disclaim: manga belongs to Tite Kubo.

Chapter 14: Hunted by the past

The figure of the captain of the 10th squad was moving slowly under the setting sun. There was only one place he wanted to be, one place that made him concentrate. As he neared the small hill, the sun was slowly disappearing behind the horizon. As he sat there the thousand of stars showed their faces reminding him of her.

He had taken Ryuu to the 4th squad and made his way to the 1st right after. His subordinate had said she would take care of the child until they knew more about the situation. The 1st squad was a mess and send him away saying they would investigate it later. That was a week ago. After he hadn't heard a thing from either Matsumoto or the head captain.

He had found the small boy because of the reiatsu and honestly he still didn't get how his Zanpakuto had found out where the kid was. It was under earth in a small bunker sort of thing that he was certain belonged to the 12th division but making assumption would only get him in trouble. When he entered the room, the place was slowly cooling down to –120 degree Celsius. He was impressed the child hadn't died.

Though all that happened one thing was annoying him more than anything. He twisted in his palm the small preciouses artifact he didn't think he would see so soon. It was a simple pin really: it was a four pointed star with a blue stone inside it. He had given it to her many years ago, but why would she give away the only connection he still had with her.

He had searched for its match in his entire office but no matter what, he couldn't find the twin that would shine if the person wearing the pin was in any kind of danger. He needed that to make sure she was fine.

…

"This doesn't make any sense," she gowned, her head hitting the table.

"That's because you are looking at it the wrong way."

"Oh really," she just looked at him with anger. "Than tell me how in the world it makes sense that the blue stars are warmer than the red. Or the fact that an old stars are red. In fact the older it is the redder it gets."

"Karin, you have to stop looking at physics like it's something that makes sense. It just is." He looked at her from the other side of the table. "Anyway the blue flames are the warmest ones and that can be explained."

"You know, study your zanpakuto was not exactly how I was imagining it," she objected. "How does knowing how a star is born help me get my zanpakuto?"

"You need to focus more." At his words she just let her head hit the table again.

It was the third year he was visiting and this year he came a bit before the summer vacation. Could be because she could be doing this in the same time as her studies and she needed the library. Could also be because she had just released a massive among of reiatsu that had warned the soul society. Her energy wasn't that much in check just yet no matter what they thought.

"But it's Friday," she wined. "Toshiro don't you know what students do on a Friday evening?" She asked with pleading eyes.

"They get drunk and lose their brain cells," he responded stoically form the chair across from her. They had the entire library for them self, well at least the second floor where all the science books were.

"Old man," she snored, getting back to her reading. "Okay, so 'in astronomy a green star is due to an optical illusion of a blue or white star. As the color of a star is more or less given by a black-body spectrum, the star can not be green.' Why can they never explain this in an easy way? There isn't even a definition of body black spectrum thing."

"Black-body spectrum," he said simply reading a book on plants. "And stop skipping parts just because you don't understand it."

"How can you even be sure my zanpakuto is related to stars. Could be my inner world is just beautiful without a reason. Maybe it as something to do with silver."

"If what you told me was right she is probably related to stars and you have already looked up everything about silver." She stopped whining but that didn't mean she was satisfied with his decision.

"Kurosaki," said an eager voice from the doorway, "I didn't take you for a studying student." The person that had spoken was a male around Karin's age with bleach blond hair and slightly tanned skin.

"Oh, hey Simon," said the girl smiling.

"What are you doing anyway? I thought you were studying medicine," he said leaning over her shoulder to see better. She didn't seem to mind at all. "Stars, huh? Didn't take you for the romantic type."

"For one," she said closing the book, "I hardly see anything romantic about learning about stars and second it's fascinating." Toshiro chuckled lightly at her comment knowing full well the boy couldn't see him. Karin could and she send him a death glare.

"Don't start," she warned. Looking puzzled at her, the boy looked at her then at the empty seat in front of her.

"Is there a ghost there?" He asked as if that was totally normal.

"Oh I forgot," she said all anger gone, "Hitsugaya this is Simon, Simon this is Hitsugaya." She smiled widely at the shocked expression on his face, he was sure of it. But most of all he was shocked about what she just called him. Did she just use his last name? In three years she had never used his last name, but suddenly she does?

