Corroded Spirits

Corroded Spirits: 20

Chapter 20: Rusted Flower
 "Well, is there anything else I need to know that you decided against telling me?" The Commander asked, with just a slight hint of anger under his voice. The four captains that stood at the other end of his office, we either looking down or had he is alone and yettheir eyes closed. "Nothing more, sir." Retsu said firmly, though the words wavered a bit. They had all finished their report. Explaining, in full and complete detail, what happened.

 The Commander's reaction, was just about what they had expected it to be. "And where is the girl now?" He asked. "At my Barracks, sir. She is resting." Retsu answered. "It amazes me greatly, how you can still tolerate having that girl under your nose, even when she has injured your comrades." All eyes fall to the door, where Mayuri has now entered. "And what brings you here,, Kurotsuchi?" Toshiro asked. The scientist looked over to the group of captains with disinterest. He gave small scoff before proceeding further into the room. "The Commander called for me." Mayuri answered, flexing his fiingers to make the blood vessels pop.

 "Kurotsuchi has something that he would like to show us." The Commander stated. "Nemu! Hurry it up already!" He shouted as confirmation. The door opened again, and now the ever-eccentric captain's female lieutenant entered, carrying a large and wide, rectangular object on her right shoulder. Toshiro recognized it immediately. "He kept that huge T.V.?" He thought to himself. Nemu settled the object against the wall so everyone present could see. "I am here to show a few video footages from the girl's outburst earlier at the 4th Division's Barracks. "Excuse me?" Retsu asked gravely. Kurotsuchi only grinned darkly as he now produced a remote device and began to flip through what seemed to be, camera footages.

 Apparently, when Mayuri was 'asked' by Byakuya and Ukitake to set up cameras in Orihime's room, he had managed to sneak in more cameras throughout the entire 4th Division's Barracks. "I would like to start on the first sessions when the cameras were first put up, he began, showing a footage of one of Orihime's sessions. "Here we have the girl seemingly kind and docile..." Mayuri said in a disgusted tone. He then changes the footage to where Orihime is now alone in her room. "I don't see what's so important here?" Toshiro retorted. "SShhh." Nemu whispered, as they watched the image of Orihime.

 "Look here.." Mayuri pointed. "She is alone... and yet she is speaking.. even if there is no one there but her." He said. They all looked, and indeed, she was speaking to herself. "It is just one of the symptoms after the ordeal she went through." Retsu said. Mayuri gave a loud scoff. "Is that what you think, doctor?" He asked mockingly. "Look to the side, where the girl's eyes are." Now everyone looked again, but found nothing there. Byakuya quickly pointed it out. Mayuri clicked on the remote he had and the footage enhanced. There was now a smudgy-black blur. "What is that?" Ukitake asked.

 "I have no idea what it is.. but it is in every footage. It is there whether she is alone or not.. And what's even more engaging is that it is thicker when she is alone." Mayuri explained. "But the most confounding thing I've found.. was this." He changed the footage, to that of Orihime's outburst when she attacked her four Captain caretakers in the confinement room. "Hmm.." They heard the Commander hum as they watched Orihime strangle Ukitake.  "It troubled me greatly to see the girl like this.. I never thought that such a kind girl would be capable of such violence." He said timidly. "What do you mean?" Byakyua asked. Mayuri momentarily looked at him. "When I first encountered the girl, she held such sickening compassion for my... subordinates.." His voice was restrained, trying hard not to say something regrettable in front of the commander.

 "And another was her hairpins." He added. "Hairpins?" Toshiro mimed. "Hmm? You did not see them, even when she has been under your intensive care for the past months?" The four fellow captains only stared blankly at him. With another loud scoff he turns back to the large screen. "The blue flower pins that adorns her hair. She wore them when she and that Kurosaki boy infiltrated Seritei not long ago. They were her power source, if I recall." He said, and slowly the others remember as well. "She really is not wearing them." Retsu noted, looking at Orihime's pinless hair as it blew on the screen. "What about the shadow you were speaking of?" The Commander asked. "I am getting to that.." Mayuri said, pausing the screen at the moment just before Byakuya knocked Orihime out. "I watched this particular footage several times, until I found this one puzzling clue." He said, pointing to the screen. Everyone looked to it. Orihime's face was partially zoomed in. The outlines of her face and shoulders had dark dust surrounding it. Her skin looked almost white, as dead. Her eyes incredibly sunken. And the color... it almost looked black.

