7 Unexpected Arrival
The whole group arrived in the human world and all where happy to be out of Hueco Mundo. Everyone stepped out onto a deserted city street. They had arrived on the outskirts of town far away from any of the battles. They could tell where the battle was being waged and turned in that direction. They moved along together at a steady pace. Out of nowhere there was a surge of spiritual pressure that no one was familiar with; except for one person. Orihime knew in her heart who that reiatsu belonged to, Ulquiorra. Then came Kurosaki's reiatsu and then Aizens. The three where in battle. Orihime concentrated on the spiritual pressure of the two men that concerned her. She could tell that Ichigo was in Bankai. Ulquiorra's reiatsu was pretty much what it had always been, but there was something different and strange about it. It was almost human she thought.
"That can't be." she said out loud, and she giggled to herself.
"What?" asked Rukia.
"Oh, nothing." she laughed and waved her hand.
Ulquiorra's reiatsu now surged and became stronger, as did Ichigo's. Orihime gasped at the rush she got from it. Before she knew it she was sprinting down the street in the direction of Ulquiorra and Ichigo. She surged with enthusiasm and heat. Her friends ran after her, yelling for her to stop and to be reasonable. When they came into the heart of the city, where the majority of the battles where being fought, she blindly ran past them all until she reached the center where she found Ulquiorra and Ichigo. They were rising into the air to the top of the building they where next to. Ichigo was wearing his hollow mask and Ulquiorra was .....beautiful. Orihime couldn't believe that was him. His wings where amazing and the armor he wore was strange. She realized that she was probably the only person that could really see this armor because it's energy was similar to that of her powers; it was wrapped around him and looked like golden plate armor although transparent. His helm was fiercum and strong looking. From her vantage point she couldn't see if his hollow hole had returned or not and for some reason she was hoping that it hadn't.
The two men engaged in battle once more. Working together to fight Aizen. She was impressed with Ichigo excepting Ulquiorra as an ally. The pair took off out of her sight as her friends arrived on her heels. She turned and looked at them,
"Rukia, take me to the top of that building. Please." she was very firm, knowing that Rukia would object.
"We should keep you safe, Orihime. You've been through enough already." she still argued.
"If one of you doesn't take me to the top of that building then I will climb up there myself." she yelled in anger.
With a sigh and a puff of breath Rukia relented and took her. Chad and Uryu followed behind them. The friends where determined to stay close to there newly rescued comrade, and not let her get taken again.
From the top of the building they had a good unobstructed view of the battle. This is precisely what Orihime wanted. She watched and waited for the time to be right. Her comrades in battle fought with all there strength, but the ex-captain was just to much for them individually. Finally, Orihime saw it. Ichigo swept in for an attack with Ulquiorra right behind him. Ulquiorra's sonido was so fast that he disappeared from sight. Orihime suddenly caught sight of him and saw him raising his pole arm. The whole thing seemed to slow down for her, this was her chance to help in the fight. Her hands flew to her hair pins.
"Tsubaki, fly straight and swift. Strike hard and deep." she said out load. "Koten Zanshun, I reject."
The fairy flew like lightening from her pins and was gone. As Ichigo released his Getsuga Tensho and Ulquiorra released his pole arm she saw Tsubaki join in the attack. Ichigo's Getsuga was the mask for the coming attacks. Aizen was arrogant enough to let it hit him, but the attack was stronger then a moment ago. Before he could react he was hit two more times. Ichigo's attack hit the body pushing Aizen back, Ulquiorra's weapon hit the chest, and Tsubaki hit the throat. The bloodied man stood in shock to begin with. He couldn't believe that these attacks hit. What had happened in the last couple of minutes. He looked at the two across from him analyzing the two for any change. Then he saw her, looking past them, he saw her standing on the roof top with her hands stretched in front of her. He gritted his teeth and his anger finally boiled over at the sight of that impertinent girl being the cause of this. She had ruined everything.
The brown haired man pulled the pole arm from his chest and it disappeared. Now he saw red. Without a thought to the two men that he was just fighting he stepped into a sonido toward the girl. When he disappeared from sight the shinigami turned in the direction Aizen was looking and his mask broke and fell at his feet.
