Kurosaki Future

Chapter 13: Hollow Fighting- MAYBE DUDES, PROBABLY NOT.

Karin blasted her last target and it exploded in a little fire.

"Oh yeah!" Saraiju cried out, skipping over and giving Karin a high-five. "You're pretty good at this!"

"Haha, yeah man!" she replied, grabbing his hand and shaking it, "Congratulate me! I'm awesome!" She thought for a second before saying, "I can't wait till we go off Hollow hunting. I'll be making them explode!" Saraiju laughed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I bet you will! Have you ever fought against a Hollow before?"

"Yeah," Karin told him, smiling widely and moving her hair out of her face, "When I first went to the Rukongai, there was a Hollow attack. Those things are so messed up, man." She almost shuddered when she imagined the white bone masks and piercing red eyes that showed on most Hollows.

"I've never fought one before," her fun dog friend said, "all I can remember fighting is..." he grew silent and glanced at Karin who was patiently waiting for him to continue. He rubbed the back of his head and smiled brightly, "Never mind, heheh..." Karin puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, thinking the poor, weak boy had never been in any sort of battle.

"Have you even seen a Hollow fight?" questioned the peeved tomboy, poking and prodding Saraiju.

"Eh, no, I haven't..." he said softly, and a sheepish smile spread on his face. Karin breathed out, it was a sound not unlike a sigh and a gasp combined. She stared at Saraiju for a long time, ignoring the Hado blasts being fired by the other students in the background. She sigh-gasped once again and laid a hand on Saraiju's shoulder.

"I think I will give you what you've been wanting for so long, Saraiju," she said with a grin.

"Huh?" he gave her the blankest stare she'd ever seen on anyone or anything and it made her burst into laughter.

"Y-you know," she choked between laughs, "you've wanted to fight me since we m-met, right?" She calmed down a bit and chuckled, "Now I'll fight you. I'll show you what it feels like." His cheesy smile shrunk somewhat as he looked at her. "What?" she asked when she noticed his changed expression, "You don't want to fight anymore?"

"I'm... I'm sort of scared..." he mumbled, avoiding her gaze.

She smiled some more, "Of what, getting beat up? Don't be down on yourself." His face darkened and his eyes were covered by shadows as he looked down with an unusual smile,

"Yeah...sure, that's why..." Karin was a little worried about her friend but decided he was just nervous and left him to prepare for their fight until the end of the school day. She waited patiently for him, but the urge to go off on something or someone grew in her and she had no idea why it was so strong. She had an intense feeling, a want for violence or a battle, but she wasn't angry at anything. Her body just itched for a fight, she wanted to go up against something. Karin was really hopeful that Saraiju would meet her for a bit and she would be able to hit something. She waited and waited until her excitable friend showed up.

He was not pumped like she had expected, he had his head down and dragged his feet as he got closer to her. His messy hair fell over his face and Karin wondered what was wrong.

"Eh, hey..." he mumbled, glancing up and her then back down to the ground.

"What's up? Don't you want to fight anymore?" Karin said, frowning and putting her hands on her hips, "You're acting pretty weird..."

"I think us fighting is a bad idea..." he spoke up again, still looking down. "I don't really want to fight you now," he told her, and when her shoulders sank low, he rushed to say something to cheer her up, "I-I mean, you don't even have a Zanpakuto. I didn't know that when we first met, I just wanted to fight... Sorry..." His face looked pained as he spoke to her, she could see him cringe even with him staring down and his hair falling over his eyes. After a minute of silence, Saraiju looked at Karin again with a mixed up sort of smile, "But there's still that Hollow hunt thing in the World of the Living, you know? It's coming up soon." The spazzy girl brightened at hearing this and a blithe expression spread across her face.

"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed, "There is that Hollow hunt!"

"Isn't your sister going to that, too? It has a combination of classes, right?"

"Yes, there's a combination..." Karin thought for a second then asked Saraiju, "How am I supposed to really get my Zanpakuto? I know you pulled it up, but..." He thought some, too.

"I heard that if you meditate and try really hard, you can contact your Zanpakuto and get it to show up. For some people, it's really easy. Do you daydream sometimes?" She nodded with a smirk. "Have you already talked to your Zanpakuto?" She nodded again, but the smirk faded as she thought of her annoying spiritual weapon. "Alright, then it should be easy, I guess. Just sit down and... think. Think about your Zanpakuto, try to get in contact." He pushed down on her shoulders slightly and got her to sit on the ground. "Give it your all, Karin," he smiled. Karin crossed her legs and closed her eyes, trying to relax and go deeper into her mind and away from reality to search for her Zanpakuto.

"I'm already here, darling." A silky voice spoke up so suddenly, Karin almost yelped in surprise.

"Why did you have to scare me like that?"

"Oh, sorry, sorry," the voice laughed, "Did you come for a visit to your own inner world?"

"Yes, I did. Is there some sort of complicated sequence of random tasks that I have to do to get there?"

"Oh, no, you can just come right in..." The sounds of the outside world disappeared and when Karin opened her eyes again, she found herself in an unusual area that looked like a creepy painting. Most of what was in this place, like what Karin assumed was the sky, was pitch black, but streaks of white decorated everything. The ground was made up of splotches of black and white, and pale and bright stars were spread around the sky. Karin noticed little bits of red here and there and when she looked down as she walked, every time she took a step, the ground around her feet turned red as well. She looked up again, not where she walked, and freaked out whenever she stepped and heard a loud creak.

