Breath of Life
Lectured~
The rest of dinner was eaten in silence despite the fact three people at the table wanted to know who Kukaku was. Kaien stood up when he finished eating and took his dishes to the sink. "Do you want me to do the dishes Yuzu-chan?"
The brown haired girl glanced up from eating her own dinner, only to shake her head. Isshin let out a deep sigh. "Why don't you two wash the dishes together? It would be a great way for the two of you to bond with each other."
Yuzu glanced at the ground as she stared at the table. "Actually, I don't feel well so I'm just going to go to bed."
The brown haired twin stood up and pushed her chair away before heading up the stairs. Toshiro frowned at the girl before turning to Karin. "Is there something wrong with your sister?"
"I don't know. She got rather upset when Uncle Kaien cooked dinner. He's kind of..." The dark haired twin turned to look over her chair at her uncle. "It seems as if you enjoy cooking and cleaning as much as Yuzu does."
Kaien glanced up, frowning as he did so. "Well... I guess I do. Or I'm simply doing it because it is the polite thing to do. I really don't know. You five are going to be heading to the clinic so you can talk about some things, right?"
A few minutes later Ichigo was sitting on one of his dad's rolling chairs while the man stood in the door way to one of the rooms. Karin and Rukia sat on the edge of one of the med beds while Toshiro laid on it with his arms crossed behind his head as he kept his eyes closed. Isshin took a deep breath. "So, where should we start?"
"Who is Kukaku and why does Uncle Kaien keep calling me that. That's the second time he's done that."
"Hmm... yes... well..." Isshin reached a hand to scratch his head.
Toshiro though piped up from where he was lying on the bed. "I think it has something to do with the fact you look like a younger version of her."
Karin blinked a couple of times before turning to her dad. "Is she someone else who is related to us?"
"Yes... to be exact she is Kaien's twin sister." The man turned to look at Ichigo. "And what is this about her coming to visit?"
"She wants to meet Karin and Yuzu, not to mention see how Uncle Kaien is doing. She also said something about kicking your butt for not telling her that you've been alive this whole time. She said it will likely be today or tomorrow, so you're to expect her to be here."
"And what possessed you two to go all the way to Soul Society?"
"That's my fault," Rukia said. "I had only heard about three members of the Shiba clan."
"Wait..." Karin shook her head. "Our last name is Kurosaki."
"Your mother's last name was Kurosaki. My family name is Shiba."
"But Rukia-nee said that it was some sort of clan. Why is that?"
"The Shiba family was once one of the five great noble clans, but it has become disavowed. I have a half guess why."
"Boring." Karin let out a deep sigh. "Yuzu would be more interested in that piece of information. What is..."
"I think this is where you need to go and check in on your sister." Isshin spoke up, only to get a nasty look in return. "Look... I'll explain things to you eventually, but it would be better to explain it in small chunks rather then all at once." The smallest female let out a deep sigh before slipping out of the room. "I believe we need to discuss what we're going to be doing next."
"Not tattling."
"Duh Toshiro."
"Why are the two of you in the world of the living?" The former taicho of the tenth division frowned at the two.
"Why don't you ask the captain of the twelfth division." Toshiro sat up and looked at his captain.
Isshin frowned at the boy for a short period of time. "I'm guessing he has something to do with why Kaien is back."
"It is possible. I heard he was messing around with the scientist Espada's stuff before he came back, but the thing is I don't know what is going on." Rukia folded her arms across her small chest.
"I do know that man doesn't want anyone finding out. He tried preventing me from coming by making a big deal about my visits to the living world I've been making."
"You mean the visits you've made over the last year and a half to see Karin?" The response Isshin got was the boy staring at him with a rather blank look on his face. "Don't look at me as if I'm stupid. I've been aware of your friendship for some time." The man then folded his arms across his chest. "So it seems that we have to deal with him first."
"I'd call him and black mail him, but your daughter broke my phone." Toshiro's comment caused Ichigo and Rukia to stare at him. The small female reached into her pocket and pulled out her own and handed it to the small taicho. Toshiro flipped it open and dialed the number. "Hello."
"Why aren't you back from your investigation?"
"What investigation?"
"You know very well what you were sent to the living world to investigate!"
"I want to hear it from your own mouth."
"You're investigating the possibility that I did something and it got loose."
"Lets say I did find what you experimented on. What do you think my response will be?"
"That is assuming I did let lose an experiment."
"We're assuming that you did. Let's say I were to tell you to stop looking for said thing and that your to stop all such experimentation."
"Why?"
"Because it is in both our interests that the head captain doesn't find out the truth, but it is also in your best interest that you don't mess with it again. I shan't go into detail why, but I will make your life miserable, as will Kurosaki Ichigo."
"You're a nasty brat. Fine... if I did experiment on something and you did indeed find it I will leave it in your care."
Toshiro snapped the phone shut and handed it back to Rukia. "There... its handled."
"Anything else we need to talk about?" Isshin asked.
"We can trust Mayuri to cover it up." The small taicho waved his hand. "He'll get a hold of me if he thinks there is anything I need to know. But this will only stall people finding out for a short period of time you know."
Isshin opened his mouth to say something, but Ichigo interrupted. "There is one more thing that we need to talk about. Yuzu mentioned that you got hurt. What happened?"
A frown appeared on Toshiro's face. The boy then glanced away. "Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Perhaps I should..."
The small taicho turned and glared at her. "My former taicho is very capable of healing kido thank you very much."
"I'm sorry... I didn't..."
"He's just mad that Kaien had to rescue him in front of Karin." Isshin stated.
"Toshiro..."
"Don't worry! I would have made sure nothing happened to her!"
"I'm more worried about the fact you let something happen to you."
"Shut up Kurosaki." Toshiro stood up and headed to the door. "If you don't mind I'm going to bed."
The small taicho walked out of the clinic and into the kitchen. Kaien was just finishing up the dishes and the boy headed up the stairs and went to Isshin's room. He opened the door and looked in tentivly. He then headed over to the bed and sat down. On the night stand there was a picture of Isshin with the woman that happened to be in the rather large poster down stairs. The boy let out a deep sigh before flopping onto the bed.
A knock came at the door and Toshiro sat up and noticed that quite a bit of time had passed. "Come in."
Kaien came in and sat on the opposite side. He noticed that the small taicho had a picture and waved his fingers for the boy to hand it to him. He looked at the picture, only to scowl. "It's pretty amazing what one takes for granted. I missed out on nii-sama's life."
"You're also missing your memories. You might not say the same thing if you had them. Actually, you might not be so fine with him if you had your memories."
"Why did you say that?" Kaien turned his head to look at the boy, but Toshiro choose to turn over onto his side and pretend to be asleep. "Never mind."