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 When night came to Seiritei, no sound could be heard from any of the Divisions Barracks. It was a dead quiet night. Earlier in the day, Orihime Inoue's caretakers had reported to the Commander. The conclusion to it, lead the Commander to make, what was probably the most surreal decision, ever made in the entire history of Soul Society. The human girl, Orihime Inoue, who was rescued from Aizen's Sousuke's captivity in Hueco Mundo, due to her unstable physical, mental, and Spiritual condition, was to be imprisoned in Soul Society, indefinitely. And because of Mayuri's addition to the already-dangerous girl's case, she was to be moved... to the Maggot's Nest.

 Just the thought was enough to make Orihime cry again. She was now confined in one of the 4th Division's cells, lying on a bed, sealed with a multitude of Bakudo spells. It would be her last night, treated as a 'guest', for, once the transfer to the Maggot's Nest the following day commences, Orihime would be forever deemed a threat to both the Human and Spirit world. "I can't believe, how easily they would throw me away like that." Orihime cried to herself. "I told you. I told you what would happen to you... Orihime.." At the voice, Orihime's breath and tears stilled. "Ulquiorra.."

 Like the air and ash that he had become, Ulquiorra materialized beside her bed. Seeing him in person, instigated more tears, causing Ulquiorra's already melancholic face, to become more melancholic. "You were right.." Orihime said tearfully. "You were right about everything.." Ulquiorra moved forward, and sat at the small space left on the side of the bed. "I know..." He said simply. Orihime'd took hold of his hand if she could, but one of the Bakudo spells binding her, rendered her immobilized as well. Instead, she gripped the cloth underneath her, hard and rough enough for Ulquiorra to feel it.

 Just as she wanted it, Ulquiorra reached out and took her hand. His hand was so cold, but not as nearly cold as Orihime's own hand was. Hers was burning ice. "You really are... you're really dead, aren't you?" Orihime said after a while. Ulquiorra's eyes slanted a bit, glinting in the dark for only the ginger-haired to see. "I am only as dead and alive as you wish me to be." He answered, his hand tracing up her arm to lie against her tear-filled cheek. Orihime leaned her head against it, seeking the warmth that was not there. "Ulquiorra...." She breathed quietly, her voice weakening as if she was breathing her final breaths. "What happened?"

 As one of the few things that could suggest his distress, Ulquiorra lowered his head and averted his gaze. "What happened to us, Ulquiorra?" Orihime kept on. "You wouldn't want to remember." He repeated the same words he had said when he warned her. "Please.." He felt her face trembling in his not-real hand. "I want to know. I want to know what happened.. Please.." Orihime begged. There was really no other option. There was nothing she could do anymore in the situation she had fallen in. Remembering what happened to her was the only thing she knew that could bring conclusion to the dilemma at hand, whether it be a bad or good one.

 "Do you really want to remember? Despite all of the pain you have already gone through? You'd still wish to remember?" He asked with a deep note in his voice. He turned his face when he felt her nod. "Orihime, once you remember, you will lose yourself.. completely." Ulquiorra said solemnly. She had no idea what he meant, but judging the begging desperation in his eyes that only she could see, it was obvious that the result of her wish would bring about extreme consequences, so much so, that even Ulquiorra himself was silently pleading her against it. Slowly, Orihime nodded her head. There was a long silence until Ulquiorra breathed his answer. "All right, then."

 "You will accept the truth? And everything that goes with it? The agony will consume you; Soul Society will turn against you; your friends will fear you; you will become a traitor in everyone's eyes..." Ulquiorra explained. Orihime''s eyes hardened. "I already am." She answered. Ulquiorra's hand went from her cheek to her lips as he slowly leaned down on her. He stopped just before their lips could touch. Suddenly, Orihime's arms were free from the spell binding them, and now she wrapped them around Ulquiorra's neck. "I'm ready." She whispered.

 Slowly closing her eyes, she pulled him down to her and their lips met. Instantly, a dark Reiatsu gushed out from them both, sending the equipment in the room, flying everywhere. The seconds passed and Orihime felt her chest getting lighter, her mind becoming clearer. It was all finally coming back to her. The memories.. Their memories. As the kiss prolonged, Ulquiorra suddenly began to disappear, Orihime's arms, falling to rest in place above her chest as if she were hugging herself. When the Arrancar had all but vanished, the Reiatsu diminished as well. The air calmed down, and Orihime took a deep breath as she opened her eyes. "I remember now." One of her pupils shone green.