Chapter Four—Boycott Love
Karin didn't think she'd make it through one more meet-and-greet with the eligible bachelors in town. She should have chosen a man weeks ago, but she'd been putting it off, finding fault with each and every man presented to her—which wasn't hard, really. They were either dirty, lazy, boring, or chauvinistic, most all of the above. Not to mention disgusting. The day she overheard one of the guys commenting to another that her breasts were too small but her ass was just the right size to grab, she nearly lost the contents of her stomach.
Not that there was much to lose. Gorou had countered her stalling tactics by refusing to feed her. She was left to scrape by with what nuts and berries she could find in the forest, and whatever fish she could catch from the river. A fishing rod would have been nice. Hell, she would have settled for a net. Her current record was Karin 1, Fish 327.
Maybe the near starvation was starting to get to her, but she was beginning to wonder if she shouldn't just choose the best of the men presented to her, settle down, and let the cards fall as they may. Not that she would. But still, she was wondering if it would be so bad. Sure, the guys were gross, but the district wasn't so bad. The scenery was nice, and she had Miu, who was reminding her more and more of Yuzu every day. If she ran off to the Seireitei, she faced death, imprisonment, and two possibilities that kept her up at night. The first, that she would never find Toushirou at all. She'd look and look, until she turned old and gray or died a second time, and never see a trace of him ever again. That one was pretty bad, but the second was worse. The second had her waking up, screaming, haunted and unable to lay back down for hours at a time. It was the possibility that she'd do it, she'd get into the Seireitei, find her way to Toushirou, and he wouldn't want to see her. He wouldn't even remember her, or if he did, he'd just laugh and tell her what Miu, Gorou, that female taichou, hell, everyone she'd met since she'd died had predicted: "I just told you to come find me so you wouldn't feel so scared about dying. You weren't supposed to actually do it." Then he'd shake his head and walk away, ignoring her begs and pleas as they shackled her and threw her in the dungeon. Then she saw him through a little barred window, laughing with his friends. "I played soccer with the kid once, and she thinks I give a damn about her. Pathetic!"
Whenever she had one of those dreams she tried to forget about it, tried to remind herself that it wasn't real, it was just her imagination. The problem was, she knew her imagination was partially right. They'd played a soccer game once. He'd saved her from a hollow. He'd happened to show up when she died and buried her soul. But he had to have saved a thousand people from hollows, buried millions of souls. Besides her brother, what was different about her? And from what she remembered, he didn't even like her brother. So really, what was different about her?
He was a taichou, apparently a rank of epic importance, to hear Miu tell it. He was the strongest of the strong, the deadliest of the deadly, the greatest of the great. He was near-royalty. And she was nobody, just another dead soul in the afterlife. Why would he care what happened to her? She couldn't find an answer.
But at the end of the day, none of it mattered. Because, honestly, she'd rather face death, imprisonment, and her worst nightmare than stay and turn into Miu.
She did have her pride.
And finally, as expected, a teary-eyed Miu gave her an ultimatum.
"If you don't choose a husband tomorrow, Gorou and I will choose one for you. I'm sorry, Karin. I'll try to pick a guy you'll like, I promise!"
Her time had run out. That night she wrapped a blanket around her only possessions: a change of clothes, a few coins she'd made from doing odd jobs, and the last of her food stores. Heaving it over her back, she tiptoed to the door and slipped out into the night.
She didn't leave a note. It wouldn't do them any good to come after her, not that they'd bother. She hadn't stolen anything, and they'd gotten what they wanted—her, out of their hair.
Besides, Gorou's eyes had tracked her the whole time.
Sneaking into the Seireitei was surprisingly easy. The thing was, no one was expecting stealth. They were expecting an attack, brute force, massive amounts reiatsu. Not two little reiatsu-less kids with a soccer ball. And certainly not Karin, who'd been threatened with death on sight if she ever so much as approached the North Gate again. Only an idiot would return to the same place she'd been caught before.
