IM SO SORRY!
I've recently finished exams and am so relieved! Now the only thing left to dread about is results and life...
Nah all good atm. Writing makes me happy ^_^
So yeah i'm really sorry for the really long wait for this chapter... just been being lazy but back on track now i think
Read and Review please!
:P
As Karin walked down the stairs she paused and looked around at her home, once filled with memories was now almost empty. The walls were naked, there wasn't any furniture in the house at all, it was all at Urahara's in storage. She walked passed the kitchen and dining area, looking almost entirely unused except for a spot on the bench where she had once placed a heated pot on, there was a brown circle from the burn there. She gave a small chuckle, it was all she could muster, it really wasn't a time for happiness. Even though she knew she had given her family so much trouble and at times she would even claim that she hated living here, she honestly couldn't find any other place to call home. Taking one last deep sigh she slowly and reluctantly made her way outside to the rest of the company.
She had stepped through the threshold for what would be the last time for a while and carelessly dumped her small bag beside the front door. Karin turned and looked at the soul reapers who were here to guard her family, she was quite glad with the different options there were. The Kurosaki's didn't get to know who was guarding each of them and by looking around the area; Karin thought that the soul reapers around her weren't all that bad. The first thing she saw was Ichigo's freak excuse of hair that stood up in every direction. Beside him was someone with red hair, that was long and tied up in a ponytail making it just as obvious as her brother's orange mane, she had heard of him, Renji. Ichigo used to grumble about him and he seemed to be a pretty good guy. His eyebrow tattoos were actually kinda cool. To Renji's left there was a shorter soul reaper with no hair at all, but some sort of unusual makeup on the corners of his eyes, to Karin he seemed stubborn and a true fighter. Then behind him there was this monster of a human (though technically he was a soul reaper, but they were all in gigais), he wore an eye patch and had long black hair that stuck out in different directions and had small bells on the ends. He was most definitely a fighter to the death. She had heard Ichigo speak about him once, it was something like Kenpachi Zaraki, Ichigo had been terrified of facing him again, Kenpachi was a monster at fighting. Then next to him there was Isshin with Yuzu and an awkward looking man with depressed eyes and blonde hair that covered part of his face, she hadn't heard of him before. And lastly Karin noticed someone familiar, someone she had gotten along with so well yet she had known him for barely a day.
"Toshiro?"
"It's Captain Hitsugaya."
"What're you doing here?"
"What does it look like? I'm here to help protect the Kurosaki family."
Karin knew that the soul society only wanted to protect them, but she hated being baby sat, regardless of who the babysitter was. She was mad. Mad at them for coming into her world and splitting her family apart. She was mad at how they allowed such an idea to be put into action; there must've been far better plans they could have used. She was mad at the idiot who proposed the idea.
This zone of anger was suddenly left as her twin ran up to her and hugged her tightly. Yuzu knew what was going through Karin's head, never before had they spent more than a day apart. And when that did happen, they had their father or Ichigo to rely on. Now no one would be around that they were truly familiar with. Yuzu let go of her sister and took her by the hand.
"Come on Karin, I'll introduce you to all these people. Look. The one with the red hair is Renji."
Renji did a wide grin and lifted his chin, Karin thought she wouldn't mind being stuck with him, they seemed pretty similar.
"The man beside him with the pink on the corner of his eyes is Ikkaku."
Ikkaku nearly choked when he heard the young girl's description of him, she didn't mention his lack of hair and was instantly considered a good person in his books.
"That big man there is Mr. Zaraki."
Kenpachi just moaned and turned his head so the eye with the patch was closest to them.
"The man next to daddy is Izuru."
Izuru paused at the sound of his name. He then turned and nodded his head towards the girls and gave a bad attempt at a smile before continuing his conversation with Isshin.
"And the one next to you with the white hair is-"
"Toshiro, yeah we had met before."
"It's Captain Hitsugaya."
Yuzu looked at Karin and then at Toshiro, her eyes flicked back and forth between the two before she smiled at them and gave a wink at Karin. The twin's didn't need to speak; both could tell what the other was thinking without saying a word. And Karin was damn grateful that Yuzu wasn't saying anything, her little thoughts that were going through her head as she looked at Karin and Toshiro were too embarrassing to say aloud. She simply gave her a warning glare and Yuzu smiled and walked back to talk with her father and Izuru.
"So what's happening today Toshiro?"
He turned to glare at her in silence until she got the idea.
"Sorry, Captain Hitsugaya."
"Well the Head Captain has allocated one of you to each soul reaper. Yuzu will require two because she is in a place where there are others with high spiritual energy."
"But why aren't they being sent away too?"
"Because Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi have the capability of hiding their spiritual energy as well as a part of the others. Also, Squad 12 has done some research on the spiritual energy of your family and it turns out Yuzu's has been increasing. Lieutenant Kira has been placed in charge of training her. Both she and you will be handed a sword soon and will begin your training."
"So who else is going to stay with her?"
"Lieutenant Abarai."
"And what about dad?"
"He leaks the least amount of spiritual pressure out of all of you and is staying with Ichigo, Captain Zaraki and Third Seat Madarame.
Karin went through everything Toshiro had just said and turned to him with a confused face.
"So… that means…"
"Yes. The Head Captain has placed me in charge of you."
