I return to soul society, leaving the others in the real world, to report to Yamamoto and take back to my function as a captain. For weeks, I juggle my trainings with Kenpachi-sama with my time with the 9th squad. I work hard side by side with my lieutenant and learn as much about my duties as I learn about every member of my squad. After long talks with Hisagi, I start hating Tousen even more for being a traitor and giving up his squad like a coward.
One day, Kenpachi-sama asks me to pause our training for a while. Since he doesn’t explain why – because he’s too lazy to even come up with a lie – I decide to find out what’s going on. When I hear he was sent with a few other captains and lieutenants to Hueco Mundo as a rescue mission, I desperately want to join them. I ask Yamamoto if I can go there too but he tells me he has his reasons for not sending me and if I disobey and go despite his warning, I’ll be severely punished (since I’m still on probation from my shinigami slayer past) and lose my powers as a shinigami. Blinded by my thirst for revenge, I decide to go anyway.
Once I’m there, I don’t even need to look for Tousen since he came to me the moment I arrived on his ground. It seems like Aizen ordered him to finish me quickly. I see him walking towards me but he’s suddenly stopped by an arrancar with blue hair who appears to be as mad at him as I am. Intrigued, I stop for a second but push the arrancar out of my way to reach the goal of my little visit. The arrancar seems surprised and a little offended but stays put and watches my fight with Tousen.
I take this opportunity to tell him I took his place and seem to be a much better job than he ever did there, I also let him know how Hisagi and the other members feel now. Since he doesn’t seem to care, I get even angrier at him and his detached behavior and attack endlessly until we both end up on the ground, half-dead. I’m as injured as he is but my rage still intact. I find enough strength in the fury of my heart to get up with the very little energy I have left and kill him.
The arrancar who is still watching us seems stunned by what I’ve just done. He comes to me and I brace myself for what’s coming. I think he will finish the job since I can barely move, let alone fight but instead, he helps me get up from the ground and introduces himself as Grimmjow, the n.6 Espada. He thanks me for killing Tousen even though he wished he had done this himself. I’m not sure I follow what was going on between those two but I couldn’t care less.“I didn’t do that for you,” I say, exhausted but still standing. “It was personal revenge. If you had stood in the way, I would have killed you too!”
“Thanks anyway. With that pain out of my ass, I feel much better!” he answers, just before leaving me alone. “I owe you one!”
Whatever… I think once I get finally get some peace and quiet.
I fall on the ground again, too tired and in pain to keep walking.
Before I can recover, Aizen, who was watching our fight and got fascinated by my bankai, shows up and picks me up. He takes me to his quarters and locks me up in order to do some kind of experiment on me to turn me into a hollow. I spend an indefinite amount of time in there without moving from this table I’m chained on. I blackout most of the time and even though I know I’m being tortured, I can’t quite remember what Aizen was doing to me when I wake up. All I can feel is pain, deep, agonizing pain. One day, Grimmjow shows up and, without any explanation, frees me up. Quietly, we leave the torture chamber and he shows me the way to a tunnel that will lead to the exit of this terrible place. Before I go, he gives me my zanpakutou and wishes me luck. Unsure about why he did this, I feel a bit worried it may be a trap but I know there’s nothing worse than what I just left behind so I get in the tunnel and walk as quickly as I can, as far away from here as possible.
After days stuck in the caves, fighting menos grande, I start losing hope. I can’t seem to find the exit and I feel like the little energy I had left is coming to an end.
“What…? What are you doing here?” I ask, out of breath. “Quit following me around!”
“I’m not, I’m the one being followed. And it looks like you needed a hand here anyway.”
He looks at me with a satisfied grin. I roll my eyes and, between two strikes around, he explains he was being chased by Ichigo and co. but also by Aizen who realised he betrayed him.
I laugh out loud. What a crapy situation. But mine isn’t much better and to be honest, with his back against mine, I feel more confident fighting the menos grande. I know he’s supposed to be an enemy but right now, he’s an ally, and not a bad one of that, considering his powers and strength. With a new wave of hope and energy brought by the arrancar, I find the strength to get rid of all the menos grande around. But just as we thought we killed them all, one of them who wasn’t quite dead just yet, throws some sort of bone spear right at me. I only see it just before it gets to me and I don’t have time to move but Grimmjow, who seems to have seen it before me, jumps in front of it and takes the hit for me. Shocked, I take a few seconds to realise what just happened. When I do, I run to the menos grande, kill it off and run back to the arrancar. The spear went through his stomach and up to his back. He’s dying so I manage to hold him with his arm around my shoulder and walk towards a cave where we can be safe.
“What a pain,” I sigh.
Looking after him sounds like a bother but he did save my life… twice!
I lay him down on the ground and use my kimono to stop the blood from flowing out of the wound. I stay there, sitting next to him, watching him, hoping he’ll get better soon.
Finally, after a few hours, he wakes up. He can’t move just yet so we are stuck here for a while.
“Why don’t you go ahead and leave me behind?” He asks.
