Author's Note: Thank's so much for all of your awesome reviews! I didn't think I'd get such good feedback but I guess my writing wasn't as crappy as I thought. This chapter ism't may favorite for different reasons, but mainly because I think I'm being a bit redundant – but if that annoys you sorry, it just means I'm trying to get my point across. And I was wondering what kind of pairings you guys want. I already have UryuuxOrhihime but idk about the rest. I have a poll set up so let me know and if you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!
Rating: K+
Warning: Angst, possible revisions later
Disclaimer: Don't. Own. Bleach.
Chapter Summary: As Karin struggles to come to terms with what has happened - with her father's comfort - and Orihime tries to stay strong for her friends, Rukia and Renji notice something off with the whole 'evil reiatsu' situation. Why are the captains so cautious about this flare of spiritual energy?
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Chapter One: Contemplation
Karin opened her eyes groggily, sleep still heavy in her system. Her back and neck ached and her arms were asleep - things that people didn't normally experience after a nap at home. With a jolt, she sat up – regretting it immediately – and remembered what had transpired not a day ago.
Shaking her head as if to snap herself out of her sleep induced haze, the first thing she noticed was a warm and worn brown jacket much too big for herself sliding off her shoulders and pooling around her waist. 'Who…?'
The second thing she noticed was the blinding white that surrounded her. White sheets invaded her vision along with white walls and the distinct smell of disinfectant and sick people. She wrinkled her nose in distaste.
Her father's clinic was way homier and always smelled of pine and Yuzu's home cooking.
Her eyes widened and looked up at the person who occupied the bed she had slept on.
'Yuzu…'
The girl was sleeping peacefully, her brow smooth and not furrowed in distress. She was still a bit pale, but had much more color than the pillow she lay on or the bandage around her head. Her chest moved up and down in an even pace, an IV sticking out of her thin looking arm.
Besides the frightening image of little Yuzu being devoured by her humongous bed and drowning in her sheets and hospital gown, she seemed perfectly fine. "Thank goodness." Karin whispered, mostly to herself so that she knew she wasn't dreaming.
Her hand snaked up to her sisters and grasped it lightly, receiving a small squeeze in return. She let a small, relieved smile curl her lips, her eyes softening as the other girl let out a contented sigh. Her twin seemed to know she was here, and both girls let an unknown tension seep out of them.
"Karin." Someone said quietly as if not to disturb the peaceful quiet surrounding the room.
She looked up, a bit startled, and nearly cried out in happiness at seeing her father – for once. "Dad." she replied, getting out of the seat to run to her father and – much to his surprise – wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her face into his shirt.
It smelled like him, like pine and dirt and that familiar cologne mom picked out for him, something she found so immensely comforting. She felt the burn of tears coming to her eyes, but she didn't care.
"Daddy…" she whispered quietly, tears soaking through the mans' shirt.
Isshin merely looked down at her in shock before placing a large comforting hand on her head, petting her hair as her shoulders shook slightly.
'My poor little girl…' he thought sadly, guilt eating away at him at an alarming pace. His little girls shouldn't have had to go through something like that. 'She's had to stay strong for so long…and to see Ichigo in such a state…'
When he talked to the paramedic that rode with her earlier, he said that the girl seemed calm the entire time in the ambulance and in the hospital until she fell asleep at her sisters bed, if not a little tense.
Even when the doctor gave her a check-up to make sure there weren't any internal wounds and patched up little scratches here and there, she remained quiet and stoic.
Isshin expected that.
She was so like Ichigo, bottling up her emotions, her worries, so she wouldn't 'burden' anyone else. He just didn't expect her to cry so soon, if at all.
That only showed how truly scared she was, how hard this experience hit her fragile childlike reality. It didn't matter how old she acted, she was still not completely ready for the real world – for the world her brother and father faced everyday.
He kneeled down to her height, looking her in the eye, and without of his usual goofiness, said, "It's gonna be okay, Karin." while giving her a warm smile.
That was all the girl needed to hear before breaking out into fresh, relieved, and frightened tears, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly and hiding her face in his collar.
He sighed and wrapped his arms around his daughter, rubbing her back soothingly until she murmured 'Ichi-nii…' and went limp. He checked to see if she had fallen asleep and found her snoozing on his chest. He looked at his little girls face and sighed again, 'She's so tired…it's not wonder considering all that she's gone through.'
With a wry smile, he stood up with her bridal style, and carried her to the waiting room where the rest of Ichigo's friends were.
