tampered | log; complete

log; complete

When; February 18th, afternoonish
Rating; pg15ish for fighting~
Characters; Hinamori [

hajikemomo], Ulquiorra [

eyezen_sama], Nemu [

sciencedaughter], Grimmjow [

6thsword]
Summary; Affected by the wrath curse, Ulquiorra challenges Hinamori in an effort to see just what she can do.
Log;

Well this was bad.

She'd managed to escape the Espada so far, but keeping track of Nell and staying out of his way was proving difficult. And to make matters worse...

It was laughing, giggling away in the back of her head as Hinamori flash stepped again, following Ichigo's reiatsu at a slight distance. He had things under control, so it wasn't like she needed to try and capture Nell herself. She didn't trust herself to, really, not with that thing making so much noise.

The vice captain was just glad she hadn't been affected by the curse, or it probably wouldn't be doing all it's shouting and giggling in her head.

Flash stepping again she veered off course, suddenly aware of the Espada she'd been trying to avoid getting very close. Not good. A hand came to rest on Tobiume as she assessed her situation. The forest was closest, and she gathered her reiatsu to her to hide it as she ducked into the tree line, to disappear until he stopped following for a while.

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So she was headed for the forest, was she? Quaint.

Ulquiorra followed the trail of her reiatsu, anger burning slowly throughout his body. He was aware it was a curse, aware this sort of emotion rarely affected him, but it was an ample excuse to see the girl's tricks up close.

Striding through the trees, he set his mouth in a frown, irritation rising higher as he was forced to step around roots and other such obstacles. Of course she would run. Trash always ran. "You cannot hide, peach."

Biting back a snarl as the inner hollow laughed again, Hinamori tightened her grip on Tobiume. He wasn't giving up.

Fine.

Maybe she'd be able to get in a well aimed kidou and leave it at that. She dropped soundlessly from the tree she had chosen as her hiding place, hands already moving for the seals, murmuring the incantation quickly, "Wall of iron sand, pagoda of priestly form, shimmering fireflies of iron, fill until the silent end." Tobiume was unsheathed just in case. "Bakudou seventy-five: Gochuu Tekan!"

There. Without the hollows help, the perfect kidou binding spell, and a high level one too. Hinamori allowed herself a small smile as the five pillars crashed down to capture the curse-affected Espada.

He stopped as the spell came down around him, singing with complex weavings of power and quite the strong backing. Strong, if it had come down around anyone other than himself.

Closing his eyes, Ulquiorra sent out a wave, and shattered the spell. It came down around him and he stepped through, turning his neutral gaze to her. Sighing softly, he drew his Zampakutou, almost surprised at how long it had been. "Do try to make this worth my time."

That was surprising. But then again not really, given that she knew he was of a higher rank than Grimmjow. How much higher, though, she did not know. But he was higher than Zaera-Polo, too and the two times she had encountered him had left her badly injured, even if the second time she'd landed a near fatal blow.

...Her hollow had landed a near fatal blow.

Slipping into a defensive stance, Tobiume raised to act as a buffer, she ran through all the kidou spells in her mind, assessing the surroundings and the Espada in front of her. The hollow screamed again and she winced slightly, trying hard to ignore what it was saying to her, to keep her grip tight and attention focused. There was no way she'd give in.

"Troubles?" he murmured, noticing the flinch. She really didn't seem like she wanted to fight, which was almost amusingly pathetic. Shinigami and their pious restraints. How irritating.

"If you are quite finished thinking.." And he stepped forward, his blade low and relaxed in his hand. He did not think he would even need it.

"None," came her snarled response, grip tightening.

He was underestimating her, and even though Hinamori wanted nothing more than to get out of there and get back to keeping Nell out of trouble, she knew he would chase her around the City until she couldn't go any further.

Fine. "Hajike!" The shinigami vice captain let her zanpakuto explode, all guards on her reiatsu gone as the shikai blade fired, pushing her back to crouch in the dirt, sword arm out and ready to spring forward, to retaliate.

Bringing up his blade to block the blast, he let himself slide back, narrowing his eyes at the heat. He shook the burnt peices of cloth from his arm, surprised to see red welts rising on his skin.

"Ah, I have misjudged you." He could see now her level of power, higher than he had originally calculated. She was quite reckless. He would soon get his quarry. "No matter." He gripped his blade with two hands, and advanced again.

She didn't like the way he was playing with her, taunting her. Tobiume countered the hollows voice and the vice captain slowly allowed her reiatsu to leak out and cushion her, all the while looking for an opening she could use to escape.

