Chapter 7: Reunion


Disclaimer: Not mine, Kubo Tite's.

Chapter 7

Reunion

"So your name is Toushirou?" Karin questioned the silver haired boy, who cocked an eyebrow at her.

Looking at The-Girl-Who-Had-No-Idea-What-His-Name-Was-Until-Now through half-lidded eyes, Toushirou asked, annoyed, "You mean you didn't even know my name?"

"Well, you never told me." Defended Karin.

"You never asked!" Toushirou shot back.

His white fan hiding the majority of his face, Urahara popped in between the two, saying, "If I may interrupt, lovebirds - "

The two turned around and simultaneously roared with all the fierceness of a lion (or a lioness) going after its prey, "We're NOT lovebirds!"

Seemingly nervous at their outburst, the man backed off, using his fan as a shield. "Alright alright… go back to what you two were doing…"

But after the interruption, the flow of the argument had already been broken. Toushirou instead directed his anger somewhere else, namely at the interrupter, Urahara; turning to face the shopkeeper Toushirou asked without interlude, "What were you planning when you brought her here?"

Urahara waved his fan, feigning a carefree manner, and said, "Oh my, why on earth would a handsome and ordinary shopkeeper such as I, be planning something? I simply just had Tessai heal her. Just what a good Samaritan would do."

Karin muttered under her breath, "Handsome and ordinary my ass…" Luckily her comment went unheard by both parties.

Toushirou repeated, "I'm asking again. What are you planning?"

When Urahara didn't answer, Toushirou narrowed his eyes and moved as if to attack him, but before he could, the man said in a deceptively friendly tone that didn't match the dangerous glint in his eyes, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You may be a captain of the Gotei 13, but I'm afraid you don't stand a chance against me in that gigai. You are seriously mistaken if you think your gigai is on par with mine, not to mention the difference in our levels of experience of fighting in them."

Toushirou gritted his teeth, while Karin looked back and forth between the two. 'So shinigami have a hierarchy as well…' she thought. But at that point, such an observation was not important then; what was important was the situation at hand. It looked like a fight was about to break out so she remained on guard during the tense silence.

Toushirou broke silence first. "Don't be fooled by his friendly manner," he warned Karin. "He has a track record for manipulating people."

"Oh my… what an accusation." commented Urahara, doing his best to look innocent.

Turning to him, Toushirou ground out, "Excuse us, but Kurosaki's family is waiting for her, and she needs to go back."

"Hey, wait –" Despite Karin's protests, Toushirou dragged her out of the candy shop. Still trapped in Toushirou's hold, Karin tried to escape. When she realized that her efforts were in vain, Karin stretched out her arm towards Jinta and Ururu, who were sweeping outside. "Help!" she cried.

Instead of acting on her plea, Jinta called, "Oi, Black Porcupine and Snow White! Don't ever come back!" Ururu, on the other hand, waved goodbye.

Though Karin shouted something rude back (something along the lines of 'lacking loyalty among Karakura heroes'), Toushirou managed to ignore the nickname 'Snow White' and continued to drag her along. He started, "You're awfully hard to drag –" Then he noticed that Karin was digging her heels into the ground, making it hard to go back home on purpose. He stopped and glared at her. "What's wrong with you?"

"Don't want to go home…" Karin mumbled.

Abruptly, Toushirou hoisted her up and threw her over his shoulder and resumed walking. The surprise at his strength only lasted for a second, then almost immediately, Karin began to resist. "Let go of me! I can walk on my own!" She beat his back with her fists, but it was futile as she was still weak from her wounds.

"And let you run away? Yeah right!" Toushirou said sarcastically. "Why don't you want to go back?"

Karin shouted in reply, "I made my family worry for over a week!" She shuddered and groaned, "Beard-Oyaji would kill me if I went back…" Giving up on resisting, Karin slumped onto Toushirou's shoulder and added, "So would Ichi-nii."

