Fearless and Tearless

Chapter 6

…

Basement

"Let's do this thing!"

Let's do this thing! Miyuki and I said at the same time. I smirked mischievously. I took one step forward and tripped.

"Damnit!" I said as I fell on my face. "Stupid rock." I mumbled.

I heard my zanpakutou sigh. Nice going Karin. You just ruined the whole badass mood thing.

I was about to respond when I heard Urahara laughing. "Haha… Karin-chan!"

"Shut up you old man!" I growled as I stood up and swung my sword still many feet away from him. Urahara stopped laughing and dodged. I missed Urahara and ended up hitting a boulder, which burst into flames, which looked exactly like the fire on my sword. Seconds later there was nothing left and I was staring at it in awe.

Karin you don't have to flippin daydream! I sighed and focused back on Urahara. He was still standing where I left him. I charged at him. He had to back up to avoid being hit, but wasn't quick enough. The tip of my sword grazed his kimono and the small fire that touched it began to make its way to burn the whole thing. Urahara's eyes opened and he took off his kimono and threw it on the floor to avoid being burned with it.

"My, my Karin-chan. You are progressing at an unbelievable speed, but you still can't land a hit on me." He said while shunpoing past me. I clenched my fist and went after him. I shunpoed around him creating a circle of fire with him in the middle of it. Then I accidentally went into it too. It took me awhile to figure out what I just did.

"Dang it!" I screamed. "I'm so stupid."

"At least you admitted it. After this I think we should work on how you adapt to changes during fights and not… let's just say that you're stupid." He said with a glint in his eye.

I squinted my eyes at him. Maybe you should try the other side of me.

What's that?

Just look.

I turned my sword over to find the butt of the sword and that was when I remembered. Oh yeah! Thanks! Right now the whip was inside, so brought it out. Now my sword looked like a staff. Before I had time to figure out what to do, Urahara came at me. I had to step to the side to avoid being hit by his sword, but I ended up touching my flames. I squeezed my eyes shut expecting the burning pain, but instead I opened my eyes to see that I was standing in the flames without getting burned to crisps.

"Interesting…" Urahara murmured. I turned back to him and swung my sword with the fire side with no hesitation. I hit his hat, which got knocked off out of his head. I switched to my other side of the sword, but instead of lunging at him I threw it like a chain.

It wrapped around his sword and then Miyuki demanded, Now say…

"Frost, Miyuki." I stared at it expecting it to freeze his sword, but it didn't. Confused I released his sword and took a few steps back.

Urahara just shrugged then said, "Awaken, Benihime." I looked at his sword waiting for it to transform, but nothing happened. Maybe it doesn't change in appearance… I thought, and shunpoed behind him. I raised my sword and was about to slash right through him, but he turned around and blocked.

"Isn't your sword… I don't know… supposed to do something?" I asked as he threw me off of him.

"Yes, but for some reason she's not transforming…" he said frowning. He was so preoccupied about his sword that he didn't even notice me come behind him. "Wha-" was all he said before I merely scratched him on his shoulder. I smirked and backed off. "You know that I let you scratch me right?"

"Whatever, the real issue is what's wrong with your sword." I said.

"… Karin can you hit this little tree in my hand with the other end of your sword?" He asked, but there was no tree in his hand.

"What tree…oh nevermid." The tree somehow magically appeared in his hand. I got my sword out and gently tapped the tree. The tree gained the small snowflakes on it like Benihime, but this time, the tree shriveled up and died. "Woah."

"Hm… Awaken, Benihime!" Urahara tried again.

I watched as it transformed from a plain looking sword into it's shikai, but now it looked different. The hilt's grip changed into black and bends forward at the end with a crimson tassel dangling from the base. The guard is U-shaped and at the base of the guard, there's a red string that wraps 3 times around the hilt. The blade turned into black with a silver edge and is a little thicker than when it was sealed.

