Karin could barely sleep last night. She was to start her shinigami training today. She was both apprehensive, and excited.
While Urahara said the point of no return wasn't for a while, she still felt that there was no going back. There was no unlearning what she learned in this process.
So she got the breakfast Yuzu made for the day, which was delicious as always, and focused on the normal day-to-day stuff before walking to Urahara's.
He had created a cover story where she was working part-time at his shop for the hours she was training. She was even being paid for it to keep up appearances. Granted her training wouldn't be all she was doing there, she would also genuinely be working there, but that was probably going to be a breeze compared to whatever Urahara had in store for her.
The walk to the store was surprisingly short. She had thought he'd be further away when she had first learned of it last year, but it made sense now. Urahara was the whole reason her family had that place, hell, he was the reason the family even existed. Of course, he would want them close by in case anything popped up. It also made the 'job' story believable. As she walked up to the shopfront she knocked on the door.
"It's open," came Urahara's sing-song reply. Urahara was a perplexing individual to her. He acted like a total idiot, but with what little she had for her ability to sense reiatsu, she could tell he was strong, very strong.
She opened the door and walked in, and was greeted by a flip-flop flying at her face at what seemed to be mach 1, given that it had hit her with enough force to knock her flat on her ass.
"What the hell was that for!" Karin shot back up as she yelled at whoever threw the sandal at her.
What she was looking at was a girl who couldn't be any older than she was. She had blond hair in pigtails, wearing a red tracksuit, and one of her upper canines poking beyond her lips.
"To wake you up fully, now come on, we have training to do," her trainer turned to walk away, and in an action that Karin wouldn't have done under any other circumstances, she grabbed the sandal.
"You forgot something," and she threw the sandal as hard as she could.
She caught it right out of the air. Karin was expecting a glare, a dressing down, anything to remind her not to do what she just did. What she got was a manic grin and a glow in her teacher's eyes that scared her.
"Oh I like you," and with that, she learned that Hiyori Sarugaki, former lieutenant of the 12th division under captains Kirio Hikifune and Kisuke Urahara, was one mean bitch.
When Hiyori told her that she was going to evict her soul from her body, she thought that was a turn of phrase meaning that she was going to be run into the ground this session. Not literally having her literal soul evicted from her literal body.
It felt like she was moving through molasses while her limbs were made of lead. Hell, it seemed Hiyori was impressed that she was moving at all.
She blocked two powerful punches from Ururu. She had never figured her classmate was so strong to begin with, let alone that she was apparently holding back. It felt like each blow could knock her out.
Suddenly Ururu went for a roundhouse. Karin was too slow to dodge and so she had to block it. The kick sent her tumbling for a bit.
"Sorry," Ururu meekly waited for Karin to get back up.
"Don't be, I signed up for this," Karin got up, but she felt out of breath. Her hands were on her knees as she slowly caught her breath. Once she caught her breath and she went into a ready stance, Ururu was on her almost immediately. Throwing punches, jabs, and kicks. Though this time Karin could bob and weave around some of the harder attacks.
"Good movement. Though you're still sluggish," Hiyori walked up, carefully watching her as she boxed with Ururu.
"Sluggish? It feels like I'm made of lead!" She yelled back at her 'sensei' as she dodged one of Ururu's monstrous punches.
"That's why we're doing this in the first place you idiot, the longer we do this the easier it will be for you to move around," Hiyori was sitting next to Karin's body, her chain of fate still connected. Ururu came at her with a couple of jabs which she dodged.
Maybe Hiyori had a point. The longer this went on, the lighter her body felt. She now was able to start to lean back on her karate to dodge and deflect Ururu's blows, which she did as she hopped back to avoid a roundhouse from her sparing partner.
Unfortunately, Ururu took that as a signal to ramp up the intensity. The next blow came out faster and harder, barely dodging an axe kick that left a crater in the training area.
Every time her body felt light enough she could start fighting back, Ururu turned up the heat, forcing her back on the defensive. She was now throwing blows Karin couldn't afford to even think of blocking. She had to dodge each and every hit. Such action demanded the entirety of her focus, to the point she failed to notice that the weight on her body was entirely gone.
"Alright, stop," Hiyori could see it clearly. She was moving as fast as she would without actual dedicated training. Training Karin wasn't ready for.
Ururu stopped mid-haymaker, leaving Karin to stare at the boxing glove and inch from her face for the few moments it took for Ururu to pull the punch back.
Hiyori walked up and put her hand on the taller girl's shoulder. "You did pretty well for your first out-of-body experience," Hiyori's tone sounded unimpressed. "Now get back in your body, Tessai is going to bore you to death with kido lessons."
"I get why I had to be out of my body, but did you have to punch me so hard you probably broke something," Hiyori walked away, putting both hands behind her head.
"Yup."
"Why,"
"I have misplaced aggression against your brother."
Hiyori was beginning to get on Karin's nerves.
Karin was now doing her shift in the shop after her kido 'training.' Tessai lectured her on kido theory as she didn't have the control nor the knowledge to cast spells safely yet.
She had already finished some of her homework, even helping Jinta and Ururu with theirs, during her break.
Tessai's lecture was easy to follow, and his enthusiasm was helpful in memorizing the lesson. He had even given her a 'toy' to practice kido control with. It was called a spinning whistle, a small three-piece sphere with holes in it similar to a flute or well, a whistle. It was made out of a material that would spin when introduced to spiritual energy. The more energy, the faster it spins. The idea is to spin it fast enough to get it whistling without spinning it so fast that it flies apart. It was a clever little thing really.
