready to leap out through the window, he saw Ulquiorra lose his Gigai, the broken Hollow’s mask appearing once again.

“Ah, that’s probably a good idea Ulquiorra, those Gigais require a lot of energy.” Urahara said cheerfully just outside the window. Ichigo yelped and fell backwards back into the room, looking up at Urahara with a frustrated glare.

“Out of the way old man! We’re in a hurry!” He growled at the shopkeeper.

Urahara only pouted and stepped aside.

Once outside, the two rushed off in the direction of the Hollow.

“Is that why you’ve been sleeping so much?” Ichigo asked Ulquiorra.

“Possibly.” He answered.

“I just, never imagined you as the type to sleep all the time.” He pointed out carefuly, trying not to judge the Espada too blatantly.

Ulquiorra said nothing, in fact, as they neared the Hollow, he seemed to fall back a bit.

“Ichigo!” Rukia called from behind them. They both looked back just as the female Shinigami joined them both. “This one seems strong, Ichigo. Be careful.” She warned them both.

Just as the three came upon the scene, they froze. A swarm of winding limbs stretched out from a small core about fifty feet away. Scattered around it were translucent figures, frozen in place, fading slowly, one by one.

They were souls. Their faces were contorted into horrified expressions, reaching up for the sky.

“What the hell?” Ichigo gaped.

“There, in the center, that’s him!” Rukia gasped, rushing forward, with Ichigo shortly behind her.

He turned to see Ulquiorra standing there still, instead of rushing after them. “Ulquiorra, come on!” He growled. The Hollow didn’t move.

He heard Rukia cry out and turned just in time to see one of the winding limbs throw her into a street lamp.

Turning back he yelled at the Espada to help them, but he was gone. Ulquiorra had disappeared. He went in, attacking the hollow several times, half expecting the Arracnar to join in at any time. But he didn’t.

The Hollow was mocking them both. “You can’t please everyone, I guess. All that’s left is a bunch of art Critics.” He laughed. The souls were his artwork. He’d frozen them as they were devoured, only the image of their last moments were left for a few lingering minutes.

The obnoxious Hollow wasn’t even taking them seriously, he toyed with them instead. It took a moment to see that he was more than a Hollow, he was an Arrancar.

Ichigo and Rukia fell back at that point, only defending attacks, trying to figure out how to attack him. Nothing seemed to work, and after a while, he vanished.

“Damnit!” Ichigo cursed.

“I need to report this, they may have records on him.” Rukia said, and at once she pulled her little pseudo-cell phone out and began entering data to send to headquarters.

“Ulquiorra just ran off!” Ichigo growled, looking off in the direction of the Espada.

“No one assigned him to fight with us.” Rukia reminded Ichigo, but that didn’t help the teen.

As they were walking home, Ichigo noticed the rising sun. “I have school soon.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I guess going back to sleep would be pointless.” He yawned.

Rukia gave him a comforting pat on the back, followed by a jab at his side and rushed off. “I’ll see you in an hour, then.” She said brightly.

“Damnit.” He pouted, rubbing at the sore rib she’d just struck. “That bastard.” Ichigo still wanted to know why Ulquiorra had ditched them, but that would have to wait until after school.

Author’s notes:

*Diogenes: (412 BCE – 323 BCE) I forgot to put this in the last Chapter. Diogenes of Sinope is said to be the first Cynic. Whether that’s true or not, he lived in poverty and criticized everything about human life and the world during those times. He used to carry around a lit lamp during the day and claim that he was looking for an honest man. I liked the idea of Ulquiorra being a cynic, it fits him I think. So I included that in there for that purpose.

Author’s Comments:

HAPPY NEW YEARS GUYS! I hope you had a great Holiday season, and continue to! PLEASE be careful! I don’t know about you, but it’s snowing like mad here (Yay ^^), and with the roads most likely being plagued by drunk drivers tonight, the combination of the two will make for a dangerous commute from party to party. So Please be careful, regardless! But also have fun!

It’s a new year, and a new beginning! Make it a good one! 3