Karin knew something big was happening when she felt one of the odd jewels activate.
She ran hard to the scene...and found a girl she vaguely knew from her brother. Orihime Inoue, a girl with hair as orange as her brother Ichigo. She was in his class, though she didn't actually hang out in his circle. He mostly knew her through Tatsuki.
Orihime had gotten her hands on one of the jewels. The thing was lighting up like a firework.
The strange thing was that for some reason it wasn't going totally out of control. Something about Orihime was keeping it in check.
Karin watched as a blue haired girl with sapphire blue eyes overlapped with Orihime's body.
~It can't be. Lady Eria?~
Eria?
~Lady Eria, the Water master. She and Mistress Hiita tended to fight, but they were as close as sisters. She possessed similar magic to Mistress Hiita.~
What should we do, Kurama?
~Our best bet is to retrieve the jewel seed...and see if Raging Waves is around.~
Is that anything like Blazing Soul?
~Mistress Hiita wasn't the only one targeted. All of the Charm Schools were. She was the first to awaken in this case.~
Right now we need to seal that blasted jewel!
Karin quickly sealed the jewel. It was in the process of doing so that she found an odd blue sphere so similar to her own. Only it looked more like a water drop.
~Master Karin, that appears to be Lady Eria's device.~
So it was nearby?
~It is possible that the jewel merely awakened her spirit enough for you to see Eria. If you give the girl Raging Waves, she should be able to synch with Lady Eria.~
I'll ask her before I give it to her though.
At first Orihime was skeptical, but once Karin displayed her barrier jacket she was all for it.
When Karin handed over Raging Waves, Orihime felt the connection.
"Basically, you let it do most of the work at the beginning until you start to get the hang of it. If you want to learn spells, I usually train at that abandoned hospital," said Karin.
~Raging Waves, Set Up.~
The water around Orihime turned her hair blue and like Karin her clothes changed.
"This is so cool!" gushed the girl.
"If my experience is anything to go by, her familiar will show up in a few weeks. My advice is to start training so it will have something to go on," said Karin.
Orihime turned out to be just as adaptive as Karin had. Within a few weeks she had bounded with Eria's old familiar, which she named Mamoru. Between the two of them, the jewel seeds near Karakura were sealed away from the general public. It seemed as though things were going smoothly.
Until Kurama told the girls that the scent was stronger in the next town over.
That town was Uminari. Ichigo often went there for Kendo lessons, since he was told that someone there practiced real fighting not the tournament style that was so prevalent today.
So Karin asked to join him on the train ride there. Ichigo went every Saturday.
Orihime would continue learning about magic through Raging Waves while Karin went to investigate the jewel seeds in the next town.
Little did they know what would happen because she went there.
"So the family you train with is the Takamachi?"
"Yeah, they have a daughter about your age so you can hang out with her until my practice is done," said Ichigo. After a talk with the Takamachi patriarch, Ichigo had decided to try his luck as a mercenary once he graduated high school.
"What's her name?"
"Nanoha. They recently got a pet ferret named Yuuno-kun, though I have no idea who came up with that one."
While Karin waited on the train with her brother, her mind was racing.
A girl about her age, and recently got a pet ferret with a ridiculous name. It was quite possible Nanoha was like her.
Nanoha could be a mage.
"Konnichiwa, Karin-chan!" said Nanoha. She had reluctantly taken a break from hunting jewel seeds so that she could show Ichigo's younger sister around town.
"Konnichiwa, Nanoha-san. Hope I didn't ruin your Saturday by coming with my idiot brother," said Karin with a grin.
"Oi, remember who agreed to bring you brat," said Ichigo in good humor.
"It's no problem. I've been meaning to take a break anyway," said Nanoha. Her 'ferret' was on her shoulder looking at Karin with suspicion. He sensed something wasn't right about her.
"So what should we do?" asked Karin.
"We could always take a walk..."
"Sounds good to me. Kurama, you want to walk or ride?"
The fox barked and jumped on her shoulder. Holding a four way conversation was easier if you rode.