“Why did you save me from Aizen?”
He starts laughing but frowns when he realises that simple move hurts. We end up chatting like two old friends about what will happen to us after we get out of here if we manage to do so…
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to go back to soul society,” I say. “I came here against direct orders just to get my revenge on Tousen.”
He laughs again between two grimaces.
“Looks like you and I both have a problem with authority...”
I can’t help but laugh too. Despite the situation I’m in, and the fear of what’s ahead, I know I’ll do everything I can to go back and face the consequences of my violation of the code. My face must have turned all serious because Grimmjow asks me:
“You have someone you care about who's expecting you back?”
Some images run across my eyes. I see the 9th squad and Hisagi, I see Ikkaku and Yumichika with Yachiru and Kenpachi. My heart aches. Yes, I am determined to get back and suffer any punishment if that means I get to see them all again.
“I guess I've gone soft...” I whisper, nostalgic.
After a couple of days, while I’m attending to his medical needs, I realise my bankai could actually be useful to Grimmjow. I could use my abilities to absorb the particles which are stopping him from healing. So here I go, using my bankai on the guy. When I get close to his lips to absorb the bad spiritual particles, both our faces turn red. The situation looks a lot more romantic than what it’s supposed to be and we are both super uncomfortable. I get passed the embarrassment and kiss him to fix his wound. As soon as I stop my bankai, I start spitting up blood. It appears the hollow particles turned out to be a poison for my body. I can’t seem to stop coughing and end up on the floor of our cave, struggling to breathe normally.
“She asked me not to.” He answers.
The other doesn’t seem to understand why a member of the Espada would follow my instructions. Suddenly, his face lights up for a moment then he frowns.
“Wait... Are you two... Together ?” He asks, apparently disgusted by the idea.
Both Grimmjow and I look super embarrassed and deny it straight away before he can picture anything else.
“She just saved my life,” explains Grimmjow.
“To be fair he saved mine first,” I add.
“That’s just because you helped me!” Grimmjow replies to me directly.
“I told you, I didn't do that for you!” I yell, annoyed to have to repeat myself on the matter.
The shinigami looks at us, puzzled…
“It’s… complicated…” we both say together.
We decide to explain our situation. We tell him that we are now stuck here and would like to get out. The guy can see I’m clearly unwell, maybe even dying because of what I just did to heal my new ally. He gives me something that helps me stand up and walk but it doesn’t completely cure me. Once I’m well enough to run for it, the shinigami helps us find the exit but he decides to stay behind for now and wait for Rukia who he apparently met just before and who promised to come back for him.
I leave him behind, full of regrets, and start running to meet the others. I focus on their reiatsu to find them and follow their spiritual print for hours until we finally meet Ichigo and his friends. When he sees who’s with me, he takes his zanpakutou and attacks Grimmjow who’s more than happy to fight back. I stop them straight away. Ichigo asks me why I try to defend the arrancar.
“Here we go again !” Grimmjow sighs next to me.
I briefly explain to the group what happened to me since I arrived at Hueco Mundo. Ichigo doesn’t seem happy about keeping Grimmjow alive, let alone as a part of our group but we all have other problems so we put our differences on one side for now. Grimmjow and I follow the group to where they were heading.
On our way, we see Kenpachi fighting an Espada. They both look pretty damaged but I stop the others from intervening to let my former captain have his fun. When he finally gets rid of his enemy, he falls and I run toward him to make sure he’s ok.
“What are you doing here?” He asks me, like it’s the most important thing to talk about on the verge of death.
“I came here to kill Tousen,” I simply reply while trying to help him stand up and walk.
“Did you find him?”
“I did…”“Did you fight him?”
“I did…”
“And?”
“Well, am I dead?”
“Thaaat’s my girl!” He smiles.
We walk together and see that the others have started fights all over with all kinds of arrancar. I make sure Kenpachi can walk on his own and leave him to Yachiru to go help but just at that moment, I start spitting blood again. Grimmjow, who wasn’t fighting, runs to me and holds me, a worried and guilty look on his face. Kenpachi sees me and meets up to ask me what’s going on. I tell him why I’m sick and he says I should go back to soul society to get some rest since I can’t be useful here in that state anyway. I agree to avoid being a burden. I prefer not mentioning that if I go back I’ll be severely punished for disobeying direct orders from captain commander Yamamoto. I don’t want them to worry about me while they’re risking their lives here.
Since Kenpachi still has some business to attend here, only Grimmjow escorts me to the portal. No one seems to care that we are escaping. Aizen’s attention must be on the big battles right now so we manage to get to the portal quickly without any interruptions.
“Thanks,” I say to the arrancar awkwardly before getting in.
“Don’t mention it,” he answers straight away, blushing.
How adorable is he when he’s worried and embarrassed?
“And take care,” he says more seriously.
I smile. I don’t know if I’m more worried about my situation or his. Either way, we have to say goodbye and just hope for the best. I jump in the portal and run to soul society.
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