Crazy: bleach is once again my focus, i managed to get this chapter done due to the difficulties I'm currently having with deciding what to do next in my other fics... i have so many options. now on with the fic.

I don't own bleach, i actual don't personally own any actual bleach. nor do i won the manga Bleach.

The Key Word

A single word can lead to a whole situation making total sense and everything falling into place and it was a single word that spiralled around and around in Toushirou's head that kept him seeking it in this dream, this desert which battled against, seeking a single word, a word that'd tell him next to nothing, he knew he wasn't the one who needed the word but he was still desperate to know.

Ichigo's Room

Ichigo woke to a scream, the scream of his younger sister, Yuzu. Screams of shock and fear. He leapt out of bed still only in his boxers and rushed to the source of the scream brushing the frost that had accumulated on his body away. The source just happened to be the shower, Yuzu was standing in shock at the entrance, her hand covering her mouth, tears running down her cheeks. Pain ripped through Ichigo's chest at the sight, he hated it when Yuzu cried but he ran to her all the same and the sight that he beheld ripped at his heart all the more viciously.

Lying in the bottom of the shower was Karin, covered in frost and icicles. The water of the shower frozen, stopping any more water flow.

"Yuzu. Go get Otou-san." He ordered with raw a almost frozen tone.

He moved forwards as she left with a simple nod. He moved down to her side and begun to lift her, only to find that her skin seemed to be sticking to the now frozen shower floor. In other words, it's rip all the skin off of one side of her body if he tried to remove her by force.

'I need something hot, no warm, but what… Kido, just focus on creating heat, I don't want to boil her but I can't leave her like this.' He thought.

There was one major problem with this scenario, how was he supposed to heat her entire body, he could just try will the heat around her. He nodded to himself, he had to do something, it was then that it occurred to him that, she was still supposed to be in bed, so why was she taking a shower? He ignored the problematic thought for the while, and begun to focus the energy he required into his hands, he felt it build up, more and more and then he thought with all the will power he had. 'Warm her.'

Out of his hand burst a white light, that engulfed Karin, it was a few seconds latter that it dispersed. The frost covering her was gone, and she'd roled over without doing the slightest damage to her skin. He scooped her up in his arms an carry her shivering naked form out of the shower. He was standing there in the hallway, wondering what to do, too afraid that he'd do something stupid again. That he may push Karin to her doom. She was so pale in his arms, every inch of her skin was white or blue, her lips a deep blue showing just how cold she was, The blood from her bandaged wounds was frozen in the bandages. She'd die quickly if she wasn't warmed soon but she's suffer immensely if heated too fast, he just didn't know what to do. He knew what to do but was too afraid to do it.

Karin's mindscape

Ice, frost, cold, winter, snow. The world around her was full of these things, not the pretty white snow and ice you see on TV but the harsh bitter, cold, biting hip deep slush that tortured you with it's near endless cold. The volcanic image this place had been was still there only it clashed with frozen waste that was consuming it. Covering almost ever single one of the volcanic floating rocks.

She was standing atop a spire amidst all this volcanic rage and frozen bitterness. An all consuming war, she couldn't imagine something surviving in that destruction. Steam rose endlessly, everything was so chaotic, floating stones fell into the depths of the lava, becoming one with this greater force which rose up in flows settling into the position of the old stones and slowly solidifying. While all of this was interesting it lacked something, what did it lack.

"It's pointless. Just around and around it goes…" she muttered.

"Indeed it is pointless, little princess, it does nothing but cycle, it needs something, it needs something, can you guess what?" the aged voice she'd heard last time asked.

She looked around her, the lava was being attacked by the ice, the ice literally seemed to be going after the lava. The lava however did nothing to retaliate, somehow this seemed like it was a huge deal to her, if the ice could act why didn't the lava.

"It doesn't have a will of it's own…" She whispered, unsure how much it mattered.

The voice spoke again. "Wrong, it does have a will of it's own, that will just doesn't realise that it does. Where do you think you are?"

"How would I know, an alternate reality!" she snapped back sharply.

The voice let out a sigh. "What was the lava doing when you first came here?"

"Going up, why?" She replied without a thought.

She could almost fell the owner of the voice grinning at her. It spoke. "It was going up, it was defiant, it wasn't listening to what it was told, it wouldn't submit to the will of anyone or anything. Remind you of something or someone."

"No not really." She replied not really clicking to what he was saying, not seeing his warning.

There was a distant thud. "Do you really pay so little attention, or do you like getting babied like this, do you like your brother worrying himself to death over the fact that he stuffed up, do you like listening to your sister cry herself to sleep, because she did last night, do you like pinning blame on your father."

"What are you talking about…" She said raising her head to look for her conversational partner. There was no-one.

Said partner responded. "This place is you, the reason the lava flows like this is because your afraid. He left you petrified, because you know for a fact that you didn't kill him, he'll keep coming and then he'll use your precious sister, then when he's done with her he'll use you. You are afraid of the way your life is changing, this cycle is just you going in circles so that you don't have to deal with who you are. Remember who is king here, you don't want your subordinates to kill you do you?"

