I just can't stop writing HitsuKarin! I love the pairing so much. I plan to write chapters for my other stories at some point soon but I kinda have to go with my muse or I struggle to write (and my muse happens to love HitsuKarin).

Anyway, I was cleaning my room a little while back and I discovered a sheet of paper that had 'The 100 Chapter Challenge' written on it. It was something my friend had discovered and being the wonderful person she is she wrote up the entire challenge for me and gave me the sheet of paper. Unfortunately I forgot about it until I found it last month. As the summary says, the challenge is to write a chapter inspired by one word, a hundred times over, with different words. For example the first word in Introduction, the second word is Love, the third word is Hate, the fourth is Miracle and so on.

I would be writing the sequel to Adjusting to You, but I start college in a week and there's no point me starting a project like that until after I get settled into college, but I love writing, so I figured I would take this challenge on, because its one-shots rather than a multi-chapter fic. I hope to update this every week/fortnight or so. Although sometimes I'll update more often than that, while at other times if I've got coursework deadlines or my CFS is flaring up or that sort of thing updates will be slower. But anyway, enjoy the first chapter!

SUMMARY: Tōshirō found himself in a boring meeting yet again, other commanding officers talking about issues he quite frankly did not care about. However a new Vice-Captain is introduced, a woman who really grabs his attention.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Tōshirō sighed quietly, just wanting this long meeting to be over. He was incredibly bored. He understood that these meetings were needed, that much was obvious, but that didn't mean they were interesting. Ever since Soul Society calmed down the meetings had gotten a little irritating to be honest. Yes they had to be done but it was the same thing over and over again. Tōshirō wanted a change for the same boring routine that had been taking place for the past few decades or so. Tōshirō paused for a moment. Wow. Had it really been that many decades since the ever so famous Winter War? Time always goes fast when you're not paying attention to it.

Tōshirō felt a slight nudge in his side, drawing him away from his thoughts. He glanced at his Vice-Captain, the person who nudged him before focusing on the current conversation and looking to the other captains. After a minute or so he realised they were talking about one of the seated officers in the second squad being promoted to the second squad Vice-Captain. About time too. The previous Vice-Captain, Omaeda Marechiyo, had stepped down due to health problems that were caused by an unhealthy and more than luxurious lifestyle. Who the second squad Vice-Captain was didn't make a blindest bit of difference to Tōshirō to be honest, but regardless of that he was curious. Hopefully they would be a little less annoying, for Suì-Fēng's sake if not for anything else. At last the new Vice-Captain was revealed, causing all of the Captains and Vice-Captains who were in the meeting hall to turn their heads towards the opening door.

Tōshirō was lucky that years and years of practice meant that he could control his expressions for the majority of the time. Very lucky. Otherwise the entire room would see just how surprised he was by the new commanding officer. She was stunningly beautiful. It wasn't like Tōshirō had fallen in love with her right there and then. To be perfectly honest he found the entire notion of 'love at first sight' to be a little ridiculous. He had found other women to be beautiful as well. He hit puberty about 30 year ago or so, which had made him much more 'aware' of such things. But this woman practically took his breath away.

She had creamy smooth skin which contrasted well with her jet black hair, and rather pink lips. Her eyes looked black at first, but when the sun shone on them it revealed that actually they were a very dark blue. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and her shinigami uniform was immaculate. She bowed down low to all of the commanding officers in the meeting hall as her Captain introduced her to them. When she straightened back up from the bow there was a welcoming smile on her face. It was obvious she was quite proud of herself, regardless of the nervous energy that was surrounding her.

Suì-Fēng almost looked proud of her as well. Tōshirō wondered if the two were close, it would certainly help the squad if they got along well. Before he knew it the meeting had been dismissed and the Captains and Vice-Captains were leaving. He was nudged in his side, yet again by his Vice-Captain. "What is it Matsumoto?"
"So, what do you think of the new Vice-Captain?"
Tōshirō turned his head to look at Rangiku, who had a suspicious expression on her face, causing Tōshirō to narrow his eyes a fraction. "I can't really form an opinion of her until she's been in the Vice-Captain position for a couple of weeks."
Rangiku giggled. "I don't mean a professional opinion of her Captain. She's really pretty! Surely you noticed that. She seems like your type!"
Tōshirō raised an eyebrow. "My type?"
"Yeah! Haven't you noticed that the girls you like tend to have dark hair, nice smiles and feisty personalities? Not to say that you stick to only that sort of girl, but you seem to have a tendency to like those type of girls."

Tōshirō thought for a moment. That was actually true, he just never realised it before. As he had gotten older and taller and well quite frankly a little less grumpy Rangiku had taken to occasionally dragging him out of the office to go out with her and her friends. The ones she dragged him to usually involved commanding officers, who he got along with, so he kinda let her. The topic of women had been brought up on these outings, which wasn't unexpected. But when they talked about their type Tōshirō generally stayed silent because he didn't really know what to say, he never thought he had a type.

