Small disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did, I would be rich. Rich, I say!
UPDATE: Thanks to a reviewer, it has come to my attention that there is a work of fanart that is similar to this fic. I didn't know such a fanart even existed! So please don't think this has anything to do with any fanart, because it really doesn't. It's purely coincidental. Thanks!
She'd grown accustomed to the way people lived around there. It was startling how similar the people were to the ones she'd left behind back home. The thing that still got her was the architecture. The edo period style of the outlying districts was more comfortable to her than the sparse stone structures of the Seireitei. The white and grey buildings rose from the earth like monoliths, the structures growing larger and taller toward the center. They made her feel small, like the child she used to be not too long ago.
On her first day there, she found herself winding through the maze-like thoroughfares, trying not to look around with eyes wide like saucers the way her peers tended to. This place was very different from the shino academy she'd invested the past eight years of her life in, but she wasn't about to let that show in her eyes. Unlike many of the new recruits, she knew exactly where she was going. She'd practiced this journey in her mind a hundred times.
She was going to surprise an old friend.
This was a big damn deal.
After all, she'd navigated these past years carefully. She was staying under his radar if it killed her. She'd gotten a good starting position with Squad Eleven, knowing she'd be able to hold her own just fine with the hot-headed types that tended to gravitate toward that division. She also worked to keep her name quiet; which proved to be a heroically difficult task, considering her brother's fame. Eight years had felt like an eternity to her, because her mind still operated on Living World time. Time like that moved in the blink of an eye to most everyone else, but patience was still a costly virtue to her. Like her sense of time, her essence had remained the same after her passing. Her brother even noted once or twice that she hadn't allowed her circumstances to change her at all. He was wrong, of course.
It had all happened so fast, she was bound to retain pieces of herself. Her memories of the life before remained clear like an unstirred pool of water in her mind. The last day in her life before had been a mundane one. She had just been waiting for the train with her sister, the two planning to head to the city to find a birthday gift for their brother. Sometimes she could still hear the metallic clink of the coins in her wallet as Yuzu counted them, adding up their combined funds. That final memory would forever be the strongest one.
But things became choppy near the end. Shuffling footsteps, a cry that pierced through the veil of the crowd murmuring on the platform. There was the tear-streaked face of a child as they cut through the crowd, in the midst of a fit. The shouts of her pursuing mother were drowned out by the blaring of a horn from the approaching train. The noise seemed to swallow Karin whole as she watched the scene unfold. There was a gasp and a loud smacking sound as the child attempted to skid to a halt before the end of the platform, and an even larger collective groan as they failed.
All Karin needed to see was the kid's pin wheeling arms as they flew forward onto the tracks. She hadn't even thought to say anything to her sister before she sprang off of the platform after the child. The train's horn sounded more like a low-pitched scream echoing through the building and the ground hummed beneath her feet. She scooped the child up, shoving them back onto the platform roughly and into the arms of a grateful mother. But no good deed goes unpunished. The last thing her living eyes saw was a blinding light, the scream of the train melding with the screams of the onlookers until none of it made sense to her anymore.
It wasn't exactly an ideal way to go, but hey, it wasn't boring.
Her brother guided her to the next world himself, insisting than allowing her to lose her memory through konso would only add insult to the injury of loss. He took it pretty hard, but he hadn't shut down the way Yuzu had. Karin still had trouble sleeping at night when she thought about it. So she gave herself a goal to work toward, for morale's sake. She was going to make a grand entrance to a not-so-grand friend. And that goal was what drove her for the following years. To see that look on his face -to have him know that she'd avoided his detection for so long and fooled the boy genius- would be oh so satisfying.
After all of the fuss, the time had come. She entered the barracks she'd once been shown in secret by an all too willing Fukutaicho, and held her breath as she navigated the wide halls of the division. The heavy wooden doors marked the finish line for her and she vaguely wondered what she would set her sights on next once this was through. Fingers wrapped white-knuckle around the brass door fixture and she yanked it open roughly without even knocking. The door slid open with a loud shuffle and the fabric of her new black shihakusho rustled as she stepped into the office.
After everything that had changed, he looked the same. She couldn't help but find some small foothold of comfort in that, as stupid as that may have been. It was almost as if she could just pretend it was like the old days; just the two of them wandering around together after one of her soccer games. He didn't even look up from his paperwork as she approached his desk.
"Finally decided to finish up your work, huh?"
He thought she was his fukutaicho. This would be delicious. A small smirk blossomed across her lips and she leaned forward, placing one hand down on either side of his paper work. The wood grain of his desk was cool to the touch, and as his teal eyes flickered up to meet hers the temperature in the room dropped perceptibly. Her lips parted as she recited the greeting she'd decided on long ago.
"Hey, Toshiro. I'm dead."
AN: This was originally written as a characterization exercise, hence why the ending is so open-ended. I just posted it in case anyone would like to read it. Meh. I may expand it into a two or three shot story.