In the Grip of Madness | By : phoenixreal Category: Bleach > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3818 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
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Chapter Six
When Healing Begins
[Year 11, Month 3, Day 19]
Aizen held Ichigo in his lap as he sat against the head of his lush bed and looked out over into the room. He was restless, tossing and turning, and muttering things that were disturbing, to say the least. Even Aizen was hard pressed not to be bothered by some of the things that came from Ichigo during his less lucid times. It was so strange for Aizen, though. He threaded his fingers through the long strands of hair and found himself smiling at it. Such strength wrapped in fragility. There was a poetic nature to the idea that such a powerful creature could only be brought low by his own loved ones. He hummed to himself and was thoughtful until he shifted in his lap.
“Water pours,” Ichigo muttered and opened his eyes suddenly locking eyes with Aizen.
Aizen saw that he wasn’t lucid at all. His eyes were unfocused and flickering around his face. He sighed and felt him shudder in his hands. “Water…it pours down inside, and I can’t stop it…” he said as he crawled up and straddled Aizen’s lap suddenly.
“Water?” Aizen asked with a slight frown as he adjusted him so his legs were fully supported Ichigo’s weight.
During his sleeping, he’d become wrapped up in a sheet and now it drooped off one bare shoulder and Aizen could see the first of the claiming marks. He moved his fingers up and touched the wound gently. Ichigo’s breath stilled and he held it for a moment. He blinked and looked at Aizen for a second before Aizen realized he was crying.
“Ichigo?” he asked, putting a hand against his face. Ichigo turned into it and licked across his palm.
“I want you to claim me…” he said morosely. “Master…you love me? Right?” he asked, eyes flickering still.
Aizen reached up with his other hand and gripped both sides of Ichigo’s face. “Oh, my dear, of course.”
And to his surprise, Aizen realized that he wasn’t lying. He cares about what happened to him now. At first, it had been a power play. It had been simple. A way to gain power, but somehow, it was changing. He felt complete with Ichigo near him, and his pain genuinely distressed him. He’d never thought this could happen. Ichigo was a vehicle, much the same as Momo and Toshiro and Ukitake… He realized with startling clarity that in the last few weeks his thoughts had been centered on Ichigo and Ichigo alone.
“My dear, what do you mean that you want me to claim you? We’ve been together already,” he said as he brushed one hand over his head.
“Like this,” he said and pointed to the mark. “Like this, not like…I need this!” he exclaimed and scrambled off the bed.
Ichigo was suddenly frantic as he wrestled free of the sheet and ran to the mirror that was nearby. He lifted his eyes and locked onto his reflection.
“Who are you?” he whispered to it.
He flinched when Aizen put hands on his shoulders. “It is just you,” he answered him.
“It’s not, that’s not…not…who am I now?” he gasped out, eyes roving his body.
The claiming marks were stark in contrast to his pallid skin. It wasn’t the color of Shiro’s skin, but it was a lot closer than it had been before. He reached up and ran his fingers down his cheeks, fingers shaking. He wanted to digs his nails into the flesh. He wanted to make the blood pour down like tears. It was all the same. Tears and water and blood…all was life, and he was dying…
“Ichigo,” Aizen said and ran his hands up the outside of Ichigo’s bare arms. “These, these are your arms, they are strong and the will wield your Zanpakutō again, and you will be stronger than you ever have been.
Ichigo shivered at the touch as he moved his fingers around to his stomach. He ran his hands up the flat plane of his belly and over his protruding ribs. It was a mass of scar tissue, more pinkish than skin colored for the most part. “And this, Ichigo, this is your upper body, and inside it, you have such strength and stamina,” Aizen whispered. He ran fingers up to his pectoral muscles and traced the lines up too his collarbone. “You will stand and fight, and here,” he continued and ran his hands down to his chest. “Here is the heart that no matter what happens, even I cannot turn in a direction you don’t wish to go.”
Ichigo was shivering from his touching him and what he was saying. Aizen’s hands moved down and rested on his hips. “This is your lower body.” Ichigo winced as his hands moved down the crease of his pelvis and hips. “This carries you and is the seat of your passions, your fire comes from here, and it is that that fuels your desires,” he said, hands carefully sliding down outside his thighs now.
“And here are your legs, that move with speed and grace and that will never change. You move and stand and between all these parts, you are who you have always been. Nothing has changed. You are the same person you have always been; it is simply clouded.”
