Orihime Inoue wasn't happy.

Of course, she had no reason whatsoever to be upset with the state of her life; other than a brief time she had spent being kidnapped by a group of powerful, murderous hollows, her life was pretty much going exactly as she might have hoped for it to be. In that respect, she was perfectly content.

No, what concerned Orihime the most were her powers themselves. During the aforementioned kidnapping incident, she had learned that her powers were special; Sousuke Aizen himself had theorised that hers was the ability to reject events entirely, a truly Godlike feat that no human had the right to be performing, and one that she had never been given any reason to doubt.

This had Orihime wondering, for she was, by nature, a curious girl. Therefore, she decided to approach the topic with her friends, in order that she might gain more of an understanding of the nature of her extraordinary powers.

"Ichigo!"

"Oh, hi, Orihime," Ichigo responded, looking up from the book he had been reading on the school rooftop. Orihime smiled and walked towards him, her schoolbag bouncing against the back of her legs as she cheerfully bounded over to her friend.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something," Orihime began, sitting down next to Ichigo and stretching her long legs out in front of her, observing her own hands as she clasped her knees.

Ichigo gave a small frown and set a bookmark in between the pages of his Shakespeare anthology, turning to properly face his friend. "What can I do to help, Orihime?"

Orihime exhaled and tilted her head up, staring into the sky. "I just wanted to ask about your powers," she said, quietly. "I mean, exactly how you came to have them, and why you got the powers you did."

"Well, that's a bit complicated," Ichigo replied, choosing his words carefully. "'m a bit of a melting pot for powers, really. Would you settle for an abridged version?"

"I don't think so," Orihime said, glancing at Ichigo. "I'd really appreciate anything at all you could tell me."

Ichigo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, well, the first powers I got were the powers I borrowed from Rukia," Ichigo began. "At the time I assumed they were Soul Reaper powers, but now I know that I actually just borrowed her spiritual pressure and used it to manifest the Quincy powers I inherited from my mother. That's why I had a sword, despite the fact that I was never given an asauchi. It's also why my powers were weak then. Borrowed power is never as strong."

Orihime mentally filed this information and nodded at Ichigo. "Go on."

"When Byakuya took away that borrowed power and Kisuke helped me to develop my own, that too was based on the powers my mother had passed to me; a sword as the manifestation of her Quincy Powers, although it mimicked those of a Soul Reaper, mirroring my own masquerade as a Soul Reaper, and an inner-Hollow. The Hollow power I inherited from my mother was obviously a result of the Hollow attack on her when she met my father, which essentially resulted in her being turned into the Quincy equivalent of a Visored. That in itself brought unique powers in the form of a quasi-Fullbring, in addition to my own Visored abilities when Kisuke broke the string keeping that side tethered to my father, during my training."

"That is a bit complicated," Orihime agreed, giving a small laugh. "And then with your actual Soul Reaper abilities from your father's side..."

"... which shares a manifestation with my inner-Hollow, who is the real Zangetsu. Honestly, I've pretty much decided that it's not really worth worrying about," Ichigo said. "Well, is there anything else you want to know?"

Orihime returned her gaze to her interlocked fingers resting on her knees. "Well, you see, it's about my own powers..."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about those," Ichigo interrupted, startling Orihime slightly. "Your powers have proven to be pretty much infallible, only limited by your desire to use them. Isn't that good enough?"

Orihime smiled, sadly, realising that Ichigo really didn't understand her need to know herself. "Oh," she said, in a small voice. "Okay. Well, thank you for your help, Ichigo!"

Orihime stood up and began to walk away, turning back to wave when she had nearly reached the door.

Pushing open the door to the music room, Orihime smiled brightly when she noticed Chad sitting by the piano, tuning his guitar.

"Hi, Chad!" she exclaimed cheerfully, hurrying over and taking a seat in front of the piano.

