Summary: She was... a stranger to them, even to him. A faceless ghost from the Apocalypse claiming she came from the future but if it meant that she could keep everyone alive, then Kurosaki Karin would be that ghost for them.
Following the canon chronology with obvious alterations for the purpose of the story. Main pairings of the story: Hitsugaya/Karin, Ichigo/Rukia, Gin/Rangiku. Other pairings will come later.
Written in the third person. The words in italic are characters thoughts.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach (if I did, the 'ending' we got wouldn't have happened).
[SOUL SOCIETY: THE RESCUE ARC]
GHOST
~.~
Chapter 6: confession in the twilight
Karin could faintly detect Ichi-nii's friends' reiatsu from afar. She had decided to watch her two brothers fight each other from a reasonable distance so that Aizen's spy camera couldn't detect her presence and would only intervene once it would be over, possibly before Red Pineapple got hurt…
She truly hoped she would make it on time.
Despite knowing the fight's proceedings, Karin held her breath as Ichi-nii was about to be struck down. Thankfully… or not, Ichi-nii's inner Hollow emerged and inflected severe injuries to Byaku-nii with glee. Karin had almost forgotten his dramatic antics.
She had always known about her brother's true nature, even prior to the start of his adventures as a shinigami.
Just like his true zanpakuto, the pitch-black darkness buried deep inside Ichi-nii's soul had always been there, albeit suppressed.
Her brother had struggled to accept that part of himself, until the Quincy war happened. Karin liked to think that it was thanks to everyone's acceptance and support, although she knew Grimmjow had been the one who made him embrace the thrill of a fight to death, among other things. Hichigo wasn't that bad anyway.
After Ichi-nii managed to forcefully rip the hollow mask from his face, he regained full control of himself. Karin beheld that disturbing occurrence with sharp eyes, trying to analyze what she could do to make his inner Hollow training go more smoothly than the first time around.
She would have to consult the Visored on that matter, after another long conversation about the past and future with them. The thought of having to explain her presence to Gotei 13, Ichi-nii, Oyaji and the Visored mentally exhausted her already. Not to mention she still had no idea how much she was allowed to reveal or not.
She shook that thought off and now focused on Byaku-nii's expression.
Byaku-nii chose to overlook what just happened to Ichi-nii for some reason. Karin had come to start recognizing some of his micro expressions over the years, and Byaku-nii's lack of determination against to Ichi-nii's unwavering will was shockingly striking.
It was as if he already knew he was about to taste defeat from Ichi-nii's hand.
Despite having the gist of what led to Byaku-nii's change, seeing it happening with her own eyes put it in a whole new perspective.
"We'll finish it… with the next attack," Karin could hear from her position. It wasn't hard to, given the deafening silence around them.
"Yeah... " Ichi-nii agreed. "By the way, can I ask you one last question? Why don't you try to save Rukia?"
There was a moment of silence before Byaku-nii calmly replied, "If you defeat me… I will answer that question."
Ichi-nii almost seemed amused by that answer. "Tch."
It was the second time Karin got to see Byaku-nii's Shukei Hakuteiken and while it was an ethereal sight, it also was a bad omen that inevitably led to blood.
Lot of it.
Giselle, Giselle, Giselle-
Karin unwittingly closed her eyes at the reminiscence of the last time she had seen him use that technique. She still could feel Shukei Hakuteiken and Getsuga Tensho clash one another. Its power inevitably provoked an explosion and despite wearing the black cloth on her face, Karin coughed due to the smoke surrounding her.
She slowly opened her eyes to see both Ichi-nii and Byaku-nii struggling to stay on their feet and profusely bleeding. Karin clenched and unclenched her fist to resist at the urge to intervene immediately.
"You wanted to know… the reason for my support of Rukia's death," Byaku-nii started. He finally surrendered. "One, who commits a crime, must suffer the consequences. If one is sentenced to death, the execution must take place. Those are… the rules."
Rules.
That word never failed to drain energy. 'Rules' was exactly what led Seireitei to its downfall.
"Just for a rule, you would kill someone… even if she's your sister?" Ichi-nii asked, flabbergasted.
"Are you referring to some sort of sibling bond? What a foolish notion..." Byaku-nii answered, his back still turned on Ichi-nii.
