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Orihime: Inner Spirit Rise to Power Re-Write	By : Kisuke.LikeABoss Category: Bleach > Het - Male/Female Views: 4177 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Bleach is Owned by Tite Kubo, I make no money on this work.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
Chapter 10: End Game

At the sound of his name escaping his master's lips, a green and black flash encompassed Kanzen, taking Murciélago inside with him. When it faded, Murciélago was sitting beside Kanzen his head bowed as a dog would after being scolded by his owner. Kanzen then walked tranquilly toward Ulquiorra. He now had to look upwards at the man, seeing as he had grown a good 30.5 centimeters.

"Shin no Zetsubō, how did you do this!?" Ulquiorra demanded.

"Are you ready to listen now?" he joked at the Espada.

"Do I really have a choice?" Ulquiorra retorted back.

"Well as I've been trying to tell you," Zetsubō started, "Before I implanted my eye in you, you had already begun to accept me when you met the weaver princess. You and she are in love with each other."

Ulquiorra looked confused at hearing this. "Love, now you use words like the woman."

"Well she's right, you can't argue with right," Zetsubō said sarcastically to him, then continued. "You don't just love each other; your love for each other is the purest kind. You can traverse the psyche and enter into the other's inner world." He pointed to the opening at the top of their abyss. Ulquiorra looked to where he pointed; there in the ceiling was the gaping opening Orihime had made.

"When you left me here, I was pissed. No! I was beyond pissed, I was enraged! Murciélago was out there able to roam free!" he yelled but continued more softly, "I understand you taking only Murciélago; you wanted nothing, including emotions. The simple fact that Murciélago is pure instinct, while I am your understanding says enough. When Orihime opened you up, I was able to connect with you again. But when I imbedded my piece, Murciélago was using his 'Tozase' to try to overpower me." He looked down at the "obedient for the moment" bat, and sneered. "He was overtaking your rationale. I kept warning you he would drive you insane."

Ulquiorra listened to his second soul, coming to understand as he spoke. "You're saying because of the woman, I was able to connect with you, thus come to terms with my emotions? So I have already begun to experience it? True Despair?" When Zetsubō nodded, Ulquiorra simply shook his head down. "So you have already imparted me with all those emotions I rejected, so I can now feel the loss of hope… I told you accepting you would destroy my very existence."

"Well it took you long enough, like I said. But 'wanting nothing in order to lose nothing'? Dude you can't live like that," Zetsubō told him. "Now are you ready to take this usurper-wannabe out? Let's teach him a good lesson about coveting another man's things." Zetsubō gave an evil smile as he punched his fist into his hand in readiness.

Ulquiorra emerged from his inner self, still flying high and beating down the boy. He back handed Ichigo, causing him to soar skyward. The Cuatro using the full force in his fists, punched him across his face. Ichigo flew back hitting another pillar, but the force of the hit caused him to slide upwards to the top of it, landing on his back. Ichigo was still as he lay there, near unconsciousness. Ulquiorra grabbed him by the throat, and lifted up above his head.

Ulquiorra noticed that the boy had yet to drop his sword and give up the fight. "Why don't you drop your sword? You've seen the difference in our strength. Do you still think you can defeat me?" he asked the semi-conscious Shinigami.

"Who cares… who is stronger," Ichigo voiced. "Did you think I'd give up… just because you are stronger than me?" he looked down at Ulquiorra now. "I already knew that… when we started this fight. So, showing off your strength… won't change a damn thing." Ichigo went to raise his sword again at the Espada, "I… I'll be… beat you… Ul…quiorra."

The Cuatro tossed the ragged boy down, "Nonsense," he told him. "You still have not seen true despair" he could see Ichigo start to stand. Ulquiorra commenced stirring his reiatsu, the wind about him kicked up, and wisps of green and black spiritual pressure floated up towards the sky. "Allow me to educate you." As he concentrated his reiatsu he activated a new transformation. "Behold… Shin no Zetsubō."