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"Kuchiki Rukia, reporting from the real world, Ukitake-taichou." Rukia stated, bowing formally to her captain. The man nodded for her to continue, "While I was in the real world, a flare of evil reiatsu drew me to the center of town where a car accident had occurred. I checked the area but by the time I got there, there were too many people and the reiatsu vanished, not leaving a trace."
Ukitake nodded in approval. "Thank you Rukia." After a moment's pause, her furrowed his brows and asked curiosity, "And what is this 'car accident' you mentioned?"
Rukia cracked a small smile at her taichou's question, resisting the urge to laugh because at one time, she asked the same of Ichigo. "The real world has these machines called cars that are used as a means of transportation for humans, among other things."
Ukitake gave a thoughtful 'oh' of interest, intently listening to her explanation. Sentaro and Kiyone also listened from the door, curiosity eating away at them as well.
Rukia continued, "A car accident is when two or more of these machines collide, creating a fairly deadly explosion. They can range anywhere from a dent on either vehicle or possible fatalities. It could also be just one car hitting a human, causing serious injury and death."
The white haired captain furrowed his brows in worry, "You didn't sense any wandering souls when you investigated the strange reiatsu, did you?"
Rukia paused, going back over her exploration but didn't recall seeing a wandering soul, "No, Ukitake-taichou. I didn't see any souls but there was a rather large crowd of people so the accident must've been severe."
He nodded grimly but perked up and said, "Well, good job. I'll talk to the Tenth Division seeing as how Rangiku-san, Hitsugaya-taichou, and some Eleventh Division members want to visit Ichigo-kun and they'll carry on the investigation along side you. I'll also visit the Twelfth Division to see if they have anymore information or other reports."
Rukia raised an eyebrow at how cautious the taichou was being. Then again, since the Winter War and the cause of it ended, she couldn't blame him even if it was almost a year ago. "Hai, taichou." she bowed again.
He waved his hand and gave her a warm smile, "Go, go back to the real world. Say hi to Ichigo-kun and the rest for me."
She smiled back gratefully before departing, glad she could return so quickly. She had only been gone a few days, but it would be nice to relax a bit more in the real world. She furrowed her brows in thought though.
Why did it seem like her taichou was being overly cautious? They've had reports like this before but they were usually unusually strong hollows that were sneaky, like the Grand Fisher.
Before she could wonder further, she ran into a broad chest, causing her to lose her balance with an 'oof!'
An arm shot out to grab hers and pulled her back to her feet, "Watch where your-" she stopped when she saw a flash of bright red hair. "Renji!" she smacked him on the arm, earning a yelp of surprised before growling, "Idiot! Watch what you're going!"
Renji pouted at her, rubbing his arm more out of habit than actual pain and said, "Hey! You were the one that ran into me!" he looked at her closely, dodging another smack to the arm and said, "You seem pretty out of it. Got something on yer mind?"
Rukia sighed and rolled her eyes good naturedly, "I wasn't that out of it. It's just something my taichou is looking into a bit more in depth than usual I guess."
Renji raised a tattooed eyebrow at that and asked, "Was it somethin' about an evil reiatsu in the real world?"
Rukia's eyes widened in shock, "How do you know about that?"
He gave her a cheeky smirk, "Kuchiki-taichou told me about it and wanted me to go to the real world to investigate since I know the place best outta the entire squad." He nodded towards Ukitake-taichou's squad room, "Ukitake-taichou say the same?"
Rukia nodded, "Not in so many words. He just informed me that Hitsugaya-taichou, Matsumoto-fukutaichou, Madarame-san, Yumichika-san, and a few others are leaving for the human world as well to investigate. He said I could go back as well while he informs the Twelfth Division."
Renji whistled, "Whoa. Wonder what's got all the taichou's haori's in a bunch. Think it's somethin' bigger than they wanna share?"
Rukia sighed, a strange feeling of apprehension taking over as she ran a hand through her dark locks, "I don't know, but I suddenly have a very bad feeling somethings going to happen."
The redhead gave her a look that said 'that's not good' and nodded, "I was kinda thinking the same thing actually. Well, I'm sure we'll find something when we get over there. Wonder if Ichigo felt it too…" he said thoughtfully.
She snorted and said, "His reiatsu detection skills suck as much as yours even after all that training and winning the war. I think he could only feel when Zaraki-taichou's in town because of his bloodlust."
