Hey… Thanks to those that reviewed. I tried to explain some things about what happened last chapter here. I do not own the people or places of Bleach. So here is chapter two- Black Printed Silk.

"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you." Oscar Wilde, Irish poet novelist, dramatist and critic. 1854-1900.

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Rush…Splash…

Splash…

Rush…rush…

A thickness weighed down the feet of a young girl as she walked through the obscure terrain…

Splash…Rush…

Something about the place was familiar, like a reoccurring dream…the dark that surrounded her was so welcoming…so incredibly connected to her…b..but something was off…she felt like she needed to know something….something important…quite possible the thing that connected her to this unknown place….instead all she heard was a roar…."roar"….she concentrated harder "roa-rin"…."rorin"…."rarin"…"Karin…" "Karin, can you hear me? Karin you need to remember….my name ….Karin my na-oar..roar"

A name? But why a name?

"KARIN!!" Kurosaki Karin opened her eyes startled at the scream that broke through her blurred dreamscape. Illuminated by the morning light, Yuzu was standing at the door that led into the clinic's in-patient bedroom. Her typical just-woken up look was overshadowed by the tears pooling around the edges of her eyes, her shaking shoulders and her tiny trembling hands that were covering her gaping mouth. The same mouth that just screamed her twin's name at the sight of the bed ridden Karin 

covered in bloodied bandages. Karin grimaced at the thought of causing Yuzu emotional distress, especially since she was just starting to get over Ichigo disappearing a year ago.

"Yuzu..," she croaked out, "Please don't look at me like that. I'm fine see." Karin smiled and stretched, ignoring the biting pain, in order to prove her statement and watched as Yuzu's eyes began to reclaim some of their spark. "REALLY KARIN!" Yuzu rushed to her side.

"I'm so happy…Daddy and Ichi-nii only told me this morning that you got hit by a car last night!" She sniffed. "They didn't wake me up last night so I was so worried. I thought it was because you were in a horrible state." Tears, but this time of happiness rushed to Yuzu's eyes. "I'm so happy you're alright Karin."

"Of course, I am!!" Karin grunted out. "I share the same blood as those two idiots don't I? So you see I could get mauled by a two ton monster and still be up for a soccer match! By the way did they call about a game this weekend?" Karin watched as Yuzu began to giggle at her sibling predictable answer, unaware of just how true Karin's second to last statement was.

"MY DAUGHTER HAS AWAKENED!!" screamed an excited Isshin bounding in the room, only to get punched in the face by Ichigo who was standing at the door impatiently waiting for his own chance to walk in. "Karin is recovering goat-face." Was Ichigo's surly explanation for his actions. Ichigo looked on at Karin, Yuzu and his father talking about when she can start school and began to wonder about what exactly happened last night. He felt as if he missed something. What exactly happened after Karin's reiatsu reacted? Was there something about her, stance, form,…hmmmhmm maybe there was something in her hands? He watched as Karin argued that she was fine and could return to school on Monday. Her nose was scrunched up, her eyes were bright with energetic anger, and her hair was a curtain of black falling around her face. A curtain of black? Ichigo's eyes widen as he remembered the image of the panther- a panther with fur that was dark with a blue sheen on it…like black printed silk.

What does that mean? I must ask Urahara. Sparing a glance back to his family, Ichigo left his house in the direction of Urahara's Shop.

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Meanwhile Last night in Soul Society …

Soi Fon was walking down the hall in the chambers where the Human World Soul Monitors were kept. Her goal was to retreat into the secret room where her screen that was trained on Urahara's shop was. She knew she should be watching the encroaching development down in the Human World (those were her orders); but maybe tonight she could get a glimpse of Yoruichi? Suddenly she caught a glimpse of the wider screens that displayed the entirety of Karakura.

"What is going on here?! I demand an explanation, you in front of screen report!"

"Taicho," he wheezed "There was a hollow. A..and then there were two and the shinigamisubstiute….suddenly boom bam….and oour screens went blue and this happened and now there's two shinigami!!" his voice squeaked out in a steadily increasing pitch. Soi Fon listened as her panicked squad explained to her just how and when the machinery started to depict large quantities of new soul reaper type energy down in Karakura. Only the substitute shinigami is in Karakura right now. So where is this raw energy coming from?

"You with the idiotic face. Go tell Yamamato Taicho about this and report back with his orders." Soi Fon barked as she anticipated the upcoming events. What a pity it seemed she couldn't watch Yoruichi tonight.