"It seems that what you did to my sword has a time limit." Urahara noticed. "Try doing the same thing again." I did, but this time it didn't work. I wrapped the whip-like thing around his sword, but nothing happened. "C'mon Karin-chan, we don't have all day!" At that I was getting frustrated and tried again, and again nothing happened.

"I-I can't do it anymore." I admitted.

"Shame. Anyway, let's continue." Then all of a sudden he said, "Scream, Benihime!" He slashed his sword through the air and a crsimson-colored energy blast came out. I was too stunned and got hit. I flew into the closest boulder and fell to the ground. What the heck was that? I shook my head and stood back up.

I got the fire-side of my sword and tried to lash my sword at him with full speed, but this time Urahara dodged. I tried again and this time I knew it was going to hit home, but then he did something. "Scream, Blood Mist Shield!" Another crimson-colored thing came out of his sword, but this time it was a shield. I totally deflected my attack and I didn't even lay a scratch on it. I stared at the shield with wide eyes.

"If you keep going on like this, you'll never hit me." Urahara said with a disapproving shake of his head. It was then that I saw it. It was only there for a few seconds and he was far away, but I still saw it. That look in his eyes. In that moment, I felt all of the frustration, enviousness, and loneliness from the past couple of years that were buried deep down, come out.

Urahara might've noticed the change in me or the air around me because he said, "Oh? Did I say something to make you mad Karin-chan?" He said mocking me. My anger rose and I put all my spiritual power into my sword. I didn't breathe, blink, think, or know what I was doing, but the next second I was on the floor and right before my eyes gave out on me I saw Urahara on the ground too, but the weird thing was, was that there was blood around him, but it didn't seem like it was his. The last thought I had before my mind gave out was that I knew that there was blood around me too, and I knew this one was mine.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was in one of those back rooms that Urahara had. As I was lying down I tried to think about what happened.

The thing was, was that I never really lost consciousness. I remember being carried and then being put down right here. Then someone was holding my sword…

My sword! Miyuki! I yelled in my mind. No response. I sat up abruptly and then instantly regretted it. A sharp pain shot across my body and then I saw the bandages around my arms and stomach. I furrowed my eyebrows while I tried to remember why I was injured. Then another memory came to me: The reason why I got out of control.

The look on Urahara's face was one of comparing me to my brother. Of course that's not bad. I mean it's okay to be compared to siblings and stuff, but it's different. I've seen the same look on other's faces too many times.

It's the look of comparing me to my brother and then confirming all their suspicions were true; that I was no where close to being better than my brother. One time I asked my teacher why she was looking at me one time I got in detention and for once someone actually told me.

Flashback

My teacher sighed and said, "When are you ever going to learn not to do the things you keep doing? You should be more like your brother. He was smart, a jock, and many other things, but I remember him as a great student. Something that you're not."

I was so shocked and hurt by her comments that the only expression I should make was one of not caring. Since she saw my face, she pressed on. "You're lazy, getting terrible grades, and you keep sneaking out of class!" I wanted to point out that Ichi always snuck out too, but I didn't. "After your brother made such a good name for you Kurosaki's, you should be grateful and do just as good as him. Look at your sister! She's a great student. Get's straight A's…" She started to list all the good things that Yuzu has done, but I droned all of it out as I stared out the window.

Even though her speech was really corny and seemed like she was obsessed with my brother, it still struck a cord in me. I was actually kind of smart, but the way that the teachers taught, I just couldn't stop from falling asleep. That's why I always snuck off and the reason I got bad grades was because since I almost always fall asleep in classes, I have no idea of what's going on. That didn't stop me from being mad though.

People have always looked at me with those same eyes, but they never told me why and now I know why. Once I figured it out, my rage rose in a second and I was fighting to stay in my seat and restrain myself from killing my teacher. I hated my brother at that moment, but then just by thinking that I felt ashamed and my anger vanished with sadness. While the teacher was still going on about how bad of a student I was, one thing was for certain: I hate being compared to my brother.

After that I started doing better in school and found ways to stay awake like sitting next to the window and doing stuff that involved staring outside, just so I wouldn't have the same scolding and so I wouldn't have to see those eyes again.

