A Man of the Past vs The Future's Nihilist

|| THE BEAT ||

|| ~N U B E | N E G R A~ ||











There was... a certain divinity to how empty and barren the landscape was here. No one could deny that. Not the simplest creatures, not the most complicated and powerful lifeforms. The decimated environment.. the dark and brooding air to the whole place.. It was a silent orchestra of a forgotten past. A city cloaked in chaos.. crushed by that which built it.. Almost poetic.. if one thought about it.

Currently in the air, an ominous feeling would cloud the city. It would be absolutely and completely obvious to anyone who entered, that something.. something was going to happen here today. It was near impossible to predict what, but even a powerless human with no knowledge of the spiritual world could sense that there was a serious warning floating in the air. It seemed to tell all beings to stay away at any cost. Because here.. soon.. there was to be an extremely dangerous and spontaneously destructive event..

It just so happened that a man walked this area. A man with his reiatsu hidden, no need to scare any wandering fools. The man walked with a noble air. Even though, given the history of the man, there was next to nothing noble about him. His black, straight hair hung loosely at his shoulders, as he had let it grow out without care for the past year or so since he had been re-summoned. If the particular style wasn't enough to identify this man, the eyes most likely would be. Two orbs of an acidic green, judgemental in their gaze, emotionless in their stare. Unlike the normal passer-by, this man's pupils were elongated vertically, much like a cat. Under his eyes began a black line, a black like on either side, that ran down his cheeks, running down like the path of tears falling from the eyes of the hopeless. And the despaired.

Of course.. that was the whole point.

This man, if you have not already guessed, was Ulquiorra Cifer. Former Fourth Espada, and the first arrancar to have ever unlocked the Segunda Etapa. The man of black and green, dressed in white, with his hands slipped nonchalantly into his pockets as he walked down sidestreets, feeling residual reiatsu from a battle that had happened in this area not to long ago. One of the espada, at least, one of the more current ones, far after his time, had been killed here. Ulquiorra had never known the man, personally, but he had heard much, and from what he had heard, the espada was a powerful fighter. It would have had to have been a fighter with some impressive capabilities to have taken that one out. From the stories, it had been a very quick battle, too. Ulquiorra tsked at the thought. What a pathetic excuse for an espada, losing before his duties could be fulfilled. Ulquiorra stopped, closing his eyes for a moment.

Yes, he had died too, at the hands of that blasted Kurosaki, but Aizen had told him to watch the palace of Las Noches as a final order, one that he followed to the letter until his prolonged death at the hands of Kurosaki Ichigo. But, at the very least, he had fulfilled his duty until the end.. instead of failing before getting anything relevant accomplished. What a buffoon.

The ex-espada sighed as he came across the main concentration of residual reiatsu, what seemed like a spot that had been burnt beyond all possible belief. It was like another hell in here. How this had occured was a mystery, but it meant that whoever had fought the espada had been no joking matter in the slightest... Ulquiorra closed his eyes, not even bothering to acknowledge the obvious, that there was another person there. A middle-aged man, by the looks of him, but appearances were most often always deceiving. Ulquiorra concentrated, using his Pesquisa to read the small reiatsu signature on the man. Sugiura, eh? Interesting. He didn't feel that powerful.. but then again, neither would Ulquiorra right now. Perception was a dangerous thing to trust.

Ulquiorra opened his eyes once more, turning to the man and staring blankly at him, his face unreadable as he spoke. "If you are here simply as an observer, then I will not fault you. However, if you would, by any chance, be the man who caused the death here, then I would have a word or two with you." Ulquiorra spoke plainly, his eerie and airy voice carrying over the burnt ground towards the man. Hopefully, he would not have to fight today. However... if he would have to fight.. then.. well.. he would show this man... The epitome..

Of True Despair.

|| THE BEAT ||

|| ~F I E S T A | D E | G U E R R A~ ||











This was... incredibly strange... Ulquiorra blinked in mild confusion, tilting his head at the man before him before returning it to its upright position and closing his eyes. He couldn't read anything about this man.. Usually, he could detect a power basis.. an origin.. Even, in some cases, where his opponent was from, based on the specific "scent" and feel of their reiatsu.. But this.. this man.. He was getting absolutely nothing from him. The ex-espada tsk'd, opening his eyes once more as the green orbs observed the being. What was he..? Obviously sugiura, that much Ulquiorra had discerned.. but what kind of being was this unreadable... this... blank? Ulquiorra's mind flashed back, way back to the only other time he had felt reiatsu that was this hard to read.. The only reiatsu that had perplexed him to this level beforehand...

