With step one of her plan completed, Orihime moved on to step two.
Step one, get the hogyoku and deconstruct it X
Step two, expose Aizen on Rukia's rescue mission. _
Over the course of the next twenty days, Orihime threw herself into the training of Chad, Uryuu, Renji, and Ichigo. They were injured most days, and exhausted every night. Orihime healed them time and time again, was there personal cheerleader, and above all, a formidable opponent. Not one of them had managed to put a crack in her shields, despite rigorous training by both Yoruichi and Urahara, but they were getting stronger every day. She could feel it.
It was training for her, too. Though she'd been taking care of hollows now and again, it was never a good idea to let one's skills go out of practice. She could feel everyone's scrutiny towards the sheer magnitude over her powers, along with her stamina, but she offered up no explanation to quell their over-interested eyes.
Their mission was simply to rescue Rukia. No one knew about Aizen, or the trials to come. It wasn't that Orihime didn't trust the others to know, but she had to do this alone. If they got in the way, Aizen could succeed with his agenda, or worse, they could be killed. Orihime was determined to let it be her life on the line, and no one else's.
Ichigo had insisted she did not remove the heavy scarring on his shoulders, chest, and stomach. He said they were a physical reminder urging him to beat Byakuya. Renji, though, looked completely whole again, whipping Zabimaru about in the underground with his shirt off. He needed no reminder on his skin. The urge to surpass the Kuchiki captain, he said, was stained into his very blood.
Orihime watched them, as though they were her brood, worrying her lip more and more raw with each passing day. They just weren't ready. But then, they hadn't been the first time, either-her least of all, perhaps. She reminded herself that no one was going to die. She wouldn't allow it.
She saw her concern mirrored in Yoruichi's eyes, and in Kisuke's. Though she had forgiven the duo for their sins some years passed, it was difficult to stand by silently and watch them a second time. What did they think they were doing, sending children into battle? Even now that they had Renji, what sort of warriors were they? Kisuke surely hadn't known that they wouldn't die. All along, he'd used them, just to further his own agenda. It did not sit right with her, knowing how powerful the two of them were. Kisuke could not yet re-enter soul society, but as a cat, Yoruichi could. She could have made away with Rukia in the middle of the night, and no one would have been the wiser. Sure, it would not have stopped Aizen in his tracks, but would it not have been better that way? Could Kisuke not clean up his own messes, repentant though he was? Why had it always been up to them?
She could see no way around it, now. Ichigo was determined, and Orihime had her own plans.
"You look worried," Kisuke commented, watching Ichigo and Renji fight. "I'm sure Abarai won't kill him."
She licked her lips and paused before she spoke. "I appreciate that you are trying to include me, Urahara-san. I mean no offence when I say this, but I don't take any delight in scheming like you do. Leave me out of it."
He ducks his head. "Of course, Inoue-san. But I notice that you're allowing all this. You, too, must know its necessary."
"His hollow would have come out at some point," she admits. "But I don't relish the pain you put him through, or that you're going to leave him in the dark about this. He won't understand this power that he has until it's too late to undo so much damage it's caused…" she trailed off.
"You're here to change things," he said. "If you don't like my methods, I would encourage you to implement your own. Unless, of course, such 'scheming' is beneath you."
"Do not ask what means of success are beneath me anymore," she said. "The answer will only make us both upset."
"Of course, Inoue-san."
They leave it at that.
~(o0o)~
The day of the fireworks festival is nostalgic. Orihime hates bright explosions, but she goes regardless, if only to say goodbye to Tatsuki. Tatsuki takes the both of them down to the riverside, laughing when the fireworks start before dark even settles.
Chad, Uryuu, Keigo, Mizuru, Ichigo, and his family join them only long enough to run off again, leaving Tatsuki and Orihime alone. Orihime doesn't want to leave Tatsuki behind again, but she can't introduce the girl to the horrors of the war to come. She'll tell her everything when the time is right, and until then, she'll try to be a better friend than she was the first time around.
"It feels like we haven't been here for the longest time," Orihime laughed beneath her breath, gazing out across the sun-stained waters.
"The last time we were here was last Autumn," Tatsuki said.
"Starting from the year before last, right?"
"Yeah," Tatsuki nodded, fondly.
Orihime sat in the grass. "We used to come here every year," she recalled.
