Orihime Inoue | Curiosity finally answered

Orihime Kurosaki, formerly known as Orihime Inoue, is a Human living in Karakura Town. She is a former student of Karakura High School. She is married to Ichigo Kurosaki and has a son named Kazui Kurosaki.

Orihime is a young woman of average height. She has brown eyes and long, waist-length, auburn brown hair with short bangs framing the top of her forehead. Her most noticeable physical trait is her slender yet very curvaceous figure for a young woman, especially in terms of her large breasts. She wears her hair in bangs tucked behind her ears with hairpins, which she only removes to sleep, as they are worn in the memory of her brother. Orihime initially wears her hair with a full but parted fringe before pulling most of her bangs behind her ears as she was ready to leave for Soul Society.

Seventeen months after Aizen's defeat, Orihime's hair becomes fuller and wavier. Her bangs naturally frame her face without her hair clips and also hang over her ears. She stops wearing her hair clips and instead keeps them clipped onto the left collar of her school uniform.

Orihime is independent, friendly, humorous, optimistic, sensitive, caring and kind. She comes off as naive and rather clueless, which contradicts her exceptionally high marks as third highest in her grade. She studies hard because when her grades drop, she receives less financial support from her relatives. She is a member of the Handicrafts Club and likes to invent very ridiculous sports to play with Tatsuki (such as "base-cer," a combination of baseball and soccer). She tends to zone out with her mouth open and loses track of what she was thinking or dreaming about. She has an over-active imagination and gets carried away thinking of implausible scenarios, such as portraying herself as a futuristic and highly destructive robot in an assignment asking a student "How do you see yourself in the future?".

Orihime likes Asian flower print clothing and comedies. While she does eat some normal food, Orihime cooks and eats unusual meals, which other people often find unappetizing. Her favorite food is red bean paste and she likes putting butter on sweet potatoes. She enjoys cheese and butter most of the time.

Orihime has demonstrated that she is perceptive when it comes to people's mental and emotional state, especially in regards to Ichigo, as she is able to tell what kind of driving force is pushing someone. She additionally has a crush on Ichigo and later falls in love with him. She has exhibited traits that appear to have some connection with Ichigo, such as the ability to detect Ichigo by scent, sense his Spiritual Pressure even when masked by the Visored, and an awareness of what mood Ichigo is in, sensing his feelings of anguish, disappointment, or worry, even feeling pain herself when she sees Ichigo getting hurt.

17 months after Aizen's defeat, Orihime has gained a much firmer resolve in combat; when Ichigo was training with Kūgo Ginjō, Orihime was entirely willing to injure Ginjō if he attacked without her permission. She and Sado have sworn that they would be strong enough to not burden Ichigo when he finally regains his power to fight, which is reflected in her development of a technique that acts as both offense and defense.

Powers & Abilities

Natural Abilities Great Spiritual Power: Orihime is able to get close to several battles between powerful opponents without being overwhelmed, such as the battles between Ulquiorra Cifer and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Ichigo Kurosaki and Ulquiorra, and most impressively, Ichigo and Yhwach after the latter had absorbed the Soul King.

Orihime even managed to resist being crushed by Soul King Yhwach's immense Reiatsu and outright rejected it with Shiten Kōshun, impressing the Quincy. During her basic training in Reiryoku control with Kūkaku Shiba, Orihime demonstrated a natural talent for precise control, as she quickly mastered the Reishukaku. Franceska Mila Rose even compares Orihime's Reiryoku to that of Yasutora Sado, and notes that it would be problematic if Quilge Opie managed absorb both of their power during his assault on them.

Spiritual Awareness: Orihime has a good amount of skill in detecting spiritual energy, as she can sense Hollows and ongoing battles at a significant distance. If she concentrates, she can even sense the Reiatsu of people within protective barriers.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: While a pacifist by nature, Orihime has a natural talent for martial arts. According to Tatsuki, who trained Orihime herself, Orihime has the fighting skill of a 1st-dan. Orihime is skillful enough to incapacitate two unseated Shinigami soldiers when she surprise attacked them.

Enhanced Durability: Orihime has withstood separate assaults by Loly Aivirrne and Menoly Mallia, which involved physical attacks and the use of Bala, with only moderate bruising and swelling. Following her training during the Quincy Blood War, Orihime was subjected to multiple attacks from Soul King Yhwach's dark Reiatsu, which was sufficiently strong to injure and wind Ichigo after his own training with the Royal Guard dramatically enhanced his capabilities, and emerged with only light scratches and bruises.

Enhanced Endurance: Orihime's endurance is high enough that, even after being repeatedly hit by Soul King Yhwach's attacks and being crushed by his immense Reiatsu, she powered through it to both protect Ichigo and heal him, even to the point of her arms bleeding, and summoned the strength to counterattack Yhwach.

Memory Chikan Resistance: Even before fully awakening her powers, Orihime was able to recall the event of her brother fighting Ichigo, even though the memory chikan has been used on her by Rukia.

Shun Shun Rikka: Orihime's spirit energy is harbored in the pair of six-petal flower-shaped hairpins that her brother gave her. Shun Shun Rikka is composed of six spirits that reside within the hairpins, each of which is two petals on the clip when inactive. Only spiritually aware beings can see them. They reside in her hair-clips, which are shaped like six-petaled flowers. Through various combinations of the six fairies, Orihime has the power to reject phenomena by denying or undoing events in various forms. This power can be used for attack, defense, or healing (depending on the combination).

The Visored Hachigen Ushōda comments that her hair pins, being the physical manifestation of her powers, is very much like the Zanpakutō of a Shinigami, and that her powers resemble his own powers. Sousuke Aizen, in his explanation of the Hōgyoku, states that Orihime's powers were actually awakened by the Hōgyoku; when she cursed her powerlessness with all her heart, the Hōgyoku answered her desire.