Aizen ran his hands around and up the front of his hipbones, up his sides and around to his back. He slid them up to his neck and leaned closer as he placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. “But importantly, here is your beautiful and amazing mind.”
“It isn’t beautiful, or amazing.” Ichigo turned to look at Aizen. “It’s messed up and screwy, and I can’t think straight, and I can’t even think about what has happened, and I can’t tell you…” Aizen saw he was getting frustrated. “I can’t…I can’t even tell you…that…I can’t!”
“Ah, my dear, don’t. It will take time, but we will find a way to help you.”
“How?” he begged, looking up at him with pleading eyes. “How…how do you undo…this fucked up thing I’ve become…” he said and looked away from him.
“I will not undo what you have become,” he said and tilted his head upward to look at him. “What you have endured is part of you and cannot be undone. Instead I will help you get through it and survive it. That’s what must happen,” he said with definitive nod.
Ichigo’s eyes began to blink rapidly and Aizen knew he was phasing out of lucidity. “Shiro says that I should just go die because I am nothing but a worthless whore.”
“You should not listen to that Shiro, he is not the real one. You told me your Spirits loved you and would not say such things.”
“But…I just…and I’m so hot,” he muttered and wrapped his arms around Aizen and panted into his kusodo. “Hot, can’t…this…fire burns away the water and the blood just starts to spray out from the open wounds…” he said seriously and looked up at Aizen with wide eyes. “I can see them, when I get hot…the one with four legs…the one with the tusks…I see them when I get hot…their faces and how horrible and I screamed so much, and…”
“Shh, I think we need to find another one of the Espada, my dear. Who would you like see now?”
Ichigo, though, had completely lost purchase on the reality around him as he started to wander toward the door, still stark naked. Aizen grabbed a yukata and manipulated his arms into it before he stepped out into the hallway. He had started chewing on his thumbnail and looking around him. Even Aizen could smell the smell he exuded. It was somewhat sweet, unlike what Ichigo described from the Espada. It wasn’t musky or floral, it was simply…a sweet smell. Aizen wondered if the others could smell something more than that.
“Something…shut up Shiro, I know that…” he muttered as he wandered the hallways as Aizen walked behind him. He watched as he growled at a couple of Arrancar that passed him. They glanced at Ichigo oddly then moved on. Ichigo was constantly talking to his voices as he moved. He stopped suddenly in the middle of the hallway and looked around him.
“He’s nearby,” he muttered and Aizen realized the smell was growing in intensity.
“What the hell…” he heard and looked down the hall to see one of the doors open and Nnoitra stick his head out and lock eyes with Ichigo. “Oh…” he muttered and felt his mouth flood with saliva and all his blood rush with a dizzying sensation to his cock.
Ichigo teetered beside Aizen for a second before he walked slowly toward him. Nnoitra smiled, revealing his wide piano toothed smile. “I got him, Aizen-sama. I plan to fuck his stupid before I’m done with him,” he muttered and snatched Ichigo up into his arm. He already felt him nearly purring in his throat.
“See that he gets back to our room,” Aizen said as he walked away. He paused again, shaking his head at the strange sensation in his chest. He opened his kusodo and looked down at the hogyuku, realizing that it felt…different. He shook it away. It still did his bidding, and created new Arrancar for him, that was all that mattered. At least, that’s what he thought.
Nnoitra had been in the middle of sparring with a couple new Arrancar, fully released, of course. He looked at the ones watching him from their positions around the practice room. “Get the fuck out,” he said and they scattered, already feeling Nnoitra’s pulsing reiatsu.
Ichigo was squirming in his arms and he put him on his feet, holding him up with two hands while he stripped him with another pair. He growled under his breath. He hadn’t felt this in so long. To be honest, he kind of had missed the full heats that the lower Arrancar had. Sure, Tesla had heats and could bear young, but they weren’t like this. And young were rarely a result. This, though, this was the primal urges that they had tried to give up.
He ran another set of his hands up and down Ichigo’s sides, one pausing at his cock and stroking him. “You are a randy little fucker, aren’t you,” he muttered as he locked eyes with the clouded ones in front of him.
“Please, Nnoi…hot. I’m so hot, and its flooding me, and I have to stop it…” he gasped out as Nnoitra moved, turning him to face away from him and holding him suspended with two of his hands while he began stroking him with one in the front.