Tatsuki smiled. "Yeah. Remember in middle school, you found red dragonflies? And spent the whole day chasing them around, happy as anything… and then I spent days trying to find where the hell you'd run off to."
She laughed. "Yeah. I remember."
"You told me your big brother Sora used to be the best at getting the dragonflies to land on his fingers, right?"
"Yeah, that was him." She sighed. "I loved that. That feeling. It was like magic." She looked up at the sky, smiling. "I really wanted to do it, too. But for some reason I never could."
Orihime turned when Tatsuki didn't reply. Her smile fell, slowly.
"What's wrong?"
Tatsuki looked away. "Just… don't run off to far."
Orihime wanted to tell her. More than anything, she did. She remember the time before, with her obvious lie-staying at her grandmother's house, Tatsuki never bought it. Quietly, she said, "When summer vacation ends, Tatsuki? Let's come back here again. Maybe we'll catch some red dragonflies this time. Okay?"
Tatsuki looked down at her feet.
Orihime reached out and clasped her hand. "Hey," she said, softly. "I'll come back. It's a promise."
"Okay," Tatsuki said, voice small. She smiled and stood, still holding Orihime's hand in her own. "I'll be waiting for you to come back to my side, then. I promise."
~(o0o)~
Orihime's annoyance with Kisuke comes to a head on the morning of August eighth. Though the man is perfectly capable of sending a text message, calling, or even knocking on her door, he breaks one of her windows with an ingenious message that splatters itself over the wall in crimson red. Never mind that the moment she sees that much blood, her heart skips a beat and she feels sick and dizzy both at once, or that it makes her skin crawl with trepidation. The real bitch of it is that she's going to have to scrub the walls when she gets back home, when all she'll want to do is rest.
Orihime marched down to the Urahara shop with determination, hoping to at least tell Kisuke off before the others arrived. Chad, though, beat her there.
"You got her quick," she said, laughing.
"I couldn't sleep," he said. "I was walking around near here when I got the message." He paused for a moment. "Do I have no sense of humor?"
She snorted. "I think you've got a great sense of humor! The message was the same for all of us, don't worry." She sat down next to him, leaning into his side. "Now we wait for the others."
Ichigo was the next to show up. Along with him was Renji, who had grown tired of the Urahara shop and had begged for a few nights staying at the clinic. They were arguing over who had clogged the toilet. Orihime recalled a time she daydreamed of Ichigo and thought him sexy. Those nerds had probably been up all night blowing each other.
"Nice of you two to finally show up." Kisuke appeared in the doorway of the show.
Renji scowled. "What are you getting onto us for? The quincy's the last one, not us."
"Yeah, right." Ichigo snorted. "Like he'd actually come with us. He hates soul reapers."
"Which is exactly why I'm coming with," Uryuu stepped out of the darkness, finally arriving. Orihime had to admit, he looked rather cute in his Quincy uniform. "To show you up in particular, Kurosaki."
"Oy!"
"Enough squabbling," Yoruichi wound herself through Kisuke's legs, coming to stand in the middle of their group. "Save the fight for the enemy, fools. Now come. It's time."
She and Kisuke lead them into the shop, where the entrance to the training grounds had been opened up. Quietly, they all descended into the depths of the faux desert. There were still gouges in the dirt from training.
"Alright everybody." Kisuke walked out into the distance. "Watch closely now. We're ready to go." He snapped his fingers, and out of the rocks and dirt, pillars rose and slammed together, creating a cloud of dust.
They all coughed, waving hands in front of their faces as they waited for the dust to settle. When the air had cleared, the gate stood proudly before them.
"This," Kisuke said. "Is the senkaimon. Listen carefully. I will now teach you how to pass through it without dying."
"Dying?" Renji balked. "What kinda senkaimon is this?!"
Kisuke ignored him, and using the hilt of his 'cane' he quickly knocked Ichigo's spirit from his body. Ichigo was used to it, by then, but still hadn't learned to be careful with his human form. It dropped lifelessly to the ground. Orihime recalled all the times she'd had to heal him from carelessly leaving his body. Once, it had rolled down a hill and into a river, and they'd spent all night looking for it, and upon finding it, Orihime had spent the rest of her energy healing the frozen, waterlogged corpse. She'd been rather terse with him, that time.
Kon was given to the body, with fanfare Orihime largely chose to ignore.
