Death and What Came Next Chapter 1, To Find a Summer Pear, a bleach fanfic

Death and What Came Next
A Karin Toshiro Fanfic
From the Two Lots of Six Series
XxMookinexX

I do not own Bleach or any of its characters, I only wish I did. Any and all unrecognizable characters and situations belong solely to me and are not to be touched without permission. I am not making any money off of this and I write with the soul purpose to entertain.

This story takes place when Karin is 20 and takes account of everything up to chapter 353 of the manga. Written in 3rd Person, mostly Karin centric.

So this is chapter one of DAWN (sorry, I have a habit of coming up with strange short names from my fics, so DWCN became DAWN).

Anyways, super special thanks to DD and Saigo no Hajime who reviewed last chapter! Take these metaphorical cookies and munch on them merrily throughout our first proper installment of DAWN!! YAY!

– Chapter One –

To Find a Summer Pear

It was hot and she was hungry. The sun beat down on district eighty-four with an unrelenting passion. Natsuri hated the sun almost as much as she hated the crickets and the everlasting hunger that ate away at her belly. She wondered when Kazu would get back from his foraging mission and where the other three had gone. Of course, they knew better than to be around her on days like this. Natsuri could be very irritable on the days when her need for food became too great. Perhaps she was simply worried they would stray too far. After all of the five of them, only Kazu and herself had developed zanpakutō. Jito was close to it, she could almost hear his stomach rumble from time to time, but Sabu and Shin were no closer to realization now than the day they'd first found each other twelve years ago. Natsuri always felt very anxious on days like this, whilst her hunger effectively incapacitated her and Kazu was attempting to find her food the other three were effectively unguarded. It wasn't like they were in the worst district in the Rukongai. One heard terrible things of district ninety, but eighty-four was bad enough in her opinion.

"Oi, brats," she shouted, forcing herself to sit up on the tiled rooftop that had been her resting place. There was a squeak of sorts from three rooftops down that sounded remarkably like Shin. Sure enough two heads popped up over the roof's ridgepole to watch her nervously. She was irritated, but fought the instinct to snap at them down in light of her concern. "Where's Sabu?"

"On a lookout, Gō." Natsuri twitched at the nickname. Five. Yes, technically she was the fifth member of the group, being the last to join them, but in many ways she disputed the position. She was the eldest, had more spiritual power than most of them, and could actually remember her name. In fact, Shin was the only one who insisted upon calling her that, as if to insist that he was above her even though they both knew she wasn't.

"Stay close," she snapped, impatience and anger biting her words short. "It's a bad day ta be split."

Jito smacked Shin on the head and the other boy muttered something before disappearing from view. Meanwhile Jito crossed the rooftops to meet her.

"'Kay?" he inquired, his equivalent of 'are you alright?' She nodded, smiling slightly. He was the one closest to her age, being around sixteen. The others were significantly younger, Kazu around twelve with Shin being eight and Sabu eleven. Of course Natsuri knew that didn't mean anything. She was as near enough to twenty now as she had been when she'd first arrived in the district. The only thing she really remembered about that day was being able to write her name in the sand, scratching out the kanji with a stick. 夏梨. Technically it meant Kari, summer pear, but that sounded far too girly to Natsuri, so she settled for the romanji version of summer instead. Honestly, it was surprising she even remembered her name. Most people turned up in soul society with no clue of who or what they were. All they told you at the gate was that you were being sorted by the time and place of your death and then you were sent away to live your afterlife. The shinigami didn't care what happened to you. They just couldn't wait to be rid of you.

However, despite their arrogance, Natsuri had never been able to hate the shinigami. It wasn't just because everyone else seemed to hate them and she liked to cheer for the underdog. It was simply that she hadn't had reason enough. Besides, she'd seen shinigami fight hollow, quite an achievement considering that hollow invasions were few and far between these days, and had found it rather awe inspiring. Secretly she thought they were kind of cool, but wouldn't tell the others that till Jito at least had gained a zanpakutō and that could be years yet. She wanted to join the academy. She wanted to fight strong people and prove her worth. She felt restless here. Like she was always waiting for something, and she didn't think whatever she was waiting for would find her on its own anymore. The only thing holding her back were these four boys she'd developed a hopeless attachment to. They were her family, and she loved them. Even Shin in all his annoyingness. They were the brothers she had never had.

"Natsuri, what ya thinkin'? Ya don't tend ta smile like that. It's unsettlin'." Natsuri laughed at Jito's joking expression and punched his arm.

"None of yer business, brat. What ya been up to? Sunbathin' whilst I've been writhin' in pain?"

"Nah, found us some shade. You comin'?" Natsuri grinned broadly.

"I could kiss ya, brat. Yer an angel ta save my soul."

