"That didn't take you long." Ichigo commented after Yuzu returned to Kūkaku's house after her trip back to Karakura. It was time to take their cousins back... especially considering the stunt they pulled. Their mom was not too happy and didn't want them having to fight the shinigami any time soon.
She thought she'd go get some stuff while Karin remains in hospital like an extra change of clothes, her sketchbook and a soccer ball to ease her boredom while she stayed for observations. Ichigo had tried to convince her to go back for school but Yuzu flat out refused. She claimed that she didn't want them trying anything on Karin when she was gone and that she wasn't going anywhere without her. Ichigo was not surprised by how attached Yuzu was to Karin... it had been like that since they were children. But Ichigo was surprised by how strong willed Yuzu was now. Sometimes, he felt like he skipped out on them growing up. Five years ago, they were tiny but now, they were young women just about ready to go off to university.
"Ah." Yuzu said. "I got to practice my shunpo quite a bit so things are not as far as they used."
Something Ichigo would never not be upset over was the fact that they were involved in this shinigami nonsense; first off because they were supposed to be devoting their time and effort to something else than this stupid realm and secondly, it meant that he had failed to protect them. "When did you attain shikai?" Ichigo asked curiously as Yuzu moved to sit down
"Like... almost a week by now." Yuzu said and Ichigo sighed. "What? I helped get Karin, did I not?"
"But that was dangerous." Ichigo said and Yuzu sighed.
"I'm not arguing with you." She said
"You should have called or something."
"Ichigo, it is over! Move on." She exclaimed in exasperation and Ichigo stood down... for now at least. She wasn't addressing him by title or even by honorifics so it was pointless arguing with her right now.
"I'm sorry..." He huffed. "I just don't know what I would do if something bad happens to you."
Yuzu frowned. "I know..." She sighed. "But... if we are equipped with the skills to protect ourselves too then that is totally fine." Ichigo nodded solemnly before looking up to see Tatsuki, Orihime and Sado enter the room. "Speaking of which... why are you guys still here? Not that I think it's a bad thing..."
"We're just here to support Ichigo and you until things are okay." Sado said diplomatically
"And to keep Strawberry-kun here in check in case he tries to pounce on someone unprovoked." Tatsuki added truthfully and even Sado nodded to this.
"Why are you agreeing with her?" Ichigo tsked at him
"Besides, it's not good if Kurosaki-kun stays here alone and sad." Orihime said
"I'm not sad... vexed is more like it." He complained.
"You guys are treating my house like an inn." Kūkaku growled angrily from her room.
"Sorry oba-san." Yuzu said before standing up. "Have you eaten yet? I can make breakfast for everyone."
"That's very sweet of you, Yuzu but I can do that." Kūkaku softly said as she got out of her room, stretching. "But I can sort out breakfast. You sit and rest."
"Why are you so nice to her?" Ichigo asked. "You are never this nice to me."
"Because you could learn a lesson or two about being a decent human being from her."
"As if you are one, baba." Ichigo huffed and Kūkaku pulled him by the collar and scowled at him.
"And who the fuck are you calling baba, you little punk?" Kukaku hissed.
"Why can't we all just get along?" Isshin asked, new to the fiasco in the room and both his cousin and son glared at him and he decided to retreat back to his room for a bit of safety.
"Can I help?" Orihime asked
"No!" Everyone in the room staunchly said and Orihime sighed.
"I'm not that bad!'
Soon enough, Kūkaku and Yuzu prepare breakfast for everyone but when Isshin holds out his plate, Kukaku rejects serving him. "Hey! What did I do?"
"You haven't even told where you were this entire time while one of your kids was running amok in Seireitei." Kūkaku spat at him.
"Not like this old fart would have been useful anyways." Ichigo agrees and Yuzu sighs before grabbing his bowl of miso soup from his hands. "Oi!"
"If you must know, I was in the mountains... at the family house." Kūkaku visibly paused before shaking her head.
"Is that so?" She asked, continuing to drink her soup.
"I needed to find out more about Angetsu." He said. "We haven't seen him show up for generations."
"That is true." She agreed. "It normally shows up in twins though."
"What about Ayaka and Ayako?" Isshin asked.
"Nope. They got Rashizuki and Kaminaridzuki." Kūkaku said.
