Chapter 4: A Parting

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

The horror on her brother's face was enough to tell Karin that a bount was nothing good.

"Where did you hear that term?" her brother demanded his voice growing louder.

"What is a bount? Tell me so I can understand."

"What the hell! What have you gotten yourself into? The only bount left is Koga. The others are all dead especially after Kariya tried to destroy Soul Society," Ichigo yelled.

"Why do you want to know Karin?" Rukia asked calmly.

If she trusted Ichigo, Rukia knew the younger girl would only refuse to answer. Ichigo had a thin thread of patience that kept his temper in check and Karin was just as bad. When Kurosakis fought one hid behind Yuzu. The younger twin was known for being the calm and collected one among her family of hot-heads. Right now Rukia could see the fires burning in Ichigo and Karin. She had better extinguish them both now before things got out of hand.

"I'll tell you everything Karin if you answer our questions," Rukia said diplomatically.

"RUKIA!"

"You will nee-chan?"

"Of course."

"It all began with a dream…"

When she had finished Karin had realized that there were things in her voice she had not wanted to reveal like her trust in that world, her trust in Cain and her loyalty to him. She couldn't imagine a world now without Cain. She couldn't…not when the waking world, her world, was so lonely. With Cain there was no loneliness.

Sure they fought like cats and dogs. They spent her nights talking to each other, playing, fighting and arguing but there was something so necessary about those moments that she couldn't help but feel that if Cain would disappear so would she. It was integral, part of the sum of who she was that Cain was present.

Ichigo…she could see the horror in his eyes. She could feel him trying to find a loophole from answering her questions. He didn't like this but Ichigo had Rukia. Yuzu had her friends at school. Who did Karin have? Who in all the world matter to her half as much as Cain did?

"We have to prevent you from going back and forth," Ichigo said. "Who know what could be following you through your gate."

"But…" Karin stared at him wishing the words would form more easily.

"Besides you don't really know this guy!" Ichigo yelled.

"Baka!" Karin screamed back. "I don't feel anymore. Don't you understand! The days are too long and life has so little meaning."

"You need to know what a bount is," Rukia said softly interrupting the glaring brother and sister.

It took hours but Rukia and Ichigo explained Kariya and Ran T'ao. As Karin listened she heard more and more about the true horror of being bount. But of Cain they had no mention.

"So you don't know who my friend is?"

"No," Rukia said soberly.

"He might be the student Koga mentioned," Ichigo said at last.

He could remember the older bount's tale and his horror of what had happened to prodigy. He told the story as he had heard it. Repeating Koga's warnings about young men dying and the blood of a child.

Karin nodded taking all this in.

"I have to go back," she said softly.

"What! Why?" her brother demanded.

"I can't just stop going. It is not something I control and even if it was I'd…"

Damn! The tears were building and once again she could feel real anger at herself. She was not to cry. Not now when there was still a chance that she could keep Cain in her life.

They had been sitting outside on the steps of the local food market. The sun was lazy in Soul Society, Karin often mused but it was warm out. Too warm for Cain to wearing his ridiculous jacket but he wouldn't take it off. They were both having popsicles due to the heat.

"My mom used to buy us popsicles when it was too hot out," Karin said simply as she paid for them.

She getting used to packing things in her pajamas when she went to bed. While Cain always had a change of clothing for her on her arrival, she had realized rather quickly whatever she had with her at night usually came through the portal with her. Like her floppy, the well loved rabbit suffy, had caused Cain to tease her mercilessly for the night.

"What was your mother like?" she asked quietly.

Cain stiffened immediately. "I don't have many good memories of her. She—"

"What?"

"My past is a horror story. I don't like to talk about. Until my teacher no one had ever cared for me. No one had ever given me worth. When I was found, I was living on the streets stealing to make my way through the world. I…Don't make me talk of it Karin. I can't. Not even to you. And I trust you more than I've ever trusted anyone."

She felt his rejection run through her in a cold through wave. Why? But in his eyes there was pain and she wasn't a fool. Her eyes held the same sharp gleams of loss. He wouldn't speak of them because they had hurt him and that was enough to make her heart swell with hate at the thought.

