Title: They Said Quagmire Before Love

Pairing: HitsuKarin, implied IchiRuki

Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort

Summary: He loves her and she loves him. It was as simple as that. But no matter how much they look into things, search for different perspectives, it all boils down to the fact, however desperate they are to turn the tides, he is a captain, life to him is his duties—and she is Karin, too stubborn and too selfless to ever ask him to choose her above all else.

Notes: Thank you for the reviews and favs and follows! 😊 This time it will be in every perspective available. And I never expected it to be this long. So I cut it and it will be four-shots.

Also, Karin is dating an older-looking Toushirou. I mentioned it in the first chapter where Toushirou is almost as tall as Ichigo.

oOo

Matsumoto thinks that there is only sadness in their kind of work. Nothing ever happens according to plan and if it did, the twist by the end would be even more devastating.

She is stripped of her sword and imprisoned in the highest of towers next to her taichou and Hinamori. There was a lull of wistfulness settling in the crevices of her chest, the feeling reminded her of old times when she was too powerless to protect the one she loves—always getting protected instead.

It brought tears to her eyes as she watched her taichou's empty stare, the man unraveled by the death of Karin. He sat in the middle of his cell motionlessly. If it weren't for the rhythmic drums of his chest, she would have presumed him dead. But there he was, tied and suppressed, with the desire to destroy everything in his way for getting in the way of Karin's life.

The sound of footsteps disturbs her observation, eyes straying to the familiar stance of the soutaichou—behind him are the captains and lieutenants.

"The three of them had shown a blatant disrespect for the system that governed our land for the past thousands of years." He started, eyes piercing, "Hitsugaya-taichou had attempted to harm me after hearing the news of Kurosaki Karin's death. Had it not been for the quick actions of Soifon-taichou and Kuchiki-taichou, he would have definitely conducted treason. And as for Hinamori-fukutaichou and Matsumoto-fukutaichou, they would have assisted in the escape of Hitsugaya-taichou to continue his forbidden affairs had the girl not die."

Matsumoto raised a brow at the way they were being addressed but kept her quip to herself, waiting for their final verdict.

"They would have been sentenced to death." The presumption hadn't gotten over her head, understanding that their sentence has been somehow lowered. "However, due to their important contribution to the war and for their irreplaceable abilities and our shortage of men, we had decided to put the vice captains under heavy probation. They will be constantly monitored for the next decades or so and will be forbidden to step outside the realm." Turning to the motionless captain, "And as for Hitsugaya-taichou, all his memories about Kurosaki Karin will be erased and he will resume his duties as it is."

"What?" Matsumoto protested, "You can't do that! Karin-chan! Karin-chan is a part of Taichou." She turned to Toushirou, shouting at him, "Taichou! Taichou! Please answer them. Refuse them! Please!"

"Unless you wanted him dead instead, I suggest you quiet down, Matsumoto-fukutaichou." The soutaichou threatened, effectively silencing the woman. The cold room quieten into nothing but the sobs of Hinamori's "Oh, Shirou-chan."

oOo

Toushirou wonders what happened to his sister and fukutaichou. He remembers them to be brighter than the sun, always wearing those happy grins, carrying with them the attention of the room whenever and wherever they enter.

Instead, they watch him like the world had been pulled under their feet. There is the same kind of sadness in their eyes that you could hardly miss. Whenever he visits his sister, she almost always retreated back to her shell. She couldn't look at him without tearing up, without trying to hold herself together.

His fukutaichou was a drunkard, he knows. But lately she doesn't touch a cup of sake, she doesn't go out to party nor evade paperwork. She sat at her desk all day diligently working. When he asked her why, accusing her of being replaced or having done something idiotic she needed to cover up, she doesn't laugh boisterously like before. Instead, she would look guilty and apologetic, as if she had done something so terrible that she needed to repent until her dying breath.

And she would always tell him that she's sorry. But she doesn't tell him why. She would immediately look away, like the sight of him alone brought so much pain.

He would feel apologetic too and he would tell them sorry. But he, himself, doesn't understand the suffocating feeling, cannot grasp the notion so he always, always just continues his duties. He has a lot of them and he can't fail his realm—there's just so much riding on his shoulders for him to fail Soul Society.

oOo

Ichigo would visit Toushirou sometimes.

He would pour himself a cup of tea and converse with the icy taichou. There is a sense of guilt in him that doesn't go away, searing him whenever he sees the white-haired man.

