Disclaimer: Who am I, a lowly fan, to go against the creator, Tite Kubo, and claim this manga/anime as mine?
Chapter 4
Karakura, like any other place in the world, was hottest at noon. The concrete covered grounds and the lack of trees helped escalate the already unbearable temperature. This did little to deter the mothers and their children to spend their leisure time on the small community park located on top of a plateau that overlooked a small neighborhood. Five kids, in their late elementary school years, stood under the shade of a sturdy tree, watching the smaller children play tag a few yards in front of them. The four boys sighed helplessly. There was no way they could practice soccer there.
Toushiro watched from a distance, sitting uncomfortably on the roof that loomed over the whole park. His eyes were on the girl, analyzing her every move as if it would give him the kind of information he wanted. Still, it wouldn't harm to try. It had been a few weeks since he started having that suspicion that she could feel them. It didn't escape his notice when she took distracted glances toward the general direction of the hollow on their previous encounter. Even at that moment he could recall the worry in her voice when she muttered, "It's that feeling again…"
He had been watching her with much concentration—too much—that he didn't notice when Rangiku started calling him. "Tai~chou!" Toushiro finally acknowledged her presence with a suspicious look. His vice-captain smiled knowingly. "Stalking again?" The suspicion in his eyes turned into a glare. "No," he answered simply, knowing that his answer would be translated as a denial. He didn't allow the older woman to have a chance to voice out her thoughts by adding, "There's something I'm just curious about." His eyes averted from his vice captain back to the girl with short raven hair. Rangiku followed his line of sight and gasped, "Wow, taichou is interested in a girl from the human world!"
Toushiro almost hit his head with the palm of his hand at the statement. It was very characteristic of Matsumoto to say something like that with a serious face. He corrected her by saying she had it wrong but it reached a deaf ear. She giggled at the thought of her captain hopelessly in love. Said captain, however, was anything but amused. He stood up, slightly flushed with embarrassment at the whole conversation, and motioned to leave. Rangiku patted his back encouragingly.
"For the last time, you got it wrong!"
The sound of his retreating footsteps was loud against the roof, an effect of his irritation, translated to his vice captain as avoiding the topic. Rangiku called him to wait for her but he ignored it upon the obvious hints of smile in her voice.
.
Karin walked dejectedly on the way to her house. She decided to take the long route that lead to the side of the hill, where she met Toushiro for the second time. He didn't come to practice. She already expected it, but pain of rejection stung nonetheless. She had hoped he'd at least drop by to watch them or something of the sort. But he didn't. And this made her feel somewhat irritated. "Stupid boys…" she muttered.
She spotted something—someone a little farther away from where she was at the moment. That someone was on the other side of the safety rails, back leaning leisurely on it to support an upright position. Karin's face brightened up and she ran up to him while she called his name.
"Toushiro!"
"It's you again." His voice sounded bored, all attention on the screen of the phone he held. She noticed that he always seemed to be texting, and each time it beeped he'd look at it with a solemn expression. Karin had no idea what the texts were about or who it was he texted, but she felt slightly sorry for Toushiro. He's so young yet he has the expressions of a person who's been through a lot. She felt the urge to alleviate him from his troubles, even for a bit.
She didn't know what to say so she asked the first thing that came to mind. "Why didn't you come to practice?" Her voice sounded a little too demanding than how she intended it to be but the tone caught his attention so she decided it was fine. He glanced at her for a fraction for a second before returning to the phone— like a moth attracted to a flame— and answered, "I didn't explicitly say I'd come."
Karin bit her lower lip at the response. What he said was true and she couldn't think of anything to retort with. She decided to change the topic. "You're always here. Do you live nearby?"
"Who knows?"
Toushiro proved to be a hard conversation partner. She tried so many times to start one by asking a random question but his answers shot it dead every time. Karin found it to be very frustrating but she somehow couldn't give up. "Then why are you here?"
The captain looked at the horizon, contemplating on the simplest way to answer. The sun was setting. The sky was already a myriad of colors, yellow, orange, red, pink, and blue. The view reminded him of the old days, back in Rukongai with Momo. It felt nostalgic. He answered before he could realize what he said. "This is the best place to see the sky... It brings back memories…"
And there it was again. Karin watched him—the look in his turquoise eyes. It was the eyes of someone who's lived too long and seen so much. But Toushiro was still so young. It was depressing.
"Memories? Just how old are you?" she asked in attempt to distract him from his thoughts. She didn't want to see him like that any longer.
"It's none of your business." Karin couldn't help but smile at the unusual answer. She sighed in mock defeat. "Alright! Oh, old one!"
He let the comment pass. He resigned to the possibility that the girl was naturally persistent and somewhat sarcastic. The hollow locator beeped again. It was close to where he was. Toushiro jumped to the other side of the railings so that he was on the road and started to run off. He halted at the feeling of a hand clasping his arm. "Don't go there!" The words left her mouth before she could give it another thought. Karin froze when she realized what she had said less than a minute ago. Her grip on his wrist tightened. "I—that—I don't think you should go there because, uh—bad… feeling… I mean-" She struggled to find words that wouldn't sound absurd to normal people.
xx end of chapter xx
a/n: thanks to the reviewers of the last chapter! It serves as a motivation for me to get my lazy ass moving and update as quickly as I can. I have good vibes with this fic and it's surprisingly easy for me to write it even if my main fandom right now is hetalia. Ah the powers of HitsuKarin! I'll get back to you guys in a week... hopefully.
I'm oddly proud of myself today. I managed to do 3 posters in one night! hah! xD
Well~ please R&R!