Karin woke up with a start. "Ouch, ouch ouch…" she cried as she felt a stabbing pain in her right knee. She pulled off the covers and was shocked to find an ugly, colourful bruise on her knee. How did I get this? Did I thrash about THAT much when I was asleep? Shaking herhead, she endured the pain as she hobbled down to the bathroom to wash up. Her eyes shone with excitement in the mirror as she thought of the match they were about to play later. We're so going to kick their ass! Fuelled with adrenaline, she grabbed a soccer ball and a piece of toast off the table with her mouth, cried out, "Itekimatsu!" and opened the door.

Hitsugaya was patrolling around Karakura town, shunpoing rooftop to rooftop.The Winter War with Aizen approaches, yet Soul Society is still not ready. With Inoue Orihime captured, Kurosaki Ichigo is getting restless. He might decide to barge into Hueco Mundo by himself to save her. Even with his comrades, he might not make it back safely.He sighed. Why is he such a troublesome guy? I must remember to submit a proposal to the Soutaichou to send reinforcements if he really did something so idiotic as to save her himself. With these thoughts weighing on his mind, he didn't notice where he was going, until he found himself on the roof of the house opposite the Kurosaki household. His face flamed red at the realisation. Wha- what the hell am I doing here? Karin's face popped into his mind, making his face even redder. Matsumoto had teased him relentlessly about Karin after he saw her home, about how they are apparently perfect for each other. It must be because of Matsumoto's nonsense last night that influenced me to feel this way. That's right. It must be so. He sighed again. Why's life so complicated? He looked at the house opposite him, particularly at Karin's bedroom window. He thought of the bruise on her knee and the strained look on her face as she attempted to hide the pain. Is she alright now? he wondered, as he landed lightly onto the pavement, in front of their door, when someone dashed out from it and crashed into him. A ball flew across the sky and landed with a thud on the ground, as both parties were a little disorientated by the sudden collision. "Gomenasai…" they said at the same time as they stared at each other. "Kurosaki?" Hitsugaya cried out at the sight of the black-haired girl. He blushed slightly, looking away as he asked, "Are… are you alright?"

Karin stared at him with a blank look, and asked, "Who are you?"

Karin stared at the guy with spiked white hair. He spoke to her as if he knew her. "Who are you?" she asked, genuinely lost. She saw his bright teal eyes widened in shock, then, for a split second, saw the hurt reflected in them. His gaze quickly turned to indifference, dusting himself as he said, "I see. So you don't remember me eh? Well, just don't come crying to me the next time you need my help."

"What?! What the hell do you mean?" Karin asked indignantly. "Why would I come crying to you? I don't even know you in the first place!" What the hell?! Just because he's a little good-looking he thinks he can get away with this kind of comment? She was seriously pissed. First this guy appeared out of nowhere and knocked me down, then he goes on to insult me. Me? Crying for help? And he acts as if he knows me! "Hey! Answer me! Who the hell are you?"

A vein popped on his forehead. Did she really forget who I am or is she just faking it? He stood up, and started walking away from her. "It's nothing. Jya," he coolly replied.

A vein popped up on her forehead. What's wrong with this guy? "Oi! Come back here and answer me!" She picked herself up and ran after him. "Oi! You over there!" Hitsugaya continued walking in silence.

"Old man! Mr-Act-Cool! Shiro-chan! Shorty!" she shouted.

He stopped. Numerous veins popped on his forehead. He slowly turned around, and took a deep breath. "I'M NOT SHORT! GOT THAT?!" he shouted, then turned back and continued to walk.

That shut Karin up. For a moment. Gotcha, she thought with a evil grin.

"Shorty! Shorty! Shorty! Shorty! Shorty!" she ranted. He clenched his fist.

"Shoooorty!" His body shook silently at the effort of controlling his anger.

"Hey! Who's that over there?" she said, looking to her left.

"Where? Where? I can't see anything!" she said to her right. (in case you still haven't figured it out, she's acting out two roles at one time.

"You're looking too high! Look lower!"

"Oh, now I see him! He's just too SHORT!" she thumped one of her fists onto the other palm, making a 'I see!' face.

He stopped again. He counted to ten, then back to one. Calm down, Hitsugaya, calm down. You're a taichou, not a regular kid who can afford to have tempers. Calm down… You should not be affected by her words…

"Shorty."

A gust of cold wind emerged from his body. He turned around slowly. "My. Name. Is. Not. Shorty." he said slowly, and fixed her with his coldest death-stare.

Undaunted, Karin asked, "Well, if you're not called SHORTY, then what are you called?"

Hitsugaya stared at her, puzzled. Is she for real? Did she really forget me? Well, two can play at this game. "It's Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya Toushiro."

"Well, I'm Kurosaki Ka…" Before Karin finished introducing herself, Hitsugaya had already started walking again. "Hey! Hey!" she shouted at him. No response. ｡"Toushiro-kun!" Still no response. She was getting pissed at his attitude when she saw her soccer ball lying on the side of the pavement. "Hey look at me when I'm talking to you!" she shouted, then kicked the ball as hard as she could towards Hitsugaya.

What, not this again, he thought with a sigh. He jumped up, flipped his body to make a reverse kick and landed back on his two feet, unharmed. The same, however, could not be said for the ball, which in their full view, landed at the top of a fence whose pointed ends punctured the ball. The sound of the air let out could be compared to the sigh of a man who died prematurely. They both stood in silence, shocked by the sudden death of the ball.

"Look what you did! Pay for my ball!" she demanded, glaring at Hitsugaya.

"Why-why should I pay for it? You were the one trying to hit me!" he retorted, looking a little flustered for the first time.

"Well, if it had hit you, like it was meant to, it wouldn't have fly off to get punctured! You're the one who kicked it in that direction!" Karin exclaimed, with her hands on her hips.

