"My, my ... "

Ichigo felt a tremor a fear shaking through his body.

No. No that man, Ulquiorra, is supposed to be defeated. He put anything he had into that one attack! He even pulled his mask on!

He turned his head and gazed in disbelief as the smoke and dust from the recent attack clear, revealing Ulquiorra standing there with no wounds. The only sign that he was even hit by Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho was the tears in his Espada uniform.

"No ... way ... !" Ichigo panted out, nearly all of his energy exhausted from that one attack.

"I wasn't able to stop it even using both hands," Ulquiorra noted looking down at his ruined uniform, "That surprised me a bit. Was that just now your full power?"

It was a rhetorical question because it so obviously was. Either way, he wasn't impressed with the boy's tactic to pull all in one blow. It was-

"Disappointing."

He pointed his finger at Ichigo and at the tip, he gathered the surrounding reishi and his own reiatsu into a single point.

"Cero," he called out and the blast flared to life, stronger than anything Ichigo's ever felt before. But escaping the cero wasn't his only concern. There was Nel, his tiny Arrancar friend.

Ichigo pulled down his mask once again for defense before shunpo-ing to Nel, grabbing her and flipping up. The cero caught his shoulder and shredded through his mask but it didn't injure him beyond the deep tissue bruising, burnt skin, and open wounds.

"Nel!" he said, "Stay with me!" The cero had torn a hole through the cylindrical building they were in and Ichigo raced out, looking for a place to hide and keep Nel safe from the attacking Espada. When he landed on the sand he glanced down at his little friend to see that she was knocked unconscious. "Nel!"

He didn't even have time to think.

Ulquiorra appeared at his side and gave a vicious kick that sent him reeling through the air, crashing into another building. Nel was lost from his arms but he knew that she was somewhere among the rubble. Ichigo struggled to pick up his sword again for the fight, knowing that the odds were against him but he had to win.

He had to!

"At the moment you blocked my cero," Ulquiorra said stepping up from the Las Noches lawn back into the castle as if he were just merely taking a stroll, "You called forth your mask didn't you? A fine high speed reaction. But this time it was broken to pieces instantly. Now you've got nothing else up your sleeves. Surrender."

It wasn't in Ichigo's nature to surrender. He stabbed his into his opponent's heart but barely pierced the skin. It was a good show of his defiance.

"Who the fuck would surrender to you?" Ichigo demanded, a cocky grin on his face, a bravado facade, "You're the top Espada aren't you? Which means that if I beat you it's the same thing as winning the entire battle!"

"So that's it," Ulquiorra said. He was very disappointed. "Too bad for you then."

He grabbed Ichigo's sword and pushed it off, the blade dragging and tearing the Espada's uniform until his rank became clear to the Substitute Shinigami.

"Number four?!" Ichigo cried out in disbelief.

"Yes, Cuatro Espada, Ulquiorra Schiffer," he introduced himself with all of his titles, "De Reina Agito's Espada."

"Reina ... Agito," Ichigo said slowly trying to process it all. There were three other Espada's stronger than this one. This one stole Orihime. This one was subordinate to his godmother.

"Do you know?" Ulquiorra said casually, "That she gave you to me? That she told me to take care of you? That she called you and your friends vermin?"

Agito, his godmother, allowed for Orihime to be taken. Agito, his godmother, was seriously about to kill Rukia not so long ago. His godmother sent her Espada to kill him.

"No," he said, his voice hoarse, "That's not true. Agito-"

He could barely finish speaking because doubts plagued his mind.

"If denial is the only way for you to live," Ulquiorra said, "Let me remove it for you."

Before anyone could blink, Ulquiorra's hand stabbed deep into Ichigo's chest. A blinding pain rushed through his body and he stopped hearing, stopped seeing, stopped breathing.

There was a hole in his chest.

He died.

...

"I'll teach him what happens when you mess with someone else's prey!"

Someone was growling. Someone was making threats. Someone wants a fight.

Ichigo's fingers twitched.

He breathed again.

...

"Ulquiorra," Grimmjow growled, the shock of the other Espada's sudden reappearance still affecting him.

