I had that idea waiting in the wings for quite some time now ^.^

All rights go their respective owners

Oh, and I refuse to use Japanese terms.

Heal

"So-o," sounding bored, Karin made that 'o' longer intentionally "If I want to kill somebody, then I'll just have to make some kinda freaky gesture with the hands and repeat some kinda freaky chant that is created just to be hard to remember?" her voice sounded nice, gentle: a little too gentle for a tomboy like her. Even an idiot like the 4 squad 5th seat would see that the raven-haired girl was making a calm façade behind boiling anger.

"Y-yes," the Hanataro stuttered badly "Actually it isn't hard to learn them. It just that you have to repeat more and i-it isn't like you're tryi-" and earned a punch in the face

Being the lazy ass and a total lefty when it came to demon magic, Ichigo had asked (read: threatened) the young boy, who had specialized in healing, to try and teach his little sisters some magic to protect themselves. Since they knew about Death Gods and such stuff, they just couldn't always rely on Urahara's brats when it came to fighting Hollows, or worse – if an Arrancar appeared in Karakura town.

So, after a few days of stupid pigheadedness coming mostly from Karin-san, the three (Yuzu-san, she and Hanataro) were sitting in the kitchen of the Kurosaki house and the poor Death God was trying to teach the Kurosaki girls how to use demon magic. The process wasn't proving to be fruity. Karin-san was a stubborn girl and apparently had taken on thinking that she wasn't going to learn anything. Yuzu-san was a sweet girl but apparently had been with a stuffed toy she called 'Bostov' before and now was a little too-absent-minded. The companions of the caramel-colored girl didn't exactly want to know what was going on in her overly-sugary, pink heart-tinted mind but it was obvious that she was planning about what more and what kinds of new clothing she would sew for her toys. It was hot in the room and headache was bounding everyone's heads.

But at least there was cake. Rin would be so jealous when he was told about the utterly gorgeous chocolate cake that Yuzu-san was a master of cooking. The taste was better than everything his friend for the 12th Division had ever given him with the promises of endless sugar joys.

But it would be nicer if the two girls paid more attention; a little too absent-minded they were. And apparently there was something wrong with Karin-san, she didn't look very well. However when he'd asked, she'd just brushed it off and, after still lingering on the subject, kicked him in the face.

And now she was literally spitting on the art of demon magic while he gave all he could to make the complex science sound understandable and now she was mocking him.

"So-o Hana-kun," Karin continued on, accenting the suffix '-kun', slowly but surely abandoning her pretense of calmness "you say that if I want to heal somebody, you just have ta put your hands on the wound and will your spirit energy to fuse with your patient's and work together with him to heal the body?"

Hanataro slowly nodded and braced himself for a tirade or a punch Ichigo style, but was met with nothing but a sigh. Karin just stood up, her face somehow pained, took her jacket and turned to the door.

"I'll go out for a walk," came her almost tired shout from outside.

"Okay, Karin-chan. Take care," Yuzu shouted back and then dragged off poor Hanataro, babbling excitedly about 'dressing up', 'toys' and 'Bostov'.

It was going to be a long, unfruitful day.

…

Finally she could have some rest. It wasn't that Karin didn't like spending time with her over-hyper adorable twin sister Yuzu, just sitting with her could bring a smile to everyone's face, her radiance was that powerful, but sometimes it became too much to bear when she wanted to think about the new kinds, the new villains (how most girl would have phrased it) that were quickly entering her once normal life of a elementary school girl with all her small wishes and quirks and playing and studying. It wasn't fair for the two girls to have two words. But at least Yuzu was the less powerful one: she'd be safer if… something was stupid enough to ignore the more potent feels and come to their house. It wasn't good to live such live: they had to learn how to-

But it wasn't good to think too much either. She didn't just go out to only receive a bigger headache.

The weather wasn't fine though. It was cold, a lot colder than it was normal for that time of the year, there was even icing on the grass. However the vicious wind that'd been beating on the windows of the house ever since Hanataro came to 'teach them demon magic', had finally calmed down. The calm, tired breeze gently touched the beaten surroundings, its shallow gasps reminiscent of the breath of a wounded hunter, licking its wounds.

