Orihime was brought to Aizen's lair after she was captured by Ulquiorra. Right now, she was standing at the foot of Aizen's throne with a few of his subordinates with them.

"Welcome, Orihime Inoue." Aizen said, but she refused to even look at him for she was too scared. "There's no reason to worry. We're not going to harm you."

"Speak for yourself. Why is she even here?" Grimmjow said.

"Because Lord Aizen asked for her. It is not our place to question his intentions." Ulquiorra said.

"Orihime is more special than you might think. She actually holds a connection to the duel monster spirit world." Aizen said and no one was expecting that. Orihime found it surprising that he knew that as well. "Yes, I know of your gift, Orihime. I've heard about it from when you dueled Unohana. Both your souls entered that place. You'll be most useful to me. Ulquiorra, I'm placing her in your care."

"I understand. Come with me. I'll show you to your room." Ulquiorra said and Orihime had no choice, but to go with him.

"Oh dear, the poor girl seems too terrified to even speak." Aizen look down to his side to look at his second in command, Gin Ichimaru.

"Yes. This has all just occurred to her." Aizen said.

"If you don't mind me saying, what do you have plan for her exactly?" Gin said.

"All in due time, Gin." Aizen said. Ulquiorra brought Orihime to her room and it looked like a simple one.

"A meal shall be brought to you." Ulquiorra said. He saw that she held concern for her friend on her face and she wanted to leave. "Keep in mind that you now belong to Lord Aizen. You are for whatever he pleases and if you forget that, I'll make sure you remember. I shall return soon. Don't bother coming up with a plan to escape." He left the door and locked it so that she can't get out.

…

Urahara Shop

After his duel with Grimmjow was interrupted again, Ichigo told the others what he heard about Orihime.

"I can't believe this. It was a trick and we fell for it." Renji said.

"We can't just sit here. We need to go out there and find Orihime." Ichigo said. He was becoming impatient and wanted to go out there and find her.

"Ichigo, I know you want to save her, but we don't know where Aizen has taken her." Uryu said.

"Who cares? I'll search every inch of the world if I have to." Ichigo said.

"I was afraid of this." Kisuke said.

"Afraid of what?" Rukia said.

"I told Orihime to stay out of this fight. She isn't really a duelist and she would only get in the way." Kisuke said. "She wouldn't have been much help to us."

"You told her what?!" Ichigo shouted.

"You had no right to say that to her." Rukia said. "Orihime might not be a duelist, but there are other ways that she could have helped us."

"Let me explain. The truth was, I was concerned that Aizen would go after her." Kisuke said. "I thought by doing that, he wouldn't be able to get to her. Orihime holds a connection to the duel monster spirit world I had a feeling that Aizen would go after her for that. I guess the big mistake was leaving her alone to begin with." Ichigo was frustrated with him. He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shoved him against the wall.

"You bet that it was a mistake. Now, she's there prisoner. Who know what they will do to her." Ichigo said.

"Calm down." Chad said.

"Chad's right. Getting worked up like this won't solve anything." Uryu said.

"Fine, but if anything happens to her Kisuke, it's on your head." Ichigo said as he let go of him and marched out of shop.

"Give him time. He just needs to calm down." Renji said.

"I don't think that will help much." Rukia said. "Aizen has the girl he cares about and can attack at any moment. The odds of us beating him are starting to stack against us. I'm also worried about how Tatsuki is going to take this."

…

Ulquiorra

Ulquiorra left Orihime alone. He went up to Aizen's room and knocked on the door.

"You may enter." Aizen said. The door opened up and Ulquiorra went inside. "Ulquiorra, how is our guest?"

"I made it clear on what she is while she is here. I came here to ask for your permission, sir." Ulquiorra said.

"Oh? What is it?" Aizen said.

"I like to do a little investigation of my own." Ulquiorra said.

"An investigation on what exactly?" Aizen said.

"On Ichigo Kurosaki." Ulquiorra said.

…

Ichigo

Ichigo was running through the city. He wanted to find any trace of locating Orihime, but he was coming up with nothing. He searched everywhere, but there was no sign of her.

"Orihime, where are you?!" Ichigo shouted, but he knew there would be no answer. "This is getting me nowhere. I need to figure out how I'm going to find her." Then, something shot past him and landed near his feet. He saw it was a card of a building that was in Karakura Town. "This could be interesting." He went to the building and made his way to the top in the open air.

