Notice: Friday, May 13, 2011—So far for today I have uploaded chapter 11. Yesterday I posted Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 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.

Last chapter got a little dark, but there are still some even darker events to happen. I hope I don't upset anybody. I do give you a break in this chapter. It's a lot lighter. I hope you enjoy the action scenes. I hope I executed them to your liking.


Chapter 11: What now?


When Rangiku found them, Captain Hitsugaya had the girl's limp body draped over his back. Karin had bled through the shirt the boy had put on her. There was dried blood down her back and on her legs. Most of the blood seeping from a deep gash she herself had created when she pulled the wire out of her shoulder. It had finally started to slow.

"She gets into a lot of trouble on her own, Captain." Rangiku said, not trying to be unkind.

He hated to admit it, "Yes, she often seeks it out."

"What are we going to do with you?" Rangiku lifted a stray hair from her face. Her heart welled up. "There's a first aid kit at Orihime's let's just take her there." Rangiku offered to carry Karin for a while.

"No! ...I mean I have her she's not heavy at all." He was too worried to act cold. He was almost frantic.

His lieutenant was more concerned with him than the girl. 'Captain please, don't let this interfere with your duties, I'd hate for something to happen to you, You are the best captain I have served under!' Rangiku thought this, but would never admit it to her superior.

She ran along behind the two of them. They got to back to the apartment. Rangiku had already notified the others that the two of them were safe.

"Let's get her patched up." Rangiku said as cheerfully as she could, "Please, set her down on the futon." he obliged. Rangiku carefully lifted his shirt from her back, it stuck a little and when she removed it the bleeding started up again. Than Rangiku began cutting the remains of her shirt from her back, with a pair of scissors she had found in the kitchen. Toshiro grunted and got up, "I'm going to go get cleaned up." Toshiro left the room.

His Lieutenant smirked, 'He's so cute'. Rangiku began cleaning her up. When Toshiro came back she was patching Karin's shoulder. Karin seemed to be sleeping. She had a troubled look on her face.

'Nightmares,' Toshiro assumed. He wanted to comfort her, but he was afraid she might roll over; she was still not wearing a shirt. He got one of his own and handed it to Rangiku; she certainly could not wear hers anymore. It had been so torn that Rangiku just cut it off her to save time.

"Please put that on her," He turned his back on the two of them.

"OK, it's safe, Captain," He heard the mocking in her voice, "You know she's probably going to get blood on this one too. That's two shirts; I'm going to have to take you clothes shopping soon." He looked coldly at Rangiku.

He observed Karin resting on her stomach in his shirt and thought, 'she looks nice in that shirt.'

"Awe, she looks cute in your shirt," Rangiku teased.

"She looks weird," He lied. Rangiku knew he was lying, but chose to let it go.

Karin seemed more comfortable. So the two soul-reapers sat at the table drinking tea.

Suddenly there was a pulse of dark energy. It was extremely strong. Then another, and another, all in different areas of the City. Captain Hitsugaya got a call from the soul-society. He nodded, "Yes we just sensed them." They left their mod-souls in charge of the sleeping girl. There were three arrancars, but none near the apartment.

"Take care of the girl. If she needs anything get it for her. If the fight gets too close, get her to a safe place." Captain said to his little counterpart.

The other him nodded, and in an unemotional tone replied, "Right."

"You, just stay out of his way!" Rangiku ordered her mod-soul.

The other Rangiku shrugged and switched on the television.

They left. Hitsugaya looked back. He hated to leave her alone, thought she wasn't technically alone.

"There not espada," Rangiku said to her captain, "I'll take the one to the east." He nodded and they separated.


When Rangiku got there Renji was already there. He had his shikai released. He already looked a little tired, 'Idiot's probably been training too hard.'


Captain Hitsugaya, found a particularly ugly arrancar. It was wearing a crisp, white uniform with black trim, seeming to almost be the negative of his black and white clothes. The monstrous being grinned at him, "So they are sending children to fight us now."

"I am Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of the 10th court guard squad," He said in a cold voice.