"NO!" he choked out. "Orihime"
Ulquiorra was ahead of him and had known she was there from the beginning. Before anyone knew what was happening Aizen was stopped just in front of Ulquiorra and his regenerated pole arm. Aizen's sword was pressing against the pole arm as the man now fought in pure anger for being stopped by this young girl, and this ex-espada that betrayed him. Ulquiorra managed to push him off and sent him flying back a few paces. Aizen growled at the girl and the arrancar and lunged in for another attack. Before he made contact, Orihime pulled the Hogyoku from her pocket through it into the air and placing her hands forward said,
"Koten Zanshun, I reject." and a flash of blinding light came from the small orb in front of her.
Aizen was stopped in his tracks and he began to scream in pain. The screams persisted and he spontaneously combusted into tiny particles. The little specks of matter drifted up into the air and slowly dispersed on the wind. Orihime watched them drift away. She felt relief at this sight. Gin had been defeated while in battle with other captains, as well as Tousen. Halibel and Stark quickly retreated when Aizen was dead.
It was finally over with Aizen. He was gone now. The Hogyoku fell at her feet, and she bent over to pick it up. As she straightened herself Ichigo landed in front of her. His mask was gone, and his Bankai was gone. He looked like any other shinigami now. He rushed in and hugged her.
"What where you thinking?!" he said after letting her go from his crushing embrace.
"I..." she tried to begin.
"You where suppose to wait for us. Why didn't you? I can't believe you didn't...."
"Would you stop! I came to help you all and you want to yell at me. I was not going to wait around like the helpless woman anymore." she yelled at him.
Ichigo stopped his rant and stared at her while she yelled all her frustrations at him. He couldn't believe that she was yelling at him. She had never yelled at anyone that he could remember. The quiet timid girl was gone at this point. She finally stopped her yelling and looked at him with an annoyed expression. She then hugged him and whispered,
"I'm glad you are safe."
While the pair argued. Ulquiorra lowered his reiatsu and returned to his new form. No mask, no hole and a slight complexion. His arrancar jacket returned along with it's coat tails. After seeing Orihime hug Ichigo he got a strange pain in his chest and he felt sad. He was unsure what this feeling was. He thought it best to leave at this point, and he turned to walk away.
"Ulquiorra." her sweet voice came to his ears like a soft chime.
"Where are you going?"
Ulquiorra turned to face her. To his surprise she was almost on top of him with her arms stretched out, and she landed right in his chest and hugged him tightly. He stood in awe for a moment, then he wrapped his arms around her small frame. For some reason that he didn't know, she was shaking. This was very confusing to the arrancar, and he didn't know how to react. He firmly grasped her by the arms and pulled her away from his body. Looking down to her face, he could see she was crying, even though she was trying to hide it.
"Don't go." she squeaked at him.
"I'm afraid I most." he said softly so only she could hear.
"I have to find who I am now. You have changed me, and I have a lot of questions."
"Are you upset that it happened?" she sniffed.
He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand and turned to wipe away the tears that where coming now in streams.
"No, not at all. I'm thankful." he whispered, and he leaned in and kissed her so very tenderly on the lips.
The heat of his body so close to her's set her a fire again, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, not thinking about the people around them. He pulled away, gave her one more soft peck on the lips and was gone. She stood crying weakly for a minute before Ichigo put his arm around her and lead her away.
Kisuke Urahara met up with them on the street with his usual silly smile and lazily waving his fan.
"I believe you have something of mine." he smiled.
Orihime pulled out the tiny sphere from her pocket and placed it in his hand. She looked at it for a moment.
"It helped boost my powers for a while during the fight. I hope you don't mind that I used it." she sniffed again.
"What are you talking about." Urahara said with a bit of a snuff, "The Hogyoku can't increase anyones powers. It can only be used to create or destroy."
The odd man turned and walked away. When he was several steps from the group he turned and said,
"That was your true power that we all witnessed. I'm glad you discovered it in time to save us." he grinned, laughed and turned and walked away again.
Everyone turned and looked at Orihime now. She stood with her mouth agape. That was all me, she thought to herself. Wow. The group of friends all turned to one another smiled and started hugging and giving slaps on the back for a job well done.
The Soul Society returned Kurakura town and it's inhabitants to normal. The different squads came in to help clean up and do any necessary repairs and so forth. With in a day the whole town was back as if nothing had happened at all. Every one had memories augmented for the time asleep in Soul Society, and Captain Hitsugaya's original team was ordered to stay in the area for another month as a precaution. It seemed that things were going back to normal.