And here we are again, avoiding doing my essay in on Thursday in order to bring you the next part of the story! I confirm that I still don't own bleach, and this is a fairly long chapter too...

I hope you enjoy reading it, and if so do leave a review (even if only to tell me how to get more people reading this...)

Cya!

By order from Hitsugaya or otherwise most of the soul reapers in Karakura town ended up at Urahara's shop. The Captain sat opposite the shopkeeper, people usually looking at one or the other depending on who spoke.

"A power that's not riatsu? Maybe it's hollow-like?"

"I KNOW what they feel like!" Renji said hotly before the purple-haired woman also spoke.

"No, this person had slightly more than average riatsu, but there was definitely something else, something inside, not emitted."

"Then I'm guessing there was a large working where you were Renji," Urahara said with a nod, "and I think we should consult Karin on this."

"What has she got to do with anything?" Matsumoto asked curiously, "I mean yes, she can see those beings but..."

"She asked me about tracking someone she hadn't seen properly." Urahara said with a smirk, "presumably that's why she was there when Renji found her."

The red-head stared outright, "How did you know? I didn't even mention her!" Urahara once more smirked, but didn't reveal his answer. Renji scowled and continued in a calmer tone, "She can't actually know something useful, can she?"

"It's highly possible," Hitsugaya mused before standing, "In which case, I'd better be the one to ask her about it."

"Why you?" Yoruichi asked, "It seems Urahara would be more likely, he's already given her advice."

"But she knows I'm a Shinigami and treats me as a friend unlike the Lieutenant, whom she doesn't seem to get on with." There was a glower of agreement and nods from others.

"Everyone else, keep an eye out for the cougar, from what we've seen it's a target, presumably of Aizen. That means it's a danger to everyone else."

Another series of nods. They all understood that; and no-one liked the man to get what he wanted.

The white-haired Captain practically drifted across the city, a series of effortless jumps compared to his Lieutenant's passage across the rooves. He hadn't seen the Kurosaki girl since that football game, much as she'd tried to find him he had been busy, even his sunset watching from the hill had to be moved to a star-watch snatched while on patrol.

"Looking forward to seeing Karin-san?"

"Lieutenant, I've told you before, I was simply trying to find out who she was."

"And saved her out of pure disinterested heroism?"

Hitsugaya didn't bother to give the woman a reply. She seemed to misinterpret his sunset watch as an attempt to talk to the girl, and his assistance in the football match as a sign of affection when he'd only meant to find out more about Karin's hollow-sensing.

"Taiiiiiicho...."

"What, Lieutenant?" he asked, stopping on a tall fence.

"She's right there, P.E. lesson, going by the fact she's playing rounders rather than football."

Toushiro nodded and dropped down, the lack of a gigai making the pair effectively invisible to everyone but the person they wanted to talk to. At the sight of them Karin blinked and pretended to ignore them, shuffling further up the line of those to bat. When the short captain walked over to her she looked sideways at him briefly.

"Is there any way we can get you away from the lesson?" he asked politely, "it will look strange if you talk to thin air."

The black haired girl bit her lip slightly, there had to be a way... Yes, that was it! She turned her head slightly and spoke in a whisper, telling him what needed to happen. With a nod he walked to stand beside where the children with sticks were hitting the ball, waiting for Karin to get there.

"Karin, wait there a moment please, Mitsu, you need to swap out of being the bowler, that's 6 no balls in the last three batters..."

Karin scowled, all she needed was one ball to hit, was that so much to ask? Plus she could FEEL Toushiro behind her, a quietly icy presence that was sending chills down her spine every so often. It wasn't the creepy kind of chill, but it was distracting. Was she sensing his riatsu? She could remember that beautiful snowstorm and the ice that had frozen over the hollow, maybe that's what it felt like, his... life force?

When the Captain practically spoke in her ear she jumped, in her thoughts she'd almost forgotten the owner of the riatsu, "What are they doing?"

"Oh, Mitsu's a rubbish bowler so they're swapping her out so the game can go faster," Karin replied almost immediately, "It's just that everyone wants to be the bowler, the person who throws the ball."

"I see." He was still standing practically behind her! At this rate she was going to end up hitting HIM with the bat.

