Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Invisible Writing ❯ Chapter 3

Invisible Writing

by debbiechan

Disclaimer: Kubo Tite owns Bleach, and Incandescens owns the imagination that gave me the scenario for this particular fanfic.

Description: Orihime acquires a slave in Hueco Mundo--Ishida.

Warnings: Although this fic is A/U (heaven help me, I’m not an A/U writer!), it may contain slight spoilers for Bleach post Soul Society arc. References to violence and sex will be not be explicit--probably R level. Given my predilections, however, NC17 is possible in future chapters.

Special thanks to Incandescens and Finnigan Geist

Part Three

"They’re monsters, Sousuke. They want to fight, not to watch magic shows. A poof here, some science there. They’re not impressed." Gin padded into the huge assembly room and leaned against the doorway. "Ichigo didn’t show, eh?"

"Neither did you, Gin." Aizen sat on his throne and looked amused as always. "You set a bad example for the troops. The Espada believe that my favorites are excused from meetings."

"Oh no, no favorites here." Gin tossed his silver hair and smiled from ear to ear. "This world is nothing like Soul Society. No one is bound by friendship any more than by duty."

The room was empty. The corridors were empty. No guard stood at the entrance to the Assembly, and nothing could look through the large high windows except the moon. And at the moment, the ever-present moon of Hueco Mundo was covered by clouds.

"And what would you have binding one to another in your ideal world, Gin?" Aizen closed his eyes and lay either hand on the armrests of his white throne. "I’ve promised the Arrancar pleasure. Kaname’s justice needs a torchbearer now that he has passed. Do you want the world-to-come to be a fair place?"

"Now, how the heck would anyplace full of justice be right by me?" Gin scratched his head. "Everyone knows I don’t deserve the pretty robes I’m wearing now, let alone a place in your perfect universe." He padded closer towards Aizen’s throne. "What I want to know is--where’s your precious princess at these meetings? Today the hougyoku tore your first Espada into two lovely, blood-dripping parts and created a second Espada out of the airborne gore. That was such a neat trick. One would imagine that tricks like that would entertain a young girl."

"She’s our healer, Gin. That spectacle would have upset her."

"Oh, you favor her so. She’s not our healer. She’s a vehicle to power, and you know as well as I do that she’s as finished as all Hueco Mundo once the hougyoku matures. I don’t get why you’re so nice and strawberry tarts with her."

"The girl’s power is in her belief system. Simple. If she thinks she’s bringing harm to the universe, she won’t help me. I need to keep her happy, to keep her dancing towards a sense of helping others."

"Ichigo’s going to get to her."

"He’s not."

"Is too." Gin approached the throne with a taunting smile. "Kill the bastard already. He runs around the palace annoying everybody."

"Maybe he entertains me," said Aizen.

"You wield the power of manipulation, Sousuke. He’s raw power. He has the potential to be stronger than you. What makes you think he’s not going to grab your little princess by the hair and use the hougyoku for his own ends, hmm?"

Aizen rose from his throne. His large frame towered over the slender presence of his former vice-captain. "He won’t."

Gin seemed to stiffen, as if poised for combat.

Aizen wrapped his arm across Gin’s shoulders and spoke with quiet authority. "One, Ichigo doesn’t know what his potential is. Two, he used to care for the girl. Don’t you see it? He won’t even look at her. His Hollow side won’t allow it. He acts as though she is incidental and unimportant in this war."

"Hey, that’s how you treat me," Gin said. For a moment his smile turned petulant. "You ignore me in public, but I expect you to honor our … friendship … when this is all over." Aizen’s arm still around him, he turned to face the high palace windows. The windows were full of the darkness of Hueco Mundo.

"Now, Sousuke, who’s to say that Ichigo won’t try to rescue Orihime-chan?"

"One of things I’ve always loved about you, Ichimaru Gin," Aizen breathed close to Gin’s ear, "is how well you think. But trust me, my longtime companion; Orihime is beyond rescuing."

A gray cloud swept past the main window and uncovered a cool quarter-moon, which cast a bluish light across the giant room.

"Poor Orihime-chan," said Gin.

**

It took a dozen throw pillows embroidered with strange, Living World emblems before the Arrancar handmaidens warmed up to Ishida. After he sewed the image of an ice-cream cone in shimmering pink threads onto a coarse burlap square and hung the project on their wall, even Lastimada was impressed.

"It reminds me of the old neighborhood," she said. "Spirits would hang around the 31 Flavors and watch the children…." Her voice trailed off. "I think we were trying to remember what it was like to taste foods…."

"You remember your life as a Hollow?" Ishida bit the thread off an endknot. He was sewing white thread on white fabric. "You’re an Arrancar now--isn’t that an entirely new creation born of Aizen’s hougyoku?"

"We’re hybrids." Lastimada’s voice took on a proud ring. "We’re part Hollow, part Shinigami synthesized from Aizen-sama’s own reiatsu. We remember our Hollow selves, but our human lives before that are fuzzier. Maybe part of the Arrancar rage for Living World paraphernalia has to do with how we were once sad, sad Hollow spirits who refused soul-burials."

"Sad Hollow spirits indeed," huffed Almatriste. "Hollow are stupid beasts. We’re better than that now. The whole universe will be better once Aizen-sama is done with it."

Hands folded on her chest, the princess of Las Noches lay on her white bed and reminded Ishida of a body in casket. "I want to be an Arrancar," she said dreamily.

"Orihime-sama," Ishida spoke to the princess in a quiet tone. He was still loath to bring up the subject and upset her. "Do you remember anything about your life before the palace?"

