"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
- Robert Frost
Dancing in the Dark
Chapter 2: I Spy
Hueco Mundo was a place of barren white sand and little to no life on the surface. It was underground that was the problem, underground was where the hollows lurked and played.
That is, until the day Sosuke Aizen showed up with his band of misfits soul reapers and began to make changes.
First of all being the ginormous city that he called a house. Then the arrancar that he perfected.
Now, Aizen sat at the top of a large staircase in a hall within that city, on a throne of pure white marble. He had become king of Hueco Mundo. His power and promises had swayed the hollows from what they would have done under other circumstances. Twenty arrancar were spread out in different ledges at the bottom of the stairs –which resembled a cave in nature.
Ulquiorra entered the hall silently, with Yammy clambering in by his side, bowing.
Ulquiorra remained at his full height as he said, "We have returned, Lord Aizen."
"Welcome, Ulquiorra and Yammy." Aizen replied back with devious eyes, "Tell me what you've accomplished, here in front of your twenty brothers. Show us what you've experienced in the world of the living. All of it."
"Yes, sir." Ulquiorra murmured, remaining impassive. Reaching up, he took his left eye out. "Here you are, see for yourself." With that, he crushed it and it broke into blue pieces, spreading quickly.
When the blue made its way past their noses they could see what had happened. Everything.
"I understand." Aizen hummed, his eyes shut as he absorbed the experiences. "I see that you have decided he wasn't worth killing."
"Yes, the orders were to kill anyone who might be an obstacle and we learned that there was no one." Ulquiorra replied smoothly.
"YOU'RE SOFT!" A man with blue hair and eyes yelled, glaring at him. "If it had been me, I would have killed him with the first strike."
"Grimmjow."
"What the hell were you thinking!? If kill him was part of the orders then obviously you and that ouf should have killed him right? RIGHT?"
A few others nodded in agreement and made passing comments.
Ulquiorra remained composed, for he did not feel things the way a normal being would. This did not affect him. 'That girl had more of an effect on me than these words.'
Grimmjow turned his accusing and angry eyes to the larger of the two, "And look at you Yammy! You're a mess. Then you come back and tell us he wasn't worth killing! Looks to me that you guys couldn't kill him!"
Yammy cast him an irritated look and fought to keep his temper under control, "Grimmjow it was clear. I know you saw what happened. That guy with clogs and that damn dark skinned girl beat me up."
"That is so pathetic. A guy wearing wooden shoes and a FEMALE beat you!" Grimmjow snapped, growing tired of the excuses.
Yammy stood up, enraged, "PATHETIC HUH?!"
Ulquiorra put himself a few steps in front of Yammy, placing a hand up as if to halt the monstrous sized man. "Enough. Grimmjow, I don't think you understand. That boy is no danger to us… yet."
When Grimmjow shot him a confused and even more furious look, Ulquiorra elaborated, "Lord Aizen, isn't worried about what his current abilities are. It is his growth rate that is the problem. As we learned the boy has tremendous potential. Right now his powers are extremely unstable but I sensed that if he doesn't self-destruct he might prove useful to us in the future. That's why I let him live."
"I still maintain that you're soft! How could you be sure that he won't become stronger than you predict and will turn against us?! WHAT ABOUT YOUR PLAN THEN!"
"Should that occur, I'll get rid of him that's all." He replied back, his left eye still closed. "You can't complain about that... can you?"
"Yes, well. Then I'll leave it in your hands. Do whatever you deem best, Ulquiorra." Aizen said from above.
Ulquiorra turned to him and bowed lightly. "Thank you very much sir."
"Onto another matter… those two girls interest me." Aizen replied with his eyes slightly closed, "Would you mind… gathering information on one of them for me?" He leaned forward with an eager smile, "I want to know her powers better than she does, who she talks to, family where she lives. I even want to know what she smells like when this is through."
Ulquiorra watched his master without a single emotion, "How do I come across such personal information?"
Aizen smiled darkly, relaxing back into his chair. He knew what his subordinate was really asking was how far he was allowed to go. "There's no way one way in particular, anything you think could work is fine. I don't even mind if you have midnight chats with the girl, but keep it PG 13. Get me that information no matter the cost."
Ulquiorra bowed shallowly and nodded, "Yes sir, but which girl?"
Aizen chuckled and sent him a clever smirk, "Why, the cute little blue eyed vixen of course."
The uniform suited her, though would have looked better in a different color. Kagome heaved a sigh and twirled in front of the full length mirror in her room.
She didn't like the uniform at all, even with a pair of black tights, silver cork wedges, and the removal of the jacket. She glared at herself in the mirror, childishly sticking out her tongue.
A knock on her door caused her to jump and nearly bite her tongue.
