Parting Ways

A spear of light pierced Ichigo's chest. This caused his grip to loosen long enough for Orihime to break free from his grasp. Ulquiorra's body was partially destroyed, unable to regenerate. That spear was the last he could muster before his body began to disintegrate.

"No you don't!"

Orihime launched various barriers and bindings towards Hollow Ichigo and used Shunpo to arrive next to Ulquiorra. Orihime released her Zanpakuto and stabbed him a hundred times in a second. Flowers began to bloom in all of the points that he was stabbed and the disintegration slowed down.

"Even your power cannot save me. All of my organs have been destroyed."

"Shut up! You do not have permission to die."

Ulquiorra looked at Orihime who had begun to cry. Orihime did not know why she was crying, but she could feel the deep sorrow coming from her Zanpakuto. Since Orihime knew the future, and the other timeline, then the original Orihime knew too.

Seeing Ulquiorra die again in the same manner as before caused her soul to weep. Due to this, Ulquiorra seemed to understand something. He closed his eyes and did not speak anymore. However, Hollow Ichigo had already broken free from the bindings and impaled Orihime with his tail.

When he brought her around to face him, tear drops fell forward onto his face. This caused a slight interruption in the Hollow's control, turning his black eyes white in an instant. Dropping Orihime the Hollow began to scream while Ichigo grabbed the right horn and the remaining stub of his left horn.

He was attempting to break out, but his control was slipping. Orihime took this chance to stab her arm into his body and forcibly evolve his Soul Reaper and Quincy powers. She did not know what would happen, but the stress on her soul from overusing Hanataba's amplified healing and pushing hogyoku to the max caused her to black out.

When Orihime woke, she seemed to be back inside Las Noches. Kenpachi was resting on a boulder while Orhime was gently laid on top of his captain Haori. When she sat up, she saw Grimmjow and Ichigo arguing about something, Yachiru playing with a child Ulquiorra, and Nelliel sitting on the edge of a tall boulder on lookout.

'Wait, what? Child Ulquiorra?'

"Orihime, you're awake!"

Ichigo ran over, but when he got close, he slowed down and had a grim look.

"I'm sorry. Instead of protecting you, I almost killed you. In the end, you had to save me."

The wound on Orihime's shoulder had already healed due to her high-speed regeneration. She saw that Ichigo was completely wound free, and Kenpachi was not bleeding anymore. But her eyes still gravitated over to the child Ulquiorra.

"Is… that?"

"Yeah, it seemed that you were able to save his life, but his mask was damaged when he reverted back to his sealed form. Then he shrunk to a child form. Apparently its exactly what happened to Nelliel. He doesn't seem to remember anything, but is extremely attached to you. It took a lot of effort to get him to let you rest."

Hearing this, Ulquiorra ran over and hugged her arm. Apparently, he hadn't spoken a single word since Ichigo woke up. He had been standing sentry over Orihime and barely let him take her down. Orihime couldn't help but frown at the situation. She didn't dare to mess with his soul until his condition was stable.

'Why do I feel like I suddenly got a child.'

"Ichigo… How are you feeling?"

"I feel great! For some reason after I woke up, I felt far more powerful than before. I also don't feel my inner Hollow's presence anymore, and can keep my mask up for hours."

'Well, its probably due to the Quincy powers helping suppress his Hollow. I feel a bit bad for Uryuu though, if Ichigo fully awakens his Quincy powers, then he will no longer be unique in the group. There's a high chance that when Ichigo loses his Soul Reaper powers, his Quincy blood will fully activate.'

"Well, now that everyone is awake, we should go see if there are any more Arrancar to fight, I'm only just getting started!" Kenpachi was obviously very impatient to fight some more.

"Wait, how long have I been out? Karakura town is in trouble! Aizen plans to wipe out everyone there! We need to get back immediately!"

The group realized the severity of the situation and began to get ready to leave. However, they could not bring the Arrancar with them. Orihime brought Grimmjow and Nelliel together and told them to watch over Ulquiorra. It was likely that none of the Espada would come back alive.

