Fairy Tales Slowly Decay
Author: The Rose Society
Rating: T
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Tite Kubo and respective entities. Borrowed by myself without permission. Plotline and badly written fic are generated by myself.
Orihime is a romantic person. I mean this in the sense of the romantic stories of heroes and princesses (hence her name: hime = princess). Her early life was one of tragedy and trauma, a prostitute mother and a violent drunk for a father, both of whom beat her and her brother. This would prime, as it does for so many who are born into dysfunction, her way of responding go trauma and ability to cope.
Her first hero is undoubtedly her brother, Sora. As a young man, he took his very young sister away and raised her, working to provide for her, soothing any nightmares she may have had. Most likely, her early life prompted her particular method of coping, via fantasy and imagination. It would have served her well to look beyond the hard scrabble life I imagine she and her brother would have had to eke a living out on a salary that a possibly only high school grad would earn. It is unknown whether they had the assistance of relatives at this time.
But then Sora the hero is killed in a car accident. I suspect this is a greater trauma than anything she might have endured in her first three years by her parents. This would be the loss of her parent, her sibling, her entire world at this point. The man who comforted her when she was bullied for her hair, the man she didn't say good bye to for the first time because they had an argument, died that very day.
Enter a new hero, a scowling Ichigo. A young boy of similar age and hair color. At a time of such great trauma, the possibility of a new hero was welcomed and she clung to it with all the strength she could muster. He was kind in her time of pain and unfailingly gentlemanly: the perfect knight for a princess.
Another year passes and Orihime meets and gains an unexpected hero...ine. Arisawa Tatsuki, with her strength and zest for life, unflinchingly protective and kind and supportive. It also helps a bit that Tatsuki the heroine knows Ichigo the knight. Orihime is shy and can't talk much to the knight, he is much too aloof to do so. Instead, she watched him from afar, learning about him by asking Tatsuki when possible, and yes, fantasizing about him. No, pervert, not that way, well, not exactly. But much like her fantasies of her brother and her going into space as astronauts with a monkey co-pilot, she fantasizes of her knight and his adventures, of her triumphant knight turning warm honey eyes upon her, holding out his hand to her, his princess, and whisking her away from her difficult life. And it is difficult. She must work hard to earn excellent grades, which then earn the financial support of her relative, a relative that did not invite her to live with her despite Orihime being underage.
With Tatsuki the heroine by her side, Orihime waits for her knight to really notice her. While she catalogues everything about him, he barely knows her name, recognizes her as a classmate, but his eyes still slide right over her with nary a pause. But luckily, the heroine slays the princess' other dragons in the knight's stead, be they red-headed, overzealous lesbians or ill-tempered bullies still bothering her about her hair. Her heroine makes it possible for the princess' locks to grow. Her heroine helps her to wait for the knight. Her heroine helps the princess to keep her fantasies and her dependency on others. And her heroine is there when the princess' knight finally enters the scene. He saves her when her brother, who lingered after death to watch over her for so long he began to degrade into a Hollow, came to devour her.
When Kuchiki Rukia appears, Orihime thinks she is a samurai warrior woman. She is Ichigo's Merlin, a wise and...well, semi-violent guide to the new world the knight is thrust into. She sees Ichigo's world expand, and is grateful that part of that expansion includes her. Finally the princess can become friends with the knight and start their adventure together. She is grateful to Merlin for her magic and helping her knight on his path.
But overtime, the princess feels the knight is getting too far ahead of her. So the princess also trains. She works hard to grow. She may never really be one for killing and battle, but she is far from the princess with a lack of resolve. Even Rukia as Merlin helps her in her pursuit, for which she is grateful. Much as she once hoped Rukia would also like Ichigo so that they could overcome him with numbers, Rukia is her comrade in their shared journey to become stronger. Much as Ichigo the knight has left her and Merlin behind, the princess has left Tatsuki the heroine behind. Parallels, stories within stories. And now, finally, the final approach to the end. The qprincess will become strong and protect the heroine, she will fight with Merlin and the others, and they will all support the knight. Eventually, the princess will become so strong that she can protect on an equal level as the knight. Maybe that will finally gain his notice away from Merlin and onto her. After all, she is the princess and he is her knight.