That visibly made Ichi-nii's blood boil. "What did you say?"
"In light of the rules, all personal feelings have no value. Also, something as useless as emotions… I never had them to begin with."
The echoing loneliness in that one single sentence made Karin's heart ache. He might not be her Byaku-nii but he was still Kuchiki Byakuya.
"The Kuchiki clan is one of the four noble clans. We are the role models for all shinigami. If we do not obey the rules, who will?" Byaku-nii ended, finally looking at Ichi-nii.
"Sorry… But I still don't get it… If… If I was you, I would definitely fight the rules."
Karin wondered if her brother realized he just admitted his undying devotion for Rukia-nee to his potential brother-in-law... Because there was no other way to describe Ichi-nii's will to change Soul Society's whole system solely for Kuchiki Rukia: devotion. Something in Byaku-nii's gaze changed.
So that was the moment Byaku-nii finally understood, huh.
"Kurosaki Ichigo…" he said, giving him a sideway glance. "The victor of this battle… is you."
"WAIT–" Karin suddenly shouted as Byaku-nii was about to leave with a flash step.
It worked.
Karin came out of her hideout and used shunpo to stand between Byaku-nii and Ichi-nii. "I make the earnest request that you assist us to retrieve Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai Renji safely… Please," she solemnly asked to Byaku-nii, her eyes set on him.
Despite knowing Byaku-nii would have intervene to save Rukia even without her presence, Karin wanted to avoid having Aizen worsen his condition.
Byaku-nii turned around and watched her silently for a moment, his lips scarcely curled inwards before finally giving in. "Very well."
"Let's go back where you first start to engage your fight," she indicated as she started to run. She pointed out with her finger where to head to.
Oh no.
She could detect Aizen's reiatsu, along with Ichimaru-san's reiatsu there. At least, Aizen's big mouth would come to use for once.
Hopefully he would still be making his little speech to Red Pineapple by the time they arrived.
"Karin... What are you really doing here?" Ichi-nii asked.
"I promised you, didn't I?" Karin said, avoiding the question. She could feel Byaku-nii observing them. "Once this is over, I'll let you ask everything you want to know."
She sped up, Byaku-nii and Ichi-nii trailing behind her, moving considerably more slowly than usual.
Isane-san's voice started echoing in her mind. Earlier today, she had requested her and Unohana-san not to disclose Ichimaru-san's true intentions to the rest of Gotei 13.
"What's this..." Ichi-nii wondered outloud.
"Tenteikura... Listen to what Kotetsu-Tai– what Kotetsu-Fukutaicho has to say," she replied, correcting herself on time. She still couldn't get used to the old Gotei 13. "But remember. Ichimaru Gin is in fact our ally."
It took them less than five minutes to finally reach the spot. Renji's bloodied arm wasn't a good sign.
"Too bad," Karin heard Aizen said. She grabbed the zanpakuto on her back and rushed towards them to shelter Renji and Rukia-nee.
Her still sheathed weapon clashed against Aizen's katana and created a powerful wave of reiatsu.
Karin's eyes widened. She thought Urahara was slightly exaggerating while writing about the Aizen in that time period but even now, that bastard already was strong... Nothing too much to handle for her, but still. Both withdrew.
"Impressive," Aizen cooly praised her with calculating eyes.
Needless to say, Karin was pissed. No matter how unnerving his gaze was, she expected more from him. A semblance of shock, or puzzlement.
No.
Looking more closely, she could see he seemed slightly intrigued. But of course, his hubris prevented him from asking out loud her identity.
She took a look at Renji and Rukia-nee. They looked so young and vulnerable. She immediately averted her eyes. She hated seeing them powerless. "I've come to help, Renji!"
Renji looked at her apologetically. "I couldn't do much..."
"Don't worry. I'm here now," she assured him, her voice a tad more gentle. That was the least she could do for him.
After all, he had saved her more than once.
"Ichigo… Nii-sama..." Rukia-nee whispered, not believing her eyes.
"Sorry. I didn't think I should interfere, so I let 'em pass," Ichimaru-san casually explained to Aizen.
Aizen remained calm, his unnerving smile still plastered on his face. "Ah… It's fine. There's no difference whether there's one piece of dust to brush off or more."
Karin wanted to punch him. But instead, she decided to use words to bring him down from his throne.
