The raven-haired girl groaned as she hoisted herself up, and looking at the scene before her. The girl she had met some time ago when she went to bring something which her brother need from her bedroom, shinigami was what the girl had called herself. The creature in front of her was definitely something out of the worst dreams. The situation wasn't help as her brother and twin sister lay half-dead in their half-wrecked home, and nor the fact that the shinigami was herself about to get killed worsened it.
Her eyes flitted to the football, which by some coincidence, was lying a few arms reached from her. Never in her life, had she been so glad to pursue her hobby of playing football when her school friends ridiculed her for it. Maybe, it was for this very moment. She sprinted to the ball, picked it up, tossed it and kicked as hard as she could. She smirked at the sound of the sickening crack which emanated from the creature's mask, her smirk widening as she heard the painful howl.
'That's what you get for hurting my family, you jerk', she thought with satisfaction. A groan whisked her out of her musings, the injured shinigami resting on the sidewalk, breathing heavily, all while she bled profusely. Without a second thought, she sprinted to the sitting woman. "Are you fine?", she asked the girl in concern.
"We shinigami have much more durability than you humans. Don't worry about me. I won't die from this", the shinigami stated before her flitted past the girl and to the wrecked house. "You're sister and brother are fine" 'I can still sense their reiatsu. Though he looks eerily like Kaien-dono.' "But its not over yet", she remarked turning in the direction where the creature had just disappeared. "Hollows are able to heal faster in Hueco Mundo. That hollow will return soon".
Karin gulped at the words, before looking back at her siblings. Their father was not in the town that night. He was scheduled to return in a few hours. She closed her eyes, feeling helpless. 'Ichi-nii, Yuzu, what... what should I do?'
When their mother had died, she was barely four. She hadn't made any concrete memories before their mother had died. Their brother had. His best ones as well as single worst one. She knew her brother had been hurting himself on the inside. He always felt that their mother's death was his fault.
When they had had talked their heart out, she noticed one difference in Ichi-nii. He never laughed or smiled like he did before. The only smiles were the small ones of pride and affection for his family. He never cried again too. He had become pillar for her and Yuzu.
Yuzu took care of the family, the same way she remembered her mother doing. Deep down she knew, the excess of food was for their mother. She had always seen Yuzu place a dish before their mother poster, every night before they went to bed. She knew that her twin sister wasn't accepting their mother's death even six years later. She was hurting the same way as Ichi-nii.
Their father had held all the three of them together through the low of their mother's death. She knew it was idiotic of their father to bawl over every little thing in front of their mother's poster. Deep down, she knew it was his way of coping up with the loss of the woman he loved dearly. She knew that their father tried to uplift the somber mood of their family whenever he did his antics.
What had she done? She had tried not to become a burden. She had failed miserably at that. Ichi-nii was hanging on death's door, because he tried to protect her from the falling debris.
The shinigami physically recoiled when the girl opened her eyes again. The conviction in those eyes was enough to rattle a hundred and fifty year soul who had seen the dark side of the Soul Society in Inuzuri.
"Is there any way to save them?"
The words weren't spoken coldly or frantically. They were calm. But the message was not. She wasn't afraid of dying for protecting her siblings, the shinigami realized. And the girl wasn't going to forgive the hollow for trying to kill her siblings, was the underlying message.
She didn't have time to respond as the Garganta opened again, the hollow stepping out of it without sporting the cracked mask which the girl had managed to inflict with the ball. She winced at the shrill sound which the hollow produced as its roar.
"You have to become a Shinigami yourself", she replied to the girl's previous question. The girl nodded without hesitation. She shouldn't have been surprised, yet she was.
"What do I need to do, Shinigami?"
Holding out her zanpakuto with her uninjured arm, she looked into the girl's eye. "Pierce your heart with my zanpakuto. That way you can gain Shinigami Powers. And my name is Kuchiki Rukia, not Shinigami".