~So, I take it you guys know about those stupid jewels too, huh?~
~Who said that?~
~Chill Ferret boy. Kurama is my familiar.~
~Ano...are you guys mages as well?~
~I am after I accidental found this jewel six months ago. Ever since then I've been exercising my powers and I've gotten to be a pretty good shot. How about you?~
~I found Yuuno laying in the park and decided to help him.~
~I was the one who originally found the jewel seeds, and I felt it was my responsibility to get them back.~
~Geez...you guys are as bad as my brother Ichigo. So what do you really want to do? Can either of you shoot your magic very well?~
~Well I've been doing my best but we haven't had much time to train the magic I have.~
~Would you like some help? I've been mostly self taught, but I have learned a few tricks thanks to my device.~
~I would really appreciate it, Karin-chan.~
Karin ended up helping Nanoha deal with the only other mage trying to collect the jewels. Since Karin had just disengaged her device, the other girl didn't seem aware of the fact there were three mages there.
By the time night fell, Karin was more than ready to go home...as soon as she set up a good place to teleport so she wouldn't have to keep taking the train every day.
Over the course of a week, Karin helped to train Nanoha in between hunting the jewel seeds. Yuuno had taken a look at her device and had come out surprised by what it was.
Karin had accidentally found a unison device that was working at half efficiency. It apparently required an outside source of power to fully awaken the true soul of the device. At the moment, Yuuno had no idea what the outside source was. In all likelihood it had already been lost.
Karin struck the tree and collected the seed before Nanoha and Fate could accidentally awaken it during their fight. Since she was a neutral party, she would hand over the seed to whoever won the fight.
The only problem was that the fight in question had been called off by an outside source.
"I'm commissioner Chrono of the Time Space Administration Bureau!"
"And?" said Karin. Whoever this kid was, he didn't impress her one bit.
"I'm afraid you'll all have to come with me. We need to sort out this mess you three have caused with the jewel seed retrieval," he said bluntly.
"Listen Kid, unless I can confirm whatever credentials you claim to have, I'm not handing over the seeds I've collected. For all I know you could be an outside party who wants to use the power the stupid things have!"
Chrono glared at her, but conceded her point. Since the Bureau didn't have any outposts on Earth, it was difficult to prove he was who he claimed to be, and the jewel seeds were too strong to hand over to a stranger.
Fate scowled as she realized their fight would have to be put on hold with the Bureau now in the game.
She vanished before Chrono could stop her.
"Konnichiwa, Nanoha-san, Karin-san, and Yuuno-san," said Admiral Lindy.
"Hello Lindy-san," said Karin. She was a bit surprised by the fact Lindy put sugar and cream in her green tea, but didn't show it like Nanoha did.
"I hope my son's credentials have been confirmed?" asked Lindy smiling.
"Blazing Soul, release our Seeds," said Karin.
~Jewel Seeds 13, 12, 21, 20 and 11, release.~
"I thought you said you collected 6 of them Karin-chan?" asked Nanoha.
"I collected five. A classmate of my brother's has the other one. She's still getting used to learning healing magic. She hates fighting."
"Would you mind telling me where you found a Lost Logia class Unison device, Karin-san? I personally don't mind but my superiors would like to know why it appeared now," asked Lindy.
"I was walking home when I found it. I thought it was a candy until I picked it up. It started talking that night and I tried it out the next day at an abandoned hospital. My dad told me that I was free to learn magic, so long as I kept my grades up and didn't get killed."
Karin had told him after she found another Unison device like hers that ended up being for one of the stronger Charm Masters. To her surprise, it ended up bonding with her twin sister Yuzu, who had the weakest spiritual sense of the family. Shining Heart had a large arsenal of healing and supportive magic, since between the two of them Karin was the fighter.
Isshin was all for his children learning healing magic, since the did live in a clinic after all.
Karin got the feeling Ichigo would end up finding a device like they had. According to Blazing Soul, there was a device that was held by the lone male of the Charm Schools.
"Do you know the names of the devices?" asked Chrono.
