Life Is Not A Dream
Chapter Six
A year had passed since Rangiku had been kidnapped. While the news of the kidnapping shocked the people in Karakura Town, most people went on with their lives and everything went back to normal within days if not weeks like nothing ever happened. Except for Sayuri and her family. Sayuri's normal before the kidnapping is not her normal now. Now, a year later Sayuri was once again going around Karakura Town with missing posters with Rangiku's picture and details of the kidnapping on them. She was asking anyone if they had seen her while passing out the missing poster. Next to Sayuri was her husband Kazuya who had day off of work. Neither believed that Rangiku was dead. They kept hope even when the police had long since stopped looking when the case went cold.
"Onii-Sama, Hisana Onee-Sama" Sayuri spotted her older brother and sister in law with their daughter next to them. Sayuri went up to them. "What are you doing here?" She asked, her older brother and his family moved over seas to New York a year ago. Just shortly before Rangiku was kidnapped. She hadn't seen them since they moved, though she did talk to them on the phone every now and then. "Why didn't you call saying you were visiting?"
Hisana and Byakuya looked at each other when they realized they got caught. With a nod Hisana smiled. "We're not visiting. We just moved back. We had a plan to surprise you." They just weren't expecting to run into Sayuri and Kazuya at the mall. They had the whole thing planned out. They were going to call and invite them over for dinner and during that call, they were going to tell them that they moved back when they ask how they were going to come over. However, that surprise wasn't supposed to happen for another few days when they had their house unpacked and ready for visitors.
Sayuri was glad to hear they moved back. Though she wasn't happy they hadn't told her before they moved back when they actually moved back. "You should have told me or Kazuya before hand. That way I can made a welcome back dinner." She then smiled hugging both Byakuya and Hisana. "When did you get back?"
"A week ago." Byakuya said. "We intended to visit when we got back. However, we were busy unpacking and getting Rukia registered for her new school."
"What do you have there?" Eleven year old Rukia pointed to the papers in Sayuri's arms.
"Rukia don't be rude." Byakuya scolded in a low tone.
Sayuri looked at Byakuya and Hisana and then pulled one of the missing posters out to show Rukia. "It's a picture of your cousin, Rangiku. I'm trying to hand these out to as many people as possible so they can find her."
Rukia looked at the missing poster her aunt gave her. Before she moved last year, Rukia and Rangiku were close, but had other interests, so they didn't hang out all the time. When Rukia had found out that Rangiku had been kidnapped last year, she hadn't found out until the next day because of the time difference between Karakura Town and New York and she was already in bed when her aunt called to inform her parents of the kidnapping.
All Rukia remembered from that day on to weeks afterwards was often bugging her parents asking if Rangiku had been found yet. Every time they answered no.
"Anyways are you excited to start school?" Sayuri asked Rukia. "You got everything yet?"
"Yes, I can't wait. Dad says I start Monday." Rukia said excitedly. "I still need a new bag for school."
"We shouldn't keep you long if you have errands." Kazuya said. "Though you should come over later for dinner. My sisters Ami and Fumiko are coming with their families."
"Of course we love to come. What time do you want us there?" Hisana asked. Kazuya gave her the time of when they'll expect them. After that Kazuya and Sayuri parted from Byakuya, Hisana and Rukia who continued their shopping. Sayuri and Kazuya continued passing out the missing posters.
Rangiku sat on the floor at the small table. In front of her was her drawing book and pencil box full of coloring pencils. She was currently drawing the characters Chappy and Momone from a show called Soul Candy. It was one of her favorite shows she used to watch.
The sound of the door opening cause Rangiku to look up to see Gin standing in the door. Rangiku put the color pencils she was using back into the pencil box and closed her drawing book. She stood up waiting to see what Gin wanted her to do. A lot of time he comes to see her is to have sex with her. But sometimes lately, he would just come up to have her take a bath with him or just lay on the bed to cuddle and talk when he has a good day or rant when he has a bad day. Or he does a combination of those things.
As Gin came closer, he bent down. She was waiting to see what he does. He took the cuff off her ankle and stood up. She waited for him to tell her what to do like take off her clothes or wait for him doing that himself. Gin usually only takes the cuff off is when he wants her to take a bath with him. Or when he wants to have sex with her and doesn't want to deal with the chain.
"Come downstairs with me Ran-Chan." Gin commanded as he walked out the door leaving it wide open.
Rangiku stood still. What if this was a trap? What if this was the moment she stepped out of the room she might get punished and the chain put back on? It's been a long time since they punished her. She had been a good girl doing all she could to be on their good side.
Halfway down the stairs, Gin stopped and looked back up smiling. "Come on Ran-Chan."
Scared, Rangiku took a deep breath and slowly walked out. It was weird stepping out of that room. She could feel her heart pounding as she took the first step down. She could see Gin at the bottom of their stairs looking up. Then she took another, then another by grabbing the railing. After what felt like several minutes, Rangiku's feet hit the bottom step and was following Gin around the corner through what looked like a narrow hallway and out the opening at the end.
Walking through that opening, Rangiku found herself in a room with a big bed on the other side of the room. A night stand by the bed with a lamp on it and dirty clothes in a pile on the floor at the end of the bed.
