Inoue Orihime [TRIAL UNTIL 13/08/2017]

n/a || female || heterosexual || seventeen

APPEARANCE

PERSONALITY

On the surface, Orihime is your typical bubbly teenager. Hardly without a smile on her face, enthusiasm and positivity practically exude through her pores – which can admittedly be as annoying as it is infectious. Her sunny disposition stems from a genuine positive outlook on life and a tendency towards the more naïve side of the spectrum when it comes to viewing the world around her. She may appear clueless at times, and indeed there are some things that just fly right over Orihime's head – but it isn't ignorance so much as naiveté. It is her innocence and purity that are most notable in her characteristics, giving her a childlike quality that makes her seem both sincere and incredibly breakable.

Other childlike qualities are her unfortunate lack of coordination and impressive imagination. She has the sense of balance of a toddler, often tripping over things (herself included) and walking into things when her attention happens to be directed towards something much more pressing. Oftentimes, her clumsiness piques when she is particularly nervous, most notably when she happens to be around a certain crush of hers. She can at least excel in the imagination and creativity department, evident in her hobbies like Handicrafts Club and inventing different sports that she and her friends can play. She'd even once predicted her “future self” as a vicious robot (complete with missile-launching breasts) for a simple school assignment. Though there are times that her over-active imagination can hinder or distract her from actually accomplishing anything productive, it is also that very imagination and ingenuity that has saved her life and the lives of her friends on more than one occasion.

Despite being a bit flaky at times, her loyalty and love for her friends are unwavering. For Orihime, there is nothing more important than the safety and happiness of her friends. She has shown on more than one occasion that she is more than willing to sacrifice her own personal safety and happiness for the sake of her friends. Indeed, this self-sacrificial behavior seems to be her reflexive reaction in such situations. Rather than try to approach the problem and solve it in a way that might benefit (or at the very least, reprieve) all parties involved, Orihime tends to default to the only solution that puts herself at risk in one way or another. It's instinctive for her. She thinks less about the consequences when she is the only one to suffer with them, because her goal is to protect a loved one and so it is only that loved one's well being that becomes a priority.

This behavior may stem from her insecurities and how she generally views herself. While not necessarily self-deprecating, Orihime doesn't exactly possess that much confidence in herself. From her physical features to her self-worth to her ability as a fighter, Orihime's opinions of herself are either less than favorable or average at best. While many would argue she's got the body of a Greek Goddess, Orihime is actually a little embarrassed by her “assets.” She's definitely got it, but she makes it a point not to flaunt it. She's never particularly considered herself very attractive or desirable, and the idea actually makes her more embarrassed than anything else. (Certainly, she's more than a little blind to all the attention thrown her way. For Orihime, it just doesn't make sense why anyone would notice her, so she just doesn't see it.) In the case of her skills, her time at Las Noches has definitely improved her perception of them. Though she still considers herself rather weak in terms of aggressive fighting (because, indeed, her empathy and compassion ultimately prevent her from becoming a true fighter at heart), Orihime is at least now more aware of her worth as a defensive position in battle. At the same time, though she has been literally told to possess the abilities that violates even the realms of Gods, it has hardly gone to her head.

Indeed, she could very well be more powerful than even Aizen could have ever predicted, but it is her heart and her compassion that prevents her from being as ruthless as she needs to be to achieve this power. She is a lover, not a fighter, and prefers to avoid confrontations of any sort as much as she can. She forgives easily (unless a loved one's safety is on the line) and would prefer to spare as many lives as possible, even if they so happened to be the lives of her so-called enemies.

Orihime is not without her contradictions. Despite her ditsy, naïve personality, Orihime constantly maintains one of the top marks in her class at school. She is clumsy and uncoordinated, but is shown to be quite skilled with her hands as an avid member of the Handicrafts Club.

Since the timeskip, we see Orihime has matured as a combatant. While still the pacifist, her past experiences and training have definitely strengthened her mentally as well as physically/spiritually. She still readily throws herself into danger to protect another but she shows signs of critical and strategic planning rather than rushing into action. Granted, she is still a little rusty with this (evidenced by her hasty use of Santen Kesshun with Tsukishima), but she now seems to possess more confidence in herself and her abilities. This confidence comes from her desire to keep up with and protect Ichigo, to whom she confesses that she and Sado had believed all along that he would one day regain his powers. She tells him it's their wish to no longer be a burden to him, and so they'd been training all this time to be stronger, for him.

HISTORY