"Hey Sis, you should hurry up. I'm not exactly sure how long it takes to get to the school but…"
Kagome's eyes widened and she took a quick glance at her clock. Class started at 8… and it was 7:53! 'There's no way we'll make the ten minute walk!'
She let out a pained groan, grabbing her bag and plunging through the door, almost killing Souta, who'd just barely dodged.
"Sorry Souta!" She cried, going for the front door as he charged down the hallway after her. Poor sucker would be late for classes if he kept being that slow.
"It's alright Sis! So much for making a good first impression!" He made a sort of laugh sound, but stopped abruptly, paling, as he realized that those were going to be thrown out the proverbial window. "Greeeeeeaaaaatt!"
If the situation wasn't so dire –class was a must do-, Kagome would have laughed herself from the combination of his laugh and run.
It was a sort of hiccup sound.
Ichigo groaned, setting his head in his hands. He had enough to deal with because his hollow was out of control, and now this.
The classroom was already packed and not a sign of his so called 'twin' Miss Kagome Higurashi. His eyes darkened, 'She's probably a brat.' He frowned at the thought, he wished he could get a sister as cool as Orihime or Rukia –okay maybe not Rukia. But someone who he was going to get along with.
Curiously, he formed a picture in his mind of a female him. Long orange hair, a little more feminine face, the girl's uniform, perhaps holding some little black purse and walking around like she was better than everyone.
He was walking on a thin line between creeped out and laughing, the line was off course broken when he pictured this little apparition popping out her hip and blowing a bubble.
Ichigo shuddered and choked, looking ready to fall over, his face blue.
"Hey Ichigo?" Right, he'd forgotten Keigo was talking to him. 'Ops.'
Mizuiro rolled his eyes from over his friend's shoulder.
"Were you even listening to me?" Keigo asked, looking dejected. No one ever listened to what he had to say.
"Um…" Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of an excuse as Keigo went off on a long and over dramatic speech about what a terrible friend he was.
Mizuiro seemed to share his discomfort, for he shifted nervously, "Mr. Asano, Ichigo obviously has something on his mind…"
"MY NAME IS KEIGO!" The bell rang and Keigo reluctantly went back to his seat, while Mizuiro walked back to his own casually.
It was almost as if nothing weird had just happened.
The teacher walked in and smiled at them, the smile was forced and her eyes were piercing.
Many students shivered with fear, she wasn't in a good mood.
"We have many new students to welcome to class today." She replied, trying –and tragically failing- to sound excited.
A large group of kicks walked into the room as if on cue, one lagging felt his jaw drop, along with most of the rest of the class.
What was Rangiku doing at his school? And was that Rukia?! Renji?!Ikkaku and Yumichika?!
"This is Renji Abarai, Rukia Kuchiki, Rangiku Matsumoto, Toshiro Hitsugaya, Ikkaku Madarame, and Yumichika Ayasegawa." The teacher said, gasping for breath after she finished. She sent another icy smile, "Please treat them-"
A throat cleared.
The teacher paused mid-sentence and blushed, "Oh right, and that's Kagome Higurashi. Sorry dear, I couldn't see you behind that monstrous boy."She added, pointing at Renji.
He sent her an annoyed look and his brow ticked, "Hey!"
A girl poked out from behind him, "It's not a problem." She scratched the back of her head sheepishly, "Arigatou, I had thought for a moment I was in the wrong classroom."
Keigo let out an appreciative sigh as he caught sight of the small black haired girl. She was absolutely adorable.
Meahwhile, Ichigo raised an eyebrow, this girl didn't look at all as he'd pictured her. He'd thought they'd have at least SOME resemblance because they were twins but… that wasn't so.
While his hair was spiky and orange hers was the smooth black of their fathers. Except much darker, like his was more orange than his mothers.
Besides the intense hair color there was really no other similarities though.
Her eyes were dark blue and she had lightly tanned skin. His eyes widened as something –or more specifically someone- came to mind.
That girl that had been protecting Chad and Orihime! He had only seen her when she was unconscious, but now that he looked closer.
… It was the same girl.
His sister had saved his friends.
She bowed to the class, "My name is Kagome Higurashi." Turning back to the teacher –because she was the only new student still standing- she waited patiently for a seat to be assigned to her.
"Higurashi-san, you may take a seat beside Kurosaki-san. Raise your hand Ichigo."
He did so, wearily and waiting for her to turn to him and yell 'What what was that thing I saved your friends from?!'.
Instead she merely smiled at him and skipped to sit in the seat next to him.
"It's nice to finally meet you Ichigo." She said quietly, getting only a stunned nod from him. She smiled wider and tuned back to the teacher to watch her prepare to start class.
Ichigo bit his lip and turned to the front as well, his questions could wait until lunch.
…
Maybe.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
