Disclaim: manga belongs to Tite Kubo
Yo people two things:
1. I'm sorry for the late update but that is mostly due to my exams, but also the fact that this is the longest chapter I have ever written (it's more than 9000 words, way too long...).
2. but there is a reason to my extremely long chapter. So I get the fact that some of you don't really want to read the past stories so I wrote it in the same chapter. Therefor if you don't enjoy the flashbacks just skip in between bold letters (title excluded). That way you know when the 'boring part' is over ;) though it does kind of explain some few things...
Oh yeah and watch out for bad sentences...
Chapter 20: time's up
The next day was boring and he mostly stayed alone the entire day trying to heat up the cold spot that hurt so much.
The reception from yesterday dragged on, as today all the neighbors and everyone that knew the girl could pass by the house and visit and speak with the family members. It was required for the closest family to be there, so his mother had left early and told him to pass by in the day.
He stayed in his improvised room, that apparently used to belong to his soul reaper uncle that was captain of the 8th squad. He closed himself in the closet trying to erase everything.
So it wasn't entirely true that he didn't feel anything. In fact, he felt more things than what he had these last years in Seireitei. True, soul reapers didn't have much emotions when at work but seem to be overflowing with them when the day was over.
Ever since the moment his foot touched the common ground of the world of the living he had lost control over anything he thought he had. Strangely he had more control over his ability even if the cold spot was continually growing, now covering half his belly and the right part of his chest.
The second day was the same, no questions were asked and he preferred to stay alone in the house than with the grieving people in the house some blocks away. His uncle had told him to come and stay with the people that mattered to him many times. Saying that pushing away your family was stupide. But he didn't feel it, that family bond thingy.
It was Yoruichi that brought him out of the closet the fifth day as she literally barged the door open for him to explain what exactly he thought he was doing when his cousin needed his support.
"She don't need me," he stated still sitting in the closet. "She has an entire life here. I'm just living a lie that everyone is trying to keep from me. I'm just living in a world of illusion made by everyone that are trying to make me follow their rules."
He automatically made his hand reached up toward the hurt spot on his cheek before glaring up at her. She wore an even more pissed of expression back.
"So that's it," she said dangerously at him, her hands on the hips. "Just because your mother didn't tell you who your dad is? Are you going to play the bratty kid just because we are trying to protect you?"
He looked dumbstruck up at her. Never had anyone else than his mother screamed at him like that, and still she was just being overly protective. He had never done something that would earn him such a sour look from his family.
"That's not it," he tried to say while still holding on to his pride.
"Really," she said accusingly. "So you are telling me you are going through all the archives of the soul society just for fun when you could be training in the academy or ask your uncle to teach you how to fight. So you just plainly want me to believe your decisions made in soul society were merely a way to pass time?"
"Yes," he said as he felt something loosening inside of him. "There wasn't anything for me to do anyway there. All I was asked to do was stay out of trouble and that's it. Everyone hates me and I'm..."
"You're just a brat that is just assuming everything is perfect in everyone else's lives. Tell me, while you were there, did you find one single one sulcking and closing them self up entirely, apart from captain Hitsugaya that is?"
"Of course not." Thinking a bit more about it he added, "and I haven't seen Catain Hitsugaya sulck at all either."
"Forget about him. Do you know how much pain souls go through? Do you think they are happy where they are most of the time? Half the population of the furthest parts of the Rukongai dies less than a year later of living there. Those children that comes there don't have families. They don't have a mom that they could go cry to and they most definitely don't have the luxury to sulk about not having a father. They just died and most of them are way more lost than what you are know."
She looked at him with severe eyes and in the same time a lot of pain. He felt like melting under her accusation. He merely wanted to know a name. A single name was that so hard to say? Because yes he had the luxury to think about that since he knew he had one and hadn't forgotten about it.
"Listen Ryuu," she said after breathing in ten times to cool down her nerves, "The simple conception of 'family' in soul society is very different from what you expect in the world of the living. Either you are noble and your family is mostly based on your name and upholding the noble status.
"Or you can have the luxury of actually having a father and a mother but those are few. Often children start of their own family. You meet up with a patch of stupid kids like yourself, lost and with no name, and you call that your family. Take Renji for example, his family was bunch of kids he met in his district. They all died apart from Rukia.
"Rangiku had just one person to look after her and he was a young kid too. But all these were lucky and ended up in a family they could call their own: their squad. Soul reapers lives and dies in the squad. It becomes their family no matter the bondes you may have. You have your friend and you have your enemies but that is your family.
"You have so much luck that you have a huge family who loves you very much and would appreciate that you be present with them. Maybe you live in a world of illusions, but so do we. So stop sulking you little brat and live for what is left."
With that she left him to his thoughts. He would never believe Yoruichi, that frankly didn't like him so much, would go to such length to teach him something. He didn't know what she wanted to archive, but he could feel his shaky hands wipe away the tears that had been drowning his face for the last ten minutes.
