Chapter synopsis: Karin went to visit her family to say her good bye. Then after that, she met Rangiku Matsumoto, and went to Soul Society.
Disclaimer: I do not own bleach :P
Good bye, Real World.
Karin was finished training this time and it was almost night. She was now sitting on the dusty ground and polishing her sealed zanpakutou. It was a really magnificent day indeed. First, she was already doing better and now she can use the shikai form of her zanpakutou, Shinkuootori. I'm only one step away from soul society and I'm only one step away from saving my family, she thought. She vowed to herself that when she gets there, she will train harder and better. Tomorrow was the last day of her training and her last day here in real world. So she decided to go back inside her body and pay her home a little visit. She went outside the store and walked slowly. She was observing her surrounding eagerly, as though she was memorizing its every feature. She hugged the night breeze that was enveloping all over her, for she thought bitterly that this maybe the last time she can feel the smell of the ocean through the cold and comfy breeze. She might stay longer there than she expected, for she predicted that the preparations were long and war will be extensive and rough. Her training helped her prepare physically, mentally and emotionally. But she couldn't help but get sad at the thought of leaving her family for the better.
She stopped in front of her house, and then she went inside without knocking. There, she saw Yuzu preparing food for her and her father. When Yuzu saw Karin, she ran into her and flung her arms around her. Karin felt a rush of affection to her sister. Yuzu was the girly girl of the two of them, and she was rather sensitive, so she tends to cry a lot.
"Karin-chan, I missed you!" She said, her voice broken. And she sniffed to suppress a sob. Karin couldn't help but smile and patted Yuzu's back.
"Me too,"
"Karin-chan! How's practice? Are you getting better?" Her father asked her slyly, as he hugged his two kids. Karin hesitated on answering because she might spill something.
"Yes," she said casually with a slight guilt. She couldn't bear lying to her family. But anyway, it's for the better, she thought. She and Yuzu broke apart. Yuzu pulled her to a seat on the table, and she hastily get a plate for her sister and so was her fork and spoon. The food smelled good and so was the rice. I will miss the food Yuzu was always preparing, she thought. Yuzu's a good cook and a good mother too. When their mother died, Yuzu became their new mother; she always does the chores and prepares the food; she will definitely miss her motherly figure. Then she saw her father, who was enthusiastically praising Yuzu's cooking. Even though her father was a little irresponsible and gave the worst and lamest advice, she loves him so much. She will definitely miss the time when he aims a flying kick to Ichigo, which he mostly dodges with ease. After she ate her meal, she stood up and looked at Yuzu and her father.
"I gotta go, so I wanted to say goodbye and…" she paused when she felt like tears were flowing down her eyes, but she held it back and laughed softly. "..and I'll be back soon. Don't worry Yuzu and father, I'll be fine." Then she waved goodbye at them and gazed at them once more. After that, she turned around and headed for the door. Yuzu followed her and seized her hand.
"When will you go back? You should tell us so I can prepare your favorite meal, Karin-chan." Yuzu said; her eyes were sparkly. Karin's eyes widened of surprise. Even she doesn't know when she will get back. But she needs to reassure them that she will be fine.
"I'll be back soon, and before I get back, I will fetch Ichi-nii from where he is and we'll go home together. Of course, I will not forget to bring home my soccer tro-!" She was cut off by Yuzu. Yuzu hugged her tightly and she was now sobbing. Karin felt guilty in making Yuzu cry like that.
"Be careful, Karin-chan." She whispered in her ear, Karin looked sad at first but at the end, she smiled.
"I'll promise, Good bye Yuzu, good bye dad." Then she walked out of the door and walked towards the street without turning back. Yuzu tried to ran after her but she was seized by her father on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Yuzu. She will be fine," Isshin reassured her daughter. She smiled and gave her father a hug.
Karin walked towards the store with a heavy heart. She couldn't stand seeing Yuzu in that state and the worse part is that she was the reason why Yuzu was crying. This time, she thought of backing away from the training and such. But she had already decided, and there's not turning back. She must stay strong for them. She knew well that her father and Yuzu put their whole trust to her, and she will keep her promise.
She climbed down the basement and there she saw few people gathered in front of a large screen. She walked towards the commotion and there she saw a curvy woman with breasts larger than Orihime's. Her strawberry blonde hair was long and wavy; she looked familiar, as though they had already met. The woman beamed at the sight of her.
"Ah, so this is Kurosaki Ichigo's sister, Karin. Am I right?" she asked her casually.
"Yeah," she said. The woman smiled at her and hugged her tightly that she can barely breathe.
"I'm Matsumoto Rangiku, 10th division lieutenant; I'm pleased to meet you. I have the feeling that we've met, am I correct? And I believed that you've met taichou?" she said enthusiastically and let go of Karin.
"Yeah, I've met him in a soccer game." She said quietly and Rangiku smiled slyly at her.
"Ah, now I remember. You're the one that Taichou was stalki—nevermind, hehe." She said as she patted her back, then she turned to Kisuke. "Urahara-san, can you give me a tea? That journey through the Senkai gate made me a bit exhausted."
"My, my, of course Rangiku-san! Tessai-san, prepare a chamomile tea for our guest." Urahara said as he motioned everyone to climb upstairs. Rangiku's phone rang that made everyone jump in surprise.