"Can you move please?" she whispered, "I need room to swing this."

"You have plenty of room," he replied, "I'm at least two metres away."

Karin blinked and glanced back over her shoulder, but she could have sworn he was right there! Her surprise only showed in her eyes for a blink before she focussed on the game again.

The girl who now had the ball grinned, "Don't think you're going to hit this one Karin..."

"Me? Not hit it?" Karin smirked, "Oh you asked for it..."

With a resounding smack the ball soared away upwards as a blast of freezing cold wind swept in, sweeping the ball even higher as Karin promptly dropped the bat and ran round the square, exchanging high fives with her team for the complete run as she stuck her tongue out at the bowler.

"Erm, should I go and get that?" she asked the teacher, "I won't need to bat for a while and it was kind of my fault..."

"That's the third time this term," the teacher said wearily, "I thought we told you not to do this?"

"I know sensei," Karin almost choked as she saw Matsumoto some way outside the fence idly tossing the ball up and down while grinning like a maniac, "but she dared me that I couldn't hit it..."

"Fine, fine, go and get the ball Kurosaki, just try not to do this again."

"Okay!" with a wave Karin started to jog towards the gate and out, making a grumbling noise when the Captain simply jumped the fence. The three kept going until they were properly out of sight before they stopped, Karin accepting the ball from the redhead as Toushiro watched her put it in a pocket.

"How come I haven't seen you recently?" Karin asked curiously, "Matsumoto at least attends the high school but I haven't seen you since the game." Why was the Lieutenant grinning at the scowl on Hitsugaya's face?

"We've been busy doing other things," he replied simply, "what we actually came to ask you was about what you saw at the park."

"I don't need you guys babysitting me," Karin said mulishly, "I'm sure I can find out for my..."

"That's not why he's asking, Karin-san," the redhead interrupted, "we think that whatever it was you saw is being hunted by hollows, and that means it's a danger to everyone near it. We need to find it quickly and work out why they want it."

Karin blinked again, she hadn't expected an answer so easily, and these guys weren't patronising her either...

"Fine, but I want to help out with this, okay? I was the one that saw her so I want to help," she said, looking to the white-haired shinigami, "I'm not stupid, it's just that the only people who let me actually do stuff are the Karakura rangers."

"We'll see," the captain replied, "but first, what did you see?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, "There was a woman in a gold coat like yours, only with sleeves, talking to a weird dinosaur-like thing about not having been here long enough because this world was suspicious and needed time," she said simply, "then they started talking about a Shift and an agreement, she'd not fight whatever they did but she'd skip stage one, whatever that means..."

"Did it sound like they were planning something?"

"They didn't like each other if that's what you mean," Karin replied, "and then she asked for some way to protect herself but the thing just laughed and shot a bolt at her from its wand and flew off." At this Matsumoto burst into giggles and Karin winced. Hitsugaya looked sceptical.

Karin glared at them, "I KNEW you wouldn't believe me! This is just a waste of time!" She turned and started to walk off but felt a hand grab her arm, holding her in place. It wasn't that she objected so much to as the wave of icy air flowing over her.

"JEEZ that's cold!"

The hand let go and the boy straightened, "you can feel my riatsu?"

"You DO have a distinctive presence, taicho," Matsumoto informed him, "that would be why she thought you were closer earlier, and you did just let out a wave of it when you went to catch her."

"I see." The icy feeling fell away, though Karin still rubbed her arms, "only in the last day or so, I'm not that good at it."

"You were planning to trace the person by their riatsu?"

"Well that's what Urahara kind of suggested... Well... he said I should go back and find something to trace them by, then Renji said about riatsu so..."

"I think you need to finish telling us what happened next," Hitsugaya replied, "starting an explanation without all the facts is useless."

After a brief explanation the two shinigami looked at each other. "It sounds like she got shapeshifted into that cougar then," the redhead said first, "that explains the intelligence at least."

"But it doesn't explain how she knows about us," the boy replied, "and also, that didn't sound like Kido or anything I've seen."

"It looked like magic," Karin said firmly, "or do you guys insist magic doesn't exist?"

