Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they all belong to the wonderful Tite Kubo; with the exception of Ramona and a few others to come (they are indeed figments of my own imagination).

Author notes: Voices written Like this belong to otherworldly beings. Roles will sometimes reverse with Orihime's voice as this and the otherworldly being's voice written normally. Dreams, visions, or thoughts will be written 'in this manner.'

Big Brother

'It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining the sky was blue and everyone seemed to be out enjoying it.

"Mama can I go outside?" The small girl played with her long orange pigtails, in anticipation for a response. There wasn't one so she tried again.

"Mama can I go play outside?" She smiled as the woman finally acknowledged her. The woman was tall and slim. Her short orange hair shimmered as the sun hit it. She turned her head, her reddened brown eyes staring intently at the little girl standing before her.

"Come here." The woman smiled as she beckoned the girl to come closer. The little girl returned the smile as she happily skipped over to her mother. She felt that today was one of the good days.

The woman picked up a cup which held a brown liquid within it. She took a sip and then held out the cup to the little girl.

"You can go outside if you finish this." The brown substance was always in the cups of both of the girl's parents. It's what she believed made them turn into monsters.

The girl timidly spoke up. "Sora said that that's grownup juice. I can't drink grownup juice it'll make me sick."

The smile faded from the woman's lips, and she gulped down the rest of the drink. She slammed down the glass onto the table and disgustedly eyed the young girl.

"Why the fuck are you out of your room!?"

The little girl blinked the tears away as she turned to flee. She had hoped today would have been a good day, one where her mother would sing and play with her like she used too. She never knew which mother she'd come in contact with, but every day she hoped it was the nice one.

The woman grabbed one of the girl's pigtails and pulled on it preventing the girl from running off.

"This is what happens when you disobey mommy!" The woman dragged the girl as she looked for a pair of scissors. She snickered as she finally found a pair and then proceeded to cut off the left pigtail, leaving the girl with short hair on one side and long on the other.

The little girl cried as her mother held up the damage for her to see. She ran back up the stairs to her room where she planned on staying for the rest of the day.

She sat on the windowsill waiting for her savior to come home. The sun started to set and the streets became empty as most of the kids ventured indoors. The girl peeked her head up in excitement as a car pulled up in front of the house. She sadly laid her head back down when she seen that it was only her father. The man clumsily walked down the path towards the house swinging his black suitcase as he whistled a tune. As soon as the door closed, the arguing resumed as if they agreed to continue where they'd left off this morning.

Orihime this Orihime that, the young girl heard her name being yelled within the commotion.

"I keep telling you to send the damn girl to go live with your sister! The boy is old enough to take care of himself!" The man ran his fingers through his dark brown hair as he continued yelling at the woman.

"No, that bitch already thinks that she's so much better than me! I can take care of my own damn kids!" The woman slid down the short blue dress that she was now wearing, making it more revealing.

"Get over here! I get to have you first before the others." The man forcefully grabbed the woman and brought her closer towards him.

The arguing quieted down, and Orihime slowly fell asleep along the windowsill.

"Orihime! Orihime!" The little girl awakened to her name being whispered. She smiled and hugged the young boy as she tried not to cry. Sora looked the girl over to access the damage, but was relieved to see that it was only her hair. He refrained from talking about it, not wanting to upset the already saddened girl.

"Big bro is going to take you on a little trip okay. I need you to quietly put a few of your toys into this bag." Sora blew a sigh of relief at the thought of getting himself and his sister out of this hostile environment. He was now old enough to become Orihime's legal guardian. He had been out all day finalizing the purchase of a house that he had spent more than a year saving money for. Although it seemed like their father despised them, he knew that somewhere deep down his mother cared for them dearly Sora knew that if she knew about his plans to take Orihime away from her, she'd try her best to stop them. He had planned to take care of the legal proceedings after getting Orihime away from this environment. His only regret would be that he had not made it here soon enough to prevent what his mother had done to the young girl's hair. Her small little brown eyes were puffy, a sign that she had cried most of the day. Sora held the little girl's hand as they both walked out of the house they hoped to never return to.'

