A/N Well, here it is, chapter one of the sequel to forbidden. This took a little while longer than planned (note the sarcasm) due to epic-scale writer's block and and my amazing procrastination talents.

So I hope you enjoy it, for updates keep an eye out for journal entries on deviantart or follow me on twitter :D the link's on my page :)


Chapter one


Toushiro jumped away from the two wide sword-swings aimed at him, grinning as he watched the girl he fought struggle to keep the wooden blade under control.

"Keep the blade up, Ku, or you're never going to hit me." He snorted as he received a glare from the white-haired girl. "You know, you look just like your mother when you do that."

"She looks just like who when she does what?" Karin asked as she wandered into their garden, setting two full glasses down on the low table set to the side of the training area.

"Ku. She's doing that nose-scrunching thing that you always do when I don't do what you say." Toushiro laughed as he received the exact look he had just been talking about from his wife. "Yeah, that's the one."

Karin just stuck her tongue out at him before he felt something hit him over the back of the head. Instincts took over as he whipped around, naturally falling into a defensive position facing his daughter who was currently doubled over laughing into her knees. He glanced behind him to find Karin watching him with a grin on her face.

"You're not the only one who can teach her battle tactics, we were having a little lesson just yesterday about how to use distractions in your environment to help you in battle." Karin shifted so that she was looking around Toushiro straight at Kukiko, "Good work, Ku; you're learning quick." She smiled and Kukiko smiled back.

"Thanks Mum."

"No problem, now come over here and get something to drink- you've been practising for almost an hour now, you must be thirsty." Kukiko nodded enthusiastically and Karin laughed as she watched the twelve year old bound towards her happily, Toushiro trailing behind her with the beginnings of a frown sneaking on to his face. "Don't pout, you'll get wrinkles."

"I wasn't pouting." Karin laughed again at the look he gave her but said nothing; it certainly looked like a pout to her. "Why did you teach her that stuff? I thought I was meant to be teaching her."

"Well, she gets bored when you're at work and can't train her. She asked if I knew anything about fighting and I said yes." When he frowned at her she shook her finger at him, "I wasn't going to lie to her, Toushiro, she'd have found out eventually anyway. Anyway, she asked if I would teach her a little bit and maybe practise with her occasionally and I didn't really feel like saying no."

"But I thought you said you didn't want to fight anymore- since you don't have Kurohime with you? You said it wasn't the same…" Toushiro watched Karin carefully; he didn't really want her to start fighting again- it was what had led to her ending up here in the first place- but he knew that if she had really set her heart on it then he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop her.

"Yeah, I know, but I've just felt so restless recently. Ku's growing up and it'll only be a matter of time before she's off to the academy and I'll be here alone for most of the day… It's just been nagging at me to start practicing again, I don't know why…" She looked up at him with worry in her eyes. "Sometimes, it's like I don't even have a choice in it; it's like someone else is telling me what to do."

Toushiro drew her in to a loose hug, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, "Hey, stop worrying so much. I'm not really bothered if you want to start training again, maybe we could train together?" He shot her a smug look before turning to grab the drink which had been left for him on the table, "That is, unless you're worried that I'll beat you. After all, I am a captain, and you're a housewife…"

"Like you could beat me!" Karin snorted at him, her eyes fiery with the possibility of a challenge. "Even if I am out of practise, I still won't lose." Memories of their marathon training sessions from before her death made Karin smile; both of them were too stubborn to let the other win, and although she was sure that Toushiro was a lot more powerful than she was she still made sure that he had to give his all to stop her from winning. There had been one time when they had both worked so hard that they ended up passing out in Urahara's basement and not waking up until the following morning.

She'd been more than content to just lie in his arms, even if their bed was only the sand covered floor.

She kind of missed those days, when they could be that reckless and no one would even bat an eyelid at it. Now that they had Ku Karin found that they couldn't spar into the early hours of the morning or go hollow-hunting just for the fun of it.

