Chapter Eight

As Karin walked in to the tenth squad offices she saw Tōshirō sitting at his desk finishing paper work. He looked up to see Karin entering his office and gave her a small smile. "So what are we going to do to celebrate you achieving your zanpakutō" Tōshirō asked pulling Karin on to his lap.

"How about we play a game of football" Karin replied standing up and pulling Tōshirō out the door and to a nearby field "I haven't played since I came to soul society".

Tōshirō smirked slightly and said to himself "She'll never change."

--

Karin manoeuvred down the field dribbling the ball in an attempt to score a goal between two trees. She was so close until Tōshirō skilfully stole the ball and kicked it up the field.

"That's cheating, you're not allowed to use shunpo" Karin said angrily

"Who say's?"

"Yeah cause you see Cristiano Ronaldo shunpoing up and down the football pitch all the time"

"But we're in soul society same game different rules"

"Fine then we can use shunpo, I probably faster than you any way midget"

"I'm not a midget!"

"You should seriously get over your height issues, you are growing taller"

Karin suddenly felt really weak and fell to the ground, Tōshirō saw this and instinctively reached out to grab her. He caught hold of her before she hit the ground. She looked deathly pale and she whispered "I don't feel right." before she closed her eyes and went unconscious.

--

Tōshirō shunpoed straight to the fourth division, seeing the unconscious Karin Unohana immediately directed Tōshirō to the nearest free room where he set her on the bed. She was cold and sweat particles had started to form on her forehead. Tōshirō had to leave the room and wait outside to let Unohana and Isane work. He waited for an hour hating the fact he couldn't do anything to help, until Unohana appeared out of the room.

"Karins condition has stabilized, however at this moment the outcome is still uncertain, we have to go to a captains meeting now however Isane is capable and will look after her."

"I should have looked after her better, I was supposed to protect her. I failed, I FAILED" Tōshirō shouted in his head



His thoughts were interrupted as Unohana put her hand on his shoulder and said in a calm voice "She'll be fine"

As they walked in to the meeting room they took their place beside the other captains.

"Unohana-tachio please up date us on Karins' condition" Yamamoto said

"Karins condition has stabilised however she appears to have been poisoned with Doku-ka. It is a poison created from the zap of a rare flower and is has a slow to create. The poison destroys the infected vital organs. The poison initially is spread through the body quickly so the initial reactions take effect within the first hour of being poisoned however as it progresses its' speed slows down. There are only two ways that the poison could have been distributed in to Karins body, either through injection or through ingestion. Since there are no needle marks on Karins' body and the poison used is clear, odourless and tasteless I feel it is safe to assume that it was ingested most likely though her food or drink, being spiked. Due to the nature of the poison I also feel it is safe to assume that it was ingested at some point earlier on in the day"

Tōshirō ears suddenly picked up at this and in his mind he said "Suzume". He was shaking and he knew if he spoke it would make it more obvious as his voice would shake to.

"Since it appears it was ingested even though there is a high chance of Karin not making it" at which Tōshirō heart sank "There is better chance of survival than if it was injected especially if it was distributed with food or drink as there is a smaller chance of Karin ingesting all of the poison and therefore increasing her likely hood of survival, I approximate at 30"

"Why would Aizen risk Karin surviving, it sounds to me as if they were careless, maybe in a rush to get the job done" Shunsui asked

Tōshirō finally able to control himself said "Today Karin achieved her zanpakutō today, therefore forcing the assailant to act. If the poison was distributed to day and ingested through food as Unohana-tachio suggested, Karin had lunch today with Suzume Ito the third seat of the fifth division"

Yamamoto immediately called in a guard and ordered the arrest of the third seat of the fifth division however fifteen minutes later when the guard returned he said "It appears that Suzume Ito the third seat of the fifth division is no longer in the Seireitei nor soul society. Some her possessions from her room are missing and there is no trace of her reiatsu."

The guard was dismissed and Yamamoto said "Suzume Ito is now a traitor of soul society until proved otherwise, we are now to assume that all along she has been working for Aizen within our walls. Soifong your division is now in charge of investigating her disappearance along with her actions and any contact she may have had with Aizen. This meeting is dismissed"

--

Suzume Ito walked into Aizens throne room, on either side she was surrounded by annarcars.

"Is the job done?" Aizen asked



"It is done Aizen-sama, she will be dead within the next few weeks, the poison is slow to react but there is no cure and will give Tōshirō enough time to watch her as she fade away to nothing"

"Well done, Suzume" Aizen said suddenly in front of her. He put his hand on her cheek which he rubbed gently. "Come Ulquiorra, show Suzume where she will be staying". Before she turned to leave she bowed to Aizen, then followed Ulquiorra out of the door". As soon as she was out of ear shot Aizen turned to Gin and said "I will never get tired of manipulation, it is so entertaining to control someone so easily. They are like puppets on strings." He smirked.

--

Karin opened her eyes she was in a valley with mountains surrounding her. She suddenly heard a voice behind her. "Well that was smart of you, yeah my life's in danger so I'm going to go have lunch with the person who's trying to kill me"

"Suzume, tried to kill me?"