Ichigo stood up straight as the pressure continued to build around Ulquiorra. When he said those words 'Behold… True Despair', He looked in shock as the reshaped Espada was taking on a new more formidable shape.

"Resurrección Segunda Etāpa," the Cuatro said. "I am the only Espada to develop a second release. Even Aizen has never seen me like this." Ichigo gripped his sword tight and rises from the ground ready to battle on. 'So he still has the will to fight, even after all this. Does he still think he can win?'

As he takes a step forward he tells Ichigo, "Very well, I will turn your body to dust if that's what it takes…" He bends his body down low, "… to make you understand."

Using his superior speed, he launches himself at the boy. Ichigo can do nothing. He is struck in the side of his head by the powerful thrust of Ulquiorra palm. His body is propelled across the dunes, to be plastered along the side of another column, and dropped to the sand. Ichigo stands again, causing the Espada's eyes to look at him in surprise.

The bat flew to the faltering Shinigami. Ichigo brought his sword up to defend the next attack, but Ulquiorra grabbed it pulling him forward, and whipping him backwards. Flipping over and jumping upwards, Ichigo dons his hollow mask. The Espada rushes to him again. "You are a fool, Kurosaki Ichigo. You hope to fight and defeat an opponent, who strength is so great, it terrifies you." With a backward pull of his palm, Ulquiorra strikes Ichigo with a full frontal attack, smashing the mask on the Shinigami's face. The boy is thrown again with such force into the post behind him; he comes out the other side.

"I'm not doing this because I want to win…" the tattered boy replies. "I'm fighting because I have to win."

Ulquiorra thinks on those words but comes to only one conclusion… "Nonsense."

As fast as he could take them, Orihime and Uryū made their way to the roof of Las Noches, when suddenly a menacing reiatsu engulfed them. Spread around them was a green and black force filled with hopelessness, gloom and misery.

"What is that reiatsu? I've never felt anything like it before," Uryū spoke aloud. Behind him stood the healer, she also never felt anything like this, but she knew who it belonged to. They entered the ceiling, but the pair of fighters could not be seen. "I don't feel Kurosaki's reiatsu, where is he?"

Orihime seemed to know where to go. She ran forward until she came upon the sight of Ichigo hung up in the air by a tail. The tail was so long, it attached at the back to the legs of a goat with talon clad feet. Looking up farther, she saw the familiar white body of the man she now knew for sure she was in love with. His arms were also covered in the same fur as his goat legs. On his back were spectacular bat wings that shone in the moonlit sky of Hueco Mundo. Atop his head he held two horn-like bat ears. She sucked in a breath, not only at the majesty of it, but in anguish of seeing him strangle Ichigo.

"So you've come, Onna," Ulquiorra said to her as he charged his Cero Osuras. All he could think about in this moment was his woman and this boy. He would not give up his woman! "Perfect timing, watch carefully as the man who thought to take you… is about to die."

'Wait! Cifer! Not that!' Zetsubō yelled to him, but it was too late. He fired it, point blank into Ichigo's chest.

"NO! DON'T!" she screams too late. The man she loved just stuck down one of her best friends. As Ulquiorra tossed the body of the boy, he observed his woman running forward. She caught it on her shield and coasted it to the ground.

"No, dammit," Orihime was saying as she continued to run to the lifeless Ichigo.

Ulquiorra flashed in front of her. "It's useless now. Your rejection powers cannot help him in this state," he informed her.

"Why?" she asked him, "How could you do this?!"

"He was a threat," he said to her. When she asked how he was considered a threat he told her, "He has your heart doesn't he?" Then he asks, "Isn't it he, that you wanted as your lover?"

Orihime looked right into Ulquiorra eyes and said, "You were right, the man who thought to take me… that man I wanted to take me… The man I loved… did die!" She roared in anger, and as she did her fiery aura flared to new heights. Ulquiorra could feel her heat emanate from her body. He watched her as her fire seemed to begin to consume her. He was stretching his arm to her, when he was suddenly attacked by another youth.