Don't get her wrong- Karin loved her daughter and her life now. The twelve year old was her pride and joy- one of the best things which ever happened to her, but sometimes she got that nostalgic feeling and wanted to relive her golden moments.

Toushiro was watching her with a smirk on his face as Ku shouted something about going to visit Granny. Almost instantly after hearing the door close Karin felt herself pulled forwards, two strong arms encircling her as gentle lips pressed to hers. She could feel herself melting into the kiss, a warm smile heating her face once they pulled apart.

"So you think you can beat me?" Toushiro asked- a spark of mischief in his eyes that Karin knew very few people would even notice. "How about a match now then? I'll even make it fair and use a practise sword, since you don't have yours."

Karin grinned at him. "Bring it on!" She turned away, grabbing one of the wooden swords which had been set to the side. As she turned she noticed that Toushiro had done the same and had now fallen into a comfortable defensive position.

She took the hint, forcing her power into her legs as she dashed forwards in the hopes of putting as much strength as possible behind her first hit. She wasn't at all surprised when Toushiro blocked it, but a smug smile crept onto her face at the way he had to focus so intently on not letting her through his block.

Toushiro pushed back, two quick slashes to her sides followed and Karin found herself falling back slightly in order to dodge them when she couldn't raise her sword fast enough. Each separate hit after that blurred together for Karin into one huge whirl of action and activity; her mind was still as sharp as it had been back in Karakura town but her body felt heavy from the lack of training. She was on the defensive more often than the offensive and she rapidly found herself becoming out of breath.

Karin's back hit the outer wall of the garden. She cursed lightly and prepared for the coming attack, but it never came. Instead she found her lips being captured once again and a gentle hand cupping her cheek as she glanced up.

Toushiro smiled smugly down at her. "So, who won then?"

Karin snorted at him, "That was a practise fight; I haven't trained for almost twelve years- of course you won." Toushiro just laughed as she pouted at him.


Ku strolled down the street kicking stones up in front of her with each step. It would take her at least another ten minutes to reach Granny's house so she allowed her mind to wander as she walked. Her thoughts inevitably travelled to her mother and the recent revelation that she had been a fighter before she'd had Ku.

Ku wasn't sure what to make of this, in some ways it made her happy because she had learnt something new about someone she cared about and she knew that her mother would be happier now that she wasn't hiding that part of herself. But on the other hand she felt somewhat guilty; surely if her mother hadn't had her then she would have probably continued fighting, may have even become a shinigami.

In her distracted state of mind, Ku didn't notice the nervous looking boy walking towards her down the road with his eyes locked tightly on his own feet. In fact, the first time she realized he was even there was when he crashed into her and they both found themselves seated on the dusty ground.

Ku glanced up, ready to shut at whoever had decided to run in to her, but when she saw the little boy her thoughts flew out the window. He was tiny; she couldn't tell how old he was because of his obvious poor health. Ku found it difficult to work out whether he was really young or if it was just that he'd never had the energy needed to grow. She'd never really understood how growth worked in soul society, but her dad had told her that the reason he was smaller than most men his age was partly because he hadn't had a source of energy growing up.

But she had thought that only souls with high levels of reiryoku needed physical nourishment; perhaps this boy had the potential to become a shinigami one day. Everyone in her family had high reiryoku levels so they had food at her house, but she didn't know whether it would be okay to bring the boy home. Her dad had always said to never talk to strangers.

But surely that didn't count when the person needed help as much as this boy did…

She watched him struggle to his feet and felt a twinge in her heart, she couldn't just leave him here; he needed help and there was almost no chance that he would meet someone else with both the means and the will to help him before he reached a truly critical condition.

Her mind made up she reached a hand out to the boy, but he just stared at her with a tinge of fear painting his expression. Dark green eyes watched her closely as she approached him, keeping tabs on her as though he thought she was a predator about to pounce at him.

