Chapter 1:

The warm summer breeze sped past the teenager as she weaved her way through the cluster of soccer players with the ball. There were six players on each team; girls on one side, boys on the other. Karin Kurosaki ran with full force toward the opposite goal. A boy on the other team caught up to her, smirking. She saw a flash of his excessively blonde hair, as he stuck his leg out in front of her. She grinned as she jumped over his lame attempt to trip her and ran faster. All of her shinigami training really paid off on the soccer field.

It had been roughly three years since she'd become a substitute shinigami like her brother. It was when two hollows attacked her school; there was only one shinigami fighting, though he didn't do much besides injure himself to the point of death. Before he died, however, he told her to grab his zanpakuto and stab herself with it if she wished to save the others. The transfer of shinigami power had been legalized under extreme circumstances after Ichigo's entrance into Soul Society. Of course, Karin accepted his offer and did as told; due to her experience with kendo, she had easily defeated the hollows. Kisuke Urahara was especially pleased by this and offered to train her.

The onlookers cheered for Karin as she got nearer to the net. She positioned herself on the left side of the net, smirking at the frightened goalie. He tried as hard as he could to be brave and block her kick, but knew as much as the others how powerful they were. When the ball charged at the boy at full force, he instinctively dodged and plummeted into the ground.

It was now 4 to 1 and the girls on Karin's team smiled smugly at the boys. They teased and pointed at them, riling them up. It was when she started to loosen up and enjoy the fun atmosphere that she heard her soul phone beep. She cursed under her breath as she pulled out the noisy gadget that Kisuke had given her. The device located the spirit to be at the local park.

"I have to go, guys. Win the game for me!" she yelled, ignoring her teammates' pleas to stay. She ran into the direction of the hollow. It was in the playground, preying on two innocent female spirits, luckily there were no people in the area as she took out her brother's substitute shinigami badge and forced her shinigami form to shoot out. Her body was now sprawled out on the grass; she moved it into a bush, hoping it wouldn't attract the hollow's attention. She now stood, wearing a black shihakusho, looking at the hideous black mass that was roughly the size of a small house. His mask was a plain oval; just white with red circling its yellow eyes. She noted that there was already a small crack in the middle of the hollow's face and took her zanpakuto out of its sheath.

When the hollow finally noticed Karin, he turned and smiled devilishly at her. He raised his arm to attack, chanting: "A yummy shinigami!"

Karin deflected his hit with her zanpakuto, which caused a gust of wind to release due to the pressure. She turned her head to face the two terrified ghosts and shouted, "Get out of here!"

She decided to end this quickly as she said, "Detonate. Yami o Bakuhatsu." A blast of air encircled Karin. She flash stepped next to the hollow and slashed his arm. Followed by the cut, came an explosion that blasted the arm off. With a high pitched shriek, he flailed his other arm in an attempt to hit the woman, but she vanished, causing him to hit a tree instead. Before he could even turn his head, she materialized to the right side of his mask and struck it, causing another bloodcurdling scream. His body started to break down and float to the sky.

Yami o Bakuhatsu was put back into its sheath as Karin started to walk back to her body. When she got to the bush, there were spots of red all over.

Oh no.

A wave of fear and horror overwhelmed her as she kept her eyes down, her fists tightened, causing her knuckles to turn white. After she positioned herself staring at her feet for what seemed to be hours, she slowly let her eyes wander up to see the face. Yes, it was hers- nothing could change that now. Tears started to stream down her cheek as she stumbled to the ground. Karin looked around and felt for another's spiritual pressure, but there was nothing. She hadn't even noticed anything while she was fighting that weak hollow! She fought the urge to break down and sob as she tightened her fist.

'I need to get to Urahara's shop,' she thought, breaking into a sprint. It took all her strength to keep her mind on getting to her destination and not to the bloody corps that laid in the park.

"What are you doing here?" Jinta asked.

"Move," she growled. Jinta was about to refuse until he saw the desperate expression on her face and side stepped to let her through. He followed her as she made her way to the man with the green striped hat and clogs. She ignored the man's welcomes and tried to steady her voice to no effect. Her words came out strained and uneven. "Someone killed me."

Urahara's eyes narrowed as he put his fan away. "What happened?" he asked seriously.

"I-I was fighting a hollow and when I came back to my body, it was covered in blood."

The former Captain thought grimly for a moment, there was none of his usual silliness in his eyes as he stared into hers. "You know better than to leave your body unprotected," he said sternly. "Where is it?"

"It's in the park next to the bench." He nodded. "I can't go home," she added. "Ichigo will never forgive me if I came to him like this."

"It would be better if you went like this and tell him now than the police finding your body," Tessai reasoned.

She closed her eyes tightly. "What will happen to me?"

"Let's talk about this later with your family," Kisuke said as he walked out with Tessai, leaving Karin with Jinta.

He looked at her, with concern in his eyes. It was out of character for him to pity, but the situation called for some support. The red headed boy faced her as he spoke. "Don't cry about it and just go home and talk to Ichigo. He'll get it."

She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out; instead, she followed his advice and left Urahara shop.