A/N: Sorry, haven't updated in a long while. I don't really know what to add T^T. It'd be extremely complex if I wanted to write it correctly. I've decided that I don't really like writing fanfics. Oh well, no one really cares how well-written it is, since it is fanfiction after all. I'll try to finish it though.

Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to whoever it belongs to, which isn't me.

Karin was left by herself, in the darkness of night. She could barely stand after receiving such severe wounds. What she had just seen was really weird, but things like portals into other dimensions didn't seem too far-fetched.

The spirit world, or Soul Society, or something? Karin didn't have the energy to think about it.

Karin started walking back towards her house. Her wounds were bleeding. The pain hit her before she could take even a third step. Gritting her teeth, she continued on her way.

A shadow flitted before her eyes.

"Who's there?!" She shouted, swirling around. No one was there.

That was strange, she thought. The shadow of a man in a hat was on the ground, she was sure of it.

"I must be hallucinating or something," she muttered to herself.

The next day, she headed out the door for school. However, she was stopped by a black-haired boy in glasses. It was Ishida. It hit her that she forgot all about Ishida and just left him the previous night.

"Kurosaki," he said.

"Yeah?" Karin replied.

Looks like he survived the wounds he got. He was bandaged up a bit, though.

"You're a soul reaper, aren't you?"

"What do you know about that?" she asked, suspicious.

"Rukia was too. Let's go rescue her," said Ishida.

"What? Right now? Do have some sort of master plan for bringing her back? And you're injured. You can't be thinking of trying to complete any missions like that."

"The injuries won't slow me down. And although I don't have a master plan," said Ishida, putting a strand of black hair back into place and looking off into the distance, "we can brainstorm for ideas, such as..."

Weirdo, thought Karin. She walked away with Ishida still talking. He didn't seem to notice that she was gone.

Karin wanted to rescue Rukia as well, but she didn't have a plan for it. Not to mention, her Rukia's ugly redheaded friend would probably be able to rescue her himself. Though he was extremely weak...maybe one of Rukia's other friends in that world would be able to rescue her.

Karin spotted a black cat on the street. It walked towards her. It was an omen, Karin was sure. She was going to have bad luck in whatever she did. Probably with rescuing Rukia as well. Just one more reason not to do it.

"Hello," it said.

Karin was startled, but then remembered all the other strange things she had seen in the past two weeks, which pretty much boiled down to Shinigamis. This cat was probably a Shinigami.

"Where is your sword, Shinigami?" asked Karin.

"I don't need a sword. I have claws and teeth after all," it replied.

They didn't speak for a few seconds.

"The fate of the world is in your hands, Kurosaki," said the cat, gravely. It stared deep into Karin's eyes.

"How do you know that?" asked Karin. "Are you a prophet or something?"

The cat moved closer to her. It started laughing.

"Of course not. I just like making fun of people. Anyways, let's rescue Rukia. Of course, this won't be the last mission you undertake, so until we rescue her we will be in the Rescue Rukia Arc."

"Why won't it be the last?" asked Karin.

"Because the whole thing is very complicated and stuff. There will be more arcs eventually, so we need to give them names. The fate of the world is in your hands, Kurosaki Karin."

Karin was feeling a bit conflicted. All of this did seem very strange. Then she recalled a phrase that she once heard.

"YOLO, right? Let's go rescue Rukia! It's more interesting that hanging out with those losers at school anyways!"

Karin ran back to her house. Ishida was still continuing his monologue to no one in particular.

"…and that's how I think this will all work. What do you think, my mortal enemy who is for some reason my friend right now?" said Ishida.

Karin ignored him. Instead, she brought the cat inside her room, where the cat explained many things about the shinigami world to her. There, they discussed a plan to rescue Rukia.

*Later, inside an underground area*

After climbing down the entrance to an underground area, Karin noticed the same shadow she had seen before. She looked for the owner of this shadow. It turned out to be a creepy looking guy wearing lazy old-fashioned clothes and carrying a staff in his hand. Karin made a mental note to herself to avoid this guy.

"You're creepy," she said.

"Am I?" said the guy.

*Ten minutes later*

"So we can enter the Shinigami place through this portal?" asked Karin.

"Yeah," said the cat.

A thought struck her before she went through the portal.

"Hey Ishida, do you know where my brother is? I don't remember seeing him this morning," said Karin.

"Who is this, brother, you speak of?" he replied shifting his eyes.

"I'm talking about Ichigo," she said. "Aren't you his classmate?"

"No, I don't know a guy with short orange hair at all. Never heard of this brother guy before," he said, his voice monotone.

"Oh, okay. Just wondering," she said. Something about the way Ishida talked was suspicious. She would let the topic go for now, though.

They entered through the portal to darkness.

A/N: I'll update soon, if I care enough about this project thing to do so.