While some people who go snowboarding for the first time might feel apprehensive or nervous as the lift begins taking them up the mountain, Karin only felt excited. She loved the feeling of the wind rushing past her face and the slight rush of adrenaline that came from dangerous situations like this.
It also might have helped that she thought Toshiro looked surprisingly good in his snow gear. Seeing him only ever wear his shinigami uniform (and occasionally mortal clothing) made the difference obvious.
The lift began to slow down and Karin used the method Toshiro had explained to her to slide off, barely stumbling as she went. Toshiro did the same- though looking a million times more graceful- and helped her get out of the way for the next group coming up.
The mountain was, thankfully, not overly crowded, but not desolate enough that a bunch of shops had closed. Karin thought they had picked- not that they had any actual choice in the matter- the perfect time to come up. Toshiro turned his teal eyes towards her and began reiterating his explanation of how to buckle the other boot in. Following his instructions, Karin found herself firmly attached to the board, even after jumping a few times to test its stability.
"Doesn't it worry you that we have less mobility with these on? I mean, it's similar with skis but at least then I can move my feet apart."
"It would be dangerous to have this on in a fight, but at this point I'm fairly confident we'd be able to destroy anything that came our way without leaving the boards or we'd be able to buy enough time to take them off. The important thing is that you notice if a hollow is coming before it does-"
"You know I'm terrible at sensing."
"Yes, I do." Toshiro confirmed with a small smile, "In fact, I'm half-tempted to believe the only one worse at it than you is your brother." Karin sent him a glare that did little more than make him smile. On the inside, however, she was a little happy her boyfriend was actually relaxed enough to try teasing her back. That rarely happened between the two of them before now.
"But you might be surprised," he finished, "you actually have a surprising amount of mobility on the snowboard."
Karin tilted her head slightly, accepting his explanation. The wind rushed past and made everyone- except, obviously, Toshiro- shiver.
"Should we get this lesson started then?" Karin asked, pushing herself off the snow. While she was here to learn snowboarding she had to keep in mind that the bigger goal was to allow herself and Toshiro to relax.
Toshiro nodded at her and began to show her how to shift her weight for turns, along with a reminder to, for now, keep her left leg forward while snowboarding. Once Karin felt confident with her ability the two of them began to slowly make long, wide turns down the mountain.
Toshiro, after he saw Karin was getting it, began to do simple helicopter spins to keep himself occupied. Left foot forward, then turn until your back is facing down, then keep turning until your left foot is forward, then repeat the process.
Soon, as he grew more comfortable with snowboarding again, he was making faster and faster turns while simultaneously keeping an eye on Karin. He loved the way he could control his movements differently on the snowboard in comparison to how he would for parkour. Karin was, similarly, having fun testing out what she could do.
After starting off with slow, easy turns Karin began to make smaller and faster ones, increasing her speed as she grew more comfortable. Soon, Karin was maneuvering down the mountain as fast as she felt like she could go. The wind rushed past her hair as she made turns by marginally shifting her weight back and forth.
The blast of adrenaline coursing through her veins caused her to smile in a way that she normally only did while playing soccer. While nowhere near as fast as she could go while using shunpo, there was something about the different experience that made it even more fun.
She could keep going like this forever. It was cool out that day, but the sun helped resist against the frigid air that shot past her face. At times like this Karin was glad her gigai was strong enough that it did not need a helmet or goggles to cover it. Now she could feel everything that-
Karin was weightless. It only lasted for a half second but it was long enough for her to snap out of the excitement she had clouded her mind with. In that second she realized she had just slipped on an icy part of the run and quickly forced herself to stop.
Even if that meant falling down in the process.
Toshiro pulled up beside her, quickly checking her over for injuries with a simple scan. It was highly unlikely her gigai could have gotten damaged from that, and Toshiro had been watching to make sure nothing else happened. While Karin had been going fast, it was still the easiest run, so there was a limit to her speed.
Lucky, or she might have hurt someone else.