It was also vexatious as all hell. Apparently, the window between whistling and flying apart was very narrow, and she had to pick up the pieces on several occasions when she was using it on break.
She heard the door open to the shop, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Welcome to the Urahara shop, how can I help you," When Karin looked up from the counter she recognized the individual who came in as Shino Madarame. One of the 'regulars' who patrolled the town. She and Ryunoske had been patrolling Karakura and the neighboring towns on and off for the past year.
"Huh, you're one of Ichigo's sisters right," Shino looked at Karin. All she remembered of her was that one time she and Ryunoske were at Ichigo's place recovering from that hollow attack before… she shook her head. She didn't want her mind to wander to that hell again.
"Yeah, what of it?" Karin was still an outsider to a lot of this, so she was surprised that she was recognized.
"Well, I received orders from Lieutenant Kuchiki to familiarize myself with the person training to cover for your brother while he's in Soul Society," Shino pointed to her phone as she said so, referring to how she received her orders.
"Wait. Lieutenant Kuchiki? You mean Rukia?" She had inferred Rukia was a member of the thirteenth when Ichigo told her that that was the division that covered Karakura yesterday in their short talk about what the hell Soul Society was. So hearing she was a lieutenant, a rank second only to the captains, was a surprise considering that two years ago she was patrolling this very town.
"You know her?" Shino knew Ichigo and Lieutenant Kuchiki had a history, but she didn't know how many people met her during said history.
"Yeah, she lived in my brother's closet for a while," Karin chuckled slightly at that. It was a ridiculous thought when you let it linger in your head for a bit, but it was true.
Shino wasn't buying it for a second. "No, no no no no, you're joking, she wouldn't," her face was incredulous as she shook her head at the thought. The lieutenant was a Kuchiki, in Shino's mind she wouldn't have allowed herself to be debased like that.
"Ask her yourself when you can," Karin grinned slightly, the whole thing was really funny to her. She had learned that Rukia was adopted into one of the major clans, a peer to the one she was apparently a part of, and likely had maintained the appearance expected of her while in Soul Society.
Shino looked at her like she grew a second head for a moment before regaining her composure. "How much do you know of our patrol patterns?" Shino was told by Urahara that the person working the counter at this time today was the person training to cover for Ichigo, so yeah, it was his sister. It made sense, she was also of Shiba blood.
"Honestly, not that much. Are you here to go over that with me?" Karin didn't really know the patrols that well, mainly because they were run at night while she was either asleep or working on homework.
"Yeah, are you free to look them over with me?" Karin looked at the clock. Ururu should be here any second…
"Karin, you can go on your break now," the meek little voice showing up behind her with no sound or warning startled her, almost causing her to fall over.
"Yeah… we can go over them," Karin's voice was a little shaky after being startled like that.
Kukaku and Isshin had walked to the town's graveyard. There was one last family member she wanted to meet before she left for whatever hell she and Ichigo would have to weather. The woman that had actually gotten her brother to settle down.
Her brother handed her a cigarette, she accepted it and put it in her mouth before her brother lit it for her. "Normally I only smoke these once a year, but given you might not be here for that, I think I'll do it an extra time this year," Isshin lit his cigarette as Kukaku took a drag of her own.
They were sitting before the grave of Masaki Kurosaki. A woman Kukaku would have loved to meet herself, even if her foolhardiness was directly responsible for her clan having been disgraced.
"So, you're the woman who managed to get my idiot brother to settle down," speaking with the dead. It was an old Shiba tradition. It didn't do much of anything, but it was cathartic. She had done it a few times with Kaien after his death, and it helped her grieve. "You're a troublesome one you know. Your little stunt saving his ass almost cost you your life, and absolutely set the clan on fire," she chuckled before taking another drag. "And before you ask, no. I don't blame you. You did what I would have done, and what any self-respecting Shiba worth the name would have done," She looked at the inanimate grave, smiling slightly. "Thanks for taking care of this idiot for me, and quincy or not, you're family to me."
All Karin could feel was pain. Her entire body was sore even though she had spent the entirety of her training outside of her body. So her physical body was fine, but her soul wanted nothing more than to collapse onto the nearest comfortable surface, which in this case was the living room couch.
"You okay?" Her brother had gotten home from the 'normal' going away party with all of his friends, including those who didn't know about Soul Society.
"No," Karin's groan was that of a person who had just gotten their ass whooped by someone with close to 200 years of practical sword fighting experience in kendo without any protective equipment, 'because you don't forget pain' being her operative excuse
Ichigo grimaced. He knew how hard Urahara's training could be. "By the way, who's training you?" Ichigo was curious. Urahara oversaw his training, but never got directly involved until he had gotten out of the pit.
"Do you know someone by the name of Hiyori Sarugaki?" Karin's question immediately drew a groan out of Ichigo.
"Snaggletooth, he has Snaggletooth training you, great," Ichigo had sat on the stairs and put both of his hands into his face before letting out a groan. Hiyori was a nasty instructor and was probably going to beat the ever-living crap out of his sister. He got why, but he didn't like that it was the only visored he didn't like that was training her.
"I'll take that as a yes," Karin was unsurprised he knew her given her connection to Urahara. What she didn't expect was the warning he gave her.
"If she ever puts on her mask, run," Karin's eyes widened. Hiyori was a visored. That meant all kinds of hell when she got to that level of training.
"Oh no…" Karin was starting to regret this decision.