Post-Hueco Mundo. Sometimes I get frustrated with how Kubo pretends that the Winter War never happened.

They notice.

They talk about her to their friends. They say, "There's a girl in my class who jumps at loud noises. I used to know her." They say, "There's a girl in my class who can't hear in one ear. I used to sing with her." They say, "There's a girl in my class who went missing one time. I used to think she was beautiful."

Losing something familiar is traumatic in itself. Back in Los Noches when she had been too closed to a blast of cero from a friend-gone-bad, she'd had on ear drum burst. To her, it is the physical representation of all she gave, all she had taken, and all that she lost.

Losing something familiar is terrible. Having something familiar stolen from someone who you loved once- that is tragic.

In the beginning days of coming home they hadn't caught on, and for that she had been glad. Looking at anything too long made her eyes water under the strain; colors were too loud and too bright. She felt like she'd gone blind, too. She wondered how many terrible things could spiral from one event. Her kidnapping was a bomb in her world- a single shell dropped down into the center of her city, and it would affect her world in years to come. But that was a part of life, she guessed.

At first they do not know she is deaf in one ear. She cleverly places herself when speaking so that quiet people are on her left, where she can hear them. She smiles and nods when people say she is awfully pale considering she just got back from the coast.

"My aunt doesn't like the beach," She says. "We didn't go out very often."

She tries not to think of the beach at all. In her mind, there is no beach with sun- there is only cold sand and tides of dark black water, coupled with one huge white crescent moon.

The first time they notice that something is very different about her is during gym. Because of the weather she's wearing long sweats and a jacket, so there is no physical evidence to speak of, but as they step out to play baseball for the first time in a long while it's clear something is wrong.

Tatsuki says, "Are you okay, Hime?"

"Yep!" A watermelon smile. "Just nervous to bat, that's all."

It's not a lie. She is nervous to bat. Menoly and Loly had some fixation with her shoulders that caused them to rip her sleeves off time and time again, and each time the clothing had gone they'd descended upon the flesh. Her left shoulder clicks awkwardly when she holds it up high, now, like it was popped out weird and never set back exactly right, but it still functions fine. She's just not sure if the muscle will remember how to hit a ball.

That is not what troubles her, though. The school's been renovated, recently, and so the batter's plate is a gleaming rubber island in a sea of white sand.

"Inoue Orihime, you're up."

She keeps her steps high and ignored the way her stomach churns at that age-old feeling of sinking slightly in the white grains below her feet. She is careful as she walks forward, her pulse racing hard and strong until it is the only thing in her ears at all.

A classmate is chosen as the new pitcher. He goes running past her without a care and kicks up a cloud of sand as he races past her.

For a second, she can't see. It's all the time that the demons in her brain need to seize control. Her dead ear aches and the live one starts to ring as the heat roars over her skin like the fiery blaze of cero. It's too much.

She takes a step back and shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts, but trips over the bat and lands on her side with a loud gasp of fear. Someone is saying, "Silly Orihime, you've always been so clumsy!"

"Clumsy little human. What would Lord Aizen want with a worm like you?"

"Or-i-hiiiimeeeee! Let's play-a lit-le game!"

She pushes her palms back into the hot sand, clutching hand falls to let it burn into her nerves. It's not cold, she's telling herself- it's hot. This isn't Hueco Mundo, it's too hot. Think of the heat!

But there is sand in her shoes and she is already panicking. With shaking hands and wide eyes she rips her shoes off and rushes to pull off her socks. There's sand in her pants and she's scrambling back, trying to get to the dirt, and people can see this isn't one of her silly little quirks anymore.

There's sand in her hair. She pulls at the band until it breaks with a loud snap against her thumb, still scrambling to get away from the pit of white sand. "Kurosaki!" She screams. "Kurosaki, help me!"

He would have been so disappointed if he heard you calling out for Ichigo again. Didn't you learn anything the last time?

Her friends are there in an instant. Ishida grabs a towel off of the bench while the others watch with wide horrified eyes, covering Orihime while she desperately pulls the sweats off. Ichigo stands before her, too, taking her hairpins and shoving them into her shaking hands.

"We're home," He says, "We're home."

Chad helps with the towel skirt that they're giving her, closing off the last space. Rukia is not there, so he tries to be big to fill in her space. Ichigo glares at everyone and says, "Go back to your game. We'll take it form here."

