Karin doesn't believe in ghosts.

She could see people with chains in their chests that other people couldn't, but threw herself into denial.

If ghosts existed, her mother would have said goodbye.

Karin couldn't remember much about her mother, but she knew she was important. She knew that her mother's passing scarred her father and Ichigo, and that was why she cried at the funeral. If ghosts were real, her mom would have come back and stopped Ichigo from stupidly blaming himself. But Ichigo and Isshin were still idiots, so ghosts couldn't exist.

It took her three days of eavesdropping on souls around town to figure out she had done the impossible.

It was hard to breath, hard to move, hard to think, and it certainly hurt like hell. She had thought that the smaller the hallow, the dumber it was, but that stereotype was painfully proven false. It had knocked her out of her body, -yes, she could see it across the street- and broken the chain that had suddenly appeared attached to her. She was fortunate enough to have been thrown behind a parked car, and the hallow, after losing interest in her body, wandered off to find her. The weight holding her in place slowly became more bearable, and she somehow managed to drag herself across the street.

She knew it wasn't going to be easy, but Karin found herself increasingly discouraged. No matter how many times she had laid down into her body, -very weird- she had sat up to find that she was still separated from the unconscious –not dead, that would make her a ghost- 10 year old. On her seventh try, Karin heard the familiar cry of her opponent. It was coming back.

Panic finally broke through her restraints and overtook her. She couldn't even run fast enough to find a place to hide in this state. She tried to wake herself up, nothing. She couldn't be dead. This was just one of those out of body experiences she had heard about. Karin doesn't believe in ghosts.

If the hallow eats her, she'll never see Yuzu again. She'll never get to punch Ichigo for disappearing and worrying them.

She hasn't said goodbye yet.

A/N: I'm suddenly back into Bleach. I don't know why...