I am SO sorry. There have been too many things coming up lately, and my updates have been pushed back further and further. I hope this chapter makes up for the long wait:D

Detour was a blast!

Thanks to gmsephiroth for the beta!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach

Aizen glared at his aids as they reported to him on the situation. During the confusion, Orihime had escaped from Hueco Mundo. The guards could not find her anywhere in the castle or in the villages outside. Considering the fact that her reiatsu was now completely gone, the only assumption was that she was no longer there.

He was somewhat surprised, but he did not show it.

Orihime was his antithesis. She was a human, not a Shinigami, who was somehow gifted with the powers of a god. Maybe she was not as powerful as him, but the power to change the course of time was something not even Aizen could do. It was like she was some sort of monster to him. No human mortal should have that sort of power. This, in reality, made her a threat to him unless she was on his side.

Obviously, the threat of having him kill everyone she knew was not as big of a worry anymore. Aizen suspected that Kurosaki Ichigo had somehow gotten to her and spouted some nonsense about being more powerful than he. Kurosaki was a speck. He was nothing compared to what Aizen was.

There was still one more hold that Aizen had on Inoue. Maybe in all honesty it would be more effective then the threat of physical harm. Looking up at his aids, Aizen leaned back into his chair.

"Send Noritora to retrieve her as soon as possible."

Orihime had managed to heal Ishida considerably, and he had been sent back to the Seireitei with Nemu. He would be staying there while he was healing. After returning to the gate, they stepped through and emerged back into the Urahara Shoten.

What they saw was horrible.

The store was in shambles. Shinji frowned, "There was an attack here as well.

"Urahara-san!" Ichigo went running towards the enterence of the store.

Urahara turned the moment he heard Kurosaki's voice. He had sensed who it was right away, so he did not kill them. It had been hours since he had been fighting Arrancar that had managed to get into the city. There had always been a possibility that they would have managed to break through the Shoten's gate as well and get inside.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san." Urahara gave him a tired smile. He was holding his sword in one hand, and he was carring an injured Ururu on his back. She was asleep, and there were small wounds covering both of the shop's workers, "I see you've brought us a guest."

Inoue was standing outside, hands covering her face, "This is terrible."

"Do not blame yourself, Inoue-san." Urahara walked towards her, "It was not something you could stop."

She glanced at the former captain, raised her hands, and healed the wounds on Ururu's face. The little girl moved slightly, and then returned to sleep.

"I've already taken care of the others. But I'm afraid that little Ururu here was reluctant to leave me alone, I think." Urahara chuckled, "She's rather attached."

Orihime smiled, and patted the girl's head, "She's very brave."

Ichigo let out a sigh, his family was okay. He counted all of their reiatsu signatures in the city. Tatsuki, Hansai, and all the others were also there. However, there was one signal that he was having trouble sensing. Turning to see if Hirako had managed to sense Hiyori anyway, he noticed the alarmed look of his Vizard teacher's face right away.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked him.

Shinji stared grimly at the sky, "I can't feel Hiyori's life force anywhere."

Before Ichigo could respond, Hirako took off down the street in the direction of the cafe.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He knew that Aizen would try and attack the town while he was away. Karakura was a stronghold for spirit energy, and in order to win the war Aizen needed to capture Karakura. Shinji had known something like this would happen.

No. This was not Inoue's fault, or Kurosaki's fault. It was his own damn fault all this happened.

Things like this were the reason that Hirako Shinji tried to stay away from situations that would drag him into a feeling of responsibility. He wanted to only worry about what he was obligated to do. In the last few years, however, he had uncharacteristically begun to branch out. Now the well-being of the entire town was his responsibility.

The cafe was in shambles.

"Damn it." he cursed as he ran into the shop. The glass in the windows were broken, from the way it was shattered, it was probably broken by someone's rapid increase in reiatsu. Looking around, he did not see any bodies around. Catching sight of a smear of red blood on the wall, he drew his sword.

"Hiyori!" he called.

Nothing.

Creeping slowly through the shop, he was ready to strike any rouge Espada at any given moment. It was clear from the damage that Hiyori had fought someone of incredible power. As he got closer into the shop, he heard Kurosaki call him from the front of the store.

Shit, if there was anyone here, now they'd know I'm here.