A fourth hand slipped down and three fingers slipped easily into him. It was nearly as wet as…a heating beta. He swallowed. Not even Tesla got this wet in his heat. It must have had something to do with Szayelaporro’s meddling. He ripped open his pants and couldn’t wait a second longer. He shifted Ichigo and slammed upward into him, using two hands to hold him up by his thighs, and two to hold onto his upper body, while the others were busy teasing nipples and cock at the same time. He let out a very inhuman scream, almost a hollow call.
“Oh, you like that, huh?” Nnoitra asked as he used his arms to slide him up and down slowly on him.
“Ah…you’re…so deep inside…” Ichigo whined out, hands clutching desperately at Nnoitra’s shoulders behind him. He was significantly longer than the others had been. Grimmjow beat him in girth, as did Ulquiorra, but Nnoitra was long and lanky. He seemed to be at the right position to rub incessantly against his prostate. “Ah, it’s coming fast this time,” he whimpered as an intense orgasm slammed into him. Nnoitra gasped as his own orgasm was pulled from him with a great deal of surprise.
“Holy fuck,” he groaned as he realized he was hard again without even moving out of his slick hole. “Ah, first round, always fast, Ichi-baby,” he muttered as he bucked upward to get to the claiming. He leaned in and licked at his neck gently beside one of the other marks and bit down as he felt Ichigo slide down over the edge again, harder this time, and he released inside him with a blast of reiatsu.
Nnoitra, though he had never had the inclination to care for his betas afterward, found himself wrapping him up in all six of his arms and holding him tightly to his chest as he dropped into his bed with him. He felt something strange in his chest, though. Then, the anger began to rise. How could those bastards in Soul Society have possibly done this to him? How? He intended to rip whatever Shinigami he came across first into tiny pieces, and then he’d shove those pieces down the throat of the next one he saw…
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Aizen looked up from the book he was reading as he felt the pulsing reiatsu. He wondered if it had been enough. Somehow he doubted, it though. There had been too many foreign reiatsu signatures. He sighed and put the book down. He looked up as Jatya came into the room, looking worried and upset.
“Segunda,” he said with a smile. “Is there something you require?”
“Aizen-sama, um, I can’t…can’t claim that beta…I mean…I already did…before you made me more powerful, so I doubt it will help if I did claim him,” he mumbled and looked at the floor as he spoke.
“Segunda, you will do as you are ordered. He has chosen you. I must clear him of the foreign reiatsu before I use the hogyuku on him. You will complete the claiming just as the others have and will,” Aizen said with a sigh as he picked up his book.
Jatya sighed and headed back to his castle, infinitely worried that he would end up having to claim the beta. He couldn’t even think his name. All he could see was that scared creature trapped in a cage with him in the beastly form he had as an adjunca. He bit down on his lip and relished his human features, but he hadn’t had them when he saw the beta before. He’d been more animal than anything. Some of them didn’t remember what happened before they became Arrancar. Jatya remembered everything in incredible clarity.
He went into the room and grabbed a bottle of the distilled liquor that came from one of Alma’s mushrooms when it was fermented. It was the strongest he had, and as he knocked back a glass and the just swigged from the bottle, he knew he was going to need more.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
[Year 11, Month 3, Day 20]
Nnoitra woke with Ichigo entwined in his multiple arms. He let his release mode go and sat up. He heard Ichigo mumbling and he sat up and looked at him. “Still…still, raining, blooding, it’s killing me…” he said as he got up, stark naked again as he headed for the door.
“Whoa, wait a minute, you need to put on this,” he said, grabbing the yukata. As he wrestled the body into the robe he thought to himself, why did he care if he was naked or not? What did it matter? It did matter, though, and as he followed him out into the halls of Las Noches again, he realized the extent of that thought.
He nearly ran into Estrella as they passed Segunda’s castle entrance. Ichigo stopped and looked through her into the doorway. He moved toward it and then pushed it open, following the scent that was luring him, fragrant spices and something else…
Ichigo came into a large open room where the Segunda Espada was sitting on a sofa with a bottle in his hand. He looked up and stood up suddenly. “What…what are you…” he gasped out.
“He came to you, Segunda. Take him back to Aizen when yer done with him,” Nnoitra said and walked out past Estrella who stood staring in the doorway. She watched him go, seeing that he didn’t bother insulting her like usual.
