*I don't own Bleach, characters, really anything - it's FF after all!

All the villages designated a protector. They were called shinigami. Orihime was one of them, albeit, a reluctant fighter. In a few months, after graduation and after she celebrated her 18th birthday, she would officially take her post.

She had been chosen from her village as a protector because of her noticeable spiritual powers at a young age. She couldn't refuse. After all, spiritual powers ran in her blood. She also had a strong desire to protect her village and take up her brother's place. Sora was the village's last shinigami before Orihime would take his place.

Both grandparents from her maternal side had spiritual gifts. It skipped over her mother but passed on to her and her older brother Sora. And they took it upon themselves to follow in their grandparents' footsteps - for duty. But this choice had come with a price.

Her grandparents died when her mother was five. That was the life of the shinigami. Most didn't live that long. One could only hope to live as long as the famous Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. He was already in his 70s but still as powerful and strong as he'd been in his youth, and alive.

Orihime was graduating today from the Shinō Academy. She looked for her friends in the stands. She saw her best friend Tatsuki waving at her with a smile. Her friend Uryu, a Quincy who was looking uncomfortable being there, gave her friendly nod. Her distant aunt even came. Standing next to them were her mentors Rangiku and her captain Toshiro. Orihime was happy.

While she could summon defensive shields and deliver lighting fast attacks with the combination of her Zanpakutō and the summoning of her fairies, the Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield, she often lacked what her teachers called the fighting instinct.

As the procession started, Orihime's thoughts drifted to her choice. Most of her friends and instructors had often tried to talk her out of becoming a shinigami. Orihime was smart and excelled in her classes and even in combat strategies, but she wasn't particularly strong in fighting.

She was also stubborn. She wanted to follow in her brother's footsteps as a protector. He died one night in a fight with a hollow. She was only 12 and he was 22 when that happened.

And she was the one to find him barely breathing, bleeding, and limp. She carried him to the nearest clinic, and that was the last time she saw him alive and the first time she met a young boy Ichigo, who would play a big role in her life. She just didn't know it yet.

Graduation was a big stepping stone in Orihime's life. Her life would take major twists and turns soon after.