"To answer Abarai's question," Kisuke continued. "Usually this door is made by adding reishihekakon to the top of the senkaimon, and the use of ketsugoufu covers it up so that it will stay together."
Uryuu stepped up to the gate, trailing his fingers over one of the four pillars it was composed of. "Reishihekanki?" he guessed.
"Yes," Kisuke said. "As you know, soul society is the world of souls, and in order to get there, you must be a soul. But only Kurosaki and Abarai here has a soul forms, as a shinigami. The rest of you would still be tied to your bodies by the chain of fate, even if we did separate soul from body. It would be just about impossible to move about in soul society like that. Hence, the reishihekanki. It will change the living, keishi, into the soul, reishi."
"So we just go through the door, without separating our souls from our bodies," Uryuu concluded, astute as ever.
"Exactly." Kisuke said, smiling wide. "You can go to soul society in your original forms."
"Okay, we got it, let's go." Ichigo stepped towards the door.
Kisuke jabbed him with his cain and sent the boy toppling over. "Now, to get on to the important part! While there's no problem with going through the senkaimon, and it will be painless to pass through the reishihekanki and move forward, there is one problem. That problem," he cut his eyes at Orihime, meaningfully. "Is time."
She looked away from him sharply.
He continued. "You'll only have four minutes to pass through the senkaimon."
"Four minutes?" Abarai exclaimed.
Kisuke nodded. "Once that time is up, the senkaimon will close, and you will all be forever stuck within the confines of the dongai. And by forever, I mean for the rest of your lives. In order to prevent things like hollows from crossing through the dongai, it's filled with a substance called kouryuu, which stops souls from moving. If you touch it, your chances of leaving the dongai drop to zero percent."
"Then I guess we'd better keep walking forward," Yoruichi said. "The heart and soul are connected. What's important here is what your heart thinks. If you don't think you can do it, you won't be able to. If you wish to follow me, you must believe you are capable of completing this."
"What are you talking about?" Ichigo said. "Those who have gathered here already made the choice in their hearts. Every one of us is determined to follow through!"
"Good," she said. "If you lose that resolve, kid, then you will never return to this place again."
"My resolve won't ever waver on this," Ichigo stated. "We will win."
Yoruichi's feline eyes held a hint of her human self's smile. "Well said."
"Excellent," Kisuke said. "Then we're ready. Tessia!"
They looked back to the entrance. Tessai popped down. "Yeah, Boss?"
"It's time."
Tessai descended the latter and started toward the senkaimon. "You told them the dangers?"
Kisuke nodded.
"Then this is it." Tessia paused before the senkaimon. He used his hands to begin a series of gestures that would activate the gate, and then crouched down before the senkaimon, hands on the base. The open air between the pillars began to waver.
"That's incredible, Tessai," Orihime laughed.
He smiled up at her. "Thank you, miss."
"Alright," Kiskue said. "The moment it's open, run."
"Got it," Ichigo said.
The air between the pillars solidified into hard light, cracks like spiderwebs running through the surface of the light, causing it to refract and turn rainbow in some places. Behind the refraction of light was a wavering darkness. Orihime swallowed and took up the rear of the group, ready to usher them on if she had to.
"Go!" Kisuke yelled. The cracks came together all at once, shattering the hard light completely, revealing the impregnable black of the gateway.
They ran.
Inside was just as Orihime remembered. Dark, and dank, and filled with bones and the oozing whiteness of the kouryuu. The people in front of her paused, much to Orihime's consternation.
Ichigo said, "This… is the dongai?"
"Move!" Yoruichi yelled. "The kouryuu will close in! Hurry!"
"R-right!"
They ran for all they were worth. The kouryuu closed around them just as quickly, and in a moment. Uryuu stumbled over a collection of bones, at one point, tilting dangerously close to the side, where the kouryuu simmered. Orihime grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder, ignoring his loud squawk of protest. Beside her, Chad grabbed Renji, who had turned to look back as well. She nodded at Chad and together they raced to catch up with Kurosaki.
"W-what is that!?" Uryuu suddenly yelled.
Orihime didn't look back. "Keep moving!" She yelled. "Don't look back!"
"It's the janitor!" Renji yelled.
"The janitor?!" Yoruishi cried. "Why today of all days?!"
