@hibiscusshiield | cont’d from here
It was not often that Ulquiorra found himself in the human world. Less often than that was him wanting to be there. But he supposed the tedium of life in Las Noches was finally taking its toll on his psyche, as much as he was loathe to admit it. This trip away was a necessary thing.
Coming to that conclusion was hard for him to swallow. Before, he never needed to take a step back from anything like he did now. He always knew that he could handle it all, as there was nothing to hold him back. Now, he found his mind was clouded with doubt; constantly weighed down by regret and insecurity. Where once he would always say, “I know,” now he would say, “I don’t know.” There was just too much fog his head insisted to linger on for him to give clear answers as he once did.
Such was the price he paid for his weakness.
And it was that weakness he ruminated on, lingered on, as he wandered under streetlights, eyes fixed on the pavement. So absorbed was he in his own head that he grew careless of his surroundings. This carelessness caused yet another to sneak up on him. A voice he was all too familiar with. The shock was plain on his face, almost equal to her own.
“Orihime,” his voice was barely above a whisper.
Shit. This was absolutely the last person he ever wanted to see. Not again, not now, not so soon. Those events that had haunted him through the last two years were now more vivid than ever. All his failures, all his regrets, now staring directly at him, with a smile of all things. It was as if none of that had ever happened. How could she be acting like this?
“My business here is my own. But isn’t it a bit late for you?”
