A/N:

Me: ...

Ulquiorra: Say it... -points Murcielago to my back-

Me: O_O

Ulquiorra: Don't make me repeat myself, woman

Me: -_- Fine! I, Alice of the Vanguard hereby proclaim that she shall try harder to update stories in a timely manner, now can I get ON with this?! .

Ulquiorra: You may.

Me: Ok ^^

Anyway, I know I keep posting and not updating other stories (well, SORRY for having ideas XD), butI promise to try harder to update sooner xO

Since "Moonflowers in the Sunlight" had such great reception, I've decided to write this sequel, which will be a chapter story =P

Pairings: Ulquihime (Duh...), IchiRuki (Later on X3), and maybe others. I'll think about it.

So umm... yeah... Some sexual content in this chapter. Kind of a lime. XD

Read, enjoy, and please review ^~^

One More Thing!: I drew a picture of Orihime as an arrancar (in other words, what she looks like in this story). Sorry, but I can't link it. Just search for ShihnaReborn on deviantart (thats my username, ShihnaReborn). The piece is called "Inoue Orihime- Arrancar Fanart". For anyone who has an account on deviantart, please comment and tell me what you think. Or you can tell me in a review ^^"

Ok, I'm done.

Now, you may read ^^

"It's been a century already…" Ichigo Kurosaki, the captain of the Fifth Division sighed, looking into the starlit sky. His vice-captain, Rukia Kuchiki, padded up quietly behind him.

"The Soutaichou has an assignment for us, Ichigo; we have to go." she said softly placing a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. Ichigo gave no response, let alone a sign that he heard her.

"Ichigo…"

"Leave me alone, midget."

Bonk!

"The hell was that for?!"

"You've been like this every year since Aizen's defeat… We all did everything we could, Ichigo. We looked in every nook, crack, and cranny in Las Noches. Orihime just… disappeared…"

"People don't just disappear, Rukia. There's always some trace of them somewhere. Besides, shouldn't she have… died by now…?" Ichigo quietly asked.

"There's a good chance that she's been devoured by a hollow already… But it's not guaranteed that that's what happened. So, we've been assigned to find out what happened to Inoue Orihime." Rukia explained. Ichigo looked at her, mouth agape. Rukia smiled slyly.

"Kurotsuchi-taichou already has the garganta prepared. Let's get going… Kurosaki-taichou."

xXx

They fell onto the white sand, one on top of the other. Unfortunately for the captain, Ichigo was on bottom. Just like old times… he thought bitterly while spitting out sand, thinking of when he, Uryu, and Chad had just defeated the two imperfect arrancar and had been blasted out of the crumbling hall. Luckily, however, they fell in front of the massive palace, unlike last time, when they spent hours getting there.

"Ichigo."

"Yeah. Looks like we'll have no trouble getting in this time; the hole Renji made is still there." Ichigo noted. The two walked inside. It was so… different. It was quiet, as though the fortress was abandoned, which the two had no doubt that it was. They walked for a short while without any sort of disturbance. Nothing out of the usual. But that didn't last too much longer. There was a quick, but decently powerful spike of reiatsu.

"Rukia, you felt that?

"No way I could've missed it."

Ichigo and Rukia both placed their hand on the hilt of their zanpakuto. "Come out quietly, or we'll attack!"

A foreign gasp echoed through the empty halls. "No… way…" A new, but painfully familiar female voice whispered. The sound of the voice also echoed, reaching the shinigamis' ears; they looked at each other, thinking the same thing.

Could it be?

"Who is it? Show yourself!" Rukia shouted, a slight shiver running through her arms. The voice did not speak again. Instead, footsteps made themselves heard. They came closer.

Clack, clack… clack.

Closer.

Clack, clack, clack, clack.

Closer still.

Clack, clack.

"It's been a long while, hasn't it…" the two shinigami looked at the figure before them as though it were a mirage, "Kurosaki-kun… and Kuchiki-san…?"

"Inoue?!" Ichigo said incredulously. The young woman before him hauntingly resembled the one they had never rescued, Inoue Orihime. As a matter of fact, it was indeed her. True as that was though, he could hardly recognize her; she looked practically the same, but at the same time so different.

Her bangs covered her whole forehead as they did before she held them back with her hairpins. Her hairpins were still there, however, they were bone-white and two medium-length ribbons of the same color flowed down from each flower-shaped barrette. Underneath her grey eyes were two markings that went horizontally slanted down diagonally and then came back horizontally in the same direction; they were like an angular letter C and were the same color her hairpins once were.

Traveling further down, Ichigo took in her attire. A white tube top with a black collar attached to shoulderless sleeves. Each sleeve had a horizontal black band around the middle of her upper arm. The sleeves continued until they started to flare out starting just below her elbow into robe-like sleeves. The inner lining was black. Underneath the sleeves, her hands and forearms were surrounded by white fingerless gloves. Starting from the top of her hips was a long, flowing white skirt that went down to her ankles. Two black belts crisscrossed from her hips. In the skirt, in between the gap of the two belts on the right side of her upper thigh, near her hip, was a rectangular opening, from which an eerily familiar tattoo of a number four was visible. Then Ichigo's gaze traveled to her collarbone. Centered just beneath it was…

"No… that can't be right… can it…?" Ichigo breathed to himself. He found himself staring at the hollow hole underneath her collarbone.