The girl smiled as she held the blade of her zanpakuto. "I am Kurosaki Karin", and with that she thrust the zanpakuto through her own mortal body's heart.
The torrent of such potent reiatsu was something Rukia hadn't expected. She knew Karin had a whole lot of untapped reiatsu, but enough to dwarf her own? No. The semi-oversized blade of a normal zanpakuto? No. Had she expected to lose all of her Shinigami powers? Definitely no.
Yet all that had taken place right before her eyes. Rukia could only gape like a fish, as Karin dashed forward in a bastardized and slower version of a shunpo, and cut off the hollow's arms, causing the gigantic creature to start falling face-first towards the ground. Karin bladed had reached a position high over head by the time the hollow's face touched the road, before a strong downward swing cut through the hollow's mask and disintegrated into reishi.
Rukia stood up, still in shock and clutching her injured shoulder and walked up to Karin. "You did great, Karin"
The girl blushed a little at the compliment, before looking back at the half-wrecked house. "What about them?"
"I have a device with which we can erase the memory of the events of this night", Rukia answered, shrugging at the gaze which Karin was giving her. "The mortals shouldn't know about the existence of the Soul Society".
"What about your powers?"
"You will have to act as an substitute for the time while I regain my powers. That means no matter what time it is, you have to perform konso on plus souls and purify the hollows", Rukia answered causing Karin to think for a few moment before nodding.
"I will do that. It because of my carelessness that you lost your powers. Its the least I do for you, Rukia-san", Karin replied. "Though what about your living arrangements? If hollows are lurking around, you can't stay out if you have lost your powers".
Before Rukia could answer, a new voice cut through the silence of the night. "I believe I have solution for your little problem, Kuchiki-san".
All three missed the single brown eye which watched the exchange with a small smile on his face.
"Waaaakkkkeee uuppp! Iiiiccchhiiiggooooooooooooooooooo!"
Ichigo growled as he slammed his father into the ground. Didn't his father have any normal humane way for waking him up?
"Why is my life always in danger when I am in the same room as you, oyaji?", Ichigo grunted as he stood up and glowered at the prone form of his father. 'Its good to see you again, Dad. This time I won't let things go shitty enough that you and Ryuken-san need to charge at a Reio-empowered Yhwach all by yourselves'.
Isshin stood up looking at Ichigo with a critical eye. 'He didn't leak any reiatsu right now. Usually he will flare his reiatsu when I wake him up. Something is up' "You need to clean the house downstairs. Seems like a truck wrecked our house", Isshin remarked with a wide smile on his face. 'You don't need to know about hollows and Karin right now'.
"Why am I the one who needs to that?", Ichigo asked narrowing his eyes, before making his way downstairs grumbling. His slowly went over everything, surveying the damage.
Isshin came down barreling down after him. "Because one of Karin-chan's friends needs a place to stay for some time, so she is showing her friend around the neighborhood, before they go to school". Ichigo rose a brow, but his mind wandered to a memory.
Soon after Yhwach had become the Reio, he had been overloaded with the influx of reiatsu. By the time the Quincy King got the power in check, all the three dimensions had been scrambled. By some irony, Karakura Town, Los Naches and Seireitei had ended up next to each other. An unsaid accord had passed through the Shinigami and Arrancar ranks, as well as the reiatsu possessing humans. They were allies until Yhwach was brought down.
A new organization structure was adopted. The Scouts searching for any Quincy invaders as well as mapping the new landscape and the Defenders for any incoming Quincy invasions. They had two primary divisions, each having seven subdivisions. The first division had all its sub-division captains as shinigami, which the other sported Arrancars except Ichigo.
