"That's it, Inoue. Focus all of your spiritual energy into a tight beam and then send that through Tsubaki as you project him." Rukia instructed as Orihime aimed with complete concentration. The little ninja sailed through the air and completely split the huge bolder he was aimed at in two. "Very good, Inoue! I can feel how controlled and tempered your reiatsu is. You've improved so much this past month."

Orihime glowingly smiled at the shinigami that had become a very close friend during these past few weeks. Tsubaki flew back and dematerialized into her hair pin again sending a little shudder of energy through her body. "I couldn't have done it without you, Kuchiki-san." Orihime said hugging her friend tightly.

Rukia hugged her back and the pulled away saying, "I believe we have some time to take a break. Why don't we go join Captain Ukitake for a bit and chat." Rukia motioned to the figure sitting up on the hill watching and Orihime nodded happily. They were almost to him when a messenger ran up to the captain clearly out of breath.

"Captain Ukitake, sir!" the man panted out. "There has been an attack again on Kurakara...Aizen's minions again...really strong ones this time!"

"Oh! Kuchiki-san!" Orihime gasped looking worriedly at her. "Do you think Kurosaki-kun..."

"We will go help him, Inoue." Rukia confidently told her. "I will go to him at once. You go through the passageway that leads to the living world and meet us once you are back in Kurakara."

"Ok, Kuchiki-san." Orihime tried to suppress the bit of jealousy that rose in her heart at the thought of Rukia getting to Ichigo and helping him before she could. She looked to the captain who was now instructing the messenger to relay his message to Kotsubaki and Kotetsu as well.

"Come with me, Inoue. I will take you to the passageway, but I won't be able to go with you any farther." Ukitake informed her as he laboriously stood up.

"It's OK, Captain. I know my way." Orihime said as she quickly followed him down the hill.

"Oh we would never let you leave here unprotected, Inoue. Your guards will meet us there."

Orihime thought about telling him that she didn't need any protecting anymore, wasn't she going to go back to the living world to fight against these monstrously strong hollows? She looked over at the Captain who was starting to wheeze and was obviously distressed at the news and decided to hold her tongue. Once they reached the portal Captain Ukitake turned her over to the two waiting shinigami and then hurried off to his own duties.

"You guys really don't have to accompany me. I can take care of myself and I know there are more important things to do right now." Orihime told them running through the stone tunnel.

"It would shameful for us to let a respected guest leave Soul Society alone." one of them informed her as he kept easy pace with her. Orihime decided not to waste her breath arguing anymore since the end of the tunnel was now in sight. Just when she was almost there and out into the human world a rip opened in the fabric of space directly before her and a involuntary cry was wrenched from her throat when she saw what was coming through. Before he even seemed to be out of the hole completely she saw the guard to her right suddenly fall down, half of his body disintegrated.

"I have business with you, woman." the small figure before her intoned without emotion, his hand dripping with blood and gore.

Orihime quickly threw her shield onto the dying soul reaper on the ground and yelled, "Ok, Ok! Do anything you want with me! Just don't hurt anyone else! PLEASE!" From her left she saw a movement flicker across her eye and knew that the other soul reaper was going for the arrancar before her. "NO!" she screamed to the shinigami. "Get out of here now!" But all of her pleas and cries fell on deaf ears and soon her other guard was lying on the ground to, again with only half of his body left. She enlarged her shield to to encompass his body too and then turned to glare at the monster before her. Hatred and terror warred in her heart and it didn't make for a very palatable feeling.

"You will come with me now. You will say no more to me besides "yes". If any other word comes out of your mouth I will kill all of your friends."

Orihime trembled and felt tears forming in her eyes, yet she still stayed her ground. She didn't want to go with this monster anywhere after what he just did. She noticed that his expression almost imperceptibly changed and then he said, "Don't make me say it again, woman." And that did it. Terror won out in her heart, not for her really, but for her friends...for Ichigo. She thought of Ichigo with half his body blown away and she nodded at the hollow.

"Yes."

"Then I will give you this." he told her and held out his hand. Orihime was loathe to take anything he had to offer, but what choice did she have? She put her hand out and he dropped a bracelet into it. It was so unexpected, she wasn't sure what he was going to give her but any sort of jewelry was the last thing on her mind, that she gasped when it fell into her small hand. "Put it on now and I will let you stay in the human world for twelve hours to get your affairs in order. During that time you will be unseen and unheard by all but us arrancar. You can say goodbye to ONE person. Any more and you will have broken the rules." He stood waiting and she realized he was waiting for her to put the bracelet on. She slipped it on her wrist and a gentle warmth flooded her body and that was it. She sure didn't look or feel invisible, but she supposed that she was. "Do not take it off. Meet me here in exactly twelve hours." And with that he opened another hole and stepped through not looking back once.

--------------------

After his troops had been gathered and brought back to Hueco Mundo Ulquiorra retired to his rooms and spent his time there nervously pacing the floor. Images of the girl and her doings constantly filled his brain now thanks to the mental link that the bracelet had given him. He knew that every other arrancar in the palace and Aizen, Gin, and Tousen had the exact same images in their heads, but still it felt...intimate...too intimate. He didn't like it. He didn't like to see that the first thing she did after he left her was to burst into tears. He didn't like to see that though she quickly got herself under control those tears never left her face even after she had gone home and made notes for her house guests. He also knew what his orders were if she took off the bracelet and severed the link even for a moment. No wonder he was so nervous.

Now she finally looked up from her notepad that she had been writing in (Ulquiorra had read all she had written to make sure they weren't pleas for help for her shinigami friends) and stood up. He heard her mumbling to herself about who to see and then she got her sweater and left her apartment. He idly wondered who she chose to say goodbye to as he watched her walk the dark streets of her town. Would it be that soul reaper she had spent so much time training with this past month? Maybe it would be that girl she had been helping in the park that day. He had seen her visit the apartment often. He saw then that she had stopped in front of a house that was half medical clinic. She looked at it a moment, undecided and then walked straight through the front door without opening it. He watched as she silently climbed the stairs, all the sleeping occupants unaware that there was an intruder in their house. She peeked her head into each room upstairs obviously lost as to which one she wanted. That was strange...whomever it was she wanted to say goodbye to was someone she didn't know well enough to have visited their house before. She must have finally found the right one because she stepped through the closed door and Ulquiorra could see the inside of a boy's bedroom. Two little girls were asleep on the floor and the boy (THE boy, Ulquiorra noticed and was suddenly angry at himself for not killing him like Aizen had instructed) was asleep in his bed.

Orihime approached the bed and suddenly her bright yellow shield lit up the room as she placed it over the injured boy. He heard her mumbling to him, but it was hard to make out her words though Ulquiorra certainly tried to hear what she was saying. Then her shield winked out, the boy obviously healed and the room went dark again. Still he was able to see her nervously look around and then oh so slowly lean down to the sleeping figure. Suddenly Ulquiorra didn't want to see anymore and desperately wished for a way to close his eyes to the image before him, but he saw all anyway. She paused just above his face clearly wanting to kiss him, but being unable to. She quickly raised up, hand wiping at her eyes and then she left the room. Ulquiorra knew it was time for her to come again to where he was to meet her and went out to open his garganta so he could be waiting for her.

He didn't have to wait long and when he saw her approach he tried not to wince at the hatred that filled her eyes when she saw him. She took off her bracelet and practically threw it at him and stood there waiting to leave. Ulquiorra wanted to say something to her...maybe how he was glad that she followed the rules so closely...but nothing would come out. So he pocketed the bracelet, turned around and opened the hole again that would take them home...home to Hueco Mundo.