Slowest update yet and with everything that's going down about going back to sixth form next week I can't see me getting back to my previous update speed :L Apologies, for the delay and it's bittiness, but hope you enjoy it none the less. Thank you again to those who reviewed the last chapter!
Oh, and apologies for length note but a couple of other things:
Bleach related - Toushiro's new hair, actually how I imagined it for this. Only, he's still a midget, got that part wrong. And he appears to have stolen and mutilated Byakuya scarf.
Music – I survived a Pendulum mosh pit. Yes, that is important enough for you to need to know.
For the hundredth time that night Karin gave a frustrated moan and turned onto her other side, the abused bed creaking loudly as she threw her weight around. It was also the hundredth time that night she'd thanked all things holy that her roommate had the apparent ability to sleep like the dead.
She checked herself with that thought. Ginko was a regular shinigami. She was dead.
Then came sigh one hundred and one, as she realised the ridiculous train of thought she was following. Stupid Toushiro. Stupid brain that refuses to sleep and keeps thinking about Toushiro.
Sigh one hundred and two.
She didn't know why she kept thinking about him, she kept turning conversations over in her head for the next time she spoke to him, kept thinking about pointless event she wanted to go to with him, like what it might be like to sit with him and watch firework over new years and the such. After the kiss, her first, he'd walked her back to her room whilst still holding her hand, and they just chatted about anything that came to mind. She didn't remember him being so relaxed, so quick to laugh and joke. On returning her to the sixth squad barracks he told her he'd had a lovely afternoon and thanked her for arranging the soccer match, before kissing her on the cheek and going to walk of. Karin hadn't wanted him to go that quickly and called his name, happy to see him turn around with a smile and answer her.
"Yes Karin?"
"Would you like to go for a walk again tomorrow?" she asked, shocked at how steady and strong her voice sounded when she was so scared of asking. Scared wasn't an emotion she was used to dealing with either.
"I've got paperwork left over from today, but if I've got time I'll find a way to let you know okay?"
She must have hid her disappointment poorly because with a soft chuckle he went back to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and placing another kiss but this time on her forehead.
"Tomorrow it is then, Karin."
And this time when he walked away she let him, touching a hand to the cheek where she could still feel the light cool of his lips.
After a frustrated growl Karin sat up in bed, and stormed out of the room. She just wanted sleep goddamn it, especially with seeing him at a sensible hour of that day. Was this what it was like to well, like a boy? Were you deprived of sleep and sanity? She'd always thought the soppy love story that portrayed that were being over dramatic but it come as a slow and sad realisation that they were probably right. After all, clichés only became clichés because they were true. She made her way from the hall to the roof in record speed, but contrary to usual she couldn't find peace there. Maybe it was the impression left by her first drunken night out of the academy but she kept looking for him to appear. When the effort seemed completely fruitless she gave up, returning to her bed. Trying again to find sleep, she lay back and shut her eyes, sweeping her mind through her body from head to toe and relaxing every muscle in the process, something she'd picked up through relaxation classes in high school. That, and a slight lingering impression of Toushiro, was the last of her conscious thought that night.
Karin queued with Ginko to get their lunch after a not so hard morning's work of wandering around Sereiti and making sure no one was trying to burn the place down or something equally destructive. Harumi, not Ginko, Karin corrected herself after her roommate had been asked to be called be her given name, Karin returning the favour. Or Haru-chan if she wanted, the only request being that she didn't pick up the nick name of Mimi that a brave few dared to call her by. Bidding a temporary farewell Karin went to her usual seat with Renji and the higher ranked of the squad. She knew there were whispers about her being a power seeker emerging from this but it was were her closest friend in this squad was, maybe in the future she might have a move around but for now the whispers could circulate. It wouldn't change her actions.
"So," he grinned and Karin knew whatever coming next could not be good, "you and the ice-king?"
Renji's face fell when his joviality was met with a condescending stare his captain would have been proud of.
"You and Tomoko?" She countered, trying to lighten the atmosphere she'd only half-accidentally created and also effectively drawing the conversation away from herself. Her mood instantly lightened when she saw her friend's face drop into a lazy smile.
"What about it?"
"Oh, so you can ask questions about my personal life but you'll be coy about your own?" She cocked an eyebrow, the smug effect only mildly spoilt when she put her chopstick back in the bowl with a little to much force and left a couple of splatters on the table.
"What? I only asked you exactly what you wanted to know."
"And I used to wonder why you and Ichigo bickered so much." Renji pulled a mock sad face.
"I'm hurt."
"No you're not."
"True. She's cute."
