Notice: Thursday, May 12, 2011—I will try to get chapters up quickly, so I will leave a note at the top of each chapter if I do more than one upload in a day. I have thus far uploaded chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 today. Yesterday I posted Chapters 2-5 so if you didn't check in yesterday then you might want to go back.
Watching Karin
By fate they met in Karakura Town. He helped win a soccer match due to her stubbornness. Luck allowed him to save her life. Now Hitsugaya can't get Kurosaki Karin off his mind. So he watches over her, unfortunately he isn't the only one watching.
Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns Bleach, I don't. I also do not make money from writing fan fiction.
When I wrote this I didn't realize how inappropiate some of their behavior really is. I have them set at around 12 or 13 physically, and when I was that age the other girls in my class seemed to behave likr this. Still...You can be the judge. Also warning for sexual assult and violence.
Chapter 10: Human Troubles
Karin and Toshiro walked arm and arm, "So what made you come to my school today?"
His eyebrow twitched characteristically. She recognized irritation in his expression. She grinned, 'this has to be good.' She stopped and turned toward him, "tell me." Her eyes were dancing.
He made a disgusted grunt. He bestowed a stony look on her. She put her arms around him and nuzzled his ear and whispered, "That look won't work on me."
A smile played on his lips, but he kept his silence. She kissed the corner of his mouth. 'Damn that woman! Why does she have to make things so difficult?' he felt weak against her charms; she finally broke him. "Fine," He grumbled
She pulled free and laughed, "Let's go to 'the' spot. You can tell me while we look at the sky."
At this point he couldn't care less about the sky. He looked at his hand it was still tingling. Karin had left him behind. He looked up and she was at 'their' spot. He walked after her. She was sitting in the grass leaning back against the guardrail that almost sliced her head open only a few weeks ago. It made him think about how short their time really was. He took a seat next to her.
She poked him in the ribs, "Well?"
He sighed, "Well Jinta was saying you were being harassed at School. I thought I'd go check on you."
The scene that played out at Urahara's last night looked more looked more like this...
...Jinta was careful not to hurt Yuzu's feelings so he held his laughter until he was on his way home. He actually laughed until he was crying. When he got back to the shop, there Chad, Renji, Hitsugaya, and Urahara were discussing the lack of appearances by any really strong hollows in the last three weeks.
They all looked at him. "You alright kid?" Renji asked.
Jinta looked at them, with a huge grin, "You'll never believe what I just saw."
They all stared at him. "What was it you saw?" Urahara grinned back.
"Well," He began, "I went to pick Yuzu up at her school," Jinta blushed at this.
"Anyway I guess her sister had started back to school today. When she came out of the school there were at least ten boys behind her. She was ignoring them, but they were going right behind her, pushing and shoving each other. One of them accidentally bumped into her. She actually punched him. I think she broke the poor guy's nose." Jinta's story was broken by his fits of laughter. Renji's mouth twitched as he looked sideways at the little captain, he was fighting a losing battle with laughter. Urahara just grinned that silly grin and glanced at the crop of white hair floating over a red face that seemed to be dominated by an angrily throbbing vein...
Karin broke this ugly memory, "Sooooo-Basically you came to claim your property." She pretended to be angry about this-actually she was delighted that he felt so strongly. However she turned her head in mock disgust.
"It's not like that at all," Really it was, "I was just worried about you."
She laughed at him; He turned and tackled her in a bear hug. "Heard you broke some guy's nose yesterday." He was leaning his head on her shoulder.
"It's possible, I've done it before." She shrugged.
"You are one frightening woman, Miss Kurosaki." He inhaled deeply.
"Thank you." She reached up behind and ran her fingers through his hair.
They stayed there until the stars came out. He took her home.
The next morning, when the twins came out there were two boys waiting. One with gravity defying white spiky hair, blue-green eyes, and an icy demeanor; the other with red hair and a scowl on his face. Yuzu took Jinta and walked ahead. Jinta looked back angrily at Hitsugaya. He in return glared at Jinta.
Toshiro kept his distance from Karin. She noticed this, Why is he acting like this, She spoke up, "Are you angry with me?"