"Yeah she poisoned you, ya moron"

"Well I didn't know that!"

"Yeah but you knew she was third seat in the squad which Aizen used to be tachio of"

"Why are you being so scarastic, the last two times you had that whole silent knowledge thing going on"

"Yeah, but the first couple of times you talk to your zanpakutō its supposed to be all mystical and important so I acted like that so it would be. Well I suppose technically it's your first three times, but anyway"

"Oh ryt, ok. So she tried to kill me?"

"She still might succeed"

"So am I in a coma or something?"

"One point for the girl who was stupid to go have lunch with the person who was trying to kill her, who knows if you make it out of this maybe you and Aizen can go have a chat over dinner"

"Ok, I get it I'm stupid and moronic, are you gonna keep going on about it or are you gonna tell me how to get out this mess"

"Fine, basically you gotta fight the poison and the only way you are going to do that is to get a hell of a lot better at handling you sword cause' you suck. It is seriously embarrassing for me to have someone that actually sucks as bad as you do. Like what is wrong with you are you that…."

"Right I get it I suck" interrupted an increasingly annoyed Karin "Now are you going to shut up and help me or what"



"Fine, no need to get so pissed off I was just saying"

"No, you were taking the piss. Now let's just get on with this".

"All right, basically to train you are going to fight Nirak and I'm going to point out what you're doing wrong and tell you what to do which you better do cause if you don't you will get hurt"

"Who's Nirak?" Karin questioned but her question was quickly answered as a girl flu at Karin with a sword that looked exactly like Karins but only white. Karin then notice the girl also looked exactly the same as her only she was pure white. "My inner hollow" Karin whispered as the girl gave her an evil smirk and went to attack her.

--

Tōshirō sat beside Karins bed every day, he had even gotten into the habit of bringing paperwork with him to ensure he could spend longer with her. She was so calm and peaceful only thing wrong with that was that Karin was anything but calm and peaceful. She lost her temper and was loud and he missed that, he even missed the way she took the piss out of him and called him midget.

Every day was the same. He got up went to see her, sat beside her doing paper work and hoping for some improvement. Every so often a member of fourth squad would come in to check her vitals and later on in the evening the same people would visit her, her family and friends she had made in soul society. Even Soifong came to visit her every couple of nights and in her own words swore to kill "The son of a bitch, Aizen and his bitch Suzume". Even though it approached three weeks nothing changed, she still remained hooked up to the ventilator with wires stuck into her and all he could do was sit with her and say "I'm so sorry, I was supposed to protect you and I failed and now I may never have another chance. I promise you this I am going to kill Aizen".

He blamed himself and the worst thing of all was that no-one else seemed to. Not even the one person he had relied on to. All Ichigo had said was "It's not your fault, I should have stopped her from becoming a soul reaper", he had even blamed himself. Everyone kept telling him that Karin was strong and she was going to beat this but they didn't know, they were just saying that to make him feel better. They were empty words and all they did was make him feel worse. "Why are they trying to make me feel better I'm not the one in a coma".

--

Karin was uncertain of how long she had been here for, time seemed to be irrelevant but she knew she was improving far quicker than she had ever done with Tōshirō. "I guess that Senka Hoshi is a better teacher than Tōshirō, or it could be that Tōshirō never really fought me or put me in danger whereas here if I make one wrong move Nirak will take full advantage of it so I will end up with a nice deep painful cut, if I'm lucky." Karin thought.

Her training was intense; she fought in all conditions from sweltering heat to the freeing conditions of the arctic. Nirak attacked Karin which she was able to easily block however she quickly found 

herself with a gash across her stomach. "Moron, you never block like that, cause you leave yourself wide open and then your enemy will take the opportunity and do something along the lines of what Nirak just did. Think Kurosaki before you act and think quick" Karin was bent over with one arm across her stomach while trying to fend off Nirak with her zanpakutō in the other. Fortunately for her Senka Hoshi called out "Lets' take a break".

Karin sat down to heal her wounds, she had progressed far but not far enough, as she had only beat Nirak once. She had become familiar with her zanpakutō and appreciated it in all its glory. It was perfectly balanced and the weight suited her perfectly. In her shinigami form it was too long to carry at her side so like Tōshirō she carried it on her back via a black and silver sash. Its shanki form was similar to its sealed state the only difference was that the black didn't look solid but rather a black shadow with bright shining particles which moved like they were floating in air which kind of reminded Karin of stars. Karin quickly moved as she heard Senka Hoshi say "Break was over." She knew Nirak wouldn't hesitate a second to strike and she needed to be aware of her surroundings due to one of the training methods was to change the area for example from a wide and open field to a small tight ally way so Karin would be forced to immediately adapt and change her tactics.

Karin knew she had to be ready soon to fight or else she would never escape as the longer she was in the coma the stronger the poison became and the harder it would be to escape. She refused to let Aizen win.

--

Nothing much to say about this chapter except that Nirak is Karin spelt backwards and Doku-ka should mean poison flower.

So please review!!