The spacious white throne hall consisted of nothing else but Aizen's seat and support pillars every ten meters to keep the place from falling apart. At every side there were tall white walls to enclose the room. The pillars were white, the ceiling was white and the floor was white. The sheer blankness of the place made it feel like it had been made from plaster, an out-of-proportion scale model that had yet to be coloured before its final presentation.
Orihime's heart raced in her chest as she forced her feet to move, putting one after the other. Cold sweat fell from her temple. With her head dropped, a lock of hair came loose from the crystal-shaped pin. It was a subconscious act when she tried to put the loosened hair strand into place. A fruitless jerk to her intertwined hands made her realize that she had been so paralyzed by fear that she could not lift a finger. With her most useful appendixes frozen like a block of ice to her abdomen, Orihime's breathing hitched in increasing panic. Misty eyes shot left and right, taking in the row of white boots with black crossing of Aizen's pawns. She felt like a caged animal put on display before its predators. It was when she noticed Ulquiorra's walking reflection on the pale floor that her silent gasping diminished slightly. The absurdity that the murdering Ulquiorra's presence could make her feel more at ease was baffling in the least. Yet she had no time to ponder about this peculiarity when Ulquiorra suddenly stopped before her. They stood in the middle of the boots. Orihime squeezed her eyes shut momentarily, like child trying to stay unseen from the world when shutting everything out of his sight. She knew very well that she could not escape the burning gazes of the Espada by simply closing her eyes.
"Welcome to Hueco Mundo, Orihime," said a deep, but composed voice that sounded oddly familiar.
She realized that she recognized the voice. Recognized it all too well. Her body started to shake in fear, the block of ice around her hands became even heavier. Orihime bit down on her lower lip to hold back a pathetic whimper. Her eyes searched Ulquiorra's reflection on the floor. What was he doing? Was he looking at her? Were the owners of the boots around them looking at her as well? She couldn't lift her head to look for the answers. She was so very tense that her neck muscles started to hurt.
"Please don't be shy," said the same voice. Although he used the word please, his tone was not cordial at all. "Orihime." The way he said her name carried such a dark tone that Orihime finally looked up, simply out of fear of defying the man before her. She blinked, unable to control the fearful expression on her face, and looked at Sousuke Aizen.
Umber hair slicked back in a neat arch with a single dark strand curling forward, falling into Aizen's sharply defined features. Mysterious, dreamy eyes with a calculating glint in them. He looked at the young woman before him with a satisfied smile.
Not only did Orihime return the gaze, she found herself glued to his intriguing stare. Her staccato breathing was clearly audible in the spacious room where sound travelled without hindrance. As powerful as Aizen's gaze was, as sudden was Orihime's defiance against his mental domination. She turned her head away with a silent gasp. The ice around her hands had cracked and allowed her to press her hands into fists.
"Orihime," Aizen said, and it was clear by the tone that he wasn't speaking to her but actually referring to her, "has a unique power which Ulquiorra describes as temporal or spacial regression." He paused to smirk in self-satisfaction, as if to show off a grand prize that was his alone to own. "Please demonstrate your power, miss Inoue."
A command so easily made, yet Orihime failed to understand what Aizen meant through her fuddle of fear. She was too afraid to use her dry throat and ask for clarification. With trembling fists she simply stared to the reflecting floor. Moments passed by in which Aizen, Ulquiorra and the owners of the white boots probably anticipated her true worth, the sole reason why Aizen had taken an interest in her. Despite the expectations, Orihime found herself paralyzed, staring to the ground and unable to change her object of sight. The sound around her started to fade and she became solely aware of her own heartbeat; the blood rushing through her veins and violently colliding at the centre of her chest. Ichigo. Ichigo…
"HEY!" someone barked at her. The harshness of his snarl cracked like a whip and instantly shook the girl out of her gauze. His voice was a low sound which lacked no aggression.
Reluctantly, Orihime lifted her head to face the person. Tall, sky-blue hair and a gaping hole in his abdomen. She looked into fierce, azure eyes. Her breath caught in her throat and her heart pounded even more furious than before. It's him! An odd jawbone construction which she had not noticed before clawed at the lower half of his right cheek and heightened his intimidating look. Her heart pulled together in anxiety. The person who had saved her in the fairground was actually with Aizen?Mixed feelings welled up within her and her lips trembled, wanting to give into lamentation of disappointment.
"Please demonstrate your power, miss Inoue," Aizen repeated with a smile on his face. Yet the tone he spoke in was impatient and full of admonition of what would come if she did not immediately comply with his request.
Orihime's eyes went back to the blue-haired man before her and it was then that she noticed it: his left arm was gone. Her stomach pulled together at the violent nature of the removal of the limb. Evident blood showed her exactly how the amputation had been executed. It seemed unreal how the man was scowling at her, not acknowledging his handicap in the slightest. She suddenly understood what was expected of her. A strange calmness pulled over her as she regarded the tall man before her. Just as she was about to step towards the Espada, a shout made her stop in her tracks. A little shaken, Orihime turned to look at the owner of the cry.
"What are you planning, you human?" asked a dark haired Espada who looked like a nervous teenage boy who could easily be mistaken for a girl. His violet eyes were wide in protest, a mixture of anger and anxiety.
