Her Guardian Angel.
Chapter Two.
She glared up at him, cursing the six or seven inch difference between their heights. One of his hands was still wrapped tightly around her wrist, keeping her from slamming her right fist into his face while the other was shoved into his pocket. There was such nonchalance around him it made her sick. She wished she hadn't dropped her mace back in the café. He kept his gaze steady with hers, never once glancing away. Although she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of thinking that she was interested in what he had said, she just had to know. Maybe if she humored him he would leave her alone.
"What do you mean I need control?" she snapped. His hand gripped her just a little tighter and she fought back a small whimper of pain. His fingers were very cold, and his grasp was like iron. She felt hard calluses on the inside of his palm, like those that Ichi-nii had when he was still around.
"Your emotions are raging, you have no control over your mind. You make no attempt to reign in your subconscious," he replied monotonously. She raised an eyebrow. Yeah, that made complete sense, Mr. Freaky-Stranger. As if he understood her slight confusion he released her and backed away a step before saying anything else.
"At first we believed that perhaps you were just having a bad month, or couple months because we understood at the time that you had just lost your sister. Unfortunately, after several months passed, leading on into several years, without you becoming any more controlled, we have decided that we need to do something about it."
Karin backed away slowly. So now she had an entire group of stalkers who wanted to do something about her? Were they going to kill her? Not that it would be too bad, she thought wryly. She balled her hands into fists at her sides, clutching the material of her dark pants.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, "Who is this 'we'?" He chuckled darkly and backed away from her. As he walked farther and farther backwards from her she got more and more nervous. What was he doing? Was he really going to just leave her alone and leave?
"What are you doing?" she asked. He stopped at the beginning of the alleyway. The pale halo of light from the streetlamps swirled around him and she felt her heart beating faster in her chest. The light orange light mixed with the white strands of his hair, casting just the faintest light on his face.
"I can see that you shall not trust me at this point in time. Rest assured that I shall return again, but for now, my talents are needed elsewhere. In the meantime, control your emotions and attempt to reign in your passions." She watched as he just seemed to vanish. There was a faint streak of color and then the alleyway was empty.
She rested her back against the wall and slid down it until she was seated on the dirty, damp ground. She pulled her knees up against her chest and settled her head on them, clasping her hands firmly against her pants. Her whole body shook as the shock of the encounter set in.
"Why did he waste so much time trying to catch me?" she whispered. A tear from delayed fear rolled down her cheek, smearing her already smudged eyeliner and mascara. She wiped it away quickly and sniffed.
Nothing this weird happens to people like me.
"Taicho!" Matsumoto Rangiku sang as she poked her head out of the kitchen in the small house the shinigami were staying in. Her taicho slumped down on the couch in the living and leaned back, flinging his arms over the back of it. Matsumoto watched him from afar, deciding against asking him what was wrong. The Winter War had taken a lot from him and from the rest of Soul Society. But that was almost fifteen years ago. Most of the shinigami involved had moved on. And everyone thought that the emotionless Hitsugaya Toushiro was one of them.
Matsumoto could see that he had change. Where at one time he would have been annoyed with her or gotten angry with her for not doing her paperwork or skipping out on important meetings to go drink, he now just gave her a blank look and ignored her. Abarai Renji had been promoted to fifth division captain and Hinamori Momo had been suspended and was in exile on the edge of Rukongai.
Kira Izuru was killed in the Winter War as was the new third division taicho Amagai Shuusuke. Hisagi Shuhei took over his division and was making a great taicho. Komamura Sajin of the seventh division was killed by Tousen and killed the traitor as well. His fukutaicho, Iba, refused to take up the mantle of taicho when it was offered to him. Kyouraku Shunsui was nearly killed and was in a coma for four years, in which time his fukutaicho Nanoa took control of the division with the help of Ukitake-taicho.
Kuchiki Rukia was given the title of fukutaicho of the thirteenth division after her battle prowess was drastically increased before the War and was shown dramatically during it. Inoue Orihime was killed during the war but her soul was saved and she was taken on in the tenth division as the fourth seat after she finished the Academy. When the Kurosakis died they were welcomed into the divisions.
Kurosaki Isshin was taken into the fourth division after his exile was lifted by the soutaicho and, although he was not a seated officer, he was very close to Unohana-taicho and together they made a perfect team for healing. Koutestu Isane began learning many healing tricks and kido that Isshin had created himself and in turn taught them to the other members of the division.