A few minutes later

I was still thinking about my teacher when the door opened up and in came Urahara. "How long have I been in here?" Was the first thing I said.

"What? No, 'Thanks for saving my life!' or even a simple, 'Hi.'?" Urahara said feigning mock sadness. I just rolled my eyes and repeated my question. "Fine, fine. Only about 2 hours, so you should head home in a few hours. Oh, and by the way, you passed the last part of the test." He congratulated.

"Yeah, I sorta figured that out. Anyway, would you mind explaining why I ended up on the floor with blood all around me? And why you had blood around you too?"

"Simple, you got hurt." Was all he said avoiding all the other questions.

I forced myself to remain patient. "I mean why I got hurt. And you didn't answer why you got hurt."

"… Let us leave that for another day…"

I was about to retort back when I realized that Miyuki wasn't in the room. "Where's my sword?" I asked instead searching with my eyes.

"She's in the other room." Urahara said with no further explanation and left the room. I stared at the wall across from me trying to process what has all happened from the time that I went to my mother's grave. Only one thought was in my head before I got to my feet and into the other room to retrieve my sword. I'm still really weak.

On the road

I was already halfway to my house and my head was full with thoughts that I ran into a person. It took me by complete surprise that I didn't react at all and fell to my butt. I stifled a groan as I landed straight on my tailbone. That's gonna bruise. I was so focused on my butt that I forgot about the person that I ran into. I felt his gaze on me right before I was about to pat my butt to see if it hurt. I hand stopped halfway and I launched myself up to my feet.

I turned to the man and realized that it wasn't a man. It was a teenage boy. Maybe about the same age or a year older than me with turquoise eyes, tan skin, snow-white hair that looked lazily made with random pieces of hair sticking up, but somehow he made it look incredibly sexy. Sexy? What? I was so deep in thought that I forgot about the person in front of me, again.

He cleared his throat and I shook my head to look at him without all of those disturbing thoughts. He looked at me expectantly. "Well?" He asked folding his arms. Over his chest and his feet shoulder length apart.

"Well…. What?" I asked even though I knew he was waiting for me to apologize, but the way that he wanted me to, was aggravating me.

"Are you going to apologize?" He asked clearly not getting the negative vibes off of me. The scowl on my face, on that I didn't know I had on, deepened. I really was beginning to hate this guy.

Even though the thought to punch him came to my mind, I pushed it away and forced myself to talk. "I'm sorry for knocking you down, now if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading on my way." I started to go around him when his arm shot out blocking my path. What does he want now? It was that moment that I took in what he was wearing. He was wearing a black golf shirt, which really complimented his rather muscular arms, and regular jeans. "Shall I help you with something?" I asked in my most patience voice.

"Actually you can. I think you can help me find a person that I need, and if you help me then I can dismiss how rude you were to me." At that last part my mouth opened slightly before I closed it again. Was he freaking kidding me? He was talking as if I was some kind of servant and he was the master. Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating… maybe.

"And how was I rude to you?" I asked between clenched teeth. This was not good. I might get into a fight with a guy that I just met and didn't even know his name. This was going to beat all my other records.

He went on like he didn't hear me. "I'm looking for a person named Ichigo Kurosaki." As he said my brother's name my eyes widened a fraction and for the first time, noticed his reiatsu. I put on a blank mask and wondered what he was here for.

"Why would you need him?" I asked.

"Why should I tell you?" His attitude was really pissing me off.

"Well, if I should tell you where he is then you should tell me why!" I snapped turning around towards my house, but not taking a step forward. I glared at him and remained silent when he didn't answer.

Finally he relented, "Fine, I need to take him with me to a specific place, where you are not allowed to go."

With my back still turned to him I asked, "If I'm supposed to tell you where he is, can I at least know your name?" crossing my arms.

"…Toushiro Hitsugaya."

Sorrrrrrryyyyy I really suck at making things longer, and I'm really sorry for the wait! Also, sorry for any mistakes I made!