Toushirou would tell him to go away. But he doesn't miss the peculiar confusion that would settle in the shorter man's eyes as if he is trying to piece something together but is missing a few jigsaws to complete the set. Whenever he has that kind of glint, he would meticulously tailor their conversation, fitting his black-haired sister into it.

"She was a tough woman." He would chuckle, missing the little spitfire, "When she was eleven, she figured out I was a Shinigami. I thought she would rat me out. But she didn't. She pretended to be mistaken and had gone on with her life, worrying about me secretly."

"You're a stupid man for being caught." Toushirou would input as he continued his work, "She seems rather interesting more than you. Smarter even."

"If you two would have met, you both would have clicked." Ichigo smiled thinly. Perhaps, if they would have met under different circumstances, under lighter traditions, they would have championed their love.

Toushirou shook his head, "I don't have time to 'click' with humans."

"If you have met her, you'll change your mind." Ichigo always ended their conversation in the same way. He knows that he spoke too much about the one person they made Toushirou forget. But he'll be damned if Karin's death would go to waste because of their meddling. With her death, there is no more boundary that Soul Society could push down on the two. He will find his sister on his own and he would protect her happiness even if she had forgotten about Toushirou and Toushirou had forgotten about her.

He promised to be there for her no matter what and he failed her in her previous life. He wouldn't fail her in her second one.

oOo

Sometimes, when Karin is awake, she would suddenly feel a wash of grief in her soul. There is an emptiness within her that rendered her functionless sometimes. An ache of some sort that she carried even in the afterlife.

There is no sense of goal in her. She only ever wanders around from one point to another. Maybe, she thinks, if she kept on walking, she would forget that twinge in her heart. So she walks from dawn to dusk, only stopping when she is ready to fall from hunger.

She doesn't take with her the people she met along the way. She felt as if she would destroy them if they did. And nobody deserves to be destroyed, not with the heavy sadness she carries with her.

She continued her little aimless journey with only her full name as her clue.

oOo

Rukia knew of her husband's guilt. It ate him away and he is thrown to restless sleeps. There are days when Ichigo never does manage to slumber. She would keep company like the good and supportive wife she promised to be.

She accompanies him in the search for his little sister. She knows that it would be the only way to ease his guilt. On nights that they do search but ended up without Karin by their side would be a particularly bad night. Ichigo would drift in and out of sleep, nightmares would plague him.

Rukia always had to hold him tight, afraid that he would let his guilt consume him to the point of no return.

It wouldn't be years later when they see Karin again, found by the least expected person to do so. (But also the person they all wanted to do so.)

oOo

If people knew of their firsthand exposure again of each other after being forcefully pulled apart, they would romanticize it as fate. They would tell them that the stars aligned to direct them to where the other is, drafting a path that would take them full circle.

But nobody stood to witness the cards of fate being played again. There was no one from their old life that bear witness to the unfolding of yet another series of twists and turns. There was no one but a little old lady who was none the wiser as the rest.

It all started when Toushirou felt suffocated confined in the office with his fukutaichou whose smile and laughter have fallen flat as days pass, whose exuberant personality continued to wither away.

His sister has not helped either. Talking to her felt like his energy was being sapped away. She doesn't offer any comfort, doesn't bring her cheery persona to light up the room, her very shadow consumed even her light; she was as hollow as a China doll can be.

The thing about these oddities is that it persisted even as they began to slip their old façade. It was all too fake for him. Had he not known them closely, they could have fooled him too. But he does know them and so their charade drives him up the wall—enough to adapt a coping mechanism that pried him away from the two women.

He started walking at night. The company of the darkness was welcoming, it does not offer unnecessary pretense. The moon and stars witnessed his daily midnight stroll, witnessed him breathe a little better away from the sudden change he faced. But even the strolls sometimes reminded him of things he would rather not think about. Particularly bad thoughts about his sister and his fukutaichou's change sent him into a frustrated fit. Those nights would not be enough to cool him down.

So he visited his grandmother—the woman, a place of unchanged, someone he knew that would always be a stagnant reminder of where he had come from.

That was also the day that fate had started to play her cards again.

When Toushirou visited his grandmother for a change of scenery, he is surprised at the unfamiliar black-haired woman lying unconscious in their house. His grandmother has worried creases in her aging face, gently caring for the woman.

"Who is she, grandma?" He asked but the old woman shrugs, "I do not know, Toushirou. I had seen her fall in the middle of the street, the poor thing. I fed her to regain back her health, but she had fallen asleep afterwards. It had been two days since."