He didn't come out immediately after that, he was to proud to do that. The next day he stayed and thought about how people interacted with each other in soul society and truth be told, he had never seen a single one of them sulck.
All of them were either happy, sour, grumpy, strict or naturally crybabies, but none zoomed out and sulcked for them self. They all seemed to be supporting each other as if they all were burying the same burden. Thinking about what he told his cousins about souls, he could only imagine that most of them didn't even remember what life in the world of the living was.
He asked his mother later that day why it felt like the entire seireitei had suffered extremely much and was trying to stay stable on itself.
"Have you read any books about the history of Seireitei?" she asked him instead, aways going for the answer you own question kind of still.
"Yeah, captain Hitsugaya made me read the historical events of the Seireitei in chronological order," he said as he sat down beside her on the bed, finally leaving the closet. He could see the way his mother flinched just so slightly at the mention of the captain. Damn, he shouldn't had brought that up.
"Did you read anything about the last wars." Lucky for him she skipped that topic. He wouldn't like to have to explain that he kind of like the white haired that seem to be one of her greater enemies.
"I have barely touched the subject of the winter war, but the captain said I should concentrate on the one's before first so I can understand why things when as they did."
"That is a wise choice, but have you heard anything about them? Like rumors or something?"
"Nobody talks about the wars exactly."
"They are all supporting each other because in a moment of need they all know that if they don't support each other they would all die. The biggest war of this century has told them that. More people than I dare count died and chaos was a cute word compared to what happened."
"Were you part of the war," he asked curious as he could see the hurt in her eyes.
"No," she said stroking his hair absently, "your uncle, sorry uncles and aunt was. I'm so happy they made it out alive. But they all bear their scars with pride."
"Was Yoruichi part of the war?" He asked as he remembered the way she look while talking about things that they had lost.
"She was, and so was Kusike. I think they both still blame themself that they couldn't help more. It's actually a miracle that Hat and cloth is still alive."
"I'm happy he is," he said even if deep down he had no idea why he said that as he didn't even like the dude, kind of.
"They are many that are. You ready to actually live out here with us now and not in your closet? Tomorrow is the last day of the mourning week. You should come." She stated before leaving toward the door.
"I will," he said, "but can I go somewhere tonight. There is someone I want to talk to."
"Want me to drive?" She asked as she apparently guessed who he was talking about.
"No, I'm fine." She tossed him an object and then a bracelet.
"The badge is to get out of your gigai, the bracelet is to keep your energy in check."
It didn't take him long to figure out where Kosakura lived. It was a small apartment decorated with flowers and with a mail box painted in pink. He managed somehow to make his presence known by releasing just a minimum of reiatsu, actually the only thing the bracelet permitted.
As he looked at her he could see more clearly how the shape of her face had changed and all the traces of the image he had of her vanished before him. The sharp eyes had something more smoothly in them, nearly loving. Her body had literally turned into the one of a woman and her long orange hair was hanging loose around her face.
"Ryuu," she exclaimed as she saw him sitting on the railing outside her house. He smiled sadly back at her expecting her to shut the door in his face. Instead she took a jacked and closed the door behind her.
"Kosakura," he stated as they stood there watching each other. "How are you doing?" He asked suddenly just to hear her speak.
"I'm perfectly fine. I suppose you don't want to know about every little detail that had happened in my life." Her voice had changed too as it was a bit smoother and darker than from what he remembered. He could clearly see the movement she did while stroking her belly.
"I would love to hear it," he said as she sat down beside him.
…
She watched as Ryuu hurried out the window maybe to try to find the things he had lost, maybe just to feel alive. Souls aren't alive and even if they act the same and look the same, general speaking, there would always be a drastic difference between them: one of them is dead.
"Karin," came the relative serious voice of Rangiku, "did he leave?" She wanted to roll her eyes. No of course not, he's just playing hide and seek in the garden. Instead she just nodded and went for the dishes.
"So technically we're the only ones here now, right," asked Renji as he leaned on the counter.
"Yes."
"And none of them are coming back soon," he asked again.
"No," she sight knowing full well where this discussion was going. She did love them both, manly because they didn't try to be so serious all the time. But damn were they annoying when they played the all knowing soul reaper card. "Dad's sleeping at Yuzu's place and Ryuu would be out for a good hour."
"Good," sing sang Rangiku before starting to warm the water. Oh joy she felt like she was a criminal of a sort. It did not help that Renji was searching for cookies in the cupboard.
They casually sat down in one of the couches waiting for her. Honestly the only thing she could do seeing them like that was laugh. She had the feeling they were trying to play good cop bad cop and both of them wanted the be the good cop, for now.
"Okay let's start this interrogation," she said crashing down on the couch opposite the two very stun faces. "What," she looked at them while taking her cup of tea, "isn't it question time." Okay she like them a lot. She could seriously make a photobook with the different expressions they made. So hilarious.
