UGH. Sorry, but I had to let it out. I have homework in every subject this weekend. And that's how it's been these past two weeks of school. -sighs-
Okay, so, this chapter is quite lengthy and I am proud of myself for it-but length shouldn't be as important as plot content. I like this chapter a lot more than I do the last couple, but that may be because I managed to break out of my writer's block in this one.
This chapter is dedicated to: lazyguy90. Thanks so much for all your help and encouragement; it's truly because of you that I was able to break my writer's block.
DISCLAIMER GOES HERE. If I owned Bleach, the plot would have more holes in it than it does already.
"Hyourinmaru," an alto voice called, and the ice dragon looked up to see an eagle flying towards him.
"Washi-ou," Hyourinmaru responded as the eagle landed on one of his wings. "What brings you here?"
"I have something I wish to discuss. I can't keep Karin from gaining her bankai for much longer."
"Why are you worried? You know, you weren't supposed to suppress her gaining her abilities for so long."
"I did what I had to. Don't you think that someone will figure out eventually that—?"
"Yes, but that is not what you're worried about right now, is it?"
"Well, no," the eagle replied, shifting his talons.
"Then what is? Karin's bankai?"
"Yes. I don't want her to kill herself trying to achieve it."
"She won't. She's stronger than that. What I am worried about is how the captains are going to solve the problem."
"I don't think we can do anything in that area."
"Maybe we should begin again," Hyourinmaru rumbled quietly.
"Do you think that'll help?" the eagle asked, cocking his head.
"It's worth a try."
"All right. You go first. I must leave." In a flurry of feathers, the golden eagle was gone.
—x—
Seireitei was a bloody mess. Hinamori was bleeding in a corner, Matsumoto laid face down in the dirt, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Inoue with a Hollow claw in her abdomen. It surprised him to see that she was wearing a shinigami uniform, but that was not important at the moment. The three of them were clearly dead, lying amongst other subordinates. Hollows laid dead too, slowly disintegrating to be reborn into Soul Society.
Tentatively, he walked through the streets, warily making his way towards his division. The same sight met him at every corner—he'd find those he knew and those he didn't dead rather gruesomely. "What—" but he didn't want to voice the thought. He didn't want to know.
As he stepped into his office, he was greeted by a gasp of pain. Startled by the noise, he looked to his left to find a child. Blood was trickling from a head wound and one of the boy's feet was clearly broken. Toushirou carefully approached and knelt down to wipe away the blood.
"F-father?" whimpered the child. Toushirou froze. "Father?" the boy asked again, this time sounding weaker.
"Shhh, it's going to be okay," Toushirou whispered back, deciding that the boy wanted his parents and wasn't calling him his father. "I'm going to clean your cut and take you to your parents, okay?"
The boy nodded, and it looked like he wanted to speak again. "Keep still," Toushirou ordered, effectively keeping the child quiet.
"Masami and Michiko won't wake up," the boy said suddenly.
Toushirou was unsure what to do, but he had finished cleaning the head wound. "Who?"
"My sisters," was the reply, and a small finger pointed towards Toushirou's desk.
Toushirou picked him up, carried him over to the desk, and leaned him against the side. Where the chair should have been tucked under the desk, two small bodies huddled together, also bleeding. Hesitantly, he reached over and touched their faces—cold. Quickly, he checked for a pulse—none. The poor girls were dead. One of the girls' heads flopped over, revealing startling blue eyes staring at him; Toushirou was unnerved by the sight. "They're gone," he told the living child. Respectfully, he pulled them out from under the desk and laid them side by side—they were small and light, dark hair covering their faces that he swept aside. The boy had fallen asleep or unconscious; Toushirou couldn't decide which.
Suddenly the door burst open and Toushirou's hand instantly went to his sword hilt. "Karin?" he asked surprised, his grip relaxing.
The woman stared at him. "Where are they?" she demanded, striding over to him. "Where are my children?" Before he could answer she saw the girls' bodies. Slowly, she sank to her knees, covered her face with her hands, and let out a heart-broken sob. "Masami… Michiko…" she cried, drawing them close to her.
Toushirou was at a loss of what to do. She was ignoring him, or so it seemed. "Karin…?"
She whipped her head around to face him. "Where is Kazuhiko? Where is my son?"
Toushirou stepped over to the boy and once more gathered him in his arms. "This one lives," he stated, placing him next to his mother. "The girls were long gone."
"Kazuhiko…" she whispered, rubbing his head in assurance that he was in fact alive. "Good thing he knew to come here."
It then came to Toushirou's attention that Karin's uniform was stained a deep red. "Karin, your uniform—!"
She looked down, and smiled bitterly. "I know. I had to see them. Our poor children."
He stared at her in disbelief. No, NO! he screamed in his mind, his eyes widening. "You're not dying! What are you doing here? Go get help!"
"Toushirou, you and I seem to be the last ones here. Soon, it'll be only you and our son." She threw him an ironic smile before she slumped over the children gathered in her arms, still bleeding.
Toushirou screamed as the blood clouded his vision.
