Tatsuki Arisawa was catching her breath after defeating Gantebainne Mosqueda, who was lying on the sands before her. It had been a difficult battle, but she had triumphed in the end. Now she had to find Orihime in the vast white complex of Las Noches. More than anything, Tatsuki wanted to hug the girl, her best friend. She wanted to hold her and tell her that they were sorry that they couldn't have come earlier, that Tatsuki had always wanted to come. She wouldn't say, however, how they had all gone on with their lives and actually put other things before her. They were human, and they had human lives. Orihime was in another dimension and they couldn't reach her; it wasn't like they could sit around in Karakura forever and just wait. So everyone tried to put it out of their minds, graduation happened without Orihime Inoue, and everyone went on their separate ways. It had torn Tatsuki up to do that, but it was necessary for her own life to go on. Five years she was in Tokyo, owning and teaching in her own dojo. She loved her job; and when she got free time, she would practice with her spiritual powers on those hollows in Tokyo. It was difficult at first, and she nearly died. But as she got more powerful, more proficient at her abilities, was able to grow stronger over time. Through time though, Tatsuki's fire to find and protect Orihime was slowly smothered down to embers by real life and the problems that wouldn't wait for her to save her friend. She was able to push it out of her main concerns in order to take care of bills and the dojo building and all the other problems, though Orihime always remained in her mind. She just became…Tatsuki hated to admit it, but Orihime was put behind other problems.
One thing reignited Tatsuki's fire to find and rescue Orihime. When they all gathered again for the funeral of Sado Yasutora, killed in a raid by Aizen's men. Their shinigami friends came in gigai, and Chad himself came in soul form. He couldn't wear a gigai, for obvious reasons. Ichigo had been…different, Tatsuki remembered. He wasn't quite the same since he left, and he was acting odd when he left for Kyoto. But now he was just…different. They had all gathered for the funeral, said their goodbyes, to both the body and to Chad's soul itself, swore vengeance. And they all remembered Orihime, and swore a rescue for her would come soon. Two years later, it did. And that was right now.
"Orihime…just wait for me…" Tatsuki said to herself, quietly. A new reiatsu became apparent to her, and she stopped to see a new, tall figure that hadn't been there a moment ago. A very tall, skinny man with a spoon hood, an eye patch, long black hair and a smile that could probably kill small children. He had a huge weapon that the woman could only assume to be his Zanpakuto on his shoulders, and she dimly heard Gantebainne tell her to flee. Tatsuki stopped, glaring up at this man who was leering at her. "Who are you?" She asked him guardedly, and he laughed in a shrill, creeping sort of way. "Who wants to know?" He asked her with that same child-killing grin, and Tatsuki scoffed. "The hell you think I'm telling you?" She lunged, preparing to attack him as she ran towards him. He didn't even try to move as she slammed her fist into his chest, attempting to do what she did with all her hollow victims. By pressing her reiatsu into a living thing's body, she could make it erupt and blow holes in the victim. Given enough reiatsu, she could even blow some apart.
"That all you've got?" She heard his voice, and stared up in horror at his grinning face. It didn't work; his skin was like steel and she could feel that her fingers were broken from punching him so hard. Instantly, she caught a kick to the side of the head that made her see stars, and she was sent flying. Briefly did Tatsuki catch the sight of ugly curled Peter Pan boots and his face, no longer grinning but now disgusted. As soon as she hit the sand, Tatsuki rolled onto her feet and ignored the protests of her broken fingers, shaking them out while keeping her eyes on the lanky man. "You're fuckin' weak, you know that?" The man called, and that disgusted tone in his voice along with what he called her made Tatsuki's blood boil. "You're pretty goddamn ugly, Madame Prada." She sneered, and he looked pissed as soon as the words left her mouth. Feeling the slight breeze of something moving extremely quickly behind her, Tatsuki rolled just in time to dodge the huge blade swinging in a trajectory to decapitate her. Ignoring the pain in her hand, she turned and made a kick towards whatever she could connect with. It caught his foreleg but once again, nothing happened and her foot was promptly grabbed, and as he squeezed tightly, Tatsuki heard the bones in her leg crack. She screamed, before cutting it off and twisting from his grip, now heavily crippled. Gantebainne was still saying something or other about retreating, but now Tatsuki had no choice but to stay and fight. Not that she could have outrun a sonido anyway.
"…What's your name." She asked him, and he blinked his one slitted eye, before answering dismissively. "Nnoitra Jiruga." He told her, as they both remained still. Gesturing his huge weapon to her, Jiruga spoke. "Yours?" He more or less demanded, and she spat into the sand before answering. "Tatsuki Arisawa."
They both remained still and silent a moment longer, sizing each other up before both lunged forward, Tatsuki jerking to the side enough to only feel his blade skim along the top of her arm, shearing off all three layers of skin as it did before she jammed that hand over his face, palm flat against his features. He stared down in surprise at her and she finally smirked a bit, before Tatsuki blasted a concentrated beam of reiatsu straight through his eye patch, watching it zip through his head and along the sands only to explode a minute later. He was still, and for a moment, Tatsuki had thought she'd won.
That moment was shattered when her wrist was grabbed tightly, to where she wouldn't be able to escape from his grip. He was staring off above her, looking unimpressed and bored. "Nice try kid, but no dice." He told her with a slowly growing grin, moving her hand to show Tatsuki the hollow hole she'd shot through. Tatsuki stared on in pure shock, at the pure luck (or bad luck) that she'd shot directly through that hole. In a quick movement, he jerked her hand backwards and snapped it at the wrist as it bent backwards in a sick contortion, and he laughed in sick amusement at her scream. Shoving her down onto the sands, Nnoitra placed a curled boot on her chest and pressed down hard, laughing in a shrill cackle as she gasped for air, and couldn't even scream as he heard a rib crack. He was about to press harder and crack some more, before a voice caught his attention.
"Nnoitra-sama, Aizen's orders were-" Tesla began from his place leaning against the hole in the white wall of Las Noches, before the huge crescent bladed weapon slammed into the wall next to him. Dangerously close to him, actually. He stared up at Nnoitra, who was glaring hard. "Shut the fuck up, Tesla. I remember what Aizen ordered." He growled, before looking down to the intruder under his curled boot. Scoffing, he quickly slammed his heel into her hip and heard the crack, ignoring her scream to drag Tatsuki up by the arm and toss her to Tesla roughly.
"Drag this piece of shit off then." Nnoitra ordered, and Tesla gave a subservient nod. He dragged the barely-conscious Tatsuki through the halls of Las Noches, to a fate Aizen had deemed for her. She quietly spoke the name "Orihime" before blacking out.
((Short chapter, but I'm more or less deciding to show the rescue attempt and thoughts on the rescue itself person-by-person, before the big meeting between Orihime and everyone. Thanks again for reading.))