"Well, hello Hitsugaya. I can't see you though," said the boy scratching the back of his head. When the boy looked at him again one single thing struck him. His eyes were clear turquoise.

As it turned out, Simon was Karin's senior and was studying algebra for the third year now. Not really strange, he was a soccer player. That's where they met. They had been friends ever since the beginning of the school year and even if they said their relation was only platonic Toshiro could see the way Karin looked at him.

He didn't really like the way she looked at him. Not that he was jalousie, just that he didn't deserve her. Especially when the look he gave her was as if he was going to eat her. His suspicion that there was something more about it, was answered when she suddenly asked him one day:

"Say, Toshiro, where do you suppose guys like to go one a first date?" The question was innocent in itself but his stomach turned. Not really bothering about it then, he brushed it off saying he had absolutely no idea. Either way they were in the middle of Hakuda training and she should focus more on that.

This didn't stop her from asking him again later when they were sitting near the railing. All type of questions really. It went from 'do you think he likes me,' to 'Do you have any tips about how to seduce him, you know attract his eye.' And through it all he only barred his teeth trying not to scream at her that it was seriously getting on his nerves.

Finally snapping he said: "What in the world make you think I have any idea Kurosaki?" He thought she was going to walk away and try something else. No, instead she pushed it further and he didn't know how long it would go before he emptied his stomach in disgust.

"Name's Karin, remember? Anyway, you're a guy and pretty much the only one I really trust, why wouldn't I ask you?"

"That doesn't mean I want to listen to your rant."

"So you don't object you are my friend?"

"'Friend' wasn't in your sentence," he restored.

"But seriously, what do you think he likes?" She said eagerly, to much if he had anything to say.

"I have no clue. Just give him something you think he likes or something you made. As long as you put your heart at it I suppose he'll like it. If not his trach." He didn't turn to look at her expression, somehow to embarrass.

"Thanks Toshiro, you really are a good friend," she smiled brightly before leaving him there thinking about what occurred, not leaving the time to reply. It didn't take him long to figure out he was jealous. Well it took him the entire night but it could be worse. Why he was jealous was another question he didn't managed to answer before the end of his stay.

That summer many things happened and not the pleasant ones. Not only was she a target to some strange person he never heard about, but she also managed to nearly kill herself over it too. The positive part could be she managed to release her zanpakuto. She had stayed alone for a week after, saying she wanted to catch up with the doll. He was right when he had said her zanpakuto had something to do with stars.

But as summer grew to an end he realized he shouldn't be coming back. Well not next year anyway. She seem to be able to deal with her spiritual energy by the end of his stay and he was really getting too attached to her. He didn't have many friends in soul society and it felt pleasant to be part of someone's life where they didn't push you away. But if he grew more attached, well he didn't want that to happen.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," he told her the last night as they sat on their usual spot.

"I know," she said. Well she was either being a total know-it-all or covering for something else. "Will you be coming back again?" She asked looking toward the starry sky that had been black for the past hour now.

She must have figured out something was up. He had trained her to read people and honestly she was doing a good job. He didn't know if he was coming back or when. Her training wasn't entirely finished and her Kido could need some major improvement, but baste on her little training she was doing great.

"We'll see," he said simply. Searching his pocket he handed over a little box he tossed at her. He had asked Urahara to help him do them.

"Euh, what is this?" She asked shock that something hit her head.

"Open up." She looked at him skeptically before looking down on the four pointed pin with a little blue ice stone in the middle.

"What exactly is this?" She asked back to her normal hash self.

"An ancient heirloom that has been lying around for couple of years. It was the only artifact I possessed that had a twin and has been so long in soul society." She looked closer at the small artifact in her hand.

"But, what is it?" She asked finally looking at both the two identical pins. The only difference between them was that one of them was a bit chipped.

"It's a reiatsu detector. If you are in any kind of danger or problem the one that has the other pin would know. If anything happens I would know right away."

She looked at the pins in her hands and back at him before returning to the pins. The different kind of feelings were masking her face, going from sad, angry, confused and many, many more before settling on a gleeful expression. Without asking, she thru her arms around his neck thanking him for everything.