"Onii-san, have you seen Aka?" Yuzu peeked underneath the table next to Ichigo's feet.

"I was going to take him for a walk but I can't seem to find him anywhere." Yuzu saddened at the thought that he may have ran away.

"Karin headed out earlier she may have taken him along." Ichigo smiled as her frown vanished.

"Yeah you're probably right, but just to be safe I'll keep looking around." Yuzu hummed a little tune as she leaped up the steps. She had looked all over the house for Aka except for one place, Orihime's room.

The door to the orange haired woman's room was open. Yuzu peeked inside and seen that no one was there.

"Aka? Aka here boy!" Yuzu waited for a response but didn't receive one.

She let out a sigh and decided to tidy up the room a bit. She knew that Orihime wasn't feeling good and knew that the least she could do was clean up her room, she was after all still a guest in their home. Yuzu picked up many shirts and other clothing off of the floor and placed them into a nearby laundry bin. After that was done she decided that some sweeping would do so she raced to get a broom and continue cleaning.

As she swept under the computer desk, she spotted a beautiful necklace with what appeared to be a crescent moon on it. Little unreadable symbols were all over the moon as it glowed an eerily green glow. Yuzu picked it up and hurriedly placed it on the desk as she felt a burning sensation from it.

"Well that was weird." Yuzu shrugged and continued sweeping until something else caught her eye. She gasped and dropped the broom. The object glistened underneath the young woman's bed. Yuzu reached under the bed to grab what she so wanted to believe wasn't in fact what she thought it was. She cringed as she held up the expensively beautiful collar. Its black gems shimmered in the sunlight.

"I-I can't believe this! No...no Orihime wouldn't do this!" As much as Yuzu wanted to believe that Orihime didn't steal it, in her heart it rang true. Yuzu knew that she had to confront her about this but couldn't ready herself to do so. "When she comes home I'll talk to her about this."

Yuzu stood up to leave with the collar in hand. As she neared the door, she noticed tiny scratch marks at the bottom of it. Yuzu did most of the house cleaning, and hadn't seen these marks before. What made it suspicious was that they were on the inside as if something wanted badly to get out of the room.

Yuzu began to frantically search the room believing that Aka was somewhere in there.

'What if Aka ate something bad and was lying somewhere sick, or what if he's hurt, or...' Yuzu shook her head as if she was trying to rid herself of those negative thoughts.

'He's probably asleep somewhere, or maybe Karin did take him with her.' Yuzu called out for him as loud as she could but there was no response. She began to walk out of the room, when she heard a noise coming from the closet. It sounded like a faint whimper. Yuzu raced towards the closet and slid it open. There was nothing there besides a few clothes and a large blue duffel bag. Just then the duffel bag moved as if something was inside of it. She slowly unzipped the bag and screamed in distress at what she saw.

"What's wrong Yuzu!?" Ichigo had heard his sister scream and raced to her aid.

"It's Aka!" The small puppy was wrapped around in a tangle of rope, and had a muzzle secured around his mouth. Yuzu hurriedly freed the small puppy who was too weak to show his excitement upon seeing her. She carried him in her arms downstairs to further examine him.

Ichigo knew that this was Orihime's doing. He just couldn't understand why she would do such a thing.

'Maybe he bit her...but what she did...she definitely overreacted.' Ichigo rubbed his face with his hands and groaned.

"I'm going to find out what's going on." He opened the window to let the faint yet welcoming breeze enter. He then sat upon Orihime's bed, ready to wait for her return.

"She's going to tell me everything." He crossed his arms in a matter of fact way and began impatiently waiting for the orange haired maiden.

Author's Notes:

I apologize for my long hiatus. I am back and ready to see this through to the end. Thanks to all of you who are still going along this journey with me. *kisses*