"Orihime," Chad responded in acknowledgement, setting the guitar aside once he had finished tuning the A-string.

"Would you be willing to answer a few questions for me? I'm trying to work something out."

"Fire away."

Orihime frowned at the floor. "Okay. I was just wondering if you could explain your Fullbring powers to me?"

Chad regarded Orihime carefully, his eyebrows drawing together slightly. "Apparently my mother was attacked by a hollow before I was born and survived. Now I can manipulate the souls in objects and use my attachment to my tattoo and my pride in my grandfather to manifest offensive and defensive armour to fight with."

"That sounds a lot like my own powers," Orihime said, excitedly. "Wouldn't you say that my Shun Shun Rikka have souls I'm manipulating for battle?"

Chad shrugged. "It's a good theory."

"I was kind of hoping you'd say more than that," Orihime murmured, somewhat deflated. "I knew it was a good theory, I was just wishing you would back it up."

"It's a good theory," Chad repeated.

Orihime shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant," she said, dejectedly. "The problem is that it's a good theory. It's not a great theory, there are too many holes in it. For starters, I can't do that Bringer Light thing the rest of you Fullbringers can. Also, the Xcution didn't take much of an interest in me the way they did in you and Ichigo."

"That sounds feasible," Chad responded, simply.

Orihime looked at him expectantly for a few seconds before sighing. "Okay, thank you," she said, quietly, and turned to leave the room.

"Are you all right, Orihime?" Chad asked.

"Oh, me? Yes, I'm completely fine!" Orihime exclaimed, plastering a large smile on her face. Judging by Chad's expression, he wasn't completely convinced, but he said nothing as she walked away and shut the door behind her.

Orihime walked into the school canteen and began searching the crowd for a particular face. Upon spotting Rukia's short, dark head bobbing animatedly among a group of girls, Orihime smiled and began making her way over.

"Hey, Rukia, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Rukia looked up from her rice ball and smiled at Orihime, her eyebrows raised in a questioning way. "Hi, Orihime. Yeah, what do you want to talk about?"

"The meaning of power," Orihime replied, widening her eyes meaningfully. Rukia clearly got the hint, for she got to her feet, excused herself from the table and followed Orihime out into the corridor and into an empty classroom.

"Right," Rukia said, sitting down at the nearest desk as Orihime shut the door behind them. "Okay, what exactly is it about powers that you want to know?"

Orihime sat down at the desk next to Rukia's. "Well, I was just wondering if you could tell me a bit about how Soul Reaper powers worked?"

"Oh, that's pretty easy," Rukia said. "Soul Reapers start off with an amount of power of their own, in the form of spiritual pressure, or reiatsu, control."

"That's a bit generic, isn't it?" Orihime insisted. "After all, I can control spiritual pressure."

"Indeed you can," Rukia conceded. "However, we use ours in the form of kido, flash-step and Zanpakuto-skills, including short-range combat and manifesting the Zanpakuto's powers. We develop these skills at the academy. Why are you wondering?"

Orihime sighed, taking one of her clips off her lapel and twiddling it between her fingers. "I was just wondering about my own powers. They're unique, but there's something really quite odd about them, wouldn't you say?"

Rukia smiled. "Yes, they are odd. But then again, so are you! And that's a good thing, Orihime. Who wants to be the same as everybody else?"

"I completely agree!" Orihime exclaimed. "It's just that I like to know things, and if my powers are unique then there is probably nobody who can tell me more about what exactly they are and how I came to have them in the first place."

"I'm really sorry, Orihime, but I don't think I can help you," Rukia said, sympathetically. "All I know is the rejection theory. You reject events."

"Yes," Orihime said. "I've heard. Okay, well, thank you anyway!"

"You're welcome," Rukia said. "If there's anything else I can do to help, do let me know."

Orihime nodded, gave Rukia a sad smile and left the small Soul Reaper alone in the classroom.

