Chapter 37: Spirit Revealed
Karin stared up at the red moon. She was once again inside her inner world. "So if I'm here, then that means..." she began as she turned around to find herself face to face with the spirit of this world, her zanpakuto spirit. The beautiful woman with black hair with silvery highlights and red eyes with the voluptuous body. Her red tank top shimered in the moonlight, but it was the short blade on her left hip that caught Karin's attention. "You're my zanpakuto spirit." she stated, causing the woman to smile.
"Exactly." she said as she licked her ruby red lips, her hair blowing in an invisible wind that also caused the reddish brown sands around them to swirl. "You've gotten strong. Good. I think you're ready this time."
"Ready for what?" Karin asked her as the woman approached her.
"To know my name and carry the power of the sword." her red eyes seeming to bare straight into Karin. "I am glad you are not afraid of me, because what is coming is far scarier than myself."
"Bring it." Karin challenged. "My siblings and I can handle it! Even my mom is learning to be strong."
"Humph..." The spirit smiled as she looked down upon the child before her. "Very well, my name is..."
Karin opened her eyes and looked down upon the asauchi sword in her lap before standing up. Urahara, Ichigo and Verena had been waiting for this moment for the last hour. The two older siblings were off to the side talking when they had sensed Karin come out of her inner world back to them as Urahara had sat on a boulder waiting, fanning himself. With Verena, she had yet to hear her sword's name. Urahara thought that could be because her Quincy side was more dominant than her shinigami side, but that was slowly changing. For Karin, her shinigami side was dominant while her Quincy side was almost nonexistent.
"Ready Karin?" Tessai asked the young girl before him. He was her teacher, so it was his job to ensure she knew how to fight. Unlike with Ichigo, who needed Urahara's type of teaching, Karin had needed the type of training only Tessai could offer.
"Yes sir." she said with a nod as she held her sword out and ready for the first attack. What she wasn't expecting we're the two simultaneous attacks. One in the form of a dozen arrows shot from her sister, the second coming from Ichigo as he sped towards her at top speed. Her sword clashed with Zangetsu, the two blades sending sparks every which way. Karin's eyes widening in surprise, as she had been expecting an attack from Tessai.
"Sneaky." Kisuke commented from his perch.
Tessai gave a nod. "Yes." he agreed, "However, in order to learn, she must fight the ones closest to herself."
"Those two won't go easy on her." Kisuke stated as he watched.
Verena suddenly run passed Urahara into the fray with her sword now in hand instead of her bow. The blow from Verena sent Karin flying backwards. Turning her feet, the younger girl push her feet back against the ground to stop herself from hitting the boulders behind her. Pushing against the boulder with one foot Karin engaged her flash step and raced towards Verena, but was stopped by black arrows fired by Ichigo. Before the arrows could reach her, Karin cried out her zanpakuto's name. "Ignite Moeru Mikadzuki." Red flames burst around Karin's form as her shihakusho changed slightly. Red flames swirled up her black hakama pants as the kimono top became sleeveless with red singe marks on it though leaving the white kasode spotless. The katana too had changed from a plain sword to one with a deep red fringe tassel hanging from a lighter red handle with a hexagonal tsuba. The katana was a short sword in it's released form with a curve that led to the pointed end. Every two inches had a series of small spikes on either side of the blade, making it as deadly as it looked. Length wise it was about the size of Ichigo's arm, from shoulder to wrist. Small compared to Ichigo's much larger Zangetsu, but a slightly bigger than the smaller Zangetsu. The sword seemed to be on fire as the attack came from it.
Flames shot out towards Verena, disintegrating Ichigo's arrows on their way towards the elder sister. "Awaken Now Benihime!" Was suddenly called out by Urahara as a red shield appeared in front of Verena, deflecting the red fiery attack.
"My, my..." Kisuke said softly as he walked over to the three siblings. "That was unexpected." He stood in front of the group with a rare grin on his face as Yuroichi, who'd been hiding came out from behind him. "Now it's time for some real training." Both Verena and Ichigo gave a slight groan. Usually when Urahara said that, everybody involved was in for a painful afternoon.
Captain Byakuya stood in the shadows next to a construction site in the living world as Renji closed the path they had come through. Sending out his senses he found that he could not sense Rukia's spiritual power. No matter how good she had become he had always been able to sense her. However, he did sense several other spiritual energies heading towards them. Looking towards his lieutenant, he gave a sign for him to move ahead and prepare for a possible fight. Renji gave a Single nod towards his captain and ran forward and prepared to strike first.