"This ain't play time kid," The thing mocked through its bony mask. It charged him, but Hitsugaya easily avoided. The young soul-reaper was actually glad to have a chance to fight something. It took his mind off things.


The other arrancar was tangling with Ikkaku. Yumichika was watching with a bored expression on his face. Ikkaku was grinning. He hacked, and sliced into the arrancar. The arrancar returned blows of matching strength.

"It's nice that you're having fun, but remember not to let yourself get to tired before you finish this one. I'm not helping you make it home again," Yumichika sounded a little irritated. He hadn't gotten to fight much lately. Ikkaku had taken on the last hollow too, "You know I'd like to get a chance to fight sometime."

"Alright, you can have the next hollow that shows up," Ikkaku responded without looking away from the fight.


Renji was sweating, and breathing hard, "Maybe I shouldn't train so hard." He said to himself.

"Looks like you haven't been training hard enough," A diminutive arrancar with purple hair and yellow eyes laughed. She was clothed in a smart little black trimmed white dress with ruffles and a cute quarter length sleeved jacket. There was a hole cut in the front of the dress to display her hollow hole. If not for the hole in her stomach she could have been mistaken for a very pretty little girl of about thirteen years old. She was very fast and kept coming at Renji making swipes at his tired body. She giggled crinkling her eyes maliciously. "You know I really like your hair," She taunted, "I think I'll scalp you and put it with my other trophies." She looked over at Rangiku, "Oooo, what pretty hair you have. When I'm done with this one, what say I give you a haircut?" She cocked her head and her lips parted into a smile of hatred.

Renji took advantage of her distraction and went in for a close attack. However she dodged and counter attacked. Her zanpaktou took the form of two sets of bladed claws that were fit to her hands like gloves. She thrust one of these into his shoulder.


It had only been a minute since the battle started, Captain Hitsugaya shouted, "Reign over the frosted heavens," Releasing his ice dragon. It circled the large arrancar. Freezing him, however he began to crack only after a second.

"Heh, not bad kid, but try this on for size," The arrancar up rooted a tree and lobbed it at the small Captain. It was easily dodged and he went after the arrancar's mask, thinking to break throught it and end the fight quickly. He was deflected by the stone covered arm of the arrancar.

"You have power over ice, but I have power over the earth. There is much more dirt than water around here," He seemed to be gathering mass by means of the rocky soil surrounding them.

He swung huge rock-like arms at the captain, "This ain't even half my true power, look at you, little brat, you can barely keep up."

He smashed Hitsugaya to the ground, but when he lifted his hand from the crater he had made there was no sign of the soul-reaper captain. A flash of white flew toward the arrancar. He sliced one of the thing's arms off.

It only laughed, "There's more where that came from." He began to form a new arm. Hitsugaya noticed he was recycling what had fallen to the ground. This was a worry; he'd needed to get to the mask underneath all that rock and dirt.


Yumichika was seemingly lounging on his side, in midair, as if to imply he was ready for a nap. To prove his point Yumichika yawned. Ikkaku was dripping with sweat and blood. He was smiling as wide as ever. Then he got the notification that Gentei Kaijo was lifted.

All the soul-reapers that were fighting released their full power. Yumichika and Rangiku didn't bother, knowing that they would not even get a chance to fight.


The little arrancar was suddenly surprised when Renji surpassed her speed. Now it was her turn to dodge. "Hey! No fair! You can't do that!" She complained.

"This is a battle with no rules. Live with it," Renji grunted and continued his attacks.

"Oh, ok," She sneered. She was behind him. She grabbed his hair and made as if to scalp him. He shook her off.

"So you were holding back some speed, were you?" he asked not expecting an answer. She did not surprise him by actually responding.

She came at him from behind. He turned and caught her in the middle with his sword. He cut her in half. She looked shocked as the two halves fell to earth.

"I really did like your hair," she actually started to tear up before her body denigrated.

"That was strange." Rangiku shrugged.

She left to check on her captain. Renji decided to watch Ikkaku finish his fight, so the two of them went in opposite directions.


They were easy for the redhead to find. "So how goes the fight?" Renji asked Yumichika.

"I find it rather boring; Ikkaku is having fun though. He is prolonging the fight."

