Yuzu trudged to yonbantai alone with a box of things inside that she had brought her sister from the world of the living. Yuzu had contemplated staying there another day to at least get everything she missed from school these past couple of days but the only person she could trust was Kei... and even he was probably past the point of keeping the questions to one-off.

Yuzu had no idea if this was ever going to be normal anytime soon. She walked into the fourth and the nurses turned to look at her. Yuzu was quite confused as to why they were looking at her like that and wondered if something happened to Karin.

Ichigo had a feeling she knew what Isane wanted to talk about. "Let me guess... Karin is not well, is she?" Their father asked after Isane closed the door to the captain's office. Karin had started bleeding from the nose again this morning and another seizure. Yuzu rushed back to her aunt's house to tell them to come to the clinic to see her.

"Physically, she is as fit as a horse. Aside from what Ichigo told me about her asthma and I believe it was epilepsy, everything else is in order." Isane said as she sat down and gestured for them to sit.

"But what about the nose bleeds?" Ichigo asked

"I was hoping both of you would have an idea considering you're more in tuned with the health of living beings." Isane said.

Isshin looked at his son. "What do you reckon? You're the one in med school for this. My medical training was here at the fourth."

Ichigo scratched his head. "I'm not studying neurology so I have no idea what to tell you. I could check her blood pressure later. It's likely just stress. I can't think of anything else that could be causing this. And I'm not sure how the nose bleed is linked to anything."

"I thought you humans studied everything about the living body." Isane said.

"No. If that were to be the case, there would be no doctors... just mad people." He said. "There's too much in the body for one person to be knowledgeable on so we specialise."

"Then... what do you do?"

"Internal medicine but my focus is on pulmonology." He said and Isane looked as if he spoke greek to her... technically it was latin. "The lungs. I'm training to be a lung doctor."

"Oh... interesting." She nodded. "Right. Despite how healthy she may seem physically, I'm concerned about her mental health. I can only imagine the amount of trauma she is going through."

"Has she said anything about what happened when she disappeared?" Ichigo asked and Isane shook her head.

"Something tells me she remembers it... she just chose to forget." Isane said. "It's a bodily response to trauma. What makes me think this is because she remembers everything that happened when she lost control to her zanpakutō this time around... except what happened at the twelfth. But I believe something at the trial triggered her to remember because she remembered nothing about it beforehand.

"Now, this makes very little sense because the others involved were placed on a silencing spell so it would only make sense that she would be as well. But it seems like they depended on something different... like fear. The night when Kuna placed the seal on her, Hitsugaya described her screams before Kuna even touched her. I asked her about seeing hell and she said she knows nothing about that. She only thinks Kuna placed the seal on her and she passed out from the pain of the seal. She doesn't remember a fire. She doesn't remember when half of the twelfth was murdered, she doesn't remember her time when she was kidnapped."

"So... she has... PTSD?" Isshin asked.

"No... at least not at this stage." Isane shook her head. "She isn't experiencing any of the symptoms hi associated to it. Otherwise, she would be remembering and actively avoiding it. I think she has dissociative amnesia. Her brain has forced itself to forget the memories superficially so she isn't even aware of it. It's very localised. She will recall a lot of events in great detail but not others. Considering that she has been forced into great amounts of trauma in the space of a few weeks, it makes sense why she would want to make herself desensitized to it. I wished we had neurological experts at the fourth but..."

"It's fine. Her aunt is a therapist." Isshin said. "We can discuss with her."

"I would not want her to talk to someone who is unaware of... this realm." She sighed

"She's a quincy. She's the mother of the little girls." He explained.

"That will work as well." Isane said. "Otherwise, when she goes back to the realm of the living, try not to stimulate her too much."

Yuzu poked her head into Karin's room once she was awake and entered. Karin was staring out the window and didn't bother turning around to look at Yuzu. "Ka-chan?"

"Hmm?" Karin hummed

"I brought you your stuff from home." Yuzu announced.

"I see..." Karin said and her twin sister frowned at that before deciding she would probably give her some space. "Yuzu..." Yuzu turned back around to look at her sister. "When was the last time you saw Hitsugaya?"

Yuzu hummed in thought. "I don't know... when I was 16? When you hung out with him, I was never there. Granted I knew when he was around." It was easy to tell when he was around. Karin was a lot more conscious about how she looked, she smiled a lot more often when in thought... she heard them sometimes when she had let him into her room late at night on days when she would feel like an insomniac.

"... do you know when I last had him around?" Yuzu swore internally, realising that someone told her.

"Did Hitsu—"

"No..." Karin shook her head

"... He didn't want you to find out." Yuzu admitted, remembering their talk on their walk to her aunt's house.

"Are you going to tell her?" Yuzu wondered out loud. She was expecting a yes but after a thoughtful silence, he spoke.

