[Compile & Complete] Hanatarou, Ulquiorra, Edorad, Grimmjow, Luppi, Il Forte
Grimmjow had found his way to the back and stayed low on the radar as his brothers continued to do the talking for him. He knew Adaro wouldn't want this shinigami hurt, but the more Hanatarou talked, the more he wanted to get him out of there by any means. To him, there wasn't any reason that the shinigami needed to be there even if he wanted to improve upon a couple of things. There wasn't anything that needed to be improved upon according to the blue haired arrancar. How he felt about the smaller one wasn't going to change anytime soon and nothing would change his mind.
And then there was the problem with the fact that everyone didn't seem to be all that annoyed at the fact that Hanatarou was standing before them as if they had to pay attention to him, to follow him. There wasn't going to be anything following the shinigami's name that held any sort of respect; he wasn't even going to play with it and spit it back in the guy's face. Hell, he wasn't even going to mention his name. Hanatarou didn't even deserve that especially after hearing the word trust jump from his lips and out into the open.
Grimmjow noticed that Ulquiorra's words were nicer than what he had running through his mind: a couple of expletives and a picture of his hand around the shinigami's neck. Loyalty wasn't something that could be easily proven and his brother said it best: shinigami are not trustworthy creatures. Il Forte even had a point, but there was an even bigger point behind that. Grimmjow knew 'again' shouldn't have even been in that sentence. Again could mean the death of anyone who stood in the room and more importantly, himself. He didn't feel like dying because he let himself work with one of those shinigami.
Feeling everyone was being to easy on Hanatarou, he stepped away from the back of the small crowd and pulled his hands out of his pockets, letting them swing slightly at his side. "Your words or actions mean nothing to me. Who's to say you won't change your mind again. I'm not like them," he gestured at the others, trying to keep his angry voice steady, "I'll never trust anything like you."
It was amazing how their personality differences were being contrasted so extremely at this moment. Urquiola, ever mindful of Adaro’s approval, was doing his best to act politely towards the shinigami, despite his distaste for it. And Il Forte, sly as ever, was trying to get more information from him, which wasn’t a bad idea. (‘So he isn’t a total blond,’ Edorad though amusedly.) Luppi wanted to play games as usual (probably with Hanatarou’s innards) and Grimmjaw very obviously just wanted to kill the problem straight away.
Only he and Yammy hadn’t said anything yet, and Edorad didn’t doubt that the older arrancar would just agree to whatever Urquiola said, no matter how much he hated it.
As he watched his brother all glare in varying degrees at the sole shinigami, Edorad waited to see what he had to say. It was almost laughable that the little rat thought he could win them over somehow but still … Adaro had approved. If she didn’t have faith in him in some capacity, she wouldn’t have let him come here unattended, much less ally with him since the beginning. There was something significant about this man, but for the life of him (which he feared was an accurate saying in this case) he didn’t know what.
Well, he’d tried to figure it out the first time he’d come to the 1st-bantei headquarters, but Adaro had shut down question period pretty fast. With her currently absent, now would be a prudent time to try again.
“It is quite obvious that we don’t trust you, Hanatarou-sama,” Edorad said the title with obvious sarcasm. “However our creator certainly seems to hold you in high esteem. Perhaps if you were to share with us why this is so, we could have a bit more faith in you.”
A need for a complete show of loyalty. A complete disregard for the conversation at hand and a desire for violence instead. A statement that he would never be able to gain any amount of trust, only the shaky level ol tolerance he currently enjoyed from the arrancar.
Really, the answers weren't that far off from what Hanatarou had expected to hear when he posed the question. At times he truly cursed the name Tousen Kaname for doing what he had to them. Even if the man had made for a very nice and easy scapegoat, and a fracture point among the shinigami, his betrayal to the arrancar and Adaro had made it even harder for the arrancar to ever trust a shinigami.
Hanatarou had known it would never be easy, because of what he was. Tousen had just made it even less so.
Perhaps the only answer that surprised him in any measure was Edorad's. A question? Hanatarou had thought he had bored the arrancar with enough words that meant little to them the last time he'd been in Soul Society. Perhaps he just hadn't been talking about the right things.
It unfortunately wasn't the easiest question to answer. Nodding faintly to the various responses, the boy smiled a bit uncertainly at Luppi. "There are other shinigami who would be better for you to play with, Luppi-san, who would offer a better challenge than I would."
His head turned to the side and he tilted it in thought, gazing out the gaping hole of the 1st division building. Edorad's question certainly was difficult to answer in a few words. He might as well ask the arrancar why they were so loyal to Adaro. Of course, their answer might be simple. 'She made me'. It was the same to Hanatarou though. Just not as simple as that. How did one sum up years of friendship and companionship?