"What? You asked about me and Tomoko, and I said I think she's cute." Karin rolled her eyes. Yes, Renji had been there through the last few years so knew her, he was supportive, serious when it was required of him and a laugh if she'd needed it but kami, she'd never believed Ichigo when he said the red head could be down right impossible. Getting back to her noodles she tuned into the general conversation of the table and how that afternoon's training was just going to be one on one fights again but just smaller ones so there'd be several taking place at once. Nothing too exciting and after taking bowls and plates to were they needed to be the little group headed to the arena. As they approached Karin dropped back to walk with Harumi, who for the first time introduced her to her friends, all unranked except the sixth seat with three guys and, including the roommate, five girls. Most seemed friendly or at least unconcerned by her, or that was until a talk brown haired man gave a deliberate sound of disgust in her direction.
"Shut the fuck up Hiro," grunted Haru, telling Karin he was a member of the 'we think Kurosaki Karin's arrogant and power seeking' and that she'd tried and failed to physically knock some sense into him when doing so metaphorically had no effect. It stung Karin a little, but nothing too difficult to shrug off and ignore, especially when the rest of the group chatted brightly with her, asking about the world of the living, her role in the winter war (she told them it was non-existent) and her general progress in the Soul Society.
"I give it a year tops until she learns her zanpakuto's name," joked a green haired girl.
"Bit generous, her brother learnt bankai in three days and her reiatsu's hardly far off! End of the month," joined another man, clapping her on the shoulder as he spoke, "What do you think Karin-chan?"
"Tch, leave the kid alone already," butted in Harumi again, whom Karin was beginning to see as a protective mother figure. In her past she'd have felt like she was betraying her true mother thinking things like that but now she realised if her mother's spirit knew what was happening, she'd be happy her daughter had someone to turn to. "You know," began the blonde, "that today we get to choose our sparring partners?"
Karin shook her head.
"Well anyway, I was hoping you wouldn't mind going with me? I know it's not as much of a challenge as Abari-fukutaicho or some of the others," she nodded to that group, "but I'm interested what it might be like to go up against you," she finished sheepishly, hand rubbing the back of her neck. Karin smiled back to her,
"No problem."
There passes a few seconds of comfortable silence, "Why, out of interest do we get to pick? I though the point of training was to improve and this could allow people to maybe go against friends and take it easy," Karin asked the group, before a bitter voice replied to her,
"Because maybe some of us aren't gagging to get better and surpass everyone else."
This time it was to green haired girl who stoop up for her, kicking Hiro in the shins and saying something like she loved him and all but he was being an arse.
"What he's trying to say," began the girl, Karin really needed to find out her name, "is that this is an opportunity for mainly the long standing members of the squad and those with lower reiatsu to just train to a degree they're comfortable with. If you imagine the draw you were in, but as a weaker member of the squad, getting put against the vice captain would lead to an immediate loss and some are embarrassed by that or lose confidence.
"Though then again, it's up to them if they want to take it easy with the taicho watching every fight and expecting everyone at their best. Anyway!" She broke into a happier face, "Looks like we're about to get started. You," she grabbed Karin's critic, "are coming with me."
Karin and Harumi found a space, squaring up against each other. Unlike those this kind of training was designed for, both of them wanted to get stronger, better and more experienced and for the next couple of hours it didn't matter that they were trying to nurture a new friendship, or roommates or nakama. All that mattered was they had to beat the other. "Ready?
Karin nodded.
"Good."
After the initial moment where neither moved, they flew together simultaneously, zanpakuto hissing as the blades drew through the air and over each other. Where Karin dominated in sheer strength and power, the experience of the other shinigami began to give her the upper hand, allowing her to read and predict Karin's typical moves before parrying them and landing her own. Blow after blow they tried to deal, with everything being met by a block or a dodge, until Harumi's strength faltered and allowed Karin's zanpakuto to graze her jaw. She threw herself out from the fight and with awe and a sense of foreboding Karin watched her opponent release her shikai,
"Rip and shatter, Hihebi!"
The zanpakuto grew into what appeared to be a spear, the shaft wrapped with brown cloth over metal and the head was elegantly curved. Karin only had to wait until it was stabbed into the ground, and a burning line spread along the ground towards her to confirm her concern it was a kidou based zanpakuto. She leapt back from the line just in time before it erupted in a roar of fire, leaving behind a crater and broken rocks. Without thinking about tactics, Karin just knew she couldn't let the end of that spear touch the group again, throwing herself back towards it and trying to cut past it to the owner, to see to late the explosion beneath her the knocked her off balance. Harumi advanced on her again, but this time Karin took a risk and ran to meet her, knowing of she got it wrong the ground beneath her could blow up at any moment. Rather then her usual attacks, she slashed upwards, at the tip end of the spear, stopping it from meeting the ground, before the weight of it and the momentum of her swing carried both weapons above the shoulder height or their wielders and Karin let her body weight follow up with them, before twisting her torso and bringing a leg up to kick the other girl square in the chest and send her backwards, narrowly avoiding the other blade as it was dropped. Karin pounced over on her opponent, blade tip over her heart.
