Author's note: Thanks so much for the warm reception! I had no idea there were so many of us out there! I'm totally obsessing over Toshiro now! All day I was thinking about how I could make this story more interesting, entertaining; what situations would be fitting for my main characters, which side characters I wanted to bring in, and on and on... You're totally right though! Romance should NOT be rushed or else you end up with a crappy romance!

-Kero (10/14/09)

Chapter 2: Soccer Practice & Shinigami Training

"Kurosaki, what happened to you?" asked her teacher disapprovingly as Karin came into the classroom with a bandaged head and a bandage wrap around her left thigh. "You remind me of your older bro when he was in my class. You didn't get into a fight, did you?"

"Please," said Karin, looking away.

"Are you going to be okay for the quiz this morning?"

"Yeah."

"Don't push yourself so hard today, ok?" said Sasegawa sensei gently.

"I won't," smiled Karin and she walked over to her seat.

"Kurosaki-san..." said her baffled class representative. The last time he saw her she was perfectly fine. Karin was a little too preoccupied to be embarrassed this time.

"Don't ask," she sighed.

He shrugged. "As long as you're ok. Don't push yourself at practice today, then."

"I'll be lucky if I can play at all today," she lamented.

"All right class, settle down now!" said Miss Sasegawa. Just as she spoke, the class representative stood up and called them all to order. Her classmates quieted down and readied themselves for another day of institutional learning.

"I see you've all managed to stay alive over the summer. Congratulations. We have a new student joining us this semester in our homeroom of 2-A. Let's give him our usual welcome," said Miss Sasegawa. She went over to open the sliding door to the classroom. The students gaped and gasped as a silver haired young man who seemed both too old and too young to be in their class stepped inside, fully donned in Karakura High uniform gray and white.

"Wow," whispered one girl. "He's good looking."

"He bleaches his hair. Is he yakuza? Or a Yankee?" said another.

"I can kick his butt...probably," said a third.

"Please introduce yourself," smiled Miss Sasegawa, ignoring her student's comments.

"I'm Hitsugaya Toshiro," he said calmly. Some of the girls in the back let out a little squeal. Karin just stared at him in disbelief. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.

"You can sit in the empty seat in the third row, next to Kurosaki-san, our assistant class representative. If you have any questions, you can as her or our class representative Hanabishi-kun," said Miss Sasegawa. The shinigami in gigai form walked over to the seat next to hers and looked down at her. She couldn't read his expression.

"Pleased to meet you," he said politely. She thought he looked a little irritated.

"Likewise," responded Karin carefully, still staring as he sat in his seat. She forced herself to face forward.

"Sorry to do this to you Hitsugaya-kun, but we're taking the first quiz of the semester today. Just your luck. Do your best and we'll see what we need to work on with you after this."

"I appreciate that, sensei," said Toshiro politely.

He's not nearly this polite in real life, grumbled Karin to herself. What is he up to?

000

"I don't believe this," said Karin staring down at the list of test scores on Miss Sasegawa's desk in the teachers office. "What a load of cr--" she began, but caught herself from swearing openly among a group of teachers--some of whom were eyeing her in warning. Karin was used to scoring in the top two of her classes, usually outdone only by class representative Hanabishi-kun. But this morning's pop quiz results left her dangling at number ten due to her inability to study with her splitting headache from her injury, with Toshiro placing first and Hanabishi second.

"Shinigami should be given limiters on their testing abilities too," grumbled Karin as she dropped the stack of paper on Sasegawa-sensei's chair and stomped off.

Her competitive streak continued to mutter as she stalked down the hall. "It isn't fair. Stupid Shinigami." Just as she turned the corner she ran into the person she least wanted to see. Her head ran right into his shoulder causing her to stumble backwards. But for his catching her forearm quickly, she would have fallen rather embarrassingly in the middle of the hall.

"What was that about Shinigami?" asked Toshiro with a wry smile touching one corner of his lip.

"Tch. Show off," muttered Karin ruefully. "Just because you've lived a few hundred years more than us....If I had that much time to study, I'd ace all my tests."