"Hello, Sosuke." His aura, albeit being strong, was nothing compared to the Aizen she knew. And he did physically appear different there: the hair, the glasses…. And the shinigami attire. To think he really became the Fifth Division's Taicho after what he did to Hirako-san… "Glasses don't really suit you but I'll congratulate you for maintaining this charade for so long," she started. "I'll save you some time and tell you a little secret. But first..." She resisted the urge to wipe the sweat from her hands away. "I am handing you Kuchiki Rukia."
"WHAT?" Ichi-nii shouted, immediately grabbing her by the collar of her cloak. His stormy eyes was a stark contrast to the last memory that she had with him. "You can't be serious!"
She had missed her brother's passionate nature whenever someone he cared about was concerned. Except Karin usually wasn't the recipient of his wrath.
"Let me finish, Kurosaki..." she flatly answered, undeterred by her brother's stormy eyes before turning her head back to continue speaking. "I am handing you Kuchiki Rukia, albeit she will be of no use for your little scheme concerning the Hogyoku."
She took the device that was in her pocket and showed it to Aizen, her lips turned up with sadistic satisfaction. "Greetings from Urahara Kisuke."
"That's impossible!" Aizen yelled, his jaw clenched.
"And yet…" she added in the most cheeky way possible. "You'll never find Urahara's Hogyoku given where I hid it," Karin declared.
"Listening to any words sputtered by one of Urahara Kisuke's allies is futile. Did that man even tell you the purpose of the Hogyoku?" he countered.
He wasn't entirely wrong on that point… Ichi-nii had been duped in more ways than one by Urahara. Despite that, she remained unfazed by his mind game attempt.
"Tell me what? That the Hogyoku is something that could instantly remove the fine line between Hollow and Shinigami?" she rhetorically asked, spilling out more lies. Aizen would realize it could do so much more than that eventually, but she would rather not help the bastard. "Or tell me that he buried it within Kuchiki Rukia's soul out of desperation after realizing how dangerous that thing was? I do, and I put it somewhere even you won't be able to reach," she finished, full of bravado.
It was only a matter of time before he figured out the Hogyoku got destroyed, but she wanted him to ponder about it to the point it occupied all his thoughts and dreams. She also wanted to buy some time. Because when ('when', not 'if') Aizen would figure it out, that would inevitably led him to wonder how they managed to destroy it. And it would lead him to Orihime-chan
And she will inevitably end up being in danger…
However, Aizen didn't react the way she thought he would.
"Since Kuchiki Rukia is of no use anymore… Kill her, Gin," he ordered before attacking Karin with his katana. The speed of the strike unsettled her but she managed to dodge it and immediately retaliated.
"Oh, well. Shoot 'em dead, Shinso," she heard Ichimaru-san said. She didn't even have time to draw her sword from its sheath that Ichimaru-san's blade was already heading towards them.
Byaku-nii, who hadn't moved or said or word until now, used shunpo to take Renji and Rukia-nee away from there at an impressive speed, even from his standards.
Despite that, Ichimaru-san didn't retract his blade. In fact, he just slightly changed its trajectory to target Aizen, who simply blocked it with his bare hand.
They all stopped moving.
"What a poor attempt. I knew you would eventually betray me but I was curious to see how you would try to kill me," Aizen explained. Blood started to spurt out of Ichimaru-san's midriff in a flash.
Aizen then aimed for his torso but Karin's zanpakuto deviated its path. Instead, it slashed Ichimaru-san's shoulder. He coughed blood.
"I'm disappointed, Gin."
"Ichimaru-san!" Karin caught him on time as he collapsed on the ground. Everyone but she and Ichi-nii remained numb.
It took her a few seconds to understand why.
Kyokasuigetsu...
"YOU IDIOT!" she yelled at Ichimaru-san.
She gently lay him down and put his head on her lap as a pool of blood started forming and spreading outward, tainting her already dirty tabi and her sandals.
Aizen silently watched their interaction with interest.
"You'll regret this..." Karin hissed through gritted teeth in his direction.
Strongly gripping her zanpakuto with her free hand, she pointed it at him in a silent challenge.
Ichi-nii put himself in front of Ichiramu-san and her, and made firm hand sign to stop the protest she was about to splutter.
