Chapter 7: The sister

Ichigo looked to Ichika as he said those words, seeing the surprise and curiosity in her eyes. It reminded him so much of his fallen sister that it nearly hurt the ruler to look her in those eyes. She had a look of such compassion and curiosity that it was hard to for him to see her as the product of the woman he despised the most and a man who he thought was his brother in arms, yet she was practically nothing like them. Really, looking at her and how her attitude was so similar, Ichigo could've sworn that she could be almost an exact copy of his sister.

"Um,"
the young Kuchiki started once she noticed Ichigo spacing out.
"Are you okay?"

Shaking those odd thoughts aside, Ichigo decided to answer her.
"I'm fine child."
He stood up and turned to walk away, confusing the girl for a moment. Did he decide not to tell her after all? Ichigo stopped and turned towards her once more.
"Come on, there's someone else that can also tell you this story and what really happened that day."

Ichigo turned once more and began to walk on, leaving Ichika alone only for a moment. Regaining her thoughts, Ichika quickly stood and rushed over to the king's side, eager to find out the truth once and for all.

High tower

The two had walked back inside the palace and continued towards a stairwell that led up. Every arrancar they passed bowed to their king while giving the soul reaper girl a wide berth or a hard glare. Ichika stuck close to Ichigo as the glares were very intimidating to her. Fortunately for her, not a single one of them would dare do anything their king did not allow. The pathway up the stairs was wide enough for the two to walk side by side and Ichika noticed that the walls were lined with many lights that would change color every so often, giving off an eerie vibe for the girl.

"How is it doing that?"
She asked once curiosity took over her thoughts.

Ichigo looked to the changing lights and smirked for a moment before continuing on.
"She seems to be in a mood tonight."
Ichigo smirked which wasn't seen by his curious guest.

"Who?"
Ichika didn't know what he meant by that but hoped he would elaborate in a way.

Ichigo chuckled a bit under his breath as they approached a door at the top of the staircase. It was covered in those same lights as in the pathway, only these weren't changing. They stayed an iridescent yellow type of color that would hum with some kind of energy every so often. Ichigo walked over to the door with Ichika hesitantly following behind him. It was only then when she was standing directly in front of it that she noticed there was no handle of any kind and since it wasn't a shutter, there was no way to open it.

"Um."
She started as she looked up to the king of Hueco Mundo with a concerned eye.
"How do we open th-"
Before she could finish her question, the door started to hum louder until it suddenly flung open all at once.

The room inside was large and sparse to say the least. There were many of those lights floating upon the ceiling and humming with power while also cycling through various colors, blues, yellows, whites, and even greens. The floor was a solid black of some kind that seemed to absorb all light into itself. There was a rather large bed near the far wall and placed in a corner. It had a sort of dark red sheet and blankets covering it while there were only a few pillows for a bed so large. There was a table in the center of the room with three chairs situated around it and what looked like a vase full of white roses within it. Out of the three chairs though, only one looked pristine and untouched while the others looked worn down. On one side of the room was a fireplace that was still burning and there was even a full kitchen area next to it. The most incredible thing about this room though was the fact that everything, aside from the floor, was changing colors in the same way the lights were.

To say that Ichika was awestruck was an understatement. She simply couldn't believe the absolute beauty of this room and the way the lights and colors were.

Ichigo walked in without a moment's hesitation as he held a smirk on his face.
"Keep up kid."

Ichika broke out of her stupor and quickly followed him inside. Once she stepped past the threshold, the door slammed shut behind her, causing the little girl to jump a bit at its suddenness. She turned back around and followed behind Ichigo to the center of the room where he sat in one of the chairs. Ichika went to sit down on one of the others, the pristine one, but was stopped by a rather angered voice from behind her.

"Sit there, and I'll send you back to those soul reapers in bright little pieces."

Ichika jumped once again as she turned and came face to face with a woman in a wheelchair. She had long, dark hair tied into a topknot, dark eyes, slightly tanned skin and a hard scowl focused on the young soul reaper. She was wearing a dark red tank top shirt with a black coat over it and black shorts while also wearing red, fingerless gloves.

