Orihime Inoue (Achrones150)

Orihime Inoue (井上 織姫, Inoue Orihime) is a Human living in Karakura Town. She is a student at the Karakura High School, where she is in the same class as Ichigo Kurosaki and her best friend, Tatsuki Arisawa.

Appearance
Orihime is a teenager of average height. She has brown eyes and long, waist-length burnt orange hair. Her most noticeable physical trait is her surprisingly curvaceous figure for a teenager, 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, a change noted by Tatsuki.

Personality
Orihime is friendly, humorous in her own way, sensitive, caring, and kind. She comes off as naive and rather clueless, which is at odds with her exceptionally high marks in school. 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 is not very good with technology; a member of the Handicrafts Club once remarked that she is not smart enough to use a cell phone, which is why she does not have one.

Orihime likes Asian flower print clothes and comedies. Orihime cooks and eats strange food at home, although she also likes some normal food. Aside from Rangiku Matsumoto and Tessai Tsukabishi, no one shares Orihime's tastes. Her favorite food is red bean paste, and she likes putting butter on sweet potatoes. She enjoys cheese and butter most of the time. She tends to zone out with her mouth open and loses track of what she was thinking or dreaming about. She also tends to have 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 has also demonstrated that she is perceptive when it comes to people's mental and emotional state, especially in regards to Ichigo Kurosaki, able to tell what kind of driving force is pushing someone. She has a crush on Ichigo, and later falls in love with him. She has revealed these feelings both to Rangiku Matsumoto and to Ichigo himself, though he was asleep at the time. She has exhibited traits that appear to have some connection with Ichigo, such as the uncanny ability to detect Ichigo by scent and 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.

History
Orihime lives by herself in Karakura Town, and is supported by her relatives living elsewhere. Previously, she lived with her older brother, Sora, who was fifteen years older than her. She and her brother were raised by a drunk father and a prostitute mother, who always argued and beat their children. It is unknown if her parents are still alive.

When Sora turned eighteen, he ran away with Orihime, who was three years old, and raised her from then on. For six years, Orihime and Sora lived in harmony despite the fact that Orihime was bullied in school because of her unusual hair color. One day, Sora gave Orihime a pair of hairpins. However, Orihime refused to wear them because she said they were childish. On the same day, Sora was wounded in a car accident and died in the Kurosaki clinic. Orihime has worn the hairpins ever since. A year after Sora died, Orihime met Tatsuki, who defended her from the bullies. They became best friends.

Bleach Storyline
For more information on the arcs, see the Bleach article on this character
 * Agent of the Shinigami arc
 * Soul Society arc
 * Bount arc (anime only)
 * Arrancar arc
 * Hueco Mundo arc
 * Fake Karakura Town arc
 * Zanpakutō Unknown Tales arc (anime only)
 * Beast Swords arc (anime only)

Synopsis
In Progress...

Powers & Abilities
Spiritual Awareness: Orihime has keen senses in detecting spiritual energy, as such that she can sense Hollows and ongoing battles at a significant distance. If she concentrates, she can sense Reiatsu of people even within protective barriers.

Spiritual Power: Orihime is also able to get close to several battles between powerful opponents without being overwhelmed, such as the battles between Ulquiorra and Grimmjow, as well as Ichigo and Ulquiorra. During her basic training in Kidō with Kūkaku Shiba, it was shown that Orihime has a natural talent for precise spiritual energy control as she quickly mastered the technique.

Durability: Orihime is at least strong enough to survive separate assaults by Loly and Menoly, which involved physical attacks and the use of Bala, and minor assaults by Nnoitra and Tesra.

Hand-to-Hand Combatant: While a pacifist by nature, Orihime has shown to have a natural talent for martial arts. She reveals that Tatsuki has trained her somewhat in karate. According to Tatsuki, Orihime has the fighting skill of a black belt. Orihime was at least strong enough to incapacitate two unseated Shinigami soldiers.

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

Spiritual Powers
Shun Shun Rikka (盾舜六花, Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield; Viz: Six Princess Shielding Flowers): Orihime's spiritual power manifests itself as six fairy-like creatures. No one can see these fairy-like creatures but her and other spiritually aware beings. They reside in her hair-clips which are shaped like six-pedaled flowers, each fairy is two points on a given clip when inactive. Through various combinations of the six fairies, Orihime has the power to reject fate by denying or undoing events in various forms. This power can be used for attack, defense, or healing (depending on the combination). Orihime's mood directly influences the effectiveness of her powers. Feelings like doubt or worry make them weaker, while conviction makes them stronger.

