Time Flies...

[Several hours earlier.]

Aizen and Gin just entered the Senkaimon when Isshin pulled Ichigo out of the rubble. Orihime had noticed them leaving and ran around throwing some heals onto various injured court squad members. When she came over to Yamamoto, she found her power being pushed to the limit. The issue was, he had used a lot of spiritual power in his last attack and she was drawing from herself for most of the healing.

"Captain-commander Yamamoto, your vitality is incredible."

"This is enough. Save your strength to heal the others."

Orihime nodded and made her rounds, even healing the Visored, to her displeasure. All of the injured captains had a chance to see her after she healed them, so her mission was accomplished. Next was to meet with her first sensei.

"Yoruichi-sensei, I missed you!"

Orihime hugged Yoruichi while she was being healed. Orihime made a quick scan of the surroundings and didn't sense Soi Fon anywhere so she continued showing affection. However, she underestimated the captain of the stealth force. Orihime found herself lying on the ground with a footprint on her face.

"How dare you put your arms around Lady Yoruichi!"

"Soi Fon, don't bully your junior. She helped you against that Espada after all." Yoruichi patted Soi Fon's head which caused her to turn timid immediately.

"Yes, Lady Yoruichi."

Orihime had given up on getting a bite of chocolate so she wandered over to where Ichigo was. When she arrived, she overheard Isshin explaining his plan to have Ichigo train in the Dangai.

"Mr. Kurosaki, Ichigo, please let me follow you, I want to protect everyone as well!"

"I don't know about this, Miss Inoue. I cannot, in good conscious, put someone else at risk."

"Dad, its fine. I trust Orihime."

Isshin relented and had Ichigo open the Senkaimon. The three of them entered and Isshin noticed the cleaner was missing. Therefore, he proceeded to explain to Ichigo that he would teach him the Final Getsuga Tenshou. After getting Ichigo to properly enter his inner world, he began to hold the flow back with a special device.

Orihime took some time to analyze the flow and determined her barriers would work. They would not gain much more time than in the canon, but any more is helpful in the current situation. Seeing that Ichigo was completely immersed in training, she approached Isshin.

"Mr. Kurosaki, I'm afraid I may have accidently awakened Ichigo's Quincy powers when he was fully transformed as a Hollow." Isshin seemed surprised, but then had a knowing look on his face.

"I see. What Urahara said was true, you have indeed mastered the hogyoku. Why are you telling me this?"

"Final Getsuga Tenshou, that isn't called final because it's a more powerful version… It is because he will lose his Soul Reaper powers after using it, am I right?" Isshin did not respond immediately, but eventually nodded.

"That's right. It is the same with my Engetsu. It is not a power our Zanpakuto's want to teach us."

"That is my point, Mr. Kurosaki. Once he loses the balance of his powers, his Quincy blood may awaken. Since you are a Soul Reaper, that means it must come from his mom. You have to tell him the truth… As hard as it may be."

Orihime did not wait for a reply, as she saw down with her legs to the side. She placed Hanataba across her lap and entered her inner world. Orihime planned to use these three months to increase her control over Hanayo no hime.

Once inside, what Orihime saw scared her. The sky was black like a consuming void. The ground was dry and cracked. All of the flowers had withered away. The single tree in the distance was bare with a giant axe imbedded into it. Hanging from a branch was a skeleton with a noose around its neck.

Orihime approached the tree and noticed Hanayo was skipping in circles around the hill. When she noticed Orihime, she ran up to her. After grabbing Orihime's hand and pulling her toward the tree she began talking.

"It was really fun outside, can I come out and play again? There were so many good stories, Hanayo is sad she couldn't take them. Hanayo did good and listened. She only took the meanie's story. Can you let Hanayo out again, please?"

"Can you tell me what happened here? Why is it so dark and depressing?"

The girl looked around and tilted her head. Then she removed her mask. Orihime fell to the ground and clutched at her chest in primal fear. This was the kind of instinctual fear similar to when a gosling sees a hawk overhead. Cold sweat began pouring down from her when she saw the girl's face. Her eyes were hollow and black like charcoal, and her lips were painted black.

She opened her mouth, something which could be described as a purple cosmic nebula, appeared. She inhaled and the world began tearing apart and being absorbed into her mouth and eyes. After a few moments, the scene had returned to the vibrant and pretty valley of flowers. Her eyes now had constellation patterns and the nebula had retreated into her. She put the mask back on and sat on Orihime's lap.

"That story was fun, but its boring now. Hanayo ate it. It was yummy. Can you feed Hanayo some more stories?"

"How about the next time I call you, you let me stay, too?" The girl looks down in a sad way when Orihime says that.

"But if I do that, we… we won't be together. Hanayo is scared."

"It's okay! Even if we aren't one, we will always be together."

"Do you mean it? You won't abandon Hanayo? Never ever?"

"Of course, I promise!"

Orihime suddenly recalled the scene from earlier and the instinctual fear she felt. Although it was frightening, that was her own power, so she was confident and brave. However, Orihime had a small seed of fear planted in the depth of her subconscious.

"Then, can Hanayo come out and play together?"

"How about we play now? I have lots of time."

Hanayo seemed extremely happy at that and clapped her hands. She got up from Orihime's lap and ran a few meters away. Then she pulled a flower from the ground and it turned into a sword with a strange shape. Orihime pulled a flower as well, and got an oddly shaped sword.

'This reminds me of Ichigo's sword training to learn bankai.'

However, what happened next surprised Orihime. Suddenly, thousands of origami animals appeared from under the flowers and began attacking the two of them. Orihime started to understand what was going on, and fought together with Hanayo.

'This is not a battle between us, but a way to bond and play together.'

Orihime struck a paper tiger, but her weapon broke before it could break its defense. Hanayo jumped over her and finished the job, also breaking her sword. The two of them went back to back and pulled new swords out of the ground. They continued to beat paper tigers, turtles, frogs, cranes, until Orihime had an epiphany.

Hanayo and her made eye contact, or what could be considered that through the mask, and they understood each other. Purple flames covered Hanayo from head to toe and she grew to the same height as Orihime. She gave off a mature and noble feeling, which heavily contrasted her image before.

The two of them each put one hand on the giant sword that Orihime pulled out, and swung at the wave of paper animals together. Their attack was so powerful it left a large crevice in the earth of this space. Outside, Isshin was surprised at the explosion of Reiatsu that she gave off from inside her mental space.

Hanayo quickly shrunk back down to her original size and yawned. The paper animals were all gone and the crevice was slowly repairing itself. Orihime laid on top of the flower bed, and Hanayo rested her little head on Orihime's abdomen.

"Hanayo had fun. Tell Hanayo another story before you go?"

"Hmm… There was once a little boy in a big village. He was born on the same day that his parents died. But his parents were heroes and they loved their boy a lot. They left him with a special power that would make him a hero one day too.

However, everyone in the village was sad, because they also lost family that day. They blamed the little boy and bullied him every day. But the little boy wasn't angry at them, instead he kept getting stronger and stronger until one day, the village needed him.

The boy came back and saved the village. Everyone called him a hero and he was loved. He eventually became so strong that he saved the world too! Then no one bullied him again."

"Hanayo doesn't like that story."

"Why not?"

"The little boy was abandoned and bullied, but he still saved the meanies in that village. Hanayo wants to change it! The little boy should not save the people who were mean to him. Hanayo will rescue the little boy, and eat everyone else!"

"Well, its just a story, so you can change it however you want."