They both laughed at that and Renji said, "True, but it still wouldn't hurt ta ask. Let's get goin, I wanna spar with him a little bit. It's bin a while since I beat him."
Rukia shook her head ruefully at the redhead's antics as they walked to the Senkai Gate, but she couldn't quite get rid of the nagging worry in the back of her mind. Why were the Gotei 13 so suspicious of this malicious reiatsu? And why did she feel like something big was going to happen?
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Orihime almost tripped over own two feet for the nth time that day, rushing to get to the floor Ichigo was on, panic slowly eating away at her insides.
Was Kurosaki-kun going to be okay?
The day had started out just fine, if not a little strange. School was the same and no one seemed to act any differently than any other day.
The strange part was that there were no hollows out to play, but that could've been attributed to the fact that Aizen was now dead and Soul Society was keeping Hueco Mundo on lockdown. Hollows still slipped in so why was it so quiet…
Then again, none of those things seemed to have any connection to the car accident the orange haired boy was in.
They would've sensed if there was a hollow, and if it tried anything, she and her friends had no doubt he could take care of it with just a flick of his wrist. But still, it didn't have anything to do with the car running into…
And why would it? Just because no one acted differently, it didn't mean something could still happen, something out of their control – but it still bothered Orihime.
Was it because she still saw Ichigo as the super powerful Shinigami as she did in the Hueco Mundo and couldn't fathom the thought that a car of all things could take him down?
It was plausible, that something like this could shock her so badly til she was numb, that Kurosaki Ichigo of all people, would fall to…not a powerful hollow.
But…he was still human with human limitations – if his above average strength and fighting ability was disregarded. He was smarter, more cunning than he let on. He was pretty damn perceptive too…wait, where was this train of thought going?
Now frustrated with herself at her random thoughts that didn't really make sense, Orihime entered the elevator and pressed the 9 button. Good thing it was Uryuu's hospital otherwise getting such a high priority patients' information would've been difficult.
She tapped her foot nervously, her adrenaline still buzzing through her veins from running to the hospital and her worrying thoughts. Why was the elevator taking so long?
She sighed, trying to calm herself down. It wouldn't do any good to start panicking when everyone else was already on edge. After taking a deep breath, the ding of the elevator alerted her that she had reached her floor.
She stepped onto the floor, walking at a brisk pace to Ichigo's room, ignoring the cold, sterile smell of the hospital.
The sight of injured patients and those walking with IV's was enough to chill her to her bone, hoping that Ichigo wouldn't be in such a condition.
Maybe she was overreacting?
No, the tone of voice Ishida used when he called her was much too serious and concerned for Ichigo's injuries to be downplayed.
He wasn't a man of many words when it was unnecessary and tried to hide behind a cold façade, but she could hear the hitch in his voice, the small waver of uncertainty when he tried to reassure them both that the orange haired teen was okay.
She turned a corner and stopped. A few yards ahead of her, there were several occupied chairs, all with people she knew and who were close to the Kurosaki's.
Isshin was nowhere in sight, but Karin was sleeping fitfully across two chairs, her small shaking frame covered by her father's brown jacket. It broke her heart to see the girl in such a state. She must've been so distressed, seeing as how she was also in the accident and had to see her siblings so injured.
Chad was standing beside the girl, leaning on the wall with his large arms crossed over his broad chest. He was unwavering, unmoving, and stable, something she found comforting right now, but even she could see the crease in his brow, his eyes shut a bit more tightly than if he was just closing them. He was worried.
Keigo, surprisingly, sat still, slouching in one of the hospital chairs. His usual, bright enthusiasm was painfully tame and his glowing eyes were dimmed. She didn't realize how close Ichigo and Keigo were, but judging by how tight his grip on the armchair was, it was pretty close.
Mizuiro sat beside him, his usual flirtatious smile gone and replaced by one of slight anxiety. For once, his cell phone wasn't out, but the duo seemed to be helping eachother.
Tatsuki sat a chair away from Karin, her tough attitude simmered down to one of pain , anger – hopefully and probably not aimed at Ichigo himself – and complacence. Inoue couldn't blame her for taking this so hard – despite how they acted on the outside; she and the Kurosaki's were fairly close.
Orihime immediately went to Uryuu's side and held his hand, "Is he going to be okay? And what about Yuzu?" she whispered, trying not to disrupt the strange silence surrounding the group.
Ishida looked at her, startling her with the concern in his eyes, and said, "He's in surgery right now."
