"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.
Ferdinand Foch"
Prologue
She couldn't move, she could only watch in fear. Pathetic...
How many times did Ulquiorra tell her so? She was only human, weak and so easily hurt. Fragile...
How could she help? how could she get them to stop?
Her body trembled as she watched as Ulquiorra lost his limbs, he was loosing, they both were.
She could feel Ichigo's aura fade away, eaten by something more sinister in nature. He was trapped, His hollow was taking over in the heat of battle and she couldn't stop it.
She watched as Ichigo prepared to impale Ulquiorra's throat with his sword, Orihime tried to scream but her voice was lost with the wind. She raced towards them, uncaring of the sharp debris that pierced her feet. She didn't want this to happen even if it felt like betrayal. She couldn't let Ulquiorra die.
He was a hollow, an Espada in Aizen's army, the enemy.
A lost soul...
A soul that she had come to know and understand during her capture despite the obvious apathy.
Orihime felt trapped, between two worlds and two choices.
She reached them just in time to watch Uryū stop Ichigo from finishing but the dark presence was still there, that wasn't Ichigo. She couldn't make out what was being said at this distance but she knew that her friend was not safe.
She felt a sharp stab of pain as the ground below shook and her balance faltered, Ichigo's raitsu was overwhelming and Orihime let out a gasp of horror as he stabbed Uryū straight through the chest, blood instantly bleeding into white. Ichigo would never intentionally harm his friends, he was not in his right mind and she was too weak to stop any of this bloodshed. Once again the feeling of resentment at her own inadequacy boiled to the surface. What could she do?
Just as he is about to attack with a Cero, she screamed for him to stop. Hoping that a part of Ichigo could hear her,hoping that they would all just listen...
She felt despair, she felt lost and helpless. What could she do? She didn't want anyone to die. It wasnt like she could simply use her fairies to bring an end to the battle. Orihime was just the healer, watching from the sidelines as those she cared for were hurt and damaged fighting for their beliefs.
She was not strong like Rukia or Ichigo, she was weak.
Weak...to be helpless and unable to defend, unable to stop the tragedies from unfurling in front of her very eyes.
She could already feel Ulquiorra's toxic green riatsu spike in response to Ichigo's hollow and her heart felt as if it stopped beating in that single moment. He had severed one of Ichigo's horns in an instant, causing the Cero to disperse skyward and she stared as his cold emerald gaze locked with hers for a single moment, her eyes refusing to leave his, so afraid that he would disappear.
She couldn't help but feel that he would...
The explosion shattered Ichigo's mask and Ulquiorra averted his eyes away. His body and leg began to regenerate and Orihime felt relief at the fact that he was healing but she knew that their battle was not over. Ulquiorra would not allow a task to be left unfinished, he would protect her and ensure that she remained within this realm, following Aizen's orders till the very end. Such was the mentality of a weapon, cold and perfectly forged to obey the will of it's wielder...and Ichigo, Ichigo would not rest till he had saved her, the stereotypical hero.
The hole in Ichigo's chest had completely repaired itself and Orihime knew that his hollow form had faded with the shattering of it's mask.
She wanted this to be over, she had agreed to go to Los Noches to protect her friends, not become the cause for more suffering and death.
Sadness...
A helpless spectator as Ulquiorra removed Zangetsu from Uryū's chest, the black blade coated in crimson life. Her heart ached with each second that passed by, waiting for the inevitable outcome of death and bloodshed...
Ulquiorra throws Zangetsu to the newly awoken Ichigo, demanding for the fight to continue,ignorant of her silent pleas.
Her heart ached.
Even as Ichigo refuses, stating his arm and leg should be cut off as well for the fight to be fair, it almost made her smile fondly. Life was never fair and yet there were the rare few that strived to create that equality despite the situation, Ulquiorra would most likely label it stupidity.
Trash...
She supposed the reasonable thing to do would be to wait for the outcome, even if one of them had to die. She shouldn't agonize over the one who was in league with the enemy. Ulquiorra was the most faithful to Aizen, he was cold and merciless when it came to obeying orders, she knew this as a fact.
But...
Those piercing emerald eyes which she found so unfeeling at first had become a source of comfort during her imprisonment. He was not as heartless as he believed. There was curiosity towards humans and emotions, Ulquiorra wanted to understand and there were those moments in which she saw genuine emotion.
He was not a monster...
Orihime's hands trembled as Ulquiorra prepared to cut Ichigo's arm and leg, the elegant blade raised high for the strike. Ichigo stood calm and composed, staring straight ahead, waiting. It was her eyes only that took note of the slight pause in Ulquiorra's movements, the subtle widening of his eyes and the sight of ash...
His body was dissolving, crumbling and fading with the wind, the remains of a cremation, and she realizes with a sickening thud in her chest that he is finished.
The battle was over ...
Her heart began to break.
"Kill me now", Ulquiorra's voice seemed to echo in her mind,an internal stab, and Ichigo's grip on Zangetsu lessens at the command.
"No", he refuses and the air grew thick with silence. Orihime could not tear her gaze away from Ulquiorra, as if disconnected from reality and watching his body dissolve into ash from outside the confines of her mind. She wanted to move, reach out towards him and somehow hold him together, reject the very concept of his death.
Death itself, but that could only be an act of god.