There was something eerie in the almost silence of the town, all its civilians locked away in their houses, not coming out for fear of a new onslaught of a cold storm of ice and wind.

The air tasted gruesome and really lovely at the same time.

The town squares were empty, the meowing of stray cats was painfully clear, the buzzing in the ears too, the trees were heavy, there was no one around, there was more snow and more ice, the wind picked on again, as hard as before, dancing around her slender form and there were more empty shadows of the trees and then there was one occupied.

Karin stopped suddenly at eyed the short boy sitting in front of her, watching with alien turquoise eyes, filled with strange wariness.

The kid itself was… odd, to say the least. He was donning an attire, similar to the ones from the old-fashioned samurai films her father loved watching – a black kimono, with a white haori with some black scribbling on it, green sash, tabi. His hair was a dazzling white, flying everywhere as if thinking that gravity was something luxurious and not always needed. If she saw the boy under normal circumstances, it would be obvious that he would stand out too much with the color of his hair and eyes that bore more intelligence than that of a normal elementary school kid. Or that of an adult, in fact. But, right at the moment, he looked natural, comfortable around all those shackles of ice. The snow on his head couldn't be made out, it looked merged with the scalp. Siberia-like paysages seemed to suit him.

He would look quite in peace if it wasn't for his left bleeding arm.

As she turned to his way, as he looked surprised at her position of seeing him, Karin couldn't help but ponder over the little cliché situation she was in. A pretty boy was sitting injured in front of her, his blood on the white snow as an obvious reference to Cinderella and she wanted to know more of him. If it was an anime show, dramatic violin music would be playing in the background and girls like Yuzu would have hearts in their eyes. Surprisingly, it was real life and the air smelled of blood and battle and, how did Ichigo call it, spiritual pressure.

"You can see me?" the boy was the first to utter a sentence. His eyes were wary.

Instead of saying the obvious answer, Karin preferred to just advance and ask "Who wounded you?"

"No one."

"Masochist."

"Idiot."

"Says the one who thinks it isn't obvious that the wound's from a sword." He winced at the mention of the wound.

Annoyed face turning into a gentle one, Karin quickly walked up to him and looked at the injury. It wasn't big but too much blood was flowing too freely, too quickly. It had to be bandaged.

"Don't you Death Gods have bandages or something like that?" she cursed in her mind; they were too far from the clinic, she wouldn't be able to help him to there, but the wound had to be treated. Then she remembered her previous 'classes' with Hanataro. "Wait, can't you just heal it up or something? You know of demon magic and healing, right?"

The lad in front of her made a grimace, which reminded her of Ichigo. Apparently he hated to be weak.

"While I appreciate it that you think highly of me, I don't believe I will be able to heal anything in such a state?" he said, annoyed.

Yeah, definitely hating to be weak. With a scowl, worthy of her brother.

Karin sighed and then cracked her knuckles.

"If you aren't able at the moment, then I guess I can do the work for you." With a smirk, rolled up sleeves and determination she kneeled next to him, not caring about the wet ground. If someone else could sit on it, she would be able too. If someone else knew demon magic, she could execute it too.

Remembering Hanataro had said that healing spells needed only cooperation between the spiritual pressure of the healer and the wounded in order to replenish one's reiatsu. To do that, one had to be really calm and able to easily merge with the natural flow of spiritual power in the environment. To do the latter however required someone emphatic with selflessness and will to help others. Hanataro had said the majority of Death Gods thought that healers became people who were bad at everything else, but that was untrue.

Keeping in mind whatever she remembered from her teacher's instructions, Karin put her hands on the injured shoulder and tried to do what was supposed to be done. She tried her best to come in contact with the boy's vast spiritual power and to synchronize with it and use her own powers to refill his own big cup of abilities and control.

When she opened her eyes from concentrating, she saw that her efforts were almost in vain. The wound wasn't completely healed up but at least it wasn't bleeding anymore. Sighing contently, she stood up, brushed herself and turned to her home, suddenly realizing it was late and she had to return home to a waiting Yuzu. And Hanataro, who was probably dressed up like some shojo girl.

Headache started banging on her head again.

"Hey, where are you going?" came the voice of the boy whose name she still hadn't learnt.

"Home. I'm late." And she left him like that.