Chapter Two: A New Beginning
Afternoon sunlight streamed into the workshop from its small window, falling across Urahara Kisuke, who sat slumped in front of his desk in his workshop, brooding. Rage and exhaustion warred for supremacy in his mind, and his face was set into a grim expression. For sixteen years he'd lived with one constant in his life: keeping Kurosaki Hisana safe. He had done it, too. He had kept Rukia and her daughter out of the hands of the most powerful and relentless enemy he had encountered in his centuries of life. He had hidden them beyond the sight of that enemy and his minions, the shinigami of Seretei he had subverted to his cause.
It terrified Kisuke to realize how close he had come to losing his adoptive daughter the previous night. If Hisana hadn't found her way home, he doubted he would have been able to save her. It was only in this workshop, surrounded by all the tools and tricks of a lifetime of experience that he had been able to stabilize her fading reiatsu and tend to her grievous injury.
Almost as painful as seeing his daughter in that state was telling Rukia and watching her hold her unconscious daughter, tears streaming from her one good eye. There had been no time for questions then. Once Hisana's condition was stable, Kisuke had to move on to other concerns; recovering his daughter's corporeal body from wherever she had left it, and finding whoever had dared to try and kill her. When he had left Rukia at her daughter's side, the bleak expression of sadness and rage on his wife's face made him pity any red robed shinigami who tried to enter their home.
Kisuke had followed Hisana's trail of reiatsu and blood back to the abandoned warehouse, where he had gotten some answers in the form of Hisana's immobile body lying near the remains of a crimson-garbed shinigami in a room full of dissipated Hollow reiatsu. By the time he got his daughter's body home and eased her soul back into it he was exhausted, but there was more work to be done. Leaving his own body behind, he made much better time back to the warehouse, but carrying the dead shinigami all the way to town and leaving his corpse to be found far from their home was a grueling trip, even for a master of shunpo. There was a time when such an exertion would have been effortless for Kisuke, but that time was gone, never to return.
Glancing up at the cane leaning against his desk, Kisuke sighed. Once it had been a powerful weapon and a constant companion; his better half, Benihime. Now it was just a walking stick, and his zanpakuto's voice was gone from his life. He had mourned Benihime's loss every bit as much as the other friends he had lost on that horrible day sixteen years ago. Ever since then the sword cane had featured an adornment that none of his old comrades would have recognized; a deceptively delicate looking silver mesh that wound around it in a lattice where the curved hilt met the scabbard.
Kisuke rubbed his eyes and focused. He needed to sleep, but there was still one more thing to do before he could rest. Powering up his desk terminal, he placed a video call to a recipient on the other side of the world who would be none too pleased to hear from him and even less pleased with his news. He waited as a connection was established and the system attempted to get the attention of the other party. He placed the call at an emergency priority, which would prompt whatever communications device was closest to her to do whatever it took to get her attention.
A few minutes later the wait screen faded into a video image of a darkened bedroom set up in a Western style with a king sized bed and other furnishings. Sitting in the chair at center screen was an attractive Japanese woman in her thirties, short and with an athletic build. Her long hair was in disarray and she was wrapped in a dark blue kimono. She rubbed her eyes and then squinted at the screen. "Whoever you are, you'd better have a damn good reason for calling me at this hour." When her eyes could handle the glare coming off of her screen, she frowned. "Oh. It's you. Goodbye." She started reaching for the terminate button.
"Your niece almost died last night, Karin" Kisuke said flatly.
Kurosaki Karin froze, and then pulled her hand back, her eyes blazing with anger. "You worthless, miserable bastard! You had one job: keeping her safe. ONE JOB!"
"I've done that job," Kisuke replied, pushing down his own anger. Getting in a screaming match with Hisana's aunt wouldn't accomplish anything. "She's inherited her father's gifts after all and that I can't protect her from."
"Then you haven't been doing your job, Kisuke. Ichigo's reiatsu was so strong the whole city felt it for years even before his power emerged. How could you have missed that?"
"I don't care if you insult my intelligence, but don't insult Rukia's," he retorted coldly. "We've watched Hisana like hawks every day since she was born for the faintest trace of reiatsu, and there was nothing. But she has her father's luck as well as his abilities, because she managed to leave her body with a fully formed zanpakuto and stumble into a fight with a red robe and a Hollow in a single night."