"Are you done?" He asked her with an almost-patronizing raised eyebrow that made Karin scowl.
"I was just seeing how fast I could go."
"The only reason you were able to stop yourself from falling is because of your training. Anyone else would probably have soared through the air and started rolling down the mountain."
"Good thing you taught me how to stop then!" Karin replied with a smirk. Toshiro rolled his eyes and turned away to see how much longer the run went on. While he had has back turned, Karin scooped up some snow and pressed it together in her hands.
Using one hand to shade his eyes despite the sunglasses he was wearing, Toshiro saw Karin had made it most of the way down the run and only had a little farther to go. Hopefully, she would not try to go as fast, he had to stop his helicopters when he realized she was no longer next to him.
He began to turn around to tell her when, seemingly out of nowhere, he was hit. Barely keeping his balance, he felt something cold and wet running down his shirt.
Quickly turning, he saw a self-satisfied, smirking Karin pushing together another ball of snow. She looked up at him and they made eye contact, and he could see the challenge in her eyes.
Then he was hit with another one and really did fall over.
The cold did not bother him but the wet part was really starting to get annoying. Karin looked to be quickly trying to put together another snowball, but Toshiro refused to get hit again.
"You picked to wrong person to play this game with." He whispered, sending a bit of his reiatsu above her and creating a ball of snow the size of her head. While snow was harder for him to create than ice it was still well within his capabilities in small amounts.
Karin jumped a little when the snow came down on her head and she turned to her boyfriend with a flabbergasted expression, almost as if she had not believed he would join her in her fun.
She noticed his reiatsu mixed in with the snow covering her and glared at him.
"Oh that is all kinds of unfair."
"You started it." He said back, surprising even himself at the fact that he was using such a childish excuse. Karin seemed to take that as an open invitation and immediately unbuckled her self from the snowboard.
Realizing he would be at a huge strategic disadvantage if he did not Toshiro rushed to do the same. Karin, finishing first, threw another snowball that, this time, hit him in the eyes and temporarily removed is vision.
Despite that, Toshiro was able to escape his snowboard and back off, wiping the water off his face as he went. The slope was practically empty at the moment, so the two of them felt like they could reveal a bit more of their true capabilities.
That; or Karin just did not feel like playing pretend anymore and Toshiro was willing to join her.
Soon, a massive snowball war had broken out, with Toshiro having built a glorious, decorated snow fort- with dragon ice sculptures, obviously- and Karin having used her power to remove the snow between then, creating a canyon that acted as a bit of a divider.
Karin aimed several snowballs, but none of them were able to get past the fort Toshiro had created. Scowling for a moment, Karin then decided to test it's limits.
Within a minute a rain of snowballs was assaulting Toshiro's fort in a desperate attempt to make it break. Karin allowed a bit more of her soul's strength to show in her gigai and began to run around and create snowballs at impossible - for a human- speeds.
"Remember, you can't use your powers anywhere over the line!" She yelled out, smiling when Toshiro's "okay" was mostly drowned out by her storm of terror.
Well, not that it terrified Toshiro, but Kairn prefered thinking of it that way.
The lack of progress Karin was making on destroying the snow fort frustrated her, but then an idea- an idea Toshiro would call dangerous, suicidal (though they're already dead) and risky but that is beside the point- came to her and she decided to see if it would work.
Karin abruptly stopped her snowballs throwing and ran in the opposite direction. Toshiro, curious, leaned out from behind his fort with one eyebrow raised in hopes of seeing what Karin was trying to do.
For a brief second, a flash of worry coursed through him as he wondered if what she was going to try to do could lead to her getting hurt. He squashed that thought a second later, trying to reassure himself that she would know better than to use enough force to possibly put himself in danger.
Though it is kinda hard to reassure yourself when you, yourself, know that you are lying.
A loud crack echoed through the mountains as a wave or reiatsu pressed down on everyone nearby for a fraction of a second. Karin had probably done her long distance attack that resembled her family's 'Getsuga Tensho'.