"She has a large amount of reiatsu." He observed, "Maybe I could recruit her in the academy. She would thrive there more as her needs will be catered to."

"Maa." His grandmother hummed, "Let us ask her first when she wakes up."

He stayed for a week, taking his much needed vacation.

He spent his morning with a light exercise and then meditation by the falls. After his morning routine, he would take his grandmother for a walk around town. He would ignore the awestruck looks of the people who used to sneer at him and listened intently to his grandmother's stories, most of them a reminiscent of their past.

(Toushirou, how you've grown so much. It wasn't long ago when you are this little! But now look at you.)

Their walk would always be cut short. His grandmother worried about the unconscious woman far too much. To appease her, he would do a brief evaluation of her health, something he had learned back in the academy. It would all point to one problem: exhaustion. He deduced that she hadn't eaten nor have enough rest something for so long which was inappropriate for the amount of her reiatsu.

"How would she recover if she doesn't eat?" His grandmother fretted, implying her inability to eat something in her state of unconsciousness.

"I could go to the Fourth Division to ask for assistance just in case." He suggested thoughtfully, "She really has a rather vast amount of reiatsu. It's familiar somewhat. And it's so peculiar that even with the beacon of her energy, few hollows had breached to eat her."

"That will be a good idea, Toushirou. She'll endanger herself if she stayed outside Seireitei."

He left at the very last day of his vacation, milking it and savoring the distance from the two people who reminded him of corpses. The woman doesn't wake up in those periods that he stayed. And when she did, he was long gone.

The next time he visits was a week later but she, too, had long disappeared.

oOo

Hinamori sometimes thinks that she had failed being a sister.

After all the commotion, after her little brother faced retribution, after they were all deigned harmless enough due to Toushirou's memory loss, she had felt a great amount of pain. An ache that surpasses even the pain that Aizen had inflicted. She cradles it in her arms like a fragile child, afraid if she ever put it down it will break into ceaseless cries.

When she looks at her brother, she couldn't help herself. Something has always given in and she hurriedly looked away. The man in front of her reminded her of cold shells, incomplete memories of an incomplete man. He looks the way before he tasted a sense of happiness—work-driven, as if besides protecting the few he held dear, duty was the one that holds him together.

He reminded her of her little Shirou-chan before he was even ever recognized to be someone powerful, a lonely child in Rukongai who wanted to live but was denied the joy of it. So he existed merely to satisfy the works of the world.

She hadn't talk with him the same way he was used to in the past, as he had thought nothing has change, nothing has given way. (When in reality, everything has change, everything has been taken away.)

There were times when she caught him looking at her and Matsumoto and he sported a confused expression. She wouldn't fault him. He had been kept in the dark and the whole of Seireitei has obeyed under the commands of the soutaichou. Unless there would be a miracle, he would never truly know why the two women closest to him had dramatically changed in a way that both couldn't even try to hide from him.

On other days that he would care enough to ask, there were very little she could say. Hinamori would try to breathe a little better for him as to lessen the burden he is unknowingly carrying. She would tell him the same thing that everybody would say in fear that meddling would make her Shirou-chan unhappier.

"I'm sorry." She stops at that, caging the regrets from spilling out of her. She would hastily make her getaway and answers would still elude Toushirou. And she knew with the growing confusion in his eyes, she fails yet again.

oOo

Toushirou met the black-haired woman again three years later.

She flickered back in his life without warning. It was all a coincidence, short of a joke from the universe. But he sees her again, her old worn out brown clothes were replaced by a midnight blue kimono. Her long black hair was tied and he wouldn't have recognized her if it weren't for the slight burst of spiritual energy from her.

Uncharacteristically, he had approached her without any preamble, words naturally flowing out of him, "You have learned to control your reiatsu."

She was startled as expected, eyes narrowing in suspicion. Rudely, she pointed, "Who the fuck are you?"

"I am sorry for my rude behavior." He acknowledged, stepping back to say that he meant no harm. "I am a Shinigami."

"I asked who you are and not what you are." She rolled her eyes, huffing. Toushirou felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

"I am Hitsugaya Toushirou." He gritted, "I have recognized you as that woman who was rescued by my grandmother."

There was no recognition that flash in her eyes, only an acknowledgement that there was a time she was helped by someone a long time ago. She nodded her head in understanding, "Ah. You were probably the person that old woman talked about, wanting me to be a Shinigami too."