"... Are you still discussing about Angetsu?" Yuzu asked, somewhat confused as they seemed to stray off
"We were just trying to think to who may have encountered your and your sister's zanpakuto spirits." Kūkaku said. "So, Isshin, did you find anything?"
"Nothing of substance showing corruption." Isshin said. "Besides, aren't corrupt zanpakuto normally poison based ones because they are a byproduct of water based zanpakutos during fission?"
"... Okay, now we're just talking out of our asses." Ichigo sighed in annoyance at the two.
"It's a long story if you have time." Isshin said. "A long time ago, there only existed the Soul King and his royal guard. Together, they created Soul Society to create a safe place for souls in preparation for reincarnation because all that existed was his realm and hell. He chose five great warriors and bestowed to them each a gift: An asauchi from his right hand man, Oetsu Nimaiya. And that's how the great five clans came about. One attributed to the day, another one to the night, one to land, one to sea and one to the sky The Soul King manifested spirits to inhabit these plain weapons and that's what brought what you know today, a zanpakuto. One of the people gifted, was one of our ancestors, Shiba Hiroshi."
"As more and more souls started to be born into the realms, they needed more people to be able to regulate everything. So the zanpakuto spirit split itself into fifteen."
"Why fifteen?" Tatsuki asked.
"To cover every aspect of life." Isshin said. "The zanpakuto gifted to Shiba Hiroshi-dono was called Shigetsu. Its powers relied primarily in energy or life. All five of the clans men had energy based zapakuto but they are all extinct because of the split.
"Out of energy was born light and darkness, the truth and manipulation, the elements, so on and so forth." Kūkaku said. "To be fair, no one knows the order they split in or from who they split. The Tachibanas, another clan gifted by the Soul king, speculate that first there was water then ice came from water, or that darkness came from light. Or even melee from chivalry being born from energy or life, leading to projectiles being born from melees. All we know that those fifteen are the most basic forms that others are born from. Then there was another split where the fifteen from the one split into weaker variants of themselves. Now we're up to thirty zanpakuto per clan."
"And then after that, they began to either split or interact with other zanpakutos to create a new ones in the spirit realm." Isshin explained. "For example, we have zanpakutos like Senbonzakura which we think was born from the interaction of a plant spirit and a light spirit... maybe even a projectile spirit. After that, there was an abundance and the nobles decided to only keep the first thirty in their families while the other spirits were free to chose who they deemed worthy."
"During that span of time, a lot of these zanpakutos evolved depending on how the wielder used them." Kūkaku continued. "Then we have Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, the first outside of a noble clan — or so we're told — to unlock what was only accessible to us... a bankai."
"Due to that rigour, he has grown and trained his zanpakuto to be the strongest fire zanpakuto in all of Soul Society." Isshin said. "And from there, he was entrusted to build seireitei. He started the Genji school under aid of the Tachibana clan, which what is the Shino Academy today. Then he moved on and founded the goteijusantai and was in charge of penning the laws with all four noble families. Yamamoto was offered the chance to raise his surname to noble status but he had no interest in starting a family and therefore saw no use of starting a noble clan."
"But of course, bureaucracy began to happen as more and more people joined the court squad and rose to prominence." Kūkaku said. "Which is what we have today... a fucking mess that doesn't even involve the original clans. The end."
Ichigo and Yuzu blinked at each other in confusion before looking back at their aunt and father. "... That was quite a story." Ichigo silently mumbled, taking back his bowl and drinking his soup.
"But wait... all this aside, where does the corruption come in?" Yuzu asked. "Isane did say some happen naturally so... did it come from the splitting process maybe?"
"Correct." Kūkaku said. "Like your father just said, poison based zanpakutos, or at least old one, were born from the split with energy... maybe a negative split with plants. What is observed with a lot of zanpakuto, especially older ones from noble clans, is that they often have a direct negative or a pair. Some are obvious; like Yuzu and Karin. Angetsu is illusion based while Kyogetsu, in simpler terms, is kido based. Kyogetsu absorbs and releases that reishi as something we all recognise, reiryoku in the form of kido. Angetsu manipulates it and changes it into something we can't recognise easily. So in this way, zanpakutos may have obvious pairs or ones that look like they came off one another. Plants and poison are the same. Plant zanpakutos were initially known as healing zanpakutos but to stop it from being confused with kaido, another from of kido, they decided to call it plant based." She said. "There is a particularly evil quality regarding poison and as a result, some were prone to natural corruption. Spirits are also much like people in that they succumb to evil whims like jealous, power-hunger, ill intentions, vengefulness... so there are many ways for them to become that way."
