Hello! And thank you for checking out my fic. I hope you enjoy it ^^
I just want to say a couple things before you start. First, and most importantly, THERE ARE LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS! From both the manga and the anime! INCLUDING THE ENDING OF BLEACH! INCLUDING IN THIS INTRODUCTION AFTER THIS POINT. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED
Now, I am mostly an IchiRuki shipper (along with IchiSenna) but I respect Kubo's writing and ending the series with IchiHime and RenRuki. If you are an avid IchiRuki and hate IchiHime's guts, but you really wanna read some HitsuKarin. FEAR NOT! This is not an IchiHime centered fic! I do my best to only reference their relationships and I almost poke fun at it. For those who are Avid IchiHime Shippers, FEAR NOT! There still is some bits of fluffs and Easter eggs and such, but please do take note. THIS IS A HITSUKARIN CENTERED FIC! Anything and everything else are just extras~
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME! Please enjoy my fic :3c
"Come on, kid!" A dark haired young woman ordered, her hand wrapped tightly around another, much smaller hand. "You have to keep running!"
"B-but, Lady!" The little boy whined, sweat pouring down his face. The sound of rattling metal links clinked with each step he took. "Please, I can't run anymore!" He cried, looking up at the woman with big, watery, amber eyes.
The woman turned, her shoulder blade length hair trailing behind her. Only a few drops of sweat trickled down her long, pale neck, but it was enough to make her bangs stick to her forehead. "I'll carry you, then." She grouched, slowing her run and bending down with her back to the little boy. "Hurry, we can't stay stopped for too long! It'll catch up with us!" The child sniffled and trembled with fear, but climbed onto the woman's back, wrapping his arms around her shoulders for dear life.
The twenty-three-year-old wasted no time as she stood up and once again began running down the filled sidewalks of Karakura Town, Japan. People yelled at her as she sprinted through the crowds for being rude, but she ignored them. She had to get away or this kid was going to be in big trouble.
"Hey, Lady-!" The boy squeaked, tapping on her shoulder.
"Stop calling me that, I already told you what my name is!" The fourth-year shot back, turning down a side street away from the crowded sidewalk. Stupid work schedules, stupid weather. Of course everyone was walking home from work on such a nice day! Sweat started to move down her neck at an accelerated rate. The dark haired, dark-eyed girl knew that her cutesy-nice-spring-post-gym-workout outfit was going to be soaked with sweat after this.
Her tall, dark socks covered her strong calf muscles, she wore a pair of black spandex underneath her dark gray pleated skirt. She didn't need to wear her varsity jacket like a typical soccer player with her ranking would, but instead a red tank top with due to the warmer weather. She had the body of a professional athlete, lean and strong. She was the pride of Karakura University's soccer team and Medical major, Karin Kurosaki.
"LADY!" The boy screamed, looking behind him. Karin jumped at the cry, suddenly feeling deaf in one ear from the volume. She snapped her head to see what he was looking at.
Her eyes widened, her lips parting with shock. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" She hissed, turning back around and tried to pick up her speed. Not-so-luckily-for-her, today's outfit didn't consist of comfy running shoes. Her flats couldn't handle her speed.
Karin suddenly lurched forward, she felt as if she slipped on wet grass. Her left shoe flew off her foot as she and the boy she carried found themselves tumbling onto the dark pavement. The soccer play cried out in pain as hot-white pain flashed before her eyes, her chin slamming with full force into the stone ground.
She heard the kid screaming and crying, but he sounded as if he was miles away. She couldn't hear him clearly, like he had several scarves around his face that absorbed any words that came from his mouth. She, no, they had to get moving again. She wasn't going to let that kid get eaten by that moster.
But, man, did her face hurt.
Karin groaned, flipping herself over, opening her eyes up the slightest bit. The clear sky was a brilliant blue. There were a few couple of puffy, white clouds that decorated it's emptiness. A plane moved through the empty space far above her.
"K-kid, we gotta get going…" The young adult said weakly, trying to sit up herself up. Her head was spinning and her face was throbbing. She looked up, her vision like a fogged up windshield: unclear. "...kid?" She asked, blinking a few times, trying to blink the immense pain away. It hurt to talk.
There was a big black figure walking towards a very small figure. Karin couldn't tell what was happening, her head was hurting so much, even worse than the time she got that major concussion during the championship her first year of highschool. She closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing as her face. She looked down at her hand, seeing that it came away wet with crimson red. She looked back up at the road, seeing both the big figure and the tiny figure gone. But there was a new figure, and it was coming closer, and closer, and closer still, the sounds of a horn from far away deafened by a thick cloak, wait a second-
Everything went black.