"I'm leaving tomorrow Karin and they are a few things we would like to discuss with you before I leave," started Rangiku. "Manly because I want to know too." The two of them were sitting upright in the sofa opposite her.
"I thought this was going to be an interrogation," stated Karin laughing for herself, "but it looks more like being scolded by parents."
"Karin, we're serious here," said Renji with a twisted face.
"You look constipated. I am not going to chew your heads off." That statement didn't make them relax, but it did make them speak.
"Well for starters I really want to know what the deal is," said Renji finally with a normal face. "I mean, why don't you just tell the kid who his father is? This is just getting ridiculous. He's a smart kid, Karin. He can understand the situation. Frankly I don't even know the problem here."
"Karin look a us," said Rangiku more calmly. "It's not like he's going to die or something. It's just a matter of knowing who he is."
"I'm afraid, I suppose," she whispered over her cup. She pulled her legs closer to her torso before hiding half her face behind the cup.
"Of what? I know you didn't want the captain to know and that it is kind of illegal to have a child in the world of the living, but the kid can know where he comes from," the oldest woman stated.
"He is my kid too you know," she spat back.
"Of course," said Renji back in his old demanding self. "It's just that he has no father to look up too." She sight looking at their awaiting glances. She suspected they wanted a nice story more than anything.
"When Ryuu left, I could have told him everything. Even now I could just go straight up to him and tell him that he's kind of the son of the captain that has taken care of him for the past eight years. But what next? You honestly believes that would be enough for him? Next thing he is asking me about absolutely everything and I am not ready to tell him that."
"Wow, that's your reason," said Renji ironically. "You don't want to tell him because he would ask questions? He's been living in Seireitei for eight years Karin."
"I'm honestly surprised the captain hadn't figured it out yet," commented Rangiku from the side.
"Well ichigo has. No big deal."
"I am afraid okay," she screamed as she stood up to make them shut up about their on going debate. "I am afraid of how they are going to react, both of them. They are going to hate me for sure to keep it a secret. Heck I don't even want to tell them, ever."
"Why?"
"Because Renji, that would make it real. As fine as I am now, I can play a distressful mother. I can play my part, but telling would be admitting that this is not some stupid dream of mine."
"So you think you're dreaming and has for the last 25 years?" If look could kill, Renji would have been a pile of ash by now.
"I never wanted a child, heck I never asked to be putt through that hormonal roller coaster that just wrecked me to shreds. Do you know how horrible it feels like to be the one left with the fault, the one that has to take the blame. To be alone with that freaking disaster. I had no mother to tell me anything about it and no mother figure either. I never wanted a child."
She sat down again. When that was out it didn't feel like a weight was taken of her shoulders. Truth be told she just felt like it had multiplied. She had never been good with emotions like this.
"Just think about it," she continued, "I look like an 18 year old girl. I'm not supposed to have a kid. Especially not a soul kid that can very well end up being an extremely powerful one at that."
"If you had just told the captain, I'm sure he would have helped," said Rangiku after composing herself.
"Haha, are you stupid. Now that would have caused problems wouldn't it," she said with acide. She really shouldn't put this on them but they are the reason she even brought it up.
"As if he even wanted that. Ryuu's an accident that was never suppose to happen." She left a strange laugh that send chill down their spin. "You know, I didn't even know I was pregnant before it was to late. Heck, did you know your soul could be pregnant but not your body? I still can't wrap my mind around it. Only way to know I was pregnant was to see me in my soul form."
"Why didn't you just give up Ryuu for adoption then. Hand him to someone that wanted a child in Soul society," said Renji casually as if what he was saying was perfectly normal. This did earn him a pillow in the face and a darker look than before.
"Don't even dare think about that. Ryuu is my child and as much as that was an accident I do love my child you stupide buffalo."
"It's a baboon," commented Rangiku, "not a buffalo." She smiled knowingly at the two. Yes, dysfunctional family indeed.
"Let's skip that subject please, I hardly think that is what you guys are interested in." Karin calmed down again after running up the stairs two or three times just to be slightly less irritating.
"Right," said the tattooed, looking side ways at the other redhead. "Just promise you won't go cray-cray on us again."
"I didn't go," she started but stopped seeing their look. "Whatever, spill the bean. You've been turning around the pot for a week."
"Well we didn't really want Ryuu to catch us talk to you about this. Manly because I have a feeling this is on your list of things you never want to tell him," said Rangiku filling a new cup of tea.
"Oh joy, this day is actually going to get even worse."
"Captain Hitsugaya told us about a certain assaulter that may or may not be one of the clues to Ryuu's ability. Some sort of man that was obsessed with complete opposites."
She cringed at the memory of that time and maybe, just so slightly, at the mention of his name. Happily Rangiku had a tendency just to call him 'the captain', but for Renji to say that would be just stupid.
"Mister Yin Yang I suppose."
"Oh, well he didn't give any name," started woman.
"It's not his name. I don't know the bastards name, just called him that for the fun of it. You know when you're trapped in a cell for a year you end up trying to pass the time with something."