—x—
He woke up in a cold sweat, and detangled himself from the sheets to go over to the window. Toushirou took deep breaths to calm down and tried to shake off the remnants of the latest nightmare. "What is your point, Hyourinmaru? Why are you torturing me with these dreams?" The great ice dragon did not reply; Toushirou didn't expect him to.
It had been years since he had first seen Karin at the Soul Academy—fifty at least. She had passed the Academy and entered into the ranks, ending up in the Fifth Division, causing Hyourinmaru to laugh himself silly (as dignified as possible) when he heard the news. Her siblings had also died, but only Ichigo was a shinigami like her, her sister nowhere to be found.
Toushirou himself hadn't seen Karin in at least a year—he distinctly remembered the last time to be Hinamori's birthday party. She, along with the rest of the division, had been invited to the celebration and the two of them had not spoken more than five minutes. The look in her eyes had been indiscernible, but the tone of her voice had been pleasant enough.
The rumors amongst the subordinates had died down, allowing a slight return to normal—there was still paperwork, the Eleventh Division still caused trouble, the tension had died down to a mere flicker, and they had replaced the three captains. Amidst all of it, there was a harder push on training for everyone. At first there had been numerous complaints, but eventually everyone had managed to convince themselves that it was for the best.
All Toushirou was waiting for was a battle.
—x—
"Captain Hinamori, a new stack of papers has just come in from the Thirteenth Division," Karin announced, shoving the door aside and walking to her superior's desk.
Hinamori groaned, causing Karin to giggle. "Paperwork is stupid," she grumbled irritably, taking the papers and placing them with the ones she was working on. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that?"
Karin's grin was replaced by a sad frown. "Yes, actually. Toushirou did."
"Sorry. I know you hate talking about him." Hinamori looked levelly at her tenth seat, thinking. Karin had told her that she knew Toushirou loved her, but he didn't know how to react to the stupid prophecy. She thought maybe he took it so seriously because it was from his own zanpaku-tou and not from some ancient oracle. "Karin, have you ever considered that maybe there's a way out of your situation?"
"Of course I have!" Karin snapped, but then bowed her head apologetically. "Sorry."
"It's okay. I do have a point in this." She considered dragging out her point but the look in Karin's eyes told her now wasn't the time for games. "You've told me hundreds of times that the Hollows will attack after they somehow discover you are pregnant and are in labor."
Karin nodded, wondering where Hinamori was taking this. "Yeah, and your point?"
"My point is why don't you fake getting married to Shirou-chan and then fake having his children?"
The black-haired woman stared at her, dumbstruck. "You want me to what?" she demanded.
"Fake a marriage and a pregnancy. The Hollows come and attack, and since we'd all be at our strongest, we'd easily defeat them. Then Shirou-chan could become Captain-Commander and marry you because no one would have anything against your relationship at that point, right?"
"Your logic is a little messed up, though it's a good idea," Karin muttered, sitting down in the chair across her captain. "I don't think that no one would be against it even after we defeated a huge number of Hollows. There will always be another one."
"Karin-chan, the likelihood that we'd be attacked by the same number of Hollows, which everyone believes to be extreme, in even one hundred years is very small as the last time such a case as this happened was at least four hundreds years ago."
"But it took a couple hundred years to defeat the Hollows the last time."
"What I meant was that a battle like this was about that long ago," Hinamori replied. "A pair of souls like you lived approximately six hundred years ago. And even if you lived that long," she continued before Karin could say anything, "you'd be plenty strong and have a good battle plan already."
"Are you going to suggest this at the next captain's meeting? What will the other captains think? What will Toushirou think?" Karin demanded. "They'll think you're crazy, Captain."
"While I appreciate your concern," Hinamori intoned sternly, "I think you've gone overboard. I will discuss the idea with the other captains at our meeting today. In the meantime, why don't you train for your bankai?"
Karin nodded submissively. "Yes, Captain. I understand."
Hinamori smiled and waved her hand. "You're free to go."
—x—
Momo walked quickly towards the First Division. The captains were having a meeting, and today was definitely a good day to let the others know of her idea. While she was certain that some of them wouldn't care, it all depended on two of them: Toushirou and the Captain-Commander.
The Captain-Commander needed to approve of the idea, and Toushirou needed to be willing to go along with it. If he did, then maybe he wouldn't be so terrible about the idea of being with Karin. He'd never be happy with the absurd prophecy hanging over his head. Maybe he just needed to work around the idea—after all, if it hadn't been for the two zanpaku-tou, he'd probably have married Karin by now.
Momo came to a sudden halt. Was that what it was? Perhaps it was because of the zanpaku-tou that there was a choice in the first place. Maybe Hollows would attack and maybe they wouldn't, but Hinamori got a strong feeling that the zanpaku-tou were behind the headaches that the shinigami were suffering from. Maybe there wasn't a real choice at all; maybe it was that they wanted to keep Toushirou from being with Karin so they forced a choice on them.
She had a larger incentive now and nearly flash-stepped to the meeting room.
—x—
Karin had been expected to be just like her brother and quickly gain both shikai and bankai, but she'd been a shinigami for fifty-four years already and that was definitely below the average amount of time it usually took shinigami with her level of power. She trusted her bird, but he still wouldn't bow to her command in order for her to gain bankai.
