Hi everyone. I know, been a while right? Will, I've been... Busy.

Anyways, I finished this story easier today, around noon, but i couldn't update because my computer was giving me trouble. Even though it's late, I'd like to say, MARRY CHRISTMAS EVERY ONE, AND HAVE A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Chapter 15: The Festival Of Souls

"So…" said the man sitting in the dark room, doing his paperwork, "it has finally began…"

Opposite from him stood a figure dressed it holy white, the upper part of his body hidden by the shadows of the room.

"Well, here we are everyone!" Rangiku said happily, a big grin on her face. "The festival!" she held her hands out to the many stands along the sidewalk of the shrine as the others made their way up the steps of the shrine. All of them were dressed in yukatas.

Once Toshiro stepped past the gate of the shrine, his eyes gazed back and watched as a rimple appeared on the gate, like when a drop of water hit the surface or… Toshiro turned his gaze away and to the group.

"Matsumoto," he warned Rangiku as she seemed about to go off for a booze.

Rangiku stopped in her tracks and turned back to her little taicho, a small smile on her face.

Toshiro smiled and said, "Enjoy." And he walked over to Zen, Takumi, Lucien, and Killua.

It took Rangiku a moment to finally process what her captain was saying before a big smile appeared on her face and she ran to huge him shouting, "Thank you Taicho!"

Toshiro choked at the sudden crash before Rangiku let him go and turned him around to face her, his head spinning at the sudden turn. "Nay, Taicho…" Toshiro looked up at her, finally coming back From visiting the stars. "Let's get some-"

"No," Toshiro interrupted as his eyes narrowed and he slapped her hands away before making his way over to the others again.

Gin chuckled from behind Rangiku, who had pouted. "That's alright, Ran-chan," he said, patting her on the back. "If Shiro-chan doesn't want any, then that just means more for us!"

"That's true, but…" Rangiku pouted as she turned towards Gin. "I'd wanted to see now long Taicho would last, Gin… I've been wanting to know for so long now…"

Gin chuckled again. "Knowing him," Gin whispered, his eyes gazing sideways and head lowered. "Most likely a few…"

Toshiro suddenly snapped his head and glared at his father with cold, dangerous eyes.

"Hmm, what was that, Gin?" Rangiku questioned.

Gin, upon feeling the deadly aura, laughed out loud and led Rangiku away by the hand, disappearing into the crew, all the while trying to keep his poster from collapsing due to his son's powerful gaze on his back. If Toshiro had heat vision eyes, there would be a visible hole going through Gin's body by now. But even though he doesn't, Gin can still feel it There, burning a hole right through him.

"Toshiro…" Karin whispered as she scooted closer to Toshiro, who now stood with the others, dragging Sho with her.

Toshiro turned his gaze from looking at the retreating forms of the others to look at Karin by his side as she tagged Sho closer to her.

He smiled a bit, but it disappeared once he saw Karin look up at him with worried eyes. Toshiro reached out and patted Karin on the head. "Come on, lets enjoy the festival, okay?" he said with a small smile.

Karin looked down, but nodded her head while Sho looked back and forth between the two. They then began to walk over to the others.

A figure in black stood on top of a tree branch and watched as the gang headed out to enjoy the festival, a wicked smile on his face while red eyes shined through the darkness of the trees.

As the guys enjoyed the festival, they met with Oz, Mitsukuni and Naomi by the candy stand and Zen went off with them while Kanako appeared out of nowhere and joined them. Honoka managed to drag Killua off with her for sweets too, Killua having to go along because she threatened him and because Zen was giving him a death glare. Rangiku was already off drinking with Gin and had managed to drag Renji and Tatsuki along while Rukia dragged Ichigo off with her to look at the prizes.

Currently, Toshiro, who looked dead tired, Karin, who looked proud, and Sho, who had a very big smile on his face, were walking down the road again, site seeing while Sho eat his candy apple while carrying the fish that he'd managed to cone Toshiro into getting for him, irritating him when he kept getting the wrong one and Sho hovering over his head, pointing to the fish he'd wanted and saying, "No dad, that one, that one!"

But the smile got bigger once Sho heard a familiar voice coming from the distance.

"Come on dad, just grab one already…" complained a familiar voice.

An ear twisted in irritation as Toshiro's eyebrows twisted and he stopped in his tracks before Karin pulled him over with a determined face of punching someone clean.

