When she was young, she heard a story, of a princess and a dragon. Dragons had the reputation of being fire-breathing monsters, that rampantly burned villages and destroyed kingdoms and empires, but that was only reputation.
There was a gentle dragon, who's family was chased from their nest by bounty hunters and "protectors of the peace." This dragon lost his parents to those hunters and those protects and was forced to fly far far away.
One stormy night, he was wounded, and was hiding in a cave for shelter from the rain, while its wound worsened and worsened. This dragons had no friends, no parents, to nurse his injuries. So he stayed in the quiet cold rain.
A kind, beautiful princess from a nearby kingdom came to the cave and healed the dragon, and kindly cared for him, and kindly brought him food each day until his strength returned. The princess had to keep him a secret, lest let the hunters take him, and execute him in the name of justice. The dragon knew that this was what had to be so, but he felt lonely in that cold quiet cave and wanted more than anything for to truly befriend the kind beautiful princess.
An angel came, bearing the ability to grant his wish, and magically transformed him into a handsome prince, worthy of marrying the beautiful princess. The only catch was that if he failed to protect his princess, he would revert back to his monstrous dragon form.
He hurried to the princess, to tell her the good news, but the kingdom was under attack and knights had broken through the front guard and infiltrated the castle grounds. He hurried to the princess's chamber to save her, but in his human form he had no strength. Had he been a dragon, saving the princess would have been easy, but he was not and he had failed, to protect his princess.
He reverted to his monstrous dragon form, and became a raging fire-breathing monster more than worth his reputation. He destroyed the castle and attacked the armies until everything was but ruins, black as shadow. When he learned that the princess had not been slain by the rival army but by his own fire, tears fell from his eyes. He was really a gentle dragon, but he had truly become a monster there at that kingdom, where he failed to protect his princess.
He was not really a monster, but nevertheless the hunters took him, and cut off its wings, and tied it to the ground for eternal punishment, where each day humans would stone him as a sign of rejction, and ignorance of his humanity within. He moaned each day, a painful cry to his fellow brethren to protect the princess, protect the princess...
Through the generations thereafter, the story was altered, until it eventually became a fairy tale, but the version Tatsuki heard, became her credo. She was to protect the princess at all costs, so now, how could she fight with the image of the one whom she'd been assigned to protect in front of her? And who assigned her this task? She forgot.
Grand Fisher grinned, knowing he had clinched the upper hand, shoving his puppet bearing the image of Orihime at her without relent as a mocking gesture. She knew it was only an image, and not really Orihime, but she found her mind automatically alter, and prohibit her body from attacking or moving.
The image of Orihime, resembling perfectly the true Orihime, attacked her, laughing so kind and carefree. Though she would not attack the image, the image would not hesitate to attack her. When she was young, she heard a story, and there was more to the story than what she currently remembered, but she could not recall the missing details.
In one version of the story, the dragon was a female, and did have one companion, a valiant knight who always fought alongside his trustworthy beast in battle. The knight vowed to accompany her until the end, but during certain circumstances, the knight fell in love with an angel and abandoned the dragon.
Now, Tatsuki found herself in Ichigo's arms. He was breathing heavily, and there was a large wound slashed across his chest, but his face showed no concern, only determination and focus on his opponent.
"Ichigo, you saved me..." Tatsuki managed.
"It's nothing," he lied. "I told you not to get involved with hollows. Stay back, while I beat this guy."
"No, I'll fight too. You're hurt." The dragon never let the knight fight alone in battle.
"I'm fine. Rukia will definitely come here." The knight was always miraculously saved in battle by a shining angel.
Rukia came, and with a strange glove, was able to transform Ichigo into a shinigami. After a long battle, Grand Fisher was eventually defeated, squirming on the ground. Ichigo and Rukia cornered him, not allowing him to run away.
"Grand Fisher, the most dangerous hollow that has eluded shinigami for... this time it is now 50 years," Rukia said, with form that seemed practiced. "You will now receive justice, in the name of peace."
"Are you so sure you want to finish me off so soon," he laughed, even though he was obviously hurting. "I have all the secrets about hollow existence that you shinigami so fruitlessly have been searching for since our genesis. I will tell you everything you want to know. Why don't you broadcast it, on next week's radio?"