Running From Death Himself [Open]

Nothing. It was all he'd ever felt, so why expect anything more?

"Uh!" He proclaimed eyes widening slightly as he realized what just happened. As Ulquiorra looked back he watched as his wings began to fade, spreading across tiny currents of air like ashes in the wind. " "So this is how it ends?" He knew what it meant. Death. Destruction. The End. Though he'd never known what to expect now he wondered why he hadn't because it turned out death was not so much different than life. It's wasn't painful, not cold or unpleasant really. It was simply a realization. He would feel the pieces of himself, hollow empty bits fading and drifting away from one another. His eyes quickly fell upon his murderer, the beast that had somehow managed the power to slay him. Ichigo Kurosaki. My how that one had changed. Finally in a rather un climatic tone Ulquiorra instructed.

"Kill me Ichigo." Ulquiorra suddenly instructed.

But the boy just stood there, dumb founded with that same look of confusion in his eyes that Ulquiorra had seen so many times before.

"You don't have much time left. I won't resist you I no longer have the strength to even walk. If you don't take this opportunity now our duel will remained unsettled forever." Came melancholic words.

"I can't do it." Came a response after a short moment.

"What are you saying?" Asked Ulquiorra whom was met with a swift reply.

"I don't want to, not like this!" Said Ichigo, struggling with the rising tension in his throat. "It's wrong. This is not the way I want to defeat you!" "I can't do it."

His eyes widened as the true resolve of the human nature finally became clear to the Esapda. "To the very end, you just won't do what I want." He spoke softly, more to himself than to anyone as his thoughts raced to find answers, now pushed for time in these moments of death. Then, he couldn't help himself, as she poped into his mind again. His attention falling on the girl he spoke aloud as she watched on but seemed a bit puzzled as her captor continued to fade. "And just when I was finally becoming..." His voice fell off here as if searching for the next word. "A little bit intrigued with the way you people behave." He thought back to how resolute she was too, back when she had told him how her friends would save her, and how he thought it was nonsense.

Ulquiorra now reached out towards the woman. It took everything he had just to raise that arm. He was pointing at her, telling her in his own way that it was she whom he was focused on in these final moments. "So let me ask you again girl, are you afraid of me?" His voice rose a bit as he asked the question, desperate to hear her answer as she looked on at his demonic form. There was a pause, and the girl seemed to collect herself a bit before giving her reply.

"No I'm not afraid." She said, her eyes now filling with some sort of emotion. Some feeling foreign to the hollow. "Really I'm not." She said all the while his eyes never leaving her face.

"I understand," he said as he watched her through his finger tips which now feel towards the earth as the last ounces of strength left him. He watched her, this girl he'd taken prisoner reach out to save him. But as her finger tips threatened to touch his, pieces of his began to scatter, sending his form to the winds, to be carried off and made a part of endless sand.

In his last moments, he thought only one thing. "I see now. In the palm of my hand, is a heart."




His world was a shaky one. Fragile and spinning and ruled by topsy-turvy chaos. His head spun wildly and although he felt his eyes flutter in a desperate attempt to make visual sense of what was going on he saw nothing. Just a vast emptiness who's awe and beauty both had stricken him silent for the moment. But try as he might to focus and put some sort of order or balance to his surrounding it just didn't happen. It felt as though he was falling head over heels. Tumbling…tumbling… further and further down. Then he realized, remembered what had happened, how The monster Ichigo had defied all odds and beaten him as some sick disgrace to both their kinds. He'd been defeated, and this must be what death was like.

All things considered Ulquiorra did not particularly loath or fear this sensation, it wasn't so different from what he'd always felt inside. Black. Soulless. Hollow. So for a brief moment he closed his eyes and attempted to do as those petty humans had always done and find some ray of that thing called hope. To find happiness, here, amidst nothing. The tumbling stopped, and balanced seemed to wash over him as he felt the weight of a body, his body, against the ground. His eyes opened in a flash but this time he was able to just barely make out his own form in what was still pitch black surroundings.