"You can do it, Hiroki-kun," cheered a sweet, melodic voice that had Karin and Toshiro stopping and picking up.

Sho took that as the sign for him to run over to his best friend, all the while yelling out, "Ru!"

Ru looked up and saw Sho coming at him and he smiled. "Sho!" he yelled as he ran from his mother's side to meet his best friend just a little ways out. "Thank god you're here! You would not believe what I had to go through with my old man." Behind him, the blond teen's firm twisted a bit in irritation.

Sho laughed and held up his fish to show Ru. "Look, I got a gold fish!" he said.

"…Uncle Toshiro got it for you?" Ru asked with slight hesitation.

"Yep, coned him into it."

Ru sweet dropped. "Aunt Karin must be proud…"

"Very," Karin said from behind Sho as she and Toshiro caught up to them. "Hello Hinata," she greeted the woman in a lavender kimono.

"Karin-chan, Toshiro-kun," Hinata greeted back.

Toshiro bowed his head in return before moving to stand beside Hiroki, who still had his head down on the water, but came up once he felt Toshiro behind him, a red appeal in his mouth.

"Yoh Touzhirow," he greeted.

"…You look stupid," Toshiro commented, trying to keep in his laughter, but a smile appeared never the less.

Hiroki took the appeal out of his mouth, a look of irritation on his face. "Yeah well, I'm just glade that I wasn't the only one getting coned tonight."

Toshiro's eyebrow twisted and he frowned before seeing something behind Hiroki that made him smile again. Karin smiled evilly and made her way over to him.

SPASH!

Went the sound of Hiroki's head being smacked into the water. The children stopped their talking and looked over to see Toshiro standing over Hiroki, who had his butt sticking up in the air and his head down under in the water.

Hiroki emerged from the water and glared at his attacker. "What the heck Karin?!" he yelled before seeing Karin's raising anger and realizing his mistakes.

Hiroki gasped and fell on his butt to the ground. Toshiro sighed behind him, his hands on his temples as he meet Hinata's smiling face and walked over to her while Karin answered Hiroki by beating the crape out of him for not seeing her when he could've.

"Save me!" Hiroki yelled out before Karin dragged him into the darkness.

Just then, fire works went up and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up into the sky to watch the fireworks. However, those who knew the meaning behind it narrowed their eyes and got into ready position. Hiroki stopped screaming and trying to get away from Karin and Karin stopped pulling him as he got up off the ground in mer seconds. Then, suddenly, Karin found herself being pulled from behind and into the darkness.

"Hiro-" she tried to scream out, but it was no use as the hand came over her mouth and dragged her into the darkness.

But good thing Hiroki was not a normal human and had better hearing then most as he turned around in time to see Karin being pulled by the neck into the darkness behind her.

"Karin!" he tried to reach out, but was blocked by the Fukanzens who'd appeared out of nowhere to block him, but Hiroki kicked them all and made them disappeared. "Out of my way," he said and ran to the wall, where Karin had disappeared into and studied it. "Not good, Toshiro!" Hiroki turned towards Toshiro, who was, at the moment, busy with the Fukanzens and the workers turned Zentais.

Upon hearing Hiroki's call, Toshiro destroyed every enemy in his field of battle and looked over to his friend-emy and nodded his head, his face completely blanked.

"What the heck is going on here?" Ichigo yelled as he and the others ran up to them.

"Why did everyone suddenly turned into those zombies and attack us!" Renji yelled.

"They weren't really trying to attack us," Gin said and turned to Toshiro, "were they, Shiro-chan."

Everyone turned to Toshiro.

"No," he answered, his head down.

"…"

Ichigo looked around a bit. "Hey, where's Karin?" he questioned.

"…We have to get her back," Toshiro said, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"And quick," Mitsukuni added in, completely serious. "We must hurry, before they-"

"Well, well, well, seems that everyone is here," came a sinister voice from behind Toshiro. Toshiro turned around and looked up to meet Akatsuki's smirking face as he stood on air.

"Akatsuki," Toshiro growled out, his hands tightening on his soul slayer.

"General Winter of the Heavenly Guardians, nice to see you again, Jack," Akatsuki said. "Or should I call you Nanadaime of the Shinigami Village, or maybe the Eternal God of Winter? My don't you all have many names." Akatsuki looked around at the others gathered there. "Oh, seems we also have some shinigamis from the Soul Society as well. Hello, my name is Akatsuki, and I am the creation of the 13 Shikages and 7 Shihimes of the Shinigami Village. It's nice to meet you."

