Chapter Four: And all I've done for want of wit
Orihime shuffled the card deck for the third time and started to deal between herself and Sora. She'd not been looking forward to the conversation they were about to have, but she had to be reasonable. Grand Fisher would seek Sora's soul out soon enough, no matter how happy he was, and turn him into a hollow. She had to act before then.
She'd already put it off with two games of Go. She had to face facts. It was time.
"Tomorrow, Rukia will begin Ichigo's soul reaper training."
Sora looked up from his cards. "Yeah. Who are they again?"
"Don't make me get out my drawings again."
"They're so good, though!"
She snorted on a laugh. "Okay, okay. Ichigo is the orange haired one, and Rukia is the black hair with bunny ears."
"Oh! Oh, right. Okay."
"She's going to teach him how to perform the conso."
"The… passing on thing?"
She nodded.
Sora looked down at his cards. "Hmm."
"They're going to find a soul to send to soul society."
"Interesting."
She bit her lip. "Sora… I think it should be you."
He sighed. Setting down his cards, he leaned back on his hands, saying, "Yeah, I could tell what you were getting at. I just. I don't know. I finally have a life again, you know? I'm happy here. I don't know if I really want to go to some soul society. From what you've told me, it sounds like they've got a lot of issues that, frankly, I don't want to get involved in. Can't I just stay here and cook and clean for you?"
"Grand Fisher is coming, Sora." She sorted her cards by value and suite. "I can't protect you when I'm at school, and you can't come with me because Ichigo and Rukia will see you and know something's up with me too early. I don't know what that will do to the timeline."
"I'll be careful until Grand Fisher is dead. I promise."
"Even if I was okay with that, what would happen to you when I go to Hueco Mundo? Sora, I'm there for an entire month before the others come to get me."
"Which, by the way, is… unacceptable. I think you should change that."
"I can't," she said. "I'll need time to sway Ulquiorra to my side."
"Why do you need him?"
She fidgeted under his stare. "I just… do."
He shrugged. "Okay. But by then your friends will know about you! I can stay with them. You don't have to worry about me, Orihime. I'm the big brother. I can take care of myself. I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you."
"You did," she said. "You have been. All my life you've been taking care of me. But Sora, you can't take care of me if you get yourself killed again."
He glared at the ceiling.
"When the war is over, you can come back," she promised, gently. "Even if they don't let you, I'll smuggle you here myself. I promise. But until then, please. This is the only way. I can't do what has to be done if I've got something to lose, and as long as you're here with me, I do."
He sat silently, for a minute.
"I'm sorry, Sora."
He dragged a hand down his face. "No. Don't be sorry. I know this is how it has to happen. I just… wish I could be here for you. From everything you've told me, it sounds like these next couple of months are going to be really hard for you. And I just wish I was here to make it easier on you. You know? I've missed you, Hime. And I don't want us to be separated when I can finally be your brother again."
"I know," she said, gently. "I promise, this won't be goodbye."
"I trust you," he said.
"So then you'll do it?"
He nodded. "Tomorrow, we can find them. I'll let them perform the conso."
She let out a breath. "Thank you, Sora."
He smiled at her, albeit sadly. "Anything for my bratty little sister."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Nyeh."
He stuck his out right back. "Nyeh."
They stayed up all night playing Go and other games, watching movies, eating junk food. Orihime told Sora about Soul Society, and the academy, and what to expect. He taught her how to file her taxes. They gossiped and chatted and laughed, and when morning finally came, Orihime tearfully hugged her brother goodbye and then lead him out to the park where Ichigo and Rukia had used to train early in the morning. She hid, waiting. It didn't take long.
"Look, see! Right here, a lost soul. You will perform the conso, Ichigo."
"For crying out loud, can't you? You know I'm not good at this stuff!"
"Just do it, idiot."
"Fine! But not because you told me. I want to, okay?"
Rukia gave Sora the speil, Ichigo stamped his forehead, and just like that, he was off. Orihime held a hand over her mouth to silence her gentle crying, watching as Sora faded to blue, a butterfly blooming in his body's wake. She felt it the moment his soul departed, and rocked herself back and forth in place, waiting for the crying to cease.
She was really alone, then. No one else knew who she was, where she came from.
She waited until Ichigo and Rukia had left the park to make her escape. It was for the best, she told herself, and knew it was true. She would see him again soon. That didn't make it hurt any less, though, and so she went home and quietly cried herself to sleep, to dream of a better future yet to come.