Ichika froze under the woman's scowl and bowed her head to her.
"I-I-I'm sorry m-ma'am."

The woman continued to scowl at her and raised her hand as if she was about to strike the little girl down. That is until Ichigo spoke up to her with his arms crossed.
"Karin, you can stop trying to scare her. You know just as well as I do that, she had nothing to do with what happened."

Karin sighed as she dropped her scowl and simply rested her hand on the girl's head. Ichika raised her head until she could see the woman's eyes. They softened a bit for her, and this caused Ichika to fully stand up now.

"So,"
Karin started as she removed her hand from Ichika's head, unknowingly to the girl placing something there.
"You're the one everyone's been talking about, eh?"
She looked the girl up and down before turning to her older brother with a raised brow.
"Am I missing something here, Ichigo?"

Ichigo simply chuckled under his breath as he leaned back slightly.
"She's pretty decent at giving a hell of a speech. Convinced me to give them three days' rest before they leave to do whatever it is they wish to do."

Karin huffed at this and moved to the side of the side of the table with no chair. She turned to Ichika and sighed a bit, somehow also changing the lights to all become a single yellow color.
"What's her name?"
She asked her brother.

Ichigo looked to the girl and nodded, causing Karin to look to her as well. As uncomfortable as she felt, Ichika knew that if she wanted answers, this woman would be able to tell her what happened. Planting her feet and taking a deep breath to not seem nervous, a failed attempt in the siblings' eyes but they humored her, she answered.
"My name is Ichika Kuchiki of the Kuchiki clan."

She bowed out of respect to Karin, missing the look of confusion that befell onto her. She turned towards her brother, and he gave her a look that said, 'I'll explain later'. Karin nodded to her brother and looked back to the girl. Sighing once again and the lights changing colors once again to white, Karin looked to girl.
"Alright then Ichika, what exactly can I do for you?"

Ichika raised her head and let out the breath she had been inadvertently holding in that entire time.
"With all due respect ma'am, I would like to know what happened that day during the Winter War."

Karin narrowed her eyes, the lights brightened for a moment, catching the little girl off guard for a second. She relaxed once Ichigo placed a hand on her shoulder, the lights went back to normal. Karin shook her head and leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms under her impressive bust and looked back to Ichika.
"Go to my kitchen and grab three glasses and the pitcher in my refrigerator. This is gonna be a long talk."

Ichika nodded to her with an enthusiastic smile that caught Karin off guard for a second. For the briefest of moments, it was almost like she saw her long-lost twin sister in that smile.

Ichika left the and went into the kitchen to do what she was told. She searched in one of the cabinets and found three, clear glasses. She grabbed those and then went over to the refrigerator. It was something that she was seeing for the first time since she was never allowed to venture into the world of the living for some reason to see their technology. Books could only get you so far without the proper experience to back it up. She saw a rather large, silver pitcher and grabbed it before closing the fridge and heading back to the table. When she did, it looked like Ichigo and Karin had just finished discussing something in private.

"Okay,"
Karin started just as Ichika put the glasses and the pitcher on the table.
"Sit down over there and I'll tell you exactly what happened."
Karin pointed towards the other worn-down chair.

Ichika, not wanting to be yelled at or cut into any sort of pieces, obliged and sat down to hear what really happened that day thirteen years ago.

It's great to write for this story again. The next chapter will be nothing but the flashback to the Winter War. I know I said I would do that this chapter, but I wanted to focus more on showing Karin and a few other details beforehand.

As I've said with my other fics so far, I will be posting a chapter every Thursday or Friday. The only reason this is going up on a Saturday is mainly because I passed out for 12 hours yesterday. Frickin' ten hour shifts just kill me sometimes.

Anyway, I'll be posting either Naruto: A light in the Dead of Space or Naruto in a world of women. Which would ya'll like to see?

Till next time, stay awesome and as always,

PEACE!