Ichigo was shaking, though. Even though he was following pure instinct, and the hollow drives could not be resisted no matter if he had his full mind or not, he was afraid and his mind was spiraling to the monstrous creature that Jatya had once been. Estrella sighed and smiled at Jatya softly.
“Take care, Jatya. I’ll be outside if you need me,” she said and left quickly, already feeling the rising levels of power coming from the Segunda.
Jatya stood staring for a long time at the trembling Shinigami before him. He felt the pulling instincts too, and he was going to have to answer them. Not doing so would drive him mad and might make it harder for the Shinigami to survive.
“I don’t want to do this,” Jatya said. “Not after…after what I did before…” he whispered and turned away, putting his bottle down on the table beside the sofa.
Ichigo moved toward him, lured and unable to stop it. This was an Arrancar, not the adjunca hollow that had nearly killed him in the cell. This wasn’t a situation where he was powerless, either. He hadn’t been drugged and unable to fight. He swallowed a thick ball at the back of his throat. It was strange, his most lucid times were when he was with one of the Espada like this, during the claiming. It seemed that answering the instincts quieted the rest of his unstable mind. If nothing else, he was glad of that fact. To be sane for a short time, even like this…
Even so, Ichigo grabbed the bottle and sucked down a long drink of the burning liquid. Jatya turned around and gasped, grabbing the bottle out of his hand. Ichigo blinked at him, and then the world was spinning madly. Everything blurred for a long time and when it cleared he was looking at the white ceiling and felt like he’d been sick.
Jatya had seen the strong drink hit him, and he very nearly passed out. He’d gotten him into the bath and tried to wake him, and then his body rejected the potent drink. After a quick washing for both, Jatya had put him in his bed. His own drunkenness had burned off during his worry over the beta.
“That was dangerous,” Jatya said as he leaned over Ichigo and considered his eyes. As soon as he got close, though, Ichigo moaned and his hands reached for him. Jatya wanted to bat his hands away but he couldn’t as he simply leaned down onto him, nuzzling into his neck as his body reacted to the beta.
“I’m so…so hot…please…I need…you to do this…” he whispered to him.
“You don’t know what you ask,” Jatya said softly as he crawled on top of the beta, hands running up the inside of his thighs. “You are a slave to the instincts that I am a slave to.”
“No…” Ichigo muttered as he arched and felt the thrumming feelings run through him. “I’m clearer now than I have been…please…I know…it wasn’t you…” he muttered and Jatya couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Ah, I’m so sorry,” he muttered as he lifted Ichigo’s hips and slid down into the wet warmth. It was dripping around him and the bed under where Ichigo was lying was wet from the secretions. He groaned deeply as he held himself inside the beta.
It was different, though, to do this with a mind and not as a creature with no thought. He slid back and forth, stroking Ichigo’s legs as he did so, watching as his cock disappeared inside a willing body below him. He flashed briefly to the horrific and bloody… No. That wasn’t him, not anymore. He was an Arrancar now, not a mindless hollow. He stroked Ichigo as he thrust into him slowly and steadily until they both fell down the first crest. Jatya was still, letting the second wave come over him, and this time, gentleness was gone, and he slammed their bodies together with a fervor that came from claiming someone so powerful. He leaned down and found a space on his neck and bit down. The second his teeth pierced the flesh, Ichigo screamed out as he fell hard from the pleasurable crest. Jatya followed, his powerful reiatsu slamming into them with a near snapping sound.
Jatya fell to the side and allowed himself to answer the needs to care for the beta after the claiming. He shifted them away from the soaked sheets and pulled him into his arm. Ichigo looked up with eyes starting to cloud. “I forgive you,” he whispered before his eyes fluttered and tears started to leak from his eyes… “But not enough…not enough…” he whispered as he fell into a deep sleep in Jatya’s arms. Jatya bit down on his lip and pulled him close again and let sleep claim him.
-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-
Present
[Year 11, Month 6, Day 4]
“Imelda!” someone screamed and Rukia came awake with a start. She was curled against Renji who also jumped.
“What is it?” came the Arrancar’s voice.
“The labor has started, hurry!” and then they heard a long low moan.
“Dammit Imelda!” Dima screamed. “I am never letting this happen again! I’m going to go hide the next time I go into heat!”
“It is fine, just relax,” Imelda said.