"Holy-!" she gasped and looked down to see a long white bridge that stretched out into darkness. She walked and walked until she finally neared the end of the bridge where she saw a black and white pile of fluff. As she got closer, she figured out that the fluff was not really fluff, but a woman wearing a huge and flowing dress. Karin peered at the weird woman from a short distance, examining her. The dress was mostly white and was sprinkled with little sequins and jewels and had elaborate black swirling designs along with ruffles. She also wore black lace gloves and a blood red bands on each ring finger. She had white hair pinned up by a red rose clip, pale skin and shining dark eyes. Her face was covered with light makeup and her scarlet lips were fixed in a smirk.

"Yo," she spoke with a nod of her head, surprising Karin, "I'm your Zanpakuto, hon. How nice of you to come and see me. Do you have a special request for something?"

Karin shuffled her feet and got closer to the fancy looking person, "Yeah, I want to have you as a sword by my side. You know, I want to use you in battle as a weapon. I also want to know how to release you."

"You'd need to know my name for that," she said, titling her head to the side a bit.

"I know," Karin said, "So tell me your name."

"It's not that easy, dear girl, I cannot just tell you."

"Then what do I have to do?"

"You don't need to release me yet. If you want me to become a sword, all you have to do is ask, or even tell me. I'm part of your soul, you control my forms." the lady poked her arm.

"So, shouldn't I be able to control if I can put you into a release form?" Karin crossed her arms and looked seriously at the woman, expecting to be right.

"That's not the form I was talking about," she responded, giving Karin a cross look.

"Crap, that sucks," Karin moaned, kicking a board on the bridge, making a thick red streak. She looked around and scraped her feet on the bridge some more. She stopped when there was a big red scribble beneath her, "What's with this place? What are you any way? I remember hearing about some Zanpakuto that have weird forms, are you one of those?" She looked up from the bridge and up to her Zanpakuto. Well, Karin intended to look at the woman, but found she was not there. Instead, there was a large king cobra slithering towards her. "Whoa..." she whistled with her eyes wide, "Look at that..."

The snake coiled and its head rose. "A bad thing about this form is that I can't get very high." It was Karin's Zanpakuto, her voice was a bit quieter but harsher.

"You're a snake, huh?" Karin grinned, "That's so awesome. And your colors match this weird world." Most of the cobra was a slick ebony color, but there were white waves of scales that swirled around it. A red hoop shone atop the cobra's head, and Karin breathed out in awe as she stared into it's blazing eyes, "It's like lava..."

"What?" the spirit hissed in confusion. Karin smiled.

"Your colors, they're lustrous, really nice."

"Why, thank you," the snake coiled up again and the scales began to blur. It morphed and grew into the elegant woman that had been there before. "I think you should go now, you've left Saraiju waiting for quite a while." Karin blinked in surprise, she'd totally forgotten about Saraiju.

"Eh, how exactly do I get out...?" she asked, glancing about.

Her Zanpakuto's mouth curved upward and she said, "Just think about leaving. It's that easy." Karin shrugged and followed the simple instructions, exiting her inner world. Saraiju scuttled around, searching for something to interest him while his friend was in another world. She chuckled at his bored expression and he freaked out.

"Gah! K-Karin? Why, eh, when?" He went over to her, "When did you get out of... like, yourself?" Karin laughed at him and stood up.

"Just now!" she answered, dusting off her uniform, "I met my Zanpakuto. She's weird." She looked up from her uniform and grinned at Saraiju, who grinned back at her.

"Weird how?" he asked, scratching his ear and giving her a sideways glance. She spun in a circle and pulled up her clothes slightly.

"She's got a big dress, like this," she told him, shaking and stretching her hakama, "and she's all pretty and creepy like, 'Hullo, darling. My dear, honey bun,'" she purred, swaying from side to side, pursing her lips and waving her hand. Saraiju threw his head back and laughed.

"That kind of person is part of you?" he roared with laughter and almost lost his balance, "A pretty girl with a big dress! Pfft!" Karin scowled and went over, punching his shoulder. "Haha- ow!" he gave her a confused look and held his arm.

"What's that supposed to mean? Is there something wrong with my Zanpakuto being a fancy lady? What's so funny about that?" she snarled at him, crossed her arms. Hurt and anger flashed through her eyes. She exhaled and relaxed, letting her arms fall to her sides, "You're rude."

"N-no," he stammered, reaching his hands out to her apologetically, "You've got it wrong! I-I didn't mean anything by it! I just, uh..." he bit his lip and looked away, "I thought it was funny... I thought it was weird." He looked back at her, "I mean, you don't seem like you'd ever be like that."

"Like what? Pretty?"

"No!" he looked at her wide-eyed, "You're pretty!

I be hatin'. I don't like a whole bunch about this story now that I think about it. I was going to revise it but I've got stuff to do and I haven't been able to really think of anything Bleach related lately. And the pretty part is stupid. But I couldn't think of anything else. And Tueur should die. And... I dunno, bye! :DDD