Orihime looked at ichigo from her desk. He seemed distressed, and she could feel the tension radiating off of him
When the bell rang, tatsuki walked up to orihime and asked her is she wanted to come to her house.
" I'm sorry, tatsuki. I have something I have to do. Maybe tomorrow though!" Orihime said, and dashed out of the room, hoping to catch ichigo on the way out. Seeing him, she ran to catch up with him, and walked instep with him.
"Hey ichigo. How are you feeling today?" She asked, feeling those shy butterflies around him as usual.
"Orihime," ichigo said.
"Um yes? What is it?" She asked.
"Do me a favor and let me be alone for a little bit. I need some time to think" ichigo said, looking strait ahead.
" oh. I see. Well, that is, I guess I'll be going then-" orihime started to slow and turned around to walk away and slammed strait into uryuu.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" She said as she tried to hide her ashamed face and started to walk away from him. He caught her by the shoulder, and she stopped walking, her back to him.
"Look, I'm only saying this because I care about you as a friend, not that I give a damn how ichigo is feeling. Its got nothing to do with you, orihime. So don't let it upset you. Its not your fault. Ichigo is just going through a lot right now." Uryuu paused.
"Well, no one ever tells me what's going on." Orihime said with a slight snark.
"Its not that orihime-"
She turned around to face him. " no one ever tells me anything! They think that I'm too innocent to know. They're scared to tell me anything! I'm sick of it!" She yelled, and started to cry. Uryuu looked on, shocked at first, then orihime heard a familiar voice behind her.
"Its not like that orihime. Sometimes, we just... don't know how to tell you. But I can tell you this. What's going on with ichigo i can assure you is not your fault." Rukia said, from behind orihime.
"Rukia?" Orihime slowly turned around feeling the sadness slowly seep away for a second, happy to see her. But then anger and jealousy rose up, and she felt guilty for thinking this, but of course rukia knew how and why ichigo was feeling upset.
"I'm sorry, I must- I have to go." Orihime said. She lowered her head and sped walked past rukia and out of the building.
Halfway home, she felt it a few seconds before she saw it, a giant hollow, just fifteen feet away. It saw her and started for her.
Terrified and shock, orihime couldn't move. It had been so long since her last encounter with a hallow, and she had no means of protection besides her shun shun rikka to block her from any attack.
When it was about three feet away, her feet decided to move, but it was too late. It swung in a side arch and bashed her into a wall. She had the wind knocked out of her and was about to pass out when she heard her name.
"Orihime!" She heard ichigo's voice yell out, but the black was already starting to eat at her vision. She heard sounds of fighting, and soon felt strong arms lift her.
"Orihime. Please, please be alright. " ichigo said in a desperate voice.
"Ichi... go..." orihime struggled to say. "Why... are you... here?" She said, blood seeping out of her mouth.
" what kind of a question is that? I'm here to protect you." He said looking down at her, concerned.
" I can't... can't hold on... longer..." orihime coughed out along with some blood.
"Damn! Just hold on orihime!" Ichigo said and proceeded to use his flash step. With every second that passed by, he felt herself weaken, and soon she couldn't even open her eyes, and everything she heard was muffled.
She felt her weight shifted, then heard the soft but unmistakable voice of urahara.
" you dummy. Why did you just stand there?" He said, then everything went black.