"I've been waiting for you."

"It's you!" Ichigo said as he saw the person that invited him up here. "Ulquiorra!"

"So you remember me?" Ulquiorra said.

"You better tell me where Orihime is or I'll throw you off of this roof." Ichigo said.

"That is part of the reason I am here." Ulquiorra said. "I wish to see for myself what makes you so powerful. Your dearly beloved Orihime has been brought in my care. If you manage to defeat me, which is unlikely, I will release her."

"You've got a deal." Ichigo said and both of them activated their duel disks. "I'll beat you and bring Orihime home."

"We'll see about that." Ulquiorra said.

"Let's duel!" Both of them said.

"I'll start." Ichigo said. "I'll summon my Soul Seizer in attack mode." A magician like figure with curved hat and a purple cape covering his body rose up with 1500atk points. "I'll place one face down and end my turn."

"That's it? How pathetic." Ulquiorra said as he drew his card. "I summon my Void Bat in defense mode." A bat with glowing green eyes came up with 800def points. "I also place five face downs and end my turn."

"Five face downs?! That's his entire hand." Ichigo said. "I don't know what you're up to, but something tells me I should be careful. I draw."

"I activate my face down, Nothing Return. This traps sends the card you just drew back to the bottom of your deck and you have to draw again." Ulquiorra said. Ichigo did what he said and drew again. "I'm also going to activate another face down."

"Another?" Ichigo said.

"It's called Black Void Destruction." Ulquiorra said. "I have to destroy one of my face downs now." One of his cards blew up. "That is perfectly alright because the card I destroyed was Dark Despair. When this card is destroyed, you lose 2000LP."

"2000?!" Ichigo said. Green lightning came down and struck at him and he lost half of his life points. "Can I take my turn now?"

"Go ahead, I'm done for now." Ulquiorra said.

"That's good. I'm activating the Triple Attribute spell." Ichigo said. "Now I can summon three monsters that are the same attribute as my seizer and he's a dark attribute. I summon my Twin Sword Slicer, Reaper of Spirits, and Soul Siege." All three of his monsters showed with 1600, 1700, and 1400atk points. "I'm going to crush you, Ulquiorra. I'll make you pay for even coming near me. I unite my Soul Seizer with Soul Siege to unite summon Zangetsu!" Both of them came together as energy and Zangetsu rose on the field.

"So you plan to use your best monster against me?" Ulquiorra said. "You'll find that to be a mistake. I activate my fourth face down, Void Disperse. Now, each of us has to select one card on our fields and destroy them."

"Fine, I'll get rid of my own face down." Ichigo said and destroyed it.

"I will choose my Void Bat." Ulquiorra said and destroyed his own monster. Ichigo found it strange he destroyed his own monster, but didn't question it.

"You just left yourself open for a triple direct attack." Ichigo said. All three of his monsters slashed at Ulquiorra and gave him the win. "It's over Ulquiorra. Now, return Orihime."

"It isn't over." Ulquiorra said and he used his last face down. "My final trap is Black Void of Nothingness. As long as I have no cards in my hand or field, I take no damage."

"So that's why you empty out your hand." Ichigo said. "You are taking a big gamble. You'll have to play one card a turn and I'll figure out how to get pass that trap card. It's your move."

"We'll see about that." Ulquiorra said as he drew his card. "I place one face down and end my turn."

"My move." Ichigo said.

"No, it's over." Ulquiorra said.

"What?" Ichigo said.

"I activate my White Prickle." Ulquiorra said. "This trap destroys all your monsters if I have no cards in my hand and you lose life points equal to your monsters total attack points." White vines with thorns wrapped around all of Ichigo's monsters and destroyed him with Ichigo losing all of his life points.

"No. He had everything set and he wasn't even trying." Ichigo said.

"You're right. You have no chance of defeating me. That means that you can't defeat Aizen." Ulquiorra said. "I'm sparing you out of pity. If you couldn't defeat me, how can you save Orihime Inoue? You couldn't even save yourself." The black pathway opened up behind Ulquiorra and he went through. Ichigo took what he said. He wasn't strong enough to defeat him. How can he defeat Aizen and save Orihime now?