30 Valley of Flowers

(A/N: Oh man, I'm so sorry. I had dental surgery today so I set up the timer to release at 0000 webnovel time. However, there's this thing with the timer that you have to hit OK at the bottom.

Tldr; I set it to 23:45 instead. I'll put up a discord server in comments, so you can talk smack and notify me if this happens again. Anyway, I'll edit this tomorrow I'm loopy from pain meds.)

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The flower petals finish falling over Grimmjow's wound and he stretches his shoulder that was injured. He was still amazed at the overpowered healing ability. He didn't say much after getting the free service and began walking toward the door to leave. However, just as he crossed the threshold the whole of Hueco Mundo shook. The tremors lasted for several minutes before Orihime spoke out.

"They're finally here."

…

Somewhere in Hueco Mundo.

Five figures step out of a void-like hole and jump down onto the same. The tunnel quickly close behind them and they are left in the eerie quiet of the perpetual night. Three of them have swords and white cloaks, which seemingly conceal their Reiatsu. The other two seem like civilians, except one of them is wearing a white uniform with a Quincy cross decorated on it. While the other one… actually just looks like a civilian.

The five of them are naturally Ichigo Kurosaki, Uryuu Ishida, Sado Yasutora, Rukia Kuchiki, and Renji Abarai. Ichigo had the same appearance, the only difference would be the cloak. The same was true for Uryuu and Sado, however, they just looked the same as their civilian selves.

Rukia on the other hand has a much shorter hair style. Conversely, Renji has much longer and fuller hair. The five of them get tabs on each other before identifying the direction they will be going in. If Orihime was here, she would mutter something about changing the timeline.

"It looks like Aizen is holed up in that building over there." Ichigo points out the obvious, as Las Noches is the only structure that can be seen.

"This is why I didn't trust Urahara's technology, look at how far we are from the target!" Renji said.

"How long do we have until the Captains arrive?" Ichigo asked.

"Two days at the most, there's too much bureaucracy involved in that many captains making a move." Renji said.

"Alright, enough talking, out primary objective is to locate and secure Orihime before the captains arrive. They will assist in extraction and elimination of as many Arrancar as possible." Rukia said.

They all readily agreed and began running toward the building in the distance. It did not take long for the group to encounter a young human girl being chased by three Hollows. Although confused, Ichigo immediately jumped in to rescue her. Seeing the powerful Soul Reaper, the three Hollows instantly turned docile.

"Wait, wait, we are friends. We were just playing a game with Nel." When the Hollow explained this, Ichigo looked down at the girl under his arm, he saw her cracked Hollow mask. Before he could question her, a massive subterranean Hollow burst out from below the sand, attempting to swallow the group.

Everyone jumped back, easily dodging the attack. Ichigo drew his large Zanpakuto and his Reiatsu spiked. He swung his sword in a horizontal slash and a powerful blue crescent blade vaporized a large portion of the Hollows torso.

However, as Ichigo put away his sword, appendages shot out from the bottom half and reconnected with the top half. Then the Hollow began to charge up a Cero aimed at the group. The slight sound of a bell was heard and a pale white light flashed.

Once the light dissipated all that remained was a frozen Hollow. Rukia had released her Zanpakuto and swiftly dispatched the wounded Hollow. Rukia quickly sheathed her sword and looked disappointedly at Ichigo. And, by the advent of destiny, Nelliel leads the group to Las Noches.

…

"What should I do?"

Grimmjow acting like this to maintain his pride. However, he had still agreed to follow her. Knowing that her friends were here, he assumed she would want him to help them. However, what she said next made him almost burst out in laughter.

"Fight against Ichigo after he gets past a few small fries. Bring him close to dying, just enough to stimulate his obscene growth. There should be four captains who arrive soon after. This is the gist of Aizen's plan."

Grimmjow was confused at the reason why Orihime seemed to be working with Aizen when she had already stated she would oppose him. Orihime obviously noticed his confused expression and sighed. She walked over to stand in the light of the window and looked out.

"Aizen doesn't understand what he wants. However, the plan he laid out is the best way to grow Ichigo. No matter how much you look down on him, his growth is limitless. If I told you when you fought Ichigo in the world of the living, he was barely a tenth of the strength he would show after a few years, what would you say?"

