Chapter 1

It was a warm and sunny day in the small town of Karakura. The birds chirped their melodious song while the green grass swayed side to side. Kids could be heard playing outside without any cares in the world. It was here that a young man woke up with a smile on his face. Although he worked many long shifts and dealt with a cruel boss, he found his life to be quite pleasant. Even in the harshest of times, there were never any moments he felt life was unfair. Thus, the man walked happily to the kitchen and began preparing breakfast.

"Good morning, Onii-san," the man heard from behind as he turned on the stove. The man then turned around with his usual gentle smile as he greeted the little girl in front of him.

"Good morning, Orihime. What are you doing awake so early? You don't have school for another four hours," he replied, picking the small girl up and setting her onto the kitchen counter. The little girl had always loved to be in high places. He then combed the girl's messy, orange hair that was tangled enough to make him question whether or not she was trying to make a nest for the birds outside.

"I wanted to see you before you went to work," the girl answered, rubbing her eyes for she was still tired. "You always work too long!"

"That is because I have to make enough money to give you the world, Orihime. Now, let's get you back in your room and tuck you in for bed again. You need plenty of sleep to do well in school!" The chestnut haired man placed the blanket over the young girl's face, making her giggle. Placing a small kiss on her forehead, the man then knew it was time for him to finish making breakfast and leave the house before he was late to work so as to not deal with the wrath from his boss. "I'll see you soon, Orihime. Do your best and have fun at school, OK?" The young girl nodded her head with a smile on her face as her eyes slowly began to close and she drifted back to sleep, thankful she had a big brother that cared for her when nobody else did.

A loud alarm buzzed from Orihime's phone, waking her up for school. Beams of sunlight made it past her window curtains, hitting her in the face causing her to groan. Like any other high school student, waking up for school in the morning was not something the girl looked forward to everyday. Finally, Orihime sat up and turned her alarm off, remembering the peaceful dream she had the prior night.

"What a nice dream. I miss you, Sora," the girl thought as she glanced at a picture of the two of them. Her older brother, Sora, had died many years ago and that dream was one of the many memories the two shared together. The two's parents were negligent and abusive, thus, when Sora finally turned 18, he took his little sister along with him and together they lived many years happily together. That is, until a terrible car accident occurred, taking the young man's life.

Shortly before the accident, Orihime became upset with Sora for buying her hairpins that she deemed childish. The young girl had constantly been bullied and believed that if she wore them the harassment would become even more relentless. Therefore, on that fateful day, the man went to work without hearing a single goodbye from his dear sister. Orihime blames herself for this fight every day and as a reminder of her brother, she wears the hairpins every day. As the girl brushed her now long mane of auburn hair, she looked at the hairpins that she had been so petty about. In truth, the pins were gorgeous. They were a nice shade of blue and were in the shape of a flower. They also sparkled beautifully in the sun. She could only wish she had not been so selfish that day.

Finally ready for school, the girl darted out of her apartment to meet up with her friends. Orihime felt very blessed to have many friends around her, especially Tatsuki. Tatsuki was Orihime's first friend and had always helped her with the bullies at school. She had also introduced Orihime to the rest of her friends, the most prominent being Ichigo. Orihime loved all of her friends dearly but Ichigo had a special spot in her heart. He was her first love.

When the two first met, she found herself unable to stop herself from gazing into his eyes. They were like pools of chocolate that made her feel like she was drowning in sweet bliss. His long, orange hair made the girl feel normal, for they were both bullied for their hair color. Ichigo was fairly attractive as he was a tall and leanly built man. It was no wonder she fell in love with him. However, her love had always been unrequited, for Ichigo had eyes for one of Orihime's other friend named Rukia.

Rukia was the complete opposite of Orihime. While Orihime was tall and clumsy, Rukia was short and poised. Orihime had long orange hair while Rukia had short black hair. When Orihime was loud, Rukia was elegantly quiet. There were many times that Tatsuki and Rangiku- another close friend of Orihime- had to cheer the girl up because she felt subpar to Rukia. The two had many opposites, yet were very close friends. Though Orihime knew that her petite friend was the object of Ichigo's affection, she never gave up hope.

"Hey, Orihime!" the girl heard as she neared the entrance of the high school. She turned around to see Tatsuki running towards her. "Sorry I couldn't walk with you today. My parents were lecturing me about how I need to focus more on school instead of karate. How crazy of them, right?"

Orihime laughed and replied, "You do spend a lot of time at the dojo, you know."

"Yeah because I am planning on winning nationals this year! I came in second last year because that bastard Takashi went and cheated but this year I plan on getting gold! And I expect you to be in the crowds cheering me on, Orihime!"