Adjusting his grip on her hip, Toushirou asked, "So not going back is a better alternative, is it?"

Karin hesitated and admitted, "No…"

"You're just being childish."

"No I'm not." Karin was adamant on this.

Resisting the urge to hit the stubborn girl, Toushirou kept walking. "You miss your family, right? So shut up and let me carry you back home."

Meanwhile, Urahara was grinning slyly. 'If she's anything like her brother, she'll want to learn how to control her powers. And for that, she'll definitely come back.'

A black cat was wandering on the roof of the shop, its claws scraping against the roof tiles. It stopped over Urahara's head and spoke. "Is she what you called me for?" Yoruichi sounded amused.

Pensively, Urahara nodded. "She's an undeveloped soul, but she still defended herself against a hollow's takeover. I want to see what her spiritual manifestation is."

Flicking her tail, Yoruichi meowed, "That can be arranged."

"How long are you going to keep carrying me like a sack of potatoes?" Karin asked in a dull voice. "Just let me down already. I promise I won't run."

The carrier in question replied, "Don't be stupid. You can barely stand in that condition." Then Toushirou decided to poke fun at her just for kicks. "Or did you did you just ask that question to suggest that I carry you bridal style?"

At that question, what remaining patience Karin had snapped. "Idiot! I just want to walk by myself! I don't want to be carried bridal style by anybody!"

Their voices carried a rather large radius, causing people to look at the source: a grubby girl arguing with the boy who was carrying her on his shoulder.

Hearing a familiar voice shouting, Hiko stopped and looked around. 'Could it be…?' he wondered.

The two were so wrapped up in their argument they didn't notice other people, namely Hiko, staring. Hiko squinted and said, "Kurosaki? Is that you?"

At Hiko's voice, Karin froze. Toushirou swore, and carefully placed Karin on her unsteady feet. He always had his guard up, but for some reason, he raised it up even more around this boy named Hiko. Nervously looking at the captain of her soccer team, Karin said, "Capt…"

Approaching them, Hiko looked Karin over, and seeing her grimy and wounded state, his eyes widened with worry. Karin blushed under his scrutiny. Taking hold of her shoulders, he asked, "What happened to you! You look like you've been through hell and back."

'You have no idea…' Karin thought ironically. But she couldn't avoid answering his question. "Err… That is…" Karin trailed off, suddenly very interested in the dirt. She wished the ground would swallow her up to get her out of the situation: she was very bad at lying. "To tell you the truth… I was…" She gave a sideways glance towards Toushirou, silently asking for help.

Catching the look she was giving him, Toushirou sighed. Rolling his eyes towards the heavens, he thought despairingly, 'Why am I not surprised…' But with his quick thinking, Toushirou came up with a likely story on the spot. "She was kidnapped, and forced to call her family with a likely story to explain her absence. As you can see, she's had it rough."

"Kidnapped!" Hiko exclaimed. "People have been disappearing lately, it's all over the news, did you see any other people?"

Afraid that she would give anything away Toushirou answered for her in a lie. "I don't think the disappearances have anything to do with her kidnapping." Sweating, Karin nodded her head; agreeing with Toushirou was the best option. "H-he rescued me!" Karin stammered, pointing at Toushirou. It wasn't exactly a lie, either. He had rescued her, in a sense, by teaching her meditation enabling her to defeat the hollow. And given her food, let's not forget that.

Hiko turned to Toushirou and thanked him, albeit a bit uncomfortably. "Thanks for saving my team member, Toushirou."

Unduly annoyed by a human boy calling him by his given name without even adding the honorific, Toushirou was also bothered by something else he couldn't define. What was he getting so riled up for? Forcing himself to be calm, Toushirou replied, "No need to thank me."He silently added, 'I didn't do it for you.' And technically, in his opinion, he had just ferried food to Karin. Scowling, Toushirou said as much. "I did nothing." He picked up Karin again, this time bridal style, shocking Karin.

