Chapter 421: The Night We Met

As the sad and tragic crying sobs of Ella transferred over the call, Virus began clenching one of his fists in dejection. He disliked hearing Ella cry very much, regrettably, he disliked lying even more. Thereupon, he decided to clarify something he, perhaps, should've done a long time ago, "Do you know why I never told you 'I love you' Ella?"

Sometimes after a deep silence, he added calmly, "That's because I still don't think I understand what love is exactly, at least not yet…"

Not stopping there, he went on, "But please don't get me wrong, I liked you very much… and I think I still might have some feelings for you. But…"

"You asked me why did I never come looking for you, right? Why didn't I just follow and run after you that day outside the police station?" Tilting his head down at this point, he proclaimed, "If I want to provide a plain and shallow answer, I might say that happened because you told me not to follow you and never contacted me again... and that might be true in a sense, but no, that wasn't the main cause. It's much more complicated than that."

"Hence, for me to give you the main and original reason behind it, let me go a bit back… to the night we first met."

"Do you remember the night we met, Ella?" He inquired, patiently awaiting Ella's response.

Noticing that Virus was expecting a reply, cleaning the teardrops from the corner of her eyes, Ella answered, "Y-Yes… we met at that party years ago."

"That's correct. But… why do you think we happened to meet one another that day?" He threw another crucial question at once.

"Hmm? Well, isn't that obviously because of a coincidence? We both happened to be at the party that day, therefore we encountered one another. It's clearly that… or in case you want to romanticize it, you could claim it was due to fate."

Letting out a weak sigh, Virus corrected her, "No, Ella, we chanced upon one another that night not because of some coincidence, and certainly not due to fate… to tell you the truth, we run into each other because I decided us to."

"W-What… do you mean?" Confused, and slightly shocked, Ella questioned.

"I mean exactly what I said, Ella, the reason I chose you that night was that you were the person I deemed the most compatible with me in the vicinity at the time, thus, I didn't hesitate to pick you."

Shaking his head briefly, he corrected, "In actuality, I didn't come to magically deem you compatible with me that night as well and my search had begun much earlier than that. It was only that day when I was ready and thereupon pulled some strings here and there and manipulated someone in secret to arrange the party and through some other means made it so you would be also there." {A/N: It's a simple thing for Virus to manipulate various variables, like sending the parents of someone who likes to party to travel around which would cause the party to be held.}

By now, Ella's eyes had long since turned wide open in utter disbelief as they were nearly about to pop out of their sockets any minutes now.

Nevertheless, Virus went on, "But that's beside the point, the point here is that I thought you were compatible with me, and I had been indeed right… until…"

Not even noticing Ella was barely listening anymore, Virus picked the rest of his elaboration, "until that day outside the police precinct."

"You said why didn't I run after you and follow you that day, no? Why didn't I seek you out even though a few years have passed? Well, that's because I didn't see the need to, because it hit me at the time, outside the police station, that we were no longer compatible."

"For instance, Ella, I've noticed that you want a righteous and just companion, which couldn't be far from who I am. If anything, I'm the exact opposite of that. One day, I might just wake up and decide to end the human population on the planet, would you be able to take that?" Evidently, the final part of his words was just a rhetorical question.

Following that, with no pause, he mouthed, "And the opposite of that is true as well, I don't want a righteous, extremely moral, and law-abiding woman as my companion, I want myself and my ways to be the so-called justice for my woman. I want someone who would trust my justice even if she could not understand it at the time. And you, my dear, wouldn't be able to take that. That's just not you. Being a heroic Guardian suits you much more."

Going ahead, he concluded, "Therefore, it couldn't be more transparent that you and I will only continue hurting one another if we stay together and that'll eventually lead us to even hate each other at some point in the future."

"And that's why I didn't contact you or chase after you that day. Do you get what I'm saying?"

…

After disconnecting the line, Ella seemed to have turned into a motionless statue. She had been dealt with such a hard blow that she was feeling extremely lost now. 

First, she was faced with the hard truth that everything between Aizen and her might have been completely fake and nothing more than a big lie.

Then, she came to realize that possibly, the only reason Aizen chose her was that he judged her to be suitable for him. And now that he thought otherwise, he wanted to end the relationship.

'Did he even like me? Or was that a big lie as well? What… was real? And… what was fake between us?'

DRIP!

A single drop of tear rolled down from her left eye before she simply wiped it off before continuing to proceed toward her undetermined destination.

…

Simultaneously, within the private plane, Virus let out another barely audible sigh while thinking, 'At least, knowing the whole truth might agonize you less and decrease your sadness a bit.'

Subsequently, he picked the rest of his previous deliberation which had been cut off by Ella's call. The only difference this time was the fact that his mind was somewhat distracted and occupied. 'Let's see…'