Main POV

"No," he said.

"No?!" Karin cried out. "What do you mean no?"

"I'm far too busy," he replied flippantly. "Ask someone else to play your silly games."

"Silly games!" Karin yelled and Ichigo and I's heads snapped around to the two. I winced watched the two. Toshiro was in for it. "I don't think you realise how important this game is."

"If it's so important, why don't you actually train for it," he replied. "I can't be around to help you every time you get into a feud with some older kids."

"Hitsugaya," I said coming over before Ichigo could ask what feud. "It's those punks from last time. You know the older kids, the rough ones. Aren't you worried?" I asked.

"Wait," Ichigo stormed forwards. "What's this about?"

"Stay out of this Ichi-nii," Karin groaned.

"Tell him the truth," I rolled my eyes. "He's not as much of an impulsive block head as you think. He can handle the truth."

"Hey! Who said I was an impulsive block head?" He yelled and I shoved him lightly.

"Look, long story short when you were off training with the visords, there was a dispute over the soccer field. Karin's team were always reserving the field but the older kids kept ignoring it and playing anyway, figuring they needed it more because Karin and her friends were just some snot nosed little kids," I started to explain.

"Hey!" She growled at me.

"So they challenged each other to a game, winner could use the field whenever they want loser had to eat grass off the field," I told him. "Game day arrives, things are going well until the older kids start playing dirty. Fouling players, knocking people to the ground. It's a shit show, they're jerks that think because they're bigger than anyone else they can just take whatever they want."

"Yeah and now they went back on their deal and are taking the field from us again," Karin explained. "Loser has to wear a dress to the next game."

"That doesn't seem that bad," Ichigo commented.

"Yeah for her maybe," I laughed. "Everyone else playing is a guy."

"Right," Ichigo said. "I still don't see why you didn't just come to me over this in the first place."

"Because you big dummy," I said. "You don't take her soccer seriously enough. Plus, ToshiroImean Hitsugaya has already played for her before."

"Alright, fine," he replied. "Toshiro, are you going to come with us?"

"I said I was busy didn't I?" He replied and Ichigo picked him up by the collar. "Alright guys let's go," he said and dragged Toshiro to the door.

"I really didn't think that would work," Karin commented. "I guess you're right, Ichi-nii isn't as much of a block head as I thought."

"Would you stop calling me a block head?" Ichigo called back from his spot walking in front of us.

"Kurosaki, would you let me go?" Hitsugaya growled.

"He would, but we have a game to go to," I laughed and walked beside Ichigo.

"Come on Toshiro, what's a middle schooler like you so busy doing anyway?" Karin asked beside him.

"Middle schooler?!" I could see the tick mark appear on the side of his face and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. "For the last time, I am not a little KID!"

"Alright, it's game time everyone," Karin said as she marched over to her group of friends I never bothered to learn the names of.

"So what's the plan here?" Ichigo asked beside me. "You seem to have something you're scheming about with Karin."

"I wouldn't exactly call it scheming," I put a hand up to my mouth. "Look, Karin's going to go out there and play with her friends and we're going to keep an eye on things, that's all."

"Which means your expecting something to go wrong, or we wouldn't have to be here," he replied.

"Just shut up and watch," I told him.

"Alright!" Her team yelled as they saw Toshiro standing next to us. "Karin brought Toshiro!"

"Toshiro is here!"

"Alright! Now we're gonna win!"

"Hey, I never said I'd play," Hitsugaya said.

"Oh come on," on of them replied. "You say that every time."

"Yeah come on, Toshiro."

"Yeah, stop playing hard to get."

He sighed and stood next to the goal post as they made there little pre game huddle again. The high schoolers showed up and this time I was sure it was defiantly those punks from episode 132. I sighed, this was going to be such a pain.

"I'm so glad we're not going to have to wear dresses, if not for Toshiro we'd be screwed," one of them said and I marched over.

"Hey where are you.." Ichigo called after me as I stormed up to the group of middle schoolers.

"Hey!" I called out.

"Karin is this Ichigo's girlfriend?" One of them asked and I grew a tick sign.

"No way, your brother's girlfriend?"

"She's so pretty!"

