Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters nor do I own Bleach!

Chapter 2

Hello, Again

Inoue Household, approximately eleven thirty pm, Wednesday

Orihime could hardly keep her eyes opened as she sat at her desk. The fluorescent light flickered dimly overhead, and the melancholic ticking from her alarm clock was enough to put her nearly to sleep. Her cheek rested on the palm of her right hand as her elbow, propped onto the desk, held her head up. That didn't keep her from nodding off as her eyelids grew heavier by the second. The mechanical pencil delicately balanced between her index and middle finger slipped as she made a conscious decision to just rest her eyes for a second.

A curtain of darkness fell over her, and a low hum of her bedroom electronics lulled her into a slumber.

...

A pang resonated within her chest as her senses suddenly spiked. Such powerful...such familiar reiatsu. She's been here before. She had sensed this once upon a time. The hairs on her arm raise in alert as she opened her eyes. With dilated pupils, she stared at the man kneeling in front of her. "I-Ishida-...kun?" Orihime whispered, but he didn't hear her. His attention was focused elsewhere.

Orihime turned just in time to see the scene unfold before her. A gasp slipped from her chapped lips as her arms dropped and released Santen Kesshun. The shield dissipated as she scrambled onto her feet. The spiritual energy was overpowering, crushing her lungs as she struggled to breathe. Her mouth was dry from the desert heat, though no sun shined above them. Instead, a blanket of black surrounded them from one end of the world to the other.

What am I doing back here?

She panicked; her eyes darting back and forth between the two figures flying in the sky. Their movements were too fast for her to comprehend, but she knew how this all unfold.

This was history repeating itself.

"S..." she started as she clenched her teeth together. "S-STOP!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, but no one paid any mind to her demand. The sounds of the cement towers crumbling and the screams of her Hollowfied friend overpowered her feeble voice. "Stop it-" she choked as she helplessly watched the bodies clash towards each other. Splashes of blood flew in every direction, covering what felt like every inch of the battlefield. "Please..." Her lower lip trembled as she bit down on her tongue, fighting back the tears which threatened to spill.

Everything happened so fast, but at the same time, it all moved so slowly.

What did she do to get trapped in this awful nightmare?

As if there was a skip in time, Orihime saw her earlier companion standing next to the towering Shinigami-Hollow hybrid, grabbing the arm of his companion as he threatened to end the life of his defeated enemy. She tried to look away, but as history would have it, forced her to cast her gaze downward towards her former captor. He'd been torn in half.

"That's enough, Kurosaki- Can't you hear me, Kurosaki?" The Quincy's grip tightened as he attempted to overpower their masked savior. The tip of the Shinigami's blade gleamed with glee, eager to taste more blood. "I'm telling you to stop, if you do that, you truly won't be human anymore!"

"I-Ishida-Kun!" she screamed in shock, eyes wide with horror as she watched the blade turn, piercing through the Quincy's stomach. Ishida flew back from the force, skidding onto the ground, only to be stopped by rubble strong enough to withstand the impact. Orihime covered her mouth as she released a cry. She needed to save him, but her legs were weak and her knees buckled together, falling onto the sandy floor.

This was all her fault.

She remembered. She cried for help. She turned Kurosaki-kun into that mindless monster.

It didn't matter how much she pleaded: this was history, and it was playing out every scene to perfection. This nightmare terrified her to the core.

The orange haired Hollow charged his Cero. Energy gathered into a bright orb as it formed. He was ready to blast Ishida-kun into oblivion. Yet, it was all for naught when the single winged Arrancar shot up from behind the screaming Hollow, and in an instant, destroyed the demonic mask, revealing the familiar face of the man she so dearly fawned over.

Kurosaki-kun had been moments away from killing the archer, and he stopped it.

The Shinigami's humanity won over the Hollow side of him, and her ears rang as she watched her spiky haired friend shout at the Arrancar. Orihime listened as he demanded the Espada warrior to cut his arm and leg off, claiming the Hollowed him, in fact, was not him. Kurosaki-kun demanded a fair fight.