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. 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. Sōsuke Aizen, in his explanation of the Hōgyoku, says that her powers were actually awakened from the Hōgyoku when she cursed her powerlessness with all her heart and the Hōgyoku answered her desire. The fairies are separate manifestations of Orihime's spirit, each with its own unique appearance and personality, and each named after a flower:

Ayame

 * Ayame(あやめ, Iris): Ayame is a shy female spirit covered in a dress larger than her body. She is capable of healing together with Shun'ō.

Baigon

 * Baigon (梅巌, Ume): Baigon is a bald male spirit with a mask that covers the bottom of his face. He is brawny and has a large body. He is capable of shielding Orihime from attacks along with Hinagiku and Lily.

Hinagiku

 * Hinagiku (火無菊, Daisy): Hinagiku is a male spirit with a large eye patch that ends in a horn and is highly energetic. He is capable of shielding Orihime from attacks along with Baigon and Lily.

Lily

 * Lily (,リリィ, Lily): Lily is a female spirit with bright pink hair, transparent yellow goggles, and a blue bathing suit. She has a tattoo on her backside. She is capable of shielding Orihime from attacks along with Baigon and Hinagiku.

Shun'ō

 * Shun'ō (舜桜, Althea): Shun'ō is a friendly young male spirit (who appears to be female in the anime) with a topknot. He and Tsubaki are usually the ones who talk to Orihime. He is capable of healing together with Ayame.

Tsubaki

 * Tsubaki (椿鬼, Camellia: Tsubaki is a fiery male spirit who is the only Shun Shun Rikka 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. At one point, Tsubaki was killed by the Espada Yammy Riyalgo, who crushed Tsubaki into tiny pieces. Orihime was distraught by this, and since the pieces were too small to find, she couldn't bring Tsubaki back. But due to meeting Hachi, who said Orihime's powers were similar to his, Tsubaki is restored by Hachi despite having no pieces of him.

Techniques
Orihime's techniques involve incantations manipulating the Shun Shun Rikka into three 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" (私は拒絶する, watashi wa kyozetsu suru), a reference to the nature of her powers.


 * Santen Kesshun (三天結盾, Three Sacred Links Shield): is Orihime's defensive technique. The incantation arranges Hinagiku, Lily, and Baigon into a triangle that has the ability to repel the "outer shield." A 'shield' is raised between her and her enemy, and they repel the attack she receives. 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.


 * Sōten Kisshun (双天帰盾, Twin Sacred Return Shield): is Orihime's "healing" technique. 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 before taking damage. Orihime is capable of fully restoring Grimmjow's destroyed arm from nothing, to which Sōsuke Aizen deduces this as "The Rejection of Events". Her ability is to limit, reject, and negate any kind of event that has happened to her target. It is an ability that returns her target to its former state no matter what has happened to them. Yasochika Iemura comments that the technique's healing speed is potentially faster than Isane Kotetsu and his own. However, it is far more powerful than "Temporal Regression" or "Spatial Regression" as it easily tramples into the horizon of events that God has decided. 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 her reiatsu she should have powers very close to his own, therefore she should be able to restore him to his original form even without a shattered fragment. Later, she is fully capable of resurrect the dead. While Orihime can heal wounds quickly, it takes her longer to replenish the patient's Reiatsu. Large amounts of foreign spiritual pressure also make healing more difficult.


 * Koten Zanshun (孤天斬盾, Solitary Sacred Cutting Shield): is Orihime's offensive technique. 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, thus 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.

Trivia

 * According to her character profile by Tite Kubo, her theme song is T'en va pas by Elsa.


 * She ranked 8th in the most recent Bleach popularity poll (she placed highly in previous polls placing 5th, 12th and 10th).
 * Her Shun Shun Rikka came 33rd tying with 2 others in the Zanpakutō popularity poll.
 * The color of Orihime's eyes vary from the manga to the anime. They are shown as brown in the manga while the anime depicts them as silver or gray.