"Who's there…?" yet another all-too-familiar voice intoned.

"We have visitors, Orra-kun!" Orihime happily cried in reply.

"'Orra-kun'??" Ichigo and Rukia thought aloud. The nickname seemed to call forth some sort of primal fear within Ichigo; he knew exactly who "Orra-kun" was.

"Rukia," he whispered, "I want you to run and get backup-"

"That won't be necessary… Kurosaki Ichigo. We mean you no harm."

"…How are you even alive?!"

"The tale… isn't particularly lengthy, but it is rather a pain to explain, so I will leave it for another time."

"What have you done to Inoue, Ulquiorra?! Why is she an arrancar?!"

"I've done nothing to harm Orihime. And as for your second question, it was a request of hers made upon her death." Ulquiorra explained, stepping out into the open.

"Liar!" Ichigo yelled.

"It's true, Kurosaki-kun! I asked him to do it!" Orihime quickly rushed to the stoic Espada's defense. Ichigo looked at Orihime as though she had just gone insane.

"Why, Orihime?! What about your brother?! I thought you didn't want others to end up like he did, so why would you become one of these monsters yourself?!" Rukia growled.

"Rukia!" Ichigo's voice held a warning.

"She needs to know what a stupid thing she did! So why, Orihime?!"

Orihime was stunned by her friend's scathing and acidic tone and was silent.

"Why?!!"

Now Orihime could keep quiet no longer; her stunned state was replaced by anger. Anger was not an emotion often felt by the princess, but Rukia's ignorance was just so damn infuriating! "I did it for Ulquiorra!!" she shouted. Rukia looked at the two offending arrancar disgustedly. Rukia opened her mouth for yet another scathing retort, but Orihime spoke first, "You don't know him like I do!"

"I'm so sure!" Rukia said curtly, then her voice regained its hurtful quality, "You probably let him fuck you too!"

Orihime looked at Rukia in hurt shock. The fukutaichou obviously struck a nerve.

"Insolent trash." Ulquiorra quietly snarled, before raising his index finger; nobody could say those things about Orihime. A dim orb of green light formed at the tip. It grew and became brighter, but before he could release it, Orihime's hand gently grasped his wrist and gave it a slight tug. He turned his head to look at her.

"No, Ulquiorra… it's not worth it." Orihime pleaded; she was upset at her friend's change of heart, but nonetheless, she didn't wish death upon her. The light at the tip of his finger was extinguished and he walked away.

"Please forgive him. He's very protective of me…" she blushed slightly at her own words as she bowed apologetically. Then she too walked away, following after Ulquiorra. But she stopped for a moment and said, "If you ever want to hear the story, just come back; it may not feel like it, but you're always welcome here… Orra-kun! Wait for me!" then she ran after him.

Ichigo merely looked at the retreating arrancar, dumbfounded. "… L-let's go, Rukia…"

"Gladly." Her response was curt and clipped.

xXx

Orihime's breath hitched in her throat as Ulquiorra sucked at her pulse point; his hands were almost desperately groping at her generous cloth-covered breasts. "Why did you let her say such things…?" he growled predatorily against her neck. Orihime whimpered when she felt him meticulously tweaking her nipples through the fabric.

"I… I don't kn-know!" she managed to squeak.

"The shinigami is trash. You shouldn't have invited her to return." he said as he tore off Orihime's top, staring intently on her two mounds.

"But she's still my frie—ahh! Haaahh...." she started to say but ended up making pleasured sounds when Ulquiorra started sucking on a nipple; she held his head to her chest.

"A 'friend', as you call it, does not say such cruel things."

"L-like you were any d-different." Orihime said shakily. Ulquiorra growled again and bit her nipple, eliciting a startled gasp from the woman beneath him.

"I merely stated the facts. You, on the other hand, interpreted them as you saw fit."

"God... I can't think when you do this to me..." Orihime moaned.

"Every time, hmm?"

When she didn't reply, he forced a knee in between her legs. Her panties were so damp with her fluids that the knee of Ulquiorra's hakama was starting to get wet. Orihime finally moaned in reply.

"Mm... Well, let's not break that trend." he said and removed his hakama.

xXx

"Do you really think there's something going on between them, Rukia??"

"You heard the same things I did, Ichigo. It's obvious that they're romantically involved." she scoffed, "Besides, you saw her flinch when I said that she let that damned arrancar fucked her."

Ichigo was pensive for a moment. "You think they might want revenge...?"

"What do you mean? They were the only—"

"There were others."

Rukia's eyes widened, "W...What...?"

"I sensed more. I'm sure of it."

"Probably not, but it pays to be careful..." Rukia told him.

Then they were silent, praying for the best in a situation where the worst could mean the end.