The rapid heartbeat within her chest seemed to drown all sound as she watched, yet to say a word as Ulquiorra took what would be one final glance, their eyes met and her gaze softened. She could not stop the inevitable ,willing to accept that she was only human.
So weak...
"Are you afraid ? "...Afraid?
Orihime shook her head with a saddened expression at his question,"I am not afraid."
She spoke the words with conviction,needing him to realize that she did not think of him as a monster ,could not as Ulquiorra had taken residence within her human heart .
These fragile emotions that fluttered out of control.
Love leaves us blind to fault,the greatest weakness ...
She wanted to save him,but how ? If only there was some way to reverse it all, this confrontation to never exist in the first place.
A startling pale hand reaches out to her,lost in final thoughts and her mind screams No .
NO
She could not just watch as he faded right before her very eyes,disintegrated into ash and nothing more .
No...
Orihime reached out towards his fading form, needing to feel, desperately wanting to put an end to this misery. His hand begins to dissolve into ash and something within her breaks. From her gesture, he, finally realizing what a heart is, believes that there in his disintegrated hand is a heart,but that is not the heart ... The heart is but an organ,its melody indicating life . It is the soul that connects and in that moment her soul screamed for him to live. As Ulquiorra's jaded green eyes met hers,she felt the overwhelming embrace of despair ,welcoming its toxic touch . The pin from her departed brother glowed a bright golden hue against her fiery hair, and the light seemed to engulf both her and Ulquiorra in its power.
She did not know what was happening but her mind seemed to encourage the strange energy to flow. As if the energy was obeying the desires of her very soul. It was her raitsu but different, warped as if there was a specific goal in mind and she welcomed it all.
Ulquiorra had faded to ash, his eyes never leaving her glowing form until the very end, and she soon followed after him with one thought in mind.
"I wish Ulquiorra was human"
Before the battle, before Aizen and soul society itself. He was human and had lived a life of sorrow and despair, fated to be a hollow in the afterlife.
He was human...
With that single thought her body began to disappear, leaving behind shimmering golden dust. Orihime closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she waited, unable to hear the frantic screams of Ichigo calling her name. She was lost to reality and her form had finally faded.
Surrounded by a black abyss she knew that she was being taken some place else.
Despite feeling a pang of grief at leaving her friends behind, she would not regret following her instinct. This strange power had one purpose in mind, to save Ulquiorra and that was exactly what she planned to do, no matter where it lead her...
"Ouch!"
"Granny there is a strange woman that just appeared in front of me."
Orihime moaned at the sudden impact with the ground. Her eyes flew open at the voice of a child and it took a moment for her mind to finally settle.
She had landed on a wooden floor, in a large building that held no furniture. There were groups of people huddled along the walls, some closing their eyes or humming a soft melody while others simply stared ahead into the distance.
"Strange girl?", an old woman's voice caught her attention and she gasped in surprise as her gaze locked with emerald eyes.
It was Ulquiorra staring at her with open curiosity. His eyes scrutinizing her every feature as if she was some remarkable discovery. Gone were the green tear marks that lined his face, and there was no hollow bone atop his head. This was not the Ulquiorra she remembered, in fact this version looked remarkably young, a child.
"Can't you see her? She's wearing rather odd clothing and just appeared in front of us with a bright gold light", Ulquiorra turned to peer inquisitively at the old woman next to him whom she remembered he had addressed as Granny.
"Bright gold light? Don't be ridiculous Ulquiorra. This is a time of war."
"I know that", Ulquiorra scowled darkly before resuming his observation of her silent form stuck in disbelief.
She stared, in shock and amazement. This was... She could not even think of words to describe the situation. Somehow her wish had came true, just...not what she had expected at all. Orihime had thought that Ulquiorra could return to being human, instead she had been brought to him when he was still a human. In another time...In another life...
"Human.."She whispered the word as she continued to stare at the child before her. She moved closer from her position on the floor, reaching her hand towards him. Watching as his large green eyes had widened slightly as she ran gentle fingers through his hair. He looked at her warm expression as if she was an ethereal being, something which he could not comprehend. He was always curious, even as a child it seems.
Orihime smiled softly, never tearing her gaze away from the boy even as the walls began to shake and angry sounds of war roared outside in rage.
She had been sent to Ulquiorra, to his past before all the hurt and despair took over his soul. corroding it with an icy touch. The emotionless doll used as a simple weapon, uncaring of the pain and blood that stained pale hands, as long as the task was done. Clinical and lacking remorse. The Ulquiorra she knew that had been so damaged by the darkness surrounding him would never come to be, not if she could help it.
This was a second chance.
AN: So this idea just hit me while re-watching episodes of bleach and when it came to the part where Ulqui died I just couldn't help but curse at Orihime. I mean she does have this ability to reject the effects of time, restoring Grimmjows arm, healing Ichigo's gaping hole in his chest and all that, so why couldn't she heal Ulquiorra when he started turning to ash?!
I know its not her fault, she was probably traumatized the whole time, watching Ichigo wreck havoc in his hollow form or something but anyway, after a bit of mourning at the death of one of my ultimate favorite anime characters, i thought "What if..."
What if she did reject Ulquiorra's death? and the beginning plot just came to life and it's definitely an exciting prospect to write ,so constructive criticism only and I hope that this story is as enjoyable as it was for me to type.
Review.
Miyu xx