Karin's face went pale. "Then they know about her?"
Kisuke shook his head. "I'd be running, not calling you, if they did. I'll need to get the details out of Hisana when she wakes up, but it looks like the red shinigami and the Hollow managed to kill each other. The red robe almost killed her in the process."
Karin was silent for a moment. "If she's out of danger, what do you want from me, then?"
"She'll never be out of danger now, not truly. You know what I want from you, Karin. Hisana needs your help. She's a substitute shinigami like her father. Like you. Neither Rukia or I can teach her everything she's going to need to know to survive, now that she's come into her own."
Karin laughed. There was no humor in it. "Oh, this is ironic. Now you want me to come protect Hisana?" She leaned forward, eyes blazing. "I remember a time when I wanted to come protect my brother's only child, and you wouldn't let me. I remember you got my name placed on some Japanese government watch list so I couldn't even come home. They buried my father and my sister without me. Now you want me back?"
Kisuke shook his head. "I need you to teach her how to protect herself, Karin; and I remember something different. I remember an angry college student with still-developing shinigami powers, grieving the death of her entire family, who was hell bent on coming back to Karakura Town and getting herself killed looking for a fight she had no chance of winning." He lowered his head, speaking quietly, his voice raw. "I couldn't save Isshin or Yuzu from that monster. Keeping you alive and keeping Hisana safe were the only things I could do for Ichigo."
"Spare me, Kisuke. It was my choice and you took it away from me. I hate your guts, so don't expect me to pity you." Karin leaned back, rubbing her temples. "I have a life here in America now. David and I are getting married this winter. Not that you care."
"Congratulations," Kisuke said. "I apologize, Karin. You're right; I have no place asking anything of you. I'm sorry for waking you." He reached for the button to end the call.
"Wait," Karin said. "I didn't say I wasn't coming. Ichigo and Yuzu would never forgive me if I didn't, and it will be nice to see Hisana again. You haven't brought her over to visit in years. So how am I supposed to get back into Japan? I'm on the no fly list, remember?"
"Just buy a ticket," Kisuke replied. "Within the next twenty-four hours you should receive a very sincere apology from the Japanese Foreign Ministry regarding the unfortunate mix up. It was a different Kurosaki Karin, apparently."
Karin stared at him for a moment. "You son of a bitch," she said, anger and admiration warring in her voice. "I've spent a decade and the resources of the biggest law firm in Los Angeles fighting that ban and you could have undone it at any time?" She shook her head. "You've got balls, Kisuke, I'll give you that. I'll send you my itinerary once I've made the arrangements. Expect me in a few days." Her eyes glinted dangerously. "If you don't keep her safe until I get there, I'll kill you. You know that, right?"
"If she's not safe when you get here, I'll already be dead," Kisuke answered flatly before ending the call.
Kurosaki Karin sat back in her seat in her dark bedroom in the suburbs of Los Angeles, staring silently at the blank screen of her terminal for a moment. Kisuke's call had dredged up a lot of memories that she tried not to dwell on anymore, for her own sanity.
The last call in the middle of the night from Japan had been sixteen years ago. It was a police detective, who told Karin that her father, brother and sister were all dead in a gas explosion at the Kurosaki Clinic. In the hours after that call, knowing that the last "gas explosion" had been a cover for shinigami activity, she had prayed that they were just wrong. Then Kisuke managed to reach her and dashed her hopes. They were gone along with most of her brother's allies. He'd told her to stay in America, at college, where it was safe. When she refused and tried to go home just days later, Kisuke had worked his magic and they wouldn't even let her on the plane.
The only time in all the years since that she had seen her niece had been when Kisuke or Rukia brought her to visit, something they were paranoid about, since it involved moving through areas of shinigami activity to get to an airport. In recent years she had been able to keep up with Hisana through social networks, email and video calls. The girl reminded her so much of Ichigo and Yuzu sometimes that it brought tears to her eyes. Despite her anger at Kisuke, there was no way she could stay away when her niece was in danger. If Hisana had been blessed and cursed with her father's powers, Karin had to be there. There was no one else left to teach her niece how to be a substitute shinigami and survive in a spirit world that the red robes ruled.
