Thanks for your reviews. I'm glad people weren't bored by the last chapter. I'm sure you all guessed, (since I didn't finish it last time) that episode 132 is going to continue here, but again, I tried to make it original. And there is much more to this chapter than just a simple re-telling of the episode, so I think you'll enjoy it. At least, I hope you do :)

Hitsugaya didn't show up for soccer practice the next day and Karin found herself much more upset than she expected to be. She was drawn to him, like a fly to honey. It was very off-putting. Karin liked to think of herself as an independent girl, but there was just something about Hitsugaya that made her want to be close to him. The bizarre daydreams she was having weren't helping either.

"I'm going to look for Toushiro," she told her friends, then set off to the one place she could think of to find him; the railing where she has spoken to him yesterday. The sun was setting as she ran up the hill, and in the distance, she saw a shock of white hair.

"I thought he'd be here!" she thought excitedly. "Toushiro!"

"You again?" he said in a board voice as she caught her breath. In reality, his heart jumped ever so slightly when he saw her, but he brushed it off.

"She's not Karin," he thought for the thousandth time. "Karin is dead. I watched her die." But as this girl reprimanded him for not coming to practice, he couldn't help but feel a comfort with her that he only felt with Karin. Like he could be himself around her. Like he could share secrets with her and she wouldn't tease him; too much.

"Hey, why do you come here?" she asked. "Is it close to your home?" Boy, talk about secrets. It was as if she knew that the sunset was important to him.

"She's not Karin!" he repeated in his head. Then he remembered that the girl was waiting for an answer.

"Not really," he replied. Then he sighed and looked up at the yellow and orange ball decorating the horizon. And, before he could stop himself, he had blurted out,

"This is the best place I could find to look at the sky. It brings back memories." Ok, now he was embarrassed. This girl wasn't Karin. He shouldn't be spilling his soul to her! He was really getting soft.

He tried to brush her off and leave casually, but his ringing phone distracted him. He opened it and gasped. A huge hollow, not too far away. He broke into a run, but was suddenly stopped by a hand on his arm. He checked and turned to look at the girl who was holding him fast, refusing to let him go.

"Don't go that way!" she said desperately. "W-well uh…I mean…I have a bad feeling about over there." Rationally, Hitsugaya knew that she was talking about the hollow, but his mind instantly reminded him of something else.

He and Karin were in the kitchen in the Kuchiki manor, shoveling food as quickly as they could into bags.

"Let's go!" Sentaro called impatiently from outside, and Karin and Hitsugaya gathered up their ill-gotten gains and hurried out. They started retracing their steps back to the servants' door, but as they were passing close to the house, Karin stopped them.

"Don't go that way!" she warned. They stared at her.

"Why?" Hitsugaya asked. "It's the fastest way back." Karin paused for a moment.

"W-well uh…I mean…I have a bad feeling about over there." Hitsugaya glared at her.

"You're just being paranoid," he scolded.

"No I'm not!" she retorted. "I feel like there are people over there!" They surveyed the area, but it was deserted.

"She couldn't be…?" he thought to himself. No! She's not! But the more he spent time with her, the more this girl really did resemble Karin in every possible way. But his thoughts were interrupted again by his phone, which beeped, indicating that that the huge hollow had been defeated.

"Toushiro," Karin said, "what's wrong?"

"No," he replied. "It's nothing."

"Hey, you'll come tomorrow, won't you?" she pleaded. Hitsugaya could almost see the longing in her face. He turned away from her, refusing to look into her eyes. It was as if this girl knew that she reminded him of someone important, and desperately needed to spend more time with him to figure out who it was.

"Who knows?" he replied vaguely. He wasn't entirely sure what answer he wanted to give. He knew that he shouldn't get himself involved in human affairs, but he just couldn't let this girl go.

oooooooooooooooo

After much debate and hesitation, Hitsugaya decided that watching her practice couldn't hurt. So he sat on a nearby rooftop and observed. The more he watched, the more it bothered him. She was exactly like Karin in so many ways: her facial expressions, the way she took control over the situation, even the way she walked, was so reminiscent of his dearest friend that Hitsugaya really did feel like she had come back from the dead. He didn't quite know what to make of it.

Suddenly, Hitsugaya heard a most unwelcome sound; his fukutaicho's voice.

"Taicho!" Matsumoto sang from behind him and he glared at her. How dare she interrupt him?

"Have you become a stalker?" she teased.

"You're wrong," he replied, annoyed at how dangerously close to the truth she was. But this wasn't really stalking. Was it? "There's just something I'm worried about." Matsumoto glanced at what was holding Hitsugaya's attention. Or rather, who was holding his attention. She continued in her bothersome teasing about him liking a girl from the living world, and eventually, Hitsugaya got fed up and left. Unfortunately, Matsumoto followed.

"Hey, taicho," she said in a much more serious tone than she had used before. "Is it just me, or does that girl look a lot like Karin?" Hitsugaya checked.

"You think so too?" he asked, looking up at her. Matsumoto smiled.

"So you did notice! Is that why you were watching her?" Hitsugaya sighed.

"It's not just her looks," he explained. "It's everything about her. The way she talks, it's identical. Her movements, her actions, they're all the same. She's like her clone. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen."

"Taicho, you don't think…" she paused midsentence, thinking hard.

