"Get back!"
"Shaddup!"
In all of her years as a soul reaper, Rukia Kuchiki had only faced a situation this dire twice before. The first was when she was only a little girl living alone in the Rukongai; she'd been so hungry that she couldn't even stand but had kept crawling forward desperately around the streets to find food, knowing that if she shut her eyes and gave in to the exhaustion seeping into her bones for even a second that she'd never open them again. The second had been on the worst night of her life, when she had been forced to cut down the man she admired most, Kaien, to save him from the horrible existence that'd been forced upon him.
Perhaps this was fate's idea of a cruel joke, or perhaps pure coincidence had led her to Kaien's soul once again after it had passed through the cycle of rebirth, but tonight Rukia had quite literally stumbled across a human who, with the exception of his bright orange hair, was a spitting image of Kaien. Of course this human was alike Kaien in looks alone, the minute she'd met him he'd proven to be grumpy and quick to anger, almost the antithesis to the man he resembled so much, and she'd been forced to restrain him with a Bakudo. It had already been a tough night, she'd been unable to locate the hollow she'd been hunting because some strange overbearing power was blanketed over the nearby area like a musty fog, and seeing this lookalike had shaken her more than she'd care to admit. For god knows what reason she'd wanted to hear Kaien's voice coming out of this lookalikes mouth enough to neglect her duties and explain the purpose of Soul Reaper and Hollows, a childish mistake and one unfitting for someone of her seat, and had allowed herself to forget about the terror stalking the streets of the human world.
She'd paid the price for that mere seconds later after the hollow she was hunting snuck up on the very house she was currently in without her noticing (how could she have failed to notice that? If she made it out of this alive brother would be so disappointed) and smashed through the wall of the living room. The little sister of the Kaien lookalike, named Yuzu apparently, had stumbled into her brother's room looking battered and bruised, crying that their other sister was in danger before collapsing. Rukia had rushed down the stairs to find a large hollow with a fish like mask trapping what was obviously the last of the siblings between its hands, but had been interrupted when the orange haired boy had stumbled down the stairs, still bound by her Bakudou, and forced himself in front of her.
Which led her up to the predicament she currently found herself in. The hollow before her was powerful, perhaps more powerful than she could handle, and for some reason was clearly more interested in devouring the young girl in its hands than the soul reaper standing a few feet away from it, even though by its nature it should want to devour the most powerful spiritual being around. That meant she couldn't lure it away, as it simply wouldn't follow her, however she couldn't get the girl free from the monster's grasp and order the siblings to run since she herself had bound one of them in a Bakudou (stupid stupid stupid! How many mistakes could a girl make!) Her only choice was to stay here and try to fight it whilst protecting the three very vulnerable humans left in her charge.
"Karin!"
She was brought back from her musings as beside her the orange haired boy, in some desperate attempt to save his sister no doubt, started trying to force his way out of the Bakudou. Damn it, this just kept getting worse! No human could overpower a Bakudou, they'd just kill themselves trying!
"Don't! It can never be broken by human strength!" she cried to him, however if he heard her he made no acknowledgment of it. "If you force it your soul will…"
A strange pressure (spiritual pressure she realised with shock) began to manifest around the human boy. Like a growing tide pushing against a dam it surged against the bindings of the Bakudou until it began to shake from the effort of holding it back. And then, with a burst of light, the Bakudou broke and the human charged straight towards the hollow with a determined war cry.
For a few seconds she was shocked, unable to wrap her head around the feat that, according to everything she'd ever been taught, was impossible. But she didn't have the time to think on it for long as the human boy grabbed a folding chair and swung it towards the hollow. This act was enough to draw the hollow's attention away from the black haired human and lessen its bone crushing grip on her, however gave the hollow ample notice to smack the orange haired boy half way down the road with its free hand.
"I found you."
Rukia's eyes widened minutely as the hollow addressed the Kaien lookalike. Found you? It was looking for the boy? But why? All hollows wanted was to eat, to try and fill that unfillable hole where their hearts once were with spiritual power, and so thought about nothing but eating the strongest spiritual beings around. But not only had this hollow ignored her in favour of a mere human girl when she, as a soul reaper, should undoubtedly possess the strongest spiritual presence around, but had apparently been actively searching for this particular human boy?