Orihime was almost inclined to look to Aizen for help, but she was far too afraid of the man to ask him any favours. Instead, she turned her gaze to the blue-haired Espada before her. He brazenly ignored her silent plea and stared ahead in nothingness, looking angry as ever. Orihime thought it was in her best interest to follow his example and ignored the young Espada as well. With her head lowered, she whispered, "Souten Kisshun… I reject." Two tiny figures flew out of the crystal hairpins, crossed each other and pulled a transparent, orange shield over the blue-haired Espada's missing limb.
"That's fake!" cried the protesting Espada behind them. "There's no way a human is capable of restoring an arm that Sir Tousen destroyed! It was burnt to ashes!"
Burnt to ashes. Orihime pressed her lips firmly together as she continued restoring the arm. The objection of the dark-haired Espada had made her more determined to help her saviour. For she was grateful that he had saved her from the Hollow, but reality was that he was their enemy. After restoring his missing limb there would be no need for her to feel indebted to him… Slowly, the burnt residues of his left arm appeared out of thin air, circled around his stump and carefully worked on a brand new left arm.
Some reptiles regained missing tails, but for a human figure to regain any missing limbs was truly a miracle to behold. First came the elbow, then the lower arm with all its muscles intact and finally the hand with each digit perfectly in place. Orihime heard the protesting Espada from behind gasp in utter shock and she felt slightly relieved that she had successfully done what Aizen had asked of her. Ayame and Shun'O quickly withdrew inside her pins. Orihime clenched her cold hands together in her abdomen and subtly shifted back, increasing the distance between her and the blue-haired man.
"That's not possible!" the same teen Espada shrieked, denying the very thing his eyes had just witnessed. "It's…it's sorcery! An illusion!"
Whether it was sorcery or an illusion, it was no longer Orihime's business. She could hear the sounds of approval and disbelief around her from the other owners of the white boots. The girl looked to the ground again and hoped they would just leave her alone. Her eye caught Ulquiorra's reflection on the ground and with it came the vivid image of his ruthless murdering of the two Soul Reapers. Her stomach churned and she managed to subdue a gag-reflex just in time. She tried to calm herself by slowly breathing in through her mouth and breathing out through her nose. In the background she faintly heard Aizen explain the nature of her powers which he called the Phenomenon Rejection. None if it could capture Orihime's attention. She tried to shut out her surrounding by thinking of pleasant things: thinking of Karakura Town, her friends and…Ichigo...
"Hey woman," the blue-haired Espada suddenly called her, breaking through her barrier of fond memories. Orihime looked up, timidly. He turned his back towards her and pointed towards a ghastly burn on his back with his regained left hand. Even though the burn was a gasp-worthy matter in itself, Orihime could not stop staring at the strange hole in his abdomen. It was a literal hole. Anything solid could pass right through his belly. She could even partially see a person behind him through it. Yet he functioned like any person with a whole torso. She could see the skin around the hole breathe of life, his abdomen rose up and down quietly with each respiration. "One more thing," he said, his low voice pulling her attention back to the burn. "Heal this spot for me."
Orihime didn't hesitate to call forward Ayame and Shun'O. She wasn't sure why she had so easily complied. He hadn't used any nice words to request her help, yet the non-hostile look in his eyes and the levelness in his voice made her feel like he would not harm her. A thick six appeared on his back – or rather: reappeared. Her breathing quickened when she was reminded yet again that this man was not a human as he had come into existence with a gothic-styled six carved into his skin.
The teenage Espada suddenly started to protest even more fiercely than before, "What do you think you are doing, Grimmjow!" He seemed aggravated, afraid and showed this by raising his voice and protesting loudly.
Orihime looked to the blue-haired man in concern. Grimmjow. Was that the name of her saviour? She froze when she noticed the grimace on his face. Her throat felt dry after seeing that grin. It had something…psychotic. Mad. Subconsciously, she took a step back. Before she was able to think of anything else, Grimmjow shot towards the teenage Espada, white hakama and torn jacket thrashed against the air by his speed, and pierced his regained left hand through the boy's guts, skewering him like he was holding up a well-deserved trophy. Blood sprayed out of the boy's wound like a freshly uncorked champagne bottle. The stench of blood immediately filled the room; metallic, iron and a hint of copper. Some of it spattered on Orihime's cardigan, the peach-coloured fabric instantly soaked up the red liquid.
Her vision blurred and her blood ran cold. Something crashed between her ears. It took her a moment to realize that it was her own heartbeat. Her breathing was slow and hard, she had to focus to keep taking breaths. The boy Espada croaked and spat blood. He managed another hateful "Grimmjow…" before the blue-haired man blasted him to pieces with the same red-hued attack which he had used to protect Orihime from the Hollow.
Orihime's heart sunk and she suddenly realized that it was highly unlikely that Grimmjow would have tried to save her from any Hollow at all.
Author notes: Hey guys! Been a while. Sorry about that. This chapter is the longest so far, heh. I hope you liked it! It's actually thanks to your fellow reader XWitheredBlossomsX that I wrote another chapter. I had forgotten how fun it was to write about them. So yeah, I invite you to leave some reviews if you liked it! It helps to remind me that it's worthwhile to work on this story! :D
About the chapter itself: Man, I was almost tempted to do a bit of Aizen/Orihime in there. Damn you, Kubo, for putting in so many bishies in Bleach! Aside from that, it'll be a hard task to put Orihime and Grimmjow together after such a horrible slaughtering of Luppi. I love working out details and now it seems stuff just got a little more real. Ah. I for one wouldn't forgive any kind of murder. Wonder how Hime will, hm…