She bypassed the incantation, "Hadou thirty-three: Soukatsui!" slipping out quickly as her hands and mouth flew to finish the next step, "Bone of a straggling beast, spire, crimson crystal, disc of steel, when the wind shifts, and the emptiness ceases, let the clash of lances resonate through the relinquished castle. Hadou sixty-three: Raikouhou!" both kidou spells launched right at the Espada as the vice captain turned to flee, shunpyo kicking in to carry herself away faster.

More incantations. His frown deepening, Ulquiorra cut through one and side stepped the other, his anger rising again at her behavior. Throwing reckless attacks at him, not facing him seriously.. Not facing him at all.

Seeing her form retreat before him, he launched forward, catching up and raising his arm to strike her from behind.

He was faster than anticipated and though she brought Tobiume round to defend herself it wasn't fast enough and the vice captain found herself sprawled on the ground, coughing and gasping for air. Tobiume lay some feet away.

Struggling to regain her feet with the aid of a tree Hinamori turned back to Ulquiorra, free hand clutched at her chest. Ouch. The hollow was screaming for revenge and she flash stepped to regain her blade, to have cold steel to hand between them if nothing else.

"You seemed faster against Grimmjow." he said, raising his blade with the slightest sigh. "But then again, most would seem faster against him."

He tipped his head to the side, reading her for a moment, anticipating what moves she would make. And then he was in front of her, bringing his blade down, silent with the strike.

Tobiume was up in a flash, catching his blade on one of the jitte prongs and twisting it away as her eyes narrowed and expression became deathly serious. "Are you so desperate to see it?"

The arrancar certainly seemed to have an obsession with Vizards.

"You've given me no reason to need to it. Grimmjow didn't either, not until the end." Another twist of her blade, forcing his away and to the side as Tobiume swung back, aimed for his throat as pink and red energy flew up and down the length of steel.

"And you are giving me little reason to try harder." He let his blade fall away, his expression never changing.

Her blade came close, close enough for him to feel the heat, bitter and sharp against the flesh of his hollow hole. His eye twitched, distinctly uncomfortable with some little girl's blade coming so close to that.

Moving forward as her blade swung past, he raised his hand, palm centered on her face, a cero blast growing swiftly. "Goodbye, peach."

How unoriginal. Once again, an arrancar trying to launch a cero in her face. She snarled visibly, suppressing the hollows giggling as she forced Tobiume to respond, to snap back as she threw herself to the right, out of the way of the blast.

It exploded, narrowly missing the vice captain but showering her in wood splinters, some slicing into flesh and sticking. Tobiume hung limp in her hand, Hinamori breathing hard. She hated being underestimated.

If he wanted to see it then, he could see it. "It's not over yet, Ulquiorra!" Her left hand raised, ignoring droplets of blood and slivers of wood, intent on pulling the mask on.

"Good girl," he said, almost smiling as she raised her hand. The mask. Thats all he wanted to see. She could have done it from the begining and saved herself quite a bit of trouble.

As it was, he was growing tired of the fight. He did not want this to go on too long, and no doubt she would be quite troublesome with the added boost of her hollow. "And I will give you a treat, then."

Raising his blade, he prepared to release, feeling the swell of power, the welcoming feel of coming home to his true form...

Nemu had orgininally come to the forest to moniter the constantly flaring reiatsu of other shinigami. She'd felt Zaraki-taichou, Unohana-taichou, even others, but it was one group that concerned her more than others. Ulquiorra and Hinamori Momo. And it was with the slightest hint of shame that the creation felt worry and concern not just for one, but for both. She had known her prescense alone would not deter a fight, not this day, with people so consumed with wrath, a sin, a curse. ... So she had gone to fetch Grimmjow Jaggerjack.

And now they had come.

"Ulquiorra." Nemu's voice was even, steady, a flash step carrying her to his side, and her hand reaching to the hilt of his blade, though his reiatsu was making her skin crawl. She did not try to move the sword, however, only placing her hands over his, trusting Grimmjow to handle what Hinamori was attempting to do. "Please cease." She did not expect him to take this well, but she was not unused to other's anger and abuse. It would be a typical response, and she was aware of this.

Grimmjow had been killing things all day, everything he could get his blade through, though he was lucky he had enough of his own sanity to keep his anger in check. He hadn't exploded anything—yet.

When Nemu had informed him of the fight between Ulquiorra and Hinamori, he snapped out of his current bloodlust long enough to realize what might happen if the fight wasn't stopped. He raced to the forest, and upon seeing the two combatants, flash-stepped to Hinamori's side and snatched up her raised arm.

"No," he growled into her ear, not at her but at the hollow that screamed within her.

Her gaze slipped to the arrancar at her side, a little confused as to how - and why - he'd known and come. Then again, her reiatsu was always noticeable when it was unleashed given that it couldn't be found at any other time, and Nemu...