~(o0o)~
She knew what the bird was the second Chad presented it to their group during lunch.
What sort of cruel being would stuff a child's soul in a parakeet, she didn't know, but she wasn't going to stand idly by and let the poor boy suffer. She hated to trick anyone, Chad most of all, but she promptly burst into tears upon hearing him speak, mentally patting herself on the back for her acting skills. It helped that she'd been in a mood all week, admittedly, but that was besides the point.
"Whoa, Orihime, are you okay?" Tatsuki wrapped her arm around Orihime's shoulders. "What's wrong?"
"H-he j-j-just reminds m-me of Sora!" She bawled.
Everyone shifted uncomfortably.
"Who?" Rukia whispered.
"Her brother," Ichigo said. "He died a while back…"
Chad said, "I'll leave."
"N-no!" Orihime reached out, grabbing his arm. "P-please, I'm sorry Chad, I just…" she sniffed dramatically. "I'm so lonely in my apartment, but I can't afford to buy any pets, and, and I just miss my brother and he-he reminds me of him." She cranked up the water works.
Everyone shared a look. Orihime pretended not to notice.
"Do you want him?" Chad asked, gently.
Orihime blinked hear tears away. "You… you would do that?" She sniffed. "For me?"
He nodded.
She launched herself at him, hugging him with all her strength. It was starting to come back to her, now. She remembered the hollow who had used the little boy in the bird as bait. She'd wait and see if Ichigo and Rukia took care of it before she stepped up to the plate, but until then, the boy wouldn't have to suffer a moment longer.
As soon as lunch was over, she took the parakeet home, deciding to skip the second half of the day. The bird tittered nervously the entire way back to her apartment, but Orihime stayed sharp. There were no hollows nearby. Not yet.
"Okay." She locked the door and put the cage on the table, and then turned to the little bird. "I'm sorry for the theatrics. What's your name?"
"... Yuichi."
She smiled and sat down, reaching out to open the door to the birdcage. "Yuichi. That's a very handsome name. You can come out, if you want. I know you're not really a bird."
He chirped nervously.
"It's okay," Orihime smiled and gently reached her hand out. "I won't hurt you. That nasty hollow won't, either, while I'm here."
"You… you know?"
She nodded, continuing to hold her hand out.
He hopped out onto her outstretched fingers.
Gently, Orihime drew the boy to her chest, holding him and hugging him both at once, delicate with him in every sense of the word. "I know it's been hard for you, Yuichi. What that man did to you was a terrible thing, and using you all these years was cruel of him."
"He… he's not using me," Yuichi said. "I have to do it. To see my momma."
She bit her lip. "Yuichi, I'm so sorry. He doesn't have your mother. He doesn't know where she is at all."
"He… he what?"
She shook her head. "He lied to you. It's not your fault. He's very tricky. But it was a lie."
"Then where is she?"
"She's in Soul Society."
"Can I go there?"
She nodded.
"Will… will he follow me?"
"No," she shook her head. "He won't. He's never going to bother you again, I promise." Carefully, she set him down on the table. "Yuichi, how did you get to be in this body?"
"He put me in here. He pulled me out of my body."
"So you're a live soul." She bit her lip. "I thought so. Yuichi, you have a very hard choice to make. I know you're just a kid, but I can't make this choice for you. Are you listening?"
"Yes."
"Your mother died. I'm very sorry, and I know that must be hard to hear, but she passed away. If you go to Soul Society, you'll die to. It's not like they say. It's not forever, and it's not scary, but you won't be here anymore. It's like… another planet."
"Another planet?"
"Exactly. And you can go there, if you want. I won't stop you. But if you want to stay here, in the land of the living, I can put you back to the way you used to be. Do you have other family you would go and live with?"
"My Papa."
She nodded. "So Yuichi, you have to decide. Do you want to stay here, and grow up? Or do you want to pass on to the soul society?"
He seemed to think for a minute. "I don't know," he said. "What should I do?"
"I can't tell you what to do," she said.
"What is soul society like?"
"It's… it's like olden times. Everyone wears kimono and yakuta. And there's samuri and swords all over the place. But you'll never get hungry, and never grow old, or get sick." Unless you have spiritual pressure, of course, but that was a lesson for another day.