"Is that what you're grumbling about now?" he asked disinterestedly. She resisted the urge to smack him for his snotty attitude as she remembered what it was she really wanted to say.

"I...um...wanted to thank you for the other day." It almost sounded forced, which was not what she intended.

"No need." His nonchalant response made her eye brow twitch with annoyance.

"Um...So why are you here again?" she asked, pointedly trying to change the subject.

"I was sent here on a specific mission to monitor someone," he responded simply. She looked at him for a moment.

"Me?" she asked. He gave a single nod.

"Why?"

"Hollow are drawn to immense amounts of spiritual energy. They want to consume it to make them feel whole and stronger. Your reiatsu has been off the charts since a few months ago. Hollow are beginning to flock here and your brother is away in training. In case you draw out any Menos Grandes, a shinigami of a captain's rank needs to be here. I was drafted because I'm familiar with Karakura and I've been in contact with you before," he answered.

"But you don't have to be here in my school, or even my class," she insisted.

"I was told to keep a very close watch over you," he said. His green eyes were scrutinizing her now. She waved him away as if shooing a fly.

"Well stop it, Toshiro. It's kind of creepy. I don't want death gods following me everywhere. What kind of bad mojo is that?" she scoffed.

His temple twitched in irritation. "Tch. It's not like I wanted to come here, you ungrateful, loudmouthed girl. I can think of a hundred things I could be doing in Soul Society right now."

"Well, go back there and do them!" she said in exasperation.

"Well, if your reiatsu wasn't leaking everywhere, I would!" he countered. They glared at each other for a moment and each let out a "hmph" and looked the other way.

"You still didn't answer me. What do you intend to do here?"

"I was sent here to train you. If that didn't work, I'm ordered to seal your reiatsu."

She looked at him incredulously. "I don't want to train...to be a shinigami...," said Karin slowly. That was a lie. She had wanted to be one ever since she saw her brother Ichigo transform in front of her. Karin wanted that power as well. The power to protect.

"And you seem like a total slave driver! I shudder at the thought of having to train with you," she added. Also false. Though she would never admit it out loud, she had been in awe of him ever since she first met him at age 12, when they played a soccer match together. That hadn't changed. Only puberty made things complicated and awkward now.

"I have soccer practive. I have to go," she said hurriedly. He caught her hand. The gesture almost made her blush as she remembered how he had carried her home the other day. Something about the memory made her heart skip a few beats.

"Meet me at front gate when you're done. I'm walking you home," he said. It was more of a command than a request.

She scowled at him. "Fine."

000

Though she couldn't play, she did give her team and intense work out to relieve some of her stress from the day. Despite the grumbling from her team members they ran through their laps, practiced their fakes to the left and then to the right, and then did some intense passing/kicking exercises. When they were finally through, most of them had collapsed on the grass.

"Enough!" said Karin, blowing her whistle. "We'll call it a day here." Several faint moans of appreciation sounded out.

"Remember, as a team, we have what it takes to win the regionals this season. Practice, hard work, and camaraderie will see us through."

"But Captain! The school hasn't approved our budget for new uniforms yet. We can't play the regionals in our old uniforms," said an older team member.

"Leave it to a bunch of girls to complain about clothing!" she reprimanded. "Our pride as soccer players for Karakura High has nothing to do how good our uniforms look."

"Speak for yourself," said Rie Shinohara, a junior and the other front runner for team captain before the semester started. Karin's seat as Captain, though a little unprecedented since she was still only a sophomore, was nearly unanimous though, because of her talent and toughness.

"I'll think of something," said Karin, eyeing Rie carefully. If Rie had been selected as Captain, Karin was sure that her father would have made a generous donation to the soccer club to pay for their new uniforms. As it was, they were still a little short for the down payment. Karin would have to appeal to the Student Council somehow.