The group got up and moved over toward where Imelda was behind the curtains with Dima. She looked up as they approached. “You can witness, if you like. I am sure this is very unlike the births that you are used to seeing. They are similar, as our forms attempt to mimic human shape and function.”
“Stop instructing!” Dima snapped as he sat and rocked on the side of his bed. “While you’re over there telling them what happens, I’m actually going through it!” he growled.
“He’s a bit touchy because the first stage is beginning. The bodies of hollows don’t always have instant regeneration; this is one exception. The spiritual energy begins to pool near the reiatsu chamber, and then it tears an opening from inside the body to the outside. That is where the young exit. However, the process is painful. There is very little blood loss, however, due to the regeneration that is triggered in all betas. That is a hallmark of most betas, as well,” she said as she sat beside Dima and rubbed his back.
“What is a hallmark?” Renji asked as he watched with interest.
“Instant regeneration, idiot Shinigami!” Dima growled. “Most betas…have it to cope…with the birthing process…”
“Ichigo’s hollow has instant regeneration…” Rukia said thoughtfully. “That…that makes sense.”
“Your Shinigami is quite special. He is not only one with the instant regeneration, but a powerful beta as well. However, that has made his situation very difficult up there, as I’ve felt the reiatsu spikes of most of them. They could have other mates, however,” Imelda said, trying to encourage the watching group.
“Spikes…when one of them claim him as a mate?” Uryū asked as he leaned against the poll the curtain hung from.
“Yes, it is a distinctly different type of reiatsu, made to announce to the world that the alpha has mated a beta, a warning, if you will, for others to stay away. Sort of a preening of sorts,” Imelda said with a smile. “A mark of pride, as well as the transference of the soul for birthing. Of course, among lower hollows, it serves to ward their beta from any interlopers.”
Dima jumped up and started chanting something quietly as he paced back and forth, using it to regulate his breathing. It was something about Incense and Peppermints. Orihime watched as Dima’s reiatsu began to shift, and finally he growled.
“They’re going to come,” he said, panting as he dropped to his knees.
“Alright, just breath, I’ll guide them,” Imelda said. She placed both hands on Dima’s belly.
“What are you doing?” Chad asked curiously from behind the others.
“Guiding them with my energy. Unlike living beings, there is no mechanism to push, so the alpha’s job is the help them from the chamber through the birthing. A hollow alone during birthing often dies because of this,” she said as a glow of her reiatsu encompassed Dima’s belly.
“Ho…oh…wow…that…never again, Imelda,” he gasped out as he returned to chanting the song. Renji moved forward and took one of his hands and then regretted it. Dima held it tightly and pushed down on it, seeking resistance as Imelda reached under to retrieve one of the squirming creatures that seemed to be already walking…
“Ah, no, little one, stay put,” she said gently. She looked up at the surprised Shinigami. “They’re born walking. Survival requires it,” she added as the process was repeated. The little Arrancar had sat down and was sucking on his fingers. Already, they could feel it’s reiatsu as the other one was picked up.
Dima flopped down onto his ass and fell over onto the floor panting. “Oh I’m so glad that’s over,” he whispered and fell immediately into a deep sleep. Imelda smiled and gathered up the two little boy Arrancar. She smiled at the group and showed them the two little creatures.
“Liron and Lior are their names,” Imelda said as they squirmed in her arms. “They will grow rapidly, doubling in size within a week or so.”
Rukia looked at them and they both locked eyes on her. They had slightly reddish brown how, and each one had a mask fragment behind an ear that looked like a feather. Lior, the slightly smaller of the two, had his behind his left ear. Liron’s was behind his right ear. They appeared to be as close to identical as possible other than the one feature.
“Will they have Resurrections and things like that?” Uryū asked, frankly amazed.
“One day when their spiritual energy matures. For now, they feed off the spiritual energy of the alpha and beta. The ambient reishi also provides energy to them, so they do not require consuming of souls. Though here they will eat some foods that we make for them. These are our first young, so we are excited for it,” Imelda said as she handed one of to the owl Arrancar Maxi as he approached.
“Here, Maxi, hold them for a second so I can put Dima into bed,” she said as she handed over the other one. Maxi nodded and smiled at both in turn.
Imelda reached down and hefted Dima up easily and deposited him in the bed. “There, now. He’ll sleep for around a day or two, then he’ll be zipping around like mad, no doubt,” she said with a soft smile.
