Soul Forge

Orihime had sent all of her subordinates in search of Gillians that had consumed over a thousand hollows in order to forge the spirit weapons. Just by concentrating the source energy of other Hollows, they could theoretically grow to peak power. However, there was one fatal flaw—the curse from Hell. In order to prevent the Soul King from utilizing the energy locked within the Hollow, Hell placed the curse which accumulated negative energy. When a Hollow devoured other Hollows, they also assimilate the negative energy that Hollow had accumulated.

Due to this, it is theoretically impossible for a Hollow to ever gain sentience. However, not everything can be accounted for. Those who were very strong spiritually in life sometimes cause a mutation to occur in their Hollow form. Instead of the negative energy accumulating and causing their minds to become forever incompetent, the energy transforms into a seed of power. This seed then grows from the accumulated negative energy until it eventually blossoms into a source of power that fuses with the Hollow's core energy.

Interestingly enough, the location of the curse lies within the mask of a Hollow. Therefore, natural Arrancar and even Arrancar that have been transformed using the hogyoku were able to overcome the curse and become sentient. The best example of this is Barragan. His curse mutated into the power of death and decay, which made him one of the strongest Arrancar before Aizen's manipulation. Prior to Orihime's intervention, Ulquiorra was the aspect of emptiness. Those that have a clear mutated power become the strongest Arrancar. Those with mixed or imperfect fusion are stuck as Vasto Lorde, like Grimmjow.

Although Orihime hadn't accessed the information concerning the origin of the hogyoku, she had a good idea about it based on what she had learned. Once Aizen was released during the invasion, Orihime would find the time to interrogate him about some of these mysteries that were unfolding in front of her. She had a good feeling that Aizen wasn't completely in control of his actions. His behavior before and after his capture are like day and night. She found it hard to believe that a year in solitude changed him that much. It is more likely that whatever was manipulating him was unable to continue after sealing.

Ulquiorra was the first to return, dragging a large Hollow behind him. Orihime could tell that this was a Gillian that had swallowed almost two-thousand other Hollows. She released the hatches on the furnace and lava flowed in from the magma source she placed below it. Orihime began to infuse Reiatsu into the lava in order to begin the refining process. She signaled Ulquiorra to place the Hollow into the forge and she began to work. The process to assemble, disessemble, and reforge thousands of souls into the limitless Asauchi was a brilliant invention. She had studied Oetsu's memories and was confident in her technique.

An hour passed with Orihime striking the Hollow in various places. Every hit would release a black goo that vaporized in the intense heat. What remained was a completely white, emotionless body. She signaled Ulquiorra again and he placed his mock Zanpakuto into the flames. An Arrancar's Zanpakuto was symbolic in nature. It did not work like a Soul Reaper's and simply held their true forms within the blade. However, with Orihime's intervention, she planned to make it into a proper spirit weapon. She began to incorporate the faux Asauchi into the Zanpakuto and a high pitch scream could be heard coming from the blade as it vibrated from the infusion.

Once the maximum amount of energy was forged into the spirit weapon, a large amount of energy remained in the forge. Orihime had been waiting for this and sent out her Quincy powers to destroy the Hollow's body, releasing pure energy. Instead of slipping through space and returning to the main realm, she trapped it using Kido. A ball of pure energy floated in front of her and she immediately knelt to begin absorbing it. Inside her Hakusui, the turbulent waves began to calm down with the infusion of energy.

The bright sun lowered until it appeared above the ocean of water which was now still. Orihime finished absorbing the pure energy of hundreds of souls and could feel the changes happening. On the surface of the water, the reflection of the golden sun was crystal clear. A silent ripple started at the center of the reflection causing the golden sun to crack in various places. Orihime stayed calm and focused on the changes. The golden sun shattered and the pieces reformed into a young girl which resembled Orihime as a child.

The main difference was her eye color and hair color. She had one brown eye and one green eye. Her hair was just as strange. Half of it was the auburn hair of Orihime, while the other half was jet black. Orihime saw through the eyes of the child instead of her normal internal perception. On the surface of the water, she saw her reflection and understood. Deep within the large ocean were small fragments of a glass-like material. These fragments would have to be collected one by one and put together in order to complete the next step.

[Evolution Progress: Celestial Human…]

[Evolution Partially Completed, 2/3 Requirements achieved:

(X) Celestial Body

(X) Celestial Soul

(_) Celestial Mind]

The mechanical voice of hogyoku played within Orihime's mind and she was aware of the fact she had progressed. When she pulled out of her internal world and opened her eyes, she saw all of her subordinates had returned with various strengths of Gillian. She seemed to have been meditating for a lot longer than she expected. Once she woke, the chatter and arguing stopped and everyone waited for Orihime's orders.

Without saying a word, she began to take the captured Gillians and forge them into weapons for each of her subordinates. Each one would be able to hold a different amount of energy based on the strength of the wielder, and the remainder would be absorbed by Orihime. Based on her memory of the short battle with Yhwach, she should be as strong or stronger than he was at that time. However, he still has several months of recovery and a large supply of energy sources to tap into. Based on the scale from hogyoku, Orihime was at eighty-five and Yhwach should be above ninety.

Although it seemed as if she was progressing slowly, it took hundreds of years for a Soul Reaper to normally raise their strength by one point based on her scale. Battle power was something else completely. With Orihime's powers, she could easily rival the strongest fighters at this stage. Her biggest weaknesses were slowly being filled in. She gathered subordinates which she calculated would be the strongest to face her toughest opponents.

…

On top of Las Noches, Orihime sat staring at the full moon. She had finished the forging in three days and had found herself here while lost in thought. Because she was so focused on defeating Yhwach, she had been neglecting a lot of things. Originally, she just wanted to become a Soul Reaper to fully enjoy this 'world.' However, when she realized her actions since arriving had irrecoverably changed the timeline, everything became about dealing with the threats between her and a peaceful life.

Orihime reminisced about Tatsuki, Ichigo, Sado, Uryuu, and Rukia. Since young, she was very distant and did not open up to many people. The way she treated Tatsuki at the start of all of this was very unfair to her. Additionally, she had interfered with the main party's development. She had been flapping her butterfly wings at full force from the moment her consciousness arrived in this world. However, looking forward, as long as she could bring this world to peace, everything could be corrected over time.

Even though she had these thoughts, there was still a gut feeling that something was wrong. No matter how much she thought about her last year in this world she couldn't find the specific event that was causing her so much anxiety. Orihime felt like she was missing something. The feeling was similar to leaving your house for the day, but constantly thinking you forgot something all day. She exhaled and laid back on the roof with arms outstretched.

"I'm sure if it were important, I would remember it. Maybe I should go check up on Soul Society just in case…"