Karin turned a light shade of red and was thankful that Toshiro had his eyes closed. She looked at everyone and saw that the pairings seemed understandable, all but theirs.
"Who's idea was it to place these guys in control of us? Who brought up the idea at the meeting?"
"The Head Captain chose each soul reaper based on their skill level and thought that they were the best choice to train each individual here."
"But who gave him the idea of splitting us up? Ichigo could have trained Yuzu and I easily. Sure he's not at his best now but in the state that he is he should have been fine."
"It's true he could have taught you but you need to learn quickly and having a family member would restrain you because of the sentimental bonding.
"That's bullshit and you know it. So tell me who started the separation of my family."
Toshiro had opened his teal eyes and stared at Karin. She was staring right back at him, her eyebrows were furrowed much like her brother's usually were and her hands were clenched into fists.
"I was the one who proposed the idea to the Head Captain. He agreed to it and chose which of us wound be with which of you."
"So, this was your fault?"
Toshiro looked down to her hands, her knuckles were going white at how tight her fists were.
"The soul society is concerned for Karakura Town. They felt it was necessary to involve themselves-"
Karin had just missed Toshiro's face in an attempted right hook. He had leaned backwards and stepped a few paces away from her. He closed his eyes and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black jeans, annoyed at her for trying to hit him.
"You're the reason why this is happening to us!"
"They felt it was necessary to involve themselves since the entire town was at risk because of four people."
"I don't care!"
She ran forward and swung at him with her left hand. He dodged it as easily as he did the first. Karin then went to kick his leg but all Toshiro had to do was lift his higher than hers to block it. Again and again she swung at him, hoping to hit her target and again and again he dodged and blocked her, all the while looking into her enraged eyes.
Karin was getting puffed, not once hitting her mark and Toshiro was standing right in front of her, bored and disappointed at her.
"You cannot change the situation by attacking me. The decision was neither yours nor mine. You will just have to learn to deal-"
She had managed to get him in the ribs, and though he curled up and stumbled, he stood straight almost immediately. He coughed a bit before he spoke.
"Don't waste your energy here."
"I've got plenty more, believe me."
Toshiro smirked at this. She had willpower (something that must run in the family he thought). Even though he was bored, tired and annoyed that she hadn't cut it out, he saw a spark in her eye and great determination and at that moment he knew she would endure anything he set out for her just to become stronger.
"Alright then. Let's see if you can get me again."
He took a stance as Karin came charging at him, she swung with her right. He grabbed her fist and pushed it to the outside of his right shoulder. She came at him with her left foot and he stopped her kick by moving her foot down with his own. Now she was moving forward but her foot was stuck under his. All he had to do was move out of the way and she fell to the ground.
"Are you done now?"
Karin couldn't understand what had just happened. She knew what had happened, she just couldn't understand how. How was he able to predict her moves, how was he fast enough to have been able to dodge them? And in a new gigai at that. Yuzu had immediately ran to help Karin up and Toshiro was getting some nasty looks from Isshin and Ichigo but he just brushed them off and grabbed Karin's bag.
"You should all head off now. We've spent more than enough time here. Izuru, Renji, you know where Urahara is from here right?"
Renji nodded and collected Yuzu's stuff.
"Good. Kenpachi, Ikkaku, are you sure that there wont bee too much spiritual pressure around where you are?"
Kenpachi just scoffed and gave his trademark demonic grin.
"Nah, we can keep it hidden easy. And so what if we don't? Maybe if we release enough, stronger hollows will come and I can actually find a way to enjoy myself."
"Be cautions of the humans around you. Don't put lives at risk. If you're all ready then its time for the Kurosaki's to say their farewells."
Isshin immediately ran to his two daughters and began to sob about how his precious little angels were being left with the big bad scary soul reapers. For once Karin didn't attempt to silence him with a punch, instead she accepted her fathers affection, only for a short time though. Yuzu on the other hand was crying just as much as Isshin was. Karin managed to get out before she was drowned between the two and walked over to Ichigo, she looked at him and his scowling face. She laughed and hugged him tightly, as often as they fought, she would definitely miss him. When the embrace was done, Yuzu ran to Ichigo and hugged his neck and cried even more when he patted her on the head. When she was done, she ran back to Karin, and hugged her tightly. Her sobbing had stopped but the tears hadn't. Karin knew she would miss her twin a lot. She knew they struggled when they were apart, but she also knew that being apart would make them stronger.
When they finally let go, Yuzu walked over to Izuru and Renji and they began to walk away. Isshin and Ichigo carried only a small bag with extra clothes, Ichigo also had to take Kon so that his body would still move around while he was fighting as a soul reaper, they walked down the street and took the cab all the way to the woods. Soon everyone was gone.
"We should get going. We need to find somewhere to stay for the night."
Karin didn't move.
"I've already found a place to train but it would be best if we put our stuff away."
Toshiro was also carrying a bag with some clothes and soul candy in it. He heard Karin start walking towards him. She stopped and snatched her bag from him, not looking up at him for one second.
"Fine. There's an apartment building about ten minutes away from here."
She walked past Toshiro and swung her bag onto her back, placing her red cap on to hide her face. Toshiro paused and looked at her, he was unsure of what to make of her mood. As he began to follow her he grunted, she would be difficult to get used to.
"Lead the way."