She looked at Uryū. “I heard that you went to practice with Artemisia,” Imelda said with a smile.
Uryū nodded. “Um, yeah. Her and…ah, the one with the bluish black and shiny hair…”
“Her mate, Ratri,” Imelda said, snuggling the infant into her neckline. “I have a favor to ask of you all, would you mind going to gather food with our people today? We need stores from our hydroponics area and some of the fish that are in the underground river that runs by it.”
“Hydroponics?” Uryū said, arching a brow.
“Yes, here,” she looked around and then saw who she was looking for. “Chilin!”
The other Arrancar came over, and they immediately saw that he was pregnant as well. He wore something that looked like a belly dancer’s outfit. It had a long skirt the brushed the ground and a halter top that left his stomach open. The small pooch was pronounced, but it was nowhere near the size that Dima’s had been. He was short and very slender, so it was obvious that he was suited to the clothes he was wearing. His mask fragment looked like a set of jaws from each side of his head, and there was a thin red stripe down each of his cheeks. His shoulder length hair was somewhat wild around his face, the bangs that flopped almost into his eyes bright yellow, and the rest black fading into red at the tips. He smiled brightly at them as he came over.
“Can you take them to help harvest some of the mushrooms and the fish? I am afraid I am a bit…busy…” she said smiling at him.
“I can, come along,” he said and spun with surprising grace despite the burgeoning belly.
Renji looked around. “Where…where did Kira and Hisagi go?” he asked.
“Oh, I had them go down with Zeboim to medical to help with Andresta. The blonde one said he had medical knowledge, and seemed to know a little about what your researcher did,” Imelda said with a nod. “With Dima’s labor I forgot to tell you.”
Renji nodded. “Oh…okay,” he said and ran to catch up with Chilin and the others who were headed down through tunnels. He leaned near to Rukia. “I’m having a hard time getting used to pregnant men,” he muttered.
Rukia smirked. “I love his skirt, so pretty.”
Chilin looked back at her. “Isn’t it? I love to dance in it. We had a box of these show up one time while I was up in Las Noches, and there was a book on belly dancing. I simply fell in love with it. I’ve taught a few of the others how to do it since I came down here, but not as many are as dedicated to it as I am. It is almost freeing. At least here I don’t get leered at…”
“Um, where is you…ah…mate?” Orihime asked nervously from beside Rukia.
“Oh, Fereydun is down at the river already,” he said with a smile. “We’ll see him in a second, here we go…”
They came out into an area with rushing water that led into what looked like a garden area. Several Arrancar walked around and picked various mushrooms, and others seemed to be fishing. One of them looked up. He was somewhat androgynous looking, and he got up to come hug Chilin. He was darker skinned and had long wavy hair cascading down his back. His tongue flicked out for a second, and they realized it was forked.
“Did Imelda’s boys arrive?” he asked with slight hiss to his voice. There were scaly white patches on his cheeks. He stood a bit taller than the smaller Chilin.
“Yes, she needed to get some food. She asked the Shinigami to come with me to help,” he said with a bright smile. “This is Fereydun,” Chilin said as he hugged his arm around the other Arrancar’s back.
“Um, well, I’m Renji, this is Rukia, Uryū, Chad, and Orihime,” Renji said, pointing to each in turn. “Our other two companions are in the medical area trying to help sort out Andresta…” he said with a sigh.
“That poor creature,” Fereydun muttered. “If he doesn’t throw himself from the spires of Las Noches in his guilt and grief, I would be surprised.”
“Chilin!” came a new voice and they looked up as a very female looking Arrancar. She was wearing what looked like a latex bodysuit that hugged every curve of her body. Her long curly blond hair was pinned up in a high ponytail, and there was a mask piece that looked like the upper jaw of a large cat sat on her forehead. Her cheeks were speckled with spotting that ran down toward her jaw.
“Alma,” Chilin said. “Imelda’s got her boys, and Dima’s out. So, I came down to get a few baskets of mushrooms and a bunch of fish, and any of those herbs would be nice.”
“Well, you’ll have to see Kerest if you want herbs, I only deal with the mushrooms,” she said with a smirk. She realized that the others were staring at her. “I’m the head mushroom gardener, I guess you’d say,” she said to them. “I’m always knee deep in muck around here, so I don’t wear regular clothes when I’m working.”
