"It has been many years for me, then," Orihime said, her voice barely above a whisper. "My friends...I wonder if they looked for me." A tear slipped down her cheek. "I disappeared before. I was kidnapped. Well, not kidnapped, but I was told if I didn't go my friends would be killed." More tears fell. "Kurosaki-kun, Ishida-kun, Sado-kun, Kuchiki-chan, Abari-kun...they all looked for me. They found me, and they brought me home two years ago...five years ago..."
She stopped and used the back of her hand to wipe away the tears, but they would not stop flowing. Gone. It had been 2006 when she left. She'd been gone five years. What had it done to her friends? Had they looked for her? Did they assume Aizen had escaped and taken her away again? Did they stop looking for her when they realized she wasn't in Hueco Mundo or Soul Society or any place they could search? She suddenly felt very empty inside and terribly alone.