"In our family, Sekigetsu is a posion based zanpakuto and it is naturally corrupt." Isshin said. "Which is why I'm confused where Angetsu's corruption came from."
"How long was she missing for?" Kūkaku asked.
"Two weeks." He said.
"That isn't enough." Kūkaku said. "If she was influenced by someone else, she must have been in contact with them for longer. Can you think of anyone Karin spends time with?"
Ichigo and Yuzu looked at each other hesitantly and before one of them could answer, the door burst open. "Yo! ICHIGO YOU BASTARD!" They heard a yell and Kūkaku had a crack come in before she glared at Ichigo.
"Your little friends..." She seethed
"I didn't ask them to come here." Ichigo said, just as confused as she was as Ikkaku and Renji appeared behind him.
"Then don't disturb my peace!" Kūkaku threw all three of them out of her house literally.
Ichigo stood up and turned to them angrily. "Oi! What gives?! I didn't even get to finish my breakfast!"
"You think you'd come to Soul Society and not fight us!" Madarame claimed enthusiastically before taking him by the collar and dragging him.
"What the... oi!" Ichigo protested
"I have some things to settle with you." Renji sneered, cracking his knuckles.
"You morons! Who the fuck said I want to fight you?" Ichigo grunted. "Now I wanna beat the crap out of ya for trying!"
Rukia, and everyone who exited the house to watch, was stupefied before shaking her head. "At this point, I don't even know what kind of idiots they are." She turned to Tatsuki. "We came to see you."
"Me?" Tatsuki asked
"Ichigo was telling us about how you figured out how to identify the victims." Rukia said. "It'd really help if we knew what we were looking for." Tatsuki nodded. "We went to see Karin-chan before coming here." Rukia mentioned and Tatsuki was drawn back to the conversation.
Tatsuki frowned. "I haven't seen her yet. How is she?"
"Good, a little spacey on details though." Rukia said. "She apologised for kicking our butts though."
"It'll never happen again!" Renji huffed in annoyance
"Why are you fantasising fighting with my sister you dumbass! Fantasise about your receding hairline!" Ichigo jumped Renji and the fighting continued between the two
"Hey! What about me?" Ikkaku jumped into the squable.
"I think they're broken." Tatsuki watched in disbelief
Kūkaku came out with the broom and started to chase the three. "Stop disturbing my peace!" She yelled as she tried to swat them.
Karin sighed as she stared at the ceiling. She had met Mashiro, the eccentric woman with green hair in the luncheon hall for the patients. She wondered how many drugs she was on because of how perky she was. "So I have to undergo training?" Karin asked Mashiro after she explained to her how it works and the green haired woman nodded. "... Can we wait until after I graduate?"
"Of course." Mashiro nodded.
"How will it take?"
"It depends on you." She clarified. "But I must warn you... prolonging the process is also dangerous. As soon as your body starts showing signs that it is shutting down, inform me immediately."
Karin didn't even know why she asked. Maybe because she had to start university in March. But with the way it looked, she would have to take a gap year. There was a knock on the door and Karin flat out said "No." She didn't want any visitors. She was tired and wanted time to herself but alas, she couldn't be afforded the luxury.
"Are you indecent? You have a special visitor. It's important." Yamada said through the door
"I don't want any visitors unless it's my sister or brother." She huffed.
The door opened and Yamada-san shook his head. "I don't think... that's going to happen." He stepped to the side and Karin frowned. Did these captains have nothing better to do? What was next? She's already been through an abduction, amnesia and BPD, forced experimentation, a stupid trial, an execution attempt and a seizure. What could possibly happen now?
It was the head... the sōtaichō who walked into the room and Yamada slowly slid the door closed after he did. "Kurosaki Karin."
Karin was never used to people using her full government name. "Yes?"