"I've known Adaro a great number of years. I helped her and accepted her when others would have turned away or tried to destroy her because of who she is. She's the most important person to me."
Ulquiorra's brothers' actions were predictable at best. He didn't even look at them as some arrived and others gave their responses. What was most important at this juncture was how the shinigami reacted to all of this. His answers and actions from this point on would determine his unofficial ranking within the arrancar, the one that was not granted by Adaro aside from the fact that he even garnered their non-lethal attentions at all.
What surprised and interested him the most was the final question brought to Hanatarou's attention. It was something that Ulquiorra would not have thought, nor dared to ask. For the briefest of seconds, his dull green eyes flickered to the side to study Edorad. It was invasive to their mistress' privacy and, yet, something Ulquiorra himself wanted very much to hear.
Even more unexpected, though, was when the shinigami indulged Edorad's wish, detailing in the most vague of ways the history of his association with their mistress. Ulquiorra's grip tightened, hands wringing lightly behind his ramrod straight back as he found himself pressing the question more, "What do you mean would have tried to destroy her?"
"Who tried to destroy her?!" Il Forte asked at once, not even realizing Ulquiorra had asked almost the same time as he had. He wasn't even amused at that, too upset to imagine ANYONE trying to inflict harm on their mistress. How dare they? Didn't they understand Adaro was far too powerful to be harmed by the likes of them?
But then... if that was the case, why had she required help and aid from one of the weakest shinigami in the weakest of the Thirteen Divisions? What has the scenario been like back then? He hadn't been in existence during those years that Hanatarou spoke of, so he couldn't possibly hope to know what Adaro had gone through. Only one person knew, and that person... was a shinigami.
Swallowing his worried rage, the blond arrancar took a deep breath and tried again. "Perhaps you can enlighten us on the events that led you to our mistress, Hanatarou-sama."
This meeting was just turning out to be a bunch of surprises and he was listening to these surprises that was coming from Hanatarou and the questions from his brothers and he wasn't saying a word. Destroy, the shinigami said and, just like his brothers, Grimmjow picked up on that word. Unlike his two brothers, he didn't ask the same question and hoped that Hanatarou would hand out some sort of answer that would satisfy them even though it would just be in passing and they would demand another answer to satisfy them the next time they all ran into each other.
Grimmjow wondered how well the mystery person or people were trying to get rid of Adaro. It wasn't an easy thing just like it wasn't an easy thing to take down any of them. And then there were other questions. Why exactly did she call on his help when there were other shinigami that had much more of a fight in them from what Grimmjow knew and saw. The scrawny little thing looked as though he could barely hold a toothpick let alone hurt someone with any sort of weapon.
There was still so much he didn't know and all this walking around in darkness was bound to get him face first into a wall. There was so much he didn't like, but the unanswered questions weren't just from the past but they were from the future as well. Since Hanatarou was here to stay whether any of them liked it or not, Grimmjow wondered what was going to happen with him and how he was going to help the situation. It was just the same unanswered questions that would probably stay unanswered as irritating as it was to him or any of them.
"Important..." he muttered, trying to make himself listen to Hanatarou and keep all his thoughts quiet as he did so.
The most Edorad had anticipated from the shinigami was a demure refusal, so he couldn’t believe his luck when his question was actually answered. It was something he hadn’t been seriously expecting but had decided to gamble on anyway. But now that a scrap of information had been offered, especially about his mother’s past, he couldn’t wait to hear more.
Who had tried to kill her? What had she been like before she’d created the arrancar? How did the two meet in the first place? Why did she choose Hanatarou of all shinigami? When had she decided to take him into her confidence?
All these inquires wanted to burst forth, but with great difficulty he held them back. He knew his first question had bordered on impropriety, something Ulquiorra had picked up on right away. But aside from a dull look in Edorad’s direction the pale hybrid had let it go. It seemed that the elder arrancar had also been taken by surprise at Hanatarou’s bombshell revelation. And now that their unwelcomed guest had opened the flood gates, he was being swept up in a barrage of questions.
Letting his brothers do all the asking this time Edorad pinned a grim stare at Hanatarou’s face. Now they were walking in dangerous territory; who knew which questions Adaro would take offense to and which ones she’d allow? But at least now the blame could be spread around more. She wouldn’t kill all of her children for their rabid curiosity ... right?