Renji eyed the strange beast lunging at the bald soul-reaper. It was covered in hair except where the mask was and that seemed to be its weapon of choice. The stringy hide flowed and moved like an octopus' tentacles would move in the water. Striking, grabbing, and pulling in for close attacks. Both the fighters looked like they were getting tired, but only Ikkaku looked to be enjoying himself at this point.

"You know what I'm bored; this is taking too long. When he's finished you can carry him home. I had to do it last time...And he has really worked up a sweat," Indicating that Ikkaku really smelled bad. Yumichika took off.

Renji sighed. It did look like he'd have to be carried back if he kept up this pace instead of just finishing the thing off. He just kept hacking away. Renji picked a tree to rest against and dosed off.


Hitsugaya wasn't having such an easy time of it when Rangiku showed up. She saw this unusually large arrancar covered in stone and dirt. Her captain kept slicing off pieces but they would quickly grow back. Her captain didn't seem to be wounded, but the thing was just wearing him down even with Gentei Kaijo lifted he couldn't keep this pace up forever. She knew he must have taken advantage of releasing his full power, yet here he was with only 6 petals left on his ice flower.

What he realized, that she hadn't noticed was that the thing was getting tired too. Each time it regenerated it would take a little longer to do so. Hitsugaya was just biding his time until he could get to the middle and attack the thing's mask again.

Rangiku asked, "You ok, Captain?"

"Just fine," he panted. He knew he could hold out a little longer and he started to see the white of the mask exposed. The arrancar quickly sacrificed an arm to cover the mask over again. One of Hitsugaya's petals shattered. Now he had five left. Rangiku noted that the boy was smiling a halfcocked smile. She knew he was going to be finished with this fight soon, one way or the other. Renji suddenly appeared shouldering and exhausted, but happy, Ikkaku.

"So how's the Captain?" Renji looked at her.

"He's fine," she shot a worried look back at him that betrayed her doubt.

The captain again exposed the mask. The hollow took a little longer healing himself, but there was still not enough time to dodge swinging attacks from one arm while going toward the mask. He'd get close than have to back off to avoid being hit. Another petal broke, he went on hacking. He had four now, but this time he landed a blow on the mask. The arrancar covered the chipped mask with more dirt.

Just one more time, He thought to himself. He was aware that his blows were losing strength, but he kept going. Three petals left, than two, one single petal. A few more whacks at the thing's dirt covered form and the mask was his. He lunged avoiding blows, barely, and impaled the thing in the eye. It screamed and tried to shake the zanpaktou out.

Toshiro planted his feet on the things shoulders. Which was tricky since dirt was sliding off the thing as it had started to lose mass. He managed to slice through the top of the thing's head. It screamed, as it was disintegrating. His ice flower broke apart and the beautiful wings holding him up broke apart. He fell into the pile of dirt and rocks that was left behind. Rangiku went to him and helped him up. He looked at her sternly, but appreciated the help.


They got back to the apartment. When they entered they were greeted with the sight of Rangiku's mod-soul was on Toshiro's. He had a bored look on his face which was being squished to the floor.

"I'm sorry, she overpowered me," The thing that looked like Toshiro but wasn't said in a dull voice. Rangiku burst out with laughter. Captain Hitsugaya looked indignant. Until he peered around to see what the false Rangiku was doing leaning over the sleeping Karin. He choked.

"What's wrong? She isn't hurting the girl is she?" She asked in concern.

"His chest began to hitch," She swore he was about to cry. Tears came to his eyes.

She gasped, "Oh-no what's she done to the girl."

He started laughing. He doubled over. He was wiping tears from his face. He was actually very angry, but what he saw was beyond anything he'd ever seen.

Rangiku finally unfroze, "What she doin—THAT'S MY MAKE-UP!" She screamed, "Do you know how expensive that is? Stop it! Stop now I say! She removed the mod-soul and her gigai collapsed to the floor. Rangiku was crying.

"That make-up," She sniffed back a tear, "Was im-imported from France." She had no idea where France was, but it was exotic.