"No." He said.

"Why? I thought you would want to clear your name." Yuzu said. Hitsugaya looked at her. "... I don't know what that imposter did to her but—"

"I know it left her... scarred for a lack of better words." He said. "But this isn't about me... and her memory is as fickle as is. I don't want this to affect her any further. I want her far away from this as possible. Knowing there was someone impersonating me is enough."

"So... what are you going to do?" She asked him?

"The thing I know best..." He said. It was vague but Yuzu understood him clearly.

"He wasn't going to tell me?" Karin turned around with what looked like hurt in her eyes. This was the first time she had seen Karin display a complex emotion since this ordeal began

"He didn't think it was fair on you because of everything you went through." Yuzu said and Karin looked distraught.

"I see..."

"Karin, it isn't your fault." Yuzu didn't even know how to minimise her concerns but all she could do was reassure her. But it wasn't working. "Karin... what happened?" Karin shook her head. Before turning back to the window.

Yuzu didn't want to force her so she conceded. "I brought you your mail. Did you see it?" There was no answer. Yuzu frowned, recognising that she probably wanted to be alone so she left and met her brother out in the hallway.

"How is she?" Ichigo asked

"I don't know... I think she's devastated." Yuzu sighed. "She said it wasn't Hitsugaya-san who told her."

"Tōshirō is many things... but he isn't stupid." Ichigo said. "He would never do that knowing how it would affect her."

Yuzu hummed in agreement before crossing her arms over her chest. "Then who..."

"Ano..." They turned to Yamada-san who brought over the BP machine. "Uh... Isane said you would need this?"

"Ah! Thank you." Ichigo nodded, accepting the bag.

"Yamada-san?"

"Yes, Yuzu-chan?" Hanatarō asked

"Has anyone come by to see Karin recently?" She asked

"Just you guys, Renji , Rukia and the sōtaichō." Yuzu's eyes widened in shock and Ichigo all but facepalmed himself.

Karin stirred awake the next morning and looked around, recognising that she was still at the hospital. Her dreams were simple and they reminded her of a time when everything made sense... now nothing made se She wondered if she dreamt the last night or maybe made it up. She could barely trust her memories anymore.

Most of them were about Hitsugaya.

She hugged her knees to her chest as her mind went back to the day she screamed at him after he had stopped her from attacking his sister. It wasn't her fault but she couldn't stop the regret. He was even wearing the scarf. He still had it after all this time. She had made him the scarf for his birthday a year ago. She remembers that night clearly. She remembers how it snowed and how they ended up staying holed up in her room the whole night. There were a lot of things exchanged and he almost... almost said that he loved her.

At the time, Karin didn't hold it against him. He always said he was bad with his words or at least, he was awkward at conveying how he felt verbally. So she allowed him to show her that night. Her mind was fixated on how they moved in unison that night. How they called out for each other when they felt too overwhelmed to say anything coherent. And after that, he was gone...

That was the last time she saw him. The real him.

The memory of when she last saw him was combating the ones that she knew was the real him. Easily annoyed but the most selfless, dedicated person she knew. She felt stupid for entrusting herself to someone she felt was off from the very beginning. But she only thought that it was a bump to their relationship... whatever it was at the time. Having to deal with the painful memories he brought and move on with it only to find that it wasn't him felt like she had her heart ripped out of her.

She still hated him though.

If there was a misunderstanding, he would never address it even if he was painted to be the bad guy in the situation. She hated that about him. He never wanted to be happy... or at least he thought he didn't deserve it. Even though he knew what really went wrong, he allowed her to continue to think poorly of him. He didn't even know all the horrible things this doppelgänger did yet he didn't mind being the scapegoat.

There was a knock on the door. "Kurosaki-chan..." It was Hanatarō. "We're scheduled to go on a walk soon."

Hitsugaya was not expecting Ichigo to drop by his office but surprisingly, an officer announced his presence and asked if he should allow him in. "Ah." Hitsugaya nodded. This was Ichigo, it wasn't as if he was going to take no for an answer.

Hitsugaya invited him to take a seat and Ichigo took it. "I just came here to tell you that Tatsuki and I are planning to go back and follow a lead on finding Aizen."

Hitsugaya frowned. "Kuchiki-taichō should be able to go with you then he'll report back to me... or whatever he chooses. He's heading the operation."

"But... aren't you..." Ichigo paused as Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow at him. He held his thought, knowing exactly what he meant. He held no contempt for Kuchiki, neither of them did. In fact, they both greatly respected him... but he wasn't suited for this. "It would be much easier to go with you or Renji and Rukia." Ichigo said "Byakuya can be a pain in the ass."

"I can arrange that... Renji and Rukia that is." Hitsugaya said. "But Kuchiki-taichō is required to be there... or know at the very least."

Ichigo scoffed. "A load of bullshit."

