Chapter 9- Shackles Snapped, Covers Flew and Kari Left the Building

Kari was running in total darkness. The only thing she could see was seven flash backs of when she was alive…and when she was dead.

She tripped, falling on her face, and the flash backs started once more.

Flash back

Kari and Kaname as kids, running into the forest, climbing trees until they were caught by a concerned adult. Seven years old and already best friends.

Blink

The two best friends were now training with wooden swords, circling each other in a big dojo. Kaname was winning but Kari wasn't giving up anytime soon. Eight years old and their friendship was only growing.

Blink

The best friends laughed themselves silly as their elder walked out with bubblegum pink hair and "I'm stupid" written on his chest. The best friends were now 16 and Kaname had long surpassed Kari in height…and Kari wasn't happy about it, still being 5'5.

Blink

Kaname held onto Kari's right hand as one of their most trusted friends, their ever-present elder, started attaching her veins and tendons into her new metal arm.

Blink

Kaname and Kari looked up at the orange sky and watched the sakura petals flutter down as they held hands, blood seeping out of their wounds and mingling together, a promise. As they closed their eyes for the last time, Seth, their ever-present elder, wept and made a promise that he'd always be there for them. Kaname tried to grin and said, "Say bye to Alice for me."

Blink

2000 years after death, Kari gloomily walked around a hut, only to be tackled to the ground by her long-lost best friend that she hadn't seen since death.

Blink

A memory she didn't even know she had came into view. She heard herself saying, "You've truly grown in power Kaname; now I can leave Kari in your hands. I've done all this for her so when you tell her about me, don't forget to tell her how much I did for her." She was confused; when did this happen and why was she speaking in the third person?

No, wait. That person used "I" and "Kari" separately…what does that mean?

Blink

Cold, steel grey eyes stared deep into her soul.

End of flash backs

Kari woke up with a start; it was the first time she'd woken up since the incident with Aizen. She looked around and found herself alone and shackled into her bed. Looking at a chair that once had Kaname sitting in it, she knew something was wrong.

"Of course something's wrong!" Saria yelled in her head.

"Whaaaaa? WHO'S TALKING IN MY HEAD? Is it an alien? NOOOOES! Does this mean my conscience came back? Or maybe my sanity? NO, GO AWAY!" Kari screamed out loud.

"ARE YOU AN IDIOT? I'm not your conscience and you're still insane. I'm just your wonderful and awesome split-personality." Saria smirked.

"Phew. I thought for a second something was wrong with me. All right, yeah, that's cool." Kari said. Then she stopped.

"Wait. I have a split-personality?" Kari asked.

Memories of the fight with Kaname and Saria flooded her mind. Anger started to rise towards her split-personality.

She started screaming at Saria in her head…but stopped because she had a massive headache.

"Instead of worrying about me, shouldn't you be worrying about Kaname? Right now, she's with the Captain Commander, alone, and they're deciding both your fate."

Shackles snapped, covers flew and Kari left the building.

O_O

Kaname rolled her eyes as the Captain Commander babbled on about what a heinous crime she and Kari had committed, what destruction and disturbance they had caused, etc. She kept tapping her foot impatiently as she stood there, shackled. She also kept looking at the time.

Finally, Yamamoto asked her, annoyed, "I'm sorry, is there something you'd rather be doing? An appointment or a lunch date or something? SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR LIFE?"

Kaname looked at him impassively, hearing Yachiru giggle. "I have a right to remain silent, right?"

Yachiru started laughing, which caused Kaname to giggle, which led to Shunsei laughing hard, since it was the kind of thing he'd say. The Captain Commander shushed them all with a tap of his cane.

"Now, getting back to the business of your fate. Such behaviour deserves punishment by death, since you kept this secret from the whole Soul Society and are therefore too dangerous to live."

Kaname glowered at him. "You tell Kari…and I will kill you." She said it so seriously that they wondered if she had a split-personality too.

"And no, I'm just bi-polar." She said, reading their minds.

Yamamoto frowned. "Threatening the Head Commander's life? You're not helping yourself Kaname Kori. Now, before we declare you guilty, we want to hear your story. We don't want to condemn you if you're innocent." He said softly.