Things don't quite go as she planned. Yes, the princess did get a chance to save everyone, sacrificing her freedom for them all, including the knight. That is how the fairytale went right, the lovely princess being locked in the tower? She even got a chance to visit the knight in his dreams and offer true love's first kiss to him. It wasn't exactly like the fairytales but it would do. What she didn't know was that she wasn't going to have a chance to perform her magic feat and destroy the evil man' plans for world domination. It actually wasn't Aizen's intent to capture a strong and useful princess and keep her from the knight. No, his plan was to use the princess as bait to lure the knight and some of the most powerful opponents and trap them out of the way while he worked on unleashing the Hogyoku.
At that high point in Hueco Mundo overlooking the wide vistas, when the knight comes rushing to save the princess (she was unaware the knight nearly abandoned the princess to save Merlin and his comrades), she was horrified to see his wounds. She did not want him to suffer. The princess' fantasies never include reality because, well, they don't mix. So holes in chests that no longer bled because the heart no longer pumped blood were never a part of her imaginings. Missing limbs that poured lifeblood went unseen because the horror did not compute.
The dragon wasn't supposed to be the eerie man she had gotten to know over this period of time, the man who had a heart of stone it seemed, the man who threatened to force feed her. Dragon though he may be, Orihime had gotten to know him a bit as well and he seemed to lack any of the enjoyment of violence she saw in so many others in this Hell-plane.
And most importantly, the knight should not look even more frightening than the dragon, stabbing foe and friend alike without hesitation. The princess should not be terrified that the knight might end up turning the sword on her nor should she (guiltily) be momentarily completely disappointed and concerned by the possibility that the knight still did not see the princess, that he had come her for the adventure and not to win the princess. This is the point in the story when the princess was going to start her happily ever. Before the great battle, the princess would give her knight her benediction and there would be a look shared, a becoming blush engendered.
No, this was not her fairytale. So she screamed a name, the knight's name, because this was not how the story was supposed to go. She screamed it over and over. And the knight eventually did see her. He renewed his vow to protect her (and everyone else). And then, the knight slew the dragon. It was over. The knight even extended his hand to take the princess' own (as they would later repeat, at their nuptials, according to the fairytale). So she could reject the fact that the princess was incredibly saddened by the death of the dragon. She could reject the fact that the knight's warm honey eyes were saddened, not triumphant, and just a bit...frightened? Here at the top of the Hell verse, she stood with the knight...slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes (at least she wasn't as hesvy as she looked?).
But happily ever after didn't happen then. The dragon had had an even meaner and more deadly boss. There was more fighting to be done, more injuries, more loss, and finally the knight slew Aizen with the ultimate sacrifice. There still was no happily ever after; instead, the knight despaired and looked on with quiet resignation as Merlin slowly vanished from his sight. Farewell halcyon days indeed.
For almost a year and a half, the knight was lost. Ichigo was not the same, his orange hair used to blaze the trail far ahead of everyone else. Nowadays, it seemed that he was lagging ever further behind, slower and lacking resolve. Orihime waited, bringing him offerings of bread or performing outlandish feats to try to cajole the knight. It was in vain. The fire in the honey eyes disappeared. The princess could not be a princess if there was no battle, no knight, no happily ever after.
It wasn't until Ichigo found out that he might be able to regain his ability to protect his friends and family that a spark returned. He worked harder than before to try to regain his sword, his armor, his knighthood, and Orihime donned her princess mantle once more to inspire Sir Knight. The fairytale seemed to be commencing again.