"Toushirou - "

He interrupted, "It's time we head home." Toushirou nodded coldly towards Hiko and headed off, carrying Karin.

Hiko stood still for a moment before chasing after them. "Hey, wait! I'd better carry her, I'm bigger than you."

Toushirou took that to mean 'I'm stronger and taller than you,' which is what Hiko had really meant this time. He didn't hand Karin over; instead, Toushirou tightened his hold on her. "No thanks." He said coolly, "I'm plenty strong enough." before he resumed walking.

Hesitating, Hiko lingered, unwilling to let Karin go alone with that Toushirou dude. After a split second of decision-making, he followed them home.

All the while, Karin looked back and forth between the two boys, without the foggiest idea of what was going on. She had no idea what was up with the two, so she just signed it off the tension resulting from a fight between alpha males, which it kind of was.

Half-glancing at the boy behind them, Toushirou snorted quietly. 'Let him follow if he wishes to.' He thought to himself.

As the three came closer to the Kurosaki Clinic, Ichigo's head snapped up; he felt Karin's spiritual energy just outside the house. Then he heard a knock on the door. Rukia and Rangiku stood up, looking at one another. Ichigo rushed to the front door. With trembling hands, he reached for the door handle, and it clicked open to reveal...

"Karin…" Ichigo whispered.

She was being carried by Toushirou and behind them stood Hiko, but Ichigo only had eyes for his younger sister.

Karin, likewise, stared at her brother, only vaguely registering Rukia and some strawberry blonde woman standing behind him. She didn't even seem to notice when Toushirou set her down.

"Ichi-nii!"

"Karin!"

Karin ran into her older brother's arms. In a trance, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, Ichigo reached out and hugged his little sister back. She was dirty and smelly, but she was solid. After making sure with all his five senses (six if he counted her spiritual pressure) Karin was really physically there, Ichigo slumped back and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The rest of the family came to investigate what all the commotion was about. When they saw Karin all dirty and beat up, Isshin and Yuzu exclaimed, "What happened?"

"Ehehe…" Karin laughed nervously.

"She was abducted." Toushirou cut in, giving a look to the other shinigami, indicating for them to keep quiet and go along with the story. Rangiku rolled her eyes; they already knew the drill without her captain telling them.

Shoving Ichigo aside, Isshin enveloped Karin in a huge hug and turned one the waterworks.

"Uwaaah~ Karin!"

Yuzu ran and joined in the hug. "We were so worried! I knew something was wrong when you called Onii-san and said you were at a soccer camp."

Though confused by the last sentence, because she hadn't called and definitely hadn't said she was at soccer camp, Karin assumed that was Ichi-nii's work, and smiled to herself. What had she been so worried about? Her family was glad she was back. And so was she. "It's good to be home."

From behind Toushirou, the soccer captain saw that the family needed some time alone and silently left.

But just after Hiko had left, the two let go of Karin and turned to Toushirou. "We were just about to eat lunch. Will you join us?" asked Yuzu with pleading eyes the exact opposite of her twin's stubborn one's.

Toushirou didn't get a chance to answer, as he was herded into the kitchen flanked by Karin's thankful twin and father for lunch. "Toushirou-kun, was it you who rescued Karin-chan from the clutches of that evil kidnapper?" Yuzu eagerly asked.

Slightly derailed by her eagerness, Toushirou stammered out a rather unconvincing reply. "Y-yeah… sure…"

Yuzu continued her barrage of questions. "How did you rescue her?"

Rukia rescued the uncharacteristically beleaguered Toushirou from answering that particular question. "Yuzu-chan, I don't think Karin-chan hasn't recovered from the shock yet."

Deflating a little at this, Yuzu said, "Oh, right." She turned to her twin and apologized. "Sorry, Karin-chan. It was a traumatizing experience, right?"