Uryū shot an arrow at the Espada, but he flicked it away with his wing. The Quincy began to rocket several arrows in a new assault, "Licht Regen!" he yelled. The volley of arrows crashed into the Espada. Uryū flew through the air as he did this and came to stand a few feet away from where the Cuatro once was.

"I'm surprised. I thought of all his friends you, were more level headed," Ulquiorra said as the dust around him cleared and he walked to the other boy.

Their battle begins, but Ulquiorra is conflicted. His thoughts on what she had said to him. 'So I was right after all, it was the boy' he says to himself.

'You idiot,' Zetsubō chastised him. 'She wasn't talking about the boy, she was talking about you.'

'You make no sense, the one I killed was Kurosaki Ichigo,' he chided back to his soul.

'What a dumbass, I live with a dumbass,' he accused. Then said 'Think about it, fool. Whose world are we connected to? Whose heart did she get closer to? Whose soul was she closest too, before the numbnutts crashed the party?' After a pause and no response he shouted, 'You! Ya Faqin moron!' By the time he came to that realization, the situation had already escalated. He had already slammed the Quincy into a pillar and broke his arm, when suddenly the body of Kurosaki lifted into the air, and transformed.

Inside her flames she could hear nothing. She could see nothing. She could only remember. She remembered her time with Ulquiorra. She remembered how much love she had for him. But that love wasn't enough to change him. He took away a friend. As she loved Rukia and Renji. As she loved Chad and Uryū. As she loved Rangiku and Tōshirō. Ichigo was now nothing more than that; even still she loved her friend dearly. She only felt contentment in her nothingness. 'So this is what having nothing is, I see.' This was all she thought as her body was consumed by her fire.

'She's in trouble,' Ichigo thought to himself. 'I can feel her… slipping away… Get up!' he was yelling now. 'Get up! GET UP NOW!'

The hair on his head grew long, as his spiritual pressure surrounded his dead body. His hand ruffled on the ground as he pushed to get up. A red and black aura encompassed him. His body started to lift from the sandy floor of Hueco Mundo. "I will… save…" the creature that was once Kurosaki Ichigo started to speak. "I will… SAVE… HER!" it snarled as the body of Ichigo altered. On his head grew a large hollow mask with twin black stripes down across its eyes. He had long arched horns that came from the top of his head, to settle on either side of his eyes. Ripped away was the top of his Shinigami robe, all that remained was one sleeve, his bare white chest with an oversized hollow hole that had six zigzagged lines coming from it and his Shinigami pants. Along his neck, wrists, lower abdomen and ankles he wore red tuffs of fur.

"Kurosaki?" Uryū asked as he watched the monstrous creature come to the spot where Orihime's fire was. He was then pushed aside by Ulquiorra, as the Espada made his way to the creature.

"Who are you?" he asked it. The beast flung his hand out and Zangetsu flew to it. As he slashed the sword toward down, the ground to its side and back was propelled skyward.

"I asked you who you were," repeated Ulquiorra. The being merely screamed as if in frustration, it began collecting its red and black spiritual energy in a whirlwind of sand. "I see, you can't understand me," he said to it. He pointed his finger at it, and charged a cero to end it, but the monster charged its own cero between its horns and fired at Ulquiorra. His eyes widened in surprise as their ceros connected causing an explosion to impact the site. This stopped being a battle for the heart of a woman; this was now a battle for one's own life.

The Espada took to the air, to escape the blowback. But at his back, was the creature shooting another cero at him. He turned and fired back. Another tremendous explosion took place, blowing columns and pillars apart all around. As Ulquiorra tried to contemplate the situation, the hollow beast came up behind him again. When The Espada tried to attack, the being grabbed his wrist and slashed his sword upwards along the Cuatro's side cutting off his arm at the shoulder. Then he promptly punched Ulquiorra down to the dunes below throwing his arm along with him.