"A year? I thought the captain said it was a week or so."
"Two technically, and that was the first time. Didn't tell you about the marvelous reason he is not allowed to come to the world of the living?"
"No," she trailed of. "But he said it could have a lot of impact on Ryuu's ability." Karin just smiled while shaking her head in disappointment. She laid back on the sofa feeling like one of her patience.
"For one, I hardly think he said that experiment had a lot to do on Ryuu, unless he actually knows Ryuu's his kid. And second, that bastard is the reason Ryuu was ever conceived."
Flashback ~
"Have you forgotten everything I taught you or are you simply trying to annoy me," said a sarcastic voice she knew all too well.
"That is not the way to gain a woman's attention," she said turning around to look at the culprit that just made her trip.
"To gain yours apparently," he said coolly as he made her trip again by drawing one of her feet toward him. "I've been standing here for the past half an hour."
"I was concentrating," she objected. "And I knew you were there," she finished as she brushed off the dirt from her cloth. "And anyway, you could have tried to just say hi," she growled as she took him in. Nope, not changed in the slightest.
"Now, where would the fun be in that," he said as he walked slowly closer to her, stopping only when their bodies where millimeter away from each other.
"Well you could at least say sorry," she said a small smile playing on her lips.
"I'm not a liar," he said before leaning in.
"And I am hungry," she said as she placed her hand over his mouth. Now she hadn't seen him in a year but that didn't change the fact that she was not going to lose.
She did miss him, a lot actually. Especially when all her friends nearly begged her to join them on a double date. Well the fact of showing of wasn't the problem, it was more the fact that they had their lover right in front of them. She had to cross an entire dimension if she wanted to see hers. Ah she hated boy talk.
"You're not happy to see me," he asked as they laid in bed. His hand stock her short black locks as she pressed her body to his. Just a sort of comfort that it wasn't a dream.
"I never said that," she looked up at his worried eyes.
"You look stressed about something."
"I feel old," she huffed. He chuckled at that.
"Really? Might I remind you I'm more than 50 years older than you?" She just hit in the chest.
"I mean as a human I'm old. Just think about it: in less than three years I'm going to be fully graduated to be a psychologist. And I am qualified to be a doctor too. That is so creepy." She hid her face in the crook of his neck and let his hands smooth her hair.
"Why didn't you come for Christmas?" She asked the next morning while she tried very hard to make something edible.
"Sorry, I got hold up on a mission in the Rukongai districts. Some problem about lack of protection in the lowest districts. I haven't really been back in my office for the last year. Well I didn't have too as the entire squad was spread out in the lower districts. You should watch you omelet before it burns," he added as she stopped paying attention to what she was doing.
"You can do the food if you wish."
"I don't think you want the entire kitchen frozen," he smirked at her.
"How long are you staying anyway?"
"I got a week free."
"That's all?" She didn't mind hiding the disappointment.
"And then I have a month of patrolling here. Just that Matsumoto is going to stick around too and I would have some paper work to do." Her entire being light up at the news.
"I don't mind Rangiku."
"I do," he frowned.
Most of the time went to training, as Karin obviously could need a lot of that. Due to her overly many studies she took just to shut things out, she hardly had any time to just practice. Well obviously she had when she was killing hollow but apart from that...
Then, lot of the time was spent on watching the sky. The night sky and the moment between the day and the night. She loved the way the world just started living again in the morning. A week past by faster than expected, as always.
The training continued though even if he was technically working. Rangiku just stood in the background, knowing when she could bother and when it was better just to leave the two of them alone. The food they eat was mostly some kind of fishy looking thing that neither smelled good or tasted good. Well, Rangiku liked most of it.
The summer ended and it always felt like she was just having a summer crush. Though one thing remade untouched: he always came back to her. Or she came back to him. Point is: they found each other in the end. Even when they got kidnapped, they ended up in the same freaking cell. She wasn't complaining.
"Well this place looks oddly familiar," stated Toshiro as he managed to diminish his headache.
"Really, familiar? That is strange." She had been in the cell longer as she woke up faster than him.
"You're okay," he asked as he looked at her. He had left five days prior and hadn't really expected to see her again so soon she supposed.
"I'm fine, and you?" He took a minute before answering.
"I think I've broken my foot." Indeed the angle of the left foot was off. "Why are you here any way?"
"I could ask you the same thing," she stated. She would have gone over to him to see if his wounds were deep or not, but she was tied to the wall with chains that didn't make her capable to walk to the other end of the cell.
"Well I was on a mission and ended up in here. I hope I didn't get you into trouble." She sight as he tried his best to read her face in the semi dark cavern.
"I think it might have been the other way around. Or whatever..." She never managed to finish her sentence as a bolt of lightning went through her body making her scream in pain. Her scream was soon followed by her companion.
"What in the world was that," she panted heavily.