"And if I stay here, I'll be in my body again?"
She nodded.
"I didn't get my birthday party," he said. "I would get lots of birthday parties if I stayed here, right? And then… and then when I grow up, I will get to see mommy again. Right?"
"Yes," she said.
"I don't want to leave her alone."
"She's not alone, Yuichi. I promise."
"And she's really okay?"
"She is."
"Will… will she be mad if I stay here?"
"I don't think so. She protected you, didn't she? She wanted you to keep on living."
"Oh…" He thought for a moment more. "Can I… Can I stay here? With Papa?"
"Do you want to?"
"Yes. But what if the bad man comes again?"
"He won't. I promise you that, Yuichi. He won't."
"Okay."
"There's one more thing," she said.
"What is it?"
"When I heal you, it will be like sending you back in time. Your soul will have a new body, and you won't remember anything that happened when you were in the parakeet. Is that okay?"
"I'll forget?"
"Yes."
"... Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay," he said. "I want to stay here. In my person body."
She smiled. Gently, she held him again, hugging his little body. His heart fluttered rapidly. "Okay. You'll fall asleep, so don't be scared. When you wake up, everything will be alright again. I promise."
"Okay," he said, voice small.
"Okay." She set him on her lap. "Shun Shun Rika," she said. "I reject."
~(o0o)~
Orihime returned a few hours later after escorting a very confused little boy to the police station. She waited with him until his crying grandfather showed up to take the boy home, praising her the whole time for having found him. The man had assumed the worst, and so soon after losing his daughter, too. She smiled and wished him well, and then went back home.
The parakeet was nothing special without Yuichi's soul in it. She'd made sure to put it back in the cage, and it sat happily chirping on its swing when she came back inside.
"Well," she sighed, sitting to observe it. "I guess I have a pet now. No clue how I'm going to afford to feed you, little guy, but I suppose we'll manage."
There was a knock at the door.
Orihime knew it was Ichigo and Rukia the second she opened her senses. Quickly, she answered the door, smiling pleasantly.
"Kuchiki-san, Kurosaki-san! What a surprise."
They both looked like utter wrecks. Ichigo's hair was singed, and Rukia's shirt was torn. Both were burned and bruised and dirty. Clearly, they'd taken care of the hollow they'd been after. And they hadn't even needed the bird this time around, good for them.
"Hi, Inoue," Ichigo said awkwardly. "Um. We came to ask you something."
She waited.
Ichigo 'discreetly' elbowed Rukia.
"Um, yes!" She piped up. "Sado, uh. He is very sorry but he misses the bird."
"The bird?" She blinked, playing stupid. "Oh! Sado wants him back?"
"Yes!" Ichigo blurted. "Really badly!"
"Oh. Well… I know I was so emotional earlier, but I think actually it's okay. It's that time of the month." She shrugged as they both blanched. "I can't believe I was so selfish to steal Chad's pet! Here, take him back." She quickly retrieved the cage and eagerly shoved it into Ichigo's arms.
Ichigo and Rukia smiled. They stared at the bird. Their smiles slipped.
"Ah… Inoue," Rukia said. "Is this… the same bird?"
"Yep!" She smiled merrily at the both of them.
"You're sure?" Ichigo managed.
"I don't have any other birds to get him mixed up with." She blinked. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Nope! Just fine, just fine, uh. We were making sure, is all. So." Ichigo shifted from foot to foot. "He'll sure be glad to get his pet back."
"Very glad," Rukia added unhelpfully.
"So very, very glad," Ichigo finished.
Orihime just stared at them, smiling pleasantly.
"Welp." Ichigo awkwardly turned away. "Guess we'll go tell him the good news!"
"Okay," she said. "Bye Kurosaki! Bye Kuchiki! See you tomorrow for school!" She closed the door as they began to argue, most likely about what the hell had happened to the bird. Orihime just rolled her eyes and quickly moved to slip out of her window and follow them, certain to mask her spiritual pressure, as usual.
She noticed, as she tailed them, that Rukia was walking stiffly. The battle must have been what triggered her need for the new gigai, she realized.
"You really think the bird was a lure?" Ichigo was saying.
"What other explanation is there? We sensed the soul earlier. Now he's in Hell, and the parakeet is just a regular bird. The whole story was probably a fabrication to get us to keep him alive or keep chasing him. I've seen hollows do similar things before, and I can't say I've ever seen anyone tear someone's soul out and put it in an animal. It makes sense, doesn't it?"