"What are you doing, Grimmjow?" Ulquiorra asked as calmly as possible even though irritation was slowly poisoning through him.

Grimmjow wanted to be as calm as possible but he was angry. Flashing through his mind's eye was that goddamn hole in Kurosaki's chest. In the hollow world, that wound was a mark. A claim. By Ulquiorra stabbing Kurosaki in the chest in the exact same area as his own hollow hole, he was claiming the corpse of the Substitute Shinigami as his own. And it was infuriating.

Kurosaki claimed a fight with Grimmjow first. The scar stretching across his chest was proof of that. The Substitute Shinigami was to fight him first. Him!

"She gave him to me," he growled.

"What was that?" Ulquiorra said, "I didn't quite hear you."

"Reina gave him to me!" He bit out. Ulquiorra was silent. It made Grimmjow even angrier.

"He was my kill. Mine! Who gave you the right to jump before our fight? Your quarters aren't even around here. Did you disobey la Reina?" Grimmjow said knowing that the implication of betrayal was the fastest way of riling up the stoic Espada.

"It would seem," the other said, "That we were both given Kurosaki.

"La Reina told me to take care of him."

Grimmjow spat on the ground, his anger forcing a growl to leave his throat in frustration. La Reina was manipulating again. But as to why, he didn't care at the moment. It would seem that Kurosaki's corpse had two names of ownership.

"What are you trying to pull?" Ulquiorra said, "Healing the wounds of prey I've already hunted?"

There were more words spoken, but it didn't really matter.

Ichigo had lost consciousness again. But only for a moment.

...

"I thought you'd be stronger!" Grimmjow said, the heat of battle still rising, power and reiatsu whipping around and disturbing the sands around both him and Kurosaki. He was levitating up in the sky, standing on footholds of reiatsu so that he could look down on the boy and yet no matter how much blood, how many wounds, the piece of shit dares look up at him with such ... infuriating eyes. Such conceit. Unbreakable.

He prided himself with the secret knowledge that he could look anyone in the eye and know their true feelings. He saw so far into bullshit that when Aizen started parading himself around as King, Grimmjow knew. He knew. And Aizen had known that he knew. That was why Grimmjow had been taking so much shit. Kings recognized Kings. Grimmjow might have recognized power ... but a King? No.

And now Kurosaki. He ... had the makings of a King. And he squandered his crown. It infuriated him. He said, "I would have thought you'd be better since your her godson and all."

"What," Ichigo demanded completely thrown off by the remark.

"You're her godson," Grimmjow said, "And you're still so weak. Honestly, it's insulting."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Take a guess," Grimmjow said, his grin displaying his sharp resurrection teeth. The boy wasn't stupid, his eyes were twinkling with that spark of knowledge. To know and yet still deny. Oh how Grimmjow loved to rip it apart. "Agito Diabolos. Your godmother. She must hate you."

Ichigo gritted his teeth behind his vizard mask. He had been ignoring the thought of his godmother for a while. It hurt too much to believe that his godmother, someone who he had trusted as an adult figure in his life, would betray him right where it hurt the most.

She almost killed Rukia. She allowed Orihime to be taken. He didn't know if he could forgive her for that.

"Don't speak what you don't know," he said, gripping his zanpakuto tighter in his hands to drive away the cloud of doubt and grief.

Suddenly, Grimmjow wasn't grinning anymore.

"What I don't know?" he mused, "What don't I know? She was ours way before your old lady got fucked. She was here more than when she was over there. She was mine before she was ever yours."

"Yours?" Ichigo said with a cocky grin, "You really don't know her then if you think she could be owned."

Grimmjow growled because Ichigo's got that look again. That absolutely infuriating look. It enraged him that prey would dare look back at him like a predator. Who the fuck this kid thinks he's talking to?

"She's ours!" Grimmjow said before lunging forward, swiping at Ichigo before starting a combo attack involving claws, feet, and his steel tail. Ichigo gave a solid defense but he couldn't be much in terms of attack. Grimmjow said, "You know how she's ours?! She gave you up to die!"

This time, Ichigo attacked quickly, forcing Grimmjow back enough for Ichigo and retreat for a quick break.