Using his high-speed regeneration, he reformed his recently detached arm. "One of my greater attributes is my regeneration. Except for my internal organs, I can regenerate any body part," he informed the oblivious monster. "If you think that's enough to defeat me, you're wrong." Ulquiorra placed his thumbs and together before his chest creating a circle, then spread his arms wide, "Lanza del Relámpago" he called. The Espada now held a fiery ended lance more powerful than his previous lance. After firing it, the Arrancar Ichigo dodged it easily, when it landed in the far edge of landscape, the explosion could be felt by the group.

Orihime's Fire was taking her. She was gladly letting it, until she felt the explosion. Then she felt the two beings fighting with such incredible reiatsu's. She recognized both of them, as Ichigo and Ulquiorra. But she could do nothing as the fire continued to consume her essence. She tried anyway.

The fight continued on as the Arrancar Ichigo slipped passed Ulquiorra's defenses and slashed him once more with Zangetsu. The Espada was propelled clear across the desert. He flew back into the air, to the beast, but lost sight of it. Ulquiorra turned to find Ichigo was behind him and without hesitation he thrust his palm to Ulquiorra side. Using the same actions the Espada used on Ichigo before, the creature decimated him.

Ichigo raised a boulder to distract Ulquiorra, upon dodging it, the Espada turned to find Ichigo once again coming at him with lightning speed. He blocked the beasts' sword strike, but when he thrust his lance to impale him, Ichigo caught it with his bare hands and snapped it.

The astonished Ulquiorra never expected such a feat nor did he expect the strike from Ichigo's blade as he sliced upwards slashing his middle open and taking his horn. Falling to the ground, Ulquiorra could see Ichigo prepare to strike the final death blow. He stomped on Ulquiorra head, and charged a cero at the incapacitated Espada.

"I see, you will show no mercy," he told the beast. "Kill me, I have nothing to live for now anyway."

"No! Kurosaki! Don't do it!" Uryū screamed at the Arrancar version of Ichigo. He walked over to it, and grabbed his arm. "If you do that, you really will no longer be human." The beast picked his sword up and thrust it into Uryū with such force; the Quincy was hurled backwards into the boulder that lay behind him.

Ichigo prepared another cero for the fallen Espada. "Ah, a cero how very hollow-like of you," the Cuatro said. Thinking these were his last moments he shut his eyes. If he was going to die, he wanted only to think about his woman. Not the human turned hollow boy he'd killed out of jealousy. Retreating to his mind he recalled their first encounter, their first battle on the edge of Las Noches. The first time they touched each other, with wonder, then in desire. He could almost hear her speaking to him.

'No, Ulquiorra, no!' her voice said.

'Sorry Onna, I've done terrible things to you,' he told the woman in his mind.

'That's not important now, we can have the biggest fight about all of it later, right now I want you to get up,' she ordered him.

'Ha, other than Aizen, I think you are the only creature in existence that would dare to give me an order,' he laughed.

'Ughh, you stubborn, stubborn man!' she was mad at him… again. 'I don't know what will happen if you don't move right now!'

The woman was being serious; he opened his eyes, but before him stood the Arrancar Ichigo, cero ready to fire. Then suddenly there was a flash of light and a staggering heat. Then there was nothing but white light blinding him.

Orihime could feel the battle raging around her, as her fire became smaller and smaller. There was nowhere she could go, and nothing she could do. She no longer wanted the 'nothingness'. She wanted her home, she wanted her friends, but most importantly, she wanted the man who truly stole her heart.

'Orihime?' Horou Hanahime was encompassing her, as she spoke to her. 'Ulquiorra is in danger,' she informed the healer.

'I know, I can feel it,' she told her hollow woman.

'No, not from the beast… from us!' she said and shocked the woman.

'What!? How!?' she asked.