"Dismissed!" said Karin. As the girls filed off to the locker room, Karin picked up the net of balls and headed for the storage shed. Her team wasn't established as a winning team that would get more funding and recognition for the school. They had yet to place in the regionals. Deep in contemplation as to how she was going to ask for a bigger slice of the budget, she didn't even notice Toshiro had walked onto the field. Part of her reluctance to ask the Student Council was because the president was Jun Sakamoto, a guy who was determined to give her a hard time in council meetings because she had turned him down for a date when he asked her last year.

"I guess, as my last option, I could try that..." said Karin to herself. She furrowed her brow and looked up towards the afternoon sky, ablaze in orange and pink.

"You seem like you're having a hard time," said Toshiro. Karin snapped back into reality and looked at him. She hadn't even felt his presence.

Anticipating her question he said, "You need to learn how to control your reiatsu and hide your presence from those who can sense you." She sighed. One more thing to do on her mountainous "to do" list. She made no response and he quietly followed her back into the building.

"How am I supposed to do that?" said Karin as she returned her clipboard to the sports club office and grabbed her stuff before locking up.

"You need to find an inner peace and make that a state of mind. Imagine your reiatsu being confined in a bubble that flexes and disappears at your will," he said, as if it was the simplest thing for him to do. They made their way to the front entrance to start their walk home.

"How long did it actually take you to do this?" she eyed him suspiciously.

"Not long," he said evasively. When he notice she was still eyeing him, he let out an irritated sigh. "A few years...."

"Ha," she smirked. "Toshiro isn't perfect. What a surprise."

"It's Captain Hitsugaya to you, or at least sensei," he said in annoyance.

"Meh," she responded with a shrug and looked away, hands folded behind her head. "I can't call someone I've played soccer with sensei. That would be like going backwards. I can't call you Captain Hitsugaya...."

"Why not?" he insisted.

"It seems so impersonal...and distant..." she said thoughtfully. He questioned her with a glance.

"I haven't really known you that long, Toshiro, and we may not be close friends or anything but my instinct tells me that you're not like that. Despite that exterior you're actually a really good person," she smiled and looked at the sky. "And I like calling you Toshiro because I know it irritates you," she said with a little laugh.

"Now see here," he began, about to lecture her more when they both stopped in mid step.

"This feeling," said Karin quietly. Toshiro pulled his cell phone from his pocket and checked the screen.

"It's a Hollow," he said before putting the phone away. "This way!" The 10th Division Captain sped down the street and through an alley towards a construction site with Karin racing after him.

The Hollow was perched precariously on a construction crane. Most of the workers had already cleared for the day but the crane was still carrying a heavy load of I-beams. The cable holding them together was straining and ripping at the pressure, putting the oblivious workers below in danger.

"Take this," ordered Toshiro as he handed her a small green pill. She watched in astonishment as he swallowed one down and his spirit parted with his body and leapt up to the top of a storage container over her head. His body then retreated to an alley on its own. Karin followed suit and felt the unfamiliar pulling of her soul from her body. Before she knew it, she was staring at herself and the modified soul occupying her body smiled back before it went to join Toshiro's gigai. It was uncanny.

"Follow me!" said Toshiro, leaping up to the top of the scaffolding nearby.

"God, he's bossy," said Karin as the jumped upward. The spirit was not bound by gravity but by will, it seemed, and she was able to leap higher than she anticipated. She eyed the Hollow warily as it watched her. It was licking its lips.

"I don't have a zanpakutou," said Karin.

"Your blade is the embodiment of your soul's reiatsu. A soul will not break if the sword sustains damage, but its reiatsu will take time to recover. It takes intensive training to develop your zanpakutou and even longer to learn its name. You seem to be able to add spirit energy to projectiles. You should be better at it in spirit form. Before you can even develop your sword you'll learn how to attack in spirit form with only spirit energy as your projectile weapons. For now, you will watch," he said. With that, she watched his spirit form leap into the air.

