Rangiku woke up with a headache, though not as bad as she would've expected. She looked around and was surprised to see herself neatly tucked into a hotel bed, rather than being clumsily laid out somewhere. As she looked around the room, she noticed that there was another bed that was empty.
"Oh, good morning," Akio walked out of the hotel's bathroom, he seemed to have just showered. His hair was wet and fell over his face, and he was shirtless, though he did at least have a pair of sweatpants on.
"Morning, Akio," Rangiku replied, stretching and getting out of bed, she looked around, overall the room was far more orderly than what she was used to waking up to after a night of drinking.
"Apparently my zanpakuto took control of me last night after we were both drunk, it decided to make sure we got to a hotel safe and sound," Akio explained, having noticed Rangiku's confusion.
"I see…" That explained a lot. Rangiku chucked to herself, "Tell her I said thank you."
"You can tell her yourself if you want, I can just take us into my inner world quickly," Akio offered.
"Sure, why not," Rangiku shrugged, it was an interesting experience, being in Akio's inner world, so she had no reason to decline.
Akio walked over to Rangiku and tapped her forehead, and in a moment they were both within Akio's inner world. It looked a bit messier than usual, and Kagayaku Yari was sweeping a broom across some debris a few meters away.
"Uhm, Miss Kagayaku Yari?" Rangiku asked, she wasn't entire sure how to address Akio's zanpakuto to be honest.
"Just Kagayaku Yari is fine," The zanpakuto smiled and stopped sweeping, "What brings you here?"
"Uh- Thank you for making sure Akio and I got to a hotel safe and sound last night," Rangiku responded.
"Of course. Once Akio got blackout, I decided it was best to take control and make sure that you two didn't do anything you'd regret," Kagayaku Yari replied, glancing over at Akio.
"Hey, I still have self-control when drunk!" Akio's face flushed at the implications of what Kagayaku Yari had just said.
"Yes I'm sure you both do, but it's better safe than sorry," The zanpakuto smirked a bit before turning back to Rangiku.
"Well, thank you for that Kagayaku Yari!" Rangiku grinned, "If we know that we can count on you to get us home safely from bars…"
"Please don't make this into an every night thing, you have no idea how hard it was to make Akio's body listen to me. Even with my mind, the body itself was still drunk," the zanpakuto groaned.
"I promise not to make you do this often. I just forgot how much harder alcohol hits when I'm in a gigai," Akio said.
"Good. Also whenever you get drunk this place becomes a mess. You will help clean it up," Kagayaku Yari ordered Akio.
"Am I free to go?" Rangiku asked.
"Of course, dear, go get some water and headache medicine," The zanpakuto smiled kindly at Rangiku before turning back to Akio, "And you. Go get a broom and start fixing this place up!"
Rangiku laughed as Akio released her from his inner world, and she returned to the physical world.
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A week went by before Hitsugaya got any important information from Karin. She updated him daily with whatever she learned, but as they'd expected, the new recruits were kept in the dark about a lot of happenings.
Hitsugaya had been informed that Karin would be going on her first mission soon, and he arranged to have the soul reapers there be conveniently occupied, as the mission was simply a theft operation. This would ensure that she succeeded and Hitsugaya was willing to take the blame for whatever was stolen.
Hitsugaya looked up abruptly as the door to his office opened. Akio and Rangiku entered, they often arrived at the office around the same time, and Akio immediately bowed his head to Hitsugaya.
"At ease Akio. You don't need to greet me like that every morning," Hitsugaya half-smiled to himself.
"I am aware," Akio responded.
"I heard from Karin," Hitsugaya decided to get right into business.
"What'd she say?" Rangiku asked, seeming interested.
"She was assigned to her first mission soon, and she'll be reporting directly to an officer in the family for it. I've made arrangements from outside to make sure her mission goes smoothly without seeming suspicious," Hitsugaya explained.
"Smart. Has she learned anything else of value?" Akio asked.
