Reaching for the Sky
Disclaimer: BLEACH and assorted characters belong to Kubo Tite.
published 03-25-2014
by C.S.Y. Shadows
Not beta-ed
Ch. 1: Reverse the Pendulum [three turns]
The world shattered. Everything splintered and cracked, mind, love, life, reality, existence; like a mirror that slipped from dead fingers and fell to the unforgiving ground.
Goodbye, Halcyon Days.
Inoue Orihime crumbled right alongside it.
And, suddenly, she knew.
The Shinigami and other spiritually aware creatures had reached a pale facsimile of the truth, speaking of focus for Kido, for drawing a bow of spirit particles or for any other form of reishi manipulation.
They never went further.
Youruichi-san had explained, while she had been training them for Kuchiki-san's rescue, that a warrior with enough determination could overcome almost any obstacle.
Urahara-san with his reality-blurring Hougyoku and incredible inventions (and Aizen, too, in a way), had also come tantalizingly close; but close had still been far, far, far away.
What maybe only the Spirit King truly understood was that reishi permeated and held together the whole universe.
And that spirit particles, in turn, were molded by every person's will.
A soul's true appearance... the roaring might of Bankai... the very landscape of Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, Hell... Each and everyone's beliefs and intentions fed into the stability with the complicated weave of their expectations - they "knew" certain things to be true, after all - taught to future generations, preserving the structure.
If one held a strong will, stronger than the will of all other sentient beings together, a single person could defy destiny and change the world.
Orihime, with her ability to reject reality, had come closest.
And in this single moment, surrounded by shattered billows of ash, her will was absolute.
(I wish...)
She reached into the fabric of the universe and twisted.
Would-have-been/Could-have-been was an easy way to destroy someone, Orihime acknowledged after Sora-nii's death. But sometimes she couldn't help it - she asked and questioned and wondered.
If I hadn't fought with him that morning, would he have lived?
If I had run after him and apologized, would he have lived?
If I could turn back time... would he live?
(It lessened after he was sent on; her beloved Nii-san was now at peace. [She still missed him so much it burned like white-hot iron.])
She didn't wonder now. All she remembered were a pair of sad green eyes and lips that didn't know how to smile and a black silhouette against the bright unchanging crescent moon.
She thought of horns and a white uniform and his back turned to her as he led her through the darkness.
She saw him before her, heading to the dark rip of a Garganta.
Her gaze drank in his form, walking in front of her, coat tails flaring behind him.
You are...
Ulquiorra turned slightly, hands in his pockets, as her steps slowed to a stop.
"Woman."
The sound of his voice was sharp, crisp, deep, monotone, as it had always been; only rising in wrath at Kurosaki-kun and softening in death ("Are you afraid?" and it'd been for her).
"Cease your hesitance. I told you: The only thing you hold in your hands now is the continued existence of your 'friends'. Move."
The fingers of her right hand were still clenched around hot, sticky ash.
...here.
...
I'm glad.
His words and her feelings didn't match. She still hurried forward, suddenly desperate to convince herself that he was alive, was there and she was not merely conjuring up an illusion to soothe her mind.
Reaching out her finger tips brushed over his sleeve before she pulled back sharply. (He ignored her.)
Together they stepped through the gash into the cavernous throne room of Las Noches.
Even if I have rewritten this fate, what right do I have to touch You?
The thought made her unfocused awareness spring into crystal-shard-sharp knowledge again; the feeling of unrestrained power thrumming through her.
It was pulsing, and she imagined it glowing bright golden in her eyes, spilling into her skin in snarled tendrils, curling over her skin to her fingertips, draining into the soles of her feet, then sinking into the floor. Spilling out, spilling over.
She wouldn't have long, Orihime realized, or perhaps already knew.
Already she felt it; like cracks spreading across glass, spreading across her soul.
Her eyes wandered to the silent form of her former-future Warden again, only peripherally aware of Aizen's voice in the background. Slowly disintegrating flakes were still stuck to her palms.
A slight push let smears of ash sink inside her, twisted gray patterns winding around her arms.
I can still save You.
It was a promise, a plea, a prayer.
She didn't really hear the order so much as feel a slight tug in her mind that directed her to the proud, defiant form of the former Sexta Espada, sleeve hanging limply where his left arm should be. It didn't let her consider simply using her Shun Shun Rikka.
Reaching to grasp the shining golden power that was slowly building within her like a wave rising, coiling to crash into the shore, she let go and permitted it to rush through her. A simple nudge rewrote reality in front of her and restored the missing limb.
Then the power within her roared with all the force of a tsunami.
Inoue Orihime shattered upon impact.
The Arrancar staring at Grimmjow's new arm switched their gazes to her when they heared the crystalline tinkling of shattering glass.
It was the moment she screamed.
New A/N: ... So it's almost been a year since I posted the Prologue. Uh... *shifty eyes* I completed the fist chapter instead of fragmenting as I had planned originally. But I already started on chapter two! Ahem. Yeah. I'll just... *slinks away*
Original A/N: Yes, short. And late. RL bites.
I tried to make it longer, but it wouldn't flow properly. So I decided to publish something as the first chapter.
My thesis of the workings of the Bleach-'verse are somewhat comparable to Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series. I think. I can't see or exist in multiple dimensions.
Still here? Well then. Hopefully the next chapter gets done faster... (This one was supposed to be done in June...)