Though what she used it for was a mystery until Toshiro squinted his eyes and saw a wave of snow heading their way. It was from the side no one used as a slope and Toshiro and Karin could both feel there were no living creatures on the path between them.
That thought did not help Toshiro with the fact that dozens of gallons of snow were headed this way, likely due to Karin hitting it off a taller cliff. Honestly, with the risks involving civilian witnesses and general destruction he hadn't considered her doing this as a possibility.
Looking back on it, she probably had expected him to have that mindset.
Toshiro kneeled down, hoping to be able to dodge at the last second. When it got closer he could see that Karin was… snowboarding on it. She had picked up her board and using her powers to make a reishi platform whenever she started to fall.
For a brief second Toshiro was about to begin barking orders to stop at her, but then he stopped. They were on vacation, not at work. The point of their being there was only to relax, if this helped why stop her.
So instead Toshiro gave a large sigh, not completely understanding why he had chosen to do this, and ran to pick up his own snowboard. The more logical part of his mind felt like this was a bad idea and the emotional side seemed to agree,- even if some might say the ice captain had no emotions- but Toshiro allowed a rare moment of what Karin would simply describe as 'fun' to overrule that.
He came to have fun with Karin because he liked her. Somehow that emotion was able to overpower the embarrassment and nervousness and all the other emotions telling him this was a bad idea.
In. Out. He took a deep breath to center himself, then used shunpo to appear above the snow wave and dropped down next to Karin. She was startled by him at first, but soon accepted it and began to copy his movements as they tumbled down the mountain.
There was not enough snow to last, so soon they were back on the normal mountain runs again, though Karin's expression was now one ofcomplete joy.
"...I can't believe I did that…" Toshiro whispered, almost exasperated with his own actions. Karin's smile grew, glad that she was able to help her boyfriend finally relax.
"We're still technically kids in the eyes of Soul Society-"
"Soul Society doesn't have any laws that allow minors off easy. The law of Soul Society recognizes us as adults, especially given the positions that we work."
"Sure, but the people in Soul Society tend to recognize us as kids. You might as well act like one when no one's around, even if you refuse to do that when we're in public."
Toshiro had to admit she had a bit of a point and decided to say nothing. It was pointless, meaningless, dangerous and accomplished nothing. The only upside was that he and Karin had… fun.
"If you keep living life the way you are now you'll never be happy." Karin lectured him- which was odd, he was rarely the one who got the lecture- and began to unstrap herself from her board.
"And what if you got the attention of the mortal governments. Surely they would notice a bit of snow randomly starting to fall?"
"Don't worry about that, I used an area that was about to fall within the next month at most and just gave it and extra push. I'm pretty sure the park left it because it would have fallen in a direction no one ever goes to, but I decided to slightly alter that direction so it would be sent toward you. The most they would be confused about is why their prediction of where it was going to fall was wrong, not two people who decided to snowboard on it."
After spending several seconds thinking over that information, Toshiro conceded and decided that she probably used enough measures to keep it from developing into too big a problem.
Not that the government would be able to find anything anyway. Any possible files a world government had on the two of them would make no sense; Karin did not look 25 and Toshiro definitely did not look 100 + years old. There was nothing the governments could really do to the two of them anyway, they just wipe memories or leave their gigais and no one in the human world could stop them.
Sometimes, Toshiro wondered if this was a bit of what Kanna and Takahiro had been so mad about. Soul Society had all the power to do anything it wanted to, but it never made an attempt to fix the human world or the ryukongai.
The human world was understandable, telling people about the afterlife before they died was a recipe for disaster, especially with how dedicated many were to their religions. But the ryukongai…
The only reason more was not being done for that was because many shinigami were used to the way things worked. They would get up in the morning and go to hunt hollows or fill out paperwork. No reason to change that schedule just based on a few bad memories from their childhood growing up in a bad town. They were busy enough already. In fact, the only reason work had started to be done on the ryukongai was because of a combined effort between Ichigo Kurosaki (and company, as always), Kuchiki Rukia, Abarai Renji, Kyoraku and Toshiro. Most of the other captains were either indifferent or too busy to spend much time helping.