He was hesitant to say anything else, especially from seeing the flash of alarm in her eyes. The doctor had only told them a little before having to leave to actually operate on Ichigo – only an hour ago after his x-rays were taken and he was prepped for the operation.
"He's supposed to be out of surgery in four more hours. All they know now is that he as a punctured lung and a concussion along with a few lacerations on his back and arms."
"…and his sisters? Are Karin and Yuzu fine?" she suddenly felt terrible for not worrying about the girls earlier, the weight of the rock in her stomach suddenly growing from guilt.
Ishida gave a small smile, "They're fine. Yuzu has a minor concussion and a few scratches, but she'll be okay. Karin was conscious when the ambulance arrived and she was pretty shaken. She says Ichigo protected them from the car and impact of the ground and won't talk to anyone." he finished a bit sadly.
Inoue gasped as her eyes widened, her unshed tears finally spilling over. She didn't miss Ishida's slip, calling Ichigo by his first name. "Can't…can't I use my Soten Kisshun? I could heal him right away and he could-"
She stopped when Ishida shook his head forlornly. "He's already been admitted to the hospital. If we don't want to raise suspicion, you can't use your powers on him. Besides," he suddenly brightened a bit and squeezed her hand, "this is Kurosaki we're talking about. He's been through worse and he'll be fine. Once he gets bed rest you can do what you can."
Feeling a bit better from his words, Inoue nodded and pecked him on the cheek, giving his hand a small squeeze, before walking over to the others. She quickly wiped away the tears, knowing that crying would do nothing to help the situation.
Ishida watched her walk towards the others, feeling the weight of his words. What if Kurosaki wasn't fine? They had said the concussion was severe…what if he was diagnosed with brain damage or worse?
Despite his constant claims that he wanted nothing to do with Shinigami, Ishida knew that Ichigo was more than a Shinigami. He was a hero and his nakama.
Chad stood as a silent, protective guard, his arms crossed and his eyes shut. She could feel his worry for his best friend, the person that gave him to ability to save lives and fight to protect.
He had different types of silences, most of which the group was able to decipher after spending so much time together. Ichigo was the best at guessing how his friend felt, but they had an inkling of what the gentle giant felt. He was fine. As long as Ichigo was in good hands, he would stay by his side and stay strong. The tall man nodded in greeting when she waved and walked by.
Her best friend Tatsuki, on the other hand, seemed to have spaced out in the hospital chair she was sitting in. She was hunched over, her elbows resting on her knees and wringing her hands. "Tatsuki-chan." Orihime greeted, happy to see that her voice didn't crack and was able to get the karate fighter out of her trance.
Said girl looked up in a bit of a daze before shaking her head and giving a small smile, "Hey Orihime." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her shoulders trembling slightly, "He's in surgery now…they said that he had a punctured lung and a concussion with some cuts but they couldn't say much else." she informed.
Orihime froze for a second after hearing that. Ishida had told her but it made it more painfully real after hearing someone else – someone who hadn't seen war and wasn't used to such injuries – explain. She sat down next to her friend, laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "He's gonna be okay, Tatsuki-chan. It's Kurosaki-kun after all."
Tatsuki glanced at her, giving her a doubtful look, before sighing and nodding reluctantly. "Yeah, I guess. It's just…I don't know, hard to accept."
Orihime nodded, understanding how she was feeling. That was how she felt earlier, "Yeah, it's strange, but we need to believe he'll pull through, just like all the other times."
Tatsuki gave a shaky smile, "Thanks Orihime. I guess it's a bit harder for me cause when I think of Ichigo all I can see is a little orange-haired crybaby that couldn't throw a punch to save his life."
They both laughed quietly. Inoue nodded and gave a small smile, still a bit worried about how pale and scared Tatsuki looked. She had never seen her strong friend look so…frail and tired before and it was a bit disconcerting.
She just hoped Ichigo would be fine.
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Author's Note: Okay, so this chapter turned out about 1,500 words longer than I thought xD oh well, I hope it makes you happy. The only part of this chapter I really like is the Karin and Isshin part and the Soul Society part. I don't really like orihime that much but I decided 'What the heck?' so yeah. I think I have a lot of mistakes in this one but I'm too lazy to read over it for the thousandth time and I hope you understand. Im still recovering from jet lag, especially with a 13 hour time difference, so my sleeping habits are a bit out of whack. Remember the poll and see what couples you want!
PS Ill try to make these updates weekly, but it'll be a little hard, so please bare with me. Thank you awesome readers!