"That must be why Inoue wanted it earlier and now she doesn't. The lure has some sort of… empathy snare. Right? That's why she was crying and everything."
"Exactly! See, you're catching on quick!" Rukia rotated her wrists. The movement was choppy. "You don't make too bad a pupil."
"Can't say the same about your teachin-OW! What the hell, Rukia?"
"Oh, Ichigo, my foot slipped! I beg your pardon!"
"You little demon! I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Orihime had seen all she needed to. Rukia was going to go to Urahara soon, and when she did, Orihime would have to act fast. If only she could somehow monitor the shop without being noticed…
"Ayame," she called, gently.
The fairy appeared before her. "Hi, Orihime!"
"I have a task for you… Think you can handle being far away from me for a while?"
"We can certainly try!"
"Good. Here's what we have to do."
~(o0o)~
The dojo was, as usual, too hot and humid. Tatsuki was wrestling with her partner while Orihime wrestled hers. She hadn't been coming to the dojo long, but she figured it was the best way to get back in shape, and in a way, prepare her for what was to come.
She'd just stood to start her second round when Ayame returned to her.
"Rukia just arrived," the fairy informed her. It had been roughly two days.
Orihime nodded. Ayama went back into her hairpin.
"Tatsuki, I'm gonna call it a night!" Orihime called.
Tatsuki was holding her partner at bay with her legs. "Already? If you wait, I'll walk you home!"
"It's not far, I can do it. Thank you though. See you tomorrow!" She ran out without another word.
The walk across town was long, but not unwelcome. She had to dodge Rukia about half way there, as the woman was heading back to the clinic. Orihime masked her spiritual pressure tighter and tighter the closer she got the Urahara shop. This was it.
The beginning of it all.
She moved slowly once she reached the shop. It was dark out, and they were closed, but the porch light stayed on, gathering swarms of moths. She was sure he had security cameras up, or hell butterflies painted into the shadows, and Yoruichi had a keen nose. It was imperative she proceeded with caution.
She slipped around the side of the shop and to the window to the supply room. She'd seen Kisuke's lab, and hopefully, she would be able to slip into it. She lifted herself to the window and activated her shun shun rika, having Tsubaki slice through the lock on the window before recalling him to her hairpins.
She slid the window open and silently clamoured down into the supply room, which was dark and musty. Boxes lined the walkway and stacked all the way to the ceiling on a few shelves, some propped up precariously using stray two-by-fours. There was an odd smell about the place, not quite mold or mildew-something with a sweeter carry, almost like that of rotted fruit. She carefully slunk out onto the pathway, half-surprised when no alarm was raised.
Surely it wasn't going to be this easy.
She had never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. What did that mean, anyway? Like… the horse brought gifts? Why was a horse bringing gifts to anyone? Furthermore, why were the gifts in its mouth? Was it like Santa Clause? She imagined a horse wearing the red coat and a beard. Maybe it's mouth was like Santa's bag, and for some reason unlimited presents came from there. But then why weren't you supposed to look down there? Was the void too much for the human mind to comprehend? Was there some secret magic that made the presents inside the horse's mouth, and if you saw it, you could steal it, and then the horse would have to kill you? Is that how Santa got his powers to begin with?
Focus , she reminded herself. She'd reached the door to Kisuke's lab.
Slowly, she crouched down and pressed her ear to the cold steel of the door, listening. She didn't hear anything within, but she summoned Shun'o to be certain, and had him slip beneath the door.
He re-appeared a moment later. "All clear," he informed her.
"Good job." She accepted him back into her hairpin. "Tsubaki," she summoned.
He sliced neatly through the lock, just as he had on the window. Orihime tensed, waiting for any sort of alarm, but there wasn't so much as a creak as the door slid open. Inside, Kisuke's lab was revealed, dark but for the light pouring off various screens and contraptions. Orihime crawled slowly inside on her hands and knees, looking around carefully. No one seemed to be about.
On a long metal table just within the laboratory was a pale, naked body. She knew it instantly to be Rukia's, and mentally admonished Kisuke for leaving it out without clothing. She remembered the ridiculous top he'd forced her to wear on her return to Hueco Mundo and made a mental note to suplex him if he ever tried something like that again. Orihime was a pacifist, for the most part, but she'd come to feel that sometimes being nice was simply out of the question. Kill Aizen, suplex Kisuke… she was sure she'd come up with more along the way.