"I have… a body?" He questioned as he lifted a pale hand close to his face for inspection. He blinked, attempting to force his eyes to adjust.

The 4th Espada's mind began to race again, for the first time since he faded back in Los Noches. So many questions, but what really plagued him was how he was here at all. He'd accepted death before, even come to some sort of pathetic mock empathy towards the band of humans who'd managed to bring about his demise. He recalled the horned figured of the hollowfied Ichigo. How he'd even managed to cause the cretin to get caught in his own Cero, and that even that wasn’t enough. Ulquiorra remembered all too well the feeling of defeat, though to say he experienced it like any normal man might be a stretch.

He wasn't scared, not worried or regretful. He was rather cold and calculating instead. He thought only of his mistakes, and of what it would take to best such a beast the next time around. His hand now clenched into a fist, and opened again as if he were checking it's response to assure himself it was truly his. Sure enough it was, and as the questions continued Ulquiorra began to rationalize the world around him. This wasn't some foolish dream and this wasn't death. He felt alive because he was, and so he took his first step forward, the first step of his second life. He could honestly admit it felt good to be alive.




It had taken him a moment to truly get past the lack of sensory input. There was a silence here in this place, heavy and constant. And just enough vague, spooky dim light to see his hand so long as it remained inches from his face. No smell, no sand or blood or anything that was where he'd just come from. A vast nothingness. Just like what he'd come from so long ago.

But this time it was different, he knew this place. As thoughts, experience began rushing back it fit. This place was known as the Garganta, a place where few beings dared venture. Menos and Arrancarr both had the power to step foot in this place, making it dangerous to travel unless you happened to be a member of the Espada. Yes, now it made sense. Perhaps in his last moments he'd managed to escape, to pull away from Ichigo and the others and lay here until he'd regenerated. Nothing was certain except for his pace as it began to quicken. If he was in the Garganta, then he could open it wherever he chose, and he had just the place in mind. With a swift spide of his arm his finger tips cut like knife through the portion of space directly in front of him and rip began to form.

It opened like a gaping maul. And although that alone would be enough to cause concern he had been wise in picking his location. Far on the outskirts of town he stepped onto the mortal plain atop a giant mountain top that overlooked Karakura's location as he remembered it. What he saw struck him as odd, because the humble little town he remembered was gone. While there was a town there he was certain this was not Karakura town. He gazed ahead with a puzzled expression as the Garganta closed. Looking ahead at some sort of metropolis.

He'd come back to life in his original form, with Mercielago sheathed and sealed away. And although he was still quite some distance away he thought it best to suppress his spiritual energy, for now. And so he walked, from the near peak of the nearby mountains down towards this unknown land mark. What Ulquiorra had yet to realize was that this was Karakura town roughly 400 years after his death. But what drove him, what started the count of steps within his head again was the anticipation of seeing the humans run about, carry on with their daily lives. What he did with that knowledge was about to be any ones guess but even more than that. He wanted to see her…

"Damned woman…" He spoke aloud as he'd now neared the base of the mountain.

He could vaguely recall a face, something from not that long ago. Unfamiliar and haunting but like the ghastly image it so mimics it would vanish should he try to focus on it. Who was this person? And where had they gone to? So many questions, thankfully he'd just been given all the time in the world. A new chance at life, and he planned to use it well.

As time passed Ulquiorra had become lost, simply counting his steps again like he used to so long ago not for any particular reason other than to keep his keen mind occupied on the mundane task. The walk didn't really bother him as it was just a means to an end, but as he passed through what looked like some sort of outer slums he did take not to stick to the shadows. Eventually he would pass through the outskirts and reach the border of Karakura City limits, though to him it was just some alien world. He gazed up looking a bit curious at the tall structures before him that threatened to reach up and touch the face of God. Finally, he placed his hands, both of them, into his pockets, and took his first step towards Karakura Central.