Waking up with the rising sun, Hitsugaya Toushiro was completely unaware of the events that took place not five hours ago. It was his ignorance that made him look forward to this morning's captain meeting. Maybe today we could do something productive…. He mused as he quickly dressed and walked into his office –only to find his vice-captain and the vice-captain of the third squad passed out on his floor. "MATSUMOTO!" She hurridly got up and exclaimed in surprise as her breasts made violent protest of being constricted. "Taicho! They were going to fall out again!" "Keep them in!" He grunted stepping on Kira in order to get to his desk.

"I would prefer if you didn't …" Toushiro was interrupted as a hell butterfly flew in and perched on his shoulder. "Captains meeting moved to 8:00 a.m. Urgent matter at hand!" was its message. Toushiro sighed at the fact that now he couldn't fully reprimand Matsumoto for her drunken escapade, stepped over Kira again on his way to the door and mumbled a frustrated "Later" to Matsumoto as he briskly left to the meeting room.



When Hitsugaya walked into the meeting room he did not expect to be the last one to arrive, nor did he expect everyone in the room to turn and look at him at the same time. His cold expression merely twitched at the sudden attention and Toushiro arched one elegantly shaped eyebrow in response to the leers of some off the less stoic captains.

"Hitsugaya Taicho. It seems that you have arrived at a most appropriate time." Toushiro didn't bother to respond, he just knew that Yamamato would proceed. "There has been a disturbance in the Human World. A new energy has surfaced that is similar to that of a Shinigami. Seeing that recently there have been kidna…no disappearances of humans with high energy I have decided that something must be done about this situation. We don't want an untrained shinigami's powers to fall into the wrong hands." For some reason Toushiro began to dread the rest of Yamamato's statement. He had the sneaking suspicion that it somehow involved him. "The energy came from Karakura, more specifically from someone associated with the current substitute shinigami." Of course, is anyone close to that idiot spared? "Since last time you're team went, it has been decided that you would be the very best person to go and acquire this individual. Is that satisfactory?" Toushiro nodded and turned to get ready for another trip to the human world.

"Oh, and one more thing. We believe that the energy comes from his younger sister. So you must be cautious. Soi Fon recommends infiltrating the elementary school in order to gain her trust." Hitsugaya froze, the temperature of the room dropped several degrees as he turned his icy glare to the captain of the second. "Of course, you see now why you're the best choice right? The paperwork will be completed upon your arrival to the Human World. Matsumoto fuku-taicho and Abrai fuku-taicho are listed as your guardians for the school's purposes. Both are being informed as of this moment of their duties. Hitsugaya Taicho, try and accomplish the task as quickly as possible. You are dismissed."

Toushiro spoke to no one as he stormed towards his office. When he opened the door the first thing he said were identical to the syllables he had pronounced not more than forty minutes ago. "MATSUMOTO!" She hugged and gushed over him, claiming that she will try her hardest to be an excellent mother and jokingly wondering if she would need to breastfeed her children. He yelled at her to get packing and warily watched as she flounced off to her chambers. Taking the silence to regain his composure, Toushiro decided that the best thing to do was to just get this over with. So grudgingly, he packed his things and met up two hours later with Matsumoto and Abrai. The three of them agreed upon their destinations coordinates and began to walk up to where the gates were located.

When they landed in front of a shanty little candy shop that specialized in more than just your typical Karakura goods, they did not see their target's older brother just leave the same location that they were 

heading towards. All were far too preoccupied, in fact only Matsumoto seemed somewhat pleased that they were making a visit to this particular candy shop. Renji was thinking of the gleeful torture the shop's residents enjoyed to inflict and shuddered. Toushiro thought of his first day of school tomorrow and braced himself for the subtle mocking that the shop owner would engage in. Both soul reapers grudgingly stepped through the door with Matsumoto, despite their trepidation. After all, they had fought many more horrors than that which lay inside Urahara's shop and besides in order for the mission to work- they desperately needed some gigais.

Urahara smiled under the shadow of his green striped hat. One fascinating visitor leaves and three more show up? How intriguing.

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Woah. That's way more than I normally write hehe. Ok so explanations are kinda lacking for Karin's part but I did decide to introduce Toushiro earlier than I planned. I hope the reason makes sense. Um please forgive any spelling error as of now this has not been read by a beta reader. So review and thanks for reading. -ciao