Chapter Nine: Warming Trend

Karin stood up quickly, nearly hitting her head on a piece of rock that jutted down from the ceiling of the small cave.

"I've told you who I am, Toushirou," she said, getting a hold of herself. "I have been honest with you."

"You haven't told me the entire truth," he said, still angry with her.

"No," she said. "I haven't told you the entire truth. I can't…not now. Please, Toushirou, you must trust me. I haven't lied to you."

"Why should I trust you?" he said, his anger abating. "I have a memory, Kurosaki. An old man, telling me that you had assisted the enemy, that you could not be trusted."

Karin felt suddenly cold again. "Yamamoto," she thought, the old guilt returning. "He punished me, and rightly so. I helped the Arrancar…" What explanation would suffice to explain away her mistake - a mistake which had cost the Soul Society? She could find none.

"You believed you were helping to ease their pain, Karin," said Masumi. "You helped to secure the Soul Society in the end."

"Only after I caused so much damage," she replied.

"The memory is real, then," said Hitsugaya, seeing the pained look on her face.

Karin looked back at him with a mixture of regret and defiance. "I made a mistake. I cannot undo that."

A wave of tiredness swept over her, and she felt a presence, dark and powerful, nearby. It was a presence she had felt before, in Karakura, before Hitsugaya had been injured. She looked up at Hitsugaya, fear in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing the change in her expression.

"I'm not sure…" she said, her voice trailing off. "I feel something; something evil, threatening." And then, just as suddenly, the dark presence she had felt was gone, replaced by something else: unfamiliar reiatsus, nearby. Moving closer. "I let my guard down," she thought, angry with herself, "they've sensed my reiatsu."

"We have company," she said, instead. "Two of them. Several hundred yards from here."

For a moment, Hitsugaya appeared to be listening for something, and then he said, "I feel them, too. They've been following me ever since I left Karakura." He pulled a small knife out of his belt.

"He can sense them?" wondered Karin. There was little time to consider the possibilities; they were vulnerable here.

"Toushirou," she said, her voice commanding, "you must trust me. I can fight these two, but you must let me go alone."

"I'm perfectly capable of…"

"No. This is beyond your current abilities, Hitsugaya-taicho" she said sharply. The title appeared to have its intended effect, because he replaced the knife and looked at her. "These are not normal men," said Karin, evenly. "I can't tell you more now."

"You will have to tell him soon," she thought to herself. "You owe him that."

She turned around and rummaged through her backpack, pulling out a small pillbox and shoving it into her back pants pocket. She could feel them getting closer. There was no time left; she had to hope that he would not follow her.

Outside the cave, it was still snowing, although not as heavily as before. Several inches of snow now blanketed the mountainside. The temperature had dropped precipitously, however, and the cold air stung Karin's face as she slipped out of the opening in the rocks.

"Where are they?" asked Hitsugaya, from behind her.

"Please," she said, sensing the two reiatsus coming closer. "Wait for me inside. You'll be safer there."

"I'm not going anywhere," he said, stubbornly.

Karin reached into her pocket and, behind her back, slipped the pill containing the modified soul out of the pillbox and into her hand.

"What are you doing?" demanded Hitsugaya, watching Karin suspiciously.

"Nothing," she replied, surreptitiously popping the pill into her mouth. Hitsugaya reached for her arm, but it was too late, Karin had already stepped out of her body.

"Bakudo number 1, Sai!" she shouted. Hitsugaya's arms were immediately pinned behind his back as if bound there by invisible ropes. Karin punched him, hard, on the chin and he fell into the snow where he had stood.

"Forgive me, Toushirou," she thought. "You're not ready to fight them yet."

"Take him into the cave," she ordered the modified soul. Her doppelganger picked Hitsugaya up and carried him back inside, and then returned a moment later for more instructions. There was a loud crash, as the ground in front of their feet exploded into bits of dirt and snow. Karin's body was thrown away from the cave and rolled several feet before resting, face down, in a snow drift. The small candy-shaped pill lay in the snow, having been expelled from her body at the moment of impact.

"Damn," she said, pulling her zanpakuto from her waist and aiming it in the direction of the attack. There was no time to attempt to retrieve her body, as another attack flew at her from her left. She was thankful Hitsugaya was safe in the cave. "But for how long?" she wondered.