"What the hell do you mean?"

Grimmjow smiled in glee cause it looks like the cocky little brat wasn't so cocky anymore. He said, "She gave you up to die. She gave me my fight to kill you. But she's always been a scheming bitch, sending Ulquiorra to make sure you were dead."

"No," he said, "You're wrong."

"I'm wrong?" Grimmjow mocked, putting more reiatsu into his claws for length and sharpness, "Are you too cowardly to admit that maybe, your godmother isn't who you thought she was?"

He lash out again, attacking Kurosaki in a flurry of motions pushed by his resurrection and Sonido. He said, "I'm disappointed! You're Agito's and yet you're still so weak! Half the Espada isn't even hers and yet they'll still kick your ass!"

"Her Espada?"

Grimmjow was grinning because Kurosaki was getting sloppy. Kurosaki might be just a boy, a disappointment, someone who he couldn't wait to break but he would admit that the other was a good fighter. And beyond anything Grimmjow could ever want was a good fight. A sloppy Kurosaki didn't mean a terrible fighter, no, he got wildly dangerous.

When he attacked again, Ichigo shifted against his entire body weight to move, dodging Grimmjow's claws and somehow slipping his zanpakuto against Grimmjow's belly. By sheer luck, the Espada wasn't gutted right that very moment. It was a desperate move Ichigo pulled but it was something Grimmjow recognized.

"There it is!" he shouted before attacking again, spinning through the air, twisting around so that his feet attacked the other in a tornado of kicks. Ichigo reacted by his first instinct, ducking down low and lunging forward, getting well and good in Grimmjow's space, using his own body to stop the other's momentum. Ichigo was close enough to slash his zanpakuto up, ripping into the other's hierro in a near lethal move. Grimmjow cackled, "There it is! There it is!"

"What?!"

"She did train you! I see it now! Fuck you for being useless! She trained you just like me!" It was like the Espada was given permission. Suddenly he was moving quicker and even more vicious.

Like fighting a wild animal.

"HAHAHA!" Grimmjow screamed, "Show me more, Kurosaki! Prove it! Agito Diabolos trained you to fight didn't she?! She trained you to be a monster like the rest of us!"

And suddenly Ichigo understood what Grimmjow was saying all along.

It began in his childhood.

After Mom died.

"Ichi-kun," Agito crooned, kneeling before him in the principal's office. His eyes were swollen from holding back tears. His shirt was a little bit ripped from being yanked around but among those few boys that were fighting, only he had bruised knuckles.

Because he knew how to throw a punch and for once he decided that he was going to.

"Ichigo," she said, "Let's go home." The principal said something. She said something back. He wasn't really listening. He shouldered on his backpack and followed like a puppy with his tail between his legs after his godmother who started picking him up from school after the constant calls started to pull his father from the clinic.

Sometimes he was free but most times, he was seeing a patient that he couldn't be distracted from. Agito stepped up and took all responsibility of him during those days when kids were being mean and he got into fights.

Ichigo got into his godmother's car and buckled in, knowing exactly what was going to happen next. Agito drove to her dojo, empty and locked since school was very much in session. When they walked in, Ichigo dropped his backpack, sweater, and took off his shoes at the door, going to standing the middle of the room to be ready for training.

"Ichigo," Agito said, also taking off her shoes, "What happened today?"

"I got into a fight," he said because it was useless to lie. His godmother had this scary as hell ability to know every time he was lying.

"Why?" she asked, approaching the work mats. This time he couldn't answer immediately. Because he was ashamed. He was guilty and he couldn't understand why.

"I was told what happened to that boy," Agito admitted, "The one you attacked."

"He was-"

"You threw him," she interrupted and he quieted, knowing that she was talking now, "You threw him in a very dangerous way. I taught you those judo techniques. You knew that throwing a person can be very dangerous without adult supervision. He landed on his head and he had to be taken to the hospital. But he wasn't taken away for a very long time cause there was no adults around and you started to punch the boy past unconsciousness."