Rising up, she reached out and gently touched the skin of the gigia's chest. It was cold and soft, eerily similar to a corpse. Orihime shivered and put the thought of out mind, concentrating on the task at hand.
"Shun shun rika," she whispered. Her powers unfolded along her fingers. One petal on each finger and in her palm, she dug into the gigia's flesh, careful but insistent. Inside, she could feel the marble. It hurt to touch, it was cold and hot both at once, and her heart began to race the second she came into contact with it. She pulled it out, slowly, looking around the room for the cube it had been kept in so that she wouldn't have to hold it. When she failed to find the cube, she decided to simply get it over with.
It was time to destroy the hogyoku.
"Well, this is a surprise."
Orihime's eyes widened as her head jerked up. She turned her head to look behind her, revealing Kisuke standing slouched against the doorframe, Yoruichi at his feet.
"Most cat burglars go for the goods. Not the bodies. No value in fake organs, you know." His eyes gleamed dangerously beneath the brim of his hat. "Now I don't know how you knew that was there, but I think you better put that down."
Orihime swallowed. She was powerful, but she knew she couldn't take Kisuke and Yoruichi out, especially when they thought the hogyoku was on the line. Separate, they were menacing, but together? Unstoppable.
Orihime dropped the hogyoku back into the gigai's chest. She let go of her powers, returning the hairpins to her collar. Swallowing, she said the first thing that came to mind. "You really shouldn't leave Rukia's body naked like that. Pervert."
Kisuke looked at Yoruichi. "First time I've ever been admonished by a thief, eh, Yoruichi?"
"You may have created the hogyoku, but it doesn't belong to you." She swallowed. "Souls belong to noone, Kisuke Urahara."
He stepped into the lab. The door shut behind him. "Curiouser by the minute. How is it that you know what that trinket is? And how do you know my name? I've been keeping tabs on you, Orihime Inoue, waiting to see if you would develop powers like Ichigo's other friend. I thought maybe you wouldn't. Now? I'm not so sure I didn't miss something."
Kisuke Urahara was a dangerous man. That was an indisputable fact. One could argue for or against the goodness of his character, but in the end, that didn't really matter. It boiled down to him being dangerous. Full stop. Period. End of story.
She didn't want to tangle with him. What was more, she didn't want him to know the truth. Lying to a liar was difficult, especially when she wasn't practiced, and what was more, she wasn't sure he was above seedy methods to extract information. She had to be careful about what she revealed, and above all couldn't show him that she was from an alternate future. He would try to take things into his own hands, and though he was a genius, Orihime had seen where his planning had lead them last time. Kisuke was a strategist, and yes, his methods of war did work. But Orihime was playing this little game of chess he'd started for keepsies. No pawns, no rooks, no kings of queens. She was leaving with all her players intact, black or white, and she wasn't going to let anyone get in her way.
"You don't know how to destroy the hogyoku," she said.
He stared at her.
"You think it's impossible. It's not." She swallowed. "You just have to return the souls its made up of to where they're supposed to be, and it will crumble into nothingness." At least, that's what she'd theorized. She'd spent her month in Hueco Mundo last time around plotting how to destroy it, and she'd been pretty sure it would work by the time things had all gone south.
"Who are you really?"
"Orihime Inoue. I'm Ichigo's friend. Just like you said."
He nodded, considering. "And what was that glowing with your hands?"
She didn't answer. Her eyes tracked Yoruichi as the cat circled around to the other side of the table. Great, they were planning to ambush her. She said, "Yoruichi, attacking me naked would be embarrassing for both of us. So um. If you could not do that…"
Kisuke and the black cat froze.
"More surprises from this one," the cat said, her voice a deep masculine purr.
"We don't have much time," Orihime said. "Aizen has eyes everywhere. If you demand I tell you what I know, it could make all of our plans fall apart. And then people will die. You two act aloof, but I know you care about that. Just let me do what I came here to do, and then we can all act like this never happened."
"Counter point," Kisuke said. "What if Aizen sent you and you're taking that straight to him?"
"You really think a human girl can slip past you both?"
"You've already proved there's more to you than meets the eye," Yoruichi said. "I don't like taking chances."