"No, of course not," He looked back. She followed his gaze. His four subordinates were all there following nonchalantly. They seemed genuinely entertained. She was a little irritated herself, "What's that all about?"
Apparently, Jinta had another funny story to recant, about how Captain Hitsugaya almost got into a fight with a bunch of the boys at Yuzu's school. The ones that had been following Yuzu's sister (With Jinta everything was really about Yuzu).
Than Jinta had to mention that He saw Hitsugaya and Karin embracing last night on his way back to Urahara's Shop. Which seemed strange since it was out of his way.
When Karin heard this short version of what happened (Hitsugaya left out the undignified fight that had broken out between he and Jinta earlier that morning) Karin was livid. She jumped on Jinta, "You spying little creep!"
"What's wrong?" Yuzu looking between Jinta and Karin. Jinta glanced over toward Karin guiltily.
Karin brushed past them, shot a cold look back at everybody and bolted.
Toshiro decided not to run after her; seeing that she was upset, and perhaps for the more selfish reason that he'd been humiliated. He instead jumped a tall fence, thinking, she must have made it into school already.
Karin had no intention of going back to school. She did not want to go home. She instead went to the ruined soccer field. There was construction equipment on the field. A jerry-rigged fence surrounded the field with KEEP OUT signs posted everywhere.
She chose to ignore the warnings. She easily slipped through the make shift fence where there was a gap of loose chain-link. She heard shouting, as she squeezed through the fence. She looked up to see some middle schoolers playing soccer on the little piece of field not covered with construction equipment or the crater they had been repairing. She noted that the biggest and loudest boy was the same one who she had challenged to a match that resulted in she and Toshiro...well...hooking up.
She decided it'd be bad to be seen here, so she tried to back out the way she had come. The only problem with this was the wire fencing had caught the back of her shirt and was digging into her back and left shoulder. She was caught. As she struggled to free herself a soccer ball stopped right at her feet.
"Oh-no," she breathed.
"Hello little girl," The biggest boy called, "What's the matter? You stuck?" He was taunting her. The others all laughing and mocking her. She stared back in defiance.
A look of recognition crossed his face. His mocking smirk became menacing.
He looked back at his friends, "Why don't you guys take off."
There was a consensus of unease passing through the group, "You ain't really going to hurt her are you?" One of them asked.
"No, just go on back. I think we're going to need some privacy," the other boys looked uncomfortable, but backed away.
Karin resumed her struggle, 'I'm so stupid! Why'd I come here?'
Hitsugaya felt guilty about letting her go, but what could he do now. He just wandered the street in moody contemplation. His cell phone rang. He wanted to ignore it but his sense of responsibility hadn't laxed that much.
"Yes?"
"Sir, I'm really sorry, we all are," Rangiku's voice came through, she sounded worried.
"What's happened to her?" His voice was cold.
"We can't find her. She wasn't at school. Jinta came to find me. Yuzu was with him. They said she never went in this morning."
Toshiro was horrified. On the other end Rangiku heard the breath leave her Captain as if he'd been sucker punched. The line was disconnected. Toshiro needed a second to recover, "I hope she is safe." If he found her safe he would be giving her a severe tongue-lashing.
The boy approached Karin. She kicked at him. He was only able to avoid because she was painfully caught.
"You're just caught like a widdle wabbit." he lisped at her.
Her eyes smoldered with hatred. He looked her over head to toe. Her hair had grown out a little and it was parted to the side. It made her features more feminine. There was anger in her eyes, and mouth defiantly pouting.
'For a grade school kid she's pretty hot,' He thought to himself as his eyes roamed her figure, "How old are you anyway?"
She didn't reply. She felt the sharp wire sinking excruciatingly slowly into her shoulder.
He approached again. Circling like a predator. He came at her side. He grabbed at her shoulders and forcibly removed her. Fabric and flesh ripped. "You got a boyfriend, baby?" He asked as she struggled with him, "Maybe that little white haired brat?" She tried to kick him, her shoe flew off.
"Don't do that, I'm not going to hurt you." He wrapped one hand around her waist put the other under her chin, and tilted her face up. He was going in for a kiss, "You know that pout is really sexy. Oof-" She kneed him in the groin.
