Orihime crawled out of the sewers early on the morning of August forth, quickly making her way into the tenth division brackets. About her, there were plenty of people beginning to rise. Orihime needed to be inconspicuous, which meant she needed to not be coated in grime and sweat. She needed a pair of clothes that actually fit her, she needed to put her hair up, and she needed to have the sheath of a sword on her body. She knew where she could get all those things, but it was admittedly a risk.

She took to Ran's place.

Around the barracks, there were plenty of officers beginning to rise as she crept quietly through the halls and up to Ran's room. By some sort of luck no one gave Orihime a second glance.

She made it safely to Rangiku's room before realizing that the lieutenant was prone to sleeping in quite late; she would still be asleep. Orihime had already come all that way, but there wasn't much she could do to get Rangiku out of the room.

Or, rather, nothing polite.

It was only a matter of time before someone took a look at her and realized she wasn't from around there.

She decided to forgo her manners and began knocking loudly on Ran's door. There was no answer, at first, but that was to be expected. She started up another round of knocking, and then finally a third chorus.

"I'm coming!" Rangiku yelled from within. She didn't sound happy. "Give me a second! Damn!"

Orihime took a small step back, just as the door flew open.

Rangiku's hair was in complete disarray, and her robes where clumsily arranged. She smelled slightly like sake and her makeup was smeared. "Huh? What do you want?"

"Lieutenant Matsumoto," she bowed. "Captain Hitsugaya sent me to retrieve you. He said it was urgent."

"What?" She groaned. "Why not send a butterfly, ne?"

Orihime paused. Crap. Good point. "He said you would ignore it, ma'am."

Rangiku sagged against the doorway. "Well, that's true."

She bought it!

"Guess I'm doing my makeup in the office again," she grumbled. She pushed her hair away from her forehead, arranging it somewhat more presentably. "Good thing I keep a complete morning routine kit under the couch… what are you still here for?"

"Ah, right! F-Forgive me, ma'am, I just... of course."

"Whatever." Rangiku brushed past her, closing the door behind her. She started down the hall, pausing only for a moment at the end. "Hey, girl."

Orihime stiffened. Had she been figured out somehow?

"Keep sharp. You don't want to get injured out there. Cute thing like you needs to stay on her guard, right, sister?" She smiled and winked.

Orihime blushed. "R-right!"

Rangiku was gone, then.

Orihime turned to her door, summoning her fairies to slip inside the lock. "That was close," she told them. "I forgot how I get when she flirts."

"We didn't," Tsubaki muttered. He was blushing too, though, so Orihime ignored him.

The door slid open. "Ah, thank goodness!" Orihime rushed into Rangiku's room, noticing that there was a bunch of half-eaten takeout strewn haplessly about the room. Rangiku had never been the perfect roommate, but she hadn't been a slob, either. Orihime was almost surprised to see what the woman lived like when she was alone.

Still, she took to Rangiku's shower, sighing when blood and grime began to come out of her hair. She used Ran's soaps and oils and took her time indulging in the hot water. Rangiku would be out all day with all the things happening around the soul society, and pretty soon would be distracted by the fight Chad was going to have with Captain Shunsui. Orihime had the place to herself.

She cleaned her underwear in the sink and used one of the old-fashioned hair dryers Rangiku must have nabbed from the living world to dry her laundry out, then changed into one of Rangiku's uniforms. Clean and fresh, and feeling much more like herself, she reclined in Rangiku's bed, breathing in the familiar scent of the woman's sweat and perfume.

She dozed, for a time.

The door slid open, suddenly. Orihime blinked awake, confused for a moment, before her heart kicked into double time. She sat up, just in time to face a wide-eyed Rangiku.

For a moment, they stared at each other.

"You again," Rangiku said after a moment. "What… what are you doing in my room?"

Think, think, think! What would be believable and get me off the hook? Stalking? Looking around for plots connected to Gin? Wait. Gin. A connection to Gin. Oh this is dumb this isn't going to work this is so stupid oh- Orihime sat up a little straighter, sticking out her bottom lip like they did in the movies. "Oh no," she purred, and did her best not to show how utterly stupid she felt as the words tumbled form her pouting lips. "Ichimaru-kun said you wouldn't be back until later. I guess the surprise is ruined."

