A few months later...
She skidded backwards, sweat running down her face mixed with dirt, blood, and tears. Her blood. Fat tears came streaming down blurring her vision. She didn't have time to heal herself or to think for that matter. She needed to concentrate on the task at hand: to save her best friend Tatsuki and her little cousin. Orihime's shields were hovering above each of them. Both were unconscious. Please wake up, Tatsuki, Akemi...
She swiped her sword at the blurry object ahead of her, grunting loudly as though it might give her more strength. She missed as she swung sloppily and the serpent like demon took the opportunity to swipe at her left arm, claws making shallow cuts on her forearm.
She hissed in pain, "Stop this!"
"Why should I?" the hollow jeered in its inhuman voice. "This is your fault, after all. You made me like this."
"Oniichan...is that really you?" Orihime whispered to herself as she came closer to the hollow. Suddenly, she heard Tatsuki stir and turned around just enough to see out of the corner of her eye that her best friend had woken up.
Tatsuki seemed dazed, but conscious, forcing herself up on her elbows. "Orihime, what's...happ..." Then her voice rose in alarm, "look out!"
Orihime ducked in time. She silently thanks Tatsuki for the warning. She deflected another attack and found her courage, "I can't allow you to kill them!"
She shouted to her friend to run.
Orihime and the hollow were parrying and blocking blows, and she sighed in relief as she looked back to see Tatsuki scoop her cousin up in her arms, retreating. "I'm coming back!" She shouted.
The hollow knocked her sword out of her hand and Orihime yelled out for Tsubaki as she put up a defense shield. Though the shield shattered upon impact, the sprite had managed to slice off a part of the hollow's mask and it provided enough distraction for her to grab her sword.
Looking up, she then fell to her knees with her sword pointed forward. His eyes. Sora's eyes. She was sobbing again, trembling she begged, "Oniichan...please stop..."
It slithered back looking like it was retreating, only to come towards her again moments later. The hollow wriggled closer taking its time to taunt and torture, "You stopped visiting me. You neglected me. Went away. How about joining me? I'll make it less painful."
"I can't join you, oniisan," she pleaded wiping her tears away. She slowly stood up gripping her sword. "I have to protect these people like you once did."
The mask cracked a little more revealing more of Sora's face. It sounded more like him now, "Orihime...why did you leave? Your visits became less and less frequent each year...didn't you care about me?" It stood there now towering in front of her.
"Of course I cared and I always will, but I had to go away to become a shinigami...like you..." replied Orihime.
A rustling came from behind her. "Orihime!" shouted Tatsuki. Upon seeing Orihime's concerned face, the hollow became jealous and attacked, biting Orihime's shoulder tearing flesh. She fell down on her knees again. It started to swerve towards Tatsuki, but a sword slammed into its chest from the back, purifying him instantly.
"I'm sorry Oniichan...I love you," said Orihime as the hollow disappeared before her eyes. She closed her eyes from exhaustion and blood loss, slamming into the ground. Tatsuki ran towards her friend to help her.
In the distance were two pairs of eyes that had been watching this whole exchange, shielding their presence. "Too bad about Acidwire..." one of them said mockingly.
The other one shrugged, "Trash..."
As you can tell..it's AU