"I have no idea," he said equally drained. It looked like the time stood still for a moment there as they tried their best to gain back all the abilities in their bodies.
"You're not in your human form," he said to her later, when they had come to the conclusion mister black and white was the one behind their abuse.
"I was fighting a hollow when he knock me out. Really, that's the second time he does that."
"Hopefully the third time you won't do the same mistake."
The week passed by without anything happening. How they knew was due to the sun that shone through their 'window'. The only thing that did happen was the eventful quarter of lightning coursing through their body. That was twice a day.
It wasn't actual lightning though, it just felt like the entire body came in contact with something it despised and repulsed. But eventually after two weeks of nothing to do or eat and drained from all energy, the event was the only thing that kept them alive and breathing.
Karin didn't know if she would have survived this if it wasn't for the person sitting opposite from her, teaching her how to meditate and to get in contact with their inner world if possible. Because of course they hadn't let them keep their zanpakuto this time.
She didn't even know how she could still be alive after three weeks, laying on the stone cold ground trying the best she could to survive. The electricity that went through their body was more painful than the two first week, but in the same time more bearable. In all, she didn't even have the energy to scream.
They managed to find a way for their fingers to touch just so slightly as they stretched their arm the best they could. No words were said as all the energy was put in trying to survive. The physical contact made everything diminish in pain, even the electricity that seem to be going through both their bodies as they held hand.
The one month mark passed when she felt too tired to even think and the only thing she actually paid attention to was the cold contact of his body that just barely brushed her fingers. That was the only lingering feeling as she felt like falling into a dark pit.
She woke up again when she felt the energy to scream at the pain that went through her body. It wasn't the same pain she thought, even if that felt so long ago. Opening her eyes slowly she didn't know if she was supposed to just play dead.
"No need to be frighten little kitten," said an old man's voice from the left side of her head. She didn't really know, as she was stuck to the table and unable to look anyway else that the green light that was blinding her. Not the 4th, that was certain; still in some kind of problem.
"I'm just happy you're still alive kitten." This time the voice had a face as she could look straight up at the face of an old man with gray hair. "No talking," he said as she tried to open her mouth, "just lay down and wait for it."
'It' didn't take a long time to come as she tried her best to stay on the table as she twisted and turned in her shackles. It wasn't lightning or energy or any kind of torture you might imagine. She simply felt like her entire soul was being dragged out of the body. Like something was trying to pull something out of her. This time though she blacked out as he hit her in the head.
She was starting to get rather annoyed of waking up in different places. The positive thing about this, was that she had no shackles. She was actually on a sort of bed, best comfort till now.
"You are knew," said a calm voice across from her. Looking around she soon was staring into a pair of deep green eyes. "Are you okay?"
The person in question was sitting on the other bed and was wearing a long simple white dress. She had light brown hair that was tight up in a net bun and a kind smile to match her voice. Karin looked stunned at her surroundings this time noticing there was a way out.
"We are still prisoners," the girl, that couldn't be more that 20, said as she followed her look. "Welcome to the harmonic hell. Come, I'll show you around."
As it turned out, she was not the only one there. The cave she woke up in lead to a corridor of other rooms, all harboring two or three habitants. There was one common area and one dining room. Every one were dressed in a white gown and had their hair tied up somehow. Karin herself wore the same cloth and had her hair in a net ponytail.
"As you can see, we are around twelve here but more than half of them are human so don't bother trying to talk to them. They can not see you." Well a quarter of the people there were pregnant. What kind of freaky place had she ended up in now?
Every day from there on went the same way: wake up when the bell rung, make sure you look presentable and always keep your hair tied up neatly. Then it was food where no one was allowed to talk even if there was no one else there. Next, the common room became a place where you were obligated to do common work like sawing white gowns or other stuff and just do the typical female stuff thingy.
She never really knew how long it was since she saw the outside world again. It was the only day in two weeks that they could go outside. That's where she understood one other thing: this was a mad house.
The outside wind was greatly welcomed as she stepped in the little valley that laid below. She remember seeing it all those years back when she was first imprison here. Apparently the other occupant of this little prison lived in the open all the time. The other part of the population was the males, all dressed up in black and with hair flying wild in the wind.
"Did you come here alone," asked Greta, her roommate, as if she was willingly here.
"What do you mean," she asked confused back, trying hard to look away from the ones on the other side of the fence.
"Well if you came alone you will be paired up with someone," she smiled. Greta had been in this hole for three years already, and apparently she had a baby boy that died at birth merely two month ago.
"I think I came with someone," and that was currently the one she was trying to find in the crowd of black clad males playing some sort of game. She hadn't stopped thinking about the possibility that he might actually have died in the cell, but she refused to listen to logic in this situation.
"I hope so too." And then she strolled off. Karin observed as the human females came running toward the fence that separated the two genders, just to touch the one she could only guess they loved.
Disturbing fact though, was that the bastard, that she was certain was the one behind this stuff, had kidnapped humans too for his experiments even if he was clearly more interested in the souls. In fact, she wasn't the only soul reaper there. Yes, she called herself a soul reaper.
