Anime Short Stories Collection I

Barely Breathing [Ulquiorra Cifer Ficlet]

[Name] had never meant to fall in love with the white skinned Espada that had attacked her friends in the World of the Living. After all, wasn’t she supposed to hate him just because of his actions? He’d injured her friends and left them all feeling weaker than ever. Who fell in love with a monster who tried to kill people?

Apparently, [Name] did and she wished that she hadn’t. It had been nothing but pain since those final days that she’d spent helping Ichigo and the others fight against Aizen’s army to save both Karakura Town and the Soul Society. Even over the past year, or what was becoming close to a year, she still hadn’t gotten over it, any of it.

She wasn’t ready to regret loving Ulquiorra Cifer. In fact, she didn’t think that she’d ever be able to regret loving him. And she did regret that; she felt like she was betraying her friends, especially Ichigo. He had suffered the most at the hands of Ulquiorra and yet here she was, loving the man that had both killed Ichigo and awakened the deadly Hollow inside of him.

She still remembered when she first found out about Ulquiorra’s fate. It had defeated her, both in and out. She’d stopped caring about everything for a while; her grades in school had fallen and she’d stopped being as social.

Love was a killer; it was what her mother had always told her. [Name] sighed, looking up from the park bench that she was sitting on when she heard someone approaching her. Now that Ichigo had lost his Spiritual Pressure, she wasn’t able to sense his approach that way anymore. The orange haired teen walked over to the bench and sat down next to [Name], looking over and scanning his eyes over her [color] skin.

“I didn’t see you in school today,” he said simply.

[Name] nodded. “I didn’t feel like I could go,” she told him honestly. While she felt that she was betraying Ichigo as a friend, she still felt that she could talk to him about any and everything that crossed her mind.

Ichigo nodded in understanding. If he was being fair, he felt as bad as [Name] did about the whole thing because he hadn’t known that she’d fallen in love with the Espada. “Well, do you want to grab something to eat and talk?” he asked her.

[Name] smiled slightly and shook her head before standing, putting her hands into her coat pockets as she turned to look at Ichigo. “Nah, I’m just gonna head home,” she told her friend before waving to him and saying goodbye.

If only her friends knew how she really felt; she wanted to be able to get over this whole thing. To finally be able to move on, but it was like no one understood that, like her mind was screaming as loud as it could but no one could hear it. Sighing, she zipped her coat higher before heading home to another restless night.