Hinamori's Apprentice
Chapter Three
"What? Why the hell did you do that?" Ichigo said angrily.
"I had no choice," Toushiro said, "Her chain of fate was damaged, there was a chance of her becoming a hollow if she stayed here!"
"Exactly how much of a risk?" Ichigo asked.
"About 20-30%," Toushiro said.
"But…but the odds were still that she wouldn't turn into a hollow! Why did you have to send her off early with such low odds?" Ichigo growled.
"Think clearly Kurosaki," Toushiro said, "I know you're in a lot of emotional pain right now, but try to think logically. If there was any chance of her turning into a hollow before you could arrive, it would be good reason to perform Konso early. You're upset right now, so you're not thinking clearly."
"Upset? You think 'upset' is the proper word for this? My little sister was killed!" Ichigo yelled, "She…she's dead. I didn't even have the chance to say goodbye to her before passing on!"
"Kurosaki, I understand your anger, but once you calm down I'm sure you'll understand that I made the only reasonable choice," Toushiro said.
"Understand? You think you could possibly understand what it's like to lose someone precious to you, not even knowing if you'll ever see them again?" Ichigo said.
"Yes," Toushiro said, "In fact I do know what it feels like. Maybe not what it feels like to have a family member killed, but I know what it's like for someone you love dearly to be on the verge of death. Do not make the mistake of assuming that I don't understand the pain you feel."
"I…I don't know what to say about that, but the fact still remains that I'll probably never see Karin again thanks to you! If you had only waited a little bit longer, I would have been here in time! With such a small chance, was it really worth sending her off without saying goodbye, with the knowledge that I'll probably never find her again once she's in Soul Society?"
"I already told you, yes it was worth it," Toushiro said, "Perhaps you're familiar with 'Russian Roulette'? Put one live bullet and five blanks in a revolver, spin the cylinder, point at your head and pull the trigger. The odds are one in six. The odds of surviving that are better than the odds of your sister not becoming a hollow just now. Would you have ever let your sister do something like that? It would be safer than keeping her around with the possibility of her turning into a hollow."
"But…these are extenuating circumstances, I-"
"Ichigo!" Rukia said from behind him, "Captain Hitsugaya made the best choice he could at the time. He is not to blame for anything. He merely performed his duties as a Shinigami." Ichigo sighed.
"I know, it's just…Karin…" Ichigo couldn't finish the sentence, he was so overwhelmed with grief.
"I'm sorry," Toushiro suddenly said.
"What?" both Ichigo and Rukia said in surprise at the icy captain's sudden apology.
"This was my fault. If I had been just a few seconds faster in getting to the hollow, your sister would still be alive," he said wearily, "I was simply too slow to save her."
"No," Ichigo said, "It's not your responsibility to protect her, it was mine. Because I've been in Soul Society this whole time, training for that stupid Captain position, I wasn't here to protect her."
"No, it's the fault of neither of you," Rukia said, "Now come on Ichigo, we have to go back to Soul Society. We were only authorized for a short stay to perform Konso. Now that we know it's already been done, we have no purpose here."
"You go without me," Ichigo abruptly said.
"What are you talking about? You have to come too!" Rukia said.
"Well I'm not!" Ichigo growled, "I'm not going back to that stupid place for a while. Right now my family needs me, and that takes priority over whatever stupid training they want to put me through there!"
"Don't be foolish, you'll be disqualified from your candidacy for Captain if you directly violate an order like this! Besides, there's a chance that Karin's soul will be found when it goes to Soul Society, and you might be able to see her!" Rukia said.
"You and I both know that we could search our entire lives for her and still probably wouldn't find her! The odds are impossibly against us. As for the Captainship, I don't care! If they want to give it to someone else, let them! Right now my family needs me, and nothing is going to stop me from being there!" Ichigo shunpoed off into the night.
"Ichigo!" Rukia yelled, preparing to chase after him. Before she could however, Toushiro grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"Don't bother," he said, "Go back to Soul Society and inform your Captain what has happened here.
"Do you think Ichigo really will get disqualified from being a Captain?" she asked.
"I don't know. It's possible," Toushiro said, "Either way, no good will come from talking abou it now. Just get going."
"Yes sir," Rukia said quietly.
---
Ichigo silently leapt into his room through the window. Kon, in Ichigo's body, was lying on the bed. When Kon spotted Ichigo, he immediately sat upright.
"Ichigo, your sister, she-"
"I know," Ichigo said shortly. He re-entered his body, the pill that contained Kon popping out of his mouth. He placed Kon in the stuffed lion. Kon looked up at Ichigo.
"Ichigo, are you okay?" he said timidly. As tactless as he usually was, he knew this was not the time to make his usual jokes.
"Just be quiet for now," Ichigo said, lying down on his bed in exhaustion.
He stared blankly at the ceiling, his mind unable to wrap itself around the truth. Karin was gone. His little sister was dead. He'd never see her in this world again, and probably not in Soul Society either. She had been killed, her life cut short. There was so much life had in store for her, and now she would never experience it.