She didn't find Toshiro in the maze the first time or the second or the third and the abnormal feeling of death was hanging over her head. Especially when she heard about one of the girls dying in the middle of the night.
It was snowing the fourth time she went out in the cold and by now she had no idea whatsoever about how long she had been there. And still no sign to get out or of the man behind all this. She hadn't even seen a single one that wasn't a prisoner. The food just magically appeared in the morning and the door to go outside was just open when it was time for that.
She woke up with pain in her entire body one morning and seeing blood over her entire bed. What had happened that night she didn't know. The only thing she did know was that the few souls that she came to know, pushed her toward a door that opened at her approach.
"So we finally meet again, Karin." She looked up just in time to see the punch that made her fall to the ground. That person she did remember, and she wanted to strangle him more than anything.
Of course they must have drugged the food or something and she was out of commission for now. He just made her sit down in the chair across from him.
"How are you feeling my dear experiment," he said with false charm.
"I am not an experiment," she snarled back instead. If she couldn't use her fists then she would damn well use her voice. This earned her a slap to the face.
"If you want a favor you should ask friendly. After all I was wondering when you would come ask for your little friend."
"Hey bastard, what have you done to Toshiro?" She tried to stand up but found her wrists tied to the chair.
"Calm down, calm down, it is the males work to be the hash one. What about we talk about you for a bit? What exactly happened tonight?" His haunting smile made her shiver in her seat.
"I never got the chance to proceed what happened before getting dragged here."
"I recall a bed full of blood. Now where did that blood come from? You don't have any knives that could possibly do such damage. Then how come? Do you feel any pain? Did you have any nightmares?"
When she thought about it she had a nightmare about a dragon getting cut in pieces and a lot of blood running from his wounds. Not to mention her entire body felt like it had been ripped to shreds.
"No." He didn't buy it.
"I will grant you one night. Then I'll end the both of you. A subject that just bleeds randomly is not a worthy experiment."
She got knocked out again. Really, was there no possibility for them to take a person from one place to another without giving them a brain damage? This time she must have been dreaming as she looked up into beautiful azure eyes looking worried back at her.
"Karin? Can you hear me?"
She reached up just so slowly and touched his skin so cold to her touch. Tracing the line of his face she suddenly touched a wet spot. Drawing her hand back, it was drenched in blood. Suddenly all her walls were back up and she nearly hit him as she sat up.
"Toshiro, you're okay."
She didn't mind the little blood but she just needed to make sure he was there. For the last, she didn't really know how long, she had been dreaming about him. What better to know if it wasn't a dream, than a hug?
"Are you okay," he asked her again, holding on to her just as strongly as she did. "You have been laying there for the past hours," he whispered in her ear as if afraid of someone overhearing them.
"I was just knocked out." She didn't know when she started crying. "They are going to kill you."
"I know." The stroking motion made her calm down just so slightly. She tried to look at him to understand what exactly he meant. "My roommate died two days ago," he confessed. "He wasn't capable to handle the opposite force apparently."
"What is going on," she tried to act normally. Even if she wanted to look him in the eyes and tried her best to push away, he hold her closer and didn't dare to let her go.
"Do you remember the first time we got here," he asked her. How could she not? That madman was the reason she wanted to research on humans odd ability to think strangely.
"Well the word 'Balance' has more to it apparently. If you haven't gotten the message yet, we are experiments that can be killed at will. Yin Yang has an entire laboratory with tubes and random gross things. Makes me wonder if he is just as crazy as Kurotsuchi."
"You were allowed in the laboratory?"
"We are suppose to wash it every morning before the 'professor' comes. I found your zanpakuto up there too."
"Well then you may know a way out," she said with more force this time as if everything could be fine.
"Sadly, no. I've talked to the other occupants here," he just hold her absently in the semidark room they sat in. "The one that has been here the longest has been here for three years and never has he found a way to get outside. He has apparently seen so many friends die all because of their experiments gone viral."
"What about your zanpakuto, did you find it?"
"I don't know what they did to my zanpakuto. But I do know whatever they did, it hurt a lot."
"They cut him up," she stated as she remembered her dream. "Is that possible?"
"Yes possible. I can't feel him anymore though. It's empty." He laid a small kiss on the base of her neck before placing his head above hers. "I wonder how they are going to kill us." She snored.
"You make it sound like no big deal."
"Well I'm a captain you know. If I haven't managed to find a way out by now, I don't really think I'm deserving of that title. I don't think it would cause much problem. They'll get over it."
"I don't want to die. I don't want you to die either." This time, she did managed to make him let go so she could look him in the eyes. "Is there no way we can find some kind of way out?" Holding his head in between her hands, she obligated him to look at her straight.
"Unless they are trying to play with our minds, we are going to die here." He hold his hands to hers. "You know I love you right," he said smiling even if the smile never really reached his eyes.