…

"Captain," said the voice of Matsumoto, bringing him back to reality, "are you alright?" She was sitting beside him under the midnight sky.

"I'm fine," he said looking back at her with a questioning look.

"Look captain, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Ryuu, but I promised Kurosaki I wouldn't." He hid the small artifact in his palm as she sat down beside him.

"I said I'm fine, Matsumoto." He closed his eyes laying on his back.

"And thank you," she whispered after a while. "I'm grateful you found Ryuu. Captain?" She asked after waiting for his reply.

"How's the kid?" He asked avoiding the conversation she wanted to bring up.

"He woke up just some hours ago but he is sleeping again now." Her voice was more distant again. "He will be fine but they don't know how long it will take before he feels safe enough to leave the building. He will be put under the 4th squad's jurisdiction until he is mentally healed."

He could feel her dinged her own grave by digging deeper and deeper into her own past; after all, no one was entirely whole after the wars that had ravaged Soul society. He remembered she once said she had always wanted to take care of children, make them feel safe from the rude atmosphere of the Rugonkai, sometimes after the war. Looking side ways at her he felt the need to say it:

"Thank you," he whispered slowly as if not to disturb her but just loud enough to draw the attention back to him, "for reminding me what we stand for."

Hitsugaya didn't do apologizing, but Matsumoto was the closes thing he had as a protecting older sister, or aunt. They had been through each war surviving by standing together in mind. He trusted her with pretty much everything he had and he knew she would know when something was serious or not. She brushed it off as if not hearing him. He knew she had.

"Say captain?" She said back in her joyful voice, telling him she was back to being the one perfectly hiding her feelings. "Since Ryuu is traumatized they need a person he trust to stay with him now in the beginning. I was wondering if said person could be me, you know since I know him and so on?"

"Granted." He could feel her change in atmosphere. She was shocked. "But," he continued when she was starting to look forward to her vacation, "you have to report in every morning to say where you are." That was going easy, but he didn't mind the paperwork the next week. Would put his mind of the circumstances and give his subordinates some vacation from baby sitting him.

"Thank you, captain" she said gleefully again as if she just pulled the best prank ever. She was gone in a flash leaving him to think about it.

This kid, should he bother about him? Well apparently he should. Obviously Kurosaki wouldn't have given Ryuu the pin if there wasn't a message behind it, but what? That pin was precious to both of them, so why give it to Ryuu? Did she want him to take care of him? Well if that was the case he was failing miserably.

…

He woke up in the middle of the night feeling it. A massive reiatsu that had made his pin go of. The little stone was shining brightly and didn't stop blinking. Without thinking he was ready to leave to earth in a heartbeat. Knowing that using the Senkaimon wasn't a good idea, he went directly to the Kuchiki estate that had authorized him to use their personal gate when it came to anything related to the two Kurosaki children. He was going to be punished for that but right there and then he honestly didn't care.

He hadn't visited Karakura last year, neither did he visit this summer and the year was closing in on winter. He didn't need to search long before finding her reiatsu. He could feel it in every fiber of his soul, sending shivers down his spin. He sent out some of his own to see if that would calm her down. Miraculously it did.

When he found her, the view was heart breaking. He teared of his haori to toss it over her to cover her exposed skin. The ripped up tissue of her dress wasn't helping much to protect her from the cold breeze. When she looked at him, he was lost. The time he had been apart hadn't helped much if not just increase his need to be near her and that pull that didn't want anything else than to protect her.

"Toshiro?" She asked afraid, looking up at him. He was by her side in an instant.

"Calm down, Karin. You are attracting hollows," he said in a voice that he really didn't mean to sound hash. Her only reaction was to hold his haori close around her body even if technically, to other people that didn't help at all.

She was currently sitting on a small rooftop not so far away from her own little apartment that he supposed she still lived in.

"Karin," he said again placing his hand on her shoulder, "you have to calm down." The movement made her look at him, but she didn't seem to really understand he was there, as if what she was seeing was just a ghost and not a friend. "Karin," he said a bit louder while shaking her shoulder, "can you hear me?"