But the subject of discussion herself didn't look very traumatized. She had spied an apple lying on the kitchen counter and was about to take a big bite out if it when she realized all eyes were on her. "Huh?"

Trying to quell the rising suspicion, Rukia changed the topic. "Oh, Karin-chan, I'd forgotten! Have you met Rangiku-san yet?"

Mutely, Karin shook her head. Rukia motioned to the blonde woman standing in the doorway. The first thing she noticed about Rangiku (as most people did) was that she was very busty. Rangiku introduced herself. The blonde woman raised her hand in greeting and said, "I'm Matsumoto Rangiku, Ichigo's friend from University."

Somehow, Karin doubted the part about being Ichi-nii's 'friend from university,' as she could sense a fair amount of spiritual energy coming from the woman, but she let it pass. For now. "I'm Karin." She reminded herself to ask Ichi-nii or Toushirou about this later.

They settled down to a lunch consisting of various things with lentil soup among them, a menu which Karin was very grateful for, as she had only eaten riceballs for the past week. She had missed Yuzu's cooking.

"To tell you the truth, Karin-chan," Yuzu sheepishly admitted, "Hiko-senpai and I were worried that you'd been staying at some guy's place."

At this, both Karin and Toushirou both choked on their soup. Ichigo traded suspicious looks with Rukia, but said nothing.

Later, Yuzu pushed Karin into the bathroom, saying sternly, "Karin-chan, you'd better wash up." Sticking her head back in through the doorway, she added, "And you'd better scrub too!"

"Yes, yes." With this reply, Karin waved her twin out.

With great relief, Karin peeled off her grimy school uniform (holding out her skirt like something nasty, between her index finger and thumb) and for the first time in over a week, Karin took a long, hot shower. She had never felt happier to put on fresh clothes (maybe it had a direct relationship with feeling clean). When Karin came out from the steaming bathroom, towel round her neck, she found herself face to face with the strawberry-blonde woman. "Matsumoto-san, right?"

The woman replied, "No need to be so formal, just call me Rangiku."

Familiar to feeling spiritual pressure around her, Karin could once again sense the rather large amount of reiatsu radiating from the woman in front of her. It was best to be direct. "Rangiku-san. Are you a shinigami from Soul Society too?"

Rangiku chuckled at Karin's direct question. "Yes, I am. In fact, I'm Hitsugaya Taichou's lieutenant."

"Lieutenant, huh?" That piqued her curiosity. "What's the hierarchy like in Soul Society anyways?"

Toushirou, who had come up behind Karin unnoticed, answered the question in Rangiku's stead. "It's called the Gotei 13." Jumping at his voice, Karin turned around. She hadn't felt his presence. Recovering quickly, Karin gave him a puzzled glance. Reading her questioning look, Toushirou explained, "The reason it's called that is because there are thirteen divisions. There's the Commanding Officer, who is also the First Division Captain. Including the First Division Captain, there are a total of thirteen captains and thirteen lieutenants. Then there are the seated officers, numbered from third to twentieth. The rest are unseated shinigami."

Looking from Rangiku back to Toushirou, Karin stated baldly, "Obviously the ranks aren't decided by age."

Toushirou rolled his eyes. At that moment, Ichigo and Rukia came. "Kurosaki, Kuchiki." Toushirou nodded at the two. "Good timing, I was just about to call you to explain Karin's situation."

Karin looked up, surprised. For the first time, Toushirou had called her by her given name. Then she realized that he had simply called her 'Karin' to differentiate her from her brother.

The five holed up Ichigo's room as usual to discuss shinigami matters, except that this time, it was about Karin.

"So aside from the abduction story, what really happened?" Ichigo questioned.

"She was undergoing hollowfication." After giving a brief summary of everything that had happened the past week, the young captain found himself bearing the brunt of Ichigo's anger.

"Why didn't you tell me where she was?" Ichigo all but yelled.

"See Taichou, I told you." Rangiku reminded Toushirou, who shot a dirty look at her.