"She hasn't spoken of it then... No, I don't suppose she would." Hanatarou's gaze moved over to the side of the room, looking out over Soul Society in thought. The fact that there were things Adaro hadn't spoken of even to her arrancar didn't surprise him that much, considering what it was. It was things even he and Adaro didn’t really speak of much anymore. There was no need to.
By telling them the truth, he knew what further questions would surely come... The arrancar would want answers. If he skirted away from them, what could that be showing the arrancar to ever expect of him?
"I am certain she would have no protests to you knowing. You are the elite of Adaro's arrancar." He turned his head from his gazing, done with his pondering, and took a shallow breath. "Adaro is a Vaizored. She has been so for.... I can't even count the years, decades. To be a Vaizored is, as I'm sure you can guess with the shinigami's reception of you," he said with a faint roll of his eyes, "is quite taboo. Half hollow, half shinigami... There are rumors of many Vaizored cropping up among the years in the Gotei 13, of being hunted, eliminated, exiled. I do not know how many there have been, how many there are now, and just how they were able to escape Soul Society with their lives. I know vague things of a few instances... but it's hard to know the full truth. It's not a safe thing to be. If a Vaizored was discovered, they were labeled a threat. And the Gotei 13 used to be very adept in eliminating threats."
Being told of his mistress' past was hard to hear. Ulquiorra's fingers slowly tightened behind his back, fingers digging against his skin until it turned even more white than before, leaving little half-moons where dark nails buried into skin.
It wasn't something Ulquiorra should have heard. In fact, he wasn't even certain how he could explain this to Adaro should she inquire about it at a later date, but nevertheless, he was satisfied. This was knowledge he needed to be aware of. This was knowledge he needed to strengthen his resolve against the shinigami that would destroy his proud creator.
He lowered his head slowly, "Thank you for that information, Hanatarou-sama. Your care for her at that time when we could not offer her the support she needed is appreciated more than you are aware of."
He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing and the expression on his face was one of utter confusion. A Vaizored. Grimmjow knew that it probably shouldn't matter that much, Adaro was doing a good job (something that he'd never admit), and yet, to him, all of this mattered too much. First, he was told to welcome a shinigami and listen to him and now he was told that the one he followed orders from was a Vaizored, was half of something he hated beyond anything else.
His disgust for the situation and Ulquiorra couldn't be any more apparent once the confusion drained away. Why did the brat have to be so calm and polite? Didn't he care? And what about everyone else? A glare was sent over at Hanatarou as he turned around and made sure he sent it to Ulquiorra in the process. "Help from a fuckin' shinigami. Guess I should expect that from a Vaizored. "
With that, Grimmjow stormed out of the room, not bothering to listen to anything else. He had heard enough.
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And then there was the problem with the fact that everyone didn't seem to be all that annoyed at the fact that Hanatarou was standing before them as if they had to pay attention to him, to follow him. There wasn't going to be anything following the shinigami's name that held any sort of respect; he wasn't even going to play with it and spit it back in the guy's face. Hell, he wasn't even going to mention his name. Hanatarou didn't even deserve that especially after hearing the word trust jump from his lips and out into the open.
Grimmjow noticed that Ulquiorra's words were nicer than what he had running through his mind: a couple of expletives and a picture of his hand around the shinigami's neck. Loyalty wasn't something that could be easily proven and his brother said it best: shinigami are not trustworthy creatures. Il Forte even had a point, but there was an even bigger point behind that. Grimmjow knew 'again' shouldn't have even been in that sentence. Again could mean the death of anyone who stood in the room and more importantly, himself. He didn't feel like dying because he let himself work with one of those shinigami.
Feeling everyone was being to easy on Hanatarou, he stepped away from the back of the small crowd and pulled his hands out of his pockets, letting them swing slightly at his side. "Your words or actions mean nothing to me. Who's to say you won't change your mind again. I'm not like them," he gestured at the others, trying to keep his angry voice steady, "I'll never trust anything like you."
It was amazing how their personality differences were being contrasted so extremely at this moment. Urquiola, ever mindful of Adaro’s approval, was doing his best to act politely towards the shinigami, despite his distaste for it. And Il Forte, sly as ever, was trying to get more information from him, which wasn’t a bad idea. (‘So he isn’t a total blond,’ Edorad though amusedly.) Luppi wanted to play games as usual (probably with Hanatarou’s innards) and Grimmjaw very obviously just wanted to kill the problem straight away.
Only he and Yammy hadn’t said anything yet, and Edorad didn’t doubt that the older arrancar would just agree to whatever Urquiola said, no matter how much he hated it.