He didn't want to think of himself to have a type before either. The idea of limiting his choices to fit a certain criteria (that he didn't even know he had) put him off a little bit. It made him feel shallow, which he didn't enjoy. Rangiku, after seeing the expression on his face, assured him.
"Captain, it's ok to have a type, it's just having preferences. It doesn't mean you stick to them all the time it just means you happen to find that sort of thing attractive. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!"
Tōshirō, not really wanting to get into this conversation told Rangiku to get a move on to the office so they could get started on the paperwork there.

XxXxXxXxXxX

It had been a couple of weeks since the appointment of the new Vice-Captain, who according to Rangiku had settled in nicely. Tōshirō pretended that he couldn't care less and that it didn't bother him what happened in other peoples' squads, but he couldn't help but be a little curious. Not that he could ask. Rangiku was barely in the office anyway. She was supposed to be in the office now but was away doing god knows what, leaving Tōshirō alone to do all of the paperwork. All you could hear in the office was the quiet sounds of pen going across paper as Tōshirō signed various forms.

His attention was drawn away from the paperwork as he heard a knock in the door. It wasn't Rangiku as she always just bursted into the office as she saw fit. It was probably just one of his seated officers. He loudly said "Come in" before continuing with the paperwork. He heard the visitor come into the office, but they had stayed near the door. Which was strange as he had told his officers that if they needed to talk to him they could as long as he let them in the office. As this person hadn't started talking and they had stayed by the door Tōshirō could safely assume that they weren't a member of his squad. Not letting curiosity get the better of him, he finished the form he was on before looking up.

Tōshirō was a little surprised to say the least when he saw the Vice-Captain of the second squad standing nervously by the door, her right hand still on the doorknob as if she was going to run back out at any time. He tried to hold back his shock. " Do you need help with anything?"
The girl looked awkwardly around, avoiding his eyes before answering. "Well not as such. Rangiku told me to meet her here at this time so she could take me out with the rest of the Vice-Captains. I don't know my way round all that well yet."
Tōshirō paused for a moment. Rangiku was already late, and could quite easily be later still, and he didn't want the atmosphere to be awkward between them if they were going to be in the same room for a while, waiting for Rangiku to take to her to wherever the Vice-Captains were meeting. So he decided to start a conversation. "Ah. Is that what your so nervous about?"

The woman scratched the back of her neck. "Er...Well a little. I know all of them through meetings but the only two I've spent time with outside of the meetings is Rangiku and Renji. And even then it's because they approached me rather than the other way around." She scratched the back of her neck again. "I'm not exactly good with people."
Tōshirō wondered if the neck scratching was a nervous habit. "I see. I wouldn't worry, they're all decent people, if a little...eccentric."
Tōshirō has to stop himself from smiling when she grinned at his last comment. "So where are you going anyway?"
The woman shrugged. "I'm not really sure. A bar I think? Or rather a place that has a bar in it."
Tōshirō should've guessed. "Well then there certainly isn't anything to worry about. Before long they'll be too drunk to care."

The woman started to laugh, causing Tōshirō to give a small smile. It was also nice to see that she no longer had her hand on the doorknob, which he hoped meant she didn't feel too nervous around him any more. Not that it mattered. Her opinion of him didn't matter at all. Obviously not. The woman stopped laughing and spoke again. "You know you're a lot nicer than I thought you would be." Tōshirō raised an eyebrow, which caused the woman to be a little flustered. "Not that I had a bad opinion of you or anything! It's just you're known for being a little, well, icy. That sort of thing isn't said anywhere near as much as when I first came into Soul Society though."

"I see."
"Sorry."
Tōshirō noticed she was scratching the back of her neck again. "For what?"
"I dunno. The rumours about you and the fact that I kinda made a judgement about you before I met you I guess."
"Don't worry about it." Tōshirō paused for a moment. "What's your name anyway?"
She spoke with a smile. "Karin, Karin Kurosaki."
Tōshirō's eyes widened briefly. "Kurosaki?"
Karin rolled her eyes. "Yes Kurosaki. And yes as in related to Ichigo Kurosaki. There was a whole discussion about it in the meeting when they introduced me, don't you remember?"

Well, that was awkward. He pretty much had no idea what had happened in the meeting after Karin had entered because he was too busy, well...staring at her. Not that he could tell her that. "Oh yes of course. Sorry, I just have a lot on my plate at the minute."
The look on her face told him that she didn't buy that. At all. Crap. Luckily for Tōshirō she let it go. "I see. Well that's understandable, with you being a Captain and all."
Tōshirō decided to go with it, even though they both knew that was a lie. "Quite. Um, if you don't mind me asking, how are here?"
"...I shunpoed here."
"No as in Soul Society."