Orihime could feel its heat breathing at her back. The exit was a glowing white square just up ahead, but she knew they weren't going to make it at the rate they were going. "Soten Kisshun," she declared. "I reject!"
The group was grabbed and collected into one solid golden bubble, just as the semichio caught up to them. It rammed into Orihime's bubble, propelling them out the exit. They flew through the air, screaming, and then crash landed in a heap of elbows and legs.
Orihime's shield collapsed around them. She sat up, dumping Uryuu into her lap. "Is everyone alright?" She shook off the odd sensation begging her attention at the back of her head-an instinct she'd developed, telling her they'd gone back in time. Eight days, if she remembered correctly.
Uryuu scrambled to get off of her, blushing bright red.
"More or less," Renji grumbled.
Chad gave the thumbs up.
"Just fine," Ichigo said.
Yoruichi stood and looked around. "We're on the outskirts…" she said. She clearly remembered the place they were. She looked almost lost. "The gate is just ahead-"
"Then let's go!" Ichigo stood to run forward.
"Wait!" Yoruichi yelled.
"Don't be stupid, Kurosaki!" Renji lept to his feet. "The guard-"
It was too late, though. The gate fell before them, and with it, the guard. Jidanbo.
~(o0o)~
The hardest part out of everything was choosing when to step in, and when to let fate run its course. They would all be hurt, all have pain. She knew, even, that it was probably true that she couldn't save every soul that had been lost in the first trail of time. Orihime stood quietly back and let Kurosaki fight the giant, Jidanbo, knowing that he would win the fight without anyone being injured.
"Kurosaki!" Renji yelled. "Hold on! We'll blast a hole in the wall and-"
"No," Ichigo yelled back. They couldn't see him-when Jidanbo had revealed himself, he'd smashed the ground around them, making a wall that cut Ichigo off from everyone else, so that they would be forced to fight one-on-one. Ichigo didn't see any problem with it, of course. "I've got this! You guys stand back and watch!"
"Don't be stupid!" Renji and Uryuu corussed. They looked at one another, betrayed.
"He's got this," Chad said. He looked certain.
They fell silent.
As the time before, the fight was quick. Orihime allowed it. She allowed the artificial wall to come down, and she pretended to be curious when the defeated Jidanbo offered to let them into the Soul Society by lifting up the gate. The moment he began to lift the entrance, though, she stepped forward and lifted a hand to her temple, waiting for Ichimaru Gin to reveal himself.
It did not take long.
"Ah," said the fox, with a terribly knowing grin. "This is not allowed."
Despite the years, and even knowing that Gin wasn't truly on Aizen's side, hearing his accented drawl still made Orihime's skin crawl, just as his smile and edged demeanor did. He moved fast-so fast that the first time around, she hadn't even seen him draw his weapon. This time, though, she was ready, and even then he had drawn his sword between one blink and the next. Still Orihime did not falter, and before Gin could cut Jidanbo's arm off, her shield took up the gate's entrance, reflecting Gin's attack away from them.
For a single second, it was silent.
"That's Captain Ichimaru, of squad three," Renji said. His voice was stony.
"Abarai-kun, what are you doing with a rag-tag group of intruders?" Gin mused.
"We should retreat," Yoruichi said. "Now!"
"But the door," Ichigo said. "This might be our only chance!"
"Even together, there's no way you can take on a captain!" Yoruichi said. "You cannot even imagine his strength."
"He doesn't scare me!"
"He should," Renji said. "... I might be able to take him."
Gin took another step forward, still smiling. "Well I think I've been mighty polite letting ya'll stand around deciding what to do, but I'm not a very patient fellow. And you." He settled his closed eyes on Jidanbo. "A guardian does not open the gate when he loses. A guardian's loss is only to be expected in the form of… an execution."
Ichigo let out a yell and ran through Orihime's shield, intercepting Gin's second attack. Orihime's eyes caught the other man's blade-he hadn't even released his shikai.
Renji yelled, "Ichigo, no!"
Orihime was faster than all of them. She ran forward, manipulating her spiritual pressure to push herself forward in a move similar to flash-step. She touched down behind Ichigo, the soft flats of her shoes barely touching the stone ground. She grabbed him by the collar of his robe and heaved, with all she was, throwing him bodily behind her. At the same moment, she lifted up her palm, shields formed over it. Gin's blade glanced over it. She saw his brows lift in surprise and made fierce, determined eye contact with him.