'Your anger was beyond even my conception.' Horou said apprehensively. 'When Ulquiorra broke your heart, I tried to engulf you in the prism to give you time to cool down. But the rage was so immense.'

'What is going to happen?' Orihime asked nervously.

'We are going to explode, from what I gather,' the hollow princess gave the uneasy response.

The shocked Orihime gave a small cry then tried to reach out through her connection, to Ulquiorra. She told him to move, but there was no time, and he was too damn stubborn. As the fire came to a miniscule point, it erupted.

The upsurge of fire took everyone by surprise; Uryū was far enough away to witness the massive eruption that came from the fire that was once his friend. The two fighters were caught in the middle of it. The flames were so powerful; it burst the roof of Las Noches, to the desert below. When the fire subsided and the smoke cleared, there stood Arrancar Ichigo, burnt but still standing.

Hovering above the impact zone was a white light. A voice could be heard "Kiiro Ō-yoroi Heiwana." It was what sounded like the voice of Orihime but not her voice either. It was two voices speaking as one. Then she appeared as the light faded away as well. Her armor transformed. No longer was it orange but yellow with the lacings being a twist of orange and green. On her back were elegant, frothy, wings that had the look of a butterfly. Her eyes now glow with the colors of orange and red. At her waist were her orange katana and a wakizashi. The wakizashi was purple in color and shorter than her katana. She floated to the sandy surface.

The injured Arrancar Ichigo made his way to retrieve his Zanpakutō, as he walked Orihime blocked his path. The Arrancar no longer had the feel of Ichigo, Ichigo was lost inside it. Then it made ready to remove the obstacle in his way, he charged his cero at Orihime.

"NO! Kurosaki! You can't!" the cry coming from Uryū. "That's Inoue-san! You can't kill her!"

From the far side of the desert a black figure flew at the Arrancar now, swiping his lance at him. The Arrancar formally known as Ichigo is thrown back from the princess. Ulquiorra now lay at her feet, an arm and leg unable to reform fast enough. He is decimated. Orihime cries out and bends toward him, but there is no time. As she looked into Ulquiorra's eyes, she saw them widen. Something was coming. Ichigo was coming to finish the job of Ulquiorra's demise.

Without having time to think now, Orihime stood straight and tall, pulling her two swords out from her waist. She readied herself to cleanse Ichigo of his atrocity. She walked and made her way to stand between the man she loved and her best friend. She tried to speak to him.

"Ichigo, please if you're in there, I don't want to hurt you. Come back to me," she says in her two-toned voice. The Arrancar makes no move to leave the Espada alone, his cero is charged.

"KUROSAKI!" she screams, but he still aims his cero at the fallen man. "I'm sorry Kurosaki-san," she steps closer to him, then she states… "Heiwana Ryū Murasaki!" She crosses her swords together in an "x", from its center emerges an immeasurable purple dragon. She raises the swords together, and swipes them down onto her dear friend as tears spill from her eyes. The dragon rears up and slams into him engulfing Ichigo, in a purple fire. The impact of it blasted away the sand and columns that surrounded Ichigo.

The Arrancar Ichigo screams. The sound of it tore apart the remaining pillars that surrounded them. Orihime pulled the dragon back, by uncrossing her katana and wakizashi. There slumped on the sand was the body of the Arrancar. It begins to move. As it raises its head it bellows one last scream and the mask is broken off his face. The appearance of Kurosaki Ichigo emerged.

As it lay on the ground everything that was the Arrancar was sucked back into the hollow hole and then even that returned to normal. Ichigo awoke, pushing himself upward. He asked what happened. Orihime did her best to explain things to him, but she was preoccupied with her concern for Ulquiorra. She turned her attention to the Espada behind her, who now stood up and slowly turned himself to her.

"Inoue! What're you-," Ichigo started to complain. But she turned her head to Ichigo and shook her head at him. Her eyes told him this was something he could not interfere with. He remained silent and watched the interaction between his friend and his opponent. What he saw left him stunned.