Aizen didn't even make another step as a flash of lighting spouted from the sky. Yoruichi-san appeared, holding the hilt of Aizen's zanpakuto while Soi Fong-Taicho pressed her blade under Aizen's neck.
"What a nostalgic face!" Aizen said, looking smug.
Of course he's smug, he knows he'll get away from there easily, Karin thought with bitterness.
Ichimaru-san's pained groan reminded her Aizen's inevitable escape wasn't her priority. She put her zanpakuto down and looked for the pills in her bag as Yoruichi-san and Soi Fong-Taicho threatened Aizen.
"Don't move. If you even move one muscle… "
"You'll lose your head," Soi Fong-Taicho ended.
"Very well," he complied as a loud crash could be heard from behind.
Karin didn't even need to turn her head to see who were the newcomers: three of the four hypnotized Guardians of the Gates just bursted in. Instead, she focused on treating Ichimaru-san's injury with healing kido.
Komamura-san then intervened with Hisagi-Fukutaicho to restrain Kaname from moving as the most of Gotei 13 arrived one by one.
"It's over," Yoruichi-san told Aizen.
"What did you say?"
"Don't you understand, Aizen? You've been completely surrounded."
Rangiku-san rushed towards them at the sight of an injured Ichimaru-san, silently gasping.
"Aizen..."
"Aizen-Taicho..."
Aizen smirked. Karin bit her tongue to resist the urge of shouting things she wasn't supposed to know.
"What's so funny?" Yoruichi-san asked.
"I'm sorry but–"
"Aizen-Taicho!"
Karin abruptly turned her head at the sound of that voice.
Hinamori-san was standing there, awake, with Toshiro on her left and Kira-san on her right. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes and dripping sweat on her forehead but at least she was safe.
"Hinamori-kun."
For one moment, Aizen seemed contrite. Karin unfortunately knew him better than she would have liked.
She knew Aizen had considered Hinamori's physical and psychological recovery as one of his few (if not only) failures. Despite that, she had never been able to determine whether he cared about his former Fukutaicho or not.
"As I was saying, I'm sorry but it's time," he announced, not leaving his eyes from Hinamori-san.
"You idiot, what were you even thinking?"
Having Rangiku and Karin-chan fret over him while he was profusely bleeding wasn't how Gin had planned the end of the day, but it was still better than dying. Still, hearing the Sixth Division Taicho's confession to his adopted sister provided him some entertainment.
"He wasn't thinking, that's what happened," Karin-chan grumpily replied despite continuing to use healing kido on his midriff. Rangiku seemed to silently agree.
Although Karin wasn't exactly wrong when she said he hadn't been thinking, she wasn't exactly right either. He would tell her why when there would be no one else around, not even Rangiku. It was only thanks to Karin-chan's overprotective big brother that he hadn't been arrested yet.
"How mean Karin-chan, I'm hur'," Gin replied, his voice full of sarcasm before hissing in pain. His attempt to put on his signature mocking smile just spectacularly failed.
Rangiku kept delicately running her hand through his hair before putting the palm of her hand on his forehead. Its coolness in contrast with his feverish forehead made him sigh in contentment.
"Oh, you're definitely hurting right now. And if you don't want to hurt more, you better stop moving," Karin-chan ordered him. "I told you not to get yourself killed and yet..." She didn't end her sentence. Gin repeatedly blinked before finally managing to open his eyes.
"What's with the sad eyes, Karin-chan?"
She furrowed her brows. "You know damn well. I shouldn't have provoked him like that… It's my fault, I–"
He cut her, not accepting that a kid who had already lost everything in a war would feel guilty for doing the right thing.
"Thank you, Karin," he simply said with earnest sincereness.
Gin could see the ones eavesdropping their discussion silently gasping from the corner of his eyes.
Karin-chan didn't realize she had freed Gin from his own suicidal scheme. She showed him a different path where he could stay by Rangiku's side.
He had come to realize he didn't have to die to avenge her after revealing everything to her and Izuru.
Ichimaru Gin owed Kurosaki Karin his life.
And seeing Aizen not in complete control of the whole situation for once wasn't a neglitable bonus either.
Karin-chan stopped applying healing kido to take off her hood and unveil her face. "I'm glad you're still alive," she responded. Her lips formed a melancholic, yet grateful smile.