"He's always been mean!" Ichigo tried to defend himself, eyes burning to tea up but he refused to do so. "He's always bullying someone in class and making rude remarks to the teacher! Then he started talking about Mom and how stupid Dad is and-"

"I believe you, Ichigo," Agito calmly reassured, "I believe you and I trust that you were only teaching a dog a lesson."

And there was something in her voice. Something viciously cold and absolutely cruel and suddenly, Ichigo could barely recognize his godmother. It lasted only for an instant. He saw sharp edges, cruel intentions, a mean mouth, and eyes as cold as sunless planets.

And then the image was gone. Agito was soft again. Kind. She was smiling softly and her eyes were warm.

"Today I'm going to teach you something different," she said, taking off her shirt to reveal her sports bra that she wears usually when training the senior students of the dojo. "Today I'm going to really teach you how I win all of my fights."

Ichigo perked up and his curiosity quickened. His godmother was an amazing fighter! Ten years ago she applied into an national MMA competition and won first place in the Women's League! Then she moved on to the Internationals and she won the country a silver medal and is known around the world as being one of the best martial arts fighters in this century!

Agito took three big steps away from Ichigo and turned so that they were face-to-face.

"Have you seen any of my fights?" she asked and Ichigo nodded his head, having seen her fights because Dad recorded them on the VHS and Ichigo watched them when his Dad wasn't looking. "So you've seen who I've fought against. You've seen them when they're bigger than me, stronger. You've seen them when they have more natural reflexes because they've trained that much. Can you tell how I win?"

"You ... use your feet?" he said, not really understanding where his godmother was going with this. Agito was well known for her special fighting style using flexibility, agility, and strong legs to completely knock her opponent out of their comfort zone, using those few seconds of pause before following through with her attack, usually winning the match then and there. But beyond that...

"I do," she admitted, "But there's something more to it than that. It's a state of mind. It's something that can't be trained. It must be already inside you. It's...

Ichigo's fight-or-flight instinct was activated, sensing that his godmother wasn't being so kind anymore and yet he stayed as still as possible. Maybe if he's still enough, the predator won't attack...

"In all of my fights, every opponent I've faced strikes as I have taught you to strike. Safely and within the bounds of honor. But that's not how you fight to win everytime. When you fight to win every single time, it's a fight of survival. You have to go at them to kill.

"When I strike, I aim killing blows. Here, here, and here," Agito said, pointing out areas of her own body to show tender weak points: kidneys, knees, and clavicle. "You want to take them down fast and hard, make them stay down."

"Obaa-san?" Ichigo said quietly, "You're scaring me."

"Don't be, little Ichi," she said, "You did it too. You took down the bully didn't you? And you made him stay down."

"No! No, I-"

"You threw him to the ground and you beat him up. You didn't wait for him to attack you. You just did. That means that you have a little bit of viciousness in you too. So I will teach you, little Ichi. I will teach you how to kill someone."

"Obaa ... -san?" Ichigo felt a shiver of fear run through him because Agito didn't like soft and kind anymore. There was a sharpness that made him afraid. Like he was standing before a warrior with a drawn blade.

"Do you want me to, little Ichi? Do you want me to teach you how to really hurt someone? How to really cause pain?" He was scared. He was so scared because his godmother was acting so scary and saying strange things and he was so scared and-

"No!" he shouted, falling out of his ready stance and stepping away, "No! I don't want to!"

"Why not?" Agito asked as calmly as one would inquiring the weather, "You hurt that bully real good. You must want to cause hurt."

"No I don't!" He denied, "I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"But you did, Ichigo. You did."

"I just-! I just-" Ichigo scrambled for words trying to defend himself. He had hurt that bully really bad but why? Why did he hurt the other so badly? He just- "I wanted him to stop! I wanted him to stop being mean and saying such bad things about Otou-san and Okaa-san! I just wanted him to stop!"

"You did stop him, little Ichi. You really did." It might have sounded like praise but Ichigo felt the hollowness of her words and flinched.

"I didn't really mean to! I just-If no one is going to defend Okaa-san and Otou-san then I will! I can't stand it! I just ... I just-" Ichigo felt so frustrated because he didn't have the words to explain all of his pent up feelings.