"Why'd you left?" He asked, "I had offered on taking you to the Fourth. You would have recovered better."

She shook her head, "I wouldn't want to intrude any further. Plus, I make a living now to provide for myself. See? I just bought these clothes from my own pocket."

He narrowed his eyes, "Hopefully, your living is honorable."

She bristled, "Are you calling me a harlot?"

"In this part of Rukongai, women were known to sell themselves." Toushirou explained before backtracking as he noticed the fury rising in the depth of her dark blue eyes, "But you have far too much pride to sink that low, I supposed. What is your living?"

She huffed, refusing to answer him for a second before saying, "I heal people, you know. Not much but enough to cure injuries and back pain."

"That's too advance for you. How'd you learn it?" Toushirou's curiosity was pique. It's not everyday you discover an odd woman who could heal people without proper training.

"I'm not obliged to answer you that." She says, "Unless you would like me to heal your obvious shoulder pain and pay me for my service, I am afraid you would not of use for me. Now scram, pretty boy."

"Your sarcasm and business-mindedness must be the stellar qualities of yours." He drawled, a slight amount of spite sipping at her rudeness, "You're still talking to a Shinigami. A captain, at that."

"If you haven't noticed already, I really don't care." She rolled her pretty eyes, "Aren't captains supposed to be stuck on their butt filing paperwork or something? You're disturbing me."

"God, you're an annoying woman, aren't you?" He spits back before turning. He steps forward for a few measly distance before he stops and slant his eyes back at the woman discretely watching him go, "Will you be here again? The offer still stands, you know. About becoming a Shinigami."

She tilted her head in thought before replying, "I don't know. I have a habit of wandering aimlessly around. Plus, I don't think Shinigami is a path for me."

(If they had both remembered who they were, Toushirou would understand why she refuses to take the path her brother has forged for himself. She always wanted to break away from the destiny her family seemed to have. But they don't remember. To him, she is only an interesting woman with peculiar control of her vast amount of spiritual energy. And to her, he is a passing Shinigami that annoyed her for suggesting that she may be a harlot.)

oOo

It happened in a blink of an eye. The change in demeanor of the usually frosty Tenth captain was noticeable in the eyes of those who knew him far too well. It started with little spaces of rest in the workplace, his face blank in the manner of thinking. Matsumoto had long recognized it as being a thoughtful expression—she knew of its existence when it first started appearing, an expression she saw so long ago that it became foreign for a while before she pinpointed when it exactly started showing.

In mild suspicion, she asked, "Are you thinking about a girl, Taichou?"

He flinches at the tone, almost in a singsong manner slyly covered by a quieter tone, and still he couldn't help the reddening of his cheeks, "I am not. Go back to work, Matsumoto."

"Oho." She quirked a brow, lips thinning, "Who is she?"

She wasn't rewarded by any answers, only a huff. Her heart sinks at the realization. Her little taichou is crushing on someone. She swallowed thickly, "You know, you would like Ichigo's sister if you met her."

"Which sister? That Karin?" Toushirou muttered in annoyance, "As protective as Ichigo is with the other one, he seemed to be overselling the other twin. Wherever she was, she would have thrown a fit for being sold away."

"Karin is a very nice woman." She remembers how much Karin had cared about her taichou, choosing him over anything else, over life, "When she was alive, she would go hollow-hunting in her tiny body. Well, until she was fifteen really. Someone convinced her to treasure her life more, to trust him that he'll protect her instead, protect her beloved town. And she did. She trusted him with her whole life."

There was a blue wistfulness coloring her voice, eyes seeing something that had already gone. Matsumoto smiled in spite of the memory, "I felt like she would do the same with you. Trust you with her whole life, I mean." (She bit her tongue to stop herself from saying 'again'.)

"She does sound like a nice woman." Toushirou nodded amiably, "I'm not interested much though. Kurosaki-taichou is out there searching for her. It's been years since she died. She must have a very low reiatsu as not to be found even now."

"And who is more interesting in your opinion?" Matsumoto urged, upset that her taichou could have dismissed the idea of Karin (as impossible it was back then).

"It's not that I found anyone interesting." Matsumoto snorted at the lie, he huffed, "I'm not obliged to answer you that."

He almost laughed when he used the same exact words the woman had told him. But he rearranged his expression into one of his cool façades, ignoring the meddling woman. In that short period of conversation, he took notice how his fukutaichou had brightened up a little despite the upset expression she sported.

