A/N: Oh. My. Long break! I'm sorry for not updating… although I'm pretty sure really no one has been reading this story. Remember, reviews are always wanted, even flames! *Hint hint* And I'd like to thank FlyingLikeAButterfly for being my sole reviewer! Your prize is *drumroll* a super duper late update!
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, but I'm trying! I promise! …Okay I'm really not.
Italics- The thoughts of whoever's point of view it is
"Everyone now is the time to tell everything you have learned about Karin Kurosaki. She is not to be considered our greatest threat, this Moon Princess, but we have to make sure we keep an eye on her. If she goes through with the story, and tries to break the curse, the traitors may take advantage of it. Therefore, we need a plan to be put into action." Yamamoto announced. This is going to be a very long meeting.
Toshiro's POV
"Well, in the time I served as her father's lawyer, I noted that she is the top kendo fighter for her age, which is 17, in Karakura. She also plays soccer and is a little… tomboy-ish. That's all," Shunsui stepped forward for his announcement then stepped back.
"Toshiro, Renji, Madareme, Yumichika. What did you four notice about her when you attempted to catch her?" Yamamoto looked at them.
"Well sir, she did fall for the trap, so she does seemingly have a heart." Madareme grumbled.
"She has a very un-beautiful sense of style, although she does seem very beautiful for a teenager," Yumichika added.
"I, uh well the first time I went with Captain Hitsugaya to capture the girl I was, er, distracted. Same with the second time," Renji scratched his head and avoided eye contact while the captains snickered at the lower-ranked lieutenant being beat up by smaller women.
And this is why you three fools were not made captains when the traitors abandoned us.
"If I may sir?" I stepped forward and everyone's attention away from a relieved Renji, "While these three idiots rushed to fight the girl, I observed her fighting style. She is quick to anger, and quicker to act. Renji called her a 'little girl' and she jumped the nearest person, which happened to be an unprepared Madareme, and began punching and kicking in a seemingly unorthodox way. However, further examination proved that she would use a punch every now and then, but mainly stuck to kicking. This may be from her experience as a soccer player. That's all," I stepped back and Shunsui started to snicker, "What?" I snapped.
"Oh nothing, you just seemed to watch her quite closely is all. Just wondering if little Shiro has a little crush on a certain Mo-" Shunsui started.
"Enough! Now we will dismiss for lunch, but afterwards I want all of you, except Renji Madareme and Yumichika, to come in here for a strategy meeting. You're dismissed!" Yamamoto smacked his cane on the ground and the room cleared.
Karin's POV
"Karin? It's Uryuu," A voice said from outside my room. Maybe he'll show me where the book is! I jumped up and opened the door.
"Are you going to show me-" Uryuu shoved his glasses higher up on his nose and cut me off.
"Where my sewing room is? Yes I am," He grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind him. After too many hallways to count, we arrived at what I was assuming to be the library, "Rukia dragged you brother out of the house right after you came back, but you never know who could be watching. I don't know where it is, so this is as far as I go. Good luck,"
What an odd dude. Hmm now where would Ichigo hide something. He'd want to put it in the most obvious place that wasn't TOTALLY obvious. He wouldn't put it in the bookshelf because he'd never be able to find it again. Aha! Of course, under the couch cushion!
I pulled out the book and opened it, this time when I opened it I looked at the spine. There was ribbon coming out of the spine to serve as a book mark, and the ribbon was tied to… a key? Weird, then again, that word pretty much sums up my life right now. I sat down and picked up where I left off… I think.
When their wedding was announced, she decided to share the pearls with her father and her fiancée. What they didn't know until it was too late was that the pearls revealed the darkness in others, which the girl always overlooked. So she took her pearls and ran away to never be seen again. Before she disappeared though, she left the families with a curse.
"There will be moon princesses after me, and if by the 5000th moon none of them have succeeded in figuring out how to break the curse, then this valley is doomed!"
Now the valley, named Seireitei Valley, is waiting for the next Moon Princess to save its inhabitants.
"That's it? Wait, that boy, Toshiro, said the 5,000th moon was almost here. If I have the key, I wonder if the other family has the pearls? I need to talk to someone about this!" I jumped up and ran downstairs. I only knew where the kitchen was at this point so I went to talk Orihime.
"Oh! Hello Karin! Did you need-" Orihime smiled at me, but I didn't have the patience.
"Orihime! Did you know about the curse?" She nodded, "But-but WHAT?"
"Oh Karin, I'm so happy you know now! And of course you realized it's you, right?" Orihime smiled again.
"M-me? But why?" I sat down in a chair confused.
"Well because you're the youngest! I mean I know you and Yuzu are twins, but she's older than you by three minutes of course. So the Moon Princess is you!" Orihime clapped and jumped around a little bit, "It must be so dreamy and whimsical to be a princess! If I was a princess, I'd do so many things!" Orihime's eyes were shining as she continued, "And of course since Uryuu is my boyfriend, he'd make a perfect knight in shining armor!"
"Yeah, I'm gonna go for a walk, later Orihime!" I got up and walked outside. Everyone here was crazy! The neighbors, my brother's friends, hell the horses are probably crazy. But not Bostov, definitely not him! My thoughts drifted to other things while I walked.
Orihime sure seemed to think being a princess is a great thing, I sure wouldn't mind have a knight in shining armor sometimes. I wonder if Toshiro would be up for the job- eep! I have to stop thinking things like that!