"What am I supposed to do, Ichi-nii help me, no! I can't keep running to him. Damn it! When haven't I ran to him… I have to stand on my own two feet." She said in a detached voice. Everything stopped, the lava froze in place still retaining it's scolding heat.

She move on pure instinct, dashing from her central position atop the spire and leaping off, in a fluid feat of pure acrobatics, she danced between the floating stones, racing her way down, down and further down into the lava filled valley bellow. She leaped, dashed, flipped, twisted and spun for the simple joy of it, she remembered the battle that'd taken place here, it'd been such a thrill, the pure joy of combat hadn't been what she thought it to be, she actually liked pushing herself like that.

She didn't notice that over her time in this place her cloths had changed, or should she say appeared. She'd originally been totally naked when she'd entered this time but now even though she didn't notice it, she was now wearing a fiery outfit, flame like jeans, strangely flexible for jeans but being made of fire would do that and a shirt made of the same fiery material, it had a very long sleave for her right arm but no sleave for her left.

Strapped to her left arm was a familiar ivory shield with all of it's deadly barbs for its two foot diameter and at the end above her left hand was the hilt of her blade. She not even truly knowing it was there moved to draw it and cut through the stone that she was hurtling towards. It turned out that cut wouldn't be the right word for what happened, smashed was a more suitable word, she hadn't the foggiest idea she'd been moving so fast. It was as she contemplated this that she notice she was fully dressed, in very odd cloths. She had the strangest feeling that it was this or be dressed like every single shinigami. It was bright and flame covered, at least she'd be warm.

It was during this moment of distraction that she'd slipped on an icy patch on her current stone of residence and fell straight into the lava, it was very nice, like an ultra hot, hot spring. She liked the intense heat that flowed through her constantly, but it only seemed to remind her of how warm Yuzu's heart was, how kind her Yuzu is.

"My Yuzu?" She whispered to herself, dangerous thoughts on her mind, she didn't understand it but she never felt safe to leave Yuzu alone with any male except her Ichi-nii and tou-san. She was also unsure where she stood on what she'd heard the previous night, Yuzu had been crying, that she was sure of and she'd been about to go comfort the girl but…

Flashback

Ignoring the pain in her hands she made a move to get out of her bed but, Yuzu seemed to be muttering in her sleep. "Karin nee-chan, please don't go away, I love you. I'm yours, I'll always be yours, please don't hate me."

Karin had looked at the girl for more than an hour before the words sunk in, Yuzu was in love with her to some degree, quite some degree if she wasn't mistaken, but Karin had never thought about having a relationship before, yet alone a relationship with a girl, or her own sister for that matter. It was an entirely new concept to her. She did know the whole idea that it happened and tended to be between a guy and a girl but she didn't have the slightest clue what to do. She didn't even get what a relationship entitled. She wondered how exactly one went about having a relationship.

She loved Yuzu but didn't know if she could be in love with her, she was her sister, it was just wrong. She shock her head getting rid of the thoughts and something strange made its way into her head in their place.

'It's nice being close to Yuzu-chan…'

End Flashback

Karin was still in turmoil about what to do, she couldn't very well pretend to feel the same but she couldn't outright say she didn't feel anything for her sister, she was really one lost girl.

The ice that had covered more than a fair portion of this place had seemingly vanished while she'd been asleep, she didn't know how or why but it made her feel great. There was none of that bitter cold left. She knew somehow that it was time for her to leave, even if she didn't want to.

Real world

Ichigo couldn't move, he couldn't act, he could hardly think. He hadn't realised how much he'd been affected by his own failure. Time seemed to stand still for him, he blinked and then he wasn't standing with Karin in his arms anymore, he stood on the side of an office building in his own mind, three figures stood on the other side of the building, two of which he knew a all too well. One was the mighty Zangetsu, his zanpukto, the second his inner hollow who didn't seem all that scary at the moment as he juggling, correction he was juggling fireballs and the third figure was foreign, he was sure of it, he didn't belong in this place, not permanently, he was a tall man clad an a pure black cloak, that seemed to be made out of black fire.

When they saw him, Zangetsu remained impassive, his inner hollow almost dropped his fireballs in shock and the third unidentified figure spoke in a booming voice, it spoke in a very foreign and old language but he understood it all the same. "Kurosaki Ichigo! Listen well, the little princess must live, regicide must fail, I trust in you and the lost dragon of the north for her safety."

He was quickly banished from his mindscape and Karin who was still in his arms had just cracked open her eyes.

"Ichi-nii." She asked softly, not quite noting her nudity yet.

He smiled at her. "Hey, Karin-kun."

He lay her down and quickly pulled his shirt and forced her into it. He'd done this before she could even react. It was at this point that Karin looked down at what she was wearing, Ichigo's shirt, nothing else, she had been in the nude and she didn't even realise, how embarrassing. She pushed herself into standing position, making sure that the covered her modesty. She dashed quickly into her room to change.

Ichigo stood there stunned, Karin had shown not a single sign of being hurt from the cuts on her hand. Then as if from deep inside his very soul one word filled him with fear, and he knew he'd have to fight, and fight like never before. That word, that key word was…

"Regicide."

Crazy: Love it hate it, just confused?

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