"Akatsuki, where is Karin?" Toshiro growled out, his eyes glowing sky blue.

The Shinigamis from Soul Society looked at him in confusion and wonder.

"Taicho? Gin?" Rangiku questioned.

"Toshiro, what's going on?" Ichigo asked, but Toshiro ignored him.

"Do you even know what your doing, Akatsuki," Hiroki said as he came out from the shadows, his eyes glowing crimson red.

"Ahh General Summer, I see you're here as will. Oh wait, should I be calling you General Summer, General Spring," looking at Takumi, "General Fall," looking at Zen, "The White Tiger," Mitsukuni, "The Blue Dragon," Naomi, "or you other names, I wonder. My, quite a few indeed." Suddenly, a red glow appeared in Atatsuki's hand. "But too bad you're going to have to died." And he throws it at them.

Toshiro caught the flaming ball in his hands and squashed it. "You are forgetting something Akatsuki," Toshiro said as he walked up. "We are you're creator, a much more powerful being then you. We created you, we can destroy you." He looked up at Akatsuki with cold, angry eyes.

Akatsuki laughed. "Destroy me?" he questioned, looking down at Toshiro in mockery. "Destroy me?! I'm still here, Toshiro!"

"Only because Karin-chan begged us not to kill you," Oz said, his red scythe already in his hands as he leaned on it. Zen was also doing a similar thing with his own black scythe.

"Isn't Karin important to you, Akatsuki?" Takumi questioned. "Wasn't she the only one who-"

"Shut up, you don't know anything!" Akatsuki yelled, angered. "She betrayed me! She left me, for HIM." He pointed to Toshiro, who had his eyes covered by his bangs.

"We have no time for this, Mother is DYING, Father!" Sho yelled out to Toshiro. "You go do what you need to do, leave them to us and go save Mother already!"

"WHAT?" Ichigo yelled out. "I knew it, TOSHIRO!"

Rukia held him back with Renji and Tatsuki while Rangiku squealed in delight.

"Ichigo, now's not the time for this!" Rukia yelled out.

Toshiro stood there for a moment before turning around and made ready to head off.

"Wait Toshiro," Hiroki said as he walked over to Toshiro. "I'll open a portal for you to go through. I tagged Karin with one of my seals before she was taken…"

"…Thanks, old friend," Toshiro said before disappearing into the shadows and Hiroki closed it up. He then turned to Lucien and signaled for him to go as well. Lucien understood and disappeared into a black portal.

"Wait, why'd you close it?" Rangiku questioned. "Why did you let him go alone?"

"Because," Zen said, pulling his scythe up off the ground.

"This is Shiro-chan's fight to finish," Mitsukuni finished as he pulled a white staff out of his back collar.

"Believe in him, Ran-chan," Gin said. "He is our eldest child after all."

Rangiku looked up at Gin with shock eyes before tears fell From her eyes and Gin hugged her closer.

Toshiro ran as fast as he could to go to Karin, but it was too late as he found her in a white hanfu, bleeding above the ground, a red magic circle under her.

"KARIN!" he yelled out.

Karin turned her head slightly to look at him, her blue eyes losing their glow. "To-shiro," she managed in a small whisper. But Toshiro heard it anyways, being the Dragon that he is, and ran faster to his beloved, determined to save her this time around.

A man appeared, blocking Karin and Toshiro.

"Toshiro, long time no see," greeted the man. "Come to rescued your princess I see, but I'm afraid you're too late, General. The Flame Phoenix and 7th Princess of Heaven has finally fulfilled her long awaited destiny; dye sacrificing herself for the resurrection of the great De-"

The man was interrupted as Toshiro cut him down in one stick.

"Should've done this the first time," he quietly said into the man's ears.

The man smiled. "...But you didn't, did you, Master? And now it's too late…" and he closed his eyes as his form fell backwards and turned into black dust.

Toshiro watched with said eyes as his student died by his own hands. "I'm sorry… Kenji," Toshiro whispered with sorrow before running to Karin, bring her beautiful form back down to the ground and into his arms.

"How is she," asked a voice from behind him.

Toshiro tuned around to be met with the worried face of a blond haired man with the blue eyes of the universe.

"Your Majesty," Toshiro whispered, his eyes wide with shock.

The man smiled at him. "Toshiro," he greeted.