"Nothing much yet. The family is careful, though Karin is a prodigy that I'm sure they'll realize they can't pass up," Hitsugaya answered.
"You seem to have very high opinions of Karin," Akio noted.
Hitsugaya's face flushed at the observation, and he quickly turned his head to hide it, "I'm just stating the obvious. Anyone can see that she's a prodigy."
"You aren't wrong, I should know, I trained her briefly after all," Akio chuckled to himself. Hitsugaya may be a captain in soul society, but he still could not hide his emotions no matter how he tried.
"Regardless, this is huge for us. If Karin can identify some of the officers, we can investigate into their true histories and motives, and we can expose them to the citizens of Rukongai, and hopefully strip the Takanashi family of their popularity," Hitsugaya leaned forward in his chair, "and once that happens, we essentially have a green light to take military action against them."
"So you're saying she's almost done with her mission? That's wonderful!," Rangiku grinned, "I bet you're excited."
Hitsugaya's face turned red again and he tried to scowl at Rangiku, but couldn't manage to make himself look actually angry, "Of course. She's a friend so it's only natural I want her safe."
Before Rangiku could tease Hitsugaya any further, Akio cut in, "if you have the time, Captain Hitsugaya, I think we should have our training session for today soon."
"Splendid idea Akio. Let me finish up this form then we can begin," Hitsugaya was grateful for Akio's intervention, and turned his attention to his paperwork as Rangiku seated herself and began to start on her paperwork.
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Karin watched as a handful of soul reapers patrolled the perimeter of the mansion she was supposed to break into. Toshiro had informed her that he would arrange for things to be easy on her side, without seeming suspicious, so Karin had no doubts that she would be able to complete the mission. She was supposed to steal a document that would supposedly contain classified information about the experiments of Squad 12. The mansion was outside of the walls of the Seireitei and was actually a cover for a laboratory.
Karin had been paired up with a more experienced member of the family, though apparently they were only there as a means to monitor her, and were not supposed to actually help her. That was fine by her, she didn't really think that she actually needed the help anyway.
Karin easily flash stepped inside. She was fast enough that she could simply move faster than the guards could see. She forced open a window, entering the room and making sure that no one was inside.
Karin sighed in relief as she saw that the room was empty. According to the scouting that had been done on the mansion, there was reason to believe that the document she was after would be stored in the basement, meaning Karin had to make her way down from the top floor to the basement. She could feel herself being watched, and she noticed that the other operative had entered the room behind her. She hadn't even noticed that happening, which was a bit unsettling, to be honest.
Karin exited the room and quickly checked the hallway, making sure that it was clear. She heard talking below, but there seemed to only be two or three voices, far less than what she assumed there would usually be. Karin made her way down the stairs, reaching the ground floor. The mansion's size was both an advantage and a disadvantage for her. On one hand, she had a large amount of space she could use to hide from any guards. On the other hand, she did not know where the entrance to the basement was, and it could take her a while to find it.
Karin made her way down various halls, searching for stairs leading to the basement. Just as she believed that she had exhausted every hall, she heard voices talking behind her. Karin quickly hid in a nearby wardrobe, moving away from the doors of it as she focused on listening to the voices. Her back pressed up against the back of the wardrobe, but when her weight applied pressure to it, the back pressed in like a sort of button, before quickly sliding to the right, causing Karin to nearly fall down a flight of stone stairs. Karin turned to look at the operative who was there to monitor her, only to realize that he was gone. She honestly had no idea when he had disappeared, she couldn't even remember if he had entered into the wardrobe with her or not.
Karin carefully and slowly made her way down the stairs, and into the cellar. It was dimly lit by candles, and there were various desks with papers strewn about all over them. Each desk reminded her of how Rangiku's desk looked.
Karin went from desk to desk, looking over each of the papers. Most of them were worthless, just letters of communication. She supposed that the Takanashi family probably could find some use for them, but the more papers she stole, the quicker the theft would be noticed. Karin did not find the document she was looking for after searching each desk, and just when she was about to go over each desk again, a small gap in a wall caught her eye.