I didn't notice my feet had taken me to the woods until a voice called out to me.
"Hello Karin!" I whirled around to see a woman with mocha-colored skin and purple hair looking at me.
"How do you know my name?" I scowled at her. To my surprise, she chuckled.
"You're rather popular around these parts Karin. Why don't you come and have tea with me at my house?" The woman held out her hand for me to take. I looked at her suspiciously.
"Listen, um" I didn't know her name. Of freaking course.
"Yoruichi Shihoin." She replied patiently.
"Okay, Yoruichi, how do I know you won't try to kidnap me like those idiots earlier?" I crossed my arms.
"You don't! If it makes you feel better, my adopted son and daughter work for your brother," Yoruichi laughed and grabbed my arm. She dragged me to a little shop in the middle of the woods, despite my protests. Why is there a candy shop in the middle of the woods? "The answer's simple!" Yoruichi chuckled again as if she read my mind, "We always wanted a candy shop, but this is where we live. So we made our house into a candy shop as well!"
"Uh, yeah. That makes a lot of sense," I scratched the back of my head when Yoruichi let go.
"Hello there!" A blonde man wearing a white and green striped hat and clogs. He held a fan in one hand and covered the bottom half of his face with it, "You must be the lovely Karin Kurosaki, am I right?"
I didn't like the looks of the man, "What's it to you? And who are you?" Both the man and Yoruichi laughed at my straight-forwardness.
"Pardon my lack of manners! I am Kisuke Urahara, a humble candy shop owner. And to answer your other question, it's simple. You're going to free this valley from a curse, and we're going to bring you to the Shinigami's castle. You brought the key, so that is what you wanted, right?" The man looked back at me with his fan still covering his mouth. If I had to guess though, judging by the way his eyes were gleaming, he was smiling largely.
"Yes. I mean no. I mean… WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?" I burst out.
"Urahara and Yoruichi, we already told you that. Now we've got to go to the Shinigami's castle now otherwise we won't get there in time for their supper, that's when they're the most distracted," Urahara answered my questioning glare.
"Let's go!" Yoruichi grabbed my hand and dragged me into the woods once again.
"Would you please stop doing that?" I screamed at the woman.
Toshiro's POV
Man, I never thought that meeting would end! At least it's time to eat now! I followed the captains to the dining hall to eat. All we had accomplished from that meeting was deciding that storming the house would NOT be in our best interest, that the girl was similar to lightning (in the sense that you never knew when or where she'd strike) and that it would be best to have chairs in our meetings. Yeah, we really need to stop getting off topic. Then again, it didn't help that I kept getting distracted by what Shunsui had said.
I mean, sure Kurosaki is… cute, but I don't have a crush on her! She was stubborn, rude, quick to fight, strong, had nice legs, not to mention a nice- NO! I refuse to think that, although I do know if she got hurt, or was put into danger, I would be freaking out. She seems to have that effect on me.
"Why are you blushing Captain Hitsugaya?" Renji interrupted my thoughts. Even though I was a captain, I sat with Renji, Yumichika, Madareme and a few others. We mostly sat together just because, well, we didn't have anyone else to sit with. Shuuhei Hisagi was a quiet man and the lieutenant of the 9th division, whereas Rangiku Matsumoto was my loud lieutenant who drank. A lot. The only other people who sat at our table were Captain Zaraki and his daughter Yachiru who he insisted learn what his job was. He even brought her on missions with him.
Currently the only ones at our table were Renji, Shuuhei, Matsumoto and I.
"I'm just too warm is all. You know I prefer colder temperatures," I glared at them all daring them to say otherwise.
"AW! THAT'S SO CUTE! Captain is in LOOOVE!" Matsumoto slurred drunkenly.
A vein popped in my head, "I AM NOT!"
Karin's POV
"So you're telling me that this is where the Shinigami clan lives?" I'm pretty sure my jaw had unhinged from my skull since my mouth was open so wide.
"Yup! This is as far as we go, so we bid you good luck Karin Kurosaki," Urahara and Yoruichi backed away leaving me crouching behind a bush next to the ginormous doors. I'd have to wait for someone to open-
"I'll be right back, just leave the door open for me!" A man walked out and my jaw fell again at my sheer luck. I snuck in when no one was looking and immediately went up the stairs. I could hear a lot of voices a little ways ahead so I crept along the wall until I came to another set of stairs that looked over what appeared to be the dining room. I spied at a table the red-haired man from before, what was his name again? Ah yeah! Renji! And he was also sitting next to Toshiro, a… busty woman and silent man.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here Yumichika?" The baldy from before blocked my only exit and he was grinning like a madman. The girly guy was with him too.
"That's very unbeautiful to be sneaking around like that!" The girly one said fixing his hair.
"Oh shit." I swore loudly, and saw every eye in the room turn towards me.
A/N: Whew! That came out in… an hour! NEW RECORD! But I'm not beat yet, so I'm working on the next chapter tonight, and MAYBE having it uploaded (: Remember I do enjoy reviews and will tolerate flames, although I prefer constructive criticism. And I didn't change really anything, but I thought adding that little bit with Orihime was needed, along with adding that Jinta and Ururu live with Urahara and Yoruichi. Now review, otherwise I'll tell Shunsui that you were hitting on Nanao *shudder* Now that is NOT something I'd like to see…