"Think what?" Hitsugaya prompted.

"Think that maybe, she's a reincarnation." Hitsugaya frowned.

"No," he stated flatly.

"Why not?" Matsumoto inquired. "If she seems so alike, then maybe…"

"She's not a reincarnation!" he barked. "That's impossible!" Matsumoto narrowed her eyes.

"That's a lie taicho," she said forcefully.

"What?" Hitsugaya sneered with authority. "How dare you…?"

"It's a lie and you know it!" Matsumoto continued, refusing to be intimidated. "Reincarnations happen sometimes, you know they do. They're rare, but they're not impossible. And Karin's death is already suspect because Kamikaze hung around for all those years! Come to think of it, that girl down there looked about eleven. Didn't Kamikaze disappear eleven years ago? So why don't you think…?"

"Because she can't be," Hitsugaya stated soundly. Matsumoto was relentless.

"Taicho, I just don't understand why you wouldn't jump at this chance! If this really is Karin's reincarnate, then maybe you can find a way to bring her memories back! Why wouldn't you…?"

"Because my heart can't handle it!" Hitsugaya cried. He paused, embarrassed at his confession, and he turned away from Matsumoto. "Because I can't afford to get my hopes up that maybe she's alive, because if it's not her…" he trailed off, not knowing exactly how to finish that sentence. "Because I don't want to think that maybe things will be different this time." Matsumoto gave him a compassionate look.

"Taicho," she said gently. "Your love for Karin has stayed strong all this time. I'm sure that, if her memories came back, Karin would still love you just as much as she did the day she died…" Hitsugaya shook his head.

"You don't understand Matsumoto," he said sadly. "She never loved me."

"Taicho!" Matsumoto gasped. "How can you say that?! Of course she loved you!"

"No," Hitsugaya stated firmly. "She was my friend, yes. She cared for me, yes. But she never loved me."

"How can you possibly say such a thing?" Matsumoto protested. "I saw you two together. I saw the way she looked at you. How can you even for one second think that she didn't love you?" Hitsugaya looked at the ground. He closed his eyes for a moment, lost in memories he didn't want to relive.

"She told me to kiss her," he said finally. "When she was dying."

"See!" Matsumoto exclaimed. "That proves it…"

"Are you not listening to me?" Hitsugaya snapped. "I said she told me to kiss her. Not asked, told. She knew I loved her. She knew it. And she wanted to grant me that one final wish before she died. That was all. It was for me, not for her." Hitsugaya breathed heavily. He had never told that to anyone, and he wondered why he spilling this secret now. Matsumoto gave him the most pitying look he had ever seen.

"Have you really been living all these years believing that taicho?" she asked painfully. "Karin loved you. And if you can't see that, then you're not as brilliant as everyone gives you credit for." Hitsugaya growled.

"And what on earth makes you think that?!" he asked dangerously. Matsumoto stood her ground.

"Taicho," she said gently. "Are you forgetting why she died?"

"How could I ever forget that?" he asked bitterly. "She died because that bastard sliced her in half!" Matsumoto shook her head.

"No," she said earnestly. "She died because she couldn't kill you." She paused for a moment to let that sink in properly, then continued.

"You knew Karin better than anyone. Do you honestly think for one second that she would have hesitated to kill the clone of anyone else? Is that not proof enough for you? She loved you taicho. I know she did." Hitsugaya squeezed his fists together tightly, refusing to allow himself to break down. Spilling his thoughts was one thing, but crying was out of the question.

"All the more reason why I don't deserve her," he said in a defeated voice.

"Huh?" Matsumoto asked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"She couldn't kill me," Hitsugaya continued. "But I had no problem killing her. I froze five of those clones to get to Murata. FIVE! Without thinking twice. Even if everything you're saying is true, which it isn't, I don't deserve to have her back."

"You're letting that scum bag's words get to you, aren't you?" Matsumoto spat with more venom than Hitsugaya had ever heard her put into her voice.

"So what?!" Hitsugaya shouted wildly. "So what if I'm listening to him? It doesn't change the fact that he was right!"

"You know what I think?" Matsumoto said knowingly. "I think you're scared." Hitsugaya shot her a threatening look.

"Scared?"

"Yes taicho. Scared. You don't want to get close to this girl because you're afraid that she is Karin and that if she regains her memories of her previous life, she won't love you as much as you love her. Or that she won't forgive you for killing a stupid clone in order to avenge her. And you'd rather believe that she's still dead than find her and face those issues head on. Is that really all your friendship meant to you? Is it not worth having her back if she doesn't love you?" Hitsugaya scowled but didn't respond. Matsumoto's words had struck him deeply.

"It doesn't matter anyway," he said at last. "Karin's dead. She's not coming back."

"But this reincarnate…" Matsumoto objected, but Hitsugaya cut her off.

"I said she's dead!" he yelled with finality. "That girl is not Karin. No matter how much I want her to be." Matsumoto sighed.

"Maybe you should ask Ukitake taicho what he knows about reincarnation," she suggested in a last desperate attempt. Hitsugaya sighed.

"Maybe I will," he lied, and both he and Matsumoto knew perfectly well that he had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

Next chapter is the last one that will be set in episode 132. I promise. I wasn't expecting it to take as long as it has, but there was just a lot of stuff I wanted to have happen. I hope you don't mind.