Toshiro supposed it was lucky that the Central Forty-Six was too terrified of Ichigo to simply write off any suggestion he made. Though it did make him wonder what would have happened if Ichigo had not been there to kick start the whole project and give Toshiro enough time to gain political knowledge to support him.
As far as he could tell; nothing. Nothing would have changed or been done.
If that happened… would Kanna and Takahiro be on the morally right side of this conflict?
His train of thought was abruptly cut off when he felt a snowball crash into the side of his face. Startled, he immediately jumped to his feet to eliminate the threat, but all he saw was Karin calmly sit down beside him.
"You're thinking again." She told him, and before he could snap back with a sarcastic retort, she continued. "We have a lot of things to think over, so that's fine. Just make sure you don't start getting depressed or doubting yourself because of it, that's when you know you're thinking too much."
"Isn't the point of thinking things over to make sure you're doing the right thing? Why is doubting myself suddenly such a big deal?" He asked as he wiped some snow from his face.
"Because we made our decision and now I'm sticking to it!" It was not a yell, but with all the conviction thrown in it might as well have been. Karin was glaring, her thoughts lighting a bit of a fire in her body, and Toshiro could see she had clenched her fists.
Ah, so this was just as much advice to her as it was to him.
Hesitating for a moment, he reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a little squeeze. "Let's just head back to the lodge, okay?"
Karin glanced back, suspicion clear on her face, then, seemingly realizing what Toshiro was doing, agreed with a simple nod of the head. Toshiro's teal eyes turned to their surroundings as he gazed with disinterest at the surrounding area behind them.
The snow was creating a white covering that was decorated with footprints of all sizes. Around some of the larger trees was a hole, created by the melted snow around the trees. It was almost relaxing to see the flat, unmoving surface and general quiet that was in the area.
The piercing, animalistic roar of a hollow resounded through the resort.
Toshiro and Karin instantly moved faster than human eyes could track and stood back to back, crouched and ready to attack or defend at a moment's notice. None of the few surrounding civilians had high enough spiritual energy to hear the hollow, so they continued what they had been doing without a care in the world.
While better than outright panic, it did cause there to be several areas Toshiro and Karin would need to defend if a fight did break out.
Toshiro, being the better at sensing spiritual pressures between the two, sent his senses out until he found the only things that could have made the sound he was so used to hearing; five hollows had swarmed together and were chasing after several souls.
"Do we interfere?" Karin asked, causing Toshiro to nod a steady affirmative. There was no telling how long it would take the shinigami stationed in this area to arrive, especially considering it was not Japan. When outside of the spiritual hotspot shinigami tended to be spread relatively far and wide. He made eye contact with Karin and saw her concentration, then disappeared in a rapid shunpo, confident in her abilities to catch up to him.
Based on the number of hollows, it was likely one of them was a higher leveled one controlling the others and coordinating- at least, as much as a hollow could- their attack. When Toshiro stopped, he could see his suspicions confirmed by the sight in front of him.
The only up-side was that even the higher-level hollow was still a long way from becoming an arrancar.
"Karin, we each take out two lower hollows and then we'll work together for the higher one. Try not to release your zanpakuto, I don't know if the people living here could handle such a sudden increase in spiritual pressure," Toshiro commanded as he exited his gigai and saw Karin do the same. "And don't forget you're still healing and on leave… be careful."
"I know, you too!" Karin called right before she vanished to do her part. Toshiro shook his thoughts clear and went to go attack the hollows on his side who were gaining on an innocent soul.
An attack from one hollow completely destroyed the trees a civilian soul was using to protect itself. Faced with the sudden realization that their protection had been completely uprooted without resistance, the soul did little more than give a terrified yell before the monster that he was sure would end his oh-so-short afterlife.