They both broke into face splitting grins. "You fucking managed to kick me whilst maintaining a hold on your zanpakuto which just so conveniently had enough strength behind it to keep mine out of the way?" Karin helped her stunned and awed friend back to her feet, "You are actually a machine, and ridiculously powerful one at that - even if that final move did border the line between genius and courage and pure risk taking idiocy. Well done girl!"
"Thank you, though at first I thought I'd be lucky to get a draw, you could just read every move!"
"That's because at first you moved like you'd just come out of a kendo class," she joked, picking up Hihebi again and letting her return to her natural form.
"I don't mean to be rude with this," Karin started, sheepish through the adrenalin surge, "but is there something else you zanpakuto can do? It just seemed like there was one point you stopped yourself doing something, could have just been a pause you took to get your balance back or something or-"
Harumi held up and hand to cut her off, still smiling and with a light shake of her head, "You just get better and better. Yeah, you're right. What you saw Hihebi do to the ground can be done on anyone of anything I stab. With the ground I need to restrain how far it spread or it will literally go to any land boundary it finds. On people or hollows it'll spread to either ends of their body. Doesn't normally kill first time, just leaves a horrific wounds and burn but then usually weakens their fighting to a point where I can land a hit on a fatal zone."
Karin found an even deeper respect for her roommate and the power she held, "And you're an unranked officer with this?"
The reply was a cheeky smile, and the blonde holding her finger to her lips, "You're one of few who know it works on more than just ground and I'm trusting you with that Karin. Becoming a seated officer means more paperwork and duties, and more dangerous missions. We're soldiers to the duty of keeping things all good and balanced in the spirit world, which means that even if it's not preached here like it is in the second squad, we are all dispensable to our duty. And I rather like this life."
"But you want to get stronger still," Karin mulled. She could understand that reasoning, but it didn't fit with the desire to grow she felt from the woman and didn't fit the ferocity she fought with minutes earlier.
"For myself. The selfish reason so I can defend myself, and then because even if it isn't for a random plus, there are a few souls I'd give my life to protect and I'd hate to see anything happen to them because I chose not to be what I had the possibility to become. Oh, and just because I always like to know I tried at things, even if I don't want others to know. You see?"
"Yeah," the two girls looked over to the taicho, who was patrolling the area, leaving when he nodded at them that it was okay to do so.
After stopping back at the room for clean robes and towels, they headed to the bath house. Despite all their earlier severity conversation had turned back to light chatting as Karin was filled in on some of the squad history and gossip, like how the taicho had once made a joke about using senbosakura to cut his hair. Anyone else making a joke was hardly news but Karin understood the need for this story to be kept alive and told. Although apparently happier and more relaxed then when Ichigo had first met him, the head of the Kuchiki clan was still easily the most stoic person in soul society and the very idea he might try to be funny , well it actually would have been a good joke if anyone listening wasn't too astounded to laugh, was simply mind blowing. She was also told about the dymanics of Harumi's friendship group. Hiro, or rather Torama Hiroaki was an arse to everyone most of the time until he considered you a friend, and then he was apparently loyal and caring. It was just getting to that stage. The other two men Juuniyi Daichi and Suika Kazuhito had somehow survived growing up in Rukongai, something that had left them closer than any blood brothers she'd ever met and where as it made some hard and uncaring, it had shown them a life they didn't want to lead and left them with the ability to care for and respect anyone, and if they had done bad things try to understand their reason for it. They were people who very rarely saw in black and white.
The green haired girl was Tiyumi Akio was down to earth and just, but had a wicked sense of humour. The other three girls, Harumi was not as close with and they had gotten back to the room by the time the subject turned to them and Karin has seen a note left slipped under her door, effectively halting all conversation with curiosity. It was addressed to her and hope seared through her at the prospect of who it might be from.
Moments later she threw it down, charged to the toilets and nearest mirror before getting as close as she could to shunpo on the way to the sakura orchards behind the Kuchiki mansion and Ginko Harumi was left amused and alone, winning the battle over her inner gossip and leaving the letter well alone. From what she'd learnt about the young girl she assumed it had to be someone rather than something that could send her rushing about like that, and who was she to pry.