"I'm not his girlfriend!" I yelled. "Now come here," I dragged them into a huddle. "If you really wanna win you guys need to stop relying on other people to swoop in at the last minute and save you. If you're ever going to join the middle school team this season then you need to be confident enough in your own skills to do it. Toshiro won't be around all the time to come play every time things get tough. So here's the deal, those guys, they aren't better than you, you've played them before, and you won. All they are is taller, bigger and dumber. You can play them and you can win, but only if you think that you can instead of depending on Toshiro. So today, you're going to go out there, and you're going to pay like you've never played before. And you're going to win."

"You really think we can win?" The afro kid asked.

"I know you can win," I told him. "You've already done it. This is child's play."

"Hey," one of the big high schoolers came over. "You guys get yourselves a coach? Not going to help you much."

I threw my hands on my hips and scowled at him. What a jerk. We were really gonna have to win now. I was pissed off. Ichigo wandered up to the goal and stood beside up.

"And oh look, big brother came to play too, huh? You can't beat us by yourselves? You have to get help?" Another teased.

"The only person who's going to need help is you after this game when we win," I growled. "I'd definitely say pink's your colour."

"Oh yeah?" He leaned in and I held my ground. "New deal, everything stays the same except when we win, your coach has to come on a date with me."

"What's in it for me? What do I get when we win?" I asked.

"Oh you're so sure you're going to win?" He asked.

"I am, and I'm not their coach," I replied. "So how about you sweeten the deal, huh? If you're so sure you're going to win, this bet won't even matter."

"Alright, what do you want?" He asked.

"If we win, you don't just have to show up to the next game in a dress. You have to show up to all of their middle school games in a dress when they make the team."

"Alright, fine," he agreed, putting his hand out. "And just so you know, when we win, I like spicy food."

"Karin! Hi!" Rangiku called from the sidelines and I turned away from my own little feud to see Rangiku and all of the other local shinigami gathered as well as Orehime, Chad, Uryu and Keigo.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ichigo asked rubbing the back of his neck.

"We came to see Karin-chan's big game!" Orehime said enthusiastically.

"I wouldn't call it a big game," the high schooler butted in. "Your friends are going to lose."

"Heh," said Renji. "Is that so?"

"Clearly you don't know what our friends are capable of," Ikkaku agreed.

"Ichigo why is that guy carrying a wooden sword?" Karin asked.

"'Cause it's illegal for him to carry a real one," I replied.

"Are we gonna get this started or what?" The high schooler taunted.

"Alright, Ichigo, Toshiro, we're going to be second string players. These guys are so good they're not going to need us, right?" I asked and Karin's friends paled.

"What!" They yelled. "No way!"

"Fine," I sighed. "You can have Toshiro."

"Hey!" Hitsugaya yelled.

"Karin," I leaned down to talk to just her. "This is your team, you're going to win. You shouldn't need Toshiro or any of us to play, but we'll be here anyway. If anything big happens, call a time out and we'll substitute in. Until then just remember what I told you to think about if you're worried."

"Got it," she nodded and Ichigo and I stepped back as well as afro kid.

The whistle blew and everyone took their positions. Karin started for the ball and made it easily, she really was a good player, such a shame her other players had no back bone. She got it and the one who fouled her last time took an elbow and jabbed for the ribs. Ichigp growled from beside me and I grabbed his arm as he was about to charge forward. He looked down at me as I scowled at the players and he stopped resisting, but he didn't settle down.

Karin struggled for a moment, hanging back before she was able to push forward and keep going. I could still see she was gripping at her side though and I was annoyed. Toshiro for the most part was easily getting the ball of the opposing team and passing it to one of Karin's team members only for them to lose it again shortly after. Seemed like Karin was the only one carrying this team, no wonder they needed to practice all the time.

The score was 1-3 in favour of the high schoolers, damn. I ran a hand through my hair and got closer to the field. The guy who must be the captain of that team swooped in from the side and stole the ball, knocking Karin to the ground. It was the same move he'd done in episode 132, damn. I could see the angry look on Toshiro's face before I heard Ichigo behind me screaming out and charging towards the pitch. I swung a fist out to slow him down, I'd never seen him look so pissed off.

"Karin," I called out. "Ignore everything, everyone around you. Get up. Get up off the ground, now." I heard her groaning and fighting with herself to get up off the pitch. "Do you need to call a time out?"

"No!" She screamed and pushed herself up off the ground. I never took myself as the type but somehow I'd become the Yoruichi to Karin's Ichigo. "I can keep playing."