"Someone, help! Oh, God, SOMEONE HELP!" A new voice shouted.
Karin opened her eyes, the pain in her head gone. She sat up, rubbing her head. "Ah, huh?" She asked, looking around. There was a couple standing over her, looking down at her. The man was shaking and shivering like he had seen a dead body. He was holding a phone to his ear, mumbling into it. A woman stood behind him, her hands over her mouth. She was crying, but Karin hadn't the slightly clue as to why.
"Oh my god, is she okay!?" The woman desperately asked.
Karin looked up at them, rubbing her chin. "I'm fine, really!" She replied with a peppy tone, trying to force the point that she was okay. "I just tripped, I'll be more careful!" She promised, standing up, forcing a small laugh to lighten the tense mood. She heard a metallic sound of chains and looked around suddenly remembering the little boy. "Kid, hey, kid!" She yelled, looking around the empty street. Where did he go? She just heard his chain, he couldn't be far. "Kid, this isn't the time to hide! The hollow is gone, my brother can help you!"
Karin frowned, her attention suddenly stolen by the sounds of sirens. She looked back at the road and back at the couple. They were still looking down, even though Karin was standing up in front of them. "Please tell me she's still alive, PLEASE let her be alive!" The woman cried hysterically, sobbing into her hands. Karin let out a breath, looking down at the road, utterly dumbfounded.
"Oh, god." Karin muttered, her eyes growing to the size of moons. "Oh, shit, no, NO, fuck!" She shouted, her knees suddenly feeling weak. She hadn't heard the chain of the little boy.
She had heard her own.
Karin's ghost sat by her broken and bloody body in a lake of her now-cooled blood. It had seemed like days of waiting for what was next, but it had in reality been only about an hour. The police came and took the couple's statements. The wife was driving and had looked down at her cell phone for one moment. She didn't even see the girl fall into the road, didn't even know there was someone there until her husband shouted at her to stop. But the wife didn't stop the car, the girl in the road it hit stopped it.
Karin sat there with her arms wrapped around her knees. What was she going to do? What about that kid? Did the hollow…?
Karin rested her forehead against her knees, letting out a deep breath of hot air. "...this sucks." She muttered, her eyes squeezed shut. That poor kid...
She was dead, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Karin opened her eyes, looking at the seven and a half metal chain links that hung from her chest.
She was dead, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Karin wasn't going to play in her last championship game in her soccer-playing career, she couldn't play soccer anymore. Period.
She was dead, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Karin was going to miss her's and her twin sister's graduation from med school, something they both worked so hard for. She wouldn't know what her first day as a licensed doctor would be like. She was going to miss Kazui's first day of grade school. She was going to miss Ichigo's and Orihime's next anniversary. Miss the next picnic at her mother's grave. Then what about all of the birthdays she could have shared with Yuzu?
Yuzu.
Karin's death was going to tear what was left of her family apart.
Karin swallowed hard at the thought, gritting her teeth. She sucked in a quick breath of air, thinking about it. Did they even know what had happened to her yet? Was Karin going to have to watch them get the news of what had happened to her? What was going to happen to Yuzu, would the strawberry-blonde make it through the grief?
Karin looked up as the cops finished taping off the scene. There were a few reporters but the cops couldn't identify the body. Karin's body was too messed up to I.D. and she had ditched her gym bag, which contained her wallet, back at the gym's entrance when the chase with the little boy first started.
Karin's dark eyes looked to the sky, the sun coming closer to end of the horizon. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Well, Karin, you're dead. Most of your family sees ghosts. Let's get going so they don't have to see your body." She said herself, standing up as her eyes moved back to her body. "...or what's left of your body."
The walk back to her home took so long. Karin wanted to run, but her chest was too heavy to. She hated the agonizing wait to reach her doorstep. She knew her family must be getting worried, Karin's schedule for the day didn't include coming home late.
It didn't include her dying either.
Karin tried to plan out how things were going to go when she got home, but she couldn't. She tucked some of her black hair behind her ear and kept moving forward. It wasn't going to be pretty, but it had to be done.
"It's for the best," she started, trying to motivate herself. "For Yuzu, for Ichigo, for Kazui and Orihime, and even for Dad." There was a reason why Karin didn't do cheerleading instead of soccer. You have to be strong, for their sake.
"She should be home by now!" Yuzu cried, setting the table for dinner. "Karin is never late for dinner, at least not without telling me she'll be late!" Yuzu was a shorter girl with long, strawberry-blonde hair. Her eyes were the color of richest chocolate and sparkled like stars. She was one of the most popular girls in school due to her kind nature, adorable character, and famous cooking!