A familiar pair of muscled arms slid around Karin's shoulders, and Davis's stubble rubbed against her cheek as he kissed her. "So what was that all about?" The man behind her asked sleepily.
"I have to go home, to Japan. My niece joined the family business and almost died in the same night."
The man behind her went still for a moment. He was the only non-shinigami in the world who knew the truth of Karin's past. "A Hollow?"
Karin shook her head. "A red robe, apparently. She wears the black, and she had the bad fortune to run into one." Karin sighed, reaching over her shoulder to run her hand through his fine, short hair. "I'm sorry David. I know this is the worst time possible, but she needs my help. I have to go."
"Of course you do, Karin. Family's important," David said, kissing her cheek again. "You wouldn't be the woman I love and want to marry if you didn't need to go."
"I'm probably going to be there for a while," she warned him. "Your father's going to be furious. I'm going to have to take a leave of absence, and he's expecting me to be there for the Windusky and Steele cases." Making the best of being stuck in the United States, Karin had gone to law school after graduation. There, she had started dating a fellow student, David Crane, son of the founding partner at one of LA's biggest law firms. She worked there now, and if anyone had believed at first that sleeping with the bosses' son had gotten her the job, they knew better now.
"He'll survive the disappointment," David assured her. "He knows that family comes first. Besides, he'll be more upset with me. He's going to have to find someone else to hold the hands of the contracts department, too."
Karin turned around in her chair, startled. "You don't need to come, David. You're close to being a partner. The partners won't be happy if you go."
He looked at her seriously. "They can take me off of the partner track then. They can fire me if they want; I'm still coming with you. If you're going to go protect your niece from the red robes, I'm coming to protect you."
Karin got a dangerous look in her eyes, the fire in her that David loved. "I don't need your protection, David."
He grinned. "Maybe not, but try to stop me from coming anyways."
Her expression softened. "Thank you, David. I love you."
He kissed her, passionately, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you, too." When he leaned back, there was a hard edge to his expression. "Besides, I'd never pass up a chance to fight the red robes on their home turf."
Karin sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. "Since my niece has my brother's luck, I'm sure we'll have plenty of chances."
Levering himself up from the chair, Kisuke left his workshop and headed into the house. Rukia hadn't moved from her place by Hisana's bedside when he entered his daughter's room. "How's she doing?" he asked, kneeling beside her and resting his hand on her shoulder.
Rukia looked up at him, relieved. "Her color's getting better. I got some broth into her at lunch time." She tried to hide it, but he could see the fear in her eye. "What are we going to do?" Rukia said quietly.
Kisuke hugged her tightly to him. "What we've always done. We're going to protect her."
They sat beside Hisana for a time, silent. Then Rukia asked the question that had been on Kisuke's mind as well. "I'm not one to question good fortune, but how is she doing that? How is she suppressing her reiatsu?"
"I don't know. It shouldn't be possible," Kisuke admitted. He and Rukia had mastered the technique for suppressing their reiatsu, but they were both experienced shinigami and accomplished kido masters with developed fine control of their reiatsu. Even so, Rukia hadn't perfected the technique for years after he taught it to her, years during which she slept wrapped in his stealth cloak every night for fear of her reiatsu being sensed before she mastered maintaining the technique even in her sleep.
Yet Hisana slept right in front of them, her reiatsu invisible. It had been faintly present while she was bleeding out in spirit form, but as soon as they had put her soul back in her body, all sense of her had vanished. Thinking about it, Kisuke realized that to have emerged from her body with a fully formed zanpakuto she must have been suppressing her reiatsu without even knowing she had any for years! It was a mystery, but one for another day. A jaw-cracking yawn escaped him, and Rukia glanced at him. "You haven't slept in two days. Go get some rest."
Kisuke wanted to object, but saw the wisdom in his wife's words. If he stayed awake much longer he'd be too tired to protect his stepdaughter if it came to that. Wearily he got to his feet. "I'll sleep until sunset then come back and take over." Before he left he paused at the door. "I just talked to Karin. She's on her way. We'll get through this, Rukia."