An unanimous vote had placed Kyoraku Shunsui as the head-captain, while Ukitake Juushiro and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck as the captains of the primary division. The Shinigami division sported the return of Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi Shihouin as captains of the first and second sub-divisions. Hirako Shinji, Shiba Isshin, Kensei Muguruma, Kuchiki Byakuya and Kenpachi Zaraki captained the remaining five. Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Kurosaki Ichigo, Pesche, Dondochakka, Rudbornn, Mila Rose and Sun Sun led the Arrancar divisions. Kuchiki Byakuya and Kurosaki Ichigo headed the healing divisions.
"Ichigo! Run away from here! Renji, Hiyori and I will hold them down", Rukia shouted in despair spotting the advancing army of the Quincies.
Yeah. They had been on a scouting mission. The First Shinigami division and the Second Arrancar division had a joint scouting mission. It was silent before they spotted a battalion of Quincies being headed by Jugram Haschwalth. The fact had also been established that Kurosaki Ichigo was the only one capable of standing up Yhwach because of the peculiar composition of his reiastu. Kurosaki Ichigo was to be protected at all costs.
"Rukia! I can handle them! I am your Captain! You should retreat! It's an order!", Ichigo shouted in anger as Rukia rushed forward in a shunpo.
"Sorry for the insubordination, Ichigo... But we can't afford to lose you right now. The Gotei 14 need you. In the grand cause, we are just dispensable pawns. You aren't a pawn, Ichigo. You are a King. I'm sorry", was all Rukia said before vanishing along with Renji and a few others. Ichigo remembered nothing after that as he been wrapped back to Seireitei by a the Lieutenant of the First Shinigami division, Sarugaki Hiyori using a Garganta.
From reports he received later, Renji, Rukia and Hiyori had lit up the sky with their attacks for three days and three nights.
The three were never seen again.
Neither was Jugram Haschwalth.
That was the last time he ever saw Rukia. That was the only time he ever cried again. He didn't cry again until twelve years later.
It had been painful see Rukia again. Fourteen years had passed since that scouting day for him.
"Fine", he grumbled, and quickly got cleaning around the living room. 'I need to visit Kisuke soon. He may not lay out plans over centuries like Aizen did, but his short term plans work like nothing else'.
Isshin silently watched his son cleaning around the house, and shook his head. 'I know I can feel it! My suppression over the hollow has slipped! Damn you, Kisuke! You said that I wouldn't regain my powers until Ichigo died! He is well and alive, and yet I have my Shinigami powers back!', he mentally screamed making his way to his adjoined clinic.
Closing the door behind him, Isshin leaned on it and let out a sigh. "I don't know what is going on with Ichigo, Masaki. Something else has happened", he whispered sadly.
"Zangetsu. Shadow Karin the whole day. And don't step in, unless it a Menos Grande and Ishida isn't around"
"You worry too much Aibou! She's your sister!"
"Its not her I'm worried about Zangetsu. Your reiatsu is like a Vasto Lorde. Your appearance is enough for Soul Society to send in a Captain blazing in, or even Ryuken-san to make you his personal shooting target. You know what example Ryuken-san made of the Sternritters"
What did Ichigo say?! And that unmistakable new reiatsu was of a hollow! It was quiet enough in nature that one would miss it for a Shinigami. What set him off was the casual conversation his son was having with a potential Vasto Lorde. And what? Sternritters? What were they? And the kid knew about Ryuken. And... probably Masaki too then.
"Like any Captain other than that Flower-coat and Old-Beardy can defeat me", Isshin heard with cackles. "You should talk with Ossan some time soon. I think we can get an ally. I think using your reiatsu, you can separate the souls within the Noveno Espada. Ossan will explain it to you".
'Flower-coat and Old-Beardy sounds like Kyoraku-taicho and Yamamoto-sotaicho-dono. How in the name of the Reio does Ichigo know about THEM?', Isshin thought flabbergasted. He had a long week ahead of him, with Ichigo as his biggest headache. He prayed to the Reio hoping that he got his answers.
At least Karin was safe, if Isshin decided to believe Zangetsu.
Shiba Isshin didn't believe Zangetsu.