"My name is Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni. The captain commander of the goteijūsantai and the head of Ichibantai. I came for two reasons. Firstly, to apologize." He said and Karin's face stayed blank. "And secondly, to finish off the conversation without distractions from anyone else."
"I don't want to talk to anyone on the goteijūsantai." Karin said
"I'm afraid you have to. You're the key finding where Aizen is and what he has planned." He claimed. "I will admit, the way we went about things with your case was terribly misguided and for that I would like to apologize. Kurotsuchi-taichō is being dealt with as we speak."
Karin did not know what that meant. If anything, it could just be a slap on the wrist. Karin simply nodded, wanting the conversation to end. "Kotetsu-fukutaichō let me know that you could remember what happened at the 12th. I will not ask you about it because of mental health concerns that she brought up. It is being further investigated. However, I do want to ask... is there anything else you have remembered?"
"No." Karin shook her head.
"Very well. The next issue would be your training. Being that you have acquired the Tachibana family art, I believe Mashiro has informed you that you will require training for it." Karin nodded. "You will be expected to conduct training from your family's noble lands outside of Seireitei and Rukongai. I'm well aware of how destructive the practice is when in its uncontrollable phase and the further away your are, the better. Understood?" Karin nodded. "I am going to issue an exemption with Central 46 for your involvement, especially considering that your involvement was out of your control." He continued. "One thing that I ask is that you carry out your training immediately and—"
"I have school." She said. "I've asked until March and I'll be out of your hair as soon as possible."
"Good." He nodded. "Now, Kurosaki Karin, allow me to also issue a more personal apology. I admit that I did not act timely with your case, not because I ignored the severity but because it was you in particular."
"... Huh?" Karin gaped in confusion.
"I'm well aware of your... relationship with Hitsugaya Tōshirō." He said and Karin scoffed.
"Don't bother, you got through to him." She rolled her eyes, remembering the way he treated her months prior
"However, that should not have clouded my judgment. I lost an excellent captain once to a human girl... a quincy at that but you already know that." Karin narrowed her eyes at him, wondering what the decision her parents made had to do with her. "Hitsugaya-taichō is someone I have high expectations for and with him present, I am more at ease of knowing that someone will take my place once my time in Soul Society has elapsed. I would not like to lose such an asset once more... especially to the child of the captain who decided to abdicate from Soul Society entirely." He said
"Don't worry. I won't touch your precious captain." She scoffed. "I had no desire to."
"I do hear the animosity you hold towards him but I would advice you don't be angry with him. I did cut off communications between the two of you immediately after I found out." Now Karin was confused
"Cut off communication?"
"He had tried to send you a letter through a lieutenant when she went to the human world for an errand." Now Karin's eyes went wide. "I intercepted it because I wanted no ties to linger between the two of you. That was incredibly invasive and I apolo—"
"Wait... what letter? When was this?" Karin asked.
"It was quite a while back... Hinamori-fukutaichō was sent around a year ago." The sōtaichō said
"But... last I saw him was six months ago." Karin said, her head feeling more like static as her speech slurred slightly and even the sōtaichō was confused.
"Kurosaki, Hitsugaya has been under surveillance for over a year." The sōtaichō said. "He has not left Soul Society. In fact, six months ago, he was conducting a sting operation in northern Rukongai over a security breech. It was a two month long mission and it would have been difficult for him to reach the world of the living, let alone Seireitei since he was far north." The sōtaichō looked concerned but Karin was no longer paying attention as memories flashed rampantly through her mind. "Kurosaki, are you okay?"
Karin finally felt the slow, warm stream flow down her nostril and she touched a hand to her nostril. Blood... Karin thought in confusion before her head started to throb. Karin held her head as it suddenly felt like static, hearing a high pitched sound before everything went colourful. "Kurosaki-san?" The sōtaichō called out to her before turning around to open the door. "Yamada-yakuin." He called and the officer came running in while he exited the room
"What is... Kurosaki-chan?" He rushed over to the girl having a seizure. "Hey... Kurosaki-chan... are you okay? What's wrong?" Karin didn't even see the sōtaichō leave.
"So... what else did you find?" Kukaku asked as her and her cousin walked around the outskirts outside the wall of Seireitei. With family, there is bound to be drama of some