Karin saw a blur of movement in front of her and turned just in time to raise her weapon. There was a loud clanking of metal against metal as the two zanpakutos met each other. In front of her, Karin could just glimpse the eyes of her attacker, nearly hidden beneath the hood of his cloak.

"What do you want?" Karin demanded. As expected, there was no answer, save a strong shove against her arm which pushed them apart and separated their blades.

The unknown shinigami aimed his zanpakuto directly at Karin. Gold energy flew from the side of the blade in an arc towards where Karin stood. Anticipating the attack, Karin used shunpo to move some ten yards away from her attacker. Snow flew around her feet, as she skidded to a stop.

"Soar, Mas……" Karin had raised her blade over her head to release her shikai, but, as she did so, she felt a sharp pain in her thigh. The second attacker, who had up until that moment, remained hidden behind the trees, had aimed an attack at her.

"Shit," swore Karin, under her breath, as the pain intensified. "I should have known better than to leave myself vulnerable."

"I will stop the pain, Karin," said Masumi, from within. Within seconds, Karin felt the pain dissipate, and her thigh felt warm.

Thankful for both Masumi's help and that the wound had not been more serious, Karin moved quickly to release her shikai. This time, she shouted, "Hado Seventy-three, Tozansho!" A glowing, pyramid-shaped barrier appeared, temporarily shielding Karin from her attackers.

"Soar, Masumi!" The blade of Karin's zanpakuto sparkled and, from both sides, light spread around her and towards the shinigami who had just hit her in the leg. The light hit Karin's opponent with such force that it knocked him off his feet, and he flew backwards several yards and landed in the snow.

The second assailant now launched another attack. This time, however, Karin was ready for it. She angled the blade of her zanpakuto and intercepted the strike, sending it back towards where the shinigami stood, between two large fir trees. The attack hit the ground in front of the trees, snow and dirt flying into the air. The resulting crater was at least two feet deep.

The first attacker had now gotten up, and fired off another volley. Karin recognized the attack this time - it was the same shinigami who had attacked her in Sapporo the day before. His fire zanpakuto was unmistakable. Karin dodged the attack, although the tailing edge of it caught the knee of her hakama pants, burning a hole through the fabric.

Karin flew up into the air over the trees to get a better look at her attackers' positions. Snow was still falling, so it was difficult to see. Still, she could feel them below. They were both quite strong, judging from what she had seen so far of their attacks, as well as their powerful reiatsus. Were these Maggot's Nest escapees, as Urahara believed? If so, a two-on-one fight was risky at her current level of Shikai release. She could not chance leaving Hitsugaya unprotected, given how little she knew of the enemy. The two shinigami rose to meet her in the air.

"Time to end this fight," Karin thought, with determination, as she moved to dodge another fire attack.

"Bankai," she said, as she floated above the mountainside. The light of a thousand suns grew from Masumi's blade. Orange and red light surrounded Karin and joined with the light from her blade. The hilt of Karin's zanpakuto was now the color of the sunset, and a simple gold chain hung from the end. The blade shimmered like light hitting water, no longer solid, but pure energy, which swirled around a core of light.

Karin raised Masumi straight up into the air and closed her eyes. In an instant, ribbons of white and gold light grew up from the ground around her, growing denser as they climbed up her body. The flame met the ribbons of light and vanished, leaving Karin untouched. Light shone from her hair and her skin, emanating from Karin herself.

The first attacker moved towards Karin using shunpo, his speed rivaling hers. His zanpakuto was pointed directly at Karin. Karin, too, ran towards the attacker, as Masumi glowed brighter. The two weapons collided mid way between the two fighters. There was a deafening roar as the two weapons met, and the area around them glowed an unearthly orange, red and gold. The trees below them swayed with the impact of the two blades. Karin's attacker fell to the ground, struck in the chest, and lay still.

"Tell me what you want from us, or you will be the next to fall," shouted Karin at the remaining attacker, who had watched his comrade fight. He said nothing, but fled into the distance, aiming his zanpakuto at her over his shoulder as he retreated. Karin easily side-stepped the attack, but when she looked back at the last location of the remaining fighter, he had fled. She followed for a short distance and saw him disappear into the side of a nearby mountain. Unwilling to leave Hitsugaya unguarded, however, she did not pursue him further.

Returning to the cave, Karin landed softly on the ground below her and walked back over to the second fighter. He would be no help in her search for answers. He was dead.

"I need to make sure Toushirou is safe," she thought, with some urgency. "Then I can investigate."