Her hand was shaking and she hated the show of weakness, Tobiume dropping to the ground as she averted her eyes down, ashamed. The now free hand moved to clutch Grimmjows jacket meekly, the vice captain turning away from Nemu and Ulquiorra but not - refusing to - looking up.

There was nothing she could say to him anyway.

Ulquiorra snapped closed the doorways that would bring a release, stepping back, senses assaulted by such an act. Of course he should have felt them approaching, but anger from the insufferable curse had blinded him.

Grimmjow was there, with his precious peach, now far from his grasp and without her mask. It was infuriating. Blindingly so. The desire to destroy them all pulled at him and he clenched his jaw, knowing he must not or he would face bitter consequences.

Still, that was not satisfying enough. Turning his eyes to the one blocking his path, he lashed out, backhanding her hard across the face.

She should have expected that. Did expect that. But she made no move to try and avoid the action, to lessen the sting or block with an arm or blade. Her face snapped to the side, long braid whipping out behind her as she was forced to step back to avoid falling from being shoved off balance. It took the creation a moment, body slightly bent, to compose herself before straightening, a small hint of blood on her bottom lip where she had bit it gritting her teeth, an angry red mark clear on her cheek and stinging fiercely. ... But she was used to that, too. It was how Mayuri-sama hit her, and she knew how to react, how to turn her body, how to move with it.

"Ulquiorra." She repeated again, voice still the same and eyes meeting his evenly.

Hinamori wouldn't look at him, wouldn't talk to him, so Grimmjow twisted to snarl at Ulquiorra. While not quite as cursed as the others, it didn't take much for his anger to flare at the mere situation. Ulquiorra versus Hinamori? The ex-Espada didn't want to even think about the outcome.

With nothing to say to his former comrade, Grimmjow turned back to Hinamori and lowered her arm to her side. "Let's go," he said quietly, fiercely, nudging her in the City's direction. He'd deal with Ulquiorra later if necesary. He had to get Hinamori to a healer first.

How could she just leave though? "No." Not when Ulquiorra had struck Nemu, might do worse if they left. Not even Grimmjows tone could dissuade her though she knew it should.

"Not without Nemu." The vice captain turned, taking a step forward, towards the other two, gaze slipping only as she bent to retrieve her zanpakuto, sheathing it. "I'm fine." Though if the last part was to reassure him or herself, she did not know.

His eyes slid over to the traitor, still churning with unexpressed anger. He never had any manners, in any case.

And there was that brave front again from the girl. The determination he had looked forward to seeing crushed and stamped out before him.

And while the urge to end their disgusting existance was still quite strong, he worked through the useless emotions and remembered the work he had done towards other goals. "Take her," he said, stepping back, mustering up enough resistance to his own rage to soften his expression. "I will not harm her again."

Nemu would have been confused by his words, saying he would not harm her to Hinamori? - if she hadn't known about his experiment. Presenting a facade of care for her, to see how others would react. And yet the words still confused her, or, would have- she didn't know. Her eyes fell as she stayed silent, hands folding in front of her as they were apt to do when she was presenting her own image of politeness, of demure, of servitude.

"Thank you, Ulquiorra, for ceasing." She murmured softly, gaze on the Arrancar's feet and vastly relieved he had been able to curb his appetite for rage. ... She would not have liked to see how that would have turned out.

"Tch. You won't harm her again? Stop pullin' our legs." Grimmjow slid his hands into his pockets and would've turned and walked away if not for the fact that Hinamori had made no move to follow him. Nemu hadn't budged, either. What the hell was wrong with shinigami?

"Oi, Nemu," he shouted at the twelfth's vice captain. "Let's go already." Turning his attention back to Hinamori, he reached out and gently grasped her arm, tugging to urge her to follow him. "You too, 'cause you definitely are not fine."

Hinamori winced slightly at the tug, splinters digging in a little deeper but she didn't complain. She could think about Ulquiorra's words later, even if it did irritate her that Grimmjow didn't believe her assertion. No matter that it had been a lie.

She meekly mumbled a response, letting the arrancar lead her and not wanting to put forth much more effort. The whole day had drained her.

Ulquiorra closed his eyes with a sigh, turning away before his control slipped. He supposed it was better this way, in the long run, but he did not enjoy being interrupted. Perhaps next time, he would simply make sure Grimmjow was out of the way..

Not caring as to what they did now, he simply walked away.

Her eyes wavered, looking after the backs of the Arrancar whose company she kept and the other two. Meekly, she lowered her head, one hand coming to her cheek as she walked off after Hinamori Momo and Grimmjow Jaggerjack.

It stung.

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