A trip to Disneyland? Yay~!

[lunch_princess]

At first, Orihime was simply puzzled why Disneyland was suddenly before her, but soon that was forgotten and she filled her head with the many wonderful things she could do and eat there. Then, of course, she noticed the mouse and cat....

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[kuchiki]

At first, Rukia almost doesn't believe her ears. She almost thinks she's been here so long and has become so homesick for Karakura that she's imagining things. But if Ichigo had really been here, then maybe Orihime was as well. Deciding to go to greet the girl just in case she's not an auditory hallucination, Rukia is still shocked to find Orihime there.

"Inoue?" she says questioningly. "Are you all right?"

[lunch_princess]

Well, speak of the devil~! Not that Orihime knew that phrase, and she'd probably get it mixed up if she did, thinking it sounded better another way.

Back to the point, Orihime thinks Rukia is also a desperate hallucination of her own making, so she blinks for a moment, then grins happily with, "Kuchiki-san~!" deciding to greet any creation of her mind, because a made-up Rukia was better than no friends at all.

"So nice to see a familiar face. That means we can go on rides together in my mind~!" And wait! If Rukia was there then - so Orihime's logic deduces - Ichigo must be too. At once, she starts looking around for him.

[kuchiki]

"In your mind?" Rukia's not really surprised that Orihime thinks this is a dream. Well, actually, she kind of is. It's a bit of a logical conclusion by Orihime's standards.

Still, Rukia knows it's better to set Orihime straight now sooner rather than later. "Inoue, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're not dreaming. You're really at Disneyland. No one knows how we got here or when we're leaving."

[lunch_princess]

Instead of deterred by this information, Orihime is only happier at the thought of it being real and happily claps her hangs together with an enthusiastic, "Yay! That means we can really go on rides together."

All of that dissipates inwardly when she wonders where Ichigo is, but outwardly, she stills smiles. That is, she smiles until something else crosses Orihime's mind.

"Wait," she says taking a step back and looking skywards, "but what if my mind sent you to say that to convince me this is real?"

[kuchiki]

Rukia looked skywards too, just to see if Orihime was seeing something she wasn't. When there was nothing there, though, she looked back at the other girl.

If you can't beat her, join her. Rukia tries to appeal to Orihime-brand "logic" by saying, "Orihime, why would your mind do that? I don't think you have the kind of mind that plays tricks on you. Your mind is a sweet mind."

[lunch_princess]

"Sweet?" Orihime says in return, looking surprised for a moment. Then it's all smiles again at the obvious compliment from Rukia. Only.... "I wonder if it would taste like chocolate? Hmmm...."

[kuchiki]

"...I don't know," Rukia admits. "I'm not sure brains taste very good unless you're a zombie."

[lunch_princess]

"Maybe we should become zombies then~!" Orihime suggests. "Then we can find out what they taste like."

[kuchiki]

Keeping up with Orihime's brain is tiring work. "I don't want to be a zombie, though," Rukia pointed out. "A zombie showed up when I first got here, and she didn't really do much besides try to attack people. She was really slow and not very smart."

[lunch_princess]

Orihime waves it off with, "You don't have to be a zombie, Kuchiki-san." And perhaps the world should be grateful she didn't start envisioning herself as one, but instead turned her attention to, "Is Kurosaki-kun here?"

[kuchiki]

And then the question that Rukia had been dreading but of course had been expecting came.

"He... he was," said Rukia, slowly and sadly. "For a while. But he's not, anymore."

[lunch_princess]

Inwardly, Orihime felt sad and almost let down - she had been hoping the whole time that maybe, just maybe, he could be there too. On the surface, however, she grins for Rukia and just changes the subject.

"It's just us, then? No other people here? That'll be great, though. We'll have all of the rides to ourselves!"

[kuchiki]

Rukia laughed a little. Same old Inoue. She knew that Ichigo not being here probably had to make the girl sad, but you'd never know it to look at her. "We're not alone," she told Orihime. "There are a lot of people here. I am the only one from Karakura, though."

...Wait. From Karakura? Since when was Rukia from Karakura?

She was from Soul Society.

[lunch_princess]

If Orihime caught Rukia's slip, she didn't say anything. Or maybe she did and decided this just meant Rukia was meant to be from Karakura - whatever it was, she passed over it.

"Maybe other people will show up from there, then," Orihime says, then takes in a deep breath and looks around. "So does Mickey and the cat have anymore questions for me? Or was that it? What happens after the questions? And how many new friends have you made?" She didn't want to think Rukia had been lonely there.

[kuchiki]

"That's the last of the questions," Rukia told her. "At least from Mickey. Some of the other residents might have questions for you, and they'll come up to talk to you and get to know you. Then Mickey will let you into the park and assign you a land where you'll get your mail. The whole process takes roughly an hour or two."

As for how many friends she'd made... Rukia smiled a little. "I've made a few. There are some very nice people here." And some not-so-nice ones, but Rukia would tell Orihime about them later.

[lunch_princess]

"That's not very long then. Just a little longer than a class at school," Orihime calculated, wondering if that's what this was. "Are classes at Disneyland more fun than the ones back home?"

Back to Rukia and her friends - Orihime could see it, Rukia with flower chains around her neck laughing with people Orihime didn't know, so they all lacked faces, but soon became flowers. Whichever it was, clearly Rukia would have done some bonding while there, and, now, Orihime decided they should too. After all, they were there, Ichigo wasn't, and after her interesting bath time with Matsumoto, Orihime was under the impression bathing = bonding.

Sooo, under that logic, Orihime, seemingly apropos nothing, said, "We should take a bath together~! After the rides."