"Well you better, the score is 4 to one now and it's almost half way through the game," I told her.

She got off the ground and shot me a glare from where I was standing on the sidelines and it wasn't hard to feel the seething look Ichigo was sending my way. She chased after the ball, running with impressive speed for someone with that kind of knee injury. Toshiro got the ball off the high schoolers and passed it to her, she managed to take it all the way to goal and kicked it in. 2-4.

"How'd you know she was okay?" Ichigo asked from beside me.

"I didn't," I replied. "She would have told me if she wasn't. She got up and she said she's fine. She might not be I can survive a fight with Kenpachi Zaraki strong, but she can handle a bunch of jerks from time to time."

I walked off and headed over to the crowd of shinigami. I spied Renji and made a beeline for him. I remembered reading in a wikia somewhere that Renji had a futsal team in 6th division. Karin couldn't last much longer out there if the high schoolers were only targeting her and Toshiro couldn't always get to her while abiding by the rules.

"Renji," I said as I came up to him.

"Yo," he said from his spot next to Rukia.

"Enjoying the game?" I asked.

"Seems kind of unfair how those high schoolers are playing," he commented.

"I know," I nodded. "Wanna play?"

"What do you have in mind?" He smirked.

"When Karin calls a time out, you, me and Ichigo are subbing in," I told him and turned on my heel to watch the game again.

Just as I did Karin took an elbow to the nose and I ran over to the very sidelines. Ichigo yelled out to her as she hit the ground. I called a time out and ran onto the field and dropped down beside her.

"Karin," I pulled tissues from my pocket and held them to her face, soaking up the blood.

"Karin," Ichigo said from her other side. "Are you alright?"

"Aww, what's the matter? Can't play anymore?" The high school jerk taunted.

"I've had enough of this," I growled. "Karin, call it."

"I can't, I've got to do this. It's my team, I can't be the reason we lose," she said and I rolled my eyes.

"Then let us help you," I told her. "Because they're all targeting you. You know why? Because you're the one who puts up a fight against them. If you weren't always challenging them when they took what was yours, if you weren't there the rest of your team wouldn't fight these guys. And they know that. They know if they can just knock you down then the rest of the team goes with you. So let us play. I have a plan, trust me on this."

"Alright," she agree tiredly. "But I get to keep playing."

"What? Are you crazy?!" Ichigo yelled. "You're way too injured! You're not playing for another second."

"Karin," I said firmly. "Stand up." I let her go and pushed Ichigo away so she was by herself on the ground. "You get up by yourself and you can play. If not you sit on the sidelines and go get some first aid."

"I can do it," she told me.

"Then do it," I challenged. She screwed up her face and got up off the ground slowly pushing herself to her feet. She wavered a bit as she stood but took a step forward and shot me a triumphant grin.

"Alright," I nodded. "Renji!" He came jogging over and stood in our makeshift huddle beside Toshiro. "Here's the plan, Karin, I want you to only focus on scoring, that's it. Everything else leave to us. Hitsugaya, you're job is to get the ball off everyone else and pass it to Karin, just like you already were doing. Renji, Ichgio and I? We're going to even out the playing field a little. See how those punks like it when we play their game their way. Our job is to keep them away from the ball and away from Karin as much as possible."

"Easy," Renji smirked.

"Karin," Ichigo said. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she nodded. "We're making a substitution!" She called out to the other team.

"Aww you get some of your friends to help?" They teased.

"I'm getting the distinct impression that they don't know who Ichigo Kurosaki is," I commented. "Let's show them."

"Alright," Ichigo grinned as we took to the field.

The whistle blew and the high school jerks made a beeline for Karin until Renji and Ichigo muscled them out of the way. The captain looking guy ran up the back of Karin and I made a run straight for him, sliding through the dirt and knocking him to the ground the same way he had Karin all those times. He lay on the ground and I kept running, looking for the next person who was going to try and stop her.

For the most part, Ichigo and Renji seemed to get the opposition out of the way using skill and tact. I just headed for someone in the way and butted heads with them. Or rather slammed my shoulder into them until the fell back or I tripped them. The score was now 4-4 and there was only a few minutes left in the game. Karin looked awful but I had my doubts Ichigo would ever let her lose, especially after the beating she just took.