No Hesitate, No Fear [Ichigo, Orihime]

There was only so much preparation a man like Ichigo could do before he left for this fight. But, if there was one thing he needed to do, it was talk to [i]her. Even after bringing Orihime to Hueco Mundo, he'd avoided her, because having to concede everything that had happened felt empty. But if he was going to walk this path, if he was going to commit himself to putting things right no matter what it cost, then he couldn't afford to hide.

"Orihime."

The name was bitter in his mouth, after everything that had happened. He hadn't thought he'd ever speak to her again, at least until he'd collected the Rings of the Dead. But it seemed like she'd hung on just like he had. In a far worse state, working toward something that seemed impossible.

"Ichi...go."

She mumbled like saying his name was an exhausting task in itself. Her ghostly white hair and pale skin didn't convey the weariness that the sullen eyes did but as she leaned against the quartz-like pillar to remain seated it made her head slump in defeat.

The weight of life was heavy on her shoulders. She could spend her time doing little more than reminiscing on her failures and the obsession that once kept her hopeful for the future now kept her alive had become her punishment to sit here in and accept that everything had been for nothing in the end.

Her divine power to reject reality was not enough to stop the world from falling apart back then. The memory of her laying there, alone, with orange locks turning white and staring at the sky danced through her thoughts. Everything she had done to try and resist the spiritual world from destroying what she held dear amounted to nothing. Her grand plans to help Cyrus, and the Vandenreich, restore the world to those halcyon days. It had all dissolved in an instant.

How naïve of her to think she could ever save anyone. She was always being saved by the people around her, how could she ever do that? She thought while staring at her lap. It had all worn her down further and now she could barely muster the will to take another step or stand from her spot.

He'd have liked to believe he understood what it was that Orihime felt, but he doubted he did. Even so, Ichigo couldn't falter when this was the path he'd already chosen. He simply moved next to her, not sitting down but standing close enough that there would be no effort on Orihime's part if she did feel compelled to speak.

"I'm going to Soul Society. I'm getting closer to having the Rings of the Dead, Orihime. I'll fix all of this."

It was a bold claim, but the empty echo of a voice he'd once carried himself with was by and large gone. No, that was a statement Ichigo Kurosaki earnestly believed, one that he was willing to do anything to achieve. He understood that he'd done wrong, to her and to the world. But there wasn't any other way to see things through.

"I'm sorry I brought you here."

"You'll fail... Just like I did."

She mumbled to him from her position and those words showed by her own body going more slack as it gave more away. The support she once offered had become lost in the sands of time and Hueco Mundo.

"You and I... are phantoms... of the past... this is... punishment."

Words were said and her head rolled so that it could support itself on the rough pillar to look at him with her eyes that conveyed the depths of her despair about the present. She was tired. Too tired. He was chasing an impossible dream, just like they did back then, but they had failed already. It had been a trail of shortcomings that brought them here for daring to shoulder the world on their shoulders.

"We can't do anything, Ichigo."

He was ready to catch her, if she fell, but he wasn't going to touch her until that moment. The distance between them was something he couldn't, wouldn't, simply overlook. She wasn't the same Orihime, and he wasn't the same Ichigo.

"Maybe it is punishment, but the past was a better time. If I'm doomed to fail, then that's my fate. But if I succeed, I can turn it back. Turn you back."

Ichigo didn't believe he was unilaterally capable of accomplishing this feat. He could fail. He could die. It wasn't likely, he knew that, but it was always a possibility. But whether or not he succeeded, it was an aim worth chasing, no matter the cost.

"We aren't phantoms. We're people, like anyone else. Don't we deserve to live a good life too?"

"Your hands that protected everyone..."

She hated that he looked like this. He looked like the same hollow that scared her. That scared him. How could he hold onto the tiniest piece of hope anymore?

"Have turned into claws."

The pain that she'd endured alone for so long made her give up on a good life for herself, she had conceded that the moment she tried to prevent this, and then try to repair it. The woman known as Shirohime was born when Orihime had died.

"We did live a good life... once upon a time."

Her sight became blurry as tears built up. Did these people even want to be saved anymore? She could only contemplate as she felt another doubt seep into her mind that she was too exhausted to dispel.

She was right. He knew that all too well, and he hated it. But Ichigo had already spent a century in despair over that change, over what he'd become. He had to accept it if he wanted to change the world, if he wanted to fix everything he'd failed to protect the first time. There wasn't another choice.

"Not for long enough. Not the life we should have lived. There are too many things we never had the chance to do. I'm not going to just let that chance be lost forever when I can get it back."

The world had been better then. Everything had been better then. Ichigo knew the Zombiepowder could grant eternal life or resurrect the dead, but–

Right now, he didn’t need either of those things. Right now, Orihime was still alive. He’d been willing to take his time, because even if she died, he could bring her back. But that was shortsighted. That was selfish. If he could bring things back to how they’d been, surely he could fix her as part of that. He could fix himself. He could just send everything back to the way it had been, right? There was only one way to find out.

He’d been wasting time, still plodding along in defeat.

“I will get it back, Orihime.”

He had the resolve that she once admired and fell in love with in that statement but she could only muster a sad smile at how he chose to spend his time. Of all her regrets and failures she wondered to herself what she'd be if she didn't walk this path that he was walking now. Would she die without all these regrets if she had used her time better?

"I'm sorry, Ichigo."

She sighed with a ragged breath. Orihime didn't feel confident that she'd be there to support him, it was not because she didn't want to. She wanted him by her side all the time she'd been alone but now she was too weak to do anything; and she didn't think she could live long enough to be with him at the end of it to support him like she'd always tried to do.

Ichigo had resolved himself to keep her at an arm's length, to keep his distance until he'd seen this all through to the end. But to hear her say that hurt far more than anything else he'd gone through until now. It wasn't right. She shouldn't be apologizing. He stepped forward, pulling her into an embrace as gently as if he were keeping a single snowflake from breaking.

"It's alright."

There was more he thought to say, more that he might have said not so long ago. But right now, that was the only thing he thought he needed to tell her. When he brought things back to how they'd been, when the future wasn't so bleak, when they could spend time with their friends and with each other, maybe then Ichigo would say all that. He didn't know for sure, but he couldn't keep deluding himself with "one day."

What mattered was right here, right now.