She approached the gap and pressed into the wall where it was. The brick she pressed on opened up like a drawer, and inside was the document she wanted. Karin took the document, folding it neatly and putting it inside her robe. She heard movement behind her, and spun around, only to notice that it was her observer. He simply nodded at her, and the two made their way out of the mansion. Getting out was of course far easier than getting in was.
Once they were a short distance away from the mansion, her partner turned to speak to her.
"You passed. Tomorrow at noon you will have a meeting with the officers of the family. They wish to evaluate your personality so that they may decide if they wish to allow you to be groomed to become an officer."
"Wait what? I had no idea this was a test," Karin lied, she had a pretty good idea that she was being tested, but she believed that acting dumber than she actually was would only help her investigation.
"Don't play dumb. You're clearly smart and capable, Mr. Takaza has decided to sponsor you in your journey. If you don't pass this evaluation, he takes the blame. If you do pass then fail to perform, he also takes the blame. If you fail and cause him shame, I will kill you."
That name surprised Karin. Takaza was the one who had assigned her this mission. He was also an officer, which made sense as from what Karin had found out so far, only officers could recommend another member to become an officer.
"Ooh scary," Karin began, wanting to punch the man, to be honest, "I'll keep that in mind."
"You had better. Now, back to the mission. We aren't done yet, you still need to return to base."
"Of course," Karin sighed and began running back to the base she had left from, she was getting tired of these people, they were all so tiresome.
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Hitsugaya thought Karin was taking an unnecessary risk by recording the hearing with the officers of the Takanashi family, but she reassured him that she'd be safe and that he would be able to listen in by phone call the whole time in case something went wrong. She reasoned that if her phone was in its disguised form, no one would even bother to stop. At worst, if the fan was confiscated, they wouldn't know how to turn it into a phone, which was done with a unique pattern of small reiatsu emissions that Karin had memorized.
Even so, Hitsugaya was still worried. He clearly showed it as well, since Akio and Rangiku had repeatedly tried to reassure him that everything would go fine and that he was just overthinking things.
Hitsugaya listened to the meeting while it was happening. They asked Karin what her goals were, and she apparently decided to tell them what they would most likely want to hear. That she hated the Gotei 13 and the 4 Noble families and wanted them gone and out of power. When they asked her what lengths she would go to in order to achieve this, she said that she would do anything it took.
When they asked her if she would be willing to sacrifice lives in order to achieve the goal, she said she was. And when she was asked if she would be willing to kill a soul reaper who had nothing to do with the governance of the Gotei 13 or the noble families, if she'd be willing to kill a soul reaper who really was innocent of any wrongdoings, Karin replied that there was no such thing as an innocent soul reaper.
She passed their evaluations wonderfully, giving them all the perfect answers. Even though Hitsugaya knew she was just acting, hearing her say those words still sent a chill down his spine.
Regardless, this was good. This had to be enough, they could work with this to remove the credibility of the Takanashi family and take away their public support. After Karin ended the call, he turned to Akio and Rangiku to see what they had to say about it.
"Captain…" Akio began. He sounded disappointed and Hitsugaya really didn't like that, "I don't… I don't think that was enough. There was nothing in there explicitly stating that they don't care about Rukongai."
"It should at least be enough for the people to begin having doubts, right?" Hitsugaya asked, though he already knew the answer.
"It's really not," Rangiku answered solemnly, "Are we even sure that we'll find what we're looking for? I mean, there are reasons to hate us, and it wouldn't be hard to get what you want while also helping Rukongai."
"I truly hope we get what we need, or else we have to come up with drastic measures," Akio replied.
"Like what?" Hitsugaya asked.
"I destroy the family, then you all kill me and play the role of the heroes while I become a scapegoat," Akio suggested.
"Absolutely not," Rangiku replied immediately, and Hitsugaya was surprised at the speed with which she made her decision.
"I'd rather not do that either, so let's all hope that we find what we're looking for," Akio agreed.