Until Ichigo attacked Tsukishima, their beloved friend and nakama. It pained to her to fight her knight but surely he would eventually regain his senses. After all, tbere was no reason for Ichigo to hate Tsukishima, although, dare she hope, could it be jealousy, especially since Tsukishima was so incredibly dear to her? Well, she just needed to assure Ichigo that he was still her beloved knight.
When Ginjo took Ichigo's fullbring, causing the man such immense despair, something broke in Orihime's heart. She wanted to cry on her knees with Ichigo, to hold and shield him from the rain and his tears. That was also part of the princess' duties, right?
What she didn't expect to ever see was Urahara Kisuke, Kurosaki Isshin, and Rukia as Merlin come on the scene and Rukia stab Ichigo with a sword. She could not unsee the way his eyes lit up with an inferno of resolve and passion and life as a rush of power raced throughout his body. And when she woke up finally after all the mental tinkering Tsukishima did disappeared, she could see the knight had regained that inimitable confidence so keenly missed in the last seventeen months.
Full circle. They returned to Hueco Mundo to help their friends, Ichigo, Orihime, Ishida Uryu, and Yasutora Sado. She was a stronger princess now. Her powers had grown, as had her resolve. When they found out that there was a further plan afoot that aimed at the very heart of Soul Society, she was powerful enough to stand like all of Ichigo's comrades and fight without worrying him while he went ahead to Soul Society. She would support Ichigo in this way while Rukia, as well as the rest of their friends, supported him in Soul Society.
What Orihime didn't know is that this isn't and hasn't been a romantic fairytale. This has always been about survival and battle. Reality is harsh and one must see things clearly to understand one's opponents, to strategize, to plan. Ichigo isn't a suave, seductive would-be cassanova. He was a boy, now young man, who knew he could fight well and wanted to protect his friends and family, who learned there were enemies far beyond his capabilities and needed to do something about it. He trained, he sweated, he bled, and he grew. Rukia is not Merlin with powers beyond knowing, because Orihime, Sado, and Ishida have all their own powers and capabilities. She may have guided at first but they themselves were all being guided by people with farther reaching sights than Rukia. Instead, she, much like Ichigo, trained, sweated, and bled and she grew. Ishida, Sado, Abarai Renji, Kuchiki Byakuya, even Zaraki Kenpachi were all people who understood the dangers in the world, that the only way to protect others and to survive the upcoming battles was to keep getting stronger and better and to win. You depend on your nakama, but you also protect them. They all knew the way of the warrior was one of resolve and conviction, but ever realistic.
When she finally learned of their progress after training with the Royal Guard, when she learned of Rukia's absolutely chilling new bankai and level of power, and when she saw Ichigo's ever more blinding new level of power, that is when she learned something new.
Ichigo was a king. His bearing, his confidence, his resolve, and his strength were beyond a shinigami captain or even commander-captain. He was beyond his Quincy royal heritage. He was beyond anything human.
Rukia was a queen, as much as it pained Orihime to make this realization. Her regal bearing, her cool confidence, her resolve, and her strength in that eleborate kimono and hair combs made of ice were beyond the shinigami Rukia once was. That bankai form and powers were lovelier than anything Orihime had seen thus far amongst all the other shinigami.
They had been transformed once again, so they could fight this battle that the shinigami were losing so badly...though it was more a massacre much like the massacre of Quincies so long ago.
And Orihime may still be a princess by name, but she was ready to be her own kind of princess. Who knew what the future would hold, but she was not a princess in an ivory tower, waiting for a knight. She was ready to be a warrior as well. She may not be a royal warrior, fighting in the frontlines, leading the troops into battle and eventually victory. But hiding behind knights was no longer what she wished to do. Being a part of the main fighting force, lending her powers in the areas they do the most good, and accepting that all she could do is her best and that everyone shone in different ways, this was all good too.
She may not end up marrying her knight, but she could support the king...and if it should so end up being, the queen as well, as they worked all together towards making their own happily ever after, for however long possible, in this world of war and survival. All of them protecting and depending on each other in equal measure, they were a group of warriors that would win so that they could survive.