Jito blushed and turned his head away from her, but not before Natsuri caught a glimpse of it on his face. Well that wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination. It wasn't that she wasn't flattered because in actuality she really was, but Kazu's hero worship was more than enough disappointment for her to dish out at one go. Besides, if she was every going to go to the academy she'd be leaving them all behind. It wasn't good to start something she wasn't prepared to go through with. Probably she was over-thinking it. Probably Jito was only embarrassed at the unusual praise coming out of her mouth in combination with his starting the rather epic process of puberty, which in soul society lasted for several years. So Natsuri made a conscious decision not to pursue the subject. She wouldn't comment on it now, and she wouldn't say such words to him again. That was a much more sensible approach. After all, she didn't want to leave any unresolved feelings behind.

They'd been sprawled out in the shade for well over two hours, Sabu telling them dramatic stories he claimed to have lived though. Of course, none of them believed him. Somehow he was the main heroic figure in every single tale. Yet they enjoyed listening nevertheless because Sabu had a hell of an imagination. It was a very amusing way to pass the time, and they had nothing but time in this district. When they weren't running for their lives that is.

"RUN!"

The yell startled them all to their feet as they scrambled to see what was going on and pick up all of their personal affects at the same time. Kazu was sprinting towards them and an old man waving a zanpakutō was chasing after him, yelling angrily. Natsuri grinned as she picked up her own zanpakutō, spotting the large loaf of bread and pile fruit cradled in the front of Kazu's shirt as he made a bowl shape using his arms. Oh delicious miracle that is food, Natsuri planned to eat well tonight. So thinking she ran towards Kazu and the approaching man, smiling broadly. Kazu saw her coming and winked as she pulled her zanpakutō out of its sheath and sprinted forwards to meet them. At the very last minute Kazu threw himself to the side and ran around her as she jumped to make sure she was clear of him and made a one-handed swipe at the man's head with the flat of her blade. He blocked using his own, having had enough practice of chasing the brats who stole his merchandise and fighting their protectors, but did not take into account her sheath which swung widely, round and into the side of his head, jabbing towards his eye. He screamed angrily, clutching at his one streaming eye, and would have continued to make chase had Natsuri not pulled a clever trick with her feet, tripping him up so that he flipped forwards onto the ground.

She made a break for it then, turning and sprinting back down the street towards their hideout. She'd never killed anyone, and didn't plan to start now. Her zanpakutō was for protection, nothing else.

"Oi, Kazu," she shouted, using his name to show her gratitude as she spotted them amidst a group of people ahead. Then her insides twisted as she realised just who the other members of the group were. Kinzu and his thuggish friends. What were they doing here? "OI!" she yelled, charging at them with her zanpakutō raised.

To begin with they were startled, but upon identifying who was attacking them, the majority of them just laughed.

"Hey, Kid," she heard one of them begin. "Yer mama's here ta protect ya. What'll she do when she works out the rest of ya kin are dead, eh? It'll be funny, dontcha think?"

Oh God. All they had wanted was some stupid bread, and it hadn't even been for them. Please let them be alright. She could see clearer now, and it didn't look like any of them had been stabbed, probably they were just out cold. Probably they were fine. That's what she told herself anyway as she charged into attack.

"Die," she yelled, slicing at the arms of the one who held Kazu aloft. Kinzu moved faster than she would have believed possible before the day four years ago when she'd seen those shinigami fight. Suddenly he was behind her, holding her arms and yanking her backwards. The sudden momentum of it made her drop her zanpakutō, and her eyes widened in terror as it fell to join Kazu's already abandoned one on the sand.

"Let go of her!" Kazu screamed, suddenly beginning to thrash, but one of Kinzu's friends put a stop to that soon enough, wrapping his large hands around the young boy's throat. Natsuri could hear him choking.

"Stop it!" she yelled. "For God's sake, he's just a kid!"

They ignored her completely.

"Hey, Kinzu," the man jeered, his face twisting into delight as Kazu's face began to turn blue. "Since yer so fixated on the girl, how 'bout you let me and the boys have some fun with the rest of 'em, eh? They could stand ta take a beating."

She was beyond horrified. Her skin crawled where Kinzu's rancid breath played across her neck, but more than that, Kazu's eyes were almost bulging out of his head and that man was laughing! She was furious. At the situation. At her inability to protect anyone. Why was she so useless? One of them picked up Kazu's zanpakutō.

"What do ya reckon it'd be like ta be run through by yer own sword?" he asked his friends, who jeered. "Let's find out."

"Stop it," she whispered. Then louder, "Stop it! Don't touch him! Don't you dare touch him! I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you! Let go of me!" She struggled wildly in Kinzu's arms, legs thrashing erratically, connecting with his legs over and over again but to no effect. Her arms were pinned from beneath to stop her reaching out, but that didn't stop her reaching backwards to Kinzu's hair and tearing at it with all her might. He swore, his grip loosening slightly, and she took the instant to ram her elbow back into the fleshy cavity beneath his ribcage.