Rangiku's eyes narrowed in slight suspicion. "What?" Slowly, she closed her door, stepping further inside. Her eyes darted around, feeling the room out for any signs of a trap, it seemed.

Orihime hadn't attended half of her high school classes, towards the end of her final year, and she'd still been getting top marks. She knew how to bullshit.

"He didn't tell me the basics," she continued in what she hoped was a sultry voice, "Only that I needed to get you out of your room and set up for when you came back. He said I'm an apology of sorts. Most guys send flowers, but hey, I guess there's no reason not send an entire Sakura instead." I guess that's my sex-worker name now! This is out of control! She's going to know and she's going to kill me and it's going to be very embarrassing!

Rangiku was silent for two more seconds.

"He did say I'd get the rest of the apology later," she murmured, suddenly. She reached up and touched the ring on her necklace, absently. "I thought he…" She turned to Orihime. "This isn't him breaking up with me, is it? He's not leaving me? I thought… it sounded like…"

Orihime hadn't realized they were together-together. "Kind of an expensive gift for a break-up present, don't you think?" Apparently I'm a high-end sex worker now. "He didn't strike me as the sentimental type." Just the kinda guy to leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Another beat passed.

"Well." Suddenly, Rangiku's eyelids dropped to half-mast, and she was slipping the side of her robe off of her shoulder. "It's rude not to unwrap a present when you get one, don't you think?"

Guess I'm having sex with Rangiku early this play-through. "Terribly so, ma'am."

"Then I guess I better get to it, shouldn't I?" She sunk down onto her knees, hovering above Orihime, and reached for the tie to her robe.

"Yeah," Orihime breathed. "I guess you should."

~(o0o)~

After a few rounds, Orihime and Rangiku had both fallen asleep. They were rudely awaken by a sudden flux of high spiritual pressure. Orihime flew up in bed, hair a tangled tussle about her face, and gasped.

For some damn reason, Ichigo and Shuuhei were fighting. It took everything in Orihime not to groan in annoyance. She'd gone out of her way to take Renji out of Ichigo's path, and he got caught up fighting Hisagi instead? Typical.

"The Ryoka," Rangiku muttered, grimmly. "They better not mess Shuu up." She turned to Orihime, eyes softening. "I've got to go," she said, and quickly darted forward for one last messy kiss. "You can shower and change here, if you want to. Lock the door on your way out. Oh, here-" she rolled over and fumbled in her desk for a second before shoving a small parcel full of coins into Orihime's grasp. "Your tip."

"Ichimaru covered all charges," Orihime tried to protest, unhappy with the idea that she was essentially robbing Rangiku.

"I know what it's like. A tip goes a long way. I'm not going to let you refuse it." She stood and began to rearrange herself. "Duty calls. I have to go, but maybe I'll see you again? What squad are you from?"

"Um, fourth."

"Squad four. Got it." She stood and made hurriedly for the door. "See you around, Sakura."

Oh boy. Now I have that to deal with . "B… Bye."

She waited a moment before she collected herself and left. There weren't officers hanging around in the barracks, but she could feel plenty rushing about elsewhere. Moreover, she could feel Ichigo and Hisagi. What had possessed Hisagi to approach Ichigo, she had no idea. It felt like Ichigo was getting his ass handed to him, though.

She would just have to trust he'd make it through, just like he'd made it with Renji.

Renji.

Hisagi, Renji, and Kira were all very close. Maybe this was about Renji's disappearance; Hisagi had been his friend. Boyfriend? She didn't know, just that they spent a lot of time together. It was possible that this was all connected.

Either way, it wasn't her place. She was only interested in making sure no one died and that the timeline continue apace. She had considered talking to Hitsugaya, and now that Rangiku was out of the way she was certain that it was worth a shot. She quickly made her way to his office.

She found many of the divisions in chaos on her way there. She was surprised by how much was going on, just because of their small task force. She'd thought, back in the day, that they had been no more than a fly buzzing about a giant's ear. Now, she was seeing just how great a threat they'd really posed.