Karin laughed. "Wow you really weren't paying attention in that meeting were you? That came up as well. My family are alive and well, including Ichigo. An unfortunate car accident killed me. And when I say car accident I mean there was a 22 car pile-up to the point where it was practically impossible for me not to die. I died...I think it's 47 years ago now? I died when I was 14, in the back seat with my friend in their parents car."
"Oh...What happened to your friend?"
"They died too. But they ended up in the second district of East Rukongai, so it's not that bad. I still visit her."
"So you remember your life before you died?" Spiritual power or not, that was rare. Or rather, he rarely heard about souls remembering their past life.
"Not really. I remember my death, which meant I remember my friend, I remember fragments, namely stuff that involves my family."

Tōshirō nodded. "So I take it you don't visit them."
"No. I tried once, about a decade or so after I died but it was too weird. Only my father was in the house I grew up in, and he was different to what I remember. I couldn't bring myself to talk to him. I managed to track down my sister, but she was married with a baby girl. She clearly had moved on with her life, I didn't want to wreck that by showing up right there and then."
Tōshirō nodded again. "I see. What about your brother?"
Karin shrugged. "I couldn't find him. It's pretty obvious he's not dead though, otherwise he would've caused an uproar already."
Tōshirō saw Karin smiling to herself and he ended up smiling too. "That's true."

Karin smile at the memory of her family before changing the subject. "You know, I thought the amount of paperwork a Vice-Captain gets was ridiculous, but looking at this it seems easy."
"Yes well, this is what happens when your Vice-Captain decides she has better things to do than paperwork. You're more than welcome to take some home with you."
Karin laughed. "I'm good thanks. Although if you ever do find yourself really struggling with the workload and you need help feel free to ask."
"Really?"
Karin gave him a huge, kind smile. "Yeah! As long as I'm not too busy."
"Why?"
Karin shrugged before leaning on the door, still smiling. "I like you." Tōshirō tried to hide his smile when she said that.

Good god she really was gorgeous. Tōshirō felt like her smile could melt his Bankai. He took the comfortable lull in the conversation as a chance to look at her properly. She wasn't wearing the standard shinigami uniform like she was in the meeting hall. She was wearing similar uniform to that of the commander-in-chief of Onmitsukidō, the sleeveless uniform that Captain Suì-Fēng wore underneath her standard shinigami uniform. You know thinking about it Tōshirō wondered how she didn't overheat. Tōshirō was a little surprised. He thought that only the commander-in-chief of the Onmitsukidō was allowed to wear that uniform. Admittedly it wasn't exactly the same uniform but still. It meant either he was wrong, or she happened to be very skilled and Suì-Fēng liked her.

He had heard about a technique that Sui-Feng had pretty much perfected that involved high spiritual pressure accumulating on the shoulders and back causing the fabric to rip away. Perhaps Karin had started training in that technique which meant she needed this uniform? He had never seen the technique but apparently it required a great deal of concentration, skill and practice. Tōshirō couldn't help but respect the woman that was standing in front of him. It seemed like she was powerful, which was unsurprising given the family she came from. It made him wonder.

"Have you considered going for a Captain's position in the future?"
Karin shook her head. "No way. Not now anyway. I want to perfect Shunkō before trying to get Bankai, it'll be a lot more useful for me in the second squad. Besides I've only just settled into the Vice-Captain job and it's a little difficult compared to what I'm used to. I don't think I'll be aiming for Captain for a while yet."
Tōshirō nodded. "Fair enough. Shunkō is the technique that requires that uniform, is it not?"
"Yeah. My Shunkō's powerful enough that I need to wear this, but I can't really control it yet. I'm training practically every other day so this uniform has practically become my permanent uniform. Not that I mind, I feel like it fits and suits me better anyway."

Tōshirō certainly couldn't argue with that. The top part of it fitted tightly around her torso, as it was backless and shoulder-less it needed to be, so it wouldn't fall off. Not that that would be a bad thing. Tōshirō scolded himself for thinking that way. It was completely inappropriate. As if to save him from his thoughts Rangiku had burst into the office rambling on that she was sorry that she was late. Tōshirō would've been annoyed if it wasn't for the fact that she had stopped him from thinking less than savoury thoughts.

After a somewhat tedious five minute conversation Rangiku and Karin were leaving his office, finally letting him get on with work. Tōshirō said goodbye to them both and spoke to Karin. "It was nice meeting you, you know one-to-one." Karin grinned at him mischievously and winked at him before leaving the office with Rangiku. Tōshirō sighed as he leant back into his chair. She managed to put all of those dirty thoughts back into his head with just a playful grin and a wink. He had a real problem here.

What do you guys think? I actually kinda like how this turned out. I love the idea of Toshiro being the one who becomes completely infatuated with Karin rather than the other way around. I'm keeping it rating T at the minute, but it might end up changing depending on how the one-shots go. Also, even though it's called a 100 Chapter Challenge, at some point If I really enjoy doing this (which I probably will) I'll probably welcome suggestions and you can give me words so this can continue. But we'll see closer to the time. I would love it if you would review, it makes me so happy when I read them and it keeps me writing! The next chapter is called 'Love', which I have planned, ready to write. I hope you look forward to it! (It's gonna be pretty fluffy).