No, he was her friend. Hers alone and for that she would never destroy what he was.

"Keep your secrets," she said softly. "I have my own and I wouldn't want you to force them out of me."

His hand clasped hers.

"One day, I'll tell you everything. One day, when I can."

"Please," she said looking at Rukia. "I can't just stop. I need that world. I need to go there because no one else understands me."

"I do," Ichigo said.

"But you have Rukia. She knows you on a different level and while I could become a shinigami and join your battle, I'm still me. I still need to be seen as Karin not as the motherless child, or the soccer player, or Ichigo Kurosaki's kid sister. I'm me and Cain is the only person I've ever met that sees me as that."

"Hollows will be attracted to you," Rukia said quickly. "The retsai you put out is causing them to gravitate. I'll take you to Yourichi-sama in the next few days. She should be able to teach you to control it but the portal is dangerous."

Karin gulped. She would learn to control this but what if they told her she could never use the portal again? The danger might be too great and she would have to not go through again. Could she do that? Stay on this side of the portal in a world that was beginning to mean less and less to her as Soul Society filled the open wounds and gave her a home? Could she when in her heart she knew that only because of Cain was she able to make it through the day?

After Ichigo and Rukia left, Karin sat in the darkness for a long while. Slowly she drifted off to sleep.

Cain was sitting where he always was. Waiting for her like he always did.

"I didn't think you'd come after you were pulled out," he said softly.

"My brother and his friend were there when I disappeared. They're afraid. They think I should learn to control it if I don't I might lead hollows to me."

His blue eyes narrowed as he absorbed the story. "Maybe is better this way. I'll have to leave Hanging Dog District soon anyway.

"What? Why?"

"The other people are becoming afraid. They know I am not a soul reaper. My soul is different from theirs and someone has began telling them that bounts devour souls. That we are vampires in the true sense of the word and they are afraid of me."

"You've never eaten a soul though," Karin said knowingly.

"No, I was very young when I died. I was found out as a bount when I was small but I've never consumed. It wasn't necessary and my teacher was going to show me how when I was ready. I never reached that point."

Karin swallowed. "Where will you go?"

"I don't know. There is nothing here for me anymore. If I go to the Serreiti, they will banish me or maybe even kill me. They have no love of bounts. I don't know. Perhaps, I'll wander to another district."

Karin grabbed his hand. Why could she sit there calmly? She needed him and he needed her on so a basic a level that their survival hinged on. Had he not told of the loneliness before she had come? The days when he waited on for some sign that he was where he was supposed to be.\

"Why can't I take you back with me? Why?"

Cain shook his head. "I don't belong in your world. You don't belong in mine either. Perhaps if I had met your soul in my time then things would be different. If that had happened then maybe…"

This felt too much like goodbye. Too much like forever was slipping through her fingers and the pain was eating at her.

No! she screamed inside.

She would not loose this.

"We'll think of something," she said softly.

He smiled at her weakly before taking his coat off. Gently he wrapped it around her. She stared at him. This was the prized coat that he never took off. The one he had told her that villagers had tried to take from him and his teacher had given to him.

"My first gift," he had told her smiling.

"I want you to take this. I don't want you cold or alone or sad in your world. It wouldn't be right," Cain said softly. "If I can't be with you then part of me should go. It's only fair."

Karin moved quickly pressing her lips firmly against his. It was a simple kiss but it burned with longing.

"I love you," she whispered.

The tears burned in her eyes as she pulled the coat closer.

"I love you as well. I will work to find a way for us but if there is none then I want you safe. Find someone in your world Karin. Someone who will love as much as I do."

She felt her world pulling her back. She wanted to scream that no one would love her as much as he did. No one would fill the space he had in heart. No one would understand her better than him.

She sobbed. The tears streaming fully down her face and her bellows waking the house. She may not have cried since her mother but now she could feel the coldness of the situation. No, she would not hold back.

She felt Yuzu's arms and for once Karin Kurosaki let her sister hold her.

To be continued…