As she drew closer to him, Ulquiorra flexed his wing. In doing so it began to fall apart, turning into ash. Orihime began to run to him, her tears ripping the hearts of all present.

"I'm that far gone?" he says. He reached his hand out as his woman ran to him. "The heart, ha this happens just as I am starting to… understand… that ridiculous notion." He remarks. Orihime is standing right in front of him; their bodies are so close they could feel the breath of the other.

"I envy because of the heart," he tells her as he looks into her twin color eyes. "I glutton because of the heart… I covet because of the heart… I am prideful because of the heart… I sloth because of the heart… I rage because of the heart…" he recites to this woman. The only woman capable of loving him, the only woman he was capable of loving. He reaches a hand to the side of her face, "Because of the heart…I lust for everything about you."

The hand that tried to reach her turns to ash on her face. She leans her body forward and puts her lips to his. They only touch for a second before the rest of him becomes ash. 'I see,' his disembodied voice rings out, 'Her heart was right… in my hands.'

Orihime collapses to the ground, bending her body over the ashes that were her lover. Her tears are unstoppable. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" she screams, as her new form is returned to normal. Both Uryū and Ichigo stand back for a while to allow her to grieve as she needs. As her tears fall to the ashes filled with all the emotion she didn't get a chance to express, Ichigo walks to her. Placing both his hands on her shoulders, he lifts her up, turns her around and hugs her.

"I had no idea Inoue," is all he can say.

She shudders and shakes with misery, then she begins to calm as much as she possibly could. She has a new goal.

"I want Aizen gone from this world. I want him gone from our world and from soul society too," she declares. "He has ruined too many lives already," she affirms.

"We'll find a way to stop him Inoue, don't worry," Ichigo says. "Can you take care of Uryū? I need to get out of here as fast as possible." With a nod of confirmation from Orihime, Ichigo makes his way down to the desert below and onto the World of the Living. As Orihime heals Uryū, he can't help but ask her the ominous question, of what happened between her and the Cuatro Espada.

"Ishida-san," she begins, "that would take a lifetime to try to explain. But suffice it to say, he was… misunderstood." She paused before she said the next words, unsure how Uryū would take it, but she trusted him enough to let him know. "I loved him, Ishida-san. More than I have ever loved anyone. More than I will ever love anyone."

They were retrieved from the roof by Rukia, Renji, and Chad. They explained to the group most everything that had transpired. When they made their way to leave, Orihime wanted a few minutes alone. They gave her the time she asked for.

"Ulquiorra," she began, "I meant what I said to Ishida-san. I loved you. And I will love no one else." One last tear fell from her beautiful face, and she lifted herself from the ground. She walked to her nakama and left with them, back to Soul Society, then off to the World of the Living.

… … …

Inside Orihime's inner world, the only place she could go without being asked so many questions, she walks down the stream. There are no longer any rocks obstructing its flow. She comes to the same place she's been returning to each visit here. Where the tree once stood, there was always nothing, but she came anyway. She bends and sits on the ground next to the space. As she looks down at it she notices something new, a tiny sprout.

… … …

A swirl of wind kicked up on the roof of Las Noches. Within the sands, a string of black ash gets swept up with it. In the storm of wind, sand and ash floats a tiny orange lit tear droplet.

A/N: Fin! Done! Complete! Whatever you wanna call it, it's done. I hope you enjoyed the read.

Please let me make this clear, this story is complete, yes that was the ending i wanted for it. But that leaves it open for the Part 2 I have brewing :P Until next time lovlies. Please Read and Review.

Just a quick update to this one, so you guys can know, I have the short story 'Grimmjow: Reconciling the Past' up for your viewing pleasure. It's just a quick story I pulled out, it'll be about 2 or three chapters, then I'm getting the part 2 to this story going. It'll be ready around late June/Early July.
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Orihime: Inner Spirit Rise to Power Re-Write