Outraged, Ichigo turned to Rangiku. "You knew!"

"What would you have done if I had told you?" Toushirou asked, sparing his lieutenant from being grilled by Ichigo.

At this Ichigo stopped. "I would have… guided her. Taken her to the vizords." But he sounded unsure.

"This was a different type of hollowfication than what you went through. You were hollowfied because your chain of fate corroded while you were in spirit form; Karin was still in her body." said Toushirou in response. "Besides, you can't even do a simple kidou spell."

The last statement silenced Ichigo. Growing tired of people talking about her as if she weren't there, Karin finally declared, "Well, I came back didn't I?"

That effectively ended the conversation.

The next morning, Karin got up earlier than usual. Even before her twin. Glancing at Yuzu still sleeping soundly in her bed, Karin mused, "Jeez, is the earth spinning clockwise?"

Feeling unusually energetic considering her weak condition yesterday, she put on her jumpsuit and went out for a morning run. Because she had more time, she warmed up and selected a longer course to run. A morning run was always refreshing.

Karin slowed down to a jog as she realized that she was even more energetic than she had been before the hollowfication incident. That was odd. Slowly, she unwrapped the bandage around her neck, expecting the wounds to sting in the open air. They didn't. Tentatively putting her hands to her neck, Karin discovered they had completely healed; there weren't even scabs. She wondered if it had to do with the increase in her spiritual powers. Stuffing the bandage into her jacket pocket and making a mental note to herself to ask Toushirou what that was about, she sped up into a run again.

When she arrived back at home, Yuzu was shuffling around kitchen as usual. Stepping into the kitchen, Karin sniffed the air. "What's this I smell?"

"Congee!" chirped Yuzu.

Peering around the doorway, Rangiku asked, "Did I just hear someone say congee?"

Yuzu smiled brightly. "Yes, Rangiku-san. Congee!"

As the family and guests settled down to a congee breakfast, Karin looked around and asked, "Where's Toushirou? He stayed last night, didn't he?"

Nodding in reply, Yuzu said, "I haven't seen him this morning, though."

As if on cue, Toushirou stepped into the kitchen at that moment, closing his cellphone and putting it into his pocket. He visibly brightened at the sight of the congee, something that Karin hadn't ever seen him do before. Yuzu set out another bowl for him, and he seemed to down it in a split second. The whole Kurosaki family and Rukia watched, open mouthed, as Toushirou ate through half a pot of congee. Rangiku, who was used to seeing her captain's enormous appetite, continued to work on her own bowl of congee. Yuzu was all for politely ignoring the abnormally large amount of food Toushirou consumed. Karin said drily, "I'd only heard of bottomless pits until now. Never thought I'd see one in real life."

...

For the first time in over a week, Karin and Yuzu walked to school together. Karin had returned to her trademark pants, as she'd sworn the day she'd been hollowfied that she would never again wear a skirt to school. As soon as she sat down at her seat, however, she was approached by several people who asked her how soccer camp had been. She answered simply that she hadn't attended any soccer camp but had been sick the past week, as that was the most comfortable not-quite-a-lie that she could tell. But when Seta-senpai visited her classroom...

"Yo, Kurosaki."

Karin turned around and greeted Seta. "What's up, Senpai?"

Examining her closely, Seta said, "Heard you were sick last week."

Uncomfortably, Karin noted, "Rumors spread even to the upperclassmen, huh?"

"I can understand why you skipped soccer practice, but it seems uncharacteristic of you to even skip school." Seta added sternly, "And don't even give me the 'I was afraid of spreading my cold' excuse. Because that wouldn't normally stop you, would it?"

"Eheh..." He had a point.

Bending over, Seta whispered, "I was worried when I heard about what happened from Hiko..." Straightening, he said at regular volume, "But as far as I can see, you don't look like you've been through a kidnapping."