"Uryu, can I talk to you?" Orihime asked, bursting into the otherwise-empty classroom the handicrafts club generally used.

Uryu looked up from the dress he was sewing and smiled when he saw Orihime. "Certainly," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Are you okay, Orihime? Chad mentioned that you seemed out of sorts."

"Well, not really," Orihime admitted, sitting down next to her friend and smoothing out her skirt. "The thing is, I've been really bothered about my powers recently. I know that they're really powerful and just pretty cool in general, but I have no idea how they came to be. I just want to know, you know?"

Uryu sat quietly, listening intently to Orihime's monologue. When she had finished, he set down his sewing and just looked at her. "Well, I know that powers are often handed down from one's parents. That's where I got mine from. You never really knew your parents, did you? Your brother took you away when you were a toddler. Perhaps they had powers they passed on to you."

Orihime clapped her hands together excitedly. "Actually, I had a theory!" she declared, watching as Uryu sat up in surprise. "My brother gave me these hair-clips before he died, and I noticed that they were like little blue six-pointed crosses which essentially manifested as projectile weapons!"

"You think you might be a Quincy," Uryu finished, intrigued. "That's truly a fascinating thought. I actually sort of hope you're right..." he trailed off.

"What was that?" Orihime asked, not quite catching the last phrase.

"Oh, it's not important," Uryu said quickly. "Well, there's an easy way to test your theory. Have you ever managed to manipulate spirit particles?"

Orihime stared at Uryu in bewilderment. "Sorry?"

"That would be a 'no', then," Uryu said, watching as Orihime screwed her eyes shut and concentrated until her face turned blue. "Um, Orihime? It's okay, you'd know if you were able to. Please don't die."

Orihime opened her eyes and took a deep breath, her face returning to its usual colour. "I'm sorry," she said, sadly. "I had just really hoped that I might have cracked it. If I'm not a Quincy, a Fullbringer, a Soul Reaper or a Hollow, what could I possibly be?"

"Special," Uryu responded simply, reaching out to put a hand on Orihime's shoulder. "Very, very special. There is nobody like you, Orihime, but you're bright. I'm sure you'll find the correct theory one day."

"I hope so," Orihime said. "Perhaps I'll ask the Shun Shun Rikka themselves. Hey, Uryu?" she asked, as a thought occurred to her. "What exactly are you doing here? You are supposed to be working with the Vandenreich right now..."

Uryu blinked. "I would have thought that would be obvious, Orihime," he explained, matter-of-factly. "I am here right now because you want me to be here. That's how the world works."

Orihime frowned, regarding Uryu with slight suspicion. It wasn't like him to make such illogical statements. "Oh, okay. Thank you for your help," she said, quickly turning away from him and leaving the classroom.

"Anytime, Orihime," she heard him say softly as she shut the door and left Uryu to his sewing.

"Hinagiku! Baigon! Lily! Shun-o! Ayame! Tsubaki! Could you all help me with something, please?"

Orihime jumped backwards slightly as the blue clips on the table in front of her glowed, revealing the six flower-fairies.

"Oh, hey there Orihime!" Lily chattered excitably, receiving a bop on the head from an irate Tsubaki.

"Foolish girl!" he declared, tugging on a lock of Orihime's hair. "How dare you summon us when you don't need us? I was sleeping, you know!"

"I'm so sorry!" Orihime squeaked, as Baigon and Hinagiku restrained Tsubaki before he could pull her hair out. "I just had a few questions to ask you all. After that, you can go back to sleeping or building robots or whatever it is you guys do in my clips."

Ayame made a puzzled noise as Shun-o fluttered up in front of Orihime's face. "Don't mind Tsubaki, he's just annoyed about the fact that he hasn't got to kill anything in a while," he said. "What do you want to know?"

"I wanted to know exactly what you are!" Orihime said, a slightly frustrated edge creeping into her voice. "You're so different from everybody else's powers I can't work out where you came from!"