Or a genius. Because the gate guardian wouldn't be looking her, and he'd just been rebuked for using too much force against small threats. So she gave two little kids her soccer ball and encouraged them to kick it, hard, into the gate. Over and over again. She hid on the other side of the door, and as soon as Danzoumaru rushed out of it, focused solely on the children that were attacking his gate, she slipped in. She knew he wouldn't hurt them—he'd been more shaken by that taichou's threats than she had.
Yep, getting in was easy. Sometimes the best plans were the simplest.
She hadn't counted on the alarm. The moment she set foot on Seireitei soil, she heard a whooping noise. "Alert! Alert! Intruder in the Seireitei! Intruder in the Seireitei! All squads on alert!"
She looked to her right and left and saw groups of Shinigami staring at her. They looked as shocked as she felt. She smiled at them. As one, they reached for their swords. So she did the only thing she could.
She ran like hell.
"Matsumoto, why is the couch lumpy?" Toushirou demanded, crossing his arms and glaring at his lazy fukutaichou. They were on a rare break from searching Rukongai, and he wanted to take a nap, dammit.
She shrugged. "I don't know, Taichou, maybe you just have a lumpy butt."
Feeling a headache coming on, he lifted up the cushion and, unsurprisingly, pulled out a three-inch-thick stack of paperwork. "Matsumoto! How many times have I told you not to hide the paperwork?" he shouted, massaging his throbbing temple. Why did he put up with her, again?
"Taichou! Always thinking the worst!" she whined, crossing her own arms. "Who said I hid it? Maybe it fell—"
The intruder alert cut her off, saving him from hearing the rest of her ridiculous excuse. They both froze, staring at each other.
"Taichou, you don't think—"
He shook his head. "She's not that stupid. Or that strong."
Matsumoto raised her eyebrows. "Her brother was."
He paused, closing his eyes. "Shit." He grabbed his sword and ran out the door, confident his fukutaichou was behind him. She hadn't disappointed him yet—and that was why he put up with her. "Notify the team. When you find her, send a hell butterfly. If something goes wrong . . . ."
"I'll flare my reiatsu. Go, Taichou."
With a reassuring glance at her face, he nodded and flash-stepped toward the First.
Time for some damage control.
"Well, lookee-lookee what we have here!"
Karin jumped as a burly bald man jumped down off the wall to her right.
"Today's my lucky day!" he said, leering down at her.
Karin took one look at the creep's giant spear, another at his maniacal grin, kicked him in the shin, and ran like hell.
"Ow, damn it! Wait!" he screamed.
Karin didn't hesitate, but rounded the corner and ran until she could no longer hear him.
When the coast was clear, she snuck behind a pillar and doubled over, trying desperately to catch her breath.
When her lungs stopped burning, she leaned into the wall and tried to think of a plan. This place was the perfect fortress. She'd been running for hours and couldn't even tell if she was going in circles or not. It was all tall, white walls and identical buildings. What was she going to do?
She felt something behind her, almost like the air itself was moving. It was nothing like a breeze. She turned just in time to see someone in a blue ninja outfit materialize out of thin air. She felt that same feeling to her right, so she ducked low and left, just escaping as countless ninjas materialized in a circle around the spot she'd just been standing in. Ninjas, huh. That was new. Not waiting for them to figure out what had happened to her, she took off running yet again. If anything, the Seireitei was good for building stamina.
She'd just made it to another corner when a familiar voice made her cringe.
"There she is, after her!"
It was the female taichou from before.
Her chances of making it out of there alive just plummeted.
Toushirou stood in his place at the emergency taichou's meeting trying to keep his foot from tapping impatiently. The Soutaichou had already denied his request to be heard three times, and it was clear that no one knew what was going on and the whole meeting was a waste of time. Time he could be using to find Karin before she got herself killed. If it was really her.