Matsumoto has gone away after. And for the first time in many years, she had taken a sip of sake; cursing the soutaichou all the while.

(At the very back of her mind, she hopes with all hope that fate did a funny thing, that against all odd the woman would turn out to be Karin.)

oOo

Karin sighed in irritation.

She minded her business well ever since she recovered from a near-death situation all those years ago. She had learnt to control her reiatsu all thanks to the kind old man who took her under her wing before disappearing without a trace. She had found the old man strange with a habit like her own—wandering aimlessly around. When he had gone away permanently with little comfort, she had chalked the feeling of loneliness to the allusion of losing a family. She hadn't had one for many years.

Karin continued to wander around and finally settled at a specific place thanks to a white-haired pest. She truthfully wanted to punch the smug bugger. She really did. That single encounter with him pulled her into that lone place by the river. There was a spark in her, a semblance of warmth—something that glued her to the spot, almost like a flicker of life within her.

The feeling is addicting. After having to live with an unknown grief for years, the taste of something different had her reeling back to the place. And she only ever felt it when he visits. But she does not tell him that—not even if she was eaten alive by a hollow.

"Ya know," She started as she finished bandaging a reckless kid, "If I don't know any better, I would think that you got a crush on me."

Toushirou sputtered, "I do not! I am here merely to observe you."

"Stalk, you mean." Karin teases, "It's okay to admit it. I wouldn't bite you for it."

"I really don't have one." Toushirou's pitch rises, his face reddening in embarrassment. "I don't even know your name. Wouldn't it be foolish to have feelings for people you don't even know?"

"Oho, tell that to teens." Karin snorted. She dusts herself before entering her little hut, Toushirou following. She placed a cup of tea in front of the man as he settled comfortably. Being a 'doctor' makes large amount of money here, it seems. When people don't have anything to pay, they would give her goods instead. This hut was even built by that stupid gang leader in gratitude for healing his wife.

"I would but I am afraid that they would mull me." She heard the humor in his words and she chuckled, Toushirou continued, "My sister would find it romantic though. Falling in love with a stranger."

"Your sister sounds like any other feminine romantics." Karin replied coolly, settling in front of the man, tea in her hand. Toushirou shrugs, "Probably. If she's still the same."

"What do you mean?"

Toushirou makes it his business not to share any personal information to anyone, especially to strangers. But ever since meeting this oddball, words naturally come out of his mouth, "I don't really know. She just changed one day. Same way with my fukutaichou. It's been…very strange there lately. They look at me like I died or killed someone."

"Oh." Karin doesn't like the look that crept up on Toushirou's face, she dislikes the notion that the rather smug yet serious captain could be disheartened at such degree. So she reached out, instinct taking a hold of her, and stretched his face in a manner that broke his lips into a funny force smile, "Is that why you're here? To escape?"

Toushirou struggled, eyebrow twitching at the audacity. He muffled out a command of letting him go but the woman ignored him, stretching his face further.

"That's such a cowardly move." Karin prodded, "If you don't like their behavior, just freaking ask them head on until they cave. I haven't peg you to be such a wuss."

Slapping the hands away in irritation, he said, "Well, if you had known them before they had changed, you would be uncomfortable enough not to prod. When I talk to them, it felt like they're just going to cry. I'm not really fond of making girls cry."

Karin smirked, "Yeah but you're fond enough of stalking girls, it seems. Rude."

Toushirou groaned, "It's been months and yet your smartass jeers just keeps on evolving, troublesome woman."

Karin laughed at that, relieved to erase the lonesome expression from the man. Even if the man is irritating sometimes. He would really like her to become a Shinigami. It's just sometimes Karin make it her goal to make him forget what he came here for.

She succeeds most of the time.

oOo

"Taichou seems to keep visiting the girl he likes." Matsumoto moaned frustratedly, "I tried to follow once but he caught me and diverted me to get me off his back."

Hinamori frowned, "Do you think he found Karin-chan?"

The older woman shrugged, shoulders sagging. She really did hope for it—for a miracle to happen. Her taichou deserves more than a measly romance—he deserves to get Karin back.

"I really hope so." She replied, "He denies of having feelings, you know. But I saw how he fell in love with Karin-chan. He denied it for years. If Karin-chan didn't make the first move, he would have denied it for eternity, keep it to himself and force himself to endure watching the woman he loves fall in love with someone else. If Karin-chan even fell in love with someone other than Taichou."