"Idiot," she managed to say in between the kisses.
There was no point in sleeping the night away if they were going to be put indefinitely to sleep anyway. When the first morning rays showed their faces in the winter sky they slowly got dressed again. There was no exchange of words since the gentle touch spoke loud and clear.
It was the random black and white person that opened the cell barely minutes after the sun stood up. The only thing Karin wanted to do was punch him in the face. She blacked out entirely before she had the chance.
She was back with Greta again. Not dead.
"How was he," she asked Karin, putting away the towel she had been applying to her head.
"Is he going to die? I'm I going to die?" Greta just smiled sweetly back.
"That depends if he survives the test."
"What test?" He could actually survive this.
"You'll know when you'll be put through it too. If he survived you'll be doing the same experiment. If he dies than you'll be killed too."
The way she said it so casually made her think about the fact that Greta had been there for three years and apparently the male that had survived here the longest had also stayed in this hole for three years. She must have seen a lot of dead friends.
"Have you taken the test?"
"Many times," she said with a smile. "I'm the only one that has survived it so many times."
Karin didn't need to wait long before she understood what it meant to lose one of the prisoners. The girl in question was human. It was one morning she just fell down on the floor bleeding. The way her body twisted and turned just happened and the cuts just appeared on her body, no explanation at all.
These people must have been through this a lot, as one of them just knock the poor girl out. After checking her pulse was gone entirely, the humans cleaned her up and dressed her in a beautiful red dress. The next day the out door opened. Not for the usual day but for a funeral.
Everyone participated with what they could. Of course the souls didn't really manage to do anything for these humans but they stayed there none the less. On the other side of the fence was a similar play as the males buried one of their own. the number of graves made her shiver at this atrocity.
"That must be the one she is linked to," said the third soul reaper there. She had survived here one year and a half. She had lost her sister in this place. "He didn't survive the experiment so she died too."
After that Karin just waited for her death. She didn't really know what to do with herself. Apparently she would have been dead by now had the test failed, but that didn't seem to ease her mind one bit. The only thing that made her stand up was that if they survived the first time the possibility to continue living was increased drastically.
She had stupide dreams that showed her an ice dragon tortured, or even her own zanpakuto being frozen to death incapables to worm itself up. The day she woke up burning down her chamber she was certain she could get out of here somehow.
"You managed to manifest your zanpakuto," asked Greta with glee.
"I have for a long time now." Discussion closed, they respected her privacy.
She woke up attached to a wall maybe two weeks later. That cave she did remember since it was the first thing she saw the first freaking time she was in this hell hole. Different from last time though was the frozen walls. She could even feel the very distinguished energy of Toshiro in the ice.
"So you are useful after all aren't you?" She looked back at Yin Yang only to see that horrible smile of his. "Good news, your lover's alive. Looks like you didn't want to kill him after all. Remain to see if he don't want to kill you."
She couldn't start to describe the feeling of glee she had for hearing that Toshiro wasn't a pile of reiatsu dissipated in the air. Looking at the opposite side of her she saw the traces of what could be a torture session. Blood streams where covering the wall.
"Ready to see if you survive?" She looked back at him only to look straight at the blade of Hyorinmaru that was thrown at her. Embracing the possibility of her imminent death, she closed her eyes.
I'll protect you, she heard instead as the blade cut through her ribs. The cold tip digged deep into her soul body but the sensation gave of nothing but comfort. She could feel the energy of safety curs through her veins. Concentrating on that sensation she saw a shape.
Never had she seen the materialization of said blade, but it could be no one else. The fact that she could hear him was odd, she was certain only the master could hear the pleas of a zanpakuto. The master would not want anything to harm you, so I will not harm you.
When she saw the male in front of her scream, she could feel his pain. Opening her eyes she guessed it was due to that man holding his hilt and dragging it out of her.
"You passed."
And thus began the worst months of her life. The fact that her reiatsu was back didn't mean it was a good thing. She didn't go back to the others; apparently she was very special.
The next month was mainly trying not to kill the person opposite from her, namely Toshiro. So somehow the freaky guy wanted to make them fight each other while being chained up, and sometimes not. So the first week was pretty okay coming to terms that none of them was dead and they had actually more possibilities to get out.
The rest of the time they were just chained up on either side of the great lab or tested on. Discussing with one another was impossible as the male lived there. He kept them under a closed eye to make sure everything happened perfectly as planed. They were feed and taken good care off since this was his 'most precious experiment'.
The first time she threw up was when she was obligated to watch a young man go through 'the test'. It was a young boy that could not see them. His pain stayed with her for days after and she could still remember the empty look when he fell to the ground.
The fact that their zanpakuto was so different was what saved them this time. How many times she had been stabbed with Hyorinmaru was beyond her, or see the one opposite her being stabbed with her soul cuter. It never hurt. The moment the blade pierced either of their body was the moment they were the most connected.
