77 Chaotic Space

*It's not like I wrote a b-bonus chapter or anything!*

"Orihime Inoue, I'll give you one chance to turn yourself in. Don't force my hand!"

"I guess you'll have to catch me then, old man."

"You've made a mockery of my Seireitei! You are no better than Aizen. The hogyoku cannot remain active, this is my decision!"

As soon as Yamamoto said that, he slammed his cane to the ground and flames burst out around him in a large pillar toward the sky. His uniform slipped off his shoulders revealing his upper torso. His heavily scarred body began to bulk up. With a low groan coming from Yamamoto, the surrounding air temperature far exceeded human limits. Other than Mayuri who was maintaining the anti-space Kido device, all other Soul Reapers were nowhere in range.

Orihime partially activated her bankai by releasing Bazz-B's flames to surround her body to negate the temperature of Ryujin Jakka. Seeing the flames around Orihime's body, Yamamoto scoffed and pulled all of his flames into a ball and sent it toward Orihime. Using her powers in combination with Bazz-B's flames, she created a V-shaped barrier of flames. Knowing that Orihime was a barrier master, Yamamoto had sent out his flames in a way that would stick to the barrier and eventually collapse onto her.

However, she had similarly predicted this and used flames to split the ball instead of letting it explode and spread around her. This sent the flames to her left and right instead of scattered throughout the battlefield. Yamamoto was naturally an old fox and was ready for most situations. His fight with Aizen was not that long ago and he had settled some of his arrogance when facing unstable factors like hogyoku users. The flames that were easily deflected formed into hundreds of fire dragons which approached Orihime in the center of her formation.

Orihime had planted some of her flames amongst those of Yamamoto's during the collision and used her control to change the trajectory of Ryujin Jakka. The hundreds of dragons slammed into each other creating a spectacle of flames behind Orihime. Fortunately, he hasn't been trying to kill her, simply capture her. All of his moves are intended to exhaust her strength. She peered into Yamamoto's soul and analyzed his strength. He was several points weaker than her in Reiatsu, but made up the difference with his vast experience and innate battle power of his top tier Zanpakuto.

During the battle, Orihime was utilizing her parallel thinking to calculate a counter to the suppression's devices. She had intentionally sent one of the dragon pairs over a device, but Mayuri was actively protecting them. If she focused, she could probably destroy them all, however it would pin her between two captains. Therefore, Orihime decided to take Yamamoto out. There was no more need for pleasantries, she was angry to be ambushed like this.

Orihime summoned Oetsu's Zanpakuto and immediately released the miniature suns with a single rapid horizontal strike. This was not an attack that Yamamoto had ever witnessed, but he did not miss the sudden killing intent coming from Orihime. He used the full force of his flames to block the suns, however the sheer power was beyond what a mere Shikai could handle. Yamamoto was launched backward hundreds of meters with several sooty marks over his body.

Before Orihime could make another move, he already held his Zanpakuto at the side calling all of his flames into it. Yamamoto called out his bankai 'Zanka no Tachi' concentrating all of the flames of Ryujin Jakka into a single edge. The blade simmered and released a single trail of smoke. The air instantly became dry all over the Soul Society. Yamamoto's bankai depleted all of the moisture due to the sheer intensity of the heat. Orihime wasn't going to underestimate him since she knew once his bankai was active, he would have an invisible cloak of heat at the temperature of the sun around his body.

"I only wished to seal away the hogyoku, an object too dangerous for anyone to hold. However, you dare to have thoughts of killing me? You are a thousand years too young to challenge me! Zanaka no Tachi, Higashi: Kyokujitsujin is my bankai's default ability. I cannot leave it on too long as it will disintegrate the whole of Soul Society. Be honored to witness it before your death."

At that moment, Orihime realized the power contained in that blade was beyond her ability. This was an opponent that even Yhwach feared at near full power. If Yamamoto wasn't so arrogant and schemed against, he would not have lost that final fight. Yamamoto's attack was slow. It was so extremely slow that Orihime knew she could dodge it. However, something about the attack made her feel an imminent threat. She knew that she had to go all out to dodge it.

Orihime activated her bankai in full force and began to slip into the fourth dimension in order to dodge the attack. However, before she fully transformed a force rippled through her. The effect was that she was stunned for a second. This was not a long time, but in a battle of life and death, it would surely result in death for her. As soon as she felt the force spread through her she knew exactly who, or rather what caused it. All this time she had felt as if she forgot something important. This was naturally the case. The Soul King knew exactly what she was doing and she had been in charge of redoing his seal. She had forgotten to return and strengthen it as Oetsu.

<<I… warned you… now… die!>>

Orihime broke free from the stunning and purged the Soul King from her mind. However, it was simply too late. Zanaka no Tachi had already cut through her. She felt her body disintegrate from her shoulder down. She attempted to reject the injury, but it only slowed down the disintegration. If she had enough time, she could recover, but Yamamoto wouldn't let her sit there healing herself. He had already begun another attack. Orihime screamed internally since her body was half disintegrated.

At the last moment, she cast a forbidden Kido which opened up a space channel to chaotic space. This was the regions between the three realms where nothing could survive. The devices created by Mayuri naturally couldn't prevent her from creating such a portal since it did not connect two realms. The vacuum of chaotic space pulled her through and the portal closed behind when it lost connection to Orihime. Spiritual power and spirit particles cannot exist in chaotic space, so the disintegration stopped instantly.

Similarly, she began to lose her spirituality for the same reason. Due to being a partial-celestial human, she was able to hold out in the streams of chaos, however her end was inevitable. She wandered through the chaotic streams with only part of her consciousness holding on due to sheer will. Inside of her Hakusui, the life energy that had accumulated during her grand feast in the Soul Palace was quickly drained away to sustain her. The hogyoku had constantly attempted to transform Orihime, but the damage to her body and the chaotic energy was slowing it down too much. The most it could do was sustain her body for as long as possible and hope she fell into one of the other realms from the chaotic stream.

'…How long have I been floating…?'

'…I guess this is where I die…'

'…Someone… please save me…'

Orihime eventually lost consciousness and assumed her life had ended.

…

Yamamoto was certain that this would be the end. He felt a moment of providence that told him if he attacked at that exact second, he would be able to defeat her. When he saw his blade successfully connect, he knew the fight was over. However, to his surprise, she was able to resist the power of his first strike and seemingly begin to recover. Just as Yamamoto prepared for a second attack, he heard captain Kurotsuchi yelling something.

His words were inaudible, since all he could hear was the sound of nothingness. A Kido Yamamoto had never seen before cracked open a blackish purple portal next to Orihime and pulled her in. However, this portal seemed to not leave at just that. It sucked in everything in the vicinity. The ground, air, and Yamamoto's left arm. The portal closed and sound returned around him with a rapid sucking sound. He fell to his knees and looked at his severed arm.

Yamamoto didn't feel pain or shock. He simply accepted the injury. Over a thousand years of life had left him numb to such things, and all that mattered was Orihime, and more importantly the hogyoku, were dealt with. Although he didn't recognize the Kido, he knew about the chaotic space outside of the realms. Captain Kurotsuchi ran over with a confused and bedazzled expression. He had already calculated and figured out the basis to the forbidden Kido and began raving about it.

"…Captain-commander, why do you look so pale?"

"…Hmm? What do you mean—"

Suddenly Yamamoto gripped his chest as he vomited blood.