"Well technically it's Kido but there's no reason why not... it's never been found at any rate," Matsumoto shrugged, "there's just Shinigami and Hollow powers."

"But I SAW it!"

"That's what worries me," the white-haired boy replied, "according to Yoruichi however, the riatsu at the park is different to the cougar's, implying that even if you had managed to sense it you'd have ended up tracking that... dinosaur?"

"Oh."

"You were doing fairly well though," Matsumoto said comfortingly, "and now we can all work together on this."

"Yes, but I don't have any special Shinigami powers or anything..."

"You said you started to sense riatsu," Hitsugaya pointed out, "that can be expanded on with training. Also, you are able to fight smaller hollows, so you have shown signs of it."

"Plus you can see and hear us now," Matsumoto added, "and your... brother has powers, why not you?"

Karin paused. She'd never thought of it like that, "So I CAN do it?"

"We'll count this as training," Hitsugaya said eventually, "If you show promise, then maybe we could consider asking for you to become a shinigami. Maybe."

He had to admit, the girl did have a lot of potential, he'd seen a bit of it himself, and there was no denying that an extra pair of hands would be useful but...

"So, how can we find this cougar?" Karin sounded much more enthusiastic now, "It won't attack us, will it?"

"It didn't attack me or Yoruichi, so I think it knows who's safe and who isn't," Matusmoto said thoughtfully, "Really the best way would be so that if you run into it you contact us somehow, or just get it to follow you to a safer place."

Karin grinned, imagining the look on Jinta's face if she came in with a cougar, that would be priceless! "So do we try and search for it or just keep an eye out?"

"It seems to like the woods near where you play football, so you can find Taicho while he has his sky watching without feeling guilty."

That earnt her a glare from the short boy and Karin grinned. "Sounds fun, and maybe improve my riatsu sensing while I'm there?"

"Well how else were you meant to spend the time?" Rangiku said with a cheeky wink. Toushiro shook his head slightly with a sigh, he had the feeling the woman was trying to set him up... Like she'd manage it, there were far more important things to do.

"Can you manage to get out of school?" he asked, "It would mean we can search now."

"The only way to do that would be to say I'm sick," Karin replied, "and then Dad would rush to the school to take me back to the clinic and... you get the idea."

"Very well, 6 o' clock, where you saw me last time," the Captain said simply before turning to vanish, "Until then we patrol and try to find it."

"Coming!"

Karin thoughtfully walked back to the school, tossing the ball in her hand and watching it spin high in the air before coming back down with a neat thunk. Training... maybe becoming someone who could protect rather than be protected by Ichi-nii all the time. It would be so brilliant if she could do it...

"Karin, you actually came back!"

"Yeah, we thought you were going to try and skip the rest of the class," another girl added jokily before Karin grinned, returning to reality.

"Since when have I wanted to miss P.E?"

"When you'd rather play soccer with the boys?"

"That's not skipping... technically..."

"So wait, let me get this straight," Yumichika said, a slight smile tipping his mouth, "Hitsugaya-taicho's going to give riatsu sensing lessons to a girl..."

"Who's the only person in five miles with the spunk and the height to match him," Ikkaku commented,

"...In the most romantic spot in the city..."

"Uh huh," the redhead grinned broadly,

"...and he hasn't twigged you're trying to set him up?" At this the woman smiled even wider,

"He probably has..."

"Then why aren't you dead?"

"BECAUSE he knows I'm trying to set him up, so he'll try to prove me wrong just to prove a point."

"Does this mean I get to teach her how to fight? If she's Ichigo's sister she's going to have the capability to kick some serious-"

"She's only being trained passively," Yumichika reminded him, "any of the higher ups would be reluctant to have another human Shinigami, especially another from the same family."

"In case she kicked thei-"

"You just want to fight her."

"Admit it, you're itching to give her a try too."

"And me," Matsumoto added, "plus it could mean sparks."

At this she got a slightly scared look from both men, however the bald one was the first to point out she was obsessed, showing a lack of tact that resulted in him hastily defending against her bag.

Above them a cat-shaped shadow paused, then continued on its patrol. She had a feeling Urahara would like that bit of information, if only to be proven right.