Donned in black kimono and his white captain's cloak he looked graceful, even beautiful to Karin for a moment as his dark formed was framed by the half moon in the sky. She shook her head to rid herself of such unnecessary thoughts and watched with intense concentration. Toshiro drew his blade and attacked. The Hollow tried to dodge but the 10th Division Captain was faster. His ability to appear and disappear was what Karin heard described once as shunpo, lightning steps, a technique that only those of captain's rank could perform. This was something beyond her understanding. The Hollow lost one of its limbs to Hyorinmaru. It tried to block, but Toshiro's reiatsu was stronger and sliced through a second limb. Effortlessly, Toshiro raised his sword one last time to slice the Hollow and its mask, which seemed to be key to vanquishing it, in half. The enemy faded and disappeared.

Just as he was sheathing his sword, his eyes went wide as he felt the oppressive presence of a second Hollow, almost identical to the first, immediately behind him.

"Toshiro!" Karin cried out. She went pale as the second Hollow, which seemed a near replica of the first, like twins, raised an angry clawed limb to strike him. Her mind flashed back to when she was twelve, when Toshiro kicked the soccer ball over to her to let her score the winning point. Karin recalled his irritated face when she called him an elementary school student. Then she remembered the kind expression in his eyes as he carried her home. She didn't want him to die. She owed him her life, although he probably didn't think much of it since it was part of his job. There was so much more she wanted to ask him about her abilities and how to control them. She wanted to be able to protect people...even him. There was so much more she wanted to know about him. She wanted to spend more time with him...to say something that would finally make him laugh out loud. Karin's mind snapped back to reality just in time to see him partially dodge the attack but take the blow on his left side. An arc of blood sprayed out.

She looked down and her hands were empty. She had to do something. She willed her reiatsu to come forth. A small glowing sphere appeared in each hand, spinning and twirling in part mist and part light. It glowed a light purple. This must be the color of my reiatsu, she concluded instinctively. So much of what she did in life was instinctual, and she imagined fighting was part of the same pattern. Karin concentrated hard, and the spheres grew in size and spun with greater intensity. She moved the two spheres closer, and they resisted one another like opposite charges of two magnets, but when she forced them together they united into a single sphere, glowing blindingly bright, floating in mid air.

"AAaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" she called out as she kicked it as if she were kicking a goal. It shot at lightning speed and pierced through the hollow on the left side. Her aim was off and impact wasn't nearly as intense as she wanted it to be. The Hollow cried out in agony and charged her with infuriated glowing red eyes. She thought she heard Toshiro call out her name.

Then time stopped. She couldn't explain it. The world was draped in black and white and nothing else. With sudden clarity she saw the shape of something long and shiny in front of her. She squinted as it became clearer. It was a long, slender katana with a deep violet hilt that matched the color of her eyes.

"Call my name," said a low voice in her mind, almost like a growl. She paused. She didn't know its name.

"I have been with you since your birth. You know my name by heart," it responded. Karin took a deep breath and listened to her heart beat. Thump, thump...thump, thump... The wind was whispering...no, something was whispering to her.

...kaji... Flame...

...oukami...Wolf...

...teishuku....Virtue...

"Kajyouteishu," she whispered. The blade glowed with violet fire and time was released. Grabbing the blade she raised her zanpakutou over her head as she had seen Toshiro do, and with one graceful arc she sliced for all she was worth. The Hollow split in two as it touched the blade, with both its halves falling to either side of Karin before it disappeared. She found herself panting from the exertion, and as her tense arms started to relax, her katana faded, disappeared and she fainted.

Toshiro caught her with one arm to stop her fall. He was still recovering from his astonishment as he put her soul back in her body. Just like Ichigo, Karin had an extraordinary amount of reiatsu and her personality was reactively instinctual, which made her he faster learner of the two. He had to admit he was thoroughly impressed. Her blade glowed purple in aura, like it was hot and fresh from the forge, and it was long and slender like his own.

"Virtuous fire wolf, eh?" he smiled as he looked up to the half moon hanging in the sky.

Author's note: I really struggled with the name of her zanpakutou. It had to roll off the tongue easily but the characters had to match up. The only thing I could think of was Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth and her sword. (Haha, did I just age myself?) Her sword had to be an animal, like Toshiro's, but it was an opposite element like fire. Would it have been better as a phoenix? I don't know the word for phoenix in Japanese! Ah well...

--Kero (10/14/09)