Ku smiled reassuringly at him, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help." He looked to be wavering slightly so she gave one final push. "You're hungry right? I can get you something to eat if you come with me." He looked excited for a moment before curling in on himself slightly as a painful growl escaped from his stomach.

Ku watched him with concern as he stood there in obvious pain. She grinned at him when he took her hand after she offered it again and she was happy to see him return a weak smile. She tugged gently on his hand as she guided him in the direction of her house, her visit to Granny's forgotten as the hand in hers clutched tightly.

She just hoped that when they got there, her parents wouldn't turn him away.


Toushiro had just left for work when Ku came back in through the door. Karin looked up from where she had been tidying the kitchen. She loved their house, given to them as a present by the Captain-commander after their wedding along with a small house for Toushiro's Granny nearby, but she doubted anyone would like cleaning such a large house alone.

All thoughts of cleaning left her mind as she caught sight of the small boy being supported by Ku's arm. She rushed across the room and asked no questions as she helped the scared looking boy into a seat. She smiled at him before turning to Ku and questioning her in hushed tones, "Who is he? What happened?"

Ku watched her mother with surprise; she hadn't expected her to be so welcoming to the kid. When she started asking her questions Ku found herself fumbling for answers. "Um, I don't know who he is, I just found him. But he's hungry, that means he has reiryoku, right mum?"

"Yes, Ku." She looked at the boy for a moment before turning back to her daughter, "Could you go and make some tea and maybe a sandwich? Nothing too big." Ku nodded and scampered away, happy to be able to do something constructive in helping the boy. When she returned a few minutes later he looked a lot calmer, silently answering her mother's questions with nods and shakes of the head.

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Karin was knelt before the boy, one of his little hands held between her two. The boy shook his head in answer to her question. "Well, how far back do you remember?" Five fingers were held up, "Five days?" The boy nodded and Karin nodded in return, her expression thoughtful as she ran through the information she had received.

The boy didn't remember anything more than five days ago, so she guessed that that must have been when he passed over to soul society, but for him to have gotten into this sort of condition in such a short period of time seemed almost impossible. Unless he had already been in a bad way on Earth… Her mind whirred with the possibilities as she watched the boy wolf down the food Ku had brought.

Could this boy really have so much reiryoku that his energy levels dropped so much in such a short amount of time? She had seen it happen before but she barely felt anything from the boy before her; there was definitely something there but she didn't think it was enough to do this damage.

She shook her head as she watched the boy before her starting to drift off in the big chair she had placed him in. Without a second thought she scooped him up and made her way towards one of the spare rooms with Ku trailing behind her. When asked later she would say that it was because of some latent maternal instinct left over from when Ku had been small, but if she was being honest with herself she would admit that something about the boy's situation fascinated her. Nothing interesting ever really happened around her anymore, and she secretly wished that the boy was part of some elaborate plan which would bring more excitement to her otherwise normal life.

As she placed the boy in the too-large bed she smoothed down his hair and tucked him in. He was already asleep by the time she had left the room. She guessed from the look of him that he was about six years old, give or take a year or so, and smiled as she remembered when Ku had been that age. Before she'd started answering back or training with her father. Back when she was totally Karin's little girl.

Ku was right behind her as she returned to the living room and Karin found herself turning around to give her daughter a smile, "You did the right thing Ku. I don't know what's going on with that boy but he was definitely exhausted to a dangerous point. You may have saved his live; I'm proud of you."

Ku felt something in the pit of her stomach turn, had he really been that bad? When her mum leant down to offer her a hug she wrapped her arms gently around her neck and squeezed. She smiled as she pulled away but it quickly fled from her face. "What are you going to do now? What'll Dad say?"

Karin grimaced slightly before dropping down into one of the large chairs dotted around the room, "I suppose we'll just have to see what happens. But don't worry, I'll talk to your dad; everything will be fine."

Ku only hoped she was right.


A/N Tell me what you think, and again, sorry it took so long

Ooh, and if you know any good boy's names please tell me, I'm stumped right now... 3