Isshin was sitting in the corner crying. "Ooooh, Misaki! Our beautiful daughter Karin was left home to go venture out into the world! She must had gone with some devilish boy who promised that he'd treat her riiiiiiiiight~!" He whined, rocking back in forth in a fetal position.
"No, Daddy, Karin wouldn't run away for a boy!" Yuzu called, bringing the food out from the stove. "I'm sure she's just coming home from soccer practice right now!" She suggested, trying to keep things. She saw somebody coming down the stairs and smiled. "Right, Ichigo?"
"Yeah, I'm sure she is." Ichigo replied with a smile, glancing at the door, his wife, Orihime, closely following behind him. "Is dinner ready, Yuzu?" He asked his sister.
Yuzu nodded, feeling a little more relieved with Ichigo home and downstairs. "Yes, it is!" She chirped back. "I just need to set the table and we'll be ready to tuck in!"
"I think I'm going to go see if Karin's walking up the street yet." Ichigo offered, walking towards the door, slipping on his shoes. "She might be walking up to the house right now for all we know." He suggested calmly.
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARIIIIIIN~! DADDY LOVES YOOOOOOU~~~~!" Isshin sobbed to the ceiling as if Karin could hear him. Orihime giggled as Ichigo growled, a vein pulsing in his neck. "Put a sock in it, Old Man!" Ichigo shouted, throwing a slipper at his father.
Headshot.
Orihime covered her mouth with her hand as she watched the slipper fly through the air, bounce off of her father-in-law, and then land on the ground. "Oh, Ichigo!" She gasped as she sent Ichigo a pouty look, seeing that Isshin looked like he was about to start crying even harder. Orihime, however, was terrible at looking upset.
"If there was a reason why she wouldn't come home, you'd be why!" The redheaded man pointed out as he ignored his father's complaints and shouts.
"You said you were going to be nicer to your father." Orihime commented to her husband as shook his head and groaned.
Ichigo looked at the brown-haired, bright eyed woman. "Orihime, we've been married for almost 7 years now. This is normal for us, Father-son bonding, you know?" Why was his family so nuts all the time?
"I know, but it doesn't mean I need to like it." Orihime retorted happily, tapping Ichigo's cheek with her fingers. Ichigo couldn't help but smile at her.
"Hey, Dad, are you gonna go outside and look for Auntie?" A very young child called from the couch, popping his head up into view. He had very gentle, warm honey eyes like his mother. His hair, which was the color of oranges, was fluffy and soft. He had very round features and a big smile. Nothing about him could ever look threatening.
"Yeah, I'm going to go just walk around the block. But how about you stay here and help Aunt Yuzu and Mom set up dinner, okay?" Ichigo requested with a small smile.
Kazui looked up at at his father with big eyes and nodded. "Okay~!" He replied as he hopped off the sofa and hobbled over to the kitchen.
"Here you go, Kazui. Can you set up the plates for me?" Yuzu asked sweetly, looking down at her nephew as she handed him a small stack of dishes.
"Mmmhmm!" Kazui chirped as he began to set the table.
The oldest strawberry in the room smiled at the scene taking place before him. Only one person was missing now. Ichigo turned to the door and went outside, shutting the front door behind him. He looked both ways up the street, looking for a sign of his dark haired sister. Karin wasn't in sight, at least yet.
Suddenly, a wave of a strong spiritual pressure rushed through the neighborhood. Ichigo's eyes widened, suddenly alert and looking for the source. He reached into his cargo pants' pocket for his substitute-soul reaper pass. Ichigo decided to walk up the street towards the high school soccer fields, suddenly feeling a little uneasy. He walked for a few minutes, keeping a lookout for his sister and what ever released the wave of energy.
"Hey, Ichigo."
Ichigo whirled around, ready to push the ancient piece of wood against his chest. The smiling face who he was looking for looked back at him. Ichigo's face paled, his heart skipping a beat. "K-Karin?"
"Yeah, it's me." She replied, smirking and holding up the chains that hung from her chest. "Don't tell Dad, but I kinda died."
The closest thing I will have to an uploading schedule for this fic is that I will update it once a month. However, in that single upload, I WILL DUMP A SHIT TON OF CHAPTERS. Updating every week is kind of a lot, I just write when I can. I am a busy college student and cosplayer. Let me live my liiiiife~
In addition, if you wanna check out my tumblr, I post my Hitsukarin sketched that are related to this story there. HOWEVER THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS TO THIS STORY AMONG THOSE FILTHY DRAWINGS (some of them are actually filthy, NSFW ahhhhhh) so be warned. Here's the link: and search under the tag "My art"