The spirits are separate manifestations of Orihime's spirit, each with its own unique appearance and personality. Each are named after a flower:

Ayame has a quiet personality. She wears a dress larger than her body. She, along with Shun'ō, is in charge of Shun Shun Rikka's healing ability.

Baigon is a bald male spirit. He is brawny, and has a large body. He wears a mask that covers the bottom of his face. Baigon is part of Shun Shun Rikka's defense.

Hinagiku is a highly energetic male spirit. He wears a large eye patch that ends in a horn. Hinagiku is part of Shun Shun Rikka's defense.

Lily is a female spirit with bright pink hair, transparent yellow goggles, and a blue bathing suit. She has a tattoo on her backside. Lily is part of Shun Shun Rikka's defense. She has a futuristic style.

Shun'ō is a friendly young male spirit with a topknot. He and Tsubaki are usually the ones who talk to Orihime. He, along with Ayame, is in charge of Shun Shun Rikka's healing ability.

Tsubaki is a fiery male spirit. He is the only Shun Shun Rikka spirit capable of direct attack. He often strikes anyone who gets on his nerves (including Orihime). Because he is primarily focused on attacking, he is vulnerable to counter-attacks, and has been injured several times. The stronger Orihime's anger and killing intent, the more powerful he becomes. However, Orihime's timid nature limits his overall power, and has contributed to his injuries in the past.

Techniques

Orihime's techniques involve incantations and manipulating the Shun Shun Rikka into different groups. Though Orihime initially needed to recite their kotodama to use her techniques, further training has rendered this unnecessary. Her kotodama consists of voicing the names of the members involved, followed by the technique name and the phrase "I reject", a reference to the nature of her powers.

Santen Kesshun: is Orihime's defensive technique. It repels attacks by placing a shield between the enemy and target. The incantation arranges Hinagiku, Lily, and Baigon into a triangle which has the ability to repel the "outer shield". Because the barrier rejects negative events, it can also function as an airbag of sorts, allowing Orihime and anyone else nearby to survive a potentially lethal fall unharmed. Orihime is later able to shape Santen Kesshun into a dome-shaped barrier large enough to easily hold herself and other individuals.

Sōten Kisshun: is Orihime's "healing" technique. It surrounds something to return it to its former, complete state. It rejects, reverses, and reconstructs phenomena that have occurred, even phenomena that Orihime hasn't witnessed. The incantation summons Ayame and Shun'ō to form a half-oval barrier around whatever or whomever Orihime wishes. Their ability is to repel the "inner shield." The shield placed inside means that they repel the damage within a limited area. In other words, they return a subject covered by the shield to the state that they were in before taking damage. Orihime fully restored Grimmjow's destroyed arm from nothing. Sousuke Aizen describes this as "The Rejection of Events". Her ability is to limit, reject, and negate any kind of event that has happened to her target.Yasochika Iemura comments that the technique's healing speed is potentially faster than Isane Kotetsu's and his own. Far more powerful than "Temporal Regression" or "Spatial Regression", it is a power that trespasses into God's territory. Originally, Orihime wasn't able to restore a destroyed Tsubaki, but Hachigen Ushōda states that since she has powers very close to his own, she should be able to restore him to his original form, even without a shattered fragment. Later, she can fully resurrect the dead. While Orihime can heal wounds quickly, it takes longer for her to replenish the patient's Reiatsu. Large amounts of foreign spiritual pressure around a wound makes her power to reject ineffective.

Koten Zanshun: is Orihime's offensive technique. It rejects the fusion of matter and splits it. The incantation summons Tsubaki, who has the ability to repel "both sides of the shield." He breaks through the enemy, puts up a shield inside, and repels the combined substance, splitting the enemy in two. While Tsubaki can cut through basically anything, Orihime's general dislike of combat and hesitance to use lethal force degrades the effectiveness of the technique, making him easy to counter and equally easy to injure.

Shiten Kōshun: is a merger of Orihime's techniques. It combines Shun Shun Rikka's offensive and defensive properties. The incantation integrates Tsubaki into the center of her Santen Kesshun ability, creating a triangular shield which, at the very instant of receiving an attack, disperses the resultant force as a concentrated explosion which is automatically returned along the attack's opposing trajectory.

Rokuten Shishun: Upon being repeatedly overwhelmed by the torrential darkness of Soul King Yhwach and witnessing Ichigo and Rukia being repeatedly maimed by him, Orihime cursing her own powerlessness led her to unlock a new technique that combines all six of the Shun Shun Rikka, which begin leaving trails of a blood-like substance in their wake as they circle around her and become capable of automatically deflecting attacks as powerful as Yhwach's own Energy Beams. With a circular field forming between the Rikka, Orihime passes through it and is enveloped by a sheer fabric-like red energy that coats her entire body and drastically heightens her physical capabilities. Upon reaching her target, Orihime performs a transcendentally powerful rejection that not only reverses and undoes any phenomena empowering the target (having deactivated and suppressed Yhwach's access to his Soul King power), but seemingly erases the existence of both the target and herself after enough time passes.

Weaknesses

Shun Shun Rikka Fragility: The Arrancar Tesra, when holding Orihime captive, warns her not to try to attack him, as he can easily break the physical container of her Shun Shun Rikka, the hair pins themselves, stating that they are ridiculously weak.

Determination Impediment: Orihime's determination directly influences the effectiveness of her powers. Feelings like doubt or worry make them weaker, while conviction makes them stronger.

Soul King: Orihime's powers cannot revive the Soul King.