"I know we'll try our best. But she'll never be safe, will she? Not as long as that madman is alive and hunting us," Rukia said sadly.
Kisuke didn't have an answer. He lowered his head, trudging off to get some sleep.
Hisana woke with sunlight falling across her face from the open window. Raising her arm to shield her eyes, she lay still for a moment, her mind fuzzy with sleep. Something was missing. When she realized what it was, her eyes went wide and she sat bolt upright.
The pain was gone! Hisana pressed her hand to her side. It encountered only her pajamas, and smooth, unbroken skin beneath. Pajamas. She looked at the pale blue linen shirt she wore. No black robes. She looked around the familiar surroundings of her bedroom. No golden sword. Nothing trying to kill me. Confusion filled her mind. Had it all been a dream? Finding her bike, getting caught in the rain, being attacked at first by a vicious monster and then a regretful man? It had felt so real. The pain had been real. Could that possibly have been a dream? Hisana got to her feet. She felt light headed for a moment when she stood, and her muscles felt strangely languid, but it passed. Walking over to the door of her room, she slid it open, peeking out in the hall. The house seemed mostly quiet, and her parent's room was dark. She heard the TV from the living room, and padded down the hall on bare feet.
When Hisana entered, Tessai was sitting on the couch with his back to her, his eyes glued to the TV and his hands wrapped around the controller of his PlayStation X. He laughed happily as his digital avatar unleashed a vicious series of attacks on his opponent. That opponent was a man in his thirties sitting in her father's chair. She watched him in profile, groaning as his character was beaten up. He was a Westerner with close-cropped light brown hair and green eyes. He wore a well-tailored shirt and slacks that accentuated his lean, muscular frame. Hisana knew he was slightly taller than her when standing.
"David?" she said in surprise. She'd only met her aunt's fiancée in person once, but she saw pictures of him online, and her Aunt talked about him all the time. He glanced at her, and for a moment Hisana felt a spike of fear. For a moment his green eyes were sharp and cold, almost menacing; it was the same look she had seen in Nikan's eyes when he fought. But then he smiled, and his face became warm. "Look who's up and about, Tessai," he said, speaking fluent Japanese with an American accent.
Tessai twisted around on the couch, and his eyes got big. "Hisana! You're awake!" He hopped over the back of the couch and ran to her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her chest. Looking down at her little brother in bemusement, Hisana was startled to realize he was crying.
"You slept for so long, sis! Mom and Dad said you were just sick and you'd be okay, but I was afraid you'd never wake up!"
Perplexed, Hisana looked from her sobbing brother with his death grip on her waist to David, who had risen to his feet and was tapping a text message onto his flex band. "It's Tuesday afternoon," he informed her when he was done.
"Tuesday?" Hisana said faintly, trying to process that. She had been asleep for four days? Her mind returned to her distinct and not at all dream-like memories of falling out of her body, and her fight with Nikan, of the wound he had inflicted on her. Her face paled. Was that real?
She was about to blurt out the question when David looked from Tessai to her and shook his head slightly. Then he picked up an apple from a bowl of fruit on the table and tossed it to Hisana, who raised one arm from holding her brother to catch it. "You're probably pretty hungry," he said. "Start with that, and you can work your way back up to something more solid later."
As soon as he said it, Hisana realized she was ravenous. The questions about what had happened to her were still on the tip of her tongue, but she understood that asking them now would only confuse and worry Tessai, so she swallowed them, along with a bite of the apple, followed by several more. Tessai disentangled himself from her, wiping his face and beaming to see her moving around. They sat down on the couch.
"What are you doing here?" Hisana asked between bites, devouring the apple.
"We came to see you," a familiar voice said from behind Hisana before a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her shoulders.
"Aunt Karin!" Hisana exclaimed in surprise, almost dropping her apple core. She twisted in her seat, returning her aunt's hug. "I thought you couldn't visit!"
Karin laughed. "It took the bureaucrats this long to realize they'd made a mistake, but better late than never."
Hisana's aunt sat down with them. "Where are Mom and Dad?" Hisana asked.