"I need to go home," she said as if he woke her up but he was never there to begin with. She stood up on shaky feet and tried her best to keep the small pieces of cloth together as she made her way down from the roof. Or well, that was what he thought she was going to do. Her feet just led her to the side and she jumped down, from a seven story block.

Quick to react, he jumped after her just barely getting her before she hit the ground. It was in moments like this that he loved shunpo. Finally snapping out of whatever trance she was in, she looked up at him from her position in his arms.

"Toshiro?" She asked again but he could clearly hear the difference from her absent minded state.

"Yes Karin, I've been here for the last minutes. What is," but his sentence was cut off as she slung her arms around his neck shaking. He didn't have the heart to question her. At least not yet.

"Can you take me home," she whispered in his ear, something that send a strange kind of tingling through his body. Picking her up bridal style, he shunpo-ed to the apartment she used to rent two years ago hoping it was the right house. After all, he honestly doubted there were any one out at this hour and if they were, they hardly look up in the sky or they were hardly sober.

"I lost my key," she said from the croco of his neck. "But the window to my chamber is open," she continued. He had been there before so he knew his way around. He laid her down on the soft madras in her chamber. But when he tried to pry her loose, her hold only tighten.

"Don't go," she pledged, "at least not yet."

"Karin, you need to put on something that isn't toured apart," he said uncomfortably under her heated embrace. Not that he wasn't used to being hugged by girls, by all means, Matsumoto and Momo did that all the time. It just that somehow the way she hold on to him was more like holding on to a life bow and that was very disorientating: he had no idea how to comfort someone.

"I'm sorry," she said still not letting go, "I just need to make sure you're here. That this isn't a dream." Placing himself more comfortably on the bed he decided it was for the better and holed her small frame gently.

"I'm right here Karin. I'm not going anywhere before you calm down."

"You promise?" Her hold barely lessening.

"I promise."

"Okay." She moved away from him to go to the bathroom. Only then could he see the full impact of what had happened to her. She had bruises on her jaw and neck, her wrists looked hurt as the red and blue marks were present every where. He didn't see any blood, but he could imagine the damage was already done.

Looking at the bare skin of her back he suddenly felt very conscious of her state. Turning away he asked slowly: "Should I warm up some water?"

"That would be nice." He could still hear the slight shivering in her voice but it was better than before. He left before she even entered the small bathroom.

The house wasn't that big, just a simple sleeping room, a living room and a bathroom. The living room was cut away from the kitchen by a simple commode. She joined him in the little sofa soon after he had prepared the tea. She was dressed up in a simple dress and a baggy sweater.

She simply looked out the window, that you could see from her simple sofa, drinking her tea. If not for the small movement of her hand on the cup or the way she was playing with the hem of her pullover, she looked perfectly fine.

"Why didn't you come?" She asked and the only thing he could thing was that she was avoiding the question entirely. "I waited for you last summer but you never came. I didn't take a summer job because I was waiting for you to show your face." He said nothing but looked at her over his cup, watching as she turned her fears to anger.

"And this year you didn't come either. Just how good do you think I am at this? I nearly killed a kid the other day because I wasn't fast enough to stop the hollow. " And she bragged on, talking about everything that had happened the last two summers, blaming him for her mistakes. He found he didn't mind. He could handle her anger, just as long as she didn't go back to that cosmetic stat she was in a moment ago.

"I'm going to bed," she said finally after talking her breath away and drinking up her tea. She left him in the small living room where he calmly cleaned up after them. Then he made his way toward her room, drowning in the moonlight. He knew she could sense him and would have thrown something his way if she didn't want him there.

She laid under the cover when he sat down at her feet, waiting for the real matter that she hadn't started touching. A part of him told him she wouldn't. Why should she share something so private with him? The other part of him knew she just needed some time to open up.

"Simon," she whispered, her face half eaten by her pillow. It made him snap back to reality. "The summer you didn't come I started going out with him." He didn't miss the acid way she said him and the way her voice was wavering. " I wasn't sure I liked him, really like him, but he keep pushing me. We didn't kiss before his birthday. But he is one of the touchy ones and he didn't think that was enough."

It became quiet after that. Toshiro never like that guy anyway, he didn't like the way he was looking at her either. Maybe he should have warned her about that little detail. Feeling she wouldn't continue just yet, he laid his body beside her. She apparently took that as an invitation as her arms hugged his torso and her head naturally places itself in the crook of his neck. Since the damage was already done, he let his arms slide slowly around her form.