Karin was so deep in her thoughts that she wasn't looking where she was going and ran headlong into someone. She staggered backwards and managed to catch herself from falling. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," she apologized, and then took a good look at who she'd run into.
She recognized him; he was in her squad. His name was Yuji Yoshioka. He looked at her and smiled. "It's all right Kurosaki." Yuji paused, and then asked, "Are you feeling well? You seem to be terribly troubled."
"Nothing to be worried about," Karin replied shortly, sliding past him.
He called after her. "Does your brother know what's worrying you?"
She turned, facing him. "Yoshioka. You are not to tell anything to my brother, because there is nothing wrong that concerns you. As your superior, I insist that you let this go."
"So there is something wrong," he said. "Come on, tell me. I want to know."
"What makes you so curious?" she demanded, feeling irritated. I thought he was the quiet, respectful one.
"It's because when you're concerned about something, you get irritated and don't look where you're going. This isn't the first time you've run into me because you're upset." He followed her down the hall.
Her eyes widened. Was that true? What if everyone noticed? Was that why her eagle wouldn't submit to her, because she couldn't keep her emotions under wraps? "I apologize. But right now, I've got somewhere to be."
Before he could protest, she dashed towards her quarters, determined to have a meditation session with her eagle.
—x—
After the usual meeting business, Momo spoke up. "I have some things I wish to put forward. This is about Captain Hitsugaya and the Hollow invasion we expect." The others looked at her, and once she got a permissive nod from her commander, she continued. I'm sorry Shirou-chan, but this is for your sake! "My first item is a suggestion on how to end this lurking fear we have. I suggest we fake a marriage between Captain Hitsugaya and Karin Kurosaki. Because it will be false, once the Hollows believe her to be in labor and attack, we will be at our full strength and can crush them into submission. That way, if they were to have a real marriage and true children, any sort of Hollow army would be small and would be much easier to defeat."
"Captain Hinamori, are you out of your mind?" Toushirou snapped angrily. "How are we to convincingly pull that off? Besides, Hollows of the kind we're expecting—"
"Are not going to know before they get here that it's false," Momo interrupted calmly. "As to how we'll pull it off, I have created a kidou that will do the job. It may even trick you, Captain."
"Have you tested it?" Captain Yamamoto asked calmly, as if they were merely talking about the weather.
"Yes," she replied proudly. She uttered a stream of words, and then suddenly, she looked as if she were pregnant. "This is the result of my work. I had a concealing kidou over it because I needed to make the test secret."
There were quite a few mutterings amongst the captains. Captain Unohana spoke up. "Actually, she has spoken to me about it. I helped develop it. It is truly convincing."
"Once placed, it will develop on its own and will only be completed when the pregnancy ends. What I'm working on now is how to make it so that Karin is able to fight when the labor pains kick in," Momo explained. "What I'm thinking is that it'll melt away after a couple of hours so she can join in the fighting. When I perfect it, we can put the plan into action, if it is acceptable to the captains."
"Wouldn't it confuse the people if they were to marry twice?" Soi Fon asked with an eyebrow raised.
"It could be easily explained once the fear of an attack is over," Momo replied.
"Captain Hitsugaya, what do you think of this idea?" the Captain-Commander asked.
"I think it's insane and there are way too many holes in it. In addition, what does Kurosaki think? She'll think it's ridiculous."
"You're just against the idea because you're afraid," Hinamori snapped. "Think for a moment. There are more people involved here than just you two. It's the entire Soul Society. Kurosaki will obey orders if it comes to that." Pleased he was subdued she looked again to the Captain-Commander. "Also, I have something else to add. I was thinking before I came here, and I came to an unusual conclusion." Taking a pause for breath, she continued. "What if the zanpaku-tou forced this choice upon Hitsugaya and Kurosaki because they were afraid of the Hollow attack being definite? In my opinion, there is nothing keeping the two from being together besides this choice."
Toushirou put a hand to his forehead. "Why are we talking about my relationship with Kurosaki?"
"Your relationship with her is crucial to the rest of us," Kyoraku pointed out. "I would go through with the idea."
"You think it's a good idea Shunsui?" Captain Ukitake asked surprised. "I don't like the idea at all."
"It plays with the idea of marriage, as if it can easily be manipulated," Captain Kuchiki muttered.
"If it'll stop the troops from being so antsy, then I'm for it," the newly-induced Captain Kira said.
"I don't care, so long as I can kill a lot of Hollows," Zaraki commented indifferently.
The group turned to their commander. "Once you perfect the kidou spell, Captain Hinamori, we will discuss the idea in a more serious manner. For now, I think it is something worth looking into."
Momo smiled in triumph.
-wrings hands nervously- So? How is it? I feel like I'm stepping onto forbidden land here, talking about pregnancy like this. Should I be? Maybe it's because I've never written anything like it before.
Once again about names. Masami, Michiko, and Kazuhiko actually mean things, but I don't remember now. I do know that they came from babynames. And Yuji Yoshioka came from a kid I met in Japan and The Cat Returns's main character.