At this Karin gave a weak laugh. "I guess I'm just quick at recovering..." Hiko obviously couldn't be trusted to keep his mouth shut.

The bell rang, and Seta took off, muttering, "Oh shoot!" He waved to Karin. "See you at practice!"

Karin sighed and looked out the window. The homeroom teacher, commonly referred to as Ochi-sen, walked into the classroom, calling for the class' attention. "Everybody, a transfer student will be joining us from now on, so you guys go easy on him. Got it?" The whole class buzzed with excitement, excluding Karin, who was still looking out the window over the empty desk to her left. She only glanced up when Ochi-sen called out of the classroom, "Oi~ you can come in now!"

Karin half-heartedly cast her eyes towards the front of the classroom, and froze as a familiar silver-haired boy entered. Standing up at the front of the class he introduced himself. "I'm Hitsugaya Toushirou." It was a rather short introduction; consisting only of his name. Turning to the teacher, he asked, "Where should I sit?"

"In the empty seat next to the window, beside the messy-haired girl in the pants." The so-called 'messy-haired girl in the pants' was at a loss for words as Toushirou made for the desk next to her.

Karin could only stammer out, "Y-you-!"

While Ochi-sen started roll call, Yuzu leaned over Karin's desk and asked him, "Toushirou-kun, aren't you supposed to be attending University with Onii-chan?"

In a bored voice, Toushirou replied, "I got tired of it. So I'm taking a break." He smirked at Karin, who was opening and closing her mouth like a carp in outrage.

Not wanting Yuzu to hear, Karin leaned over to Toushirou and hissed, "What are you doing here?"

"I just decided to attend school." was the reply. But the truth was, that morning he had called for reinforcements from Soul Society and given a report on the situation in the human world, namely concerning Karin. Though the Commanding Officer had scolded him for keeping Karin a secret until then, Captain Yamamoto let him off easy, instructing him to watch over Karin lest the instigator of the series of hollowfication cases came back for her. He was also asked by Ichigo to keep his younger sister safe. So that made several reasons for Toushirou to enroll into the school.

Class passed relatively smoothly, with no teachers harping on Karin's uniform. If not for a certain somebody's presence, Karin would have been pleased with how little she had missed in the week she had gone. After classes, she crept away as girls who were begging to know more about Toushirou overwhelmed him. 'Serves him right.' Karin thought, snickering. She took refuge in the soccer field. Which really wasn't exactly the ideal refuge, as it was Hiko's territory.

She saw him kicking the soccer ball with some other teammates, and they quickly spotted her. "Hey, it's Kuro-chan!" They passed the ball over to her. She expertly stopped the ball's rotation with her foot and greeted them.

"Kuro-chan, I heard from Seta that you were sick! What was the thing about the soccer camp?"

Karin glanced at Hiko, who had apparently kept her 'abduction' a secret from everybody but Seta. "Yeah, that soccer camp thing was just bull. I was sick, but I'm better now."

Then the coach came over and clapped Karin on the shoulder. "Good to see you back, Kurosaki. I see you've gotten a bit thinner. You'll have to work out again; no worries, you'll gain the muscle back in no time. Feeling confident for the upcoming district tournament?"

Nodding, Karin flexed her bicep and grinned. "Feeling better than ever, Coach."

After the coach's pep talk, the team divided up into two groups to play a mini-scrimmage and Karin found herself playing center forward opposing Hiko. As the whistle blew, she quickly took control of the ball and maneuvered under the taller Hiko's outstretched arm. She motioned for the other forwards to move up the field as she dribbled the ball. Seeing an unguarded teammate, she passed the ball to him and ran ahead, expecting it to be passed back to her. But she could see the shadow of a player behind her. It seemed like Hiko was guarding her.

Unbeknownst to the two players, Toushirou (who had escaped the girls) followed the match from the stands.

...

A.N: Phew, this chapter is just filler stuff. ¬_¬ The next chapter contains more... adventurous substance.