Karin was painted up in clownish make-up. The thing had used half a tube of lipstick and got most of it on Karin's teeth or cheeks rather than her lips. She had mascara oozing and threatening to run into her eyes. ...And bright pink blush (you are only supposed to use a little) on her cheeks in her hair and over her eyes as if it were eye shadow. She tied poor Karin's hair into 6 little pigtails with little white bows which on closer inspection were made of gauze from the first aid kit.

"She said she was bored. I tried to stop her," the other mod-soul explained in a droning fashion, "She went into your things Lieutenant and brought out that stuff. He pointed to the ground. There she saw a bottle of red nail polished spilled onto the futon. She lifted up the blanket sure enough there were ten bright red toe nails and nine sticky red fingernails.

"Oh," She sighed and teared up again.

"Calm down. Lieutenant I promise to buy you more," he was glaring, but he felt responsible because it was his fault that Karin was hurt and those two were not really capable of watching over anybody but themselves. Rangiku sniffed and wiped her eyes. She nodded.

"You are such a child," He said coldly, "Can you at least clean her face before she wakes up like this."

"Uh-huh, I've got some cold cream." She sighed and got up. He had no idea what 'cold cream' was but assumed it must be for cleaning off make-up.

He helped her by cleaning up the remains of the make-up.

"Just throw it away," She said starting to tear up, "It's ruined anyway."

He shot her a warning glance not to cry again, "Ok, you're sure?" She nodded.

He had returned to his gigai more than ten minutes before. The false Rangiku was still lying on the floor next to the sleeping girl; staring with a blank expression at the futon.

The woman was applying a sweet smelling substance to Karin's face, "Shall I remove the nail polish?"

He nodded, "She'd be very angry with us if she woke up with that get-up on." Thinking of the hard enamel that was now drying on her nails he wondered, 'How do they remove that stuff, with a tiny chisel?' He got his answer when Rangiku opened the bottle of polish remover, "Good God! What is that smell!" He looked at Rangiku.

"It's a potion that dissolves the nail polish, but doesn't hurt the skin." It smelled more like very strong alcohol to him. He held his nose and left the apartment by way of the kitchen window. He decided he'd let Rangiku finish in privacy.

"Well seeing as the captain has left I think I'll just give you a bath. That make-up in your hair isn't going to come out any other way," She looked at the shirt Karin was wearing, "Disgusting!" It was covered in make-up.

"We'll need to find a different shirt for you honey," She lifted her up out of the futon looking at the blood stained shorts she decided the girl needed some pants too. She gently undressed the girl and placed her in the tub of lukewarm water. She wondered if this was what it would be like to have a little girl. She didn't think she'd like chasing a toddler, but having a little girl Karin's age to dress up and go shopping with would be fun. Too bad she's not into make-up or dressing in pretty clothes. She cleaned up the girl. "She must be really out of it," Rangiku thought out loud. She slept through the bath.

The bleeding had started up a little when Karin entered the water. Rangiku changed her bandages; the cuts had all but stopped bleeding. Rangiku examined the cuts. They were deep, but nowhere near life threatening, now that the bleeding had slowed to almost nil. She wondered what would have happened if Hitsugaya had not found her. Between the loss of blood and that creep that must have inflicted the wounds, she'd be dead for sure.

The woman raided her captain's wardrobe. She picked a pale blue polo shirt that she liked and a pair of khaki trousers. She slipped the shirt on the girl. It looked very adorable to Rangiku. She pulled the pants on the girl. She had to cinch the belt tight. She noticed the pants were kind of baggy about the waist. Her legs were too long the pants stopped about an inch above Karin's ankles. The woman chuckled.

She changed the sheets on the futon and put the girl back under the covers. Karin involuntarily clutched at Rangiku's hand, she whispered, "Mother."

Rangiku sighed. She laid the girl's hand on her chest.

Toshiro was surprised to come back and find the place had been cleaned up and Karin was resting comfortably on her back.

"That girl is very sweet, when she doesn't know she's being sweet," Rangiku smiled into her tea cup, "Under that tough exterior is a caring little girl."

Toshiro settled down next to the girl and took her hand. She smiled softly. He kept a stony gaze, "What could you possibly get into next?"