"Remember this," she told him.
In the next instant, she had flashed back, pushing Ichigo as she went. She released her shields and reformed them above Jidanbo's hands, pulling them away from the gate. They all tumbled back, kicking up dust and debri.
Orihime turned, just before the gate slammed shut. Beyond was Gin, calmly leaning down to watch them through the disappearing gap.
She couldn't help it. She beat him to the punch.
With a grin, and a wave that stopped Gin's in their tracks, she leaned over as well. "Bye bye!" She said, and saw his smile drop just before the gate slammed closed.
Good.
She had his attention.
~(o0o)~
As with the time before, the village accepted them eagerly after seeing them attempt to protect Jidanbo. Orihime didn't even have to heal him, like last time. She was glad for the lack of bloodshed, but worried that Jidanbo didn't fully realize what would have happened to him if she hadn't blocked the attack. The first time, Gin had completely severed the giant's arm.
She was still at odds with how she felt about soul society. What Gin had done-would have done-was perfectly natural. She didn't know if it was a result of corruption, or if soul society at its core was fundamentally wrong, but even knowing she would stop Aizen, she worried for the future.
There was a lot of things to fix, and she was suddenly realizing just how big a task that was. She didn't want to take over soul society, or even heavily manipulate it, but Aizen had proven just how easily bad things could take place, and even after him, soul society had continued to pull trick after bad trick.
The elder of the village had welcomed them into his home, and was going so far as to help them compose their break-in plan. She'd known how it would go, so she'd taken outside to clear her head. There was still so much to do. She almost wished she hadn't gone back so far in time. She could have changed things even just by appearing before the beginning of the cold war.
No. She wanted to save people. That's what this was about.
"Hey."
Orihime looked up from the stream she'd been collecting water from. Renji stood just behind her, looking down the length of the river. He didn't meet her eye.
"Abarai," she said. "Are you thirsty?"
He shook his head.
She frowned. He looked… pensive. "Is something wrong?"
"How did you know that I was going to come after Rukia?"
She sighed. "That's my little secret, remember?"
He shook his head. "You knew again, today. With Ichimaru-taichou." He peered at her with narrowed eyes, taking a step closer to her. The dark print of his tattoos contorted the lines of his face, making him appear almost demonic. It was attractive, in a way. "Are you human?"
"Yes."
"What is your power? Exactly?"
"Secrets, Renji," she said, "are meant to be kept."
"We're allies now, aren't we?" His expression darkened. "Unless you've seen that, too. Do I turn on you, Inoue?"
She let out a little laugh, lost, but glad to be alive, in the moment, somehow. "No, Renji. You wouldn't… I'm sorry. I was harsh, when I said you turned on Rukia. You're very loyal."
"I turned on her. Now I've turned on all of Soul Society. My captain. My friends. Everyone." He sat down, suddenly, at the edge of the river, his feet dangling near the waters. "What's to say I won't do it again?"
She sat next to him. "Me."
"So you do have visions of the future." He looked over at her. "Can I ask you something?"
"I might not answer."
"Do you see everything? Or just… flashes of important stuff?"
"Not telling."
"How did you know all that stuff, about Rukia and me? You two, you got close, while she was in the human realm, right? How close?"
"Close enough," Orihime said, remembering the soft plump of Rukia's lips.
"So she did tell you all that stuff." He leaned back on his hands. "... It's hard to believe she even still thinks of me."
"You still think of her, don't you?"
"All the time," he admitted. "It's hard not to, what, with her brother always breathing down my neck. He reminds me of her, sometimes. In weird ways." He shrugged his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable. Orihime wondered, not for the first time, what exactly Renji felt for his captain. "When this is all over, I don't even know what we're going to do. We rescue her. Then what? We… we shack up in the Urahara shop with the rest of the soul society rejects? What kind of life is that?"
"Rukia was starting to love living as a human. Maybe you could, too."
"No," Renji said. "Once you have a taste of life as a shinigami… there's no going back."
Orihime thought of Ichigo, sneaking back in late, late in the night, smelling of smoke and booze and most concerning, ozone, the undead. The way he ducked his head when he entered the room, hiding his old substitute pass beneath the mattress as he slipped into bed, slow and quiet, like he didn't know that he'd awaken her.
"Yeah," Orihime said. "I guess so."