Getting in to see Hitsugaya was easy enough. He was dwarfed by a mountain of paperwork, so it was a simple matter to grab a handful of papers off a random desk on her way to his door and present herself as a delivery girl. She was let in to where Hitsugaya was scribbling away furiously at a pile of documents.

"Toshiro," she started. She didn't even bother with the fake documents-she dumped them in his trash.

He looked up quickly, eyes narrowed at her. "That's Captain Hitsugaya to you."

"Toshiro," she repeated. She came to stand over his chair, intense. "We don't have much time before I have to get out of here. I'm sure Rangiku will come back soon."

"Who are you?"

"Ichimaru Gin isn't the one you need to be concerned about."

"What?" He furrowed his brow at her, almost angrily.

"I know you think something's up with him. I know you supposedly overheard things. But it was all planted evidence. Ichimaru is the scapegoat."

"How would you even know any of this?" He demanded. "Who told you that I-"

"No one told me, because you haven't told anyone yourself yet." At least, she was pretty sure that was true. She hoped she wasn't just standing there looking like a crazy person. She plowed on regardless: "It's not Gin."

"Then who?" He pressed.

She turned to leave.

"Stop." The sound of Toshiro unsheathing his sword gave Orihime pause. "Who?"

"Aizen," she said quickly. She left the room before he could press her further.

~(o0o)~

The reality of her escapade into soul society was that there was very little for her to do in order to change the timeline. After speaking with Toshiro she quickly disappeared underground again, where she spent the time tracking her friends progress via there spiritual energy and, at times, napping. By the time the morning of August fifth finally came around, she was itching to actually do something again.

Orihime crawled up out of the sewers at three in the morning, humming quietly to herself as she made her way cheerfully about the barracks. She didn't remember where exactly it was that Aizen had planted his fake body, but she figured it would be in the fifth division somewhere. No one was out and about, as it was still pitch out. It didn't take long to come across the corpse and long line of blood spilling down the side of the building.

She first surveyed the area to be certain Aizen was not about. She was relatively sure he'd already made his way to central forty six, where he would take over control of the soul society. She didn't sense him, but she walked into the area carefully regardless, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of activity. Not even a hell butterfly stirred the early morning air. For just a moment, everything was at peace.

Aizen's death had been exactly what sparked so much fighting amongst the divisions, and Orihime wanted to avoid that. More than that, she wanted to stick it to Aizen, who probably thought he was all that. His plan was a good one, admittedly, but she would sooner chew off her own foot than give the man any kudos.

"Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm," she skipped up to the impaled body. Always so dramatic. He couldn't have just dumped a slashed-throat body somewhere? He had to pin himself up for the world to see? Hey, wait, that was another bit of butterfly symbolism! How weird. One would think Aizen would have compared himself to something cool, like, say, a racoon. Or something else. She admittedly didn't know what people thought was cool, but butterflies didn't seem to make the list.

The power she used next had taken her a great amount of time to perfect. She remembered having to convince Uryuu to take her up to the dome, back during Ulquiorra and Ichigo's fight in Hueco Mundo. She had blamed herself for his injuries, having been the one who forced him to go to the fight. After that, she'd worked tirelessly at learning how to move herself with her powers, so that she wouldn't have to rely on him like that again.

She was grateful for that practice, now.

She created a panel with her shields and stepped onto it, lifting herself into the air and up to the fake body. Much like a real body, it was heavy, and the open eyes creeper her out. She reached up under the glasses and pulled the eyelids closed, grimacing.

"Gross," she muttered. She'd forgotten that he wasn't on some sort of lance or pole. He was impaled with a sword. Grabbing the handle, she started tugging, groaning when it didn't come loose immediately. "Come on, are you kidding me?" She pulled, tugging with both her hands, though she was mindful of the drop behind her. It was be just her luck for the sword to come flying out of his chest and, with her momentum, she would fall off her shield and to her death. "Stupid thing, come on!" She put her foot beside Aizen's body and started pulling harder.

"Hey!"

Orihime paused. "Oh crumpets." she turned around, and far below, was some random unseated officer. She didn't recognize him. "Hi!"