"You little bitch," he yelled, groping for her, to punish her, to make her bleed, but she had long since dove out of his reach, grabbing her zanpakutō and swinging it wildly around her. It was useless, she knew that there were far too many of them, but she had to try. She had to win, because if she didn't then they would all die.

Pathetic…

It was surreal. One minute she'd been standing in the middle of a desert, ready to fight for her life… and the next she was in a jungle, face to face with a pair of amber eyes complete with slit-like pupils. What's more, they were huge.

"Oh, shit!" she yelled, stumbling backwards and falling onto her behind in the most ungraceful way, her zanpakutō abandoned by her side. "What are you?" The shock of the situation had her talking properly again. She'd thought she'd forgotten how to. The creature before her was monstrous, whatever it was. She couldn't see any of its actual body due to the shadows that seemed to meld into its skin. It was just that single pair of terrible amber eyes and her. There was a deep rumbling sound in the distance. Only then Natsuri realised it wasn't in the distance at all, but was coming from the creature right in front of her.

---, can you hear me ---?

She stared at the creature unblinkingly, and then finally, something clicked in her brain. It was talking to her.

"Oh… oh, you must be…" Her zanpakutō.

The grumbling sound occurred again, and this time Natsuri thought that maybe, just maybe, it was laughing at her.

That's right. I am Mugurametsu, and I am yours. Now fight with the courage you were born with, --- ---.

She was back, and no time had passed. So she had no time to wonder at the name she could not hear being her own instead of his. There were more pressing matters at hand, and as Mugurametsu had said, now she could fight. Now she could believe she would win. It wasn't just that she had to. She wanted to.

"Sprout forth, Mugurametsu!"

The blade was wider, and considerably heavier. The edge of it was double sided but divided into two halves with teeth like projections interlacing down the middle. The hilt was shaped like two vines that twisted around one another until they spread outwards to form the guard around a jet-black gemstone with flashes of amber in the depths. The blade was a yellowish white and reminded her of teeth. It was very obviously deadly. She did not want to kill anyone, but she had no compulsions about hacking off their limbs. The blade scythed through their skin as easily as a knife shreds paper. It was sharp. It was hungry for blood.

"Don't touch my family!" she screamed, punctuating each word with a slice, blood spraying onto her clothing and face. Already some of the men were running away in terror at what Natsuri was finally understanding to be a shikai blade. Others were whimpering on the floor, clutching at their wounds, and the one that had been choking Kazu was bent double, throwing up beside his dismembered hands. Kinzu was sprawled on the sand, clutching at a mild flesh wound in his side and crying like he was dying.

"Pathetic," she muttered, and seeing that all her threats were gone, she turned to Kazu, who had tears on his face and was looking her with such an expression of abject terror that all the fight left her at once. She dropped Mugurametsu to the ground and fell to her knees beside him. "Kazu, are you alright?"

"Mn… Ehmmn… Nnnmnnnmn…" It was unintelligible.

"It's okay," she whispered. "We're safe now. Come here."

He ran into her outstretched arms, and bawled with terror. For the first time in her afterlife, Natsuri considered what it must be like to be a mother.

"We have to get everyone out of here," she whispered, patting him on the back as he blubbered. "I think we should try to move district even. It isn't right, us being here. You're all too young. You shouldn't have to deal with this."

District eighty-four was not as bad as district ninety as far as living in the Rukongai went. Nowhere near as bad, but it was bad enough. Dangerous enough. It wasn't right. She was under the impression that Soul Society was the equivalent of heaven. So how could such scum end up here? How were they not in hell where they belonged? Maybe in life they'd been good people. Maybe they got sick of being good. Wait around in the higher districts long enough and you'd lose the goodness you once had. Those in the Seireitei had no idea how bad the Rukongai got. She knew it was true. Now she just had to work out-

There was somebody standing beside her. Somebody horrifically strong. The pressure of their reiatsu alone had her paralyzed. It was the most scared she'd ever been in her life. Simply trying to turn her head to look at them seemed impossible. They had moved so fast, as well. In a split second they were there from never having existed. It wasn't that they had masked their reiatsu. They were simply able to move faster than sound, almost instantaneous movement.

Yet-

"I don't believe it." It was a male's voice.

Yet if they were that strong… If they were stronger than a normal shinigami…

She heard footsteps walking towards her, crunching on the sand.

Then they must be a fukutaichō at the very least. Which would make them…

"I've found you. I've finally found you."

One of the good guys.

She finally broke her hold on the paralysis and turned to see him. Her heart was racing. Orange hair. A fixed frown that stayed despite the obvious relief on his face. He was old, now. Much older than when she'd last seen him.