The Soutaichou paused his droning as a hell butterfly landed on his finger. His head snapped up. "Soi Fon-taichou is out tracking the ryoka, which she has identified as a medium-height female, late teens, dark hair, dark eyes. The ryoka seems to be unarmed, and Soi Fon expects to apprehend her shortly. You and your squads will assist in the capture."
Toushirou closed his eyes, relief warring with fear in his head. They had found her—or, rather, she had found them. But the circumstances couldn't be worse.
"Say, Yama-jii, isn't this a lot of fuss over a little girl?" Kyouraku interrupted. He peeked out from under his hat and gave a wide smile. "Can't we just let her run around awhile until she tires herself out? Surely she can't do that much harm without a weapon."
Yamamoto-soutaichou thumped his walking stick on the floor. "No. Little girl or not, unarmed or not, we can't have ryoka running amok in the Seireitei! You will capture her, using force if necessary, and bring her in for questioning! This is a security breach we cannot have!"
Toushirou took a deep breath. "Soutaichou—"
"I don't want to hear it, Hitsugaya-taichou! You can explain to me about your after-work activities after we find the girl! Now, all of you, go!"
The ninjas were faster than the regular Shinigami. And a whole lot harder to lose. Gasping for breath, Karin weaved through the corridors, confident now that she was, indeed, running in circles. Which was fine, until she came to a dead end.
She whirled around, intending to head back the way she came, when she felt one of those weird air disturbances right in front of her. Unable to stop, she slammed face-first into a human wall.
A very soft, lumpy human wall.
"Karin-chan! I finally found you!" the wall squealed.
Karin opened her eyes, realized what she was staring at, blushed, and backed away. She looked up into a vaguely familiar face. The Shinigami had long, honey blonde hair, blue-gray eyes, and extremely large, um, assets. She had a sudden memory of the woman running toward her and Toushirou, waving like mad. His subordinate. But what was her name?
She closed her eyes, pictured him angry. What was it he had yelled?
"M-matsumoto-san?" she said, giving the woman a wary look.
"You remember!" Matsumoto said, pulling her back in for a hug. "After such a long time, too!"
"Matsumoto-san, we can't stay here! The ninjas—"
"I'm so glad I found you, Taichou's been looking all over for you!" the woman continued, oblivious to Karin's attempts to drag her out of the open. "Let me just send a message to him." She held up her hand for a butterfly to land on her finger.
"Matsumoto-san!"
When the butterfly flew off she grabbed Karin's arm again and started to lead her away. "Now then, let's get you back to the Tenth!"
"Not so fast, Matsumoto-fukutaichou!"
Karin wondered if this was what a heart attack felt like. All surreal and cold, with a fluttery feeling in her chest and the sensation that all of her blood had suddenly slowed and thickened in her veins. Not that bitch again.
"Soi Fon-taichou! I found the ryoka!" Matsumoto chirped, gripping Karin's arm tighter. "I was just about to take her in for questioning!"
So she couldn't be trusted after all. Karin cursed herself for being three times a fool.
"Step away from her, Matsumoto! She's in Special Forces custody now."
"But my taichou gave orders—"
"I'm superseding them. If you have a problem with it, take it up with the Soutaichou."
"But Soi Fon-taichou—"
"Stand down, fukutaichou!"
Matsumoto sighed. She dropped her grip on Karin's arm and backed away, but not before whispering, "Sorry, there's nothing I can do. But don't worry, they're just going to put you in a holding cell. Taichou will have you out before you know it!"
Karin wished she could believe that. But as ninjas surrounded her from all sides, cuffed her, and dragged her away, she looked into the eyes of the female taichou—head of the special forces—whatever she was—and all she saw was death.
A/N:
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! It's great motivation for a writer, and it's nice to connect with the people in the massive abyss I'm sending my stories out into. Kind of scary when you think about it... Anyway, things are picking up for Karin and Toushirou now—let me know what you think... (review please!)
P.S: Almost forgot! Thanks to MeteorLeopard for the Ikkaku-meeting idea! I hadn't thought of it, but once you put it in my head...I couldn't resist. Hope you like it!