"What are you doing up there?"

"Uh." Removing a corpse, stupid, what does it look like? "Me and Captain Aizen here are just… cleaning up this blood. From one of the intruders that got killed. You know how he likes to help."

"Do you need any more help, sir?"

Orihime blinked down at the guy. Was he stupid? "Uh. He lost his voice but he just said no, it's okay. Have a nice day!"

"... Okay!" The man started on his way.

Orihime turned back to her task. "They've got to get their crap together," she muttered, taking to frantically tugging at the sword. "I mean, really? Really!" Not that she was complaining. She was glad he'd bought it.

Finally, the sword came free. Orihime stumbled back, but didn't fall off her shield. "Ha!" The body slumped awkwardly from the building and to its knees, on her shield. Aizen's glasses fell off his face, skittered forwards, and dropped down, down, down to the ground below. Orihime watched them shatter and winced. "Oops."

She turned back to the body. "Not like you need them, anyway. I mean really, how long did you wear fake glasses? Weirdo." Body collected, Orihime took them to the ground. The long streak of blood was sort of par for the course around Soul Society, and they didn't have DNA testing from what she'd seen, so she decided not to bother. She would probably raise more questions by standing there trying to clean it off. The glasses, though, she did take the time to pick up. Leave it to someone like Momo to find them and raise an even bigger fuss.

Quickly, she made her way back into the sewers, where she set the body on the ground before pushing the admittedly heavyweight into the sewer waters. She cringed and danced away from the splash zone as his body sunk, bubbling as it went. The waters turned brownish red around him before dispersing. The body was gone a moment later.

"Okay," she slumped against a wall and let out a long breath. "Check that off the list. Gee wiz. I mean, come on. Come on! I hope that plan took him years. I hope that took him, him, a thousand years and I just ruined it in two seconds. Oh gosh darn it I've got blood on my kitty socks!"

This was all just a little bit more than she'd asked for.

She took a small notebook out of her pocket. She'd cleaned her clothes from the living world back at Rangiku's, in the sink, and so they were neatly folded next to her. She'd been keeping the notebook there, with them, but worried someone would happen upon it.

The day's itinerary was full. Ichigo was going to fight Kenpatchi, and Chad was going to fight Shunsui. Ichigo would get whisked away from another fight with Byakuya by Yoruichi and thus would begin his three days of bankai training. Then Uryuu would fight Mayuri. Originally, Kira and Mom would have fought, and later on, Gin and Hitsugaya, but she was almost certain she'd smoothed over all that nonsense.

So that once again left nothing for her to do.

She contemplated another run up to Ran's, but she didn't want to push her luck. Besides, she hadn't transported herself back into the past for something as dumb as sleeping with Rangiku again. Though, realistically, she hadn't done it for anything nobel either. Whatever, she was taking it all in stride.

It was going to be okay.

She just stayed beneath ground and let things play out. All was as she predicted, for the most part. There was the added surprise, later, of Renji fighting Kira, but the end result was the same for everyone: they ended up in jail, Renji included. But that didn't matter all that much. In fact-

Orihime heard a noise behind her and had just enough time to feel her heart startle before the world went black.

~(o0o)~

"-me. Orihime! Orihime, wake up, please! He's coming back!"

Orihime sluggishly opened her eyes.

She didn't know where she was, but her wrists were bound behind her back and she was tied to a chair. Her mouth was gagged and around her was some sort of kiddo box. Ayame, her fairy, was hovering before her.

Ayame? Orihime thought very hard at the fairy. What happened? How long was I out?

"Rukia's execution is soon!" The fairy hissed. "We have to get out of here."

Orihime nodded. With her heart, she summoned Tsubaki.

"You're awake."

Orihime looked up in surprise. She recognized Tousen right away, but was startled by his appearance. He had not been all that large a player in the scheme of things; he'd always been quiet, though motivated. Orihime had resented him least of all, knowing that he was doing what he truly did believe to be right. Even Gin, who was doing this all for Rangiku, was easily the more evil between them. Sure, Gin did it for love, but he'd never minded killing, had he?

