Ichigo jumped to his feet as the shadows flickered. He and the others had been sitting there for a while, trying to figure out how to get rid of the shadows. Ruala was there as well, back to them and watching the shadows silently as if she was a statue. Now that they were dispersing she shifted position, halfway turning back to them.

"Did she win?" Rukia questioned with some concern, knowing Karin had been trapped in there with a demon of some sort.

Their answer was to see the black haired teen in the arms of the Soul Prince.

"Karin!" Ichigo shoved aside his curiosity at his presence to instead Flash Step forward and check on his sister, the girl bleeding from wounds on her shoulders and looking a little spooked by something.

"Hey Ichi." Karin smirked weakly, distracted by something they didn't know. "Yuzu okay? She didn't get caught in the explosion did she?"

Ichigo let out a sigh of relief.

"She's fine, Karin, just a few scrapes. Come on, let's get you back to the clinic so Dad can look at those punctures."

"Ah, come on, they're not that bad."

"Karin, you're bleeding pretty badly." Renji pointed out.

She looked at them.

"Oh, right."

Toshiro rolled his eyes before turning to head towards the clinic.

"Hey, don't leave when you drop me off." Karin frowned up at him. "You're wounded too."

"I told you, I'm fine." He sighed.

"What exactly happened?" Rukia questioned the prince.

"I'll explain at the clinic." He promised before darting off, keeping his Flash Step average so they didn't get left behind.

Isshin let them in quickly, only raising an eyebrow briefly at Toshiro's presence, before turning to his daughter. Yuzu practically bear hugged her, glad her twin was okay, Shimmer darting around happily at the reunion. The dragon eventually settled on Toshiro's shoulder, greeting him fondly.

Karin explained first, starting with their trip to the store to fake Ichigo's death, which was news to Toshiro, and how Gralio had caused an explosion. Ichigo cut in to tell them he'd let the explosion take care of the death part before running off to find Karin. When the teen told them how Kamai himself had shown up, they all grew pale and looked very worried.

"He just talked to me, promise." She remedied quickly. "I…kind of insulted him."

"You insulted the leader of the demons himself?" Renji gaped a little.

"Well, not to his face." Karin attempted to avoid the subject. She flinched a bit as Isshin put some antibiotic on the wounds. "There was this demon spy, which I killed, and I kind of called Dethmaiyn a coward to him."

Ichigo groaned.

"You should be more careful." Toshiro warned. "I have a feeling he knows what his demons know."

"Well I know that now." She snapped back at him. Her eyes locked with his for a moment and she remembered his words after the fight with Gralio, quickly looking away again. "Anyway, he promised not to hurt me, today anyway, but had that demon guy fight us instead. Toshiro had showed up by that point and managed to kill him."

"How did you get these, then?" Isshin questioned, gently touching the puncture wounds now wrapped up in bandages.

"Oh…well, he got behind me at one point using the shadows and his nails were more like claws."

It was then Toshiro turned to Ruala.

"He injected Fear into her." He said and the girl moved from the corner over to the teen, placing a hand over her forehead.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Karin frowned, moving away from the hand.

"Nakryin is the only one capable of removing their magic, a dark magic called Fear." Hitsugaya replied, more for everyone else's sake than Karin's considering she knew. "He didn't inject much of it so she should be able to remove it all before it latches on too tightly."

"What happens if she can't?" Ichigo asked him, concerned. As he said this, his sister let Ruala cast the light into her, helping her feel immensely better.

He got no answer, only making the orange haired man more nervous. Shimmer gave a comforting purr to the young prince, able to sense his pain and sadness. Thanking her with a scratch under the chin, Toshiro instead turned to Isshin.

"If Dethmaiyn himself felt the need to confront her it's safe to say this realm is no longer safe for her."

The room got quiet. Breaking it with a sigh, Isshin looked at the young prince skeptically, getting a cool stare back.

"You're right, these demons have been causing a lot of problems for Karin." He started. "But I was under the impression no one was to go to your realm."

"Hey, you can't just take my sister and vanish." Ichigo grumbled.

"If you'll let me explain." Toshiro snapped. "I was waiting for the Head Captain to decide whether or not he wanted to take part in this war considering Dethmaiyn will take my connection to it as a weakness, just like he's been targeting your family here. If he can hurry up and go along with it I was perfectly willing to bring those strong enough to the Soul King's Realm to train, as your Spirit Energy will increase faster there under the guidance of the Royal Guards."

"Oh…" Ichigo relaxed a bit.

"I think the Head Captain is close to a decision." Rukia reported. "He's calling in a meeting for tomorrow, hopefully he's giving us an answer."

Toshiro nodded to show he'd heard. His attention was caught as Ruala finished and moved aside.

"Wow, that's way better." Karin stretched her arms out. "That Fear stuff is like an internal weight."