"What?! So you expected me to do nothing and let the ball hit me when I had the ability to evade it?!" Hitsugaya said, with a look of disbelief.

"Well… YES!" She even managed to say such ridiculous things with total conviction, Hitsugaya thought in complete awe and amazement.

"You're unbelievable," he said, shaking his head as he walked off.

"Hey! What about my soccer ball!"

"Well, isn't the town this way? Or do you know of another place that sells soccer balls?" he asked, giving her the 'Are you coming?' look.

She smiled inwardly. Gotcha, she thought. She caught up with him, punched his shoulder and said, "You know, you're not such a bad guy after all, Toushiro-kun."

Gee, you only realized it now? he thought to himself.

They spent the whole day trying to search for a soccer ball that is exactly the type that Karin had, but to no avail. They finally found it in a small, obscure shop that sells sports equipment. Everything was going fine until Hitsugaya whipped out a Platinum Gold credit card to pay for the ball.

"Erm, I'm sorry but our shop doesn't accept credit cards," the shopkeeper, an old lady, said apologetically.

"Of course they won't, you idiot! It's such a small shop that it looks certain to close down!" she said to Hitsugaya, to the annoyance of the shopkeeper. "Besides, did you get that credit card from your mom?" Karin asked.

"Yes, little boy, you shouldn't bring your mommy's card out without her permission," the shopkeeper chirped in.

A vein pulsed on his forehead. "This is my own card. It has my name there. See?" he showed them both the card, engraved with the name "Hitsugaya Toushiro". And I'm not a little boy, he thought to himself.

"Well, how do I know that your name is 'Hitsugaya Toushiro'?" the shopkeeper asked, getting a little annoyed.

"What? Okay, here's my student ID. See, it has my picture and it says that I AM 'Hitsugaya Toushiro'!" he said shoving his ID at the shopkeeper.

"You're a high schooler?!" the shopkeeper exclaimed. "I thought you are still in elementary school!"

Another vein popped out.

"What?! You're a high schooler?!" exclaimed Karin. "I thought you were the same age as me!"

"Look, I skipped grades, okay? Now that we have finally established my identity, can I just pay for the ball and go now?" he said, gritting his teeth.

"But little boy, I told you that we don't accept credit cards."

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He counted to ten, and back to one. Calm down, Hitsugaya… calm down… Take no notice of ignorant people… You're the youngest taichou ever, remember? You can do this… calm down…

"Okay, will this do?" he said calmly and placed a 10000 yen note on the counter.

"I'm afraid that our shop doesn't have enough money to give for change."

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! he screamed in his mind.

"Fine, KEEP THE CHANGE," he said forcefully as he took the soccer ball in one hand, pulled Karin's hand with the other and stormed out of the shop. Karin was shocked at the boy's sudden actions and allowed herself to be led by him. Dammit, what was wrong with that shopkeeper? If they can't accept credit cards and can't give change, what kind of shop is that …. He was too engrossed in his thoughts to notice that he was still holding her hand. Meanwhile Karin was very conscious of that fact and has already turned beet-red.

After walking for some time, Hitsugaya realized how silent Karin was, and asked, "What's wrong, Kurosaki?" She turned even redder and looked at their hands. He looked down at where she was looking at. His hand was still firmly grasping her hand. Now it was his turn to be embarrassed and he quickly let go of her. Both of them looked away from each other, blushing adorably. "Here- here's your ball. I've fulfilled my obligation. So… jya." he said and quickly walked away. Karin turned and watched him go. Hitsugaya Toushiro, huh? She smiled as she walked in the opposite direction. What an interesting guy.

Oh shit! I totally forgot about the game! she suddenly realised.She beat herself on the head with the ball repeatedly, scolding herself for her stupidity.

24th June, sunny

Damn Diary, I forgot to go to the match with the middle-schoolers today! ARRRGGGGHHHH! Oh man! The guys are going to be so pissed at me tomorrow! Why did I miss the match, you ask? Well, it's because of this guy called Hitsugaya Toushiro. At first I thought he was weird, rude, obnoxious, but after spending an entire day with him, I realized that he's not half bad. He's a nice bickering partner, mainly because he's so good to tease. Just call him short and he'll be pissed. I realized that guys have some sort of height complex. He's still taller than me though. I think he's really good at soccer too! When I kicked the ball at him, he pulled off an incredible move without even breaking a sweat! I was actually half-joking when I asked him to pay me back for a ball, but he really did!

…

Well, one way or another, I would love to meet him again. Maybe we will have to chance to play soccer together someday.

Karin smiled as she kept away her diary, and floated back to her bed. She held the soccer ball tightly to her chest as she drifted off to sleep.

Hitsugaya laid at the top of the Kurosaki's roof, gazing at the stars. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with Karin today. She seems to have genuinely lost her memory. Either she was a great actor or something's wrong. Either way, I promised to get to the bottom of this, he vowed to himself.

Unknown to him, at midnight, Karin's body glowed with gentle white light as she was hovering a few inches off her bed. The soccer ball thumped to the ground, as the light disappeared to form a shadowy image of a butterfly. The image disappeared as she landed back on her bed, not knowing that her memories of Hitsugaya Toushiro and the entire day they spent together was once again wiped out.

Yo people! I'm back! Sorry this took so long (how long has it been? two weeks?) I've gotta admit, coming up with the idea is easy enough, but the hard part is sustaining it. I mean, i had the beginning and the end planned out,and the main gist of the entire plot when i first submitted the story. Isn't that enough? Apparently not. I was stuck here for quite a while, not knowing how to make Karin interested in Hitsugaya. Is this a good chapter? I'm not sure, so please review to tell me! Thanks.