"I'm sorry to have done that. It's just that you've been getting in the way. What squad are you from? Did Ichimaru put you up to this? I've suspected him of trying to sabotage us for some time."

She glared at him and then looked pointedly down at her gag. Then she remembered he was blind and began wiggling around in her chair, letting out muffled screams.

"Of course." He stepped up to her, hands passing neatly through the kiddo field. His hands were cool and dry against her skin as he carefully removed her gag.

"What's the big idea, huh?" She started. "We're in the middle of a war and you start attacking unseated officers? I heard that Kaname Tousen was a man of honor, of justice. And now I come to find he kidnaps innocent girls in his spare time?"

"Innocent girls do not go about hiding in sewers and disposing of bodies." He produced her notepad. "What is this? How did you happen to come by these facts? I have followed your predictions for today and found them all to be nearly perfect guesses at the future."

Orihime had been planning to use her big lie on some other shinigami, but Tousen worked just fine. "The power of my zanpakuto is divination. Usually, I can only tell my openets next few moves in battle. But in the middle of may something happened and my power went crazy. I saw the future clearly for the first time. And I knew I had to stop the deviation to come."

"That's a very nice story," Kaname said. He frowned. "But you are lying."

"Wh-" She wasn't used to being called out so easily. "How can you say that? I-" She paused as the field lowered. Kaname muttered a string of spells and suddenly Orihime was floating upright and begin dragged through the air.

"You're coming with us," Kaname said. "I detest the use of hostages, but your insight is invaluable. Please understand that this is all for the betterment of our society."

"I don't care how great you think it's going to be!" She grunted as she struggled against her invisible bonds. "Millions of innocent people are going to die!"

"The ends justifies the means."

Orihime swallowed as panic started to rise up in her throat. "F-families, children! Y-your own squad will take huge losses!"

"For the cause there is much that must be lost."

The bonds weren't coming loose. "But-"

"Be silent now," he began another Kiddo.

"Sh-shuuhei will die!"

Kaname stopped walking.

Orihime swallowed around the lie. He'd sensed it before. She had to be careful now. "Shuuhei dies," she tried, quietly. "In the final battle between the arrancar and soul society. He dies."

"How?" Kaname asked.

"You kill him."

For a moment, she was certain it had worked. She felt the bonds loosen and began to attempt discretely moving down to her feet. Then, they pulled taught against her, so tight she felt the air choke from her lungs.

"Then it was for a just reason," he said. "Shuuhei would understand."

No! All her careful planning and scheming! "What are you going to do to me?"

"You can see the future," he said. "You will traverse with Aizen and the rest of our party to Huceo Mundo, where your predictions will be used to secure our goals."

It was too early. There was just no way that Ichigo and the others could win the war yet, and if they tried to come and save her, there was a good chance they'd die for good. Orihime renewed her struggle. "No, no!"

"You will see the honor in it. With you, there will be less need for killing."

"I won't help you!"

"You will," he said, certainly. "I am sorry to do this to you. But it must be this way. While Ichimaru and Aizen have been running central forty six, I have been watching, and these sightless eyes have seen you. When I present you to Aizen, he will see the wonder in you just as I have."

That meant… that meant that Aizen didn't know about her yet.

Tousen was probably the only one.

And that meant she had a chance.

"I refuse," she said, voice trembling. Then, stronger; "I reject!"

The kiddo shattered around her. Tousen turned, startled, but she was on him before his sword had completely cleared its sheath. "I reject!" Her fairies made a bubble around his head. Kaname dropped to the ground, clawing at the shield and fumbling for his sword at the same time. She ignored him as he came closer to her, hands reaching.

"I reject," she told him, and very carefully, she took the last three days from his mind.

He struggled valiantly for a moment more before slowly he lost the fight. Finally, he lay still on the floor. Orihime was sure that he was alright, though she was not certain what effects reversing three days would have on him. She was certain that the memories of her were gone, and that was what mattered. Quickly, she sensed her way out of his division and flashed her way up to the execution grounds, were very soon, Aizen would reveal himself. She hadn't realized, though, the extent to which her shun shun rika had been depleted-the field from before must have been proposed as such. She felt herself trip and then her sight grew dim. She tumbled, knowing she wouldn't be under for long, but even a moment would be too much.