Orihime grit her teeth. "Don't make me fight you. That will only make this harder." She didn't care if she lost. As long as she destroyed the hogyoku, the rest would sort itself out somehow. But this? This was evil. She couldn't allow it to continue to exist.
"You say that like you'll win."
"You won't be able to touch me until I'm done," she said with certainty. Deconstructing the hogyoku would put her fairies to sleep, and if she had to shield while she did it, she would probably pass out too. Then she'd be free game for Kisuke and Yoruichi.
She weighed her options. There was no way she could incapacitate them both, if she could even manage to down one of them. She was untouchable, sure, but she couldn't get away from them. She couldn't outrun Yoruichi, and now that Kisuke had seen her face, there would be nowhere to hide, either.
Yoruichi shed her feline form. She rose on the other side of the table, naked and unabashed, amber eyes cold as flint. "Give us one good reason why we should trust you."
"Because I'm the best chance you've got to beat Aizen," she said. "And because I know you're not the ones responsible for what happened to Shinji and the others."
They shared a look, one which Orihime couldn't read. For a tense minute, no one moved. Then, Kisuke inclined his head, just barely.
"One wrong move and I'll have your head, girl," Yoruichi warned.
Orihime took the empty threat in stride, knowing no one could lay a finger on her. She turned back to the gigai and summoned her rika again, pulling the hogyoku from the chest. It hummed between her palms as she cupped her fairies about it. She could… hear it. In her head. A dreadful, rumbling whisper, like a thousand choking voices, words too numerous to make out. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end while her body broke out in gooseflesh. She swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat.
"Sotten Kisshun," she commanded. "I reject."
In principal, it was a simple thing. Her powers were time-based. The hogyoku, in itself, was only glass warped from thousands of tons of reishi. The souls and energy inside where placed there later, artificially. The souls knew they did not belong there, just as time did. It was as if the glass had been wounded, thousands of times over, bleeding power and horror, desperate to attach to flesh.
Undoing it was simple math, in a way. The practice, however, turned out to be much more horrifying.
She had barely begun when tears began pouring down her cheeks. Oh, god, the pain these souls had known. The sorrow, the fear, the hate. To exists always and never, as something and nothing, torn from emotion and body alike. There was nothing like it. The emotion bled into her heavily as bit by bit, she undid the harm that had been done to them. Her hands shook and her shields trembled. Her fairies cried, too, and Orihime felt worse still knowing she was the one doing this to them. They had to, though, or this pain would never end. She just had to keep going.
"It's working," Yoruichi breathed.
Kisuke almost sounded pained. "I don't believe it."
It hurt. That same sensation of fire and ice swept through her fingers and crept into her arms, her shoulders, her spine. It spread through her body like a virus, until she ached all over, unsure if the ice was so cold it burned, or if the fire was so hot it was giving her frostbite. Either way, it did not matter. She was built to endure. She bowed over her shields in pain, determined to remain standing, and grit her teeth against what was happening to her. The pain was not a sign of injury, this time, and so she would bear it, knowing that it would have its end one day. This body was young and unscarred. She could take it.
The colors in the glass began to fade, and slow their churning. Orihime almost couldn't believe it was happening. Sweat poured down her face and stung her eyes as she cried, temporarily blinded by that point. The hogyuku called out to her with a sinner's song, grasping for her soul with chilly hands. No mortal was meant to come into such close contact with it. She felt faint.
The war. She just had to remember the war. Remember the bodies, the graves, the grief. Her friends in the living world and soul society alike, never to be the same. Ichigo, especially, because somehow she did still love him-hand reached out into space, unseeing, face betraying that he could no longer see Rukia, and that he thought very clearly that he would never, ever know happiness again.
Orihime had come back in time just for this. She could do it. She had to.
A hairline fracture appeared in the glass, so small that for a second she was sure she was simply imagining it. But then the crack spread, and grew, pouring light from within. The glass began to break and divide as a scorching light appeared, growing brighter each passing millisecond.
Orihime felt it the moment the deed was done. The glass shattered, the light exploded, and finally, finally, the hogyoku was dead.
The building rumbled and the lights from Kisuke's contraptions went out. Orihime fell to the floor with a scream, entire body shaking. Her pins appeared before her on the ground, fairies deeply sleeping. She swallowed and lifted her hands. They were bloody and filled with shards of glass.
"I did it," she whispered.