"No, no, no," she whispered as she was forced to watch the scene unfold, unable to alter history as it played before her.

"Tch," he muttered as he felt his wings break apart just after accepting Kurosaki-kun's much too gracious offer. "It's that bad?" The black haired Arrancar and her classmate bickered once more, as Kurosaki-kun vehemently refused to end his enemy's life without another brawl. Bitter at the thought having lost to the mortal, Ulquiorra exhaled through his nostrils. "Frustrating..."

And there it was.

Their eyes met. His hollow gaze casting onto her brown ones.

Time must have froze, because she felt her heart stop. Orihime knew what was coming next.

Ulquiorra reached his hand out towards her as he stood, stoic and proud. "...Are you scared of me, onna?" His ebony wings long disappeared in the still air.

Her heart twisted itself into a knot, and her lips moved on its own. "I'm not scared..." She fought back her tears. What a shame it would be to cry over the enemy, she thought. But in spite of that notion, Orihime still reached a trembling hand out towards him. But father time wasn't kind; she was too late. His hand turned to dust the moment she grasped for it. His lips moved, but she couldn't hear him. What did he say? His eyes, devoid of light, never left hers. And then, before she could comprehend his death, he vanished.

"Ul...Ulquiorra?"

"Inou-" Kurosaki interjected, but she didn't hear her comrade as she ran to where the Arrancar once stood.

"Ulquiorra?" she repeated as she looked around, hoping he used sonido to escape. "Please?" Her eyes, blurry with salty tears that finally spilled onto the ashened ground as she fell to her knee. "We have to put him back together," she muttered, frantically scraping at the earth, gathering what ash she could from the dead Espada. "He can't just disappear. I can use Soten Kisshun-I can reject this-"

"-Inoue!"

"Kurosaki-kun!" she shouted back, her shoulders were hitched, shaking, as her hands gripped at the hem of her dress. "We can't just leave him here! He was just beginning to understand-"

But the Shinigami ignored her plea as he grabbed her arm. "Now is not the time! You need to heal Ishida!"

Tears continued to pour out as she begged the empty space around them. "Ulquiorra, wake up!" It was her final plea.

If only they had one more second, then he wouldn't have died alone.

"Wake up!"

...

Inoue Household, approximately eleven forty pm, Wednesday

Darkness enveloped her as the power surged, then everything came back to life with a whirl. Her refrigerator beeped from the kitchen, and the familiar hum of electronics filled the silence once more. Thunder rumbled, lightly rattling items laid about in her apartment.

It wasn't supposed to rain tonight.

Forecast had predicted it to be a cloudless evening. And it really dampened her plans, no pun intended. Exams were around the corner, and she planned to visit Tatsuki, her best friend, for a study session, but with no mode of transportation, she decided to stay home.

Curse this weather.

It always made her sleepy and unproductive.

Her head bobbed forward, slipping from her hand just as the pencil dropped onto the wood floor, snapping off the lead tip. Her eyes groggily snapped opened as she caught herself from banging her head onto her textbook. What?

In an instant, she'd forgotten her dream.

Oops. When did she doze off? She squeezed her eyes, rubbing away the sleep, but instead, Orihime found herself wiping away tears. She glanced down at her hand, confused.

What nightmare caused her to cry?

With the cuff of her sleeve, Orihime dabbed away what was left of her befuddling tears. She sniffled; her nose stuffed. The teen sighed, staring down at her writing as she made an attempt to go back to studying.

After a moment, she felt her eyeslids grow heavy once more. Was the text moving?

"Agh," she muttered, suddenly sitting up straight and smacking her cheeks lightly with the palms of her hands. Wake up. Wake up. Maybe she needed a pick-me-up.