As he watched his brother all glare in varying degrees at the sole shinigami, Edorad waited to see what he had to say. It was almost laughable that the little rat thought he could win them over somehow but still … Adaro had approved. If she didn’t have faith in him in some capacity, she wouldn’t have let him come here unattended, much less ally with him since the beginning. There was something significant about this man, but for the life of him (which he feared was an accurate saying in this case) he didn’t know what.
Well, he’d tried to figure it out the first time he’d come to the 1st-bantei headquarters, but Adaro had shut down question period pretty fast. With her currently absent, now would be a prudent time to try again.
“It is quite obvious that we don’t trust you, Hanatarou-sama,” Edorad said the title with obvious sarcasm. “However our creator certainly seems to hold you in high esteem. Perhaps if you were to share with us why this is so, we could have a bit more faith in you.”
A need for a complete show of loyalty. A complete disregard for the conversation at hand and a desire for violence instead. A statement that he would never be able to gain any amount of trust, only the shaky level ol tolerance he currently enjoyed from the arrancar.
Really, the answers weren't that far off from what Hanatarou had expected to hear when he posed the question. At times he truly cursed the name Tousen Kaname for doing what he had to them. Even if the man had made for a very nice and easy scapegoat, and a fracture point among the shinigami, his betrayal to the arrancar and Adaro had made it even harder for the arrancar to ever trust a shinigami.
Hanatarou had known it would never be easy, because of what he was. Tousen had just made it even less so.
Perhaps the only answer that surprised him in any measure was Edorad's. A question? Hanatarou had thought he had bored the arrancar with enough words that meant little to them the last time he'd been in Soul Society. Perhaps he just hadn't been talking about the right things.
It unfortunately wasn't the easiest question to answer. Nodding faintly to the various responses, the boy smiled a bit uncertainly at Luppi. "There are other shinigami who would be better for you to play with, Luppi-san, who would offer a better challenge than I would."
His head turned to the side and he tilted it in thought, gazing out the gaping hole of the 1st division building. Edorad's question certainly was difficult to answer in a few words. He might as well ask the arrancar why they were so loyal to Adaro. Of course, their answer might be simple. 'She made me'. It was the same to Hanatarou though. Just not as simple as that. How did one sum up years of friendship and companionship?
"I've known Adaro a great number of years. I helped her and accepted her when others would have turned away or tried to destroy her because of who she is. She's the most important person to me."
Ulquiorra's brothers' actions were predictable at best. He didn't even look at them as some arrived and others gave their responses. What was most important at this juncture was how the shinigami reacted to all of this. His answers and actions from this point on would determine his unofficial ranking within the arrancar, the one that was not granted by Adaro aside from the fact that he even garnered their non-lethal attentions at all.
What surprised and interested him the most was the final question brought to Hanatarou's attention. It was something that Ulquiorra would not have thought, nor dared to ask. For the briefest of seconds, his dull green eyes flickered to the side to study Edorad. It was invasive to their mistress' privacy and, yet, something Ulquiorra himself wanted very much to hear.
Even more unexpected, though, was when the shinigami indulged Edorad's wish, detailing in the most vague of ways the history of his association with their mistress. Ulquiorra's grip tightened, hands wringing lightly behind his ramrod straight back as he found himself pressing the question more, "What do you mean would have tried to destroy her?"
"Who tried to destroy her?!" Il Forte asked at once, not even realizing Ulquiorra had asked almost the same time as he had. He wasn't even amused at that, too upset to imagine ANYONE trying to inflict harm on their mistress. How dare they? Didn't they understand Adaro was far too powerful to be harmed by the likes of them?
But then... if that was the case, why had she required help and aid from one of the weakest shinigami in the weakest of the Thirteen Divisions? What has the scenario been like back then? He hadn't been in existence during those years that Hanatarou spoke of, so he couldn't possibly hope to know what Adaro had gone through. Only one person knew, and that person... was a shinigami.
Swallowing his worried rage, the blond arrancar took a deep breath and tried again. "Perhaps you can enlighten us on the events that led you to our mistress, Hanatarou-sama."
This meeting was just turning out to be a bunch of surprises and he was listening to these surprises that was coming from Hanatarou and the questions from his brothers and he wasn't saying a word. Destroy, the shinigami said and, just like his brothers, Grimmjow picked up on that word. Unlike his two brothers, he didn't ask the same question and hoped that Hanatarou would hand out some sort of answer that would satisfy them even though it would just be in passing and they would demand another answer to satisfy them the next time they all ran into each other.