The hollow raised a fist to strike down the boy, and instinctively Rukia leapt forwards with her sword in hand. Despair gripped her heart as she realised she had no chance of making it in time, but fortunately the boy possessed admirable reflexes for a human and rolled out of the way. Her sword met flesh as she sliced a clean cut through the hollow's arm, and the creature roared in agony as its blood died the road red and its grip on the human girl released. Driven by his protective instincts the human boy leapt forwards to catch his sister out of mid-air, safely cushioning her fall with his own body as the hollow hastily retreated through a garganta.
"Karin! Hey!"
Rukia looked back towards the two humans she'd gotten involved in her mess as the brother tried to rouse his unconscious sister, worry etched into every corner of his face. Despite the imminent threat of danger and the guilt she felt for not properly protecting them Karin found herself sparing a thought for how sweet this scene was. Like a true big brother the orange haired boy had dashed forwards to help his sister without hesitation, even when said sister was being held by an enormous monster that most humans would have wet themselves in fright at seeing. Even now the injuries he'd sustained from being flung across the road were ignored in his desperate attempts to make sure she was okay. Despite his initial attitude it seemed he really did possess the same heart as Kaien after all.
"Don't panic. Your sister's souls weren't eaten by him." She said in what she hoped was a comforting manner as she adopted her battle stance.
"Really?"
She didn't turn to look back at him, keeping her eyes peeled for the dark shadows of a garganta that'd no doubt open any second now. "Yeah. He's seeking souls with high spiritual power." A feeling of tightness clamped around her heart as she considered whether or not to tell him the suspicions that'd been playing on her mind ever since the hollow had spoken, but her mind quickly won out over her heart. She'd gotten him into enough trouble already, filling him in on the important details of the situation would increase the slim chance he had of surviving this, even by only a small degree. "The hollow from this afternoon… wasn't after that girl."
"What do you…"
"I don't know why, but until just now your spiritual pressure was subdued to the lowest possible output. Because of this I didn't sense anything from you, and no hollows attacked you until now." Her instincts warned her that something was coming, and she readied her sword to attack at a moment's notice. "It's just a guess, but the pressure that couldn't flow out of your body normally must have been unleashed when you touched that ghost girl. In other words… the hollows from earlier were following the scent of you on that girl." Her head turned back to face him, and for a moment their eyes met. "They're all after you!"
The boy's eyes widened in a mix of horror and disbelief, and his face took on an expression of such terrible guilt that Rukia suddenly wished she hadn't said anything. The knowledge was clearly tearing the poor boy up. "They're… after me…"
She didn't have time to reply as a hole of darkness ripped open in mid-air, and from its depths emerged the fishlike hollow with an ominous roar. A snarl flashed across the Soul Reaper's mouth as she turned to face it. "It's here! You go…"
"Shutup!"
The human boy laid his sister gently on the floor and stood up, a strange mixture of intense guilt and determination fixed across his face. "You're saying that spirit girl was attacked because of me?!"
A bad feeling welled its way up in her stomach, as if the night was about to take another turn for the worst. "What are you getting at?..."
"It's MY fault that Karin and Yuzu are almost dying?!"
The pain in his voice made her want to cringe. Damn it, by telling him she'd only made the situation worse! Instead of thinking clearly and running away the boy had started focusing on the fact that his accidental release of spiritual power had drawn in the monster that'd hurt his sisters. She opened her mouth to say something, anything that'd get him to think straight. But before she had the chance the boy charged past her towards the hollow! "Hey!" Was all she could manage to spit out as the boy ran straight in front of it and came to a stop, staring up into the empty eye sockets of its mask with a strange resolve that sent a chill down her spine.
What on earth was he doing!
"It's my fault! It's all my fault!"
This was the only thought passing through Ichigo's head as he rushed towards the monster, the hollow, that'd been seconds away from killing his sister because he'd led it here. The ghost girl had been chased by the hollows from earlier because she'd touched him, his sisters were lying beaten and bruised because they were near him. He was the cause of all these problems.
And there was only one way he could fix that.
"Hey!" he growled as he came to a stop in front of the masked beast. "You want my soul don't you?"
He jammed a thumb at his chest, eyes filled with hateful fury as he roared at the monster that'd put his sisters through so much pain. "THEN COME FIGHT ME FOR IT!"
The hollow gave a roar of amused agreement before charging towards him, mouth open wide and teeth bared to rip into his flesh! In a flash the strange black haired girl (a Soul Reaper he reminded himself) had leaped in the way and brought her sword down towards its masked head, however with an annoyed growl the monster thrashed out with its large fist and swatted her out of the air. It didn't even turn its head to watch as the Soul Reaper girl went crashing into the wall of his house, unwilling to waste a second before lunging towards him with its mouth wide open once again.
