Orihime's Shikai

The pale light from the moon illuminated the room just enough for an emerald glint to be visible. Orihime held up a rapier in front of her. The hilt had a traditional crosspiece with a ring which extended around her hand. The swept hilt was gold with a floral design. The wires of the guard looked as if they were growing and entwining over her hand.

The floral design continued as vines along the double-edged, pointed blade. It was extremely thin and flexible, designed more for thrusts than swings. The blade itself was emerald in color and it reflected light like a gemstone.

Once she finished admiring it, she slid it into the sheath at her hip. It slowly transformed back into a wakizashi and regained its original form. From her eyes, one could tell Orihime went through a remarkable change.

Naturally, her explosive increase in strength was not left unnoticed. Combined with the unique scent of her soul, everyone in Las Noches was now aware of her existence. Orihime examined herself to see what level she had reached.

[Spiritual Power: 27

Reiatsu: 27 (32)

Control: 100% + 19%]

In theory, as long as her body could withstand it, Reikoromo could keep her at captain-level strength. However, as her internal Reiatsu drops below the halfway point, the Reiatsu generated by Reikoromo would begin to crush her limbs.

Now that Orihime neared the threshold of captain-level strength, she only needed to bide her time and meditate with her Zanpakuto to discover her bankai. Before the transformation, she planned to rely on hogyoku to discover bankai.

However, now she is aware that hogyoku is a part of her. She does not need to speak to it. Orihime can simply use the hogyoku's powers as her own powers. The ability to transcend limits was still beyond her control, but it was part of her soul and would respond accordingly.

Due to this, she realized the importance of reaching bankai on her own. The only path to true strength was to cultivate it herself. The soul king did more than scare her, he motivated her. She was going to stop Yhwach, and then kill the soul king herself. She clenched her fist at the thought.

Orihime had long since sensed the crowd gathering outside of her room. Ulquiorra eventually stepped inside and ordered her to follow him. She had no reason to refuse and simply followed. She recognized everyone who had surrounded her room. However, Orihime paid them no mind and stared at Ulquiorra's back as they walked.

"Orihime Inoue, former human from Karakura town. Now a Soul Reaper… well something in between. Gin told me of your remarkable powers, and I wished to see them for myself. Now, seeing you again, my decision to invite you was indeed correct."

Aizen waved his hand and Grimmjow walked over with a tense expression. One could easily tell he did not like being ordered around, but he was also afraid. Seeing his missing arm, Orihime knew what to expect, therefore, she did not say anything.

"Grimmjow, you will be the test subject to showcase Orihime's power."

Grimmjow turned to look at Orihime with obvious disdain. He sensed the spike in Reiatsu earlier, but it was still weaker than his own. Orihime didn't even look at him, but with incredible speed, drew her sword and released it, pressing into Grimmjow's shoulder.

"Riposte, Hanataba"

Grimjow didn't even notice that he wasn't wounded, because rage blinded him due to being abruptly attacked. He retaliated and Ulquiorra was about to interrupt when Aizen stopped him. Orihime didn't flinch at all and turned her rapier sideways.

Grimmjows hand was inches away from the guard when a translucent barrier appeared knocking him backward. The barrier didn't take a single scratch, and Orihime's feet were firmly planted in the same position. She then sheathed her blade calmly and turned to Aizen.

Aizen was about to speak but was interrupted by Grimmjow's shouting. He held the stub of his severed arm, where an incredible scene was occurring. Small flower petals appeared from nothingness and landed on missing sections of arm, turning into muscle, bone, and skin. After thirty seconds, his whole arm was recovered.

After testing his arm with a few strikes at the air, he chuckled confidently. Aizen was astounded. He was a master at Kido and was very familiar with Unohana's healing Zanpakuto. However, this ability could not be called healing. It was naturally Orihime's unique power to revert things to a previous state.

"A power that rejects reality. As expected… come with me."

Aizen dismounted his throne and began walking to his room. Orihime followed him without complaints. When they arrived, he brought out his hogyoku. It was obviously cracked and damaged from overdrawing its power. He set it down in front of her and smiled.

"Urahara really thought that fake would fool me. Well, perhaps he knew it would not, but simply did it to taunt me. However, after observing you, the true hogyoku, for several weeks; I was able to perfect my design.

I am telling you this as a sign of trust. Join me, Orihime Inoue. The enemy is not Hollow or Soul Reaper. The Soul King must to be dethroned."

"I refuse."

Orihime did not care what his opinion was, but now she knew that any action that diverted from the predestined plot would alarm the Soul King. She did not know the limits of his control, but it was not the time to test it.

She put her hand over the hogyoku on the table and petals began to fall on top of it. Once the hogyoku was completely repaired, she left. Orihime had realized that she did not need to be in shikai form to use her heal and barrier, but they would be significantly weaker.

Aizen leaned back in his chair and smiled. Something had happened to her just moments ago that changed his opinion of her. That spike in strength was the true form he sought with the hogyoku. The ability to evolve and become… perfect.

Naturally, he considered destroying her soul and retrieving the completed hogyoku, but after witnessing her powers today, he could tell that there was a perfect fusion. This went beyond his plans for subduing the hogyoku, this was becoming one with it, assimilating its powers for oneself. Aizen wished to keep her around to question and observe the changes in her soul for a hint to the process.

Orihime returned to her room and there was a new set of clothes laid out on the simple bed. Although her fit of rage at the Soul King had riled her up, she was already calming down to a somewhat normal level. Internally, she was quite happy with how things turned out with Aizen.

She was not surprised he already knew about the hogyoku. This was always going to happen one way or another once she arrived by his side. Afterall, Aizen was the leading expert on the hogyoku with the most experience using it, except for her of course.

"Actually, I really love this outfit. Between this and Ulquiorra, I am quite satisfied being here—"

She turned around abruptly and saw Ulquiorra standing in the door with a tray of simple food. His face was expressionless. Orihime realized he had heard her, and she berated herself for choosing those words at that time. Ulquiorra was the single best written character in the series and the outfits here outclassed Soul Society, so she was simply admiring the art!

However, he didn't say anything, left the food on the small table near the entrance and walked away. She covered her face with a palm and cursed. Orihime promised to herself to stop speaking out loud in the middle of enemy territory.

After getting changed she took a moment to admire herself before sitting down on the bed and trying to enter her inner world once more. Not having anyone to teach her, and Ichigo being a terrible example, she tried to do what made sense to her instinctually. She felt there was more to her inner world that needed to be explored.

Orihime returned to that empty space with a single bookshelf. She hovered over and picked a random book out. The pages were blank, but she knew the contents of it. She assumed this was a representation of her memory of the plot. Her instinct told her it was being kept separate from her soul to prevent the Soul King from sensing it.

However, that made Orihime all the more interested in something far below in the deepest reaches of this space. She could see a shadow being cast over whatever it was which alarmed her since everything in this space was brightly lit.

Orihime slowly floated towards it. Or perhaps, it floated towards her. It was very difficult to feel her position in this space since it was empty, almost pure. The only two blemishes to this pure world of white were the bookshelf and this shadowy structure.

However, before she could reach it and investigate, her conscious mind pulled her out and put her on alert. Standing in front of the closed door of her room was Gin Ichimaru. Noticing that she was aware of him, he stepped forward slightly. Orihime reached for her Zanpakuto but Gin stopped moving.

"That day I left you alive you said something. Tell me what you meant."