"It's alright." Gin could see the scared look on her face. This was the second time she was in his room. The first time was a year ago for a brief second while he took her upstairs. "Ya not going to be punished." Gin grabbed her hand and half led/dragged her into the living room where Hitomi was sitting. Hitomi smiled upon seeing Ran with Gin.
Confused, Rangiku looked towards the TV. Some kind of show she had never seen before was playing on it. Then she looked back at them. Gin had let go of her hand and sat down on the couch next to Hitomi.
"Ran-Chan since ya have been a good girl, we have decided ya no longer need that cuff on your ankle anymore. And as a bonus we also decided to let ya downstairs when one or both of us are here." Gin began to speak. "But you have to obey the rules or else you'll get punished and the cuff back on."
At that Rangiku gladly nodded. It felt weird having the cuff off, but she had wanted that thing off for a long time. She looked at the TV again. "Can I watch TV?" She asked in a low voice preparing to hear them tell her no, but was surprised when she heard them answered.
"Off course ya can as long as ya follow the rules." Gin started explaining the rules to her. Like she can't leave the house. She also has to start doing chores around the house like a wife normally does for her family. "And ya also have to cook too."
"But I don't know how to cook." Rangiku said without thinking. Her mother used to do all the cooking. The only thing Rangiku could do was use the rice cooker and helped her mother bake cookies and other sweets.
"That's alright." Hitomi smiled sweetly. "I'm going to teach you everything you need to know." Hitomi told Ran as she got up from her seat. "It's about time to start dinner anyways." Hitomi grabbed Ran's hand and led her to the kitchen where she started teaching Ran to cook.
Later after dinner, Toushirou was playing hide and seek with Rukia. He had wanted read like his sixteen year old cousin Nanao was doing, but his mother insisted that he go and play with Rukia. The seven year old didn't have much choice. While they were playing, all the adult were in the living room talking to one another.
Toushirou was currently trying to find a place to hide after he found Rukia hiding in the kitchen. As Rukia stood in the hallway and counted, Toushirou hid under the coffee table in the same room the adults were talking. The said coffee table had a white table cloth on it that cover the whole table and one wouldn't be able to see under it unless one looks under the table cloth.
"How is your mother health Kei?" Kazuya asked his brother in law, Nanao's father.
"I'm afraid her health isn't approving." Kei said. His mother had been sick for over a year. He had her moved to a nursing home close to his place where she could get better care with her illness. While he and Fumiko could keep an eye on her.
While the men chatted, Sayuri opened a new bottle of wine and pour herself a glass along with Hisana, Ami and Fumiko. "I want to thank you coming. You don't know how this means to me." Sayuri said. Having her family there meant everything to her during this time. Kazuya who was sitting next to her held her hand gently. Of course she had her biggest supporter she could ever have next to her.
"Of course I told you, i'm always here for you." Ami said. Ami was Sayuri's best friend and would do anything for her. And vice versa if Ami was in Sayuri's situation.
"That goes for us too." Hisana said. She and her husband wished they could have been have been there for Sayuri and Kazuya for the past year. At that time, they had just moved and Byakuya couldn't even help unpack because as soon as they got there, Byakuya had to work right away. The only way Hisana could be there was by calling almost every day for the first few months and then a couple times a month afterwards.
Once Rukia counted to ten, she began searching throughout the house. They were allowed to play throughout the house as long as they didn't break anything or went into certain rooms. If the door was closed, that room was forbidden. While Rukia wanted to enter the forbidden rooms, she promised her mother that she would be good and play with Toushirou. Not to mentioned she wanted to get back at Toushirou for finding her so fast. But to her disappointment, it seemed that finding him was not going to be easy. The house was big, but not as large as her house. After ten minutes of not finding Toushirou, Rukia was about to give up when she saw Nanao walking to her.
"Your mother said it's time to leave." Nanao had her book in her hands. Everyone was getting ready to go. She had been asked to find Rukia.
"But I haven't found Toushirou yet." Rukia's cheeks puffed out.
"He's under the coffee table with the adults." Nanao watched the realization hit Rukia and the young girl ran to the living room. She walked in behind her to see Rukia look under the coffee table.
"I didn't see you go under there." Hiro said laughing as Toushirou finally crawled out. "Toushirou get ready. It's time to go home." With a slight nod from his son, Toushirou went off. "Kazuya, Sayuri call if you need anything. Ami and I are here for you."
"Thank you everyone." Kazuya bowed. Soon everyone left leaving him alone with Sayuri. He sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"I love you." Sayuri leaned into him. "I believe we're going to find her soon."
Rangiku and Hitomi were doing to after dinner dishes. Hitomi washed while Rangiku dried the dishes and afterwards Hitomi help showed where the clean dishes go.
"Starting tomorrow, i'm going to show you how to do all the chores in the house." Hitomi said and Rangiku nodded. "Nii-San we're done for the night." Hitomi said when she and Rangiku went from the kitchen to the living room where Gin was sitting on the couch watching a baseball game.
"Good, come here Ran-Chan." Gin motioned her to come to him.
Rangiku slowly walked over and Gin grabbed her by her waist and had her sitting on his lap. Rangiku wasn't very comfortable, but it wasn't like she could move anyways, Gin had his arms around her waist while his eyes were glued to the TV.