He was at the corner that came out to the main dance area. Whipping around the corner, he stopped. The limp form of one of Aizen's Espada captains lay in front of him. Shinji recognized her as one of the upper-level Espada. Stepping over to her, he frowned.

Her reiatsu was gone.

So much for interrogation. Shinji turned back to the scene, scanning the area from any movement. There was a particularly large pile of debris in the middle of the dance floor from where the ceiling had started to cave in. Sheathing his sword, he began to clear it away. He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears.

Please let her be alive. As he moved a board, there was a bloody hand underneath it, still gripping a zanpakuto.

"Hirako!" Ichigo ran into the front door, "What the hell-"

"Stay where you are." Shinji replied.

Clearing the rest of the sheetrock away, he laid the back of his hand on her face. Her face was still warm, which meant she could still be revived. There was a trace of her reiatsu left, which meant that there was a still a chance for her.

"This one's dead." Ichigo leaned over the fallen Espada, "How's she doing?"

"She's almost gone." Hirako gently picked her up in his arms. There were shattered remains of her hollow mask still sticking to her hair.

"Inoue will be able to heal her."

"There's not enough time. I'll have to give her part of my spirit energy."

Ichigo frowned, "How do you do that?"

"Like this." Hirako sat on the edge of the stairs that lead down from the main dance floor, tilted her head back in his arms, and closed his mouth over hers. There was a sudden rise in reiatsu, and Ichigo watched as he felt Hiyori's untraceable energy begin to rise slightly.

Shinji felt one of her fingers twitch slightly.

Pulling away from her, she was staring back at him, a weak smirk on her face, "I'm going...to get you for that...Shinji..."

"You stupid."

Shinji stared back at her, and then pulled her tightly into his arms. He had given her a third of his own energy. It was enough to pull her away from death. Truth be told, as much as he was angry with himself, he was just happy that she was going to be okay.

When they reached the Kurosaki Clinic, the garage was already opened to service more walk-in patients. Karin and Yuzu were running ragged around the place, as well as Ichigo's father. But as Ichigo walked in, they stopped long enough to smother him with hugs. Having been worried to death about him, Yuzu smacked him upside the head and scolded him for not coming right away. Upon explaining to Inoue that his father was actually a Shinigami, Orihime took to healing the more severe cases right away. His father would watch her to make sure it did not attract too much attention.

Standing on the roof of the clinic, he stared at the city. Most of the fires seemed to have been put out, but there was severe damage everywhere. He had come too late that time to help, and it was beginning to weigh heavily on his concious.

"Sight seeing, huh?"

He turned to see Hansei in the doorway. The Vizard was covered in bandages from head to toe.

"I'm afraid I don't have the medical expertise the others have." Ichigo replied, "Did you take out one of them?"

"The ninth one." Hansei limped over to sit on the side of the railing, "Arisawa is going nuts over that Inoue girl now. She says she's going to kick your sorry ass for not finding her sooner, so you probably want to avoid the first floor for a while."

Ichigo chuckled, "She'll get over it. So what happened?"

"They came this morning." Hansei yawned, "I was on duty, and got a call that a bunch of strange people were destroying buildings in the town square. I didn't think there'd be five Espadas there to greet me. One of them didn't fight. He just sat on top of the grocery store and watched."

"Which one?"

"The light-blue haired one."

"Grimmjaw. He was probably waiting for me."

"Probably." Hansei shrugged, "The Espada chick went after Hiyori, who faught like hell. Shinji is probably really pissed right now."

"I would be."

"Anyway...I had to fight this really creepy guy. He had floating heads." Ichigo gave him a strange look, but Hansei ignored it, "I managed to take him down in the end, but it was hard. Arisawa found me half-dead in the road."

Ichigo shrugged, and turned back to watching the sky.

"Hey man, something bothering you? You've been quiet."

"Those bastards did something to her." Ichigo frowned, "They did something to Inoue. I'm not sure what it was, but she won't tell me."

"She'll probably tell you when she wants too."

Ichigo sighed, he felt restless. Like he wanted to do something but did not know what or how. If he had been there when Aizen attacked, he could have done something.

"Don't beat yourself up over this whole attack thing." Hansei told him, "It wasn't your fault. There was no way that you could have known."

"I guess." Ichigo leaned at the railing, "I just-"

The door promptly flew open, and standing in the doorway Shinji had a look that turned Ichigo's blood cold. It was true that Hirako had the strongest Vaizard powers out of the whole group, but was generally careful about flouncing his reiatsu. Ichigo could feel Hiarko's energy radiating in every direction.