Grimmjow did not reply, but had already formed his own opinion. The Hollows lived with a survival of the fittest mentality. If you had all the potential in the world but didn't turn it into real strength, then you would just be food for someone else.

He was a bit worried that Aizen would hear all of this, but when he tried to leave once more, he could feel his body pass through a familiar barrier. Orihime had begun to expand and modify her barrier as much as possible in order to understand its limits and features.

She was satisfied with the current limits, but still felt like they could go further. Orihime refused to have barriers weaker than Hachigen. They had very similar powers, a sort of innate barrier skill. She was insistent on standing out in every field so that the argument of less experience wouldn't block her from a captain's seat.

Orihime was only a small distance away from the next threshold in spiritual power. Once Grimmjow left she found no more need to do anything except for do bankai training. She had been slowly creating an inner world relying on her instinct.

She did not know why the inner world was empty after gaining her Zanpakuto spirit. The only thing she knew about inner worlds was from Ichigo's experiences. Perhaps because she was not born a Soul Reaper, her inner world had not developed yet.

Orihime closed her eyes and appeared in a large meadow with flowers everywhere. She had dubbed her inner world as 'flower valley.' Although unnecessary, she felt that corny personality suited her. Once she completed the sun and clouds, Orihime sensed a presence watching her.

Sitting amongst the flowers was a young girl wearing a childish floral dress. She wore white, silk, knee high socks and similarly gloves that went up to her elbows as well. Her neck was covered by a silk infinity scarf with cascading black hair.

Orihime walked closer to this girl but she noticed what she thought was a pale face was actually a silver mask which covered all her features, including her eyes. The girls bearing, posture, and presence felt like Orihime was seeing a princess from her imagination.

'Oh, this is technically my imagination, so this should be a princess…'

When Orihime arrived, she sat down in front of this pretty girl. Although she couldn't see the girls face, she had a feeling the girl was pretty. They sat together for a time before Orihime finally spoke up.

"Hello, may I ask your name?"

The girl giggled and gestured to all the flowers in the field around her. Orihime was confused at first but started to put some things together. This princess was clearly related to her Zanpakuto and Orihime tried to slyly ask for her name. Although she knew it wouldn't be that easy, it was worth a try.

Orihime was well aware the Hanataba was more of a nickname, or not directly related to the true name. She felt like she stumbled upon a similar situation as Ichigo did with Zangetsu. This little girl was obviously the true nature of her Zanpakuto and discovering her name would most likely lead to bankai.

The girl seemed to be distracted and would often stare at the sky. Orihime had an idea and summoned some origami paper into the world. One of her favorite things to do as an adult before was to fold paper cranes whenever she felt sad.

Orihime left a pile near the girl and began folding her stack. The girl was very curious about the folding and watched intently. After Orihime finished the first one, she lifted it and threw it into the sky. The bird flapped its wings and took off into the boundless sky where it flew from horizon to horizon.

The girl giggled cutely and began to fold along with Orihime. Several hours went by and the two of them created hundreds of paper cranes which took off into the sky. They had already formed a large group and would fly together. The princess was giggling and clapping occasionally. Even though Orihime couldn't see her expressions, the scene was heartwarming.

Once they used all one-thousand origami papers, Orihime began to tell a story.

"There was once a little girl who got sick because the adults fought too much. The adults hurt each other very badly which caused many of the little girls' friends to go away forever. The sick girl did not have a long time to live, so she decided to fold a thousand papers to get a wish.

Unfortunately, when she turned twelve, she was too weak to keep folding and passed away. However, her friends and classmates agreed to fold the rest together in her memory, and made the wish for her."

Orihime was telling the story she remembered from something she read once, unable to tell which memory it came from. The little girl was focused on the story, but when it ended, she tilted her head to the side.

"What was the wish?"

"Hm… I don't know."

"What is your wish?"

"To be happy—forever…"

Orihime spoke instinctively and then looked over at the girl in shock. There was a sudden connection with her. Thoughts formed out of nothing and Orihime called out the name of her bankai.

"Your name is��"