"Could you tell my future?" Renji asked. "If you uh. Focussed really hard?"
She laughed. "Maybe," she teased. "It'll cost you a billion yen."
"A-" he spluttered. "A billion yen!?"
She stood, still laughing. "Come on, Abarai. We should be getting back. You're not going to like the plan Yoruichi and the rest have cooked up for us."
"That's something else I wanted to talk about," he said, as he followed her. "I know this is stupid. Yoruichi is a cat. But… There was a Shihoin Yoruichi in soul society once, and if I remember correctly, she disappeared around the same time as Urahara. So. Is there… a connection there?"
She didn't get the chance to answer. They were near enough to the elder's house to hear what was going on inside it. From within, there was a man yelling-one who was not part of their team.
"You trying to pick a fight with me?! Huh!?"
"Shit," Renji cured, and started to run. "Can't leave them for two seconds!"
Orihime ran after him, wondering how exactly this was going to play out.
They burst into the elder's home just in time to see Ichigo get thrown through the rice paper doors on the other side of the room. It took most of Orihime's will not to face-palm. Renji and Ishida rushed to the door yelling, "Kurosaki!"
Ganju's gang was waiting just outside. "Uh-oh boss," one of them called. "We've got another one!"
The Elder stood. "Ganju, stop this at once. These are good shinigami-"
"No such thing," Ganju grunted. He kicked Ichigo to the ground and then stood over him, pointing down at the boy's body. "You better leave this place. As long as I'm alive, I will not allow a shinigami to reside in the Nishirukongai!"
Oi vay , Orihime thought. She rolled her eyes.
Ichigo kicked Ganju in the face and came to stand. "That's enough," he said. "You didn't even hear me out! You can't just go around hitting people, you know! And even if you did want to fight me, you're not nearly strong enough to be my opponent."
"Punk!" Ganji grabbed his bleeding nose to stem the blood flow. "That's twice in a row you've punch my handsome face!"
"Is this guy for real?" Renji muttered.
"I kicked you the second time, idiot!"
"Are either of them?" Uryuu asked Renji.
Orihime looked back for Chad while Yoruichi and the elder attempted to stop the fight. She knew already that they would be unsuccessful. Chad was looking for Ichigo's sword, and had seemingly found it. He grabbed the hilt and started to the door, nodding at Orihime.
"Shit," Renji was saying. "That idiot doesn't even have his zanpakuto on him!"
Chad stepped past the lot of them and without a word threw the sword. Ichigo was ready for it, and readily caught the handle, grinning. "Thanks, Chad!"
It was just as the time before. Sword fighting dissolved into kido, and kido dissolved into martial arts, and martial arts dissolved into undignified fisticuffs. Orihime groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. She hadn't signed up for a glorified baby-sitting position.
Looking down at Yoruichi, she could tell the feline was feeling the same, right about then.
Eventually, though, Ganju's underlings urgently pointed the time out to their leader, and with a good amount of "I've got the bigger dick, don't doubt it" Ganju finally rode away on his boar, the rest of the pig-riders following him.
They were left in stunned quiet.
Ichigo stared after the dust-trail left by the boars the gang had been riding. "They… they're gone?"
Orihime sighed. "Such a disaster, Kurosaki."
Ishida put his hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "Take it easy there, Kurosaki. I'm speechless too."
"Yeah," Renji said. "Don't hurt yourself thinking too hard."
Ichigo whipped around. "You! Why didn't you get out here to fight too, you asshole? That guy attacked me just because I'm a shinigami! Your pride was on the line, too."
Renji leaned against the side of the building, crossing his arms. "Hey, I'm not the one that got into the fight, it's none of my business."
"Like hell it isn't! Didn't you hear what he said about shinigami?"
"Is he wrong?" Uryuu muttered.
"Hey, whose side are you even on!?"
"As of right now, the losing side," Yoruichi snapped. "Have you forgotten what we came here for, Ichigo? You can't go around picking petty fights when we have a mission to attend to!"
"Wha-me?! That guy's the one who started it!"
Yoruichi just shook her head and started back over to the elder, gently apologizing as she went.
Renji stuck to Orihime's side.
"Did you see that one coming?" He mumbled.
She snorted. "You don't need any sort of powers to know Ichigo is going to get into pointless fights," she said. "I saw that one coming from a mile away."