"Just getting some fresh air, dear," Karin answered. "They've been keeping an eye on you since you fell ill."
Was I ill? Hisana wondered. The fact that Karin was giving her the same warning look that David had made her doubt it. She grabbed some more fruit to eat while Tessai reassured himself that she was all right and then returned to his game.
Once Hisana had eaten half the bowl of fruit she felt much better. Her aunt tapped her on the shoulder and tossed her head toward the hallway. They both got up and left David and Tessai with their game.
"Get dressed and come out to your father's workshop. Your parents have something for you."
"Aunt Karin? I-" Hisana began to say.
"Ssh, just get dressed and come with me, I promise you'll have all the answers you're looking for." Karin ushered Hisana into her room and slid the door shut.
Hisana's mind was awhirl as she changed clothes. What was going on? When she emerged from her room, Karin was gone. She headed out back and saw her aunt, who waved before disappearing into her father's workshop. When she went in, Karin was already in the back, frowning at Kisuke's tool rack. "Which one was it?" she murmured, before reaching out and twisting one of the hammers on the wall. "Aha!" she said as an unadorned wall panel slid aside. She stepped through. "Come on, Hisana."
She followed her aunt into a hidden room in her father's workshop! "Aunt Karin, what's going on?" she asked, feeling a slight note of panic in her voice.
"You parents need to explain parts of it to you," was Karin's only answer. She pressed a button on the wall, and the small room fell. It was an elevator, Hisana realized. It shot down into the earth at a rapid pace, stopping suddenly enough that Karin and Hisana had to flex their knees to absorb the impact. Then the door slid open and Hisana forgot her questions for a moment. She stepped out into what was, to all appearances, a sizeable desert, light brown rock formations stretching away into the distance, blue sky above and the horizon to all sides. She turned around in time to watch the elevator door close, and another block of sky and horizon take its place.
"What is this place?" Hisana managed to choke out.
"It's a safe haven," her stepfather's voice answered, "and a training ground." Hisana turned around. In a clear, flat area in front of the elevator Rukia and Kisuke waited.
"What's going on?" Hisana yelled, stunned, confused and a little afraid.
Hisana noticed her aunt taking what looked like a Pez dispenser from her purse and popping a green candy into her mouth. Kisuke stepped forward to stand in front of Hisana. "Your first steps into a new world." He had his cane with him, and he raised it, poking Hisana in the forehead with the tip. She heard a cracking noise, and then felt once again the peculiar sensation of falling backward and remaining standing at the same time. Turning around, she saw it again, her sleeping body lying on the floor. A single glance down confirmed that the black robe was back, and the golden sword was at her side. She pressed her hand to her side and froze, feeling the roughness of a long, horizontal scar between her ribs. "It was all real?" she whispered. Looking at her aunt, she watched in disbelief as Karin split into two, one dressed in black robes, the other not falling to the ground but bowing to the robed half before making its way to the edge of a clearing and sitting on a rock. When Hisana looked back at her stepfather, he was swallowing a green pill of his own. His body split too, and his physical half ambled over to join Karin's body. Rukia had no pill, remaining flesh and blood.
"It was real, Hisana," Kisuke said. Unlike her and Karin, he had no sword at his side, but otherwise the uniform was identical. "I know this is a lot to take in, but we'll explain everything."
And they did.
"So I'm a shinigami, a death god, even though I'm still alive?" Hisana said, proud of how calm her voice was as she sat in a circle with her parents and aunt.
"That's right," her mother said, giving her a reassuring smile. "The gift runs in your father's family. He was the same as you, and so is Karin."
"And you and dad are both Shinigami, but you're dead?"
Kisuke laughed. "Rukia and I were both born in Seretei, the spirit world. So was your grandfather. But our gigai, the bodies we wear, make us just as human as anyone else. You and Tessai are proof of that," Kisuke said.
Hisana glanced down at her lap, at the sheathed sword resting across her legs. "This is… a zanpakuto? A piece of my soul?"
"Yes, Hisana," Her mother said. "It doesn't have a name yet, but you'll start having dreams about it soon, vivid ones that you'll remember on waking. It will tell you its name in time, and Karin and I can help you learn to speak to it."