As the group came around the corner, passed the construction site, Renji found himself frozen by the sheer size of one of the young people. A dark haired youth turned his head towards the red head. "Chad, what is it?" one of the boy's in the group ask.
Chad saw the red haired shinigami. "Just a stray." he muttered before walking passed Renji without looking back, but made a mental note to mention this to Ichigo later.
Renji felt his anger spike at the human male's words. A stray. Damn bastard! he thought causing his blood to boil.
"Abarai, did that human see you?" Byakuya inquired as he looked at his lieutenant.
"I'm unsure sir." Renji replied, though he was certain the boy had seen him.
"Hm." Byakuya hummed as he decided to head towards the large amount of spiritual energy that he was certain were the people Rukia had integrated into.
"Captain, is it me, or is there a incredible large amount of humans here that seem to have large amounts of spirit pressure coming from them?" the redhead asked as they passed another group of teens who seemed to have large amounts of spirit pressure clinging to them.
Byakuya frowned at his lieutenant's words due to the truthfulness of them. "Yes." he agreed with him. Coming to a stop, the two saw two orange haired youth's with a younger girl and Rukia was with them screening the area with her phone.
"I can't feel my legs!" the dark haired girl complained.
"Getabushi knows how to push you to your limits." the orange haired boy commented as he stretched his arms over his head.
"He did the same for us when our powers began to show up, but it got worse as we got older." the girl told the younger.
"I've got a feeling you two have some training stories that could help your sister here." Rukia told them. "By the way, Ichigo," The boy looked at her. "I heard something at school about noises being heard in the cemetery and people going missing when investigated."
"You think it's a hollow?" the orange haired girl asked, causing Renji to peer over the building to get a better look.
"It's possible." Rukia commented before stepping ahead of them. "I need you both to check things out this evening. I'll assist where I can." She looked at her hands. "But with my powers close to nonexistent, I won't be much help."
Ichigo pulled his phone out. "Uryu could help." he stated as he dialled the number.
"What about me?" the dark haired girl asked causing both Renji and Byakuya to look at them. They were hoping they weren't hearing what they were. Rukia teaching them how to survive hollows was one thing. Actively going after hollows with humans was another thing.
"You've only just got your zanpakuto Karin, don't rush going into battle." Verena told her.
"Actually," Ichigo began. "if it turns into a fight, Karin's type of zanpakuto might be what we need."
Karin stuck her tongue out at Verena. "Very mature." Verena told her in a deadpan tone.
"I'm eleven, give me a break." Karin shot back to her.
"Chad could help, his ability seems to getting stronger." Rukia told Ichigo who shook his head.
"No, I want Chad to be a just in case type of help." Ichigo told her. "Ill let him know what's going on, but I want him to stay in the neighborhood and keep everyone else safe."
"Sounds good." Verena said with a nod before looking up and frowning when she spotted something red vanish from sight.
"Sounds like Captain Koryaku kept some things secret from the head captain sir." Renji said as they walked away from the edge of the building.
"Agreed." Byakuya spoke in his monotonous voice, seeming to be devoid of any emotion.
"Sir?" Renji asked having picked up the slight irritated edge of his captain's voice, though most would have missed it; he did not.
"We observe everything from here on out and then make a decision afterwards." Byakuya ordered him, gaining a nod from Renji who was still curious as to why Rukia seemed to speak to these humans with such familiarity. Only time would tell and soon they would witness something that would answer many of their questions about the two humans, but also make them begin to question so many other things.
M-Angel: So I finally updated this story. Sorry that it only got update once last month. I was super busy and I got side-tracked by my other Bleach story, Double Trouble. I know, it's just an excuse. I'll try better this month. Also, I'm thinking of doing a Halloween story for Bleach this year. Would anybody be interested in reading it if written?
Guest - No. Verena will not become more powerful than Ichigo. I know this happens a lot in stories like mine, but that's not what I'm planning for her.
Amethyst Hazel - Sorry you had to wait so long for the update.
Antex- The Legendary Zoroark - Thanks for telling me. I hate auto-correct sometimes.
Megapanda34 - Yes, he is and it will backfire on him.
TamaTama - Yeah, it's a habit of mine. I try to get my point across and end up over explaining or describing something. I'm also sorry that you feel that my characters are flat. I hope your opinion will change as you continue to read.