"ICHIGO!"
His heart froze as an all too familiar voice cried out from a little way behind him, and Ichigo's head turned to see Karin, eyes widen open in panic, struggling to get up off the floor and run towards him. But she was still to dizzy from being attacked and her legs refused to obey her; all she could do was reach her hand out towards her brother as the monster loomed over him, to close for him to avoid it.
If only she'd stayed unconscious for a second longer, then she would've been spared the pain of watching his inevitably gory last moments! For a second regret filled Ichigo's heart. If only there had been another way! If only he'd been strong enough to defeat the hollow, or failing that had never touched that ghost girl! Perhaps then he could have continued living a normal, happy life with his family. But even as he thought that Ichigo knew that there was no use in wishing for the past to change, all he could do was make use of the little time he had left. And right now, in these final moments, there was only one thing he wanted to do.
The sibling's eyes met, and Ichigo allowed his usual grumpiness and the fear he was feeling to drain away from his face. For the first time since his mother had died he gave a genuine smile, the one so full of love that he'd once given to his mother all the time when he was younger, and looked at Karin with such affection that he seemed out of place, almost angelic, against the chaos and danger of the world around him.
"I love you, you and Yuzu both, more than words can ever describe."
And then the jaws of the hollow clamped shut around him, and everything went dark.
"I love you, you and Yuzu both, more than words can ever describe."
Karin's heart lurched as her brother spoke those words with the finality of a man who knew that death was about to claim him and had chosen to accept it. Her mind screamed at her to rush to his aid, to help him no matter the danger, but her body was too weak to answer that call. Damnit! Damn her weakness! If she couldn't do anything to protect her family in moments like this then what good was she?! She longed to say something, anything, that'd let him know that she felt the same way but her mouth refused to work!
And then the moment was gone. With a sickening crunch the hollow's teeth closed around him, and Karin could only watch helplessly as her brother was bitten cleanly in half. It felt as if an invisible train had suddenly knocked her mind out of her body, and she could do nothing but watch in numb, empty shock as the hollow devoured her brother in a matter of seconds. She couldn't think, couldn't feel. She was just an empty shell. And as the hollow swallowed the last remaining pieces of her brother and turned its cruel yellow eyes towards her she couldn't even summon the will to care. Did it matter if she lived or died right now? If she was so weak that she couldn't lift a finger to help her brother as he gave his life to protect her then what was the point in living?
Hot tears began to trickle down her cheeks as the monster advanced closer and closer towards her, its mouth dripping with saliva. So it wanted to eat her too? That was fine. Perhaps she'd arrive at the next life with Ichigo if they died so soon together in the same way. She didn't even move a muscle as the creature lunged forwards, it's teeth seconds away from sinking into her.
There was a strange sound, like a large knife cutting through bone, and Karin absently noted that she was still alive. Slowly the fractional amount of will she could muster allowed her to force her head up just a little, and she felt a sliver of shock at the sight of the strange girl in the black robes who'd been with Ichigo standing in the path of her and the monster, the katana in her hands wedged between its teeth. With a grunt of effort the girl pushed forwards and forced the monster back, severing its teeth and bringing a jet of blood flowing out from the creatures mask.
But it wasn't just the monster that'd sustained damage. As it pulled back with a howl of pain Karin noticed the deep wounds in the girl's side, that'd been caused by the monster's teeth impaling her, let out a spurt of blood, and the girl collapsed onto the floor.
"That fool…"
It took a while for Karin's shell-shocked mind to realize that the voice had come from the strange injured girl, who even when lying in a pool of her own blood refused to let go of her katana. With clear effort the girl raised her head to look at Karin, and as their eyes met she could feel a flicker of the resolve reflected in the girl's eyes pouring into her.
"I know how you're feeling right now, I know that the world doesn't seem like a thing worth fighting for anymore, but you can't give up yet! This thing won't stop with just your brother, it'll devour you, me, your sister and anyone else around with even a hint of spiritual power! At this rate we're all just waiting to become its prey!"
At the mention of Yuzu Karin suddenly felt the numb feeling inside of her fading, replaced with a steely resolve. That's right, Yuzu was still in danger! With Ichigo gone and this girl down there was only one person who could even hope to save her!