Looking around at the seemingly huge landscape around her, Hisana asked. "So dad made this place?"
"I did. It's not as big as you think; the walls are just hard to see. It's large enough for our purposes though. Constructing these isn't hard, it just takes time. I have access to some tools not available in the outside world."
"And that guy in the red robes, Nikan. There are a lot more like him, and they all want to kill me?" Her voice trembled a bit on that one.
"They try to kill anyone who wears the black, but we won't let them hurt you," Karin said firmly. "We will protect you, and we'll teach you how to protect yourself."
Hisana nodded, biting her lip and holding onto her aunt's certainty, trying to push down her fear. Trying to distract herself, she glanced over at her body, now with a green pill of its own inside it, handing out with her stepfather and aunt's bodies, chatting with each other across the clearing. "Those are… soul pills?"
"When you have to leave your body, just swallow one and it will keep your physical form safe," her stepfather said. "I'll give you a dispenser like your aunt. You don't need a soul pill to leave your body, but it will be helpless unless you use one. The one I prepared for you is actually a mod soul; harder to make, but significantly stronger and more durable. It can protect your body much more effectively."
Hisana looked at her mother, puzzled. "But you don't have one, mom?"
Rukia and Kisuke exchanged a glance, and then she sighed and shook her head. "No, Hisana. I can't leave my gigai. It's… complicated, and it's not important. I promise I'll explain it later."
Karin clapped her hands. "Enough questions for now. You'll think yourself back into being confused. Why don't we take a break, move around a bit? I'd like to find out what you can do with that that pretty sword of yours, Ms. Kendo Champion Hisana." Karin jumped to her feet, her hand on the hilt of her zanpakuto. Urahara and Rukia moved back to give them space as Hisana got to her feet as well.
"With these swords?" Hisana asked uncertainly. "Won't that be dangerous?"
Karin grinned, shaking her head. "You're not going to be able to hit me just yet, and I won't hit you. Just show me what you've got."
After a moment's hesitation, Hisana drew her zanpakuto, the golden blade gleaming in the artificial sunlight. Karin drew hers, a plainer looking steel blade with black boar hide wrappings around the hilt. "Come at me whenever you're ready, Hisana,"
Stepping up to the attack, Hisana launched a few probing strikes that Karin easily batted away. She danced around her aunt, looking for an opening. Karin blocked her hits without any seeming effort, the older woman's movements so fast and fluid they made Hisana feel like a novice. Frustrated, Hisana pressed her harder, trying at least to make Karin mover her feet, to no avail.
After this had gone on for a few minutes, Karin simply vanished mid parry. She didn't blur like Nikan had; she just wasn't there anymore. Before Hisana could even move, a hand fell on her shoulder, turning her around to face her aunt, standing behind her now.
"Not bad," she said lightly. "Your form and reflexes are good. You've got potential, but you're holding back, Hisana," she said. "I don't expect you to internalize this instantly, but try to understand that this isn't a game or a sport anymore. If you don't strike with all of your will, with the intent to cut your opponent, you might as well not draw your zanpakuto at all."
Hisana blinked. "How can I do that? I don't want to hurt you, Aunt Karin!"
Karin smiled. "I'd be worried if you did. Let's see, how do I put this…"
"The sword you're holding isn't physical, Hisana," Kisuke interjected from the sidelines. "It's a piece of your soul, made from your reiatsu. If your will isn't focused on injuring your opponent, its edge will be too dull to cut anything."
Hisana nodded. "Okay." Karin squared off with her again. This time, Hisana focused on a familiar concept from kendo, visualizing striking through the opponent. It took a bit of adjustment to imagine injuring her aunt; it became easier when she visualized one of her kendo club's instructors in Karin's place. Those misogynistic old geezers she would happily cut up a bit, if only to wipe their condescending looks from their faces. Hisana felt like she was moving more assuredly and Karin had to put a bit more effort into keeping her at bay.
When her aunt vanished again, Hisana was ready for it this time. She dove into a forward, and twisted into a low horizontal shin-level slice that Karin had to jump back to avoid. "Much better!" she congratulated Hisana.
"How do you do that?" Hisana asked. "Nikan moved really fast too; it's how he got me."