"How are we going to get back? Urahara created a gateway for us to come, but nothing about returning."

"No worries, I haven't been idle during my time here."

Orihime channeled her spiritual power and summoned six pillars. These pillars were covered in various formulas and symbols. She then did various hand sealed and the pillars drew in the surrounding spirit particles. Once the energy reached it's peak, six chains shot out to the center. The chains seemed to slip through space, and once they were hooked onto something, began pulling back.

Soon, an opening appeared in space and Orihime heaved a sigh of relief. This was the first time she tried to use this Kido. Thanks to the third-floor access, she was finally able to complete the spell. The theory behind this was similar to the Senkaimon, but used a six-digit space coordinate. Fortunately, the coordinates for Karakura town were available in the library.

Orihime realized it was too soon for Ichigo to arrive so she stopped him.

"Wait, Ichigo, you should go find Uryuu and Sado. I'm sure the other captains have a way back."

"But—"

"It will be fine. I'm sure all the other captains have already arrived at Karakura town. Make sure our friends are safe."

Ichigo couldn't argue against that, so Orihime, Kenpachi, and Yachiru jumped through the portal. Since the pillars lost their connection to Orihime, they wouldn't last much longer. Fortunately, the distance wasn't very far and they popped out into the sky above the fake Karakura town.

Orihime spread out her awareness and could tell there wasn't anyone here, and all these buildings were fake. She was relieved and then took time to assess the situation. Aizen and the Arrancar had just arrived along with the court guard captains, lieutenants, and various seat members.

Kenpachi and Yachiru already joined their group and Orihime moved to join Soi Fon's group. Out of everyone there, she had the best connections with her due to Yoruichi. She saw that Aizen, Gin, and Kaname had already gotten surrounded in Yamamoto's flames, seperating them from the battle.

"What are you doing here? Where is everyone else?"

"They were finishing up over there, we came ahead to help."

"Whatever, just don't get in my way."

Orihime walked over to stand behind Omaeda. Everyone was standing on the air above the fake Karakura town and it was quite disorienting at first. Orihime had decided to help deal with a Fraccion and then turning her attention to Baraggan. Although unconfirmed, she was certain Hanataba would counter his death energy.

The main goal was to protect the pillars. Orihime watched as Baraggan sent his two weaker Fraccion to destroy the towers and she simply waited with Omaeda. She had her eyes on Ggio Vega, an Arrancar whose mask resembled a saber tooth tiger.

Orihime was suited to fighting him, since she remembered his only remarkable abilities were his speed, cero, and his muscular form. For an edgy dual blade user, she would have no issue. Orihime was excited to have her moment to explain all of her abilities to the enemy.

She understood now, explaining your abilities was for showing off! The person with the more complex or intricate ability was naturally the cooler combatant. This would also prove useful for her bid to becoming a captain. However, she planned to reserve her bankai for facing against Baraggan.

'No way will I let Hachi steal my thunder! Soi Fon and I will beat Baraggan together.'

"Captain, once those two Arrancar make a move, let me deal with the small one."

"Hmph, fine. Don't expect me to help you."

"Yes, captain! I won't disappoint you."

Orihime wasn't being quiet at all, and Ggio overheard her claiming him as an opponent. This naturally struck a nerve. He was clearly intending to fight the captain, but now this weak looking girl was talking down to him.

"King Baraggan, please allow us to fight those arrogant Soul Reapers!"

Having also heard Orihime's comments, he naturally gave the two their chance to beat the 'ants' in front of him. Orihime smirked at this because she was essentially a captain-level strength and she was glad to test her Hakudo against this opponent. Ggio Vega jumped over to Orihime and smiled wryly.

"Ggio Vega, that is the name of your killer. Remember that in the next—"

Before he could finish speaking, Orihime had already activated her Reikoromo and punched Ggio right in the jaw, sending him flying into a building.