"A hollow spotted." Rangiku said seriously to Urahara. Then he turned to Karin.
"Karin-chan, go with Rangiku-san and finish the hollow as a part of your training." Karin nodded as they headed off towards the location of the hollow. When they got there a huge hallow was chasing a normal soul of a little boy, who was running into circles, crying. Rangiku unsheathed her sword and ran towards the hollow to stab it, but the hollow had strike her using its enormous talons. She was thrown back and had hit one of the trees.
"Rangiku-san!" Karin shouted as she went to help Rangiku to stand up on her feet. She stammered onto her feet and retrieved her katana from the ground.
"When I tried to go near the hollow, I felt weaker as though it was sucking out my spirit energy." She said seriously to Karin as she observed every move of the hollow. "Now, all you gonna do is place a fire barrier around it to nullify its ability to absorb reiatsu. Then when I go near it, I'll try to kill it using my katana." Karin nodded and unsheathed her sword. It was very hard to direct her zanpakutou to the hollow for it was following the boy's spirit. Then when she finally got the chance she called her zanpakutou.
"Free your wings and burn the skies, Shinkuootori!"
Her katana was suddenly on fire and as she pointed it to the hollow. Suddenly a barrier of fire had erupted around it, making it still and somewhat paralyzed. Karin saw Rangiku ran towards the Hollow to kill it completely. Karin looked horrified when the barrier suddenly vanished. When the hollow was about to grasp the child, Karin sprinted as fast as she could to seize the boy and ran away from the hollow. She held the boy around her arms to shield him from it. Then she squinted at the hollow to see Rangiku jumping towards it, ready to slice it into half. When the hollow vanished, Rangiku helped Karin and the boy stand up.
"Thanks Rangiku-san," Karin said as she sheathed her sword. Rangiku smiled at her and turn around to face the boy.
"I guess you need to go and have a soul burial," she said to the boy. The boy looked frightened at what she said. But she smiled and said,
"No, don't be afraid. After that, you will go to a certain place called Soul Society." The boy smiled at her. Rangiku unsheathed her sword and touched the head of the boy using
Its hilt and he suddenly disappeared into thin air, and a black butterfly had appeared out of nowhere. Rangiku turned back to Karin.
"Let's go back."
Karin and Rangiku went back to the Urahara store and was greeted by Ururu; she was all alone and sweeping the floor.
"Er, Ururu, where's everybody else?" Karin asked her.
"They're at the basement. Urahara-san wants you and Rangiku-san there." Ururu said meekly as she motioned Rangiku to move from her place, to clean the spot where she was originally standing. Rangiku and Karin went down to the basement to see Kisuke Urahara, Tessai, and Jinta standing in front of a sliding door, which she believed to be the gateway to Soul Society.
"Ah, there you are, Karin-chan." Urahara said as she motioned them to come closer. Karin gulped at the sight of the sliding door. Could it be…?
"Your permission to go to the Soul Society has been approved just now. And it seems that the commander-general was impressed to your development." Karin beamed at the news. She never did expect that the commander-general will be impressed by her fighting skills. Then her eye flickered between Urahara and the sliding door, and an idea had popped out of her mind.
"Hey, do you mean…?"
"Yes, yes, Karin-chan. Ain't that cool? Rangiku-san and you will now go to Soul Society and will be escorted by 2 members of the Kidou Corps and a Shigoku chou. Now if you mind…" He pointed his fan towards the sliding door. Karin felt as though her stomach was doing back flips. She couldn't believe it; she was going to Soul Society now. She was waiting for this the whole time! But, at this moment, she was going to leave the real world for a long time. Good thing she already bid good bye to her family and she was already prepared to forget her old care-free life.
Rangiku seized her shoulders, "Don't worry, Taichou and I will take care of you when we get there," she reassured her with a comforting smile spread across her beautiful face. Karin smiled and said her thanks to her. Then, they walked towards the sliding door and there she saw two men who resembled a ninja were standing before them with a black swallowtail butterfly that was fluttering about. Before they entered, she turned around to face Kisuke Urahara and the others.
"Thank you Urahara-san for everything, thank you Tessai-san for the wonderful teas and thanks Ururu and Jinta, its fun having trainings with you, good bye guys, I'll see you soon." Karin said as she beamed at them, and they responded with their own smiles.
"Good bye, Karin-chan. Have fun," Urahara said brightly.
"Thanks for appreciating my meals and the tea," Tessai assumed.
"Good luck," Ururu and Jinta said in chorus. Karin nodded and turn back to face the sliding door and they entered. When she heard the sliding door closed, she couldn't help but miss everything, even though she was just on her way to the Soul Society. They were running towards the other end as they were following the as what they called, Shigoku chou. As they get closer and closer to the other end, a familiar figure becomes clearer every step she made. When they left the passage way, Karin attention was caught by the surroundings; it's just the same as the real world, but it resembles ancient Japan. There are trees, and the wind was a bit cold and breezy. Her eyes wandered from the surroundings to a figure with a familiar spiky white hair that wore a white hoari over his black kimono. On his hoari emblazoned the number of his division; number 10.
"Toushiro?"
Whoa, I'm still revising chapter 4 and I'll promise that I will update soon, peace out! :D