"Oh, this?" Karin asked, blurring from where she was standing to beside Hisana. "It's a technique called hoho, the ability to speed up in combat. The ultimate expression of it is shunpo, which is what I'm doing when I disappear from sight entirely. I focus my reiatsu on my feet and use it to accelerate my movement."
"Can I learn how to do that?" Hisana asked.
"Once you have finer reiatsu control, sure. Right now you're not aware enough of your own reiatsu to learn it." Karin looked thoughtful. "There is a way to defend yourself against an opponent who uses shunpo without knowing the technique yourself, and that you probably can learn. It will depend whether your spiritual senses are more like your mother's than your father's; he was hopeless at sensing reiatsu, mostly because he was putting out so much of it himself that he drowned everything else out."
Karin sheathed her sword. "Here, sit down and close your eyes," she instructed Hisana, doing likewise herself. Hisana obeyed, resting her sword across her knees and letting her eyes drift shut. Just empty your mind and focus."
Hisana didn't feel anything different for a few minutes, but then something changed. Even with her eyes closed she could see and feel a pale outline of a person in front of her. "That's you, Aunt Karin?" she asked.
"That's right." The silhouette that she associated with her aunt started moving. Raising a hand, Hisana pointed at Karin, tracking her as she moved. "Very good."
A moment later, a second presence appeared in Hisana's mind. It was behind her, and farther away. When she focused on it, it felt incredibly familiar. She turned her head in its direction, eyes still closed. "Mom, is that you?"
"It is," Rukia confirmed. "You're definitely better at this than your father was."
Then Hisana sensed a third presence, directly above her. She turned her head back, and her eyes opened to see Kisuke standing comfortably in midair a few meters above her. "Dad!"
He hopped down from the air and rejoined Rukia. His reiatsu vanished, then hers. Karin's remained distinct in Hisana's senses. "You're a natural, Hisana. Now, we're going to spar again, and this time stay focused on my reiatsu." They drew their swords again, and Hisana went on the attack. She'd already guessed where this was going, and when her aunt disappeared again, she took a step forward, focused on the reiatsu that had appeared behind her and to her left, and turned to parry, catching Karin's blade on her own. "Perfect," her aunt said. "Shunpo is useful, but it has weaknesses. The big one is that you can't outrun your reiatsu, so if your opponent is sensing you in addition to seeing you, it becomes far less effective."
Hisana nodded. "But what if my opponent hides their reiatsu like mom and dad?"
Karin shook her head, her own reiatsu fading from Hisana's senses. "The technique we're using is one that only a handful of shinigami know, most of whom are standing in this room. It's difficult, it takes years to master, and for the red robes it's unnecessary. They're in charge; they don't need to hide. We're good at it because we have to be to survive."
Hisana cocked her head. "But I don't know how to do it," she said nervously. "Won't they be able to sense me?"
"That's the interesting thing," Kisuke said. "You're already doing it. Right now, none of us can sense you. The other night I could, but that may have just been related to your injuries. You're back to being invisible now, even when you're outside your body. I've never encountered anyone who could replicate the technique by instinct, but it will keep you safe, so I'm not complaining."
Hisana nodded. She was surprised that she was able to take this all in stride. Maybe I'm just numb to the shocks, she thought. But knowing all this I have to ask…
Hisana glanced at her aunt, then her father. "You said dad and grandpa were like this, but really strong?" Karin nodded, and Hisana asked slowly. "They didn't die in a gas explosion, did they? And that's not what happened to you either, is it mom?"
Rukia paled slightly, but didn't answer.
"Aya…" her stepfather exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head. "There's the question I was afraid of."
"Hisana…" her mother began.
"She has to know, Rukia," Karin interrupted. "She has to understand how dangerous the red robes are."
"One of them almost killed her, Karin," Rukia replied sharply. "I think she knows."
"No, Karin's right, dear," Kisuke said heavily. "She needs to see it. She needs to understand why we've stayed hidden for all these years." He signaled to his body, and the soul pill removed a remote from his jacket. "I hoped you'd never have to see this, Hisana."
Her stepfather's gigai pressed a button on the remote, and the fake desert around them faded to darkness.