The strange girl forced her arms to move with all the strength left in her and crawled over to the side of the road, propping herself up against the wall in a sitting position. "Do you want to save your family? To avenge your brother?"
Behind them the pained roaring of the hollow was quietened down, and Karin could feel the hairs on her neck prickling at its bloodlust was once again focused on the two of them. There was no doubt it would attack again any second now!
"O- Of course!" she managed to spit out, surprised by how her own voice sounded. It was croaky and wavering, but there was a determination within it that it took her a while to realise she was actually feeling. She had to protect Yuzu! She had to make that monster pay for what it'd done to Ichigo! She had to do something! "Is there a way?"
"There's only one…" the girl replied as she dragged her sword up, pointing its tip to face her. "You… must become a Soul Reaper!"
A Soul Reaper? A god of death? What on earth was she talking about? No, that didn't matter right now! What mattered was that if she became a Soul Reaper she'd be able to defeat that monster right?!
"Thrust this zanpakuto through your heart and I will pour my powers into you. I don't know if this will work, but there isn't any other way.
The monster behind them gave a furious roar, and began to charge towards them. She didn't understand what all that nonsense about zanpakuto and Soul Reaper's was about, but she understood that getting power poured into her was her only hope right now. Her grief had been replaced by a raging anger, which fuelled her body enough to stand up and limp over to the injured girl.
"Gimme that sword!"
The injured girl smiled at her answer. "I'm Rukia Kuchiki."
The monster sped up, unleashing a vicious cry as it came closer and closer with its fist raised to strike. Karin grabbed the sword with her hands, not caring how the edges of it cut into them. "I'm… Karin Kurosaki!"
And with that she gave the sword a sharp pull and plunged it into her chest.
An explosion of violet light burst forth from the two girls, blasting the air around them in every direction like a hurricane and blinding the rampaging hollow. It took a step back and tried to shield its eyes from the light, and suddenly pain shot through its right arm. In stunned disbelief the hollow watched as its own arm separated from its body in an instant with a gush of blood and fell to the floor, coming to a stop behind a figure who had moved so fast they'd cut of his arm before he'd even realized it.
Karin Kurosaki stood behind it, her eyes filled with steely resolve and cold fury as she stared down the monster she hated with every fibre of her being. The clothes she had before were gone, replaced by the black robes and white belt of a Soul Reaper, and around her back was a long, thin brown sheath. More importantly was the bloodstained weapon in her hand; a longsword that was the same length as she was. Whilst it wasn't thicker than a normal sword the edges of the blade looked sharp enough to split hairs and reached all the way up its long, slightly curved length to meet at the top in a menacingly keen looking tip. Underneath it's thin sword guard the red cloth wrapped handle was the perfect length to balance out the weight of the blade between her two hands, and a little tassel hung of the end that swished back and forth in the breeze. She lowered the longsword onto her shoulder, and a rush of violet energy far greater than any human should have been able to manage swept around her like a loyal hound answering its master's call.
Rukia was staring up at her with wide eyes, the black colour of her robes now turned into the same pale white as her belt. Impossible! What was going on! She had only meant to give her half of her strength, but somehow she'd taken it all? What was this girl? Her brother had been able to break down a Bakudou with sheer force, and now she was wielding a zanpakuto bigger than any Soul Reaper she'd ever seen!
"Hey!"
Karin lowered her sword, energy still swirling around her like a typhoon, and then dashed towards the hollow with her sword poised to strike. The hollow roared and swung it's remain arm towards her in a furious attack, but with a mighty cleave Karin lunged forwards and cleanly severed its left leg in a single slash.
The hollow roared in pain and fury, and then thrust its head forwards to try and take a bite out of her. But with a hauntingly graceful motion that reflected the cold fury inside of her Karin raised her sword for one more attack.
"Feel my wrath for having caused my family so much pain… AND GO TO HELL!"
She swung forwards, delivering an enormous cut straight down the middle of the hollow and sending the monster flying backwards along with an enormous gust of air.
Rukia stared in stunned silence at the girl who not seconds before had been a helpless hostage, and now had the power to defeat a hollow of above average calibre as if it was child's play. And yet she noted with a sense of trepidation that the hollow wasn't yet dead, though from its wound it was leaking spiritual power so fast it'd dissolve on its own within seconds. Despite its fate being sealed the hollow made a last desperate attempt to flee, calling open the darkness of a garganta and desperately crawling towards it. It was dead, that much was inevitable, but still the wretched creature still clung to existence with everything it had. Even if it would die soon anyway it was best not to let it escape.
