Mazuru was not going to stop Ulquiorra from taking Orihime away.
Even, he was more or less sure that after the appearance of Ulquiorra during the day, Orihime might have made up her decision by that time.
…
Orihime's house.
Rangiku and Rukia rested in the room that was vacated after Orihime's big brother passed away, but Orihime did not sleep soundly. She tossed and turned repeatedly, then she finally made up her mind, and walked to the window.
Not long after, a pale figure appeared, who didn't seem to be surprised by Orihime's decision.
"Have you made up your mind? Let's go then."
Ulquiorra looked at Orihime expressionlessly and talked with his usual cold voice.
"I can go with you, but I have one more request." Orihime looked extremely tough at the moment, even a little unreasonable.
Ulquiorra pondered for a moment, and finally agreed to Orihime's request.
Then, he left Orihime's home with her and went to another place.
In Orihime's house, in another room, Rangiku, who was sleeping soundly, woke up suddenly. She noticed an unusual breath, and then she woke up Rukia. They two quickly searched the parameters and found the problem immediately.
Orihime had disappeared, and at the same time, near her room, there was some remnants of reiatsu left which was not shinigami's reiatsu, but rather… a hollow's.
Rangiku and Rukia noticed this, and immediately thought of what happened during the day. At that time, in Karakura Town, they had felt a high-level reiatsu, and suspected that a powerful arrancar had appeared, but the arrancar that appeared in Karakura Town did not cause any damage. This in itself was an unreasonable thing, and now combined with Orihime's disappearance, they immediately had a guess.
The arrancar's target was Orihime.
Rangiku and Rukia immediately contacted Mazuru and others. In Sado's house, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika and Mazuru also received the information that Orihime was taken away by an arrancar.
They then brought Sado together and met up with Rangiku and Rukia. Rangiku performed Bakudō #58 - Kakushitsuijaku to perceive Orihime's reiatsu to find her tracks.
"From Inoue's reiatsu, it seems like she went to... Ichigo's house?"
Rangiku came up with an incredible answer.
Everyone hurried towards the direction of Ichigo's house.
In Ichigo's room, he was sleeping soundly. Because he was extremely tired from training during the day, he didn't notice someone appearing by the window. Under the Ulquiorra's supervision, Orihime watched him by the window for a long time.
Until Ulquiorra's reminder sounded.
"Those shinigami seem to have found out about your departure, do you want to say goodbye to them?"
Orihime was startled, and immediately came to her senses. In all fairness, she certainly wanted to say goodbye to Rukia and the others, but because of Ulquiorra beside her, she finally restrained herself.
After all, Ulquiorra was an enemy, no one knows what he would do, and he was strong, if she tried to bid farewell to Rukia and others rashly, with their usual temperament, they would definitely prevent Ulquiorra from taking her away. If Ulquiorra insisted on taking her away, conflict would obviously be inevitable, which would undoubtedly put Rukia and others in danger.
"No, let's go."
Orihime spoke to Ulquiorra.
When Mazuru arrived with Rangiku and others, they only saw the opened garganta and two figures stepping into it.
"That's Inoue…"
Seeing one of the figures, Rukia, Rangiku and the others were surprised at the same time, "Who is that figure beside?"
"Seems to be called Ulquiorra, one of the first two arrancars that showed up."
Mazuru responded.
"Looking at Inoue's appearance, she seems to have voluntarily followed that arrancar to Hueco Mundo." Yumichika was thoughtful, and immediately discovered the unusual atmosphere of their departure.
The rest of the people also fell silent, the meaning of Yumichika's words was obvious. If Orihime left with Ulquiorra voluntarily, it could only mean one thing.
Orihime had betrayed.
"Go and wake up Ichigo first."
Mazuru didn't let everyone continue think wildly, and interrupted them.
Hearing Mazuru, Rukia stepped forward and showed her superb familiarity with Ichigo. With one kick, Ichigo woke up from his sleep completely.
After seeing Rukia, Ichigo was surprised at first, and then thought that something had happened. Then, he learned from Rukia that Orihime left with Ulquiorra, and according to everyone's speculation, Orihime was suspected of defecting to the other side.
So, Ichigo's guess was right. Something really had happened!
"It is impossible for Inoue to betray us!"
Ichigo strongly believed in Orihime, while Sado was also in favor of Ichigo's opinion.
Then, he looked extremely annoyed.
"Why, why didn't I wake up? She was taken away from right next to me. If I had woken up earlier, I could have prevented this from happening."
It's okay not to know the truth, but after knowing the truth, Ichigo's mood could be described as extremely uncomfortable and self-blaming.
Yumichika, the first one to speculate the circumstances, didn't refute Ichigo's statement that Orihime would not rebel. He himself was just guessing based on what he saw. During the battle in Soul Society, Orihime stayed in the Eleventh Division for a while, and his opinion of Orihime was quite good.
What bothered him now was Ichigo's self-blame, he was hearing it with his ears, and for a while he didn't know how to comfort him.
His companion was taken away from such a close distance. If this kind of thing happened to him, he would also feel very bad.
"Ichigo, calm down!" At the critical moment, Rukia stood up and stabilized Ichigo.
"Instead of blaming yourself here, it's better to think about why Inoue went to Hueco Mundo with that arrancar, and why before she left, she came here to see you."
"Inoue chose to go to Hueco Mundo with him is probably to protect us." Ichigo also responded, there was no reasoning behind his answer, but he was very sure of it.
Rukia and others frowned slightly when they heard Ichigo's words, and some didn't understand why he said that.
Yumichika had a new question.
"Inoue is just an ordinary person. Even if she awaken her abilities, to the powerful arrancars, she is just a human with some special abilities. Based on that arrancar's reiatsu and the previous report, he is very powerful. Did he came to this world just to take her away?"
'It doesn't make sense!'
Mazuru took a deep look at Yumichika, "Perhaps, Inoue's ability is not as simple as we imagined."
He changed his tone and looked at Ichigo again, "What are you going to do next?"
*****
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