"I know you," she whispered.

"Karin."

He was kneeling beside her in the sand, and she was frowning in confusion, unable to understand her recognition, letting go of Kazu in her plight. The man had such a pathetic expression on his face. She thought it didn't suit him. She did know him. He was-

She reached a hand out to touch his face, and then she smiled. He was someone important. Someone she felt she loved very much.

"Ichi-nii," she said, finally putting a name to the face. Ichigo. Strawberry. Just as she was a pear, and Yuzu was citron…

He drew her into a hug as her face went white and her stomach dropped below her knees.

"Yuzu," she whispered. She'd forgotten Yuzu. How could she? "But I tried," she whispered desperately, fighting her already falling tears. "I really did."

"It's okay," he said, gently cradling her against his chest. Forgiving her. Comforting her. "We'll be okay now."

Kurosaki Ichigo was thirty-seven years old when he found Kurosaki Karin. She was still twenty. Her fraternal twin, Kurosaki Yuzu, was thirty-two. It was twelve years later, and somehow, life had carried on without her. Karin supposed she wouldn't prefer it any other way, but she had been away for so long. So long.

She heard something rumbling in the distance. Could hear Mugurametsu calling in her mind.

Do you understand yet, Kurosaki Karin? The name you weren't prepared to hear has always been your own. You were waiting for him, just as I have always been waiting for you. Karin, did you know a jungle needs both rain and sun to thrive? It's raining, Karin. Right now, it's raining buckets from the sky… but there is sunlight. Such astounding, warm sunlight. I can see rainbows. I don't mind getting my fur wet from time to time… but Karin, there are rules. When your mother died it rained so much I almost drowned, and all the flowers washed away. Don't get that upset again. When you're scared the clouds cover up the sky. Don't get scared again. I like the rainbows, Karin. So long as there is sunlight amidst the rain, this world is comfortable. Get stronger, Karin, so that I don't have to swim to stay alive. I want to get stronger too. It's a jungle, Karin. So we must be strong to survive.

And… that's chapter one. Did you enjoy it?

Right, so I do a lot of research in my fics because I like that kind of thing. I'm gonna be geeky and explain some things to you cos I love to show I know things… also, cos I figure if I have thought about something I should share it. Sorry, feel free to stop reading if it bores you, but I'd value some feedback if you have time. :)

So, first off, let me explain why Karin didn't remember anything. In the manga, and I read this again very recently, souls tend not to remember anything of their previous lives. However, there was a bit of a conundrum in my mind with regards to why the parakeet boy remembered Sado when they first entered Soul Society. I decided that since those were memories he'd had since dying, those were the things he remembered. However, it is for this reason I decided that Karin would not need a soul burial, despite being murdered. She was calm enough when she passed away, mainly because Ichigo was there with her, that she didn't have any regrets chaining her to the shop. Feel free to argue with me on this if you like.

Now, behind the names. The nicknames for the children all come from the words for one to five in Japanese. I felt that having one called Ichi might be too strong a memory jogger for Karin, and so was slightly wary of this at first, but fortunately discovered that Kazu can mean one as well. From there on I just used the standard names but modified them in each case. Ji is two and To is person, so Jito. Sabu on its own means three. Shi means four, and n can be used to round off a name without requiring an extra kanji, as in Karin's case. Karin's name does mean summer pear. Ka means summer, and Ri means pear. For the pseudonym Natsuri, Natsu is the romanji for Ka, but I decided to keep the kanji of Ri as it is because the romanji for pear is nashi and Natsunashi sounds stupid to me. Kinzu comes from Kin (forbidden) and Zu (hand). Usually I don't have the kanji meanings behind minor characters like that but had come across those two anyway when I was researching a name for Karin's zanpakutō.

Mugurametsu comes from the kanji for creeping vines (mugura) and destroying (metsu). The release phrase sprout forth was inspired by the kanji Fuku, which I almost had her saying… only I hate it when you get bombarded with too much jargon all at once, so we'll see about that.

I apologize to anyone who thought the scene with the thugs was a little too rough. She was in a very bad district… it couldn't all be sunshine and daisies. Also, don't worry. I'm going to have Karin talk normally from now on, the poor grammar was just to fit with her Natsuri persona, and I guess to reinforce that district eighty-four was quite rough.

Can anyone guess what Mugurametsu is? Also, for those who want to see what the shikai was based off of, please look at the following link (you will have to remove the spaces): www. uesp. net/wiki/Shivering:Dawnfang_and_Duskfang Also, I would be interested to know what people think of Karin getting her shikai so soon? Tell me what you think and I will explain my reasons at the beginning of next chapter if you are interested to know. Oh, and did you think 12 years was too much of a jump?

As usual, updates occur as and when I get inspiration.

Luv ya

XxMookinexX