Orihime Inoue vs. Numb Chandelier

Orihime Inoue vs. Numb Chandelier is a fight that takes place during the Agent of Shinigami Arc.

Prelude
Uryū Ishida has challenged Ichigo to a duel in order to find out which is better between Shinigami and Quincy. The idea is that he attracts Hollows using a bait and then the competition is judged by how many Hollow each of them defeats, the one with the highest number destroyed, wins. However, things take a bad turn and much more Hollows than the two of them can handle, without anybody getting hurt, show up. While at school with her friends Tatsuki Arisawa andChizuru Honshō as they clean up broken glass shards, Orihime's spiritually heightened senses tells her that something is wrong and that danger is approaching them.

Fight
In order to protect her friends, Orihime decides to try and rush them from the scene, claiming that there was a television programme she had wanted to watch at home, while pushing her friends away from the school, just as a Hollow appears on the roof. Orihime is the only one out of her friends present who can see the attacker and recognises that it is dangerous and she has to get her friends out of there. Both Ichigo and Uryǔ are too far away to help. The Hollow has enough time to disappear while Orihime is distracted by Chizuru and Tatsuki getting into an altercation about Chizuru's attraction to Orihime. Remembering she needed to change into her uniform, Tatsuki informs Orihime she'll be back when she does so but Orihime calls for her to return as she realises the Hollow can become invisible at will. Numb Chandelier works out the Orihime can see it just as Orihime calls for Chizuru to run away. Before Orihime can get her friends to escape, the Hollow releases high speed projectiles from its body that crash down around Orihime, smashing windows of the school and injuring the left shoulder of Chizuru, who doesn't know what has happened but still appears cheerful and flirty despite bleeding. However, moments later, she grabs Orihime around the throat with her left hand, confused why her hand is behaving in such a way. The Hollow reveals that she dislikes conflict so her seeds control their victims so that it doesn't have to get involved. Other students appear on the scene, all appartently under the Hollow's control as it aims to have them destroy one another.

The Hollow sends many of Orihime's classmates after her and it is not long before she is overwhelmed by their numbers, but she is saved by the arrival of Tatsuki who demands to know what they are doing and apologising for not recognising the dangerous presence of Numb Chandelier sooner, although she can't see the Hollow clearly. She then calls out to the Hollow, telling it that it had made a grave error in coming after Orihime and making her cry since she usually beats up anybody that does it. Tatsuki then proceeds to defeat every student under the Hollow's influence, one by one with hardly any effort. The Hollow shrugs this off and every student gets back up and attacks once more Chizuru's presence among the horde momentarily distracts Tatsuki as she begs her friends to run before attacking. The distraction allows the students to surprise Tatsuki and overwhelm her as well, allowing the Hollow to become joyous. As the Hollow begins to ponder ways of having Tatsuki kill herself, she has the other students crush Orihime's pleas. Despite being hit by seeds, Tatsuki fights the control and bites Numb Chandelier after telling her to shut up. The Hollow becomes enraged and hits Tatsuki with more seeds, with on embedding itself in the girl's head as she falls. Orihime rushes over to her only to be kicked in the stomach by her friend casuing blood to spurt for her mouth.

Orihime then reflects on the three years of friendship between her and Tatsuki and how her friend had always looked out for her and that she was grateful for it and being able to keep her hair long all the while as Tatsuki continues to kick her while crying. The site of Tatsuki's tears results in Orihime vowing to protect her for once and thus, Orihime's powers are born as she declares that she will not forgive those that hurt Tatsuki. Its the Hollow that draws Orihime's attention to the six little spirits flying around her who introduce themselves as the Shun Shun Rikka. While Shun'ǒ tries to patiently explain their presence to Orihime, Tsubaki gets a little impatient and kicks him before demanding that all she needs to know is how to control them. Numb Chandelier starts to become impatient and with her spirits' guidance, Orihime is able to use her Santen Kesshun for the first time, combining the powers of Hinagiku, Baigon and Lily to create a shield to repel the incoming seeds from the Hollow. With further guidance she is able to use Sǒten Kisshun to combine Ayame and Shun'ǒ in order to heal Tatsuki's wounds. Tsubaki gets even more imaptient, forcing her to use him as her last and only offensive technique, Koten Zanshun in order to defeat a confused Numb Chandelier and end the battle, saving her friends.

Aftermath
Orihime immediately collapses after using her powers after acknowledging that she did it, while Shun'ǒ surmmises this is due to her using them all at once on her first try. Her powers return to their true form of her hair clips as Orihime rests.Kisuke Urahara then appears with Tessai Tsukabishi, who is carrying an unconscious Chad upon his back. They are taken to The Urarhara Shop where Urahara explains their powers to them and the connection those powers have to Ichigo. Urahara then requests that but Chad and Orihime follow him. He leads them to a place that is a safe distance away from the many Hollows and Menos Grande that are moving towards Ichigo and Uryǔ. From their vantage point they observe the battle as Orihime reflects on why Urahara had brought them there. She then realizes that it may be because, in time, Orihime and Chad would have to make a difficult choice about what to do with these powers that they had been given and how to use them.

Trivia

 * The fight is censored somewhat in the Anime. For example, Chizuru was forced to grab Orihime's wrist in their struggle, where as it was her neck in the Manga. Also, the seeds exploded upon contact and exuded a green liquid over the victim. This doesn't happen in the Manga, instead the liquid is tested to be the blood of the victim and a seed sticks out the side of Tatsuki's forehead.