Kaname set her face stubbornly. "It's a secret."

Kenpachi groaned. "Oh, come on. This isn't elementary school! I want to get out of here, woman, so just do what you do best and TALK."

Kaname gave him her best death glare. "Do you think that I carved this into my skin for nothing? Don't make me hurt you."

Kenpachi laughed. "As if you could! You're shackled and you're weak! You're reiatsu isn't - "

Kenpachi Zaraki flew into the wall behind him as Kaname pulled back her foot, which had kicked him, and set Yachiru down, who had jumped into her arms.

Kaname grinned and clapped her hands. "Oh yeah! YOU WEREN'T THERE! You know, when me and Kari were assassins! When we were alive!" Suddenly she clapped her hands over her mouth and sheepishly looked down.

Everyone's eyes widened in surprise, hoping they had misheard her the first time.

Yoruichi said thoughtfully, "That makes sense. After all, you have 150 lbs of weights on you."

The room was silent for a few moments. Yoruichi finally said, "Kaname, just talk, please. I don't want to see another one of my friends die."

Kenpachi slowly got up, groaning but smiling. "Come on, Kaname. I'm curious as to how you can kick me so hard with those weights."

There was a snort from behind him. "Those are baby weights compared to what we're used to." Kari smirked.

Kaname rolled her eyes. "You're late, Kari."

Kari grew serious. "Kaname, why won't you say anything? I want to know too."

Sweat drop

Kaname took a deep breath and plopped on the floor. "You guys might want to get comfortable. This'll take a while."

Kari flash-stepped to Kaname and sat down with her back to hers. When Kaname gave her a weird look, Kari just said, "It makes it more intense!"

Kaname closed her eyes and started. "When we were eight years old, we were already best friends. Our parents had died and left us alone. We were sent to an orphanage, if that's what it was supposed to be called. But ours was a work camp."

"Someone quickly noticed our potential and reported to their superiors. We were then sold to the school where the story truly begins."

"It was the first school that started to train children and adults with the talent. They were trying to make a new race of super-humans by training us to kill as assassins. We were sent out to kill those in power. By the time we were 14, we had taken over the place and changed its dream into a martial arts institute. Our most trusted friends became the elders while we became their leaders."

"At the age of 15, there was an attack by the assassins that had escaped when we had remoulded the school. Even though we were strong, we were struggling to defend ourselves against them because they also used to be our friends. We were caught in holds with six people holding us down at once. One of them was going to finish me off when I heard a scream."

"I suddenly felt light and when I opened my eyes, I saw red blood everywhere. I also saw Kari," Kaname turned to her, "standing there with a sword full of blood that I'd never seen before." She shut her eyes again, blocking out the gruesome memories.

"I quickly found out that because of my lack of strength, Kari had now been forced to create a different personality for herself to conceal her awakening bloodthirstiness for those who hurt me. That personality's name was Saria. And she scared me so much."

"Cruel, bloody-thirsty and Kari's complete opposite, she would come out every once in while…like a year later, when Kari was fighting off a group of bandits that were trying to steal the riches of our school. Saria came out and cut off Kari's arm to make it "more interesting"." Kaname snorted in disbelief, trying to cover up her teary eyes.

"After pretty much almost strangling her to death, I was finally able to make her go back inside Kari's mind. She's been in there for all these years…until a few weeks ago. I had a nightmare where I was talking to her. She told me she was coming out again. It couldn't be helped…but she's returned peacefully this time, knowing I can protect Kari myself."

Everyone absorbed this as Kaname bowed her head, trying not to cry. Kari placed her head on her shoulder. It was a nice moment until Kenpachi groaned, "Oh come on! That's pathetic! You would give up your bloodthirstiness for your friend? How corny."

Kari went up her sleeve on her right arm to her wrist and flicked open one of the bracelets that hugged her wrists. Hisagi gasped as he recognized the same bracelet he had. She flicked it open, took it off and threw it at Kenpachi's face while Kaname sent him flying once more with a roundhouse to the jaw.