It wasn't the first time he saw her face, but he understood the implication of her gesture.
Revealing her face in the presence of so many high-ranked Gotei 13 officers meant she decided to stop secretly operating on their back. Karin-chan was also taking the risk of getting arrested with him given how she was clearly involved with Gin's plan (and betrayal).
"Ya know Aizen's gonna guess ya destroy the Hogyoku," Gin said in a light tone.
Karin-chan snorted, understanding it wasn't a question but rather a statement. "Of course. But making him believe that will temporarily me some latitude for… our next move," Karin-chan vaguely explained.
"But now Karin-chan can finally go to sleep."
"Can I?" she immediately retorted with snide before looking down. "What's the point… I only dream of blood and despair," she ended, her voice smaller and emptier.
Someone cleared their throat to get Karin-chan's attention. His eyesight became blurry again but judging from the shocking orange form Gin could discern by squinting his eyes, it was her big brother.
That family was certainly full of interesting kids…
"Well, I did promise," she told him, visibly tired. "Do you really want to ask me about everything now?"
"Not exactly…" Kurosaki Ichigo awkwardly replied. Even Gin could understand that hearing their own sister talk about blood that way felt wrong. "But can I talk to you alone?"
They had a small staring contest before Karin sighed and relented. "Sure."
She made Gin shallow another pill for good measure before standing up.
"You better not move while I'm not here," she warned him. "Rangiku-san, please make sure he stays that way."
"I will," Rangiku answered, her cool hand still on his forehead.
Gin knew their exchange had more meanings than one. He definitely had to address what he did. Despite having explained Karin-chan's presence and his former plan to Izuru and her,
His eyes fluttered. He was still slightly feverish despite feeling better thanks to Karin-chan's treatment. "Rangiku…"
"I'm here," she whispered, still sitting by his side.
He forcefully opened wide his eyes to briefly look at his childhood friend. "I'm sorry," he told her before closing his eyes again.
Gin had planned to apologize to Rangiku no matter what, in case he would fail in his task. But that apology had a different meaning than initially planned.
He wanted to tell her he would try to make amends for purposefully putting that distance between them and erasing himself from her life. That he would prove himself worthy of her endless generosity… But he frankly felt too drowsy to even make long sentences.
That apology was a start though. He didn't get an immediate response but he could feel fresh tears falling on him as Rangiku's soft hair tickled his cheek.
"Thank you for staying, Gin."
A/N: New chapter to (belatedly) celebrate Karin and Yuzu's birthday! I took way less time than for the previous chapter, I hope you enjoyed this update. Don't forget this is a slowburn and I do intent to write this story up to TYBW so expect slow burn for Hitsukarin. We'll see for the other couples.
About skipping Byakuya VS Ichigo... I kind of lied. I couldn't resist putting its end since it was one of the catalysts of Byakuya's character development. And obviously it had a purpose with the whole Kuchiki/Kurosaki dynamic too.
So, the main stars of this chapter are Gin, Byakuya, Aizen and Karin. I felt that it was necessary to put some semblance of closure for Gin's old plan and to put him towards a new path. He and Rangiku deserved so much better in canon… It's a shame we never got to see Gin in TYBW. I know Gin's attempt to kill Aizen seems out of character but it'll make sense in the next chapter. Just know that it wasn't really a serious attempt anyway.
This chapter was also the start of Karin and Aizen's mind game against the other. I've already started to write scenes from Karin's future and I truly am enjoying it. You'll get to understand their dynamic more in depth gradually.
The two next chapters will be partly based on Honey Dish Rhapsody novel.
Now, to answer to some of the comments I got:
T: You're welcome. I'm grateful to see you're still following Ghost. I hope you're doing good as well despite the context, take care!
QueenBbee: I'm delighted you enjoyed rereading the story! Karin and Byakuya definitely had a (second) bad start but it will get better. I'm truly eager to show more scenes with them.
I would like to thank the people who has favorited or/and is following this story after I published the previous chapter: bea15, EpicLolipop, helgi13, shadow12312gx, Tronso125, MythologyBookworm, firefly198383, hernia12, MasterCaedus, Karin Tatiana Wesker, Lettie20, JulietteDechemps
Once again, thank you for the fav/following! Don't hesitate to post comments, I'll make sure to answer them on next chapter's A/N or through PM :)