Kurosaki Ichigo came of his own accord, following Rukia to Soul Society and abandoning his body. He was given the captaincy of the seventh division and got along fabulously with Iba. He finished the Academy in four years, having already achieved bankai and shikai.
Kurosaki Yuzu was a shock to both her father and brother. She wandered in Rukongai for two years before she was discovered. At first she had no reiatsu but when she entered the Academy at the urging of her father and brother her reiatsu skyrocketed and she completed the Academy in three years. She was given the title of fukutaicho of the ninth division under Hisagi-taicho.
But what came as the most shock to the shinigami of Soul Society was when Yamamoto-soutaicho announced, just before the last battle of the War, that in the event of his death, Hitsugaya Toushiro-taicho would be his successor as soutaicho. Although Hitsugaya insisted that he didn't want to discuss it with anyone after it was announced, Matsumoto was proud to talk about it to her friends and everyone in Rukongai knew that the child prodigy would be handed the title of soutaicho after Yamamoto-soutaicho died or retired.
After the announcement, Hitsugaya spent a lot of time with the soutaicho, learning from him and being trained by him. The jubantai taicho's power increased exponentially just before and after the war. Everyone could see the power difference in him but only Matsumoto saw the personality difference in him.
He was colder, less concerned with everything that went on around him. All the years that she had spent trying to get him loosen up seemed to be sapped away in a few short months. He ignored her mostly and when he did have to talk to her it was only in short words before he moved on. The shinigami in his division were still utterly loyal to him and loved him but they were effected by his personality change as well.
If a division member so much as stepped a toe out of line they were met with his cold anger, his disappointment in them seemed to chastise them more then his shouting ever had in the past. But where he actually cared about his division before, now it was just an expendable fighting machine. No one knew if this was because of his time with the soutaicho or if it was from the war.
"Matsumoto," Hitsugaya called quietly from the living room, "Are there any orders from Soul Society?"
"No, none so far other than the ones we were given when we left," she answered. Her expression softened all the more when she saw how drained he looked. There were bags under his eyes and he moved as if his body was too heavy for him to carry. She walked out of the kitchen and up to him. She pressed a hand to his forehead. He flinched away from her a little and tensed but made no move to push her away.
"You feel warm," she announced. Warm for Hitsugaya was around sixty-five degrees. Nobody knew how he survived with an average body temperature of roughly sixty degrees Fahrenheit. "You should rest. If any more orders come I'll wake you up."
He nodded and pushed himself up, plodding into his bedroom and shutting the door after himself. She slinked up to the door and placed and ear against it. She heard the bed creak for a few moments before the room was silent again. Confident that he was sleeping, she wandered back to the kitchen where she glared at the paper where she had written the newest orders from Soul Society.
You are not to let Kurosaki Karin know anything about her family's position in Soul Society.
"Kurosaki-fukutaicho!" Kurosaki Yuzu turned around at the sound of the third seat's voice. She enjoyed spinning in her swivel chair. It made her feel very important. She put her brush down on the desk next to the unfinished division paperwork. She ended up doing all of Hisagi-taicho's paperwork for him. It seemed that he really didn't enjoy it. Secretly, she hoped that no other fukutaicho had to do the same drudgery as she did. Not tat she grudged her taicho for it. He was a good man and she would do anything for him. Anyways, back to the third seat.
"Yes? How can I help you?" the younger of the Kurosaki twins asked. She had a small smile on her childish face. Although she could pass as a woman of twenty-four she still retained some of her baby features. It made her look cute, or so her boyfriends had told her.
"Yamamoto-soutaicho wishes to speak with you urgently," the third seat said breathlessly. Yuzu was curious. Why didn't the soutaicho just send a hell butterfly? She shrugged and nodded to the shinigami, immediately darted away. As she stood up she stretched and patted down the wrinkles in her uniform. She adjusted the fukutaicho badge swinging from her belt unconsciously.
She shunpo'ed out of her office and out of her division on her way to the first division headquarters. As she sped past the seventh division she waved to a few of the shinigami who were watching their taicho train with a few newbies. Ichigo would have waved to her but he had his hands full with a wildly attacking recruit. She was well known around her brother's division. She often wandered in carrying backed goods for him and Iba. But as she passed Ichigo finished with his little fight and left the recruit in the dust, catching up to his sister.
"Ichi-nii, where are you going?" she asked as he kept pace with her.