Yoruichi was at her side, then. "Are you alive?"
Orihime turned over, blinking tiredly at the naked woman. Yoruichi reached a hand out. Orihime revealed her bloody palms.
"Kisuke," Yoruichi called. "Get your med kit. Her hands are ruined."
He appeared a moment later. Yoruichi helped Orihime set up, and Kisuke got to work on her hands. For a moment, the three of them were silent. Tessia suddenly appeared in the lab's doorway.
"Uh, boss. Power went out."
"Yeah," Kisuke said. "I know."
"Jinta and Uyuu are upset about their game."
"Yeah." Kisuke waved him away. "I'm busy. It's bedtime."
"... Alright. If you say so." He disappeared.
"Kisuke," Yoruichi admonished.
"We'll tell him as soon as I'm done here." He put some sort of pink slime on Orihime's hands once he'd picked out all the glass. Her cuts began to seal over. "I can't believe you did it. How did you know that it would work? It could have killed you."
If she'd been as inexperienced as she had been the first time she'd thought to try it… it probably would have. "It had to work," she said, firmly. She locked eyes with him. "You owe me."
"What?"
"You owe me, Kisuke. I want you to erase all this from both your memories."
They shared another look.
"I-"
"No." She shook her head. She was tired, and she hurt all over, and she was done with all this bullshit. Tears of frustration started to slip down her cheeks. "You don't get to tell me what you need! What's best! I already did that! I did what was best for everyone last time, and I did it just now, and I'm tired! I'm tired of being the one who takes the fall, okay? You think I'm just the stupid girl who's too nice for her own good and you think I can't save anyone because I can't save myself. Well you know what? This time I'm done being nice! You don't get to tell me what I'm going to do, and you don't get to do whatever the hell you want just because you think you're smarter than me. I just destroyed the hogyoku! You're going to erase me from your minds or so help me, Kisuke Urahara, I will make you wish you'd never seen it to begin with!"
They stared at her.
Kisuke let out a small chuckle. "I was going to say I'll go get a memory chikan."
Chest heaving, Orihime glared. "No you weren't!" She cried. "Don't lie to me!"
He regarded her for a moment more. "Alright," he said, finally, and stood. "I'll do it now, though."
She struggled to stand, swaying on her feet. "You're still lying!" She yelled. "I know you're planning on leaving clues so you can un-do it! I don't want you to find me when this is done. I just want to be left alone for once in my life!"
He gave her a hard look.
"You can't expect us to forget this," Yoruichi said softly. She rose, too, and went to stand by Kisuke. "This is too important. We may need you later-"
"I don't care!" She cried. "You owe me this much! Peace, for once in my life!" When still they did nothing, Orihime swallowed. She snatched her pins off the floor. "I've never had to erase someone's memories before," she said with a shaky voice. "But I'll do it if you won't. And when I do it, there will be no getting them back. The only problem is that I might take other stuff, too. Do you want that? Do I have to-to-to threaten harm any time I want anything? Huh!?"
"I'll do it," he said.
She stared at him.
"I will."
He wasn't lying this time. He wasn't. And yet. "What's the catch?"
"Tell me how you knew." He said. "I don't like an unsolvable puzzle." He moved to a nearby desk and began to rummage about. He produced a strange looking memory chikan a moment later, holding it up. "It won't matter once I forget, but I have to know first."
"Me too," Yoruichi said.
Orihime leaned back against the table with the gigia on it. She sighed, dragging a shaky hand down her wet face. "I'm from the future," she whispered. "My powers are the negation of time and reality. You guessed they were healing. You were wrong."
He nodded. "Why did you come back? Did we lose?"
She looked up at him.
"Did we lose to Aizen?"
She shook her head.
"Then what?"
"I promised you one answer," she reminded him.
"One more. One more and I promise, I'll erase this night and your face and name from our memories. For good."
She sighed. "Alright…" She looked away from him. "It was an accident but um. This sort of. Seemed easier than getting divorced."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... What?"
Orihime just shook her head and reached out, tapping the chikan on the top. It poofed, and together, Yoruichi and Kisuke hit the floor. Orihime only took a moment to find an empty sake bottle from the lab's trash, which she placed between them, and then, after throwing a blanket over Rukia's gigai, she made her escape into the night. She barely made it home before she passed out cold, and there, she stayed asleep for three days straight.
But she'd done it. Finally. She had done it.