Looking at Orihime, I could feel something building inside me. Guilt, envy, fear… the essence of humanity… only to be snatched away from me a moment later.

My life was taken from me, and this was what had followed. I lingered for her, for I could never leave her to be alone.

But overtime, she seemed to forget about me, and a darkness grew inside my very soul. Anger welled deep inside me, and my form changed at pace with my heart. An evil had taken root inside of me, unbeknownst to myself. Traces of fear and anger sped the pace, and soon I was no longer who I once was.

My name was Sora, that I could hold onto… but only when I looked into Orihime's eyes. My sister. My reason for lingering any longer.

I tried to think that for such a time, that she was my only time. But truly, I couldn't imagine leaving her. I tried to think I didn't need her, but I do. I did. I always will.

It was too late.

The fight we had that day I died, rings in my mind like a bell that refuses to dull.

Oh and how I miss Orihime. I felt a groan escape my lips, as I fall to the ground upon my knees. Urges and angers that were not my own were taking hold, and then I lost myself.

I could see Orihime, the fear in her eyes. And guilt overtook me, for it was my own selfish desires that held me here. My own choices that put her in this unspeakable danger. I couldn't control my actions, and I feared she may be injured if I couldn't gain the control I had lost.

I pull myself, full force, away from her. My body impacting against a wall in the process. I could feel a glimmer of my humanity return, and I looked into her eyes for what I wished was forever.

Don't let me lose this war… Orihime, I willed her to hear.

The fear, the shock, the betrayal in her eyes was clear. I felt myself drift at the moment our eye contact broke. When the boy I'd seen her with previously entered. I couldn't lose a battle to this… soul reaper. I couldn't leave. I needed to be here… for Orihime.

A cry escaped my lips, and I grabbed her, escaping his damning grasp.

I forced her, willed her, to look into my eyes. And see ME. See Sora, her brother, who she had once loved so dearly.

This wouldn't last forever, and it didn't.

I had hurt her, I had failed her. I'm so sorry Orihime…

But suddenly, in the face of the Soul Reaper, I became myself again. I was Sora.

Joy should have overtaken me, but it was unspoken and known, that this wouldn't last long. I knew this was goodbye, and from the tears in her eyes, she knew the same.

Tears slid down my face as I recalled broken promises and shattered dreams, and then… I was no more.