"Fortunately Nakryin got rid of it all." The young prince said, a ghost of a smirk on his lips.

"So, I get an early pass to train in the king's realm, eh?"

"Essentially, yes. I would assume Dethmaiyn will only to continue to send higher and higher level demons and their masters after you, so it's best we prevent them from reaching you."

"But when can she come back?" Yuzu frowned, sitting next to her twin now that their father was done.

Toshiro opened his mouth to answer before closing it again, unable to. The honey-blonde frowned a bit but seemed to come to term with the dangers of her staying and simply gave Karin a tight hug.

"Don't think about leaving yet." Isshin said, latching onto the boy's injured arm. "You may have stopped the bleeding but I best see to it before it gets infected."

"I'm fine, seriously." Toshiro frowned at him. "I can see to it later."

But with a smirk in place the elder Kurosaki held firm and the young prince reluctantly gave in. He'd only make it worse if he resisted. So, removing the ice, he let his former Captain set to work cleaning and bandaging the wound which was actually worse than he'd first thought, numbed by the coldness of the ice.

"He must have been strong if he could do that to you." Renji noted.

"He was." The young prince nodded. "But he wasn't an elite. Compared to the power I sensed in the Demon Lords he could be considered average."

"These demons truly are on another level." Rukia frowned. "The Head Captain has to agree to fight, we'll be sitting ducks to Dethmaiyn's forces if he doesn't."

The others all nodded in agreement to the Lieutenant's words.

Once Isshin was satisfied with the bandages on the Ice Prince, Toshiro stood and headed outside with Ruala, Karin following a little slower as she was unsure how long it would be before she could see her family again.

"I'll see you soon." Ichigo promised, ruffling her hair. Despite her being seventeen he still treated her like she was ten, which she rarely liked.

"Yeah, yeah." She waved him off. "By then I'll be as strong as you are."

He quirked an eyebrow at her but said no more.

Yuzu gave her one last tight hug before grabbing Shimmer off of Toshiro's shoulder and shooing away her dad as the man struck one of his dramatic poses, crying out that his daughter was all grown up and already moving out, to which both Ichigo and Karin replied that she wasn't doing the latter.

"Let's go before I punch him in the face." Karin grumbled, stepping over to Toshiro and Ruala, Isshin replying with a dramatic cry of how his children were cruel to him when he tried so hard to raise them right.

Ruala giggled slightly before holding her hand out for the girl to grab onto. Karin did so, seeing Sofia jump up onto Toshiro's shoulder, before they were all teleported back to the Soul King's Realm.

"Ha! Soon we'll be married into royalty!" Isshin shouted joyously as he went back inside.

"Married?" Ichigo turned to him, startled. "Whoa, wait. What are you getting at Goat Chin?"

Following after the boys as they went inside and argued Karin's fate, Yuzu giggled, petting Shimmer.

In the Soul King's Realm, Karin found herself back in the inside garden that she'd been told was the current Soul King's floor. At least it was familiar.

"Isn't Dyrilæn still in Soul Society?" Karin asked, the dragoness popping into her mind as her gaze flashed over Dragon Isle.

"Once Nakryin is rested she can go and get her." Toshiro promised, watching said guardian walk away with a slight drowsiness to her step. "I need to speak with my father."

"Okay, I'll explore." Karin smirked, looking around to where she wanted to go first.

"Try to stay on this floor, I memorized the layout. I might not be able to find you if you get lost on a different floor."

"I'll keep that in mind."

The young prince started heading off towards his father's room when he paused, something else coming to mind.

"Karin," He looked over his shoulder, seeing her turn back to him with a confused expression, "how about you come with me?"

"To meet your dad?" She blinked in surprise. He nodded. "Um…okay…" 'Holy shit, I get to meet the Soul King!'

'You can't possibly be that surprised, considering your friends with his son.' Homuratei snickered.

'Yeah, but this guy is KING. That's a whole different level.' Karin quickly followed after Toshiro, a little excited now.

'To be honest I think you should be nervous, considering you have a crush on his son.'

'Oh it's not like he'll notice that…'

'Oh you ended with '…', you're totally nervous.'

'Shut up you.'

In front of her, Toshiro slid the door opened and motioned for her to wait was he walked over to a taller man standing at the balcony railing. She could see the resemblance between them, both with snow white hair, though his father's was longer, and eyes of blue-green, despite how the Soul King's eyes were not a complete mix of the two as Toshiro's was, mesmerizing her. The two spoke for a few minutes, apparently about something very serious, before the younger turned to her and motioned her to come inside.

Nervously, she did so.

So Karin gets an early invite to the Soul King's Realm, again, and this time she's staying for a while ;) Alone. With Toshiro. Hehe. But first she must meet his father. Enjoy!