A/N: A lot of people to thank for reviews: hollownature, Quick-n-Popular, Quickslice, Scaehime, kurukurupa, curio cherry, Assault Godzilla, Kit Eliza King, GTR, Dragon and Sword Master, Kitakana, Black Sun Upon An Icy Sky, NieveDrop, novicestar, newserkzzz, Phantom Claire, minatoHaiiiiii, Kireina Ame, Just Watch Me, Moriko no Hikari, halobeast-117, jcampbellhten, Rukia's Reflection, darklover, , and onlytoask. And thank you to everyone who put this or its author on their lists. Ah, finally a chapter. It's short but don't worry, another should be coming soon. Well, a lot sooner than this one came.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Bleach characters, manga, anime, movies, etc. They belong by copyright laws to Tite Kubo et al.

The Kurosaki Affair

The Villains Make Their Move

Karin wiped the sweat from her face and took a long drink from her water bottle. Momo handed her another when it became apparent that the first one was empty and the soccer star was still thirsty. "You're really good at this, Kurosaki-san," she said softly, not wanting the nearby teammates to think she favored the dark haired girl over them.

"Been playing since I was little. Ichi-nii actually got me interested. He's really good at it too but I don't think he's touched a ball since high school. Toushiro's awesome at it as well."

"He's always been good at things like this. I think he really likes playing with you and your friends. Thank you for including him so readily. When we were children, the other kids were always afraid of him because of the color of his hair and eyes." The lieutenant took a sip of her own drink and pushed a stray hair out of her eyes. She'd given up wearing a cover over her hair bun as it fell off when she ran back and forth too much. Her childhood friend was making her work just as much as the players, taking the temporary coach position more seriously than she would have thought.

"No problem. He's cool once you get passed the whole 'It's Captain Hitsugaya to you' thing."

"Don't forget the 'Don't call me Shiro-kun' thing too."

Both girls laughed, drawing Toushiro's attention from his spot on the sidelines. Scrunching his brows in irritation, the tenth division leader was tempted to inquire about what they thought was so hilarious but thought better of it. "Get back to work, Kurosaki! You too, Hinamori!"

"Yes, yes, Shiro-kun," Momo answered, lifting a hand to count down to the moment he would explode. Predictably the vein in his forehead pulsed but somehow he managed not to respond like he usually did. "Well, drat, I thought for sure he would do it."

"He's gotten a better hold of his temper."

"Well, a lot of it has to do with Rangiku-san so being away from her must have a calming affect. That and the fact that he no longer looks like he belongs in elementary school."

Karin looked at the muscular captain who, although still shorter than her brother, looked very much like a young man. "No, he doesn't, does he?" she said, a slight heat in her cheeks that she decided was from exercise.

Momo looked at the princess and smiled gently. "He's really good looking, isn't he? It's alright to think so. I think he's really handsome too. Shiro-kun's always been cute so I knew he'd be fawned over by women when he got older. Don't tell him though, he'd just think you're nuts." With that she walked away, another player having called her name. There was a little pang in her heart and she hoped it wasn't what she thought it was. Being jealous of a woman her childhood friend only thought of as a friend wouldn't do.

Karin watched her go, wondering if the adjunct actually had feelings for the white haired captain despite her behavior. It'd be pretty sad if Hinamori loved Toushiro and he never noticed. Shrugging the thoughts away, the older Kurosaki sister went back to practice.

She'd save the relationship stuff to her sister.

While his sister enjoyed something she loved, Ichigo toiled under the disapproving eye of Ishida's father. The elder Ishida was keeping a close eye on him, whether because he was the next Spirit King or because he just hated him the orange haired doctor didn't know. So far he'd been stuck in the most hectic part of the hospital, the emergencies that continued to come in testing his abilities far more than medical school had.

Perhaps that had been Ishida-sensei's intent, wanting to know how he responded when there wasn't a battle to be fought. So far he'd manage to save all of his patients save for the little boy on his first day but he wasn't taking anything for granted. By the time he joined his father at the clinic, he wanted all the experience possible.

When he was finally able to go home, Ichigo bade his fellow doctors and nurses farewell and gave sigh of relief. Having returned, he walked into his house and looked around at the calm atmosphere. Suspicion immediately filled the daiko and he gazed meaningful at the captain sitting at the table filling out paperwork.

"Okay, where are the mod souls and what have you done with them?"