Hisagi curled himself into a ball, waiting for the blast. When he heard Kari's voice, he looked at the smiling woman who said, "What are you doing, Puppy?"

He stammered, "But, uh, um…wasn't it supposed to explode? I have the same ones."

Kari laughed. "Silly! They don't explode. They just…"

Kenpachi got up and starting swearing. "What the hell hit my face?"

Kaname lifted up her hand. "Kari's bracelet and my foot."

Kenpachi lifted Kari's bracelet and looked questioningly at it. "How much does this weigh?" He asked, curious.

Kari grinned. Kaname laughed and said, "Only 100 pounds. That's nothing. Is it hard for you to lift, Teddy-bear-chan?"

Kenpachi ignored the new nickname. "And you wear 6 of those?"

Kari grinned. "Of course. It's almost nothing. It's called training." She turned to Kaname. "Shouldn't you take those baby weights off? Stop being lazy."

Kaname grinned. "Aww. I just wanted a break. Fine." Kaname threw the weights off without any effort and broke her shackles.

Kenpachi threw the weight back at Kari and Kari caught it with one hand. "Thank you, Teddy!" She said.

Kaname turned to Kari. "I really should get some weights too, huh?"

Kari grinned. "Yeah. You're getting fat! And then we can play catch!"

Kaname grinned evilly. "Sure…but I'm gonna kill you for calling me fat!"

Kari flash-stepped behind Yamamoto. "She's being mean again!"

The two flash-stepped all over the room, playing tag until the Captain Commander, once speechless, yelled at them to stop.

Stopping in mid-air, the two friends fell to the floor.

"Owwwww." They both exclaimed.

"This is your fault Kari!"

"Me? You're the one that said you'd kill me!"

"You called me fat!"

"It was a joke!"

"So?"

"ENOUGH!" Yamamoto roared. The two pouted and turned away from each other.

Shunsui laughed. "They sure don't look or act like assassins. Not quiet at all."

Kaname pouted more. "We never were good at that part. The only thing we were really good at was sneaking into the headmaster's room while he was there and stealing his stuff. Then we'd put it on the roof and we'd hide in a tree and laugh. Then he'd know it was us."

Kari grinned. "We've always had a laughing problem."

"IT'S CONTAGIOUS!" They yelled together. They then fell into each other, laughing.

The Captain Commander sighed and said, "This isn't worth my time. You two will be allowed to live as long as you can keep Saria under control."

There was a snort in Kari's mind. "Shut up!" she thought.

Kari nodded. Kaname turned to her with a silly look on her face. She whisper-yelled, "Hey Saria! Come out again and I'll kick your butt!"

Kari said, "She says she'll kick your before you get a chance."

Everyone stared at Kari. She giggled nervously. "What? I can hear her voice in my head now."

"OMG! Schizo!" Kaname screamed.

"I know! I thought I had a conscience in the beginning! Or worse! MY SANITY!" Kari screamed.

Kaname gasped. "NOOOOOOO!"

Kari grinned. "But it's okay. It was just Saria."

Mayuri Kurotsuchi turned to the Captain Commander and said, "May I dissect her? She's an interesting specimen."

Kari screamed and hid behind Kenpachi. She looked to her left and screamed again and ran to Shunsui.

Kaname sobbed, "Why aren't you hiding behind me? I'm supposed to protect you!"

Kari screamed, "Sorry!" and ran behind Kaname. Saria was laughing in her head so Kari punched herself in the face.

Everyone turned and stared. "She was laughing at me!" Kari whined.

Yamamoto shook his head and left, followed by Soifon and Hitsugaya, who both muttered about what a waste of time this all had been.

Rangiku ran and glomped Kari. "That was such a sad story!" Kaname backed away into Yoruichi, who was stretching and yawning. "I already knew all of that." She said.

Kari grinned. "Of course. We already told you."

They hugged and then Kari smacked her head again.

As the women stared at her, she whined, "She was making fun of me again!"

Kaname shook her head. "This'll take some time to get used to," she muttered.

"Ditto…" Kari said, rubbing her head.