It was his fault. Had he been in Karakura Town at the time, Karin would still be alive. But he wasn't in Karakura. He had been in Soul Society, preparing for a Captain position that he was no good at anyways. If he had stayed, he could have protected Karin from the hollow that killed her. He felt extremely guilty. It was not just Karin, he had left everyone in danger when he left. Part of the reason he stayed as a Shinigami Representative in the first place was for the purpose of protecting his friends, family, and the town as a whole. Yet despite that, he had been lured away by the prospect of a captain position and abandoned them. He should never have even considered becoming a captain in the past. He thought of what Momo Hinamori had once told him.
A Captain cannot have divided loyalties. You must be completely loyal to Soul Society and the Gotei 13. If you are to be an effective Captain, you must abandon your ties to the World of the Living to focus on this higher level of existence.
He sighed. The girl who would have been his Vice-Captain had been a bit rough with him, but he knew that the things she told him were true. She had also warned him of not letting his personal feelings get in the way of the line of duty (saying that she knew firsthand how disastrously that could end), which he had done just now. He was no Captain. He belonged here in Karakura. He belonged with his friends, not the Shinigami. Sure there were Renji and Rukia and a few others, but he felt that he truly belonged here on Earth. There were his father, Yuzu, Sado, Orihime, Tatsuki, Mizuiro, Keigo, Uryu, and so many others that bound him to this world.
Ichigo belonged in this world, that much was clear to him. He still had a life here that was not connected to the one he had as a Shinigami. He couldn't just abandon it. He began to wonder why he had ever tried to become a Captain in the Gotei 13 in the first place. He still had to finish high school, go to college, get a job, and maybe even get married some day. He had so much to look forward to in this world, and he couldn't just choose to abandon it.
His stomach lurched as he thought of that. Those were the things that Karin would be missing too, and she hadn't had a choice in the matter. He sighed heavily. It wasn't fair. Karin had been snatched away before she even had the chance to truly experience life. She would be forced to survive in Rukongai on her own now. If lucky, she would get into one of the better districts, but she could also end up in one of the more violent and lawless districts, a thought that made him shudder.
What would he do next? He was still a Shinigami Representative, but knew now that he would never choose Soul Society over Karakura again. This brought up the problem of what the other Shinigami would do with him. They had high expectations for him, but he would never become a Captain now. They may end up trying to force him to accept a Captain position, or even taking away his Shinigami powers, but he didn't care. Nothing they did could cause him to give up Karakura, not after losing Karin.
---
Yuzu cried into her blanket. She slept in Karin's empty bed, sobbing quietlly. Whenever she was sad, Karin would always let her sleep in bed with her. Karin was always so strong, and Yuzu always such a crybaby. She wished she had karin's strength right now, she really needed it.
The shock of losing her sister was horrible, beyond any pain she could possibly have imagined. The fact that they were twins made it even worse, as they held a special connection to eachother that ordinary siblings didn't have, despite the differences in their personalities. She didn't know how she could go on. Karin was such an important part of her life, and yet she had been simply plucked away.
Yuzu thought of Ichigo, of how he had been acting differently lately. She felt as though she were losing everyone. She was afraid. What if she lost Ichigo and their father too? She knew that was highly unlikely, but the thought still terrified her. She had lost her mother and twin sister, what else would she lose in this life? She was so scared by this thought that she hugged tightly onto her pillow as she cried. She didn't know what to do, she was so confused by everything. Nothing made sense to her anymore, it was all just a big mess in her mind. All she knew was that Karin was gone and wasn't coming back.
----
Karin walked slowly around the strange place she found herself in. It looked like a feudal version of Japan. All the people payed no attention to the fact that she was a young girl walking around alone, seemingly dismissing it. Was this Soul Society? It had to be, she didn't know what else it could be. Yet it seemed wrong somehow. She had always thought of Soul Society as some sort of Heaven, but this did not seem at all like heaven. There were people living in the streets, rather rough looking individuals everywhere, and a general sense of a lack of happiness.
She walked up to a man at a nearby stall selling fruits.
"Excuse me sir, where exactly is this?" she asked.
"Huh? You new here or something?" he grunted, "This is District 36 of Rukongai. I take it you just arrived here?" Karin nodded her head.
"So, you want something or are you just going to stand there?" the man said.
"Oh, right…" Karin said. She reached into her pocket for money, and found that she still had five hundred Yen from when she had died. She took out some of it and put it on the counter.
"What will this get me?" she asked.
"It will get you nothing, that money's no good here!" the man said.
"What?"
"Nope, we don't use that sort of money around here," he said.
"Oh come on!" Karin said in exasperation.
"Well…I suppose I could melt them down for a bit of money. Tell you what, you give them to me as scrap metal, I'll give you some fruit, and we'll say we bartered for it, okay?"
"Okay fine," Karin said irritably. The man took the money and handed her a fruit that looked like a small, deformed kiwi. Karin stared at it in disgust, and was about to protest when she decided that it really wasn't worth the trouble. Growling, she walked off, peeling the fruit and finding it to be unpleasantly sour.
Throwing the remains of the fruit away, she continued walking through the dusty streets. The entire place looked completely downtrodden, as if nobody really cared what the place looked like. She kicked a rock along the ground as if it were a soccer ball. If this was where she would be spending her afterlife, she had a lot of adjusting to do.
Thanks for reading! Thank you to Aly Dee, lamekirby, AnimelovinKiDD, Photophopic, DW64, and Psyco101 for reviewing! Please review!