Toshiro looked down. "I couldn't protect her. I've failed again. Even though you interested her to me, I've failed, Sensei," Toshiro cried. "I've lost her again!"

The others appeared just in time to see and hear it, Hiroki holding a red crystal ball in his hand and everyone being shocked at seeing the eternal ruler of their pantheon here.

Lucien appeared in the black cemetery under the moonlight and made his way to the cloaked figure standing there.

"Father," Lucien greeted the man once he got closer, staring him in the face with a determined look in his eyes.

"I'd thought you'd never come back to see me again after all these years, Lucien," said the black haired, brown eyes teen. "So what forced to finally come here and see me my son?" Lucien looked down, sad.

"… I need the feather…"

The man in a teen's body looked at his son, seeming to be searching him. "Is that all?"

"Dad-!" Lucien stopped once he saw the hovering, white feather shining gold being held out to him by his Father's white, bony hand.

"Just be careful with it and make sure to return it to me, other wise you'll be forcing my hands and this time, I won't stop from taking you back with me, Lucien."

"I know," Lucien smiled as he took the warm feather into his own hand. "I'll take good care of it Father, don't you worry. I know how much you miss Mother too after all. And I'll return it once I'm done with it." And turned around and was about to head off.

"So you're answer is still no, aye? Even after all this years you still won't acknowledge the fact that you're my Heir?"

Lucien disappeared.

Lucien stepped out of the dark portal once again and walked over to Toshiro. "Here," he said, handing the feather to Toshiro.

Toshiro looked up and blinked a few times. "...You went to see Lord Subaru?"

"Just take the Feather and save my baby cousin already! Oh, I also need that back once you're finished with it, otherwise the old man will come for me and drag me back to the underworld with him, so…" Lucien trailed off, his gaze going off to the side.

The blond haired man took the Feather into his own hands. "That's alright, I'll have it returned to Subaru-niisan once we're done," he reassure his nephew.

"Uncle Kazuya," Lucien gasped, shocked that the leader would be here… and for him to appear as a man instead of in his child's form that he usually prefers…

Kazuya slowly drew some of the light from the Feather into his other hand before passing it to Toshiro and giving the Feather back to Lucien, who now moved over to the others and watched as Kazuya began to gather energy from the universe and infusing it with the light before looking over to Toshiro, how held his hand out and made an ice crystal appear in his hand, a red flame dancing inside it.

Kazuya took the crystal from Toshiro's hand and infused it with the energy he'd gathered before kneeling down and holding the crystal over Karin's chest. Once the crystal was hovering above Karin's chest, it began to glow with bright light as the ice melted from the flame.

Once all the ice was gone, the flame began it's descend into Karin, disappearing into her and causing her body to glow as it did so, causing the bared landscape around them to change as flowers grew from around Karin and speared out all over the place and clean water now ran in the rivers as the dark, red skis cleared and the moon turned blue in the starry sky once more.

Kazuya got up and walked away from the two, a warm smile on his face. "Keep her save, Toshiro, my student…" the wind picked up and when it died down, Kazuya was gone once again.

Just then, Karin's form began to stir and Toshiro looked down at her as she opened her eyes up to meet his.

"…W-who are you?" she asked once her visioned cleared. "…Who am I?" she got up and out of Toshiro's arms, looking around the place and at everyone. "Where are we? And who are you guys." She moved away from him, her eyes appearing to be emotionless.

Toshiro and everyone was silent for a moment, Toshiro's eyes hidden behind his bangs as Karin turned back to him with a questioning look on her innocent face.

"…Your name," Toshiro began, "is *Anastasia, the Flame Phoenix of the Heavenly Guardians. And I am Jack, the General Winter of the Heavenly guardians, your partner." Toshiro looked up at her with a bright smile on his face that could match his son's own.

"Now come Anastsia, it's time for us to go," Toshiro said as he got up and held his arms out for Karin to take.

Karin took his offering hands without hesitation, feeling like she shouldn't be afraid of him, and was pulled up towards his chest.

"Where are we going?" Karin asked with no emotion in her voice.

Toshiro flinched a bit at that before smiling warmly and answering, "On an adventure..."

The End

While that's it for this story. Don't know about continuing this or not...

Anyways, I know that it don't have much action and you all may be disappointed, but I've tried my best and I hope you've all enjoyed it!

*Anastasia means resurrection.

Once again

Marry Christmas and have a very happy New Year!