Shaken by her encounter with Kaname, she made sure to wrap her spiritual pressure about her extra tightly, so that no one would be able to sense her. She'd been caught off guard, which had not happened in a long time. It was a reminder that she wasn't perfect, and that even as advanced beyond her current years as she was, she could still lose. She had to stay sharp, or she'd fall prey to the same traps that had felled her the first time around, or the new ones that lay in her path. Now, all she could do was wait to wake up again, and start over.

Her eyes fluttered open to the feeling of Menos. She took a quick stock of herself and gathered that while her powers were not completely restored, she had enough. She reminded herself that she was rusty and could not push herself as much as she had during the thousand year blood war. She made her way to the top of the exeuction grounds just as Aizen was rising up above their heads.

"I will find it!" Aizen told them all. "And when I do, I will rise above all of you."

She stepped up quickly in front of her friends.

"Orihime!"

She didn't look back at them, even though she wanted to smile at the relief in their voices. "I have a message from Kisuke," she stated proudly. "About what you're looking for."

Aizen's eyes snapped to her. Clear. Perfectly focused. She felt a chill pass through her, but she did not back down. Straight faced and determined, she relayed her message:

"Try again. Bitch."

His gaze did not leave her until he was gone. He looked smug. Too smug. Like he was certain he would still win. She didn't want to admit it, but Aizen still scared her. She swallowed and turned around to face the chaos. After all, there was still a lot of cleanup to do. Even though Aizen was gone and the battle was over, she still felt tense.

Rangiku was there.

"Sakura…" She said, blinking. "What was that?"

Orihime choked on a laugh. "Oh Ran," she said, and fell into the other woman's arms. "I've got so many issues."

~(o0o)~

Clean up took a week. In that time, Orihime established herself as the voice of her group. She demanded that Ichigo be instated as a true substitute shinigami in return for his allegiance in the coming war, which all of soul society seemed to feel was an inevitability. She also made them promise free passaged to the entire group between the living and spirit realms, and though Yammamoto had not liked it, he had relented eventually.

Orihime explained herself to Ran as best as she could, and though the other woman had been annoyed, they had come out of it all as friends. Ichigo healed up with the rest of the group, free of her help, and Orihime was sure to spend as much time as she could with them, reciting small (fake) petty battles between herself and various unseated officers. It helped that several unseated officers had claimed she'd been the one to lay them out. She didn't know why that rumor was so popular, but frankly she did not care. She supposed they wanted to look important.

The victory over Aizen seemed hollow, given what was to come. Orihime felt like the entire trip had been one small step towards the war. A simple footnote in the long epic that was Ichigo's glory. A magnificent sona of his impossible victory, shadowed by the ones that would be sung about his future.

She wanted to weep for what the world would do to him. To them.

To her.

The damage was already done on her side, though. She'd been given a second chance, and so she would make sure that they, too, got their do-over. She plotted quietly and kindly and listened again and again as her friends recalled Ichigo's endless splendor-beating the unbeatable, destroying the execution stand, rallying soul society with his iron will. She'd stand by and watch as Rukia's looks softened, even as the fear of loving again crept into her eyes. She'd stand by as the others laughed about this one, single crazy summer, and how this would be something they'd tell their grandkids.

Oh, she wanted to tell them, no. We will not tell our children of this. We will lock away these simple traumas and we will hold our victories from the light. We will deny our truths because there will always be blood in them. Ichigo would resent his father for all the time he said nothing, but had they any children, she knew Ichigo had planned to do the same. To take the easy route. To live vicariously through his son, wishing and longing the whole while.

She wondered when she would have died to fuel her own child's backstory, should Ichigo have finally relented and given her a baby. She wondered if Ichigo would have told them, or if he would have been like Isshin and kept it quiet-if the boy legend story would continue on and on and on into infinity, a thousand million broken hearts crying out as one, please, please, please let us be!

We are only children.

But she stood by, quiet, and said nothing.

This is my burden to bear alone.