Grimmjow wondered how well the mystery person or people were trying to get rid of Adaro. It wasn't an easy thing just like it wasn't an easy thing to take down any of them. And then there were other questions. Why exactly did she call on his help when there were other shinigami that had much more of a fight in them from what Grimmjow knew and saw. The scrawny little thing looked as though he could barely hold a toothpick let alone hurt someone with any sort of weapon.
There was still so much he didn't know and all this walking around in darkness was bound to get him face first into a wall. There was so much he didn't like, but the unanswered questions weren't just from the past but they were from the future as well. Since Hanatarou was here to stay whether any of them liked it or not, Grimmjow wondered what was going to happen with him and how he was going to help the situation. It was just the same unanswered questions that would probably stay unanswered as irritating as it was to him or any of them.
"Important..." he muttered, trying to make himself listen to Hanatarou and keep all his thoughts quiet as he did so.
The most Edorad had anticipated from the shinigami was a demure refusal, so he couldn’t believe his luck when his question was actually answered. It was something he hadn’t been seriously expecting but had decided to gamble on anyway. But now that a scrap of information had been offered, especially about his mother’s past, he couldn’t wait to hear more.
Who had tried to kill her? What had she been like before she’d created the arrancar? How did the two meet in the first place? Why did she choose Hanatarou of all shinigami? When had she decided to take him into her confidence?
All these inquires wanted to burst forth, but with great difficulty he held them back. He knew his first question had bordered on impropriety, something Ulquiorra had picked up on right away. But aside from a dull look in Edorad’s direction the pale hybrid had let it go. It seemed that the elder arrancar had also been taken by surprise at Hanatarou’s bombshell revelation. And now that their unwelcomed guest had opened the flood gates, he was being swept up in a barrage of questions.
Letting his brothers do all the asking this time Edorad pinned a grim stare at Hanatarou’s face. Now they were walking in dangerous territory; who knew which questions Adaro would take offense to and which ones she’d allow? But at least now the blame could be spread around more. She wouldn’t kill all of her children for their rabid curiosity ... right?
"She hasn't spoken of it then... No, I don't suppose she would." Hanatarou's gaze moved over to the side of the room, looking out over Soul Society in thought. The fact that there were things Adaro hadn't spoken of even to her arrancar didn't surprise him that much, considering what it was. It was things even he and Adaro didn’t really speak of much anymore. There was no need to.
By telling them the truth, he knew what further questions would surely come... The arrancar would want answers. If he skirted away from them, what could that be showing the arrancar to ever expect of him?
"I am certain she would have no protests to you knowing. You are the elite of Adaro's arrancar." He turned his head from his gazing, done with his pondering, and took a shallow breath. "Adaro is a Vaizored. She has been so for.... I can't even count the years, decades. To be a Vaizored is, as I'm sure you can guess with the shinigami's reception of you," he said with a faint roll of his eyes, "is quite taboo. Half hollow, half shinigami... There are rumors of many Vaizored cropping up among the years in the Gotei 13, of being hunted, eliminated, exiled. I do not know how many there have been, how many there are now, and just how they were able to escape Soul Society with their lives. I know vague things of a few instances... but it's hard to know the full truth. It's not a safe thing to be. If a Vaizored was discovered, they were labeled a threat. And the Gotei 13 used to be very adept in eliminating threats."
Being told of his mistress' past was hard to hear. Ulquiorra's fingers slowly tightened behind his back, fingers digging against his skin until it turned even more white than before, leaving little half-moons where dark nails buried into skin.
It wasn't something Ulquiorra should have heard. In fact, he wasn't even certain how he could explain this to Adaro should she inquire about it at a later date, but nevertheless, he was satisfied. This was knowledge he needed to be aware of. This was knowledge he needed to strengthen his resolve against the shinigami that would destroy his proud creator.
He lowered his head slowly, "Thank you for that information, Hanatarou-sama. Your care for her at that time when we could not offer her the support she needed is appreciated more than you are aware of."
He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing and the expression on his face was one of utter confusion. A Vaizored. Grimmjow knew that it probably shouldn't matter that much, Adaro was doing a good job (something that he'd never admit), and yet, to him, all of this mattered too much. First, he was told to welcome a shinigami and listen to him and now he was told that the one he followed orders from was a Vaizored, was half of something he hated beyond anything else.
His disgust for the situation and Ulquiorra couldn't be any more apparent once the confusion drained away. Why did the brat have to be so calm and polite? Didn't he care? And what about everyone else? A glare was sent over at Hanatarou as he turned around and made sure he sent it to Ulquiorra in the process. "Help from a fuckin' shinigami. Guess I should expect that from a Vaizored. "
With that, Grimmjow stormed out of the room, not bothering to listen to anything else. He had heard enough.
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