Unmasked

@exseruit​ claimed a starter! 

━━━━━━━✾✾✾    Memories    warm    you    up    from    the    inside,    but    they    also    tear    you    apart.    REMINISCENCES    that    time    doesn’t    annihilate.    ━━━━    Inoue    passed    by    some    benches    apportioned    along    the    college’s    boulevard    where    some    apprentices    were    chatting,    enthusiastics    about    a    gathering.    Despite    being    communicative,    Orihime    circumvented    whenever    she    could    student    parties.    She    fancied    more    unpretentious    places,    like    the    composure    of    her    residence.    After    passing    through    the    campus    entrance,    she    headed    for    the    main    avenue.    Sandals    hitting    the    pavement    while    pondering    what    to    prepare    for    dinner.━━━    Inoue’s    reflections    were    utterly    vanquished    in    mere    instants.    ❝N-Nani…❞    Hazel    hues    crystallized    in    emerald    ones.    Her    breath    imprisoned    in    her    alveolus    for    a    few    seconds.    Was    she    hallucinating?    ❝U-Ulquiorra-san?❞    His    name    left    her    ajar    roseate    margins    in    a    mumble.    Perhaps    she    was    mistaken.                

Reflected in store vitrines populating Karakura’s town bustling centre , he could almost pass as one of them , human . No horned , bone mask fused to his cranium , no gaping void where a heartbeat ought to thrum . His eyes alone bared the remnants of his true form--Slightly too large , pupils a thin , black slit . He’d shed one mask only to slip on another , but it was for a purpose , a purpose who now stood not three feet from him , uttering his name coated in confusion .

Of course , she would not expect to see him . 

But Ulquiorra was expecting her; the last voice he heard as his vanquished body disintegrated , the last face he saw , the last thing he almost touched .

❝ Orihime Inoue .❞ 

Arm lifting , pallid fingers unfurled and stretched towards her--Out of reach . 

@exseruit​

“Hello there, would you like a free sample?” Mizi felt kind of weird doing this, but one of his employees suggested that it would be a good way to promote the bakery and get new customers…however…he didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. He’d been on the other side of the equation many times; harassed by mall employees that wanted him to sample lotion or perfume. So, he was determined not to be like that!

“They’re egg tarts, made fresh today! Or if you’re allergic to eggs I’ve got some raspberry ones too.” This guy seemed pretty disinterested..blank-faced even. But still, Mizi held out one of the tarts, smiling nervously as he waited for an answer. He began to sweat. 

Cake and pastries were a thing he’d acquired an unexpected taste for during his time spent around Shinigami and , further down the line , a handful of humans . Notably one human who he’d witnessed gorge a concerning amount of it almost all in one go . His sweet tooth wasn’t a pressing one , but wafts of freshly baked dough had drawn the Hollow to the amply stocked vitrines of a nearby bakery . Ulquiorra knew nothing , or very little , of the types of gateau or doughnuts or puffs on display , so the offer of a free sample made the decision more straightforward . 

❝ I don’t have allergies . ❞ He affirmed , plucking one of the tarts from the tray and biting tentatively . 

Eyes widen as he watches the strangers ghost white fist thrust into the hold of his own chest. Quite literally fisting himself. Zevran lowers his wooden dagger as he leans over and peers at the display, eyes glancing up at the blank expression on the mans face. It didn’t seem to give him any feeling at all.

“I suppose it does! Though I would have liked to have done that myself even if the end result was more mundane than imagined. Where I come from if you have a hole through your body such as that it is typically painful and means certain death. It is quite marvelous that it does not mean the same to you.”

❝ Is it ? ❞ The fact he was upright and mobile at all with a hole punctured through his chest defied the very laws of human biology . By their standards , he should be dead ( he is ) but once again , not in the way most interpreted the great beyond . 

@exseruit s.c.

{ 👑 } THE STRANGER CAN ONLY BE DEEMED ghostly by his logic, and considering the presence of a gaping maw NEATLY cut within chest, perhaps that assumption is not so far from the truth. After all, one could not consume food or drink with such a hole, not unless energy was converted through magical means. He has enough sense not to fling hundreds of questions IN REGARDS to such a thing but fate has something else in store, all in the form of a crawling caterpillar and a stray sprig of LOOSE foliage. Honestly, did he even look where he’s going? ❝There’s a caterpillar in your hole.❞

Eyes descending to the gape that apparently attracted the majority of everyone’s attention , surely enough , the bug is spotted roaming the surface of a stray leaf--So meagre it had escaped his notice even as it protruded through his Hollow hole . Pale fingers pluck the caterpillar away , its body soft and fragile , the faintest of squeeze capable of ending its life in a second .

Ulquiorra instead opted to indelicately dispose of it with a flick so it landed in a nearby branch , alive and well to continue on its journey .