"So what do we tell Karin?" Hitsugaya asked, "I really don't want to have to ask her to do anything even more dangerous."
"She can handle herself," Akio reminded Hitsugaya.
"I hope so. I'll ask her to try to snoop around and find something more concrete," Hitsugaya decided.
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Karin crept through the halls of the building she was in that night. She had been moved to the same building that the officers lived in. Her mission now was to steal any sort of incriminating information on the officers, information that could be distributed to Rukongai that would cause the Takanashi family to lose the support of the masses.
No matter how this ended, she would probably have her cover blown by the end of the night, but that didn't matter. Her goal this whole time had been to get close enough to the living quarters of the officers, close enough to their personal documents that she could steal.
Karin reached the second floor, where she knew that being caught would mean failure. There was no way she would be able to talk her way out of being found here. She needed to go further up still, there were at least three more floors that she had to ascend before she would be on the same floor as the personal living quarters of the officers.
All of this information had been given to her during her briefing of where she was and was not allowed to go in the mansion. There was not a huge amount of security in the interior of the building, but each officer was very strong within their own right, so there didn't need to be much security.
Karin reached the top floor with minimal effort. She had used flash step if anyone had gotten close to her, and thanks to Yoruichi's stealth training, this was all a joke to her. It was so easy that she would even bet that Yoruichi could do it with her eyes closed.
Karin knew that this was when things would start to get difficult. She went by each door, using her sensory abilities in an attempt to see if any rooms lacked any sort of reiatsu inside, and found that only two did. She entered the closest one but found the room completely empty and abandoned. She really hoped that wouldn't be the case with the other one as well.
Karin entered the other room and found that it was very much not empty. There were bookshelves everywhere, and a bed that looked as if it had been used recently.
Karin saw a desk and began looking at the papers on it. There were various letters, all of them only had one name on them, either the "to" or "from" was empty on all of them, as if whoever lived in this room simply did not have a name.
Karin realized that this must've been his room, and she quickly grabbed as many letters as she could, many of them seeming to detail plans of attack, even referring to using the citizens of Rukongai as a human shield at points.
"My my, it looks as if there's a thief among thieves here," A voice that was unnaturally smooth spoke.
Karin whipped around and saw a man with king purple hair and green eyes. She could immediately tell that it was him. The one whose name was stolen by the leader of Squad 0. Karin didn't bother trying to respond or fight, she just leaped out the window and ran.
A gust of wind alerted her to the fact that he had caught up. Karin instinctively ducked as a sword slash traveled through the area where her body would've been, carving a path through trees in the distance.
"I knew that there was a traitor in our ranks, but I didn't think it was you, I admit you played your role very well," the man laughed, "but I want those letters, so give them to me."
"Oh? So I must be onto something if you want these letters back so bad," Karin cast a kido that sent a dragon made of lighting at the man, but it was blocked by the man's reiatsu.
"Impressive, tell me, what is your name? I want to send a personalized letter to Akio, detailing exactly how I killed you."
"Karin Kurosaki," Karin grinned, "the last name you'll ever hear."
"Kurosaki huh? That explains how you learned so quickly. It makes no difference, perhaps I'll send your head to your brother and your body to squad 10."
"That still won't save you," Karin stated confidently, though as other officers and members of the Takanashi family made their way outside, she was doubting her chances of surviving this. So be it. She was a human, she'd be revived as a soul anyways, and she had no doubt that Toshiro would manage to find her again.
Karin began amassing reiatsu to cast a powerful kido. One that she hadn't truly mastered yet. Upon seeing this, Takaza, the officer who sponsored Karin, flash stepped behind her, attempting to stop whatever attack she was charging.
All according to plan. Karin ducked the attack, she didn't need to worry about missing her own attack, because she wasn't attacking. The letters in her hand suddenly disappeared.
"Destroying the letters won't do you any good," Takaza sneered, but the purple-haired man seemed furious at what she had just done.
"You idiot, she didn't destroy them. That was a teleportation kido."
