"Are you afraid of me, girl?" He asked in parting. This is it. The end.
His eyes once so stoic, so cold, held no hostility now; Just a need for understanding. Hand raised, he reached out to her – forgive me.
'I… I'm not scared" And she meant it too. All at once she realized her captor was as much a victim as she. Hand raised, she reached out to him – I forgive you. And she meant that as well.
This is it… here in my hand… Through outstretched fingers Orihime tried in vain to reach the redeemed Espada. In his parting moments he had realized what Kurosaki's nakama had meant when she so often spoke of the heart. As he faded away, he entrusted everything of him that could remain on this world to the orange haired woman who had shown him how to live again.
This is it… The Heart.
"Or…Orihime?" Ichigo Kurosaki said tentatively as he approached the oranged haired woman, who was now on her knees.
Go away Ichigo.
Orihime Inoue's mind was on one thing only, and it was NOT her once so precious Kurosak-Kun.
Tears flowed freely from her light grey eyes as she started at the empty space where the Cuatro Espada had previously stood. As she looked back on what had just happened she shook – she truly had learned the meaning of despair. Just when she thought there'd been no hope for Ulquiorra Cifer, he had realized what it is to have a heart and what it means to entrust it to another. And then with that realization upon him he had passed on into the winds of Hueco Mundo. It's so unfair she thought bitterly, still frozen in shock.
Suddenly, unbidden a memory took over her mind. A memory of a time when "Lord" Aizen himself had said that her powers "Violate the realms of the gods" and another from when the Vizard Hachi had suggested that she does not actually need a piece of something to restore it. But then if some piece of Ulquiorra is still drifting on the wind I should be able to restore him anyway… right?
But should she? He had been an enemy to all her friends, nearly killed Ichigo and kept her trapped in a tower in Las Noches. But on the other hand he'd never harmed her and on occasion, before his demise in the wastes of Hueco Mundo she could of sworn she saw some sort of flicker of humanity beneath his cold exterior. But there was still that inkling of worry that kept her from releasing her Shun Shun Rikka – What would her friends think?! Her friends who had battled so desperately to liberate her from her entrapment in the constant night of the hollow desert, how would they react? Was it wrong to want to give her melancholic captor another chance at redemption?
Her head told her they would not react well at all. But in her heart of hearts, where perhaps his heart now lay as well, she knew that if she did not try she would carry the guilt with her for the rest of her life.
Slowly she rose to her feet and turned, tears flowing to face her battle worn nakama. After she had quickly assessed the damage and ensured that they were not on their death beds, Orihime made her decision. She would try to bring him back, and if she failed well… at least she knew she tried. Deep down, she thought, they'll understand.
Gathering all her resolve she turned her attention back to her friends, who stared on in silence. There was a look in her eyes that they'd never seen before. Back in Karakura she'd just been the shy little dizzy girl, always daydreaming but always getting good grades. When they'd gone to the Soul Society to rescue rukia she had awakened her powers but still just wasn't strong enough to really do anything but stand on the sidelines.
But now, now was a different story. And who would of thought that putting poor Orihime Inoue under the most intense of pressures would of seen her come in to her own and finally realize that she had the power to make a difference all along.
She could completely reject something happening. It certainly was a power no one else had obtained and although she had only been used as a decoy, she now realized it was her time to shine. Because if she didn't, someone who didn't deserve the end he received would be gone forever, lost amongst the sand and the ruins.
And so, she turned her back on her nakama (only for the time being, she thought) and raised her hand to her azure hairpin and with all her will power shouted –
"Soten Kisshun – I REJECT!"…
The sky flashed blinding white. A silence had descended on Hueco Mundo. In the vast white desert, life itself had come to a complete standstill.