Corroded Spirits

Corroded Spirits: 28

Chapter 28: Overly Suspicious

  "Ichigo! Ichigo, get up!" The orange-head teen grumbled where he lay, tightening his arms over his eyes to try and ignore the all-too-familiar voice. "Ichigo! I'm serious." Now he felt a foot nudging his ankle. "I could've sworn that I shut the windows last night." Ichigo mumbled against his forearms. "Yeah, well look again dumb-chuck, you're not in your house." Ichigo removed his arms from his face and opened his eyes to the sight of Yorouichi, sternly hovering over him. "Oh wow!" Ichigo exclaimed as he sat up. "I fell asleep in front of Urahara's Shop." Ichigo stated. "Are you asking or telling me?" The feline goddess stated. Ichigo raised his customary eyebrow at her. "Well, what are you doing here?" He asked her in return. He added quickly. Yorouichi sighed flatly to herself, and gave Ichigo's ankle a harder kick as she entered the shop. "Just get in, and we'll answer each others' questions."

 Grumbling and cursing all the way, Ichigo stood up and hastily entered the shop. "Kisuke! Kisuke!" He could hear Yorouichi yelling further inside. "Uh, Yorouichi-san, did something happen?" Ichigo asked. "I'm gonna punch the living lights out of that man." She said without facing him. "Huh? What do  you mean?" Continuing to ignore him, the flash goddess went further in the shop, dismissing the staircase, and going straight for the passage to the underground training room. It surprised Ichigo how neither Tessai, Jinta nor Ururu has seen or heard the small commotion "Yorouichi-san, wait." Ichigo called as he followed after her.

 Upon reaching the basement however, Yorouichi had all but disappeared, arousing confusion, and as well as suspicion on the teen. "Kisuke." Yorouichi called, to the shady man sitting on one of the boulders. He knew Ichigo was there as well, but he wasn't very concerned about it, since, with him having no Reiatsu at the moment, wouldn't be able to pass through the errected barrier that Kisuke and Yorouichi were now in. "Yorouichi-san... I was wondering when you were gonna return.." Kisuke said rather dully. "Judging by your tone, you must already know what I've come to report you."

 Yorouichi moved forward, but not near enough to occupy the space Kisuke was in. And from the looks of it, the man had a large space occupied at the moment. It was as if a large radius of depressed and eerie air was surrounding the area where Kisuke was. "Seritei is in bad shape. At least a fourth." She began. Kisuke made a mental note on how that damage report was one of the largest he had heard in years. "The sudden rampage caught everyone off guard. Not even the Gotei was quick enough to counter-attack without sustaining critical damage themselves." Kisuke lowered his eyes even though he wasn't even facing his best friend. "How long did the onslaught take?" He asked.

 Muffled by the barrier, the two could faintly hear Ichigo's shuffling steps as he tried to call for them both. "At least 5 hours." Yorouichi replied. "It took them 5 hours to restrain her?" He asked. "It took them 5 hours fighting her. And an extra 2 restraining her." Yorouichi corrected him. "What about the captains?" "You don't want to know." Yorouichi said. She noticed how Kisuke's shoulders slumped even lower than they already were. She could only give a good guess on what kind of look he had on his face right now. It almost scared her. "And what about them?" Kisuke asked after a while. "By them, do you mean Ulquiorra and Orihime?" Yorouichi asked.

 They were both silent for a while. For a long while. "From the looks of it, I don't think they're gonna last for a month." Yorouichi said. At this Kisuke quickly turned in his place, and looked into his best friend's eyes with his own fearful grey orbs. Just as she had anticipated, he had the look of a maddened man. "You don't mean.." Yorouichi slowly nodded her head solemnly. "They've issued an execution order."

--That night in Seritei--

 In the Captain's meeting room, where the entire Gotei had once again gathered for a late-night meeting, (injured critically and all), the familiar sound of the Commander's staff slamming hard on the floor reverberated through the air, slightly making everyone else flinch. "The situation has changed drastically." He began in a rough, and very discernable, enraged voice. "Before we begin, though.." Kenpachi suddenly piped. "What the hell is 'that' doing here with us?" The demonic-empowered Captain bluntly pointed to the middle of the room, where the primary reason behind their meeting, and as well as their physical and mental injuries, lay still in a thick layer of Bakudo spells.

 Orihime, and inside her Ulquiorra, lay in a tangled heap of herself. Her dress all but tattered to shreds, hiking up to her thigh, not even bothering to push it back down. Her hair, sprawled across the floor, half black now, as if ink had tainted it. And her mismatched eyes, wide open like a cat's, eerily staring into the Commander's. "This entity.." The Commander said vehemently. "Is the reason why Seritei is slowly falling apart. But as ruthless as it is, it should at least know what its' current predicament is." He said. "This creature..." Yamamoto began, getting back on topic. "Has caused and wreaked more destruction on Seritei for a mere year, than any other enemy has for centuries." Everyone exchanged glances, particularly the 4 captains who had previously looked after said creature.

 "We have blindly harboured a tool of destruction. And for this, I am sentencing, this abomination to be executed." A loud gasps erupted from the 4 caretaker captains. "Wait a moment, Commander! Isn't that a bit too brash?!" Toshiro asked. "No, it is not." Came the reply. "But Sensei--" Ukitake chided but was cut off immediately. "Commander! She is a human. Ichigo Kurosaki would--" "Enough of that!" Yamamoto grounded.

 With no more room to speak, the 4 could only close their eyes. "This creature is no longer human. Not an ally of Ichigo Kurosaki, and much less ours." He stared down at the forsaken girl on the floor, and shook his head. "It was no longer human the moment it fell to Hueco Mundo." A short chuckle suddenly rung in the air, earning everyone's attention to the 'creature' on the floor. "And I guess you would know that, would you old man." It said. The possesed Orihime lazily helped herself to sit up, and she craned her neck towards Yamamoto. "You're just as heartless as the rest of them."
 

Shinji took a small step forward. "What do you mean by that?" He asked. "I mean that you're all friggin worthless, and it's no wonder why Orihime loved Hueco Mundo so much." It retorted back. "Silence creature! You have no room to speak!" Soi-fon said. Again, it chuckled. "If you were going to find me as such a nuisance, you wouldn't have brought me here, you fools." Everyone stared at Orihime in disbelief. It was completely bewildering how such words could escape her mouth. It looked down at her torso and arms and gave a scoff. "What trash... You honestly think that these weak seals could keep me?" As if to make her point, Orihime suddenly crawled up in front of the Commander with demonic speed, causing everyone to take out their Zanpakutous. "Hold it!" They all chorused.

 Orihime stared blankly at the unfazed elderly captain. "You don't know what's coming to you.." Yamamoto firmed his grip on his staff, readying himself just in case. "Who do you think you're intimdating, abomination? You are nothing." He said. Orihime smirked. "So are you... And believe it or not, someone else thinks that, too. It'll cut you in half.." She said. "You are lost. You've gone. And you will die by the Sokyokou." Yamamoto said slowly, releasing his Reiatsu to just the right amount so as to knock out the entity before him and momentarily weaken the other captains. 
 

"Dying wouldn't be so bad... At least we'll be together." It said with a blank smile on her face. Black liquid was beginning to render from her other eye, as her legs slowly began to break from the pressure of the Reiatsu. "Hey, why don't you do me a favor and make the date early?" It asked, making the Commander raise a brow. "That way, you won't have to have two burdens on your shoulder." It continued. With a grunt, the Commander said: "I do not negotiate with hollow beings, but regardless, you Orihime Inoue, whatever you have become... You shall be executed on Sokyokou Hill in 20 days."