Was that of Kurosaki Ichigo's.

Ulquiorra's gaze narrowed, turning into an emotionless and eerie glare. Suddenly he felt something burning at the pit of his stomach. A seething emotion that he had only felt one other time in his lifetime. Sure, he had resented a few, he had been irritated by some, and outrageously infuriated at others... But towards that miserable excuse for a human, Kurosaki, he had felt something different. Something more malicious.. Pure and writhing hatred. Of course, this man was not Kurosaki, that much was clear. However, the unpredictability of his reiatsu, his stance.. they both seemed reminiscent of the man who he had despised and sworn revenge against.

At this point, Ulquiorra must have seemed rather distant to the man. He would have apparently zoned out, for all intents and purposes. In fact, his blank expression would have glazed over completely with memories by this time. As he came back into focus of the present, he just barely caught the vibration in the air as the man began to speak.

"You can feel my energy, can you not? If you cannot..."

Ulquiorra observed silently, eyes seeing the swirling energy as the man seemed to struggle to output even this much. Ulquiorra's eyes opened only a fourth of an inch more, an inquisitive gesture, on his part. It was.. a convincing act. A very good play on weakness. Whether it was genuine, or not, Ulquiorra did not know. However, he would not be so foolish as to let his eyes or his senses deceive him again. He would wait until he was absolutely sure.. and test if necessary.. until he knew one way or the other, who this man really was. As the energy levels emanating from the being lowered once more, Ulquiorra tuned in as he again spoke.

"Whoo! S-see? Haah... haah... I ha-have not even the energy to defeat a C-captain, let alone someone of th-that guy's power... I was... simply watching... Unfortunately, I have no idea who the other party was. I have not been in this world long enough... no, I have not even existed long enough to understand who I see before me."

Ulquiorra tsk'd, turning his body sideways and lowering his head, closing his eyes and dwelling on the wording of that. The one defeated here... if this man truly was at a lieutenant's level.. if that reiatsu could even be called that.. How would he have survived being spectator to a battle of two beings at that strength? It was obvious, now, that this sugiura was hiding something. It was, however, best, that the man did not know that Ulquiorra suspected this. Better then to test the man, see how strong he really was. If he truly was the man who killed Kimimaro.. Ulquiorra was not out to seek vengeance, but he would enjoy a warm up before he faced Kurosaki once more..

Ulquiorra breathed in a soft sigh of irritation before speaking:

"Fool. Unless your appearance really is as deceptive as it seems, you are nowhere near of age to know of me." Ulquiorra moved his right foot ahead of his left, slightly, shifting his weight to the right for a bit of comfort. "Sadly.. experience and intelligence have taught me never to trust how a person appears. Or, oddly enough, the output that you suspect to be their maximum.." Ulquiorra tsk'd, closing his eyes once more, "I once made the mistake of trusting perception. Interpreting what I felt as little threat to be just that. Do you know where I ended up because of that...?"

In one swift movement, Ulquiorra sonidoed faster than most current espada could have. He was stronger than the current breed, he had much more experience, training, and power behind his form then the batch under Ashlei's command. His sonido carried him directly behind the man, a finger at his back with a cero three-quarters charged, ready to fire.

Ulquiorra spoke, only one word, to complete his statement:

"Dead."

And with that, Ulquiorra let the cero loose, if the man had not moved as Ulquiorra appeared behind him, Ulquiorra would fire it straight. If the man had moved before the attack was launched, however, Ulquiorra would point the acid-green reiatsu blast in whatever direction the man had dodged to. Instantaneously after doing so, he would sonido back to his original position, hands in his pockets as if nothing had happened at all..

Now.. all there was left to do, was to see if the man would be incinerated by the blast, saved by intuition...

Or saved by his own power, a strength kept hidden until now...

Ulquiorra, for one, could not wait to find out.