At least, until Karin appeared directly in between him and the hollow and defended against the hollow's incoming attack. As she pushed the attack back, Karin felt a sharp pain in her chest and clicked her teeth in annoyance. Even a weak hollow like this was a challenge for her in her current state.
Well, challenge might not be the right word.
Powered slightly by her annoyance, Karin sent several perfectly-executed slices to the hollow's arm and finally ended with severing it completely. The hollow roared in pain and backed off to safety, its natural survival instincts taking over for the time being.
Karin raised her zanpakuto before the hollow and took a deep breath. Other than her injuries, the fact that she could not release her sword was a bit of a limitation. Luckily, there was more seperating a third seat from a new shinigami than just their ability to release their zanpakuto. No way would she lose in a sword fight to a hollow of this level.
The second hollow she was after then moved, leaving Karin only barely enough time to move the soul behind her to safety. She mentally berated herself for becoming overconfident for a second, especially considering the handicap of her injury.
In a quick flash of silver Karin sent an attack to the ground which created a miniature earthquake and made the hollows once again back off, if only temporarily.
Without wasting a second Karin sent the soul- who was now staring at her with an unreasonable amount of worship- to safety and continued fighting the two hollows.
One of them attacked and she easily dodged, ducking underneath and moving in close, before she sent a powerful attack upwards from her position underneath it. The mask instantly shattered.
The second hollow, now increasingly wary of her after the death of the first, began to back off and attempt to gain distance. Before it could, Karin moved above it and attacked down, much more aggressive now that she did not need to worry about an attack.
Turning her head, Karin saw that Toshiro had already dealt with the two he went after and was currently in battle with the boss. She could tell he was focusing a large amount of energy keeping his reiatsu from affecting the surrounding physical area.
And, you know, killing everyone in a hundred meter radius through frostbite.
As they were on a vacation (1) they did not have Soul Society to keep their reiatsu from affecting the world of the living and changing any memories they needed to. That, unfortunately, made fighting much more difficult than it would otherwise be.
Karin quickly drew closer and joined the fight, ignoring the slight pain still present in her chest. As she aimed an attack at the hollow's leg Toshiro gave it a large wound across its arm, rendering it immobile. Without hesitating for a second Toshiro appeared above it and sliced the mask cleanly in two.
"Show off," Karin teased and smirked as Toshiro rolled his eyes. He gave her his usual unimpressed look, but Karin's experience with seeing that look allowed her to spot the hint of amusement in his eyes.
In the next instant they were surrounded, three shinigami forming a triangle and seemingly trying to decide whether to fight them or protect them. Karin correctly assumed they were confused about some shinigami they had never met before being in their assigned area.
Finally one of the shinigami decided that with the recent report of traitors it was best to play it safe and yelled, "Who are you?!"
"Captain of Squad Ten, Hitsugaya Toshiro," said person calmly stated in his usual 'work voice'. Karin held herself back from teasing him about it and continued in the same tone of voice.
"And Kurosaki Karin, third seat of Squad Ten. We were allowed a leave of absence to the world of the living by the Captain Commander."
Her words seemed to spark a memory in the shinigami as their eyes briefly showed confusion, then recognition, then surprise and awe, and finally embarrassment.
"We are very sorry Hitsugaya Taicho!" They yelled, snapping to attention. This time, Karin could not help breaking her calm mask and rolling her eyes.
She saw the soul she had saved peak out from behind a tree along with the soul she knew Toshiro had saved just a moment ago. The shinigami continued to prattle on apologies and "I'm-so-sorry-taicho-we-should-have-recognized- you- right- away- we- will- do- anything- to- make- it- up" until Karin gave a long, tired sigh and made eye contact with Toshiro.
So much for a work free vacation.
1) Yeah, okay, so I completely made that up. Don't quote me on this, don't think that's how it actually works. It might work that way, but I don't think it does. I honestly don't remember. I'm pretty sure in the original they just didn't care about the destruction they caused in their battles because Ichigo kept tearing up the landscape of Karakura whenever he fought Grimmjow or any other hollows that appeared. I could be wrong though, who knows.