It's the beginning of the end for her, she feels.

The next day people approach her as if she is a rabid animal, gentle at first, but then more and more insistent with their questions.

She feigns stupid. "I don't know what you're talking about, haha."

When they get a little too pushy with their questions, Ishida swoops in like the hero that he is and starts talking to her about sewing, effectively cutting everyone out of conversation for her.

But he notices her hands are shaking.

He opens his mouth to ask if she's alright. She's not, so he closes his mouth and awkwardly pats her back. He knows how she feels. Just the other day he'd been in the same position as her, suddenly unable to function in art class because for a moment the phantom pain of his missing hand had sent him back in time. The Hueco Mundo team had rescued him with yellow paint and forced-puns just like they later rescued Orihime with a clean towel and a bath.

Chad says, "It will get better one day."

So they wait.

Orihime wants to believe Chad, but for her, things just get worse. They start calling her "The Nerves Girl."

Incident number two happens outside of school during Machiro's slumber party. The girls all changed into PJs for the movie marathon, and she snuggled in beside Tatsuki and Ryo. Things went very well at first, but then she'd fallen asleep.

All her dreams seemed to be of that night. She'd just gotten to the bad part- or maybe it was the good part- where he reached out and asked if she was afraid. And she wasn't, not of him, but it was then that things had changed. She could feel the pressure of two bodies beside her, and he was gone.

She woke with a loud gasp and flung herself from the couch. In the dark she didn't know where she was, but the carpet was red and she'd just been on a couch wedged between to bodies, so her brain leapt to the first conclusion she could draw up.

To her, she was back in her cell, and Menoly and Loly were back. There was a red flash, like bala so she crossed her arms before her face and dropped to her knees, trembling.

"Orihime are you-"

She turned up to face the arancar with a face of ice. "If you harm me," She said quietly, "Lord Aizen won't be pleased."

There was no way they wouldn't have noticed. They laugh nervously and compare her to Ichigo the rest of the night, bringing up the time he'd grabbed a tall long-haired sub from behind and slammed him in to a wall.

She remembered that. She couldn't blame Ichigo for his reaction. The man had been leering at her. And he had looked an awful lot like Nnoitora.

The girls clearly want to ask what it's all about, but asking will make it really, and no one is really prepared for that. They're starting to get the picture, though. No one is honestly that surprised when she screams the next time Chizuru pounces on her.

She goes about life despite it all. She checks the locks on the doors, unlike before, and she creates a huge nest out of new pillows. She eats like she's dying or pecks at her food like a bird- no in between. They all find out she lost her hearing in one ear when she states she cannot share headphones with the boy next to her for the paired presentation.

"Why not?" Ochi-sensie asks, confused.

"I just can't." She flushes.

"Orihime, if you have a problem with being paired with someone-"

"N-no! I don't have anything against Kashima-san!"

"Then what's the problem?"

She gulped. "I- um. I can't hear in that ear."

It's true, they find. Snaps on her right don't get her attention. Touch does, but by then, they've all learned it's best not to touch her.

The school year is almost over. She just has to make it until then. Once school is out, she'll throw herself into her work at the bakery full time, and won't think of anything else.

Tatsuki notices the girl's natural repulsion towards bright lights and loud sounds has replaced her previous love of them. She frowns and is gentle and quiet when she says, "What happened to you?"

"… I went away, Tatsuki-chan."

Aggravated by Orihime's continual avoidance of the questions, she snaps, "Well. Tell me when you get back, then." Her eyes widen and she slaps a hand over her mouth. "No- No I didn't mean-"

"I guess I have gone away, haven't I?" She smiles faintly, and turns to the group of shadows at her side. It's been a long day, and they've all noticed she's been talking to herself more than usual. "Huh, Ulquiorra-kun?"

After that, the noticing changes.

They say, "There used to be a girl in my class who jumped a loud noises. She disappeared." They say, "There used to be a girl in my class with hearing loss in one ear." They say, "There used to be a girl in my class who went missing once. But then she went missing again."

"Don't worry," He friends say. "She went to a palace. She'll be back once she's got the prince all patched up." They sound nervous when they say it, like they believe a little too much in fairy tails.

Well, they jump at loud noises, too. Don't they?