"First division," he answered shortly. She could see the worry in his face and she wondered if he knew something that she did not. It wouldn't be completely unusual.
"Me too!" she said with false glee. The anxiety in his face was making her nervous. Ichigo looked over at her with a credulous expression for a moment before looking back straight ahead. "Ichi-nii… do you know what this is about?" she asked quietly.
"I hope that I don't," he whispered.
When they reached the first division they were shown to Yamamoto-soutaicho's office. Their father was already there, looking more serious than usual. The soutaicho said nothing but kept his hands settled in his lap, he seemed to be watching the large communication screen on the wall.
"Kurosaki-taicho, Kurosaki-fukutaicho, and Kurosaki-san," he began, "I called you were because I wanted you to be present for this report." At that exact moment the screen flickered on and the Kurosakis were presented with the image of the tenth division's taicho and fukutaicho. Hitsugaya looked rather angry and Matsumoto appeared to be splattered with a rather large amount of flour and batter. The soutaicho chose to ignore the bubbly woman's appearance.
"Hitsugaya-taicho, did you receive the latest orders?" the soutaicho asked, not bothering to explain why the Kurosakis were in the room or why they had to listen to Hitsugaya-taicho's report.
"Latest… orders, sir?" Hitsugaya asked. His voice sounded a little easy but you could never tell his emotions from his face. Yuzu perked up a little bit at the sound of his voice.
"I sent you orders pertaining to your mission yesterday, they should have arrived today. The hell butterfly made it back with Matsumoto's response." Hitsugaya turned to his fukutaicho and held out a hand. The buxom woman blushed a little and pulled a sheet of folded paper from between her… assets… and handed it to him. He opened it and scanned the contents briefly before looking back at the screen.
"Why?" he asked flatly. The soutaicho raised an eyebrow.
"Because if she knew then she would want to come here and she must remain on earth. There is no other way."
"I could detain her here," Hitsugaya half-argued. The Kurosakis felt very confused by the conversation but Ichigo's eyes were narrowed as if he could guess what was going on.
"It would not help. Report," the soutaicho ordered as an end to the discussion. Matsumoto sighed quietly from beside her taicho. Hitsugaya remained silent for a few seconds.
"Matsumoto and I arrived in the Living World at precisely noon today. We received our gigais from Urahara Kisuke as promised and were set up in our current residence near the neighborhood of Kurosaki Karin," the Kurosakis present all tensed as they realized where this was going. "I approached her at eleven pm as she was leaving work. She reacted violently and fled."
"How violently?' Ichigo asked. The soutaicho said nothing but Hitsugaya glared at him. The icy taicho did not answer but Matsumoto answered the question with an evil twinkle in her eye.
"She tried to mace him and kneed him in the groin," she said promptly. Hitsugaya growled slightly in the background. Yuzu almost thought she could see a faint blush on his pale cheeks. Was it just her or did he look more pale than usual?
"As I was saying," Hitsugaya broke in as his fukutaicho started giggling, "she reacted violently and fled. I followed here and relayed your message, soutaicho, and left as she seemed unnerved by my presence."
"Did she recognize you at all?" the soutaicho asked. All the Kurosakis looked at him in shock. Recognize Hitsugaya-taicho? Had they met before?
"No. Not that I could tell."
"Soutaicho, what's going on here?" Isshin asked. The soutaicho seemed to look at him for a brief moment before speaking.
"Kurosaki Karin's reiatsu has been causing massive damage to her world. She is wearing away at the protective barrier we placed around the town after the Winter War and is causing many people around her to become Spiritually Aware. It seems that everyone that she works with can at least see the blurry forms of hollows and shinigami. So far no one has shown over the top power like hers. In addition to this, her melancholy and depressed emotions are influencing her reiatsu and it is reacting like a buffer for her suffering and taking her most negative emotions and expending them without her realizing it. Unfortunately, these expenditures are causing more damage to the barrier and soon the town will be overrun with hollows. To stop this from happening I sent Hitsugaya-taicho and Matsumoto-fukutaicho to warn her to reign in her emotions and gain control and also to train her as a shinigami, similar to Kurosaki-taicho's training while he was still human." The soutaicho turned back to the screen. "By the by, Hitsugaya-taicho, why is your fukutaicho covered in cooking ingredients."
Matsumoto burst out laughing and Hitsugaya twitched.
"She tried to bake muffins."