"Of course!"

The two girls then walked to class, discussing the art homework that was due that day. Standing in the doorway to their class, Orihime's eyes quickly scanned the room for the boy that made her heart beat to such extremes that nobody else could. Finally, her eyes landed on Ichigo. Feeling a faint blush come to her cheeks, she patted her face and prepared herself to go talk to him as Tatsuki lightly elbowed her and chuckled.

"Kurosaki-" she started to say before she was shoved and fell to the ground. The girl looked behind her as she saw her classmate, Grimmjow, glare at her. "I'm sorry, I was in the way wasn't I?" she said, looking at the ground unable to look him in the eyes, though his eyes were a stunning shade of blue.

"Orihime, don't apologize to this guy! Grimmjow, you better apologize to her right now or so help me-" Tatsuki began before being interrupted.

"Or you'll what? Hit me? Imma tell you right now as a heads up, I have no problem with hitting ladies like you," Grimmjow sneered.

Then, the whole situation escalated much to Orihime's disdain. Ichigo and her other friends were about to fight Grimmjow and his friends, but luckily the teacher came in just in the nick of time. These kinds of things were always happening ever since Hueco Mundo High School shut down and the students were forced to merge into Karakura High School. While the students from HMHS were typically rebellious, the students of KHS were bright and good-natured. Thus, trying to merge the high schools together was proving to be very difficult.

As everyone's anger sizzled down during the teacher's lecture, Orihime gazed out the window. Though she was incredibly clumsy and slow sometimes, she was ranked third in the school behind her friend Uryu and some other person she could not remember. So, she found no need in paying attention to class for she already knew what the teacher was discussing. As Orihime gazed out the window, she recalled the dream she had the night before and began to think of her brother once more. He had always been so kind to her and was her hero. Sadness fell upon the girl as she began to miss Sora, thus she decided to take a nap so as to not think about it.

When the girl woke up from her quick nap, it was already lunchtime. She looked out the window and saw her friends eating and having a good time, making her sad that she missed out on it. However, there were only ten minutes left of lunch and since she dozed off a little longer than she expected, Orihime decided to stay in the classroom and study. Since it was a beautiful day, almost everyone in her class decided to eat outside in the sun. As her eyes scanned over some notes the girl wrote the night before, she found she still could not stay focused and wanted to go home more than anything and take a real nap.

"Agh why can't I just concentrate today!" Orihime exclaimed. "Maybe I really should go home… I'm not getting anything done here anyways. Then again, I'm sure Tatsuki wants to walk home together. I guess I should just-"

"Onna, would you please refrain from speaking to yourself aloud? It is quite bothersome as you are not the only one here. Your voice is giving me a headache," Orihime heard from behind.

The girl turned her head and was shocked to find somebody else with her. Near the back of the classroom sat a boy that came from Hueco Mundo High School. The boy had pale skin and jet-black hair. The only splash of color on him were his eyes, which were a dazzling shade of green. No, green is too bland. This boy's eyes deserved a better description. They were like bright emeralds that clashed with his snow white skin. A faint blush crept to Orihime's face as she realized she had never seen a pair of eyes as beautiful as these. Even Ichigo's pool of chocolate eyes seemed dull in comparison to the bright shade of jade in front of her.

"Oh, sorry umm… What was your name again?" the girl asked with a sweet smile.

"You need not know my name, onna, as I do not need to know yours," the boy with dark hair answered, both disappointing and embarrassing Orihime.

"Oh, you're totally right, my bad! Anyways, I guess I'll be quiet now!"

Realizing that her classmate wasn't going to acknowledge what she had just said, Orihime decided to take a real look at the boy in front of her, rather than drowning in his eyes. His hair was actually quite long, something that the girl did not notice before. She could also see a tiny type of ink on part of his chest due to the top buttons being undone. Squinting to see what kind of tattoo he had, Orihime leaned towards him in her seat to try to get even closer.

"Did you need something?" the boy said, knowing the whole time that she was staring at him.

The girl's face went in flames. "Oh, sorry! I was just trying to see what your tattoo was. If you knew I was staring at you why didn't you stop me?"

"I did not feel the need to at first. However, it became disturbing when I noticed you about to fall out of your chair. So I will ask you now to stop your incessant staring."

Feeling less shy now, Orihime tested the waters with him. "I'll stop staring at you if you tell me your name," she said.

Closing the book he was reading, a book that Orihime deemed to be boring and outdated, the boy let out a sigh. "My name is Ulquiorra Schiffer."

Orihime grinned and felt something similar to butterflies in her stomach as she knew she had just won. "Nice to meet you, Schiffer-kun!"