She headed back to where her body lay in the snow and stepped neatly back into it. She stood up, intending to enter the cave, but an overwhelming feeling of dizziness and cold hit her, and she struggled to stay on her feet. She could not stop shaking, and her limbs felt heavy and numb. She tried to walk towards the opening of the cave, but her legs would not move. She tried to grab onto a branch from the bushes nearby, but misjudged the distance and missed it. Her legs crumpled underneath her and she fell, headlong, into the snow, unconscious.

She dreamed of high mountains and of the ice dragon.

"What will you do now that you have found him?" asked the dragon, beating its wings. Snow and ice flew, and she felt as though she'd never be warm again.

Then she saw eyes, red as blood, rising out of black fire and moving towards her. Darkness threatened to engulf her - pervasive darkness which threatened to overpower her very soul. She had never felt something as powerful and as evil. Instinctively, she backed away as quickly as she could, and still the darkness followed her.

"Leave here!" she shouted at the encroaching darkness, reaching for her zanpakuto. There was no weapon at her waist, no means of defending herself. The darkness continued to advance.

Suddenly she saw Hitsugaya standing next to her, white-hair blowing in the hot wind. Bits of black flame licked at his skin as he raised Hyorinmaru to the before him, his eyes half-closed as smoldering embers carried on the wind burned his face.

The darkness reached out and began to pull Hitsugaya away from where she stood. She ran after him, the fire searing her cheeks.

"Masumi!" she screamed, "where are you?!"

"You cannot help him with this. He must choose. You can only show him the path," said the ice dragon from behind her, snow billowing from its nostrils. "Without me, he is nothing. He will die again."

"No!" she tried to yell, but her voice caught in her throat, and no sound escaped her lips. She could barely see Hitsugaya in the distance.

"He must defeat the darkness before it destroys us both," said the dragon. "You must tell him the truth before it is too late."

"Karin, wake up," came a voice, familiar and commanding.

"The darkness is here, in the mountains," said the dragon, now flying above her towards the place where Hitsugaya had disappeared. "They are watching him, even now."

"Watching? Who is watching?" said Karin, her heart racing with fear.

"The Guardian is the key to controlling the darkness," replied the dragon, ignoring her question. "They will come for him, soon. They have been waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

The dragon was silent.

"Please, tell me who they are!"

"Karin! Wake up," said Hitsugaya. "You can't sleep. You'll die."

"Please tell me who is watching," she said, pleading with the dragon. "What are they waiting for? What do they want with the Guardian?" She was desperate to understand.

"Karin," said Hitsugaya, this time shaking her. "You must wake up."

She struggled to open her eyes.

"Only the Guardian can ask the questions," replied the dragon, impatiently.

"Karin," Hitsugaya repeated, "You can't sleep."

This time, she opened her eyes, trying to see his face in the darkness. "Sleep?" she said, her voice a whisper.

"Stay with me, Karin. Look at me," he said. She felt his body, lying next to hers, the feel of his strong arms surrounding her.

His face slowly came into focus. "Toushirou," she said.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied weakly, looking up at him. "Just a little cold." Her hand strayed to his chin, where she had punched him. It was red, swollen.

"You have quite a strong right-hook," he said, smiling now.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't want to hit you. Please believe me, I don't want to hurt you. I was trying to keep you safe."

He looked at her, her face only inches away from his. "She is telling the truth," he thought, "at least about this." He knew it instinctively. Still, the memory of the old man and her reaction to it stayed with him. "I must be careful around her. I still don't know enough."

"I believe you, Karin," he said, pulling her closer as she shivered violently. "God," he thought, "she feels so good." He was happy to have an excuse to hold her again.

"Your shirt," said Karin, as she felt his bare skin with her hands. "You must be freezing." As she said this, she realized that she was wearing the dry clothing from her backpack and, over her shirt, his shirt as well.

"You needed it more," he said. "I don't mind the cold."

"You never did," she said, smiling at him.

"What happened out there? I saw craters, rocks that looked like they had been blasted into the air. Did they get away?"

"One escaped," she said, somberly. "The other is dead."

"I didn't see a body…" he began.

"You couldn't see it, Toushirou." She struggled to sit up, and he helped her so that her back was leaning against the wall of the cave. She felt tired and dizzy - being so close to him was making her extremely uncomfortable.

"Why not?" he asked, watching her carefully now.

"You couldn't see it because the attackers were not human, Toushirou," she said. "They were shinigami. Like you."