So many experiments dead and she couldn't do a thing. She wasn't the only one to think so. As time went by, she started to wonder if maybe one of the soul reapers would come for their captain but that never happened.
The day she saw Greta enter the lab was the day she decided it was enough.
Greta had given her an apologetic look when she had seen her. It only increased the similarity she found between her and Yuzu. What would happened to her sister if she died here? Greta didn't complain and did as she was asked. The way her body just fell to the floor as the blade cut her was still printed in her mind and she started thinking about that being Yuzu's body.
What are you thinking about, she heard loud and clear in her head a day as the blade cut through her again. As she looked across from her she saw the questioning look. It couldn't be.
Let me borrow your zanpakuto. He heard her too as he responded by shacking his head.
Even if they were tied up, there was possibilities to move. Just enough for her to reach up and take the blade out on her own. She hadn't thought about what to do, but her body seem to have gotten it pretty clear. She didn't get burned, she didn't get hurt and the sword obediently cut the shackles without problems.
Karin had the mad man's attention as she was hundred percent ready to kill that bastard. How, she didn't know. Honestly she didn't even know that it was possibility to use another person's zanpakuto. She could feel the cold touch of the dragon on her skin.
The man could fight, really well even. As for her, she could barely use all her muscle as they were destroyed by the long time either sitting or being chained up. The first thing she went for was to free Toshiro from his shackles.
The strangest sensation of power came to her when she hold the two blade in opposite hand. And she used both on instinct. She trashed the lab and she trashed the entire place. But no matter what, the stupide man hold that sinister smile on his face.
…
"He escaped before we manage to kill him and somewhere out there he is still torturing young souls to make that perfect creation of his," finished Karin. She had received a text from Ryuu saying he was staying the night at Kosakura's place so that left them the opportunity to talk things thru.
Both Renji and Rangiku didn't really know how they were supposed to react.
"At least now I know where the captain was that year. I mean someone said he ran of with you."
"It's true, I have never heard of this story," injected Renji. "But just so we are clear, I still don't know the reason for your tale apart from the very distinguish fact that Ryuu is indeed an experiment and in danger."
"The only logical reason I can find that I managed to use Hyorinmaru that time was because I was pregnant with Ryuu. After Urahara, one can use the others zanpakuto if you keep something from that person on you that has an emotional attachment to said person. Ryuu is apart of both of us."
"Wait," said Rangiku after a short moment. "This all happened more than a year before the captain was restricted to the Seireitei. Wait, you knew you were pregnant before he left?"
"Apparently a pregnancy in the soul society is very different from person to person. It usually is around 27 month. I knew I was pregnant the last time I saw him but didn't managed to tell him. I didn't really have the chance either."
Digging up memories was one of her nightmares. Why bothering digging up old mud just to get dirty. No, telling old stories just hurt. Living in the present was what she opted for.
"So Ryuu," said Renji, "what about him? What have you know for a long time and what have you actually just learned." Renji was definitely playing the bad cop card today.
"I knew Ryuu was some sort of balance ever since he burned down our ancient apartment. The rest of it is pretty much Urahara that figured out. When you said Ryuu was having these strange phenomena of ice it was easy to put the pieces together. Though I have no idea what yin yang has the intention to do with Ryuu. I just know that to be able to measure something you need a balance. Ryuu is a balance and definitely something that madman would want."
"Maybe you should start focusing on how in the world you are suppose to tell Ryuu all this," said Renji flatly.
"I'm not telling the kid this," she screamed back.
"Of course you are. We are keeping a secret because you selfishly believes that is the best for the kid. Now, maybe you should start worrying about the fact that your kid will get himself killed before he even reaches the maturity. Time's up Karin." And with that he left the living room.
"I don't want to sound like the enemy but Renji is right. If his ability is based on balancing two forces, how is he suppose to learn control if don't know the truth. After the last outburst I think it is safe to say time is precious right now."
"I know," said Karin as she leaned her head on the older woman's shoulder. "I just don't want him to hate me."
"I'm sure he would understand." Rangiku patted her back affectionately. In these times she really wished her mother wasn't gone. How was she supposed to know what was wrong or right to do as a mother.
"You really would have been a great mom, Rangiku." She smiled absently.
"I think I have enough with the ones around me. Maybe one day I'll open an orphanage for lost children."
"You really should. Just don't make the kids drink. I think that is the only big problem with you." The redhead laughed happely at the statement.
"You know, when I was pregnant I thought about just giving up the kid and let you care for it. On second thought I don't think I would ever have pardoned myself if I gave up my kid. I really do love Ryuu you know, even if it doesn't sound like it."
"I feel honored. And trusted me on this, I know the captain would feel the same way. Time is up Karin."
Thanks for reading ;)
And for the support :D
Again sorry for the late update, but this is kind of two chapters in one... hehe :p
I'll make a resume of the story flash back in the next chapter as it is time for the truth to come out :D Next up is the long awaited discussion between mother and son. Anyway, hope it wasn't too long and that you got the general idea.