"I’m different," the princess explained. "I was made right here. I don’t have any Hollow part. The first thing I remember was waking up in this giant white bed, and Aizen-sama was leaning over me, and he said Orihime, I’m your father."

Imaging the very scenario made Ishida want to hit something. Bastard, monster. His needle accelerated through a bunched swathe of fabric. What did he do to her?

The handmaidens never left the princess’ presence, and Ishida was beginning to wonder if he should broach the issue of Inoue-san’s true identity in front of them. They were Arrancar. Could they could be persuaded to help in a rescue? Last night they had allowed him to be alone with their Querida, but that’s only because they had been scared of him--despite Inoue’s protest that should the new slave give anyone any trouble she would poke him right through the chest with Tsubaki.

Ishida regretted having been so shy around Inoue-san last night; they could’ve talked then. He could have tried to remind her of her life in Karakura.

"I want a room-divider," said Lastimada. "Something with lots of beads hanging between my bed and Almatriste’s."

The handmaidens liked Ishida now. Maybe they would insist that he sleep in their room?

"He sews better than you do, Querida." said Almatriste. She was staring at the ice-cream cone wall hanging. "The army is going to want him."

"For what?" asked Lastimada. "Luppi-san is the only one of those idiots who cares much for beautiful things."

"No, the army doesn’t need a decorator," said Orihime. She was still lying with her hands folded and a tranquil expression on her face. Ishida could almost smell the funeral incense. "Someone who is so talented with his hands is good at manipulating spirit threads. If Aizen-sama finds out that Uryuu is clever, he will find a way to use him in the war. I don’t want that to happen, so…." Orihime smiled. "Let’s keep him here with us, alright?"

So here I am. Ishida bent over his sewing. Alone in a room with girls twittering over my sewing. It’s like an afternoon in Handicrafts club.

Beyond sparring or watching soldiers spar there was not much to do in Las Noches. From what Ishida had gathered, huge training battles between newly-created Arrancar were held in various arenas of the palace. The princess had little interest in violence, but she occasionally was summoned to heal the mangled bodies of the Espada-worthy (most mangled Hollow were disposable; they ate one another hourly, the handmaidens said, and only the fittest were chosen for Aizen’s forces). Sometimes the princess trained (her handmaidens were excellent swordsmen), but today the three were much more interested in curtains than in battle.

Ishida had asked his female companions to take him on a wide tour of the palace, but they had been more interested in getting their room decorated. Not much to see but white walls, they had emphasized, and the Hall of Loyalty and the Main Assembly were off-limits to all but the Espada. The Library was Aizen’s alone (although probably accessed by his favorite, Ichimaru Gin, too), and no one else in Hueco Mundo could read.

Arrancar can’t read.

The fact had stunned Ishida at first. In his quest for information about Hueco Mundo, one of the first things he had asked after was a library, and the princess had told him "Aizen-sama is the source of all information." The handmaidens had nodded solemnly and decried written material as the confusing medium of an out-moded world. "Lore and propaganda are not the Truth."

Ishida ran his fingers over his needlework. It was a long-shot but ….

The Inoue-san Ishida remembered liked to hum over her schoolwork. She was two places behind him in school rankings not only because she had unrivaled concentration for taking long exams but because she sincerely enjoyed preparing for them. Inoue Orihime was a reader. Not like Ryo-san who always had her nose in a novel during lunch hour--no, Orihime preferred the company of people to books, but Ishida knew that she loved to read. She had told him so in Soul Society. She had described long afternoons reading textbooks that weren’t even required for her grade.

Do you think, Ishida-kun, that if I read the third year science book in first year that I’ll remember the material when it comes time to study it again? I don’t have a good memory, I’m afraid.

Ishida stood up and displayed the white fabric he had been embroidering. "It’s called a towel." The side he presented was covered in lush white loops of terrycloth. "I observed yesterday that you only use small hand-cloths before the bath." (Here, Ishida blushed at the memory of Almatriste cleaning dirt and blood off his naked body with quick, perfunctory pats). "And I noticed that it’s customary for bathers to dry themselves with their own reiatsu upon leaving a tub." (Here, Ishida blushed harder at the memory of Inoue-san arriving in time to heal and dry him as he rose out of the steaming water). "Well, um, in the Living World, humans use towels."

Almatriste, Lastimada, and their princess oohed and ahhed over the prettiness of what Ishida had made.

"Towels can be very decorative," Ishida continued. "Displays of status in some homes." He turned the large white towel around. "It’s common practice for wealthier people to have their names embroidered on their towels."

Row after row of white Japanese lettering covered the other side of the towel. The lettering was tiny and ornate and indiscernible from even a short distance. Almatriste leaned forward to get a closer look.

"Beautiful," she said. "What are those markings? They’re not flowers or food or anything I remember from the Living World."

Ishida was surprised that she did not even recognize writing. He had expected the Arrancar to do that much. Perhaps Aizen had efficiently brainwashed them somehow, hypnotized them out of written language?

"They’re just decorative squiggles," Ishida said. "A royal pattern." He turned to Inoue and offered her the towel. "Suitable for a princess."

"Eee!" The princess crumpled the towel to her chest. Ishida was disappointed that she did not even look twice at the writing. "Oh thank you, Uryuu!" She jumped off the bed and started for the bathroom. "Come with me! You can wait on me while I take my bath!"

"Oh… ah…um…"

The maidservants had turned to one another and were talking about stupid things Luppi-san had done lately. Obviously, Ishida was expected to serve the princess in the tub.

Well, this is my chance to be alone with her, right?

He steeled himself as if preparing for battle. He willed his blood pressure to drop and his cheeks to cool.

"I’m coming, Orihime-sama."

~TBC~