letter from (myself)

I breathe, and with that breath comes (life). (My) heart reaches, I speak, and with the sound of (myself) ringing in air I know (truth) and become (it). Separation exists only because we have forgotten that we are (one). The blood that falls is (mine), the pain that reverberates in you (I) feel too, and to not love (you) is to hate (myself). The sun which rises and falls, the stars that wheel, the moon that waxes and wanes, all exist with (myself), and (my) heart that beats with them. (I) who have been with (you) before, am with (you) now, and forever shall be within (yourself) as (you) are within (me).

When breath stops, know that (I) am not gone, as (I) am and always will be, as the (dance) whose steps have no beginning will never end, so (I) too continue. (Break) not any (heart), raise no (walls), bring no (harm) to another's (self). (Watch), and with eyes that (see) begin to perceive that which (is), and gain another lost (connection). Know that (I love you), and (love) is as eternal as the (dance) which (it) created.

Diary

People, places, faces;
All my life in words and phrases;
All I've thought and all I've known,
Treasured dreams I call my own;
All I love and all I fear
kept safe inside these pages here.

candle in fall

(for my peace of mind, blow out the candles when they're unattended)

(yes mother, leaning over and breathing in and a lock of hair is in the way and) it's not quite the same color as the flame, and that fits, because Fire is the Summer and the Sun, warm and Life Quickening, and the the hair is the same color as the leaves falling outside, chilled and dieing, and the Moon is waning, and the Darkest Night coming quick will be even darker than usual, and (quickly brushed aside with a huff, another breath, and a curling wisp of smoke is all that's left) and that's just perfect for this child of woe.

Grasp

- Bleach; Orihime, Ulquiorra

- . . . Are you afraid of me? Girl.

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It is the easiest question ever posed to her, only slightly shocked, and even that's gone by now, and she thinks that if every test in school were like it, maybe she could be as smart as Kurosaki-kun, and they could go to a REALLY BIG university together, and fall in love, and raise smart orange headed children that have weird powers, and live happily ever after --

Only, someone else's story is coming to an end, and she doesn't know why she thinks there should be tears, to be valiantly fought back, but they aren't there, and she feels so drained, she thinks she might not get up if she sat down. She can't sit down, she can't fall down, yet. This chapter isn't over, yet...

She remembers this, there is a cycle to this, and the test is fill-in-the-blank.

Step one: A person is born. Step two: A person dies. Step three a: A person's soul goes to Seireitei. Step three b: A person's soul transforms into a Hollow. Note: At any point after Step three b, it is still possible for a soul to go to theSeireitei after being purified by a Shinigami, see Step four a...

But there it gets fuzzy and she starts to wish she had taken better notes or not traded letters with Tatsuki-chan or stared at the teacher and not out the window, because this is the Really Important Part, and all she can remember is...

All of the Espada are of the Great Hollows -- they are the culmination of many souls, with one controlling the combined power.

Each Espada is a collection of souls.

Ulquiorra is a collection of souls.

Ulquiorra is -- was -- started out as just... a person...

She does not like him. She knows this with as stark a clarity as she knows that given the chance, she will unmake the Houguoku and ruin all that Aizen plans to do with it. She knows it like she knows that Kurosaki-kun will fight Aizen until one of them is dead, and that soon Tatsuki-chan will find out about everything, because Tatsuki-chan just doesn't let nakama go. She knows it like she knows that under different circumstances...

I'm finally starting to find you guys a little interesting.

She could have.

And anyone that is a friend of hers, or could be...

He deserves the truth, even if, a part of her is laughing hysterically, it isn't what he wants her to say.

"I'm not scared." Her voice does not shake, and tears do not fall, and the page has not yet turned, don't make the page turn, please.

He's so very, very still, and bits of him are still -- drifting away --

"I see."

Of course he does, she thinks; she had always suspected, that those eyes could see right through her. She reaches out --

It isn't fair, she thinks, as she grasps only the slightest bit of ash.

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"Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face." --Nelson DeMille

Push

- Bleach; Ulquiorra, Ichigo

- Careful and precise, all that one has ever had, one has taken

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The human's head snaps up and back -- and away from the sword coming towards him -- and Aizen's Fourth Sword is... curious.

"Inoue!"

A fool to leave an enemy to his back, especially one as dangerous as himself, and yet, there! Ulquiorra thinks.

A small thing, to intercept him. Even smaller, to block him... yet more than what it had taken before. Something floods him.

The shock from the two arrancer would have bowled him over, had he any care for it.

"Don't get the wrong idea; I'm not helping you."

"Outta my way." Bitten. Growled. Forced from jaw and tongue and...

"Make me." Slow for the moment. "If you want to fight anyone else, you'll have to kill me first."

"SHUT UP! Get outta my way!" ...screamed, as though throat and mouth could no longer contain the wild energy already etched in face and muscles.

He couldn't care less about the two arrancar. The same for the human girl... but this one; this not-Shinigami: like this, with rage flowing in eyes and words and that extra power behind sword...

Yes.

Ulquiorra would have the fight from this human.