"Hansei." Hirako told him, "Call the others."

"But-"

"They must report here by tomorrow morning or I will hunt them down."

He slammed the door shut, Ichigo and Hansei exchanged glances.

Yes, Shiniji was pissed.

Grimmjaw stood in front of the door to Orihime's villa. Her energy presence was almost completely gone now. Traces of her reiatsu were still lingering, but it was not much. Pretty much the entire base was in an uproar looking for her since he had returned, and he was starting to get into the mindset of looking for her himself. Despite the fact that he always knew that if she really wanted to escape she would do it someday.

"You look like she died."

Ulquiorra stood in the hallway, his arms folded.

"She was dead while she was here." Grimmjaw replied, "She's gone back to living."

"You knew she would eventually leave. If your feelings for her are that strong, why don't you chase after her?"

"Do you have some point to being here?" Grimmjaw snapped, "I'm getting fucking tired of your stupid face."

"I heard a rumor from higher-up." Ulquiorra replied, "Something that may interest you."

"Oh?"

"Aizen-sama sent someone after Inoue."

"Of course he did."

"He sent Noritora."

Grimmjaw gaped at the commander, and then stared back at the door to the villa. In his entire life he had never felt obligated to be kind to anyone. It was a waste of time to try and make bonds with people, but somehow, he ended up with a bond with Orihime.

He hated everyone. He did not owe them anything.

But he owed her.

Noritora was a psycho. He was not your regular Espada. There was a side to him that even gave Grimmjaw the creeps.

"Shit."

Ulquiorra frowned, "I just thought you would want to know."

As Ulquiorra turned back down the hallway, Grimmjaw smashed his fist into the door with a loud yell. If Noritora was going after Orihime, then there were bigger problems at the moment than the war between Hueco Mundo and the Seireitei.

Ichigo plodded down the stairs. It was early in the morning, the day after he and Shinji returned from the Soul Society. He had tried to sleep that night, but there were too many thoughts in his head. All that he had managed to do during the night was worry about Aizen's attacks, and plan assignments for his class.

There was the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. Peeking in the room, Ichigo was surprised to not find Yuzu there, but Orihime.

"Inoue?" Ichigo yawned, taking a seat at the table.

"Good Morning, Kurosaki-kun." she smiled, "I told Yuzu to sleep in today. She was up late last night with the others taking care of wounded, so I thought it would be good to give her a rest."

"What about you?" he asked, "You probably overtaxed your powers yesterday."

"I'll be fine." Orihime replied, "It doesn't take even half the energy to heal a human then it does to heal an Arrancar."

"I see."

She set a cup of coffee in front of him, and he was pleased to find that it was strong. Taking a seat across from him, she took a sip from her own cup.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Well." she grinned, "It's wonderful to be back."

Ichigo was silent a moment, and then he set down the coffee, "Inoue?"

"Yes?"

"What happened to you while you were at Hueco Mundo that you won't tell me about?"

She visibly froze, and he could see her hands begin to tremble. Managing to set down her cup before spilling it's contents on herself, Orihime stared at the floor.

"I-"

"Look at me." he said. When she would not, he reached forward and laid a hand on her face to drag her gaze in his direction, "Look and me and tell me. There's nothing you need to be afraid of."

"But..."

"I told you I would protect you." he said, "Whatever it is, it'll feel better to tell me."

Not this, Kurosaki-kun.

There were tears in her eyes as she reached up and touched the hand resting on her cheek. It was the first time he had made any move towards her at all. It almost hurt her more then when he would just treat her like a friend, she did not want him to give her hope.

"What is it, Inoue?"

Ichigo was stubborn and never gave up on things, she knew this better than anyone. There was no way that she was going to be able to avoid it now. If he hated her for it, it would probably be for the best anyway.

Orihime backed away from him, standing up, she walked to the window. She did not want to see his reaction.

"Two years ago, I was...attacked by one of the Espada." she said, "And I died."

Thanks for your patience. The next chapter will partially be about Orihime's past. Only about six more chapters ::sniff sniff::

If you get inspired, go over to and check out my Waves of Ether story. It's another experimental story, and its not a fanfiction, but I think it started out alright. Advice would be appreciated!

Send a review and tell me what you think :D

Arigato

Lilith