"I really like him," she whispered against his neck, "and trusted him with everything. He stayed with me when I was sad or angry and he didn't mind my hash nature. I thought he understood me." As her arms tighten their hold around him, he did the same by reflex. He would wonder how, oh how, this felt so natural, later.

"Some of my friend said I shouldn't trust him but I didn't listen. I always stood up for him and you never showed up again either so I didn't wanted to be left alone. I don't even know why I was so stupid." That's when he felt it. The small humid spot on his neck where she was resting her head and he panicked.

She must have felt his body tense because she loosen her hold to look him right in the eyes. He shattered when he saw the strong eyes looking at him with the red rim on the side and the small tears forming in the corner. There were no coherent thoughts in his head any more else than the fact that he couldn't find a single one.

He would blame it on his zanpakuto later, or his dragon like soul and personality and most definitely on instinct. He would actually curse his instinct later, without them he would never have done that. Or maybe it was the fact that his hands were occupied. Out of the blue, he leaned in and kissed the small tears sliding down her skin. Small butterfly kisses to make the tears go away.

Before he could really put two and two together he could feel her body tense and he remembered just exactly what she had been thru. Her arms moved away from his feature and he closed his eyes just to see if his brain worked again. His arms never left her body even if that would probably be the best.

He never managed to organize his thoughts again before the next wave of dizziness over run him. It actually took some time before he realize what exactly was going on. She was kissing him and holding his neck as if he was her life saver. Worst part though, was that in all this mess he had kissed her back. Not disgusted no, just very disturbed that he was kissing someone he could consider his friend.

When his mind was the clearest, he felt horrible. Pushing away he could only hold her in his arms and try not to look at her. For the first time in his life he felt one very disturbing feeling: lust. Pure animal lust. She didn't move and he was forced to look down at her too know how she was. She was still, as in shock. The second feeling he felt was relief. He wasn't the only one that wasn't entirely sure what happened.

"Do I repulse you that much?" She asked. So they were not on the same wave length. Honestly he was extremely happy she said that because that made him fall back to earth, really. Smashing back down to the hard ground.

"I... no, it's not like that." He stumbled on his words and felt more pathetic as the time passed.

"I know," she said simply closing the distance again and returning to their previous position, the one before everything when wrong.

"You're not thinking straight, Karin." She only giggled in his neck and he didn't know if he was supposed to feel relieved that she did.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean too. I just needed the comfort I suppose and you didn't do anything to fight against it." She pressed her body closer as his arms just wanted to do the same. He really needed to have a chat with his instincts.

"I managed to fight him off in the end you know. He didn't touch me more than that." He could feel her smile against his neck.

"That was way too far anyway," he grounded his head buried in her hair. She didn't say anything after that, as if what happened had no importance. Understanding he had been in the world of the living too long, he tried to leave believing she was far gone already.

"Stay," she whispered, "please stay just till I fall asleep. You can leave afterward."

"I need to go," he tried, even if he didn't think he sounded any convincing.

"Just till I fall asleep," she pleaded from her position. "Please, I need you too."

He stayed a while longer. Just as she disappeared entirely he kissed the top of her head, out of pure instinct he may add. As he turned to leave he could swear he saw her lips turn upward. As he ran back home a single sentence was kept in his heart without really knowing it and he found himself smiling slightly. "Thank you," she had whispered.

…

He remember not being grounded at all for leaving but for taking so long to come back. As it turned out all the captains had gathered and awaited his report with eager. Even a none captain/ academy student was standing in between the different high ranked.

He turned the artifact a few times more in his hand thinking about Ryuu's eyes. He didn't like those eyes. So many years ago he had thought he had beaten that stupide human into understanding he shouldn't lay a finger one Kurosaki. And after all this years he never managed to protect her from him any way. It didn't help that the kid had that bastard eye's.

Thanks for reading :D

I apologize if this was a bit OoC, but I wasn't entirely sure how to right this passage...

Anyway, have a nice week end :) and thanks for the views :D Makes my heart flutter ;)