"Shirou-chan," Hinamori started, eyes softening, "Shirou-chan's affections were the purest thing I had ever witnessed. It's deep and endless. If Karin-chan had asked him to choose her, he would. He would throw away his duties for her. It's scary to think that his happiness had solely revolve around one girl. When I witness his breakdown, that was the moment I know that it's real. That there would come a time when he would disappear from our lives and offer the rest of his life to Karin-chan."

For the first time in years, Hinamori felt herself smile truthfully, "I would like to think that the woman he seemed interested right now is Karin-chan. That in her life here in our world, fate is kinder. That somehow against all odds, they had found each other again. That in retribution for tearing them apart once, fate would step in again and rewrite their story. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Matsumoto couldn't help the soft grin that tilted her lips. Hinamori's positive faith has put something in her too, had rekindled her faith for the two as well. That somehow they would find each other again because they wouldn't let themselves be separated for long—two souls that are just so attracted with each other, their path always would align.

oOo

Yuzu is twenty-five when she asked her father if they could live in the realm where Karin and Ichi-nii were. As she gets older, the loneliness has crept up on her in magnitude. She loves the company of her father but it wasn't the same anymore.

Her love for the World of the Living has ended the day she found Karin has killed herself. Her dreams have always involved her twin—settling with the family of their own, growing old near each other. She has always prayed that Karin wouldn't leave her behind. Her worst nightmare has always been losing her family, especially her twin.

At the fourth-year anniversary of Karin's death, she had broken down in a messy fit. She had held it in for so long, kept herself together as much as she can. But little things have reminded her of her loss.

She doesn't tell anyone but there was a time when she hated Toushirou for taking her twin away from her. It was a short time spanning for days as she locked herself in their old bedroom in their house in Karakura. But the hatred lost its spark when her head cleared enough to feel miserable for the man too.

Ichi-nii has told her Toushirou's fate in Seireitei. It wasn't fair, she had shouted as she cried to her brother. It wasn't fair that he would forget the only woman that matters to him, to her.

She has never felt a negative emotion as strongly as the day she heard that news.

She had scrambled for the things that would remind him of Karin, begged Urahara to send them to the other world. But every time it was returned to her, it felt like she's going insane.

So when Karin's death anniversary rolled in again after four years, she had cried to her father her wishes. They don't have a life here anymore without her siblings. She hadn't asked for much, never wish for anything but her family's happiness. So she supposed when her father agreed, it was the same for him.

oOo

"You haven't visited for awhile." The first words were cool and nonchalant but obviously spiteful. Toushirou greeted back, "Hello to you too."

Karin rolled her eyes, "You don't deserve hello, asshole. What kind of friend doesn't visit for months?"

"That's unfair." Toushirou replied, "You know I'm a busy man."

"Tch." Karin's tongue clicked, "For a stalker, you sure are."

"Oh so now I'm a stalker instead of a friend. What a sad degradation." Toushirou huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Still he followed Karin to her little hut, settling on his spot. (He ignored the fact he visited enough times to have a 'spot' in her house.)

"Why are you so moody anyway?"

Karin stomped, "I don't know. Probably because you were away when I was freaking harassed here to be married off. What kind of stalker won't protect his crush?"

"What?" His blood boiled at the notion, "Who the hell did that to you?"

Karin felt the drop of temperature and knew that he is genuinely angry. She smiled at her friend's protectiveness. So she shrugged, "It's okay though. I punched the daylights out of them. If I had gotten married, you wouldn't have found me here."

She recalled to him her tight situation five months ago, just three days after he had left. She had been treating an old person when one of the notorious members of an infamous gang had demanded her hand in marriage. Of course, she had refused. That's when shit has gone down. Toushirou has absorbed the tale and chuckled at the headstrong behavior his friend has displayed, imagining how she had beaten up probably hundreds of men.

They enjoyed the silence that pervaded the room. It was only broken when Toushirou finally explained his long absence, "I'm sorry if I hadn't visited you. There had been a large commotion in Seireitei as the rest of the Kurosaki family has returned."

"Kurosaki?" Karin perked up, "That's so odd. My surname's Kurosaki too! What a coincidence."

"It can't be." Toushirou muttered, "Your name isn't Karin, is it?"

Karin looked at him oddly, "How'd you know?"

Toushirou looked at her back seriously, mind racing, "Kurosaki Karin, you need to come with me. I think I know your family."

oOo

To be continued…