Renji nodded slowly. “Um, yeah…so you have a lot of mushrooms, huh?”
“Oh yes!” she said excitedly, nearly clapping. “We have some really unique breeds, and I’ve managed to create some hybrids too.” She led them to a darker area and turned on a reddish light that illuminated a field of various mushrooms that extended past their vision.
“I never knew there were so many kinds…these are all mushrooms?” Orihime said, scanning them.
Alma smiled proudly. “Yes, gathered from all over Hueco Mundo. The tall ones are my favorite,” she said pointing to some that had to be ten feet tall with a wide cap on them. “They are one of the larger breeds, and they are so flavorful you barely need herbs with them.”
“I didn’t know Arrancar needed to eat?” Uryū said with a frown.
“Like you, we can consume food, both for the pleasure of it, and to nourish our energy,” Chilin said as he handed a basket to each of them. “We’re not here for the tree ones, those we harvest when they turn bright red at the top.”
Chad noted an area that was roped off from the rest. “What are those?”
Alma nodded. “Those are medicinal. I grow several that can be used for medical purposes. There’s one that makes an antiseptic ointment with the spores, and another one can be used as a pain relieving ointment on the skin. There’s one in there that makes this really strong glue, too. Don’t want to get that one mixed up with the food mushrooms!”
“And these?” Uryū said, looking at a wall covered in small ones.
“Ah, those. Those are a type of truffle, I think that’s what you call them, but they feed on those minerals that run through that wall. Very delicate and tasty,” Alma said. “Now, those over there,” she said pointing to a small alcove with black colored mushrooms with pointed caps. “Those have some…ah, special properties. I trade them up with Zommari in Las Noches. He’s one of the few ones up there that know about us, but if he gets his mushrooms for his visions, he’s happy keeping quiet.”
“Oh,” Uryū muttered. “So they’re hallucinogenic,” he said with a nod.
Alma smiled and led them to several rows of dark brown hand sized round mushrooms. “These are the staple of our diets. Simple, and combined with the others, it can take on flavors and textures. Most of the hybrids are made based on this one. So, pick a basket of these…you and you,” she said pointing to Orihime and Rukia. “And you two, come over here,” she said and motioned to Uryū and Chad. Chilin had taken off to a different row with Renji in tow. “Grab a basket of these,” she said and pointed to some slender stalked mushrooms with caps like perfect little white balls on top. “These are bitter, but they’re more nutritious than any of the others, and if you cook them properly, they lose the bitterness.”
After the mushroom picking was done, they took the baskets back to what looked like a makeshift kitchen. Another Arrancar took them and began slicing them up. Chilin led them back to the area where Imelda was sitting with the two babies clinging to her and chittering in her ear.
“A good trip?” she asked as they came up.
“Yes, it is fascinating what you’ve built down here,” Uryū said.
“It has taken a lot of work, and there is much that has to be done to keep things running smoothly, but we all work together,” she said as she sat the two babies down. They proceeded to play with each other’s toes.
“Um, when do you think we can…” Rukia began but heard a shrill screech that she recognized.
“Put me down, you’re going to mess up my hair!” Yumichika’s voice echoed around them.
The huge Arrancar came over and dropped Yumichika off his shoulder and Ikkaku off his hip. Ikkaku was unconscious, and Yumichika was fuming and patting his hair. “Brutish creature!” he yelled. “To do something so vile to a beautiful thing like me,” he said and looked up in surprise to see the others. “So this is what happened to you!” he said.
Imelda smiled. “I’ll let you deal with your own. I must check in with medical on Andresta’s condition and see if your other companions need anything.”
Orihime stopped her. “Um, I have a healing ability, can…can I come with you? Maybe I can help.”
“Of course, dear, come along. Chilin, watch the babies,” she said as she led Orihime away.
Rukia looked at Yumichika who smacked Ikkaku’s head. “Wake up, lazy ass!”
Ikkaku sat up, blinking as he looked around. “What…that guy hit like Zaraki-taichou…” he muttered.
“How did you two get caught?” Renji asked, crossing his arms over his chest with a smirk.
“Zaraki-taichou’s shortcuts…” Yumichika muttered. “We got separated from him and the fuku taichou. Wandered into this place…”
“What the hell is this?” Ikkaku asked as he looked around.
Renji and Rukia sighed and sat down to begin the tale once more.
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