:O Lookie, I'm back again! Don't deny it, it's shocking, isn't it?

As I told lilmissmex3, this is kind of a filler chapter, but it's only filler with the conversation areas and other stuff that didn't really need to be put in. I just wanted to extend the chapter a bit while I'm planning the next part.

Some of the things I threw into this chapter interfere with what I had originally planned and I'm having a hard time debating whether or not I want to get rid of what I used to have and toss in the new.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this chapter!!

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Silver Snow

By Lynn, co-owner of BlackSunflower

Chapter Four:

Uncertain

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"Hey, Ichi-nii, you can stop pretending now. I know you can't sleep with your lamp on and our stomach's louder than the insane neighbors' music." Karin stated, rubbing her eyes. "It's so freakin' loud that it woke me up, so you better get up and eat something."

"Fine, fine, I'm up," he sighed grumpily. As soon as he sat up, he hurled a pillow at his unsuspecting sister, expecting her to be caught off-guard.

Instead, his little sister caught the fluffy projectile with ease and tackled him with it in the blink of an eye. "Dammit, can't I go one hour without getting attacked in this house?" Ichigo muttered as the fourteen-year-old girl battered him repeatedly, mussing his already messy hair further.

Karin stopped, her eyes glittering and said, "I wonder the same, Ichi-nii. Without you at home, Dad's trying to catch me off guard now."

For the first time since Ishida's phone call, Ichigo laughed. "You're so fast now, when did that happen? What sports are you doing now, track, soccer, softball, and basketball? Ishida never told me how fast you were though."

His sister couldn't resist the compliments and broke into a wide grin too. "Yeah, Ishida-san doesn't really like going to the games that much; he's really busy with all the work at the business he's working in with his dad. Didn't he call you last night? He was borrowing our phone last night, and I heard him saying that you'd be back soon." She paused, a thoughtful look on her face. "Hey, why are you back so soon? I mean, you had that last test this morning, and now you're here. And it's only four in the morning. Why didn't you wait a little longer? I mean," she said hurriedly, seeing his raised eyebrow, "it's not like I, we, don't want you here, it's just you don't usually rush back here as soon as you can. If I remember right, you walked home from school as slow as you could. We all thought you'd be back for the summer of course, but not this soon and all."

"Just missed you guys," Ichigo shrugged and got off his bed. "Did you guys already have dinner?"

"It's four," Karin reminded him. "What do you think?"

"Whatever, I'm going to get something," he said and trudged towards the kitchen. Karin trailed behind, awaiting his answer to her question from before. However, every time she tried to return to the topic of his early return, he'd change the subject. Eventually, there was no possibility of a conversation at all with Ichigo shoveling food down his throat at an impressive speed. Karin sat across the table, glaring at him with her classical bored face in hopes of earning his attention with her constant stare. Unfortunately, he was so absorbed in eating that he failed to notice. It was not until he was at he bottom of the bowl that he felt her eyes watching his every movement. Pleased that he finally would listen, she smiled slightly and said, "So, about earlier. Why are you-?"

Someone was knocking on the door. "Who could that be?" Karin wondered aloud with a note of exasperation in her tone. She rose from her chair, but before she could take another step, Ichigo had flown out of his chair and answered the door. He left it open a small slit, just large enough to show his face through the crack, and spoke in a hushed whisper. The mysterious visitor was blocked from her view by Ichigo's tall frame, and the muffled voices made it even more difficult to discern the visitor. Who on earth could it be at this early hour? Karin questioned as she craned her neck in an attempt to glimpse the stranger.

"Hey, Karin, I'm going to be out for a while, I'll be back soon, alright?" Ichigo suddenly said, catching her in her secret effort. "See ya, sis." he said and slipped out of the house. He let the door clunk shut on its own before allowing Karin a chance to say anything.

She stared angrily the closed door, then glared disgustedly at his partially eaten food. Quietly, she minimally clanked the dishes as she cleaned up her brother's night snack. Halfway through, she realized he hadn't told her not to follow him. Her tidying-up was completed very quickly after that, so fast that it wasn't quite tidy at all, and hurried out of the house after Ichigo.

Once out of the house, she was aware of two things. The first was the early morning chilliness from the fresh rain, despite it being early summer, and the dew that accompanied it. Fortunately, tracking her brother wouldn't be so difficult since he had run through grass, creating a long line of smashed vegetation and drippy water. The other thing was a bit more disturbing.

The second Karin had stepped out of the safety of her home, she had felt an incredible feeling of foreboding, as though something in the air was warning her about another presence. She wasn't the only one outside. There was something heavy and thicker, and she could recognize it as Ichigo. Another spirit was with him, and it felt familiar, although she couldn't exactly say who, or what, it was. Further away, there was a buzz of the same feeling, though it was noticeably dimmer, which Karin took to mean that it was further away. But there was a third one. It was intensely heavy, so strong that it was difficult to maintain balance. How could she have not felt it before? And why was it so familiar? With a sharp stab of recollection, the girl recognized it. It was one of those things that she and Toushiro had run into, but three thousand times stronger. Oh, what had he called it? A Hollow?

A loud, unearthly groan shook the ground beneath her. The impact of the noise combined with the odd pressure threatened to topple her over, but she managed to stay upright for enough time to run, run like hell, from that Hollow-like presence.

"Running already?" a soft voice whispered like snakes outstretched towards the fleeing girl, but remained unheard, as though she had narrowly missed a fatal bite from a rattlesnake. "Ah, but it has yet to begun, Kurosaki Karin." A cold smile curved the speaker's lips, but the smile never reached his cold, green eyes.

"This time, no one will be spared."

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Dun, dun, dun, dunnnnnn!! OK, now, I need someone to tell me how absolutely lame the ending was. I was trying to go for scary and haunting and ominous and such, but it kind of came out as... cliched-ness.

Oh, and I was wondering, who likes IchiRuki? Who likes Ichihime with/without RenjixRukia? Message me or review to send in your vote, it's a side pairing and I do so love all those, so it's hard for me to pick.

Thanks for reading!!

--Helenn