"Karin quickly! Finish it off!"
Needing no further encouragement Karin dashed forwards, longsword raised for one last strike. However the hollow viciously kicked out with its remaining leg, and whether by pure luck of cunning sent a large piece of rubble hurtling towards Karin. Rukia had no doubt that Karin could easily dodge the projectile now, and yet the newly made substitute Soul Reaper instead brought her longsword forwards and slashed the rubble in half. Only then did Rukia realise the reason for her doing this; the rubble had been straight on course for her older brother's room, where her sister was still lying unconscious. There was a good chance the rubble would've hit her had Karin dodged.
The distraction was just long enough for the hollow, and with a desperate cry it dragged itself through the garganta and disappeared, no doubt back to Hueco Mundo. It wasn't ideal, but Rukia let out a sigh of relief; the hollow would bleed out in no time, and since a zanpakuto had delivered the final blow the soul of Karin's brother would be able to rest in peace.
She just whished that she could have been stronger, so that the boy would never have had to die at all.
Fishbone let out a cry of pure agony as he tumbled onto the ground in the forests of Hueco Mondo, clutching as the gaping wound in his chest with his remaining hand. Pain! So much pain! The stumps where his arms and legs had been hurt, his chest hurt, and his head hurt as he became nauseous from all the blood and spiritual power leaking out of his wounds.
But that wasn't the only pain. There was something else, something rapidly growing inside of him that seared him like fire! It felt powerful but there was too much of it, too much to handle at once! He felt like his stomach was on burning, and that fire was spreading throughout the rest of his body!
He gave a roar as the feeling crept up his throat and into his head, filling his vision with a bright light. He was on fire! Incinerating from within! Every part of him was searing away in the fire until he couldn't feel his own body anymore! Was he dying? Dissolving away like countless millions of other hollows before him? Fear gripped the last vestiges of his consciousness as the light took over, and the mind that was the hollow called Fishbone faded away.
However although the mind had faded the body had not. Instead his battered and injured form became enveloped with a bright blue light, shining like a beacon in the dark forest. It began to grow and grow, shooting up like the trees around it as it transformed into the next stage of a hollows evolution.
An ordinary Gillian class menos stands somewhere between two to six stories tall, and bears the same pointy nosed mask as every other member of its kind. However it was clear that this menos was no ordinary hollow as it continued to grow to fifteen stories tall. When the blue light finally cleared its black cloaked form was much the same as every other Gillian, however its mask was nothing like the others. It was flat and skull like, with narrow eyes and a creepy toothed grin stretched across its mouth. It's left side had three red stripes coming down from the top to meet in the middle above his left eye, and his chin had three more coming up to meet under his mouth. But the most ominous part of the mask was the eyes, instead of the normal large, dull eyes other Gillian had this one had small, sharp golden eyes that possessed a feral and instinctive but still incredibly dangerous intelligence. They were not the eyes of a mindless animal; they were the eyes of a truly cunning predator.
The abnormal hollow let out a roar that shook the very cores of the trees around it down to their roots, then lumbered off in a random direction.
It was hungry, so very very hungry! And now it would feed!
Hello!
Thanks for stopping by for reading the first chapter of this new fic. I've been sitting on this idea for a while, and am very excited to finally be getting around to writing it. I am unfortunately a writer who only writes well when inspired, and so I can't provide any promises of schedules for when the next chapter will be out, but I'll try not to make you guys wait to long in between chapters.
If you can imagine what Karin's Shikai looks like it's basically Ichigo's but thinner. I plan to make Karin's zanpakuto slightly different from Ichigo's but still fundamentally the same. It isn't as hefty as Ichigo's since she doesn't have as much spiritual power as him due to being younger, however it's sharper because that lesser amount gives her an easier time controlling it.
As for what happens next the story will break off into two sections. Karin will be taking Ichigo's place and going through his role in the original story, however since that's pretty much what you're all familiar with already these parts will only appear briefly and describe the key parts of the story or parts that are different due to Karin being the hero. Most of this story will follow Ichigo's journey as he climbs the Hollow evolutionary chain and takes on a new role within the story. I wont say it outright, but I'm sure all of you can guess what it'll be anyway.
That's all. See you next chapter.