Hitsugaya knew that the two did not get along at all. To be fair, getting along with both of them individually was relatively hard and the two of them were complete opposites so it was obvious they wouldn't get along. "What's the lead?"

"An escort." Ichigo said

Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes at him. "Not sure I understand what you mean."

"One of the people Tatsuki managed to identify was an escort." Ichigo said. "I'm not sure how it works here but escorts don't work on their own accord... especially if they work for a group with a reputation."

"So you think we'll be able to find information on her based on who was keeping track of her?" Hitsugaya asked, holding his balled fists to his mouth.

"It's a long shot but... it's better than starting from nowhere." He said

Hitsugaya sighed. "I owe you one to be fair. I've had a hard time figuring out where to start. I haven't even talked to Kuchiki yet." He was more of a hands on type of person. He hated having to plan for something he had no physical perception over. It was pointless for the sōtaichō to put this over him

Ichigo nodded. "... Can't we break that shit off your ankle?" Hitsugaya cocked an eyebrow at him. "Hey, I'm not thrilled about working with the guy who fucked over my baby sister but at the same time, anyone is better than Byakuya." That actually snuck a snort out of Hitsugaya. "You laughing at that?"

"You know that's not how it happened but okay." Hitsugaya said

"Tōshirō, Karin might be going to live in a different country next year." Tōshirō looked at Ichigo in confusion at where that was coming from. "She got into a university in America and the expenses of living there are going to be covered by the school. In the human world, only the most exceptional and hard working people get opportunities like that."

"I'm well aware of how exceptional Karin is." Tōshirō said.

"This may mean that you may never see her again after this." Ichigo said. "Before, you may have made peace with that but... how about now that you've seen her again?"

He makes an excellent point. Hyōrinmaru said

"It doesn't matter how I feel." He said

"Yuzu said you didn't tell Karin the truth." Ichigo said. "Someone told her though."

"Shit." Hitsugaya swore, gritting his teeth.

Ichigo frowned. "What? Were you planning on being the bad guy and taking the fall?" Hitsugaya kept quiet. "Tōshirō, go see her as soon as you can." Ichigo looked up at him and he sighed. "She hasn't talked to anyone since the sōtaichō—" A brief flash of anger passed his features. "Tōshirō?"

"Nothing..." He let it go.

"Look, Tōshirō... She just needs things to make sense." Ichigo said. "I'm worried about her but... this is something I can't help with."

"Kurosaki... I don't think I can help with that either." He admitted. "Her mental state is in shambles and we keep dumping more information on her for her to process yet she barely understands why she is here is the first place. Karin deserves answers, I agree... but she deserves her peace of mind first. If we find out who did this, then we can talk about everything else."

Ichigo looked unconvinced but relented anyways. Hitsugaya imagined that he could see the reasoning behind his words and agreed. "Okay then, what happens now?"

"I'll contact Kuchiki and we'll discuss what happens next." He said before summoning a hell butterfly.

Karin walked silently beside Hanatarō who was just as quiet. She was grateful that he tried not to make small talk. Karin appreciate everyone at the fourth. They were all so kind and amazing but she just was not in the right headspace to be chatty or conversational.

They walked through Seireitei along the walls. Karin had a vague idea that she had been there... probably from when she fought Yuzu. It was still surreal to her that she had fought Yuzu and lost. Yuzu was definitely stronger than she imagined or gave her credit for. She doesn't even think Yuzu had that much faith in her own abilities to begin with. If anything came out of this whole ordeal, it was that her sister actually saw herself in a different light.

Karin was brought out of her thoughts by commotion at the gate with a giant blocking the path. She remembers very vaguely knocking out this man when she attacked Seireitei. Recalling these fuzzy memories made her feel uncomfortable and out of body. She was curious by the commotion and when she peered through a space through the gate, she caught sight at a bunch of men and women on the other side. They were all dirtied and barefoot in tattered clothing. She could vaguely hear what they were saying: to see the sōtaichō. The reiryoku they had was worrisome. She knew that spirits didn't need to eat if they had low spiritual pressure but they did need water and the pressure they had was very low even for a healthy soul.

"Get back, peasants!" The giant screamed, swatting at them like flies. "The sōtaichō doesn't accept the presence of people from Rukongai who have not gone through the proper channels."

"But we issued a request five months ago!" A woman pleaded. Karin noticed that she had two different balls of pressure. "Please! The situation is dire in Southern Rukongai."

"Then wait for your time!" The giant swatted the woman away and Karin stared on in fear, too immobilised to do anything but watch the pregnant woman and her group be turned away rather pitifully.

"Let's continue, Kurosaki-chan—"

"I want to go home." Karin announced, shocking him. She had not said a word in two days.

"Let's go back to the fou—"

"I want to go home." Karin demanded. She couldn't bear to be there another day here.