He let go of her. Karin ran as fast as she could. She had no idea how long it'd take him to recover. She got to the other side of the field she couldn't find a gap she could squeeze through so she painfully hoisted herself up. She looked back to make sure the older boy was still down.
He had made it to his feet, and was hobbling toward her. The look in his eyes was all she needed to see to know what he intended to do to her. She continued her assent, he started to run. He got to the fence as she was swinging her leg over he caught her other shoe. She slipped out of it and landed roughly on the other side of the fence. He pounded the fence with her shoe, and screamed obscenities at her.
"Come back here you little bitch!"
She kept running until she fell to the ground exhausted. She felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She reached back to feel the wound. Her back was hot and wet with blood. She found sharp piece of wire sticking trough the shredded remains of her shirt. She pulled it out. She screamed as she removed it, but it felt like it all came out at least.
She heard footsteps running her way, so she got up and limped into a nearby alley. She sunk down against a wall behind a dumpster. She couldn't control her breathing; she tried to stifle it with her hands.
Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Rangiku spread out to look again. Captain Hitsugaya looked in the most likely spots-'their' spot, the park and the soccer field. He had often noted her looking at it as she went past it. He tried the hill first as it was the closest. She wasn't there. Then ran to the field. There his fear was realized.
There were traces of shredded cloth and blood on the fence. About one hundred feet away lay a shoe at the edge of the crater, her shoe. He spotted the other lying by the opposite fence. He saw blood drops and two sets of footprints, in the dust. One set of small bare feet and a set of much larger sneakers.
He leaped over the fence and headed in the direction of the foot prints. Toshiro tried to sense her spirit. She was much better at hiding it than her brother, "One way they are different, DAMN!" He gritted his teeth. On the ground he saw a trail of red droplets. He followed it. It stopped at a small puddle. He wondered how badly she was hurt and how close was she to bleeding to death. His face was grim.
Karin heard someone walking toward her. She held her hands over her mouth she thought she'd pass out if she didn't breathe soon. Toshiro came around the dumpster. She took her hands away from her mouth and gasped for air. She tried to get up but her legs cramped up underneath her. He lifted her away from the grimy alley wall there were streaks of pink mingling with a green algae like substance, and there was a pool of blood at the base of the wall. She was still bleeding heavily.
"Why—do—I—get—my-self-into—these-messes?" She gasped hoarsely.
"Don't talk." He took off his shirt and held it to her back. He phoned Rangiku, "I found her she's hurt, but safe. I will br—" The phone went dead.
"Captain, captain!" She shouted. Checked his last location. She headed there. As she was going she called off the search and explained that she was worried because his phone went dead.
"I will br-" His phone was knocked out of his hand by the angry teenager.
"Take that you little punk." He sneered.
Not forgetting the serious danger Karin was in, his vein throbbed, "What did you call me."
"I called you a punk." The older looking boy reached back as if to punch.
Hitsugaya landed a mind numbing blow to the larger boy's chin, "You called me little." He glared and the now unconscious teen.
He turned to see Karin had slunk back against the wall.
He grabbed his phone, "Damn, it's broken."
He held out his hand to her, she took it weakly. She was so angry at herself. He has saved her at least three times, no four. I'm so pathetic. She thought. He piggybacked her out of the alley. Blood was clotting on his shirt, "I'm sorry about your shirt, and about running away."
"It's alright, not your fault. Looks like you gave that boy a lot of trouble. He's going to have a bad headache when he wakes up." Toshiro sounded unemotional, but was very relieved
"I feel so pathetic; I'm too weak to take care of myself." She said through pale lips.
"You have to let your body and soul recover. Give it time. I saw you do some pretty amazing things that time when you were attacked by the tree hollow. You even surprised Urahara, knocked him off his feet. Not just anybody can say they've done that."
"I don't remember much of that night; she shuttered thinking of things that were going on inside of her mind rather than outside."
"I'm sorry I should not have brought that up."
"It's OK." She rested her head on his back, and closed her eyes.
I almost referred to the hollow as a hollow tree, lol , but that just sounded weird. Sighs heavily Next chapter has some soul-reaper hollow action.