"Silly Orihime," Lily giggled. "We're your powers! Your Shun Shun Rikka!"

"Indeed. We were awakened by the incident with the Hougyoku. That's really all there is to it," Shun-o added.

Orihime blinked. "But if it woke you up, you must have just been there asleep in the first place!"

"Oh, we don't know about that," Baigon chipped in. "All we know is that we appeared one day with the power to reject reality and reform it more to your suiting."

"Yeah, you're basically Haruhi Suzumiya!" Shun-o announced.

Tsubaki fought to unclamp Hinagiku's hand from his mouth. "Yeah, more like Mikuru Asahina if you ask me. Have you seen how useless the girl is?"

"Don't be mean, Tsubaki," Ayame said, as Orihime sighed heavily.

"Well, if that's all you can tell me, I suppose you had better go back to sleep," Orihime said, dismissing the fairies and watching them reform into her hair-clips, which she returned to her lapel.

"Orihime."

Orihime rolled over in her bed, ignoring the unfamiliar voice as she crawled deeper under the light covers.

"Orihime."

Her eyes still closed, Orihime frowned slightly and buried her face in her pillow.

"Orihime."

"Uhnnn, what?" Orihime muttered sleepily, poking her head out from under the covers and realising that she was in a sterile white room with a nurse standing over her.

"It's time for your medication, Orihime," the nurse said, holding out a tablet and a plastic cup of water.

"What?" Orihime repeated, raising herself up onto her elbow and propping herself up as she stared around the strange room, taking in all of the beeping instruments and the fact that she was wearing a generic pair of white pyjamas she didn't recognise.

"Your medication, sweetie," the nurse repeated, handing her the tablet. "You need to take it now."

Orihime jumped up in alarm. "Why? Where am I?"

The nurse sighed. "Oh, not again..." she said to herself, before properly addressing the distressed Orihime. "You're in Tokyo hospital. You have been here for the last three years."

"No, no, that can't be right," Orihime insisted. "I've been in Karakura Town since I was a baby!"

The nurse poked her head of the door to the room and grabbed another passing nurse. "No, Orihime," the first nurse said. "You were living with your parents in Tokyo until social services took you away three years ago, and you were admitted here with severe brain damage as a result of your parents' abuse."

"No," Orihime said, firmly. "Sora took me away from my parents when I was three years old and brought me up in Karakura Town."

"Karakura Town doesn't exist, Orihime," the second nurse chimed in. "And there's no way your brother could have looked after you, considering the fact that he has been dead since you were a baby."

Orihime stared at the nurses in shock as a tear fell from her right eye. "No, no, no," she said, closing her eyes firmly. "But what about Ichigo, and Rukia, and Uryu, and Chad..."

"Orihime, these people don't exist," the first nurse said. "You invented them on your first day in here and have been talking about them ever since, every time you wake up. They can't be real, they haven't once come to visit you. Don't you think they would have if they existed?"

"Let's get her another appointment with the psychiatrist, she's clearly forgotten the last time we had this conversation," the second nurse murmured quietly to the first one, but Orihime heard.

"They're real. All of them. And what about my powers?"

"Poor girl, she's in such deep denial she doesn't even recognise the truth," the first nurse said to the second, quietly.

"NO!" Orihime burst out in desperation, her tears falling faster as she clamped her hands over her ears and screwed her eyes shut tightly. "I REJECT! I REJECT YOUR REALITY!"

Orihime would not calm down; she was in such a state that the nurses eventually just left the room to search for the psychiatrist, muttering about anti-psychotics.

Author's notes: I'm sorry. I thought of a Poison-Oak Epileptic Tree and had to write it to balance out all of the fluff I've written recently. I actually made myself pretty sad writing this, but yay for last minute NaNoWriMo word-count additions!

For the record, Orihime is one of my absolute favourite characters. I really hope this headcanon turns out to be wrong. :S