~Blazing Soul, of the Charm School Fire. Raging Waves, of the Charm School Water. Shining Heart, of the Charm School Light. Eclipse Moon, of the Charm School Dark. Avalanche Spirit, of the Charm School Earth. Storming Gale, of the Charm School Air.~
"Thank you for telling me. We'll have to update the listings for them. Exactly how dangerous are these devices?"
~We choose our owners based on ability and the ability to sync with our former partner's personality. Chances of someone trying to activate us by force are next to zero. They must be similar to the original to even hear us.~
"Can we ask you about the Charm Schools later? There's very little information about them aside from a passing mention of a dark mage trying to use their power for evil."
~A dark sorcerer tried to gain their powers, but eventually sealed our masters away. They placed all their power and spells into us to keep him from succeeding.~
"So exactly how many seeds are still out there?" asked Karin.
"Nanoha-san has collected five, you've collected six with the help of a friend, and this other girl has around four. So around six at least."
"How many were there originally?"
"I found 21 of them," said Yuuno.
"Which reminds me...why were you pretending to be a ferret anyway? I'm sure Nanoha's parents would understand that she was helping you," asked Karin.
"It's easier to get around as a ferret. People don't notice if you're investigating something."
"Yeah, but being that small makes it easier for the monsters to eat you, like the ones in our town."
"Monsters?" asked Nanoha.
"Yeah. They have this weird roar, and they show up every once in a while. I've been seeing them more and more for over three months now. They have this hole in their chest and it seems a lot of people can't see them."
"Hole with a strange roar... Karin-san, can you see ghosts by any chance?" asked Lindy.
"My brother can see them better than I can. The monsters are really fuzzy to me."
"How interesting. I didn't know you could see Hollows, Karin-san."
"Hollows?"
"Fallen souls. Those who weren't guided in time to the after life, or who were eaten by other hollows. I can explain more later," said Lindy.
After that, Nanoha and Yuuno worked out the details of their assistance in retrieving the seeds. Meanwhile Lindy was telling Karin where she could find a good instructor in healing magic for her sister and the other girl. Chrono would help bring her fighting magic up to standard levels.
For a beginner, Karin had done remarkably well, but she needed polishing more than anything else at her age.
"Karin, welcome home!" said Yuzu.
"Hey Yuzu. Guess what," said Karin with a grin.
"Nani?"
"I found someone who can teach us healing magic. She said she could come by every Sunday to help us learn basic and higher spells."
"That's good to hear Karin. What's her name?"
"Haruka Tanaka. She'll be here in a few days. Which reminds me...dad, do you know anything about Hollows?"
Isshin stiffened.
"What makes you ask that?"
Karin gave him a look.
"Dad, I can tell you know something. You better come clean, because I've been seeing their forms a lot lately."
"Wait until after dinner when your brother comes home. With the way things are going, he'll need to hear this as well," he said defeated.
Ichigo, Karin and Yuzu listened to Isshin's explanation. Ever since Karin had found that device, her spiritual pressure had been rising. The same for Yuzu. The unison devices had a unique side effect of training what spiritual energies the two had to the point that they were seeing ghosts more clearly.
Fortunately they also seemed to be able to mask their spirit energy, which was possibly the only reason Hollows had yet to come after the two.
He dreaded to think of what would happen when Ichigo found his own device. His energy was already spilling out of him.
Ichigo seemed to take the news that the monsters would eventually target the siblings fairly well. He decided to up his training with Kyouya to compensate.
Hopefully he would find his own device, or buy one, before it got to that point.
"I wouldn't worry too much Ichigo. You have another year or two before the limiters I placed on your power break. As it stands, you definitely need to learn how to control it on your own before the energy gets too strong."
"Limiters?"
"Your spirit energy was growing faster than the girls, so I had a friend place a few limiters on you to keep the hollows from finding you."
"How strong are these things?"
"They aren't complete limiters. They just mask your signature until you're ready to handle the power. If you want, I'll introduce you to that friend of mine later. You too Karin, Yuzu."