"I believe they are currently hovering about my sister. Rukia must return after dinner and I have gathered that they are not taking it well."

"No, I guess they wouldn't." They had decided on their wedding cake only a short while ago and Rukia's short time home had been cut even more because of his work schedule. If he didn't know better, he'd think Ishida senior enjoyed making him miss time with his fiancée.

"Anything important happen while I was gone?"

"Ise-fukutaicho called to remind you that you must begin being fitted for formal wear immediately along with your groomsmen. She also demanded to know exactly who they were so she could make a record of it for a reason that has escaped me."

"Right, got to get on that. I'll give her a ring tomorrow."

"The mail arrived with something that appears to be an invoice from the hotel."

"Really on top of things, aren't they?" Ichigo commented, glancing towards the stairs when he felt Rukia's spiritual energy come towards him. "Hey there. Making trouble, are they?" he asked, noticing that both Chappy and Kon were hanging off of her in their plush bodies.

"When aren't they? What's that?" Rukia asked, coming over to pursue the pile of mail. Her brother had brought it in for her, but she hadn't bothered to look at what had come.

"A bill," he replied absently, reading the list of itemized charges. "It seems our wedding cake is worth 203,560.06 yen."

"That's an expensive cake."

"It's alright. I'll send a check out tomorrow." Both siblings looked at him in surprise. "Hey, I can at least afford to buy dessert for our day."

"But Nii-sama is paying for it," she protested.

"He'll pay the really big bills. Let me fork something over for this."

"As you wish," Byakuya said, forestalling any more protests from his sister. He knew Ichigo wanted to contribute something.

"I thought we were going to use that plum sake that we had the night you proposed with the cake. That's going to be an awfully expensive bill…"

Both men looked at her, internally calculating the cost. With the majority of the sake enthusiasts from the Gotei Thirteen present for the reception, it was sure to be an astronomical amount. "You're buying it!" Ichigo yelled.

"Very well," the older man agreed.

"We could always go without…" Her brother looked at her in horror. "Right, forget I said that."

Ichigo was about to comment on her lapse in common sense when a disturbance in the spiritual balance of his family shot his attention in the direction of his sister Karin. "Kuso…"

"Ichigo?"

Grabbing Kon from his perch, the prince started digging for his soul pill. "Karin's in trouble."

"Ichigo," Byakuya started, surprising the other two by using the daiko's first name. "You must allow others to act in your stead. Hitsugaya and Hinamori are with her, they will not let anything happen."

"But…"

"Trust them, Ichigo," Rukia commanded, her voice firm. "I know you want to be there, but these will be your people one day. You must show them that you trust in their abilities now as you have always done."

"I hate it when you're right."

"Really? I would have thought you'd be used to it by now."

Karin stared at the young man in front of her, his smirk irritating her more than disturbing her as it no doubt was meant to. "So you're the bastard that's been stalking me. I thought I felt someone following me around. What do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked, pulling a video game player from his pocket. Several beeps indicated that some sort of program was starting and the dark haired young woman merely stared at him.

"You want to play a game?"

"Well, it's a game to me. You're not going to like it but then, you won't be alive long enough for it to matter."

"Oi, Yukio, just kill her already. There are two others with spiritual powers headed this way and one is really strong." A female, a little older than Yukio entered the scene out of breath; either having had trouble catching up or having tried to out run Toushiro and Momo.

Karin smirked, taking her soccer ball out of its net bag. She'd only get one shot with it so she knew that it had to count. "You're right, I don't like this game you think you're playing but you're wrong if you think that I'm just going to stand around like a helpless damsel." Gathering her energy like she'd been taught, the elder princess aimed her shot like a pro. Surprised at the attack, her stalker barely managed to hang onto his toy.

"Hey!" he cried, put out that he hadn't seen the attack coming.

"Serves you right," his companion laughed, a small toy-like gun appearing in her hand.

"Shut up, Riruka."

"Hold it right there!" another voice interrupted, a giant ice dragon making an appearance. A ball of fire joined the fray, alerting Karin to the fact that her guards had arrived.

"Oh, you're in for it now." Two mod souls in gigais drew Karin to safety on Toushiro's orders and the princess decided she'd let them take care of the bad guys. It'd be more amusing to see how quickly a lieutenant and captain of the Soul Society beat up a couple of lowlifes.

It would serve them right for messing with the next Soul King's sister.