"That's right, I've won," Karin grinned and struck Takaza while he was distracted by the revelation, knocking him out in a single blow, "and I'm tired of playing nice with you all."
"Kill her," the purple-haired man ordered. Members of the family charged at Karin, and she ignited red orbs at the ends of her fingertips and ran to meet them, she resolved to take out as many of the enemy as she could before she inevitably was taken down herself.
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Hitsugaya stared at the letters that had suddenly appeared on his desk.
"These letters…" Hitsugaya turned to Akio and Rangiku.
"Mobilize the squad. I don't know how, but she knew a teleportation kido, but if she's sent the information we need, then it's time to act," Akio stood up, "She is likely in danger. I will go there at full speed. Catch up as quickly as possible."
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Karin was badly bruised and beaten, but she was still fighting. There were piles of bodies around her, including a few officers. He hadn't bothered to attack her again, instead, he seemed to be waiting for something else.
Karin felt a huge reiatsu approaching, and for a moment she thought it was Ichigo, but instead, she saw a beam of light crash down in front of her.
"Akio!" Karin exclaimed. He must've been in his Bankai form already, and his landing alone had knocked many of the weaker members of the family off their feet.
"You did well, Karin. Allow me to handle things now," Akio stared at the purple-haired man, and seemed to be trying to come up with the words to say something, but couldn't.
"Ah right, you can't say my name. How unfortunate, just call me Takanashi then," Takanashi taunted, "it's been such a long time, Akio."
Akio didn't reply, instead, he launched a barrage of knives made out of light at Takanashi. Members of the family jumped in front of them to try and block the attack, but when the smoke from the explosions cleared, there weren't even bones left, they were entirely vaporized.
"How scary," Takanash unleashed his Shikai, "halt the flow of the world, Teishi Jikan!"
Takanashi's zanpakuto glowed green and the blade took on an appearance that looked more like a clock-hand than a traditional blade.
"There's some advice that a wise old man once gave to me. If you want to kill your enemy, do not allow them to unleash their full power. But, if your goal is to crush them entirely, do so once you have drawn out all of their power," Akio began.
Karin was not sure where he was going with this, but despite the fact that he seemed ready to snap into a murder spree at any moment, she felt as if victory itself had arrived on the battlefield along with him.
"Is that what you intend to do to me?" Takanashi grinned, "I've already defeated you once."
Akio disappeared in a flash and explosions lit up all throughout the ranks of the Takanashi family. Takanashi himself dodged out of the way, laughing as even some of his officers were caught in the blasts, though a few survived said blasts.
"Not just you. I plan to crush all of you, the entire family," Akio flicked his wrist, and spears of light came down from the sky, aiming at Takanashi. Takanashi dodged all of them except one, which he slashed with his blade. As he did, it completely stopped in time, it stopped moving.
Akio didn't seem to care, instead, he flash stepped to the stopped spear and forced his reiatsu into it, which seemed to break the effects of Takanashi's Shikai.
Karin looked at the remaining officers and soldiers. She was still in fighting condition, even if she wasn't at 100%, she was still a force to be reckoned with.
"Don't take any unnecessary risks, Karin," Akio cautioned, "don't worry about fighting anyone you can't beat. I can handle it."
"Telling that to a Kurosaki is like telling a fish not to swim. We take risks like it's our job," Karin grinned and leaped back into the fight. She was a monster in her own right, casting kido back to back with no incantation while incorporating martial arts into her movements seamlessly. She noticed that the officers seemed to be ignoring her, and all of the officers there were now surrounding Akio.
There were about 20 in total. They seemed to range from Captain level to Lieutenant level, though none could match the amount of reiatsu that Akio boasted.
Despite them being heavily outnumbered, for some reason Karin simply couldn't imagine losing this fight.
According to google translate, Takanashi's zanpakuto name translates to "Time stopping", which doesn't make a ton of sense in English, but if I tried to add in blade or anything to the name it'd become longer than I'd have liked, so I decided that it sounded cool enough when translated.