Orihime pushed back against the desk, the legs of her chair groaning as they rubbed against the floor board. A small cup of coffee should keep her awake long enough to finish her homework. If the weather lets up tomorrow, she'll review everything else with Tatsuki after school.

As she made her way towards the living room, Orihime paused and glanced at the bookshelf situated left of the door. A faint smile stretched across her lips as she looked at the photo of her late brother, Sora. Her heart ached for him. It felt like it was just yesterday that he was sitting right next to her in the living room. That was four years ago. Since then the apartment was all too quiet and lonely. Her eyes then darted towards the left of Sora-nii. It was a small glass bottle filled to the brim with white sand. The sight of it tugged at her heartstrings, though for a different reason she couldn't quite comprehend.

Orihime gently touched the bottle, careful not to disturb the contents inside.

"Okay!" she said to herself cheerfully, sniffling once more. "Coffee, study, sleep!" She chanted to herself with newfound energy as she marched into the kitchen. "Coffee, study, sleep!" Orihime pumped her fist in the air as she cheered herself on, puffing out her cheeks, determined not to fall victim to any other distraction. "Coffee, study, sleep!"

Once in the kitchen, the teen turned on the kettle and the water boiled from earlier that afternoon began to heat up. From the pantry, she pulled out a silver tin and popped open the lid. The fragrant aroma of the ground coffee beans further lifted her spirits as she deeply inhaled. This was just what she needed.

With one hand holding onto the can, the other reached for a porcelain cup which sat on the drying rack. "Coffee, study, sleep!"

Without warning, lightning cracked overhead, startling her, nearly causing her to drop the coffee grinds. "Goodness," she muttered to herself, catching her breath from the sudden scare. "That was too close for-"

The hair on the back of her neck stood straight, and the grip on the tin canister slacked. It clattered onto the floor, the coffee grounds spilled, scattering all over the once clean tile, but she didn't notice.

Instead, her eyes were focused her front door. Her pupils were the size of a pinpoint. A presence, a familiar reiatsu - someone she once knew - had accompanied Kami-sama's thundering strike. Her hands trembled as cold sweat quickly formed on her temples.

If she didn't move, would it go away?

Orihime stood still, holding in her breath; her training had taught her to be aware of any sudden changes surrounding her, and that presence remained outside. However odd it was, though. Whoever it was didn't movie.

The kettle clicked, signaling to Orihime that the water had finished boiling. Her attention momentarily darted towards the metal pot before it fixated itself back onto the door.

Every particle of her body told her to stay put. Kurosaki-kun will be here at any moment, she thought to herself. He can handle this-but wait, why should she always rely on him? Orihime had been training with Yoruichi all these months.

Since her return from Hueco Mundo, she wanted to become stronger, to take care of herself. Since her capture, she'd been training diligently to make sure there wouldn't be a round two kidnapping. She wanted to be strong for herself and for her friends. The idea of being a burden was cumbersome.

Okay.

She swallowed; her throat parched.

Okay. She repeated as she finally took a step forward, careful not slip on the makeshift coffee sand. She'd have to remember to clean that up later - if there was a later.

It seemed like an eternity passed before she finally made it to the front door. And with trembling hands, she turned the knob, bracing herself for whatever horror lied on the other side.

She swung the door open forcefully, hoping to catch her enemy off guard, and her mouth opened wide ready to call forth Tsubaki, but no one was there, at least not...visibly?

Orihime took a step outside onto the wet concrete. Her socks absorbed the icy cold water, drenching her toes. An uncomfortable shudder up crawled her spine. Her body told her to go back inside. The freezing winter temperature was unforgiving. However, ignoring the warning, she stepped forward.

The further Orihime moved away from the comfort of her abode, the further her confidence waned.

Soon, her body was completely soaked from the rain. Her perfect hair clung to the curves of her face as her body instinctively began to shiver.

Orihime lived on the second floor of her apartment complex and from where she stood, she could see everything.

And she saw him.